Schadenfreude

Mean I know, but SO nice to read from afar rather than close up:

Libraries brace for effects from latest Florida tax cut: looks like the good days of Bond Issue-feuled expansion are over...

Supporters of African-American Research Library protest budget cuts : note the tidbit about the library director getting fired with no notice, and then reinstated at my old library, South Regional, as Assistant Regional Manager. TYPICAL Broward County.

Tax Rollback strains Broward's joint-use model. Love the last paragraph--again, totally in line with personal experience of the quality of BCL decision-making.

Planning our vacations

We've just about settled our summer vacation in Canada. It's still hard to fathom that it costs $100 US dollars more round trip per person to fly 1000 km from Vancouver, BC to Edmonton than from Abu Dhabi to Istanbul. Air Canada and Westjet are ripping people off! Anyway we'll stay at the same hostel in downtown Vancouver as last year.

We're also planning our April trip to Istanbul and we may end up staying at the Empress Zoe Hotel. It's at the top end of the mid range hotels in the Lonely Planet book for Turkey. It's not cheap at nearly 140 Euros a night for the top level room but it looks very nice! We've got ten days to spend so we may travel to the Asian part and spend a few days there.

Yesterday I participated in the annual Terry Fox run. It was fun and my back held up. Actually I feel much better since seeing a chiropractor for the past month. The run this year was bigger than last year. It was for a great cause and in my view Terry Fox was one of the greatest Canadians who ever lived.

On the weekend we received in our newspaper a nifty magazine full of photos taken of Abu Dhabi from the air. Now I know why there was a helicopter that flew around for a few days in December. The online article shows some of the photos and our apartment building is one building away from the big blue one (tallest in the city) in many of the pictures. It's the headquarters for the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, which is apparently has the world's richest sovereign wealth fund.

Last bit of news is that apparently negotiations were, or still are, going about awarding contracts for the city's new souq. They're either digging a heck of a deep hole and/or they're taking their sweet time with the construction. It looks like nothing has happened with that massive site since we moved here.

Another weekend goes by too quickly....

It's Saturday night now and the weekend, as usual flew by. This past weekend was typical of sleeping in both days, reading the newspaper, browsing our favorite websites, watching some dvds from our numerous boxed sets, doing household chores and grocery shopping.

There are many things that we need to do and would like to do. We still have to plan our trip to Istanbul in late April. We're finalizing our plans for flying to Canada in late July for three weeks. Speaking of traveling, here is an article about the booming air traffic in the Middle East. I guess one reason for that is so that people can visit all the theme parks that are opening now and in the future.

I joined an online usergroup called the Emirates Natural History Group. I get alerts when there are free activities at the city's Cultural Foundation. The building is withing walking distance of our place. The sandstorm yesterday blew in sand from the beaches onto the Cornich road and also knocked over some signs. The temperatures have dropped but unfortunately we have to keep the windows closes. Otherwise sand will blow inside.

Emirate Palace in Abu Dhabi is hosting another vanity license plate auction and this story discusses it. Where else could an outrageous event like this happen - besides Dubai?! I came across a blog about events in Abu Dhabi. It's new and it's not clear who the author is but it looks promising. Many blogs and sites about the UAE usually focus on Dubai.

A post for Troy and Jennifer in Cincinnati: job hunting in the UAE

(Post edited for name correction--Jennifer, please accept my most abject apologies for the error! How embarrassing...ds)

Hi Troy and Jennifer,

I just saw your comment on our last blog post. I clicked through to your profile, but I couldn't see an email address there for you, so since you indicated that we could reply to you by blog posting I'm writing here.

It took us just about a year for my husband to find a job in the UAE, so we understand your frustration. Hiring processes here are very slow and bureaucratic. But it can be done.

The tendency here is towards very strict, literal interpretations of language. Be as specific in your employment profiles/job applications as possible. If the job asks for experience in Microsoft Word, and your application/profile says you are experienced with word processing software, HR may screen you out because you didn't mention the specific program instead of contacting you and clarifying your skills. If the paperwork requires a non-objection letter/certificate, and your documentation does not specifically use the words "NON OBJECTION", it will be rejected.

Also be prepared to do a lot of follow-up and, if necessary, re-applying. Your information will not automatically be kept on file, and you will often not get clarifications or updates unless you ask. In keeping with the point above, ask lots of very specific questions even if you think they are obvious or "stupid"--you wouldn't believe the things you won't get told if you don't ask.

Job turnover is pretty high just about everywhere, because the normal contract length is three years. So again, patience and perserverance is probably the best strategy.

You didn't say much about your personal experience, and you probably wouldn't want that kind of discussion posted up on the internet anyway, so if you'd like to continue the conversation feel free to email me at dsharman (at) gmail (dot) com.

Thanks for reading our blog--we're glad you enjoy it!

--Darcy

Projects for sandstorm weekends

Well, once again it's been a long time since I've posted. Day to day life is pretty boring when you're working...not much to write about when all you do is work, eat, sleep, do chores, and then start all over again.

One of the nice things about my job is that working on the department website and library OPAC is allowing me to expand my web site authoring and graphics skills. I have been a steep CSS learning curve lately, and thanks to a new coworker who has a background in graphic design I finally have enough of an idea of how Photoshop works that I can open it and understand enough about the layout to start learning by trial and error. Besides the web presence revamps at work, which should be online soon, I've used a couple of little side projects as platforms for experimentation. I helped a friend redesign her website for her freelance editing business, and this weekend, I have been working on developing an HCT Library Catalogue Google Gadget:

It probably isn't as good as I think it is, but I am inordinately proud of it all the same :) It can be added to iGoogle pages and embedded in outside web pages, too. Haven't really had a chance to test it in Explorer (I use Firefox at home), so if something looks seriously out of whack to you let me know so I can fix it!

The big news here this week was, of course, the accidentally-severed undersea cable that knocked out Internet access for much of the Middle East. We were not affected; our connection did seem slow that night but thanks to our ISP slow connections are not unusual for us even on good days. The fact that this story is such big news, though, is a testament to how much we now rely on the Internet for work and for recreation. Though some might find it hard to believe, I can live without being logged on in my spare time; all of my work is dependent on online/networked tools, though, and I'd be hard-pressed to find anything to do in the case of a network outage! I suppose I could write out catalogue records for inputting later, but that's about it.

Edmonton has been struggling under extremely low temperatures this week. We have nothing that dramatic here, but we are in the middle of a pretty impressive sandstorm. The howling wind woke both of us up quite early this morning, and visibility is very low. The intire sky is a dull beige-grey...it's like fog, but created by sand instead of moisture! Even the Corniche waters are being whipped up into little baby whitecaps, which is VERY unusual.

Out on the highways, driving in sandstorms is much like driving in a snowstorm: sands blow across the roads and you can get whiteout conditions very easily. So I'm glad we don't have to go anywhere and can stay in today. I am going to attempt a roast beef for dinner (believe it or not I've never actually cooked this myself before) and we have apple cider supplies left over from Christmas. This is the closest we're going to get to a "winter day" in Abu Dhabi so I feel like we should make the most of it!