Y2kk Update: I had another interview last week...

... sure, it was just for another one of those piddly, minimum wage, government jobs, but still...

... I didn't post about it here, on my website, since I was waiting for my routine rejection notice...

... and I waited... and I waited... and I waited... and I wailed...

... the only problem was...

... umm?...

... I never got my rejection letter...

WTF?...

...

Well, to be honest, I just wanted to get that interview over with on Monday...

The NBA Draft was all set to happen the day after, so all I really wanted to do, was appease my parents by going to this interview, and then concentrate on what was really important when it came to my beloved Toronto Raptors...

Sure, I still dressed up reasonably well for my interview, with a shirt and tie and goddam dress shoes that burned a whole in the back of my foot... literally (and I had the blood to show for it)...

But my heart wasn't in this interview. I didn't even bother to practice really for the damn thing, since I just wanted to get it over with...

The job at question was a Data Entry Clerk position. Nothing fancy whatsoever... and considering it was all just for minimum wage? Then it's no wonder why I didn't get all worked up over work...

When I got into that interview room, I certainly didn't feel nervous... The only problem was, I actually was goddam nervous. And it showed...

Hell, I even startled myself with how goddam dry my throat was. I had to cough a bit just to get the goddam frog out of my throat... Not that it really mattered of course, considering I just wanted to get the interview done and over with... I just wanted to get to the fucking NBA draft the day after, that's all...

Yup, you gotta love my priorities...

I still didn't want to royally fuck up this interview, since I really suck at lying to my family about how well I do in these kinds of situations... So eventually I kicked it up a notch in the interview room, where my two interviewees were both rather young females. I sort of sat back instead of sitting straight, flexed the muscles on my 100 lb body frame (booyah), and kinda just relaxed a bit as the questions they were asking were kinda ridiculously stupid in the end...

The job was a lot more technical than I thought. I had originally thought I would just be an actual data entry clerk for Microsoft Access, doing simple queries as I went along... Apparently though, they wanted a bit more than that. VB-SQL queries were needed as well, not to mention form and report exporting over to MsExcel where the data analysts could be given the data in a more presentable format...

... define 'presentable' though?... that's one thing we hardcore programmers know absolutely nothing about, to be honest...

The thing is, I was kinda caught off guard by all that crap... I tried to compensate by talking about all my Java and C projects in university, and especially commenting about that lovely last project I did in which I did get 95% (regardless of whether I deserved it or not...)... To be honest, while I was still talking too fast to even be considered human, I was actually smiling and enjoying myself in that interview. The heat from the lights above was now completely gone, and I just ranting on and on like a lunatic about how much I enjoyed being a programmer and team leader back in university...

I talked about all the programming languages I've done, from C to Java to Apache Axis to even Prolog at one point...

... then they asked me that one real whopper of a question...

... ahem...

"Do you know HTML?..."

... umm...

... huh?...

Let me get this straight...

I had already mentioned to them I knew C and Java and Scheme and goddam Assembly programming languages... I told them that I worked on plenty of projects in university relating to SAX and DOM and Xerces XML parsing...

... and then they ask me if I know something as basic as HTML?...

WTF?...

... and heh...

... the problem was...

... I still don't know HTML...

... goddammit...

... and hence began the beginning of all my lying...

...

So yeah, I recalled that I did my Grade 13 website project in pure HTML, without the editors that I use for my websites today... Of course, I made my group members do 99% of the work back then, while I just bossed them around like pawns to a horny prick. But I still know the <head> and <img> and <br> shit, so that counts for something, right?... right?...

Bah, whatever... I told them that I programmed a ton of HTML from the ground up in high school anyhew...

... yup, just a small white lie... a lie that was true enough, if you ask me...

And then they asked me yet another whopper of a question...

"Do you know how to use Microsoft Outlook?"...

... and... umm?...

I'm a programmer who wrote a goddam Kazaa/Bittorrent program in just one goddam day in university, and they have the nerve to ask me if I know how to use Microsoft Outlook?...

