Wow! I knew I fell off the side of the earth, but I didn't realize for how long! That illness I had left me 50% down for the count for over two weeks. It was bad news bears, as they say. But I managed to emerge from it, finally. I am trying to get my thesis proposal revised and done done by Friday, it has a long way to go.
I am not doing well on any of my goals for this year! I did get and cook something from the Joy of Cooking, and it was good. But you would think by this time I would have cooked more than one thing from there! Working has only been getting done by virtue of the fact that I have dance class twice a week, lost my ID so I have to walk to and from school, and we had Kilties. However, I have noticed that I was not as sore as I usually am after Kilties this month and I have better endurance on my walks to school (though this could be because I have to carry much less back and forth with my light course schedule) and in other activities as well. Need to work more formal exercise into my schedule. I have not been losing weight as a result of my lack of exercise and I blame some of it on Winter! I have, however, decided to go vegetarian for Lent. This occurred as a result of Eric chiding me when I proposed to give up other items that were less sacrificial like red meat or chocolate. At least this way I still get to eat chocolate. I have been doing okay with my hospitality resolution in small ways, like making food for small group meetings almost bi-week. Obviously I have not been as diligent with my work as I could have been. But progress is being made on the thesis process toward me graduating in May. We can all see my lack of achievement of the blog once a week goal. I will try harder, okay? =)
Other stuff I have been up to.... hmm. For Valentine's Day, Eric and I made fondue, which was fun as always. I applied for a job here in Milwaukee that hopefully could start after I graduate. I mention this because the application took many hours to complete! We had Kilties last weekend and it seemed that a number of people were cranky- boo to you people. I took Ryan out for his birthday and then we saw Pat McCurdy at Bar Louie this past Tuesday night , that was a night of a ton of fun. I enjoy Pat McCurdy a great deal because his shows involve audience participation.
Okay I am going back to writing now!
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Ugh!
So the last few days have not been the best. I got the horrible cold that has been going around. I think it is the same one as the rest of my office at school has had, not the one that ski trip people had. Although, who knows? It could be the same thing. I am medicating and staying home. This seems to be the best course of action. Plenty of tissue, liquids, medications, a bed, clothes, blankets, and the bathroom are nice and handy. The problem is that I have a thesis proposal to get done by Tuesday and my head is full of yuck and it feels like I am trying to think through yuck. In case you aren't aware, thinking through yuck is neither effective nor fun.
Objectively worse than this, Eric got laid off yesterday from his job. I say objectively because in my head it is a really bad thing. I told Ryan and he reacted like maybe he/we would be in mourning. But a) Eric is taking it pretty well and is upbeat about it, and b) it didn't totally come out of the blue. This was at least the third round of layoffs the company has done and Eric is a younger member of the staff. Though he, and many others, thought he was indispensable because he is so talented in many different ways. Earlier this week we were watching the news and a story was being reported about Cardinal Stritch wanting to buy property from the Archdiocese of Milwaukee to build a south campus and the hearing that was going to occur. In the background of the footage were posters that Eric had made for the proposal. As Eric noted last night it was ironic that in one week his work was on TV and then he lost his job. Thankfully Eric isn't currently paying rent since he is living in his aunt's house which is up for sale. But they seem to be trying to sell the house as they have several showings and an open house this weekend. Like I said, Eric seems upbeat about the whole thing and has some ideas about where to seek new and possibly different employment... after he plays some video games :). Just kidding, I am sure he will get right on the job search though it is a stressful process that will probably require some stress relief in the form of said video game playing. Selfishly, I must admit I am wondering what this is going to do for my schedule. I thought I had the perfect thing going with my days all scheduled so that I would get my work done while Eric was working. Us, you know, still being in that "You're the greatest ever, I want to spend every waking moment with you" phase may make sticking to my schedule more difficult. So, for my sake alone I hope he finds a new job soon. You all know that is tongue in cheek, right? On the other hand, this could be a blessing in disguise because, based on my research, he is worth a lot more than he has been getting paid. Of course his value is in large part a virtue of that job as it has given him three years of experience, brought him some great contacts here in Milwaukee, helped him really get to know many of the environmental issues in Milwaukee, and learn how to navigate the bureaucratic channels in the state. So hopefully he will be able to find a better job nearby and not have to go to Madison or Chicago.
