hire power

Posted on by thom

Over the past month of applying to jobs in the Bay Area I’ve garnered a few automated responses but nothing more. Today, though, I received my first personal reply.

The most intriguing part of the e-mail was that the hiring manager took the time and effort to highlight certain specific components and constraints of the position and the hiring process, asking me to take the time to consider them before deciding whether I want to proceed with an initial telephone interview (I do). I don’t believe I’ve ever seen that degree of thoughtfulness in a response to a job application, and I really appreciate that the person who would be my supervisor has taken that kind of approach; it demonstrates his own level of commitment to the process and to the organization.

So there’s been a positive development in the sometimes frustrating, stressful and discouraging task of trying to find a good, interesting, challenging job from 3,000 miles away. Moreover, this specific position is among those to which I’ve applied that most excites and interests me (even given that I’ve been really quite selective about my applications in general). When I first came across the announcement, quite serendipitously the day after it was posted, I was amazed at how specifically my qualifications fit the position, and how dramatically the position accorded with my own goals and interests; I said to Jeff and several friends that it practically couldn’t have been a more perfect match. The only other opportunities for which I could be as excited might be those at Yahoo! or Google (and I’ve got applications into the former, at least, and once I see a good match at the latter I’ll be tossing my hat in there too), since I’m such an avid user and enthusiast for so many of their products and services.

Since networking is one of the best ways to find employment, I’m open to contacts or leads any of you might have in the Bay Area and for those of you who already have already provided me such, thanks again. My expertise encompasses a range of skills from communications and public relations to program and project management to Internet, intranet and web services, with experience encompassing a dot-com startup (e-health), academia, public broadcasting and the federal government, among other industries. I’m a bit of a jack of trades–more Renaissance-ish than dilettante, I hope–with the bulk of my professional experience at the intersection of communications and technology, and I’m especially enthusiastic about the collaborative and community-building aspects of the Web. I’m sharp, creative, dedicated, hard-working and usually more self-effacing than this entry might suggest; recently, though, I’ve been frustrated by a sense that valuable but harder-to-quantify qualities like these aren’t as readily evidenced in a resume and cover letter. So I’ll risk a little self-promotion here. Still, if you’d like a copy of my resume, just let me know.

a lack of style

Posted on by thom

The past few days I’ve been really diligent about taking care of data on my hard drive, backing it up, defragmenting, etc. Tonight I was working on my blog’s stylesheet and, due to the flaky way Firefox (which I otherwise love) seems to handle long content in forms when switching tabs (if I have content in a form in one tab and then switch focus to another tab, when I come back to the first tab the form no longer has all the original content; if I save at that point without reloading the original template, I overwrite the correct version with an incomplete file), I overwrote my stylesheet with a file that had less than half the code it originally included. Unfortunately, unlike the information on my hard drive, I hadn’t yet backed up the newest version of the blog.

So my site looked like crap, and I was in a panicky funk, not even knowing where to begin to recreate my changes to the original stylesheet from scratch. Luckily for me, though, Jeff had my site up on his Mac, and when he pulled up the stylesheet, he got a cached copy of the old stylesheet rather than the bad two-thirds empty one, so he emailed me a copy and saved the day.

I immediately made a copy of the stylesheet and backed it up.

P.S. I love my boyfriend.

here’s to the laddies who brunch

Posted on by thom

Sunday afternoon Jeff and I will again have Easter brunch at David Greggory, the third in a trend that started our first Easter together in 2004 (we’d begun dating the summer of 2003) and continued last March. The menu for Easter brunch hasn’t changed much in three years (with the sad exception of the disappearance of the bison between 2003 and 2004), but with three kinds of bacon, an incredible polenta with mascarpone cheese, and a gorgeous selection of desserts among the buffet options, I’m definitely not complaining.

