Best Rap Song Ever

i said a hip hop the hippie the hippie to the hip hip hop,
a you dont stop the rock it to the bang bang boogie, say up jumped the boogie to the rhythm of the boogie, the beat

now what you hear is not a test--i'm rappin to the beat and me, the groove, and my friends are gonna try to move your feet

see i am wonder mike and i like to say hello to the black, to the white, the red, and the brown, the purple and yellow

but first i gotta bang bang the boogie to the boogie say up jump the boogie to the bang bang boogie

let's rock, you dont stoprock the riddle that will make your body rock

well so far you've heard my voice but i brought two friends along and next on the mike is my man hank come on, hank, sing that song....

Just say No to back fat

Getting Skinny

165.0 - 5.6% body fat. I need to try much harder if I'm gonna get to 160 by the end of the month.

No Job

Didn't work out as I expected. Not really what I wanted to do. Oh well, time to start looking again.

Prep

So, how do you prep for an interview with a company that has NO public information? Uh you don't, really. That's OK. My answers are the same as they always are.

Blah Blah Blah.....

I get my references updated. Print a couple extra copies of that and my resume.

My buddy Matt says, "there is a game @ Safeco today, which means NO parking." Ouch, I better go early.

The offfice is in pioneer square, so I head out super early to scope it out and make sure I know where I'm going and where I can park.

OK that was much easier than I thought it was gonna be. I now have 1.5 hours to kill. Hmmm. How about the world famous Elliot Bay Books? What are all these people doing in pioneer square? I guess this is the place you hang out if you don't have a job. Oh well....Off to EB books!!

I find an interesting book. I look through it. It makes me laugh. I buy it.

OK it's interview time.

I walk through the door. 10 or so people all sitting @ desks.....somebody in the back behind a desk gets up.

I am assuming you're Alan?
I am.
Hi Alan, I'm _______. Let's see if we can find a place to chat.

We head to the snack room.

He asks me some questions. Since they do lots of work for MSFT he likes that I have some experience there.

I ask some questions about the company, the direction, the niche.

We finish in 45 minutes. Clearly this was not a MSFT drill. God that gets really really old. He says HR person will be back.

She comes back. Asks how the interview went. I tell her well and I like what they are doing. I ask her what she thinks of how it went. She says. I think it went really well. We chat about some details and then she leaves to go get someone else that I should meet.

She and guy #2 sit down and we chat informally. He says he just wanted to come in say Hi and meet me. He leaves.

Somewhere along the line, she says, we'll provide you with a laptop and if you want to use your cell phone, we'll take care of that too.

I ask if I'll be joining them, and she smiles and says, Yea, I think so.

We talked about salary and vacation time and etc. Seems OK to me.

So, for the record, I found a job making pretty good money, doing development project work, in less than 72 hours. Not bad.

Later talking to my buddy Jim who works for Ebay.

Dude, you already took the job?
Yep
They hired you on the spot?
Yep, pretty much. They might check my references, but I think it's a done deal.
Awesome.

Yea, I say it's pretty awesome.

Interview Confirmed

I get an email mid day.

"Hi Alan, you're confirmed with your interview with _____ at 2pm, tomorrow August 6th. Here are directions to our office."

Cool.

Later in the day, I go for a late afternoon ride with my friend Roger. It ain't so cool. In fact it's fucking hot. Real hot. I hope we don't ride too hard. Roger's done STP in one day, and RAMROD this year. I've done NOTHING.

He takes me on a tour of the Kenmore/Lake Forest Park area. We ride lots of hills. Good thing I had the 34 on front. Damn. 2 hours later I get home and I'm pretty blasted. Not from the ride but really the heat. Remember hotter than 80 is REALLY hot here.

A stab in the dark?

I decide I need to start looking for a job.

http://www.dice.com/ - Not bad but mostly contract positions. Contract jobs aren't all that bad, but when you know the contract company is billing you at twice what they are PAYING you, ya gotta wonder......

MS.com - Too much crap. Do I really want to work @ MS again? Maybe I should consider somewhere new?

Hmmm....I'm a pretty huge fan of ol craigslist. I've sold good shit, I've bought good shit. My friend Brian says all the hip kids are using craigslist.

So I do some searching. I see a listing. Description looks interesting. Kinda vague, not much detail. No doubt I can do it. I'll send of an email off Monday AM and see what happens. It's a legit company (or at least they have a website) so....

Monday. Send off the email. Say I'm interested in the job. Attach my resume. Expectations. NONE.

Weather looks really nice today. I think I'll go for a longish bike ride......

Damn, I forgot my phone.....No biggie....I'll be home in a couple of hours.

Huh, somebody called and left VM.

"Hi Alan, My name is ______ and I would like to talk to you about what kind of role you're looking for, blah blah blah. Please call me at xxx-xxx-xxxx."

Holy Shit. Did I even expect a response? No.

I collect some notes and prepare to call her back. We chat and long story short, she wants to know if I would like to come in. Of course I would. She'll send me interview details tomorrow (Tuesday)