Lots of stuff for you all to talk about today. I’m going to SoonerCon this weekend. I can’t go to Comic Con in San Diego this year, although SoonerSon is going. SoonerDaughter is working a summer job at the NATO School at Oberammergau, Germany, and living with her aunt. I haven’t been posting for the simple reason that I haven’t really had anything to say.
We haven’t had a jobs thread in a long time, so let’s also do one of those. If you need work, let us know your region and skillset. If you know of openings, let us know that. You never know, you might find your dream job or dream employee. And as always, the US Government is hiring thousands of people in thousands of career fields all the time.
UPDATE: OK GOP Primary candidate refuses to concede to Congressman Frank Lucas (R) because he believes that Congressman Lucas has been dead for two years and that apparently the DoD replaced him with a clone or surgically altered double. I SHIT YOU NOT.
WaterGirl
There seem to be tons of IT jobs at the University of Illinois, if you are interested in living in Champaign-Urbana. I don’t have a specific link to a specific job, but I have seen tons of announcements for IT positions lately over email, and I just googled and found this as a starting point: https://jobs.illinois.edu
beth
I’ve had workmen at my house for the last few days and I just came home for the afternoon to find that they’re listening to talk radio – loudly. Do I sit here and try and tune it out or should I say something? They’ll only be here for a few more hours and I don’t want them to screw up my painting and repairs. What would you do?
WaterGirl
@beth: It may be that they play it loudly when you’re not home and now that you are home, someone may think to turn it down. Eventually.
I suggest you put on your own music, which might provide a clue to them without any risk of offense.
schrodinger's cat
Soonergrunt@top
I need advice. I am looking for a new laptop. I really like my old Inspiron 700m which I spruced up by adding more memory and changing the harddrive. Do you know what would be a good substitute about the same size/weight and capabilities. $500 is my upper limit. Of course cheaper is better1
Wally Ballou
Venus falls to Petra Kvitova after a very well-played match in Wimbledon. Outstanding serving from both women.
mdblanche
This has to be the most awkward thing I have ever watched.
raven
I’m waiting for my audiologist appointment with the VA. So far my lab work and initial MD appointment were pretty quick. I applied for a hearing disability but have no idea how that will go.
Higgs Boson's Mate
All right, I know it’s close to nutpicking, but…
GOP Candidate Charges Opponent Is Dead, Represented By A Body Double (Warning; HuffPo link)
Peak wingnut? You wish.
the Conster
So, are all crazy people Republicans, or are all Republicans crazy?
2liberal
my company, Insight.com is an IT reseller and is hiring nationwide with over 100 job titles open, many with positions in multiple cities. Some jobs can be home-based. Corporate HQ is in Tempe, AZ and Chicago is another major location.
https://jobs.insight.com/jobs/?p=1
or maybe:
http://jobs.insight.com/jobs/?p=1
raven
@schrodinger’s cat: I find cnet’s reviews to be pretty good. See what works for you and then check the Amazon reviews for the same machine and see how it looks.
catclub
@mdblanche: Mitch McConnell was NOT singing.
raven
@raven: And then I look and see they have a MacBook Air listed at $14.99 and you have to click it to find out it’s a case.
raven
@raven: And then I look and see they have a MacBook Air listed at $14.99 and you have to click it to find out it’s a case.
Soonergrunt
@schrodinger’s cat: Here’s what I would get:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834231567
$319.00
ASUS D550MA-DS01 Intel Baytrail-M N2815 (1.86GHz) Turbo 2.13GHz 4GB Memory 500GB HDD 15.6″ Notebook Windows 8 64-bit
• Intel Celeron Dual-Core N2815 (1.86GHz) Turbo 2.13GHz
• 4GB Memory 500GB HDD
• Intel HD Graphics
• 1366 x 768
• Windows 8 64-bit
• DL DVD+/-RW / CD-RW
I would think that the ASUS (who make very good laptops) would be excellent for you.
hildebrand
Received some exceptionally good news yesterday – I was named as one of the recipients for the University of Texas Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award! It is the most prestigious teaching award in the UT system. I am thrilled.
schrodinger's cat
@Soonergrunt: I have had excellent luck with Dells so far, so I was thinking of sticking with Dell. What do you think about their tablet/laptop combos?
burnspbesq
@the Conster:
Yes.
Ruckus
@WaterGirl:
If they are listening to typical rightwing talk radio, play something like AC-DC full blast. And I mean eleven. OTOH we have a talk radio station here in LA that is stupid but involves no politics, just celebrity BS, and it’s OK as background noise at work(I work in a machine shop so unless it’s on pretty loud it’s all background noise).
burnspbesq
@hildebrand:
Woohoo! Congrats.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@hildebrand:
Congratulations! Nice to get some recognition for doing your job well.
schrodinger's cat
@hildebrand: Congratulations!!