In other news, I seem to be drawn to the crazy stuff people do on the Internet these days. My dad sent me a note about a book about Dating and Dumping in LA by Zagat, but he didn't send me a link to the article he was talking about so I had to search for it and along the way I found the following trainwreck: http://www.okcupid.com/forum?low=1&tid=7223997838631196585 I cannot believe this girl did not have the evaluative skills to conclude that she had made a series of errors, should be embarrassed, say "Shame on him, but shame on me too," and move on with her life. Instead she writes a very popular note about it. The reader can almost feel bad for her, then a previous blog is exposed where she admits that she posted fake pictures of herself. When a potential beau decides he doesn't want to meet her after she reveals this deception she concludes that it is because he is superficial. Thankfully plenty of people are there to point out that if he is a decent guy he probably doesn't want to be lied to and deception is not a good foundation for a relationship. What is sad about the situation is that in both of her posts it is apparent that she has a personality that is attractive to at least some men, in the more recent case her appearance does get in the way, and in the earlier case her perception of her appearance got in the way. In a trite way we could say "Honesty is the best policy," but according to jerk-boy he would have have dated her if he knew her true weight. Of course, no one wants to date superficial jerk-boy, or know that they are. Mention of this instance would be funny in passing if I didn't have the sense that maybe this is only one in many similar situations. As I read this I stopped and thought about the possibility that I knew the girl who wrote these messages. I went back and read them again to convince myself that the writing style was not the same. These are very real issues in online dating- the FBS, which I had never heard of before reading the comments for this posting, whether to reveal ones real weight, whether to post pictures that are accurate portrayals of ones appearance or the super foxy done up ones, and how to deal with the pond scum that sometimes surface in online dating sites.
Then a new Facebook scandal with local tie-ins. http://www.jsonline.com/news/39091967.html Apparently a student at a high school in New Berlin, WI pretended to be a girl and used Facebook at AIM to illicit nude photos of boys at his high school. He then blackmailed the boys threatening to release the photos if they did not perform sexual favors for him. Wow! First the texting nude photos- porn charges, now this.... yowsers.
Okay, I think that is enough warm up for my proposal writing. My head feels a little bit more clear than it did when I started writing.
Objectively worse than this, Eric got laid off yesterday from his job. I say objectively because in my head it is a really bad thing. I told Ryan and he reacted like maybe he/we would be in mourning. But a) Eric is taking it pretty well and is upbeat about it, and b) it didn't totally come out of the blue. This was at least the third round of layoffs the company has done and Eric is a younger member of the staff. Though he, and many others, thought he was indispensable because he is so talented in many different ways. Earlier this week we were watching the news and a story was being reported about Cardinal Stritch wanting to buy property from the Archdiocese of Milwaukee to build a south campus and the hearing that was going to occur. In the background of the footage were posters that Eric had made for the proposal. As Eric noted last night it was ironic that in one week his work was on TV and then he lost his job. Thankfully Eric isn't currently paying rent since he is living in his aunt's house which is up for sale. But they seem to be trying to sell the house as they have several showings and an open house this weekend. Like I said, Eric seems upbeat about the whole thing and has some ideas about where to seek new and possibly different employment... after he plays some video games :). Just kidding, I am sure he will get right on the job search though it is a stressful process that will probably require some stress relief in the form of said video game playing. Selfishly, I must admit I am wondering what this is going to do for my schedule. I thought I had the perfect thing going with my days all scheduled so that I would get my work done while Eric was working. Us, you know, still being in that "You're the greatest ever, I want to spend every waking moment with you" phase may make sticking to my schedule more difficult. So, for my sake alone I hope he finds a new job soon. You all know that is tongue in cheek, right? On the other hand, this could be a blessing in disguise because, based on my research, he is worth a lot more than he has been getting paid. Of course his value is in large part a virtue of that job as it has given him three years of experience, brought him some great contacts here in Milwaukee, helped him really get to know many of the environmental issues in Milwaukee, and learn how to navigate the bureaucratic channels in the state. So hopefully he will be able to find a better job nearby and not have to go to Madison or Chicago.
In other news, I seem to be drawn to the crazy stuff people do on the Internet these days. My dad sent me a note about a book about Dating and Dumping in LA by Zagat, but he didn't send me a link to the article he was talking about so I had to search for it and along the way I found the following trainwreck: http://www.okcupid.com/forum?low=1&tid=7223997838631196585 I cannot believe this girl did not have the evaluative skills to conclude that she had made a series of errors, should be embarrassed, say "Shame on him, but shame on me too," and move on with her life. Instead she writes a very popular note about it. The reader can almost feel bad for her, then a previous blog is exposed where she admits that she posted fake pictures of herself. When a potential beau decides he doesn't want to meet her after she reveals this deception she concludes that it is because he is superficial. Thankfully plenty of people are there to point out that if he is a decent guy he probably doesn't want to be lied to and deception is not a good foundation for a relationship. What is sad about the situation is that in both of her posts it is apparent that she has a personality that is attractive to at least some men, in the more recent case her appearance does get in the way, and in the earlier case her perception of her appearance got in the way. In a trite way we could say "Honesty is the best policy," but according to jerk-boy he would have have dated her if he knew her true weight. Of course, no one wants to date superficial jerk-boy, or know that they are. Mention of this instance would be funny in passing if I didn't have the sense that maybe this is only one in many similar situations. As I read this I stopped and thought about the possibility that I knew the girl who wrote these messages. I went back and read them again to convince myself that the writing style was not the same. These are very real issues in online dating- the FBS, which I had never heard of before reading the comments for this posting, whether to reveal ones real weight, whether to post pictures that are accurate portrayals of ones appearance or the super foxy done up ones, and how to deal with the pond scum that sometimes surface in online dating sites.
