Entry 64: A Birthday Day

OK, I gotta squeeze this entry out rather quickly. I only have until S finishes getting ready. It’s her birthday today. Well, it’s her birthday tomorrow actually, but we’re observing it today since I have to work tomorrow. I didn’t buy her a proper gift, because we are already well above our limit on what we can take back to the States with us. We can’t add things. (Also, as I’ve mentioned before, I’m not really big on gift giving, per se.) Instead, we’re having an “S day” where she gets to plan our activities. Oddly, these activities do not include me spending hours on end on the computer blogging, doing crossword puzzles, listening to podcasts, and checking baseball scores. S actually wants us to do things together today – weird, I know, but it’s her birthday, what can you do?



We rented Monsoon Wedding from iTunes earlier today, and we are going out to eat soon. We actually went out with some friends last night, as well. It was really fun – lots of drinking, dancing, and general merriment. It was just what I needed as I wasn’t in a good mood yesterday for much of the day. I received emails telling me I had been denied for two jobs I applied for. It wasn’t too devastating because they weren’t great prospects, but still getting rejected is never enjoyable.

The first was only a one-year post-doc position and my skill set didn’t fit the desired qualifications very well. It ended up being a highly competitive position, so I imagine I was dismissed pretty early just based on background alone.

The second was a different story. I had several rounds of interviews, but I didn’t score highly enough on a test they gave me. The test had three parts. One was general aptitude (brain teasers basically), the other two parts were much more specific. I think I answered correctly all the questions in the first part, but I left a lot of the other two parts blank. It was mostly stuff I have floating around somewhere in my brain, but I haven’t used in years. If I could have studied a bit or just looked up some definitions I would have done much better, but I was never told what was going to be on it (I asked several times), and I wasn’t allowed any outside sources.

This seems like an absurd way to evaluate prospective employees to me. I mean, you can’t have everything you’ve ever learned on the top of your head. You could quiz the smartest people in my field about their own work, and they probably wouldn’t have answers for you if they haven’t considered it in a long time. But, it’s just as well. The location of the company would have made things hard on S and I, and frankly, I’ve only heard bad things about the company from my colleagues.

Still, I was a little grouchy yesterday. It didn’t help matters that I was winning three baseball bets going into the final inning of each game and somehow lost all of them. These sorts of improbable runs will likely even out over time (today I won a bet on an unlikely comeback by the weak-hitting Padres), but still it was the rotten cherry on top of the poop sundae that was my Saturday afternoon.



Thankfully, things picked up, and I was in a much better mood by the evening. One thing I noticed is that here in Newcastle, they are really big on live music. A lot of bars will have a band or a dude with a guitar playing when you walk in. It’s kinda growing on me. I used to not really like live acts, because it meant that you were going to have shout over some crappy music to have a conversation, but they can be fun if you are in the right mood. (As I’ve mention before a heavy dose of covers really goes a long way with me.)

A few nights ago, S and I actually bought this woman’s CD, because she had such a good voice. Her name is Zoe K. and apparently her backup band is called the Shadow Katz. The sound engineering on the CD is pretty amateur (as you would expect), but her voice really is terrific. I wouldn’t be surprised if she becomes somewhat famous someday.