Dito's Blog - 2old2play

Sam Fisher snake-cam now a reality

Attention all wannabe Splinter Cell operatives: super-small snake cameras are now available.

From GizMag.com:

Misumi has just released what it claims is the smallest camera ever, a tiny cylinder measuring only 4.4mm in diameter and 15mm in length, capable of 320x240 pixel QVGA capture.

How freakin' cool is that? All I need to do now is hack it into a wristband-mounted LCD display. It's unlikely I'll squeeze into that skin-tight stealth suit any time soon, however.

[1 Comments]

Letter

[Why am I having such trouble posting this? The system has a weird problem with the phrase "union member" - don't ask me why.]

Here's what I wrote to the leading Democratic candidates yesterday.

Dear Candidate,

I would appreciate hearing your position on changing our country's anti-worker "employ at will" laws. I am a hard-working, middle-class American who was recently dismissed from a job through no fault of my own. This was not a layoff or plant closing; it was personal retaliation. My former employer found it easier to fire me (and several others) than to try and solve the company's problems. They can tell their clients - and themselves - that they've made changes and the future will be different. Firing me will not magically restore the millions of dollars wasted by inefficiency, lost to cost overruns, or rebuild the client's faith in the company.

The employ-at-will statues all but encourage this sort of unethical conduct. I did nothing wrong, unless working hard and asking questions is wrong. Yet I have no legal recourse.

I was not a victim of any legally-defined discrimination and not covered by a collective bargaining contract. I'm just an average middle-aged guy whose manager didn't like him. Now I'm collecting unemployment and trying to restart my career.

I hope you and your fellow Democrats will try to strengthen worker protection laws. We are the backbone of this country, not the lobbyists and corporations who have written these labor laws.

Thank you for your attention. I wish you the best of luck in the upcoming election.

If you agree with even a small part of this, please do the same and contact someone. We can't expect change if we don't attempt to make a change.

This is likely to be the last entry in Job Hunting Idiocy. I grow weary of complaining about my situation. Starting with my next entry, I'll try to be more entertaining and less soap-box. Thanks all for reading.

[1 Comments]

Job Hunting Idiocy, part four

Note: I'm having trouble posting the full entry - I think it's too long, although I haven't seen an error message. Here's an excerpt.

Most Americans work under laws commonly known as the "at-will employment" doctrine. This means you're able to quit your job at any time. More importantly, though, it means your employer can fire you at any time, without cause. Your employer does not need to demonstrate any wrongdoing or incompetence on your part. They can, and often do, simply chuck people out whenever it suits them.

If you think this is just me ranting, read this decision from the California Supreme Court, one of the few courts to recognize that employers should be held accountable for their actions:

We have become a nation of employees. We are dependent upon others for our means of livelihood, and most of our people have become completely dependent upon wages. If they lose their jobs they lose every resource except for the relief supplied by the various forms of social security. Such dependence of the mass of the people upon others for all of their income is something new in the world. For our generation, the substance of life is in another man’s hands.

Rather than simply sit around and complain, I decided to take a little bit of action. I sent letters to the leading Democratic presidential candidates (Obama, Clinton, Edwards, Richardson, and Kucinich) urging them to address this imbalance of power. Why not the Republican candidates, you ask? Simple. Democrats care about individuals, Republicans care about large corporations. Feel free to disagree, but kindly don't muddy the waters around my employment law discussion.

I'll post my letter a bit later.

[6 Comments]

Job Hunting Idiocy, part three

Welcome once again to another episode of Job Hunting Idiocy.

Today's topic: How to deal with former colleagues who continually check in with you?

In the year I worked at ABC Engineering, I made friends with a few guys. As most people know, there are "friends" and then there are "work friends". Work friends are the people you gripe with, go to lunch with, maybe sip a few beers with, etc.

Two weeks ago, I was unexpectedly thrown under the bus and left without a job. My work friends are still there, still drawing paychecks, while I spend my days sending in resumes and writing blog entries. Good for them, I guess. Not so good for me.

One of my work friends insists on emailing or calling me nearly every day.

He thinks he's being funny with one-liners like:

    "Man, it must be nice sleeping in every day. Wish I could."

    "Now that's the life - send your wife to work and sit on the couch all day long."

Or sometimes he tries a different tactic: telling me how rotten the office morale is.

    "You're so lucky to be gone - I fucking hate it here."

