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Below are the most recent 25 friends' journal entries.
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| Saturday, November 7th, 2009 |
btripp
|
7:34a |
Got some ink ...
OK, so the P.R. guy can't help getting juiced over "getting some ink" ... and I'm in today's Tribune as part of a story about job seekers! The gal who did the interview is Julie Wernau (@littlewern), who was the former blogger for The Job Stalker blog over on the Trib's Chicago Now site. I'd gotten connected with her on-line in following up on trying to be the new blogger for that "column" (so far no word on how that's going), so she knew where to get a hold of me when she needed an interviewee. Needless to say, I'd have been MUCH happier had I been being interviewed BY the Tribune for one of the half-dozen or so jobs that I have resumes in for over there, but I guess I need to take "good news" where I can find it, and the piece certainly paints me in a positive light (I'm the example of the "overqualified" worker!). Maybe somebody will read that and say "Gee, this guy sounds like just what we're looking for!" ... would be nice.  |
bearblue
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2:02a |
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| Friday, November 6th, 2009 |
betawriter
|
4:14p |
Opinion
The very best thing about the internet, excepting the copious amounts of free porn of course, is that a person can research embarrassing or delicate information without having to go out in public. There are times when I miss going to the library and searching through the stacks, but boy oh boy do I love me some internet. This weekend is going to be full of self-improvement, from NaNoProMo to running, to cycling the lakeshore path, to needlepointing. I will also be taking my giant stack of catalogs and marking the gifts I want to get for Christmas. Not gifts that *I* want, gifts I want to order to give, I should make that clear. I am making it a goal to Christmas shop only using catalogs. There are some really neat things out there. |
told_tales
[ richlayers ]
|
3:09p |
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btripp
|
1:41p |
Ah ... so frustrating ...
OK, so I sort of abuse my computer ... I will, at times, have as many as sixty tabs open in a couple of FireFox windows, and a dozen other programs running. I've recently been moving Twitter (yes, I still use the web version) over to Chrome, just so I can keep better track of it. However, recently (and I don't have more than a couple of dozen tabs open today), Chrome has just been "giving up" on loading stuff. I'll click on a link in a Tweet and a tab will open and the spinny thing will spin, but after a while, I'll see this:
... and almost always for sites I know damn well are up. What's doubly aggravating about this is that when I go back to the tab and hit the "reload" button, the page pops right up! Now, if I was seeing this on one out of a dozen links, it would be irritating enough, but I'm seeing it like one in three times. Not happy. I also just read a thing which was benchmarking the browsers, and it said that Chrome was currently the fastest ... don't know what to think of that in terms of what I've been experiencing! I suppose if this wasn't quite so declarative ... "DNS error - cannot find server" / "This link appears to be broken." ... for things that I know are working it wouldn't be so objectionable, but it's almost into a MicroSoft level of "it can't be US, so it must be YOU" haughtiness. Anyway, this was bugging me enough that I'd figure I'd share. |
emo_snal
|
10:37a |
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told_tales
[ kimuro ]
|
7:21a |
Sir Ewen of Lochiel and the witch of Moy
Beannachd nan siubhal 's nan imeachd! 'S e an-diugh Dihaoine, cha chluinn sinn iad!Sir Ewen of Lochiel ( Eoghan Dubh Lochiall) (Feb. 1629 - Feb. 1719), the 17th Chief of Clan Cameron, was a man of enormous strength and size but also of considerable wit. Clan Cameron was at feud with Clan Mackintosh, had been for several hundreds of years, neither giving way to the other. It happened one day that Sir Ewan Cameron of Lochiel met with the witch Gormshul mhòr na Moighe (Gormul of Moy, lit. Big Blue-eye of Moy). ( This is what happened )* "A blessing on their traveling and their departure. Today is Friday and they can't hear us." |
bearblue
|
2:02a |
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| Thursday, November 5th, 2009 |
btripp
|
10:09p |
damn ...