Then a new Facebook scandal with local tie-ins. http://www.jsonline.com/news/39091967.html Apparently a student at a high school in New Berlin, WI pretended to be a girl and used Facebook at AIM to illicit nude photos of boys at his high school. He then blackmailed the boys threatening to release the photos if they did not perform sexual favors for him. Wow! First the texting nude photos- porn charges, now this.... yowsers.
Okay, I think that is enough warm up for my proposal writing. My head feels a little bit more clear than it did when I started writing.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Ski Trip!
So I am sitting here listening to a bunch of music from Songza.com, a site that Eric introduced to me. I am enjoying it because I am having trouble putting money or effort into my Ipod, it is good enough for running right now, but it is fun to be able to check out some other music that I am not familiar with. For example, last semester when I was writing my dance critique I used Songza to listed to some of the music the pieces were set to and it helped to remind me of what had happened. Also, my friend Tiffany likes a band called Griffin House and so I am listening to some of their music right now. It is pretty good- nice guitar and lyrics. And I can listen to some music to get Beyonce out of my head!!
I am trying to get down to business on my thesis but I have to uphold my blog resolution! I have set a goal to get a first draft of my thesis proposal done by Feb. 10, that is one week from now so I better get writing and revising! But first a little on the ski trip this past weekend:
The trip is an annual trip for Eric and his friends, their significant others, and some other fantastic people. This year ten people made up the group and we stayed in a great chalet close to the ski hill. The chalet had four bedrooms and two baths. It could have slept 20, if my calculations are correct. It had two gathering areas with TV's, a kitchen, dining table, and best of all a spa outside. We also had access to the indoor pool, spa, and workout room at the lodge for the ski resort. There isn't much to say other than that it was a great trip. I think fun was had by all. I certainly had a great time. I learned to ski. Unbelieveable. It is sort of unbelieveable that I had never learned to ski before, but then that I learned at my ancient age.... =)... that is pretty cool. I guess I was doing pretty good, at least that is what people told me. It was fun going down hills, except that I would start going too fast and panic, forget what I was supposed to do to slow down and instead throw myself into the ground- it is a pretty effective way to stop. The first four or so times it did not hurt to fall, but two of my falls hurt. I have always thought that skiing was a leisure time activity, but it really is a sport. It uses a lot of muscles! I started the weekend pretty sore from Kilties and overdoing the sautes in jazz class, which was bad news for skiing. But I survived with the help of many showers, dips in both outdoor and indoor spas, Advil, and stretching. I am looking forward to going skiing another time when I do not start out in pain! Yipppee!
I am trying to get down to business on my thesis but I have to uphold my blog resolution! I have set a goal to get a first draft of my thesis proposal done by Feb. 10, that is one week from now so I better get writing and revising! But first a little on the ski trip this past weekend:
The trip is an annual trip for Eric and his friends, their significant others, and some other fantastic people. This year ten people made up the group and we stayed in a great chalet close to the ski hill. The chalet had four bedrooms and two baths. It could have slept 20, if my calculations are correct. It had two gathering areas with TV's, a kitchen, dining table, and best of all a spa outside. We also had access to the indoor pool, spa, and workout room at the lodge for the ski resort. There isn't much to say other than that it was a great trip. I think fun was had by all. I certainly had a great time. I learned to ski. Unbelieveable. It is sort of unbelieveable that I had never learned to ski before, but then that I learned at my ancient age.... =)... that is pretty cool. I guess I was doing pretty good, at least that is what people told me. It was fun going down hills, except that I would start going too fast and panic, forget what I was supposed to do to slow down and instead throw myself into the ground- it is a pretty effective way to stop. The first four or so times it did not hurt to fall, but two of my falls hurt. I have always thought that skiing was a leisure time activity, but it really is a sport. It uses a lot of muscles! I started the weekend pretty sore from Kilties and overdoing the sautes in jazz class, which was bad news for skiing. But I survived with the help of many showers, dips in both outdoor and indoor spas, Advil, and stretching. I am looking forward to going skiing another time when I do not start out in pain! Yipppee!
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Chop Chop and Cupcakes
This is where this blog pay homage to the many fantastic cooking blogs that are out there.
