Advice for Talking to the Unemployed

That last post gave me an idea for another post on general advice for talking to the unemployed.

Here are some things to not say:

Have you tried looking at the classifieds? 
Someone actually suggested this.  A. I must be an idiot if going to the classifieds hasn't occurred to me.  B. Going to the classifieds isn't really with the times, is it?  C. The classifieds aren't really helpful to engineers.

Have you looked at [Insert Big Company Name]?
It's amazing how often one hears this.  Again, I must be an idiot if I haven't looked at Medtronic or Boston Scientific or 3M or whatever.  If you're going to suggest a large company, you had better have a contact for me.  I guess it's OK to suggest a small company because there's a chance that I haven't heard of it, though at least for me, I probably have.

Have you looked at [completely unrelated company]?
I ran into a former coworker at a local conference and he suggested that I look into Oracle.  Now, I'm not a programmer and he knows my engineering discipline isn't related to anything Oracle does.  So if you suggest a company to an unemployed person, at least put a second of thought into whether or not it would be relevant.

OK.  Rant over.

FDA Approval

SEWMOC called me recently to tell me that the project that we had worked on received FDA approval.  He, of course, is excited about it and expected me to share his enthusiasm.  However, this moment was bittersweet for me.  I had imagined this moment for years, and it's weird to think that when it happened that it didn't make me happy. 

Of course, living well is supposed to be the best revenge, but there must be something I can do for revenge, right?  Maybe I'll start donating some money to stem cell research.  They just did a stem cell thing that enabled a blind guy to see.  Maybe with enough time, stem cells will make the medical device I worked on obsolete.  I don't even care if that would mean that my stock goes to zero. 

Advice to people while talking to a former coworker: your good news is most likely not their good news.  Just keep that in mind.  Now, the former coworker will act happy and all that, but don't expect them to really feel the same enthusiasm.

PSA Rejection

I just realized that to you, the reader, my 100th post actually only looks like the 98th.  Oops.  Well, I had two posts in draft and this is one of them.  

One of the recent acting gigs I applied to was to be in a local PSA for swine flu.  Wouldn't that have been fun?  I can't find a link to the other recent PSA, but the one where there's a class and Miss Lee tells everyone to cover their coughs and to get vaccinated.  I feel like I could've easily been one of the students in the class.

Anyway, I didn't get the job.  But I did get a nice personally addressed response:

Sorry for the late reply and thanks so much for your interest. We have filled the roles with other candidates but I really appreciated your interest. If we have other work I will let you know in the future. Best of luck and happy holidays.

I thought that was a nice e-mail to get.  Can't other companies send me a nice rejection letter like this?  I know we're all busy, but because of this e-mail I have a better opinion for the MN Department of Health.  Maybe we'd see other companies less like faceless corporations if they took the time to nicely respond to our employment inquiries. 

The 100th post

So this is my 100th post.  I thought I'd point this out.  Let's go to google analytics to get some stats.

First, my AdSense account is up to $31, so that's kind of cool.  Apparently, it only took 41 clicks to make that money. 

The blog's only been visited 268 times, but 416 different pages have been viewed.  I guess I'm not the next Waiter Rant yet. 

I've had six international visitors from Canada, Sweden, the Philippines, Germany, Lithuania, and Pakistan.  It'd be cool to at least hit each continent once.

There have been visitors from ten US states with (of course) Minnesota having the vast majority of those. 

I can also tell what search terms have led visitors to the site and leading the list with two is the search "Andrew Gold", which was one of my Thanksgiving themed songs of the day.  The most interesting search from the list is "the jetsons "vice president jetson"".  The only search term that lead to more than zero seconds of time on the blog was ""working on" article australia".  I have no idea what they were looking for, but they spent 33 seconds on the site.

For four users, the first page of the blog they read was the andrew gold page.  (There must not be enough out there on this guy, since someone would read my little entry on him.)  For three users, their first page was my Infinite Jest entry.  FYI, I never finished the book.  Oh well.

More posts will come this week, but it's kinda cool that I made it to 100.

Fezziwig's Feast

Disclaimer: This post is a plug for Fezziwig's Feast and I happen to be friends with someone involved with the show.

A few weeks ago, my wife and I went to Fezziwig's Feast.  This is kind of an interactive theater thing like We Gotta Bingo or Tony and Tina's Wedding (other Actors Theater shows) and it's an interactive performance of Dickens' A Christmas Carol.  If you don't know, Fezziwig is Scrooge's former boss and it's like Fezziwig is reading the story to you and people act it out and Fezziwig's family serves the food and all that. 

It's past christmas already, but I want you to keep this in mind for next year.  Also, if you buy the tickets several months ahead of time as I did you save some money. 

The show was a lot of fun.  And it kind of has a more casual feel and if you go to the show at the Guthrie that might be a little more stuffy.  Also, if you're not a big fan of interactive theater, there really isn't that much interaction.  You talk to the other characters when they serve food and a few other occasions, but it's not like you're going to be dragged onto stage to do some silly dance like in other shows.

Food was good too.  The menu was roasted pork with collard greens and polenta with bread pudding for dessert.  The food was very good (except the collards, but I've actually never liked collard greens).  One thing we discussed was that I had imagined that the food would kind of from the era.  You know?  Like we'd have a turkey like in the story.  And some sort of pudding or something more British.

So, go see it next year. 

Finally, a post

It's been a while since I've posted, but I've been busy I guess.  Family and friends have flown here to visit and that takes up a lot of time. 

I do keep a list of blog post ideas and I'll go through some of those now.

Checking References

So some former coworkers told me they were contacted by last week's 14 interview company.  That's usually a good sign.  This is the first time that they've been contacted so this is definitely the farthest I've gotten in any job.  I'm still worried that I'm only going to be offered the stepping stone job or possibly I may not be offered anything at all, but still, this is a good thing.

One interesting question they were both asked was about how much time I'm at work.  They both said that I was there when they arrived and when they left.  The second reference was asked if he had been coached by the first.  I don't know if that was asked seriously or jokingly, but still kind of funny.  I've never interviewed a reference before, but I think this is a good question to ask.  So I guess if possible, one could coach references to give the response that they work or if the question isn't asked, sometimes you get a chance to say anything additional about a candidate and maybe they could mention that there. 

Song of the Day - Save Ferris

Today's Christmas-ish song of the day is Save Ferris' version of "Christmas Wrapping".  While I consider the Waitresses' version to be the best, this particular version is kind of a Jewish take on the song and today at sundown will also be the beginning of Hanukkah.  So this song goes out to all of my Jewish readers (probably none of you.)



As you may have just seen, there's actually no video on this youtube video.  I only found one other youtube with this song and it was a plain green background.

Kind of on the subject of Save Ferris, I thought I'd tell you about my friend's costume idea.  We had kind of an 80's themed halloween party and a friend of mine thought it'd be cool to dress up like the blue water tower in Ferris Bueller's Day Off .  Like you'd use cardboard and make a big round blue thing and put "Save Ferris" on it.  Unfortunately, he got sick (likely swine flu) and was in bed that whole weekend.  One advantage of a costume like this is if you're in a place like Madison for Halloween, when you parade around, you can bundle up as much as you want and it won't ruin the costume.

Chances to be on TV

I had some other recent chances to be on TV.

First, there was a commercial in St. Cloud.  I have no idea what the commercial was for, but they did call me back after I sent my head shot.  Unfortunately, I was out running errands all day and I forgot my phone and I didn't get the message until late in the day.  I left a message, but I never heard back from them.  It's probably for the best.  They wanted to shoot on Tuesday, and that definitely would not have been a fun drive back home with all of the snow.

