09May / 2012

Expat blog

We take time out from Mig’s stream of consciousness to provide you with some true information that will be of actual use to those of you who are or will soon be ex-pats:

Julien runs expatblog, which has sent a lot of traffic to metamorphosism over the years. He asked me to let my reader(s) know about some new features over there. However, I am lazy and asked him if it would be possible for him to do it himself. He wrote the following:

Expat-blog.com is a participative website dedicated to life abroad. When I created the website 7 seven years ago, my idea was to gather on a unique platform all the expatriates’ blogs all over the world. Expatriates’ blogs are indeed a great way to get information about real life in a foreign country.

As the years went by, new features have been added to the website such as a forum, guides, albums, a business directory. Expat blog has now more than 420 000 members and 1.8 million visitors per month.

We just launched 2 new features to help expatriates and soon-to-be expatriates: Jobs and Housing in Austria.

As a matter of fact, finding a job and an accommodation are essentials to succeed in your expatriation project.

Indeed, this is often where the adventure begins. One of the first reasons of mobility is employment. Looking for a job from your native country is not an easy task: you do not know where to look for job offers or where to apply. With its new international job board, Expat blog gives you access to job offers in Austria.

This is the same process when looking for an accommodation. It is not easy to look for a place to live when you are quite far away. The housing section enables you to select or offer accommodations as per your needs: rental, sale, flat share, kind of accommodation. Here are the last housing offers in Austria.

Julien is a kind, hardworking person with a snazzy website. I encourage you to give it a look.

Permalink 1 Comment

03May / 2012

They came upon a spider

Sitting upon a woodpile.

It was a friendly-looking chap. Friendly enough, at any rate. It put down the poisonous four foot snake it was eating and acknowledged their presence.

Motherf, said the spider. Where’d you come from?

Us? said the first. What about you?

Everyone knows where I came from, said the spider, asshgr.

What is with your unusual manner of speech, inquired the second.

I have rare form of Tourette’s today, which compels me to utter obscenities while rendering me unable to actually get them out. It’ll pass, said the spider.

Snake helps, in fact, so if you don”t mind, said the spider.

The first one and the second one both nodded and gestured, as if to say, please, don’t mind us.

Very fffff, said the spider.

Who was that, said the first one, when they were out of earshot.

It looked like a hobo spider, said the second, a very large one.

Then we are on the right path.

Permalink 3 Comments

03May / 2012

I liked what you were saying about the scientist disproving the theory, only he happened to be the theory

Also, good job finding the plug like that, said the first one.

The second one shrugged. Just for the sheer joy of being able to shrug again.

A non-Euclidean plug, said the second.

Okay, anyway, said the first.

Did you used to think Chicken Marsala was an Indian dish, too, said the second one.

Until about two seconds ago, in fact, said the first one.

What was that noise, said the first one after a minute.

Which noise, the one like streaming music on a slow connection, said the second. Or the high-pitched whine?

The pew-pew-pew noises like bullets just missing you, said the first one.

Where’s my newspaper, said the first one. I had it in my belt before the unfortunate incident.

Something better happen soon, said the first one.

Oh, something will, said the second. Just not what you think.

Permalink

02May / 2012

Careers in Science: Typhlology

You’re sure we’re alone? the first one said.

Elvis has left the building, said the second one.

And O what a building it was. Like an airplane hangar, only infinitely larger. Mild white light. Non-Euclidian geometry, yadda yadda.

Their steps echoed, although they couldn’t see their feet.

I thought no feet meant ghosts, said the first one.

That’s a Japanese thing.

So what happened to him?

He didn’t see it coming. What happens when a scientist treats himself as a theory, and then disproves the theory?

The first one shrugged.

In answer to his own question, the second one gestured around them. This happens, I guess.

Soundtrack: a high-pitched whine like tinitus.

The first one bent over and picked something up. It was a Nehi soda bottle cap, with the crennelated edge flattened out, painstakingly as if by a bored person with needle-nosed pliers.

I wouldn’t do that, said the second one, but it was too late. The first one threw it like a shuriken and it struck a wall. Oily red-black liquid sprayed into the room in a very, very thin jet.

They waded around like that as the liquid rose to their ankles, then higher. The sound of their steps changed, then they were dog-paddling to keep their noses above the surface.

So where’d he go? said the first one.

The second one tried to shrug, but he couldn’t swim and shrug at the same time. Off learning life lessons somewhere, I guess, he said.

Permalink

25Apr / 2012

Even the most secretive organization in the world needs new recruits now and then

Permalink 3 Comments

25Apr / 2012

Extra credit

See, the morning rants on the way to town are not in vain.

In school recently, teacher asks So who can explain the differences between a planned economy and a free market economy?

And Gamma raised her hand and explained, because we had just been talking about it.

And what conclusion can you draw from that? the teacher asked.

After the revolution the rich will be lined up against the wall and pew-pew-pew, is what Gamma did not say, because that’s still a secret she can think for herself. No, she said something achieving an optimal mix of the two.

Of course, if the teacher asks about the benefits of nonsensical, complicated technologies designed to generate a stream of revenue rather than any actual customer benefit, my morning sermons will be less useful.

Permalink

25Apr / 2012

Composition

A friend in Australia has requested permission to use the recordings some of you sent me in 2009 reading your shopping lists for a piece accompanying a university dance performance and I mailed them to her (all but one recording, from one of you who recently denied me permission to use something else, so don’t worry) with the caveat that I would post this to the blog today informing you and if any of you contact me letting me know that you prefer your recording not to be used that I would tell her and it would not be used. Otherwise, fire away. So let me know if you have any objections, thx.

Permalink

← Older posts Newer posts →