To add insult to injury, my e-mail's screwing up, showing up as my old @simuality.com address even when I'm sending as @btripp.com ... I need to get that older computer back up so I can figure out how the mail was configured. I just HATE doing this sort of stuff ... invariably it takes 10x the amount of time it should, and I end up breaking 3 things for every 1 that gets fixed. I just want OUT ... I am so fucking sick of LOSING EVERY GOD-DAMNED TIME ... I don't want to play anymore. |
told_tales
[ ladysmith ]
|
10:09p |
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btripp
|
3:11p |
(sigh)
So, the phone interview did NOT go well. I was surprised to find (more-or-less after the fact) the the VP that was doing the interview was following up on an application that I had sent in via the web and not through my contacts at the agency (or the Partners with whom I'd had contact). I'd assumed that the reason I was speaking with this particular gal was that this had come up via queries and contacts at the firm and ended up on her desk. As it turned out, she had no idea that I knew a couple of people there pretty well, had put through applications via their upper management, and even given a presentation there recently. While she didn't say "thanks but no thanks" exactly, she indicated that what "the hiring managers" were looking for was somebody with a lot of hands-on experience of "driving traffic" via FaceBook, MySpace, Twitter, etc., and what I'd done in these areas didn't seem to qualify. She did have me e-mail her the .doc version of my resume to pass along to them, but it didn't sound promising for at least this particular job. Back to square one, I guess. The one possible bright light in this is that I now have her as a contact, and this could lead to being made aware of other openings with the "parent agency" of the group involved here. However ... not happy. Not at all. |
told_tales
[ richlayers ]
|
1:13p |
All Stories are Anansi's
(This story about stories seems particularly apt for this community.) All Stories are Anansi'sIn the beginning, all tales and stories belonged to Nyame, the Sky God. But Kwaku Anansi, the spider, yearned to be the owner of all the stories known in the world, and he went to Nyame and offered to buy them. The Sky God said: "I am willing to sell the stories, but the price is high. Many people have come to me offering to buy, but the price was too high for them. Rich and powerful families have not been able to pay. Do you think you can do it?" ( Anansi replied to the Sky God.... ) |
apothecarium
[ honeymilktea ]
|
6:50p |
Skin and eyes
Anyone have any recommendations for herbs for clearing/detoxing the skin and/or getting rid of dark circles? I've looked through the tags, but unless I've missed something, I can't find anything :X Thank you in advance! |
betawriter
|
12:49p |
Cute enough, yes?
I have to leave to attend a co-worker's 20-year anniversary party at work, but here is how I look in my amazing awesome holy-cow-I-can-see spectacles:  I'm enjoying the resurgence of teenage-like acne that's going on all up on me these days. I'm pretty sure it's a side effect of gabapentin, but oh well. Hopefully that will die down soon. |
hunterkirk
|
11:20a |
News Clips
1) Government Insurance Plan Will Dominate Market, Senate Republicans Warn... Democrats/Socialized Healthcare 2) San Francisco Approves Law to Protect Illegal Juveniles.... Democrats/Illegal Immigration 3) IRS Brings New Focus to Auditing the Rich... Government Power/Obama 4) Police database of 'extreme' protesters... Government/Oppression/Democrats 5) HOW DOGS DAMAGE THE PLANET LIKE A 4X4... Enivormental Wackos/Animal Life 6) Climate chief Lord Stern: give up meat to save the planet... Environmental Wackos/Animal Life 7) Larry David Blasted for 'Curb' Episode Where He Urinates on Jesus Painting... Liberals/Anti Christian 8) White House Fires Back at Report Claiming It Gave Special Access to Donors... Obama/Abuse of Power 9) Obama signs 'hate crimes' bill - Christian broadcasters concerned... Liberals/Anti Christianity ( Read more... ) |
| Saturday, October 31st, 2009 |
hunterkirk
|
10:48a |
News Clips
1) Latvian Meteor a Marketing Hoax... Science/Hoax 2) Disgraced Cloning Expert Convicted in S. Korea... Science/Hoax 3) Cross-Like T-Shirt Design at Penn State University Sparks Controversy... Liberal/Anti-Christianity 4) Obama Says He Will Not 'Rush' Decision on Afghanistan Strategy, Troop Levels... Obama/Terrorism/Afghan War 5) McChrystal's Call for Additional Troops Goes 'Too Far, Too Fast,' Kerry Warns... Obama/Terrorism/Weakness 6) Senate Bill Will Include 'Public Option' Opt Out... Democrat/Socialized Healthcare/Tricks 7) Scientists discover gene that 'cancer-proofs' rodent's cells... Cancer/Health Care 8) Fighting sleep, researchers reverse the cognitive impairment caused by sleep deprivation... Sleep/Health 9) White House likes news reported its way... Obama/Free Press ( Read more... ) |
| Thursday, November 5th, 2009 |
btripp
|
8:13a |
Grump, grump, grump, grump ...
