Are you friggin' kidding me?

A few days ago I was asked to sit on a panel in Dallas as part of the 'wrap-up' for the training that has brought me to Texas. I was flattered to be one of five participants to provide my insights in front of my firm's sales and marketing team and readily agreed.

However, I was irritated tonight when two of the panelists who are a bit more of the "cheerleader" variety sent an email suggesting we practice a serenade complete with some basic choreography (think Glee) for the leadership team and audience. Now to be fair, through out the day videos were included with actors performing numbers similar to what you would see in Glee so I understand how they arrived at this idea.

I am greatly irritated that this (overly enthusiastic) suggestion was broadcast so unexpectedly with little room for a graceful exit, and more than a bit distressed to read the email from the head of Sales (the gentleman leading the panel) saying "Fantastic". After reading his email I sent a carefully worded email requesting that maybe I should not join the panel. Let's see what happens.

FML (you can Google that acronym if you're not familiar).

Google, Matthew Epstein wants you to hire him

Its no secret that a lot of very talented people are currently looking for work. It also doesn't take a rocket scientist for people to recognize that half the game is being able to differentiate yourself from others. However, there is a very fine line between thinking outside-the-box and creatively identifying ways to get the attention of a potential employer.

Matthew Epstein appears to understands how to walk that fine line with his website http://www.googlepleasehire.me/ and video. Together I think they are equal parts genious and hilarious. Tailored perfectly to Google's quirky personality but professional enough to warrant a closer look, it appears that Matthew's request for "one phone call and 15 minutes" of Google's time has paid off (sort of). Google did contact Matthew but asked him to go through the standard hiring process, which apparently he's fine with doing.

Who knows how this might end, but I'm cheering on Matthew and the millions of others out there right now looking for work.

Thanks Tim for sharing this with me.

I'm a lucky S.O.B.

I rarely talk about my work, because I think that there are so many more interesting things to discuss. However, every once in awhile I feel the need to share. Because I work from home, my work hours can be somewhat unorthodox. However, I recognize that there are many people who have longer and more demanding days no matter how chaotic my week may be.

I have to admit that I also think that I do a very good job of disengaging from work and managing my down time. So today when I received a notice from my firm's HR department regarding my vacation time I was wondering if I'd incorrectly filled out my time for the 4th of July holiday.

Imagine my surprise when upon reading the email I was receiving a notice asking me to consider taking more vacation time because I had maxed out the amount of vacation hours I was allowed to bank. According to the email, I need to schedule time off otherwise I'll stop accruing vacation time. The email went on to describe how having a healthy work-life balance is important and I should speak to my manager about scheduling time away from the office.

I suppose the email came right in a nick of time. One week from today, I will be taking a few days to enjoy more fun in Provincetown. I also have a week's vacation time scheduled for the second week of August.

I'm a lucky S.O.B.

My stay at Fairmont San Francisco

I spent much of last week at the Fairmont San Francisco on Nob Hill. Not a bad place to call home if you ask me. I was lucky enough to get a beautiful room with a fantastic view from the 21st story overlooking much of the city and San Francisco Bay. I posted some of the views that greeted me each morning in previous posts.

What I did not show was the box (made completely out of chocolate) and the delicious handmade chocolate truffles that were inside it. The tray with chocolates was accompanied by a lovely bottle of red wine and was delivered to my room shortly after checking in. If the Fairmont was trying to make me feel special - I would have to say that they succeeded in making it one of the most memorable arrivals to a hotel. I was still taking in the beautiful views of my room and wondering how I was going to be productive with such a distraction when I was greeted by this delicious treat. If you're a traveler and would like to read my review of my stay at the Fairmont San Francisco, you can read it on TripAdvisor here.

I'd be remiss if I did not thank Lucas in the Fairmont business office for all his help and going the extra mile to make my stay so relaxing. It was certainly appreciated.

Fairmont San Francisco

I arrived in San Francisco earlier this afternoon and have checked into the Fairmont which is a beautiful hotel located on Nob Hill. This beautiful property was built in the late 1870s and the hotel exterior and lobby exude all the charm and elegance one would attribute to that age.

