California, China, pollution / Football and TV / Adventure continues / No satire…
Truth is always exciting. Speak it, then. Life is dull without it. Pearl Buck
And I will travel there, rent a car, and do my part in keeping the air polluted.
Yesterday, on Sunday, we moved from Milton's residence to a youth hostel (with help of Bill, who gave us a lift after buying my bike). The hostel is actually a student dormitory of the Boston university. If we would have had such terrible living conditions in Helsinki, I could never have graduated. Students are living two in each room, with bare concrete walls, terrible furniture, non ventilated bathrooms and wall-to-wall carpets. It seems that the standard of student dormitories is just as bad in USA, Hungary, Check republic, Poland, although it was 15 years ago that I visited the other countries. Anyway, the dormitory is good enough for two nights.
We spent yesterday just taking it easy. We strolled the Newbury Street, had lunch in Pho Pasteur, the favourite of 2005, bought $200 worth of clothes at Eddie Bauer's and Filenese's basement. S visited the not-so-technical academic institute up the Charles River, I passed, not out, and read NY Times. No dinner, just a few bagels.
On Saturday, I mined my stuff at Milton's and found two boxes of books, one large box of misc stuff and then mailed all of them to Finland. It was rather cheap, only $80. After mailing (it took 45 minutes of packing, filling in forms, signing other forms, getting things stamped, etc) brunch in some local place in Roslindale, then shopping for books:
In the evening, Milton cooked us a fantastic dinner of tuna, scallops, bluefish, and some Greek stuff. Plus excellent wines.
Another recruiter says: "Is there something about their lifestyle that we might find questionable or that we might find goes against the core values of our corporation?". I find it very strange. Why should employees life style matter? As long as the employee works and while working follows laws and regulations, everything should be just fine. I have worked with neo-liberals, Christians, Jews, and communists (among others) and they all have worked fine. The only persons I personally find suspicious are those supporting the intelligent design / creationism myths, but I have worked even with such a person. It went just fine.
To be fair, some of the employers and recruiters interviewed in the article said that they do not care about blogs and online information.
Alun perin julkaistu kuukausikoosteessa "Blogs March to June 2006".
California, China, pollution
California is known for ever stricter air quality rules. Now it appears that China's coal burning is spoiling the air of CA, not to speak of Japan's or China's own. Rather disturbing. But CA has also local problems: CA's ports are killing some 2400 citizens due to excessive pollution of air.And I will travel there, rent a car, and do my part in keeping the air polluted.
Football and TV
In Britain, the broadcasting authorities are helping the employers in preventing the employees from wasting working time on the World Cup. The authorities are raiding the officies and fining any non-licenced employers 1000 pounds and even suing them. So, no watching at work! I assume that if employees cannot watch at work, they will suddenly get sick and stay at home or in the local pub. Any statistics?Adventure continues
I am sitting in the Hayden library in MIT campus. It is no nice here: students reading their books, professors browsing archive material. Outside, summer has arrived with 17C, light northern breeze, sail boats on the rivers, someone rowing, mother pushing their carts, and jogger fleeing the inevitable.Yesterday, on Sunday, we moved from Milton's residence to a youth hostel (with help of Bill, who gave us a lift after buying my bike). The hostel is actually a student dormitory of the Boston university. If we would have had such terrible living conditions in Helsinki, I could never have graduated. Students are living two in each room, with bare concrete walls, terrible furniture, non ventilated bathrooms and wall-to-wall carpets. It seems that the standard of student dormitories is just as bad in USA, Hungary, Check republic, Poland, although it was 15 years ago that I visited the other countries. Anyway, the dormitory is good enough for two nights.
We spent yesterday just taking it easy. We strolled the Newbury Street, had lunch in Pho Pasteur, the favourite of 2005, bought $200 worth of clothes at Eddie Bauer's and Filenese's basement. S visited the not-so-technical academic institute up the Charles River, I passed, not out, and read NY Times. No dinner, just a few bagels.
On Saturday, I mined my stuff at Milton's and found two boxes of books, one large box of misc stuff and then mailed all of them to Finland. It was rather cheap, only $80. After mailing (it took 45 minutes of packing, filling in forms, signing other forms, getting things stamped, etc) brunch in some local place in Roslindale, then shopping for books:
- Drossscape by Alan Berger - how the US landscape has changed in the last 50 years of suburbanization etc. Nice pictures, some good arguments. See more information.
- The art of civilized conversation by Margaret Shepherd bought by S: a guide of talking well. I should have read it before coming to the USA...
In the evening, Milton cooked us a fantastic dinner of tuna, scallops, bluefish, and some Greek stuff. Plus excellent wines.
No satire comprehended
New York Times run an article on online presence and getting a job. One gollege student had written a satirical essay on "Lying your way to the top", which scared the shit out of all employers. The poor student did not get any interview invitations until he took the essay off-line. Apparently, the essay either hit home or those in recruiting positions of US companies do not "get" satire. Either way, a sad and sorry state of affairs.Another recruiter says: "Is there something about their lifestyle that we might find questionable or that we might find goes against the core values of our corporation?". I find it very strange. Why should employees life style matter? As long as the employee works and while working follows laws and regulations, everything should be just fine. I have worked with neo-liberals, Christians, Jews, and communists (among others) and they all have worked fine. The only persons I personally find suspicious are those supporting the intelligent design / creationism myths, but I have worked even with such a person. It went just fine.
To be fair, some of the employers and recruiters interviewed in the article said that they do not care about blogs and online information.
Alun perin julkaistu kuukausikoosteessa "Blogs March to June 2006".
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