 I believe that I've mentioned that I'm not much of a "cell phone guy" ... and part of the reason for this is that the damn thing's always dead when I want to use it. Considering how little I use it (maybe 1-3 calls a week?) one would think it would keep a charge, but invariably, I'll want to do something with it and it's kaput. I don't know how people use the damn things as their main communication vehicle ... it would make me insane if I had to rely on it, because even when it's charged it's a crap shoot if it gets a usable signal, and then there's being able to hear it in a busy environment (don't even get me started on not being able to hear it ringing). Bleh. Anyway ... had my damn phone been functional last night, I would have been showing you a real cool picture from Google's Chicago office. Out by the elevators they have a Google logo executed as part of a Frank Lloyd Wright stained glass panel (although it's not actually stained glass, just a rendering of what that would look like), which I (as a Chicagoan) found very cool. Of course, I go to take a pic of it and find the damn phone is dead, so no nicely framed/lit image for you. You would think that something as "neat" as that sign would have been shot at some point by somebody but the best I was able to find Googling for it this morning was just a corner of it (with somebody posing in front of it). Allowing my OCD to run things, I dug further and found a video tour of their offices, towards the end of which was a shot past the sign (which I did a screen-cap of for the image here), mid-day, with about as many reflections that could be captured in a shot, but at least you can sort of see what I was talking about. How this managed to NOT be on the web anywhere boggles my mind ... but there it is. The thing at Google's offices last night was hosted by SEMPO, the Search Engine Marketing professional group, and was very well attended ... the presentations on the new enhancements to Google Analytics were standing-room-only, and featured hand-outs from both Google and Forrester Research (who I suspect were being represented by the only two "suits" in the room, after my exposure to those folks last week at their TweetUp). It is amazing that this is a free product, given what it does! While I was able to say "Hi" to a few recent contacts from other networking events, this was such a mob scene that it wasn't particularly productive for that purpose ... I came away with only 5 cards vs. the 18 that I handed out (yes, I do keep track of that stuff), neither of which were much of a dent on the numbers in attendance (I'm guessing 75 or so). Oh well. Unfortunately, like MicroSoft's Chicago office, the Google Chicago office is pretty much just about sales. If they had any "communications" gigs, either would be very cool places for me to work! Of course, I'm still HOPING that the phone interview this afternoon will put an end to my job search ... but I'm not stopping looking until I'm at a desk and getting a paycheck! {EDIT}Upon poking through Flikr, I found this, this, and this ... it appears that there is a stained-glass panel there somewhere, but the one by the elevators is just a graphic ... doesn't Google Images index Flickr? |
bearblue
|
2:02a |
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| Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 |
merovingian
|
10:38p |
Existence
I park up the hill from my house, because gravitational potential energy is a good way to keep car thieves at bay. In the driveway near me was a car with a bumper sticker that read "MY OTHER CAR IS TOTALLY PANTOMIMED" and as I started up my car, I saw a guy (dressed in normal clothes and without benefit of greasepaint) walk out to the empty part of his driveway, about ten feet to the left of his existing car, mime sitting down and turning the keys, and suddenly become whisked off by some unknown force at the speed of an automobile. I followed him, of course, as he sat hovering a few feet in the air, zipping along the street at the speed of traffic. He got to a gas station, and parked in a spot with no