Ruckus
@the Conster:
Yes
SATSQ
Mike in NC
Tea Party leader in Mississippi was accused of engaging in dirty campaign tricks. In response, he stood his ground and shot himself in the head.
Second amendment solution!
pete
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: Brilliant!
schrodinger's cat
A continuation of my Wednesday Moment of Zen post with more photos.
Citizen_X
@hildebrand: Wow. Congratulations, and Hook ’em!
NonyNony
Um …
Um …
Um …
…
…
So a few things:
1) I’m happy that he got only 5% of the vote in the primary. I had been prepped to find out he’d gotten 27%.
2) Holy crap – 3,442 people voted for this guy! If I lived in OK District 3 I think I’d be side-eyeing a lot of my neighbors.
3) I am not going to go to his website to find out, but is there a chance that he thinks that Lucas’s “body double” is a lizard person or a clone or a grey alien or something? (I actually hope someone gets him some help if this isn’t just a stunt to get attention and he really believes what he’s saying, because wow that is something.)
Soonergrunt
@schrodinger’s cat: I am actually using one of those right now. Latitude XT3. It’s my work machine now.
At the price point you’re talking about, you’re not going to get a wide selection from Dell in their home user (Inspiron) line. Still, Dell Insprion laptops are pretty good.
This is the only one I found, but it seems pretty reasonable:
http://www.dell.com/us/p/inspiron-15-3531-laptop/pd?oc=fncwc3001b&model_id=inspiron-15-3531-laptop
mdblanche
That number is now available internationally:
Amir Khalid
@catclub:
Boehner looks like he doesn’t know the words and is just faking it.
big ole hound
@schrodinger’s cat: Lenovo has several versions. Mine works clearly and very fast, the only trouble is Windows 8, which I am slowly learning.
boatboy_srq
@schrodinger’s cat: Asus makes some decent portables in your price range. Well worth a look. And they’re from a company who’s made its name in the chipset and motherboard markets; not like you’re getting a no-name machine.
@beth: Ditto WaterGirl. Recordings are probably best: the last thing Talk Radio™ listeners (I presume you mean hangers-on of the Limbaugh/Savage/Ingraham/Beck market segment) will take kindly is the “This is NPR” blurb intruding on their (presumed) consciousness. Classic rock or (if you can stomach it) country are probably best for preserving the peace and maintaining the quality of the work.
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: Isn’t it amazing that Big Gubmint that can’t accomplish anything and gets everything wrong because of the overpaid underworked Lucky Duckies in gubmint not-jobs can actually clone the less-wingnutty pols and keep Teh Peeple muzzled? Or does Murray think the Lucas doppelganger was imported from Brazil as part of Agenda 21? And the “executed three years ago” is interesting: I suppose one reason the Reichwing is so supportive of the death penalty is that they’re convinced that everyone around them who disagrees with the Teahad is a Replicant.
Roger Moore
@beth:
I think you can politely ask them to turn the volume down.
SiubhanDuinne
@hildebrand:
That is just great! Congratulations!!
gogol's wife
@Amir Khalid:
Yes, he feebly opens his mouth every once in a while, but McConnell’s jaws are tightly shut. When I look at these Repubs, I think, don’t they ever go to church and sing hymns? It looks as if they have no idea what the concept is.
Nathanael
@beth: I’ve told workmen that they’re listening to liars and they should change to a different station. They do change the station. It helps that my political views are far more cynical than any of theirs, so I can say “yes, of course the federal government is crooked… but that talk radio host is in on the scam, you know”
Josie
@hildebrand: Congratulations. It is always nice to be recognized and appreciated.
the Conster
@hildebrand:
Wow. That’s gotta feel good. You win the day! Congratulations!!
ETA: Now tell them to show you the money.
Mnemosyne
I took a day off from work just for the hell of it and am getting ready to do what everyone dreams of doing on their day off: heading to the laundromat. It sucks to be an adult sometimes.
But I’m hoping to work in some time at Huntington Library before my doctor’s appointment late this afternoon.
Roger Moore
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
That sounds more like clinical paranoid schizophrenia than ordinary wingnut. The guy making that claim needs to take advantage of his Obamacare mental health services.
gogol's wife
NewsMax: “Your Body Will Warn You Four Months Before Dementia Strikes.”
Mnemosyne
@beth:
I would go say something like, “Would you mind turning the radio down for a minute? I need to make a phone call.” If you ask politely, I don’t see any reason they would say no.
@hildebrand:
Woot! It’s always nice to be appreciated.
Soonergrunt
@NonyNony: You don’t have a lot of neighbors in OK3. It’s almost all farm country. It’s the inbreeding….
