Last time I applied for a job was a few months ago, when a former colleague suggested that I apply for it. I didn’t get that job, but the process of applying for it got me to get my résumé in order. Afterward, a friend with hiring experience reviewed my résumé and made some suggestions […]
A few friends have occasionally questioned my adding “No advice, please” to my posts, so I’ve been meaning for a long time to give some more details and clarity around that. But it’s a sensitive topic, and it’s taken me a while to put together a post that (I hope) makes clear where I’m coming […]
When I was a kid, at some point my father bought the 1979 Avalon Hill boardgame Dune. I think that my father and my brother and I played it pretty often. (In rotation with other boardgames, like Quest of the Magic Ring and Mountaineering.) I’ve had our family’s copy of the game for a long […]
Some assorted life updates: As mentioned the other week, my bicycle chain snapped while I was riding it. I’ve now had the chain (and some other parts) replaced, and got the bike a general tune-up. The work was done by Mobile Bicycle Repair; they came and picked up my bike, then delivered it back to […]
Whew. That was a lot of errands! Stopped at a store to pick up an item to add to a box I was mailing. Took two boxes to the post office to mail. Unfortunately, the box that had needed something added to it wasn’t yet sealed, and despite reminding myself to bring tape, I had […]
Short version of this post: Cue Health, the company that makes the higher-accuracy home COVID tests that I’ve been relying on for years, is going out of business. I’m going to try a different brand of tests: Metrix. Long version: A couple years ago, Google started supplying employees with highly accurate free home COVID tests […]
I keep meaning to note that discussions of 4-day workweeks are sometimes a little confusing because different people are talking about different models. For example, the kind of schedule they’re referring to could be any of the following: 4 days, 8 hours a day. 4 days, 10 hours a day. 32 hours, distributed in various […]
A few weeks ago, my left hearing aid started intermittently not working. I tried various options for rebooting and charging and connecting it to various devices and so on. Sometimes it would work for a few hours, sometimes it wouldn’t. Sometimes I would wear it for a few hours of it not working, and then […]
I’ve been mildly sad for a while about a very minor thing: Changes to the UI in Apple Books on the iPad. Apple Books on the iPad mini has been my favorite way to read ebooks since the mini first came out. And part of that was the UI. In particular, one of my favorite […]
I’ve seen a few criticisms of the “love languages” concept recently, mostly in the form of people taking for granted that it’s a bad and useless concept. And that keeps puzzling me, because the idea that different people have different modes and approaches that make them feel valued seems straightforwardly and obviously true to me. […]
(This post is specifically about speculative fiction anthologies; it’s not about magazines or novels, and it’s not about literary fiction or other genres.) Short version of this post: If you’re an sf anthology editor or an sf author, what does the idea of being “invited” to submit to an anthology imply to you about whether […]
Here’s a story from my early days at Google, circa early 2005. Content warning for criticism of a particular set of extroverts (which is not to be confused with criticism of all extroverts). Also content warning for discussion of the desirability of interacting with people in person, which is a fraught topic for a lot […]