Two good links, evening in Manassas, résumé update

From baranoouji: What the Bagel Man Saw. A unique study of white-collar crime from the vantage point of an economist-turned-bagel-distributor.

From kelwyn: Best animated cover of We Will Rock You, Ever. (.mpg file)

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Picked up my dad from Maaco in Manassas around 4, after he dropped off the Chevy for body work and repainting. He still needs to finalize the blue he wants it in, though.

I then spent the rest of the afternoon at my parents' house, where I read the comics, updated a text copy of my résumé, had dinner, looked through all the paperwork I got from RDR on the way out, petted the kitten a lot, watched a lot of TV, had more food, and eventually came home sometime after midnight. :)

Anyone want to critique/proofread my updated résumé, ASAP? It's aiming towards cleared engineering/technical work. What should be added, left out, rephrased, clarified or rearranged? (Address where you can find it provided to those who're willing to help.)

Job stuff, DDR/mall, hot weather

Thanks to inkyblue2 and deusinnomen for their input on my resume update, still in progress. Speaking of job changes, check out this list of "occupational omens" from the Washington Post recently--I can relate to four of the five, all but the first item. Time for a change, you think? :P

Met up with sylvie at the arcade in Springfield Mall, played many rounds of DDR, wherein she's ridiculously good and I'm not horrible. (She's also been playing for three years, while I played once at electricsoup's and a few times in Canberra. Of course, there were some other players in the arcade who were almost breaking combos of 400.. insane!) Lunched at the food court, wandered the mall, and off she went, after which I played another round or two of DDR and got a haircut. The hairstylist at Hair Cuttery suggested a much better shampoo than the one I currently use and know to be crap, Pert Plus; she thinks it'll help stave off a receding hairline and keep my hair healthier--worth a shot, anyhow. Ah, genetic predisposition..

Coming back from the mall, it was entirely too hot and humid--97º according to the bank thermometer, and 51% humidity according to weather.com. Not bad as long as I'm moving, but traffic around 5pm isn't doing much moving. :P

Toothbrush chicanery and more of the layoff saga

This morning, I bought a couple of Crest SprinBrush Pro Whitening heads for my Crest SpinBrush Pro toothbrush, due to an apparent lack of CSBP heads. They appear to have the same structure, they have almost the same name, they'll fit the old handle, right?

Nope. I get home, slot the new head onto the old handle, turn it on, and.. nothing. No movement. Turns out the internal interface is just enough different to not mesh, and there's no indication on the packaging of incompatibility. So, this evening, I return to the store for an exchange or return, and while I find an assortment of CSB handles and heads in addition to the CSBPW handle and heads--no plain old Pro. Clever, eh? I'd be forced to buy a new body to use the only comparable heads, or downgrade to the non-Pro version. So I got a refund.

While waiting for this to be processed, who should I spy in a checkout lane but John Buckingham, a former RDR/DynCorp co-worker (with a titanium leg and foot, incidentally), and he has more interesting news from the former workfront..

As it happens, the layoff of 20-25 Thursday was intended to be 40, following 15 the previous week, to be followed by another 30 or so this week--including two guys who were already traveling and got recalled in order to be laid off--plus another 10 or 20 from the CSC subset of DynCorp. Reason, according to John? They're just not getting enough money to keep all these technicians, regardless of travel. Does this make sense, in light of the companies getting the option year for the contract, and supposedly having plenty of travel orders coming down the pipeline? Not at all. Do I expect this these companies to still have the contract in two months? Not really.

He also pointed out that since I'm eligible for unemployment, I might as well apply for it.

Networking, networking, cast me a net

My mother has mad networking skills, without even trying. Back in September 2002, she met a guy at a wedding reception in San Jose, CA, who just happened to be a manager for Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space in Sunnyvale. Talk turned to her recently-graduated son, of course, he requested my résumé, and within a week or two I had an interview in Sunnyvale. I didn't get that job, but it was a near thing. :)

More recently, she was talking with a woman she's babysat for in the past--a close friend of a woman she regularly sits for now--who just happens to work for Raytheon, a company that I'm told is currently relying almost solely on referrals for employment prospects. Talk turned to her recently-laid-off and cleared son, and she was apparently quite excited by this prospect, and requested my résumé on her desk by tomorrow morning. And so she shall have it. :)

(And while I'm at it, I'll send a copy to Tom's dad, who requested it while we were helping Liz and Tom move ten days or so ago. :)