Notes from the field

At 11:52 p.m., on Monday, September 24, 2007, a Suffolk Police officer from the second precinct, driving in Car 205 turned on his lights to run the intersection of Commack Road and Jericho Turnpike. He’d been sitting at the light for a few seconds, when I pulled up. He was in the left turning lane, and was clearly chomping at the bit to run this light. The problem? Besides me, there were cars across and perpendicular from him. He kept creeping forward trying to trigger the sensor, but that particular light takes a full minute to turn, no matter what the traffic conditions are.

When Car 205 finally went through, he turned west in front of eastbound oncoming traffic. He didn’t use his siren, just his lights, and promptly turned them off when he made the turn.

Since I got a ticket for turning right on red at that very same intersection in February, I’m gonna report this one, and, of course, post it on the net. I don’t really see why traffic cops shouldn’t follow the same law as everyone else. A few weeks ago, I was about 2 minutes away from witnessing a horrible accident, which highlights how dangerous it is to blow through red lights. And in that incident, the officer was actually pursuing someone, not just feeling inconvenienced by a long traffic light.

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My fiancée went to Taco Bell the other day, and I asked her to get me a Bean Burrito Especial. Well, the nice lady at Taco Bell never heard of such a thing. Last night, I got myself a new Cheesy Bean and Rice Burrito, which is pretty much the same thing, except it has rice, where the former didn’t. It’s also 20¢ more expensive. Did I imagine the especial burrito? Apparently not.

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Speaking of crap that tastes better than it should: 7-11 has these large cookies by the cashier that come 2 for $1.19. The Oatmeal Raisin Cookies are pretty damned good. They’re soft, but have a really crisp bite, which probably comes from the large amount of sugar and margarine in them. Yeah, margarine, made from good ol’ fashioned partially-hydrogenated vegetable oil. What could be worse for me? Still, they’re very tasty.

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A few weeks ago, I got a job offer, unsolicited, via voicemail, from ValleySoft. I couldn’t understand the message, and couldn’t figure out why. It sounded like the person was speaking English, but I really couldn’t make heads-or-tails out of it. Luckily, it was followed up with an email. The email offered me a job “following rek of PHP,” and would I “please revert ASAP with Lokesh’s resume.”

The person who left the voicemail read the same script as the email, which is why I couldn’t understand her. What’s a rek of PHP? How do I revert Lokesh’s resume?

Turns out ValleySoft (“based in Silicon Valley, USA”!) is located in “Kolkata, the so called ‘Job Charnock’s City of Joy,’ in India.” I think this is another wonderful opportunity I can thank from posting my resume on Monster.com.

Posted by Jonathan at 05:38 PM, 25 September 2007

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