SeattleCasbah.Com

Shi Shi Beach and the Point of Arches

Every year I like to head to the coast the weekend before Memorial Day to welcome in the backpacking season. This year, friends Pat and Cheri joined Lauren and I for the trip up to the Point of Arches. The weather was fantastic and there was enough wind to keep the bugs at bay. All in all, a beautiful weekend to be out on the coast with friends.

What a great trip.

Public Service Message: Protect Yourself from the Resume Poachers

originally posted on HealthcareITtoday.com

One of the more frustrating events that can happen to a recruiter and his/her candidate is when the client comes back to let us know that the resume had already been presented before and therefore, the client can’t work with the recruiter. While there is the occasional slip of the mind – candidates apply to hundreds of jobs and can forget having already applied – sometimes it turns out that the candidate fell victim to resume poaching; someone grabbed their resume and submitted the candidate without the candidate’s knowledge.

Unfortunately, it seems that this happens with alarming frequency. There are a number of reasons why I suspect some recruiters engage in this unethical behavior: They see a great resume on line and know that it’s just a matter of time before that person gets contacted, so they take shortcuts and submit first, call second. A cocky recruiter may be confident in his/her abilities to get your permission later on (this falls under the “easier to get forgiveness then permission” camp). The resume could have been submitted by a resume farm somewhere that gets paid by another recruiter based on number of resumes provided (… more on this development later).

This is a bad scenario all around: the recruiter could lose out on a potential fill, the candidate can be disqualified by the client for shopping around (a scorched earth response – rather than attempting to sort out what happened, the client disqualifies any resume submitted more than once), and the client is put on the spot to intervene in a process they should never have been involved with in the first place; messy hiring situations being one of the reasons they may have chosen to retain recruiters in the first place!

The best way to combat this situation? Prevention.

Shop around for your recruiter – approach them instead of the other way around. If you do post your resume, anonymize it – make the recruiter come to you. Avoid using your LinkedIn profile as a resume (believe it or not, with enough detail an unscrupulous recruiter will just make the resume for you. The key is to just summarize your experience). Finally, because mistakes do happen, make sure you keep a basic list of the positions you are being submitted for and the recruiter doing the submitting. A little documentation goes a long, long way.

My hope is not to scare anyone from putting a resume online; on the contrary, a recruiter’s livelihood can depend on it. However, there is more than a little irony in the fact that a person will go through great pains to protect their identity from theft, yet just by the act of posting their resume online, can unwittingly give away control of their own resume.

Seattle CycleChic

Back when I was traveling through Amsterdam with friend Andrew, we talked about how there should be a website that featured pretty girls on bicycles. We thought it was a can't fail, especially as that job would allow us to live in places like Amsterdam and Copenhagen while we cataloged and documented all the pretty girls riding by. It was all in good fun and enough to supply a couple hours of conversational material over beers.

Then, a few months ago, Andrew sent me to a link - CopenhagenCycleChic.com. Our idea. Someone else's brain and effort. It was perfect. I've been following it ever since, because in addition to all of the pretty girls on bikes, there is a lot to follow in terms of building a cycling culture here in the states.

The more I read the blog, the more I became a supporter of what it was trying to push - simplicity. Riding a bicycle, without worrying about gear - no spandex, no mountain bike shorts, no worrying about a change of clothes. Wearing exactly what you would wear on a work day, but just on a bike.

You see, Seattle is just ridiculous. We are ground zero for REI and the Bike Commuter culture. On the one end of the spectrum, the average Seattle bike commuter dresses like they are entering the tour de france with a $2000 bike. The other end, like they are Puck. A friend of mine lives just three miles away - changing his clothes from bike gear to work clothes takes longer than the entire commute.

So, I decided to finally try out a simple little experiment. This is my bike.

Just a simple single speed bike, that will let me ride the 3 miles to work ala Copenhagen style. It gets me there in less than 15 minutes - much shorter than the 30-50 minute bus times. And I don't even have to worry about a change of clothes. The challenge: Can I ride to work and survive without wicking?!

My boss called me a dork, but what's more ridiculous - riding to work in work clothes or a 50 year old man in spandex*?

*OK, so if you are commuting from a long ways in, spandex is fine. But Queen Anne or Cap Hill to downtown?

What happens in Portland...

