Musings

General-purpose musings

There are 780 posts filed in Musings (this is page 34 of 78).

Highlights of 2009: Network storage company job

One of the more serendipitous events of 2009 was that I started work at a local network storage company. It was about this time last year that I was on pins and needles waiting for a phone call that kept me waiting.

I started January 8th on a six-month contract, working as a system administrator supporting the company’s development lab. It’s a place with some very big toys – perfect for a geek like me. The team here is smart and funny and the boss is great, too. There’s Nerf dart wars almost every day and bagels and beer on Fridays. Plus I don’t wear a pager and I rarely have to take my work home with me.

It’s a pretty good life. If it ever turned into a full-time gig it might be perfect. For now my contract has been automatically renewing and looks to continue doing so for the foreseeable future.

Unemployment in North Carolina has topped 11%. I know many geek friends now looking for work. Having a job now, even if it’s just a contract, is a wonderful thing and something I feel very fortunate to have.

Highlights of 2009: Becoming more media savvy

Operation Free

I spent some effort in 2009 to become more media savvy. The community organizing I’ve been doing with the East CAC had led to more media interviews. I’d done a few TV interviews in the past and didn’t like how they came out. I wanted to look my best, so I studied the interviews I’ve done to see how to improve.

I got a chance to try again when NBC 17 called me up out of the blue and needed to interview me right away. I hadn’t shaved that morning, had a few meetings to attend at work, and was wearing the wrong shirt for television, but I couldn’t find anyone else who could do the interview. I rushed home at lunchtime and quickly shaved and changed shirts, meeting the TV crew in the neighborhood right on time.

The interview went pretty well. The resulting clip turned out even better – making me appear coherent and authoritative. It was the best interview I’ve done so far.
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Highlights of 2009: Tornadic storm

The year 2009 was mostly unexceptional, weather wise. Temperatures stayed in the seasonal ranges for a change. We had a spring season that lasted longer than what always seems like two weeks; summer was warm but not broiling hot, with few 100+ degree days; we got plenty of rain, and no hurricanes hit this year. All that considered, there was one notable weather event I’d rather not repeat: a tornadic storm on May 5th.

I’d never been anywhere near a tornado before. I remember as a kid growing up outside Atlanta our parents would rouse us from our sleep and carry us to the hallway where we’d be plopped down in the middle of mattresses while a tornado passed somewhere outside. Then there was that time in 2005 when I heard the frightening sound of wind that seemed alive. That incident prompted me to get a weather radio so that our family would never be surprised again.
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Where I’ve worked: W. Bell & Co.

W. Bell & Co. employee card

After my stint at Dart Drug I looked for a company that would value my trustworthiness. It was April 1987. A classmate of mine worked at a catalog showroom store and suggested I apply there. It sounded a bit more professional than what I’d just done, so I filled out an application and got an interview.

The store was W. Bell & Co.: a now-defunct Rockville, MD-based retail catalog showroom chain that once thrived in the D.C. area. My friend worked at the Tysons Corner store doing what I wanted to be doing: selling electronics. The store manager had different plans for me, however: he wanted me to sell jewelry. Jewelry was W. Bell’s mainstay. I gave it a shot and showed up the following Monday wearing slacks and a tie.
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Where I’ve worked: Dart Drug

One of my many nametags

I was mistaken in saying the nameless computer store was my first job in Virginia. That honor actually goes to Dart Drug Corp. Dart Drug was a chain of D.C.-area drug stores similar to CVS only dirtier and much less professional. Dart was the creation of Herbert Haft and his big-haired, feuding family. But well before the Haft family turned on each other the company was going through troubled times. The management of the chain had just bought the company and the business always seemed to be on the brink of collapse.

I had been talked into working there by my friend Evan MacKenzie. It was a job, and even at a pay rate of $3.66 per hour it was better than nothing (or McDonald’s, I figured at the time). I never considered it a long-term employer but it suited my needs for a time. If there’s one good thing about a skimpy paycheck it’s that it’s less likely to bounce. So in September of 1986 I applied for a job and soon pinned on my name badge at the Dart Drug store in the Sugarland Plaza shopping center, 247 Harry Flood Byrd Highway in Sterling, VA.
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Parson Brown

So exactly who is this Parson Brown? Does he really look like a snowman? Where does he spend all of his time if he’s never in town?

Also, is it really appropriate to say “no, man” to a man of the cloth? And why is he so nosy, asking couples if they’re married? Is this really any of his business? I mean, these people are just going for a walk: it’s not like there’s too much PDA or anything.

I just don’t understand all of this “winter wonderland” stuff.

Tricor side effects take their toll

I got my blood drawn again a few weeks ago for my first appointment with a new doctor. The lab results show that my cholesterol is almost at normal levels – which is great. It looks like my Tricor medicine is helping with that.

One thing that I didn’t expect to see is that my liver enzyme measurements have almost doubled since May. They’re not at dangerous levels or anything but this was unusual enough to get me wondering. A decade of lab results show perfect liver readings up until May. What made them suddenly spike?

A little poking around the web showed me that one of the side effects of Tricor is (wait for it): increased liver enzymes! About 13% of Tricor patients experience liver issues. I suppose I’m one of them.
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Bookstore envy

Yesterday I had the opportunity to pop into Quail Ridge Books and Music in the Ridgewood Shopping Center. I was only there for 10 minutes. It was enough time to browse the magazine rack and enough time to develop a strong desire for such a business to open near our home in East Raleigh. While we have a Borders two miles away at Six Forks and Wake Forest Road, there’s nothing like an independent bookstore.

It’s sad to say that I’ll probably never see it happen.

Where I’ve worked: some strip-mall computer store

I moved with my family to Great Falls, Virginia in March of 1986. It was the end of my junior year of high school and I more or less vanished into the background until summer.

Still, I needed a job. By this time the family had had a PC for four years and my brothers and I were very familiar with its workings under the hood. One of my brother Jeff’s friends used to work at this computer store down Route 7 in Loudon County, Virginia and suggested I get a job there. I figured I would enjoy the work and maybe get some discounts on equipment.
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This makes me sad

Kevin_Lindsey_Jr

Saw that a 21-year old kid got charged with armed robbery today. Kevin Lightsey, Jr. was charged with kidnapping and armed robbery.

I always like to see where suspects live, so I punched up Lightsey’s address in Google Maps: 4828 Forest Highland Drive. He lives not in the ‘hood, but in Hedingham: a fancy golf course community. Nice house, too.

Just for fun I looked up Lightsey’s voting record. He registered last year and voted for the only time in the last presidential election.

So how does a kid living in a good neighborhood and who was a one time enough of a citizen to vote turn into an armed robber? He had no prior record. He had better opportunities available to him. What led him to be accused of a serious crime?