Today was a jobbe faire. How depressing. A political science major like myself has to basically sell on the points that aren't so strong, namely, "I know UNIX" and "I speak Russian." More info on being dissed by VeriSign below, along with sightings of celeb look-alikes and books.

I had some good handball earlier today. In an actual game, a ball came to me and I hit it hard and far enough to score a point for my team! I like this game inordinately, at least in some measure disproportionate to my skill.

Russian wasn't bad, either. I may even be the star of the class right now, probably since I lived in Russia with Russians over the summer. So I feel as though my possible superiority "doesn't count," although of course it affects me regardless of its causes. (Actually doing the homework helps too.)

I had a fun lunch with Alexei at Tako Sushi. Then -- thinking about the awful fact that I have to find a job, come May.

So I printed up 31 resumes and went to Ye Olde Jobbe Faire, where the phrase I most often heard was "we're looking for engineers right now." I dropped off some resumes and got some free stuff. I told the Amazon flack that I wouldn't work for Amazon because of the one-click patent (not giving him a chance to first say that he wouldn't hire me because there are no openings for the likes of me).

But the biggest deal was the VeriSign dis.

There were two women at the table, and they should have just said, "You're not what we're looking for, sorry." But instead they made nice-nice, and then, as I was walking away from the table and they thought my back was turned, one said to the other, "Yeah, she doesn't fit at all."

I was stung! They should have just played it straight from the start. I said to her, "I'm sorry about that," and continued walking away.

I really shouldn't dwell on this. I probably wouldn't work at VeriSign anyway, even to try and fix what's wrong with them from the inside. But it certainly helped my non-enthusiastic mood during Russian History later that day.

I don't even know what I'm necessarily looking for in a job, much less a career. Anyone got a suggestion of a career or job that I might like and probably have not considered?

Odd sightings. In the past two days, I've seen a fellow who looks a lot like Detective Munch's character from Homicide (the dead NBC drama) and a guy who looked like a mad Bob Newhart.

And I've seen, in the past week or so, in three different incidents, three different people reading The Godfather by Mario Puzo. Is this an Oprah Book Club selection? Is it because the 30th Anniversary edition just came out? Why?

---

Originally published by Sumana Harihareswara at http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2001/9/5/181959/2033