I've discovered that if a certain ex-roommate eats the following on a Superbowl Sunday:

Coffee, 1 bowl of oatmeal, 3 eggs, hashbrowns, toast, 18 wings, a dinner salad, 5 beers, chips and salsa

and then passes out on a car ride from Portland, the man will fart - in his sleep - approx. every 15 minutes. When he woke up, he remarked how amazing it was that it only took me 2.5 hours to make it up to Seattle. Spurred on, no doubt, by the constant gas attack emanating from the back seat. I'm pretty sure my leather is ruined.

Its a yearly trip, the trip to Portland. And its just the three of us, old roommates who have since parted ways (well, I have anyway). We saw a confluence of sporting events - a hockey game Friday night, Lakers Trailblazers Saturday, and of course, Superbowl Sunday. Along the way, we discovered that we shared a hotel with the Lakers and my buddy got some good gym time in with Mr. Artest. Well, Artest was on a stationary near him, so I guess that counts. Add in a regrettable incident with a wrought iron fence, a slightly unbalanced bar hopper breaking into my room at 4am, and a near catastrophe involving 5lbs of dog shit (I shit you not. 5lbs.), and you have yourself the makings of a great weekend.

In other news, there's a cool side project I've been invited to participate in geared around employment in the healthcare IT space, called heatlhcareitToday.com. My first article has been posted here.

Oni, the Great Dane

So on Friday night, after a bit of hunting around for my house, the good people at Dane Outreach dropped Oni off at my house. This wasn't an easy one for her keeper - she had taken in the dog after her previous owner could no longer medically afford to keep her. The dog had gotten to the point where she was malnourished, flea-infested with mange, with a huge, huge tumor growing on her belly. 

 

Its easy to judge someone when you see something like this - how a person can go so long without seeking treatment is beyond me, but with the economy and the expense of raising a dog, you just don't know what their situation was. What we do know, is that they finally did the right thing by turning the dog into the rescue.

The rescue family took the dane in for the three months that followed. They helped her through the surgery, rehabilitated her, and saved her life. The tumor was benign, but had turn black inside and was as close to bursting as any the vet had ever seen.

lucky for her, the tumor was benign.

So, one can understand why it was tough for the foster family to give her up. The dane - now named "Oni" (Korean for "Big Sister") - spent her first night staring at the door, waiting for her keeper to come back in. It took her hours until she fell asleep, but on Saturday, she woke a bit better. I took her out for three walks that first night and the following morning, a long walk up and around Queen Anne. She's better, still timid, but adjusting much faster than I would have thought. She's a great girl, I'm eternally grateful for all of the work that Dane Rescue and the foster family put into her recovery.

Napping in the sun.

I have to admit, the last two years without a dog have been nice. Its nice not having to worry about getting home so soon after work. Its nice being able to travel for extended periods. The fact is though, I'm just happier when I have a dog at home.

 
More information (and available dogs), can be found at: http://www.daneoutreach.org/

 

The Wonderland Trail 2009: Day 1, Carbon River to Eagle's Roost

Its really cold outside, which brings to mind my first night hiking the Wonderland Trail, all those months ago. Well, now is as good of time as any to talk about it, right?

If you'll recall, the Wonderland was the object of my "first" hiking failure. Planned to be conquered in just 7 days, we failed after only 3. This year, Jayson and I planned better, trained earlier, and took longer, successfully wrapping up the hike in 9 days. 104 miles all told, adding in 10 miles along Carbon River road and Spray Park. It was a great time and I'm happy I got to spend some time with a good friend.

This first day would take us from the Ranger station at Carbon River up to Mowich Lake, then to Spray Park to Eagle's Roost. The first day would also give us the cruelest elevation gain...nothing like a 14 mile day to get the blood flowing.

Here we go!


We had to hike 5 miles in, as the road was completely washed out.


The colors on the trip were amazing with fall right around the corner.


Crossing the Carbon River.

The Carbon River Glacier.


Jayson crossing the Carbon River bridge. Yes, I should have straightened the pic, but I probably was a bit tossed whilst photoediting.

The Spray Park we were hoping to find (courtesy of cornforthimages.com):

The Spray Park we found:
(it was a bit foggy that day)



There were some flowers, at least.

with apologies to William Blake

Once again, the internet shows us we aren't all as clever and original as we'd like to believe.

Tiger, Tiger, burning bright

Hey, guess what?

Around and around and around

The other day, I received this well worded email from someone at a dog shelter about adopting/fostering an older dog and it makes sense.

