The peanuttiest week...interview, oil, friends, hockey.

It has been a nutty week. Anne got me these while we were in Atlanta. Boiled Peanuts. Salt, peanuts, water. That is all. "Stay wet in bag" packaging. They were very unlike dried peanuts, but quite good. It took me one peanut to recognize that the package says to shell the nuts before eating. Anyone else remember eating the shells as a kid?

The interview at Maritz went well yesterday. I went to lunch with the VP of the ARG (automotive research group). He was a very real, nice guy. We discussed: cars (and his mini cooper) plans that they have for newer, faster data processing, the awesome facilities they have to collect data currently, ways they produce/use scales of measurement, and the working environment at Maritz. It was very cool. Maritz is an incredible data machine. They deal with data in responsible ways and are trying to be on the edge of new techniques--many of which are quite neat and very interesting to me. We even ended the interview by going back to his office and discussing Tufte (the graphical display guy). I was rather taken back by the fact that I THINK that the manager who interviewed me before called me "Ben" or something like that. We all make mistakes with names, right? But it is frightening to think that he may look like his misinformed when he says "Hey, how about that Ben guy?" to a hiring committee. Then again, I may have misheard him.

I had one of those "not NOW!" experiences. I added a bit of oil on monday before I drove to Maritz for the first interview. I went and returned--no issues. The next drive was for the second interview on thursday. From the time I heard a "clink" in P-burg just before getting onto 475 until I pulled in at Maritz (abotu 12 minutes), my oil cap was off! It wedged itself in and I did not lose it. However, I had about 3/4 of a quart of oil under my hood. Not a good thing to notice just before an interview. Luckily he drove. :) I left and deftly pulled in next to a van at a Burger King and (while dressed in a suit) cleaned the oil up a bit. Man, what a mess. Remember, TIGHTEN the cap. Yuck. Oily, smokey, grucky, yuck. It keeps dripping onto my front bumper.

I used ebay for the first time since opening my account in 1998. I had to by a stylus for my new PDA. I don't know why I wrote that, other than because I am surprised that I have gone this long without using it.

I hung out with KC and Randy last night. We talked about good stuff. I wish we talked about more personal stuff and less electronics or whatever, but I guess we do a bit of all types of discussion, and that it does not matter too much--everything we talk about it good. It is a privilege to have such good people as friends. I played some Half-Life2. No, I am not a gamer, but I had been addicted to HL1 for a period of time, and I haven't played a game like that for a while. I was really impressed. Not impressed enough to get it for myself or anything (I still have a 5 year old video card), but enough to say "wow." We have realistic simulated physics. That is cool. The models were fantastic.

Played hockey ths morning--I got pulled over for turning at the "no turn on red" in front of my house (S Prospect St and Wooster). It was EXACTLY at 6am--the precise moment when the lights turn from flashing red/flashing yellow to solid red/green. When I pulled up, it was flashing. When I pulled up in front of the policeman, it had turned from flashing to solid, but I was paying attention to the traffic, not the light. He believed my story (thank goodness--because it was true) and let me go with an "ok, I believe you--have a nice morning." If only more policemen could realize that those rare (well, twice-a-day) timing issues (and things like that) actually DO (well, they almost HAVE TO) occur. Now for a day of school, eating sauerkraut and sausage with Gerry, dinner with Jaegers (we will look at the GPS data I collected in Honduras with a UT topological-mapping geologist), and finally a party at Jeff Friedrich's (a super-nice BGSU psyc guy). A good end to a FANTASTIC (yet nutty) week.