words of my neighborhood
home search topics faq bio guestbook
words of my neighborhood
given to grumbly growling
and big happy grins.

eclectic personal ramblings
unchecked verbosity
ruminations and pondering

why does the sock monkey love it so?

This site has been online for 8251 Days
last updated: 9/10/02, 9:04 AM
search
Search the site:
December 2024
SunMonTueWedThuFriSat
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293031
April
Status
Youre not logged in ... Login
To comment without registering, login as "otoguest", password "otoguest".
quote
It seemed somehow that politicians were very important. And yet, anything seemed important about them except their politics.

— G.K. Chesterton, "The Queer Feet", The Innocence Of Father Brown

past quotes
menu
– home
– search
– topics
– 
– 
– antville home
reading
Death of a Red Heroine
Qiu Xiaolong
Lone Wolf & Cub, Vol. 8
Kojima & Koike
At Swim-Two-Birds
Flann O'Brien
At Swim, Two Boys
Jamie O'Neill
listening
will you find me?
ida
versus
kings of convenience
your favorite music
clem snide
hinterland
aim
recent
will you find me?
ida
versus
kings of convenience
your favorite music
clem snide
hinterland
aim
recent

link
cool blogs by friends...
The Angry Robot - reviewing music and crushing all humans
silk velvet asylum - Karin's blog, formerly "Makura No Soshi"
Phil's Occasional Musings - college roommate from Georgetown U.
Bookslut blog - home to Jessa
Neon Sushi Is Good For You - Brenna!
Analog Roam - the triumphant return.

friends who are far too cool for blogging...
Lyndsay - professional penguin-hater
Monique - archivist at large
Michelle - ex-housemate, throws great parties
Cinerina - Karina's movie reviews with sass
Plow Monday - it's a band.
Rainer Maria - it's another band.
Paper Cup - A Buffy fansite by my partner in poetic crime from high school.

nifty antville neighbors...
random thoughts of a girl (multi-lingual, very nice photography)
Fischlog - another site with nice photography
errantville - snippets a go go!
Domino - photo fun with album covers

Austin blogs list
The Austin Index - a list of Austin bloggers.
IdiotProgrammer
Prentiss Riddle
The Yes/No Interlude

the rest of the blogs...
Beatbox - music, baby! music!
Explodingdog
F Train
In Spite Of Years Of Silence
"Karl Hungus" - it's called a pseudonym
mechaieh's windowseat - she likes Brit mysteries
MegNut - viva the Cyndi Lauper ethic!
Neil Gaiman! - Renaissance man
NemoNine - now with regular updates!
This Modern World - Tom Tomorrow

frequent surfing...
Activism—ActForChange
AdBusters
Arcata Police Log
Arts&Letters Daily
Blogdex Top 25
Booklist.com
Daypop Top 40
Daypop Top News
Exquisite Corpse
50 Word Fiction
ickle
k10k
McSweeney's
MemePool
MicroContent News
Momus
The Morning News
Mr. Beller's Neighborhood
Nausicaa.net - all things Ghibli
The Onion
Photo.net
Salon
Swinney.org
Working For Change

rings of fire...
<< ? austinbloggers # >>
< ? Texas Blogs # >
< ? :: VISUAL LIFES :: # >



Photologgers
The Pepys Project
Globe Of Blogs
Is my Blog HOT or NOT?


blog.meetup.com


RSS Feed

Made with Antville
powered by
Helma Object Publisher

All contents of this site copyright (c) 2002 Jonathan Van Matre except where otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Works on this site may not be reproduced or distributed without the author's express permission.

Monday, 5. August 2002
Site Update
8/5/02, 2:32 PM

Miscellany


Yarrgh. I was going to post the photo-essays on the rest of the Princeton trip today, but first I left the camera cable at home, and now the battery is dead. Bugger that for a lark. It'll have to be tomorrow.

Meanwhile, new stuff on the blogroll. Particularly of note is F Train's recent story on Yeats, economics, and personal ads. Not to mention a lot of other stuff. I only recently discovered F Train, and I really like the whirlwind-in-a-tea-cup style of their essays.

Finally, I will by gum fix the guestbook today or tomorrow. I've been putting it off ever since Activetopic finally came back up, but announced they had lost all the data and templates. I hate when that happens.

So now I'm feeling very apprehensive about my weblog. Antville hasn't added the ability to export and archive data yet, so if they ever lose the data, all this goes up in smoke. They seem pretty smart and savvy, though, so I'm doing my best not to worry.


 
permalink // backlinks to this story // //  ]  



it's personal
8/5/02, 11:24 AM

What I learned in Princeton...


I'm a one hell of a good employee. Much better than I ever realized.

There are people in the world who can make 40% of a man-year's worth of work take an entire year, just through mindless foot-dragging and selective memory. They are not in short supply in Princeton.

I on the other hand make my man-year's worth of work take 70% to 80% of the time, and I spend the savings on learning new technologies, browsing the web, and yes, maintaining this site. But even maintaining this site serves as a test bed for new technologies and design ideas.

Some people do put in 150%, especially in careers like law and medicine, but I don't want to be one of those people. I simply give a wee bit more than all that is needed and reasonable to expect from one person, with the added benefit of being someone who can and will learn anything you ask me to learn.

That's my number one asset, really—I am a can do person.

My lesson from the past two weeks is that the corporate world is mostly populated with "can't do" people. They will invoke almost anything to find a way to avoid having to take a risk, jump in with both feet, and learn something new.

This is the biggest problem with most companies today—they don'rt reward risk-taking, and that stifles creativity. I don't entirely blame the individual employee, because if taking a risk means the potential to lose your livelihood, what are you going to do?

It makes me appreciate the level of freedom and risk-taking in our IT department even at my current company, which is in most respects mind-numbingly staid and conservative. And it makes me appreciate that even if I am not the sort of person who sells his soul to the company and works 60-hour work weeks, I am a damn fine employee, because I get things done.

I don't whine about the glass being half empty, I bloody well fill it up.

As Kevin Spacey put it in American Beauty, "I rule!"


 
permalink // backlinks to this story // //  ]  



Saturday, 3. August 2002
Site Update
8/3/02, 5:54 PM

Coming Soon!


Just a quick update on what's in the works:

  1. Back Issues from the first Princeton trip—yes, I will still be posting days 3 through 5 eventually. But probably not until after...

  2. More on the most recent Princeton trip. Updates on my adventurous night out with models and modeling industry people, and details of my Georgetown University mini-reunion in Little Italy with a bunch of my college mates.

  3. The long-promised, but never-released Comic Strips For Thinking People series will finally make its debut.

All that coming in the next couple of weeks...plus, a little bit later...

  1. A new community blog / zine combining several of my favorite things in one fabulous concept: music, food, travel, and photography. If you want to write for the zine, drop me an e-mail at this address, and I'll fill you in on the details. I'm being deliberately coy in public about the specifics of the concept until the debut, but I'll get you up to speed if you're providing content for the launch. This is probably a couple of months away, as I still have to design the site and amass some content, but it will be pretty cool to have a blog outlet that is less self-indulgent and more community-oriented.

So, don't worry...if you were burning with anticipation for any of this stuff, it is on the way!


 
permalink // backlinks to this story // //  ]