Hillary Rettig
@hildebrand: Wow, congratulations!
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne:
I assume you’re actually going to the gardens rather than the library. Reader’s privileges at the library are jealously guarded./pedant
Roger Moore
@gogol’s wife:
But will you remember for long enough to do something about it?
Bobby Thomson
@NonyNony: Don’t laugh. The impostor could be The Master.
PaulW
I just want to note I’ve been at my new job at the library for a good 16 months now and feeling good about it. Just so you know, it never hurts to search indeed.com or CareerBuilder.
I do want to note my older brother just got laid off last month from his IT systems job – it was in Maryland and tied into a government contract, so with the budget cuts going on there’s been a hit to the private contractors – so he’s kinda looking. He’s using a headhunter to line him up with another job, so hopefully it’ll work out soon, and Maryland’s job market is supposedly okay so it’s not like he’s facing a six-month or longer nightmare. But I hope he finds something soon…
In the meantime, it wouldn’t hurt if I can get 50,000 people to buy an ebook copy of Last of the Grapefruit Wars off of bn.com (I’m a little miffed at Amazon at the moment, but hey if you own a Kindle go ahead knock yourself out). :) I think iBooks has it listed too.
TaMara (BHF)
@hildebrand: This is excellent news
for John McCain. Congrats!PaulW
It’s The Manchurian Candidate II: Electric Boogaloo!
Actually, I’m a little terrified that this might be a real case. It’s too crazy-sounding to be that wrong…
Trollhattan
@hildebrand:
Way to go!
Don’t let Gov Goodhair find out, he doesn’t seem to like having smart people around.
PaulW
@beth:
You could ask – politely – if they can play trash metal or classic 80s punk on the radio instead of talk radio, as talk radio gives you a headache.
Mnemosyne
@Roger Moore:
The full name is The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, so “Huntington Library” is the most accurate shortening of the name.
/even more pedantic
Paul in KY
@hildebrand: Great news! You should be proud.
kc
@gogol’s wife:
I don’t sing in church or anywhere else. Not singing is the most Christian thing I can do.
I’ll give McConnell a pass on this.
Roger Moore
@PaulW:
I couldn’t disagree more. I find it far more likely that somebody who is severely mentally ill made it on the Republican ballot than that one of our Congressmen was replaced by a body double three years ago and only one person noticed.
Amir Khalid
@NonyNony:
I went to Timothy Murray’s campaign website. The man is plainly an ill-educated kook, despite claiming a degree from Oklahoma State University, and I presume he appeals only to other ill-educated kooks.
Bob In Portland
There will be training jobs opening up in Jordan.
NonyNony
@Bobby Thomson:
I mean, sure. It could be. It could also be The Chameleon. Or possibly Clayface.
(If we lived in a world full of supervillains with no superheroes it would … explain a lot, actually. Sigh.)
@Amir Khalid:
Ill-educated or mentally ill? The excerpts published at the HuffPo link sound like someone who is divorced from reality, not someone who is just ignorant.
Amir Khalid
@NonyNony:
Probably both, come to think of it.
Villago Delenda Est
In other breaking news, I’m going to be restored to my rightful throne as Tsar of all the Russias next week, on the 1st of July. My first decree will be to sentence Vlad Putin to run for the US Republican Party Presidential nomination in 2016.
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne:
I usually use “The Huntington” to refer to the whole institution. That’s even shorter.
PaulW
@Villago Delenda Est:
He’ll have to get vouched by the King of the Potato People.
Roger Moore
@Amir Khalid:
He can’t appeal to them that much, or he would have won the nomination.
Villago Delenda Est
@Roger Moore: It’s warning you right now to stop clicking on Noisemax griftlinks.
Iowa Old Lady
@hildebrand: Good for you! Congratulations. And cheers for your devotion to teaching.
@beth: I’d ask them to turn it down. They’re entitled to listen to loons but not to impose the loons on you.
brettvk
More Oklahoma madness (sorry, SG); someone decided to fire a howitzer at a gun range that wasn’t rangey enough. Hilarity ensues.
schrodinger's cat
@Soonergrunt: I can wait, my laptop is working fine right now but I may need to replace it soon. It gets really hot, and crashes, I am wondering whether the fan needs replacement.
SiubhanDuinne
@Villago Delenda Est:
And love is a thing that can never go wrong,
And I am Marie of Romania.
Iowa Old Lady
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: It always makes me happy when they let their freak flags fly.
wmd
Hi – I need work.
Skill set: software performance tuning and analysis, MA in Mathematics, MS in Computer Science.
Region: San Jose/Silicon Valley.
More detail on skill set: one of my more successful tuning projects improved the performance of rendering software at Pixar by 35%, leading to Sun Microsystems getting the render farm for Monsters Inc. analysis showed a problem with cache usage in a structure that profiling said was in the hot routine. a 5 line change in a header file sped the software up by 35%.