    "Everyone's complaining - it's not the same since you left."

What he fails to understand is that I don't want to hear it. There's very little that's funny about being unemployed. While I certainly don't miss dragging myself out of bed and going to a job I hated, it still paid the bills. Sure, I had already begun looking before I was fired, but as the old saying says, "it's easier to find a job when you have a job." Now I'm unemployed, and every day that goes by widens the gap on my resume and deepens the hole in our checkbook.

I realize I'm no longer trapped by the misery of a lousy job. I realize my buddy thinks he's trying to cheer me up, let me know he sympathizes, and so on. But enough already. I know how bad that office can be, trust me.

It's a chapter of my life that I want to close. Hell, it's hard enough to go on job interviews and make the best of it when describing my former position. I don't want to be constantly teased, nor do I want the constant reminders of how rotten things are there. It may be rotten, but that paycheck sure helps mask the odor.

If my former colleagues want to cheer me up, they'd call and tell me other things. Like how the asshole project manager who fired me has contracted a painful, disfiguring, and ultimately fatal disease. Or that the feds raided the office and frog-marched the management team out in handcuffs. But no - instead they tell me that the same fucking morons are still employed, still in charge, still coated in Teflon, still driving their luxury cars. And I'm still on the couch, still sending resumes out into the ether.

I realize I'm still very angry, but I don't think I'm wrong by saying, "I don't want to hear it." You're more than welcome to disagree.

In the next installment of Job Hunting Idiocy, I'll look into the anti-worker, pro-business "employment at will" laws that allow your employer to terminate you at any time, with no cause whatsoever.

[5 Comments]

New blog header

The previous header was a quickie I threw together while still employed. It did the trick, for a while.

This new one is more meaningful and took a bit more effort.

I'll give a shiny new penny to the first commenter who can identify the source. That's right - a shiny new penny.

Another installment of Job Hunting Idiocy will be posted later this morning.

[3 Comments]

Job Hunting Idiocy, part two

If you read yesterday's entry, you learned what it's like dealing with telephone calls from technical staffing firms. In today's installment of Job Hunting Idiocy, you'll learn what it's like to meet these people in person.

At the conclusion of the phone call described yesterday, I'm assigned an interview slot at 10:00am. Not bad. Early enough to leave most of the day free, but late enough for morning rush to be concluded.

Here's the timeline of events:

8:45: Into the bathroom for bathing & grooming. Another upside of unemployment is how much money I'm saving on razor blades and hair gel.
9:15: Don the job-interview uniform and hope the dry cleaner's professional shirt-starch is still good for one more wear. It is.
9:25: Depart home, drive halfway across Denver.
9:55: Sign in at agency's front desk. Am handed an application to complete. See yesterday's entry on redundant information collection.
10:10: Recruiter arrives, ushers me into tiny conference room. Another re-hash of my resume and experience ensues.
10:20: Time on dashboard clock as I start my car and begin the half-hour drive home.
10:45: Carefully hang dress shirt in closet and wonder what just happened.

I've gone through this sequence of events numerous times. It's nearly impossible to understand where those two hours went, and what benefit I gained by expending them. Since I don't believe I was abducted by time-manipulating alien beings at any point, I have but one conclusion: that interview lasted no more than seven minutes.

I dimly recall sitting there, thinking, "We're done already?" As quickly as I arrived, I was ushered away with a promise of future phone calls, wishes of good luck, et cetera.

What could be the possible purpose of such a meeting? To ensure I don't have Mike Tyson tattoos on my face? Not so much as an earring. As a test of punctuality? If that's the case, I passed; the recruiter failed. Could I have done or said something horribly inappropriate? I don't think I was there long enough to embarrass myself sufficiently.

In the end, I'm left feeling like another chunk of sub-standard meat dumped into the sausage grinder. The recruiter did the bare minimum to keep her job, I did my part and updated my search log. The tedious cycle continues.

In the next installment of Job Hunting Idiocy, I'll offer strategies on dealing with those left behind: former colleagues who insist on calling or emailing on a daily basis.

[7 Comments]

Job Hunting Idiocy, part one

Okay, so I'm unemployed. In order to get my weekly check, I need 5 job contacts per week. Typically, this isn't hard to do: sit down on Sunday morning and go through Career Builder, Monster, etc.

