Stunned.

This blog often focuses on linking to news stories and discussing the insanity that is occurring around us. This one takes it to a whole new level. CNN is reporting "Alumna sues college because she hasn't found a job".

Honestly, I'm not even sure where to begin with this one. But let's start here: Trina Thompson, any company that knows how to use Google should never, ever hire you now. You have proven to the world that you are an idiot. If I were looking to hire someone and came across this in their history I'd drop them faster than a mangy rat.

In my opinion, this sense of entitlement is one of the biggest problems facing our country right now. So many people seem to live under the idea that if their neighbor has something then they're entitled to have it to, regardless of any factor. Jim has a new big TV, well if he can have one then I can too, I still have a couple of credit cards that aren't maxed out, I'll pick one up on my way home from work.... I went to college and managed to not fail out, someone has to give me a job now; we'll just ignore the fact that US unemployment is at its highest in 20+ years. I woke up this morning and took a shower, why isn't someone handing me a medal and asking me to run their company?

She feels that her college is required to find her a job, because she paid them for her education. Trina seems to be suffering massive confusion over the meaning of "education", mainly in that it does not mean "guaranteed job placement services". Trina feels that she is obviously the best candidate for the jobs she's tried applying to so the failure of these companies to hire her must be the fault of her school's somehow. What with her stunningly impressive 2.7 GPA and "solid attendance record" how could she not be hired?

From the CNN report it would seem that her stance is something along the lines of "What does it matter what I did or did not learn? I paid the school money for four years, now they have to find me a job, and they haven't plopped a job offer in my lap yet, so my unemployment is their fault."

She suggests that their career placement services favor students with better GPAs. Hmmm..... perhaps companies just prefer to hire people with a higher GPA because it's one indication that perhaps they are more competent in the field?

I just find this situation insane. How can she possibly believe that this will go well for her in any way, shape, or form? She's going to lose the case, of course, and she's put a big "I'm a pain in the butt" sign on her for the entire world to see.

EFY is not Reform Camp

From the Daily Universe Police Beat on June 9, 2009:

June 3: An EFY counselor thought he could smell marijuana in Gates Hall around 11 p.m. He found three EFY participants smoking marijuana in the stairwell. Police said the juveniles will be charged.

Mine is Better

My spam is better than yours, mine is 1337!

Awkward

The moving company is supposed to be getting in contact with me today. So I'm waiting for a call from S&M Moving Systems.... I can only guess which end of that expression we'll end up on by the time this move is over...

Sorry for the absence

Hi all, sorry for the long absence. It's been almost a full month since my last post.

Let's see, what is there to update you all on. The Heartless Siren and I are still getting married, so that's good. Wedding plans have been coming along. We have some test announcements coming from the printing company within the next few days, so we'll be getting those out really soon. Waldorf and Sauron put it together for us, it looks awesome.

My thesis is coming along. The data is getting close to finished, so I'll be working on the actual text of the thesis now. I am happy to say that the results seem to indicate that my work performs better than random guessing. Honestly, that's all I was hoping for. My work is in a very young field doing something that has yet to be done well using a very specific technique which has never before been applied to this field. So, getting better-than-random results is actually quite awesome. Now someone else can pick up my work and improve upon it.

We're still working on finding a place to live when we move in July. I need to call the complexes and see if they know their availability yet. I'd like to get that sorted out sooner rather than later so that we can arrange things with the moving company.

I've spent my nights this past week creating a registry website using the Django web framework built on Python. Let me just say Django/Python allows you to get an incredible amount of work done in very little time. The site looks amazing, is fully XHTML 1.0 Strict and CSS 2.1 compliant, and only needs 2 little CSS hacks to make it work in Internet Explorer.

We were using Ourregistry.com myregistry.com, but they require guests to give them an email address in order to view your registry. And harvesting email addresses from my friends and family is not OK. So, now they don't get our pageviews at all. And, I can easily turn my system into a competing product (it's already 90% there). The moral of the story is: Don't annoy a nerd with silly things when you're a website, they just might make their own to spite you.

