entombed in the shrine of zeroes and ones

Last week, i had a job interview (i'm looking because i'm tired of the night shift and i'm bored as hell and there hasn't been an opening in either the day shift of my group or in another group that i'm qualified for; that might change in 2 or 3 months, but i'm not willing to wait longer than that), and when i asked two of the guys who had just started working there what they liked best about their new employer, they both talked about how smart everyone was.  This made me wince on the inside, because in my experience, smarts only get you so far.  In systems operations, it's much more important to have people who work hard and play well with others than to have some super-sharp person bursting at the seams with cleverness and grand ideas, especially in an industry where it's often too easy to find a brilliant yet intractable coworker who's tolerated because of what they can do whenever they stop being an asshole.  Perhaps i'm biased, but i'd rather see the smart kids doing the programming so that us worker bees can get on with making the infrastructure hum.  I'm so glad i'm a Beta.  Or something.

Are there any other foods besides refried beans that you hate with an unholy passion?

Well, let's be clear.  I don't hate refried beans per se.  What i hate is their ubiquity in restaurants.  Refried beans are repurposed leftovers; it's what you do with old beans.  You mash them up and, duh, RE-FRY THEM.  You want to dine out and ask for that?  It makes a small amount of sense if you have a huge case of nostalgia for your mama's refried beans, but otherwise, it's just nuts.

Now, there are lots of foods that i hate with an unholy passion, but as for other foods that i hold in a similar regard to refried beans... i dunno.  Meatloaf, perhaps.  I mean, really, who the hell orders meatloaf in a restaurant?

You call yourself an "eight of all trades", which I understand completely, since I feel that way myself. Does it ever infuriate you?

It used to.  Now that i'm trying to get a new job, it's starting to infuriate me again, and i'm trying to take steps to remedy this.  I've come to the realization, as i look for a new job, that the year or two at Macromedia were too comfortable for me, and i didn't progress professionally.  That has to change this year, no matter what.

Are you going to start a wine war with Robot Terri?

You know, i first read that as "wine bar".  No, i would not start a wine war with twillis any more than the United States would start a war with Grenada.  No, wait, let me rephrase that.

Who is your favorite curmudgeon, and who would you like to watch getting the crapped kicked out of him by said curmudgeon?

I don't know.  Curmudgeons have such a short shelf-life; look at H. L. Mencken or George Carlin.  They're on top and suddenly everything goes pear-shaped for them and then they just suck.  Plus, i'm past the point in my life where i enjoyed that sort of negativity for its own sake.  Perhaps dr_strych9 is my favorite curmudgeon these days.  Naturally, he should be kicking the crap out of every single person who was at any time a part of the Bush Administration.  Yes, even good ol' Colin Powell, bless him.

Aside from your wife, what do you love the most about the U.S.?

Our nuclear weapons.  I can't wait till mine arrives in the mail.