Spring Blog Cleaning

Your eyes aren’t deceiving you. I’m doing work to the site this week to update the site theme and clean up some broken links. In the meantime pages may not look as they should. I should have everything back up and working by sometime next week. I hope.

Any problems after that should be brought to the attention of the management. (Me.)

Iceland from the Air

I had seen literally dozens of dull shots of stranded travelers, but had to go looking for some shots of the Icelandic volcano itself. (I’m not even going to TRY to spell it.) In the search I found this collection of high-definition photos collected by The Big Picture, a photo-journalism blog on the Boston Globe’s website. These are breathtaking shots, beautiful and frightening at the same time.

The volcano in Iceland taken at night

How (Not) To Apply for a Job

This advice was gathered from actual submissions a good friend of mine received for a part-time administrative assistant and receptionist position (thanks Jamie!) What has happened to business education in our schools?

Do not:

1.  Write your cover letter in “text speak”
2.  Submit a 2+ (or no kidding 6+) page resume for a part-time entry-level position
3.  Spell the person’s name to whom you are submitting said resume to, incorrectly
4.  Say that you are “detail oriented” when in fact your cover letter contains dozens of typos
5.  Tell me to have a “Blessed Day”
6.  Write your cover letter in a series of incomplete fragmented sentences
7.  Demand that I call you to find out what your qualifications are
8.  Ask me a bunch of questions prior to even submitting your resume
9.  Misspell your own name
10.  Leave important words out of sentences (which oddly happened a lot…)
11.  Ignore the fact that I requested a cover letter
12.  Include a one-sentence cover letter that says “This is my resume”
13.  List the following qualifications (for an admin position): Venipunture (??), Injections, Vital Signs and Surgical Tray Set Up
14. List your only job experience as “Professional Basketball Player”
15.  Give me too much personal information (seriously, I could open credit cards…)
16.  Begin a letter with “Hello, my name is…”
17.  Send me an email from your current work email address during work hours
18.  Answer your phone “yeah?” when being called for an interview for a RECEPTIONIST!

Kitty Bank

Oh man, WHERE can I get one of these? Normally the Japanese obsession with kawaii (cuteness) isn’t really my thing, but this video gave me a huge belly laugh this morning:

Ouch

Okay, another twelve inches on top of the 23 inches Saturday, we can handle it. Third crippling storm in a single season? We’re cool. Having more snow than my old hometown of Rochester, New York? Unfair, but I’m able to be philosophical about it.

But all the other snowy cities in the U.S. laughing at our struggles? Now that ain’t nice. Way to hit a town when we’re down.

Here We Go Again

More video this morning as we are socked in with another winter storm. This time we don’t have as much accumulation but high winds are making visibility very poor.

This shot of the birds at the feeder show how visibility can suddenly go to nothing.

Washington Snowpocalypse

Don’t give me the blame for calling this storm “the snowpocalypse”. The media have been calling it that since Thursday, before it even took shape. It’s still snowing heavily right now (11:20AM on Saturday). I took some video this morning when the snow was light enough to see out. Right now it’s coming down too hard for video to really show what’s going on. I’ve no idea how much we’ll have by tonight, when it’s finally supposed to stop!

Cappuccino

Cappuccino.JPGFreelance life has its compensations.  This is why I love working at home! At 4PM I get my cappuccino pulled by my own personal barista (Mark). No need to go anywhere on a day with a sloppy cold rain. Aahhhh!

It’s been a busy week, juggling two consulting clients, one new client proposal, five yoga classes and my part-time work at Unity Woods. I love the variety, and am becoming much better at juggling after a few months practice. Part of the secret seems to be maintaining as much yogic detachment as possible. I do the best job I can, and then try to let it go. That’s not to say that I feel I’m doing a slapdash job, just that I try not to get over-involved in politics and non-essentials. I serve my students, my clients and my employer, and then I put it aside and try to give my full attention to my husband, my home and myself. That’s the ideal, anyway. None of it would be possible without a supportive spouse who pitches in to do the grocery shopping and bathroom cleaning in weeks like this. Thank you darling!