I’m good at working with both technical and non technical people – able to explain at the right level of detail for the audience. I can avoid bruising engineer’s egos as I help improve their product.
add amico to my handle and email to gmail.com (last name is damico).
Villago Delenda Est
Not so fast, obvious troll.
Roger Moore
@NonyNony:
Definitely Mystique.
strandedvandal
Hewlett Packard finally got around to sending my job to India. 14 years running the Macintosh Support/Product readiness, warranty reduction engineering function for Imaging and Printing worldwide. I get a new manger and an email stating I was too expensive and they are sending my job to a low cost provider. Nice. Looking for something similar in Silicon Valley or Austin, Tx.
Mnemosyne
@wmd:
Do you have to stay in Silicon Valley? Disney is vastly expanding their render farm in Burbank.
http://disneycareers.com/en/default/
Jay C
@Roger Moore:
While I agree with the first part of your comment, I’m not so sure about the second: sadly, I think sometimes most of Congress could be replaced by depart-store mannequins in suits, and it would take probably weeks/months (if ever) before anyone would notice…..
Amir Khalid
@brettvk:
My gob is smacked. What the fish is a howitzer doing on a gun range, being played with by these overgrown children? If it was obsolete or otherwise surplus to military needs, why wasn’t it destroyed?
Mnemosyne
@Roger Moore:
Yes, but how do people know you mean Huntington Library and not Huntington Hospital?
catclub
@brettvk: .
For particularly unusual values of hilarity.
Uncle Cosmo
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
Maybe not.
OTOH Peak Whackjob may be imminent…
wmd
@Mnemosyne:
Thanks, but I do not want to relocate.
I use Pixar as an example because most people have no idea what EDA tools are (I’ve worked with chip simulators and layout tools), or what finite element analysis is, and how improving sparse matrix BLAS libraries improves performance there.
Paul in KY
@Villago Delenda Est: Well, thank you Tsar Villago (1st of his name). That asshole will probably win.
gnomedad
Sounds like SoonerDaughter is doing well. Good to hear.
PurpleGirl
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: I want — no, demand — some of the drugs that man is taking. That is some extreme delusion there, and at times I could really use a strong delusion.
Paul in KY
@Amir Khalid: Forget it, Amir…It’s Oklahomey-town.
WaterGirl
@hildebrand: That’s quite an honor!
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
I have a line on a job fitting people with medical devices. Not exactly what I wanted with degrees in statistics and accounting but if I get it at least it’s something. I haven’t heard back from the friend who said a week ago that he needed someone and he’d talk to his supervisor. I’m thinking it’s about time to send him an email asking what the situation is.
Also, if anyone does editing of fiction on a semipro basis (I can’t afford full professional rates or I have someone I’d use) I’m looking for someone to do that with my stories and novel.
Right now, though, I’m getting ready for my birthday happy hour this evening.
catclub
Mississippi Goddam cont’d: Political Animal
What bugs me most is that super PAC money is considered NOT Cochran’s campaign. No coordination there at all, no sirree. The problem is what is legal.
PurpleGirl
Sooner — Hope you have good time at SoonerCon, your son should enjoy ComicCon, and your daughter, well, wow, that’s some way to spend to the summer. (Is Soonerwife going to enjoy some quiet time at home, alone?)
WaterGirl
@strandedvandal:
Bastards!
catclub
@PurpleGirl:
You can’t always get what you want.
burnspbesq
Peak Wingnut? Tain’t no such thing. There is always somebody out there playing “can you top this.” LIke this guy.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/06/27/michigan-gop-candidate-ignore-my-arrests-for-publicly-masturbating-in-other-peoples-cars/
Elizabelle
@Amir Khalid:
He did run in Oklahoma. Surprise there is only capturing 5% of the ill-educated kooks.
My question: can the authorities use his campaign statements to separate Mr. Timothy Ray Murray from any weapons he may have? He is not in his right mind, unless he’s trolling Oklahomans.
Elizabelle
@hildebrand:
Fab! Good news on which to begin a weekend. Congratulations.
SiubhanDuinne
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):
Happy birthday, TTPseudo!
And KarenInGA, if you’re around, happy birthday to you, too!
PurpleGirl
@NonyNony: Maybe it’s a script idea for “StarGate – SG1”. Unfortunately the show’s been off the air for a while now. Thinking about it, there were several stories that were very similar. Um, maybe the guy was a very ardent StarGate fan.
JGabriel
HuffPo:
Dude. I think if 83% of the people are voting for the “look alike”, then it can hardly be widely known.
Edited to Add: I’m honestly surprised that only 1 out of 20 Republicans voted for this guy. He just seems to be so their type.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@hildebrand: Many congratulations.
