Given that we are one quarter of the way through the year it seems like a good time to review my 2007 goals:

1. New Job: Nailed this one, I got everything I was looking for even if it isn't quite my dream job.

2. New pad: No real progress here. Have the money just haven't had the time to really go look lately. Going to need to do this soon as my building just jacked the rents into the downright unreasonable range.[1] Biggest delay is a potential house mate who has been dragging his feet on moving forward with a house rental.

3. Loose weight/exercise: Walking a bit more now that the weather is nicer. Need to get serious about this though. If I end up being within a reasonable bike commute distance from my new job at a new pad then this would be ideal.

4. Get car: No progress here. Waiting until I get #2 taken care of so I have somewhere to park it.[2]

5. Be more social: been re-connecting with some old friends, also going to norwescon this weekend. The woman I was seeing just dumped[3] me so I have even more incentive to make some progress on this front.

Also did at least one of the personal/private goals. I don't remember exactly what these were so I'm not exactly sure how well I did. I suppose I should make a new list and actually record it somewhere this time.

[1]Up in the nice large in-city apartment or small house range. In any case way too much for a glorified walk-in closet.
[2]Also holding off major purchases/expenses until I've got the housing situation taken care of.
[3]I think we're going to remain friends though it is a bit too early to tell.

As expected, I received an offer Friday from one of the companies I interviewed with on Wednesday.

I told them I'd give them an answer by Tuesday at the latest.

Some reasons I'm somewhat hesitant to give a definite "yes" at this point:

1. The uncertainty of leaving a somewhat secure position for one where I really don't know the company, people, or expectations.
2. The offer wasn't for as much money as I'd been hoping for.
3. They conduct a very thorough background check and I'm afraid something may not pass scrutiny.[1]
4. It isn't at one of my "dream" companies.

On the other hand the reasons for taking it are:
1. The long commute to my current job is really getting to me.
2. It is more money than I am making now.
3. The company is growing rapidly and there are some good opportunities for increasing my skills.
4. I really quite unhappy at my current job.

[1]Surprisingly I haven't been through one of these before, nothing more than the basic reference check. Not that I'm that worried, but there is always the concern they may find something they don't like.

Just finished the second of two interviews today.

Looks like I aced both.

In fact I got a job offer from the second during the interview. Unfortunately while the rate is quite good for this one it is for contracting on an as-needed basis for a small specialized consulting firm. It is somewhat interesting, but not necessarily a direction I want to go in.

The first is much more interesting and offers most of what I was looking for in a new position. Based on what I've discussed with the recruiter and their HR person I believe I can expect an offer tomorrow.

All of this without any reference check (though my references rock too).

Damn I was hoping to draw this out a little longer so I could get the ball rolling with a couple of companies I really want to work at but who proceed at a glacial pace.

Even though I'm currently searching for new employment opportunities[1], I do so hate recruiters sometimes.

First they don't read my profile very closely on the job boards, I specifically say I'm not looking for contract work and I'm not willing to relocate and well over half of the contacts I've had since posting my resume in mid-February have been for out-of-state short-term contract work.

Second they seem a bit put off by the fact that I can't really dedicate much time to my job search during business hours. I am currently employed full time and tend to be at work in a shared office from 8 AM to 5 PM Monday through Friday. My day job has to come first as I would prefer to keep it prior to attaining other employment. The funny thing is I've been told repeatedly that both recruiters and employers generally prefer candidates who are currently employed. Also somewhat ironically I've become rather busy over the last few weeks due to some projects that are finally moving along.

But the recent incident I suspect may have happened has me really steamed. About a week and a half ago I was contacted by an inside recruiter for a local network equipment company I would very much like to work for. I sent her a reply and a current copy of my resume. All last week we played phone and email tag attempting to touch bases about the position and presumably do the initial phone screen. Last week I was contacted by someone with a recruiting firm about a system administrator position in downtown Seattle with a request for a resume. I replied and sent a resume the next day. The day after I was contacted by the inside recruiter informing me "our needs have changed". Today I was contacted by the outside recruiter asking if I'd had any contact with the network equipment company as the search was on their behalf.

This leads me to one of a handful of conclusions:
1. The company needs really have changed and either the outside recruiter is out of the loop or recruiting for a different position.
2. I did something to cause the inside recruiter to no longer consider me a suitable candidate for the position[2].
3. The idiot outside recruiter sent my resume along to the network equipment company without asking me if I had any contact with them first[3].

