Greetings from Massachusetts,
Today, I feel obligated to talk about voting and politics. I notice a lot of calls to encourage people to vote. Why should this be necessary? Aren't there countries where people line up, possibly get shot at, and wait for hours just to be able to vote?
Anyway, a little bit of sports first. Today I watched the Bills-Patriots game. For sports fans in this area, it was difficult because while, of course, they wanted the Patriots to win, at the same time they were rooting for Doug Flutie. As I've said before, people in this area really love Doug Flutie. (Job Hint: if you interview for a job in the Boston area, bring a box of Flutie Flakes-- you'll get the job.) Last night I saw the Atlanta Thrashers beat the Boston Bruins 8-3. What's up with that?
Back to the elections. So, this year I get to vote for Ralph Nader. I switched to the Green Party in 1998, to vote for "Grandpa" Al Lewis (he played Grandpa Munster on "The Munsters") for the New York State Governorship. You may laugh, but it was because of the 1998 election turnout that the Green Party of New York was able to get onto the ballot for this year's elections.
I have only one Green Party story to tell. It's a pretty good one. So, back on March 7, 2000, the New York Presidential Primary elections took place. I was living in the Governors Residence Halls on North Campus, so I went to vote at the Student Union, the polling place for that ward. Now on average, college students don't vote. Election officials in a district made up of college students usually have a very lonely time on election day. Also, in this particular year, the primaries happened to occur in the middle of University of Buffalo's Spring Break. The dorms were closed! There was nobody here to vote! (I was living in the boring grad/international student section, so I was able to stay on campus.) So, off I went to the Student Union to vote. Of course, I was the only one there-- the election officials were surprised to see me. Now, in order to vote in the primaries you have to be a registered member of a party. They look up your name in a book, and you sign the book next to your name. The election officials got another surprise when they found out that I was a member of the Green Party. There was a separate book for the Green Party (thank you Grandpa Munster!), and lo and behold, I was listed in the book. In fact, I was the only name listed in that book. I was the only registered member of the Green Party at UB! That day, the Green Party achieved a 100% voter turnout in that ward.
I am thinking about switching political parties. My membership in the Green Party has not resulted in as good a social life as I had hoped. You would think that, as a member of the Green Party, I would be dating all sorts of exciting women. Unfortunately, this is not so. So, I've been considering the other parties. I thought about becoming a Republican, but I don't want to date a woman with Republican-woman hair. (From my observations, Democrat women (like Hillary) have better hair than Republican women (like Pat Nixon). On the other hand, Republican men (like Ronald Reagan) have better hair than Democrat men (like Bill Clinton). From what I've been able to tell, all third-party candidates (like Jesse Ventura and Ross Perot) have no hair at all. I've heard that Ralph Nader is also as bald as a clear-cut forest in Oregon.) I've considered switching to the Libertarian Party, but Libertarian women scare me (they have okay hair).
I can also tell my story about the summer I lived with the Communists. Back in 1990, I was on summer break from Foolish U. I was working at the Foolish U. library that summer and subletted a room in a house rented by members of Foolish U.'s Young Communists student organization. (I think that I found out about the sublet from my friend, Libero ("Libero" is a good Communist name!), who was the president of the Young Communists. Ironically, the Communists rented from a Chinese landlord who thought that it was hilarious that his tenants were Communists.) That summer was a good one. The Communists had a TV and VCR, and I watched many, many movies that summer. Once a Census worker came by and we spent an hour or so drinking beer (Ortlieb's) and talking about how many people he had discovered who had jobs that paid "under the counter". My only complaint is that the Communists weren't very communal. That is, they didn't do their dishes. It was bad-- once we had maggots in the sink.
To educate you on the issues faced by Massachusetts residents, I'll tell you about all of this year's ballot questions.
NOVEMBER 10, 2000 IS THE DEADLINE TO SUBMIT RESUMES FOR ON-CAMPUS INTERVIEWS WITH THE FOLLOWING COMPANIES. GO TO THE CAREER PLANNING "ONLINE CAREER OFFICE" WEB SITE TO APPLY:
Once again, some of the more notable and/or amusing advertisements from last week's Boston Sunday Globe's "Boston Works" section.
Page 3, that "Are you a terabyte thinker in a gigabyte world?" ad from the enemy, EMC. They accept resumes in Word or txt files. Also, an ad from Teradyne. They promise "Hot technology, exciting careers, motivated people, great benefits, collaborative culture, worldwide locations."
Engage claims that its "innovative software technology positions us as the leading provider of Next Generation Internet Marketing Solutions." They further claim that they have "an aggressive approach to achieving success through strategic acquisitions and by leveraging our relationship with CMGI." I give them two years before they go Chapter 11.
iORMYX claims to be "The Internet Profitability Company". They further claim, "iORMYX is a pre-IPO global eBusiness Solutions Provider (eBSP) with end-to-end internet integration capabilities for eBusinesses. Our strategic service offerings include Internet Enabling, Internet Viability, Internet Integration, and Internet Profitability initiatives. Putting it all together, our goal is ultimately becoming a complete Extended Internet Enterprise focusing on value for the customer." I give them one year.
Lucent has another big ad. Emptoris has their "bee 2 bee 2 bee" B2B ad again. They are looking for Java people. One of the perks that Cellular One offers is a complimentary cell phone. Cytyc had an open house. Holy Cross is looking for a software developer. They want PeopleSoft experience and a Microsoft Word formatted resume.
PSDI had an open house. They are listed as (www.psdi.com) and (www.mro.com). I'm not sure why. Their ad has pictures of jack-o-lanterns, bats, and a spider.
NEBS had an open house. They are looking for Java people. "If working with hot, leading edge technologies like UNIX, Java, Java 2EE, Rational Rose and XML drives you wild, then you need to bring your skills to NEBS and join our growing team of top IT talent." Does anyone happen to know what Rational Rose is? I've never heard of it.
For all of you VLSI people, C-port is a subsidiary of Motorola. They make C-5 network processors. They had an open house. They offer free vending machines. (www.cportcorp.com)
InteQ (www.inteqnet.com) has an ad with a picture of someone wearing red shoes and yellow plaid pants. Send your resumes to funplacetowork@inteqnet.com. They claim to have "an amazing employee retention rate."
"Located in Burlington, MA, BizLand offers more than a competitive salary, comprehensive benefits package, and pre-IPO stock options. BizLand also prides itself on providing a challenging but fun work environment where casual dress, free beverages, catered Friday lunches, and a monthly toy allowance are a regular part of every employee's work experience." I wish I had monthly toy allowance. I've been looking at the Playstation 2. I have been told that, if I make my reservation today, I can get a Playstation 2 just in time for Christmas 2001.
If you haven't guessed it yet, what I'm really hoping to find is an ad for a company that promises free beer on tap, every day.
Akara is looking for hardware and software designers to work in Ottawa. I-group is sponsoring a startup job fair. Check out (www.i-group.com) for jobs with foolish startups.
There is a high-tech job fair here called "Jobapalooza". This is not to be confused with the "Jobsapalooza" job fair in Buffalo this January. You'll notice that the UB fair's name has the word "jobs" whereas the other fair has only the word "job", indicating that the Buffalo job fair will have more jobs than the Massachusetts fair. However, what the Massachusetts Jobapalooza fair does have is a raffle for two tickets for a 7-night cruise to Alaska. It's a Geek Cruise (www.geekcruises.com) with the theme of "Database Discovery".
If you have any questions about academics, job hunting, or the Boston area, please email me at (bfan2 "at symbol" yahoo "dot symbol" com) and I'll try to answer them.
Until next time,
Ben