“Corporate Bingo” – the hottest game to play in staff meetings
Do you keep falling asleep in staff meetings? What about those long and boring conference calls?
Here’s a way to change all of that:
- Before (or during) your next meeting, seminar, or conference call, prepare your “Bullshit Bingo” card by drawing a square — I find that 5″ x 5″ is a good size — and dividing it into columns –five across and five down. That will give you 25 1-inch blocks.
- Write one of the following words/phrases in each block:
- Synergy
- Strategic fit
- Core competencies
- Out of the box
- Bottom line
- Revisit
- Take that off-line
- 24/7
- Out of the loop
- Benchmark
- Value-added
- Proactive
- Win-win
- Think outside the box
- Fast track
- Result-driven
- Empower (or empowerment)
- Knowledge base
- At the end of the day
- Touch base
- Mindset
- Client focus(ed)
- Ballpark
- Game plan
- Leverage
- Cascade
- Sequential or sequentially
- Check off the appropriate block when you hear one of those words/phrases.
- When you get five blocks horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, stand up and shout “BULLSHIT!”
Three Questions To Ask During an Interview
We’ve all seen variations on the list of common questions interviewers ask, but how much have you thought about what questions you should ask a potential employer?
The best interviews are really conversations, as well they should be. You want to know if the position is the right fit – just as much as the company does. After all, the work you do makes up a good portion of your waking hours, so the company, and the team, you may join has to meet some of your basic needs.
Here are a few seed questions that can reveal facets of the position and the company you might not get otherwise.
Why did the last person leave this position?
This will tell you a lot about the dynamics of the company. Is the job vacant due to a promotion? Great. That means there’s room for advancement. Did the person get fired? That calls for additional probing to figure out what caused the company to take such drastic action. Is this a new position? Great again. That means growth, but also calls for more probing to see if it’s smart growth, or the kind that will have you out of a job in three months.
Can you describe what my first day, week, and month look like?
This will tell you how far they’ve thought though your onboarding process. Is it sink of swim, or do they have a reasonable plan with some mentoring? It can also give you a clue as to what to expect at first, and what their expectations are for your coming up to speed. Also, phrasing the question as if you are already the selected candidate can’t hurt in the neuro linguistic programming department.
Can you describe the ideal candidate for this position?
This is a good one because rather than all the “who are you and what have you done” stuff of interviews, they’ll have to tell you exactly what they want. Then, in your closing statement, you can use the information to create the narrative of you as that exact person.
In addition to those three mainstays, make sure you hit the potential employer’s Web site before the interview. That research will usually help you come up with additional questions to ask.
How to install git on Ubuntu Karmic
git-1.6.6 is assumed (at the time of writing)
pretty simple:
$ sudo aptitude install build-essential
$ sudo aptitude install zlib1g-dev
$ mkdir ~/Downloads/git
$ cd !$
$ wget http://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/git-1.6.6.tar.gz
$ tar xvfz git-1.6.6.tar.gz
$ cd git-1.6.6/
$ ./configure
$ make
$ sudo make install
$ git
Effective Learning
The military approach is very effective:
tell them what you are going to tell them; tell them; then tell them what you told them!
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away
The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less; we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness. We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom and hate too often.
These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one-night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill.
Remember, spend some time with your loved ones because they are not going to be around forever.
Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.
Remember to give a warm hug to the one next to you because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn’t cost a cent. Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again. Give time to love, give time to speak and give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind. Remember, life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.
Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters!
If there’s something strange, in your neighborhood… who you gonna call? Ghostbusters
!
To honor the movie’s 25th anniversary YouTube has a FULL movie you can watch for free:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22hUHCr-Tos
If you don’t like it, you are as dead as those ghosts running around. heh.
Watch it on that iPod Touch you got from a recent deal.
1099 and Unempoyment Benefits
Q.
Can you get unemployment if you get paid through a 1099-misc?
A.
Someone with a 1099 is considered a sub-contractor. Technically they work for themselves, and aren’t an employee. As an independent contractor (1099-misc) a person is considered to be self employed, and is not eligible for unemployment.
War does not determine who is right – only who is left.
War does not determine who is right – only who is left.
– Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970), was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, religious skeptic, social reformer, socialist and pacifist. Although he spent the majority of his life in England, he was born in Wales, where he also died. (more info on Wikipedia)
Other Bertrand Russell quotes:
- “Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.”
- “Freedom in general may be defined as the absence of obstacles to the realization of desires”
- “To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.”
- “Religion is something left over from the infancy of our intelligence, it will fade away as we adopt reason and science as our guidelines.”
- “Envy consists in seeing things never in themselves, but only in their relations. If you desire glory, you may envy Napoleon, but Napoleon envied Caesar, Caesar envied Alexander, and Alexander, I daresay, envied Hercules, who never existed.”
- “I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong.”
- “The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.”
- “The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.”
- “We are faced with the paradoxical fact that education has become one of the chief obstacles to intelligence and freedom of thought.”