bigruss

Really craving some tacos or a burrito, Mexican food is non-existent in the Netherlands. I can't really call their taco dinner mixes at the grocery store Mexican food, since it's just plain terrible and really doesn't taste like real tacos. Actually, food in the Netherlands tends to suck big time, the Doner Kebab places here are terrible compared to other Euro countries, they have no real desirable authentic cuisine, their hamburgers are weak, and the only Chinese I've had hear is decent but very different from American-Chinese. I won't even mention the pizza, which is not only expensive (think $28 for a large Pizza Hut pizza after the exchange rate) but tops out at edible. Oh, and they have this odd obsession with mayo, it replaces ketchup as the go to condiment, our very first dinner the college took us to a restaurant with some of the home students who act as "buddies" and I asked him if mayo was really popular here because I saw it everywhere, and as he responded "no" he was dumping it on his fries. I felt like Lily from HYMIM:

QUOTE (G&T @ Mar 18, 2011 -> 10:02 AM) Well that makes me feel better. What made me feel worse was the Guiness. One damn Guiness and I woke up with a pounding headache. I am so happy Im young and hangovers tend to stay away from me, of course there are the special occasions where I mix a bottle of wine, beer, and shots in one night which usually makes me feel like doing nothing the next day. The worst is the jungle juice with everclear in it, that always gives me the worst headaches, or my infamous tequila nights where I black out by midnight and almost always have something important in the morning, I never remember those nights but my friends always do...

I had a friend send me his resume to look over and he put words like "fluent" and "expert" (it wasn't expert but something very similar) to describe not only his secondary language skills but also his technical skills. I then asked him if he could easily hold his interview in Spanish, and he said he could not, or if he could show his technical skills in the area he described himself as skilled and he said he probably couldn't. He would've been dead in the water if an interviewer asked about those details of his resume. Semantics is huge in resumes, and it is highly important that you do not over extend how you portray yourself in an interview. I also really wish there was more education on resume writing, especially starting with college freshman. I know U of Illinois has implemented a BUS 101 class that is supposed to cover this area among many others, but I don't feel that what they are teaching students is really what recruiters and interviewers want. Of course every recruiter will have a different idea of what they want to see in a resume but their are many key parts that many students don't know, for example, don't just put down what your title meant, but how you improved the organization or team during your tenure. It is expected that a Philanthropy Chair held events to raise money, but did you really do better than your predecessor, what skills did you use to improve your position.

QUOTE (SpainSOXfan09 @ Mar 18, 2011 -> 01:43 AM) This, I doubt we get anything for him in a trade, but you never know. Would luv to get one of those 11 draft picks the Rays have piled up. Especially in either the 1st or 2nd round, yeah right. Well that's downright impossible considering a team cannot trade draft picks, and must wait 1 year to trade a player after drafting and signing a player.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Mar 18, 2011 -> 01:31 AM) I guess you can say he does it well, but I haven't been about to stand him in anything. He has the acting range of a rock. He's a good role actor, not a good leading actor.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Mar 17, 2011 -> 02:31 PM) Breakout star Michael Cera? Ugh, I'll never understand it. He's the same person in almost any movie, but he does fit that role well. He is the perfect person to play George Michael Bluth.

QUOTE (G&T @ Mar 17, 2011 -> 07:28 PM) Why aren't stores here offering 25% off Belgians?! I'm drinking Guiness. Ill tolerate it for tonight. Ha well with the exchange rate they are pretty much marked up 40% to begin with. If it was in dollars they would be pretty sweet deals, still I won't complain picking up Duvel 6 packs for 5 euro, or some specialty bottles for less than a euro each.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Mar 17, 2011 -> 11:34 AM) It's coming!!

Arrested Development movie will come out this year.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Mar 16, 2011 -> 10:50 PM) There's guys being guys, and then there is this, which is just offensive, over the top, and sickening. I hope the USC IFC comes/came down hard on them. Agreed, it's one thing to joke about urban dictionary type sex moves, but it's another thing to do this.

Here is the link. This email was sent by a USC Kappa Sigma member to his fraternity: I was told of this email after an Irish exchange student here in Holland showed it to all the USC exchange students, only to find out that one of the girls is an ex of the president of the chapter.

QUOTE (The Gooch @ Mar 15, 2011 -> 02:50 PM) Honestly, networking is the best option. Go beyond job fairs and careerbuilder. Find a club or organization for a field that your interested in and join it. Ask friends or relatives for opening in the companies they work for and get a referral or a direct email to the person in charge of hiring if possible. Knowing someone in the organization and getting a referral is your best shot at getting an interview. Check out temp agencies to see if they are offering anything that matches your interests. Those temp jobs can often turn into full time gigs. Even taking an internship can turn into a job, or at very least it will give you more experience (which is vital as the market for entry level positions is still awful). 100% agreed. Organizations give you a network of alumni that can help you, while providing resources to help build yourself and your resume. Most internships that I have seen are not just for extra work to be done for the company, but are an investment in you by the company. Almost every friend I have that has obtained an internship has walked away from it with at least a pitch to work for the company, if not a hard offer. The big 4 accounting firms basically guarantee a full time position to it's interns as long as they don't mess up terribly (they even hold get togethers at the end of the internship with all the interns present to tell them of their offers at some locations). Also, for future interviews, organizations and internships give great material to draw from. When you are able to show in your answers that you have experience within areas of leadership, communication, teamwork, time management, etc while actually being able to pull specific real life examples. It also can give confidence to an interviewer that someone had faith in you earlier to elect you into a position or to assign you a project.

