Too Smart to be a Cop?

According to the NY Times a man attempting to join the New London, CT police force was denied employment because he scored too high on the intelligence test. A judge decided this wasn't discrimination because they deny anyone scoring that high a job. I'm not really clear on how that makes sense, in my opinion that's kind of like saying "well they deny everyone who's black a job, so it's not discrimination." Sadly police officers tend to get a reputation for being not-incredibly-smart bullies; this doesn't help that. Now, I understand that there is very likely a minimum allowed score for the test as well. Someone does need to be smart enough to perform the job properly; it just seems kind of stupid to say that someone is too smart to be a police officer.

I have a theory as to why people don't like police very much. When is the only time most people ever interact with a police officer? When they get pulled over. So the majority of people's experiences with officers is when they are getting in trouble. That's not going to produce good feelings. I think Provo could help improve the relationship between the police officers and the public by creating a couple of foot patrols. Have a pair of officers that walk up and down Center Street (where there seems to always be at least 2 patrol cars). They can speak to people and be friendly, improving the public opinion of the officers. Have one or two officers that walk the neighborhoods around campus saying, "Hi" to students walking to/from class. Let people know that the police are good, friendly people (I hope they actually are).

Just some random thoughts.

My Birthday

My mom has incredible luck in finding unavailable Wii items. I got my Wii last Christmas because she happened to be in Wal-Mart walking by the electronics department and saw them bring their entire shipment of 3 out to the cabinet. She was able to get this Wii Fit because she was in the electronics department at Wal-Mart planning to buy something else, but asked if they had any just in case. The person went in back and brought one back from their entire shipment of 2.

Thanks Mom!

[Addendum]
Oh, after I set it all up, when I played again after everyone left it wished me a Happy Birthday, and the little dancing Wii Balancing Board cartoon thingy was wearing a party hat. It's the little things like that that Nintendo does right that make their stuff awesome.

Friends

I just wanted to take a minute and say that I have awesome friends. Some of them might not be the most on-top-of things so far as planning is concerned, but they are genuine people who have a lot of heart. I appreciate everything they do for me.

The Second Interview: Are you legit?

So earlier this week (Wednesday) I had my second interview with the company previously mentioned. Not that I mean to criticize, but they probably should have planned ahead as to what they wanted to ask me questions about. It mostly ended up being a general information gathering type session. The developer I spoke with mostly just asked me if I knew things like, have I used X before, how much work have done in X, how familiar am I with X, do I feel confident programming in X, why do you want to work with us, what do you plan to do when you graduate, what do you want this job to do for you and your future plans... those kinds of things. I was never actually asked to exhibit any of my programming skills or system design skills. Towards the end of the interview I actually offered to show him some of my work, which he let me do. He seemed pretty excited with what I'm able to do in my various non-pay capacities.

On Thursday morning the HR guy called me to see if I wanted the position. So I accepted and headed into the office to sign all sorts of papers about Non-Disclosure Agreements, company policies, At-Will employment, etc. Then we were waiting for one of the developers to come in so he could setup an account for me, during which waiting time I was sent to play the Wii, which I did. I played about 10 bouts of boxing without losing, taking a guest account from 0 to ~800 skill level. I also played some tennis, then I was starting to get tired so I turned it off and went to chat some. The developer showed up and got me an account setup. Due to the startup nature of the company, I'll be using my own laptop to work on, not a big deal, but a little silly. So I spent a few hours that evening installing software and setting up the SVN connections on my laptop. Not a bad way to spend the day getting paid at a pretty decent rate.

So, assuming this position continues as anticipated, I will have gratefully solved my financial problems which would have come to a head next March. And I can start feeling like I can buy groceries again without worrying if I really really want something or if I can live off of a cheaper cheaper set of food products.

Things I've noticed that involve the church

1:
So lots of people have been following the trouble in Texas involving the polygamist sect and all. What I found interesting was that at the beginning the news reports all referred to the people involved as the FLDS church. Lately, however, they're always referred to as the "polygamist sect". I thought that was interesting and would not be surprised at all if the LDS church PR department requested that the term FLDS not be used because the LDS church doesn't like the suggestion that there is an active association there.

2:
The church has a rule that your not supposed to have red punch in the meeting halls to prevent stains on the carpet/chairs/etc. I've thought about this as I was watching an X-Files about a cult. I think part of that rule might be to avoid the appearance of having people "drink the Kool-Aid" which is often associated with the suicide ritual of cults. Where the participants drink the red Kool-Aid which has been poisoned. It would certainly not look good to have visitors come to an activity where people are all standing around drinking red punch. Just a thought on the subject.

Why I will not be voting for McCain

This is one reason why I will not be voting for McCain:

[N]either the Administration nor the telecoms need apologize for actions that most people, except for the ACLU and the trial lawyers, understand were Constitutional and appropriate in the wake of the attacks on September 11, 2001. [...]

We do not know what lies ahead in our nation’s fight against radical Islamic extremists, but John McCain will do everything he can to protect Americans from such threats, including asking the telecoms for appropriate assistance to collect intelligence against foreign threats to the United States as authorized by Article II of the Constitution.

--- McCain adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin, speaking for the campaign

Supporting the Bush Administration's policy of running illegal warrant-less wiretaps on US citizens is stupid, coming straight out and saying you'll do the same thing is unacceptable. You will receive no vote from me if your plan is to continue dismantling the Constitution in the same way the Bush Administration has for the last 8 years.

Moving On: Fighting the (Housing) Man

Phew, I haven't got that riled up in a while now. That, my friends, is why it is impolite to discuss politics at the dinner table.

Let's find something less controversial to write about.

Being the end of the month I knew I would be seeing the utility bill from management soon. I had allotted $50 in my budget to cover any electrical and gas expenses for May. I was hoping that this $50 would have plenty of extra room since May was fairly warm and we only needed the heat on for about 7-12 days.

When I saw the bill located on the door reading $115 I was a little enraged. That was more than double what we'd paid any previous month. It was ridiculous. So on Friday we went to the management office to tell them we would not be paying that amount, and asking to see the bills from the utility companies. Turns out their workers are just incompetent and their management unfamiliar with legal contracts.

The worker dividing up the bill did it incorrectly, so when it read $115 it should have said $76. The second part was that one of the managers decided that since two of the people with contracts weren't actually living here that they'd just charge the two of us for all the utilities. Now, from their perspective I can follow that thought process. But, we must also consider two other points of view:

1. In order to heat a house there is a baseline amount of gas that will be used regardless of how many people are actually living there, and since we only kept the heat at 65 F it wasn't like we were being excessive. So doubling our utilities bills is not fair to us simply because the other contract holders don't live in the unit.

2. The contract holders signed a contract stating that they would pay for utilities. They still hold the contracts (despite not living in the unit due to being unable to sell them) ergo they are still legally obligated to help pay for utilities.

To top it off, if they were suddenly to decide to change the distribution of the utility bill they should have had the courtesy of discussing it with us first.

Having taken care of the matter the $115 bill has returned to a more anticipated bill of $38.

Why do you have to fight with people just to get things done the way they're supposed to be in the first place? Why do the people that are too nice or perhaps not as savvy about things like this have to get screwed out of their money? We're the best tenants this company has ever had and they recognize us as such. We take care of the property, make it a million times better than it was when we moved in; just treat us with respect.