Cup of Coffee

August 19, 2015: Writing Cover Letters

86 Comments

The cool thing about cover letters is that I can be myself, and if I don't get hired I know I wouldn't have wanted to work there anyway. It's the same reason I show up to interviews without pants.

86 thoughts on “August 19, 2015: Writing Cover Letters”

    1. You would be correct. As you were there before I was. I didn't even look at the spot because it was had been raining and my umbrella was jammed.

  2. A big thank you to everyone from me and FW for all the well wishes yesterday. You guys are the best.

    1. This place is the best place on the Web because of the people who come here. "World's Greatest" is no hyperbole when it comes to the kind of community folks have built around each other in the digital basement.

      1. Aye, it is. I was actually talking to FW about having some sort of engagement party for the WGOM family.

        Any excuse for a Caucus, right?

    1. I love it! I actually had a fleeting thought yesterday of creating a board game called "Actuaries!" Then I realized I was taking it too far.

      1. Sounds good. Consulting, Working for and Insurer, or Nontraditional work? Which practice area?
        Or, like "Life", maybe you have a chance to pick, and some is up to chance.
        Draw a card: "You decide to switch from the CAS to the SOA (or vice versa). You lose all but four exams and must pass the rest before earning as much as you did when you drew this card."

          1. There will be exam cards, 10% of which say pass, the other 90% say fail.
            DOI approval will have similar cards. Or as least have cards to make you go around the board 3 more times before you can get the points.

            1. Wouldn't the entire game just consist of a table that tells you who is most likely to win based on characteristics they'd rather you not consider?

  6. Yesterday we took Aristotle in for some sort of urology test. She is nearly 4, and has accidents almost every day, but stays dry at night (she works so hard at it though, and got it right sometimes, such that going back into diapers really would have sent the wrong signal to her...). She was born with a tethered spinal cord (I'm pretty sure I've put this up here before), and had surgery at 3 months to resolve that, but issues can linger, including the kind of things we're seeing now. The two biggest concerns were that her bladder wasn't developed/big enough, and that the opening of it wasn't tight enough. Both of those have been eliminated as possibilities (**whew!**). There does seem to be some neurological issues, such that her bladder and sphincter muscles work against each other. So we're going to try a low dosage of old-men-don't-like-to-pee-every-hour medicine, which should relax the bladder. We'll see how it goes. Very exciting to have some more clarity on this issue. As you'd imagine, having a child pee their pants multiple times a day creates a lot of stress and laundry.

    1. Here's hoping that the least invasive theraputic option is the solution. Less laundry for you, more autonomy & self-esteem for her.

    2. Good luck to you and your family on that, and glad to hear it isn't one of the worse possibilities.

      I'm with you there on the stress and laundry, too. Our oldest is 4, and some days still has multiple accidents as well. I don't think it's anything physical, he just gets caught up in what he is doing and doesn't pay attention to the fact that he needs to go. If he gets "Potty time!" reminders, he won't have any incidents, but he hasn't figured out yet to just go on his own. The bigger issue to me is that it isn't a big release, where it's obvious he needs to change, it's more of a slow leak. Then, he won't tell anyone that he's wet, so he might walk around for an hour with wet undies. Not so great for him, or his clothes.

      We also just began potty training the younger one (who is now 1.5), so our floor is just always covered in pee. Good times! When we potty trained the older one, we lived in a house were the only carpet was in the bedrooms, which made for easy cleanup. Now, there's carpet everywhere he plays. I've been home with the kids the last three weeks, and I feel like I've spent 75% of my time trying to get pee out of the carpet. Definitely missing that hard wood floor now...

      1. Philosofette has bemoaned the fact that she doesn't get to spend as much quality time with the kids as she wants to because of the pee/laundry situation. When I was home with them between jobs, I experienced the exact same thing. It really adds a lot of work to the day, and it's things that need immediate responses, so getting to have fun with kids ends up taking a back seat. Good luck to you too.

        1. I feel you both on that one. I have a huge list of things I've been trying to get done this week, since I start back in at work on Friday, and the whole day just seems to disappear. Between the time spent sitting on the potty, plus cleanup, plus lunch, and an activity of some sort so the kids don't just go bonkers, there's almost nothing left. We've managed to have some fun times, too, but that to do list hasn't gotten any shorter.

          Before I had kids, I thought I would be up to be a stay at home parent. Now that I have kids, I know that I'm not cut out for that. I think I'm looking forward to going back to work more right now than I have after any other summer break.

      2. Go to Costco or something similar. Find a crate of Woolite (or other) "Pet Accident" cleaner. Get to know how to use it.
        Pets and toddlers have the same kind of accidents: Urinary, Fecal, or Emetic.

        Alternately, spend most of your time outside.

        Other tips:
        Potty train in Summer, not winter. Removing urine-soaked snowpants and boots is worse.
        Lots of swimsuits (without drawstrings!).
        Deny allowing your child to be potty trained because you're not ready for it, then maybe she does it herself.

  7. I haven't been around much, but have to get this off my chest somewhere.

    Is it just me, or is the Twins management acting like there is nothing they could have done to avoid the mess that has become the bullpen since they decided to go with May last Friday? It is just maddening and the decision making is inexcusable for a team that has unexpectedly found itself in the middle of a playoff race.

      1. Actually no, I just heard something from Molitor this morning and it set me off. But after I wrote that I did see Bonnes's article, really well done.