... and heh... the problem was?...

... I didn't know if I could...

... I've never used Microsoft Outlook a day in my life before...

... nor POP3 or SMTP e-mail protocols...

But how hard could it be, right?... So I only fibbed a little...

I told that I do have experience with Microsoft Outlook... but that I have far more experience with web based e-mail clients like Gmail and Hotmail...

... which is true... afterall, I have installed and uninstalled Microsoft Outlook about ten dozen times by now... and that's gotta count for something, right?... right?...

... uggh...

... and then came the big finale of the question marks...

"Tell us about your experiences with Microsoft Access..."...

WTF?...

... oh... right... even though I had never used the program in my life before, I did write it down on my resume...

... heh... forgot about that shit...

So yeah, I made shit up.

I told them that back in high school, I learned how to make tables and create queries and write a few macros in VB here and there...

I told them both that I had learned some Visual Basic back in my high school programming classes, and that I could easily pick it up again if I had to...

But when it came to my real world experiences?... heh...

... I had written on my resume in big bold letters, that I had worked with MySQL databases at my prior job for as many as six goddam years...

... of course, what they didn't know, was that my prior job just happened to be my own family business...

... and those six years of MySQL database experience, was actually six years of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets...

... oops...

But hey, I learned DB2 SQL at university this year. And how hard could Microsoft Access' SQL scripts be?...

So I listed off SELECT statements, and WHERE statements, and IF CONDITIONALS and all that kind of SQL querying sort of shit...

I think that 'proved' to them that I knew my stuff when it came to databases...

... even if I've technically never touched a real goddam database before in my life...

... but that was just a small little fib, now wasn't it?...

I mean, all because I've never technically had any sort of real world experience or learning in the field, doesn't mean I ain't qualified, right?...

... right?...

... uggh...

...

... but I don't know... in that interview room, when questioned, I guess I feel just a bit more at home whenever I'm exaggerating...

Sure, I may not know VB... but I know of it...

... and how hard could it be to pick up, after doing hardcore C and Java algorithms for four goddam years?...

Sure, I may not know MsAccess or MySQL, like I claimed I did the back of my hand...

... whoo... the back of my hand does look weird... but I digress...

... because after learning DB2 SQL, the hardest kind of SQL there is? Then how hard could it be to go back to the basics?...

And sure, I've barely done any real HTML in my goddam life...

... but I've tinkered with XML for the past two years, and I did work with HTML a bit four years ago... so what's really the lie?...

And the thing was, exaggerating my mad propz l337 skillz, really seemed to relax me...

I went into that interview so goddam cotton mouthed, that I was almost ready to beg for a drink of water... since I had forgotten my own...

But by the time the interview was over? I was joking wit the two gal pals I had there, making fun of the past six years I spent at a company that didn't exist...

I even made up stories about things that went wrong there, and how I saved the day...

... ah, good times...

And I left the interview, thinking that I wouldn't get the job, but comforted in the fact that I was a lot more natural at the end of this interview, than I was at any other interview before...

... and I still had the goddam NBA Draft to look forward to...

... so how the hell could I possibly have thought that things would be looking down?...

... goddam Toronto Raptors...

...

Well, I didn't write a Y2kk update about all this interview shit before, since I was just waiting to complain about getting a rejection notice through my gmail account around last Thursday or Friday...

... but the thing is...

... I got a phone call instead...

WTF?...

.... and just once more, for good measure...

WTF?...

They offered me the job?

WHAT THE FUCK?!?

... uggh...

... lying really seems to do wonders, because they really must've thought I was a one man wonder, or some shit like that...

And sure, the job offer was minimum wage... and sure, it wasn't the most prestigious of positions for a computer engineer like me...

But I needed a job, any sort of job, to appease my vilifying parents...

... and besides, I did tell the truth to those interviewing girls at one point, when I said to them I really wanted this job so I could hopefully find for myself a full time position in the government come the fall season...

... true enough, that is...

...

