Random Rants
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Thank you, looks like it may not be as bad as I first thought and won't cost that much is more the principle really and putting up with people's petty minded ways. Good luck with your move
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That might be illegal @Black Orchid
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Rental agreements in the UK are a weird thing, never totally standard. The landlord can hide a multitude of sins in the small print, some of my family have fallen foul of this in the past.
Hope thing work out for you guys.
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God damnit, America.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2015/02/18/little-caesars-fast-food-pizza-restaurants/23565411/Eat it with this http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2015/01/26/double-dog-down-kfc-fried-chicken-hot-dog-sandwich/22350739/ and you will need to see a cardiologist in no time.
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I was strongly encouraged by my former supervisor to apply for a newly created position in the department where I worked for 7 years. She intimated to me that due to my experience and qualifications my application would be viewed favourably. Due to the fact that my former supervisor is also the head of the recruitment team for this particular position, I was inclined to think that her opinion carried serious weight.
I spent most of the weekend preparing the extensive documentation required for this application and then, several weeks after submitting everything, received a perfunctory email saying I hadn't made the next stage of the recruitment process. After seven years working in that place they didn't even let me interview for the position. Thanks a bunch.
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Sounds totally misleading and downright rude..
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My oven is a horrible piece of crap. It unpredictably runs anywhere from 50°F-75°F (10°C-24°C) cold. I spend a solid half hour adjusting it to get the proper temperature each time I cook. It has a digital control panel on the front that shorts out if it gets wet. I've replaced it 3 times, because (duh) occasionally things get spilled on the front of a stove. The digital clock runs about 2 minutes per week slow, so I reset it every month or so, when it gets 5 minutes or more off. The burner control knobs catch on clothing, the glass top cracked when I clipped it with a pot, and there are other, lesser issues. I hate it intensely, but the damn thing refuses to die.
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I can understand not liking a writer but that sort of snobbery is bullshit. I don't like the romantic view many people have of him, there's nothing romantic about alcoholism- but he could write. Not always, but there's no denying his power. To paraphrase Duke Ellington, there's only two kinds of music- good and bad.
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@TrickHell:
Sorry for starting a new random rant, but I figured why the fuck not.
I registered for an online fiction writing course through the Gotham Writer's Workshop. I haven't taken a fiction writing course in over ten years. For one, I've been busy writing stuff that's going to put a roof over my head and food on my table. For two, my experience with creative writing workshops is that they're very New York literary fiction centric. I'd like to be able to write on that level, but I don't read any of that stuff. People who are in those workshops tend to be from more middle-class backgrounds than me and snort laugh if I say I like to read Bukowski.
If you think I'm advertising insecurity here, I probably am, but whatever. I really want to write fiction and I really want to be good at it, but I'm slightly anxious about my social betters spending ten weeks looking down their noses at me, even if it is just on the Internet.
Worst-case scenario: I hate it and get some good writing done.
And those asswipes are not your social betters. In this country it just means they have more money.
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And that's what it's all about. I bet the same people who scorn Bukowski worship Raymond Carver.
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Looks like my package got bored in Jersey and went back to Europe.
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As regular readers are aware, I've recently moved to Australia. I'm looking for work to keep me in food, accommodation, and IH gear.
I write Android software, and have been putting feelers out with agents. About half of all jobs down here require the applicant do a test as the first round of an interview process. Normally this consists of writing an app to do the following:
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Read in data in the JSON format for either a location on the web, or a file on the computer.
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Extract the relevant information.
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Display it in a suitable fashion, which varies between tests.
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And often they want development artefacts, such as design documents, test harnesses, etc.
None of this is difficult, but it's time consuming. I reckon that it'll take two or three days to put something together, and anyone who knows anything about writing software will probably double my estimate as a reflex action.
Anyway, I get an email from an agent on Thursday evening that one of the Big Four Australian banks wants me to do a test. I normally end up ignoring these requests because of the time involved, and when I have done things like this in the past I rarely seem to get any feedback, which makes me disinclined to actually spend time on them.
But I figure the job could be a good one, and since the test says it should take two hours to do I decide to timebox it to around about that. After three or four hours I'm part way through step 2, and decide to call it a day.
I write a couple of pages on the fact that the initial estimate was wrong, expecting a candidate to spend several days on a pre-interview test is excessive, and that I've had four such requests in the last few weeks, with sufficient differences to make curtail code reuse.
I submitted my answer this afternoon, after having problems getting the Zip file to either be accepted by Gmail at my end, or the bank. (They also insisted on using the 7Zip format, which struck me as wasting more of my time.)
A bit later I got a call off a very upset agent. Apparently the hiring manager was upset that I wasn't willing to spend three days on this test for them, and hadn't been showing willing. I think that my included document rubbed him up the wrong way, particularly as I've been applying to other places.
What does this tell me?
The bank has a massive sense of self-worth. The developers or managers who put the test together have no clue about software estimation. There would be no work-life balance. And they don't want to hire anyone who's willing to talk back.
I've discussed these tests with @Snowy before, and he made the point that he'd regard the sort of response that I sent favourably. OK, maybe I'd used a bit too much sarcasm in it. But it really does put me off working for that bank.
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Hahahahaha. I am just a bit of a Zappa fan and have been in similar conversations about him, with similar people. Too bad they don't get him.
@TrickHell:
Anyone who dislikes Bukowski needs a couple of drinks…
Snotty New York "writer" types all hate him. It's like listening to 15-year-old punk rockers shit on the Beatles.
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I have had customs dorks roundtrip my goods before, for no specific reason. I would have been happy to pay whatever was due.
Looks like my package got bored in Jersey and went back to Europe.
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@Graeme
I feel you! Been there, done that. Plus I presently work in the field (in an entirely different, totally non-IT function), profoundly hate it and can only advise against working for a bank.
Question is can one get a decent job without leaving ones personality at the coat-check. I've lost two good jobs by "talking back" as you put it. I was right in both incidents, but that helped me exactly nothing…or close to nothing, as I successfully sued the second employer afterwards, which increased my severance pay, but obviously didn't get me my job back. The deciding persons in both cases were incompetent women, with a scheming, ruthless, truthless personality. Both of them later failed miserably in their positions, when their "policies" of finding fall guys to blame their own failures on eventually stopped working.
The essence: my good wishes! To find suitable and decently paying employment is tough these days. Choose your boss well (I know that does not really make it easier...).
And don't stop talking back! -
Was brought in for an interview today that left a really bad taste in my mouth. Essentially a sales/marketing position, which I'm used to. However the salary and expectations of hours in felt like a total 180° from what was briefly discussed in my phone interview. They sought me out mind you, after coming across my resume online. So not like I was looking or in immediate need of employment. Just a bit pissed that I feel my time wasted over something I wouldn't have agreed to if they were upfront.
