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writing about writing
Jan. 6th, 2012 10:08 amWow, I guess I really fell down on my "thousand words a day" ideal. On the other hand, I did a bunch of work on my novel yesterday, and I'm almost done with the first draft. I posted to my writing circle about it over on G+, so I don't really see any need to repost that here. Suffice it to say that I should finish soon, but it's WAY too short and sketchy, so I'm going to spend some time really fleshing it out and see where that leaves me.
recruiters not to love
Mar. 11th, 2011 06:28 pmThis was originally posted in my professional blog.
Okay, I promise this blog is really about Infosec, not about social issues. But something happened today, and I think I really need to talk about it. I'm going to post it here but also crosspost and link to it elsewhere, because I think it's really important.
I'm looking for a new position at the moment. Looking for a new position in Infosec is not a slam-dunk at the best of times, but the field is so awesome that in my opinion, it really pays off. That said, I will be feeling much happier when I start a new job, because then I can feed my family and we can have insurance and all those other things that people like to have.
Today a recruiter in Connecticut contacted me about doing some contracting in Hartford. I live nowhere near there, and I'm not about to move, but I do have family around that area, so I could imagine making this work.
He told me that he'd offer me X amount. X would have been great, except that it came with no bennies, which made it a good deal less than my most recent position. So I told him that for Y amount where Y was 30K more than X, I'd talk, and I added "a girl's gotta eat."
So far, so good, right? I'm looking at a job that I would really enjoy, at a nice rate, in an geographical area that I wouldn't hate. I am all ready to talk to this guy so that I can begin making my Infosec magic again. Whee! A job.
He sent me back an email agreeing to the rate. I was just about to be really happy when I scrolled down a little and saw the really horrendous picture he'd attached to his email. Except that I use gmail, so the picture was inline, where I could not avoid seeing it.
The picture was of a girl in her teens or maybe 20's...well, really, it's hard to tell, because the only part of her face that you can see is her mouth. She's half naked; she's wearing a tank top but it's pulled way up. Her lower body is....pretty much all bones. I mean, basically, she's a rib cage and hip bones and...organs...I guess. Her navel is pierced.
I saw this picture in my email and I stopped breathing. I really did. I started to gasp like you do when you're having an asthma attack, a phenomenon with which I am not unacquainted. Everything left my mind except the horror of this picture, which I will not visit upon you because of what it did to me. I will tell you, though, that he apparently found it on mywits.com, which is a site for funny pictures.
This picture wasn't funny. I only skimmed the site but I didn't actually see any pictures on it that I thought were funny, only pictures that appeared to be objectifying.
When I was able to breathe, I went looking for his recruiting company online. I tried to call the general number but nobody answered. So I sent him email asking him to have his supervisor call me. Instead, he called me. I asked to speak to his supervisor. He asked me what was wrong, and I told him that I was very offended by that picture and I wanted to speak to his supervisor or someone in HR.
He started to freak out and promise me that he just thought it was funny, that he sends "funny" pictures all the time, that I said "a girl's gotta eat" so he was sending me a picture of a girl who apparently didn't, and on and on and on. He was obviously so upset that I finally just said "I'm letting it go at this." That didn't stop him from apologizing though, and he went on and on and on some more.
Finally I just said, "Thank you very much. I am no longer interested in the position," and I hung up. Gradually, I stopped shaking. I took a long breath, the first in over 30 minutes, and I started working on this article.
Do I feel that I shot myself in the foot, by refusing to play nice and agree that it was funny? Hell to the no. Two years ago, I was doing contract work for another company for the DOE. I sat in an office, staffed with government workers and contractors, and I listened to them spew hate speech about a woman they worked with, and about a foreign national, and I didn't say a word. I am talking about really offensive language here, folks, not just "she's a bitch" or "he has brown skin". I didn't say a word because I needed the job. You know what? No job is worth putting up with that, even if it's not directed at me.
This stuff is not funny, no matter where you get it from. Anorexia is a disease that kills people, not something to make fun of. Emailing pictures of half-naked women to business associates is not appropriate no matter what your reasoning. I can't apply for a position under these circumstances because I will not WORK under these circumstances, and I'm ashamed that I ever did.
I am not going to reveal the name of this recruiter or his company. My guess is that he is young and inexperienced, and he really thought it was funny. In my experience, when I've told a man that his behavior offends me and he apologizes almost to the point of tears like that, he really means it (and I hate to say this, but my usual experience is that instead, the man tells me that there's something wrong with me for reacting negatively). Perhaps I'm just naive, but I think I'd rather stay that way than believe that the guy might have gotten off the phone and laughed his head off with his co-workers about it.
I didn't insist on speaking to his supervisor (and by the way, he didn't refuse, he just wanted to apologize first), because of that feeling that he was really sincere. But I did tell him that I couldn't imagine anyone thinking that the picture was funny, and I told him never, ever to do that again.
And now I think I'm gonna have a drink because...DAMN.
over the bounding main
Mar. 10th, 2011 03:42 pmWell, I wrote only 942 words today, but on the other hand, I wrote almost 1200 yesterday on the same piece (my novel), so I am not going to worry about it.