... and, well?...

I start on Wednesday. On July 6th, to be exact...

... well, I hope it's Wednesday that I start on... I was told to show up on July 6th. But goddammit, I'm nervous that I heard wrong...

And yeah, I calculated things... I would earn about $2200 from this job over the summer, and fucking lose $600 of that from goddam transit to downtown Toronto...

... what a shitty ass way to spend every single fucking day inside a cubicle, from 9 to 5...

... but still... a job's a job...

It's something to put on my resume...

Something real, so that I wouldn't have to lie so damn much next time around...

Though I am worried about looking like a damn fool in my new position...

Sure, I probably won't get any real responsibility from this position. I mean, I'm a minimum wage summer job worker slave... what the hell kind of responsibility could they possibly saddle me with?

Still, there is no real training time for the job... everything is on the job, meaning I have to learn all the fundamentals by myself...

And for the past two days, I have been following online tutorials and learning how to maintain databases in MsAccess, query data with criteria like NOT and LIKE and IF, update tables with updating/deleting queries, exporting data over to MsExcel, and writing basic macros in Visual Basic like I claimed I could in that goddam interview of mine...

Sure, I still have a long way to go... and sure, I'm still worried that I'll be made to look like a damn fool...

... but really, I'm a fucking computer engineer from the University of Toronto...

... really, what can go wrong?...

... besides fucking myself my whole way through the interview, and somehow still getting the job...

... but that's a story, for another day...

... and for that goddam, inevitable rejection letter still to come...

ATI: Not much in the vein of ATI news, but I did see over at Rage3d that Omega released some new drivers... They're based on the Catalyst 5.6 driver set. Don't know what Omega tweaked and dweaked in them, but go ahead and find out for yourself over at: http://www.omegadrivers.net/.

Y2kk Update: Oh my fucking God...

... oh my fucking, goddam God...

What the fuck?!?

WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH ME?!?

Why the fuck do I always fail everything?...

I mean, seriously...

My fucking friend from university? He took his final driving test in Aurora last week. He said he passed it with no goddam problems whatsoever...

And I felt so goddam embarrassed, when I was in the car with my cousins the other day... They asked me when my G test was. And I didn't even have the heart or the honesty or the goddam guts to admit the truth to them at the time...

... that I had fucking failed my fucking G driving test...

... at the fucking same driving location as my fucking cousin passed his test...

I mean, I can understand why the fuck I fail at university. At least while taking computer engineering at the University of Toronto, I know that even if I'm the fucking last student in the fucking barrel, at least I'm still failing against the best of the best...

... but a driving test?

A fucking driving test?

What kind of fucked up life am I living, if I can't even fucking pass a fucking driving test?!?

I mean, fucking goddammit...

WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH ME?!?

I had my fucking second G driving test today, after rebooking mine as soon as I had fucking failed the first fucking time...

... I fucking can't take this shit anymore. I've fucking gone insane from the fact that I fucking failed my first fucking test...

All I wanted after my first goddam driving test, was to finally be able to brag to my friends and family...

... that?...

... "if even I can get my driver's license?...

... then anybody can..."...

...

... and you know what the saddest, fucking part of it all is?...

... heh...

... now it's true...

...

...

...

I PASSED!

I PASSED!

I FUCKING GODDAM PASSED!...

And the stupid thing was, during my test, I was so damn paranoid of a few damn mistakes that I made, that I started driving like a jittery maniac after that...

First came the fucking left turn area that's always busy, where the fucking bitch had failed me for dangerous driving last time, right out of the gates...

I had a new bitch this time at the helm, pussy whipping me like only fucking bitches can...

And yes, right of the bat, I was terrified. I tried not to panic, but I really couldn't help myself...

There was a fucking parked MAC truck obscuring my view of all the cars coming. Just my luck, eh?... Now, if I wasn't so scared of fucking failing my test, I would've just drove out quickly like I would in real life... But I couldn't take the chance that there was a car coming at me, so I took it so damn slowly, and so damn carefully... and thank God, there was nobody coming at me this time... a clean break for once...

