Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Jay: Happy Birthday
To my cousin Wally, whose daughter Emma is Valerie’s older “twin.”
Jay: Happy Birthday
To blogger RightGirl, who is 31 today.
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Jay: Competition
It’s a shame that there is no way I will be able to fire up the new business fast enough to be anything but side work. I was just reviewing the competition, direct or overlapping, that I have bookmarked, and I feel pretty good about it. I’d intended long ago to do a post poking at what is wrong with their sites or their setups. Never did do that. Perhaps I will.
Since I was thinking of throwing together a handout to leave with people in my old office building, I was looking for inspiration as to how to phrase services and pricing, and had in mind to make the flier an “October specials” kind of thing to not get locked in. Fewer of the places seem to advertise prices than I remember. Most of the ones that do are ones providing strictly remote packages. If I can sit at a computer or two and remotely run diagnostics or cleanup tools or start a defrag going on multiple computers in an overlapping timeframe, then of course I can charge extremely little.
There’s one with a web site that I make fun of for playing sounds on load and page transitions, and for having no page titles ("Home" on the main page and “Untitled” on the rest), but that has rates that are probably realistic for on-site home services. That includes a $39.95 charge for the trip plus a minimum one hour charge, which still comes out to less than all or most major competitors. There’s one that’s international - huge - that you probably never heard of at all, and which could be almost as much the inspiration for Chuck’s “Nerd Herd” as Geek Squad. There are all the ones with incomplete sites, broken links, no recent updates, obvious small town-ness, unrealistic whatever, excess emphasis on SEO to the exclusion of content and readability, and so forth.
I guess I was unusual in wanting to be so clear, complete, readable, and open with pricing. And more unusual than I remembered in wanting to stay almost unrealistically low. Heck, if it has to be relegated to the side, I should strive for normal pricing. It’d be stupid to drum up too much work by being cheap, and if I drum up too much work at realistic rates, it’s worthwhile and easier to cope, like by having Deb do dispatch and deploying people besides me.
In the meantime, I figured trying to pull the month special thing on people I already know would start to get the word out while I am fallow and extra work is frankly imperative (to the point of “hey look, we have a tip jar” imperative). It also allows me to explain things better than just leaving a few business cards on each of fifty desks.
Anyway, I just couldn’t resist muttering bloggily about the state of the competition’s public face after reviewing their sites again.
Jay: Blast from the Past
Below is a scan of a paper copy I found in a computer book of the resume that got me the job at Corporate Software, which later became Stream International, with most of the header wiped out. It amused me to leave the obsolete e-mail address, one of my first, that I had as of early 1994. Click for a full size version that’s more readable.
I had forgotten what I did with the Renovator’s Supply job to make it sound, title-wise, more impressive than just “receiver.” What I did was the same either way, but I’d have forgotten it enough that I could never have recreated the description as originally written.
The software experience part is amusing, as I was already not mentioning every last thing. It wasn’t yet anything like my series of experience posts that are way beyond resume scope.
It was a good resume, I think. Prior to Tranti Systems, I’d sent out some 1200 resumes and gotten a handful of interviews. When I became available again, I bought 200 stamps. My first three resumes went to Corporate Software, Meditech, and a tech company in Hyannis with a name lost to me in the mists of time. Before I could send more than ten, I’d landed the job at CSI, and before I started the job at CSI - almost immediately - I’d been offered an interview at Meditech. For better or worse, I turned it down because, hey, I’d accepted a job and gone off the market. It was ironic that I would later have two business partners who were Meditech employees.
One approach to writing a new resume might be to expand upon this one. What I’d love to find is the version I did for internal consumption at Stream, to get the job as Technical Development Lead in VB support.
Jay: This is Unusual
Dinner is ready! It’s only 4:40, and we could actually have eaten it any time in the last 40 minutes.
