Sibylle’s sister (Hi, Schwesterchen!) asked today, via email, how I was liking my new job, and how we were liking living in Manhattan.
Location, Location, Location
Living in Manhattan is great. Â I told Sibylle this evening that living here feels like coming home on several levels. Â Through the nine months Sibylle lived here, and we were bi-residential, [...]
Tag Archive 'employment'
Thoughts on Commuting
Posted in life on Dec 24th, 2008
The first paid job I had, post college, was 50 miles away from where I was living at the time. Â I started in October, and didn’t find an apartment I liked until April the following year, so I spent two hours a day in the car for nearly six months. Â After moving my commute was [...]
Business Continuity
Posted in life, nerdliness on Dec 23rd, 2008
In the movie business, continuity refers to the process of making sure that scenes shot out of sequence line up contextually in the finished movie. Â The best example I can think of is in Ocean’s Eleven, where Brad Pitt’s character is talking to Matt Damon’s character while eating a shrimp cocktail. Â In the middle of [...]
I’m Gonna Need New Business Cards
Posted in life on Dec 17th, 2008
What better way to start off the new year than with a new job? Â I recently accepted a position as Software Architect with the Office of Mediated Education at Kansas State University. Â I’ll be working with several teams that develop and support web-based applications for use in online classrooms, student ratings, grade submission, and a [...]
How I Spent My Summer
Posted in life on Aug 29th, 2008
In early July I was called to a meeting at DST Human Resources (HR) to discuss my position. DST, a large corporation, is half owner of Argus Health Systems, which is the company I work for. Ever since I joined Argus in January 2007 there has been some upheaval, including a major project cancellation, several reorganizations of the Information Technology [...]
Rolling the Dice
Posted in life on Aug 18th, 2008
The recent upheaval in my employment has knocked me off my emotional center; it is hard to think coherently about my upcoming choice.
Sometime this week, or early next I will be presented with one or more opportunities to accept a new position. The choices as they stand today are, in no particular order:
* Software Engineer [...]
Let’s Make A Deal
Posted in life on Aug 18th, 2008
For the past six weeks or so I have been participating in a placement program at my employer. Â My position was eliminated and this program is designed to locate a new position for me within the company. Â While I applaud the thinking behind the program – that it is better to retain employees than to [...]
Two Minute Warning
Posted in life on Aug 14th, 2008
Throughout my career I have been fascinated with process. Â At a certain level of abstraction my job is nothing but implementing processes, big and small, to achieve some goal. Â After spending twenty-five years examining existing processes to understand them, and designing new automated processes to replace or augment them, I tend to see processes everywhere. [...]
Course Catalog
Posted in life on Jul 2nd, 2008
Every semester in college, when the new course catalog was issued, you got to look for classes to take following the break. Â There was always an anticipation in this process. Â Reading the course descriptions, matching offerings up to your schedule, and wondering if Psychology 101 was really as bad as everyone said.
This week I am [...]
How To Ruin Your ‘Talent’ Agency Using Email
Posted in life on Apr 30th, 2008
Recently I have been dealing with a particularly egregious form of spam – technical recruiter emails. One company in particular, Talentberg, stands out for its lack of professionalism and ignorance.  They absolutely refuse to prune their mailing list, even when repeated requests are made.  And they attempt to justify their actions through an intimidating, if false, [...]