Unknowbie

New York to Paris?

Fri, 30 Mar 2007 19:19:22 GMT

Ever wanted to know how to get there but not fly?

i enjoyed "Swim across the Atlantic Ocean 3,462 mi"

Venus to Moon (in only 7 hrs!)

To Hell and back! (890 miles)

Hancocks is going out of business

Mon, 26 Mar 2007 16:13:30 GMT

Hey just for anyone who lives around the Iowa City area, Hancock Fabrics by K-mart is going out of business so all their fabric is on sale. Just thought id give a heads up.

Quote of the Day

Fri, 09 Mar 2007 18:49:26 GMT

Straight from the dean:

"You can't fix stupid!"

CosplayWiki

Fri, 02 Mar 2007 21:06:52 GMT

So i've been making some changes to the wiki, take a look! Added a bunch of tutorials as well.

www.cosplaywiki.org

Ask a Ninja

Fri, 16 Feb 2007 02:45:51 GMT

Here thought you might all find this amusing.

http://askaninja.com/episodes

thanks to calen383 for the link. Ninja Dates is my fav so far.

For all your procrastinators

Sat, 10 Feb 2007 22:25:00 GMT

I ate a fortune cookie today, here is my fortune said:

Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left behind.

Pretty morbid, i hope tomorrow never comes, ive got a shit ton l

Tips for applying for/ finding a job

Mon, 05 Feb 2007 22:21:15 GMT

So it seems that quite a few of my friends are either:
A. Just getting out of college and trying to find their first real job.
or
B. Sick of their current job and trying to find their first real job. ;)

So I thought I would write a bit and talk about the things I did when I was looking for a job.

First and most important before you even start to look for a job is you better have a damn good resume and a cover letter. Why? Because that is what is going to get your foot in the door. That resume and cover letter is all the future employer is going to know about you before you show up for that job interview - so make it look good. I would suggest going out and getting a few books on resume / cover letter tips. I went to the library and picked up 3 or 4 books, and it was very helpful - I suggest you do the same!

ALWAYS send a cover letter with your resume. It will give you a chance to describe what you want and why you think you should get this job. When writing your cover letters have it drip with confidence and wow them. You are also going to want to have one general generic cover letter, but always personalize the cover letter to that specific position. State the position you are applying for in the cover letter and how your experience best fits you for this position. This is your job and why you are perfect for it. Make sure the cover letter and your resume are each 1 page long. Fix the margins so it fits. You are going to end up writing a lot of cover letters because each place you apply to is going to be a bit different, stress something in one, something different in another.

Sign your cover letters with a pen. If you are going to be emailing it, scan in your signature as a black and white image and put it on all your cover letters. Everyone knows it’s not exactly your signature, but works.... If you send your cover letters/resumes out as a PDF most people can’t tell that you didn’t sign it and scan the document.

There are pros and cons for sending your resume out as word documents and PDF files. I always made sure to find out what type/format they would like it in, and in situations where I wasn’t sure I sent both a word doc and a PDF.

When you are using a website like CarreerBuilder or Monster or something like that, you can post your resume on the site if you want, but I was always paranoid people would just farm my information out of it. Feel free to take the risk if you like. When you DO find a job that you like on those sites, don’t go through Monster or CB to submit your resume. Actually go to the employer's website and find out who you need to send it to through that website - unless it actually lists it in the Monster/CB ad, then I would probably send it to them :)

If the job you are applying for isn’t on the company's website but it IS on CB/M website, send it in anyways. Maybe they filled the position, maybe they are interviewing... maybe they are done interviewing and didn’t find anyone who would fit the job. Whatever the case send in your resume anyways, the worst they can say is no, and if they did fill the position they have your resume on file for future jobs.

So you find a job and it sounds super interesting and you are like wow this is the type of job I want! But then you look at the qualifications and it’s like damn, I don’t meet those :(.... Who cares if you don’t meet them, or even come close to meeting most of them? You have to realize that when they list the qualifications for jobs, that those are the qualifications of the perfect person for this job, the idealistic candidate. If they could have everything they wanted in a person who applied for this job, that’s the skills/education/whatever that person would have. Highly unreasonable? of course. But then the business doesn’t care if that person does show up - great they have the perfect person. Most if not all of the candidates who are applying for that position are not going to have all of the educational/skills/experience that are required, and you shouldn't worry about not having all of them as well. You are going to spend months to years looking for a job that you can meet all the qualifications for that is something you want. Go out on the limb and apply for those jobs you don’t meet all the qualifications for. Again the worst they can say is no.

I would always call up the place I submitted my resume/cl to after a week or two if I had not heard back from them and ask if they had received my resume for the position of x, and if they had when could I set up a time to come for the interview. Yeah it sounds a little weird, but it’s showing the people who are hiring that you are interested in this position and you just didn’t send out a million resumes/cl to everywhere hoping to get one of those jobs.

Remember that the cover letter and the resume are just to get your foot in the door, to wow them or at least interests them in yourself, to show them you have what it takes and that you deserve an interview with the company.

Floral Arragements

Tue, 30 Jan 2007 20:14:34 GMT

So one of my projects i wanted to do was put together something for designing flower arragements for the people in the hort building. Here is what i came up with, its just a starter.

http://www.nevermedia.com/swf/arrange.swf

Directions:

Click on the flowers on the left once to add it to the stage area

Click on the flower on the stage once to get the handles to change the height/width/rotate it.
Click & drag on the flower on the stage a second time to move it around/ change the layer order.

Click the flower on the stage and then press the delete button (lower right) to remove it.

What do you think?

==== known problems ===
The vase dosen't have its center in the right spot so it scales really weird.

Ill be adding in tabs for flowers, greens, extras as well as more flowers and such and making it look all around prettier. Took photos for a hour or so today of more flowers i can add in.