Then, there was a shoot for an infomercial.  I'm not supposed to go into specifics, but the job would require me taking a weight loss supplement for certain amount of time.  Then, I'd be on the infomercial endorsing it.  It sounds kind of sketchy (and readers that know me are, I'm sure, already snickering at the concept) and I decided not to do it.  Perhaps not surprisingly, this job pays way way better than your normal be an extra in a commercial gig.  Maybe I'll consider it if I make it to the end of my unemployment benefits.  I mean, Robert Rodriguez funded El Mariachi mostly through being in experimental drug trials and he's doing great.

Lunch with Patent at Obento-Ya

Last week, I had lunch at Obento-Ya with my friend who I'll nickname Patent.  Patent recently passed the test to become a patent agent.  He's not a lawyer, but with his certification, he can write and argue patents in front of the US Patent office; he just can't sue anyone for patent infringement or anything like that.

First off, I would recommend Obento-Ya and it's a nice place for lunch.  They have over 10 options for Japanese bento boxes and the ones that Patent and I ordered were both very good.  These bento boxes come with a meat, rice, a salad, potatoes, and miso soup.  Very good value at $9.  It's a fairly small space and it reminds me a lot of Midori's Floating World, their old location especially.  (I would recommend Midori's too.) 

We were meeting because in one of my recent interviews, I had an idea.  We were discussing current problems with their device and I just blurted out something that popped into my head that sounded good.  We didn't really talk about my idea and moved on to other stuff.  Since then, I searched google patents and did general google searches and surprisingly, no one else has thought of this.  I have other patents, though I generally feel like they were just timing.  Maybe I'm being modest, but I assume that if other engineers that had worked on those projects, they would have also had patents because they would have faced the same problems I did.  I kinda feel the same way about this patent idea.  Also, as this is something that just popped into my head and sounds good in theory, I have no idea if it would work in practice.

Anyway, Patent advised me to write something called a provisional patent.  What's kind of cool is that it only costs $110 to file it.  So the strategy is I'd write up the provisional patent, and then shop it around.  As I don't really have any contacts, I'd go back to the company I interviewed with.  And provisional patents don't really count until you file for real (which would cost well into the thousands).  Maybe I shop it around and get nothing, or maybe somebody thinks it's worth something and then things'd get interesting from there.

I have no idea if this post was interesting to anyone, but to me, it's cool that you can do something like this so cheaply.

Song of the Day - Christopher Williams

Today's song of the day is "Talk to Myself" by Christopher Williams.  Does anyone remember this song?



I remember hearing this song, which came out in 1989, and thinking that it's really stupid.  I guess it still is kind of a dumb song, but relevant to me and probably lots of the other unemployed people out there.  I spend most of my days in my house at my computer and I might talk to someone (other than my wife) once a day. 

I guess before, there might have been a number of days spent at my computer with little contact, but even the act of showing up in the morning and saying hi to people you pass by; that small act kind of lets you know you're a part of something.  And I miss having lunch with lots of people.  There was a big group of us that'd eat together all the time.  The group lunch interview from last week is the most people I've had lunch with in a long while.  And I actually felt like I had a good rapport with them.  I hope I can have that again whenever I find a job.

Shaking Hands and Hand Sanitizer

ERIDC told me this story about a recent interview she had:

She goes to meet the manager at a small company for a job interview.  They say hi and shake hands.  They sit down in this woman's office.  As they chat, the manager discreetly gets some hand sanitizer and proceeds to rub the sanitizer through while keeping her hands under her desk. 

I guess that's not so weird in the season of swine flu.  People are super-paranoid and that's OK.  I just can't help but wonder what if it was reversed?  What if the job applicant goes for the hand sanitizer right after shaking hands with the manager?  I'm guessing that would looked upon poorly by the manager.  Or even worse, what if one is white and one is black?  Especially, if the one using the hand sanitizer is old and white, I feel like that could be construed as racism. 

So I guess my general advice for applicants is don't use hand sanitizer in front of anyone that's evaluating you for a job.  Go to the bathroom first.  I guess for interviewers, I would suggest using hand sanitizer out in the open and not trying to hide it; maybe give some line about swine flu.  Otherwise, it just looks weird. 

A lot of Interviews

So I've made several references to a stepping stone job.  I'll go through the whole thing here.

So back in my Hooray for Networking post, I talked about meeting someone through networking.  This manager's company is a fairly large private company around here.  We meet for lunch and he tells me that the job may not be exactly what I want, but I have my spiel and he seems to be OK with that.  Then, I hear back from HR and schedule an on-site interview.  I'm also given the long test described earlier.

OK.  So I'm now at the onsite interview.  The drive wasn't that bad.  I guess it'll be awful when there's snow, but we could probably say that for most commutes when it snows up here.  I proceed to meet 11 people that day and I gave my stepping stone spiel to all of them.  Also, I didn't get out of there until almost two and I didn't get a lunch while I was there.  I just thought that was strange.  I also left thinking that I definitely don't want this job that's beneath me, but I did like some of the people I met. 

So then a day later, I hear back and I'm invited to lunch with three other people.  (Wouldn't it have been better to keep me there all day the day before?)  I thought the lunch went well.  I liked all three of them and there really wasn't any mention of the stepping stone job. 

Now, I can say that I've met 14 people from this company and sent them all thank you letters.  I doubt this is a big deal, but I took care to not mention the stepping stone job title.  I just don't want them imagining me in that role.  I'm encouraged by the fact that I had the extra lunch interview.  Obviously, if the onsite had gone poorly, I wouldn't have gotten that.  During the lunch, I asked if my next interview would be meeting the CEO.  They laughed (phew) and said they heard he wasn't in town.  All I can do now is sit by the phone I guess.  

Business Cards

For a networking event I recently attended, I decided to print my own business cards.  So I thought I'd write this for any job seekers that might want some ideas on business cards. 

First, I guess I would suggest against getting the free business cards from some place like Vistaprint.  If you get the free ones, usually the printing company will put their logo and stuff on the back.  Maybe that's ok for some of you, especially students, but probably not for most people.  Because you also have to pay for shipping for those free cards, you only pay a little more to print them on your own. 

If you want to pay for a company to make your cards, by all means, do it, but the main reason that I want to print my own is that I want to have different cards with different job titles.  I have a few strengths, which I believe qualify me for somewhat different job titles so I want to make sure that whoever I meet.  Something else that you might want to do is make a generic plain card and this is what you use when you have to put your card in a box, say at a networking event or a big conference. 

As to the design of your cards, I've been told to stay away from clip art.  Usually, it looks cheesy and designs I tried out that had clip out were only moderately liked by my wife.  A while back, a friend of mine did a fun drawing that kind of looks like.  I wanted to use this as my business card picture, but my wife and I felt that it wasn't professional looking enough and I didn't draw it myself either.  Maybe I'll use it if I make actor business cards for when I'm on the set (Let's hope.)  It's OK to have big clocks of color just on the card.  However, color ink does cost a lot, and on my first sheet of a card with lots of blue squares, I noticed my blue ink started to fade by the bottom cards.  I'll play with that some more in the future.

I don't know if this helped, but I'm sure I'm going to try printing some more business cards in the future, and I'll post if I have some more tips.

I Coulda Been Somebody

Update on being an extra.  Over Thanksgiving weekend, my wife took some pictures of me in my suit, and I'm using the black and white version of that as my headshot.  And I made my actor's resume with my very meager acting experience.  I saw a website where it said to just lie all over the place on your actor's resume.  I can't imagine seriously trying to be an actor.

So I sent my headshot and resume to three different jobs I saw on craigslist: office worker in a corporate film, a short film where I'd be a referee for a wrestling match (yes, that would be comical), and an extra in a commercial for a local casino.  Surprisingly, I heard back from the casino commercial director, but filming would have conflicted with a networking event.  I decided to decline the commercial and do the responsible thing.  Filming was actually done at the casino, but that's like two hours away from here.  I could've been able to do both if filming was here.  Oh well.  This is encouraging though.  I didn't expect anyone to get back to me.

