I thought the interview at Ontario at the beginning of last month went well. Many of the questions were similar to those I got in February, so I felt at least a little bit more prepared, and I thought I did better. But I still didn't make the final cut. One of my friends on Facebook commented that my combination of education and training is pretty unique, and some of the best in the world. The thing is, when you're applying for jobs in the nuclear industry, a majority of the applicants likely have those kinds of credentials.
That interview came at the tail end of a very fun trip upstate. Three days in Ithaca did wonders for my mindset going into it. After arriving on Saturday, I had a great time partying with Da Bones, even though my brain paid for it on Sunday. I spent Monday afternoon working off lunch at the Glenwood Pines by hiking Taughannock Falls. I did the trail along the bottom that leads to the bottom of the falls, and then hiked all the way up around the rim. All together, it had to be at least five miles. I stuck around for a little bit on Tuesday, after learning that one of my friends who had also come up that weekend left something behind.
There are two other things of note in the recent times. Last week, I had a wonderful birthday dinner with my best friend from high school. We just don't see each other as often as we should; I hope that we can change that, for however long I remain on Long Island. And two days ago, I attended a taping of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, courtesy of the friend I mentioned in the last paragraph. We took especially stringent precautions to ensure we'd be admitted to the studio; as a result, we waited nearly two hours before the tickets were even handed out. The show itself was quite good. I imagine the staff had to write or rewrite the show on short notice, being as the President came out in favor of same-sex marriage about three hours before the taping. The second segment was a spoof on "The Life of Julia." As we sat in the studio before the taping started, my friend asked how the green screen worked. We explained that that particular wavelength of light is filtered out - and if you watch the segment, you'll see a really good demonstration of that effect. The interview with The Very Rev. John Hall, Dean of Westminster Abbey, was excellent as well. Here's the full episode, as well as the "Julia" segment (although I think this take on that ad is at least as good).
The long term outlook may have been thrown back into turmoil, but in the short term, there's one thing on the horizon - jury duty! Due to my military service, I hadn't been called in almost a decade. At the end of February, I got a juror qualification questionnaire; after filling it out, I was fairly sure that I'd be called in the very near future - and sure enough, the summons arrived three weeks ago. I'm not scheduled to go in on Monday, but I probably will have to report to a court facility before the end of next week. At least I will, however briefly, be doing something for which I'm getting paid.