Sleeping Pugs
Poems I’ve Read Recently and Liked
I’ve been reading a lot of poetry as part of the Modern & Contemporary American Poetry class on Coursera.
One of the things I like about the class is that the video lessons are done a little differently than other Coursera classes I’ve taken. Rather than recorded lectures, the videos consist of the instructor, Al Filreis, leading a small group of Penn students in close readings of selected poems.
Anyway, here are a few of my favorites so far:
- I dwell in Possibility by Emily Dickinson
- Tell all the Truth but tell it slant by Emily Dickinson
- The Brain within its Groove by Emily Dickinson
- Danse Russe by William Carlos Williams
- This Is Just To Say by Willim Carlos Williams
- A Supermarket in California by Allen Ginsburg
- Lines for an Abortionist’s Office by Ruth Lechlitner
- Incident by Countee Cullen
These next two, both by Richard Wilbur, I want to single out as being particularly exquisite and heartbreaking:
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A colleague says, “Are you talkin’ to ME?” Oh, and he showed up at work this morning with a shaved head. Time to worry?
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RT @HarveyMackay: Once the mistake is recognized, what’s lost is lost#Mistakes
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RT @dwangelo: Remember to vote! So it can be cancelled out by 50 million adults who enjoy Harry Potter books.
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RT @DerrickAColeman: Everything Obama says is great, if he had done any of it in the last 4 years, I’d probably be voting for him.
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RT @TriciaLockwood: Think about how close the words PARTNER PANTHER PAINTER and PANTSER are. So close, right? But only Jesus can be all …
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Things Great Engineers (almost) Never Say | Javalobby: java.dzone.com/articles/thing…
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RT @USC: Thanks to student Ari Oh for capturing Traveler trotting across campus recently… #USC #fighton #trojans instagr.am/p/Q76fZXqBa5/
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RT @wtfarthistory: Check out Degas’ binder full of (mostly) women @GettyMuseum (ok it’s a sketchbook) bit.ly/Vbpa9I http://t.co/1 …
Mr. Blackwell Lives
My kid calls me out for wearing white socks with black sneakers . . .
“Thanks, Mr. Blackwell,” I say to him.
Then it occurs to me that a 19-year-old is not going to get the Mr. Blackwell reference.
“FYI, Mr. Blackwell was a flamboyantly gay fashion critic.”
Whenever I Look Down From the Dinner Table, This is What I See
The Flash Made Me Blink! Can You Take Another One?
Ass Kissers, Flag Wavers and Team Players
I don’t like ass kissers, flag wavers or team players. I like people who buck the system. Individualists. I often warn people: “Somewhere along the way, someone is going to tell you, ‘There is no “I” in team.’ What you should tell them is, “Maybe not. But there is an ‘I’ in independence, individuality and integrity.” Avoid teams at all cost. Keep your circle small. Never join a group that has a name. If they say, “We’re the So-and-Sos,” take a walk. And if, somehow, you must join, if it’s unavoidable, such as a union or a trade association, go ahead and join. But don’t participate; it will be your death. And if they tell you you’re not a team player, congratulate them on being observant.
Presidential Endorsements
Following the Debate on Twitter
The Chevron Guy
My boy and I are buying sodas at the Chevron station . . .
I notice they’ve got the place plastered with breast cancer donation stickers . . . donate a buck to breast cancer research and you can put your name on a 3×5 sticker with a pink car and a Chevron logo and they’ll stick it up on the wall.
I object to that. Let Chevron donate their own damn money instead of shaking down the customers.
“Would you like to donate a dollar to breast cancer research?” the attendant asks.
“No,” I reply. “Shouldn’t Chevron make their own donations? They’ve got more money than I do.”
It takes the guy a few moments to pick up on my theme, but as we’re wrapping up the transaction, he grabs the ball and runs with it.
“Yeah,” he says, “and the price of gas keeps going up.”
“It does, although I have to admit it’s down a little bit in the past week.”
“They bounce it,” he says, “but in the long run, it always goes up. It’ll be five dollars, then seven dollars. And they control everything so there’s nothing you can do about it.”
“You’re exactly right,” I say to him.
When we get outside, I say to the boy, “Chevron should fire that guy. Not a good company man.”
IT Recruiters
I’ve worked with some great IT recruiters but they’re the exception, not the rule.
I spent a lot of time on LinkedIn recently as part of a job search, and it doesn’t make you feel good about IT as a serious profession when you see how many IT recruiters are former waitresses, bartenders, shoe salesmen . . . honorable professions, but not likely to give a person a good understanding of technology and the people who work with it.
Here’s a sample phone conversation I had with a recruiter:
“First question,” the recruiter says. “Do you have any experience with software development? Because that’s key for this position.”
“Uh, that’s all I’ve done for 25 years. Are you looking at my résumé?”
“Yes, but I don’t see anything about software development.”
“Are you sure it’s my résumé?”
“Yeah . . . I don’t see anything that specifically says software development.”
I’m speechless because this is clearly impossible.
“Hang on,” I say, “I’m going to bring up a copy of my résumé here. Okay, let’s make sure we’re looking at the same thing.
“Developing and maintaining a portfolio of enterprise web applications on ASP.NET. That’s software development.
“Designing and implementing business-critical web services in .NET environment. That’s software development.
“Design and implementation of multiple concurrent ASP.NET projects on high-volume customer-facing websites. That’s software development.
“Granted, we haven’t seen the word ‘software’ followed by the word ‘development’ but that’s what all of this is, right?”
(I may as well stipulate here that IT practitioners are a pretty bad bunch themselves when it comes to lacking appropriate skills for their work.)
Time to Worry?
A colleague says, “Are you talkin’ to ME?” Oh, and he showed up at work this morning with a shaved head.
Jerry Kill, (Minnesota) Gopher
We’re watching SportsCenter when a picture of Jerry Kill, coach of the Minnesota Golden Gophers football team, comes on the screen, accompanied by the unfortunate news that Kill suffered a seizure following the team’s 21-13 loss to Northwestern.
“He’s still alive?” my son asks. “He didn’t die?”
“He had a seizure,” I say.
“So he’s still alive, right?”
“Yeah.”
“In that case, I’m going to go ahead and say that he looks like a gopher.”