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question for the hivemind: I'm applying for this job as the director of an international scholarship fund. They want five references, which I think is a lot. I have four solid work references, would it be horrible to add a personal reference? The job has an international focus, and this person can speak to my international experience, plus is the director of another non-profit. We've never worked together, though. What do you think?

I say yes.

Sounds reasonable to me.

According to my co-worker, no one can say, "Intriguing," without her thinking of me. I have co-opted the word.

Good luck, Vortex (yeah, I think the personal international experience should count for a reference)!

Happy Birthday, GC! Also, {{{{{{{{}}}}}}}}} so you have plenty of extra for your friends.

vw, can you ask for an assistant, or at least someone to spell you for a couple of breaks or something? Either way, here's hoping tomorrow will be better.

Nora, you are still in my thoughts. Words really don't help, do they?

Today's mini-rant.

I'm really tired of the swine flu panic. It's been on the front page of the paper and it's the lead item in every news cast. One guy wrote in to the paper saying he'd been reading about the flu epidemic of 1918 and thinks people are too complacent about it ... so he went out and bought supplies of masks, medicines, and food ... for six months. argh

Maybe I'm just ignoring the problem, but how much of this is an actual problem and how much of it is the media needing something to make a fuss about?

From what I gather, its a POTENTIAL problem. We're taking steps now (school closings, tracking the virus, developing a vaccine) to prevent the virus from running amok and mutating into something wildly virulent and deadly. Right now, its just the regular amount of virulent and deadly.

Thanks for the birthday wishes! My sweetie and I took the day off and are heading out for b'fast at Hugo's and then to LACMA for the Pompeii exhibit. I feel bad celebrating when my friends more than likely have lost everything. They don't know for sure, but it seems highly likely. I want to do something but there's really nothing to do at this point.

Laurie Garrett, who wrote the cover story on the new Newsweek re: swine flu, was on Colbert last night and said that this iteration of the flu isn't virulent enough to be severe, even though it is widespread enough to be called an epidemic. So, there are a lot worse things to be worried about than this version of swine flu.

(She wrote a great book that I bought about 15 years ago called The Coming Plague that'll scare the shit out of you, but is a very interesting look at all the stuff that's come out of "third world" countries after WWII, when first-world scientists were convinced that there were no more deadly diseases to worry about. Never underestimate Mother Nature!)