pump, then paid the attendant nonexistent mimed money, went to a blank spot in the parking lot, and pretended to pump his nonexistent car. While he was inside getting his change, I was tempted to pretend keying his car, but I didn't. I just sort of stared at it. He came out and we had a conversation. Well, I talked but he communicated his side of the conversation very effectively with gestures. He's proud of his pretend sportscar (but he does have a mimed bumper sticker on it that says "MY OTHER CAR EXISTS") and likes his job. He works for the worldwide sinister conspiracy that watches over us all! He doesn't do the spying work, though. He's a technical writer. He takes all the data from the spying, and the Panopticon camera, and so forth, and compiles that information into the clean, concise, glossy-photo dossiers that you always see the conspiracy has in the movies. There's a lot of hard work in collating all that data into a meaningful dossier, but it's engaging work that uses his skills, and the benefits are great, so he's pretty happy. Technically, he's not allowed to talk about it, but, you know, technically, he didn't. |
| Thursday, November 5th, 2009 |
told_tales
[ takemeto_utopia ]
|
11:49a |
|
| Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 |
sturgeonslawyer
|
5:58p |
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richlayers
|
4:39p |
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emo_snal
|
11:36p |
LJ Idol - Topic 2 - Smile
Hurghada, Egypt, last night, 2:25am - "Dude, that's a 200!" Mark informed me impatiently
"Yes, that is a 200," also sounding impatient, the taxi driver weighed in on the subject. I, however, hate to take anyone's word for anything, much less how much money I'm pulling out of my wallet, so I continued to hold the bill in the dim light of the window looking for clues. Because I'm OCD like that I always arrange the bills in my wallet largest to smallest, and had pulled it from the back, so everything pointed to it in fact being a 200 but still, when pulling a bill worth 50 USD out of my wallet I'm going to need visual verification on that.
Being as the digits we use with the latin alphabet (123 etc) are "arabic numerals" I was surprised to learn that apparently modern arabic has new, utterly different, "arabic" numerals. So the money in Egypt is printed with "arabic numerals" on one side and "arabic" numerals on the other. Additionally the numbers are written small and in only two corners of each side, so I had to turn the bill over several times and really squint before I could see for myself that it did, in fact, have a 2 followed by two 0s on it. I handed it over to Mark who impatiently forwarded it to the taxi driver and it disappeared behind the front seat.
The original fare my local friend Michael had negotiated with the driver was 20 pounds. Because taxi drivers try to scam us every time practically without fail I make it a point to clarify the rate the moment I'm in the car. Unfortunately this time it was too late. Michael said 20, we got in the car, the door closed, I asked "20 right?" and as the car pulled away the driver said "no, 50!"
Mark tried arguing with the driver the entire drive back (which wasn't more than 10 minutes, definitely no more than a 20 pound fare in these parts) but only managed to get it down to 40. Still ridiculous but $10 isn't goign to kill me and I knew it wasn't worth getting my blood in a boil over something that wasn't going to change.
Egyptians for some reason HATE making change. It is their least favourite thing. They would rather you asked them to eat a pineapple whole than make change for a 100 or 200 pound bill. Incidentally ATMs only dispense 100 or 200 pound bills.
Mark had smaller bills but for some reason in order to make change with what the driver had he wanted a 200 from me. I wasn't really sure what kind of silly math he was up to, I was tired and anxious to get back to the hotel to pack my stuff in the 20 minutes we had before the bus left for Cairo, and not entirely sober because we'd spent one last evening at a club with our local friends.
