I was supposed to have my first post-college graduation interview today and it went … , well, it actually didn’t go at all. I walked out completely disappointed and angry and feeling scammed.

A few weeks ago I applied for a job with the City of St. Petersburg — I won’t say which job because I don’t want the competition — and was delighted when I got a call a couple days ago to schedule an interview with someone I thought was the City of St. Petersburg. How could I have been mistaken, you ask? See the exchange below:

Stephanie: “I’m calling about a position we have available. Are you still looking for a position?”

Ben: “Weellllll, yyyess …” I said non-commitally. (At this point she hasn’t told me where she is calling from. I get a lot of job offers to sell pest control services, cars and, ironically, insurance, and I suspected it was that type of call).

Stephanie: “You don’t sound too sure about that.”

Ben: “Well I am looking, but I just graduated from college on Saturday so I haven’t really done a big search yet. Plus, I don’t even know where you are calling from.” (Here was the point at which a person with less underhanded leanings would have given me a company name, etc. Keep reading to see where the confusion lies.)

Stephanie: “I’m calling from St. Petersburg.”

Ben: “You mean the City of St. Petersburg?”

Stephanie: “Yes

I realize that Stephanie had no way of knowing I had applied for a job with the City of St. Petersburg. She just got lucky that I was actually hoping to hear from someone who was calling from St. Petersburg — not the City, but the city — you know what I mean. So you can understand my confusion today when I couldn’t find the place she sent me to — I was, after all, looking for an office of — that’s right — St. Petersburg. After driving up and down Seminole Blvd. (within city limits according to Mapquest, but still: why would St. Petersburg have an office way out there? Not a giveaway, but certainly a red flag that was on my mind ever since Stephanie, if that is her real name, gave me the address), I finally found the place and … Damn! It belongs to United American Insurance Company (see above sentence regarding irony).

In my disbelief I actually parked and went in. A quick visual scan of the place confirmed that I definitely was not interviewing for the job I thought I was interviewing for. It was a small room with eight to 10 cubicles filed with a few young dudes in suits. One guy was asking another guy, who was obviously his superior, about a problem with a customer’s policy (there may be problems for more than just one customer, as it turns out). I caught an unpleasant-smelling breeze from what I think was most likely a revolving door.

I asked and the woman at the desk by the front door said she was Stephanie. After getting my name she said she had some paperwork for me to fill out. I asked if it is for an insurance sales job and she confirmed that, yes, it is to sell insurance.

“Then don’t bother, I’m not interested.”

She asked me if I wanted Stephanie to take my name off the list (she lacks a firm grasp on the obvious, that one). I started to say “Aren’t you Stephanie?” but then decided I just wanted to get out of there so I gave her a disgusted “Yes, please do” and walked out.

I could have said it much nicer over the phone a few days ago, had I been given the chance.

Back to the drawing board. Or the Monster job boards, anyway.

(Ben Fry just graduated from USF-St. Pete and completed an internship at Creative Loafing.)

Lately, as I’ve been flipping through stations on the radio, I’ve heard a lot of songs by bands that I enjoyed as a teenager playing on classic rock station 102.5 The Bone.

“Come on, I’m only 31! This can’t be considered classic rock,” I plead to the stifling air in the car’s cabin the first time I heard The Bone play a Metallica tune.

That’s only how it started. Metallica? OK, I guess. I mean, they’ve been together since the early ’80s and burst onto the scene in ‘83 with Kill Em’ All. I guess a band that’s been around that long could be considered a “classic.” After all, it was 25 years ago. (Hard to believe, right?)

But then I was even more alarmed when I started hearing bands from the ’90s being passed off as classic rock: Stone Temple Pilots, Nirvana, and Pearl Jam, among others. I was so freaked out I almost stopped listening to the radio. But then I realized I would be listening to those same bands on CD (in my car) or on tape (at home; yes, I still have a tape collection for some reason), and it was too late to stop the “am-I-really-getting- old-enough-for-this-to-happen-to-me?” question from entering my head.

