Manlio Rules

so… this was my week last week

monday i find out that i potentially have an interview on thursday in san francisco with company Xcorp. it’s a hellacious week between my freelance work and assorted other commitments, but i manage to get the time off from my freelance gig. the plan is to fly out to SF wed night, and fly back thursday on the redeye.

tuesday i get an email from my contact at Xcorp, who tells me: “To the extent that you can provide some evidence as having thought about some of the above(the above being my potential job responsibilities) during your talk, it will make my case stronger. I think you know this already.” I interpret that as: “try to take what you’ve done and show how it will make you a good candidate for this job. ok…

tuesday night i migrate a client over from development to production, and in the process wipe… out… the… database… argh. i spend another 3 hours tuesday night rebuilding the damn thing.

wednesday i pack in the morning, go into work, and head right to the airport from there. I plug into jet blue’s wifi at the airport and download a ton of theoretical stuff about interactive television to brush up on the plane. i’ve prepared a presentation a few weeks back, and i go through and make some changes and some edits. i make it to San Jose without incident, and i’m in the hotel and checked in by 9:30. i hit the in and out burger (not as good as i’ve heard), and watch some tv before turning in.

Thursday morning is the presentation. I present my pieces, and it seems to go ok, but i know that i’m forgetting to do something important, and the look on my contact’s face as the hour progresses gets worse and worse.

I have meet with 4 people after the presentation before my contact. this is the guy who i talked to at ITP who really liked me. he walks in and basically says: “well, you didn’t really give me waht i wanted with that presentation. why didn’t you prepare a demo that was relevant to TV?”. now, i DISTINCTLY remember him saying at my initial interview: “the last woman who i hired who didn’t have experience prepared a tv demo, but you don’t necessarily have to do that”. apparently that was code for: “you should do that”. i responded with: “well, i thought i woudl go through my presentation and explain how each project gave me skillsets relevant to the job”. he replied: “well, ok, but you didn’t do that either.” I almost asked if i could leave right there, or at least go to the Xcorp bar and knock back a few.

but no, i had to sit through 3 more interviews, on with a product manager whose game seemed to be: “i know more than you, so i’m going to ask you a question, listen to your answer, and then tell you why you’re wrong.” good times!

then i flew back that night, on an absolutely full flight, sitting next to a guy who was dipping throughout the whole flight. DIPPING.. who the fuck dips on a plane? it was disgusting. luckily millers crossing was on the fox movie channel on the plane, or i would have throttled someone (dip guy, i’m looking at you)

so i get back on friday at like 6:30, and it takes an hour to get home, (cab, you were a $50 mistake). and i pass out till 4PM, at which point i go and drink a whole bottle of vodka. well, not really. but i had like 9 vodka tonics, so that’s gotta be close. good times.

on saturday, after a 3AM phone call about being, i decide to email the yahoo guy and ask him if there’s anything i can do. his email is a tricky mix of reprimanding and politeness… but i agree that i will try to make a tv interface demo sometime in the next few days. but honestly, if i’m already having problems figuring out what this guy wants before i work for him, i’m not sure how much i really want this job…

today i am working working working and trying not to eat more chicken wings from mr. wonton…

(edit… umm… i ate the chicken wings)

ok. i, usually don’t post this stuff, but man this is hilarious.

star wars subtitled

i’ve got soul but i’m not a soldier.

take that for what you will

[17:29] manlio27: hey
[17:29] manlio27: do i have a set of your housekeys
[17:29] Scott: no
[17:29] Scott: mike does
[17:29] Scott: do you
[17:29] Scott: did i give them to you?
[17:30] manlio27: i have someone’s keys
[17:30] manlio27: i don’t know whose
[17:30] Scott: how many?
[17:31] manlio27: three
[17:31] manlio27: one of them is a pretty serious looking silver key
[17:31] manlio27: two of them are gold regular keys
[17:31] Scott: circular “modeco”?
[17:31] Scott: one oblong?
[17:32] manlio27: what does oblong mean?
[17:32] Scott: the head of the key
[17:32] Scott: is an oval?
[17:32] manlio27: one is an oval
[17:32] manlio27: one is that like curved top straight side keys
[17:32] manlio27: one is a silver circle that is usally for serious deadbolts
[17:33] Scott: does the silver circle have a name on it?
[17:33] manlio27: right
[17:33] manlio27: medeco
[17:33] manlio27: like you said before
[17:33] Scott: you do have my keys
[17:33] manlio27: ok
[17:33] manlio27: i sort of remember you saying you wanted me to keep a set in case someone got locked out
[17:34] Scott: right
[17:34] manlio27: but i don’t remember getting them.
[17:34] Scott: nye
[17:34] manlio27: and i didn’t realize that i had them
[17:34] Scott: mike gave me the old ones
[17:34] Scott: or
[17:34] Scott: the ones i gacve him for the cats
[17:34] manlio27: ok
[17:34] manlio27: i’m glad i solved that
[17:34] Scott: me too