PurpleGirl
@gogol’s wife: It also looked like they really didn’t like the holding hands and standing next to certain people. Whoever that was next to Rep. Lewis especially looked uncomfortable.
Paul in KY
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): I’m a good freelance editor. I can certainly proof for grammar/punctuation errors, things in book that don’t jibe with previous plot, etc. Other things you would want me to focus on.
I am cheap too. Would be doing this in my off time and on weekends. I’m a fast reader, though.
strandedvandal
@WaterGirl: Yup. My new manager had no idea what I did, even told me that specifically. I had to write up the job description for the posting of my job. Not sure how it was determined I was too expensive based on that.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@Roger Moore: Or Loki.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@catclub: Citizens United, bitches.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): I’d be happy to discuss it with you. FLSgreen at gmail.
Elizabelle
@Mike in NC:
Re the suicide of dirty tricks (aka “activist”) Tea Partier in Mississippi:
The guy was a lawyer. NY Times:
Well, yeah.
Guy’s a lawyer with terrible judgment.
This guy had mental problems. Maybe the state bar informed him they were reviewing his fitness as an attorney. Maybe he blamed himself for McDaniel’s loss.
FWIW, guy’s own lawyer is Mr. Merrida Coxwell. There’s a name.
Paul in KY
@burnspbesq: Son of a bitch!!! Why in the Hell would you run with this kind of shit on your record?!
Thinking….I get it!
Being publically humiliated is now how he gets his rocks off. It is the only logical reason…
MattR
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): I have a friend with an accounting degree who is now involved with fitting/configuring pacemakers and defribilators. He gets paid very well, but the hours can be rough and unpredictable based on the surgeon’s needs. The other downsides are the pressures associated with being involved in heart surgery (you can imagine the freakout when a patient died shortly after surgery in one of the first cases he did on his own after completing his ‘internship’. turned out it had nothing to do with him, but until he knew for sure he was second guessing everything he had done) and being responsible for the tracking of tens of thousands of dollars of medical equipment. I kinda wonder if that last factor is a reason that these companies like accounting majors (you hopefully get people who are good at keeping detailed records)
Happy birthday . Enjoy the evening.
Shana
@burnspbesq: Oh my f**ng god! I started laughing uncontrollably at “stool of conservatism” and haven’t stopped. Where do these people get the idea that they should be in any kind of public office?
hildebrand
@WaterGirl: On top of that, the UT System did their own review of all of the materials and made a cut from the lists that the individual Universities provided.
Many thanks for all congrats!
WaterGirl
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): Happy birthday!
My sister edits fiction on a semi-professional basis. She authored one book herself, and she has edited short stories and a novel. I called to ask if I should mention her to you and she said yes, she would love to do it.
Let me know if you are interested in talking with my sister.
Edit: I see you have already had another response from one of our own! (Make that two!)
Paul in KY
@strandedvandal: I guess it was your current salary. I’m very sorry. The whole situation sucks balls.
Seanly
LOL, well, opinions differ. Wouldn’t be seemly of the media to point out that one candidate is insane.
Elizabelle
@Shana:
That’s my favorite new phrase today.
burnspbesq
@Shana:
If hot-wiring cars is what gets you hard, you’ve got problems that go well beyond the occasional inadvertently-accurate description of your belief system.
Soonergrunt
@schrodinger’s cat: It probably does. Those only last about 3 or 4 years on average. The problem is that the heat-sink fan unit might cost more than it’s worth to repair. Your best bet is to get on eBay for the part. Believe it or not, it’s not a hard repair. You just need to keep track of all the screws. For that, I suggest the plastic cap to a spray can.
WaterGirl
@strandedvandal: Idiots! I’ll bet writing up your job posting was a barrel of fun.
Roger Moore
@Amir Khalid:
A surprisingly large number of obsolete artillery pieces got distributed after WWII. Most of them were supposed to be made inoperable by removing the firing pin (and often by pouring concrete into the barrel) and used as monuments. Some of them might have been repairable.
My house at Caltech had a late 19th Century cannon that we fired- with a squib, not a shell- on ceremonial occasions. The firing pin had been removed, but the barrel and breech mechanism were in fine shape. We used a flash bulb with wires running out through the hole where the firing pin had been as a way of igniting the powder.
JGabriel
@Elizabelle:
Only an OVERZEALOUS TOTALITARIAN COMMIE LIBTARD would wanna take someone’s GUNS AWAY just because he sees the world differently from you.
That’s the kind of altitude that makes
foreifurrineepeople who ain’t Amaricun think were week!WaterGirl
@hildebrand: That’s so great. Savor this moment, what a thrill it must be to be honored in a very serious way.
