This morning was the thrilling conclusion of benefits orientation, which was mercifully short. Small world: my arch-enemy's ex-roommate was also in attendance. Go figure. I guess the university keeps a lot of its students on as staff, especially nowadays.

And speaking of things that happened last Thursday, the fire alarm box in the lobby of my apartment building was emitting a loud squeal this morning. Apparently, having become tired of silently sounding the sixth floor alarm for almost a week, it's about to run out of batteries.

Batteries? That shit runs on batteries?

Out of the blue yesterday I was invited to a job interview downtown for a company whose name I should probably not reveal, but let me just say that they're a search engine company, and they don't suck. You can figure it out from that.

It's a Project Manager position, and presumably in California, so I'm probably not going to take it even if they make an offer. (Honestly I don't think I'm qualified, as I possess next to no business sense.) It doesn't look like the job involves much real HCI work, although those skills would probably be useful, and I can't really get passionate about management. At this point in my life I still want to be in the trenches, doing the actual work. And I don't want to be in California.

But, you know, I'm going to the interview anyway, if only for the practice. Who knows? Maybe they're opening an East Coast branch. I'd research that online, but that would almost certainly involve using their search engine.

Maybe I'm crazy. This company is considered by some to be the Holy Grail of tech jobs - a highly successful company which, even post-tech bubble, has five-star chefs in their cafeteria and an on-site masseuse. But I guess, to stretch the metaphor to the breaking point, if this is the Holy Grail, then frankly I'm Jewish.