woo hoo! just gotta burn discs of all my files, and send a few viruses to the main server, and i can get the hell out!

“I’m going somewhere south where the water is warm, the drinks are cold, and i don’t know the names of the players.”

–Det James “Sonny” Crockett, final episode of Miami Vice, 1989

you’re going to see a million posts and articles about this in the coming months, so i thought i’d get mine in there fast: first off, go check out the miami vice trailer on apple.

next, spend some time watching the original episodes on TV land at 2AM on a saturday (i recommend DVR).

then tell me: why?

now, the articles i’ve read so far seem to think that this movie will be terrible. But i’m not so sure. I just don’t think it’ll have a whole lot to do with the original concept, so i’m confused as to why they would set it in miami and constrain themselves to inevitable comparisons. isn’t this movie going to be closer to “bad boys”, than the original series? why would you remake a quintessential 80’s series, and not set it in the 80’s?

don’t get me wrong, i like michael mann, and i feel like the movie will be decent in his capable hands. however, i will note that he had 2 of the best actors of the last 30 years (pacino and deniro) as well as a stellar supporting cast for Heat, and while it was very good, it wasn’t awesome. And i don’t think that Colin Farrell and Oscar winning actor Jamie Foxx (still feels weird to say that) are necessarily of the same caliber. add in what appears to be a “dirtbag hipster” look for farrell, and i think that maybe we’ve got some issues. also, if you’re going to perfectly recreate the original roles, down to Det. Zito (John Diehl’s bumbling comic relief character who was murdered to close season 3 (still one of the more harrowing TV moments ever, cause you never thought Zito would buy it)), why wouldn’t you let Edward James Olmos reprise his role as Castillo? you can’t tell me that anyone else is going to do that role better.

Maybe they thought that doing it 80’s style would be inevitably kitschy, but if they had just played GTA:Vice City, they could see that you can do a period movie or video game without it necessarily turning into a bunch of: “hey, i remember the reebok Pump” jokes. When Tommy Vercetti gets in the copter and starts mowing people down to Flock of Seagulls, that’s just good times.

Of course i will see miami vice, and if it’s even halfway decent i’ll consider it a success. but i suspect that aside from the name and some similar character names, it will have little in common with the TV series. which is fine, but pointless.

the remake of the logo does look cool, tho.

greetings all,

Alex suggested that i write a post about the state of the Red Sox as a team, and given my readership (PT, i’m looking at you), i thought that it would be a huge hit (not to be confused with a huge salary).

so, let’s review what we have. if the season were to start right now, this woudl be the sox presumable starting lineup:

2B: Mark Loretta
1B: Kevin Youkilis
DH: Ortiz
LF: Manny
RF: Trot Nixon
C: Varitek
3B: Mike Lowell
SS: Alex Cora
CF: Adam Stern

SP: Beckett
SP: Schilling
SP: Wakefield
SP: Wells
SP: Clement
SP: Arroyo
CL: Foulke

i have to say that this doesn’t make me feel good. add that we have good depth at 3B/1B (marte, snow) and almost no depth in the OF or the MI positions. I think that changes will happen before the year starts. as you can see, we have a glut of SP’s, and Wells will almost certainly be shipped off for OF help, with current rumors being that Jay Payton will get the nod. Dustin Pedoria is presumably working furiously on converting to SS, a position he hasn’t played since high school or something.

truth be told, this team reminds me of a poorly drafted fantasy team. It’s round 15 or so, you took too many pitchers in the first 7, and now you realize that grabbing two second basemen and no shortstop was a stupid idea, cause no one wants to trade you a SS without asking for something ridiculous. I did this a few years ago with a fantasy team, drafting a bunch of pitchers in the first 10 rounds, an almost no offense, and it was the only year in which i didn’t end up in the money for some fantasy baseball league of mine.