We’ll have a full review afterwards, I’m sure.

virginia: the cradle cap of democracy

Posted on by thom

The Washington Post reports that Democratic Virginia Governor Timothy M. Kaine is urging Virginia voters to reject a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

Woo-hoo, right? Hold on just a second. Lest you think Beelzebub is about to have to pull on his mittens and scarf, the article goes on to note that the Governor actually is against same-sex marriage. But this bill, you see, wouldn’t just hurt nasty, icky homosexuals. No, it might threaten benefits for some unmarried heterosexuals, too. So, on that basis, he opposes it:

Kaine said that the amendment, which received final approval from the General Assembly this winter, was too vague because it reads in part that the Virginia Constitution should not recognize “another union, partnership, or other legal status to which is assigned the rights, benefits, obligations, qualities, or effects of marriage.”

He said this wording could adversely affect unmarried heterosexual couples… .

Kaine added that he believes that marriage is between one man and one woman.

Oh, boo hoo. Maybe this is looking the gift horse in the mouth, a little, but honestly I’d rather see him support the measure outright than oppose it only because it might hurt straight people. Ostensibly, if it were more narrowly written to attack gay folk only, he’d have no problem with it.

When this is what passes for a Democrat in this state, is it any wonder that Jeff and I want to leave?

someday i could even become dr. watson, i presume

Posted on by thom

Today I offered a two-hour session on new web technologies (blogs, wikis, RSS, podcasts, folksonomies and tagging, etc.) and their potential application for public diplomacy to a class of Foreign Service officers who are about to head off to various posts abroad as public affairs and cultural affairs officers. This was the first time both that such a segment had been included in this class and the first time I’d offered this specific training (though I’ve done training and presentations on bits and pieces of it, and on other technologies, for other groups). I’d been preparing my materials–presentation graphics, web page of resources, various activities and handouts–for several days (the major reason I’ve not done any blogging, nor read any, nor even been able to answer email since early this week). Preparation was a bit of a challenge, because I knew nothing beforehand about any of the officers enrolled in terms of their technical expertise or Internet sophistication. The coordinators for the class suggested that the level of such experience probably would be low, so I prepared my segment mostly as a broad survey of the technologies in question. Two days ago I was asked to try to include some kind of hands-on exercise, if possible, whereas originally I had been told that probably wasn’t necessary or useful for this first class, which we’d treat as a test run. So I made some changes to the content to incorporate such an activity, but still wasn’t sure that what I had would be the right level, or fill (or overfill) the time alotted, so I was a little, not exactly nervous, but uncertain.

When I walked in to the room fifteen minutes before my presentation was to begin, in order to log onto the computer, set up the digital projector, and log in to various sites I wanted to show as examples, my uncertainty increased. The dozen students, with few exceptions, appeared to be in their 20s to early 30s, and I started to wonder to myself if my content might be a little too simplistic and broad, rather than sufficiently narrow and deep, apparently from an assumption that their youth meant that of necessity they would find a discussion of blogs, feeds and podcasts old-hat and humdrum. I noted to Jeff this evening that, perhaps because most of our social circle–such that it is–are either other bloggers or IT professionals, I tend to assume that other people–or the younger generations, at least–are steeped in this stuff.

So getting ready to adjust the content on-the-fly, I asked the officers to go around and introduce themselves, and at the same time to tell me about their experiences with the Internet, blogs, etc. And my concerns were allayed; all were fairly confident users, a few read blogs and a couple of them had done some HTML coding at previous jobs, but that was pretty much as far as it went. So the broad survey was pretty much right on target.

I had a great time with it. The class was informal (when I first arrived with my jacket and tie, one of the class coordinators said she hoped I hadn’t gotten dressed up for their sake; so my jacket immediately went on the back of the chair); I sat at a table in front and alternated chatting about the various technologies and services with showing examples online. They had their own laptops, and followed along, using the web page I’d set up beforehand to navigate to the various sites. We joked a little–I noted that my major experience with training folks is usually teaching sex education to thirteen-year-olds, so I expected this might be a little different, perhaps with less giggling, and one responded that it would be okay if I brought a little of that training to this class as well. When we later got to blogs, and the topic of comment moderation came up, I noted the prevalence of blog spam, “much of it pushing Viagra,” so we managed to bring sex into it after all.