Marinate in refrigerator for about two hours. Pour contents of bag into a baking dish that is just larger than the chicken breasts so that they are in one layer on the bottom of the dish. Bake at 375 for 31 minutes or 
until lightly browned. Chop chicken into smaller than bite size pieces.
We used an 8 oz package of Vigo Yellow Rice and a can of black beans.
Toppings:
On Sunday I decided to celebrate Eric's half-birthday. Not for any particular reason per se, just as something to do. So I had a recipe for double chocolate cupcakes with banana filling that I wanted to make and Eric wanted some Chop-Chop, so, it being his celebration, I obliged.
Chop Chop is a food I discovered while at the University of Miami. It is fantastic stuff that is served at a medium speed food place called Chicken Kitchen. In it's most basic form it is just chicken and rice. I make a version of the Cuban Chop-chop with yellow rice (at CK it comes with white rice) which involves black beans, lettuce, tomato, and mustard-curry sauce.
The chicken- figure about one breast for each person, the following is for two breasts
Combine in a gallon ziploc bag:
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
juice of 1/2 lime
The chicken- figure about one breast for each person, the following is for two breasts
Combine in a gallon ziploc bag:
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
juice of 1/2 lime
1/4 cup orange juice
1 teaspoon curry
Marinate in refrigerator for about two hours. Pour contents of bag into a baking dish that is just larger than the chicken breasts so that they are in one layer on the bottom of the dish. Bake at 375 for 31 minutes or 
until lightly browned. Chop chicken into smaller than bite size pieces.The sauce
1 cup mayonaise
1 tablespoons yellow mustard
1 tablespoon curry powder
adjust to taste
adjust to taste
We used an 8 oz package of Vigo Yellow Rice and a can of black beans.
Toppings:Shredded lettuce
Diced tomatoes
Grated Cheddar Cheese
Grated Cheddar Cheese
You can put it together however you want. I tend to put mine in a large bowl or on a plate in the following order: yellow rice, black beans, chicken, cheese, lettuce, tomato, and sauce. Be liberal with the sauce, it is the best and key part!
The final product. Yum!!Before this we made the cupcakes which was a bit of a process. Eric served as my assistant as I was cooking at his place so I could say, "Okay, I need four, sugar, baking powder..." and he brought them. What more could a cook ask for? And he showed me how to correctly use the KitchenAid, which I LOVED!!! Makes stuff so much easier. If Aunt Sharon had one of these we would not have burned up the motor of her hand mixer making cinnamon rolls for Christmas.
I made cupcakes from http://the-cupcakery-blog.blogspot.com/ week 2. To be honest they didn't go so great but I think that is because it is so sticking dry here that as they cooled they lost a lot of moisture too. Also this was my first time filling cupcakes and I didn't really have good technique (and I was trying to do it while talking on the phone, don't tell my dad). There weren't directions explaining how to fill the cupcakes so I got a frosting bag, tips, and a coupler and filled the bag with the banana pudding. Eric thought the hole in my tip was too big, I believe it was a #21, but I think it worked okay. What I needed to do was be less gentle. The picture I had in my head was that I would break through the top of the cupcake and then the pudding would push into the cupcake. That didn't really happen and by the end I figured that what I needed to do was push all the way down to the bottom and then squeeze as I pulled the tube out. Oh well. Live and learn. Then, since I don't like frosting I topped the cupcakes with ganache. The recipe I used wasn't quite sweet enough for me. I will try again sometime. We took pictures so I will share them.
Eric licking the beater, a bad habit he didn't exhibit a few weeks ago, I blame myself. He is just getting started on the day in which he may have consumed more chocolate than any other day in memory. Also you can see the work area as we are getting ready to pour the cupcakes.
Cooling on wax paper.
Done! -->
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Make Up Blog
Today I went to the gym and had a great workout. I kicked butt and got my butt kicked in equal measure, it was wonderful! I warmed up on the actual track that goes around the second floor of the gym, and then I went on the elliptical for 20 minutes on one of the interval programs. Fantastic. I thought my legs were going to fall off, and I do not like to go backwards, but it was good. Then I did my stretching and on to the weight machines. It really is a meat market in there and not too much fun. I am thinking about joining a gym with Eric out in Pewaukee. It seems foolish considering I can go to the UWM gym for free but I though it would be cool for us to do it together and might get both of us to go. Tomorrow is yoga at UWM at noon, but it is supposed to be super cold and I don’t really want to go out in all that craziness, we will see, maybe I will drive to save myself a few blocks of walking – hey, they say ten minutes out there can get you frostbite, who wants that?
Okay, so Tri-coastalism. The title is pretty simple, as it turns out. So I am from the Los Angeles area and I went to college in Miami—two coasts. There are apparently many people who commute from the West Coast to the East Coast and they call that bi-coastalism. Now I live near the coast of Lake Michigan -- third coast, hence Tri-coastalism.