David in NY
@hildebrand: Nice! Although my son, who got a best teaching award as a grad student at MIT (in mathematics), said people joked that, as far as employment or advancement went, those awards were nearer a curse than a benefit. Hope you receive wide recognition for yours.
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne:
Huntington Hospital is “Huntington Hospital”. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Garden is “The Huntington”. That’s the common usage.
WaterGirl
@burnspbesq: I saw the title and I was afraid to read any further!
Cassidy
Where I work in south Georgia has an opening for an administrative assistant.
raven
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): My lunatic, teabagger SIL does that. She was a sought after cardiac nurse and got into the device field about 10 years ago. She makes enough dough that my whipped, half brother takes care of the kids and doesn’t have to work.
PurpleGirl
@strandedvandal: Simple — you’ve been with the company X years and make Y money. Presto, too expensive.
At the time I was let go from the non-profit, I was the 2nd oldest in terms of time in the office. Yup, I was too expensive.
Paul in KY
@David in NY: Seems to me it would look right fine on a resume. I could really go to town with that fact.
raven
@Cassidy: If you call that living!!!! Boom!
raven
dupe
WaterGirl
@David in NY: Winning the award for best website at the University of Illinois was like the kiss of death. I forget the exact name of the title, but three years in a row, the person who won that award got a terminal contract the following year.
(A terminal contract means “we’re keeping you this year, but you’re out of a job a year from now”.)
raven
@WaterGirl: Oskeewow!
WaterGirl
@raven: Are most of your duplicates when you use your iPad? That’s when it almost always happens to me.
WaterGirl
@raven: “Thanks for the award; please excuse me while I go freshen up my resume.”
Cassidy
@raven: Oh, I don’t live there. I drive an hour and fifteen minutes to work, but it’s there one day, back the next and none the next (24 on, 48 off). I spend less time in the car than I did when I worked 12 miles away and had to go to and from work in traffic.
There are parts of Georgia I’d go to, but I’m a city guy.
raven
@WaterGirl: And phone but I’m actually on my laptop now and got one.
raven
@Cassidy: I think Valdosta might not be too bad.
Cassidy
@raven: I’ve driven through it. I’d live in Atlanta and enjoyed Macon. Loved Augusta. Where I work isn’t bad. It’s got good people, I just like cities.
David in NY
@Paul in KY: I think that the comment about my son’s teaching award (largely tongue-in-cheek) reflects the values of places like MIT where teaching is fine but “reasearch” is really all anybody cares about. I don’t expect that it hurts, but his current position of post-doc and NSF fellow at UofMN doesn’t involve much teaching, and it’s a little unclear when he actually hits the academic market in a couple or three years how much difference his teaching abilities will make. Certainly doesn’t hurt, but at the big research universities (in the East where he’d like to come back to w/ his Ph.D. wife, who’s probably the real star of the outfit) it’s not the real interest.
@WaterGirl: Ouch. A Miss Congeniality award with a real zinger at the end. Or maybe like the Sports Illustrated curse, if you know that one.
raven
@Cassidy: Athens isn’t a big city but it is fine.
Emma
Am I the only one who didn’t know this?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/vatican-defrocks-polish-archbishop-josef-wesolowski-accused-of-sexual-abuse-9569051.html
Holy cow.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
Why is it that the radio station at the laundromat plays “Landslide” every time I’m here? The really weird thing is that it’s a different version every time — today it was Stevie Nicks live, but I’ve also heard the Dixie Chicks and Smashing Pumpkins versions. Who knew there were so many versions of one damn song?
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@Paul in KY: Drop me a line at eeyore 1968 at comcast dot net and I’ll send you a story I’m working on so you can take a look.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Roger Moore:
Maybe it’s super-local, because I hear people refer to the hospital as just “Huntington” all the time.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@WaterGirl: I’d be happy to talk to her. Having multiple offers is good because I want someone I’d really work well with. eeyore 1968 at comcast dot net
Steve in the ATL
@raven:
Seriously? Might be ok if (1) you live for high school football or (2) you are a member of the Langdale family.
piratedan
@WaterGirl: Very reminiscent of a situation earlier in my career. Was part of a regional task force to develop and implement an optically scanned first-care form so the region could develop statistics based on the types of incidents seen in the field by first care providers, be they local, volunteer, private entities. Project went so well it was adopted by the state. I had been the guy to do the scanning, developed the training protocols for the forms and to draft the original stats for return to the various entities that requested data. When the state stepped in, I was asked to provide my training template, my job description and the methodology for doing the job and then was told by the State Department of Health Services that I wasn’t qualified to apply for the job but could I stick around for a month or so to train the people who were “qualified” to do the job.
