Paul Ryburn's Journal

Check out this article on The Googleplex, Google’s main office campus in Mountain View, California.  Employees get free breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks.  They also get perks like free haircuts, and electric scooters are available to zip them around campus if they don’t feel like walking.  There are ping-pong tables when they need a break from coding, and if things get too stressful, they can schedule a massage for a nominal fee.  Also, note that the employees pictured are wearing T-shirts and jeans.

One of the things I needed to do this morning was download IM software.  Out-of-towners with freelancing work want to talk to me next week, and I replied, “Sounds great, if you prefer IM to phone, just let me know what network you’re on, and I’ll install an IM client so I can talk to you.”  So I went out and got Pidgin, a freeware IM client that connects to just about every network out there – AIM, Google Talk, ICQ, Yahoo, MSN, and many more.  It’s one of the most highly-rated freeware products out there.

Being a Downtown Memphian, there’s just something about this software that feels very… familiar.  It seems like something I see many, many times every day.

Hmmm… for some reason I suddenly feel compelled to take the laptop to Court Square and use their free Wi-Fi to work.

I stayed in last night.  I needed to just hit the reset button and get a good, restful, alcohol-free night’s sleep, the first one since the layoff occurred.  The past few days, I’ve been walking around like a zombie.  I feel back to normal this morning.

One thing I’ve been forgetting to do is congratulate the CCC on their outstanding Downtown Alive! concert series that took place the past five weeks.  It was a huge improvement over the old Court Square concert series.  By featuring a number of different venues Downtown, they introduced a lot of people to businesses and attractions throughout Downtown, and they also kept people interested.  They showcased what Memphis has to offer – Latino music, Goner Records, folk music, etc.  I thought it was a great program and couldn’t have been done any better.

I also like their program they’re having on Thursdays at lunch this month, where historian Jimmy Ogle takes people on free 45-minute tours of Downtown.  On Thursday the 23rd, he’ll give a tour of the Riverfront trolley loop (small groups only please, because space is limited on the trolley), and on the 30th, he’ll repeat his infamous Union Avenue manhole cover and history tour.  Now that I have extra free time, I’m definitely in for the 30th.  I’ve been wanting to do that tour for a while.

And I gotta admit, I’ve been impressed with Stephanie, one of the main coordinators of these programs.  I’ve passed her over for BFF of the Month several times now, and perhaps that was a mistake.  She’s definitely displayed BFF qualities in the past week.  Trouble is, she’ll be going up against Lauren in November, who is going to be awfully tough to beat.

I’ve added two new articles to Saving Consumers Time, one on office desk chairs, and another on electric blankets, throws, and mattress pads.  John D has requested an article on laptops, explaining that he ruined his old one when he thought the DVD player was a cup holder for his Bud Light.  I’ll try to get to that one within the next week.  It’ll probably be mid-range laptops (under $1000), since most people don’t need the top of the line for average web surfing, sending e-mail, word processing, and other typical functions.  I may do an article on external laptop batteries too, because my external battery has come in so handy so many times.

Dr. Booze posted a link to a good blog called Benito’s Wine Reviews this morning.  Benito posts Monday, Wednesday and Friday, reviewing wines and cocktails and discussing matching wine with food.  He also has links to Memphis and national food and wine blogs.

Let’s see what’s happening on Facebook this morning… the Nuh-Uh Girl became a fan of Baskin Robbins and of Ben & Jerry’s.  Meanwhile, Big Foot Lodge has posted pics of Wednesday night’s Hollywood Casino/St. Jude Red Carpet Kick-off Bash.  Someone should contact McDonald’s and tell them that their mascot Grimace has been hanging out at the competition’s parties.  Oh, wait, that’s not Grimace, that’s Meghan.  Wow, that purple outfit has to be one of the biggest fashion mistakes of the year.  Somehow she managed to time-travel back to 1984 and go shopping at Kmart for clothes.

Funk de Ville at the Saucer tonight.  9-piece disco band with horns.  If you like Dr. Zarr, you’ve got to see Funk de Ville.  9:30 PM, $3 cover.  Also, tonight is the last night for Automatic Slim’s as we’ve known it for years… Harlan T. Bobo takes the stage at 10 PM.

I got to the Main Street block party about 6 last night.  Hung out on the Majestic’s patio for a while, had a mojito.  Then I decided I wanted to try the Center for Souther Folklore’s Southern food buffet.  It was outstanding and a bargain too, $5 for Cornish hen, BBQ pork, greens, and peach cobbler.

