So.

So.

We're back from the weekend trek to Maryland.  Thoughts for the weekend:

1. Murphy really didn't want me to get to my interview, but we outsmarted the bastard.
2. Fluxx and Zendo are really cool games.
3. It's always interesting meeting yourself.
4. We have SO got to get out of this overgrown spam-can and into a real house (or hell, I'd settle for a townhouse like Sam and Liana's, no problem).

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Let's see.  First, the morning of my interview, after we figured out a way I could get a shower without soaking my cast, the shower curtain rod fell down on me.  Three times, no less.  The third time, it landed squarely across the back of my neck as I leaned into the tub to retrieve my shampoo.

Then after I got done with my shower, one of the strap pins fell out of my watch for no apparent reason.  However, Murphy was off his game; it only took me about 45 seconds to find it, undamaged, and a few minutes to re-insert the pin.

So we make it out the door only a few minutes later than planned, make it to NASA about the time we want to, and I go into the gatehouse to check in with security and have them call the person I'm interviewing with.  Almost the first thing that happens after I roll in through the door in my trusty wheelchair is a woman turns away from the counter still looking where she's been, walks right into me, and kicks me squarely on the toes of my left foot.  Yeah, the one with the pins in the toes.  "Ow."  (Insert appropriate expletives here according to taste.)

Finally my contact gets there, about 15 minutes later, and it transpires that there are special paperwork requirements to bring me onsite because I'm still a UK citizen.  She'd checked in advance whether it was a problem, and was told "It's covered, all taken care of."  Needless to say, it wasn't covered, and the paperwork has to be done ten days in advance.

Nice try, Murphy, but we outsmarted you this time.  The applicable people were rounded up, and we headed off to the local Starbucks to conduct my interview off-site.  Starbucks coffee is frankly as awful as ever, but I think the last interview I had that went this well was the one with Cygnus Solutions, at which they'd pretty much already decided they were going to hire me and the interview was mostly a formality.

Anyway, the long and the short of that is I haven't the slightest doubt I can work with these people, and they seem to have equally little doubt that I can do the job.  Cross your fingers, folks.

On the way home, cymrullewes, having just seen a license plate reading "2DAMOON," suggested that if I get this job, since I'll be writing code to talk to solar observatory satellites, I could get a personalized plate for my motorcycle reading "2 SOL."  Well, granted, it's not a bad idea at all (setting aside for a moment the question of whether I'm going to be able to ride again, which is not certain at this point), but I had a better one.  Put on your Blues Brothers outfits, boys, and try this one for size: "SOL MAN."  (And if anyone steals the idea and prevents me from using it, I'll kick'em in the kneecaps.)

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Oh yeah, I mentioned Zendo, didn't I?  Ever wondered if an arrangement of a handful of colored clear plastic pyramids can have the Buddha-nature?  Wonder no longer.  Check it out at Looney Labs.  This, like all truly great games, doesn't rely on gimmicks; it's just a simple, elegant game built around a simple, elegant concept.  It requires calm thought, not the reflexes of a six-year-old on speed, and there is a very definite zen to it.

And Fluxx?  It's a wacky card game in which almost every card played can or does change the rules, and even the objective, of the game.  I think it's the only card game I've ever played in which you can play, or be forced to play, a single card which, without any action on their part, causes someone else to win.

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Finally, report from today's eye exam:  despite a history of glaucoma on both sides of my family now, I have no signs whatsoever of any form of eye disease, and my left eye is still 20/15 without breaking a sweat.  My right eye's deteriorated a little, though, and I've been having a little trouble focusing on my computer screen lately, so I need new reading glasses.

Here begins silliness:  Medicaid covers only cheap plastic lenses without scratch or anti-glare coating.  Presumably to reduce costs, right?  So why do they REQUIRE that you get new frames?  They'll only cover lenses in new frames.  If you try to save them money by having new lenses put in your existing frames, they won't let you do it.  Go figure.  Ain't bureaucracy wonderful?

Still, with any luck, about the time the new glasses arrive, I'll have a job, and I can just tell'em "No thanks, but you can make me some lenses in the same prescription in high-index plastic with anti-glare and scratch coatings, and I'll have them in my titanium frames, please."