Well, that's no good. I'm sorry, Tom. I hope the birthday is a good day for you.

And today is his birthday.

Sorry to hear the interviewing is getting him down, but Birthday Happies to Tom.

and it's supposed to be biblical weather.

NOT looking forward to this. However, I'm taking some small comfort that the forecasters have a tendency to make everything sound biblical these days.

Speaking of interviewing, we've been trying to hire on a new person (two actually) for some months now. We had originally posted the job back in maybe January or February and starting doing some screenings and interviews. We ended up deciding to hire at a more junior position instead, but then resumed the search for the senior position early this summer.

Some of the people we've been seeing are people we started inteviewing way back in February who are still looking. (One of them actually took another job and got laid off again in the interim.) Of our finalists, one was currently employed, and all the rest have been out of work for at least six months.

It's fucking scary out there. And god, you really feel for these people. I've been there, for sure.

We're finally making someone an offer on Monday. (Someone who nearly put herself out of the running with the frequency of her phone calls, emails, additional writing samples, "why you should hire me" powerpoints - not kidding - etc.) And aside from desperately needing someone in the first place, I will be so fucking glad to not be feeling like I'm stomping people down and like, crushing their hopes every time an interview doesn't go great.

(Eep. Does that sound like I'm saying "you know, it's hard on the other side too." Because no, not remotely. But it's been an unexpectedly emotional process for me watching good people walk out and knowing we're not going to be hiring them, and especially when I can't help identifying them with really good people like Tom and David and meara who are having such a tough time of it.)

In weather news, Mother Nature is being a tease - it's starting to get a little sunny out. No fair!

It's beautiful here, if a little on the chilly side.

Happy birthday and much job ~ma to Tom. May the coming year bring amazing, wonderful things.

Happy Birthday Tom! May you become en-jobified soon, and have an excellent rest of the year.

Make the next four days count. They turn on the Large Hadron Collider on September 10th.

Why should we make the next 4 days count? Is the collider supposed to do something bad? t edit I *did* read the article linked, and I guess I don't know enough about physics to understand it all, but the collider sounded like a *good* thing, not a doom thing.

I think it's supposed to make tiny black holes that will EXPAND AND EAT OUR PLANET, SOLAR SYSTEM, ENTIRE UNIVERSE.

Except not.

Oh, Tom. That's so sucky. I hope you have a happy day, despite the biblical weather.

So, we have people on the board who take Xanax, right? How quickly does it kick in? I need to figure out when to start drugging poor Toto for the biblical weather. Poor guy is gonna be SO freaked out.

I *did* read the article linked, and I guess I don't know enough about physics to understand it all, but the collider sounded like a *good* thing, not a doom thing.

It's mostly a joke. I expect that, much like the fears of the first atomic bomb test setting the atmosphere on fire, the fears about the LHC are utterly unfounded.

However, they are trying to recreate the Big Bang (in a way...). There's no potential for anything there to go horribly, horribly wrong. Nope. No chance at all.