The Senators lost with a goal scored by New Jersey in the final three minutes. The Sens put up a brilliant fight, coming back from a deficit after the second period to make the score 2 all. The Ottawa fans continued to show their love of their team long after the game ended. Good job to the Senators, they deserved to get this far and they put up a long battle to stay in the race. Best of luck to New Jersey, I’d hate to see Anaheim win.

I had an interview today. I was called for it yesterday in the middle of the afternoon. It was for a company I didn’t remember applying to, though it all came clear when I got there today. The company is located out in the east end, across from the Science Centre. I opted to drive because I couldn’t be sure how reliable the transit would be. The drive took less than half an hour, but the confusion over parking took nearly as long and I ended up arriving with less time to spare than I would have liked.

The location for the interview was creepy. Let me translate some notes I made about it while I was waiting in the interview room. Maybe I’ll write more and turn this into an image poem. Anyway:

A suburban expanse; sanitary and lifeless, a lone smoker outside on an empty plateau of pavement. Half deserted office buildings – glass and concrete, asphalt and eerie grey textures. Post modern pink tones fail to warm up the broad expanse of empty space. It is claustrophobic. Like a video game; at any moment some one will step around a corner and shoot me.

I quickly realised, while waiting with several others, this was going to be a group interview. I’ve never experienced one before, but it was as bad as I imagined. Talk about an antiseptic way to handle an interview. Dixon, our ‘interviewer’ was African* and pretty humourous but the only purpose he actually served was to give us a spiel about the company, which doesn’t sound like a bad place to work for, despite appearances. Rather than asking us questions, we filled out pieces of paper that we had to supply with answers to the vague questions listed on a page given to us. We had a chance to ask some questions, briefly, and then it was, “You’ll hear back about a second interview in two business days, Monday excluded as it’s Memorial Day. Good luck.” So, I’ll hear on Wednesday.

Frankly, the company could have saved us and themselves time and effort had they just screened the resumes more carefully and simply invited the chosen few for a normal, one-on-one interview. This cattle call process was degrading.

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*Why is it that all the African men I’ve met have given names like Dixon, Franklin, Lawrence, and Cameron? They -must- change them, right? I just find it kind of strange. Sure, ignorant white folk might have trouble pronouncing names like N’Doch and Mwaka, but African names are so beautiful ! Why would you choose a name like Franklin over Babtunde?