So, I was sitting at a table with one of my regular blog readers, who introduced herself to me at the Center last night.  At the next table over was arts writer Skipford M. Blank.  And then it happened… I shoulda known it.  The presence of food attracted the Nuh-Uh Girl.  She came in and ate off my plate, then ate off Skippy’s plate, then talked the guy running the buffet to give her a bowl of greens.  Here’s a pic of the Nuh-Uh Girl eating the greens:

Then she left to go home and bake for the Nuh-Uh Sister’s birthday, so no doubt the Nuh-Uh Girl ate yet again when she got done baking.

After that I headed to the Saucer for the Dempseys.  Stayed for the first two sets, then decided it was time for a venue change to Bardog.

Sign on Bardog’s chalkboard:  “We close bar checks upon maid’s exit.”  Attn BFF Jenny:  Did you read that?  They have BARMAIDS there!

The staff at Bardog was just super-nice to me last night.  It was nearly 3 AM before I got out of there.  Thanks to everyone there for treating me so well.

All right, let’s get to the news.  There are specials at Sauces (under new ownership) this weekend.  They are black bean soup with ancho lime crema, asian wings with spicy peanut hot sauce and wasabi blue cheese, fish tacos, and grilled ribeye with cheddar grits and wilted garlic spinach.

Great article on Circa and Chef John Bragg’s five-course Sunday evening wine dinners in today’s Commercial Appeal.  John was voted “Best Chef” in this year’s Memphis Flyer poll, and Circa was one of five businesses who threw the block party last night.

Harlan T. Bobo plays Automatic Slim’s Saturday night at 10.  Slim’s isn’t closing, but this will be the last night for Automatic Slim’s as we have known it for many years.  More details to come.

SabaFest, in support of St. Jude and in memory of Bill Saba, is tonight at the Cadre Building.  I’m was going to attend, but now that I’ve been laid off, I need to conserve money until I’m on to the next gig.  Should be a good time though.  Walrus and Punching Nicholas will play.

All right… going to take my “what’s the fire sale” walk, and go vote.  After that it’s cleanup day – clean up the apartment, answer a pile of unanswered e-mails from yesterday, upgrade the software on some of my sites.  Will be out later tonight.

There’s a breakfast at the U of M tomorrow that business managers and IT managers may be interested in.  Dr. Vallabhajosyula Sambamurthy, who I shall refer to as “Bill” for the remainder of this paragraph because I don’t feel like typing that long name over and over, will speak on “Enterprise Agility and Information Technology Management.”  Bill is co-author of a book, Winning the 3-Legged Race : When Business and Technology Run Together, that advocates the necessity of firms to integrate their business and IT management processes.  Bill will speak from 7:30 to 9 AM tomorrow at the Fogleman Executive Dining Room (FEC 304) at the University of Memphis, 330 Innovation drive.  There is a $25 charge to attend Bill’s presentation; RSVP to kpenick@memphis.edu.  In addition to the opportunity to hear Bill speak, your $25 gets you a breakfast buffet.

Mmmm.  A breakfast buffet sounds good.  Are there any Shoney’s left in town?

The Recording Academy Memphis Chapter will host the Indie Impact Music Conference from noon to 7 Saturday, October 18.  It’s an educational conference for independent artists, managers, and labels.  There will be workshops, networking, and a showcase afterward at the New Daisy.  To inquire about attending you can go to the Memphis chapter website here.

My sixth article for Saving Consumers Time is now up.  This one is about single serve coffee machines, machines that brew one cup of coffee at a time, allowing each person in your home or office to enjoy exactly the cup of coffee they want.  These things are a cost-effective alternative to driving through Starbucks every morning.

Thanks to all of you who have sent words of support and encouragement today.  (In case you missed this morning’s post, I got laid off yesterday.)  I’ve already had one person ask me to contact him about employment opportunities, and another who has some consulting work.  I’ll get back to you real soon about those – my e-mail box is flooded right now, and I’m still in shock from the events of yesterday, so please give me a day.  I’m also considering panhandling as an option.  I figure I’d have an advantage over all the other panhandlers Downtown, since I don’t smoke crack, and I’d be the only panhandler on the street who knows that the plural of “cent” is “cents.”

All right… gonna take care of a few things, then head to Bardog with the laptop.  Due to the rain I didn’t get to early vote today.  Maybe tomorrow.

About 4:30 yesterday afternoon, I was sitting at my desk, working on my current project, when our team lead asked three other IT people and me to come to the conference room.  “Sure, I’ll be right there,” I said.

Our VP of development was waiting for us there, in a somber mood.  I saw envelopes on the desk with our initials on them.  The VP told us that the company, still in its startup phase, had been hit by the tough economic times, and was forced to respond by letting some people go.  “I’m sorry, but today is your last day,” he told us.  I could tell he really didn’t want to do it, but the orders had come down from the CEO and the board.  We cleaned out our desks, met with an IT recruiter who he’d asked to be there, and that was it.  The envelope contained recommendation letters and our final paychecks, as well as pay for unused vacation days.  “We want you to know this is not performance-based,” said the VP.  “If things turn around, we’ll have you back in a heartbeat.”