Then came the fucking traffic light that had turned yellow on me last time, just as I was turning left...

... I made sure my foot was on the brake this time... if the fucking light would fucking turn yellow...

It didn't.

Thank fucking God...

...

Then came the routine driving. I handled that just fine... The bitch next to me complained that I was driving too slowly. And obviously, 35-40 kph in a fucking 50 zone was a bit too slow...

But if she didn't notice? There were parked cars on the side of the road. It may not be 'proper', but I actually do slow down a bit in real life, to avoid hitting their goddam side mirrors and all... And if she didn't notice? There were also pylons everywhere from fucking road construction... If I'm not allowed to slow down a bit when there are fucking obstacles in my way, then what the fuck is considered safe driving?...

... I started getting scared for a moment there... driving too slow was bad. Very bad... but not nearly as bad as exceeding the goddam speed limit in a goddam school zone...

... so... she brought me to that same place, eh?... the fucking school zone on a hill...

This time, I made no mistakes. I kept my foot on the brakes, and sacrificed observational points (from checking my blind spots at intersections) to keep my fucking eye on the speedometer this time around... I never exceeded 38kph in that fucking 40 zone, no matter how fucking steep that hill got...

Take that, you fucking bitch...

... and then?... the one problem came about...

... fuck...

...

I was at a stop sign. It was a huge, two lane both ways intersection and all. And I'm fucking colourblind, you see... It was hidden by shadows on the other side. But there was a stop sign there; a four way stop, if you will. Guess the sign next to me probably told me that too...

A car was coming from the right. So I waited at the stop sign... and waited... and waited... until I fucking noticed that the car was slowing and stopping...

I finally noticed that it was a four way stop sign, and that that slow ass motherfucking van coming from the right didn't have the right of way.

That's when the blonde bitch next to me snapped...

"What are you doing? What's wrong with you? Why aren't you going?"...

... and she said it all in the sort of way, that terrified me that she was going to fucking fail me for a fucking traffic violation...

... fucking goddam bitch...

...

After that? I was shaky and nervous as hell.

On the side streets, I now took way too long to make right turns anymore. I probably forgot to check my mirrors at times too...

On the highway, I was fine, mostly. There was one asshole who was going 110 kph while my instructor was telling me to change into his lane... I wasn't going to exceed the fucking 100 kph speed limit to pass his ass, so I slowed down instead, down to around 95, and let him pass...

I noticed that from that, she docked off another two fucking marks from my max limit of 25 allowable mistakes. And considering how damn slow I had been going all fucking test long compared to the first time, thanks to my overzealous and over-fucking-cautionary tale of a state?... Then yes,  I was paranoid of fucking failing from fucking observational, minor mistakes this time around...

... I had touched the curb while parallel parking... and in my nervousness, I also bumped the curb while fucking, simply forward parking as well...

... first time in over a year I've fucked up either of those parking shit things, really...

... and the test? The test in total lasted 40 minutes...

... less than the 55 goddam minutes the last bitch put me through, at least...

... and, well...

...

... the final verdict?...

... heh...

... guess 15 is my unlucky of a lucky number afterall...

15 is how many damn minor mistakes I made last time. Mostly from not checking my goddam blind spots every fucking five seconds or whatever...

And this time around?...

I got 15 damn mistakes again... with TEN of them from fucking driving too damn slowly or unevenly...

... fuck you, bitch...

...

... but I passed?

I PASSED?!?

I FUCKING PASSED?!?!

Oh, thank heavens and fucking God...

In dire relief, I literally thanked her about a dozen fucking times with my tongue...

... well, not the way I would've preferred to, if she was a hot blonde bitch like the one sitting outside of the driving building at the time, that is...

But either way, I was fucking jumping and humping in joy, it seemed...

... hell, the hell bitch even seemed freaked out by just how goddam joyous I was...

... because finally, just finally! I can finally, fucking, honestly say...

