Matthew Botos

1. Corporate America doesn’t care how smart you are. A wise man once told me your first degree might get you in the door, but after that it’s all about what you do in the workplace. And the best thing you can do is network with the right people, maintain upward momentum, and if at all possible, avoid doing any real work. Unfortunately, there’s little glory or reward for the technical experts who really make things work and bring in the dollars that the CEOs brag about on their new yachts.

2. You should’ve found your soul mate already. The dating scene changes dramatically after college; no longer are you surrounded by people your age and intelligence. People are tougher to find, much less idealistic, and many are already married or in long term relationships.

3. You never stop learning. The technical world moves so fast that almost anything practical you learned is outdated before the ink is dry on your diploma. Many work in fields only loosely-coupled to their studies, and being successful often means learning a good bit about related disciplines. One caveat is to avoid letting yourself become spread too thin; another piece of good advice I’ve heard is to be knowledgeable about all areas and an expert in one.

I closed last year’s blog about turning 28 with this: “Hopefully at 29 I�ll be able to say my wisdom has climbed another minute notch.” That prophecy has been fulfilled; in the last year I’ve gained a better grasp on the realities of my life and the wisdom that comes with that. As always, it seems that everything big in my life these days comes down to dating and work.

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Talking with my brother and his friends during Birthdays in Blacksburg made me realize radio is quickly getting killed off by multiple assailants. For me, it’s an iPod full of music, for others, it’s the falling price and expanding options for satellite radio.

That said, I still do tune into regular old terrestrial radio occasionally, particularly for a bit of variety during long drives. It’s still good for discovering new, and surprisingly appropriate music.

While driving back from Virginia and idly thinking about my dating situation, I heard Fountain of Wayne’s Someone To Love, which I later tracked down using Google and iTunes. The lyrics handily explain why I seem to have so much trouble meeting people:

He calls his mom, says he's doing fine
She's got somebody on the other line
Puts Coldplay on, pours a glass of wine
Curls up with a book about organized crime

Beth McKenzie got the job of her dreams
Retouching photos for a magazine aimed at teens
It's Thursday night she should be out on the scene
But she's sitting at home watching "The King of Queens" 

Don't give out, don't give up
One of these nights you might find someone to love

And you're not the only one who's lonely

My brother Dave and I were born two years and one day apart, so this year we spent our birthdays together at his home near Blacksburg, Virginia. Along the way, I stopped to see a new addition to the Air and Space Musuem. For my birthday, we went for a bike ride along Poverty Creek near Pandapas Pond. On Dave’s birthday, his wife Paula put together a great party with Mexican food and plenty of friends from the area. The cake was a bullseye for both Dave’s gun hobby and my taste for chocolate, though we had to work to keep their three cats from taking a bite!

View the Birthdays in Blacksburg photos

On the way to visit Dave and Paula for Birthdays in Blacksburg, I stopped at the Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles Airport. This annex of the Smithsonian’s Air and Space museum houses the many aircraft that wouldn’t fit downtown, and offers an observation tower to watch takeoffs and landings at Dulles.

I labeled most of those I photographed; you can find more detail on each on the comprehensive list of aircraft on display. The dim lighting is dramatic, but made photographs difficult, as did forgetting to charge my spare battery! With the camera dead, though, I was free to enjoy just looking at the SR-71 Blackbird, vertical takeoff Joint Strike Fighter, Space Shuttle Enterprise, and many more.

View the Air and Space Museum photos

I heard Tone Loc’s Funky Cold Medina on the radio this morning and got to thinking about how much the quality of music has changed. Chasing women and alcohol are eternal themes, but there’s an ocean of difference between Funky Cold Medina and T-Pain’s current hit Buy You a Drank. For one, the latter doesn’t even attempt to form complete sentences:

Imma Buy You A Drank
Theen Imma Take You Home With Me
I Got Money In The Bank
Shawty Whachu Think Bout That
Find Me In The Grey Cadillac
We In The Bed Like
Ooh Ooh Ohh, Ooh Ooh
We In The Bed Like
Ooh Ooh Ooh, Ooh Ooh

Compare that with this old-school prose:

this brother told me a secret
on how to get more chicks
put a little medina in your glass
and the girls'll come real quick
it's better than any alcohol
or afrodesiac
a couple of sips of this love potion and she'll be on your lap

As my college roommate Aaron would say, “It’s from a time when music actually told a story.” Sometimes, I miss those days…

I just finished reading Freakonomics, which includes a brief section on how truthfully people represent themselves and make decisions in the online dating world. Like any good researchers, the authors cite their source, a paper that is readily available online. What Makes You Click: An Empirical Analysis of Online Dating is a fully-blown academic paper, but there are some interesting facts to be gleaned from skimming it.

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As a mechanically-inclined rider, I sometimes feel guilty taking my bike to the shop for things I could probably do myself. But when it comes to more complicated systems like hydraulic disc brakes, the guys at Bikesport really shine. Though it took three weeks and endless parts orders and brake bleeds, they finally got it working again. In the meantime, they fitted my bike with a spare brake so I could ride. And was all was said and done, I only paid for a fraction of the work since it took so long.

In an era when many big businesses could seem to care less if you stay a customer, it’s nice to do business with a place that really wants to keep you coming back.

Comcast and Verizon like to debate the technical merits of their broadband Internet services, but even as a geek, I don’t care anymore. Internet access is a commodity, and the lowest price wins. Unfortunately, the virtual duopoly local phone and cable companies enjoy, there’s little real competition on price.

I called Verizon yesterday to see if I could get a better deal on my current DSL in light of a discounted offer from Comcast. I found out that they had already raised prices and only way to get a deal was to add an unnecessary phone line with more hidden fees than the line itself would cost. (The fact that I also pay them a bunch of money for my cellphone apparently counts for nothing.)

Comcast, meanwhile, continues to raise prices at a good margin over the inflation rate. They claim to be giving you more bandwidth than before, though they’re really just activating dormant capacity they’ve always had.

With promotions, I’ve flip-flopped several times to save a few bucks, but termination fees and time spent reconfiguring quickly erode the savings. In summary, I don’t think there are any good deals out there and like any addict I’ll just have to suck it up and pay what the dealer wants.

The annual golf scramble at work brought out a few expert golfers, many more casual ones, and even a few first timers like myself. Thankfully, I had Jerry, Keith, and Carly to carry the team, leaving me free to concentrate on getting the occasional decent shot and pinging a few obstacles. We made full use of the cupholders on the carts, and caught sight of several other foursomes along the way. Thanks to Franny, Steve, and Keith for organizing a great day!

Photographically, it was also an excellent day. Overcast skies meant few shadows and just a bit of contrast correction afterwards. Playing in the shadow of Limerick Nuclear Power Plant at Linfield provided a dramatic backdrop, and the course does have some nice scenery. Best of all, I managed to get people in most of my shots for a change!

View the Golf Scramble photos