neilbert.com http://neilbert.com/blog Tue, 14 Oct 2008 02:33:50 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 en My resume is a wasteland http://neilbert.com/blog/my-resume-is-a-wasteland/ http://neilbert.com/blog/my-resume-is-a-wasteland/#comments Tue, 14 Oct 2008 02:27:14 +0000 neil http://neilbert.com/blog/?p=91 Last week, my most recent former employer (The WANT ADvertiser) closed their doors. It was pretty obvious it was coming, which is why they became my former employer a month ago. And every time it happens, I think about the fact that, for new employers, checking my references is an exercise in frustration. I mean, let’s look at the list:

  • Bradlees - closed
  • Some cleaning company in New Milford - gone
  • Cablevision of New Milford - bought up in a series of mergers, I think it’s now part of Charter
  • Roy Rogers - my 3-day excursion into fast food. There’s still a few technically, but for all intents and purposes, they’re gone
  • Office Max - Okay, they’re still around.
  • Staples - The other survivor
  • Service Merchandise - was well into the descent when I got there. (Hint: if you fire someone for theft, don’t rehire them at Christmas. Just saying.)
  • Gateway Country Stores - I was part of their first layoff. Then they closed the stores and got bought up by Acer.

    And now The WANT AD. That was the closest - it was barely a month from when I left until they packed it up. I won’t go into my thoughts on what happened but suffice it to say, it could have been avoided.

    A few links to other people’s thoughts on their closing:

    ]]> http://neilbert.com/blog/my-resume-is-a-wasteland/feed/ links for 2008-03-11 http://neilbert.com/blog/links-for-2008-03-11/ http://neilbert.com/blog/links-for-2008-03-11/#comments Tue, 11 Mar 2008 11:21:54 +0000 neil http://neilbert.com/blog/links-for-2008-03-11/
  • The Mac virus that isn’t - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
    This is a pretty interesting concept.
    (tags: mac funny)
  • Suitable Systems / SeisMac
    .. and if we’re posting about that, this probably needs to show up too…
    (tags: mac funny)
    • ]]>     http://neilbert.com/blog/links-for-2008-03-11/feed/     Redesign done. http://neilbert.com/blog/redesign-done/ http://neilbert.com/blog/redesign-done/#comments Thu, 28 Feb 2008 01:42:17 +0000 neil http://neilbert.com/blog/redesign-done/ So, after some tinkering, I ended up not using the theme I had mentioned last time. I decided I really liked the idea of a three-column layout. I found one called Munch 1.0. A change of the header image (the new one came from www.stockvault.net), a few tweaks to the code (moving the menu down so it fits the image better, and disabling the mouseover titles) and I think it looks much better. There’s still more small tweaks but the bulk of the work is done…. which means that the blog pages are now the default for the site.

    Can’t find something? Let me know.

    ]]>     http://neilbert.com/blog/redesign-done/feed/     Redesign in progress http://neilbert.com/blog/redesign-in-progress/ http://neilbert.com/blog/redesign-in-progress/#comments Sat, 16 Feb 2008 03:10:58 +0000 neil http://neilbert.com/blog/redesign-in-progress/ I finally found a WordPress theme I liked enough to base the site on - missunderstood 0.91. There will probably be some more tweaks to the pages here within the blog before I make the blog homepage into the site homepage. I’m working on reconstructing the navigation pages into the blog as well (see the ‘exit guides‘ page for an example) and will probably use this style sheet site-wide eventually.

    I’ve also stolen another page from Kurumi and am creating town pages for the Mass Route Log. I started with Worcester. Not much to it yet, but it’s the sort of thing I can do here and there.

    ]]>     http://neilbert.com/blog/redesign-in-progress/feed/     Mass Roads Log and Photos http://neilbert.com/blog/mass-roads-log-and-photos/ http://neilbert.com/blog/mass-roads-log-and-photos/#comments Thu, 20 Sep 2007 00:20:03 +0000 neil http://neilbert.com/blog/?p=81 Finally got around to getting the road photos back up… via flickr.

    Two ways to get to them - road photos or the individual MA roads pages. (I won’t bother listing all the individual roadp ages - there’s about 30 or so and to be honest, I’m lazy like that.)

    ]]>     http://neilbert.com/blog/mass-roads-log-and-photos/feed/     What the heck happened? http://neilbert.com/blog/what-the-heck-happened/ http://neilbert.com/blog/what-the-heck-happened/#comments Thu, 16 Aug 2007 21:30:05 +0000 neil http://neilbert.com/blog/?p=80 If you tried to access anything here over the past few weeks, you might have noticed some problems.

    The quick version? I contemplated not renewing my webhosting. Nothing against the new host (OCS Solutions); they’ve been great. But I just wasn’t sure I wanted to spend the money considering how little I’ve actually done with the site.

    Then I changed my mind. Even if I’m not updating as much as I want/should, I still enjoy having the space to mess around with. I am, however, outsourcing stuff that’s done better elsewhere. The road pictures are probably going to flickr. All mail handling is through Google Apps. Other stuff will go where it goes.

    I expect I’ll try my hand at another redesign of the home page. There’s plenty of software I can use to make some changes here.

    ]]>     http://neilbert.com/blog/what-the-heck-happened/feed/     Looking for something? http://neilbert.com/blog/looking-for-something/ http://neilbert.com/blog/looking-for-something/#comments Mon, 18 Jun 2007 19:24:36 +0000 neil http://neilbert.com/blog/?p=79 If you’re looking for something and get a page not found error… I’m moving to a new webhost. Most of the popular stuff will come back in one form or another fairly soon. I kept the blog and roads pages up since they tend to drive most of the traffic here.

    ]]>     http://neilbert.com/blog/looking-for-something/feed/     links for 2007-05-17 http://neilbert.com/blog/links-for-2007-05-17/ http://neilbert.com/blog/links-for-2007-05-17/#comments Thu, 17 May 2007 22:20:38 +0000 neil http://neilbert.com/blog/?p=76
  • I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER?
    (tags: funny cats via:ask.metafilter.com)
    • ]]>     http://neilbert.com/blog/links-for-2007-05-17/feed/     links for 2007-05-16 http://neilbert.com/blog/links-for-2007-05-16/ http://neilbert.com/blog/links-for-2007-05-16/#comments Wed, 16 May 2007 22:19:45 +0000 neil http://neilbert.com/blog/?p=75
  • strange maps
    (tags: mapping)
    • ]]>     http://neilbert.com/blog/links-for-2007-05-16/feed/     Multiplexing http://neilbert.com/blog/multiplexing/ http://neilbert.com/blog/multiplexing/#comments Sat, 12 May 2007 02:30:41 +0000 neil http://neilbert.com/blog/?p=74 I’ve just finished updating the Mass Routes pages to include all the multiplexed and cosigned routes in the Commonwealth.

    There is only one section of road in the state that carries 5 route numbers. Can you find it?

    ]]>     http://neilbert.com/blog/multiplexing/feed/