Seen on Queen Street West yesterday:
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Tucows Job Fair This Saturday!
My old workplace, Tucows, is holding a job fair this Saturday here in Toronto. They’re looking for customer service representatives and tech support analysts to join the herd. Tucows is a great palce to work — I worked there for four and a half years as their Technical Evangelist, racking up a lot of valuable experience working with great coworkers and customers.
The job fair takes place this Saturday, March 29th, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Tucows offices at 96 Mowat Avenue (off King Street West, a block east of Dufferin). It’s an opportunity to talk one-on-one with the customer service and tech support managers and find out more about the company, as well as a chance to tell them what you could bring to Tucows.
- What to bring
- Tips on how to “ace” the job fair
- A video featuring Sherry Azim, who’s in charge of recruiting
- A “top ten” list of reasons to join Tucows
If you’re looking for a job at a successful tech company and you think you can fill a tech support or customer service rep role, go to the Tucows job fair this Saturday, and tell them Joey sent you!
Farewell, Aaron
It’s official: Aaron Brazell, the Director of Technology for b5media (where I hold the title of Nerd Wrangler), is leaving to pursue other projects. When he joined the company, it was a startup literally operating out of a garage and running on shared hosting. We’re now a blog network of over 300 blogs with a total of 10 million unique pageviews per month. I’ve worked with him for a mere three weeks — and one of those was spent at the South by Southwest Interactive conference — but he’s a solid guy, and his skills are evident in his work and the high regard in which he is held.
Here’s an excerpt from his “farewell” post in his blog, Technosailor:
It’s been a great ride, but now it’s time to look forward and explore new territory. Recently, through my interactions with so many wonderful people in the DC technology community, the PodCamp community, the larger social media, business and technology communities, my appetite for something new and challenging has been overwhelming. I’ve had several conversations with Jeremy Wright, our CEO, over the past months exploring this stuff and he has been amazingly supportive, as has the rest of the b5media team.
An exact date has not been set, as I want to make sure a replacement is found and brought up to speed, however it will probably be within the next couple of months.
Hello…You?
With Aaron’s departure comes a job opening for a new Director of Technology. Could it be you?
Here are some points on the position:
- You must either live in or be willing to relocate to Toronto. If you have to relocate, b5 will cover the relocation costs.
- We’re looking for an intermediate- to senior-level developer who’s worked on customer-facing web applications and properties.
- Our systems run on the LAMP stack and WordPress.
- b5media is a startup, so you’d have to be comfortable working in a startup environment. We work hard, but we play hard too!
- We’re a blog network, so we need someone who’s passionate about blogging.
- You’ll be leading a team of techies working both locally (in Toronto) as well as remotely.
- Super-duper bonus: you’ll also be working closely with me, as I’m the tech project manager!
Here’s what Jeremy Wright, b5’s CEO, has to say:
End of the day, we hire smart people who like to have fun and really want to build great stuff that tens of millions of people are going to see. The challenges for this year are significant, but so is the opportunity. In fact, by this time next year, this individual will be leading a team of 15-20 folk building some of the most widely used tools in the blogging world.
If you’ve got questions about the job or b5, feel free to email me, but I also strongly recommend that you also email Jeremy (after all, he’s the CEO). We’re looking to fill this position as quickly as possible — if you think you’re our Director of Technology, let us know!
Photo by Sean Galbraith.
A couple of days ago, Sean Galbraith was cleaning out his parents’ house and came across his mom’s old Hohner Verdi IV accordion. She told him that it had one oiwner prior to her and she believes it’s from the early 1960s. She hasn’t played it in about 15 years and suggested that Sean find a good home for it. Sean sent me an email asking if I’d like to adopt it, and without hesitation, I said “YES!”
I dropped by Sean’s place last night to pick up the Hohner. I brought a pair of accordion straps, which was a good thing, as the original straps have long since worn away to almost nothing. I gave the accordion a test play and Sean took some photos, two which are shown here.