"Dude you gave him a 20!" admonishes Mark disapprovingly, as a bill comes back over the seat. The first thing I notice is that even in the dim light I can tell its not the same colour bill I just handed over. The driver is insisting that I handed him a 20 and not a 200. Between the two of them telling me it was a 200 originally and pulling it out of the back of my wallet and seeing the 200 with my own eyes before handing it over I don't think I could possibly be more certain I'd handed him a 200. Egypt!
Funny thing, we can make correct change now that there's a 20 mysteriously floating about. Arguing that it was a 200 is utterly fruitless so I just count it as a loss and proceed to the hotel more or less totally pissed off.
Arriving at the hotel we are met by our companion Aaron coming out with several bags, including mine. "Fuck you guys, I had to pack your stuff for you" he says in as friendly a manner as one can say that.
Now, like with my wallet, I don't ever like to have to take anyone's word for that my stuff is packed, and like having my bills in a certain order, I like to have my stuff packed in a certain order (stuff I'm less likely to need on the bottom). Now recall also that I was already totally pissed off.
"What?! Why'd you do that???"
"You guys weren't here, the bus leaves in 20 minutes!"
"I could pack my stuff TWICE in twenty minutes!!"
Aaron's wife Amalie chimes in: "Well we have to check out fifteen minutes before we leave, and that is now"
"Well I could pack while you check out then!"
"No you couldn't" says she. If she were a dude I think I might have punched her. Instead I go do exactly what she said I couldn't possibly be able to do. I go to the room. Inside I look everywhere I've put anything and it all seems to not be left behind at least.
But between being cheated out of $50 for a $5 cab ride, having my stuff packed by someone else, and being given attitude about it, I'm veritably seething at this point.
Throughout the trip we'd heard about what a miserably filthy place Cairo is. As we drove towards it this morning you could tell where it was on the horizon by the black smog around it. However to get to this internet cafe (computer use: 3 egyptian pounds an hour -- that's 68 cents!!) I walked maybe a mile down a crowded street alone at night (well 10pm) and no one bothered me. Cars and taxis (all 80s era volkswagon vans painted white, and they drive with the sliding passenger door open) share the road with donkey carts and herds of sheep and goats (yes in the middle of Cairo!) (no pigs though, apparently they had them ALL killed due to misplaced swine-flu fears. Trash they normally ate is consequently building up on the streets), and pedestrians. (Michael commented on once traveling to Amsterdam and finding "there are so many rules! About when you can cross the street and where you can walk...")
Despite the shenanigans of this morning and dire warnings about this city from everyone we'd talked to earlier in the trip who'd been here, and especially despite that I ordinarily HATE big cities, I found myself walking down the crowded street an hour ago (composing this entry in my head while doing so ;) ) and smiling.
Sometimes I think the best part about a vacation is when the plan goes completely out the window and things go haywire. When I drove around three states in New England by myself during Epic Roadtrip 2007, when the itinerary was already totally out the window by day 3 of Epic Roadtrip 2008, unplanned marooning in Portland last October, when Kerri an I accidentally became separated in Zaragoza, Spain, last May ... these were all some of my favourite times of the trips.
Some people hate to travel because they're stressed out about what they'll do if their plans go awry. Some people travel but then are miserably upset when plans DO go awry. Some people stress about staying on itinerary and make their companions miserable in so doing. I think the secret to enjoying your vacation is remembering that you're on vacation. Don't stress. Remember that the very reason you travel is to experience things. (:
Cairo, Egypt, the next day, 23:45 - I wash my hands and the bathroom attendant hands me a paper towel. I mumble "shukren" (sp? Arabic for thank-you) and turn to exit the airport bathroom, but the attendant blocks my path in a "none shall pass!" manner and puts out his hand for a tip.
