A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

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Notes from my Noodle: January 6 edition

Hello blog readers and welcome to the first edition of Notes from my Noodle in 2012. I hope you all had a wonderful New Year’s and holiday season as this world gets back into full gear.

Alas, another weekend is upon us. There is good weather in the forecast in my part of the Northeast, so I’m looking to go out and geocache/letterbox/photograph for a while Saturday. Why not take advantage of it?

My January 4 choice for my 366 Project.

With this year being a leap year, I’ve opted to do the Project 3656 again. I was successful in 2010 with it, so I thought with the extra day, it would be cool to do it again.

Now I just have to make sure to get a photo each day!

I’ve been good with it so far. And I plan on heading out today to find a photo. As I peer outside right now, there are blue skies, the sun is shining and the temps are in the upper 40s.

Score!

There has to be something out there to snap photos of, I would think.

And though I have the iPhone, which has an excellent camera, I am hoping to do the bulk of the 366 this year with my Canon 7D. I love the use of the iPhone — I really do — but for this project, I’d like to challenge myself artistically a but more with my DSLR. Plus, I got a really cook bokeh kit for my lenses for Christmas and I’m looking forward to trying that out for sure.

If any of you have some cool and fun ideas for photos I should look into taking for my 366 project, post them in the comments section. I want to keep a small notebook of ideas, in case I get in a pinch!

I know a few others doing the 366 this year. One of them is fellow Flickr/Twitter user and fellow geocacher Mike, who has been doing the 365 since 2010. That means, unless he somehow skipped a day this year and hasn’t said anything yet, he has been taking a photo a day for 736 straight days (or more)! (For readers of this blog, Mike was a guest poster in November).

That’s insane!

Keep it up Mike. By the end of this one, you’ll have reached nearly 1,000 days, which is no small feat!

 ***

I wish I had more to report on the job hunt. Applications are still being sent out. But, for the next batch, I’m taking a different approach.

Being that the first approach hasn’t worked too well, outside of the few interviews and such I’ve had, I’m going to change the tone of my cover letters. At this point, what’s it going to hurt? I think I am going to attempt to make them a little more edgy, a little more cocky. I imagine that it will, at worse, get somebody’s attention. Maybe it will get me a few more interviews. And maybe (gasp!) an offer.

Something has to change.

I want to try and re-work my resume a little, too. I don’t think it’s awful, but a tweak or two probably wouldn’t hurt.

My big thing is trying to make it so my block of not working doesn’t stand out so much. I have to work on that as well and hope something comes along soon.

This has, by far, been one of the most trying things, professionally, I’ve ever dealt with in my life. I’m just hoping the light at the end of the tunnel gets big soon!

***

This past Sunday, I went and played a round of disc golf. On January 1, in the Albany area in New York, it was in the high 40s. Me, my niece Nicole, Darren and his wife Jodi played 18 holes at Schenectady Central Park.

My niece sizes up a putt.

What a day.

I played a round of disc golf last Jan. 1 as well, but it was not nearly as warm as this!

But it was a perfect day to go out for a nice little walk and play a round. We only came across people a couple of times, but no major issues. We stopped for a couple of letterboxes and pretty much took our time.

Without a doubt, though, it was great just to be out walking around and moving.

I haven’t played in a while (I think my last round had been on Thanksgiving), so I didn’t throw as well as I would have liked. Still, it wasn’t bad. I had some decent shots and hopefully my game will improve as this year moves on. My niece has only been a few times, but I think she’s starting to get the hang of things and hopefully she can keep improving and liking the game as well. Starting at a younger age will only make her better as she continues to age and play. It’s also a great game to be able to just get out and play.

Now if we can get a course in our local area…

Speaking of disc golf, I continue to work on a certain disc golf project I have going on. I am hoping within the next two weeks to be able to announce something here about it. I’m extremely excited about it and hope it works out for the best!

Until then, keep clanging the metal and rattling those chains when you are out on the disc golf course!

***

I’m sneaking out of the area this weekend to do a little day trip. I’m not going far, but I’m meeting up with a friend to do a day of geocaching/letterboxing and catch up on some things.

Here’s something I’ve figured — it’s not as easy planning a trip to involve letterboxing as it is geocaching.

See, with geocaching, you have a map you can open up and see where everything is. That way, you can plan a route that is somewhat economical and such.

With letterboxing, you can bring up a google map — for each box. Then you have to figure what’s close etc., and try and keep them somewhat in a route to make it worthwhile.

Hopefully by the end of tomorrow, we’ll have piled up a bunch of finds for both. And I also hope to have had several cool photos taken before the end of the day.

Though the temperatures are supposed to be slightly cooler tomorrow (not too bad, though), it is still supposed to be sunny and nice out. So I look forward to a day of finding stamps, caches and photo opportunities.

***

I have finally gotten back into reading books on the Kindle again. I’m reading one of Jodi Picoult’s latest books, “Sing Me Home.” So far, so good. I’m a big fan of Picoult and always enjoy what she brings to the table with her books. Well-written and well-researched make things a good and smooth read.

I have a couple of other books lined up as well.

