January 2006 Archives

A week ago last Monday, my father-in-law Harvey turned 75. Carole and Jeremy wanted to do something special for him on his actual birthday, so in spite of some concerns from the other siblings, they drove up to Big Bear, took Harvey to lunch, then took him to Big Bear Airport for a training flight. Carole had some altitude problems with some recent dental work, so Jeremy and my brother-in-law Michael joined Harvey and the instructor in the plane.

By all accounts Harvey had a great time. The instructor let him taxi, take off, and fly almost the entire way - but took over for the landing, as you'd expect. Michael wrote a nice note to Carole on how well it went, and how much Harvey enjoyed everything.

Yesterday, Karen and some others arranged for Harvey to take a helicopter training ride from Rialto Airport. It was a two-seater, so only Harvey and the instructor flew, but Karen got some nice video of the take off and landing. Afterwards, we all met at Karen's for hamburgers, hot dogs, and sauerkraut - apparently a favorite of Harvey that Pat only prepares on the rare occassion. Yvette picked some up from a nearby German deli, and it smelled okay enough - but I couldn't overcome my childhood aversions enough to take a taste.

Carole is up in Stockton with her friend Debbie visiting Cindy, Randy left it to Suzie and the kids to show the family flag, and Ann was in Arizona watching Jimmy's baseball team, but everyone else was there. The food was good, the company fun, and everyone had a great time as far as I could tell.

From CNN:

So, you're experienced? Before you advertise this in your resume, be sure you can prove it.

Often, when job seekers try to sell themselves to potential employers, they load their resumes with vague claims that are transparent to hiring managers, according to Scott Bennett, author of "The Elements of Resume Style" (AMACOM).

By contrast, the most successful job seekers avoid these vague phrases on their resumes in favor of accomplishments.

Instead of making empty claims to demonstrate your work ethic, use brief, specific examples to demonstrate your skills.

In other words, show, don't tell.

Bennett offers these examples:

Instead of... "Experience working in fast-paced environment"

Try... "Registered 120+ third-shift emergency patients per night"

Instead of... "Excellent written communication skills"

Try... "Wrote jargon-free User Guide for 11,000 users"

Instead of... "Team player with cross-functional awareness"

Try... "Collaborated with clients, A/R and Sales to increase speed of receivables and prevent interruption of service to clients."

Instead of... "Demonstrated success in analyzing client needs"

Try... "Created and implemented comprehensive needs assessment mechanism to help forecast demand for services and staffing."

The worst offenders

It's good to be hard-working and ambitious, right? The hiring manager won't be convinced if you can't provide solid examples to back up your claims.

Bennett suggests being extra-careful before putting these nice-sounding but empty words in your resume.

• Aggressive
• Ambitious
• Competent
• Creative
• Detail-oriented
• Determined
• Efficient
• Experienced
• Flexible
• Goal-oriented
• Hard-working
• Independent
• Innovative
• Knowledgeable
• Logical
• Motivated
• Meticulous
• People person
• Professional
• Reliable
• Resourceful
• Self-motivated
• Successful
• Team player
• Well-organized

I started this on Wednesday while waiting for Carole's tires to be installed. Very promising.

I watched The Constant Gardener this morning, and made it a little more than half-way before my donation ended. I'll finish it either at lunch, or tonight at home.

From Senator Harry Reid, Democrat from Nevada:

"After reviewing the Republican record, I know why Ken Mehlman and Karl Rove want to play politics with national security in 2006 instead of having an honest debate about who can keep Americans safe. It's because this is a debate Republicans cannot win.