I’m usually very tough on myself after I finish a presentation or a class, but this afternoon even I felt pretty good about it. There were a couple of things I’ll definitely change for the next offering, but all-in-all there was a good mix of material, I think that they definitely took away some new tools and new ideas, and there was a fairly good flow. After the sessions ended, the class coordinators were very enthusiastic about the session and have asked me back for the next offerings, in June and August, and asked if they could tape my presentation in June so they’d be able to use it after I move to California. They’ve also asked if I would be willing to do some regular, 30-minute hands-on BYOL (Bring Your Own Laptop) brown bag sessions.

I really enjoy doing this, though I don’t know how full-time teachers handle it; I put in a lot–a lot–of hours over the course of a couple of weeks preparing my materials and organizing my thoughts for what was just a two-hour session (though as I offer it again and again, and only need to make minimal changes, the ratio might come to seem more reasonable). How in the world can you sustain that kind of ratio of preparation time to teaching time when you’re doing it day after day?

Still, I find myself regretting–again, as happens every few years–that I never (yet) went for a Master’s degree. I’ve been asked a couple of times if I might like to take an adjunct faculty position at a college or university and teach in my spare time, which I think actually would be really cool, but my experience and domain expertise aside, I don’t have that requisite piece of paper. Not that it’s not possible to get it, even now, of course; the past few months I’d even begun thinking about it again, and started to look into some online courses, but I probably need to wait until we’re moved, if not settled in, before taking on the demands of a graduate degree program.

our urban county

Posted on by thom

Arlington County, Virginia, where Jeff and I live, has just released its 2006 demographic profile [website] [3.69Mb PDF].

Some interesting tidbits:

  • population 200,226
  • population density of 7,761 persons per square mile is higher than Seattle, Minneapolis and Pittsburgh
  • more private office space than downtown LA, Atlanta or Seattle
  • 43% of residents are Hispanic/Latino, African-American, Asian or multi-racial
  • more than one-quarter of residents were born outside the U.S.
  • unemployment rate of 2.1%
  • 60% of adults (25 and older) have a bachelor’s degree or higher, with 30% holding a graduate or professional degree
  • 72.6% of households consist of only 1 (40.8%) or 2 (31.8%) people
  • median family income $91,728; per capita income $60,595
  • average assessed value of housing (all) $544,907; single-family detached houses ($666,335); single-family attached houses, townhouses ($676,108); condominium townhouses ($541,741); condos and coops ($367,328)

diogenes, here’s your man

Posted on by thom

OK, I realize that a Russ Feingold candidacy probably would mean at least four more years of a Republican administration, since its unlikely that a majority of Americans would vote for him, but isn’t it nice to dream?

Let’s catalog some of his virtues:

  • the only senator to vote against the Patriot Act in 2001
  • campaign reform (McCain-Feingold)
  • actually has kept his promise not to accept a pay raise while in office
  • he’s for health care reform
  • he’s against the death penalty
  • the list actually goes on and on…

And, almost unbelievably, he’s not only come out against federal and state constitutional amendments banning recognition of same-sex marriages (including one pending in his own state of Wisconsin), aptly calling such attempts “mean-spirited” acts of discrimination against gay folk, but he’s actually gone a step further, standing up publicly in support of legalizing such marriages. These days only a truly principled politician could risk the political sucide such a statement could bring; its unusual to find a politician willing to stand up for what’s right when doing so could mean the end of a political career.

Feingold in 2008!

it’s the same amount of daylight either way… so what precisely are we “saving”?

Posted on by thom

I admit it; I truly enjoyed leaving work today to see the sun still significantly above the horizon. It made me happy. But I still find really stupid and icky the concept and mechanics of Daylight Saving Time. If we really think that this is the schedule on which we should operate from April to October, then why don’t we all just agree to get up an hour earlier? Why must we create some sort of psychological quasi-philosophical mumbo-jumbo about “the time changing”? Time hasn’t changed. I know people who actually think that some astronomical phenomenon or chronometric requirement–like leap seconds and leap years–occurs every spring and fall that causes us to have to reset our clocks.

