Sometimes funny, sometimes thoughtful, always a good time
Yesterday Zack found an old box of cherry Jello in the back of the pantry. He was bored, so he decided to mix it up and enjoy a little snack. He had the brilliant idea of pouring it into our Han Solo ice cube mold.
As it turns out, Han Solo doesn’t do too well as Jello. Too bad.
Zing’s in the market for a new developer, which means it’s time to poke a little fun at some of the stuff I see in resumes as people apply for a job.
Let’s start with an objective that uses some big words but is basically meaningless:
When applying for a job where you write code, don’t start your cover letter with:
Our job posting says very clearly– in bold font with capital letters– that we’re looking for a local full-time employee. So it’s always great when people say things like:
And finally, something that had me puzzled a bit:
Points for honesty, I guess, but this guy is a long-haul truck driver. No kidding. He’s probably really nice, and hopefully great at his job, but I just don’t understand how a truck driver applies for a job requiring mid- to advanced-level programming skills.
And so, the hunt continues.
Seen on an internet Q&A forum:
Seen on the internet. Funny because it’s true. And tragic.
I just received this email:
It sounds like a dream job: $150k/year, all the vacation and sick days I want, no dress code, wow!
Unfortunately I received it at 7:36pm Mountain Time, and the offer apparently expired at 7:00pm Eastern Time. Dang it!
Today was our second high-school graduation ceremony. Kyra pulled it off!
The weather was a little chilly when we arrived but once the clouds cleared, it warmed up quickly to become quite beautiful. Here’s the crowd, with Mr. Aragon delivering an introductory speech while holding a wizard’s staff:
Kyra chose Ms. Texera, her band teacher, to hand her the diploma. They struck a pose for the camera:
This year’s graduating class was smaller than Alex’s class so the ceremony went a little more quickly. That’s always nice, since almost everyone there only cares about one of the graduates. At the end, the mortarboards flew.
Here’s the happy graduate. She’s wearing white for her 4.0+ GPA, red-and-gold honor cords, and a band award. She was supposed to get another cord for her college-level courses, but some wires got crossed and we’ll need to sort that out.
Her friends Hannah and Alex, who she’s known for something like 15 years, came to support her… as did Alex’s parents!
Grandma and grandpa also made the trip, squeezing it into their busy summer travel schedule:
I’m so proud of my beautiful girl.
Dad spent about 40 years of his life as a meteorologist. But heck, he could’ve saved himself a lot of time if he’d had one of these little doodads that I saw at Walmart yesterday:
It’s a weather forecaster in a box! Less than twenty-five bucks! And it even includes the moon phase… wow!
Whenever I sign up for a new service– online or otherwise– and they want an email address, I create a custom address that identifies the company. For example, when I signed up for Vonage a few years ago, I used jeff-vonage@neobox.net. The reason? If I start getting spam at that address, I know exactly who sold my information (or whose customer database was compromised).
Behold one of many spam messages I received today:
Yep, there’s the Vonage spam-trap address. Since it’s highly unlikely a spammer would guess that, it’s clear that Vonage either sold my information or lost their customer data. Either way, shame on you, Vonage.
As an aside, if I’m signing up for a new service where I don’t care whether they ever email me, I use guy@place.com. To whoever owns the place.com domain– especially if your name is Guy– I’m really sorry.
One thing that’s nice about getting older* is friends. I just had lunch with my good friend Kendra, who I met during my junior year of college… which would be 1993. I love that I can say “I’ve known her for 23 years, and we still hang out”.
Dirk remains my longest and bestest friend; I’ve known him for 33 years and counting. We still email each other every few days, and I take the opportunity to see him whenever I’m back in Missouri. Other than my immediate family, there aren’t many people in my life who I can say I’ve known for decades, and fewer still who have been good friends for that long.
* Notice that I said “getting older”, not “getting old”. I’m not old. I continue to get older, but I don’t plan to ever be “old”.
Last night Kyra performed in her final concert of high school, and possibly her last time playing the flute. Before the performance, there was a banquet and award ceremony, and Kyra received a “senior medal” (along with 14 other graduating seniors) for her time in band. She was also given the Musicianship Award for her outstanding work; Ms. Texera even mentioned that Kyra was one of the “most talented musicians she’s ever had the pleasure of teaching”. Pretty cool.
The concert was good. Kyra is, as usual, the blond on the right side.
After it was over, Laralee mentioned that she was sort of bummed that she won’t be able to see any more music performances at Skyline High School. I told her not to worry too much, since I’ll be teaching seminary for a few more years (well, at least one more year for sure) and I attend a lot of the activities of my students to support them. There are several in the band and choir, so I’m sure we’ll have an opportunity to see plenty more.