A lot of CAD jobs get posted by contract staffing agencies. I've gotten more than one phone call from an agency recruiter that went something like this:

Agency: "Hello, may I speak to Dito, please?"
Dito: "Speaking."
A: "Hi, my name is Mary Jo Clueless. I found your resume on Monster and wanted to talk with you."
D: "Okay, great."
A: "So, where did you work last?"
D: "Um, ABC Engineering."
A: "And how long did you work there?"
D: "Um, a little more than a year."
A: "And before that?"
D: "Hold on. Isn't all this information on my resume?"
A: "It is, I just don't have it in front of me."
D: "I see."

... this goes on for my entire work history, skill set, education, references, etc., and ends like this:

Agency: "Okay, great. Can I get your email address?"
Dito: "It's. On. My. Resume."
A: "Okay, no problem. How about your home phone number?"
D: "You just called me at home."
A: "So this is the correct number to reach you?"
D: "Are you sure you're qualified to do technical staffing?"

I wish I was making this up. I'm editorializing a little for effect, but it's really like this. Just like I need to make 5 contacts per week for my paltry unemployment check, these recruiters must be required to make a certain number of phone calls per week to earn a commission or something. The hardest part is trying to hold my tongue and not snap at these people, because I really do need a job. It just really makes me wonder if they understand what I do, the differences between engineering disciplines, why all CAD software is not created equal, etc.

In the next installment of Job Hunting Idiocy, you'll learn just how inspiring a 7-minute job interview can be.

[4 Comments]

Unexpected upside of unemployment

My gamerscore has gone up 700 points since I got laid off last week. And that includes 2 days out of town.

I think my new goal should be +1000 by the time next Tuesday (8/7) arrives, exactly 2 weeks out of work.

I think I can do it. And without blatant achievement whoring, either. I'm close to finishing The Darkness, then I should go back and finally finish off Rainbow Six Vegas.

It's good to have goals. I need something to work on.

Oh yeah... unemployment paperwork... I really should do that first... really.

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Back from Chi-town

I'm back from my little jaunt to Chicago. We had a damned good time.

Friday: White Castles, the local Irish pub. Nearly perfect. Except for the humidity. Have I only been gone 3 years? How did I put up with this for the previous 35 years? God, that was awful. I typically don't complain about the weather, since it's out of my control, but this was nasty.

My buddy and I realized that we're getting older, and just not up for the back-to-back nights of heavy drinking like we used to do. Furthermore, while all bars and restaurants in Colorado became non-smoking last year, this hasn't happened yet in Illinois. The result? I woke up Saturday morning, not hung over, yet still feeling awful. Didn't take long to realize it was the secondhand smoke. Clogged sinuses, heavy chest, stinky clothes. Ugh.

A little breakfast at an old high school-era hangout, then it was time to see The Simpsons. We agreed on a 3-star rating. Some truly hilarious moments, but others seemed to wander off-topic and run a little slow. We double-featured with Die Hard IV ("Just Die Already"), thereby spending most of the hateful heat-filled day hiding in the air conditioning.

Then, a little old-school PS2 gaming. Once we got tired of making up obscure HORSE words in Tony Hawk 4, we popped in Aggressive Inline, a game we both recalled enjoying. We must have recalled incorrectly. Or perhaps we got spoiled. What a weird game. It's a very blatant Hawk ripoff, with a funky control scheme, a soundtrack that seems to have no more than 6 songs, and some unimpressive animations. The level design isn't bad; I recall wishing we could import our Tony Hawk skaters and boards into those levels. I guess we understand why there wasn't a sequel.

My buddy from Chicago is headed west sometime later this fall. Fall in Colorado is gorgeous. We have non-smoking bars. And the 360 has some killer games. Should be a kick-ass time.

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Unemployed.

I'm now an unemployed older gamer. Wheee. Not really.

I got scapegoated by a project manager who ran a $40m project into the ground. The cost overruns and penalties are so high that the company will probably lose money on the job. I'm just a drafter; I draw what I'm told. 5,000 feet of galvanized steel hand rail? Sure. I can draw that. Oh, that's not what the client specified in the contract? That's okay, the project manager approved the change - cost savings. A few months later, trucks begin to arrive at the job site, delivering nearly a mile of hand rail. The clients - being a team of smart people - immediately notice that it's not what they asked for. Project manager tries to force it down their throats, loses, and we take a $250k hit to redo it properly. Must be the fault of the drafter who drew it. Must be. And that's only one example. I've got tons more.

