Work Responses to Photos

(In response to this post)

Ironman Coworker: "Thanks, I'm not invincible!" I need to tell her invincibility is a good thing.

President or Whatever*: "I'm going to start calling you Master Chief." I'm ok with that.

*I don't remember his actual title because the company where I work is owned by another company. It is unclear whether we are technically a division or a fully own subsidiary (separate company). Moreover, our parent company is owned by two other companies.

It's complicated.

Watching Bethel

This was rendered yesterday and slightly different from the rest, it goes at a slower speed. As I write I am working on what I hope are the final steps towards filtering out all of the night and weekend shots. I know I am making some progress at any rate.

Previous time lapses can be found here, the first post on the subject here. Links provided mostly because this post is aimed at a certain high level person at Bethel whom I hope is able to find some use of this.

As long as I am at that, I have to thank Dr. KT for pressing me to show this to others at Bethel, I know that at least one high level person found it very helpful.

I don't think I ever told the story of how I started this project and it is kind of funny. Basically, a little over a year ago, I was sitting in a classroom. Slightly better than the dungeons of the HC (a nasty set of classrooms at BU), but no windows and right next to the building you can see above. I could feel the tremblings of the bulldozers.

I knew that last time BU had setup a major building project (the new dorms) they had set up a webcam. I even know someone that found the IP address of the webcam and found that s/he could pan/zoom it via their browser, but I digress.

Wanting a "window" to the outside I searched for the new Commons project on Bethel's website and indeed found the webcam. At first I just watched it in class (meaning, for the first day or something like that.) I quickly realized that it would make a pretty cool time lapse. Where "pretty cool" means that I would get a kick out of it. I like doing time lapses and have set up a couple on my own for, well, fun.

That really was the whole point and genesis of this project -- it was fun and I could do it. Usefulness was never really considered (hence the thanks to Dr. KT). By today I am just short of collecting 400 days worth of photos. I grab them both hourly in one set and by the minute in another set. The set shown has always been the former. The latter is the one I am working on to "perfect."

Guess we'll see how that goes in the coming days. It takes a little bit of time to render these (viz., putting all the relevant pictures into a video) especially on a computer that is at least 8 years old.

Work Photo

Outside of everyone's cubicle at work is their name with a picture of them underneath in front of a wall with the company logo behind. I didn't have a photo, so I decided to make one.

You'd be surprised how good this looks printed out glossy at Walgreens...

Ironically, the only person to walk by and recognize the picture was the head of the company (or division, or whatever exactly the place I work at officially is.)

Another employee wanted a picture too (her real one wasn't good enough I guess), so I indulged.

Just That Cool

So my brother, M, & myself are driving down to Knoxville, TN as I write. My brother and I wanted something that wasn't on the local radio or XM -- both of which were available to us.

Coming prepared I pulled out an FM transmitter, my laptop, power inverter, and cell phone. Together, we are streaming The Current (89.3 FM - Minnesota Public Radio) while driving on I-75 south through Kentucky mountains.

Yeah, we are just that cool.

The Things You Find

I've been spending a lot of time packing (at least when this was written) and moving recently out of The Shelter back to my parents' house. Because I plan to move agian by January I am putting in more effort than normal so I don't essentially move twice. This is my most organized move every. It really gets better every time.

I think I've found all the instrutments I own, it is kinda of amazing. Apparently I just can't get rid of something musical after I get it. I apparently own all the following (and "tested" half of them while moving :-)

1. Accoustic Guitar
   
2. Electric Guitar & Amp
   
3. Recorder (for real, since 5th grade, and I still know the fingerings!)
   
4. A juice harp (aka "Jew's Harp", despite not being connected with Judisiasm.)
   
5. A tenor saxophone dating back to approximately 1929.
   
6. An shortened electric keyword (e.g., it is like a regular electric piano but missing an octave on either end.)
7. Harmonica in the key of C
   

I think that is it. I was pretty pumped about finding my juice harp again, and taking out the sax for a bit. I can actually play all of them but the keyboard (well, I can play most chords in the key of G and play simple melodies, but not really play.) But I figure not playing keyboard is compensated by playing Tuba. Unforatently, I don't have one of those on hand :-( They are pretty awesome!

I love playing all of these, even the onese I suck at (most).

Writ November 1st, 2008

How much do you think this cost?

Can Your Computer Do This?

My Computer Says:

 20:15:01 up 18 days, 23:56,  8 users,  load average: 1.91, 1.58, 1.58

What this means: my computer has been up for 18 days, 23 hours and 56 minutes while working the entire time.

This is why Tux* rocks my world.

Tux* is the officially unofficial mascot of Linux.

Already Unhappy

Alright, so I am a little impatient. I want to know the results that are coming in now. In 2004 I watched the election uber-closely. I found the websites of various Secretaries of States which generally have a page that report the results as they come in (they don't report until polls close).

So I started looking. Yes, I started looking for these pages for Ohio, Florida and Minnesota at 6:45am. And I can't find any of them. None.