A Ridiculous Test

In preparation for the aforementioned (how often do I use that word?) interview for the stepping stone job, I was sent a link for an online test.  And this test was just completely ridiculous.  There was a math section and an analogy section and word definition section (very SAT-ish).  But there were also several personality assessment sections.  Since the test was online, I was copying some of the questions over and now you get to read them.

The first section is essentially True or False.
-You have never wanted to "tell someone off."
Who hasn't wanted to tell someone off?  What kind of weirdo hasn't?

-You have never said anything that you later regretted. 
I remember reading a quote that was something like, "You haven't lived if you don't have regrets", and I agree with that statement."

-People never irritate you. 
-There are times when taking revenge is the only fair and logical thing to do. 
-You have never been angry at anyone.
I answered false to all of these.  Aren't these ridiculous questions?  Maybe I should have answered true to the revenge question.  I'm thinking now that if I was in the Kill Bill situation and my fiancee and baby (presumably) and friends were all killed, revenge might be a fair thing to do.  The revenge of living well might not cut it in that situation.

In another section, they give you two activities and you have a scale of 1 to 4.  1 means you strongly prefer activity 1 and 4 means you strongly prefer activity 4 and 2 or 3 mean slightly preferring. 
-Balancing your checking account  - Listening to others talk about their problems
-Writing a story, screenplay or theatrical production - Setting and attaining your own business goals
I slightly preferred listening to other problems.  (I assume that means that I would have empathy.)  I also picked writing a story.  Isn't that just more fun?  Well, I guess it is for me and I actually think it would be for the majority.

Anyway, so during the onsite interview, I noticed that all of my interviewers had this stapled packet.  And there was a pie chart on the front and it was divided into like 8 fairly equal sections.  I'm wondering what it would mean if, say, 3/4 of the pie chart was the same color.  One of my interviewers mentioned that from my test, it's apparent that I would be a hard worker.  Really?  These crappy questions somehow communicate that to you?  He also mentioned that the test shows that I would follow rules strictly.  I don't understand any of this stuff.  Whatever I guess.  I still think the test was stupid.

The Price is Right

Contrary to what you might think about someone that's unemployed, I really haven't watched very much TV.  (My "spare" time is spent surfing the web.)  But the day after thanksgiving, my wife and I watched The Price is Right and I haven't watched in long time.  I just want to take some time here to make fun of a very stupid contestant.  First off, he's wearing a shirt that says "F.B.I." on it.  My wife assumes it stands for"Female Body Inspector", but no, underneath it says "Firm Believer in Christ".  Shouldn't that be FBC?

So in the first bidding game, someone bids 875 on whatever the prize is, and this guy has the last bid and says 874.  Of course, he loses.  And then on the next bid, he bids like 2500 and the actual retail price was like 1200.  Damn.  He did improve after that.  I think on the next one, he was only one dollar over the price.  That had to hurt.  He finally made it on stage on the very last game.  And proceeds to win that game.  And then he spins a dollar on the wheel.  And then on his showcase showdown, he's off by like 10 thousand but the other contestant is off by 15.  Very lucky streak.

I'm guessing if I'm on The Price is Right, I'd be really nervous and surely capable of saying something really stupid.  But with years of watching the show, I feel like I have built in instincts on at least how to bid.  And I can promise you if I'm wearing a shirt that says FBI on it, it certainly won't be standing for "Firm Believer in Christ".

Song of the Day - Monkees

I used to come home from school and The Monkees would be on TV.  (That was a while ago.)  So today's song of the day "I'm Not Your Stepping Stone."  Apparently, the song was not originally done by them, but whatever, I'll always associate this song with the Monkees.

Earlier this week, I had an interview for a job that I consider very beneath me.  And this was an onsite interview and I met several people at the company.  And it was like each interview started out "Are you sure you want this job?"  "Of course not," I'm thinking, but I go into my super-professional voice: "I believe that this job would serve as a stepping stone to better opportunities in this company while learning as much as I can about your products."  I really can't imagine any of them buying that, but we all play along in this farce and I'm just hoping that someone sees what I'm really good at and recommends me for something else.

A Fortune Cookie

I was recently at a Chinese restaurant called David Fong's.  When I got the fortune cookie, it said, "You will soon be crossing great ocean waters for an incredibly rewarding experience."  Now, if we add "In Bed" to the end of that, I think it would be worth crossing an ocean for that. 

I really can't imagine this fortune actually coming true in any way, but what would have to happen for this to come true, considering my current situation?  Let's take the word soon in the fortune to mean within a year.  I don't have any trips planned so my rewarding trip would have to be paid for by someone else.  Maybe I'll win a contest or something.  I've already been rejected by that company in Australia, but I guess maybe I'll send my resume out to a few more companies.  Could I be hired by some company who thinks I need some training in Europe?  That would be kind of cool.  I don't even know what an incredibly rewarding experience could be.

Anyway, I'm going to put a reminder in my google calendar and a year from now, I will post on whether or not this fortune has come true.  Even it wasn't a rewarding experience, I would count the fortune as coming true if I took a plane across an ocean.  We'll see.

Giving Thanks 5k

That was kind of a depressing post for such a fun disco funk type song.  I thought I'd talk about the Giving Thanks 5k, which my wife and I did with some other friends this past Thanksgiving.  The major advantage is that it's not the Turkey Day 5k, which is the big one in Minneapolis.  We've done that one before and there are just way too many people there.  You can barely walk anywhere in the Target Center for registration and you can barely walk on the course. 

The Giving Thanks 5k is way less crowded and it's in Como Park.  And you can actually park close by.  Wow.  It was very very cold though and registration's outside.  They did provide hot water and hot chocolate which was nice.  And this wasn't generic brand hot chocolate either; you had your choice of Land o Lakes, which I think is pretty good.  

The course goes around Lake Como twice.  It's kind of disappointing when you approach the finish line for the first time, but you have to keep going another lap.  I guess there wasn't anything really entertaining during the run (This isn't the Blubber Run, where you're served beer), but my friend who's in theater gave me tips on my headshot (black and white) and my actor's resume (people put down all sorts of random "skills") so that was useful. 

After the run's over, no one really wanted to hang out since it was freezing and some people had cooking to do.  But we did get some of the snacks afterward.  They had Snickers Marathon bars, which are good, but I'm just going to guess aren't super-healthy.  They also had packets of "dried plums".  According to wikipedia, they're marketing prunes as "dried plums" now in an effort to reach a younger audience.  That seems kind of silly and these particular dried plums kind of sucked to eat because there was a syrup or something and your fingers get all sticky and gross.  And more trivia, prune juice is made from reconstituted and pureed prunes.  If that's the case, what does plum juice taste like?

Song of the Day - Gap Band

I have a disco-ish station on Pandora and they just played the Gap Band's You Dropped a Bomb on Me. 

Isn't this just an amazingly bad video?  Can you imagine anybody wearing those outfits today?  It would be awesome if a bunch of kids, say somewhere in asia, make a youtube where they dress up just like this and do those dances.  That'd be a great video. 

Anyway, I still feel sore about my whole situation.  A year ago, I was told that I was so valuable and all this other junk and it was all a lie but I ate it all up.  And I remember being let go.  I walk into the office and someone from HR is there and that can't be good.  It occurred to me, but I didn't believe it at that second.  I was completely stunned and silent.  I was asked if I had any questions after getting the news.  All my questions are internal now.  Who am I?  What do I want to do?  Who do I want to be?  I thought I had a pretty good answer, but I don't really know. 

A Job in Australia

I found a company in Sydney, Australia that's kind of a competitor with my old company.  So I applied for a job there early last week thinking, "Maybe they'll think I have all this special knowledge that they'll value."  In the application, you have to say if you live in Australia and if you don't, you have to answer the question "Why do you want to move to Australia?"  If I was telling the truth, the answer would be "Because you're going to pay me and I think that might be fun and it looks cool in movies and I liked Bill Bryson's In a Sunburned Country".  But my answer was much more boring.  I said I wanted to be close to my cousin who lives there.  Now, it's actually one of my wife's cousins that's there, but close enough, right?

