Category: It Happened to Me

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Internet Finds It Happened to Me

Remember when I asked why no one’s come up with “Sexy Tiger King” costumes? They’ve arrived.

Back in April, I wrote:

Why hasn’t a “sexy” costume based on Joe Exotic or Carole Baskin been announced yet? Usually, when a big pop culture phenomenon happens, the costume company Yandy are pretty quick to capitalize on it.

Yesterday, I got this email:

This Halloween, 3Wishes.com, the online retailer of sexy Halloween costumes has introduced the official Tiger King collection of costumes featuring unlikely pop-icon Joe Exotic as the star. The collection includes the Joe Exotic Men’s Tiger Cowboy Costume with a Blue tiger print sequin shirt, JoeExoticTV.com hat with attached mullet, and holster belt. There’s also the Joe Exotic Men’s Zookeeper Costume with a ‘Zookeeper’ shirt with tiger print “Joe Exotic” back, shorts, JoeExoticTV.com hat with attached mullet, and gun holster belt. There are also women’s versions available.

They’re a bit pricey — we’re talking $99 for the Joe Exotic costumes, and you’ll still have to provide your own “Goin’ to Tampa Gun”.

They’re a noticeable lack of Carole Baskin (I’ve suggested to Anitra that she should go as her), and you’d probably do better — and cheaper — by going to a thrift shop.

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It Happened to Me

This morning’s bike ride was cut short by…

Tap to view at full size.

…a well-placed wood screw. Thankfully, it happened only a mile away from home. Looks like I’ll be dropping by Two Broke Spokes for a new tube and tire.

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Accordion, Instrument of the Gods It Happened to Me

More blasts from the past

At the GIANT Conference, Charleston, South Carolina, 2015. Tap to view at full size.

While reorganizing my files, I found these photos of me with the accordion in various situations and decided to post them here, just for fun.

The one above is from the karaoke competition at the 2015 edition of the GIANT Conference, a great UX conference in Charleston. I’m doing Young MC’s Bust a Move, and won an Apple TV as a result. I still have it, too!

The photo below is from a party held at Social Game Universe’s offices on Toronto’s King Street West when I found a unicorn mask and decided to try it on:

At a party at Social Game Universe, Toronto, 2015. Tap to view at full size.

Here’s a couple of pictures from a 2004 meetup with technology journalists Amber Mac and Leo Laporte:

At at meetup with Amber Mac and Leo Laporte, “No Regrets” bistro, Toronto, 2004. Tap to view at full size.
At at meetup with Amber Mac and Leo Laporte, “No Regrets” bistro, Toronto, 2004. Tap to view at full size.

For a brief, shining moment, I was in an earlier version Lindi Ortega’s band:

Playing with Lindi Ortega at b-sides, Toronto, 2002.

These photos are from two DEF CON conferences, DEF CON 8 and DEF CON 9:

Bargaining with the Ferengi at Star Trek: The Experience, Las Vegas, 2001.
Hanging with Deth Veggie at the Cult of the Dead Cow suite, DEF CON 8, Alexis Park Hotel, Las Vegas, 2000.

These final photos are from Year One of the accordion — the year when I first took the accordion out into the world, yielding some surprising results:

Me, Alicia, and George getting a pic with Chef Masaharu Morimoto at his restaurant, Nobu, New York, 1999.
Me and Karl Mohr backing up John Southworth at his live performance at CBC radio, Toronto, 1999.
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It Happened to Me

I saw this at the drugstore, and I have questions

  1. Do people in the U.S., who are notorious for not being able to locate other countries on a map, know Switzerland is land-locked and therefore wouldn’t have a navy?
  2. Is it “military grade” lube? (And you know what “military grade” really means, right?)
  3. Would anyone think that just as Swiss Army knives are like the ones issued to Swiss soldiers, Swiss Navy lube would be like the goop issued to Switzerland’s — ahem — able seamen?
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It Happened to Me The Current Situation

Election “fun” fact: Nobody wearing Hillary Clinton merch has ever given me a hard time for not being white

Photo: Red cap with the words “Peepee Poopoo” embroidered on it.

However, a Trump/MAGA cap? Twice:

  1. The parking lot at the Publix at Dale Mabry and South Village, sometime around September/October 2016: I’m getting groceries at our then-regular grocery store (this is when we lived in Carrollwood) when a MAGA-capped guy in truck with Trump stickers throws an empty beer can at me, missing by a mile. “Go back to where you came from,” he yells, to which I reply “Learn to throw like a man!” as I pull out my phone. He drives off.
  2. Charlotte Douglas International airport, October 2016: I’m traveling to my new job at the company formerly known as SMARTRAC, and a guy in line at Carolina Pit BBQ in a MAGA cap yells something I can’t quite hear at me. I walk toward him, asking in my best radio voice, “Would you mind repeating that?” As I close in, it become apparent that I’m a head taller — he bought into the stereotype that Asian men are meek and short — and he starts high-tailing it in the opposite direction, presumably towards his gate. He loses his place in line, I take it, and enjoy some barbecue.

This sort of courage/cowardice is consistent with a couple of contradictory mindsets:

  1. The fascist mindset that the enemy is both very strong and very weak at the same time.
  2. The fact that for all their apparent brazen behavior, at their core, bullies are craven cowards.
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It Happened to Me

Blast from the past

I’m posting this circa 2008 photo for no other reason than my looking damned good in it.

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It Happened to Me Work

My online job interview style is unstoppable!

Photo: Joey deVilla at his home office among a couple of laptop computers, a podcasting microphone, and many screens.
Tap to see at full size.

I’ve been doing interviews with a number of companies in the quest for my next gig, and since we’re still in a pandemic, they’ve all been online. I’ve done enough of them to get to the point where I’ve figured a system and setup that works well for me. The photo above shows me, just after this afternoon’s interview, complete with handy annotations.

Here’s a quick run-down of the setup:

  • Primary laptop: The “Star Trek” screen, a.k.a. the one that the video chat lives on. It’s hooked up to two other monitors, where:
    • One is open to a Google doc containing questions that I want to ask.
    • The other is open to a Google doc of the research notes I wrote about the company interviewing me, their tech, their developer site, and their API. I actually found some typos in the docs and a bug in their sample code, and let them know about it.
  • Secondary laptop: This one displays notes about my experience, and the particular story that I want to tell to this prospective employer. In case you’re wondering, my current answer to “Tell me about yourself” is something along the lines of “I’m equal parts Tony Stark, Alton Brown, and Weird Al.”
  • Backup laptop: In case some technical issue with the videochat arises on the primary laptop, I switch to the backup laptop. I could switch to the secondary laptop for the video chat, but using that means that I lose a key screen of notes, and I don’t want to throw off my carefully orchestrated set of information that I can get at a glance.
  • Jupyter Notebook loaded on all laptops: If I have to demonstrate working code, Jupyter Notebooks let me do it easily, and with Markdown annotations, too!
  • Funky shirt and “Zoom mullet”: Gotta look good.
  • Podcasting microphone: And sound good, too. I have a “radio voice” — might as well let ’em hear it.
  • Not in the photo, but within arm’s reach:

    • A whiteboard (and dry-erase markers in many colors), because sometimes it helps to draw a picture, and
    • the accordion. I have a rep to maintain.

I’ll let you know what happened as soon as I find out.