CNN.com - 'Virgin Mary' sandwich back on eBay - Nov 16, 2004
OK, this time I can see "a face" as well. So often I have trouble seeing anything in the Holy Rorschach tests that pass for visions of the BVM or the fruit of her womb. But this time I can see someone. But tell me, just how in tarnation do we know who the lovely young lady is? I'm thinking it's Fay Wray who, recently shuffled off this mortal coil. We really don't know what the Blessed Virgin looked like. Sure we can guess but folks are generally so ethnocentric and/or over exposed to the Western library of Biblical art that Mary and Jesus often appear as a young mother from Dresden with her chubby little son. I'm sure Jesus did not look like Jeffrey Hunter, Max von Sydow, Robert Powell (okay, maybe he came close) or Jim Caviezel. And he certainly did not look like Ted Neeley (although it'd be cool to think the Savior could belt out a rock ballad like Neeley did in "Gethsemene") nor Jeremy Sisto (Jesus as a frat boy?). No, Jesus was not a white man, not in the European sense anyway, and neither was his mother.
So when folks see an image in their windows or cheese sandwiches how do they know just who it is they're seeing? And why, oh why, would the Most Holy Mother of God appear in such a profane manner?
Wednesday, November 24, 2004
The other shoe has dropped...on me
I received this yesterday...
I'm somewhat disappointed, of course, but not overly so. I still have a job; my family will continue to be fed and housed. Plus, I've been goaded and motivated to start looking around in greater earnest. PLUS, now I can focus on a good lead for a web/Flash client which will also include a semi-regular maintenance contract.
I want to thank you for your efforts in pursuing this programmer position with our company. You are a very talented programmer and it was a pleasure meeting you.My first response, typically self-deprecating and negative having been built upon a near-lifetime of low self-esteem, was that the work I submitted was not up to par and/or too slow in getting there and so they don't want me. But why bother with the "you are a very talented programmer"? So then I started to think that maybe the guy who interviewed me the first time (the head of the programming area) did indeed like me and want to hire me but the owner-guy is pinching his pennies. Could be...but they've just signed a contract with provider which will likely result in a sharp increase in subsequent client hospital contracts. In short they are going to see a marked increase in business soon and should be able to afford a better quality employee. Oh well.
Unfortunately we will not be able to offer you the position because the company is not prepared at this time to make a commitment to a salary your level of experience would command.
Mr. [Business Owner] is looking to fill the position with more of an "entry level" programmer.
If I may, I would like to keep your resume on file just in case the company needs someone with your experience in the future.
Again, I want to thank you for the opportunity to interview you; I enjoyed our conversation.
I'm somewhat disappointed, of course, but not overly so. I still have a job; my family will continue to be fed and housed. Plus, I've been goaded and motivated to start looking around in greater earnest. PLUS, now I can focus on a good lead for a web/Flash client which will also include a semi-regular maintenance contract.
Monday, November 22, 2004
Everything hits at once
Holy Guacamole, what a week it's been! Actually, it's been a two-week week. As I last blogged here, I got "an assignment" from my prospective employer to write up a program to show my skills. I get the specs and it seems easy so I quickly write back "no problem; I'll have it for you next week". I work on it on the Veteran's Day holiday and am surprised that I get it 90% finished in about three hours or so. "Hey," I thought to myself, "I am as good as I thought I was." And then I let it sit for most of the weekend thinking I'll just check it over on Sunday before I email it back to the guy.
Well, Sunday comes and I review the spec once more to make sure I've covered everything. Hmm, almost. I was supposed to build a program to search for files based on user-entered search criteria--that part was easy--and it is supposed to search the current directory and every subdiretory below that. Oh. Okay... Well, I told him "next week", I never specified a particular day. I can work on it a bit at work, too, right? No way, Jose. Turns out back at work I've got a bit of a production problem the users are clammoring about. I'm focused on that every minute of the workday. And then, a big-ass production problem kicks in on Tuesday and I'm putting in overtime all week to try to resolve it. I've got no time at work for this extra project and with the overtime I'm getting home late and after dealing with kids and other home stuff I've got maybe 30-60 minutes of awake time to try and solve the new wrinkle in my "audition piece".
I fix my major production problem at work. Or so I thought. Turns out I made a journeyman's error (which, BTW, slipped right through the walkthru with two other programmers) of not correcting some cut-and-paste code. So then I have to re-fix my fixed program and put that back into production. And it bombs out again! You can imagine my boss is feeling the pressure which she passes on to me. Further analysis reveals that my program is not at fault but the data is hinky for about two dozen records (out of about 4300 total). Just as the day is coming to an end last Friday, I create a way to pull off those records, put the rest through the conversion program and then bring the offending records back in (they were essentialy already converted by another program). I give the word to the data center to run that jobstream as soon as possible and if it finishes okay to run the rest of the regular jobs that have been held up for a week. Meanwhile I'm still plugging away the finishing touches for my extra-curricular assignment and at about 5pm on Friday I ship off my solution.