I got the rejection e-mail a few days later on Thanksgiving.  At first, I was thinking, what are they doing working on Thanksgiving?  But then I remembered that this is Australia.  Supposedly, they do Thanksgiving there, but in March.  However, there isn't a wikipedia article on Thanksgiving in Australia so I'm thinking it can't be that big of a deal.  But it doesn't matter I guess.  But I think I would've really considered it if they wanted me there.  I can guarantee that I would've been on the next flight if they wanted to pay for a trip there to interview. 

Song of the Day - Amy Grant

Now that we're officially in the Christmas season, our first Christmas song of the day is "Mister Santa" by Amy Grant.  The only video on youtube was this guy's christmas lights.



This has to be one of the all time ridiculous Christmas songs.  Go back and listen to the lyrics around 1:45.  "We've used a Kleenex when we've blown our noses."  Wow.  And this super cheesy "Santa...  Here comes santa."  My wife and I heard that on one of the christmas stations a few years ago and were floored.  Now, Amy Grant has done some OK pop stuff in the past (and according to sales figures, must have had good christian music too) but I think this song and the fact that she continually does christmas albums might signal a downturn in her career.  I'm thinking though that if I were a musician, I might easily sell out too if all I had to do was squeeze out a few christmas standards once a year.

And let's talk about this video.  I'm really glad that I don't live next door to this guy.  Maybe I could do something like this since I'm unemployed, but really, I don't care that much and I think doing the sync to music doesn't really look all that great.  My wife took me by a house in her hometown where the family decorates both the front and the back of their house (you can see the back through the alley) and they had so many decorations that they took over the neighbor's front and back yards also.  That was quite the spectacle.  I think I would say no if asked, but maybe I would say yes if it really required zero work from me and they would pay all the electricity too.  (I am unemployed.) 

Song of the Day - Adam Sandler

Today's song, and the last of the Thanksgiving themed songs of the day, is The Thanksgiving Song by Adam Sandler.



If I'm still blogging in a year (and I'd better not still be unemployed), I doubt I'd ever do five days worth of Thanksgiving type songs.  I do plan on doing some christmas songs, but it'll be more like once a week.  Anyway, I don't really have anything to say about this song.  And I'm not going to give you silly list of things that I'm thankful for this year so I'll end the post here.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Hooray for Networking

So a friend suggested I go to a meeting for a local chapter for an engineering society.  It was mildly interesting and a lot of the guys were middle aged guys and up and not too many people my age or younger and definitely lots more introvert types.  My initial thought was, "Is this what I'm going to be like when I'm older?  Is this what I'm like already"  Sigh. 

Anyway, afterward, I was talking to as several of the people there and came across another person who's unemployed.  We're talking and he has a contact at a local company.  He suggests I send him my resume.  Well, the resume gets to the contact and then the contact's boss and I'm going to meet the boss, no phone interview even.

So I guess I'm surprised that networking worked and in this case without any strong ties at all.  I just met this guy and he just met his contact recently as well.  I'll let you know how it goes after I meet the boss.

Song of the Day - Natalie Merchant

I'm running out of interesting Thanksgiving-ish songs and I refuse to pick Dido's Thank You or Alanis Morissette's Thank U.  (There are a surprising number of songs named Thank You.)  So I'm going with Natalie Merchant's Kind and Generous, where she says thank you fifteen times in the song.  (Yes, I just counted it from the lyrics.)   



In the video, I just like the dancing in the cannon.  It just seems kind of weird and surreal.  Really, if there were a jazzy version of Eraserhead (yeah, right), I think it'd use these kinds of scenes.

Song of the Day - Andrew Gold

Continuing with the Thanksgiving theme, today's song is "Thank You for Being a Friend" by Andrew Gold.  Now, most readers know this song as the theme song to The Golden Girls, but this version is far superior. 

As you listen to it, you'll find that it's pretty similar to the TV theme song version, but then it gets so much better after the two minute mark.

My wife and I were in the car and I was flipping through stations and one of them had on the Delilah radio show.  I think it can make for really funny listening because I kinda feel like everyone that calls in is pretty stupid.  Anyway, Delilah plays this song for a listener and my wife and I thought this version of the song is hilarious.

For you trivia buffs, Andrew Gold also sung the theme song for Mad About You.

A Scene From Hannibal

SPOILER ALERT: I'll be giving away a major scene from Hannibal, not that it matters.  The movie's like eight years old and from what I've heard, not that good.  

My wife and I were watching TV and while flipping channels, she stopped on a movie that she recognized as Hannibal.  I haven't seen it, but she has.  She said, "It's the scene where he eats Ray Lolita's brain."
"Did you just say Ray Lolita?"
"Yeah.  What?"
"It's Ray Liotta."

We tried to figure out if it was some sort of Freudian slip, but couldn't really come up with any explanation.  That'd be a good prank to play on him though.  Like a reporter is on the red carpet somewhere and gets an interview with him and introduces him to the camera as "Ray Lolita". 

Job Search Statistics

Let's take a look at my job search statistics.  Since losing my job, I have applied for 45 jobs and sent my resume another 25 times without having any specific position to apply for.  This has led to one in person interview where there is a real job opening; this of course ended in rejection.  There were two other in person "interviews" where they're interviewing in case an opening comes up in the future; I'm doubtful on one of those and modestly hopeful on the other. 

I've had six phone interviews with actual companies.  Two are official rejections.  One went very poorly so we'll put that one down as a rejection.  One, I haven't heard back from after a few weeks, but I just followed up this week so maybe I'll hear back.  I feel like it's been too long already and am not feeling optimistic.  Another phone interview was over a month ago and I'm not feeling good there either.  The last one, they decided to close their Minnesota office so at least I can say that one's not my fault. 

Lastly, I've met (either in person or over the phone) with 8 recruiting companies.  I can pretty much say that so far, they've been pretty useless. 

So, let's remove the recruiting companies from the stats (five of the jobs I applied for were actually for a recruiting company).  So 65 resumes sent out led to 9 interviews, 12 official rejections, and no job offers.  Still, the fact that I've generated some interviews is probably a good thing.

Song of the Day - Beck

Today's Thanksgiving song is "Nicotine and Gravy" by Beck.  You can think about this song as you're having gravy with your turkey.



Like many of Beck's songs, the lyrics are completely nonsense: "Her left eye is lazy/She looks so Israeli/Nicotine and Gravy".  Beck has also admitted that he'll adlib "scratch" vocals that fill in space. To me, it's always interesting that he can say complete nonsense, but the songs still sound really good.  A friend was telling me once that there's a website where they make pictures based on Beck lyrics, like "Mouthwash Jukebox Gasoline" from Devil's Haircut.  And the picture would be an old school gas station and there are gas pumps plugged into the side of a jukebox which is filled with blue liquid.  Too bad she didn't remember the URL.  I feel like this song would also make a few good pictures.

Song of the Day - ABBA

Today, I'm going to kick off a series of songs of the day that are all Thanksgiving-ish.  So my first one is "Thank You for the Music" by ABBA. This is someone's random video set to the song.  There's a more official video that doesn't allow embedding, but it's a typical performance video and you get a good idea of all their dated crazy outfits from this video.  Be sure to check out the 1:55 mark where you can see the band wearing nothing but aluminum foil.



This is the type of person I am.  I have always loved ABBA because in the years when I was starting to form all of my musical tastes, I saw the movie Muriel's Wedding.  "My life is as good as an ABBA song.  It's as good as Dancing Queen."  I don't really feel that way right now, but I'm sure things will get better.  (Ooh.  Maybe in the future, I'll pick "Things Can Only Get Better" by Howard Jones.)