I was lucky to get upgraded to the 21st floor. The pictures below provide glimpses of my view of the San Francisco bay. The first image shows Coit Tower and the second is the iconic Golden Gate Bridge off in the distance.
I'll include a review of the hotel and the service after I return to Boston and will post it on my TripAdvisor account.

Off to San Francisco

Work rarely takes me away from home for more than a day, but tomorrow (Wednesday) I leave for San Francisco. I'm using the opportunity to extend my stay through the weekend to visit with friends.

I was in San Francisco last summer for work, but the trip was a blur. I arrived in the evening and flew out the following day before lunch. This trip will afford me the opportunity to enjoy the city and get caught up with friends. I will be staying at the Fairmont San Francisco for the conference that is bringing me to California. This is a charming property that is fairly central. After the conference I will head over to my friend's Sean and David where they have offered to host me in their Castro Apartment. I'm really looking forward to seeing them and my good friend Jeff.

I don't anticipate having much time to blog, but I will be tweeting on my account, twitter.com/BosGuy.

Quick Update Just got upgraded by the Fairmont thanks to my tweets about travel. One more reason I love Twitter.

Overheard at work today...

I rarely talk about work on my blog because I don't think anyone would find it particularly interesting, but today I was privy to a conversation that had me in stitches. Without going into too much detail, a dialog between a small group resulted the most junior member delivering an absolute zinger.

I should predicate this, by sharing this was a virtual meeting that took place via conference call with all parties dialing in to meet. At one point, a senior manager pushed back on a more junior member (while the request was not unreasonable, it was clearly something the senior member should be managing).

After being asked to manage the task in question the more junior member said with amazing sincerity "that type of responsibility is beyond my pay scale." -OUCH-

Perhaps if you don't work as I do with most of your meetings over the phone you cannot appreciate the type of vacuum this creates with everyone simultaneously gasping then hitting mute on their phone so they can laugh in private and not appear unprofessional. Maybe the story won't translate as hoped, but it still has me in stitches while I type this.

Heading to Dallas

Work is sending me to Dallas later this week for one night. I have only been a handful of times, and I have to say that I'm not a fan (no disrespect intended for those who call it home).

The business reason that is bringing me to Dallas is pretty cool so I'm happy to go (getting away from the chilly weather is also a plus).

I'm also looking forward to connecting with a few people who work in our Dallas office; time permitting.

NYC-bound

No posting til the end of the week. Work is sending me to New York City for a couple of days. However, I'll be tweeting as I go so follow me on the twitter-sphere, twitter.com/BosGuy.

OMG

So I am having one of those weeks where I looked up thinking it was still Tuesday, was praying that it was Friday and was stunned to see it was Thursday.

Holy crap time is flying. I know much of this is driven by work, as we squeeze as much as we can into the few weeks that remain before the holiday season is in full swing.

But I can't seem to wrap my head around the fact that Thanksgiving is in two weeks. I felt like I was just blogging about coming back from Carnival Week in Provincetown, and now its dark by 5pm and I have the heat on at night.

Anyone else feeling this way?

W Midtown in Atlanta

I was able to take a break from the rain and cool temperatures in Boston because work took me down to Atlanta. I was booked into the W Midtown. The hotel bar last night became better looking (and more gay) as the evening progressed.

I lived in Atlanta in the early and mid-90s and moved back to Boston shortly after the Olympics. This was my first visit back to my former home and I was totally disoriented by all the changes in Midtown. However, one constant I noticed - the guys. This is still the section of town you'd want to stay if you are gay and looking to go out for fun. Just be sure you have plenty of cash and patience. Taxi drivers are nearly impossible to find and none of them seem to take credit cards.

Running thru Penn Station half naked & Ptown

My week started with work bringing me to NYC and has ended early (today) with me leaving for Provincetown on the morning ferry. Work kept me busy but I did manage to step out on Tuesday night and grab a drink at Monster Bar. Catching the 5pm Acela back to Boston on Wednesday night proved to be filled with drama. I had to race to catch my train half-undressed. I won't go into details because it would take too long but suffice it to say, running thru Penn Station half undressed is not a great way to end your work day.

