Technica Obscura
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Saturday, October 16, 2010
Strippers, lovers and why it's hard to be me.
Today I spent the majority of the day with some wonderful people from my work on Waiheke Island off Auckland and I had so much fun. According to karma, clearly it was a sign things were going to go wrong. Horribly wrong.
After I came back to Auckland from the island, I went out with two other people from work. These are two great guys who like a bit of fun and who care for me and none of the following is meant to be disparaging to them at all. We went drinking at a place called the Steamship and then later one of them says "We should go to Mermaids". Mermaids is a dodgy strip joint in Auckland. Last place in the world I wanted to go, but since I don't really want to spoil other people's fun, I consented to go. Seriously folks, naked people dancing sounds scandalous and titillating, but it's really terribly boring and degrading to watch (both for them and for you).
Things were just harmless for a while until my friends decided to buy me a lapdance with one of the girls. At about $80 for 10mins, this is what you'd call a generous gift and they were just trying to be nice to the single, friendly, geeky, loser on the floor. I was terribly uncomfortable with this and said so, but they insisted. I got half way and whilst the girl was attempting to clear the payment, I backed out, was very apologetic and went back. The girl was upset (at missing payment), but one of my friends 'volunteered' to go up instead. My other friend was very impressed and said so. He was like he had never met someone with such a moral compass, who was so friendly, etc, etc. With my ego boosted and in a moment of weakness, I told him about the girl I am dating back home and said "You know what, I'm a great person and if after 5 dates she doesn't want to kiss me, when I get back, its over".
If it ended here, this would be a great (lame) story and I'd be a hero.
It didn't.
About 15 minutes later, another girl comes over (being bought by my friends) and unfortunately my friends had picked the one I had mentioned was the prettiest, which weakened my resolve. She dragged me upstairs before I could protest and because I'm a non-confrontational person, I didn't want to make a fuss in the bar and followed. The next ten minutes were...awkward. I made the appropriate 'moves' to make her feel like she was doing her job and tried to be friendly and nice, asking questions about her life, hopes and dreams etc, but I was pretty far from aroused.
I came downstairs after wards later and my friend took one look at me and went "You're not too angry with me are you?" and of course diplomatically I answered "It's OK. You were just trying to do right by me". They got dragged into some other private show after and I used the opportunity to escape. I got in a cab, went straight home and after 4 years, I cried like a freaking girl.
Why?
Not only did my moral compass fail and I did something I didn't want to, but my original position stands. I'm a person who believes in loving someone before 'loving someone', but after my first (and only) girlfriend, everyone I meet ends up making me their friend. The current girl who I truly like, is almost certainly not attracted to me as a boyfriend and I'm going to have to dump them and return to being a no-hope loser. And no longer do I have the moral high ground, because I'm just a sleaze who ends up in strip joint. I can't blame women for not liking me, because at the end of the day, something isn't quite right with me if I just constantly turn women from potentials into a steady stream of (admittedly awesome) friends. I don't know what it is the problem, I don't want (or think I can) rewire myself to be something else and frankly as much as I said before, I don't want to die alone surrounded by my huge group of friends. I'd much rather die knowing someone had loved me and chosen me as the person they want to spend their life with.
That's all dear readers. I'm probably going to regret this post in the morning, but sometimes it has to be done. Regular thoughtful (and infrequent) blog postings will resume shortly.
Thursday, September 02, 2010
Loving cloud nine, my head's in the sky, I'm ridin' solo
Traveling solo has simultaneously provided some of the most depressing and most rewarding experiences I've had. There is much to be said for a journey where you control so many of the variables of traveling. The downside is a journey where you don't have that easy comfort of loved ones nearby.
I've been stationed overseas with only work colleagues for company a few times now, but I don't really classify this as solo travel. After all, your control is limited and you do have colleagues (Not exactly loved ones, but close). So holiday wise, I’ve only done a grand total of two, but here are some of my thoughts on the matter.