The Big Sweatshirt

So last week, I was wearing a sweatshirt that I haven't worn in a while.  I don't wear it that often because it's way too big for me, but it was a gift and it reminds me of home so I still have it.  My wife noticed that I was wearing the shirt and commented that she hadn't seen that in a while.  My response was that I ran out of other sweatshirts.  And she said, "Maybe you should wear something other than sweatshirts."

Should I?  I spend hours at my computer just sitting here.  I'll change to shorts and a t-shirt when I run and then go back to the computer.  So comfort's a good thing. 

For a contrasting viewpoint, my boss from two jobs ago used to work out of his house.  He talked about how it really helped him to take a shower and dress in work-type clothes every day. 

I guess I don't really have a problem (yet) with motivation to job search.  And I feel like I get out of the house enough to motivate me to clean up.  However, there have been some days where I didn't shower.  Maybe I'll avoid that in the future.

Song of the Day - Ben Folds Five

Today's song is "Best Imitation of Myself" by Ben Folds Five.



I just heard this on Pandora and thought it was a good song for today.  The song's about being what someone else wants you to be, but one of the good lines is "Maybe I'm thinking myself in a hole wondering who I am when I ought to know." 

I've spent a lot of time applying for and interviewing for as many jobs as possible and of course everything is tailored to that possible employer.  Certain things are left out or highlighted on versions of my resume.  My objective changes with the job.  Aren't I old enough to know what my true objective is? 

I remember once several years ago interviewing for a job with a patent law firm.  I became exactly who I thought they wanted.  I told them that the patent process was fascinating to me.  I told them I was considering law school even thought I wasn't sure yet.  To my surprise, they bought the whole thing and offered me a job, which I turned down.  Hopefully, I don't have to act that much during this job search.

New Recruiters and my Database

So I made one of my resumes on Monster public.  Perhaps not surprisingly, this has brought on a new set of recruiters.  I got an e-mail today with a possible job and I got a phone call yesterday.  You know, I'm really surprised at the number of recruiting agencies here.  I seem to encounter more and more of them as I go.

So yesterday's phone call was interesting.  Before I get into that, I should describe my job search process.  I have an Access database tracking my job search activities.  Every time I apply to a job or even check a company's website to see if they have any interesting positions, I create a record in my database for that.  As there are a lot of companies here, my database has hundreds of records. 

Yesterday, the recruiter asks, "Have you applied at [large medical company that rejected me]?" and I respond that they rejected me.  And then he asks about another medical company and I say that I've applied there too.  And then another company, this time smaller and I say that when I last checked, they didn't have any open positions for my skills.  Of course, he says, "Well, I know the hiring manager there and maybe I can help you."  This went on for a while.  Every company he named I had either already checked out or applied to.  Why do I even need these people?  I have heard of damn near every company in the twin cities that might employ someone like me.  But let's see if he actually has some pull.  I'm guessing he'll be like the other recruiters I've met; I have yet to hear from any of them in the past month with any positions.

Song of the Day - Cake

Today's song of the day is "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps", the version by Cake.  There's no music video for it and I don't even think it was released as a single.  Here's a link to Lala so you can at least listen to it.

Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps - Ca...

So a while back, I met someone who gave me a good vibe on a possible job, but he wanted to wait to see what projects would come up and how I might fit into that.  So really I'm just in a waiting mode.  I'm going to follow up with him and this song seemed appropriate for the situation.  "If you can't make your mind up, we'll never get started.  And I don't wanna wind being parted, broken hearted."

For you music trivia people, the original for this song was actually done sixty years ago in spanish.  Who knew?

Vote for my Fail Submissions

One of many funny websites out there is failblog.org and I just made 3 submissions.  If you like them, click on the pictures and give them a high rating. 

Lemonade Fail


Christmas Decor Fail


Cookbook Fail

More Thoughts on the Thundercats

Food
So far, through these first few episodes, you know that they have rations and at one point Lion-O eats fruit from a tree.  Obviously, they don't want to show animals being killed in a cartoon for kids, but you kinda get the impression that the Thundercats are vegetarians.  For instance Lion-O and Snarf stop these pirates from capturing a unicorn for food.  Didn't they think, it must taste good if these pirates are going to all this trouble to get one?  In the same episode, some fish get caught in the Thundertank, but Panthro makes an opening and the fish are able to escape.  Aww.  If they were really cat-like, wouldn't they be excited at the thought of a fish?  Heathcliff (the cat) would've stopped right there and eaten them all I think.  On a similar note, does Mumm-Ra need to eat or do the evil spirits provide all that for him?

Housing
So the Thundercats make this enormous panther shaped palace called the Cat's Lair.  Now, there are only six of them.  A little excessive don't you think?  The Ro-Bear Berbils (they're like robotic ewoks) helped them make the whole thing and I'd be pissed if I was one of them, especially since it's not like they had a crane or any other big machinery.

A New Empire
In the first episode, Lion-O declares that they're going to form a new empire.  To me, I feel like that'd be a little difficult.  There's only six of them, and only one of those is an adult female.  Don't you think they should get started on populating this empire?  Would Cheetara not be able to run as fast if she were pregnant?

Cooking - Simple Stuff

So since I'm home all the time now, I do all of the cooking.  But of course I'm constantly looking for new things to cook as a way of keeping myself entertained, but I'm also finding that simple stuff can be just as interesting.

For example, I had my first pomegranate yesterday.  Well, not my first, but it was the first time I did everything myself.  That's really a lot of work.  No wonder POM charges so much for juice.  And there were a few red marks on my sweatshirt afterward, but it was pretty good.  I guess they're in season right now (only $2.50 at Cub).  Maybe I should cook with one next, but I'm not really wowed by any of the pomegranate recipes on Allrecipes; most of the recipes are for drinks and not for food.

Another simple food: popcorn.  We were watching a Good Eats episode about corn and we learned that you can just put popcorn in a paper bag and put that in the microwave.  It's very easy and, of course, very cheap.  It was about $5 for a bag of popcorn, some paper bags, and a little thing of popcorn salt.  I would recommend the larger paper bags, not the really small ones.  With some of the salt, it turns out pretty good, but it's not a bag of buttery goodness.  I've read that movie theater butter really isn't pure butter so I'll have to find a way to replicate that, though it's probably not all that healthy.  I did find a recipe for microwave caramel popcorn which I think would be really good. 

Lately, I've been making breakfast sandwiches.  In the past, I've always had cereal in the morning before work.  But then I feel like I have time for whatever now.  But I learned it's really easy and fast to make a scrambled egg in the microwave and our small pyrex bowls make an egg that's a very close match to the size of an english muffin.

So I guess if there's any silver lining to my situation, I'm at least changing my eating habits a little.

Song of the Day - UB40 and a Winery Trip

Today's song is Red Red Wine, the UB40 version.  (Really far superior to the Neil Diamond version.)  A fun trivia note here.  UB40 was named after a form in the UK and stands for Unemployment Benefit Form 40.  I thought that was fitting for me. 

Anyway, I'm not picking this song because I'm drinking myself to death like, say, Nicolas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas.  (I always liked the line, "I'm a prickly pear.")  I'm picking this song I recently visited some local wineries with my wife, Politico, SEWMOC, and WQS. 

Our first winery was Alexis Bailly in Hastings, MN.  They were doing a special thing there where the tasting cost $10, but you get to keep your glass, and the pours were pretty generous.  It was a beautiful day this past Saturday, like 60+ degrees.  (My brother texted, "That's hot for there, right?")  The winery has a great deck and a bocce court and an idyllic setting.  We came prepared with our own crackers, meat, and cheese so we had a great time sitting outside and hanging out.  It took us over two hours to get through something like 10 pours so things were good.  My wife and I have been to most of the wineries in the area and I think it's the prettiest.  Like if I were to pick one of these wineries for a wedding, I think this one would be the winner.

