Worcester County - St. Patrick's Parade

Mike, with family and friends, will have a float in this year's parade:
Worcester County - St. Patrick's Parade (#33 in Division 2). The O'Hakkarainens hope that you'll join in the celebration.

About this thing called work

Our afternoon turned into evening as my boss met with a few of us to plan our project activities for the next few months. To quote a former co-worker, "We're doomed." We have much too much work for the people we have on staff. We have a handful of open software engineering positions now and will open a few more in other disciplines, perhaps as early as Monday. Of course, the time spent recruiting and interviewing those people will consume the time that we need for work. My manager has a strong preference for personal recommendations, so anyone we bring in would have a fast track through the processes.

Geek to Live: ETech Highlights, part I - Lifehacker: "“Continuous partial attention” leaves us overstimulated, overwhelmed and unfulfilled" - they've been readng my mail.

There are some jobs where women make more than men. I don't know about pay, but, in my business, here and before, men and women were pretty much equaly represented up to the director level. Above that, into the VP and Chief Whatever Officers, it's mostly white guys.

Fortune is carrying an interesting piece on the origin and evolution of the cubicle. Cubicles weren't intended to be evil. As with reengineering, however, once the concept became known as a cheap solution, well, game over.

My automated search for a technical documentation job turned up this offering - On-Site Coast Guard WMD/HAZMAT Professional. Yep, I could go searching for Weapons of Mass Destruction, provided that I had the right HAZWOPPER skills.

Mental Typewriter? Really? - Gizmodo

Mental Typewriter? Really? - Gizmodo. When our thoughts can go straight from our heads to our computers, we've turned a corner and are heading down a new and twisting road.

When I saw this story, I thought of a line from Bruce Springsteen's Johnny 99, "And if you can take a man's life for the thoughts that's in his head ..."

Of work and sleep and stuff between

Note to self: near the rocks at the opening of the cove leading to the boathouse, there is a small spring. The spring water wears away the ice from below, so that the ice looks safe, but isn't. The water at that point is knee-deep.

On Friday afternoon, Miss Cassie came for a visit. We fed her, read to her, and tried to teach her to make a raspberry sound whenever she saw George Bush on the TV.

I didn't watch much of the Oscars. Lots of other folks have witty things to say, so I won't clutter the blogwaves. I'm glad that Wallace and Gromit won.

It's quite common in our business for people to work at home. Everyone has laptop computers. Most people have high-speed Internet connections at home. Add a cell phone or landline phone and you're all set to work. It can require extra effort to stay focused. A recent study has shown that many people find that they're more productive and less stressed in the, um, more casual environment.

According to this BBC news item, your sleep position can describe facets of your personality. The fellow who replaced me in a previous job not only slept in his office, but he snored. I guess sleeping in a office chair describes your future state as being unemployed.

Finally, these luncheon meats, ham and chicken in one package, pork in the other, are made with beef and mutton. And don't forget Purplo's, the purple sausage.