Now for Eric: When I first mentioned doing a blog he was not so happy about the idea. He said lots of people simply use blogs to complain about petty stuff or talk about specific issues of some sort. I don’t know what the problem with the later is; I could easily turn this into a cooking blog, though I think there are many of those out there. But after reading what I have written he seems to be okay with it. He says I write about a lot of different interesting stuff. I hope that is the reality of the situation. I just want to write about stuff I am thinking about or stuff that happens to me. Learn to use the word stuff less. I don’t really have all that much to complain about per se. My life is pretty good. I think Eric was concerned that I was going to create drama with my blog or something, write about his deep, dark secrets. Ha! I don’t know all his deep, dark secrets yet. In that area there are other people who should be more worried. I just want to think more, be more thoughtful, and writing might help me achieve that goal.
Okay, so Tri-coastalism. The title is pretty simple, as it turns out. So I am from the Los Angeles area and I went to college in Miami—two coasts. There are apparently many people who commute from the West Coast to the East Coast and they call that bi-coastalism. Now I live near the coast of Lake Michigan -- third coast, hence Tri-coastalism.
Now for Eric: When I first mentioned doing a blog he was not so happy about the idea. He said lots of people simply use blogs to complain about petty stuff or talk about specific issues of some sort. I don’t know what the problem with the later is; I could easily turn this into a cooking blog, though I think there are many of those out there. But after reading what I have written he seems to be okay with it. He says I write about a lot of different interesting stuff. I hope that is the reality of the situation. I just want to write about stuff I am thinking about or stuff that happens to me. Learn to use the word stuff less. I don’t really have all that much to complain about per se. My life is pretty good. I think Eric was concerned that I was going to create drama with my blog or something, write about his deep, dark secrets. Ha! I don’t know all his deep, dark secrets yet. In that area there are other people who should be more worried. I just want to think more, be more thoughtful, and writing might help me achieve that goal.
CES and Job Search
Stuff from the Consumer Electronics Show:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28547936/displaymode/1107/s/2/framenumber/7/
I am not sure if there are one or two monitors attached to this thing, but in either case, isn’t he REALLY close to the screen? My mommy always told me to sit further away from the screen so you don’t have to move your head to see the corners of the screen.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28547936/displaymode/1107/s/2/framenumber/10/
Since Brad’s digital watch broke, maybe this would be a good replacement!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28547936/displaymode/1107/s/2/framenumber/12/
This doesn’t seem like a big deal at first. Big whoop: we can connect a bunch of monitors to the same USB port, what’s so special about that? It doesn’t seem like it would be that difficult but for some reason it is. When I taught high school, I did a ton of PowerPoint presentations to present notes to my students, this required a projector, and when I showed the presentations I had to unplug the output from the monitor and plug in the projector. I had one of those y cord attachments that was supposed to make this work, actually I got a few of them, but they never worked – I could not have the monitor and the projector showing the image at the same time. I think strength of signal is a problem, so just as when you plug in a bunch of headphones to the same CD/tape/MP3 player you need an amplifier, so maybe an amplifier is needed in this case. I think this a good innovation that I hope goes mainstream so others don’t have to crawl on the floor multiple times per day like I did.
Job Search
On Friday I decided to freak out about my financial situation and get going on trying to find a job. This brings to mind the paper one of my students wrote about informal and formal methods of finding jobs. Informal is getting a job through people you know; formal is using job placement services or responding to job ads. I had filled out an application for a job that one of my professors had suggested, but didn’t want to put all my eggs in one basket so I headed to milwaukeejobs.com. I have never had any luck with these general job search sites. I have applied to many jobs but received little to no response. But, hey, these people are looking for people to work for them, right? I am not so sure sometimes. One should get a response if they are qualified for the job, right? Maybe, as it turns out. Think of the number of responses people might get for an ad in economic times like now when there are many people in need of jobs. The number is pretty big. And the range of people is probably large also. From totally under qualified to way overqualified. If you have one job and you get even 150 responses you are giving a quick glance and move on to these applications. Well at least for the relatively low skill, part-time jobs I am looking for. I guess this scenario highlights the importance of a good resume. I used to work for an employment agency and fix other people’s resumes so, at least at some point, I had a killer resume. I have not, as I have mentioned, had any luck with online job sites. I don’t know what it is. But my lack of success has conditioned me to not put much effort into my application procedure. I use to fill out the cover letter sections for each job highlighting my specific related experience, but no more. “Why do it if I am not going to get any response anyway?” was my thinking. Experts would probably disagree with meJ. Anyway, typically I get jobs the informal way. Let’s catalog my jobs, don’t you think that will be fun? My first job was at Conroy’s Flowers and I got it through my Dad. Then I got a babysitting job through my neighbor who was also my Mom’s hairdresser. Then I went to college and I got a job at a children’s dental office which I found on the campus jobs list. I got another babysitting job the same way there. Then I got a job assisting a professor at CSULB who was a family friend. A Day Camp job at my church with my friend. A bunch of jobs through a temp agency. A job at a mental health provider’s group that was in the CSULB campus newspaper. My first teaching job I got because of Brad. My second teaching job was from an Internet site in CA for teaching jobs, so I guess I haven’t totally failed with the Internet. Here in Milwaukee I got a job through one of the regulars at Ryan’s coffee shop. Last summer’s job was through one of the students ahead of me in the Soc program. And then I got a job today on a project of the professor I TA’d for last year and was recommended for it by one of my other professors. By my count that is 8 jobs informally and 5 jobs formally. Not so bad, I guess. But none received from Monster or any of those other big sites. So I don’t know about those, I don’t know of anyone who has gotten a job that way. Have you?