Meeting People:
The number one fear of traveling solo (Well at least my number one fear) is the fear of being alone for a long period of time. Some people are excellent at meeting others and then you have people like me. These are my tips for meeting people on holiday.
If you’re hot, just hang around, someone will chat to you. For the rest of us, you need to be an active hunter. If you see someone else who is by themselves, go and chat with them. This sometimes works out and sometimes doesn't. I don't actually remember all the people who turned out to be losers, incapable of speaking English, though I know there were plenty. There are two ways I like to meet people. If it’s a formal activity, the old ‘going up to someone and sticking your hand out with a smile’ trick works pretty well. If I’m just wandering around various attractions, I try making an observation whilst near someone I want to get to know and then see how they respond. Leave those who don’t respond and pursue those who do want to chat with you.
Avoid couples. Perhaps it’s my luck, but many couples are terribly self-involved people. It’s not that they don't like you, it’s more they are more interested in spending time together than meeting new people. Couples are also far less likely to ask you to join them for other activities later.
Pre-formed groups are tricky. That big rugby group could be a godsend with a bunch of fun people or a complete nightmare of bigots. Groups that are formed for an activity however are gold. Everyone is trying to have fun and often the organizers deliberately set you up to talk to new people.
The usual laws of meeting new people apply. Smile heaps; ask lots of questions about them, keep it light etc, etc. I find a mixture of discussing what you're doing and discussing about their lives keeps things from getting too superficial or too probing.
What to do:
What you do is entirely up to you. It’s your holiday after all. I like to get a mix of culture, outdoorsy and indoors attractions, but plenty of people I know see travel as an overseas pub crawl. Whatever floats your boat. Make sure you have a list of ideas, but not an itinerary when you travel.
I would suggest that you leave the scenery stuff till last. Try and select activities you know are likely to have lots of people. Little aside: ask ahead about the tour, sometimes you don’t want to be the only person doing it. I once went horse riding in NZ hoping to be part of a riding group and it ended up being just me and the (admittedly very cute) instructor.
Where to stay
This isn’t a competition. The best place to stay is hostels. I always go for the largest mixed dorm I can find. It’s not only damn cheap, but you have a better than even odd of meeting a good mix of girls and guys. The hostel-world website is totally brilliant with its ratings and easy bookings.
See if you can get the hostels which have included breakfast (even for a nominal amount). Firstly, it’s typically much cheaper than at a cafe, it’s typically open earlier than anywhere else and it’s (again) the best way to meet people in the mornings.
See if the hostel organizes any kind of tours.. Typically a good hostel has various activities, sometimes free or often it will provide a discount. Sometimes it’s in conjunction with other hostels in the area, so even if you made an error and picked a quiet hostel, you can meet folks from other hostels. In Paris, the hostel (St Christopher’s) that I stayed at, arranged a free and excellent walking tour around Paris.
Beware of:
This may be pointing out the obvious, but be wary of high danger activities. You don't have a friend to dig you out of trouble and even simple things like losing your hostel pass can ruin your holiday. Let me clarify. Jumping out of a plane isn't a high danger activity. (Think about it, you have two concrete outcomes, land safely, or die horribly). In this and most high adrenaline activities, you're with other people, typically a qualified instructor who has a duty of care over the group. No, by high danger, I mean situations where you are by yourself with no one to look after you. For example, I was driving from Auckland to Rotorua and I was both tired and slightly hungover. That’s a high danger activity because if I crashed, I wouldn't have friends or family to bail me out (of Auckland Jail if I survived too). To compensate for this, I made it a point to take regular pit stops at safe locations to just rest and get my fatigue under control.
This is all I've gleaned off my relatively small experience. Anyone else have ideas?