"You're running into the things that make older dogs tricky for some situations.    Stairs are often a problem for the bigger dogs as they age; so many of them get arthritic.   My rule of thumb is that for a dog over 60# a staircase of more than 5 steps will be a problem at some point.   There are exceptions, and some breeds suffer much less from the problem, but it's very very common.   Slippery floors are another problem, but much more easily solved:    scatter rugs help a great deal, keeping the hair under their pads trimmed off helps too.    Unless the dog becomes really unable to use his back legs they normally can learn to manage the floors as long as you give them some stable places in the beginning for up/down purposes.     I have Pergo everywhere and have never had a dog who couldn't handle it, though the first week can be tricky.
...
Fostering is a GREAT thing but probably not right for you in this situation.     While you might find a younger dog to foster who could climb the stairs (you'd want to test that first before committing), you might have little way to know if the dog could stay alone.   Many dogs cannot, and when they are recently abandoned (whether left at a shelter or given away by their owner) they are most insecure.       If you take in a dog who is frantic, tears up the place, barks continually, or can't possibly manage all day without peeing on the floor....    you'll be miserable and the dog will have to move.   Reality of rescue is that we almost never have open spots to move a dog into quickly, so it's a real mess.     I hate to be discouraging, because we all are eager for new fosters who love dogs, but it's just not for every situation."

While we are doing updates, remember the bowlathon contract? I only ended up paying Jayson $15, which really ended up me buying him lunch. The lesson? Jayson sucks at bowling, almost as bad as I suck at vows.

Last August, I took an aestheticism-like vow of no-internet. Most of it was due to not wanting to pay $100 for digital cable and internet, but part of me wanted to see how long I could go without it...the Sprint Hero Android phone was only sort of cheating. Then came the decision to start looking for a dog, which meant I couldn't work super long hours anymore, which means in order to work from home, I needed to consider internet...long story short, I recommend Earthlink.

Finally, humor me just a little bit more. Last December, there was growing concern of my growing fat ass. I had hit 221lbs post-Christmas, up from 202lbs post travel. Six months later at the physical to celebrate my 32nd birthday, I was up to 226lbs and the doc had given me a challenge to get to 196lbs. I laughed in his face (true story).

Anyway, nearly one year later: 195lbs and 30lbs lighter, I'm back at my high-school weight and down 3 sizes (damn, it feels good to be a gangsta).

God bless fiber.

To Adopt or Foster

Some of you know that I've been looking at adopting a dog. I had been looking at puppies, but after the initial tug at the heart strings, I came to realize that it wouldn't be a good fit - puppies are for families, not for a single guy.

So instead, I decided that I would start looking for a senior dog. Common thought says that a senior dog is too set in their ways and will be too expensive to take care of, but then again, with a senior dog you have a great behavioral history of that dog (as they usually have been in foster homes) and really, its an old dog. They don't want that much from you, other than a warm roof over their heads.

The more I looked into it, the firmer my decision became. I broke the news to my girlfriend (sorry, no puppies with a bow tie for Christmas!). Instead, I'd look for a great dog just looking for a new, final home.

Beej was a "senior" dog, but my friends know she wasn't. She may have been younger than her listed age, but even in her elder years she was still a lot of fun and a great friend.

So I made some calls, described my situation, and wouldn't you know it...they were thrilled someone was calling specifically for an older dog. One even went so far as to propose something to me, something I hadn't even thought about. Its got my wheels turning.

What about fostering a senior dog?

The owner has passed or the dog loses its sight and medical costs become too expensive or after 10 years, the once young couple finds that their friend doesn't do well with their newborn...senior dog stories are the saddest. Unfortunately, due to the glut of dogs out there, most rescues can only pull out the "saveable" dogs and for the most part, senior dogs aren't considered adoptable.

Fostering a senior dog would buy them some time until the right fit was found. Medication and food costs would be reimbursed. And if the dog isn't adjusting well to my situation, I could swap with another foster family. Its doing a good thing, not just for one pup, but for more.

On the other hand, I could find a great dog and have to give it up. I could get a dog that doesn't do well with me and it'd be weeks before I could move it out. New dogs coming in would mean a constant state of adjustment, possibly never getting to that "comfort" state that makes owning a dog so rewarding. Worst...maybe I have to constantly relive having old dogs die on me.

Is adopting just one senior dog "good enough" or should I take the opportunity to do more? I don't know...thoughts?