Don’t get me wrong, I like a lot of new music, and am definitely not stuck in the ’90s, but these bands were around during my coming-of-age, and so they have a special place in my life. I grew up with them, and it doesn’t seem that long ago that I was barely done growing up.

It’s just that I can’t be old enough to have listened to “classics” that were new while I was in high school.

I discussed this with a good friend of about the same age a couple weeks ago on the golf course. He agreed that it was really weird hearing these bands on the radio, being passed off as classic rock when it wasn’t that long ago that they came out.

How can this be? Do we really get old so fast? I catch myself (and cringe) when I talk about the (good old?) days when gas was around $1-a-gallon. I can remember the only slightly-annoyed sighs from people when gas would rise just over that $1-a-gallon mark.

I stopped myself recently from mentioning to someone younger than me that I used to pay $1.35 (!) a pack for Camel Lights (close to $4 a pack now). I can remember a time when the Internet was unheard of; when it was more the stuff of science-fiction that technically exists but not a part of everyday existence. I can remember my parents listening to records, actual vinyl records, when I was younger. I remember freaking 8-track tapes in the drawers of the desk in our living room.

I remember looking through my dad’s junk box as a kid, checking out his high school-era mementos and feeling like I was looking at ancient artifacts, joking that he was older than dirt, etc. He was about the same age then that I am now. Sorry dad.

At least I’m still young enough for this to freak me out, so I guess it’s not too bad. Someday I’ll be so accustomed to this sort of thing that it won’t even bother me anymore. I’ll unabashedly tell younger people “when I was your age” stories. I’ll probably tell them things like, “I remember a time when Delta didn’t even fly to the moon,” or “I remember when you needed an actual piece of computer equipment to surf the web,” or “Used to be an ID was a card with your photo on it and not something embedded in your wrist.”

And by then I’m sure I’ll be cranking Nirvana on the full-fledged “Golden Oldies” stations.

The Web site sleepinginairports.com rates airports based on user ratings of how good they are to sleep in. TIA got a rating of 2 out of 3, which is in the “You can do it! Maybe…” category.

User postings detail experiences sleeping at TIA, along with advice on the best place to crash for the night.

“The level connecting to the airsides, 3 i think, is the best level to sleep on – it’s pretty dark by the Marriott , dark enough to sleep, and it’s away from the exit, so if any riffraff were to come into the port, they’d be spotted before they got to you,” posted one unnamed user.

Other postings offered their own advice on the best places to sleep as well as where to find food around the airport.

“My home airport, Tampa is quiet later at night and the workers in the airport are very nice. … I highly recommend it,” wrote one user.

There was no review for St. Pete/Clearwater International, but Orlando International got a perfect 3 out of 3 score.

“I have slept at Orlando International so many times in recent years that I now don’t even consider getting a hotel if I will only be in town for one night,” wrote user Tom Kerrigan.

Sleeping in the airport is never fun, but if you have to, now you can know what you will be dealing with in advance.

“Desk rage”, as it is now known, is getting worse due to outside pressures like high gas prices, the recessing economy and a shaky job market. Thankfully, most of the anger issues don’t result in workplace shootings (although, just wait, now that we’re able to keep guns in our cars at work), as much as property damage, arguments, verbal abuse and lots and lots of stress.

Even staffers here at CL aren’t immune, as evidenced by our own political editor Wayne Garcia threatening associate editor Joe Bardi a couple days ago because of the extra work due to Bardi’s vacation.

“(Y)ou better believe I am taking it out on Joe’s ass when he returns,” Garcia wrote.

“Jesus, now I’m never coming back,” Bardi replied.

No word yet on whether CL’s HR department will require Garcia to attend anger management classes or whether Bardi will actually return next week.

(photo by phwadsworth)

According to the NICB, the 1995 Honda Civic (right) was the most stolen car of 2007, maintaining that distinction for the past four years. I drive a ’98 Civic and I’m lucky my car hasn’t been stolen (yet), despite it getting older, uglier and more dented by the day.

All this time I thought driving an ugly old car was a good preventative against it being stolen.