Sorry, but since including a link here would give away our identities so blatantly I'll forgo. I would guess that with some clever Googling a smart researcher could probably find my identity and the website. So, I leave that task to the reader.

Not a Bomb

KSL is reporting a short blurb about a "Man accused of setting off mall bomb". I thought this would have made bigger news, someone setting off a bomb at the Provo Towne Centre Mall. But, upon reading the article, it turns out to be a stupid choice of words and rather the over reaction by police. The moron filled a water bottle with liquid nitrogen (so they claim, probably more likely to be dry ice, where would he get liquid nitrogren? you actually can't just walk into the Chemistry department and buy it willy-nilly).

A water bottled filled with something cold. That's apparently considered an "explosive device", gimme a friggin' break. We did that kind of stuff all the time when I was a kid. We didn't use dry ice, but an expanding chemical reaction from food heaters found in MREs. Guess someone better retroactively charge me with several counts of making an explosive device. The main difference being that we popped them in our yard and not in a public location filled with people.

The kid is obviously a moron to pop a bottle like that in a public location, but he probably should have been charged with criminal mischief and/or disturbing the peace. But no, we'd rather make it sound like he's a "terrorist" trying to blow people up. Being charged with "making an explosive device" is the same kind of charge you get if you make pipe bombs in your basement. I would consider this to be a wholly lesser offense.

Now I have a question though. The article says the police and fire department responded because the device set off the fire alarms. Why would it set off a fire alarm? It's just a loud noise. Are the alarms sensitive to sudden pressure changes? or have the alarms actually be redesigned to include microphones that trigger for loud sudden blasts, much like gunfire would produce? Hmmm...

Engagement Update

Hey all, seems that it has been awhile since I've posted anything here.

The Not-quite-as-heartless-as-previously-supposed Siren and I are currently in California looking for a place to live. I've accepted a job with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and will begin in July after we get married. Since I have a Spring term course, this week (between semesters) was really the only chance we'd get to come out and look at places and let TNQAHAPSS see California (she's never been before).

LLNL is providing some nice relocation benefits, including paying for this trip (reimbursed after I start work), unfortunately since we're not married yet only my expenses would be covered. So we drove out rather than flying. They'll pay my mileage for driving here and back, and it really doesn't cost anymore to have a second person in the car. Chloe (my Honda Civic) is holding up well on the trip (though needs the bugs cleaned off the front end). The first tank of gas from Provo to Winnemucca, NV got 39+ mpg, and the second tank, from Winnemucca to Sunnyvale, got 42+ mpg.

We spent Monday looking at the two places that got the best reviews on apartmentratings.com. We got applications from them, filled them out and dropped them off on Tuesday. Neither place knows if they'll actually have any openings in July, but they took the applications, will process them, and put us on the waiting list. When they found out I'd be working for LLNL they were much more eager to accommodate our situation. It would seem that these Managers have understood that if your tenants can pass an FBI background check and are able to obtain a Top Secret level security clearance that they probably won't give you any trouble. So we're hoping that one or the other place will have an opening and let us know toward the end of May.

If neither has any spots, well... it gets trickier. All the other complexes that have reviews do not get great marks from the reviewers. We may end up renting a house or something. Our plan is to rent something for about 6 months, while we search for a house to buy. In those 6 months we'll be able to put together a down payment, research the area, become part of the LLNL credit union, and go through the entire process without getting stressed about needing a place to live quickly. There are quite a few foreclosures in the area which we will be able to pickup for cheap. The area we're looking at is called Mountain House, and has foreclosures listing in the low 200,000's which sold 4 years ago for 600,000+.

Hopefully we'll pick up something for "cheap" now, thing will recover, and in the future when we are re-evaluating our life situation we might be able to sell at a considerable profit if desired.


Oh, the wedding will be June 23. We're getting married in the Boston Temple. YAY!