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News Articles
Jul. 5th, 2006 07:57 pmThe first news article I read today was pasted into an e-mail sent by one of my co-workers explaining why he was not going to be in to work until next Monday at the earliest. He was leaving a concert and crossing the street to get to his car with hundreds of other people when a car hit five of them, including him and his wife. He has a broken hand, she a broken leg, and another guy is in a coma.
The article listed him as one of the people who is fine, meaning that everything that happened to him will heal if he gets medical treatment, which he will. But he also has pain. He'll have a cast I guess, which means he'll be partially immobilized, and itching. He's a programmer, so even if it's not his dominant hand, it's still one of his typing hands. He may find himself with an irrational fear of crossing streets.
Meanwhile, we got to test an emergency back-up system at work. Both programmers are out, but the guy in the accident had just documented how to do his part of the thing that needed to be done today. His boss and my boss worked together to get that done. It was decided that our documentation needs improvement.
**
The next news that caught my eye was that Kenneth Lay died. I had extremely bizarre responses to that starting with thinking that it was a shame that he died at a low point in his life, following by thinking that he is evil and deserves to die, followed by thinking that the lesson is to not get caught until right before you die. Then I decided I was just being horrible and quit thinking about that.
**
And speaking of news articles, I think I'm going to apply for a job as a science writer for the College of Natural Sciences. I don't exactly have the qualifications, but as my longer-term readers know, I've decided not to let that stop me.
For example, they (claim to) want someone with a bachelor's degree in journalism or science-related field. They mean natural science, not psychology. They ask for two to three years of professional writing experience, including writing for publication. I don't think they mean writing for non-peer-reviewed online publication.
They prefer a master's degree, which I have. Experience in an academic environment, which I have out the wazoo. Experience implementing a public relations plan, which I have none. Laboratory experience or extensive science coursework--I don't think they mean testing out of biology plus taking Physics I, electronics for nonscience majors, astronomy and science fiction for nonscience majors, calculus, and math for education majors plus auditing astronomy for nonscience majors, chemistry for nonscience majors, and the human body for nonscience majors.
I've decided that my teaching certification in math will look good, and I have jobs in science if you count scoring math teacher certification and TA-ing and tutoring statistics (for social science and education majors). Plus I have ten years of experience working in the Zoology department, making editorial suggestions to professors. So I'm not a completely pathetic applicant.
I'm emphasizing the negative here to get it out of my system. I have written for publication (web pages) for years. And web pages are kind of P-R-ish. And I obviously have an interest in science even if I never majored in it. And I have a lot of experience translating complicated things into layman's terms, which is my real qualification. Also, I enjoy doing that.
There are only two things that worry me. One is that I might have to sugar-coat things to make the school sound better than it really is or something. I don't like lying at all. The other is that I might not have enough time to do a good job. If you're so busy that there is "[o]ccasional overtime, evening, weekend and holiday work," that's a bad sign. Or maybe they're just throwing that in, just in case.
Oh, the other thing is that I am not done with my current job, nor will I be after two weeks of notice. But I suppose I could get over that somehow.
The article listed him as one of the people who is fine, meaning that everything that happened to him will heal if he gets medical treatment, which he will. But he also has pain. He'll have a cast I guess, which means he'll be partially immobilized, and itching. He's a programmer, so even if it's not his dominant hand, it's still one of his typing hands. He may find himself with an irrational fear of crossing streets.
Meanwhile, we got to test an emergency back-up system at work. Both programmers are out, but the guy in the accident had just documented how to do his part of the thing that needed to be done today. His boss and my boss worked together to get that done. It was decided that our documentation needs improvement.
**
The next news that caught my eye was that Kenneth Lay died. I had extremely bizarre responses to that starting with thinking that it was a shame that he died at a low point in his life, following by thinking that he is evil and deserves to die, followed by thinking that the lesson is to not get caught until right before you die. Then I decided I was just being horrible and quit thinking about that.
**
And speaking of news articles, I think I'm going to apply for a job as a science writer for the College of Natural Sciences. I don't exactly have the qualifications, but as my longer-term readers know, I've decided not to let that stop me.
For example, they (claim to) want someone with a bachelor's degree in journalism or science-related field. They mean natural science, not psychology. They ask for two to three years of professional writing experience, including writing for publication. I don't think they mean writing for non-peer-reviewed online publication.
They prefer a master's degree, which I have. Experience in an academic environment, which I have out the wazoo. Experience implementing a public relations plan, which I have none. Laboratory experience or extensive science coursework--I don't think they mean testing out of biology plus taking Physics I, electronics for nonscience majors, astronomy and science fiction for nonscience majors, calculus, and math for education majors plus auditing astronomy for nonscience majors, chemistry for nonscience majors, and the human body for nonscience majors.
I've decided that my teaching certification in math will look good, and I have jobs in science if you count scoring math teacher certification and TA-ing and tutoring statistics (for social science and education majors). Plus I have ten years of experience working in the Zoology department, making editorial suggestions to professors. So I'm not a completely pathetic applicant.
I'm emphasizing the negative here to get it out of my system. I have written for publication (web pages) for years. And web pages are kind of P-R-ish. And I obviously have an interest in science even if I never majored in it. And I have a lot of experience translating complicated things into layman's terms, which is my real qualification. Also, I enjoy doing that.
There are only two things that worry me. One is that I might have to sugar-coat things to make the school sound better than it really is or something. I don't like lying at all. The other is that I might not have enough time to do a good job. If you're so busy that there is "[o]ccasional overtime, evening, weekend and holiday work," that's a bad sign. Or maybe they're just throwing that in, just in case.
Oh, the other thing is that I am not done with my current job, nor will I be after two weeks of notice. But I suppose I could get over that somehow.