Anyone get a Kindle Fire over the holidays? I’m curious to see what people think. I have a 3rd or 4th Generation Kindle and I like it. But down the line, I might look to upgrade, though if I really want a tablet, the iPad seems like the way I might lean. I like my reader to be just that — a reader.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook by clicking the button on the right side of the page!

Reaching out with social networks

I was working on a cover letter and reference list today for a job locally. It’s one I wouldn’t mind getting as it’s the direction I’d like to take my career. While I was figuring the people I’d want to use as references, I got looking at my Linkedin profile.

Then I got wondering a bit more (this happens often).

How far can one go with social networking when looking for jobs?

I know people who utilize each social network for possible employment opportunities — Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin etc. It seems to me, however, that by putting yourself out there in each spot, you are putting a lot of your information out there.

For me, Facebook is a friend/family thing. Basically, if I don’t know you in real life (with a few exceptions), I don’t add you on Facebook. I have a few photos up there and a few other things, but it’s not really something that can get me in trouble with anything. I have nothing incriminating, but I find it easier to maintain a “friend list” of 200 or fewer, rather than adding everyone and hoping for some networking.

Twitter, is a slice of my life. I don’t have it blocked (though I have in the past) as there’s nothing major on there. I post links, I update life’s little things and all that. I know how to use twitter, which can be beneficial in some jobs I’ve applied for, but my personal one is used for fun.

I’m still learning Linkedin.

It seems like a really strong tool for a job search. I’m trying to grasp and understand how it works and what I can do with it. I’ve added many people to my “network,” but as with other social mediums, how far is too far? I did a search with my e-mail address and noticed many, many people who I’ve had contact with at one point or another who are on Linkedin.

Do you add them all?

Or, do you stay selective?

While I understand that the more people who see your resume/credentials is a good thing, is is wise to just add people, just to add people? I can’t answer that. For now, I’ve been selective. I have to know who I am adding. I don’t have to know them all personally, but I have to know that the people I am adding are ones who I’ve interacted with — whether through online items, stories I was working on, or other social mediums, such as Twitter or blogging.

I’ve learned something since having my position cut in February — in a job market like it currently is, who you know can go a long way. I refuse to believe that my resume has been passed over so many times because I’m lacking in credentials. I’ve done a lot in my career — a lot I am very proud of. The jobs I’ve applied for are ones I know I’m highly qualified for, yet I constantly get overlooked for whatever reason.

An unfortunate part of the job market as it is, too, is the lack of ability to follow up and find out why you were overlooked. With upwards of 100 or more applications for many of these jobs, calling the hiring people wouldn’t always go well. If they are looking at so many applications, it could be anything that got you sent to the “no thanks” pile and the likelihood of someone remembering why you were put there is slim.

For a couple of the jobs I’ve recently applied to, I’ve had people in my corner. In at least one of those, a phone call has been made on my behalf. I hope that it helps as it would be a really sweet gig. There’s a few others I’ve applied for that I am really crossing my fingers about as well.

But where does the social networking come into play?

Do you add all these people on something like Linkedin and put it on your resume? Or one of the other social places? Do you have your own professional website?

Post a comment below and let me know how you do things or how you would do things. And if you are a reader and have Linkedin and want to join my network, let me know.

Finally, I am slowly working on my professional website. But I want to make it quite nice. I’m a little weak with web design, so does anyone have any ideas? Should I do it with a WordPress setup? Should I find someone to design me something? Advice?

Again, drop a comment or e-mail me!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com.

 

Day Zero Project: Completed No. 59

A Day Zero Project goal of P.J.’s has been completed!

Goal completed: Re-write my resume.

Date completed: Late February/Early March, 2011.

Number: 59  (remember, these goals will not all be done in order. It’s a random list where the numbers actually are).

Description: I hadn’t written a new resume since starting at the paper more than seven years ago. With recently going back into the job hunt, I needed to see if this resume would work. And with feedback, it wouldn’t. So I needed to re-write it. That was the final push to be able to complete this goal, even though I had set it months before just knowing I needed to shorten it.

Why I wanted to do it: Originally, I just wanted to have an updated resume to look sharper and be shorter. But when I was laid off, it became more of a necessity.

How I did it: Basically, I read a lot of things online about how resumes are being done now. I also took two workshops at CDO Workforce to learn about resumes and what you need to do on them. I learned a lot. Now hopefully it will eventually land me a new gig as I need to continue with my career! In the end, what I did was take a lot of ideas and shrink them to one page. I learned a lot — like using key words — and things like that, which will hopefully help me with the job hunt. I’m still tweaking as I go along a bit more, so we’ll see how it goes. Next up — being able to start crafting better cover letters!

About P.J.’s Day Zero Project: Day Zero is a project where people come up with 101 things to do over 1001 days. I started the project on Oct. 10, 2010 with an anticipated finish date of July 8, 2013. Goals will not be revealed until they are completed. A private list is at the Day Zero website and the list will be made public upon completion of the project. It’s my thoughts that if things are kept private, should I not do them, change or find a way around it, I’d only be cheating myself.