Wow.  That was totally unexpected.  I mean, I knew it was a startup and a job there was not as safe as, say, FedEx, but still, I never saw it coming.

My reaction?  I’m not panicking or devastated.  With the last paychecks, I have about 4 months’ living expenses in the bank, and income that continues to come in from my web-based stores and affiliate marketing sites.  Also, people with 4 years of .NET programming experience, as well as PHP and MySQL, don’t stay unemployed long, no matter what the economy is doing.  So I know I’ll be okay.  It could have been worse… the other three people let go were Indian, and for them, not having a job could mean they have to leave the country.  Thank goodness I don’t have to worry about that.

The only real sadness I feel is that it will be hard to find another company as good as that one.  Management always treated me well, accepting my request last spring to move from .NET to open source development.  I got to work with some incredibly talented people on a great product.  I have absolutely nothing bad to say about the company, and if you’re in management or HR and need background-checking services, I recommend them highly.  I had to look at competitors’ sites as I developed, and having seen them I can honestly say our company is the best in the field.

On the other hand, I definitely see a silver lining in being let go, for several reasons.  For one thing, it will give me a chance to really ramp up development on my own websites.  Saving Consumers Time is already becoming successful – people are finding it through Google and ordering stuff through the links.  Trouble was, I hardly ever had time to work on it, except on the weekends and maybe a random hour here and there after work.  I had actually considered taking a hiatus from Sunday brunch until spring to give myself that day to work on websites.  Now I have 40 extra hours a week.  My goal was “30 by 30,” 30 articles on Saving Consumers Time by November 30 (currently I have 5 up, and a 6th in development).  Now I will be able to get to 30 much sooner.

Also, it’ll be nice to have some free time.  Yesterday I had to run by Bardog Tavern at lunch and pick up my debit card, which I had left there the night before.  My friend Brooke was bartending.  “With a 30 minute lunch break, I’ll never get to see her,” I thought.  “I wish I could bring my laptop here and work.”  Now I can.  I’ll probably take the laptop up there this afternoon and work on Saving Consumers Time for a few hours.  I’m actually a lot more productive in that kind of setting than I am in a cubicle.

I’ll get to catch up on sleep as well.  The Dempseys play the Flying Saucer tonight, and it’s nice to know I can stay for all three of their sets (the last ending at 1:30 AM) and still get a decent amount of sleep.  For a few weeks I can follow my body’s natural rhythm, which seems to be to go to bed around 2 and get up at 9, rather than have a schedule dictate when I sleep.

As for job hunting, I’m going to get in touch with my three best recruiter contacts tomorrow, and let them know that I’m officially on the job market as of November 3.  Until then I’m going to take some time off, work on my web projects, and just generally enjoy life in Downtown Memphis.  I’ll let them know that if anything exceptional comes along – meaning, as good as the job I just left – I’ll go ahead and talk to them.  Otherwise, though, I want the next 2 1/2 weeks for myself.

Several people, over the past months, have contacted me about doing websites or other consulting projects, which I had to turn down because I didn’t have time.  I’m now available if you still want to talk.  Contact me at paul@paulryburn.com.

And, of course, if you know of positions for which I’d be a good fit, I’d like to hear about those as well.  My resume is not up-to-date at the moment because I hadn’t planned on job hunting, but here are the basics – senior-level developer with 4 years .NET experience in both VB.NET and C# with SQL Server.  I’ve worked with PHP and MySQL for years on my own, and about 6 months ago I got the chance to do enterprise-level PHP development, working with one of the most talented programmers in the field.  My writing skills are also an asset – 3 years of Best Blog awards from the Memphis Flyer, and check out Saving Consumers Time for professional writing samples, and for evidence of my understanding of search engine optimization.  In addition, I have 5 years experience teaching computer literacy and math full-time at a major university.

In summary:  Losing the job is a setback, but I see opportunities as well as losses.  Reacting with fear and panic is not productive.  I’m completely confident that I will land on my feet, and in the meantime I’m going to enjoy some well-deserved time off.

Plans for today:  I’m going to deposit my final paychecks, walk to the election commission and vote for my man Barack, drink a beer at the Flying Saucer, walk around the Main Street Mall for a while and enjoy the fact that I don’t have to go sit in a cubicle all afternoon, then about 2 I’ll take the laptop up to Bardog and work on Saving Consumers Time while enjoying a few $2.50 PBRs ($1.50 once the clock hits 5 and happy hour starts).  After that I’ll attend the block party on Main Street to congratulate the Majestic Grille, Circa, Shelton Clothiers, Center for Southern Folklore, and Blue Fin on their Memphis Flyer Best Of awards.  And then at 9:30, The Dempseys take the stage at the Saucer.

