The animation is okay, but what really makes it work is the music.
Cheney's Got a Gun
(Thanks to Danielle for the link.)
« January 2006 | Main | March 2006 »
The animation is okay, but what really makes it work is the music.
Cheney's Got a Gun
(Thanks to Danielle for the link.)
Literally 12 degrees right now. During the day. And it's sunny. This is so not cool.
UPDATE: Oh, and according to the wind chill, it feels like -5.
Right now it's 15 degrees outside...
So I'm seriously considering the consulting gig. I'm really tired of being unemployed and even if it's good for nothing else, I'll meet a lot of people and get some more experience under my belt. I'm going to make some calls this week to follow up on the non-profit jobs that I've applied for just to see if it looks like there's a chance I'd get any of them. But barring someone telling me that I'm a the top of their list, I'm taking the consultant job.
Either way, it's nice to know that I'll be officially employed within the next couple of weeks.
I'm considering a trip to Philadelphia next weekend to visit some friends and I was looking at the different prices for transportation options. Here's my question:
If the train takes 4 hours longer than a plane and costs nearly the exact same price, why on earth would I take the train?
Not for me, I'm afraid, but for Ben. He's still getting articles written about the legal aid movie he made.
The latest article can be found here. He even has a screening at his legal alma mater.
A few years ago I saw a documentary on The Discovery Channel (or some other similar network) showing all the evidence that the moon landings were a hoax. It was a very convincing piece, though I doubt it's actually true.
In that same vein, I today watched Loose Change, a documentary alleging that 9/11 was a US government plot. Again I find myself with a movie that asks a lot of interesting questions and presents quite a bit of alleged evidence, but I can't help but be skeptical. In truth, the most reassuring thought is that I don't honestly believe that our government is capable of a cover-up of this scale.
So I link with a caveat: This is going to be controversial and may very well be absolute crap. But a small part of me can't help but wonder...
My pollster/consultant boss and I had a few beers and discussed the possible job some more. Though there will definitely be assistant-ish responsibilities, I'll also have the opportunity to act as something of an associate consultant. I'll be tasked to lower-priority campaigns and will handle strategy meetings and consult with candidates and campaign staffers.
As of now the boss needs some time to make sure that he'll have enough work this election cycle to justify hiring someone full time. I also need to decide what I need to be paid to do the job. (It'll technically be contract/freelance work so there won't be health/dental/unemployment benefits or anything like that.) It'll also take a few weeks before I know about the other jobs I've applied for. So during that time I'm going to be doing some part-time work to help the boss get a feel for what other consulting and polling work is available. By mid-March he'll know more about his situation and I'll know more about my own options.
Basically there are a few questions at the forefront of this decision:
- Would this job be as beneficial for me as one of the non-profit jobs? Would I be learning as much and would it look as good on a resume? Would this job help me get a better understanding of what I want my next job to be? Will this job help me get my next job?
- What will my employment options look like after this job wraps up? It would only go through the elections in November, and the last month of the year really isn't the ideal time to look for work. If I do this will I be in this exact same position next year but will a better resume? On the one hand, if I do this I could probably have an easier time getting a job as a State House aide or working communications for a non-profit. That being said, the job would still have to be available. So would I be better suited going with an open-ended full time position?
Lots of things to consider over the next few weeks.
The man for whom I've been working on the phone banks doing scheduling and organizing is asking if I'd be interested in working for him full-time. The job would basically be his assistant for his work as a political consultant. He'll be consulting on a good number of state campaigns for this year's election cycle and he wants someone to keep him organized and occasionally attend meetings in his place.
I'm going to talk to him more about the specifics of what the job will entail, but it could be an interesting opportunity. On the one hand I'll be making a lot of contacts around the state and working pretty solidly within the Massachusetts political scene. Alternately, I feel like I'd be learning more different things if I ended up with a non-profit or working for a legislator.
The pay would probably be on-par with the non-profit jobs that I've applied to, and I don't think I'll have to make a decision in the immediate future, but it's at least worth considering.
There are few things as entertaining as a cat reacting to a static electric shock.
(And no, I'm not doing it on purpose... it just happens when it's cold out. Petting a cat is like a static electric generator.)