Cosplay Wiki

Sun, 14 Jan 2007 23:09:37 GMT

So how about this?

CosplayWiki.org

Transformer the Movie!

Thu, 21 Dec 2006 18:56:51 GMT

http://playlist.yahoo.com/makeplaylist.dll?id=1540534&sdm=web&qtw=480&qth=300

Tue, 19 Dec 2006 20:47:27 GMT

So ive decided to try something different for my next cosplay. Ive been reading a lot about fursuits latley, and i am going to try and build one! Unfortunatly what i want to do is a little more complex than your standard fursuit - what i want to do is make a Quadsuit. Took me a bit to figure out what it was called, but what a quadsuit is, is a fursuit but you would be on all four "legs" instead of walking on two legs. I think i have a good idea on what im going to be doing for the back legs, i just have to figure out how to make the front legs work :) Oh and then i have to mke the head and fur it, and all the other super fun stuff. Ill hopefully have my brother help me sew some of the fur together, but if not ill just glue away! Ill get to learn how to use an airbrush on this one as well, as its something ive alwasy wanted to learn how to do! :P

Tony Vs Paul - another great YouTube video

Tue, 19 Dec 2006 00:59:33 GMT

Cool videos!

Fri, 08 Dec 2006 17:23:11 GMT

So Tap Plastics has a YouTube account where you can learn about making molds! Excellent find, so i thought id share

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=tapplastics

Relationships are like......

Thu, 07 Dec 2006 15:18:41 GMT

"Relationships are like nonlinear discontinuous functions."

Anyone want to take a stab at what this means, because im pretty confused about it.

Wed, 22 Nov 2006 19:04:28 GMT

Kick ass. They said we could leave today at 1. Going back home, and taking the kayak out for a few hours! Its almost 60 here, but the water is still around 42 degrees.... ouch, going to have to wear the wetsuit. Been worrying recently about the water temp, since it IS so cold and id have to drag the kayak back to the shore if i did roll, but thats highly unlikely that it would happen.

Magic Date Ball

Tue, 21 Nov 2006 15:14:28 GMT

Need an idea on what to do for a date? Ask the Magic Date Ball. Just something i threw together.

http://www.nevermedia.com/swf/date.swf

Consoles!

Wed, 15 Nov 2006 15:30:42 GMT

So who else is going to be waiting in line for a PS3 (this friday) and a Wii (this sunday)? Damn you all who got a preorder!

YouTube

Tue, 14 Nov 2006 22:04:23 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ry41RIkqHA

Windows has sunk to a new low

Tue, 07 Nov 2006 15:38:08 GMT

So Jack Black has taken to helping Windows advertise. Check it out:

http://www.tenaciousdmovie.com/rocktheinternet/?id=26029

Youmacon

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 18:07:53 GMT

Yeah darn, it IS Youmacon this weekend isnt it? Damn meetings :( But then again i found out i get to travel more.... yippie DesMoines for 3 days lol. Yeah not very far but gets me out of the office for a few days. Anyways to all you lucky people who ended up getting to go, im jealous. Have fun and get into trouble for me.

Edited Flash Dog

Thu, 21 Sep 2006 20:10:51 GMT

Ok you all have probally seen those "BunnyLabHero" pets on myspace. Well one of my friends isn't going to be getting to keep her dog much longer so i put this together. Just edited it, added some more toys and changed the colors. Nothing all that impressive but was fun to do :)

Now LJ is being a bunghole and saying its not a valid URL, so i dont know what the problem is since the URL isnt going to change, but here is a link for it:

http://www.nevermedia.com/tink.swf

Invalid video URL.

Quick update

Thu, 21 Sep 2006 16:03:07 GMT

So not much is going on new here, though i DID find an RP group i might be joining up with, which is totally cool since i havent had a good RP game in years. Looks like its going to be a fantasy GURPS game, which is a new system to me - i havent ever played it.

On cosplaying i think im going to start taking photos of all the patterns i used for the various different costume pieces i still have laying around, then trace them into vector images and put them online for other people to use.

Eureka Seven

Thu, 21 Sep 2006 03:33:37 GMT

Wow I just got done watching Eureka Seven and I have to say its one of my favorite animes ive seen so far. Everyone should watch it.

Friends

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 06:14:34 GMT

Do you ever just lay awake at night and think, wow ive talked with a lot of people online in the past. I wonder what happend to them all. Some of them just disapeared and ill probally never speak to them again, but ive got memories of them that exist. Along the same lines, when i eventually die (both in real life and in terms of getting a new screen name), i'll just disapear off their lists. Will they wonder the same things about me? Do you ever just want to find those people?

Kayaking

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 06:13:32 GMT

So i just got back from kayaking. Man it alwasy feels good to get out on the river. I put in just off where i turned around on friday. One thing i like about this strech of river is there is part of it where its just trees. You can see some fields behind sometimes, but for the most part its just nature. The other ones ive gone, there is alwasy some aspect of civilization and people. I paddled up river to the coralville damn, had a granola bar and turned around. Before i think i mentioned something about it taking about the same time to go up and down stream. I timed it today, and its about 30% faster to go down stream.

I think with the kayaking im just going to start doing it in segments. Ill paddle up river for about an hour or two, until i find something that stops me that i cant walk around (aka the big dam) or a new put-in point. Then ill turn around and go back. The next time ill start at that new point and just start working my way up the river. Time to go make something for lunch/dinner and clean the kitchen! Well at least do dishes, i need to clean out my car as well. It was helpful to go up this section of river as well, because when i decide to walk up the river, i know what side has the houses and what side doesent, so its all good :)

I need to start taking my camera out more and taking photos while im kayaking. The weather was a bit gloomy, it was slightly misty, but it didnt rain.