Probably more posts to come today, now that I have extra time.

Early voting for the November 4 general election starts today.  Here’s a list of early voting locations.  While getting my hair cut at lunch, I saw on the TV that the lines are extremely long today, so you may want to wait until tomorrow or Friday.

If you want to wait until Election Day to vote, here’s a link where you can confirm your registration data and find your polling place.  If you vote early, you can vote at any location; if you wait until Election Day, you must vote at your polling place.

Yesterday I posted a link to a Henry Paulson/Che Guevara Photoshopped image… well, here’s the follow-up.  George Bush/Fidel Castro Photoshop

I took a bunch of notes at the SMA meeting last night, but don’t have the time to type them up right now… they’ll be up today or tomorrow.

Big Foot Lodge is holding a kick-off party for the 8th annual Hollywood Casino/St. Jude Red Carpet Bash tonight at 8 PM.  No cover, $2 Bud Select draft all night long, DJ Tree spinning tunes.  Big Foot’s owners Shawn and Lana are the event chairs for the Red Carpet Bash, which happens on November 8 at Hollywood Casino.  If you’re interested in tickets or sponsorship for that event, talk to them tonight.

I just browsed their Facebook “who’s attending” list.  Damn there are a lot of hot babes who will be there.  I may have to change my plans and go to Big Foot rather than the Saucer after the mini-Goner Fest tonight.

Even more bad news for John McCain:  RealClearPolitics now projects a total of 313 electoral votes “solid” or “leaning” Barack Obama, with only 270 needed to win.  Florida and Colorado have now moved from “toss-up” to “leaning Obama.”  The victory parties may begin early in the evening November 4 if Florida really does break decisively toward Obama – without it, John McCain is completely out of options.  To add insult to injury, FiveThirtyEight.com’s statistical analysis now gives Obama a 94.9% probability of winning the election, and a 53.67% chance of an Obama landslide (375 electoral votes or more).

Just did a little web searching… I knew it had to be out there, and sure enough I was right.  Someone created a T-shirt with Che Guevara’s hair, beard, and beret Photoshopped onto Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s head.  You can see it here.  In case you don’t get the humor behind this, Bush and Paulson announced that the government was buying shares of 9 of the nation’s largest banks.  $250 billion worth.  Che was president of Cuba’s nationalized bank system in the early 1960s.

Happy birthday to regular blog reader Tom, who is having fun celebrating his birthday by painting a house today.

Mpact Memphis’ Mpact Maker Awards will be handed out this Thursday night, October 16, at Jack Robinson Gallery (44 Huling) from 6:30 to 8:30 PM.  These awards recognize young leaders in the community.  The event will be emceed by Maney from Q107.5’s morning show.  Free food and drinks.  Free for Mpact members, $15 non-members.

Thanks to all who have given me ideas for categories for my new Saving Consumers Time review site.  A few notes:  First of all, I tried to come up with a decent list of digital-to-analog converters for old “rabbit ears” TVs that otherwise won’t work after February 17, 2009.  I really couldn’t come up with a decent list from online sources.  The ones that were highly rated were just too expensive.  Those that were in the right price range (no more than $60) were pretty bad – only one had a 4-star rating on Amazon (out of 5), and then the list quickly went down into the dumps.  There’s no way I could make a decent review page out of that sorry bunch of converters.  My advice would be to go to Best Buy, and do not pay more than $60 before tax.

One other note:  I can’t review services on the site.  One reader asked which is best, Comcast cable or BellSouth DSL for Internet access.  Here’s the thing:  A product is the same product whether you live in Memphis or Maine.  Services, on the other hand, can vary.  When Time-Warner provided cable Internet in Memphis, I never had a problem at any place I lived Downtown or Midtown.  On the other hand, friends in East Memphis had all kinds of problems and eventually had to get rid of it.  I just can’t give consistent recommendations for high-speed Internet service, or any other service, such as cell phone carriers, for example.

It looks like my next review will be single-serve coffee makers, for people who are tired of driving through Starbucks every morning and want to save some money while still enjoying their cup of coffee (rather than sharing a pot of bland coffee with the rest of an office).  I’m busy this week, but it should be up within 3-4 days.

See you at the SMA meeting at Safari tonight at 6, and trivia at the Saucer after that.

Harlan T Bobo has been added to the lineup for tomorrow’s Mini-Goner Fest from 4:30 to 8:30 PM in Barboro Alley, the alley off the Main Street Mall next to Sauces.  The complete lineup is

Jeffrey Evans & Ross Johnson
The Limes
The Barbaras
Harlan T Bobo
Jack Oblivian and the Tennessee Tearjerkers