Traditional Pronunciation

I'm heavily entrenched in an embarrassing tradition: mispronouncing street and town names to locals.

Chicago

It all started with the original move to Chicago. My former roommate and I were looking for places in the pouring-down rain when we stumbled into a hotel looking for Wabash Ave.

"Which way is Wah-bahsh?"
"Wah-bahsh? What? Oooh, Wah-bash! you guys aren't from around here are you?"

Little Rock

In Little Rock, Arkansas, one of the biggest roads you'll encounter is Cantrell Rd. It's not pronounced how certain Steve's might expect, either.

"So I just take Can-trell all the way to Rodney Par-ham?"
"First, it's Cantrll...and second, it's Rodney Parm"

Toronto

In Toronto, the road that divides the city into east and west is Yonge St. Naturally, this went just as well.

Yonge St., NYC by Loozrboy on flickr

"Are we at Yong-gey Street yet?"
"I don't think that's how you say it, Steven. I think it's just Yong."
... *later, while talking to someone who knows"
"So you'll want to take Eglinton all the way down to Young and turn right."


We get it right, eventually.

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note that's the only licensed picture I could find, and it was from a movie shoot where they were pretending Toronto was New York.

Small World

I've been lucky enough to spend 4+ months in some major cities over the past few years. During this time, I've had some déjà vu when meeting new people.

Let's review, in classic dialogue format.

Chicago

Me	...no, I'm actually from Detroit originally.
Person A	Hey! Me too. Go Blue!
Person B	Wow! Did you guys say you're from Detroit? So am I.
	6 more people join in as the conversation turns to Michigan vs Michigan State.

Los Angeles

Me	...no, I grew up near Detroit.
Teammate	Really? I'm from Huntington Woods!

Little Rock

Me	...no, I'm actually from Detroit originally.
Teammate	What! Do you know Eminem? Have you ever been to 8 Mile?

San Francisco

Barber	...and people think the tenderloin neighborhood is dangerous, but I'm from Detroit, so...
Me	Weird... Me too.

Let's Form a Hypothesis

11-08-09 by idovermani on Flickr

Certainly were I member of the scientist group pictured above, we'd be forming hypotheses about any of the following:

• Every US city is 90% Michigan-based
• Eminem has overtaken Henry Ford as the most famous Detroiter
• Detroit is the planet's toughest city
• Detroiters tell more people where they're from than persons of other cities

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Naturally, there is a photoset.

Developer Showdown: DePaul Career Fair

Thursday afternoon in the windy city I boarded the 'L' like normal and headed to work. I was set for a day on the beach*. Little did I know the recruiting team was headed to DePaul University the very next day and would enjoy some company. Needless to say I jumped at the opportunity.

The career fair started at 11:00am. Perhaps unsurprising as a career fair hosted in a university, but many people were very early in their academic careers and looking for internships. We aren't big on internships here for a number of reasons, but advice-seekers seemed to find the following helpful:

• Join user groups and Meetup.com programming groups
• Start side projects

I think most companies like to see people passionate about their work. Joining Meetup groups is a great way to express some of that passion. Other benefits include networking with people who share your interests and seeing first-hand which companies care enough to sponsor groups (we do!). Finally, at just about every meetup there are recruiters present.

Side projects are a good way to gauge a person's interest in this field. Since I started on this path I've had little projects going on with the goals of learning new languages and solving some of the smaller, more annoying problems in my life. Currently in my spare time I'm learning C# (C-Sharp) on the .NET platform by porting a school project over that deals with receipts and taxes.

The Staredown

Our expected attendance for the career fair was around 800 students. We probably had at least that many walking through the booths, but DePaul's most popular major isn't Computer Science. Our booth wasn't as crowded as some of the other management-focused booths, nor was the booth across from ours who wanted to hire Java and Ruby developers.

At one point we read through our company's description in the fair's booklet as well as the company across the aisle from us. They listed two very similar-sounding positions:

1. Quality Analyst Engineer
2. Software Tester

Instantly I called out to the crew.

Me	What's the difference between a QA Engineer and a Software Tester?
Evan	Is this a riddle?
Me	No...you list both in your description
Nate	Oh, Software Testers do manual testing
Evan	I'm disappointed man-- I wanted a joke

The Plan

I was working the booth with two other colleagues. One was also a recent hire and developer by the name of Molly. Andy was hired at the same time as me into the recruiting department. We knew we needed to come up with a joke.

Fortunately Google wasn't lacking results with a search for 'ruby jokes'. A post from RasterWeb yielded the following programmer humor:

Q: What do you call a future Ruby programmer?
A: A Java programmer!

The Delivery

We knew this was probably the one, but we'd need to do things in more of an Agile way. First we had to refactor the wording. We definitely had to pair when delivering it. Finally, we needed to follow it up with a fist pound.

Me	Hey, Evan
Evan	Yeah...?
Me	What's another name for a Java developer?
Evan	I don't know...what?
Molly	A Java developer!
*Victorious fist bump*

Note The Beach is where consultants sit before heading out to a project. It's known as the beach because of a delightfully small fake palm tree that sits near the middle of the area.

Note A Meetup I always attend when in town is Chicago Ruby. The Ruby community is easily one of the most passionate, and the Chicago group doesn't disappoint.

Note We did get a rebuttal joke from Evan and Nate about Ruby's over-eager versioning just before leaving

23 Hours

For six weeks, I'll be on the other side of the world for a training course in booming Bangalore, India. Upcoming on this blog is the chronicle of those adventures. This is part 1 of a multipart series.

The trip itself was a rather uneventful 23 hours, but I felt the need to document it for both my own sake the potential interest of future TWU participants. I lost track of how many time zones I flew through. It was sunny when I left Chicago and sunny 8 hours later in Frankfurt. We arrived in Bangalore at 12:20 in the morning.

Most of it is already a blur at this point, but a few things that still stand out:

• wondering if it was just coincidence a flight attendant named "Stickler" who maintained a perfect hairdo and uniform throughout the flight
• thinking the $300 "upgrade" to economy plus is a laughable overcharge when checking in
• thinking the $300 upgrade to economy plus is an incredibly good deal five hours in
• "So you're traveling to India for work? How long have you been with this company?"
  "It's my second day"
• wishing Mercedes would win the bus contract for the Chicago Transit Authority
• admiring the smart and efficient use of the inclined plane in Frankfurt security
• the immigration officer not believing my picture or my signature was me, asking me to sign something in front of him...which I'd gladly do all day, because my signature is pretty awesome.
• Bangalore International Airport isn't much different from O'Hare. This shockingly huge ad appeared in both:
  
  

The real adventure begins on the way to the office from the airport. More on that here soon...