If I made enough chili, dinner for tomorrow is ready too…
It came out so good it was hard to stop tasting it to check how it was. Valerie approved, too. The only sad thing is the lack of a loaf of Italian or French bread. What is the distinction again? Anyway…
I came in here after I turned the chili off because I have something to scan, which I may or may not post, which relates to doing a resume. Then I realized I couldn’t very well scan anything with the Vista machine turned off…
I can’t believe I have supper all ready to go. We could have the kids in bed at like 6:00! Or so…
Jay: Monday TV (Spoilers Possible)
While the chili simmers, I thought I’d start a TV post I can run back and forth to…
We watched the Monday night lineup again this week. Chuck continued to rock. They could screw it up or bring it to a dead end too easily. It could be a good candidate for single season storyline with closure. On the other hand, it could be drawn out for an extended time and made to work. Especially since it’s supposed to be absurd and amusing.
Heroes is fascinating in that they are answering questions and conjectures pretty rapidly. For instance, Angela is apparently not the ultimate bad guy, likely has a mental type of power, or at least is aware there have been others like Parkman. For instance, what happened to the Haitian, and that he is clearly not the ultimate bad guy. For instance, what does the whole HRG family know and remember at this point; everything. Mostly, since they presumably don’t know all that HRG is up to now. It also strikes me that HRG is playing a game in which Mohinder doesn’t know all he’s up to, and that acted to bring back the Haitian to work as another aspect of bringing down the company. For instance, more about powers Peter absorbed, or at least that he got DL’s phasing. I like the Irish girl. Lots of stuff like that. Including, through Claire, a look at how Peter could have survived.
Finally, Journeyman, on which I am not quite ready to give up, even though I could never watch again and not miss it. It’s so intriguing, but so slow, disjointed in a way, and so hard to see lasting long if only as an artifact of the setup. He is gaining some control, in that he can tell when a journey is coming on, but he’s no Hiro. My suspicion is that it’s not just about tracking another life each week, somehow righting wrongs or whatever, but rather there is an overarching mystery into which Olivia fits. It might even make a good one-season story in that regard, but accessible to casual viewers for the storyline that gets tied up each week. I can imagine various possibilities, though mainly centering on what happened to Olivia and the whole quadrangle relationship between him, her, his wife, and his brother.
Even for two of three, Monday’s are totally worth looking forward to these days.
Jay: Speaking of Kids
Last night Valerie kept screaming and crying uncharacteristically, as if she just couldn’t get comfortable. I couldn’t hear a thing, between the fan in the office and having run the dishwasher, so Deb had to come get me a couple times to see if I could settle her.
It seemed like it might just be a comfort problem, as Valerie has started making herself a pillow out of a blanket and seems to be ready to have one, and she can get tangled or on top of her blankets.
In the end, though, there were two things, one of which I found especially curious. She struck me as maybe slightly hot, and as making “I am in pain” screeches. I gave her some Tylenol, for which I had to forcibly lift her so I could get at her mouth. When I turned the light on, she hid her face and screamed almost out of proportion to being blinded by it. I thought of her being sick because Deb has a cold that got pretty severe, which I have too, dragging and bad enough, but not having peaked as hard. Henry seems to have a touch of it, in that he was more snorfly than usual, and he’s usually pretty bad. So why not the other two?
Then I stood in there, in the dark with her, after her bedding was just so and she had a small pillow, which she turtled with instead of (at least initially) using under her head. That allowed me to try to comfort her and observe.
The bedroom door was cracked open and through it the light from the TV leaked in, flashing dramatically lighter and darker, for some reason especially strobe-like from whatever was playing. Every time the light level from the TV change, Valerie would freak. I closed the door tight and she settled down. She freaked again when I opened the door to leave the room. I closed it tight and sat in the recliner so I would hear her if needed. I fell asleep there until just before 4:00, so apparently she was fine with total, consistent darkness and perhaps on account of the Tylenol. She seems fine today, if a tad dramatic, but it’s hard to tell if that’s worse than normal.
