sacrilege

the cold is back and its bloody awful. temperatures are in the low single digits and for the next few days they say it will struggle to get above freezing. it would be bad weather for mid december or january let alone the end of march. 

i had an interview this week to work in a team that supports the internet e-commerce sites of a company. it seemed to go ok and i was not asked anything too difficult. i have worked in web hosting and supported network infrastructure and servers before so i think i could do the job if offered. the agent told me today that i was down to the last 2 and that they were going to make a decision in the next few days. i will take it if i dont have any other more lucrative offers, which if the last few months are anything to go by, i probably won't. its also based in victoria which is a part of london i have not worked in before and also they support and administer F5 load balancers and it would be good to get some more practice and experience on them for a few months. 

during the interview amongst the technical quesitons, i was asked if i had ever gotten a job from a friend, and i said no. i thought it was quite funny he asked that question given what i wrote about in my last post. friends like that, who needs enemies. 

today i have mostly been listening to the yeah yeah yeahs - sacrilege. this is a new song that is from their new album that will be coming out in the next month or two. its awesome. i said it before but i will say it again, i dont think there is anyone cooler in music than karen o. 

i also heard the new single from thirty seconds from mars. i have previously posted one or two of their songs and their last album had a couple of good songs on it, but the new single that i heard was so bad it was funny. it sounds like a joke song. the lyrics and production on it are so lame, it sounds like it was written by a 13 year old for a school project. it makes nickelback sound like radiohead in comparison. 

anyways here are the yeah yeah yeahs. no video. it doesnt need it. 

i havent been to football this year but i just heard that one of the guys that i had been playing with for the last 3 or 4 years has just been diagnosed with cancer and he wont be going any more. he got married a couple of years ago and has a 1 year old baby as well. when you hear stuff like that, it puts things into perspective. i whine and complain about shit on this blog, mainly about weather and stupid people i work with, but in real life i am very thankful. i have a great life, money and health and lots of people have serious problems and issues to deal with. i dropped him a note wishing him well and for a full recovery.  

fuckers

i went away for a couple of weeks to get out of london and get a change of scenery and it was lovely. its good to get out of the routine of this city and see another side of life and how other people live. i feel infinitely better for being away. 

i came back because i had to. as much as i can afford to not work for quite a while longer i really do want to get busy and to do stuff. i had a couple of calls about jobs one of which was at the hedge fund that i left about a year ago. they have just been re-organised and lots of people have left and there are lots of new people there and it was good money so i said i would go for it. i dont know any of the new managers but i know one of the guys in the team that the new job is in. 

i also heard that they were looking from a 'friend' of mine from when we both worked there and who left about a year ago as well. he is in another contract but that is going to finish in 2 months and because he is a big spender he is already worried about where he will be next. he needs the cash badly. he is also best buddies with the guy who is still at the hedge fund. anyways, i got a call from the agency who said that the hiring manager at the hedge fund had been told that i did not like to do weekend work and that i would not go on-call?. 

what the fuck!, who said that!?. it seems clear to me that the guy i know who still works there said it, and the only reason he would do so would be to get his best mate in instead. i told my 'friend' last year that one of the reasons i was leaving my last contract was because i did not want to do weekends and on-call, but that was because my dad had just died and i did not need the stress and i needed to stay close to home with my folks at that time.

the other guy should have said i was shit at what i did, and i did not know anything about servers or vmware and that i was a fuck up, but in reality he could not say that because its simply not true, so instead he has decided to say i cant do weekend work to put some doubt in his new managers mind and get me out of the running. what a motherfucker!. 

i told the recruitment agent that i could do weekends (i did 6 days a week for 6 months last time i was there), and that it would not be a problem. he said the manager was impressed with my skills and would get back to me. i also got another call from another contract and they have called me in for an interview next week. its not as good as a job and its less money but i will have to go for it. its still a lot of money even if its not hedge fund money. will see what comes through. 

i just thought it was a sad reflection on people for someone who pretends to be a friend to try and sabotage someone else's application for a job they are going for as well. he should just interview for it and if he gets selected fairly for the role then thats fine, but to try and fuck over the competition is a bit cuntish. if he ends up getting the job in a few weeks time it will confirm that he was behind all the shit. in the meantime i am stalling the interview at the other place as long as i can till i hear back from the manager of the hedge fund. i think they might be keen for someone to start soon and so i hope to hear back from the manager there at the beginning of next week. lets hope i dont get fucked and i dont mean in the way normal people like to get fucked.

today i have mostly been listening to the XX - sunset. in all honestly i find quite a lot of their stuff to be rather dull and wanky, but this is not and is a good song. 

everybody's got to learn sometime

indian summer