Our trip to Boston is quite short this time, but we are meeting up with the Berkman Blog Group (or a portion thereof) for brunch on Sunday.  Bring me another char siu bao! 

Details here - please leave a comment there if you plan to join us so the table will be large enough.

This trip, I get to use my Permanent Resident Card for the first official time.  Yippee!

As you all know, I'm working on finding a job in Toronto.

I'm extremely selective, but even so, I've sent out a good number of copies of my resume.  There are some interesting places here, and people who could use my talents.  And in one cover letter, I encouraged the hiring manager to Google me.  (I almost always address letters, lacking a name, to Hiring Manager.  At Berkman, whenever someone sent me an item addressed to "sir" or "Mr. Koslow," I took off a point for thoughtlessness - the incredibly dumb assumption that I must be a man.)

I get a lot of hits on Google.  I appear to be the only person with my name doing anything online.  And, as you all know, I've done a crapload online. 

Not every hit is flattering, and not every hit speaks the truth.  One links to an article written by a guy I thought was just a guy, who turned out to be a journalist, and quoted me in a way I didn't like.  Many hits talk about the engagement or wedding - that will tell someone why I came to Canada, at least, and that it's a good bet that I'll stick around.

A huge number, though, relate to work - mainly Berkman work of course, but I did spend nearly four years there.  There are many lovely thank-yous, there are announcements, there are projects on which I toiled.  There's my own "people page," which I edited just before I left in August.

I sometimes wish Google went in chronological order.  One could start in 1999, where the first web references to me might appear, and watch me grow from someone who used email in college but didn't really know what the web could do (I didn't even realize I was a somewhat early adopter), beginning to work at a dot-com, to a person who now looks at a web page, knows how it works, and probably knows someone who helped build it or wrote what's on it.

When employers Google, what do they read? 

When I Googled potential employees, I tried to see whether they had blogs - blogs were good for my purposes, it meant they liked the Web, liked to write.  I looked for anyone mentioning their past work.  I looked for personality.

OK.  I'm feeling lucky.

 

Giles You scored 74%!

You are a watcher. You have a vast amount of knowledge, and many meansof acquiring more when needed. You're also quite a skilled sorcerer.With the help of other you can hold your ground in battle. You're avery caring person and always help your friends when they're in need,either with your knowledge or warm heart.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 57% on buffypoints

Link: The Which Buffy Character Are You Test written by angel_ash on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

This morning, when I was getting dressed, I broke my bra.

This happened once before, in the exact same fashion.  I'm fastening it, and SPROING the plastic ring holding the strap to the rest of it gives way and I get slapped with the damn thing.

You would think, given the nature of the beast, and I mean beast, they might make this little ring out of something other than plastic.  Metal, perhaps?  There's already plenty of metal involved, why not a little more?

Bras of the nature I require are not inexpensive.  This style, of which I own probably a couple of dozen, is very comfortable, and it's very nice that it's not the most expensive I've ever worn, but it's still only 30 bucks, as opposed to 50.  I think it's stupid that this ring goes before the hooks and eyes loosen, before the elastic weakens, before the underwire pokes out.  Unfortunately the photo does not show the ring, which is in back.  Pervy types, go ahead and have your field day, but I'm not telling you my size.

I demand decent bras.  Demand!  Endowed sisters, demand with me!

And by the way, no-slip strap my shiny white butt, though I prefer slipping straps than digging-in-for-permaruts straps.

Gah.

Baby being ME of course.

Really the most momentous thing that happened on my first Easter was a haircut.  My cousin Jamie cut my hair right on my mother-in-law's deck.  Pretty excellent.  She used a straightening iron on it (who thought my hair could get straighter? not me), which made me look a little bit like Nefertiri in The Ten Commandments which Joey and I had just watched.  We had dinner with a medium-sized portion of the family, played with the kids (four little boys in one dining room = a lot of asking which one was making those noises), ate Tita Dolly's ham (I do not like ham but I love this ham - I love it, I love it, pineapple-juice-soaked love it), and listened to the kiddie's Easter gifts.

Maria got these Songs Just For Me CDs for our three nephews.  You should have seen the older two's faces.  They were completely astonished that these people in the radio knew their names.  HUGE grins.  I mean, I imagined they'd like the songs and all, but I had no idea.  They were amazed, they loved it.  They have more than 1800 names, too, I can't imagine how.  Plus, partial proceeds go to Sick Kids.  A total hit with everyone in the room.

When Joey and I got home, we watched Elizabethtown, which we'd been meaning to see since it was actually showing in theatres.  I heart Cameron Crowe.  This wasn't Almost Famous, but it was quite good.  I just get his movies - at least the ones he writes from scratch (Vanilla Sky wasn't as lovely).  It hit a little bit close to home, but I think it was OK.

Back to work.  Boston this coming weekend, yay.