However, many thieves steal certain cars for their parts rather than their bling factor. Cars that have long-term reliability (like Hondas), as well as cars with several-year streaks without a major redesign, can be valuable because their components last a long time and can be interchangeable between model-years.

Other old cars on the list are the 1991 Honda Accord (No. 2), and the 1988 Toyota pickup truck (No. 9).

Having your car stolen sucks. This is a real-life issue to me for a few reasons, other than the aforementioned fact that I drive a Civic not much newer than number one on the list (and I drove a ’90 Accord that was stolen back in ’99 or so).

For one, I lived in South St. Pete for two years and there were many auto thefts and break-ins at my old condo building, including my girlfriend’s Jeep Liberty last summer. I got to experience the process — by proxy — watching her deal with it. It was a costly and aggravating process. She had to pay a $500 deductible for the experience, and as far as we know the police never caught the thieves.

She kept a close eye on her new Scion xD once she brought it home in February. We felt helpless knowing that a good thief could take it in minutes and there was little we could do about it.

I actually watched thieves steal a Chrysler 300C right in front of me two months ago while I was having a smoke on my patio. The thieves saw me, as well as a woman who was walking her dog not 20 feet away, watching them as they stole it. They were fast; by the time I realized I was watching a car get jacked, they were speeding off in it.

Then they brazenly came back about 20 minutes later to get another car while I was waiting for the police to show up. They drove right past me, and when I tried to get their license plate number they split. (The police officer told me the description of the truck they were driving was an exact match with one stolen the night before.)

The officer who took the police report on the stolen 300C told me the best thing to do to prevent a theft is to get the Club. It’s not foolproof, but most thieves will pass up a car with this device for one without it. Even alarms aren’t as effective because the pros know how to get around them (my girlfriend’s Jeep had one), although they must be effective to a point: Nothing is more irritating than a car alarm blaring on and on unattended for hours on end.

You can also install fuel pump kill switches that can immobilize the car if necessary. and if you’ve got the money you can get LoJack installed, which will track your vehicle and lead the police right to it. LoJack would be the way to go for the satisfaction factor — knowing the perps could be caught still in the car.

But the most obvious thing to do to protect yourself is to take the keys and lock your car. This seems like a no-brainer, but people forget. Leaving your keys in your car is an invitation to steal it.

Another factor, however, is where you live. Some areas have a higher rate of car thefts than others. You can check the crime rates in an area by clicking here, looking at this slide show, checking with these folks, or even calling local law enforcement officials.

I may have to invest in a Club now that I know thieves won’t necessarily pass a car up just because it doesn’t look that good anymore. This whole time I thought I was safe. It turns out I was just lucky.

(photo by Gh0stman)

This strategy has been implemented by numerous companies, including UPS, FedEX and Home Depot. UPS’s routing software, also used by Home Depot, plans routes for drivers that minimize the number of left turns a driver makes. This measure reduces idling time if drivers have to wait to make the turn. While left turns cannot be completely eliminated, left-turn reductions have reportedly saved UPS over 28.5 million miles of travel, which in turn resulted in over three million gallons of fuel and shaved carbon emissions by 31,000 metric tons.

Many companies with freight-shipping operations are changing routes and shipping methods in order to reduce transportation costs. These are necessary strategies that make shipping operations more efficient and prevent excess costs from being passed onto consumers. For now, at least.

While I’m on the subject of reducing fuel usage (and all other carbon- and financially-related things that go along with it), there are plenty of good resources out there to help you find ways to cut back on fuel use. Check out this one, this one, and this one here.

Many of the recommended fuel-saving ideas are no-brainers and simply things we should be doing anyway, like checking tire pressure and skipping the air-conditioning when traveling at low speeds.

However, some are much harder to implement. I don’t personally like the idea of driving at the speed limit when on the interstate, but with the extra fuel costs associated with my 85-mile-per-hour habit, I may have to rehab my driving habits.

I will, however, continue to turn left when I need to. For now, anyway.

