Monthly Archives: August 2012
Employment and Elevator Introverts
After several months of job hunting in the Tampa Bay area I finally landed the perfect gig. I am very happy with the opportunity, the career path, the company and my team members. Not to mention the wonderful views from the office.
After being there only since July 19, I’ve finally been moved up to an office with an ocean view of the bay. I’ve come a long way if I say so myself.
I thought I would highlight some of the views this office provides. To the east we are granted views of the Tampa Bay, the Tampa skyline, the St. Pete pier, and the Tampa Bay Rowdies minor league soccer team field. To the southeast we can also see the St. Petersburg airport.
Another great thing about the city of Saint Petersburg is Indy car race that runs through the streets of downtown and along the cost. The lap ends with a straightaway on a runway of the airport. Our office provides great views of the entire track. I am super excited for the race next March. The above picture shows part of turn four of the track.
To the west we are provided with views of the Tampa Bay Rays baseball field. To the north the views are of Downtown St. Petersburg.
How does one acquire such great views you might be asking yourself? Spending lots of time on the elevator riding to one of the top floors. The building has four elevators. They are all working now but for the last month only two of them were working.
I don’t know what it is about riding in an elevator that truly brings out the lack of social skills people have. But this last month really has reiterated that thought into my head. I don’t know how many elevator rides I shared where the conversation was 100% identical. Verbatim. Just venting about the lack of four elevators. “When are they going to have this fixed?” Its like people are trying to force conversation just because by pure entropy and chaos two humans ended up sharing an elevator ride together. I don’t know why these people dig so deep. How about a conversation about the nice views we get to see everyday riding up this elevator.
During my job hunt I had an online interview with a company I really liked. The interview was done using Google’s video chat. I prepared very well for the interview and thought I might have a chance. The job posting stated that there would be some Ruby on Rails work but Ruby on Rails was not a requirement. I get into the interview and the interviewer says that the position is for the Senior Ruby on Rails Lead Development Position. I immediately knew I had no chance. Why do I mention this you ask? Because unbeknownst to me, this company is in the same building as my new company. And one morning I had the pleasure of sharing an awkwardly quiet tandem elevator ride with the guy who interviewed me. It was for the better though, because I really enjoy the company I am with.
Everyday in the Tampa Bay area we get quick 30 minute rain showers. Today the rainstorm cast the most beautiful rainbow over the bay. These were the best two pictures I could capture.
#9 – Double Eagle Fishing Charter (Clearwater, Florida)
All this time that I’ve lived in Florida and yet somehow I’ve managed to never go saltwater fishing. I had a friend from Kentucky coming to visit for the weekend and he suggested spending Saturday afternoon at sea. I reserved a spot on a large charter for the group to depart at 8 AM. This proved to be a mistake as four alarms failed to awaken us.
Fortunately the aftermath of a late Friday was able to be shaken by 7:39AM and thus provided barely enough time for me to call and cancel the reservations for a refund. The charter had no other availability for the day so we browsed the internet and eventually found another charter in Clearwater that was departing at 1 PM. This allowed the group some time for breakfast and a little flea marketing before setting sail.
When we arrived the first thing we noticed was that our fishing boat was docked just a few spots down from the boat we had originally planned on using. After looking it over it was clear that the new boat was more suitable for the day ahead of us so we were happy with our error.
We arrived early enough to explore the boat and mess around before hitting the high waters and Heather decided she was hungry enough to try a little bait. Not really, but I’m quite sure she disgusted the bait boy. Which by the way, being a crew member on one of these fishing charter boats is probably the closest thing one can achieve to living the dream.
Should we happen to forget we are in one of the most touristy towns of Florida there were constant reminders of gimmicky boats trying to capitalize on our money. Such as this Jaws like cruise liner:
I was afraid that the day was going to get rained out as I had constantly checked the weather all week long. The weather indicated storms during the day in Clearwater but due to the messed up weather patterns of the Tampa Bay area you never know what is going to happen and somehow we managed to leave the storm ashore.
When we finally got to the captain’s honeycomb and were allowed to drop our lines in, the weeks anxiety finally came to an all time high. Before I could even drop my line in the water someone had already caught something. Maybe this was going to be a great day after all!
So I dropped my line in and I sat there. And I sat there. And I sat there. All passengers except Heather and I seemed to be bagging nemmatoad after nemmatoad. My friend Brian caught 5 or 6 fish, I lost count, he even caught a shark. So I decided to post this picture of his smallest catch of the day:
We had the great luxury of sharing our boat ride with some of the most fratastic brooks brother wearing wonderboys of all time on this particular Saturday. One of which even tried to steal my pole until I sat him straight. Anyways, after there shenanigans and beer shotgunning they of course were the ones to catch the days biggest fish. I believe it ended up being a 45 lb Cobia.
The captain came over the loud speaker to let us know we only had about 5 minutes of fishing left so I let the line loose and drag for half the reel. This proved to be the successful strategy because 20 seconds later I had my days first catch.
I threw him into the fish holocaust ice box and we headed back to land. The charter will clean the fish and put it in a bag for you which is nice. Especially since I don’t even have the utensils to do such a thing down here.
As we stood waiting for our fish to get butchered up, some random stranger (definitely from New Jersey) came up to me and offered me his stringer of fish. With the combined stringers of fish we were looking at some good eatings for dinner.
The bait boy was cleaning the fish for us and throwing the scraps to the little intelligent creature posted up in the marina waiting himself for some good eatings.
The captain let us know if we took our fish down to the restaurant on the end of the marina they would fry it up for us and put it with some sides for $8 bucks a plate. Nice! We didn’t even have to wait on the drive home to eat our days catch plus we wouldn’t have to stink up the apartment.
Toe Jam Earl
On Friday I had an ingrown toenail chopped out of my foot. Prior to the procedure my toe was in pain for 3 weeks. The procedure only cost $125 bucks and seeing as I am not currently insured I was happy to hear this news. Hell, I woulda paid double that to never feel those foot pains again.
Turok Rage Wars Grey Cart
This bad boy is a beast of its own. Turok was a popular franchise for the Nintendo 64. By the end of the N64’s lifespan, the fourth installment was ready to debut. On its release, the game was released in a black cartridge. But soon after the release it was discovered there was a glitch in the game that prevented the game from being completed in cooperative mode. The developers made a fix for the glitch but the only way to obtain the fix was to send in your copy of the game and get a replacement that came in a grey cart. Needless to say, not many people did so. Not to long ago a crate of these bad boys was found and now a copy has landed in my hands!
Kentucky Fried Bucket List 