Category: Personal

Creating and running the Information department at MomoCon: An unexpected journey

This post is part of my Extended Resume Project series. For all the posts in this series, click on the “extended resume project” tag at the bottom of this post.  Volunteer work is a tricky thing to put on a resume and cite as work experience. For some reason or another, when people say “unpaid volunteer work,” employers tend to hear, “non-serious, irrelevant hobby.” I’m not saying that’s always the case, and I know that many employers look favorably on the fact that people do volunteer work, but rarely does it seem that the skills required and the skills learned in...

Taking a new approach to my employment search: The Extended Resume Project

They say insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. I have been networking, doing daily job searches, setting up alerts, applying for jobs, and sharing my work experience in the same way for nearly four years with no success. So clearly, a different approach is needed, because this really is beginning to feel like insanity. When it comes to my job search, I do have one massive flaw: when I’m out networking with people or I’m in a job interview and they’re looking at my resume, and someone asks me, “so tell me...

Procrastinator? Gamer? Want to get things done? HabitRPG may change your life.

  HabitRPG is a web-based productivity tool that takes on the guise of an online role-playing game. You gain experience and gold by ticking off items on your to-do list, building good habits, busting bad habits, and more or less making yourself a better person. You take damage when you leave daily tasks undone, and you can reward yourself with either self-created rewards or new equipment for your character, which helps you defend against your own non-productivity as well as against bosses in quests. Yes, I said quests. HabitRPG’s party system allows you to join with friends or strangers into...

A Christmas memory from a playlist: Happy 21st birthday, little brother

It’s happened a lot in the past several days. I’ve been listening to a lot of music. As the songs pass, I inevitably have a strong memory associated with a few. Meeting new friends. Childhood memories from a schoolbus. Unrequited love. High school. College parties. This is a fun one, even though the beginning of the story might not seem so. When I was seven, Christmas of 1992, I learned that Santa Claus wasn’t real. It wasn’t through any sort of intentional revelation on the part of my parents. It was more of a circumstance. My mom was pregnant, and...

A word about college football as social education

Can I have an opinion here for a second? If you go to a school where football is traditionally an important thing, and you don’t make any kind of attempt to understand it, go to a game, or enjoy it, you are completely and totally shortchanging yourself of an important part of your social education. Why? Because you never know when knowing just a little bit about football or your team could be just the little bit of small talk you need to get your foot in the door with someone who could offer you an opportunity or friendship of...