... that, ahem...

If even I can fucking get my final driver's license?...

... then, well?...

... thank the fucking Lord...

... there just may be a fucking chance in hell for me afterall...

Y2kk Update: Okay, it's official.

I fucking fail at everything.

... I mean seriously, is there a fucking bullseye over my head, that just screams "fail me"? Or "fuck me over in the ass", or some shit like that?...

...

Yeah, I thought I had all the bases covered today.

Today at 1:15 pm was my goddam G driving test... the last fucking driving test I'd ever have to take in a long while...

Things just weren't going my way right from the start. My fucking instructor was late, leaving me hanging to dry for 10 minutes in the goddam boiling sunlight, or some crap like that...

... she seemed friendly though when she arrived. We shook hands, exchanged pleasantries, talked about her job for a while, and then got on with the only shit that mattered...

... yeah, she seemed nice at first...

... would've been nicer though, if she had just fucking told me I had automatically failed the test, right from the start...

...

I mean, I did my usual thing. Signaled for everything, backed out of my parking spot perfectly, and then followed all the speed laws and bumps in the parking lot and all... then we got to the fucking street...

She told me to turn left. There were a ton of cars coming from both sides, so I waited... constantly checking my mirrors and goddam blindspots, just so she wouldn't fucking fail me on the spot...

The cars from both sides finally eased up. I checked mirrors, then I looked left... then I looked right... it was all still clear...

... and then I looked left again... but in my usual stupidity, I had eased up on the brake pedal just a damn bit while looking the final time...

And then fuck.

A fucking low-rider, motherfucking Japanese car had fucking accelerated its ass out of the shopping center on my left. It literally went from 0 to 60 in about five seconds flat, just to make sure that I didn't block its fucking way... And because my foot had eased up off the brake pedal? To avoid a collision, I slammed on the brakes as the asshole fucking driver passed me by... and flipped me off, I think...

... I then looked over to the instructor, knowing I had made a mistake... she said don't worry, it wasn't really my fault...

... it would've been nice if the bitch had just told me I had automatically failed then and there...

...

The law is the law. Doesn't matter if the driver who nearly hit me was a complete asshole... The law states, that I am NOT supposed to move my car whatsoever until both ways are clear. And even though both ways were clear when I had first looked left and right, things certainly wasn't as goddam clear as mud when I turned my head left again, ready to go...

But fuck it, my bitch of an instructor decided to humour me anyways. She made me drive all the way on small streets to the next city, hitting about a dozen traffic lights on the way... Why the fuck she was testing me with more side streets than even my previous road test did, I couldn't fucking figure it out. But either way, I do know that I made yet another mistake along the way...

The light was green, and she told me to take a left turn. I checked my mirrors, looked left and right and then left again, and it was all clear... and while I was looking both ways? I didn't fucking notice that the light had changed to yellow just as I was passing the white lines. I was still moving though, and the light had just changed yellow, so I thought it was still okay to go through...

... yeah, umm... no... I learned that later. No left fucking turns if the fucking light is yellow...

... fuck me... strike two...

... not that it really mattered, mind you... I had already automatically failed from that fucking asshole at the start, wasting my $75 test fee... but I didn't know that at the time, so I digress...

...

The fucking instructor decided to humour me even more. After 20 or some minutes driving around on fucking side streets, she asked me to do a few things... First, to emergency park on the right. Then, to do a three point turn. Both of which, I did just fine..

... but then came strike three...

Fucking goddammit, I had been so goddam careful with all the speed limits in the streets the entire damn test. I always kept exactly the speed limit everywhere, plus or minus a couple of kph at least... And when I fucking hit a school zone? When she fucking made me go through a school zone, I slowed down to 40 kph like I was supposed to. And the bitch nodded in approval...

But I had forgotten that I was fucking driving my fucking Ford Freestar minivan...

... we hit a hill... the fucking bitch had made sure that we had hit a fucking hill...