Of course things work differently with the red sox, and i can’t disparage any singular decision that they’ve made, but this is a team that is relying on quite a few “big ifs”. such as:

IF Beckett’s blister problems don’t continue
IF Lowell regains some semblance of form as a hitter
IF Schilling can be even somewhat effective
IF Foulke doesn’t shit the bed
IF Dustin Pedoria can contribute in the 2nd half
IF Kevin Youkilis turns into a decent hitter with 500AB’s (they’re projecting 15-20HR with a .400 OBP)
IF Manny remains somewhat happy
IF no one else gets injured (we are one jason varitek injury away from a starting lineup with John Flaherty)

then, and only then, will the red sox be a decent 95 win team this year. which, given toronto’s retooling and oaklands potential of having a full year with their rookie starters, will be exactly what it takes to win the WC

the yankees? forget about it. the yankees are the division front runners, and barring injury or rapid degredation amongst several of their players, i see no reason why they won’t take yet another division title.

now, things can change between then and now. one thing i did not mention is the Jo(h)ns, Papelbon and Lester, who the sox managed to hold onto this year, could both be excellent additions to the pitching staff, and would give us some room to trade a starter (arroyo) for a decent position player in case the Alex Cora at SS experiement doesn’t work out. There’s always the chance that Kapler can come back and contribute, but that was a pretty serious injury late in the season, and i don’t think he’s a full time player anyways. but we still need a 4th OF and pinch runner. besides, Trot will inevitably go on the DL for 3 weeks or so, as he does every year (not that i don’t love trot, but let’s be honest, he’s not durable).

So, with 45 days to go till pitchers and catchers report, we’re heavy on pitching and weak up the middle. And i don’t think those deals can be made now. so we hope that our strengths can beat out our weaknesses, and that toronto isn’t the looming giant they appear to be.

(sidenote: i actually think this is very possible. i like all of torontos additions, but each one of them had a pretty big question mark attached to them, be it experience as a closer, ability to get on base, or injury risk. Toronto could be a mirage)

my preseason prediction is that the sox win 92 games, and very very narrowly win the wild card.

no, seriously. i gave notice at my job. This would seem to some of you to be a little bit irresponsible, but this job has been driving me nuts (and not in the funny pirate way) for the last 6 months, and yet i’ve stayed, calmly accepting a low paycheck and assuming that i would find something better. but it’s not happening. so i gave notice. i’m here till the end of next week, at which point i become a full time freelancer. things are still in talks with some SF companies for me to go and work there, so who knows what will happen. but 2006 promises to be a year of change.

new years was as usual, a total blur. Gabe and Carin’s party was lovely, and scott’s party was fun as well, though i managed to absolutely CLEAR the dance floor when i decided that a really great follow up to “hey ya” was “any way you want it” by Journey. I gambled and lost. i should have stuck with outkast, they were a hit all night. also i learned that people don’t want dance music, they want music that they know. although i take exception to the douche who came up to me right after i started my first song and made “recommendations” cause he didn’t like what i was playing. and then he chose “mr Brownstone”. next time you DJ, i’ll crit. we’ll see how that goes.

and kudos to whoever it was who saved me at 2:30 and spun for the rest of the night. i was one song away from busting out the Doors.

when oh when will i learn to shut my fucking phone off after 3:30 in the morning? it never leads to good things. never

(EDIT: ok, ok, MAYBE sometimes it leads to good things happening, as briehan pointed out that this makes it seem like the night ended poorly, and it didn’t. but the way i see it, i got on my phone at 3:30, dove into a situation in which there were 15 bad outcomes and 1 good outcome, and somehow grabbed the good one. i’m just saying that 93.75 percent of the time that whole thing ends with me upset and kicking myself the next morning. this time it did not. but that doesn’t make it a good habit. )

yesterday i drank too much scotch (scotch, scotch, scotch) and played stupid in a hold em game. i got up early, then started playing in on dumb hands. alex naro would not be proud of me.

but it got me thinking. why don’t i have a regular poker game? i think that people would enjoy it. i’m going to try and make that happen in 06, maybe for one or two of the football playoff games.

i slept in waaaay too late today. tomorrow is going to be a disaster.

and the “count” goes back to 1, after reaching an astonishing 400-something.

i have a good feeling about this year…

no photos that i can show, they all came out pretty bad. oh well.