If anyone else knows where to find these pages I would be much obliged. In the meantime, I guess I have to rely on CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC exit polls (they generally don't report things at the same time.

LinkedIn Usefulness & Jobs

Note bene: This is somewhat of a long post, but a fast read. If you want to skip most of it just read the Bottom Line at, uhm, the bottom. But, I think and hope this post may help people -- especially younger people -- understand LinkedIn.com.

Jen asked about LinkedIn.com, a social networking site for "professionals," whatever exactly that means. More specifically, Jen asked:

What do you think of LinkedIn? I got an invite to join some time ago and ignored it, but I've heard it mentioned much more since then. Not sure whether or not I want to join.

I really have no idea how helpful it actually is, it probably depends on who you are, but here are my thoughts on it.

First, one should know that more than 80% of jobs are found through personal connections; that is, despite your personal experience, most people get jobs through a friend or a friend of a friend etc. I got one of my best jobs this way and got two very nice interviews lined up the same way (and a straight up job offer overseas similarly.)

Unlike Facebook where anybody you've ever met is a "friend" LinkedIn focuses on creating adding "connections [friends, colleagues, managers, etc.]" that you actually know. Like Facebook, you can see your connections' connections. E.g., I can see the 37 connections of W.H., who is a connection of mine. I can't see the actual connections (the real people) past that but I can see that currently I have 34 connections, which branch out to over 700, which branch out to nearly 50,000.

It's not that far away from the hypothesis that everyone in the world is six steps away from everyone else. In this case, on LinkedIn, I know 34 people, who know over 700 people, who in turn (total) know over 49,000 people.

With LinkedIn you can recommend someone to someone else or vice versa. Say I know a middle school principal who is looking for a teacher. I also happen to know a teacher that I would personally endorse. I can use LinkedIn to recommend the teacher to the prinicipal (if they both are on LinkedIn).

Of course, in reality I would probably just pass along the name. The prinicipal may have reason to doubt me, or "trust, but verify," and look up the teach on LinkedIn (maybe I have a close relationship with the teacher). But with LinkedIn the prinicpal can look up the teacher and see who has "reccomended, [commentented on]" the teacher, and a brief resume if the teacher has set it up. I'll use my own examples here, instead of the possibly hyopthethical teacher.

Endorsements are essentially postive remarks from other people, usually people you have worked with. You request them from other people or simply endorse someone on your own. Here are a couple I have on my LinkedIn profile (these are slightly abbrevieated -- full names are shown on LinkedIn -- the details are verbatim.)

From T.E., May, 2007

Details of the Recommendation:

"Jon's knowledge of web design and implementation added great value to launching the site and the product. He brought things to the table we hadn't thought of."


Service Category: Graphic/Web Designer
Year first hired: 2006


Top Qualities: Personable, Expert, Creative

Another:

By M.S., May, 2007
Details of the Recommendation:

"Jon is a creative thinker who does not fear the unknown. He is able to enter into new situations with courage and honesty and develop his skill set to the best of his ability. Students, parents and coworkers love him! Dedication and perserverance are very strong traits!"

One More:

From J.S, May, 2007

Details of the Recommendation:

"Jonathan took on his role as a worship leader even though he had limited previous experience in that area. He exhibited a commitment to excellence by quickly improving his skills and knowledge, pulling together a team which included students and succeeded in providing meaningful times of worship. He has also accompanied students to conferences, where he has engaged in meaningful intereactions with them. His intellectual and spiritual depth enables him to tackle the hard questions young people often ask."

(You do have the option of accepting or rejecting recomendations, in the event someone it out to get you, even if they played nice at work.)

You can see my public profile at http://www.linkedin.com/pub/3/ab4/32. I still have to update it, but it is an abbrievated resume. To see my full profile you have to register.

LinkedIn has other features, such as joining groups (such as your alumini group), among other things. Some may make you appear more attractive on LinkedIn, but remember, your personal connections are the most important.

The Bottom Line:
I haven't used LinkedIn that much so I don't know how useful it really is, but it never hurts to join. It is probably one of those things worth doing no matter what. It's free, and can help.

It is nice to have an abbrievated resume always ready to go, as well as a portfolio of endorsements from people you have worked with. It is also cool to browse your contacts and theirs', as well as browse jobs with a resume/contacts already in place.

Finally, probably most importantly, people further into careers than I reccomend joining it. To be sure, I'll have my LinkedIn profile updated before I start looking for my next job (which will be quite soon.) I probably won't find it via LinkedIn, but if I do I'll be awfully glad I took the whole hour or so to get things setup properly.

Post on Posts

Just as an FYI, as some my posts appear at "odd" times given that I am at work or doing something else. When I write more than a single post at once I schedule them out. It's better to have a couple posts a week on different days than two on a single days, or whatever.

So if you think I have "too much time at work," or are trying to figure out how I managed to post while driving (ok, so I can, just rarely do) that is why.