Michael Kantor

Headset in the cubicle

At the company I work for, people like to have a lot of meetings. Ah, I miss the old days when meetings would be held face-to-face in a meeting room. But my employer converted most of the meeting rooms to office space for more workers, and nearly all of the meetings are conference calls.

I used to suffer through these meetings uncomfortably holding the receiver to my ear. I saw some people with headsets, but I thought that there was probably some ridiculously complicated bureaucratic requisition process required to get one. But then I was told that all I had to do was call the “help desk” and ask for one. So I called the “help desk” and a week later I got a headset!

I was so happy to finally have my own headset. Until I tried to use it at a meeting. That’s when I learned that the headset sucked, and when I talked into it, no one could hear me. At first, I thought maybe I was doing something wrong, but after a great deal of experimentation I concluded that it wasn’t me, the headset just sucked.

So finally, after delaying far too long, I called the “help desk” again and asked for a new headset. Then a month went by and still I had the same old headset that sucked. So I called the “help desk” again. A few days later, finally, the head help-desk guy came by and gave me a new Plantronics headset with a noise canceling microphone. Everyone was able to hear me when I talked into the mike. Now my meetings are almost fun!

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This photo was taken with the Olympus E-PM1 PEN Mini. Now you may ask, why do you need a $500 camera to take a picture of a headset hanging on a cubicle partition? Well, I probably could have made do with a lesser camera, but still, the lighting was kind of dim. This was shot at ISO 800 at 1/30 of a second, so I might not have been able to get a good handheld shot with a lesser camera that lacked image stabilization or good high-ISO ability.

Williamsburg Bridge

A photo of the Williamsburg Bridge taken with my new Olympus E-PM1 PEN Mini camera, which Olympus gave me for free. Olympus gave away one thousand of these, and I was lucky enough to be in that group.

Yes, the camera does do color photographs, but the colors looked pretty blah (not the fault of the camera, rather the time of day and the lighting); the picture worked a lot better as a black and white.

Guide to oil colors

By oil colors, I mean the tubes of paint, and not a complete guide to how to paint in oils (the latter topic being something I don’t feel I’m qualified to write). This guide is necessary because of all the bad advice floating around the internet and in how-to books on oil painting.

Painting of a field

7” x 9.5”, oil on paper

This painting is the best of my recent works. I think it's the first where I was successful in achieving a looser and more painterly style. It's based on a reference photo which I didn't take myself, so I don't consider it to be high art. It's just a practice painting.

Central Park Woods

Central Park Woods
8”x10”, oil on hardboard

My most recently completed painting.

And my first post to this blog in over a year.

City at Night

But not from this weekend when it was cold and rainy.

Taste and Quality

It's not "junk food," it's quality food.

The term "junk food" is really just a way that rich people can look down on poor people but feel morally justified about it.

Man dies running Baltimore Marathon

Yesterday, a 23-year-old man died while running the Baltimore Marathon.

A few days ago, I discovered a blog post listing the top 10 reasons NOT to run marathons, and the blogger seems to know a lot about medical science. He cites published articles from medical journals in support of the contention that marathons are bad for your health.

Why do people participate in this unhealthy sport?

First fall colors

This is the first weekend I've noticed any fall colors in the trees in Manhattan.

Don't let your kids attend community college

Out in certain parts of the internet, some people have been spouting “wisdom” that parents should save money by having their kids start out at a cheap community college. That turns out to be very bad advice:

Bright, well-prepared community college students are 36 percent less likely to make it through to a bachelor's than similarly qualified students who start their degrees at four-year schools. Bowen realizes that message is likely to rile politicians and students who are hoping to use community colleges to save money in this economy but notes that his findings confirm those of others: "It is pretty hard to argue with the data . . . . If you want a bachelor's and you can start out at a good four-year institution, that is what you should do."

Why do community college students fall by the educational wayside so often? Other research has shown the influence of motivated and challenging peers, who are not always present in community college classrooms. Many community college students also have complained over the years about the failure of their schools to direct them to classes that will count as transfer credits. In addition, Bowen says many students are probably put off by complicated transfer processes.

So if you care about your kids’ futures, make sure they start out at a real four-year college. Don't be a cheapskate.

Also, if your kid goes to the best four-year school he can get into, his chance of graduating will increase:

Thousands of bright, qualified students apply only to lower-ranked schools where their grades and tests scores are above those of the average student. But the new study finds that those who attend such "safety" schools are far more likely to drop out than those who get into "reach" schools. "It is counterintuitive," Bowen says. "You might think that if Sally goes to a school where she is top dog, she will have a much easier time graduating. But that's not true. She has a better chance of graduating if she goes to school with other people as talented she is."

These findings are obviously related. If your kid hangs out with a lot of slackers (which will happen if he attends a lousy school), their slacker ways sometimes rub off.