Nah, we just have to fool ourselves. At least that’s one thing for which our species seems to have a real knack.

lond-on again

Posted on by thom

Despite my occasional flirtations with the fantastic, I tend to think of myself as reasonably rational and not particularly prone to superstition. But I find it hard to let go of a twinge of a feeling that I could “jinx” renewed plans to visit London merely by saying aloud (or the written equivalent) that we have, indeed, made new plans to travel there the end of April. <deep breath> </deep breath>

This time around we’re not booking an all-in-one (and therefore all-or-nothing) vacation through an airline or travel bureau, but are using frequent flier miles for the air travel (luckily we found seats, no longer so easy to do, given recent stories like this one in the Washington Post that arlines are permitting fewer and fewer frequent fliers on any given flight); the additional benefit here is that we can travel business class rather than coach, which will make the transatlantic crossing much more pleasant.

We’ve also reserved rooms at a cool hotel that, while not cheap seems of a significantly higher quality than the norm–London hotels as a class are ridiculously expensive yet have rooms and facilities that are notoriously cramped and in disrepair–and for which we managed to take advantage of the hotel’s Best Rate Guarantee, whereby the hotel matches a verified cheaper Internet fare for the same room over the same days, and throws in an additional 10% to boot. We managed to get the room for about two-thirds the original rate, and 10% less than we found anywhere online for that hotel. The City Inn Westminster (photo gallery here) is a multiple award-winning contemporary hotel near the Tate Britain and Parliament (so a great location for walking to Buckingham, Westminster Abbey, Parliament, the Tate and the London Eye, and convenient to Victoria train station, the Gatwick Express, and two Tube stations as well, with the Thames less than a block away). And there’s free wifi in the public areas and high-speed broadband in the rooms, a feature which is quickly becoming a make-or-break item for us when travelling.

So, knock on wood, in a few weeks we’ll be having tea in the orangery at Kensington Palace, shopping for sugared violets at Fortnum & Mason (thanks for the tip, Gene), and taking in a show in the West End, among other touristy outings amidst the beauty of London in late April (averaging five hours of sunlight daily, and mid-40s to mid-50s Fahrenheit) as opposed to mid-February (two hours of sun and 35-45 degrees). Wicked!

[Update: Turns out Jeff was writing a post about the same thing at roughly the same time, but I beat him to the punch only because he decided to save publishing his for after he got home. And we both used the word “jinx” in the same way; we’re so alike sometimes it’s scary.]

in this case, couldn’t they have reached a little higher?

Posted on by thom

While I’m generally quite enthusiastic about the modern style of furniture sold by Design Within Reach, I’ve always found their name a bit disingenuous at best, since even sale items generally are priced at four figures. And I confess that their barrage of emails once you’re on their mailing list can be annoying, though I do appreciate their monthly electronic newsletters that focus on modernist style and architecture rather than strictly functioning as a product flyer. But today’s announcement really leaves me puzzled:

A Cure by Design Fashion Show at DWR
Tuesday, April 11, 7–10 p.m.

We’re bringing the best of fashion and furnishings together to raise money for a wonderful, caring organization. DWR has partnered with Wendy Pepper of Bravo’s Project Runway for a fantastic event to benefit the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. The fashion designer will show samplings from her newest collection for the first time since Olympus Fashion Week 2005 and raffle one of her creations. In addition to mingling with Wendy, you’ll have the opportunity to check out DWR’s classic and new modern furniture designs, and sample delicious refreshments by PERRY’S, Cricket Cola and Ze Mean Bean Café. Co-sponsors: Fusion Public Relations and Woolpert, Inc. Music by DJ Derek B.

OK, it’s for an extremely good cause. But, please, the shallow, scheming and talentless Wendy Pepper?! And with the implication that somehow she represents the “best of fashion”? Her lack of sartorial talent aside, she didn’t come across in the show–and even less so in her recent appearance on Project Jay where she confesses that even her marriage has failed because of her desire for “fame”–as representing even the best of humanity.

OK, I may be a little harsh given that she is donating her time and one of her designs in support of juvenile diabetes research. Cheers to her for that. And I’ve never actually met her in person, so maybe she’s the complete opposite of the image television has given of her. Just to prove that I’m not only stooping to her level with my namecalling, I’ve also attempted to rise to the occasion as well by donating to the Research Foundation an amount twice that suggested by DWR for the dubious privilege of “mingling with” Ms. Pepper. The refreshments might have been nice, though.