Now all is not lost. I have two in-person interviews scheduled for next week[4]. I am also scheduled for a phone interview for a netbackup admin position with a local cellular carrier[5]. Furthermore a friend of mine has submitted me for a troubleshooting heavy admin position with a large local online retailer. I also have several contacts at the above mentioned network equipment manufacturer, including one of my references[6].

[1]The 90 minute commute each way is getting on my nerves. My current employer is run on a shoestring and is slowly contracting. I'm woefully underpaid. Furthermore I'm bored.
[2]I've found playing phone and email tag with someone for nearly a week can sometimes do this. Hey sorry if I have a day job and a long commute.
[3]For those of you not familiar with the process getting a resume via an outside recruiter and via any other channel is the kiss of death. Most employers will drop you from consideration immediately. This is why recruiters want to know who else you may be working with and why they are supposed to ask your permission before submitting you for a position. Otherwise it makes both you and the recruiter look bad.
[4]Not real sure about either position, but I figure I might as well go through the process for practice. Who knows I may even want to work for them after I've had a chance to talk with them in person. Besides the salary range dangled in front of me for the position I'm least interested in is enough to convince me to go spend some time talking to them.
[5]Again nothing I'm too interested in. However the experience wouldn't look bad on my resume and I'd have the chance to learn a thing or two. Besides there may be an opportunity to move into another position with them at a later date. Also the money is very good. The downside is the commute is nearly as obnoxious as my current one.
[6]Still not sure if I should leave the network equipment manufacturer alone for a while or if I should go ahead and press forward using my inside contacts. On the one hand I'd really like to work for them, on the other hand I'm not sure my chance with them isn't blown for the moment.

OK so this was last week.

But still all I can say is "FUCK!"

Starbuck is one of my favorite characters on the show, I really wonder how this turns out (cos' you know the writers deserve to be shot if this isn't leading somewhere)

Now off to watch this week's show.

A really cool riff on Apple's famous "1984" commercial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h3G-lMZxjo

[1]

Grr ... of all the days to forget the power supply for my laptop at home. I really need to use Visio today and I've only got about 15 minutes of charge left in the battery[2]. I was able to grab the data I needed this morning by powering it up on the network briefly.

Still it is amazing how used to having my personal laptop sitting next to my work computer I've gotten. At the moment other than Visio what I miss most is my personal MP3 collection.

Of course this would be far less of a problem if the battery was performing as well as it did when new[3].

[1]Couldn't decide if I should use the "power" or the "portables" icon with this entry. Seemed more of a "power" problem.
[2]It didn't help that I used the laptop for about 1:20 while riding the ferry/transit into work[4].
[3]I just ordered 2 new batteries for the thing as well as a spare power supply and external charger. I'm also going to re-condition the current battery this weekend[5].
[4]No idea I'd left the power supply at home until I got to work, darn.
[5]Charge battery to full, let laptop run until battery is all the way dead, lather, rinse, repeat.

Craigslist comes through again. After having my current resume posted for a month on both Dice and Monster with only tepid response (mostly out of state recruiters looking for people to fill short-term contract positions). I finally posted to the Seattle Craigslist. In 24 hours I've had 11 contacts with recruiters or hiring managers all for FTE positions here in the area. I've also got 2 phone interviews scheduled already as well, one for later this afternoon and one for Monday.

My co-workers are likely begining to wonder about me as I've been fielding phone calls all day. Kind of hard to hide that I'm talking to recruiters.

YMMV but I encourage anyone who's currently looking for a job to post their resume to Craigslist.

First impressions of the internet presence of the top 3 candidates for each party.

Democrats:

Hillary Clinton: Good professional web site. Using a photo where the Senator is smirking for the main image of the candidate strikes me as a bad idea since it re-enforces some negatives. Fourth overall in seeming to encourage supporter action/participation.

John Edwards: A bit of a disorganized mess. The Edwards campaign needs to hire a professional web designer (or fire the one they have). Bunch of links to the Edwards campaign's accounts on various social networking sites (no multiply though). Second overall in seeming to encourage supporter action/participation.