But I had a great interview last week, got cashed out for unused vacation, and some severance pay. Could be a lot worse. Leaves me more time to game, as long as I get my 5 job applications in per week to keep my unemployment claim running.

Now that doodi appears to be back on line, I'll resume trying to get the Low Rollers clan established. Hell, I've got a lot more free time now.

[4 Comments]

Goin' home

It's not often I do something spontaneous, but this had to happen. This morning I won a SkyAuction (www.skyauction.com) to get back to Chicago for a few days. I'm going this weekend for the opening of the Simpsons movie, to hang out with a friend of 20 years, drink lots of beer, and just generally recharge.

Things have been so bad at work that I needed something to look forward to, even if it cost me a few bucks. Every day I feel like I'm on the verge of either walking out or being escorted out of the building. Not only is that atmosphere not good for one's career, it's even worse for your soul and spirit. I need to get away from this feeling of being beaten down, disregarded, and take a break from looking over my shoulder.

So, we're going to overdose on Guinness, the Simpsons, and probably spend more than a few hours playing Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 on his PS2. We laugh ourselves incoherent playing "HORSE" but choosing various obscenities, inside jokes, and obscure references instead of H-O-R-S-E.

And that's exactly what I need. Time to laugh. Time to unwind.

For those who know about Chicago food, yeah, it's time for that too. White Castle. Pizza cut in squares. Italian beef. My buddy lives close enough to one of those 24-hour Greek-run coffee shops that we can stumble over for a hangover-preventing plate of greasy eggs, hash browns, and black coffee. At 3am.

My entire family is in Chicago, and I'm not telling them. This trip is supposed to relieve stress, not generate more.

Let the countdown begin.

[1 Comments]

Low Rollers clan concept

Even though 2old2play is a superb place to find mature gamers, not all of us are skilled at the games we want to play. Even older gamers can become frustrated when they're consistently the lowest-ranked player in a match. The goal for the Low Rollers clan is to provide a place for these people to meet up and play with people of their own skill level.

For example, maybe you're great at Rainbow Six Vegas, but absolutely suck at Gears Of War. Joining a dedicated GoW clan is likely to hook you up with hardcore Gearheads, who know every level and weapon location. Sure, you could learn the maps the hardest possible way, by being a punching bag for everyone else. But that's really not all that much fun, at least not to me.

I think the Low Rollers clan should be an open, public clan - more like a message board than a traditional members-only club. It'd provide a place for lesser-skiled gamers to interact with each other, share tips, plan games, etc. Everyone involved right now is a 360 player, so I'm proposing the clan start as a 360 clan. If someone wants to take the concept and run with it for other platforms, rock on.

I've got a commitment from about 6 people so far, including a willing co-moderator. We've all been playing RB6 with each other and having a blast. It's a ton more fun to play with people like yourself, people who laugh when they can't hit the broad side of a barn with an assault rifle. I'll be happy to work on forum signature graphics with a Low Rollers theme, maybe even forum avatars.

We wouldn't be dedicated to any particular game; any game you want to play, just say so. I realize there are already dedicated forums for specific games, but Low Rollers would encourage people to interact and expand their experiences. What if - like me - you suck at both RB6 and Gears, but want to play both? Instead of starting two identical "I need rookies to play with" in two forums, just hop over to Low Rollers and let us know what you want to play.

If your skill at a game improves enough that you're ready to play with the big boys, awesome. Go for it. Maybe we'll even dream up some kind of silly "graduation" ceremony.

It's all about fun, all about having a good time. There's no shame in being a rookie. Rookies need love too. Let's get a place for the rookies to hang out, get to know each other, and enjoy like-minded and evenly-skilled players.

If this concept appeals to you, let me know. Once I get the right number of confirmations, I'll post the official request for the moderators. Feel free to comment or PM me with questions, ideas, etc.

[3 Comments]

Can videogames be an addiction?

This week's Time magazine cover story explores the science of addiction. The article focuses mainly on traditional addictions, such as drugs and alcohol. Although this particular article doesn't mention gaming as an addiction, I've seen and heard it discussed many times. Most recently, I listened to a portion of NPR's "Talk Of The Nation" yesterday (7/10) discussing the article. Several gamers called in to report they are or were addicted to videogames, playing many hours a day. One guy said he lost his job because he spent too much time gaming.

