We're just a few weeks away from Christmas now, so I think it's OK to start talking about it, start the decorating and holiday music. We are within the acceptable Christmas window now, which is decidedly shorter than what retailers are pushing. So as we approach the festive holiday, I was thinking of Santa, that incredibly fun part of the Christmas tradition for me growing up. And today in the office we got to talking about the sort of things our parents did (or what some folks wh...
If you're anything like me, you have a less than perfect memory, and it only gets worse when you are faced with a barrage of things to do, fix, test, submit etc. The problem is, it really turns into a self-sustaining issue because the more you get tossed at you, the more you can forget to end up doing. The result? A very long day, many hours worked, but then as soon as you get home you realize that you actually forgot to do a whole bunch of stuff so you end up working for anoth...
Well, tonight’s the night. In just a few hours the calendar here turns over to a new year, 2007. So here I sit, looking back at the year that was and marvel at the good fortune I’ve had these past twelve months. 2006 was overall a very good year for me as I was afforded great opportunities, and was able to share in some great moments in the lives of my friends. While it was a hectic, busy and stressful year from start to finish, I don’t think I’d trade a single second of it consideri...
A lot of people have been hearing in the news lately about the potential NWA Flight Attendant Union strike. The issue is over a new contract that the airline is putting forward that forces concessions on the workers, again. It's a raw deal for the workers in an industry that has been seeing benefits and pay cut after cut. Airlines have mismanaged themselves into a corner and are now taking it out on their rank and file workers instead of making adequate cuts at the top in line with what they'...
Ok, so it turns out that I've been tagged to do this embarassment meme. These things are the equivalent blog equivalent of the "send this email on to 5 other people..." chain emails/letters... they never go away! Well, without further delay, here are my 5 most embarassing childhood moments: 1. In first or second grade, a friend and I had a very complex plan for a fort were going to build in his back yard over the upcoming summer. It involved digging, building structures, very high-te...
Yes, that's right, I managed to bribe, borrow and steal my way into employment with Stardock! Several months back I started chatting up a few people about potential openings when I realized it was time to move on from my current employer. Recently, they started to open up hiring (https://www.stardock.com/jobs.asp) and I tossed my resume and cover letter into the hat (Cordelia helped a LOT with the cover letter!) And just recently went out for an interview and subsequently was offered a jo...
I'm back from Pennsylvania. I took 5 days off work, edged by a long weekend and went home to Central PA. The purpose of my visit was for a wedding. Two of my High School friends (Heather & John) got married on Saturday, June 4th. While that was the reason to travel back, it wasn't all I ended up doing. Sunday: -Got up at an unholy hour and was on the road by 7:30am. Got to State College around 12:30. If I hadn't stopped for gas and gotten lunch I could have tied my travel record of ...
On Monday, I turn 23. Nothing special about the age really, I've passed most of the big milestones for age already (16 - Driving, 18 - Porn, Smoking and Voting, 21 - Drinking) so there isn't some new doorway being opened to me like before. At 25 I'll get cheaper car insurance and be able to rent a car, and at 35 I can run for President of the United States. One isn't that exciting, the other not really a possibility. I'm not one to celebrate birthdays really, I typically like to let the...
Abel Tasman Natl. Park In 13 days I'll be 23. I have a college degree, no debt, no wife (or girlfriend), no kids, nothing tieing me down. I'm at a point in life where I can pick up and go somewhere else if the mood takes me. I just have to find a new job wherever I go, a minor detail in the grand scheme of things really. So with all of that in mind, I figured why not try living outside the United States for a few...
Ok, it's Monday, the week of Thanksgiving and there's no one in the office today to speak of. All the managers for our department are either on vacation all week or "working from home". It's just me, 3 new hires and 3 consultants, all of us largely twiddling our thumbs. I finished my work for the month last week (a database tool), so all I have today is a brief review of it with one of the consultants, and that's it. I've done up the documentation, I've done all the testing I can come u...
Note: I wrote this in a notebook while sitting in a hotel room in Rochester, IN this past Friday (6/25) after having driven 9hrs from central PA for a job interview. Some of the questions have been resolved/decided on since I wrote this and made another 9hr drive back home on Saturday. Today, I felt inspired by TV... yes, me, the guy who watches TV perhaps 4hrs a week. I don't mean one of those life-changing inspirational moments, and the line itself wasn't even all that stellar or or...
This is a sort of follow-up to my previous article asking for help in how to land a job as a fresh college graduate. The consensus was that I needed to either develop a very specific set of skills or try to get in with a smaller company as a generalist and work my way up. At this point in time I'm realizing that I can't really afford to spend the next several months not really making money while I try and train myself into a more focused job candidate, so I'm looking to take the second path of...