        1. I hadn't read it until after seeing this exchange, but I agree that was a very good article.

            1. Also read Parker's article about contracts and it is more Twins sadness. I just don't understand this front office.

    2. Then there's this:

      Hunter has been spotted shaking his left hand/wrist in apparent pain after taking an awkward swing or two in recent days, but he isn’t about to use that as an excuse or even admit there’s a physical problem holding him back.

      “You keep playing,” he said. “Look at (Glen) Perkins. I never knew anything (about a neck problem). He just goes out there and tries to bulldog it, and so does everybody else. That’s what athletes do. Not too many athletes are going to complain. They do what they have to do.”

      The Twins have the best prospect in baseball hitting over .400 in AAA and not only do the Twins refuse to bench Hunter in favor of Buxton, but they won't even DL Hunter to give Buxton up here for a couple weeks before roster expansion. Hunter even said earlier in Berardino's blog that he's killing the Twins with his slump, but he won't use the wrist as an excuse. And the Twins have shown in the past that any decent healthy reliever can close for short periods of time. But a hurting pitcher is just hurting the team. I'm sure we'll here about Santana's injury after he gives up 10 runs today.

      1. Any positive mojo Hunter brings to a clubhouse is negated and then some by his insistence on promoting a culture of playing shitty through injuries.

        2. And now that the Twins have recalled Buxton and put Hicks on the DL, i-i has another young teammate he can berate as he toughs out his injury with mediocrity.

          1. Even mediocrity would be an improvement for Torii. He's hitting .145/.182/.301 over the past month, including only three multi-hit games, and is down to .235/.288/.413 on the year.

            2. He's free to continue playing hurt as far as I'm concerned; the more his numbers decline, the less likely he receives an extension or otherwise returns next season.

      1. $109 for the cheapest package, but all packages have a ticket for both the Wild-Blackhawks on Saturday and then the Alumni game on Sunday. So $54.50/game.

        1. I don't think they've announced when the general public can buy tickets (right?). My kid is so pumped for this game so I'll be there.

  10. LEN3 chronicled Yankees grand slams vs. Twins. "Only" 4 since 2002, but 3 came in 7th inning or later and all 3 of those were when the Yankees were trailing or tied and it gave the Yankees the lead in a game they would win.

    1. Right. Because high school kids are never exposed to the "F-word" in their daily lives.

      1. I was reading King by age 13. I think he had more swear words by the end of the second chapter than this book has altogether.

    2. This still bothers me:

      Although the song's lyrics were written by Verve vocalist Richard Ashcroft, its distinctive passage for strings was sampled from the 1965 Andrew Oldham Orchestra symphonic recording of "The Last Time", arranged & written by David Whitaker, inspired by the 1965 Rolling Stones' song of the same title.[8][9]

      Originally, The Verve had negotiated a licence to use a five-note sample from the Oldham recording, but former Stones manager Allen Klein (who owned the copyrights to the band’s pre-1970 songs) claimed that The Verve broke the agreement and used a larger portion.[10][11] Despite its original lyrics and string intro (by Wil Malone & Ashcroft), the music of "Bitter Sweet Symphony" was sampled from the Oldham track, which led to a lawsuit with ABKCO Records, Klein's holding company, and eventually settled out of court. The Verve relinquished all of their royalties to Klein, owner of ABKCO Records, whilst songwriting credits were changed to Jagger/Richards/Ashcroft.[12]

      The Verve bassist Simon Jones said, "We were told it was going to be a 50/50 split, and then they saw how well the record was doing. They rung up and said we want 100 percent or take it out of the shops, you don't have much choice."[13] After losing the composer credits to the song, Ashcroft commented, "This is the best song Jagger and Richards have written in 20 years",[14] noting it was their biggest UK hit since "Brown Sugar".[13] On Ashcroft's return to touring, the song traditionally ended the set list. Ashcroft also reworked the single for VH2 Live for the music channel VH1, stripping the song of its strings. Ashcroft is quoted as saying during the show: "Despite all the legal angles and the bullshit, strip down to the chords and the lyrics and the melody and you realise there is such a good song there."[15]

      In a Cash for Questions interview with Q magazine published in January 1999, Keith Richards was asked if he thought it was harsh taking all The Verve's royalties from "Bitter Sweet Symphony". He replied, "I'm out of whack here, this is serious lawyer shit. If The Verve can write a better song, they can keep the money."

      In an interview with Uncut Magazine, Oldham stated, "As for Richard Ashcroft, well, I don't know how an artist can be severely damaged by that experience. Songwriters have learned to call songs their children, and he thinks he wrote something. He didn't. I hope he's got over it. It takes a while."[16]

  15. Ervin Santana is just so easy to like!

      1. Watching Juan Rincon allow 4 runs to the Yankmes in Game 4 of the 2004 ALDS was the single lowest point in any Twins game I've attended. The 38-year oldd husk of Ruben freakin' Sierra?! By the time Lohse uncorked his wild pitch I was already numb.

          2. So was I! I wonder if we could see each other, not knowing we'd be hanging out in the same online basement someday.

        1. Despite knowing better, I went and did this. Wasn't surprised to see something about Joe Mauer lacking "fire" as part of the blame for the Twins' woes against the Yankees!

        2. Nope, standing order is I don't. Exceptions to this rule are here (obviously) and select SBNation blogs - EDSBS and Jon Bois articles only.

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