] My arrival in Atlanta lacked appropriate fanfare. No ] winsome blond belle greeted my plane, delicately boned ] hand upturned and cupping a gently ripened peach. I ] noticed the distinct absence of a military band playing a ] rousing rendition of "Dixie" in time with my heavy ] footfalls. Nowhere in sight was a swarthy limo driver in ] a fedora clutching a sign to his chest scrawled with my ] name. In fact, there was nothing at all to indicate that ] Atlanta was even remotely aware of my arrival. This was ] disappointing, as it's not every day that the City of a ] Hundred Hills welcomes a man of my stature. Twenty-five, ] overweight, unemployed and recently "relocated" to my ] parents' house in New Jersey, I am truly a man in full. ] Rather, I am a man fully in need of a job, which is why I ] was in Atlanta. Many moons had passed since I last set ] foot in an office, several more since I last received a ] legitimate paycheck. After a few months spent ferrying ] back and forth by bus across the toxic swamps of New ] Jersey and into Manhattan to search for something, ] anything, while my enthusiasm waned, I had a break. The ] break came in the form of an interview with the sales ] team of a well-regarded consulting firm in Atlanta. In ] retrospect, I should have stayed home and burned myself. ] It would have been less painful, and left me with ] arguably more attractive scars. But after all Salon.com Technology | The chicken show |