Food at the office party

Good morning from Linden, Guyana!

In the U.S., when there is a potluck, employees bring the food that will be eaten at the office party. Some people cook or bake food to contribute. For potlucks, I liked to contribute items like chips and drinks. I noticed a slightly different practice in Guyanese offices. In Guyana, there is chow-making which involves employees contributing different fruits as well as pickling ingredients to be put together to make chow. The chow-making looks like fun. See the chow-making process in a Guyanese office in the following video: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/xgsfjF2xcrSG3EHB/?mibextid=oFDknk.

Resume Length

 My resume does not show the job title Writer or Technical Writer much, but I have been writing as part of my job for over 20 years! One of the first jobs was the Financial Auditor position I held in 2003/2004. I was an auditor who was also responsible for writing reports of my findings. Those reports were "published" by the office much like a research paper is published by a journal. Later, I got into IT. I wrote test plans and test cases and later system requirements (use cases, shall statements), and so on. During my PhD, I wrote papers every week. All this experience makes me qualified for Technical Writer and other writing positions. 

To show the full length of my writing experience, I include my old jobs on my resume. This makes my resume very long, however. I have a 4 page resume! I see the need for long resumes although they are not accepted all over.

My Last Search

 The Wordpress prompt for today 8/27/2024 is:  What was the last thing you searched for online? Why were you looking for it?

My response:

I use Google search fairly regularly. I search for such things as: articles/papers, lyrics to songs, and people. I tend to use keyword searches (rather than full sentences or questions) and usually get good results.

My last search was 'haiku meaning.' I entered those keywords in the search bar because I wanted to learn more about haiku poetry. The term was new to me. I stumbled upon it when reading about poetry. 

The search provided good information on the Japanese short form poetry. I ended up clicking on 'What is haiku with an example' in the 'People also ask' section for additional information. I like to review the information on what other people searched for that Google provides.

Everyone rushed by

 Would I stop and appreciate a beautiful thing? That is what I asked myself as I read the piece on an experiment at a DC metro station. No one treated the world-class musician playing beautiful music in the metro station as he should be treated. A group of people gathering around him applauding as he played would have been nice. It seems cruel but people were just busy. Everyone rushed by without stopping to appreciate him. This all makes me think advertising is necessary. People must be made aware of other people's talents and background so that they know what they are experiencing.

Ancestry

 I just watched a travel video by popular travel and food vlogger Mark Wiens (link to video: https://youtu.be/DMlITdf3w-o?si=yVWP5EicO5H7R4kc). The video was different from his other videos because he had the results of a DNA test that provided information on his ancestry and also because his father was involved. I got the sense that the DNA results were very important to Mark. During the video, he got together with his father who also had the results of his test. Father and son compared their results. Of course, the father's ancestry passed down to the son, but the son also had other ancestors most likely because of his mother. Mark Wiens spoke of other things he got from his father such as his love of food and willingness to try different types of food. I thought it was interesting that such details do not show up in an ancestry test but they are the sort of things I would want to know. However, ancestry tests are important. 

I would love to know more about my ancestors including details such as the country or countries my ancestors were originally from and whether my ancestors included important people. At some point, I would like to use the services of 23andme (https://www.23andme.com/dna-ancestry/) or some other ancestry service.

Writing

 Some people argue that it is important to write simply and clearly, even in academic papers. I just saw such an argument by Jason Thatcher, a well-known academic on LinkedIn. I agree with his position.

Link to post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jason-thatcher-0329764_on-the-importance-of-clarity-and-simple-language-activity-7231117674892738561-kHUw?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

It is hot in Linden

 Good morning from Linden, Guyana! It is a quiet morning so far. It is expected to be very hot today - a high of 94 degrees fahrenheit. I will be indoors away from the heat.

We have had a lot of hot days recently.  It is hotter than I expected. The heat does not affect me much. I try to stay indoors as much as possible.

CARICOM Meeting

 The Communique of the 47th Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of CARICOM countries provides good information on the state of affairs of member countries. It provides a nice synopsis of issues facing member countries (it is available on LinkedIn). It was good to see a strategy for regional digital resilience, including a project to train CARICOM citizens in key areas such as artificial intelligence and data analytics. I looked for information on research in the region but found none.

Papers

 Just yesterday, I was thinking of the number of papers I wrote for school (my PhD program). I wrote one paper a week for each 8-week course. I completed about 9 courses which adds up to 72 papers. Most of the papers were short 6-7 page papers but they required quite a bit of research so there was much work involved. I got used to the grind each week and even enjoyed preparing some assignments. That was a good time.

Difficult Childhoods

 I found an interesting journal article on how a difficult childhood could lead to career success as an entrepreneur. It is because people who had a difficult childhood learn to be resilient. This shows that a lot of good can come out of bad experiences (every cloud has a silver lining).

The article:

What does not kill you makes you stronger: Entrepreneurs' childhood adversity, resilience, and career success

By: W. Yu, F. Zhu, M. Der Foo, and J. Wiklund

Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0148296322005732

Plans For Today

 Good morning from Linden, Guyana! It is a quiet Saturday morning. I am drinking tea. As I sip the tea I am thinking of my plans for the day. I don't have much planned. It would be nice to go out for lunch (eat out) today. Maybe I could get a burger, fish and chips or even Chinese food. I had Chinese food recently from one of the many Chinese restaurants around. It has been a while since I had a burger or fish and chips. Whether or not I go out would depend on my mom. If she feels like driving today and has some free time, we will go out. I do not want to take public transportation or a taxi to go out today. There is no problem with these options. I just prefer to go out with my mom.

Big Tech

I just listened to two videos on jobs at the big technology companies (videos: https://youtu.be/mJqrX_uKMTw?si=Spk8pjEQVz-uVE2L and https://youtu.be/ijkTBtBWJWs?si=JrnCf5Mlo2kPtuzz). I was surprised that there are so many layoffs at the companies. According to the first video, so far in 2024 over 75,000 tech workers have been laid off.  Those companies were always viewed as perfect employers that offer outstanding benefits and job security. Now job security and stability are not the same. However, I find it hard to believe that working at the tech companies is no longer a dream job. Companies such as Google, Amazon, and Meta remain excellent companies to work for. 

Paper Writing Business

 Earlier today, my sister and I were talking about business and business ideas. We discussed the paper writing business (writing papers for students). It is an area/business I would like to get into formally. I have been assisting family and friends write papers and complete their assignments since I was an undergraduate. I know some people are using AI to write papers, but there is still room for businesses to assist with paper writing. Look out for information on my new business. And, of course, contact me if you need assistance writing a paper or completing an assignment. My email address is: moorefo1@gmail.com.

Olympic Medal

 From a post in X/Twitter I got a good look at the gold medal for the Paris 2024 games. It looks spectacular. I really like the design. The front reminds me of sun rays. It is thicker than I thought it would be and it looks expensive. I bet the gold medal was expensive to produce.

🥹 pic.twitter.com/lvViu6nGxn

— Viktor Axelsen (@ViktorAxelsen) August 6, 2024

Out and About Yesterday

 Yesterday was fun. I had ice cream as well as custard icicles (creamsickle). It was not to celebrate anything in particular. I was out and about and picked up the items at the supermarket. I enjoyed the cold treats. The custard icicles were especially good. The last time I had a custard icicle was over 25 years ago.