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Future employment options (any chefs here?! Mo..?)
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56 Views
12/22/10
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So, as the world decides there are far too many people and not enough jobs, I've decided to leave an in-demand profession, not pursue a doctorate, and instead become an itinerant hippy.
Now the long term goal is to become a snowboard/ski instructor, short term goal is to spend a year in Oz and Nz, catching a winter season in both countries. Now, the jobs going in these places are your winter orientated slope stuff, or chalet and bar work. At the moment I have bar work experience but who doesn't, so looking to get some hostel/accomodation work experience. Annoyingly I missed the deadline by two weeks to register for volunteer jobs in Scotland's Youth Hostel association, which would have meant looking after hostels in the middle of nowhere, which would have been fun.
So I've been looking at resorts in Europe, and by far the most in demand job leaving chalet lookie afterer in the dust is chef. Now there's a few one-week courses that advertise being enough training to get a job cooking in a chalet.. But I haven't found a way to check these boasts and I always imagined cooking to be a difficult job.
Is anyone here a chef? Or have experience of working in chalets, winter resorts, cooking for people far too early in the morning? Looking to see if anyones got advice on options/courses/anything to do with cooking for bars and small b&b type places and how you get to a point to be able to get those jobs.
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US National Science Foundation
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18 Views
12/18/10
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Just read today that YouCut, this *amazing* idea by the Republican majority moseying into congress is wanting the American public, those that in the majority know pretty much all about science, to pick science projects to drop. They use the example of:
~Recently, however NSF has funded some more questionable projects - $750,000 to develop computer models to analyze the on-field contributions of soccer players and $1.2 million to model the sound of objects breaking for use by the video game industry~
Now they read those and go, what a liberal lefty waste of money harrumph harrumph harrumph! After reading some other articles about these subjects, it turns out those numbers aren't entirely right, and they either didn't read the actual point of the research and future applications, or, they didn't understand what they read, or, they're just morons.
The case of the soccer study, to find better ways of quantifying contributions to achieving some type of goal where regular statistical methods fail: their research findings can be applied to things like deciding where and who to give money for research to in a way better than the current one used - and ironically, doing the job the republicans want muppets to do instead! And also other situations where resource needs to be divided between entities that under existing models is hard to decide which is the best way.
The computer game sound project? To have better sound processing ability in both playing sounds to people and recognising sounds. In the first instance I know the army, navy, airforce, and a large amount of different industries use virtual reality and simulators for training, control of robots, showing what finished development projects will look like (walkthroughs of buildings and construction). Now, it was games that pioneered the use of graphics, and now they're pioneering the sounds as these are still a long way behind the realistic feeling of the graphics. In the second instance, it can be used for recognition, allowing autonomous robots and other microphone bearing systems to be better equipped to recognise sounds, their source, and other attributes.
As it goes the computer game sound project is one that in the future would most likely be implemented to improve training for the benefit of the US armed forces, which I hear are pretty popular over there, and also for industry use. And the first seems useful for you know, getting the most bang for your buck. And yet, idiots think they're 'wasteful' and want the public to choose other 'wasteful' uses of money in science research.
Seriously, my view of that country from the reporting on things like the illegal wars, the amazing stupidity shown during the last elections by voters (I've only just heard about the birthers movement.. ), the attacks on net neutrality, the whole banking collapse, the frenzied religious disease of Christianity, and this with Wikileaks has made me wonder just what the is going on over there, but now, the NSF budget which is around $7 billion, is getting cut by people with no clue, while China's science budget has been raised to $24 billion...
This just struck me as another amazingly retarded and worrying idea.
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I am He-Man.
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24 Views
02/18/10
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Well,
Following a few years of on/off medically motivated 'doing fuck all' and cursing my body and doctor in equal measure; that's a lie, I curse my doctor more, but that's for another post. I've now got the ability and the mind to start going to the gym again.
So, I went. I started on a very, very low profile of four exercises a day, three days on, one day off, just to not break anything while starting and so it was that I discovered, I am He-Man.
I stepped up to the dumbbells, I picked a pair up. I did 10 reps before I could do no more, yet these were big weights, oh yes. I could feel the muscles bulging under my baggy tshirt, safe in the knowledge that I could punch a tree down if I wanted to. And a big tree mind, not a little tree with a plastic cone around the bottom to protect it and help it grow straight.
Yes, I am a muscle bound god, for those 10 reps I did, were with 10kg weights, a whole 22 pounds for those backwards countries that don't quite understand metric. So Noodles, watch out, when we meet there is a good chance I will rip your arm of when I shake your hand without even noticing. ;)
Seriously though, it's quite annoying, while a small weight, when I had last been able to go to the gym I'd got up to the 15kg dumbbells. Now they are a far away goal, high on a snowy mountainside with goats running up and down it, and lone falcons wondering why they didn't fly south to a warmer place like their mate Billy.
Still, fingers crossed that it'll be a good run this time.
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The light at the end of the tunnel...
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76 Views
01/16/10
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A friend told me something recently, he said you don't really know someone until they are dead. I've been thinking about this, and it seems, sadly, there is truth in that. I guess everyone has their memories that they don't share with the world, the keepsakes they hold personal and dearest, the secrets shared with different people. All the pieces that in their life, you may be introduced to some of them, but not all, unless you are lucky, special.
It is when they die, and the responsibility of dealing with their estate falls to you, that the disparate parts can come together. Like archaeologists excavating a site and reading their interpretation into what they find, as do those that have to go through the dead's possessions; reading importance from where they are found, what they are found with, the things that have been kept and for how long. From the people that gather around, the stories, memories and secrets come out, shared by the grieving to bring those who remember the person together, adding more to the person you knew.
Out of all this, maybe you'll find out the people they held dear in life, find who cared for them, and who they cared for. I guess the point of this post is just a reminder to all, of all the people you know, there might be those where for them, you are the only light at the end of the tunnel - never underestimate how much you can mean to someone, and hope you don't find out too late.
Sleep well everyone, and keep those in your life close.
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Munches/Fetish Nights in the UK
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165 Views
12/02/09
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This is really an open question rather than a blog, but to be honest, after a quick perusal the forums appear to suck.¿ And dribble too.¿ Big time.
So, munches, fetish nights, these are some fun sounding things I've known about for a while now, and I'm thinking of finding out about some and possibly heading along; I know of a couple in existence here in Glasgow.¿ My only issue is, I don't know anyone in the scene.¿ This makes it a little awkward, because I have no idea what to expect, how clique these things might be, how welcoming to randoms that turn up going 'Hey, those are some sexy leather chaps my friend!'.. and so on.
So I wondered, does anyone here have any experience of these in Scotland or the UK in general, any tips or advice?¿ Or if anyone goes along to any and wouldn't mind some extra company it'd be good to hear from all you kinky lads and lassies!
And as for tips, the obligatory "Don't wave your dick about, or hit people on the head with it while singing Mr Gabriel's Sledgehammer", or "Bring your own midget, they're in short supply! boom boom!", while less useful are always good for a laugh. :)¿ P.s. I was only joking about the chaps, I have enough common sense to complement the ass in those circumstances ;)
¿
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Build your Gothic dating site / Affiliate
