Suzanne Calling

It's that time of year, and I've shared this commencement speech a few places, but not on the blog. I adore Tim Minchin, and this speech articulates a few things I've agreed with for years. Now that I'm in a philosophy class, I keep thinking of a few statements from this address.

In the span of four days, I applied for twelve jobs. Two returned 'thanks, but no thanks' (otherwise known as TNTs) in the matter of hours from my application. That pretty much tells me they use keyword software to look for whatever terms the successful candidate must have. I'm of the mind that automatically disqualify that way, they're missing candidates that might be more well rounded. However, there are three that I'm in the process of doing the dance, one with an interview Thursday morning. The recruiter asked me how much I made at my most recent job, or what was the minimum I would accept for this role. I named my minimum and her tone changed, she became very chipper. I'm realistic. I only have a year's experience in the field. My minimum is low for the corporate sector, but not that low. I also don't have the usual expenses most applicants have, in that my student loans are still in deferment while I am in school, and we don't have...

Officially, I was hired for a part time job today, but the wheels were set in motion a couple of weeks ago for me to return to doing Instructional Design. It is completely flexible, and I will complete a lot of my work from home at the same hourly rate I'd been earning before. One of my coworkers (who does all the hiring paperwork) is a little miffed that they didn't carve out a place for me to work on site, but such is life. However, I still have to fulfill my obligations to search for a job to receive unemployment for the past two weeks. In the state of Florida, that either means that I must make five contacts or I can pay one visit to the job services office. As I've been reading and working towards writing some 30 pages for school this week, I opted to take the time to go check in to the job services office, a place I have not been since 2011, prior to earning my masters degree and working in my profession. So, I check in and am assigned a computer. Once I log...

Last week, I threw together a Thai dinner because we both felt like having Thai food. In the past year, I've gotten a really good handle on the cuisine's flavor profiles, and decided to try to do something with some chicken breasts we had. This was a fairly quick one pot meal, and I'm going to make it again in the crock pot tomorrow. Here's the thing: Ed asked me to make it again a couple of days later, as he and Chef both LOVED it. So I picked up some more chicken breasts to create this once more. Originally, I simmered it on medium heat for about 45 minutes to an hour, then shredded the chicken. If you'd rather chop the chicken into bite sized pieces and do it that way, that would work well, too. I opted to shred to infuse the flavor more. 2 pounds chicken (it probably would work well with pork or shrimp, too) 3 tablespoons sesame oil 3 cloves garlic, minced 1 tablespoon dried basil 1 cup sweet chili sauce 1 can chunk pineapple in juice. (If you...

The personal pressure to post every day was pretty much wiped out with the cruise. It's probably a good thing, because I've got ideas for things to post, once I have time. For now though, there's the massive writing project hanging over my head. It probably would have been done Wednesday night, but the generous menfolk of this house decided to share it with me. It has zapped my energy, and my ability to think in prose. So, here I am, Saturday night, and I still have a bunch of writing to do. At least the literature review chapter should be done by tomorrow night. I can get the others banged out on Monday. For instance, my intro chapter was written last year, I just need to tweak it, and the methods completely changed, but that can be fixed as well. It's probably just as well I wasn't working, though I find that when I have a cold and I go to work, I just plug away at things and don't think about it too much. Not sure if that would have happened w...