Things you don't want to hear at a job interview.

Well last week didn't turn out as I'd planned.  Some progress on the Hoplites and Fallschirmjager, but not as much as I'd hoped.  Three reasons for this;

i)  I got a job interview at short notice that took up a couple of days with travelling and prep.  I didn't get offered the job, but at least they were good enough to actually call and let me know.  Much better than the last interview I had a couple weeks ago.  It went something like this:

Guy in suit:  Hello.

Me: Hello.
Guy: Pleased to me you.
Me: Likewise.
Guy: *** Small talk ***
Me: *** Small talk ***
Guy: *** Small talk ***
Me: *** Small talk ***
Guy: So tell me a bit about yourself.
Me: Blah, blah, blah.
Guy: And how long have you been speaking Italian.
Me: . . . . . . Errr, I don't speak Italian.
Guy: . . . . . . Oh, your CV says you're fluent.
Me: *** sigh *** Nope.

There was another half hour of this, I'm pretty sure they had someone else's CV but my app on top of it.  Muppets.

ii)  Xbox.  I got back into Mass Effect 3 and Skyrim last week as expansions have just been released for both of them.  I'd forgotten how quickly the hours drift by when you're into a game.

iii) The Reality Dysfunction.  This is one of the few books I've started reading but didn't finish (the others being American Psycho, Paradise Lost and something be Anthony Trollope.)  I was initially put off by the glacial pace of the plot and the direction of one of the plot strands.Second time round however, I can properly appreciate what a cracking read this is.  It has everything you'd expect from modern sci-fi; blurry technology/biology divide, interesting future human history, cracking dialogue.  Something the author Peter Hamilton is known for is the sheer scale and scope of his novels, this is pure space opera and well worth the 1221 pages of text.

Of particular note, there are plenty of instances where I've reread a passage or chapter because they were just that good.  I don't know if I'm the only person who does that with a good book, but there are so many of these here; the Lord of Ruin, the Ly-cilph/singularity mix, Joshua and the mayope deal.  Too many to list.  One little gripe though; if humanity has had centuries of genetic engineering, or geneering, then surely some (male) scientist would have figured out a way not to accidentally get a girl pregnant?

So I'm still working on the two units this week, hopefully I'll get at least get one of them finished.