Photo by Sean Galbraith.
The accordion has a single set of reeds (no switches) and a full 120 bass buttons (which provide two rows of bass notes, major, minor 7th and diminished chords). All the keys and buttons seem to work, and I’ve been able to get decent volume out of it. Although it needs tuning — it has been lying dormant for 15 years, after all — it has that Hohner sound. I need to book some time to take it up to Caringi Accordion House in Woodbridge and have Mr. Caringi give it a tune-up.
The Hohner’s going to be an excellent addition to my collection. Sean, once again I’d like to thank you for thinking of me when you found the accordion. Rest assured, it’s found a home where it’ll be loved…and played!
Just So You Know….
Just as Big Gay Al has a gay animal sanctuary (see the Big Gay Al’s Big Gay Boat Ride episode of South Park for the whole story), I have a sanctuary for accordions…gay or straight.
Categories
Metronauts!
Last year’s TransitCamp — an unconference where both citizens interested in Toronto transit as well as Toronto Transit Commission people could meet and discuss ideas and solutions — was not only a success; it also spawned a number of spin-offs, including similar conferences in San Francisco and Vancouver.
This year, TransitCamp returns under a new name, Metronauts, and in a couple of forms:
- Metronauts Transit Camp (Saturday, April 5th): Once again, it’s a gathering where you don’t just attend; you also set the agenda and participate actively in the sessions. Unlike last year, this unconference isn’t limited in topic to just Toronto public transit, but all forms of getting around Toronto and surrounding areas. If you travel in and around Toronto, we want your input! Remember, this gathering isn’t about complaints, it’s a brainstorming sessions for ideas that Metrolinx (the body formerly known as the Greater Toronto Transportation Authority) will take into consideration.
- The Metronauts Site: A site whose purpose to foster discussions about getting around Toronto and surrounding areas, whether by public transit, walking, bicycle, private vehicle and so on.
I’ll be posting about Metronauts from time to time, especially with Metronauts Transit Camp coming up soon. Watch this space!
Additional Reading
- Toronto Star: ‘Camps’ aim to get ideas flowing
- BlogTO: Metronauts Transit Camp Site Goes Live
The Ginger Ninja and I visited Ding Dong Pastries and Cafe (in Chinatown, at 321 Spadina Avenue, just south of Baldwin) this weekend and were stunned by the prices: most of the single-serving cakes and buns are priced between 60 and 80 cents. We picked up a sesame ball, two tall “paper cup cakes” (sponge cakes baked in a paper cylinder about twice the height of your typical cupcake) and a butter cake loaf, and all they wanted in exchange were $2.50. Wendy liked the sesame ball, the paper cup cakes were light and airy and reminded me of the Filipino cake called mamon and the butter cake loaf was downright delicious. They also have a number of savoury pastries, from the tradition Chinese cha siu bao (in the Philippines, we call them siopao) to spam-and-egg buns to two-bite chicken pies, all selling for under a buck.
Ding Dong seems to reflect the new aesthetic that Asian stores like T&T supermarkets are trying out: they’re actually sweating presentation and appearance and doing a good job of keeping the aisles clean. (I hate to come down on my Asian peeps, but c’mon guys — if we can do calculus and kick ass at Dance Dance Revolution, we can pick up a mop every now and again!) I expect to be a regular customer — in fact, I might grab my lunch from Ding Dong today.
Categories
Sex Scandal Cheat Sheet
Since it’s going to be a hellzapoppin’ election year in the United States, it’s likely that we haven’t seen the last of the political sex scandals as each candidate’s team is probably digging up dirt on the opposition. You might find Matt Bors’ little cheat sheet below handy…
Comic by Matt Bors.
Click the comic to see it on its original page.
Also funny: In the current Matt Bors comic, the question is asked: “Is Jesus H. Christ’s middle name ‘Hussein’?”