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Growing up with games
Whilst demonized by the media for being a solitary medium played by anti-social introverts and psychopaths, I'd argue the vast majority of gamers are very sociable and gaming is a powerful relationship builder. I have memories of games of 8 player Warcraft3 in between working on the same assignment together in uni, being on the phone with my friend Jack for hours whilst we figured out Age of Empires strategy and of play testing Quake 1 maps with another friend during high school.
Some of the friendships I've developed over the years have stemmed from shared experiences in gaming. I became close to some of my friends at work because we would finish up work, go home and get on Teamspeak together to play games at night. I've met so many random people at LANs who have gone on to become friends who invite me into their homes and share their lives with me.
Ignoring the benefits of relationship building, I recollect many fond memories of the stories and gameplay of various games. I still remember the heartache that accompanied the ending of Dreamfall. I can remember various nights having the shit scared out of me by jumping Howlers in Clive Barker's Undying. And as sad as it is, I remember the romance of winning over the druid Jaheria in Baldur's Gate. Yes, these aren't real experiences. They aren't unique, there are millions of people worldwide who have experienced it. But they form fond memories for me, and that's still important.
So whilst these are "things" I possess, they create so many experiences that are were influential in the way I grew up. When my time comes and I think back on my life, will I think I spent too much time at work. Most likely. Will I think I spent too much time on games? Probably not.
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
The Silver Standard for Interview Preparation
- Behavioral Questions Prep.
- Technical Questions Prep.
- Company Prep.
- Optional Extras Prep.
Result: And because of how I did that, this resulted in us ...
- Recruiter details
- Interviewer details: Linked-In is your friend. Yes it's mildly stalker-ish. Live with it
- Job description
- Brief SWOT of the company
- Industry trends
- Analysis of the main product: of the company, or say the division you are interviewing for
- Questions for the company: Feeding off the above, more on 6. less on 4,5 unless you can tie it into your current role.
- Who are this company's customers (easy) and what their problems? (harder)
- (Bonus points) Problems of this company's customer's end customer.
- What challenges is this manager currently facing?
Friday, March 26, 2010
Salary negotiation aka Career Limiting Post #13
- How you're going above and beyond your contract.
- What are the significant accomplishments you have achieved.
- What are the skills/knowledge only YOU have.
- This one is often missed, but it is important. What are the key relationships you own? If you are the account manager for a key business or that developer who everyone on the team loves, you leaving can cause that account to move with you, or that team's morale to plummet.
- Book an meeting (at least two days away) with the two page document attached with a friendly "Hi John, I want to discuss my current renumeration with you, could you spare 15mins to go over this document?", or something to that effect. No hint of "I'm going to leave if I don't get my raise". It's unprofessional and no-one is impressed.
- That said, you did include the recruiters' information right? This is your most subtle way of saying, "I'm taking this seriously and I hope you do as well."
- Have the discussion. At this point you've done all you can. Hold firm, but play nice. You will get plenty of excuses. You just want them to say they'll try something for you. You won't get that increase in this meeting. Normally management has to wait till the next review cycle or if it's really urgent (you need to be a star), they'll put in an emergency request with their boss.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Being a T1000 would make being soul-less more fun
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
The girls give it up for the VMWare Playa
- I like to keep my development environments inside VMs. This way, hardware upgrades, hard-disk explosions, my tendency to rage-format among other things don't force me to reinstall EVERYTHING again.
- I hate Wine/emulators for running Windows apps in Linux and I dislike cygwin for getting a command shell inside Windows. Use the real deal man!
- Oddly enough, I still get clock drift inside Ubuntu just like I did inside my XP installation. I've rectified this by installing NTP and configuring Ubuntu to connect to the CSIRO public NTP.
- One unusual thing I cannot seem to fix is ubuntu seemingly either releasing the network connection or dropping CPU cycles down dramatically on a VM when you are out of focus from the VM. So for example, if I'm downloading a large file in firefox inside the VM, if I change focus away from the VM, it ends up slowing and terminating that download after a few seconds.