QUOTE (nitetrain8601 @ Mar 15, 2011 -> 07:09 PM) Good advice on the last page. I've found it utterly hard to even get an internship or temp job though. No one will look at me, even Best Buy. I think that's because I'm trying to jump into a field where I don't have work experience/certs, but I do have schooling in and will graduate in Feb of next year. What makes it worse is that friends with no experience in my field, who self taught and also did not receive formal schooling(also don't have certs) are finding IT jobs/CIS jobs. It stinks. =[ What school do you attend? Im studying IS/IT through the college of business at UIllinois and I would get updates on internship opportunities all the time, there was a huge market for IT interns when I was looking for one last year. Even the company I will be interning for again is raising their IT interns from 6 to 14 for the upcoming summer. The hardest part of IT though is finding a fit for what you are interested in, I know that personally I do not want to be a technician or programmer, I much prefer the business side of IT than the technical side. Many companies may look for interns in one of these fields, thus you have to make sure that the position you are going after is the same as what you want. So your friends may be more technical than you (not sure if true), and that may be what some companies are looking for, but not every one of the is.

QUOTE (flippedoutpunk @ Mar 16, 2011 -> 12:18 AM) haha i posted that in the music thread, it is now my ringtone/motivational morning drive to school song The best part is the girl in your avatar, words cannot describe how awkward she is.

QUOTE (thxfrthmmrs @ Mar 15, 2011 -> 11:49 PM) Last I checked, the name of the thread is still 2010-2011 NBA Thread. I am not even a fan of Kevin Love, but let the man post what he wishes. Yeah, and ESPN is a national station, doesn't mean they don't have local favorites.

There are so many things that players can argue about or claim are unjust in how the league works fiscally towards them, but to claim it as slavery is just not knowing the present situation, history of slavery, nor what slavery actually entails. For one, you can choose not to play football, you can retire any time you want to.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Mar 15, 2011 -> 11:02 AM) I visited Cork a few years ago and IMO that city seemed like the Detroit of Ireland. Cork blew Limerick out of the water, and Cork atleast had more attractions/historical significance in the area. I only spent 2 nights at each place but in Cork I was able to see much more. Since the city is bigger it has a lot more going on, much more nightlife, restaurants, attractions, etc. It wasn't the nicest city, but far from Detroit (which I lived by for 5 years).

QUOTE (The Baconator @ Mar 15, 2011 -> 10:54 AM) I have looked at a number of programs in England (LSE is obviously one of the best school's in the world, acceptance into the MPA program is 8%). Exeter seems to have a good program as well. I was pretty shocked that Trinity and UCD didn't offer the program. I guess at this point my interest really is just to live in Ireland (though I would prefer to live in Dublin). In the statement that Limerick is like the Detroit of Ireland, how relative is that? As in, is it really as bad as Detroit or is it just relative to the other cities in Ireland? It has some really bad areas, and my friend who is studying abroad there claimed multiple stories of how if you walk alone once it gets dark someone will do something to you, or even if you are in a small group. Apparently throwing eggs at people is considered fun. Limerick does have some nice areas, but as Chisoxfn pointed out there really wasn't much to do. I only spent 2 nights there, one night was spent at a rugby game, and the other was spent doing a barcrawl with her friends to all the bars/clubs in the area, which was like 4 of them haha. One thing to note, U of Limerick is almost like a commuter school, although many of the students live on campus, they almost all go home on the weekends. Thus, campus is essentially closed down on the weekends, and my friend and the rest of the international students travel every weekend because that's all you can really do.

I love Duvel, the grocery store here had all Belgian beers on sale 25% off, I'll have to go back there later this week and stockpile up on some other brands that I havent tried yet, but I couldn't resist picking up a 6 pack of Duvel.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Mar 14, 2011 -> 08:20 PM) I think Morel will become Brandon Inge Do you mean like defense heavy, light bat 3B? Because Inge and Morel are quite different types of hitters. Morel is much more balanced in power and contact than inge, who is more of a power guy basically because he doesnt hit for much average at all.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Mar 15, 2011 -> 03:09 AM) Ha, yeah I think so. Having done no research, it would seem to me that there are quite a few more prestigious schools compared to Ireland. One would think, especially in terms of international politics where England has been on the big stage for ever basically. I am surprised that U of Dublin doesn't have a reputable program in that area though, but yea Ireland may not be the best choice considering the smaller impact it has on global politics.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Mar 15, 2011 -> 02:05 AM) Would you absolutely have to live in Ireland, or could you go nearby, like one island over, and then be close enough to Ireland that you could spend some time there when you get some down time? You always want to keep your options open just in case something comes up. Hinting at the UK a bit? lol

Just want to say that I was recently at the Univ of Limerick visiting a friend studying abroad there, and it's an okay campus, the school is only like 30-40 years old I believe. The city itself is pretty depressing, think the Detroit of Ireland. I will say that Cork is just a 1-2 hr bus ride away and is a really great place.

I find most SNL actors to be much funnier outside of SNL. Hot Rod, Portlandia, and all the smaller roles that the actors play are much funnier than what they put out in SNL.

Anybody else watch Archer? It's not the greatest show but there are always a few huge laughs per episode.