Well, I took part in a phone screening today. I was called by a company that needs a guy with Oracle experience. I figured I knew the basics: stored procedures, tablespaces, rollback segments, etc., so there shouldn’t be much to worry about. I certainly didn’t expect questions such as, “What does a ORA-3113 error mean?” This was followed quickly by “What are some specific Oracle supplied PL/SQL packages you may have used in stored procedures?” I didn’t anticipate pinpoint questions concerning esoteric database structures and errors. All I have to say is I got pwn3d.

Stand in the place where you live
Now face North
Think about direction
Wonder why you haven’t
Now stand in the place where you work
Now face West
Think about the place where you live
Wonder why you haven’t before

After recently washing my car, I noticed quite an abundant population of bug carcasses stubbornly littering my supposedly scrubbed vehicle. There really is only one permanent way to rectify this. I’ll freely admit I haven’t clayed my poor car since right before winter. I’d hoped waxing would contribute in preventing random garbage from adhering to the paint. The situation really calls for something a little more drastic.

Recently, I’ve been doing a lot of studying. It seems like my head is constantly embedded in various database manuals, and my ears ring with incessant babbling of Japanese audio lessons. Motto yukkuri hanashite, kudasai.

Within all of this, I’ve finally located a really good rice cooker to better facilitate healthy eating: Zojirushi ns-zcc10. This thing is widely regarded as the Cadillac of rice cookers, the only thing better is the ns-zbc18, but they only sell a 10-cup version of it, and I don’t foresee a need for that much rice. Now I just gotta go buy one…

Well, I spent yet another good weekend with Jen up in Chicago. While there, Jen decided to introduce me to the wonders of Fry’s Electronics. We must have wandered around that cornucopia of whimsical gadgetry for four hours, witnessing all things from Zener diodes to anime. While meandering aimlessly between towering racks stuffed with empty computer cases and vacuum sealed astronaut food, I acquired a 1GB Sony flash drive for $70 without any rebates. I also managed to inspire a newly-opened metal DDR pad to irreversibly malfunction. Not sure what happened on that count, but the back arrow became permanently activated; nice quality pads for $200, now I’m really glad I bought Cobalt Flux instead.