This job search thing is becoming more acute of an issue as many people, as mentioned, are in need of jobs. A relatively close acquaintance lost his job in the last week and it freaked me out. I immediately sent Eric a frantic email looking for assurance that he is not going lose his job. It is scary! Not many of the people around my age are secure enough to be able to manage losing a job. As one of the teachers at Lancaster High School said to me, we are in the acquisition phase of our lives. Thus we also tend to be in a lot of debt- student loan, credit card, car payment, and some people have a mortgage. I could go on about consumerism and overextending ourselves but I will save that topic for another time. In any case losing income makes it almost impossible to make all those payments. For myself, I have always had a cushion of mutual funds, but those babies have sunk like a rock in fresh water over the past year. These economic times are not comfortable for anyone, I don’t think. I read in Newsweek about the super rich cutting back on their conspicuous consumption because it is not cool to have a super expensive something-or-other when other super rich people have lost half of their wealth. Anyway, I will again be in search of a job in May, or maybe August as I will probably be in Milwaukee another year. If I can find a job in May that will last a year, that would be great.
So I didn’t follow up on the teasers from last time, maybe next time!! And I should probably write a little about my cooking too, that could be fun!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28547936/displaymode/1107/s/2/framenumber/7/
I am not sure if there are one or two monitors attached to this thing, but in either case, isn’t he REALLY close to the screen? My mommy always told me to sit further away from the screen so you don’t have to move your head to see the corners of the screen.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28547936/displaymode/1107/s/2/framenumber/10/
Since Brad’s digital watch broke, maybe this would be a good replacement!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28547936/displaymode/1107/s/2/framenumber/12/
This doesn’t seem like a big deal at first. Big whoop: we can connect a bunch of monitors to the same USB port, what’s so special about that? It doesn’t seem like it would be that difficult but for some reason it is. When I taught high school, I did a ton of PowerPoint presentations to present notes to my students, this required a projector, and when I showed the presentations I had to unplug the output from the monitor and plug in the projector. I had one of those y cord attachments that was supposed to make this work, actually I got a few of them, but they never worked – I could not have the monitor and the projector showing the image at the same time. I think strength of signal is a problem, so just as when you plug in a bunch of headphones to the same CD/tape/MP3 player you need an amplifier, so maybe an amplifier is needed in this case. I think this a good innovation that I hope goes mainstream so others don’t have to crawl on the floor multiple times per day like I did.
Job Search
On Friday I decided to freak out about my financial situation and get going on trying to find a job. This brings to mind the paper one of my students wrote about informal and formal methods of finding jobs. Informal is getting a job through people you know; formal is using job placement services or responding to job ads. I had filled out an application for a job that one of my professors had suggested, but didn’t want to put all my eggs in one basket so I headed to milwaukeejobs.com. I have never had any luck with these general job search sites. I have applied to many jobs but received little to no response. But, hey, these people are looking for people to work for them, right? I am not so sure sometimes. One should get a response if they are qualified for the job, right? Maybe, as it turns out. Think of the number of responses people might get for an ad in economic times like now when there are many people in need of jobs. The number is pretty big. And the range of people is probably large also. From totally under qualified to way overqualified. If you have one job and you get even 150 responses you are giving a quick glance and move on to these applications. Well at least for the relatively low skill, part-time jobs I am looking for. I guess this scenario highlights the importance of a good resume. I used to work for an employment agency and fix other people’s resumes so, at least at some point, I had a killer resume. I have not, as I have mentioned, had any luck with online job sites. I don’t know what it is. But my lack of success has conditioned me to not put much effort into my application procedure. I use to fill out the cover letter sections for each job highlighting my specific related experience, but no more. “Why do it if I am not going to get any response anyway?” was my thinking. Experts would probably disagree with meJ. Anyway, typically I get jobs the informal way. Let’s catalog my jobs, don’t you think that will be fun? My first job was at Conroy’s Flowers and I got it through my Dad. Then I got a babysitting job through my neighbor who was also my Mom’s hairdresser. Then I went to college and I got a job at a children’s dental office which I found on the campus jobs list. I got another babysitting job the same way there. Then I got a job assisting a professor at CSULB who was a family friend. A Day Camp job at my church with my friend. A bunch of jobs through a temp agency. A job at a mental health provider’s group that was in the CSULB campus newspaper. My first teaching job I got because of Brad. My second teaching job was from an Internet site in CA for teaching jobs, so I guess I haven’t totally failed with the Internet. Here in Milwaukee I got a job through one of the regulars at Ryan’s coffee shop. Last summer’s job was through one of the students ahead of me in the Soc program. And then I got a job today on a project of the professor I TA’d for last year and was recommended for it by one of my other professors. By my count that is 8 jobs informally and 5 jobs formally. Not so bad, I guess. But none received from Monster or any of those other big sites. So I don’t know about those, I don’t know of anyone who has gotten a job that way. Have you?
