The Ankle Biter @ Quibbling.net

Shameless Self Promotion

Originally uploaded by tjbax.

That’s right, y’all, Metroblogging DC turns the big Oh-One on Wednesday, and we’re having a kickass par-tay to celebrate!

Everyone within the sound of my blog is invited! And if you live within 2 hours’s drive of Felix, I expect you to actually be there. (Amy and Dawn, I’m looking squarely in your direction!)

So come. Bring your coworkers. Bring your friends. Hell, bring your enemies, ’cause we’ll feed them some cake and make them your friends!

What do you get for venturing out on a school night? A fabulous evening in the Zipper Lounge, upstairs at Felix. Get your buzz on with drink specials- jack’n'cokes, vodka tonics, and a beer special to be announced. The opportunity to increase your style quotient by acquiring the limited edition Metroblogging DC Tee! Get up with the get-down as the incomparable dj lil’ e spins the tunes! And of course, what’s a birthday party without cake? And what’s cake if it doesn’t come from Cakelove?

I hear a rumor that there will also be a doorprize, so mark your social calendar for Wednesday night, come to Felix, and have a slice of cake on us!

The conversation at dinner last night, paraphrased*, names eliminated to protect the innocent:

A: “So these two Airport Base Stations will be fine for about 6 hours, and then drop off the network. So will the brand new ones we bought to replace them, and when we explained all this to Apple Tech Support, they said ‘Huh. That’s a good one.’ We can’t figure out what’s going on.”

B: “Well, how close are they to [Evil Satan Incarnate Boss]’s office?”

C: *choking on dinner with laughter* Maybe the POWER OF EVIL fried them!

B: “I was thinking maybe they were disconnecting themselves to protect the Internet from her evil power.”

C: “So you have sentient base stations?”

B: “Well, Apple did make them.”

A: “That can’t be it, she doesn’t have an office in DC. So we’re back to switching around the router ports.”

This is yet another reason I don’t think online social applications can ever replace real networking.

So, I’ve got a profile on LinkedIn. (I also have profiles on most of the other major online networking services, but have quickly abandoned them.) I opened the profile, against my better judgment, on the enthusiastic recommendation of a colleague who said it was really helpful in his business efforts. Okay, I’ll try anything once.

On LinkedIn, you receive requests to “connect,” that is, be recognized as a known and trusted part of a person’s network. At the moment, all my other connections are people in the same company.

I received a request today, however, from a guy I interviewed a couple of weeks ago. The dude was, shall we say, not the best interview I’ve ever had. When I evaluate a resume, whether I want to interview the candidate or not, I usually try to provide some resume advice- if I think I can place the person, it helps to make them more placeable. If I don’t think I can place the person, at least I’ve been helpful and they can walk away with something gained from the trouble of sending me a resume and following up.

This guy argued with me about my resume advice. Not just questioning, as in, “Really? My understanding was that it was better to do it this other way because…” but as in, “I’m not going to do that because I took it to a career fair this way last week and those recruiters liked it just fine.”

Sure, while you were standing in front of them and they had to be nice. But how many of them called you back, huh?

Anyway, after going back and forth with this guy in my office for a while, I came to the conclusion that I don’t really want to work with him. I’m just not comfortable representing him.

Which, on one hand, makes this a no-brainer. You’re supposed to connect only with people you trust so your network has value. But if I decline the connection, it’s essentially the same as saying, “I don’t like you and I don’t want you in my network, because you’re a doody-head.” And that’s no good either. The service would block him from inviting me again, but homeboy has my business card and can contact me via email, phone, and fax. I wouldn’t put it past him to become a real nuisance to my coworkers.

Bah.

I called my hosting provider today to see what I could do, in the absence of debit card, to keep my account from being suspended. I offered to fax a copy of the check I was offering to mail them. They’re so nice, I don’t even have to fax it. The check is in the mail, guys (really!), so assuming they remember to tell their accounting system not to turn me off, your mainline of Ankle Biting should continue uninterrupted. This is also good news for my family members who have email addresses with the domain I hold for our last name.

(I suppose I don’t really have to tiptoe around my last name on this site anymore, seeing as how if you google Tiffany [MyLastName], you’ll find me anyway from all the people linking to me with that name, and yet, I still do it… curious.)

However, my cell phone bill is also charged to the same card, and while QWK.net is a small shop where you always talk to the same people and they always know exactly who you are when you call, T-Mobile may not be so flexible. So we’ll see. If you’re one of the people who actually might really need to get hold of me, you have alternate numbers where I may be reached, and you also likely know how to get in touch with me via the laptop that is ALWAYS ON when I’m not at work.

Freaking bank, why you gotta make stuff so difficult?

My debit card expired last month and I hadn’t gotten my new one yet. So I called to ask for a new one, and it didn’t ship until this past Friday. So my hosting bill, which is charged to my card, has gone unpaid. I’ll probably be able to work something out with the owner of the hosting company, but in case I don’t, my blog might not be here Wednesday. Don’t panic, it’s just my stupid bank’s fault. You’ll be able to find my own special brand of ranty goodness at Metroblogging DC in the meantime.

My company has a certification program for people in my job. I’ve got one more test to pass before I’m certified, but I’ve failed it once and only get one more shot at it. I failed by one question (passing is 80%). I’ll probably finish up on Thursday, and then I’ll be certified, instead of certifiable.

But really, screw certification, because I already have proof that I arrived. I got a call from a headhunter the other day- apparently one of our competitors needs IT recruiters, and somehow their search firm got my name. As if.

Westminster

Originally uploaded by tjbax.

Good idea, you Islamofascist bastards. Piss off the British.

You do realize, right, that they used to own half the world? There are still people living in the UK who remember those days. This is exactly the sort of thing that will cause them to get in touch with their inner imperialists. These are people who lived through the World War II blitzes when the Queen of England herself refused to leave London.

So go ahead, make them angry. These aren’t people who let themselves get pushed around.

Uncle Sam

Originally uploaded by tjbax.

I know we all spend a lot of time bitching about all the things America gets wrong, and it’s true, our transgressions are many.

But today, this one day of 365, take some time to reflect on what we get right.

And then go watch some fireworks, yo!

Tom and I are watching “A Capital Fourth” on WETA right now. The Beach Boys are performing, which is excellent, because they’re arguably one of the most quintessentially American bands, like, ever.

But only one Boy on the stage is left from the band’s original lineup. And as I’m watching him sing “Surfin’ USA,” all I’m thinking about is how it’s been at least 25 years since Mike Love has been on a surfboard.

And now Sharon Lawrence is doing some high school show choir medley of patriotic songs. Kill me now.

New books!

Originally uploaded by tjbax.

There are few things in life more aesthetically and tactile-ly pleasing than brand new, unblemished books.

I bought Sean Stewart’s Perfect Circle and Stephanie Coontz’s Marriage: A History to have some interesting reads this summer.

Stewart is the author who did a lot of the writing for The Beast. I’ve only read one of his books because most of them are out of print and they’re hard to find at libraries. This is a newer one, so I used it to round out the order I placed for the other book.

I saw Coontz’s book reviewed in the Post and was fascinated. Her thesis is basically that all the social progress that has made marriage more satisying as a relationship is the very progress that has destabilized it as an institution- the difference between seeing marriage as a way to gain power, money, or the cachet of a desirable family name and seeing it as a partnership of love and passion, I suppose. Anyway, it looks interesting and I’ll write more about it when I finish it.