 |
soaking up this and that |
|
 |
||
|
Sitting in the wine country watching to world go by is well worth the effort... soaking up the Internet provides distractions from the rest of the world. Weblogs of Interest
|
|
Job After College Yesterday I was driving to my nephew's graduation with my son. As it happens, the traffic was heavy and the drive took about two hours. During the drive, we listened to two features on the job market for college graduates. Now I have been acutely aware of this situation since my daughter graduated from college in May. We have been seen the numerous articles, political cartoons and commentaries on the topic since about March. No matter what measurement we use, the fact remains that the job market stinks. A Business School Dean on the News Hour last night asked the newly minted business graduates and MBA student to rate the job market from Yippee to Groan. Nothing but a large groan was the response. Similarly, on Marketplace the message was clear -- this is an economy with no jobs for the graduating class of 2003, in fact no new jobs period. I asked my daughter how many of her close college friends have a job lined up. Less than 10% of a sample of about 50 students. Given the cost of higher education, six months from now, when the loan repayment begins for so many students, it is going to be a scary situation. Getting a minimum wage job after college is not going to pay the bills. On the home front, we are fortunate. My daughter has a job, a good one in her field of study. She even had prospects for one or two other jobs. Her competition for her new job included about 500+ applicants. Hopefully, this job will carry her forward to graduate school and more jobs in the future. For now, however, we are thankful every day for our daughter being the exception to a very bleak rule.
Governing from 30,000 feet As George Bush left the middle east peace summit, Air Force One was routed over Bagdad for a presidential viewing. It struck me that this is the way the Bush administration approaches governing, from 30,000 feet, where only the larger objects are seen, and the details fade into the landscape. It is not easy from this height to see the unintended consequences, the missed targets, the situation on the ground that must be contended with on the basis of reality rather than as a idealized expectation. If you look at the policies of this administration, and the approaches that are taken, broad brush strokes are the rule. Issues are black and white. If you don't like the intelligence, then shift the analysis to people who believe as you do. Take some time to think about what is happening to you personally. To paraphrase a famous political ad, ironically from the Reagan campaign, are you better off than you were x years ago. You fill in the x. You have tax cuts, but what about your household situation. Better or worse. Are you happy with your health insurance plan, if you have one, or is it not quite as good as it was a few years ago. Living in California, I am enduring and personally touched by the state's budget crisis. Any way you look at it 35 billion dollars is a lot of money to bridge to balance the budget of the fifth or sixth largest economy in the world. Will it take a meltdown of this size to be seen from 30,000 feet to awaken the American public to the fact that they are not being served. In the case of California, I doubt it since California did not vote the right way in the last election. Maybe there is another large object down there that will melt down as a warning that all is not right on the ground. We are being bombarded from the height distored view of an administration out of touch with the real issues necessary to promote a safe, secure and prosperous America. It is time for more of us to question rather than accept the view from above.
March Madness Its March Madness time! Here is our Scouting Report for the tournament. Players: are capable and well trained. Clearly they have the most talent in the tournament. Coaches: are experienced and knowledgeable. They have developed a sound strategy for the contest. Admininistration: meddlesome, aloof and stubborn. They impose their view of the contest on the players and coach even during the event. Boosters: tunnel vision, dogmatic and insistent that their view is the only possible view. These rabid boosters are truly scary. Fans: chant the slogans provided by the boosters. Find it difficult to consider that all is not right in the contest. Venue: a hostile arena full of twists and turns. If the contest turns ugly, it could be difficult to get the ball up court. It may be that the post game action will be the most challenging since we will be following the distorted perception of the administration and boosters. Final Thoughts: The scouting reports for this contest don't really make much sense. The opponent, while evil, doesn't appear to be the tournament threat portrayed by the administration or boosters. Why are we considering this hanger-on opponent to be anything more than a marginal annoyance?
Conditional RSS Descriptions Thanks to Mark at Eastgate, I now can add 25 word desciptions to my RSS file. The next challenge is to see if descriptions can be conditional. If I manually enter a description, then I want to use that, if not, the first 25 words of the posting will be used. It works!
Evolving the site I am trying to make the Tinderbox site generate descriptions for the RSS feed. So far I am not getting the results I expect.
The Towel on Tinderbox This is the start of my Tinderbox weblog. I am experimenting with this aspect of a very intriguing program. While I am using Tinderbox primarily for information architecture and website development, I can see all sorts of possibilities. |
|
|
Home | About | Recent | Archives © 2002-2003 Frank Tansey in the sonoma wine country |