Reactive

This morning, one of the professors I used to type for was featured in the front page story of the campus paper titled "UT Professor Receives Death Threats." Not that I trust everything I read in the paper, but apparently he joked about how killing off the human race would be good for the environment. And he did this some place where people with no sense of humor were listening. So now he's getting checked out by the FBI. And he's getting death threats.

The paper makes him out to be not that worried.

But meanwhile he's getting contacted by so many people that he's not checking his e-mail and is just letting his box overflow. And he's not answering the phone. So I brought a condolence card over to his campus mailbox. It's not so easy to find condolence cards for death threats or suspicious FBI guys.

This guy is also one the references I supplied for my recent job application. I decided he might not be such a great reference just now if he's not answering e-mail or telephones.

And that is what it took to get me searching for new references, which I should have done long ago. I contacted three co-workers, and one has already agreed. Whew.

Since the application is online, I just updated it with the better list of references. I've also been working on a new draft of the Introduction (cover letter) based on some good feedback I got plus a review of references on cover letters, so I did the old switcheroo on that part, too. If I get an interview, I'll have to make sure they they have the more updated list of references.

I really could learn a lot from my proactive friends.