And before I knew it? Before I could brake, I was going 45 to 48 kph down the fucking hill... in a fucking school zone...

The fucking bitch had gotten me. Strike fucking three...

... three automatic fails, as fucking minuscule as they were...

... three fucking fails, nonetheless...

...

Doesn't matter though. An automatic fail is an automatic fail... only one is needed, and I had two to spare...

The first mistake I made was more from an asshole driver than it ever was from my own mistake... but the law is the fucking law, and I choked...

The second mistake I made apparently was against the law. And I didn't know it... Why the fuck couldn't I turn left at a yellow light, when the fucking left turn traffic light still pointed that way, and the front of my car was over the white line?... Bah. Whatever...

And the third mistake? It was my fucking fault for taking the minivan instead of the Ford Taurus sedan. I had thought that by taking the fucking minivan, the driving instructor would've been more lenient, not forcing me to do back-up parking or shit like that...

... how fucking wrong I was...

Like I had already said, even after she knew she had automatically failed me right from the start, she made me run through 20 minutes of hoops and small streets, stop signs, and fucking traffic lights... After all that was said and done, and after she had fucked me over with the school zone shit, she finally took me on the highway. Which according to my friends and brother, was really the only thing they were supposed to really test with my fucking G test...

My instructor took me on the highway four fucking times. Four fucking times... Twice east and twice west, for God knows what reason...

By the time we had gotten back to the driving test location, it was already 2:10 pm, as the fucking test had literally taken almost an entire fucking hour...

And then what the fuck does she make me do?

With my fucking wide-ass minivan, she made me back-up between two fucking cars... two fucking cars that were nearly on their respective, fucking yellow parking lines...

And fuck... I can't even fucking back up properly with a fucking compact car, let alone a minivan...

But since I was still under the sad impression that I had passed my test so far, since my instructor hadn't said a single thing otherwise, I did my absolute best to park between the two fucking Civics. And on my second try, I did it... thanks to the two surrounding assholes, there was barely enough room left to open the doors on either fucking side of my car, but still... for the first time ever, I had managed to fucking back the fucking minivan up without nearly hitting another goddam car...

Yeah... sad, isn't it?...

I suck at driving... always have, always will...

Sadder even still, that even after all the highway, school zone, and back-up parking shit, the instructor then said in her nicest bitch of a voice,
"unfortunately, you're going to have to take the test again"...

... fucking bitch...

...

According to the sheet she handed me, I drove exceptionally well... I made only 15 observational mistakes in my goddam hour long test, which ain't half bad, considering most drivers who pass their G tests make in the 20 to 25 range. And 4 of those mistakes of mine all came from not checking my right blind spot for fucking bicyclers, she said... And another two or three of those mistakes were because I was too cautious with my lane changes on the highway, checking my blind spot twice at times...

But it didn't matter that she said I was a 'great observational driver'...

... she fucking failed me anyways...

The combo of the yellow traffic light and the school zone fucking hill would've probably gotten me...

... but the near collision with the car at the fucking start of my driving test?

Yeah, she failed me for that... and wrote it in big fucking letters on my fucking sheet, to show my parents...

... what a lovely bitch she was...

...

You know how it's pretty much accepted, that every driver on the face of the planet thinks they're a better driver than they really are?

I was starting to fall into that trap... I knew that I sucked, but I didn't think I would fucking fail my driving test...

Nice to be brought back down to reality, I suppose...

Good luck, they all said before my driving test.

And I honestly and solemnly thanked them back, adding in that if I need luck for this test? Then I really do suck at driving...

... heh... touché...

And now I've got both of my parents all hounding me for my sheer stupidity, saying things like, "of course you should've checked left again before you started moving! Any safe driver would never have made that mistake"...

... yeah... fucking thanks for the advice...

I managed to already book another driving test, on June 22nd at fucking 10am in the morning. I can only hope that the early bird shit that day doesn't fucking rape me in the ass in the end...