Thankfully I’ve moved on from that, but for quite some time I was just a tad bitter about the experience.
also too, any Microbiologists out there in Northern California, drop me a note, I have a job lead for you. :-)
BD of MN
Dunno if there are any other truck drivers from the Twin Cities that are BJ readers, but my company is hiring several LTL freight drivers. Day shift, Mon – Fri with the occasional Saturday, if you have previous LTL experience, the starting wage is just over $22/hr. We’re also looking for dock workers, if you have some forklift experience, starting wage is a bit north of $16/hr… shoot me an email at dan dash pam at comcast dot net for more info. (replace the word dash with an actual dash)
For you non-truck drivers, LTL stands for “Less than Load”. I leave in the morning from our terminal with a 48′ or 53′ trailer (the 48 footers have liftgates, so I can make residential deliveries and also to businesses that don’t have docks…), make at least a dozen stops to deliver stuff that’s too big (or hazardous) for UPS or Fedex, and then pick up stuff from small to big businesses to fill the trailer back up, ending back at the same terminal in the evening. Unlike the OTR (over the road) guys, I get to sleep with my wife every night…
LunarG
Anyone in the southeast Michigan area need a paralegal?
Ruckus
@strandedvandal:
First, your supervisor may have been thinking that if he couldn’t lower his department’s budget, he couldn’t get a raise. As he had no idea what you did, you must be expendable. Of course when he tried to have HR let you go he found out that he may be able to get another person(thereby giving him more room in his budget) but the position was set and he can’t get rid of that.
Second, when I left my last job the CEO told me that I had to tell them what I was doing. I told him bullshit, I am leaving you guys figure it out. He then said please because he couldn’t fire me without paying me a weeks pay for every year I’d been with the co. So I sat down with him for 2 hrs to fill him in. My boss was in the room and it was reported to me later by friends that he had all kinds of questions about what I was talking about. He had zero clue. And by the way, I was the only person he supervised. And he had assigned me every bit of work that I was doing. I think I may have stayed a bit too long at that job.
NotMax
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
Right up my alley and also the type of thing for which I’m always on the lookout.
Saw the e-mail up provided above but also don’t want to step on someone else’s toes, so please do let me know here if you are still uncommitted.
Have done similar work (but involving resumés) in the recent past for a couple of folks who post here.
gorram
@the Conster: It’s like correlation and causation. It’s not the same buuuuuut *cue statisticians crying*
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@NotMax: Still interested. The thing about working with editors is that some perfectly good people don’t work out for a specific author. I do kind of oddball stuff and have some fairly strong views about what I want it to be like (which is turning out to be nearly synonymous with “unpublishable” but what the hell . . .) so some editors really want to suggest things that aren’t the way I want to go. So it’s worth seeing if I can try out a few different people.
NotMax
@NotMax
Oy vey. Positively the wost case of a particular comment in which to juxtapose words.
Should read: Saw the e-mail provided up above.
(Will claim the shelter of the penumbra of absolution in light of only having awakened twenty minutes ago.)
MaximusNYC
On my Facebook page, I suggested that the alleged “body double” should be given a Voight-Kampff test. In response, a friend posted this comment:
“The tortoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs trying to turn itself over. But it can’t. Not with out your help. But you’re not helping. Why is that, Leon?”
“Because the most effective way to help a tortoise is to allow it to succeed or fail on its own merits.”
“Okay, you’re definitely a real Republican.”
Patricia Kayden
@hildebrand: Congratulations!
rikyrah
Dem Party hires few minority firms
By JOSE DELREAL | 6/25/14 11:00 AM EDT Updated: 6/25/14 11:42 AM EDT
Less than 2 percent of the money disbursed by the Democratic Party’s three largest committees went to firms with full or partial minority ownership, according to a new report released Wednesday that suggests a disconnect between the party’s increasingly diverse voter base and its Beltway leadership.
The report, compiled by PowerPAC+, a political action committee funded by Democratic megadonor Steve Phillips, takes the Democratic committees to task for their failure to solicit a broad group of minority consultants to compete for the hundreds of millions of dollars they dole out for political activities.
…………………………..
Of the $514 million paid to consulting firms overall, the study found, only $8.7 million went to firms with “any ownership share African-American, Latino, Asian American or Pacific Islander, or Native American individuals.” That amounts to 1.7 percent of all the money disbursed to consultants by the three committees.
The total share of contracts given to firms with partial minority ownership — without considering the amount money involved — is also low. Of the 284 firms contracted by the three committees, only 13 had minority principals.
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/06/dem-party-hires-few-minority-firms-108284.html?hp=l4
piratedan
@rikyrah: and while that is most likely not as great as we would like, I’m curious as to how the GOP did…..
satby
@WaterGirl: no, that’s how they do it in a lot of IT shops. My manager had to read the letter to me over the phone, but the same essentially happened to me when my middle management headed to India too.