Republicans run good campaigns, but when it comes to actually governing and protecting Americans, they have a record of incompetence."

zeugma:

the use of a word to modify or govern two or more words usually in such a manner that it applies to each in a different sense or makes sense with only one (as in "opened the door and her heart to the homeless boy")

syllepses:

1. the use of a word to modify or govern syntactically two or sometimes more words with only one of which it formally agrees in gender, number, or case
2. the use of a word in the same grammatical relation to two adjacent words in the context with one literal and the other metaphorical in sense

From page 208 of The Sunday Philosophy Club

From TekMonkey:

"A scientist builds in order to learn; an engineer learns in order to build."
    - Fred Brooks

    When interviewing candidates for programming jobs, one of my favorite interview questions is, "How would you describe your approach to software development?" I give them examples such as carpenter, fire fighter, architect, artist, author, explorer, scientist, and archeologist, and I invite them to come up with their own answers. Some candidates try to second-guess what I want to hear; they usually tell me they see themselves as "scientists." Hot-shot coders tell me they see themselves as commandos or swat-team members. My favorite answer came from a candidate who said, "During software design, I'm an architect. When I'm designing the user interface, I'm an artist. During construction, I'm a craftsman. And during unit testing, I'm one mean son of a bitch!"

    I like to pose this question because it gets at a fundamental issue in our field: What is the best way to think of software development? Is it science? Is it art? Is it craft? Is it something else entirely?

My friend and co-worker Shuji is an accomplished amateur flower arranger. Every few months or so he hits the downtown LA wholesale flower mart before dawn, and makes up five to ten flower arrangements that are every bit as good as any you'd find in a flower shop. From time to time he'll make up an arrangement with purple flowers for me to take home to Carole.

Today was one of those days, and the arrangement was spectacular. I had to ride my motorcycle, so I called Justin and had him meet me at my office after school to pick them up.

• Ratio of an igloo's circumference to its diameter = Eskimo Pi
• 2.4 statute miles of intravenous surgical tubing at Yale University Hospital = 1 I.V. League
• 2000 pounds of Chinese soup = Won ton
• 1 millionth mouthwash = 1 microscope
• Speed of a tortoise breaking the sound barrier = Mach Turtle
• Time it takes to sail 220 yards at 1 nautical mile per hour = Knot-furlong
• 365.25 days of drinking low-calorie beer because it's less filling = 1 lite year
• 16.5 feet in the Twilight Zone = 1 Rod Serling
• Half of a large intestine = 1 semicolon
• 1,000,000 aches = 1 megahurtz
• Weight an evangelist carries with God = 1 billigram
• Basic unit of laryngitis = 1 hoarsepower
• Time between slipping on a peel and smacking the pavement = bananosecond
• 453.6 graham crackers = 1 pound cake
• 1 million microphones = 1 phone
• 1 million phones = 1 megaphone
• 365.25 days = 1 unicycle
• 2000 mockingbirds = two kilomockingbirds
• 10 cards = 1 decacards
• 1 kilogram of falling figs = 1 Fig Newton
• 1000 grams of wet socks = 1 literhosen
• 1 millionth of a fish = 1 microfiche
• 1 million billion picolos = 1 gigolo
• 10 rations = 1 decoration
• 100 rations = 1 C-ration
• 10 millipedes = 1 centipede
• 3 1/3 tridents = 1 decadent
• 10 monologs = 5 dialogs
• 2 monograms = 1 diagram
• 8 nickels = 2 paradigms
• 2 wharves = 1 paradox

I just started this yesterday, but it has a lot of promise.

I watched Shakespeare In Love until Marlowe's funeral. I'd forgotten how good it was. I hope to finish over lunchtime.

On January 5, 2006, I rode my FJR to Chino Hills High School to watch my niece Samantha play for Claremont High School's Girls JV soccer team. I thought she did well.

Carole and I decided to start a new tradition this year - actually going out to celebrate New Year's Eve.

Jason and Jenny joined us for dinner at Wood's Ranch at the mall. We left Jason with the check so we could make the 7:20 showing of "Rumor Has It", which we both enjoyed. Jason and Jenny joined us again for a drive out to Marina Del Rey for their annual fireworks show at midnight. By the time the show started the evening fog had rolled in, but we had champagne (for the kids) and sparkling cider (for the old folks), party poppers and horns, and toasts to ring in the New Year.