Da Plan

I understand that many people think I've been pursuing the Underpants Gnomes approach to job searching. And, to be fair, there is something to that criticism. Certainly the first six months of it resembled that kind of illogic and unfocused lack of goal orientation.

Anyway, here's the new plan. It's got three parts.

1) Long term
the long term plan is to find some kind of job that uses my field of applied mathematics (data mining, machine learning, analytics, whatever you want to call it) in a field among social sciences, economics, or politics.

The problem with trying to hit the long term plan immediately is, well, this plan doesn't appear to be getting much traction. I probably need to develop certain skills and/or figure out exactly where to work in this capacity. That leads us to...

2) Medium term
Medium term, based on the occasional good times I've had teaching, I think it'd be a good idea to get a teaching position for 2009-2010. At minimum, I'll substitute teach in MoCo, but I should be able to get a better position than that.

If I could get a teaching job that started tomorrow, I would do it. But that may not be as easily done as thought. (Not being Q, I cannot bend reality to my desires.)

3) short term
Contract work or temp work to pay bills through the summer.

Found a 5-week "science writer" position I applied for Thursday. There are probably other jobs like this.

A man. A plan. A canal. Pamana!

another word for nothing left to lose

OK, so the NBA finals are on, and I really want the Lakers to lose and that means, given my inability to root for a winning team after the Celtics squeaked out of the first round, that the Magic are probably doomed.

Don't have much to say right now, but I thought I'd share some photos of the Freedom, who I saw with Landru last weekend.



Sonia Bompastor, our French visitor, takes a free kick.



Here Sonia chats with Cat Whitehall before another free kick.



And here she has a collision with somebody from FC Gold Pride. Looks painful. But our Sonia is tough. And yes, that's all-World Abby Wambach on the left.



Here they are during a quieter moment.



Sonia takes a corner kick.

And after the game...

test drive

Found this via Landru. I'm hoping at some point Ginger will revert to her feline nature.

stupidity lacking self-awareness

Watch Joe Barton, R-Texas, think he's posed a stumper to Nobel Prize Winner and Secretary of Energy Steven Chu.



What is shocking here is not just that Barton's question is so idiotic, but that he thinks he's stumped Dr. Chu! Indeed, Barton is the one who posted this to YouTube!

And that's the kind of ignorant arrogance that science has to deal with.

My new favorite Family Guy

In "Not All Dogs Go To Heaven", Stewie kidnaps the cast of Star Trek: TNG, Meg becomes a born-again Christian, and Brian's atheism leads him to become the town pariah.

You can see it at Hulu.com here.

That Just Happened!

Watchmen trailer!

Found it at YouTube. I have no idea where it originally came from.