I'll make sure to take the fucking sedan next time. I'm still worried that that car's handbrake will ironically break on me, like it did last time I used it... but considering my instructor showed absolutely no mercy today with the minivan? Then fuck, I ain't taking another chance. I ain't backing up with a motherfucking wide, fucking Ford load again...

...

And obviously, I ain't so happy right now about failing...

I mean seriously, what else could you fucking expect?

What is it with me, and failing every single fucking thing I possibly can?

I'd like to say it was simply bad luck that I was having today, with the fucking asshole driver cutting me off, and a bitch of an instructor who fucking fooled me with some school zone hill shit...

... or as she fucking put it, "karma"...

But short story short, I've always said that I suck at driving.

And hooray for me, I finally have proof.

Or more definitive proof, at least...

I. FUCKING. HATE. DRIVING.

A fucking F beside my fucking name, I now have framed...

... as if I didn't have enough already from university...

And it all sounds like just so much goddam fun, now doesn't it?

As hooray for me, I get to relive it all on the 22nd...

... though this time, hopefully with a real fucking sign on my fucking forehead, that reads "fuck me"...

... right up the fucking ass...

ATI: Well, since neither of you two readers out there gives a damn about my driving and pathetical failing woes in life (not that anyone could blame you), here's the only thing that truly does matter to a video card enthousiast out there...

ATI just released their Catalyst 5.6 drivers today. It speeds up games like Doom 3 and Halo and Riddick, fixes some install problems with .Net framework, fixes a bunch of shit when it comes to 4xAA and DVI output, and probably does some more decent crap like that... Whatever it does wrong, nobody really cares. So go ahead and download the latest Catalyst drivers at: https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&folderID=27.

ATI: Saw over at Rage3d that a new ATI Tray Tools Tweaker has been released. Version 1.0.2.685 probably does a bunch of fixes and stuff, adding X700 support and obviously driving cars better than I fucking can... Go ahead and honk its horn and suck its cock at: http://www.radeon2.ru/atitray/.

ATI: Now this is weird... Just when you thought you've seen it all, except for a man eating his own head... Just saw over at Xbit Labs that apparently, ATI or MSI is releasing a X800XL card that supports BOTH AGP and PCIE slots... Now there's something you don't see everyday. Unless you click on this link to see it yourself at: http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/video/display/20050601233856.html.

ATI: Saw over at Rage3d that techPowerUp has some rumours on the X550 or something. I'm out of the video card buying ballgame for now, but it might be worth a look at the future of budget cards anyhew over at: http://www.techpowerup.com/?3470.

Y2kk Update: Crap...

So much for that interview...

Because yes, I had an interview. Got all dressed up on a drowsy day on Tuesday.

Went all the way to Toronto... drove all the way there, and surprisingly fit right in with all the other bad drivers that cut me off on the road...

The interview was for a meaningless job. Basically, I'd just be a clerk to a web systems architect in the Ontario, Canadian government... I'd get paid pathetic minimum wage, the job would only last for two months, and in a lovely fit of would-be irony, the government here was all set to strike as well. Meaning no job to do at all...

Still, experience is experience. And I needed some... any, really...

So I got all dressed up.

And yeah, I suppose the actual interview went fine... by my low standards, at least...

I asked most of the questions though, not the guy in charge... I don't know whether that was a good thing or not...

He asked me to describe myself, so I did in mostly computing and academic terms. I mean, hell's bells, it's not like I have any real world experience to justify me getting this job or not...

After I ranted on about my computer engineering shit, he asked me to describe one project that I did at the University of Toronto that would be applicable to the job at hand. So I talked a whole bunch of shit about that four module, XML parser program I did with other groups in first term... I obviously didn't mention that thanks to one of the groups, the whole integration of the modules together went like pure shit...

What I did mention, was that the project was highly object oriented, that I learned to function as head programmer in my team, that I got in a hell of a lot of experience when it came to integration testing, and yadda yadda yadda... generic, boring shit about being a good team member, and getting the job done with minimum cost and effort... always asking the right questions, always paying attention, always being patient and learning and listening, and blah blah blah...

