Nonsensical Insense

Ok, so I admit. I wasn’t the biggest fan until recently. Literally, like, pretty much just this summer. I’ve had a bunch of their music for a while, but I’d never really listened to them. Always thought they were a little too… eclectic(?) for my tastes. Now, I just think I was crazy. Granted, I love all of their “popular” stuff. Give me some credit, however. I didn’t realize half of the songs I like were singles until AFTER I did some research and found it out.

But seriously, iTunes Genius (if you’ve never used it, you should try it. It’s like Pandora for people without Internet. But only with your personal music library) couldn’t make playlists off of half of the singles, and if it did, most of the time it picked singles my other favorites had put out themselves. Like… ‘Californication’ and ‘The Luckiest’ (Ben Folds)? Yeah, not much in common. Especially when you accept that it took the live version of Luckiest instead of the studio version. I think the only connection they have is that someone is singing. About something.

So, I did what I always do. One of my good friends calls me a “Music Whore.” I have a tendency not only to collect as much music as possible from a particular group, but I read histories, etc. Let me tell you, RHCP has one of the more… extravagant histories of all of the bands I like. I learned little things that were really interesting. Like how I now want to read Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis. Or how Flea almost actually quit the group after the release of By the Way. (Or maybe it was after the recording.) Or, best yet, listening to Frusciante go on for 18 or so minutes about how the guitar for Dani California was written in studio. You never realize just how much a band has gone through until you sit down and read their history, and the histories of the members.

As a newcomer fan of RHCP, I am definitely excited to hear them get back into the studio and put out another CD. It’s on my 2010 list of “Things I Must Buy When They Come Out.”

Anyone have any suggestions as to songs to listen to?

So, I have an interview for a Web Specialist position at a company up in the City (New York City, for those of you who subscribe to a different “city”). Tomorrow morning. One hour… ish.

Sometimes I feel like I should be more nervous for this. It’s my first real interview for my first real job! Shouldn’t that count for something in excitement or nervousness or… something? I’m not entirely sure, though. To me, it’s simply a double-sided screening process. I’ve already expressed some interest in the job/company for which I will be interviewing. The company has already expressed some interest in having me work the job for the company. The interview, basically another level of “Am I interested in you/the job?” Plus, they’ve already asked for an in person interview. I must be more appealing than every other average Joe in the world, because a company that’s been around for 140 years or more should have some sort of an idea of whom they’d hire. I’d hope they wouldn’t just pick some random resume’s and go “Okey-dokey, here are the interviewees for the next few weeks. Have at ‘em!”

I think another part of it is that I’ve been so much on the other side of the interview, seeing so many other people be way more nervous for a job with so much less prestige. I’m probably more immune to how things will go because I know what the interviewer is thinking, or might be thinking. Granted, I’ve never interviewed anyone for an IT classified job. Everything has pretty much been for Customer Service or a project. Still, the concept is the same. Just like in programming… if you understand the concept and know how it should work, you should have no problems implementing it in whatever language you want.

And you know what? I don’t want to be hired by a company who doesn’t like me for me. If the company decides that something I do or like is inappropriate or against what they want… they can go find someone who fits the exact mold of their dream Web Specialist. The fun part about being in web and the Internet is that there are so many different things out there that you can do. You don’t have to be locked into a particular type of job. Of course, some (myself included) have their own personal preferences. I like building applications. Basic websites (such as this one) where the only outcome is a basic reflection of exactly what’s on the server are boring to me. Also, a blog just stores my writings in a database (pick your flavor, doesn’t matter) and then displays it at whim. It can even handle inline (X)HTML stuff.

But, I realize that I’ve deviated from my real topic of interviews. I suppose it’s really because I can’t see the interview as the dreaded beast I was told it would be when I was in middle school. Ok, there are a lot of things to think about, like, what you wear, what to bring, what to say, what not to say, what questions to ask, and what questions to avoid. What will the interviewer really be looking for in my answers? Will I impress him/her or will I make a fool of myself? Will I actually be right about whether or not I made a fool of myself?

And the one question I’m still trying to answer (and probably will be, even after I do this a thousand times (hopefully not that many, but… who knows))… What are my salary requirements? But that’s a story for another day.

I just finished adding the “Music” section under the “Audio” heading. Expect more updates to the “Audio” heading as I jump into my Sound Design and Sound Engineering experiences!

So, I’ve used WordPress before, as a simple forum for updates for the Game Manager project, and I figured that making my own webpage with it wouldn’t be too difficult.

Well, I wasn’t wrong, thankfully. Within a matter of hours (including an hour or so for lunch and about 45 minutes or so of reading Wicked) I had a website up and running, easy as can be. Granted, I’m not finished at all, but I was rather impressed with the simplicity of how everything in WP is done. I’ve done some work with my own botched creations, and I’ve also done work with other CMS systems, but I really think WP is on the right track for easy functionality.

The easiest thing for me to do was to re-order my Pages. I’m sure other CMS systems have the same sort of functionality, but all I had to do was change a value in a dropdown and click “Update.” Awesome! With that, I can easily create a “Main” page for a section that already exists, and I don’t even have to think about how to rework the links and the url rewriting. If I’m being honest, though, I really do enjoy url rewriting, now that I know how to do it.

I’ve always shied away from using applications such as WP or Drupal because, as a developer, I feel like I’m constrained into how the system works, rather than how I think it should work. However, running a WP site, even for one day, has me itching to break into the code and figure out how everything integrates, rather than cringing at my inability to rework things myself. There’s definitely a lot going on here, and I’m glad I’ve made an effort to use this system.

The following Pages have been updated/added:

• Web Development
• Game Manager
• TCNJ Student Web Developers
• eIRB
• TOOL: The Online Office Log
• Web Application Development

So, this will be my current website, which will start to feature the various things I’ve done and am doing. Check back soon for more updates!