My wife takes me out to dinner that night during which I get a call on my cell phone: the job ran fine as did the first step of the regular run as well. Whew! The next day is my birthday and we go out to eat again. I still had a web page I had done at work which I was going to clean up (removing the proprietary info) and send off to my possible-future employer but birthday stuff got in the way.
This morning I check in and so far I'm hearing good things from my users. There's 4 or 5 records with unique conditions that didn't process quite right but overall the data looks great and properly updated. So, I'll be ablet to spend the rest of this morning and early afternoon finishing up that web page. I just hope my work outshines my tardiness and that the reason for my lateness--my dedication to my primary job--is seen in a good light as well.
During all this folderol, I've had to put off putting together something for potential outside web client as well. This job is going to force me to resurrect what little Flash knowledge I have but it will also require a good dose of creativity on my part. It should be fun.
It never rains but it pours.
Well, Sunday comes and I review the spec once more to make sure I've covered everything. Hmm, almost. I was supposed to build a program to search for files based on user-entered search criteria--that part was easy--and it is supposed to search the current directory and every subdiretory below that. Oh. Okay... Well, I told him "next week", I never specified a particular day. I can work on it a bit at work, too, right? No way, Jose. Turns out back at work I've got a bit of a production problem the users are clammoring about. I'm focused on that every minute of the workday. And then, a big-ass production problem kicks in on Tuesday and I'm putting in overtime all week to try to resolve it. I've got no time at work for this extra project and with the overtime I'm getting home late and after dealing with kids and other home stuff I've got maybe 30-60 minutes of awake time to try and solve the new wrinkle in my "audition piece".
I fix my major production problem at work. Or so I thought. Turns out I made a journeyman's error (which, BTW, slipped right through the walkthru with two other programmers) of not correcting some cut-and-paste code. So then I have to re-fix my fixed program and put that back into production. And it bombs out again! You can imagine my boss is feeling the pressure which she passes on to me. Further analysis reveals that my program is not at fault but the data is hinky for about two dozen records (out of about 4300 total). Just as the day is coming to an end last Friday, I create a way to pull off those records, put the rest through the conversion program and then bring the offending records back in (they were essentialy already converted by another program). I give the word to the data center to run that jobstream as soon as possible and if it finishes okay to run the rest of the regular jobs that have been held up for a week. Meanwhile I'm still plugging away the finishing touches for my extra-curricular assignment and at about 5pm on Friday I ship off my solution.
My wife takes me out to dinner that night during which I get a call on my cell phone: the job ran fine as did the first step of the regular run as well. Whew! The next day is my birthday and we go out to eat again. I still had a web page I had done at work which I was going to clean up (removing the proprietary info) and send off to my possible-future employer but birthday stuff got in the way.
This morning I check in and so far I'm hearing good things from my users. There's 4 or 5 records with unique conditions that didn't process quite right but overall the data looks great and properly updated. So, I'll be ablet to spend the rest of this morning and early afternoon finishing up that web page. I just hope my work outshines my tardiness and that the reason for my lateness--my dedication to my primary job--is seen in a good light as well.
During all this folderol, I've had to put off putting together something for potential outside web client as well. This job is going to force me to resurrect what little Flash knowledge I have but it will also require a good dose of creativity on my part. It should be fun.
It never rains but it pours.
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
They Called My Bluff
Is this typical of private industry? To just keep yanking your chain and adding new hoops to jump through? Second interview over and done with last week and word gets to me that the company has been calling my references. So...it's looking good, right?
Last night I get an email that says essentially, "Koko, you mentioned that you build websites on the side. Do you have any examples you could show. Also, do you have any examples of programs you've written in a language other than COBOL?" Oh boy. Y'see...my "web sites on the side" business has been in a long germinating period. A couple years ago I started a decent sized site but got bogged down in my day job and meanwhile the client's family experieced a long, drawn out personal tradgedy. That site went nowhere. I kept most of the code but, here's the stupid-me part, I've forgotten the password for the Access database that drives the site. And, frankly, that design is so old it would've been redone by now anyway. I've got a church site to which I've contributed heavily (about 80-90% of it) but I've pretty much turned that one over to a fella who is still learning how to wrangle Contribute and his pages are a freaking mish-mash. Then there's my crown jewel which, sadly, is not out in the wild but was an internal site. However, the plug was pulled on that one just two weeks before it's big redesigned launch all due to politics. I'm going to have to do some fancy hunting and gathering to try and pull together a decent portfolio. I know, I know...I should've had this done already but I never expected a job to fall into my lap like this or that I'd go so far into the process.