After having my VOIP service up and running for a little over a week now, here's what I have to report:
1. The quality is generally good. I've had a handful of lengthy long-distance conversations and haven't found there to be any noticeable distortion or drop-outs.
2. Sometimes it doesn't ring. That's not to say that incoming calls don't ring. Those work fine. It's the outgoing calls that are a bit off. I'll dial the number and then after a period of silence the person I'm calling will pick up or I'll go to voicemail like any other call. It works, but I miss having the outgoing ring.
3. I'm not sure if this is related, but my internet has been a little weird lately. I've had a few instances where my network is still up and running but the internet itself doesn't work. It fixes itself if I do a quick reboot of the cable modem and router. Right now I have it set up as follows: cable modem --> VOIP box --> wireless router. I think a better system would be to have the router come first. Unfortunately the Airport Express that I use doesn't have an option to plug the VOIP box directly into it.
4. For some reason that I can't determine, my cell phone won't forward to the VOIP line. It will call the line without any problems but it won't forward calls. This was the case a day or two after I first set it up and I haven't tried it since, so maybe it was just a hiccup. I'll give it another shot tomorrow.
In conclusion, I'm pretty happy so far. I'm going to call Verizon and see what options there are to keep my land line for minimal service (911 and maybe local calls). If it's cheap enough I'll keep it for a while longer until I trust the VIOP more. Otherwise I may just go ahead and transfer the number and be done with it.
I noticed a lot of guys walking around town with flowers yesterday, the day after Valentine's Day. Is this because they were on sale (after-V-Day extravaganza!) or because they all forgot Valentine's day the day before?
Maybe if "Lost" could go for more than two consecutive weeks without taking a month-long break for reruns then we'd remember what happened and not need such a detailed "previously on Lost..." intro.
I'm just sayin'.
I think this gets said every year, but are these really the top 24 singers in the country? I'm sorry, but watching tonight's "the judges select the final 12 men and 12 women" episode I just can't believe some of the mediocrity that's getting put through. And the worst part is that now "america" gets to vote, which means we have to sit through weeks of people who shouldn't keep getting through but do because some random demographic thinks they're cute or something.
I'm now officially jaded with American Idol. But I'll be over it by next week.
I got some more information about the job I interviewed for this morning.
1. They're going to have a final round of interviews and hope to make a decision by mid-March with a start date around April 1st.
2. I know of three other people applying for this job who are very qualified. I just have to hope that they get offered other jobs first.
I can't believe that I'm not going to be employed until April, and that's even if I get this job! This whole "unemployment" thing has gone on way too long.
I see this opportunity as something of a long-shot since I know how tough the competition is. I had to apply, but I'm not counting my chickens before they come home to roost (or something like that). In fact, I certainly hope that I hear about some of the other jobs that I applied for last week because there were other good opportunities in there.
Time will tell...
I wonder how many more posts I'll get to write that basically say "I had a job interview this morning. I think it went well. We'll see?" Hopefully I get to stop soon.
So today's interview went well. I already knew the guy interviewing me, so it was a pretty relaxed meeting. The position is an organizer job with a statewide non-profit. They do grassroots organizing for elections and issue campaigns. It would definitely be a good job to have, so I've got my fingers crossed.
I have an interview on Wednesday for one of the jobs that I applied for last week. It's with a non-profit that I'm pretty familiar with. I've worked with them before on some of the campaigns I volunteered for. This is the job where I know that the competition is tough, but they at least want to bring me in for an interview, so that's a good sign.
I'm all for the increased bandwidth that digital cable service allows. On-Demand, high-speed internet, more channels, etc. However, I'm getting really tired of the dropped audio and jumpy, artifacted picture. It's gotten a lot worse recently and it's actually starting to disrupt whatever show I'm watching at the time.
Anyone think it could be related to the VOIP line? It doesn't seem to be related to when I'm using the line, and the VOIP should only take a piece of the internet bandwidth anyways. My internet service doesn't seem much slower, so that makes me think it's just the TV signal.
I understand that today's snowstorm was a big deal. But I could look out my window and get the same amount of information that you spent one hour pre-empting Meet the Press to tell me. Next time I'll take a simple blizzard warning and an hour of Tim Russert.