I had originally planned for us to go to 3 or 4 places, but we decided to only go to one more place and we decided on Cannon River Winery.  It's in the town so it's more like being at a wine bar than at a winery.  And we spent part of our time complaining about how measly the pours were and how we didn't really like any of them as much as the Alexis Bailly wines.  This place must also be some sort of community center because there were kids there doing a fundraiser for kids in Afghanistan.  So we bought a pan of Rice Krispies treats so we kind of did our part. 

Anyway, I don't really have a snappy ending for this post, but we all had a good time.

Movie Extra

So I signed up for a mailing list that sends out notices when movies need extras.  I think that would be a fun experience though I was also told that it's like jury duty where you spend a lot of time waiting.  That's OK with me too as I haven't really made a dent in Infinite Jest yet.  I don't know how many movies really get made here though.  The Coen brothers were filming here a while ago and then that football movie with George Clooney was done here too.  Extreme Makeover Home Edition was filming here recently too, but I was employed at the time, but I would've helped with that house if I had the free time that I have now. 

Little known fact about me is that I once tried out to be on Double Dare (they should put that out on DVD).  There were hundreds of kids there though.  I was placed in a group of like 20 other kids and then they asked us to make funny faces and stuff like that.  And then they picked 1 kid out of the group of us and unfortunately it was not me.  I think someone should recreate the set of Double Dare like at an amusement park or something and then you pay like $20 to go through the final obstacle course.  That would almost make up for not being picked all those years ago. 

Power Outage

So last night, the power went out on my block.  It's really kind of eerie how dark it gets.  We were completely unprepared.  We're fumbling around looking for our phones for an initial source of light.  And then we're like, "Where are the candles?"  I remembered there's a flashlight in the garage, and when I found it, the batteries were dead.  We looked all over the house for a second flashlight and finally found that and a set of tealight candles.  I then had the bright idea of getting the portable DVD player and watching something.  That battery was out too sadly. 

Our halloween stuff was still out so one of the candle holders we used was a skull, so that was kind of creepy.

I called the power company and the recording said that it's usually fixed in 4 hours, but it was only like an hour and a half last night, so not too bad.

So just a reminder to all of you to have flashlights and candles ready and portable electronics batteries charged up.  I'll be picking up a set of D batteries today.

Running with the Thundercats

So for the past two weeks, I totally ignored the treadmill.  My excuse was that I had jury duty and then I was sick, but I'm back on the past two days.  I finally finished Kill Bill vol. 2 and have since moved on to a set of Thundercats DVDs that I received as a gift a while back.  Here's the theme song to get you thinking about that.



Just to give you a weird picture, sometimes I'll do the sword motions with Lion-O during the beginning credits.  It's kind of fun and adds a little extra to what's really a fairly boring treadmill run.

One of my initial thoughts was the possibility that Mumm-Ra was bored before the Thundercats crashed on the planet.  I feel like there was really very little for him to do before he decided he would try to get the Eye of Thundera. 

I asked my wife if she could name any Thundercats even though she really had never watched it.  Off the bat, she came up with Tygra, but then her second guess was Panthera.  The correct answer would be Panthro. 

More thoughts on the Thundercats to come as I watch more episodes.  There are 33 episodes in the set so it'll take me 20 more times on the treadmill to finish them all.  Maybe I'll have a job before then.

Song of the Day - Dirty Vegas

I woke up this morning not sure what today was and then I also remembered last night when I talked about my old company in the present tense, as if I still worked there.  So today's song is "Days Go By" which many of us probably heard for the first time from a Mitsubishi commercial.  No video here for it today because the record company isn't allowing video embedding for the song, but you can click here if you want to watch/listen.

I guess all my days were the same before losing my job, but it just feels different I guess.  And talking about my company in the present tense is something I really haven't been doing.  I even used the word "We" as if I was still a part of things.  I even did that in a job interview a while back.  I wonder if they even noticed or even thought about it.  Probably not, but I felt a small moment of sadness after saying it. 

Update on the job search

Considering how my unemployment is the catalyst for this blog, I should write about how the job search is going.  In a few words, not great, but not all hope is lost yet.

The big company I interviewed with a week and a half ago.  Didn't get it. 
"We appreciate the time you invested in interviewing for the position, however, have decided to offer the position to another candidate whose skills, experiences and backgrounds more closely match the requirements of the job."
So I'll be boycotting this medical device company.  Of course, one of my friends asked, "What if you're passed out?"  Obviously in that case I don't have a say, but if I'm going over options with my doctor, I will try to push them towards one of their many competitors.  But let's hope I never actually need one of those things.

My wife believes that my interview was kind of a formality and that they had someone else in mind already considering that my interview was very last minute and I wasn't asked any technical questions, which is really rare for me.  I'll never know if that's the case, but I definitely got the feeling that the behavioral interview thing is very standard there.  


I got two more job rejections around the same time and I also had a phone interview that just went poorly.  This HR person really wanted to know all of the details of why I'm not at my last job and really, as much I danced around, it was difficult to get everything to sound good.  So if I'm ever in need of a floor cleaning machine, it won't come from Tennant just because I thought that woman not very nice or understanding.


And I just got a job rejection from Mckinsey, the consulting company I had applied to a few weeks ago.  I wasn't qualified for the job, but still got this message from them:
"We have reviewed your background and are impressed by your accomplishments. However, we are unable to offer you the opportunity to interview with us at this time.  A decision such as this is always difficult to make, as we receive applications from many highly qualified and accomplished individuals."
You know, I really don't think their decision was really all that difficult in my case.  At least they sent me an e-mail.  Most other companies you get the form letter right after you apply saying they'll keep your resume on file for a year and they'll contact you if anything comes up and then you never hear back.

I do have one company that I met with last week.  That went well, but of course nothing is set in stone, but he had me feeling optimistic.

Blog Milestones

A few milestones for this blog were recently met and I thought I'd use a post to pat myself on the back. 

First, the 100th pageview was met.  Of course, most of those are probably me and my wife, but whatever, it's a round number so it sounds good.

I also hit 50 posts for the month of October.  I actually did a lot of job searching during that time too so it's not like I'm sitting here blogging all the time.  Of course, this doesn't approach a blog like TrueHoop which has like 100+ posts per month, but that's like his full time job.

We also had our second international visitor.  This time, it was someone from Karachi, Pakistan.  According to Google Analytics, this person spent 0 seconds on the site, so it must not have been all that interesting.

And I'm up to $29.87 in AdSense revenue.  But I have a hold on my account because I'm worried about losing unemployment money if I get paid.  So to get this money, I have to get a job, when I wouldn't need this money anyway.  whatever.  Thanks for clicking on the ads. 

Probably not surprisingly, I haven't earned any money yet from my random links to Amazon.  And really, there have only been 2 Amazon clicks so far and I think both of those are me.

Song of the Day - Goldie Lookin' Chain

Today's song of the day is "Your Missus Is a Nutter" by Goldie Lookin' Chain, a rap group from Wales.  Who knew there were rap groups there?  This song has absolutely nothing to do with anything going on in my life, but it happened to come up on my Pandora and I thought it was really funny.  The video's really good too, like a cross between Weird Science and The Exorcist.




Now that you've heard the song, it'll be fun to bring up whenever we go out and any of the girls has more than a few drinks.

On a related note, I looked up famous Welsh musicians and there really aren't that many that I've heard of.  We have Tom Jones and Shirley Bassey ("Diamonds are Forever").  Famous Welsh bands include The Alarm, Badfinger, and The Stereophonics, but I've only heard of these bands; I actually couldn't tell you any of their songs. 