In other news, since this appears to be that post, I didn’t finish moving out of the office yesterday, either, and while I made major progress while I was there, I only removed the fax machine/copier and most of the art and prints. Deb is at her six week post-partum, which was scheduled for 11:30 and will probably take a long time. I slept almost inexplicably late, after Valerie last night and a bout of being too awake later in the night. Inexplicable because the kids allowed it. While Deb is gone I’m trying to keep the kids in line (in fact, they are way too quiet now), starting beans for chili, emptying the dishwasher and finishing the dishes I didn’t get last night. I’m not sure if I’ll even attempt a run to the old office today, and if so it will have to be quick. Tomorrow should be a great “spend all day” day for it. Which leaves me today wanting to work on a resume, work on the business web site, even if it will only be on the side, and maybe work on a flier to leave for people in my old office building along with cards, giving more information and/or specials. I also need to modify my LinkedIn profile, which is essentially a variant of the resume, and there’s work to do in the apartment. For instance, Sadie claimed the computer desk I’d planned to shoehorn into the office, and that sits in the way in the middle of the kitchen until we can rearrange their room. We also have a desk chair for each of them.
There’s no shortage of busy to be!
Jay: I’m Not Sure…
That I’m cut out for this being at home with the kids stuff.
Jay: Annoying
I’m coming to hate all the callers from Michigan who somehow dial us as a wrong number because they have an overlay or nearby area code that matches our local code.
Update:
Apparently the one of these that has called three times so far today is actually a telemarketer for insurance, rather than merely a wrong number.
Jay: Happy Birthday
To former blogger Paul Jané.
Monday, October 01, 2007
Jay: I’d Have Sworn There Was a Birthday Today
But Outlook tells me there aren’t… Aha! I suspected I might be thinking of Jimmah Cahtah and I was right. He’s not important. Richard Harris, on the other hand…
I didn’t quite make it out of the office yesterday. I took Sadie to my grandmother’s for dinner and cake. There was a bit of a mixup, for one-sided values of same. We’re tucking Sadie into her seat in the truck and lo, there is my mother, in my grandmother’s car, out in front of the house, despite no arrangement having been made for her to give anyone rides, and Deb’s complete lack of intention to go. So I took Sadie to my grandmother’s, and it was cool that the brother I never see was there. Sadie loved having another cake and round of singing to her. She was thrilled again, at almost 6:30 when we were about to leave for home from the office, when we ran into Peter, her favorite lawyer, and he sang happy birthday too.
My mother unwittingly made a mistake in phrasing. The plan was for Sadie to stay with them while I went to the office and tried to power through a couple trips to storage, then a trip to home via picking Sadie up on the way. My mother asked did Sadie want to stay there while dad went to the office. Sadie loves going to the office, so that had her all excited. Oddly enough, though, all the way from Bridgewater to Easton she babbled about going to the post office.
My brother wanted one of the tables I was offering, and a bookcase for my nephew, so he drove over to the office when I went. That got rid of two tables, one to go to my grandmother’s too, a bookcase, a tall microwave cart, a monitor to go to my grandmother’s to go to the church, a chair, and a couple odds and ends. He then helped me get the other three bookcases and several obsolete computers to the truck. He headed back to Bridgewater (he was looking at a car problem for my mother) and I took the load to storage, which was fun, with stuff trying to fall on me, but the bookcases fit. Originally one was going to come here.
By then it was getting late, but I couldn’t see not grabbing a load for home, with the office just a few minutes from storage. That was why I got storage where I did. We moved into the office 2/1/99 and I got the storage 7/16/99 on the idea I’d move closer to the office and it would be convenient at least to the location that wouldn’t change. So I grabbed the recliner, rocker, a desk chair for Valerie (since Sadie claimed for them the other computer desk), a monitor, a bag of CDs, and the spare Leap Table, which is now the only intact one. That is in the closet waiting for the baby to be old enough. Sadie would still play with it at the office, at her age, but she also enjoyed playing with piles of little screws she created by dumping a couple tiny drawers of them yesterday.
On that note, my coffee is empty and I should get moving. Gotta be home early. It’s a TV night, they will especially need to go to bed on time because last night was way off, and it will be nice to have a normal supper that isn’t takeout or sandwiches. That and I need to get milk and peanut butter on the way home or sometime during the day.
Here goes…
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