Computers can't live with them, can't do without them.

one post from the defunct transitions blog on typepad

woke up to a blue nightmare today. for those of you who are not familiar, a BSOD is not a BLAH-Somet(ing)-OR-DIE. the Blue-Screen-o-Death is a serious error for the (Windows) operating system, outpaced only by an infection with a Trojan or other persistent malware. a BSOD means that the OS non-gracefully handled the software faults it was designed to handle. usually the BSOD is traceable to a low-level s/w fault, like in a device driver, ie, the software that runs your video card, for example, and which talks to the OS. or a recent piece of h/w is incompatible with the OS.

this is the 2nd BSOD in 2 days, an omen of impending Doom9. today was no exception to that rule. the computer refused to complete a boot to a video screen. no display = S.O.L.
saturday superbowl sunday i'll spend a few hours replacing the MOBO with one i removed two weeks ago.

you ask, "why did i remove a MOBO two weeks ago?" an attempt to troubleshoot a no-boot situation in an Intel desktop board, and the opporutunity to test a two-time RMA'ed ECS MOBO from august 2007.

turns out the (admittedly older) video card gave up the (Norton) ghost finally. had to replace it. its not always easy to identify when the video card goes funky. is there ever good timing for things like this? naw. never.

at least i dont have to work from home, or even work for pay right now. wrong! the job search is a full time unpaid job, any equipment malfunctions result in setbacks.

i'll be back to my regular self soon enough. i just wish i didnt have to deal with so many h/w s/w issues. something unexpected happens at least every 4-6 months. its enough to drive a poor creature insane.

UPDATE...

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• retired the ECS board.
• rebuilt the machine with the intel desktop board. made the cables all nice and pretty. the Intel DG965WH is a good unit with Firewire & USB, pci-e slot, built in (decent) video adapter (but only 2.6 on Vista score haha), network adapter, built-in sound card with SPDIF, even has a speaker to beep the BIOS error codes -- the darn ECS elitegroup board has none.
  
  note to Intel (China):
  make the CMOS reset jumper a little closer to the board's center. its hard to grab through 4 SATA cables.

just when i imagined it was safe to sit down and get caught up on a weekend's worth of email & continue work on the résumé/job search .... BEEEEP, or BEEEEEP - BEEEEEP on reboot !!! and worse, the machine just powers off after a couple of minutes.

• the problem? defective Patriot DDR2 SDRAM. on reflection, had I replaced the RAM once in the past 14 months, i might have avoided a variety of problems. it's hard to gauge how long RAM has been defective, but it also is very hard to pinpoint RAM issues until the beeping happens.
• with the new 2 X 2GB RAM in place, my baby is now singing, and not in the castrato range.
• one caution though:
  
  do a VISUAL CHECK before and after powering up!
  if the cable from the board to the heatsink processor fan stops the movement of the fan blades, your nose will start to detect the odors of hot silicon, and the BIOS will report a core temp at 98C. ooooouch.
  
  repositioned the cable and the temp dropped 57C in about a minute.
  
  alas, may eventually have to replace the CPU because of heat damage.

the followup

one post from the defunct transitions blog on typepad

the meeting with the facilitator went well. he had some formatting and layout changes. when those didn't produce the desired result (MORE WHITE SPACE), we looked to trim some content from an admittedly very densely packed set of accomplishments.

he said that of all those meeting for résumé reviews with him this week, i had made the most progress. yeah. i like it. i've been doing lots of work on it to be sure. the professional cards need more formatting work too, but I knew that.

because you don't normally do this sort of thing on a regular basis, some of the suggestions leave you feeling a little artificial, until you start to ...

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believe the hype yourself. by the time you buy into your own plan, you have built up confidence. it's a form of meditation, self-deception/reperception and self-hypnosis. LOL. it's like trying to persuade management that information architecture or a CMS is essential.

this AIM program is actually a really interesting course. approaching the job search in terms of launching a business and marketing plan --- for yourself. it makes sense and is backed by years of practice helping people get back in the workplace.