Barak Obama: Very clean and professional. Links to the Obama campaign's accounts on a few social networking sites. First overall in seeming to encourage supporter action/participation. Supporter area has its own social networking features. Best campaign web site by far.

Republicans:

Rudy Giuliani: What is with the flags at the top pointing in all different directions? Don't know which way you are going? Also what is with that candidate photo? It makes Giuliani look like a villain out of a comic book. This site looks like something from 8 years ago in terms of design and content. For "participation" it appears to just ask for money and allow you to sign up for his email list. Worst overall in seeming to encourage supporter action/participation.

John McCain: Eeek! What is with the funeral colors? They seem kind of creepy. Might work as black and white if white was the dominant color. The site is a bit of a bandwidth/browser pig. Other than those two issues the cleanest site other than Obama's. Third overall in seeming to encourage supporter action/participation.

Mitt Romney: Good professional site. Good choice of images. Fifth overall in seeming to encourage supporter action/participation.

What do you think? Any pros care to chime in?

Ok went and created a multiply account.

I'm cstefan there as it thinks my nick here (and at dailykos) is too short and my other usual aliases are taken.

I've sent a couple of invites out and I'll eventually get around to inviting everyone on my friends list who I can find an account for.

BTW someone mentioned there is some sort of circle thingy for grabbing everyone in the group's posts, how do I get to it?

Something I've been wondering since the race for the Democratic Party nomination for 2008 has started heating up:

Where the heck does the notion that Hillary has some special base of support among blacks or women come from?

Can anyone point me to proof of this? Poll crosstabs? Anything?

Or is the assumption that because she is a woman she has a lot of support among women? That because President Clinton was/is popular in the black community that popularity will somehow transfer to her?

Because I don't know about you, but I'm finding genuine Hillary supporters to be pretty rare around these parts. Liberals dislike her almost as much as the conservatives. Those that don't hate her find her incredibly condescending and tone-deaf. Even among Democratic party officials and activists the only ones who seem to like her at all are those who care only about process. Everyone else seems to be scared she'll cause problems in down-ticket races.

What do you think the best song intro (or intros) are?

My picks:
"Baba O'Riley" -- The Who Who's Next, I just love the synth on this.

"Time" -- Pink Floyd The Dark Side of the Moon, actually I'm not a huge fan of the song as a whole, but this intro gives me the chills every time I hear it.

Symphony No. 5 in C Minor (Op. 67) -- Ludwig van Beethoven, only the most well known 4 notes in music.

And boy how do I hate it.

So far this weekend there have been 6 incidents, all minor, but all requiring intervention. Four last night, one around noon today and one this evening. Due to the ones last night I hardly got any sleep.

It seems that if I just sit at home and pick my nose during my on-call week nothing happens, but Murphy dictates that if I'm more than a few minutes from my laptop (or my laptop is more than a few minutes from an internet connection) the damn pager is going to go off.

Unfortunately for the two incidents today I did indeed get caught away from home. During the day I was out shopping and running errands when the pager went off, and this evening I was having dinner at my mom's (who doesn't have an internet connection). In both cases I made my way with all due haste to somewhere I could respond to the incident but my backup got to both of them before I could.

Handicap the field for both parties based on how likely you think each of the candidates is to get their respective party's nomination. Also divide into tiers if you so desire.

The Contenders along with my rankings:

Democrats:

Top Tier:

• John Edwards
• Barak Obabma
• Hillary Clinton

Second Tier:

• Bill Richardson
• Wesley Clark

Third Tier:

• John Kerry

The Rest:

• Joe Biden
• Tom Vilsack
• Chris Dodd
• Dennis Kucinich
• Mike Gravel (Mike who? Yes there is someone with an even more hopeless candidacy than Kucinich)

Republicans:
(I'm much less sure of these as I don't feel I have good insight into the field)

Top Tier:

• John McCain

Second Tier:

• Mitt Romney
• Rudy Gulliani
• Newt Gingrich

Third Tier:

• Sam Brownback
• Mike Huckabee

The Rest:

• Chuck Hagel
• Tommy Thomson
• Ron Paul
• Tom Tancero
• Duncan Hunter

What are your rankings?

This just off the AP wire:

Could be interesting if he gets any traction.

I'm certainly more likely to vote for him than any other current or potential GOP candidate for the 2008 nomination.