A question and an order

"I don't understand why modern keyboards don't use touchpads. Go to sleep, and ponder that question."

Prof. Grady

Netage gossip

С две думи: търсим си Interaction Designer. Бързонгцев е описал изискванията (горе-долу) и по принцип може да отговаря на допълните въпроси свързани с конкретните задължения на позицията.

Аз не знам какво друго бих могла да добавя, освен да кажа, че Netage е много готино работно място и човек тук по принцип се чувства спокоен и значим. Хората (служители и management) са подбирани изключително внимателно и аз лично (все пак не е добре да говоря от името на всички колеги) ходя с удоволствие на работа. HR политиката на компанията е доста агресивна и предполагам много от вас са чували разните слухове...заплати, бонуси, мазди, поршета и али-бали. Питайте, ако се интересувате от подробности. Според мен обаче детайлите не са чак толкова важни. Важното е, че от години компанията води целенасочена политика с цел служителите да се кефят, че работят тук.

Любовта към ракията и високите скорости не са задължителни изисквания към позицията, НО, разбира се, са предимство. Айде, по конете.

tinderbox for windows

OK, so it may be that I'm just an idiot (I say that a lot lately, hmmm), but I can't find Tinderbox for Windows, although I could almost swear I remember seeing an official release announcement about it. Can you guys help?

Also, could you recommend other tools for taking/organizing/visualizing your notes?

Past, present, and future

Today I got an email from one of my best friends from college, Ms. Cristina Cruz:

Brooke and I have already discussed things and we've decided that regardless of when and where your "wedding-wedding" is we are showing up wearing the ugliest purple taffeta dresses with hoop skirts and matching hats we can find. Then we are proceeding down the aisle regardless of how inappropriate it may be as your honorary brides maids. I think sashes may be necessary to designate our roles.

I laughed and then cried and then joined facebook. I missed Sewanee so much today, it hurt. But then a miracle happened and all these people showed up: out of my past and right into my present...and there's been a series of emails and notes and I-miss-you's and I-will-see-you's that I am going to bed with an updated wedding guest list and happy smile on my face.

Plus, call me superficial, but hearing your old friends say your husband is gorgeous must be one of the best things in life, I swear.

Strictly business

Weekend update: Netage Solutions Company Retreat 2007.

Venera: aka Boss. Perfect manicure, see!

Krassi: demonstrating his great t-shirt collection.

Var and I: post-rakia and pre-"хоро".


Rally: being super-serious about her salad!

Qrasio: not taking me seriously. Wonder what he'll say when he sees this picture here. Oops.

All these people are talking about our business plan, strategic goals and investment activities, can you tell?

A social experiment, of sorts

The Sunday Times just published a very interesting piece on semi-decent female flickr photographers showing nipples to get attention. The piece documents a recent trend that has been aptly named Nipplegate to refer to the explosion of female nudity on amateur photography websites such as flickr.

When do you think it's ok to show your boobs and butt in public? If ever, I guess. Why do you think there isn't nearly as much male nudity on websites such as flickr? Should we even care?

***

Food for thought via Prof. Grady

Funny sleepers

You know how in each family, people inevitably get assigned roles. Like, mom is the strict one. And dad is the funny one. And Uncle Joe is the super-boring one who THINKS he is the funny one.

Well, in our family, my sister Ena is considered to be the one who sleeps funny. Here is a picture of her that I took this morning:


She always sleeps on her tummy with two pillows in her bed. She hugs the first one and puts the second one on her head. Also, she pulls her blanket all the way up, which has driven many of us to almost-heart-attacks as we thought she had disappeared. No, no. She WAS there. She had simply burried herself in a pile of bed-stuff. The reason why she is not doing the blanket-all-the-way-up thing in this particular picture, is because she was spending the night with her sister (me), who's also known as the one who's always cold.

What is your role assignment in YOUR family?

Fluffy clouds, indeed

Prof. Grady, my husband, is one of the most virtuous people I know. I swear, I have no idea how he manages, but he is a GOOD GOOD GOOD person. I admire him so much, I married the man.

Yet, one day, he shows me this picture and, naturally, my heart drops in my pants. What?! What if?! How come he never told me?! What are we going to do?! Cocain is a safe drug...yes? I mean...it's good, that's why people do it...yes? And he probably uses the good stuff...yes?

Well...no. It was corn starch.

Garbage bags, part 2

One of the good things about being married to a professional thinker is that I have a super-qualified editor by my side at all times. After reading my last entry, Kyle pointed out that my entry actually started where it should have begun. He is right, I never really explained WHY I thought the piece in Capital Light was pathetic. Dang!

It was two things really:

1] I don't think the article should have been published in Capital to begin with. I respect the paper for they have always gone way beyond merely reporting on issues and events. They analyze, critique and, I THINK, educate. Now, I have no formal journalism training whatsoever, but, in my opinion, in addition to professional responsibilies, a good journalist has social responsibilities as well. If that is correct, I don't see anything good coming out of said piece about designer shopping bags.