• carefully craft the message and merchandise to create value for the buyer.
• know how the game is played and play it (negotiating, asking the right/wrong questions)
• consider the search full-time work.
• keep an open mind, but stay focused.
• expect rejection by a buyer who doesn't know what she or he wants.
• measure and optimize your search
• sunset the business plan once the product is sold, but don't fire your team... keep contact with them.

the biggest difference between launching a real business and launching the job search:

• in real business you build a team of that works together to sell a product or service.
• in the search business, you still build a team of colleagues and friends for networking, but they don't really sell you. you promote and create value perception for yourself.

next item on the list is form a list of targeted companies and start talking to hiring managers. that will be a lot of work....

the résumé

one post from the defunct transitions blog on typepad

never in recent memory have i labored so hard over 1000+ carefully chosen words to fill 8-1/2 X 11 inch sheets of paper. (i mean filled.) the attempt to market, spin and condense the last 6-1/2 years of one's professional life on two pieces of 32 lb. 92 brightness 100% cotton content is time consuming and draining. but it also inspires when i think of the many opportunities and undefined spaces yet to explore.

this document is far from perfect. the white space to printed character ratio is low, at times, the style borders on the pompous, verbose, and pseudo-technical.

here follows excerpts from an emailed introduction to this résumé.

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...[ it required ] a massive amount of sustained work in reflection, mental regurgitation, and fuzzy recall / logic cobbled together over the last two or three days...

In this recipe for a self-marketing plan, combine one part pre-primary political posturing, one part Mardi Gras costuming, and two parts spin doctoring. ... The French would say ... bricoleur.

a preemtive list of a few (mildly) controversial areas

1. while it is a chronological résumé, i had to balance issues of space and formatting with the sequencing of lists of job responsibilities and accompanying accomplishments. on page two, the listing for the pro bono work for the Financial Services firm is out of sequence. ... these activities have merit, and support in a general way the overall professional objectives, [ but represent ] ... a temporary hiatus in my career trajectory. ... [ with a break in ] the flow, the resume would have extended to three pages, an [ avoidable ] formatting choice.
   
2. To fit all the content in two pages, white space in the resume is … uh … marginalized. I eliminated as much redundancy in content as possible, while adhering to the Accomplishment=>Results bulleted list formula. A smaller font may be difficult on uncorrected eyes over 40-years old to read. I think it is still readable because of the open Trebuchet font as well as the additional leading and kerning in the x- and y-planes. [ ... ]
   
3. I excluded irrelevant work history prior to 2000, on the basis that it does not add value to the professional objective. The education list does however hint at a former life should the interviewer wish to pry open that closet door.

it was the best of times...

one post from the defunct transitions blog on typepad

what shall i say to a reading public deprived of reading my words for almost two years? (in this case, the reading public of previous blogs consisted only of one regular reader in late 2005-early 2006 ;) what excuses can i offer?

truly no explanations can completely exonerate this lapse. i neglected writing as a therapeutic outlet and means for creative self-expression and became occupied with other worthy and less than worthy pursuits, but certainly ones that took away from the inordinate amount of time that had been devoted to styling and perfecting the blog.

today when logging into typepad, i was reminded that the account is on a continuous billing cycle.

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an entire 12 months are now paid up as of January 22, 2008, so why not start another blog?

this "new" blog ("new" in January-February 2008) consisted of three or four entries and like previous forays into the blogosphere were summarily abandoned. for some reason, selected images uploaded in 2008 remain on the typepad servers, even after canceling the typepad account in January 2009. a list of these photos is provided below.

for this blog, the focus turns to career development and new opportunities to make a difference in the world. career development became increasingly significant to me last year, when the company i worked for changed owners. i started on and completed several management-driven projects last year which would never have been possible in years previously.

as i re-enter the employment market again after six years of continuous employment first with WebSideStory, Inc. and then its successor Visual Sciences, Inc., it occurs to me that work is not merely a set of tasks that a person performs for several hours a day in an office or a kitchen or telecommuting from home. work also includes the less tangible aspects of verbal and written interaction with colleagues, managers, and on occasion, executives. work is a uniquely social endeavor.

these interactions are at times directly related to the occupational domain, but often not. certainly participation in lunches, after-work drinks, and other events qualify as work-related, whether a person actually discusses marshaling errors and the production staging environment over oksusu cha and all-you-can-eat sushi at Yoshi Sushi, or trades witty repartee with colleagues who need a smoke break companion outside the building.

but beyond these activities lies the notion of building -- and maintaining -- a network of professional contacts. a recent career transitions seminar through Lee Hecht Harrison in San Diego illuminated this point, painfully. the facilitator in his opening comments about networking mentioned that we often think about building the network only after submitting a UI claim to the EDD. the establishment and renewal of relationships with current and former colleagues must be an ongoing process, but a recursive process that requires progressively less maintenance.

one online tool for easing the maintenance of professional networks is undoubtedly LinkedIn. another is NotchUp (launched only this month). my LinkedIn profile has been completely revised twice in the last seven days, with plans to add more eye-catching self-marketing content soon. stay tuned for here's the updated and remade résumé, or check in the left sidebar for a link to the résumé.

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