As many have already noticed from my Facebook status, I have quite recently found employment! I’ve been getting a lot of “Where, why, what?” type inquiries, so I thought I’d write a little post to describe the goings-ons.
I’ll be working for MPR Associates, Inc. as a Web Developer. To quote their–our?–website:
MPR is one of the nation’s leading education research and consulting firms. Our work is based on the belief that policy and practice should be informed by impartial, rigorous assessment of their effectiveness. For more than twenty years, MPR has conducted research and provided a variety of services for all levels of the U. S. education system, with the goal of strengthening the system and expanding educational opportunities.
Our clients include schools and local programs, districts, states, the federal government, universities, and private foundations. MPR’s work addresses such topics as K-12 school reform, including career and technical education; teachers, instruction, and assessment; accountability and standards; school finance; adult education and literacy; and postsecondary education, especially issues related to student financial aid, access and persistence, and degree attainment.
As a Web Developer, I won’t likely be involved with the actual data collection or the crafting and testing of hypotheses in relation to that data, but I will likely be working with the data in terms of helping to manage, maintain, and build tools and websites that can be used to manipulate and display various information. For instance, the University of California StatFinder, a nifty tool that I’d actually already used once or twice at my previous job, was created by MPR and can display and transform information on things like undergraduate admissions, enrollment, and graduation.
I’m very excited to get started; the work sounds as if it will be both challenging and fulfilling, the people on my team seem awesome, and the environment feels as if it will fit my personality perfectly. Plus, I’ll have an income (hurrah!). I feel very lucky, what with the economy in the state it is and jobs not exactly sprouting from trees at the moment, and on top of everything the projects I’ll be working on at MPR revolve around an area about which I am truly passionate–namely, education.
Oh, and did I mention the office is a 10 minutes walk away from my apartment? ;-)
So, here’s to employment! Thanks for all the well wishing, everyone.
Posted on 06/12/09 at 7:55PM, No Comments
From the “Oh So Geektastic” department come a few new recordings I’ve done in my spare time. They’re fairly low quality from a production standpoint, but not all that bad considering everything was done on my MacBook’s built-in microphone in my room. Below are the recordings along with short descriptions.
Song for Robert
As the title might imply, I wrote this song for Robert, my good friend and old roommate. A great joke, I believe the song made him quite uncomfortable at the time of writing. There’s an old video of me doing this song, but this recording and take is much better.
Infect Me
This is where things geeksplode. The song was written in reference to Valve’s recent multiplayer title, Left 4 Dead, which is quite fun and involves tons of zombie-splattering goodness. As such, you might not catch all the references unless you’ve played the game; still, all you really need to know is that the Boomer explodes all over you, the Smoker has a long tongue, the Hunter pounces, the Witch screams, and the Tank is a big oafish fellow.
Posted on 03/30/09 at 2:24PM, 1 Comment
While walking through the busy plaza this afternoon, as I passed the myriad tablers, activists, and other pinko commie liberals, I was reminded of the words of a great philosopher:
“You could easily go hippie fishing with a reinforced pole and large magnet.”
Albeit, Jeremy is not actually a great philosopher, or even a middle of the road philosopher; he’s not a philosopher at all, really. Yet his aphorism could not be more appropriate, or at least realizable, for what is now my alma mater.
And though my undergraduate education may now be in the past tense, I’m still here, working away the hours and experiencing mild schadenfreude at the fact that everyone around me has to attend class. I was at first unsure of my decision to delay law school for a year, but I’m now certain it was the right choice. I wouldn’t be here with time enough to contemplate the optimal pound test for my envisioned Hippie Reel 3000™, at the least.
So, 2009 has arrived, Obama is here at last, I’m in the job market for the first time in almost five years, I’ve a couple new suits in line to be tailored, and Berkeley continues on much as it has this past age. Here’s to hoping it’s a good year and, more importantly, to avoiding unemployment.
Posted on 01/28/09 at 2:59PM, No Comments
I don’t know if I’m going to make it.
My heart was pounding. My breath was ragged. My head was chaos. I quickened my pace, but tried to appear controlled, collected: I was a man on a mission. The forced smile likely did little to mask what must have seemed a dull grimace to passing onlookers. But their thoughts could not have been more than speculation, a fortune cookie’s read into a situation far more complex and terrifying than any unconcerned pedestrian might fathom. And the situation was mine.
What will happen if I don’t?
The structure was visible now. Sweat had long ago begun to flow, but there was no time to worry. I tried increasing the pace again, straining against the muscles that screamed, that must have wondered why this absurd posture was carried on. Yet I persisted, onward to the door, and through it in one swift motion. The interior breached, I nearly lunged toward the elevator and hit the call button, then glanced at the floor indicators only to be mocked with ludicrous heights.
God, not here. Not like this.
The lift descended with agonizing slowness. It took all my strength to keep my body still, to contain the raw adrenaline coursing through me. I hardly noticed the movement to enter the car when it arrived; it was as if I’d materialized there upon its appearance. A stroke of luck: I was alone. Only the receptionist might have caught a fleeting glimpse of my crazed attack on the fourth floor’s button before the doors shut.
Five cubicles. Four cubicles. Go!
The office flew by in a blur. Suddenly, I was there, at what might as well have been the Pearly Gates. A tentative test: yes! I thrust myself inward, threw the place in order, and at last commenced. A rush of glee, satisfaction, bewilderment–a veritable fountain of emotion sprung forth! …and then the moment passed; the task was complete. A tinge of sadness, but no: this was a glorious occasion, not one to be mourned. I turned, sighing with contentment, and reached out to wipe clean the slate for another day. Yet, something was amiss. Indeed, something had gone horribly, unspeakably awry!
Oh. My. God. I clogged the office’s fucking industrial toilet!
Note for posterity: this event did not, in fact, actually occur. I was simply inspired to write this tale of fiction after a particularly entertaining day at the office.
Posted on 10/24/08 at 3:45PM, 1 Comment
Facebook, it seems, is comprised largely of whiners.
Some of you may recall the great Facebook Privacy Debacle™ of 2006, which was larger in scale but equally as silly as the current snafu. Funny that those same liberal progressive hipsters who so clamor for change in some places would rally against it in others, but that’s exactly the mentality of a decent chunk of Facebook users concerning the site’s new look.
One such concerned soul sent me an invitation to the Petition Against the “New Facebook” group, which currently has over one million users and looks to have been created about three months ago. I took a look, but only because I want to make fun of the membership.
I even thought I might join the group in order to post some counter-protests on their discussion board, but decided to post here in lieu of that option. (A number of people seem to have actually carried through with that idea, as a quick perusal of the discussions uncovered a number of posts calling the group out on its whiny nature.)
Anywho, it’s pretty simple: if you don’t like the new Facebook, just don’t use it. Simple, no? Most of the changes are obviously for the better from a usability standpoint, and I don’t mind the purely aesthetic changes either. It makes more use of available space, presents more information in a more readable format, and generally does little to malign the unsuspecting user. What’s there to bitch about?
Perhaps the best thread within the group is one pressing users who dislike the changes to deactivate their account. It had a mere 61 replies when I noticed it, but I think the idea is absolutely fantastic! And, of course, I say that in order to fully support the protest of Facebook’s egregious, anti-user design practices, and not just because those who adhered to this policy would contribute to a reduction in the overall whininess of the greater Facebook population. Of course.
Let’s give Facebook 999,939 more reasons they won’t care about to listen to users! Deactivate now!
Posted on 09/12/08 at 3:05PM, No Comments
