Friday Fun: Never hit your computer!

This clip pretty much sums up my week:



I'll post more about how this week went later in the day.

I am now Twittered!

I have had a Twitter account for a while now, but I have never used it until today when someone suggested I use it as part of my job search and connect to JobAngels. ( Thanks Kelley :)

To be honest I don't expect to use it more than once or twice a day to post brief notices, but if you happen to be on Twitter check me out: http://twitter.com/miba51

As for other news, I am still plugging away with the job search and I had a couple good leads, so wish me luck. The web development studies are also moving along and I have started up a project to create an locally hosted site that will help me stay better organized. It's sort of like my own version of Zulupad. I am creating the pages by writing the XHTML myself instead of using a rich text editor as in Zulupad, and while a lot of the work is monotonous it is good training.

Other than that, there isn't much else to blog about today except that I am glad the weather has changed. It was getting just a little too stagnant for me.

Friday Fun: Coulton and Cleese

Before the Friday Fun begins, I would like to point out a couple of articles I came across:

Lifehacker: Jump to a New Career with a Killer Resume and Plan. It's a tough the job market right now, so if you are looking for work, or think you soon will be, then give this article a read. If you know of any other good job search articles then drop me a line. I will list them here to share with others.

ExtremeTech: The 20 Best Free PC Games. I don't agree with all the choices, but they are free and given the times, free is good.


Now here's an unsolicited plug from me: If you are a manager looking to manage well as opposed to just managing, then take a look at Kelley Eskridge's Humans At Work program.


Now the fun begins!

Jonathan Coulton performs Code Monkey Unplugged:


"I Wouldn't Watch This Commercial" - John Cleese 1980's Compaq Ad:

Friday Fun: IT Administrator Song and Sysadmin

It Friday and it's time for some fun!

To get things started here is is a great little ditty for all you admins out there:




Here is video is from either Sweden, or Norway. I am not sure if it is a advertisement or not, but I think most sysadmins can relate to it:



I hope you have a great weekend. Cheers ~ Jim

WOW! Someting positive from CNN!

With all their doom and gloom I was beginning to think that everyone at CNN was turning emo, and getting ready to run en masse into a giant closet, turn off the lights, and start listening to mopey music.

Then much to my surprise CNN posted a news story that is not only positive, but it may also be quite helpful to many people.

If you are like me and you are currently without health insurance, then you may find this article interesting: "No health insurance? Get help here"

It lists some resources I was unaware of, and that I plan to check out. Thanks CNN, maybe you are starting to realize that bad news isn't always good for profits.

I've noticed that the "burp" in job postings that I previously wrote about has now turned into an annoying long and loud belch. Hopefully the stimulus package get's signed soon so people will stop holding their breath and actually start moving forward.

Well tomorrow is Friday, and that means some more Friday fun, so check out tomorrow's posting. Cheers ~ Jim


Footnote: Not all news on CNN is negative. I had forgotten all about this story - Lance, Inc - A company with heart!

It seems like everyone is holding their breath.

If you bounce around the job boards as much as I have been doing you begin to see trends. For the last few days I have noticed that there seems to be drop in the number of job postings as well as a rash of cancellations.

I noticed a similar "burp" just before the inauguration in January which was followed by a sudden spike in postings. This makes me wonder if companies are holding off with their job postings until Congress votes on the stimulus package. It is like like everyone is holding their breath, and waiting for the stimulus package to pass.

If this is true then it just goes to show how much people are depending on the stimulus package to fix everything. What people need to understand is that the stimulus package will not fix everything, it is just meant to overcome the current economic inertia and "stimulate" the economy in a positive direction.

This just goes to show how desperate people are for positive news, news that will give them a signal to move forward. Unfortunately the mainstream news media seems bent on piddling on everyone's chips by constantly posting negative news and passing over almost anything that is positive.

Let's face it, bad news sells soap far much better than good news, and with all the changes taking place in the news media selling soap has become more important than ever. As I stated in the previous post, this negative news is only compounding the inertia that the economy needs to overcome.

The mainstream news media needs to look at their effect on the economy, and change their focus. I am by no means suggesting that a news item be ignored because it is of a negative nature. What I am suggesting that the news media dig a little deeper for positive news to offset the negative.

Is this wishful thinking? Absolutely yes, but it's far better than what will happen if everyone continues to focus on negative news.

My advice to everyone is to stop holding their breath, and start breathing again. It won't hurt, I promise :-)

Just some thoughts, and a little Friday fun.

Looks like it's time for another update. I really haven't had much to post about recently, since it's pretty much the same old story; looking for work during the day, studying web development at night, and trying to stay positive 24/7.

Staying positive requires a lot more work lately due to all the doom and gloom that is in the news. It has gotten to the point to where I just no longer watch or read the mainstream news such as CNN because of their constant negativity. Personally I believe the economy has hit bottom, and is ready to turn around. I also believe that many of the companies that are currently laying people off are just taking advantage of the current "panic" and using the current situation to justify culling the herd, and clear out employees they consider "marginal" regardless of their work ethic and experience.

I also feel that news agencies such as CNN and Fox are focusing on negative news because it helps them sell soap, and they are doing so without any regard to how it affects people. The constant negativity from the mainstream news services is affecting people to the point that it may actually delay the economic recovery for an extended period. I'm not saying we need to put on rose colored glasses and say everything is groovy, but I do believe that the US economy is ready to recover, and it just needs a little positive push. So how about some good news for a change?

OK! I got that off my chest and I'll get off my soap box for now.

While bouncing around on the Internet I have come across some postings that I find interesting and I'd like to share with you, so take a look at the links below:

• Smashing Magazine - Clear And Effective Communication In Web Design This is an excellent article on how to present clear and effective information on websites and blogs, and I definitely recommend reading this article for all noobs such as myself.

• Guy Kawasaki - Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn to Find a Job Guy Kawasaki has some good suggestions for using networking sites like Linkedin to help your career, but as someone who has been on Linkedin for quite a long time I would also like to suggest that people use a little common sense and caution. Many of the business networking sites are now being overrun by scammers who want to join your network just to gather your personal information and spam you. My advice to anyone using Linkedin is to use a throw-away email address for your account, and change it regularly. I also suggest that you only connect with people who you either know directly or share common interests with you. Let me tell you that it really sucks to be unemployed and constantly get spam from some off-shore recruiter asking you if your company needs their services. Yeah right!

• GeenerComputing - Google: Our Green Data Centers Got a Lot Greener This is a nice article on how Google is improving the efficiency of their data centers. If you have any interest in data centers then give this short article a read. As the economy turns around and IT infrastructure grows, efficient use of power will become even more important, and it looks like Google is leading the way.

And now it's time for some Friday Fun: The IT Crowd - Break The Internet



Have a great weekend! ~ Jim
(Psst! If you haven't already, take a look at the "Geeks Who Care" link listed on the left)