Thanks,
Daniel
And no, I'm not talking about the treat from Dairy Queen.
We're in the midst of quite a snowstorm today. I'd say about a foot and a half has fallen so far and though it's letting up it's still coming down. Driving this morning was a treat with visibility around 50 feet or so and the roads just barely plowed before the snow covered them again. When I pulled up next to my apartment and opened the car door, it pushed snow away. I'll also have to start shoveling my steps if I want to be able to get in and out of my apartment later.
But it's otherwise been a relaxing morning. I stayed in bed late and then my girlfriend made pancakes for breakfast. I was scheduled to be working a phone bank tonight, but we've cancelled that so now I just have a nice lazy sunday to enjoy.
Friday night Fox is airing the last four episodes of Arrested Development. Well, the last four episodes on Fox. I'm still holding out hope that the show will get picked up by another network.
One of my favorite martial arts fight scenes ever is the stick and ladder sequence from Jackie Chan's First Strike (also known as Jing Cha Gu Shi IV, for those of you who prefer the undubbed version). I'm sure there are more authentic fight scenes out there, but when it comes to sheer slapstick mayhem at ridiculously fast speeds, I've yet to find a better scene than this.
(I just saw it on TV... that's why.)
Alberto Gonzales testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding the president's authorization of warrantless wiretaps -
"I gave in my opening statement, Senator, examples where President Washington, President Lincoln, President Wilson, President Roosevelt have all authorized electronic surveillance of the enemy on a far greater scale."
Really? You know, I thought that we won the revolutionary war because of our guerilla tactics and stronger will. Apparently it was because we accomplished a technological breakthrough and bugged the Brits.
Good thing Specter didn't make him swear in...
Today I went to a job fair hosted by Idealist.org. I found a few possibilities there that I'll write letters for and follow up tomorrow. I also spent part of today door knocking for a state rep campaign. I was able to speak with some of the other campaign volunteers who had leads on a few different opportunities. So I definitely have some things to pursue over the next couple of days, which is a nice feeling.
I like to pronounce it like a word... like "voyp!"
I got my equipment from SunRocket today and tried to set it up but ran into some snags. After connecting the "gizmo" as it's called to my cable modem and router it was having a difficult time connecting. The internet was working but I couldn't get phone service.
I called tech support and ended up on the phone with someone who was clearly on another continent and who knew less about computers than, well... she didn't know much. When I told her that I was using a Mac and not a Windows system I was put on hold for a few minutes while she tried to figure out what I needed to do instead of go to the command prompt. (I still don't understand what she wanted me to do with my computer... the internet worked fine but the VOIP thingy wasn't connecting.) Anyway, she and I never got the chance to work anything out because while she put me on hold to go figure something out I got disconnected.
At that point I had to leave to go to a job fair, and when mI got home later in the afternoon it still wasn't working. I sent an email to their support describing my problems and then left to volunteer on a state rep campaign in Foxboro. Then, when I got home just now everything works. I haven't done a whole lot of testing but I called my old land line from my VOIP line and it rang, so that's a start. I'll have to make some long-distance calls tommorow to see how it sounds.
Stephen Colbert just made my night with a reference to Wiliam Carlos Williams' poem, Red Wheelbarrow. I guess I owe John Capute a thank you. Without that 9th grade lit class I wouldn't have gotten the joke.
1. The commercials were pretty disappointing. The funny ones almost universally involved people tackling each other. There was a severe lack of creativity (though I definitely enjoyed the "Lost" ad with Robert Palmer's "Addicted to Love.")
2. The football was pretty damn good. Some impressive plays and good hard tackles. I think my favorite was Pittsburgh's double hand-off then pass for a touchdown in the 3rd (4th?) quarter. The score could have been closer, but it was entertaining nonetheless.
3. What idiot on the Pepsi marketing team thought that "brown and bubbly" would be an appealing slogan? When I hear "brown and bubbly" I think of gastrointestinal problems. Nothing about the slogan is appealing. Not even the un-catchy hip-hop song produced by Diddy.
Today I ran, and lost, my first official political campaign.