(photo by Claudecf)

I started by calling Bright House Networks first, only because it was at the top of the list of customer service phone numbers I compiled a few days ago. The process of scheduling a technician to come out early next week to plug me into the World Wide Web and my digital cable only took about 10 minutes. Sweet. Moving on.

Next up, I called Progress Energy Florida. That call started out fine but ended really weird.

After going through the menu options to ensure that my call was transferred to the proper department, I placed the order with Kyle (a real person as far as could tell). Kyle took only a few minutes to set up the order and then he transferred me to Allconnect, a trusted Progress Energy partner, to confirm and complete my order.

Instead of speaking to an actual person, as I was foolishly expecting, I was assisted by a computer cleverly disguised as a real man who went over my order with me and took down my email address to send my confirmation number and some “valuable” coupons.

I was struck by how life-like he (it??) seemed. It was like talking to a real person who wasn’t reading from a script. It’s a very sophisticated system.

When I gave him (it) my email address I didn’t spell it out as instructed, but first spoke it out of habit. Nonetheless, he (it) got it right the first time. He (it) actually spelled it correctly when he (it) read it back to me, which was impressive because I have an underscore in my email address and when I give it to an actual person I usually have to explain what an underscore is and how to make one using a keyboard. This fellow (thing) was on top of it, which is more impressive from a voice-recognition aspect than a keyboard-using aspect since he (it) is a computer and likely has a keyboard as a part of his (its) body (plus, I heard typing as I was talking to him/it).

Then things got awkward.

After the business of confirming the transfer of my power service was completed he (it) asked if I wanted to go ahead and take care of getting my cable and phone service ordered. I told him (it) I wasn’t interested.

He (it) paused, and in a barely-concealed dejected tone, asked me why I wasn’t interested.

I told him (it) I don’t need phone service because I only use a cell phone and I had already called and placed an order to transfer my cable service.

He (it) tried again to convince me that he (it) would love to help me get my additional services connected, and all in one phone call at that.

I told him (it) again I was good. I had already called for what I needed transferred and wasn’t interested in obtaining any services I didn’t already have. I was about to explain that I got rid of my land-based phone service a couple years ago because it was costing me money I could no longer justify spending for an inferior service I never used. Now I only use a cell phone.

Then it hit me that I was talking to a damn computer. He (it) was so lifelike I didn’t initially realize I could hang up on him (it) and not feel like a rude prick. But the weird thing was that even after I realized this I still didn’t hang up.

After his (its) last feeble effort to help me with some additional services, he (it) ended the call by telling me to have a nice day.

“You too, man,” I replied before I could even stop myself.

Then I hung up feeling a little disturbed … and stupid.

The FCX Clarity mixes hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity to power an electric motor, which drives the wheels. The only exhaust it emits is water and heat.

Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the known universe, constituting around 75 percent of the universe’s elemental mass. In addition it also has a higher energy content per weight than any other fuel. Considered an energy carrier (like electricity), as opposed to an energy source (like gasoline), hydrogen can be added to other fuels or burned by itself.

The car gets the equivalent of 74 miles-per-gallon and can go around 300 miles on a tank. It has a top speed of about 100 miles-per-hour.

For now, the FCX Clarity is only being released in what’s-green-is-chic Southern California because there are hydrogen-fueling stations in the area necessary to keep it on the road. Honda received more than 50,000 lease applications but was limited to approving only those applicants who lived near one of three hydrogen refilling stations in SoCal.

While hydrogen is remarkably cleaner and more efficient than fossil fuels, an obstacle in the way of widespread hydrogen cell vehicles is actually making hydrogen fuel, a process which often produces the same greenhouse gases hydrogen-driven motors are designed to replace. Scientists are working on ways to use wind and solar power to make hydrogen fuel.

Another obstacle for hydrogen stems from the memory of the ill-fated “Hindenburg” — that hydrogen is volatile and dangerous. If we can use modern technology to control nuclear power, however, we would surely have no problem controlling hydrogen cell motors.

It will be interesting to see how this technology and other fuel technologies develop over the next few years as fossil fuels become more scarce (and expensive) and the oil-producing parts of the world become more volatile. Several other automobile manufacturers are working on releasing hydrogen-powered vehicles.

