AMERICAblog takes a break from political stories noting a CNN story on a “creepy” new furry lobster, and asks the question I’ve borrowed for my title.
The shortage of posts lately… (and a recommendation)
The shortage of posts lately has basically come down to three things:
1) I’ve been busy with the job-search.
2) My home page has been getting a lot of hits from my craigslist resume, and while I’m too lazy to look through the referers, I have to assume some of them are coming here. I don’t feel comfortable blogging about my job search when prospective employers might be reading here.
3) I’ve been kind of reluctant to take up either too much fun stuff, or anything too controversial politically, because it might seem unprofessional. Now, I grant, pretty much this entire blog is “unprofessional,” and it’s unlikely I’d get hired someplace too hung up on such things. I have no idea if political opinions a “protected category,” but I suppose it’s a moot point, since I pretty well broadcast being some variety of liberal/leftist here. But in any case it’s a point of first impressions, and I’d like to avoid making a bad one.
That said, I have been having SOME fun lately, and two of them merit a quick note here.
First, I discovered Questionable Content last night via Steve Jackson’s recommendation in the Daily Illuminator a few days ago. He described it as a “a modern-day romantic comedy,” but I’d call it Soap Opera for the 20-something set. Without any spoilers, if you’re a Robotech fan, think about the Lisa-Rick-Minmei triangle sans any of the action or sci-fi elements (except a single few non-giant robots, one of them taking the obligatory talking-animal role.)
If you check it out, do yourself a favor and start from the beginning; the art does take a while to evolve, but the character development is the fun part – there aren’t nearly the same sort of random digressive plotlines or degree of geeky weirdness that Sluggy Freelance or GOATS have, so I’d imagine it would be hard to truly pick up from the middle.
One warning: there is some minor profanity at times, so depending on your sense of propriety it may not be work safe.
Second, the link I’ve had for a while for the Space Moose mirror seems to have died; fortunately, there are now several findable on google, one of which at “spacemoose.almostdead.net” had a cool URL and appears to have dropped the substitution of the author’s name with a weird one that the old DrunkAndDisorderly site did. While Space Moose uses quite a bit of profanity (and very frequent attempts to be offensive, with or without profanity), it’s really funny most of the time. Do consider yourself warned before following the link, though.
Caught in the net, “Real Genius” edition.
The character of Lazlo Hollyfeld in the film Real Genius may have been loosely based on a real person:
Chuck claims to be a fairly normal inventor at a large audio equipment manufacturer. But in 1972, Chuck lived in the tunnels beneath Caltech’s student dormitories. Soon thereafter, he moved into the misty realm of Caltech legend, where he apparently still lives today.
His legend played a central role in a recent movie about Caltech, called “Real Genius”. The movie was directed by Martha Coolidge and starred Val Kilmer. In the movie, a burned-out misfit named Lazlo Hollyfeld lives in the tunnels beneath a student dorm, easily recognized as Dabney House.
Found via google, looking for something else entirely.
“Lawyers behaving badly.”
Sometimes I get reminded that being in a fraternity in college was not just about having a supportive bunch of guys around to look after me when I was drinking, and a nice spot to crash on the couch and watch a very large TV set.
Sometimes, like Peter’s wedding, it involves genuinely being reminded of the strength of the friendships I developed there. And sometimes, it involves REALLY funny emails that I’d never have gotten if I’d just hung out with other geeks and Comp. Sci. majors.
I got forwarded a series of emails which apparantly are the legal community’s next answer to Craig Shergold. And apparantly, they’re real.:
The email that roared
The strange tale of a much-forwarded email chain describing “Lawyers behaving badly.”
By David L. Yas
Sadly, when Abdala typed those three syllables of gibberish, she made an electronic record of her own impetuousness, a record that may haunt her for quite some time.
How do I know? Because I was one of roughly seven zillion people who received a copy of the email this week. Thanks to an unstoppable phalanx of forwarders, the brief exchange has made its way to a countless number of attorneys after Korman shared it with a friend and allowed him to share it with a few others.
Fueled by attorneys’ curiosity that a young attorney would fire away at a would-be employee with so much vigor, the email chain made its way from firm to firm with the speed and recklessness of Apolo Ohno after six caffe lattes. It went to Rindler Morgan and Gadsby Hannah, to Mintz Levin and Sally & Fitch, to Nixon Peabody and Wilmer Hale.
It’s been across the state and out of state. And to Europe. Seriously.
And now to my house alumni mailing list, and likely heading to an inbox near you.
I have no idea if it’s legitimate to repost the email forward in its entirety, and to be on the safe side I’m not going to do so here. I am surprised to see that it’s NOT readily available on google yet. Suffice it to say that once someone DOES put it on the web, you’ve got all the keywords you need to find it in the Mass law article. And it’s funny as heck, and funnier still with the context the article provides.
Not that techies are immune to our own brand of idiocy, but I do like to think that the BOFH is fiction.
I’m looking for a job.
As of Friday, February 10th, I am no longer working at my old position at USF.
I was am actively looking for a new position – preferably in the San Francisco Bay Area – and appreciate any leads. My resume is available as a pdf
document or as html.