2] Also, with a little help, I have come to realize that the very publication of the piece is not that BIG a problem. In others words, it's perfectly fine to have that kind of material in a serious newspaper/publication. Serious professional people need a light read as well, after all. However, even still, the piece is super bad. I mean...was anyone able to figure out what the main argument of the article was?! Shopping bags are cool?! Hmmmm.

What do you guys think? What are the responsibilities of a journalist, an editor, a paper? What is the role of "light" news in a "hard news" paper? Should they be there to begin with? And, hell, what about fuckin' designer shopping bags?!

Garbage comes in all kinds of bags

Capital Weekly Newspaper is the best newspaper in Bulgaria. They publish well-researched news and analytical pieces and reading the paper on Sunday morning is one of my most favorite rituals. Capital Light is their leisure-time supplement. They write about books, and plays, and tech stuff. They also interview popular public figures...You get the picture. I don't like Light nearly as much as I like the paper. I trust the paper quite a bit but find the Magazine rather superficial and well...unrelateable. But I've chosen to attribute that to a difference in tastes, nothing more.

An article in their most recent issue, however, has left me pretty disappointed with a serious publication that has been a model of good journalism in Bulgaria for the last 10 years or so. For the non-Bulgarian speakers in your ranks, the article is practically a eulogy about luxury brand shopping bags.

Now, I'm all in favor of making brainless arguments. Also, I have no problem with being interested in and loving all that is superficial. We have so much of "serious", and "proper", and "businesslike", and "professional" in our daily lives that we could all use a little bit of a break every once in a while. But to push that paper-bag style of writing in a publication that self-identifies as the best and brightest on the market, well, THAT is just pathetic.

Two stories about forks

Story #1:

When I was freshman in college, I met a girl named Zoe. Zoe was from New York City: one of very few Northerners who came to school in the South. I always liked Zoe because she was one of very few people that I could actually understand at the time. Just for reference for those of you who are not familiar with American regional dialects and such, a Southern accent is very different from the type of American English people in the Northern and Western states speak. Lots of people describe it as a twang.

One day, it must have been a conversation over lunch or something, Zoe asked me if we had forks in Bulgaria.
Me: ???
Shocked but yet responsive, I answered: Well, no, Zoe. We actually don't.
Zoe: ???
Me: No, we don't have forks in Bulgaria. We have sporks. A combo utensil, you see. It's cheaper to make.
Zoe: So you saw a fork for the first time when you came to States?
Me: No, not really, I answered. We watch a lot of American movies in Bulgaria. So I've SEEN a fork. I just never used one.

Story #2:

Fast forward to 2006. I am telling Story #1 to a friend of mine, a fellow graduate student. He doesn't seem to get that the whole thing is actually a joke.
Friend: Wow! I had no idea!
Me: Ummmmmm...?!
Friend: Do you make forks NOW?!
Me: Well...yes. We started recycling Soviet-era tanks and turning them into forks.
Friend: No shit?!
Me: Shit.

***

Many of my Bulgarian readers have probably already assumed that my reason for telling these stories is to prove what most Bulgarians already know: Americans are stupid. That, however, couldn't be any further from my intentions. I am telling these stories for three reasons:

First, to remind you but also remind myself, that there are no reasons to assume that what matters to ourselves, should matter to others.
Second, that one does not have full control over what they learn and how they unlearn it.
And last, but not least, because I think they're funny and everyone needs a light read on a Sunday evening.

Have a great week, y'all! :)

Kids and puke

My friend Doriana and I are standing in line at the movie theater to get some popcorn. A 10 or 12 year old girl is in line, right in front of me. She orders a popcorn. The girl behind the counter asks what size. The little one in front of me doesn't know. She wants to know what sizes they have. I am thinking, if you are old enough to be at the movies on your own and buy food for yourself, you should probably already know what sizes of popcorn they sell.

Girl settles on a small popcorn. Wants a soda too. What kind of soda, the girl behind the counter asks. And, also, what size? The little one wants a coke. She doesn't know what size she wants. The girl behind the counter tells her that there is a special promotion going on and that if you get a small coke with your small popcorn, you get a present with it. What kind of present the little girl asks. A badge. OK, the little girl says. I'll have a small popcorn with a small coke so that I can have a badge too. Great, the girl behind the counter says, here are four different colors of badges you can choose from. At which point I elbow the little girl and tell her, Honey, you better hurry because we are about to miss the trailers. And if I don't see the trailers, I might as well just leave now.

I swear to God, sometimes children make me throw up in my mouth a little bit.

A joke

Question: What did the 0 (zero) say to the 8 (eight)?
Answer: NICE belt!!!

via Kris

The married life

People have been asking me: how's married life?!

I really have no idea what to say as it doesn't really feel that different. For example, I still act like a fucking bitch sometimes and then drive myself crazy wondering "What if he decided to break up with me?!"

Yet, if I did have to give an answer to the question:



It has been BLISSFUL.

***
Photo by Nasko: a good friend and a brilliant photographer. THANK YOU!