And a program example, too? Okay, here's the thing. I haven't really programmed all that much in Visual Basic what I did was well over a year and a half ago (save for a refresher course a little while back). I don't think I saved any of that either as it was all ad hoc programs for a particular, immediate need. I do have a collection of macro-intensive Excel worksheets (written with VBA which is like a VB lite) which I contributed heavily to but I'm going to need more. Maybe I can ask him for some imaginary specs and I could work up a prototype from that? Or, maybe I could do that myself?
Oh boy...how to play this hand? It's time to put up or shut up and I'm not sure I've got the cards.
Last night I get an email that says essentially, "Koko, you mentioned that you build websites on the side. Do you have any examples you could show. Also, do you have any examples of programs you've written in a language other than COBOL?" Oh boy. Y'see...my "web sites on the side" business has been in a long germinating period. A couple years ago I started a decent sized site but got bogged down in my day job and meanwhile the client's family experieced a long, drawn out personal tradgedy. That site went nowhere. I kept most of the code but, here's the stupid-me part, I've forgotten the password for the Access database that drives the site. And, frankly, that design is so old it would've been redone by now anyway. I've got a church site to which I've contributed heavily (about 80-90% of it) but I've pretty much turned that one over to a fella who is still learning how to wrangle Contribute and his pages are a freaking mish-mash. Then there's my crown jewel which, sadly, is not out in the wild but was an internal site. However, the plug was pulled on that one just two weeks before it's big redesigned launch all due to politics. I'm going to have to do some fancy hunting and gathering to try and pull together a decent portfolio. I know, I know...I should've had this done already but I never expected a job to fall into my lap like this or that I'd go so far into the process.
And a program example, too? Okay, here's the thing. I haven't really programmed all that much in Visual Basic what I did was well over a year and a half ago (save for a refresher course a little while back). I don't think I saved any of that either as it was all ad hoc programs for a particular, immediate need. I do have a collection of macro-intensive Excel worksheets (written with VBA which is like a VB lite) which I contributed heavily to but I'm going to need more. Maybe I can ask him for some imaginary specs and I could work up a prototype from that? Or, maybe I could do that myself?
Oh boy...how to play this hand? It's time to put up or shut up and I'm not sure I've got the cards.
Thursday, November 04, 2004
Second Interview
Just a couple of hours ago I returned from my second interview with HFS Software, a local software company. I think I can say it went well. They did ask me for references at the end which is a good sign (I emailed them off before I started this post). The head guy, the boss man, the owner/founder commented that I obviously can get along with people which is important because it is a small office (about a dozen people). What can I say? I charmed them.
:::Tech Jargon Warning:::
I was and am concerned that this shop uses Delphi and PC-COBOL. Apparently they are also looking forward to completing their roll-out to a 32-bit platform. I have to admit that I don't know what difference it would make programmatically between 16 or 32 bit except for the possible size overflows of passed strings. Also, I don't really know Delphi. I know Visual Basic, a bit, which I (and my interviewer) assume is similar. But I don't even know VB all that well. Maybe I do. I honestly don't know because I've never been a real VB programmer. I've played at it and cooked up a few apps at work but that's about it. COBOL I've done on the mainframe and I'm sure it's roughly the same on the PC (probably easier). But I was upfront about my Delphi experience...not so much with my limited VB work.
:::Jargon over:::
I think I can do this job. Hell, I'm almost positive I can but I may have a bit of a learning curve. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I don't have it yet. I think I made a good impression on the boss. Maybe not quite as good with the daughter/heir apparent, hard to tell as I'm really a doofus at reading women. Frankly she seemed a bit uncomfortable to be part of the interview. I can understand that. Lots of people don't like being on either side of the desk for that. It was easier for me because I'm not hungry for it; I have a job already. Still, I am hoping.
:::Tech Jargon Warning:::
I was and am concerned that this shop uses Delphi and PC-COBOL. Apparently they are also looking forward to completing their roll-out to a 32-bit platform. I have to admit that I don't know what difference it would make programmatically between 16 or 32 bit except for the possible size overflows of passed strings. Also, I don't really know Delphi. I know Visual Basic, a bit, which I (and my interviewer) assume is similar. But I don't even know VB all that well. Maybe I do. I honestly don't know because I've never been a real VB programmer. I've played at it and cooked up a few apps at work but that's about it. COBOL I've done on the mainframe and I'm sure it's roughly the same on the PC (probably easier). But I was upfront about my Delphi experience...not so much with my limited VB work.
:::Jargon over:::
I think I can do this job. Hell, I'm almost positive I can but I may have a bit of a learning curve. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I don't have it yet. I think I made a good impression on the boss. Maybe not quite as good with the daughter/heir apparent, hard to tell as I'm really a doofus at reading women. Frankly she seemed a bit uncomfortable to be part of the interview. I can understand that. Lots of people don't like being on either side of the desk for that. It was easier for me because I'm not hungry for it; I have a job already. Still, I am hoping.
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