This job search thing is becoming more acute of an issue as many people, as mentioned, are in need of jobs. A relatively close acquaintance lost his job in the last week and it freaked me out. I immediately sent Eric a frantic email looking for assurance that he is not going lose his job. It is scary! Not many of the people around my age are secure enough to be able to manage losing a job. As one of the teachers at Lancaster High School said to me, we are in the acquisition phase of our lives. Thus we also tend to be in a lot of debt- student loan, credit card, car payment, and some people have a mortgage. I could go on about consumerism and overextending ourselves but I will save that topic for another time. In any case losing income makes it almost impossible to make all those payments. For myself, I have always had a cushion of mutual funds, but those babies have sunk like a rock in fresh water over the past year. These economic times are not comfortable for anyone, I don’t think. I read in Newsweek about the super rich cutting back on their conspicuous consumption because it is not cool to have a super expensive something-or-other when other super rich people have lost half of their wealth. Anyway, I will again be in search of a job in May, or maybe August as I will probably be in Milwaukee another year. If I can find a job in May that will last a year, that would be great.
So I didn’t follow up on the teasers from last time, maybe next time!! And I should probably write a little about my cooking too, that could be fun!
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Rant on Technology
We are all well aware that technology is expanding and in some ways taking over our lives in unpleasant ways, if we let it. Of course advances in technology can be good. GPS helps us get where we want to go and find lost hikers. Computers make finding and transferring information easier, faster, and more efficient. I am certainly happy that I do not have to calculate all the statistics that will appear in my thesis by hand, I think all statisticians are happy to have computers. This morning I was watching the Today Show and they have a correspondent at the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas. Last year I followed the CES pretty obsessively because I was temping for a company in Cerritos, CA that makes entertainment chairs and all of their sales people were in Las Vegas. Anyway, the segment on the Today Show featured a new innovation- wireless electricity. There are panels that send out radio waves that are then translated back into electricity in electrical devices. This made me concerned about proper cell replication, seems ripe to be a new cancer causer…. I say with my laptop perched, yep, directly on my lap. But the correspondent pointed out that it is the same as listening to the radio…. Or the fact that you can listen to the radio because there are radio waves flying around. Okay, I guess. Also I am wondering if you have to get all new electric devices or if there will be adapters. Probably both. The examples they showed didn’t work very far away from the panel that was sending out the waves and it was mentioned that maybe you would get these panels installed under your floor or in your walls. Yikes, a lot of renovation! But it could lead to the resurrection of the floor lamp which I feel is being neglected in favor of sconces and other lighting. The more practical thing they showed was charging stations that are being used or will soon be used in vehicles like police cars and fire trucks that charge cell phones, radios, and other devices without cords.