Early Book Review - Infinite Jest

Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace

David Foster Wallace committed suicide about a year ago so I've been meaning to read some more of his stuff.  A while back I read a collection of his essays called Consider the Lobster and Other Essays and really liked it.  The best ones are the title essay about what happens to a lobster as it's boiled alive and another about his experience at the AVN Awards, the "Academy Awards of Pornography".  The latter essay is interesting in that it's written under two pseudonyms, as if two people wrote the article together.  Maybe I should do that with this blog and make up someone and attempt to write in a completely different persona.  That's actually something I can't do well as a writer, you know, put myself completely in the shoes of another character and not write it like it's me.

Anyway, back to Infinite Jest.  With my time in jury duty and reading afterward, I'm only at page 127, so it's not the fastest read, but in my defense, the print is really small.  So far, I'm fascinated and confused.  I would compare it so far to Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash (one of my favorite books) because it's kind of a sprawling world and there's a video that kills people, kind of like The Ring.  I guess I would also compare the beginning to Joyce's Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man just because I'm kind of confused by it all.

On a side note, I wanted to challenge myself with Joyce but after the first chapter, I decided I needed to buy the Cliffs Notes.  The girl at the register at the bookstore was actually chastising me for needing them.  Can you believe that?  I can't imagine reading anything by Joyce without some kind of annotated copy or book notes or something.  There are a few reading companions to Infinite Jest, but they don't have a single copy in any of Minnesota's libraries.  I feel like it'll take some modern lit class to make students read the book before those companions make it into libraries, but he's dead now so that should elevate his work, right?

On another side note, I learned from The Man Who Loved Books Too Much that libraries have a lot of first printings of books and book thieves will often steal from libraries.  (Side Note 3: Elvis Costello's Everyday I Write the Book has just started playing on my Pandora.)  The copy of Infinite Jest that I'm reading actually is a first edition, but it's only worth $20 on eBay.

Back to the book.  A lot of it takes place at a boarding school specializing in tennis instruction and some of the students go on to become tennis pros.  Except the founder was also a filmmaker.  And it follows one of his sons, who likes to smoke pot, but only in private.  Very weird. 

And there are lots of drug references.  The number of prescription drugs I've used is very small, but this book is a catalog of every possible prescription drug that's ever been abused.  Each time a new drug is brought up, it gets its own footnote.  Wallace tends to have lots and lots of footnotes in his writing. 

And I'm going to quote an atheist joke from the book now, mainly because I don't hear too many atheist type jokes: "What do you get when you cross an insomniac, an unwilling agnostic, and a dyslexic?"  "You get somebody who stays up all night torturing himself mentally over the question of whether or not there's a dog."

I can hear the groans right now.  But anyway, this was kind of a fun post to write. 

Book Review - SuperFreakonomics

SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance

As I've said earlier, I read this book on day 2 of jury duty and I think I was already halfway through by 10 AM, so it's a pretty quick read. 

I was pretty much fascinated by the whole thing.  I most enjoyed the sordid subjects.  In the first book, there was a whole thing on the economics of dealing drugs.  This time, there's a whole chapter on the economics of prostitution.  I just thought it was interesting how the price of prostitutes have plummeted since the sexual revolution and the whole concept of season prostitution was new to me.  Apparently, there's a huge surge in prostitution around the Fourth of July.  And apparently, it's good for prostitutes to have pimps; there's more money and fewer arrests.

Now, there's a controversial chapter on global warming on possible solutions to that.  It didn't really bother me, but it might considered too radical.  Just a warning.

In general, there are good explanations of basic economics and how it applies to all of these situations, which is good for me as I never took economics in college.  And it's amazing to me the correlations that can be picked out of all the data that we now have.

So in general, I would recommend the book, especially if you enjoyed the first one.

Jury Duty Summary

I've been keeping a list on post ideas and I'll be getting to all of those at some point.  Mostly, I haven't been posting a ton because I haven't been feeling well.  I'll start by reviewing my last two days in jury duty.

On jury duty day #2, I actually got called into jury selection so it was good to get out of the waiting room.  During the interview process, I learned that one of my fellow prospective jurors is obscure celebrity Rudy Maxa, who hosts a travel show on PBS.  So that was kind of interesting.

I assume I can talk about the case now (if not, whatever, right?) and one of the questions was if you've had experience with an interpreter.  I haven't, but our celebrity had to detail how he works with interpreters for his show.

In the end, neither of us was picked so that was disappointing, at least for me.  That would be the only time I was called into jury selection.

What else...  On day 2, I finished all of SuperFreakonomics (review to come) and skimmed through a second book on salary negotiation (not worth discussing).  So on day 3, I brought Infinite Jest, which is a thousand pages and has a hundred pages worth of footnotes.  Needless to say, I haven't finished that yet.

There was a juror that looked like an old version of Paul Simon, like 70's Annie Hall Paul Simon, not clean cut You Can Call Me Al Paul Simon. It was kind of weird.

I got a hot chocolate from a vending machine and the cup was interesting.  There were pictures of playing cards on the side of the cup and then it told you to look at the bottom of the cup for the hole card.  My final hand was Aces and Jacks.  But it's not like there was a contest or anything like if I get a royal flush, I get some money.  Apparently, it's just for my entertainment.  But it was really the only interesting thing that happened to me in the courthouse on day 3 of jury duty.

Just want to reiterate that I liked being downtown.  Maybe someday, I'll be one of those busy people walking with a purpose while reading important e-mail on my Blackberry instead of me looking into every store window in the skyways with a bored look.

Song of the Day - Scandal

I know I haven't done a song in a few days, but I wanted to do a post about severing ties with your old company and "Goodbye to You" popped into my head.  Once again, I have shown my age because when I think of "Goodbye to You" I think of Scandal and not Michelle Branch.  But here's another example of an awful video from the early days of MTV.



Anyway, I think severing ties is an important part of what I call the "cleansing process" after leaving a job.

So one of the first things I did was gather up all of the clothes amassed that have the company logo on there.  Those were all thrown into the Goodwill pile.  We finally went to Goodwill a few weekends ago to get stuff for our Halloween costumes.  (I'll discuss the halloween party in a later post.)  So that feels good that I won't be reminded of my old company when I open the closet in the morning.  Some might consider burning stuff like this afterward, but I feel like it's slightly more productive to donate.  I had actually considered paying for additional company clothing at one point.  That would have been a terrible use of money.

I think transferring your 401k out is another important part of severing ties.  It's more convenient for me because I use a different investment company for my Roth IRA stuff and now they're all together in one spot.  And really, do you want to contact your old HR person about this stuff years down the line?  I'd do the same with my Health Savings Account (HSA) but hopefully, my next company will also do the HSA thing and I can transfer that money too. 

I guess I'm not really severing personal ties, because I do like most of my old coworkers.  When I got the news, I was of course (unfortunately) unfailingly nice and civil about everything.  It would have felt better to give them a piece of my mind and really make things memorable for all involved.  (Side note.  Isn't "giving a piece of my mind" a weird saying anyway?)  I was promised a recommendation letter but I'm still waiting.  Sigh.

Update: I also just removed myself from a Facebook cause that I had joined because of work.  Take that, former company...

A Far Away Job

So I saw a job on craigslist and I didn't really think about it at the time, but the location said north of the twin cities.  To me, that means Forest Lake or somewhere around there.  I sent my resume and heard back from the recruiting agency (obviously) last week.  And then he asks me about relocation.  Why would I want to relocate?  Well, the company is actually 100+ miles north of the twin cities.  And he didn't say Duluth, so it must be in some random place. 

I tell him that I am not interested in relocating.  All the recruiters I've spoken to, I basically tell them that it would have to be a compelling opportunity to involve relocation.  (I'm thinking Director or CTO or something along those lines.)  And he gets back to me and asks about doing contract work.  This would involve me spending 5 days a week in unnamed MN town.  I respond by saying that the compensation would have to be right.

I'm not even sure what right is.  But my wife and I put some thought into this.  I'm considering contract work for when my unemployment runs out (though hopefully, I find a real job before then.)  And the going rate for an experienced engineer is in the $40-75/hour range and of course there wouldn't be benefits.  So if the pay for going to unnamed MN town is only, say, $50, it's a definite no.