... yeah, right... as if I was doing any of those things in that interview alone...

But like I said, I asked this guy more questions than he asked me... I asked him what the fuck this job was all about, and whether it would ever go beyond the clerical bullshit he was rambling on about... I asked him what his position in government was, and what the work environment was like for him... I asked him which projects he was working on, and which projects he liked most. And if I would ever get to work on the same projects or not...

I tried my best to sound interested in this shitty ass job. I mean, minimum wage or not, I needed some damn experience... And to be honest, I was reasonably honest in what I was telling him. I didn't really care much for the rate of pay, because I was hoping to use this summer job as a stepping stone into getting a full time position in the government somewhere in the fall. I was trying to suck up to him afterall, saying that I'll be real motivated to get this job and all that babyface shit like that...

... yeah, well... apparently, it didn't work...

Got an e-mail back today... It wasn't a generic one. The guy actually did write to me, and told me that he "liked" my answers. But he went for some other bitch instead...

... fine, motherfucker...

... you can take your minimum wage, overglorified, motherfucking waste of a job and shove it where the sun don't shine...

So what did I do wrong?

Well, for one thing... I wasn't a girl... the Ontario government sure loves to hire their visible minority girls...

And I guess I wasn't the Claritan clearest of speakers either. I spoke a bit too quickly at times, and I think I uttered the "umm" word a couple of times at least as well...

Did I slouch? Not that I can remember... but since I'm so used to breathing through my mouth at times, I know that my fucking ugly, yellow teeth did show at one point or another. And that can't be good for business... that can't be good for anyone...

And fuck it, I probably fucked up the handshake as well. I have a womanly handshake, really... can't shake the feeling that I just don't seem friendly enough with my anti-man hands...

But whatever. I'll eventually get more job opportunities... and to be honest? I originally did want to take this summer off, and start full time shit in the fall. Or at least, that was my original plan, until my parents started bickering at me throughout the whole past year, to get a job right out of the hellish gates of the last day of university classes...

... and the whole getting a job part?... that hasn't quite happened yet...

... and ay, there lies the rub...

... but eh, whatever... at least I can finally say I've gotten some real world, interview experience (along with the Microsoft one)...

... so what's next on the list?

Lose my virginity.

Get a fucking girlfriend.

And get a fucking job...

... though maybe not in that particular order...

ATI: Well, I'll talk more about this on my Tweakui site sometime next week, but I'm kinda disappointed in the performance of my new computer. But what else can you expect for just $800 CDN, right?... I dunno. FarCry runs fine, near 60 fps in gameplay, with default graphical settings. But even changing around the texture qualities to high seems to make my ATI Radeon X600 Pro PCIE 256MB start to stutter at times... Not as badly as my Xbox mind you. It still runs about 30 fps, but still...

Anyhew, at least I didn't get a crappy intergrated graphical chipset this time around... Still, if you're into those kinds of things, Anandtech has a roadmap up of future IGP chipsets from both ATI and nVidia. Go ahead and collect them all if you're bored at: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2430.

ATI: Well, this card is slightly faster than the one I got. But eh, whatever... close enough...

NextGen Electronics has a review up for the ATI Radeon X600XT 128MB PCIE. Don't know what they say, but go ahead and check out this discount, midrangecard over at: http://www.nextgenelectronics.com/gigabytex600xt.php. You can also find reviews on the Gigabyte X800 and X800XL over at Hardcoreware: http://www.hardcoreware.net/reviews/review-286-1.htm.

AMD: And since I did just buy my AMD64 3000+ 939 CPU, I thought I might as well post here Techgage's review of the AMD64 3200+... I'm surprised that even with AI NOS overclocking set to 5%, FarCry on my new computer can't seem to keep a stable 30fps all the time with graphical details set to high. Or at least, that's what it looked like to my eye... Maybe I'll try to reinstall the lame ass game and actually benchmark it for once over at: http://techgage.com/review.php?id=1286.