Wanderings

Anything you dream is fiction,
and anything you accomplish is science,
the whole history of mankind is nothing but science fiction.
- Ray Bradbury
December 19th, 2008

Lots of Winter Pictures

I am cleaning out the various cameras here. I put some of them on a Picasa album here:

Some interesting pictures —

When Larry and I went to see Cadillac Records, we got there a little early. Larry spent the time annoying some nice girls trying to sell bath salts and other smelly things. They worked hard flirting with Larry and trying to sell him something. Of course, he didn’t spend any money and when we went by later one of them gave him the finger.

There is a mouse at work that leaves me little presents every night.

Furry in the snow showers that we had around Thanksgiving.

The usual suspects at work. This is our Christmas lunch. Programming attracts a variety of cultures.

There are a bunch of arty pictures of the backyard in the collection.

Here is a Battenfeld tree farm picture.






December 4th, 2008

Koch in Hospital

My friend and coworker Koch was in a terrible car accident. He was hurt badly and is in intensive care. I hope he gets well soon.






December 3rd, 2008

Census workers

Anyone looking for a part time job with decent pay might be interested. I understand census work is pretty simple and low pressure. You can pick up $400 a week for up to 12 weeks for simply wandering around with a clipboard, usually in your home town.

You’d can get to RCC and check it out, but can also apply on the census website. This for the 2010 census, but the work starts in the spring of 2009.

Kathy Bookman, from the U.S. Census Bureau will be in the Atrium, Cultural Arts Center tomorrow, Dec. 4, 2008 from 10am-2pm for the following positions:

Recruitment Assistants
Crew Leaders
Field Staff

Starting salaries range from $18-$20/hr for part time work.






November 6th, 2008

Budget Cuts Starting

How much money is this going to save? Where will stand around discussing the latest episode of One Tree Hill and Gossip Girl?

DATE:    November 5, 2008

TO:        IT Staff

FROM:    2nd Deputy Chief Information Officer

RE:        Water Coolers

Please be advised that once all of the water bottles from each water cooler in the department has been used all water coolers will be removed. 

A water filter system has been place in kitchen on the 2nd floor and one in the kitchen in the budget office on the 3rd floor, which we are suppose to have access to.

If you have any questions, please see me.






September 21st, 2008

Programmer Fan Mail

I don’t make it easy to contact me. My email is often hidden, missing or obfuscated. I still get about 300 spam messages a day in my gmail spam folder, which I have to check just in case.

I just checked my spam and found a message from someone who likes my Craigslist telecommute job search at my site Gthread.com.

Marianne wrote:

I love you Keith P Graham! Ok not literally, but this search form rules!!! If I get the job I want from this experience I’ll name something of importance (to me) after you. :-) You get good karma points.

http://www.gthread.com/craigslist_search/

Programmers don’t get that much respect. Mostly because there is always something wrong with out code. It is nice to hear something nice for a change.






February 22nd, 2007

I need a Vacation

I occasionally dip my left big toe in the job pool to test the water. I have resumes at Monster and a few other job sites. I make a separate email address for each one so I can track where my job offers come from. In the last few months, I have been receiving spam and Nigerian scams at the Careerbuilder.com email. They have sold (or someone has sold) my personal data and I am receiving these bogus work-at-home offers where I am asked to give up my checking account number. They know my name and address.

I also get calls at my home number from very aggressive recruiters, who want me to relocate or work for peanuts. These come from CareerBuilder, as well.

I killed my CareerBuilder account, but the damage is done. Careerbuilder seems to be casual about who gets my information.

If you want to find a job, use InDeed.com. This is an aggregater, that goes out to several job sites and scrapes off the data. I specify jobs within 20 miles of my home and I get dozens of good job listings when I check it. The other places to check are Craigslist.org and http://www.usajobs.opm.gov (this is where I apply for NASA jobs – not even a nibble so far).

By the way, yesterday I got a nibble on my left big toe. I dreamt all night about a job where I could actually take a paid vacation again. It’s a long shot, though. I am not a good match and the tech interview was about .NET, which is not my area of expertise. I tried to convey that I am a decent programmer, no matter what the language, but I am not sure that I came across as competent for the job. Still, I wasn’t entirely bummed by the interview and I have some slim hope. Perhaps in a year, I can take a week or two off with pay – what a concept. I haven’t had a vacation (other than down time between gigs) since 1999.