I place a 1 pound bill in his hand and start to step forward but he doesn't budge, making another "give me money" gesture and holding up two fingers. This is a bit saucy since I know one pound is an entirely acceptable tip for handing me paper towels. I open my wallet and show him I don't HAVE any more one pound bills -- the smallest I have is a ten. He points at it eagerly. HAH. "Can you give me nine back in change?" I ask him. I don't even know why I was humouring him this much, I guess I was in a good mood, and anyway I didn't expect him to be able to (recall, they loathe making change). He nods enthusiastically so I skeptically hand him the ten. He hands me back 5 shiny one pound coins. "Hah are you serious?!" I exclaim, followed by "whatever dude" and I go on my way shaking my head, and smiling. It's only about $1.10 anyway.
As counterintuitive as it may seem, because of it I had a smile all the way back to my gate. It was just.. so Egypt. Such a fitting end for my stay.
Picture that Should Have Been Posted Last Week of the Day
Sunrise over Mt Sinai. I finally managed to upload some pictures at an internet cafe so I put up the ones pertaining to the trek up Mt Sinai I described last week.
Unrelated to LJ Idol Entry, but to those who care -- I'll be arriving in NYC around 6am this Friday (the 6th). I'll be in the general area for about a week (by "general area" I mean I'm liable to rent a car and show up anywhere within say 12 hours driving distance) and have no solid plans (its sort of a vacation from my vacation (which will be followed by a two week vacation from my vacation vacation before I start my next endeavour). So if you want to meet up drop me a line. In particular, the person I'm probably crashing with this first weekend presumably has work during the day on Friday so it might be nice if someone who lives in the city has a place I can stop by during the day and not feel totally homeless all day (: |
told_tales
[ richlayers ]
|
3:46p |
Rapunzel Artwork by Paul O. Zelinsky
 Paul O. Zelinsky won the 1998 Caldecott for his illustrations and retelling of Rapunzel, as well as Caldecott Honors for Hansel and Gretel (1985), Rumpelstiltskin (1987), and Swamp Angel (1995). (I love it when fairy tales win.) ( More illustrations from Rapunzel )The illustrations are gorgeous, as you can see, and Zelinsky also included a nice four page write up at the end about the history of the tale. Naturally I found that part fascinating. The nice thing about this, since it's a Caldecott winner, is that it's easy to get a look at in your library if you don't want to buy it. |
btripp
|
2:40p |
Gee ... another phone interview?
Huh? After six months wherein I'd had just two phone interviews, I've been contacted for TWO this week. Of course, the one that was supposed to be today (and will be tomorrow) is the one that I'm REALLY interested in, but "it wouldn't hurt" to talk to these other folks. The only problem with this new one is that it's out in the suburbs. The sort of suburbs that don't have any public transportaion. Well, that's not quite true ... the aggravation of which is the actual point of this post. There IS a bus, which has a stop one block away from the place that's wanting to talk to me ... with the next stop being in downtown Chicago (an easy bus or El ride from here) ... but it only goes ONE WAY, from the suburbs TO downtown in the morning, and from downtown to the suburbs in the evening. WTF?!!! They have five busses over a 2 hour period in each "shift", but they only go ONE WAY and don't go back out? Do they just park them all day in the Loop? I don't think so! But, pick up a rider in the city ... nooooooooooooo! There appears to literally be no other way (well, Google maps tells me I could walk there in about 6½ hours!) to get there other than driving ... even taking the Metra train leaves you "a 10 minute drive" away (and theoretically, the drive out there is only about a half hour). I do NOT understand how people can LIVE out in places like that! So, when I talk to these folks (and I'm hoping that I'll have an offer from the other place by then so it won't matter) I'll have to let them know that the cost of a vehicle (parking, car, insurance, gas, etc.) will be in my math since they're some place where "city people" can't get to. Grrrr .... this is what I get for growing up in Manhattan! |
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