IgNobel Experience

Back from a visit to the Ig Nobel awards in Boston. Had a good time walking around Boston and chasing down some good food for suppers. Breakfast was a challenge sometimes, and we ended up going somewhere out of Newton Corner area to find a bite.

I was amazed and shocked that apparently in Boston Restaurants don't have to have a washroom as part of the restaurant! What kind of a city health code allows something like that. Hell, even a porta-potty in the alley would be helpful. That seems like a 3rd world sort of issue, not a modern city.

Synonyms and the Average American
Equally amazing (though I know enough to translate while visiting) is that Americans appear to be totally oblivious to what the word "washroom" could possibly mean. Our friends unknowingly used the phrase a few times with serving staff in restaurants and were greeted with a blank stare and no response. In a restaurant, if you stand up and walk towards the back, meet the waiter and say "Gdlskdfjlblksjdf?" you'd think they'd know what even that means. As a frequent visitor to the US over the past 20 years, I always translate to American as I speak, and say "Restroom." When travelling as Canadians down there, we always get a good laugh out of all the things for which we can use several synonyms, but for which only one word will work for our American friends. Other examples are serviette/napkin, power-bar/surge-protector, tea/hot-tea, brown-toast/wheat-toast, jug/pitcher (as in beer), couch/sofa, bag/sack, you're welcome/uh-huh, and there are a few others that escape me.

The jug versus pitcher one was funny. With colleagues in North Carolina, we stood at a bar, where the barman was surrounded by taps for beer and pitcher. My colleague looked around we discussed brands, and he ordered a jug of something - say a jug of Sam Adams or something. The guy stared at him with no comprehension. "You want what?"

Now, assuming this 30 year old guy had actually grown up in North Carolina, never hearing the word Jug, the song "little brown Jug", or come across a hilbilly with http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifa jug of moonshine, don't you think that if someone stood there in that situation and said "I'd like Scorfbork of " he might be able to figure out what he was asking for?

Oh well - so we get some fun out of it, and when we go down we ask carefully for "hot tea with milk" and "wheat toast" to keep things straight.

The ig nobel awards were a fun, slightly sophomoric, funny event, in an amazingly attractive hall on the Harvard campus. 1200 people apparently attending in the dark wood theatre, with paper airplanes flying and all the trappings of the 16th first annual event. Read more at this Guardian Link.

So coming home again, I've lapsed a bit on the updates here due to the busy times around Project 2. A flurry of interviews resulted from some queries delivered. Let's just say there are three options, a very senior role in a small firm, a managery role in a medium sized company and a barely-manager-level role in a break-out venture inside a huge company.

What to do? I'm on to second interviews now, and haven't got a sense that anyone is dumping me yet. I'd much prefer the most senior role as it's best for my resume, probably has buy-out possibilities and all that. I feel all three are jobs I can do easily, and all three have some element of learning something new too. In the mid-sized company I think I'd be reporting to someone with less experience than me, who seems very wooden and a bit weak on the people management side, but is a director with an MBA - (but strangely, she has no goatee!?). I think that one, given also a marginal office space, is probably my least preferred.

Ultimately, I'd wish I could get an offer from all three and compare the results. I'd probably take my preferred one even if it offered the least cash. The big company one reports to a director, though I'd rather report into a VP at least. It would probably be years before I could grow out into something bigger, or find them spinning the venture out and get a more senior position.

Oh well, thinking outloud. Let's just maintain a positive attitude and see where it leads. I'm a bit disappointed in the 2nd interview thing. I'd like to see some decisive people who would just move and hire me if they liked me. That used to happen to me all the time in interviews - a senior guy with some guts would say "Okay - you're hired" and we'd be done. Now everyone is a weiner without much experience and even less confidence in their own judgement. It's the committee generation that's come along after the boomers. Just wait until the TV/video game generation gets into that space. They'll be zoneing out during the interview, and just say "whatever," and wander off! Ha!

But I'm back in the blogging saddle again, so watch for updates if you're curious.

Reading
On the reading front, I mentioned that I finished Plato's Republic. I'm on to Future Shock now and enjoying it, although Alvin Toffler's style is to use ten examples for every point and constantly re-state his opinion. If I see another paragraph that basically says "Things are moving faster, and we're all going to go nuts," well, I think I'll start tearing pages out.

But the observations are interesting and accurate, while the interpretation about what it means and how it will affect us are totally misguided. It's hilarious in some spots, as it was written in 1968 or '69. It's got a real sky-is-falling sort of perspective. Certainly there are maladies in our social structure and sense of well-being that are traceable to the speeding up of the way we make relationships and move around, but largely, those are commonly understood and commented on by people on a regular basis. Some people are oblivious to the fact that they are miserable because two parents have an agressive career path, plus 3 kids and they expect each kid to attend three groups or sports or clubs, and they run themselves ragged from 5:00 am to 9:00pm every day. That's just idiotic, but it's silly to not even be able to recognize the disruptive impact of such a lifestyle, and those out there who do it deserve all the despair, aggrevation, and futility they feel. Like, it's raining, stand under the umbrella already you twit!

So I'll have to track down a more recent Toffler treatise and see how his perspective has evolved now, if it has at all. But in support of my interpretation of this crazy yuppie (to use an outdated word) lifestyle, I've seen recent discussion about how every research report shows people with kids are more miserable than those without.

But I will continue to plug away at Alvin's opus. I've also got my self on a wait-list at the library for two interesting new work's. The slightly rabid Dawkins has a tome called "The God Delusion" I expect it to be an entertaining, and in-your-face statement of all those things we mostly all know, but which many deny. I love how books like that bring out the insanity in the right wing "religious" zealots. They all call and threaten to murder the authors. It's as ironic a response as the idea of forcing a person to put a flag on there lawns "We stand for freedom around here dammit, so you'll support our political position or we'll string you up!!"

The other interesting sounding book for which I've waitlisted myself is called Letter to a Godfearing Nation or something like that. Sounds like a good diatribe on how the erosion of the basic division between church and state is destroying American culture, and as such threatens us as well. We certainly have a wannabe neo-con in office in Canada right now.

So much for Project 5.

Wrap
Best halt there. I will move along and leave further rants till Monday. Your assignment for today is to go to your nearest ethnic food store and buy something you've never seen before, then bring it home and get on the web to find out what it is, or how to cook it, eat it or use it. Fruit/veg markets are good for that, as are the Asian areas of town with their many shops. If you are Asian, then find another alternative - maybe your local corner store!