Fan To Pro - The Blog of Professional Geekery

Know Your Rights

With the exception of my last installment of “Beyond the Loading Screen,” this is my last post for 2011.  If there's one big thing I learned this year, it's this: Know your rights.  Know your rights and defend them.

When you get a job, especially if you’re a young person working at entry level, your employers may try to take advantage of you.  Don’t let them.  Do a web search of what workers in your country/state/province are entitled to - the government’s official site should be the first hit on most search engines - and read.  There are rules set up to protect you.  Learn them. 

This applies to anyone at any job, but it is especially important for geeks.  There’s this sense that since you’re working towards your dream job that you’re asking too much for your rights to be upheld too.  We get the idea that there are sacrifices that must be made.

I Don't Have The Time

I’ve recently run into a little problem in my job search.  It’s a worrying trend, akin to refusing to hire someone unless they already have a job.  There are a number of places I’ve applied where they want me to make a commitment to them, regardless of whether the job is being offered or not.  Now, objectively, if I’m not working for them (yet), then how I spend my time is none of their business.  If I need to spend my time working at another job, or looking for another job, they’ve got to understand that.  Especially in the case where they are only offering minimum wage or commissions-based part-time work, they can’t expect that I’m not going to keep looking for something supplemental.

Launch or Be Lunch, Day 1 - AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!!: Last Minute Doublechecking

Give me just a second.  I need to get something off my chest.

Launch or Be Lunch, Day 15 - Con-Tro-Ver-Sy! (Cue the Prince Music!)

Today we're going to talk about controversy in comics and webcomics, why it can be good and why it can turn around and bite you.  Hard.

Warning: this topic really will likely offend, so if you're the sensitive type, I'm not going to be offended if you skip it.  But if you're willing to chug on, then let's get started.

Launch or Be Lunch, Day 16 - Inspiration is Where You Get It (or Something Like That)

Ah, insipiration, that fickle inspiring inspirative that inspires inspiration.  Yeah, whatever.

The fact is, most of us tend to get our inspiration from what we're exposed to the most.  If you read books, books are your inspiration.  If you watch TV, you get it there.  If you're a cinephile, most of your works will have a cinematic quality.  If you're an otaku, guess what?

Well, I'm here to give you yet another bit of information that will likely annoy the crap out of you and earn me yet more hatred and contempt (just performing a public service, folks!) from all my potential fans.

Stop.  Stop what you're doing now and Get Your Own Damn Idea.

Launch or Be Lunch, Day 17 - Originality is SO Original, Part 2: Composition is Not a Crime

Aaaaaaand we're back.  Yesterday, we talked about the concepts of originality vs. unoriginality, and why unoriginality isn't rated high enough or that originality is overrated; in the end, it's how you treate the unoiriginality in an unoriginal manner.  In a sense, it's like the concept of Fair Use in copyright: it's the transformative and new meaning to the source that counts.

And now it's time to get into that little shibboleth. Hang on to your pens and pencils, boys and girls, because what I'm about to say is probably going to turn a few heads at best and floor people at worst.  Also, because I could go forever on the subject and all its different permutations, I'm only going to stick to how it related to manga and comics; I'll acknowledge that it happens all too often in other media and others can cover that better than I can.  

So with that, let's get started.

Launch or Be Lunch, Day 19 - Copyleft, Copycenter, Copyright!

Okay, you knew I was going to get to this sooner or later.  Intellectual Property.  You probably hate it.  You may have pirated some anime or MP3s or something in the past.  You might even be a card-carrying member of the Pirate Bay.  Well, it's time to talk copyright, and time to turn you into, at best, a copyright advocate; at worst, into a hypocrite.  So, let's begin, shall we?

Launch or Be Lunch, Day 22 - Fonts, Part 1: Comic Sans MUST DIE

Okay, for today's little lesson, I'm going to be sending you to another site.  Yeah, really.  I want you to go here, look it over, and then come back.  No worries, we'll be right here when you return. 

Okay, for those of you who are convinced, you can just skip the next sentence.  For those of you who still think Comic Sans is a whimsical, cute font, read this, then meet me after the jump.

In Which I Fear I Was Wrong About HR

So as you've managed to guess if you've . . . well read this blog or know me . . . I'm big on careers, job searches, etc.  I'm big on geeky careers and jobs.  It's not just making money and paying bills, I'm big on helping people find meaningful work in their lives.  Assisting people in finding their ideal, true careers, means a lot to me as it's about meaning in life.

However, as I help people, one truth seems to come up again and again - namely that recruiting and HR sucks so badly it has an event horizon.  If you didn't get that that's a black hole joke, you may be at the wrong blog, by the way.

Hands-On With the iPad

Apple sold 7.33 million iPads in the fourth quarter of 2010. One of them was mine. Yes, I, like untold numbers of other people across the world, became a new iPad owner this past December 25. (And promptly saw the approach of the Blizzard of 2010 on its Weather Channel app, but that's another story).

So, I'm sure the big question you have - at least if you're among the iPad-uninitiated - is, "Does it live up to the hype?" Well, I've had about a month to play around with it now, and I can tell you it has a lot to offer the progeek on the go.