Honda is planning to have a few dozen FCX Clarity vehicles available for consumers this year and 200 available within three years. Three year leases will run about $600 a month.

(photo by BBQ Junkie)

The shortage of trees in the bay area got a little shorter recently when former Tampa Bay Buccaneer/Cleveland Browns/Baltimore Ravens/New York Jets/Dallas Cowboys/New England Patriots/Carolina Panthers quarterback Vinny Testaverde cut down a few on his new lakefront Odessa property.

By a few I mean around 40 or so (not Vinny’s ex-trees pictured at left; the actual trees are now appearing in a mulch bag in a Lowe’s near you). They could have filmed an episode of Ax Men at his house. Sheesh, Vinny, why so many? There are people around here that would freakin’ kill for that many trees on their property.

The Hillsborough Environmental Protection Commission came to the rescue and cited him for cutting down the cypress trees because they were in a protected wetland area. Testaverde said he didn’t realize it was a big problem. He apparently had a landscaping company cut the trees down and they never said anything about it being illegal.

“You’ve got to rely on the advice of these people. Whoever cut down the trees didn’t do a very good job of informing him,” Clayton Studstill, Testaverde’s attorney, told the Tampa Tribune. (We did not make up his attorney’s name, we swear. Studstill.)

OK, getting bad landscaping advice is understandable. It’s puzzling that he would want to de-tree his property to any extent, but I guess I can believe he didn’t realize he was doing something illegal. And putting aside any environmental implications caused to the waterway next to his house, or any possible deed-restrictions he may have violated, or the pissing-off of his new neighbors, it is his place after all. He should be able to cut down any trees not located in a protected wetland area of his property.

As punishment, the EPC ordered Testaverde to plant 40 15-gallon cypress trees on the property within 30 days and make sure they all survive for one year. Testaverde didn’t want to replace all the trees, so the EPC caved and said he could plant 20 30-gallon trees instead, along with some herbaceous plants along the shoreline.

If he doesn’t like that, the EPC will probably let him plant a single 600-gallon tree, only mow the lawn every third week, and do the edging only in a month that ends in a ‘y’ or a consonant.

That’s wetlands mitigation for you. You know what they say, it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.

It will probably be a few years before Testaverde’s new trees mature enough for the property to be returned to its previous ecological state. Understandably, Testaverde’s neighbors aren’t happy about the whole mess.

I wouldn’t eat any of that house-warming pie, Vinny.

photo by saveena(AKA LHDugger)

The website Walkscore.com lets you input an address and calculate a score for a neighborhood based on how close it is to grocery stores, restaurants, entertainment, schools, parks and a host of other amenities. The results are listed under their respective categories on the left side of the screen along with their distance in miles. Scores range from zero (Driving only — you can only walk to your car) to 100 (”Walker’s Paradise”).

Click on an entry and it will show you where it is located on the (Google) map, as well as provide a bubble complete with an address, phone number and a clickable link to a Google search of that entry.

Walkscore.com is especially helpful if you are moving to a new neighborhood because it helps to know the likelihood of being able to leave the gas-guzzler (aren’t they all nowadays?) at home and walk.

My own Pinellas Point neighborhood got a meager score of 51, which means that some places are close by, but a car or public transportation is still required for most trips. I could easily walk down the street to a restaurant or a drugstore, but if I was feeling picky I would need the car.

On the upside I did discover a number of restaurants in my area I didn’t know of that are within easy walking or biking distance. On the downside, plenty of the listings were for places in downtown St. Petersburg, about seven miles away, that may be within walking distance by European standards but that I wouldn’t walk to myself often.

Another major drawback, and a factor that could seriously affect walkability, is that the ratings don’t take crime statistics into account when factoring the scores. The site searches under plenty of relevant categories that would be moot if the neighborhood isn’t safe enough to walk around in.

With gas prices on the rise, however, it certainly helps to know if your new neighborhood is walkable.

(photo by alexandralee).