There are more versions available here, and further information on my job search and professional interests will be available in a few
days.
This post will remain “sticky” until I’ve gotten a job. In any case, to all friends reading here, please wish me luck, and I will probably keep you all posted about my job search in this space.
Update as of 3/11/2006: This is no longer sticky, as I’ve gotten and accepted a job offer. The resumes are about to be updated but I’ll leave a version up for the curious.
It’s Crypto Cat and the Crypto Kids!
Sounds like a bad comic book, right?
But via BoingBoing.net, we find that they’re stars of the NSA children’s outreach site.
They have comments on changes to the site, but in general, I’m just baffled and astounded(*); that they HAVE a ridiculous comicky children’s site to begin with.
(* I was going to say “hornswoggled” but I’m informed that means “fooled.”)
“Accidentally???”
…and 51% of this country really voted to let this guy be second in line to the (metaphorical) big red button?
Cheney Accidentally Shoots Fellow Hunter
WASHINGTON – Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and injured a man during a weekend quail hunting trip in Texas, his spokeswoman said Sunday.
One for the Star Wars fans…
FROM:PRNCSS. L ORGANA
DEAR friend.
I AM PRINCESS LEIA ORGANA ONLY SURVIVOR
OF THE ROYALFAMILY OF ALDERAN (ALDRN).
I AM MOVED TO WRITE YOU THIS LETTER,
THIS WAS IN CONFIDENCE CONSIDERING MY
PRESENT CIRCUMSTANCE AND SITUATION.
I WAS FALSLEY IMPRISONED UPON THE
IMPERIAL BATTLESTATION (“DEATH STAR”)
WHEN MY PLANET WAS HIDEOUSLY DESTROYED
AND ENDED BY THE BVERY BAD SITH LORD
VADER. I ESCAPED ALONG WITH THE AID OF
BRAVE REBELS AND WOOKIES, AND AM NOW I
AM LYING LOW DUE TO THE SITUATION IN
THE 4TH MOON OF YAVIN TILL WHEN THINGS
GETS BETTER. I HAVE CONTROL HERE OF
THE SUM OF $25, MILLIONNN IN IMPERIAL
CREDITS DEPOSITED WITH A SECURITY COMAPNY
FOR SAFEKEEPING ON TATOOINE.
One version of the Nigerian Spam, a-la Star Wars.
“Why he didn’t propose the banning of giant mutant spiders…”
Bush had two BIG initiatives yesterday, it seems — a blue ribbon presidential commission everyone will ignore to produce a report no one will read, and, more dramatically, the banning of that scourge of Western civilization — the human/animal hybrid.
Why he didn’t propose the banning of giant mutant spiders and killer self-aware robots is beyond me. Those are scary fictional crises as well!
(emphasis mine, purely because I love the line.)
Clearly Bush needs to meet Mearls.
“Addicted to oil:” a HUGE credibility gap.
Bush says U.S. addicted to oil
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Bush will say “America is addicted to oil” and must develop technologies to address soaring gasoline prices in a State of the Union speech on Tuesday night that argues against a U.S. retreat from Iraq and the war on terrorism.
Why should we believe that someone an administration which came out of the petroleum/energy industry can or will actually do a damn thing about this supposed addiction? (Especially when it has remained in bed with them through every public bit of “energy policy” since it came to power. And by “administration,” that just doesn’t just mean failed-oilman Bush; remember what Cheney’s background is as well.)
This is by far the funniest thing I’ve seen in the lead-up to SOTU. It’s rather like the head of Phillip Morris saying that the country has a lung-cancer problem.
It’s not a matter of whether you win or lose…
Son, when you participate in sporting events, it’s not whether you win or lose – it’s how drunk you get.
– Homer Simpson
I’ve been approaching today’s state-of-the-union address with some mixture of apprehension and interest; at lunch today, I realized (talking to Marie; it may have been her idea) that the Preznit’s speeches are RIPE for a drinking game, and that there probably already was one. Well, sure enough, I get back to my desk and hit Google and there there are quite a number of “Bush’s speeches” drinking games, as well as a number of State-of-the-Union ones.
Two stood out:
* First, there is a serious attempt at a college-style drinking game*†
* Second, purely satirical version by Will Durst, which he has done for at least some past years.
† the same guy did ones for 2002-2004; the 2005 version was at the current URL had to be dug up on the Wayback Machine
I may print and try the first one tonight. We’ll see, and if I do, we’ll see how drunk I get.
Also worth noting
Arianna Huffington: State of the Union 2006: Make Your Party Plans Now
archibaldtuttle on Daily Kos diaries: The State of the Union Drinking Game Party!
And the intriguing but more general HuffPost Presidential Speech Drinking Game!
WordPress 2?
I’ve upgraded to WordPress 2. It seems to work with my old home-grown theme, and the default it offers is still the 1.5 one, so I’ve kept my custom one for now. So far it looks like most of my plugins work, and the new editor looks cool although may get annoying later. We’ll see.
Anything you viewers notice? Let me know… I may try playing with some alternate themes later.