I've actually got a couple of pieces in my head for my professional blog, so I may pause and work on them for the next day or so. I also know exactly where the next chapter of my book is going, so that makes me really happy.
the writing i'm doing
Mar. 9th, 2011 06:16 pmCommitting to writing 1,000 words a day is probably the smartest thing I have done in a while. Yesterday I wrote an entry in my professional blog, and today I wrote 1,000 of Chapter 9 of the novel I'm working on. I'm feeling quite productive.
I'm hoping that I can stick with this commitment even when the writing is not flowing from my fingers, as it's been doing the last couple of days. Writing is one of my favorite things to do, and I think I do it well.
I'm hoping that I can stick with this commitment even when the writing is not flowing from my fingers, as it's been doing the last couple of days. Writing is one of my favorite things to do, and I think I do it well.
1,000 words a day?
Mar. 7th, 2011 07:47 pmSo I made a commitment today, sort of like a New Year's resolution, except that it's not New Year's. My commitment was to write at least 1,000 day. My private agreement with myself is that these words can be fiction or nonfiction but it cannot be in my LiveJournal, which is essentially my friends-only diary. By extension that also means it can't be in my private journal (on my own site) either. It should be pretty obvious that tweets or Facebook posts don't count either -- in other words, it has to be something creative.
But it can be writing about writing, and to that end I finally got around to using this DW account I'd created late last year. I've decided to make this my journal for writing about writing. I already have a "creative" journal, but that's ended up to really be more for posting about what I've done lately ("Look! New Socks!") and less for the thought process that goes into that creation. And anyway, writing is really different from the other creative things I do. It's less of an expression of a single thought than an expression of a series of thoughts, if you will.
As readers of my LJ and FB know, I'm currently between jobs. This ought to mean a creative explosion for me, especially writing wise, but instead it's meant an explosion of World of Warcraft, my favorite time sink. There's nothing wrong with the game, or any game, per se, but if it's all I'm doing then that's a problem. So I've made a few commitments to doing things that are good for me before I'm "allowed" to play games, and one of those things, as I've said, is to write 1,000 words on any subject.
I have two major writing projects. The first is the urban fantasy novel I'm working on. This novel actually grew out of role playing gaming, and while it's the second time I've attempted to write about these particular characters, I was never really serious about it until an author and his publisher told me that I should really consider working up the vignette I'd submitted to their workshop into a book. Unfortunately, I get distracted easily, so at this point, I have only just finished Chapter 8. I have no idea if what I've written so far, because nobody will actually critique my writing. (Note to self: re-activate writing group.) (This is hilarious, btw. I didn't create my writing group, Mighty Pens, just so people would critique <em>my</em> writing, but I did hope that it'd get read and maybe <em>somebody</em> in the group would. )
The second major writing project is my professional blog, Black Cats and Smoke and Mirrors. When I say "professional" I mean that it's (mostly) about information security. The posts there are not nerdy in particular; they are more thought and commentary filled. But again, I have not been posting there all that much, and I should, because I have a lot to say. In particular, I have a lot to say right now, so there should be something there in the next day or two (depending on how long it takes me to outline and then write the article I have in mind).
So I can write 1000 words on my book, or I can write 1000 words on a blog or combination of blogs other than my LJ, and that will satisfy my commitment to write a thousand words a day. Today, however, does not count because of how destroyed I am today. I'm starting this tomorrow, so I am not too upset that this post is only 609 words.
But it can be writing about writing, and to that end I finally got around to using this DW account I'd created late last year. I've decided to make this my journal for writing about writing. I already have a "creative" journal, but that's ended up to really be more for posting about what I've done lately ("Look! New Socks!") and less for the thought process that goes into that creation. And anyway, writing is really different from the other creative things I do. It's less of an expression of a single thought than an expression of a series of thoughts, if you will.
As readers of my LJ and FB know, I'm currently between jobs. This ought to mean a creative explosion for me, especially writing wise, but instead it's meant an explosion of World of Warcraft, my favorite time sink. There's nothing wrong with the game, or any game, per se, but if it's all I'm doing then that's a problem. So I've made a few commitments to doing things that are good for me before I'm "allowed" to play games, and one of those things, as I've said, is to write 1,000 words on any subject.
I have two major writing projects. The first is the urban fantasy novel I'm working on. This novel actually grew out of role playing gaming, and while it's the second time I've attempted to write about these particular characters, I was never really serious about it until an author and his publisher told me that I should really consider working up the vignette I'd submitted to their workshop into a book. Unfortunately, I get distracted easily, so at this point, I have only just finished Chapter 8. I have no idea if what I've written so far, because nobody will actually critique my writing. (Note to self: re-activate writing group.) (This is hilarious, btw. I didn't create my writing group, Mighty Pens, just so people would critique <em>my</em> writing, but I did hope that it'd get read and maybe <em>somebody</em> in the group would. )
The second major writing project is my professional blog, Black Cats and Smoke and Mirrors. When I say "professional" I mean that it's (mostly) about information security. The posts there are not nerdy in particular; they are more thought and commentary filled. But again, I have not been posting there all that much, and I should, because I have a lot to say. In particular, I have a lot to say right now, so there should be something there in the next day or two (depending on how long it takes me to outline and then write the article I have in mind).
So I can write 1000 words on my book, or I can write 1000 words on a blog or combination of blogs other than my LJ, and that will satisfy my commitment to write a thousand words a day. Today, however, does not count because of how destroyed I am today. I'm starting this tomorrow, so I am not too upset that this post is only 609 words.