A bit of background: To be on the democratic primary ballot in Massachusetts for Governor, Lt. Governor, and some other state and federal positions, you have to receive a certain percentage of the delegates' votes at the state's Democratic Convention. To be a delegate who gets to cast a vote, you have to be elected at your region's caucus.
I've recently been getting involved with the Deval Patrick campaign and they needed people to show up and run to be on their slate of delegates. So I agreed to show up and run as an alternate delegate on the slate. However, 'twas not to be. Many memebers of the Deval Patrick slate were elected, but a few did not make it and I was one of those few.
So my political career has gotten off to a rocky start. But I am not disuaded. I still signed up to be an add-on delegate, which means that if there are any slots unfilled across the state, they select people to show up and fill them. I don't know when I'll know whether or not I've been chosen for that, but I'd like to be able to go to the convention if possible.
Remember when I mentioned that Jack Abramoff went to Brandeis? Well, it seems that he made a $50 donation to the university and the story's been picked up by Wonkette.
I got my new cell phone in the mail today. It's a Sony Ericsson Z520a. So far my experience has been pretty good. Unlike last time when the new/used phone got absolutely no reception within a 3 mile radius of my apartment, this phone works as well, if not a little better than my old one while I'm home. It also has features that my old one didn't have, like voice dialing (good for when I'm wearing gloves), speakerphone (good for when I want to annoy everyone else on the T) and MP3 ring tones (good for amusing myself at the expense of everyone elses' opinion of me). It also has LEDs that light up in a pattern when the phone rings, which would be awesome if I were a teenage girl.
So for the time being it looks like this worked out for the best. Unfortunately I have to mail back my old phone, otherwise I'd probably be able to sell it on Craigslist.
I can't set up my new VOIP phone until I get the equipment, which is presumably in transit. However, I was able to long onto my account through SunRocket's web site and I must say that I'm mighty impressed. It's well laid out, functional, and very easy to use (which is more than I can say for many corporate account pages). Also, I can get voicemail online or over email. I called my new number and left myself a message and within a few minutes it was available online. There are also different call forwarding options and other nifty features.
Now I just hope the phone service itself is worthwhile.
I just saw a commercial for a new cereal: Grape-Nuts Trail Mix Crunch. The commercial went out of its way to talk about how "unbelievable" the cereal is, even ending with the tag line, "New Grape-Nuts Trail Mix Crunch. So good you won't believe it's Grape-Nuts."
Now here's my question - if the public perception of regular Grape-Nuts cereal is so bad that this new variety has to distinguish itself so vehemently (so good you won't believe it's grape-nuts), then why on earth would they use the Grape-Nuts brand? Post owns many cereal brands and could just as easily have gone with a name that would be more marketable if they wanted. So why give themselves an immediate hurdle?
Or, if the public perception of Grape-Nuts isn't that bad, then why make the line sound so unappealing with this ad? It's basically saying "we know you hate regular Grape-Nuts, but this stuff is good!"
I just don't get it.
And yes, I have this little to do today.
SunRocket, that is.
Yes, I've signed up for VOIP phone service. I'm keeping my regular land line until this one checks out and everything works satisfactorily, but hopefully I'll be able to cancel it within a month or so. I did some research and all of the major VOIP carriers seemed to get the same complaints, so I went this these guys because of their prices. Hopefully the quality will be good enough that I won't regret it. I have heard horror stories about transferring land line numbers to VOIP and how long that process takes, so I may not even go through the hassle of doing it. (Not that many people call me at home anyways, and besides, I like sending out change-of-info mass emails.)
Also in the world of telecommunications, I'm getting a new cell phone. I'd written about how I got insurance for my cell phone a few weeks ago. Well this stupid thing finally pissed me off enough that I called in my insurance policy and they're mailing me a new one. Hopefully it will be enough of an improvement to keep me going until my contract expires and I can switch to Verizon.
You know what's frustrating? Seeing a job re-posted that you applied to a while ago. Because that means that you were passed over not because they found someone better, but because you weren't qualified.
Of course, I do apply for a few jobs for which I'm not neccesarily experienced enough, but that doesn't mean that I couldn't do the job if given the opportunity. They just don't know that yet.
Hypocrisy, thy name is Bush.