That really wasn’t where I was going with this! What I am annoyed with is the proliferation of communication avenues, our reliance on them, and their varied effectiveness and reliability. So I have a few examples. When I was in CA for my ten day tour (1400+ miles in a car after an 1800+/17 flying adventure) I knew I was going to be in Fresno to see my grandmother for a period of time. My friend Darryl, who I met at the Long Beach Press-Telegram when I was a freshman in high school and he was a junior or senior at Los Alamitos/Orange County High School of the Arts, lives in Clovis these days and I have not seen him in a looooong time. He is my friend on Facebook so I asked him if he wanted to get together, he did, great. Except that my grandma doesn’t have Internet access nor does anyone near her have wireless and I didn’t have Darryl’s phone number. My mistake, of course, and the amount of time I was there was not such that I could meet up with him. But how easily I forgot about such a ubiquitous luxury as the Internet. Second example, Monday afternoon I was at school and knew that my friend Ryan was working at his coffee shop, The Last Drop. If you live around Milwaukee and you haven’t been there you should stop by try some of his delicious sandwiches, and wonderful beverages. You might even drop in when my baked goods are on sale. He recently introduced breakfast sandwiches and one is named after me- it’s the most boring one ;). Okay, okay enough of that – it is my blog and I can plug who I want to. So Ryan was at work, and I text messaged him to find out if he wanted to do something after he was done with work. I sent the message at 4:57, at 6:15 he messaged me back to say that he would have if he had gotten my message before he left. Hrm. What’s with that? Why did it take more than an hour for the message to get to him? Stupid cell phone companies ruined the potential for some great conversation. Oh wait; I had an interesting, though not great, conversation that evening anyway (see previous post). Okay, I have a third example. It is kind of a meta-example as I have several friends who this example could depict. I have a friend; the evidence would support claims that she is a good friend. But she is hard to get a hold of. I know her email, her cell phone number, her address, heck I could drive myself to her home, I have done it before. I know where she works, where her significant other works. She is my friend on Facebook, and maybe elsewhere via the Internet. We have mutual friends, more than a handful of them. I have, at times, used multiple avenues to contact her with no response. Like a communication blitz. And I wonder, do I have the right email address, street address? Has she changed her cell phone number but left the message there? (Brad did that when I convinced him to switch to Verizon so we could talk to each other for free- he had two phones for a while, but used only one.) Was she getting my messages or not? Was she busy? What was going on with her? My point here is that we have grown reliant on technology: we expect it to be easy, fast, and efficient, but sometimes it isn’t. Sometimes the message gets lost, it goes to the wrong place, or we can’t get to it even if it is there. In these times I get frustrated, how about you? Because sometimes you don’t know what’s going on. Did it get from point A to point B? Did I get ignored? I don’t know what it is that we can do about these communication issues. Be patient and persistent is all I can conclude.
In the future: why this blog is called Tri-coastalism and my conversations with Eric about my blog.
That really wasn’t where I was going with this! What I am annoyed with is the proliferation of communication avenues, our reliance on them, and their varied effectiveness and reliability. So I have a few examples. When I was in CA for my ten day tour (1400+ miles in a car after an 1800+/17 flying adventure) I knew I was going to be in Fresno to see my grandmother for a period of time. My friend Darryl, who I met at the Long Beach Press-Telegram when I was a freshman in high school and he was a junior or senior at Los Alamitos/Orange County High School of the Arts, lives in Clovis these days and I have not seen him in a looooong time. He is my friend on Facebook so I asked him if he wanted to get together, he did, great. Except that my grandma doesn’t have Internet access nor does anyone near her have wireless and I didn’t have Darryl’s phone number. My mistake, of course, and the amount of time I was there was not such that I could meet up with him. But how easily I forgot about such a ubiquitous luxury as the Internet. Second example, Monday afternoon I was at school and knew that my friend Ryan was working at his coffee shop, The Last Drop. If you live around Milwaukee and you haven’t been there you should stop by try some of his delicious sandwiches, and wonderful beverages. You might even drop in when my baked goods are on sale. He recently introduced breakfast sandwiches and one is named after me- it’s the most boring one ;). Okay, okay enough of that – it is my blog and I can plug who I want to. So Ryan was at work, and I text messaged him to find out if he wanted to do something after he was done with work. I sent the message at 4:57, at 6:15 he messaged me back to say that he would have if he had gotten my message before he left. Hrm. What’s with that? Why did it take more than an hour for the message to get to him? Stupid cell phone companies ruined the potential for some great conversation. Oh wait; I had an interesting, though not great, conversation that evening anyway (see previous post). Okay, I have a third example. It is kind of a meta-example as I have several friends who this example could depict. I have a friend; the evidence would support claims that she is a good friend. But she is hard to get a hold of. I know her email, her cell phone number, her address, heck I could drive myself to her home, I have done it before. I know where she works, where her significant other works. She is my friend on Facebook, and maybe elsewhere via the Internet. We have mutual friends, more than a handful of them. I have, at times, used multiple avenues to contact her with no response. Like a communication blitz. And I wonder, do I have the right email address, street address? Has she changed her cell phone number but left the message there? (Brad did that when I convinced him to switch to Verizon so we could talk to each other for free- he had two phones for a while, but used only one.) Was she getting my messages or not? Was she busy? What was going on with her? My point here is that we have grown reliant on technology: we expect it to be easy, fast, and efficient, but sometimes it isn’t. Sometimes the message gets lost, it goes to the wrong place, or we can’t get to it even if it is there. In these times I get frustrated, how about you? Because sometimes you don’t know what’s going on. Did it get from point A to point B? Did I get ignored? I don’t know what it is that we can do about these communication issues. Be patient and persistent is all I can conclude.
In the future: why this blog is called Tri-coastalism and my conversations with Eric about my blog.
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