But what if it were $150/hour?  This scenario is highly unlikely, but I'm pretty sure I would have to say yes.  I'm not sure I'd ever make a salary approaching that and I think I could live with the temporary inconvenience.

So then what if it were $100/hour?  That's now on the border, but I think I would only say yes if a place to stay and mileage were also included.  And we also thought that I should only do it for 6 months tops.  I was once offered a job that was supposed to be like 5 days a week of travel and I didn't take it because it was weird to think that I wouldn't know where home was.  It'd be like in Fight Club, where he's like, "You wake up and you're in LAX..."

But currently, I don't have any offers to work anywhere else, so I guess I have to consider all of my options.  My guess (and probably your guess too): the pay for the job wouldn't be anywhere close to what it would take to get me to go.

The Refined Man

During my time downtown, I noticed a shoe shine stand.  I have never had a shoe shine.  This is probably because I'm almost never in a suit and whenever I am, I'm not likely walking around airports or downtown areas.  I've been in a suit once in an airport and might have gotten one if there was a longer layover.

So this got me thinking about things that a refined man would do.  So far, all I have is:
1. Shoe Shine
2. Straight Razor Shave
3. Get a suit tailored to you (credit to my friend, who I'm nicknaming Politico here.)

If you've never had a straight razor shave, I would definitely recommend it as I recently had my first one.  It is scary that there's a blade right on your neck.  I was reminded of the beginning of Eastern Promises, which begins with a gruesome murder in a barbershop, but fortunately, it wasn't like that.  It's very relaxing and it's the closest shave I've ever had (that might be an easy task since I use an electric razor.)  Also, my wife really liked the scents of the aftershave and facial lotion.  So go get one or ladies, give it as a gift.  

With the suit thing, I imagine it would be like the scene in Ocean's 11 where Saul, the older guy who will act as Lyman Zerga, gets fitted for the suit and feels it (imported silk).  It'd be cool to have a suit that feels that way and there'd be that knowledge that it was made just for me.  Really, how many things in my life was just for me?  While I imagine myself getting fitted in the Bellagio or some upscale shop in London, the reality is that if I ever do get a custom suit, it'd probably have to be in Asia, where it's much cheaper.  I'd be OK with that.

Life update - Sickness, Job stuff, jury duty

It's been several days since I've posted, but I have a few excuses.

First, I've been sick the past few days so I've spent a fair amount of time in bed.

Second, I was in jury duty on Wednesday and in jury duty, you're not supposed to blog or tweet or anything like that.  You're not even supposed to have a cell phone but lots of people brought theirs anyway.  After jury duty on wednesday, I went straight to bed.

Third, I had a half day interview with a large medical device company in the area.  (Go ahead and guess which one, you're likely to be right.)  I basically begged the jury duty people to let me out for the morning.  So I guess if you're ever trying to get out of jury duty for a day, that's something you could try.

I've learned over the years that I'm not very good at predicting whether or not the interview went well.  This interview went OK I think, but it was almost all behavioral.  This is when they ask you garbage questions like "Tell me about a time when there was conflict at work...  Tell me about a time when you achieved a goal... blah blah blah."  In the book Sway, the authors go into this whole thing on why interviews don't work.  But I do think this would be a good opportunity for me, but we'll see what they think.  What sucked is that there were so many behavioral questions, it was difficult to not reuse the situations that I've already prepared for.  you know?

And then after the interview, I checked my messages and I got calls from two other companies.  I also got a call from another company wednesday and I'll have a phone interview next week.  So things are looking up I guess.

Fortunately for me, my jury duty obligation is over so I have all day to recover and get ready for tomorrow's Halloween party.  I'm a little disappointed though that I didn't get picked; it would have been an interesting experience.  OK.  More posts to come...

Song of the Day - Petula Clark

So today's song is "Downtown" by Petula Clark.  Nothing job related here, but yesterday, as you know, I went downtown for jury duty.  As an engineer, my jobs are always out in the suburbs somewhere where rent is cheaper and you don't actually need to rely on being near anything else. 

So this was my first time riding a metro bus in the twin cities, though I've been on the light rail before.  Fortunately, the stop is a short walk from my house and the ride didn't take all that long. 

But it was cool walking around the skyways and generally being around lots of people and being kind of anonymous.  In my former day to day life, you see the exact same people all the time every day.  But it would be interesting to work downtown and maybe occasionally, you bump into someone you know at the food court or something like that. 

And it was cool to meet my wife for lunch, which has happened maybe once or twice in the years that we've lived up here.  And we went to this cute sandwich and salad place. 

It would be nice to work downtown, but I realize the chances of that are very very small, but it's nice to dream.  That's one thing I didn't really think about when I made my career choice, the chances I'd be able to work in the city so for all you readers that are in college (none of you), this is one more thing to keep in mind.

Oh well, but as Petula Clark sings, "Things will be great when you're downtown."  Time to get ready for day 2 of jury duty.

Book Review - The Man Who Loved Books Too Much

As I said earlier, I finished my book today, which was The Man Who Loved Books Too Much. It's an entertaining read and I would recommend it to all of you. The writer does a good job of getting into the heads of book collectors and what drives them.  I guess I would describe it as a cross between The Orchid Thief, with the weird collecting, and American Gangster, with the chase for a criminal.  (I've only seen the movie for American Gangster.)  There's a book collector that loves to steal for the status of having and a book seller/collector who wants the satisfaction of catching the thief.  Anyway, I know nothing about the rare book world and I was fascinated.

Weird trivia I learned.  The author visits the book thief in prison and apparently at this prison in California, underwire bras aren't allowed.  Who knew?  And apparently, lots of the women that visit will be dressed kind of provocatively.  Wouldn't that be weird?  But I guess I've never been in that situation so I wouldn't know.

Jury Duty - Day 1

So I had jury duty today.  To sum up, I finished an entire book today, so that pretty much describes what happened.  But I kept notes on random thoughts during the day and I'll post them here.  I must care about writing if I'm willing to take notes on my thoughts.  That wouldn't have occurred to me before this blog.

I noticed that a few people were wearing a suit and tie to jury duty.  Why?  I guess I've never really felt comfortable in a suit, so it's definitely not a goto outfit for me, but wouldn't everyone want to dress casually here?  I mean, maybe you wear a suit if you think there's a good chance that you'll be let out early and then you'll be able to go straight to work.  But really, what percentage of people are going back to work when they already told their boss they had jury duty.  One of the suit wearers was fairly young, so I imagine that it's like his first year in law school and he's hoping to impress one of the attorneys he meets and then score a nice summer internship.

A number of people brought laptops.  I kind of see jury duty like being on a plane when you're going somewhere for work.  You can do work on the plane, but really, how many chances do you get to just sit back and read a book and not think about work, you know?  I used to have a laptop for work, but I definitely wouldn't have brought it to jury duty.  They even provide a few computers for us to use to check e-mail and stuff, though we're warned not to go to inappropriate websites.  If someone actually did, would someone actually have said something.  I'm thinking that I wouldn't say anything and just ignore it.

We had to watch a video on the jury process.  One of the things it talked about was that they might ask personal questions and then it cuts to a lawyer asking a juror with lots of other jurors and lawyers in the room if they've ever been the victim of a crime.  And I just thought that it would be awesome if someone answers, "Yes, I was raped by my priest when I was young."  That would be way more interesting than my answer, which would be, "I was the victim of a hit and run, but really, no damage was done to the car."

Other thoughts...  We were specifically told to not have alcohol during lunch.  I wonder if this was a problem before they started telling people not to do this....  There was a guy who brought Harry Potter 6 and 7.  He must be a way faster reader than me if he thought he'd need both of those books....  Who are these people that don't bring books and just kind of stare ahead?  It just seemed kind of creepy.