Am I addicted to videogames? I play nearly every day in one form or another. I participate on this website. I read blogs about games and the game industry. If I don't have an opportunity to play for a few days, yes, I get an "itch" to boot up the 360 and play. Yet, I don't see this as any sort of addiction.

The Time article claims, "almost anything deeply enjoyable can turn into an addiction." I think that's a gross overstatement.

Videogames have a negative cultural stigma attached to them. Hardly a week goes by without a news article blaming some dysfunctional individual's misdeeds on having played videogames. We've got that lunatic lawyer who insists on suing game publishers for criminal acts committed by people who played their games. The Columbine shootings were blamed on Doom. How many police chases and shootouts have been blamed on Grand Theft Auto? Hell, there were even claims that the 9/11 hijackers "trained" on Microsoft Flight Simulator (an innocuous game if ever there was one).

As a result, if someone admits that they play a lot of videogames, the red flag pops up. If you say, "I probably spend 15 to 20 hours a week playing videogames," you're going to be seen as a ticking time bomb. But if you say, "I probably spend 15 to 20 hours a week building ships in bottles," you're just a harmless eccentric.

I'm sure there are people who could be considered "addicted" to videogames. But it's my belief that these people have underlying psychological problems (such as obsessive-compulsive disorders) that are the cause of the addiction, not the game itself. My same theory applies to the "videogames made me kill" argument. Rational people know they're just games, a form of escapist entertainment. Irrational people kill other people, and then use games as an excuse for their sociopathic behavior.

I'm curious to hear what the rest of you think. Feel free to post your opinions and experiences. Have you ever felt addicted?

Note: If you want to read the entire Time article, it's available online. I believe Talk Of The Nation posts podcasts of their shows, but my company's filter won't let me on NPR's website to locate a direct link.

[2 Comments]

"You've got some gray going on there."

That's what a colleague said to me yesterday. He's an older guy, around 60, with plenty of his own grey hair. Since I like and respect this guy, I know he wasn't just saying that to smart off. I guess it means my grey hair is getting pretty noticeable.

Hell, I'm only 38. I've been going gray since my early 20's. My beard (goatee) is almost completely white. The mustache, however, has stayed dark with only a few white stragglers. People almost always guess my age as mid-to-late 40's, even though I'm wrinkle-free and have a full head of hair.

I've got resumes out, looking hard for a new job. I got my first serious callback yesterday. Next week, I've got an interview with a major-league engineering firm. The education section of my resume apparently puzzled the recruiter. She thought I was a fresh-from-college kid looking for his first real job. I'll be finishing my associate's degree at the end of this year. It'll be my first and only degree. Sorry, not a college kid - I'm 38 years old with plenty of gray hair.

So now I'm feeling unusually self-conscious about the gray. This is a second career for me and I really need to move up in my field. Although I think I got the point across that I'm not a just-graduated frat boy, I don't want them to perceive me as a gray-haired old timer either.

The barbershop/salon (Floyd's) says they could color it without looking fake. I think it'd run me about $50. I've used the Just For Men stuff before, and my hair came out Ronald Reagan black. It looked totally bizarre, but since I was an unemployed student at the time, I found it amusing and let it be.

The question before me is a simple one. Should I attempt to dye my hair and get back a few years? Or should I just go as-is and accept what genetics has handed me? Feel free to comment, and I'll post a decision in a few days.

[4 Comments]

chkstatus

> chkstatus "Bundis Dito"
Meatbag Status Check v0.1(beta)
Checking meatbag status, please wait...
... Completed
Status report as of 0730 MDT (1330 GMT) 20070710
Identity: Bundis Dito
Mood: 3 (actively hostile)
Motivation level: 2 (planning mutiny)
Caffeine level: 3 (insufficient)
Recent audio: "Street Dogs / Fading American Dream"
Recent audio level: 8 (dangerous)
Recent game: "Rainbow Six Vegas"
Recent game performance: 6
Recent game performance note: Presence of Vicodin noted; may impair performance
Scheduled tasks: obtain_coffee(); create_blog_logo(); write_blog_post();
    obtain_coffee(); read_blogs(); read_forums(); obtain_coffee();
    look_busy(); renew_library_books(); mens_room(); look_busy();
    eat_lunch(); read_email(); read_blogs(); read_forums();
    *Task list truncated
End of report.

>copy_to_blog()
Posting... complete.

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