Not one, but TWO tiger mauling stories in the news in one day? Roy, as in Siegfriend & Roy, was mauled on stage in Vegas last night, and another man was mauled in Harlem, apparently by the 300-pound tiger he'd decided to raise in his apartment. Maybe people should just stick to owning cats of the domesticated variety.
My job posting is now online. If anyone is looking for a good IT job in the academic world, here it is. I'm not on the search committee, so please, don't send your resume to me, follow the instructions on the link. Don't constitute this as an official statement, it's not, but I'm guessing the salary range for the position will be in the $35,000-$40,000 range (I wish they'd post that info with the job). So if you're looking for more money than that, don't bother applying. Also, if you don't have a 4 year degree, save a tree and keep your resume to yourself, they take those requirements seriously in academia. Ideally, in my opinion, the candidate should have an outgoing personality, knowledge of Windows servers and Microsoft Active Directory (especially Group Policy) and experience providing PC tech support. Also, some basic Netware knowledge is required, but really all you need to know how to do is install the client and connect to a shared printer, which is trivial to learn.
I found it appropriate that this entry was on Roger Ebert's site today when I read it, since it's my last full-time day in this job:
Ebert's little movie glossary
Solo Cardboard Box Rule: When movie characters are fired or quit their jobs, they must walk out with all of their belongings stuffed into a single cardboard box, regardless of how long they've been working there. See Kevin Kline in "The Emperors Club" or Cuba Gooding Jr. in "The Fighting Temptations."
-Alex MacDoNnell, Toronto
Alas, all of my stuff doesn't fit in one box.
But, he's not a racist. Okay, now as a registered Democrat, who thinks Rush is full of crap, I'm going to give him a pass on this one. He didn't say anything racist, and anyone who thinks what he did say was racist is out looking for something to be angry about. What Rush said is that McNabb frankly isn't as good of a quarterback as the media hype around him suggests he is. Because he's black, and black quarterbacks are something of a rarity, the media pays more attention to him than they would to a white quarterback of equal prowess.
"I don't think he's been that good from the get-go," Limbaugh said. "I think what we've had here is a little social concern in the NFL. The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well. There is a little hope invested in McNabb and he got a lot of credit for the performance of this team that he didn't deserve. The defense carried this team."
Apparently, Rush isn't supposed to notice that McNabb is, in fact, Black. That's like asking us not to notice that Eminem is white. Both of them are somewhat unusual, given the normal racial makeup of their profession, and to pretend that the media or popular opinion isn't cognizant of that fact is ludicrous.
I've got a week left in this position, well, not really. My current department talked to my new department, and came up with this dubious scheme wherein I'll come over and work 2 hours every day for my old department, until they're able to hire someone to replace me. That sort of schedule doesn't really fit the kind of work I do, and the University hiring process takes at least a month and a half, so I'm a bit disgruntled, but what can you do? I told my supervisors when I applied for the job two months ago, this wasn't just dropped on them this week, and they wouldn't be able to do this if I'd taken a job off-campus, obviously. But, since I'm getting my new pay rate for the whole thing, I guess I can't complain too much. If you'd like my old job, start getting your resume ready. :)
