Author: Joey deVilla

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It Happened to Me Work

Halifax Coffee and Code This Afternoon – Just Us Cafe on Barrington

Just Us Cafe logoThis afternoon (Wednesday, November 4th) from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Atlantic time, I’ll be holding a Halifax edition of “Coffee and Code” at Just Us Cafe on Barrington (1678 Barrington). My coworkers Damir Bersinic and Rodney Buike will be joining me. Come on down and chat with us about Microsoft, the tech industry in general, the job market, accordions, whatever!

(If you’re a developer who’s interested in building a cloud computing-based application on Windows Azure, you might want to come down for this one, as I might have an offer that you might find difficult to resist. Just sayin’.)

There may be plans for dinner and accordion-and-beer-fueled mayhem this evening, so if you’re into that sort of thing, drop me a line.

This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.

Categories
Life Work

Headline of the Day: “Blockbuster Worker Stabbed Himself in the Leg in a Ploy to Miss Work”

combat knifeThe amount of work people do in order to avoid work never ceases to amaze me. If there’s a prize for this sort of thing, we might have to award it to Aaron Siebers, 27, of Denver, Colorado, a Blockbuster employee who didn’t think that simply calling in sick was enough. Here’s the report from the UK paper The Telegraph:

Facing a night shift at a Blockbuster video store, Aaron Siebers, 27, took a serrated knife and stabbed himself in the leg. For good measure he then slashed his own face and stomach.

Mr Siebers then told the video store in Denver, Colorado, that he had been attacked by three men dressed in black on his way to work.

After stabbing himself, he was hospitalised with a deep puncture wound to his lower leg.

But his ploy sparked a large police manhunt with officers and sniffer dogs combing the streets for his attacker.

CCTV near where the incident was supposed to have taken place showed no attack and, after repeated questioning, Mr Siebers eventually admitted that he had made it up to get out of work.

He has been charged with false reporting and obstructing police.

Categories
Life The Current Situation

I Do Not Think That Word Means What Fox News Thinks It Means

Clipping from Fox News site: "GOP SWEEP: McDonnell cruises to victory in the Virginia gubernatorial race as Christie upsets incumbent Gov. Corzine in New Jersey; Democrat Owens takes closely watched NY congressional seat."

Two out of three races is pretty good, but it’s not a sweep.

Categories
Life

Algoma University’s Unusual Ads

I saw these posters for Algoma University yesterday:

algoma posters

There’s always been an implicit promise of freedom in going away to university, but this is the first time I can recall where it’s been used as an actual selling point.

I don’t think that this campaign is a good idea. Algoma’s got some things going for it – as a techie, I’m aware of their $6 million technology wing and game development courses. I think that any good qualities that Algoma may have are tarnished by these ads’ “Live the dream — No curfews! Dress like a skank!” message. In trying to hit 18 or 19 year-olds yearning to break free from their parents where they live, they’re cheapening the school’s image and the value of an Algoma degree.

What do you think?

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Uncategorized

Headline of the Day: “Police Seek Serial Groin-Kicker”

Beware the Groin Kicker: Woman in pink 1980s Danskins kicking a man dressed for golf in the midsection.

There’s a woman in or around the area of Langley, British Columbia who’s going around kicking men in the groin. One was hurt so badly that one of his testicles had to be removed.

This case will probably spark two types of conversations, editorials and online commentary:

  • One will be some persecution fantasy among men who think we’ve ceded too much ground to women
  • And the other will be that sort of toxic combo of “Too many womyn;s studies courses, too few brain cells” rhetoric along the lines of…

Woman from "SuperFriends": "I think it's empowering!"

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Uncategorized

Very True

Here’s a piece by the artist known as 9 0 0 0 that I rather like:

No one ever takes a photograph of something they want to forget

You can see the original (and more) in 9 0 0 0’s Flickr photostream.

Categories
It Happened to Me

Halifax Bound

halifaxTechDays, Microsoft’s cross-Canada conference for developers and IT pros took a break in October, but returns in November to complete its tour of the five remaining cities. As leader of one of the conference tracks it means that I’ll be on the road, hitting these five cities over the next couple of months:

  • Halifax: November 2nd and 3rd
  • Calgary: November 17th and 18th
  • Montreal: December 2nd and 3rd
  • Ottawa: December 9th and 10th
  • Winnipeg: December 15th and 16th

If you’re a programmer or IT pro who works with Microsoft tools and technologies or is thinking about doing so, you’d do well to check out TechDays. You can find out more at the TechDays site, or you can always drop me a line.

If you’re in Halifax and would like to catch up, I’ll be holding a Coffee and Code at Just Us Cafe (1678 Barrington) on Wednesday, November 4th from 2 to 6 p.m. Come by, have a coffee and a chat!

I’ll be landing in Halifax this weekend, and chances are I might be looking to do something on Saturday night…

This article also appears in Coffee and Code.
Related articles appear in Canadian Developer Connection and Global Nerdy.