Archive for November, 2006

What I’ve been up to

Monday, November 27th, 2006

My last entry was the 10th; many days ago. I feel the need to announce what I’ve been doing with my life since the 10th.

Comedy act #2: Performed and recorded for prosperity. However, since it’s longer than 10 minutes, it’s not going on YouTube. I could host the video myself, but I don’t want to share it, since I stink. I’m still learning how to do this. The next thing I share out on YouTube will be actual comedy as opposed to an attempt at comedy.

Final Fantasy XII: This is a fine game. I’m about 12 hours in, and it’s everything I ever wanted in a role-playing game.

Star Fox: Assault: A sequel to the Star Fox series, this game is everything I ever wanted in a space shooter.

Reading: I don’t usually read, but last week, I felt the need to purchase Animal Farm and 1984. I’ve read the first chapter of Animal Farm, and it’s everything I ever wanted in a short story.

Gym: I think my body is telling me that it wants to be active, and I’ll be damned to ignore that suggestion. I joined the Powerhouse Gym in Miller Place.  I took a quick, cursory tour of the place, and it’s everything I ever wanted in a fitness center.

That is all.

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Stand-up: The sequel!

Friday, November 10th, 2006

In case you missed the first one, I’ll be doing a second open-mic at the same place I did the first set. The odd thing was, I was invited back, so that means one of two things; either I made a good impression the first time, or they’re hard-up to find ameteur comics to fill time. In either case, I’m doing this again!

Where: McGuire’s Restaurant & Comedy Club
When: Thursday, 11/16/2006, 8:00 pm (1627 Smithtown Ave, Bohemia NY – 631-467-5413)

P.S. This blog entry gets exported to facebook by design, and my privacy settings are set to allow all note posting to show up on the facebook news feed. This is also by design. So, if you’re reading this on facebook, it’s because I’m letting you. If you’re reading this on my blog, it means you cared enough to know what’s going on with me and my life, and for that, I’m appreciative. All that said, should you find out about this, and you want to know more info or how I did, do not hesitate to contact me.

I was very much saddened to find out some high school friends of mine did not bother to contact me when I posted the video of my first performace. They decided to acted shocked and surprised amongst themselves even though my contact info is out there. And, while I can’t be too sure, I’m betting they weren’t laughing at my material, but at me personally. I know they will eventually come to read this, so to those people that said somethng about me and thought they were doing it behind my back (here’s a thought: if you’re going to talk about someone, don’t do it on MySpace, where that person can see everything you post), all I will say is that I initially took the high road when confronting you (i.e. I didn’t confront you at all, opting instead to leave a brief “Thanks for noticing the act” message on their MySpace pages.) However, after ample amount of time has gone by and still no word from any of the guilty party, I’m officially laying it out there: you’re all fucking sad, gossipping little twats.

I never thought I’d say that about people I once considered friends, but so it is. They’re welcome to contact me and correct any misunderstanings, but I doubt they will, because I don’t think there is a misunderstanding, and they probably don’t care what I think about them, which I’m ok with as well.

Posted in Humor, Rants | 1 Comment »

Fucking Civil Service

Thursday, November 2nd, 2006

I work for the government.  The hiring practices of the government differ slightly than the real world.  Putting it simply, anyone who works for the government falls under 1 of 2 categories: Civil Service, or Political Apointee.  Civil Servants typically pass some kind of exam and are then ranked based on the results.  Test takers are then selected to fill positions based on their rank.  In theory, this is supposed to provide for a fair method of employment.  (Political Apointees don’t take any tests; they’re typically selected by elected officials, usually campaign contributors or something like that.)

I recently took a Civil Service test for a higher position: an oddity about my career track within the context of Civil Service is that the exam for technology positions consists of a resume submission and a take-home exam.  The take-home exams questions do not test a candidate’s practical knowledge; a question on the exam may be something like “Please list the number of years (0, 1 or 2) in which you have experience in the following:

___ Hands-on experience in mobile microcomputers
___ Local or Wide Area Network Administration

Please describe your experience in these areas.”

As you can see, an exam like this doesn’t really test the applicant: for the most part, he or she can just write down all the good numbers and fake the rest.  It’s really kind of a bullshit selection method.

That said, I took one of these “tests” some months and scored an 80 out of 100 (minimum passing score of 70) for a grade 19 position (starting salary somewhere around $39K).  My rank on the resulting list, however, was 87.  86 people scored higher than me on this test, meaning in order for me to be “reachable” (procedurally possible to be selected from the list), 84 people have to be either hired or removed from the list. That’s lovely.

I recently got back the test results from an equivelant position: I scored a 90! That should be pretty good, right?

My rank on the list: 87. Again.

Fuck. That.

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