I’m now employed part time because I needed to have something when unemployment ran out two weeks ago, but I need to find a full time job. And I’d really like to close out my working years at a non-profit organization. I was a service delivery team manager for a large IT outsourcer and I have great communication, leadership, and cross-functional skills.
satby
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): Happy Birthday! I know a great copy editor who refuses to believe she is because her job is something else. But she’s scary good. Email me at sbarrt at hotmail dot com with what you’d pay and I’ll see if she’s interested.
Edited to add: Happy Birthday!!
WaterGirl
@Emma: I had no idea. Wow.
WaterGirl
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): Them’s fighting words. That is one of my favorite songs of all time. On the positive side, I had no idea Dixie Chicks or the Smashing Pumpkins had done a cover of that song. Maybe they will be on youtube.
WaterGirl
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): That’s smart! I sent her your email just now.
WaterGirl
@piratedan: I would have been bitter, too. More idiots!
I had a similar situation myself once, which I’m feeling a bit mad about as I type this. Grrr.
This set of comments about experiences like this is tickling my brain, but I can’t figure out what this is all reminding me of. Something about romney (maybe) and having to build a stage which turned out to be so he could make an announcement to everyone that they were losing their jobs. Does that sound familiar at all? I’m sure I have all the details wrong!
Steeplejack
@WaterGirl:
You’ve got it pretty much correct.
ETA: Don’t think Romney personally made the announcement.
The Other Chuck
@the Conster: Eh, Murray ran as a Democrat the last time. He’s just a nutbar. Should really move into Michelle Bachmann’s district and challenge her, but he might be too sane.
sempronia
@Roger Moore:
You’re a Flem!
/page-girl
Pertaining to the jobs thread, American Journal Experts (www.aje.com) is a company in the Research Triangle area that people here might be interested in free-lancing for. The premise is that academic papers written in bad English by people whose primary language is something else have a much lower acceptance rate by journals. So you, the free-lance editor, edit the manuscripts wherever you are, at your leisure (you have a 1 to 7-day deadline depending on the customer), and get paid by assignment. Take as many or as few as you want. Each editor must have a degree from one of several fancy universities that they specify (this was how they established credibility and hooked customers). You’d be editing only papers in your field.
You can also sign up to do peer review – you read and comment on the paper as if you were a real reviewer. People send in their manuscripts for prelim reviews before sending them to journals for real.
Great company – helped me out of a little no-work spot some time ago.
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: That was such a good ad, thanks for finding it! Bonus: I’m not crazy. yay!
Roger Moore
@sempronia:
’94. You?
hildebrand
@David in NY: Yep, research universities tend to look a bit askance at teaching awards – ‘yes, but what have you published?’ My hope is to find a tenure-track job at a small liberal arts, or university that favors teaching. Keeping my fingers crossed that this award will help a bit in the job search this fall. Having two more articles come out this year won’t hurt. That said, the job market for history and religious studies is less than stellar (especially as my field is medieval), so we shall see. But this award feels great.
shadows mom
My company is hiring. We’ve gone from 49 when I started three years ago to almost 300 today. We need experienced enterprise project managers for our professional services (PS) team (West Coast especially), PS team also needs technical architects, and will be hiring throughout this year. We’re also hiring in finance (based in CA Bay Area), and in our Sales, Leadgen, and Customer Success (post-implementation relationship). PS team members are largely remote as our only US office is in the Bay Area. We hire based on skills, talent and cultural fit rather than location. The PS team candidates with a solid understanding of the Force.com (now Salesforce1) platform. Our product is a native SFDC app that provides comprehensive field service management solutions to organizations around the world.
It’s a great place to work. Excellent benefits, wonderful culture, among the best small businesses to work for in the Bay Area for the past 3 years.
http://careers.servicemax.com/
mike in dc
I’m finally working a year after my layoff. Just got this gig the week after my unemployment ran out, too! How fortuitous is that? Maybe some day I’ll actually pay off this law degree…
BruinKid
Got a Ph.D. in Statistics, but every job seems to want even more and more “experience” first. Sigh. I live here in Los Angeles.
rikyrah
Glad to know that all is well in the Soonergut household.
J R in WV
@schrodinger’s cat:
Dell’s are well know for taking technical shortcuts that make them very difficult to expand or repair. They do many things in sort of a non-standard way, so replacement parts not from Dell won’t work quite right, or need some patch applied to actually work at all…
We had one for quite a while and it was good as long as it lasted, on the other hand – they do offer a good deal on factory refurbed units.
Paul in KY
@David in NY: Thanks for the explanation. Still a plus for your son.
Paul in KY
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): Am sending you email. Assuming there was no space between ‘eeyore’ and ‘1968’.