This is likely to be my last visit of the summer to the tip of the Cape. This is Carnival Week and today is the Parade so the excitement on the ferry is palpable; people can not get there fast enough. This year's theme is jungle fantasy and Margaret Cho & Bruce Vilanch are the parade's Grand Marshalls.

I'll be offline for the rest of the week. When I return home early next week I'll be sure to post pictures from the parade today. Past visits to Ptown this summer can be viewed / read here.

Heading to Philadelphia for the day

On Tuesday, August 3rd I'll find myself in the city of brotherly love for an all day meeting; sadly leaving me no time for love.

Acela

I have to head to NYC for an afternoon meeting on Friday, which means I'll be hopping on Acela.  I prefer train travel when going between NYC and Boston.  There are far fewer hassles, it is less likely to be delayed and there is so much more space to stretch out.  I do wish they could upgrade the rails to make the journey pass more quickly, but I don't complain because I feel lucky that I have this as an option.  Have you used Amtrak's high-speed railway (otherwise known as Acela)? 

Sadly, I'll only be in NYC for a few hours so there won't be any opportunity to enjoy the city.

Work is bringing me back to the west coast for the second time this month.  I fly in on Tuesday and then back home to Boston on Wednesday so there won't be any time to visit West Hollywood.

I've just booked a return visit to Provincetown and will be heading there after I return from Los Angeles to spend the 4th of July weekend there. 

One night in San Francisco

I have to say that I had a great day in San Francisco and despite being a few years since my last visit, this city still feels like a second home. Despite being a 'business trip', I did spend part of the afternoon and the evening with my friend, Jeff, who lives in SF.  I snapped the photo of Coit Tower (to the left) while on his roofdeck before we stepped out for a long walk.

Later, we had a nice dinner down the street from his house before heading out for a few drinks in the Castro (ToddX I have to say I kept my eye out to see if by coincidence I might see you strolling by on Market with an iced-tea in hand).  We walked around the "hood" for a bit continuing to talk as we always do about everything and nothing all at the same time before going to Trigger on Market.  They were having some sort of event so we walked around for a bit before ending up at Badlands (Steve - I thought of you upon entering since you commented in an earlier post about heading there.)  Here are a couple of photos from the evening in The Castro - sorry there aren't more but it t'was a work night and I left early.

The iconic Castro Theater:

Two friendly Brazilians at Badlands:

Off to San Francisco

Leaving Tuesday for a quick trip to one of my favorite cities.  Too bad I'll spend more time in airports and on planes than San Francisco.  Be back in Boston on Wednesday night.

My firm was hit by a computer virus this afternoon.

Oy...how does my IT dept. spell headache?

V-I-R-U-S

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I spent much of Friday adding content to Wikipedia from a handful of recent studies my firm had published. I'd never done this before - usually I'm the one looking something up on Wiki.  After a slow start trying to figure out how to accurately cite studies and make all the links work, it flowed pretty quickly.  All told I was able to help increase content in an area of study in medicine / healthcare that is quite hot but had suprisingly little published. (Here's a hint about the subject.)

The mar/comm geek in me really thought the entire exercise was pretty cool. It's another great way to build credibility, distribute findings from our reports and leverage new forms of media that were not previously available when I started my career in marketing.  It makes me wonder why I don't see more of our competitors doing this?

 

Wikipedia on Wikipedia
Wikipedia ( /ˌwɪkɪˈpiːdi.ə/ or /ˌwɪkiˈpiːdi.ə/ WIK-i-PEE-dee-ə) is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its name is a portmanteau from wiki (a technology for creating collaborative websites, from the Hawaiian word wiki, meaning "quick") and encyclopedia (from ancient Greek meaning "the circle of arts and sciences").

Recruiters are reading your Facebook page

A report compiled by Microsoft in late 2009 reports that 79% of hiring managers and job recruiters surveyed in the US reviewed online information about job applicants last year and a large majority said that what they find online impacts their hiring considerations. 70% of hiring managers in the study indicated that they had rejected candidates based on what they had found.  To this I say, "Oy-vey". You can download and read through the nearly 90 slide global study from Microsoft by linking here.