Monday, April 30, 2007

Trump on the War

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=01e_1174091038


I'm not one to attack the president. I've always been irritated by people who say the president is stupid or they know better because they aren't the president. I believe if you have what it takes to become president (by whatever means you do) then you have some serious ability because there have only been 43 presidents. That's a hard group to join. Also, the president must be privy to much more information than a majority of people on the planet just by the nature of the office, so we don't really know what he does know and does not know.

That being said, I have to agree with Trump. This war is stupid, it was an emotional reaction and it's long past time to leave. I feel like this is a repeat of the Vietnam War. We are fighting a war of occupation, not a war of invasion and there is no way to win a war when your enemy could be anyone. I also agree that this is the time to leave. There will never be a good time to leave so it might as well be sooner than later.

What we need to do is not invade or attack but link more and more countries into the global supply chain. The only way to win in today's world is through economics. By using modern technology we should outsource larger and larger amounts of jobs to countries around the world as long as they prove they have enough government stability to support it. Let free economies do the work for us instead of this "War on Terror". No one is going to kill their business partners as long as they are getting a bigger piece of the pie than they would get without them.

I know we have this fear of outsourcing in this country but it's unfounded and foolish. If your job gets sent to another country it is the best thing that can happen to you because it forces you to break from the routine. It forces you to educate yourself enough to get a better position, one that you will most likely be happier occupying. If you can't do that, then it forces you to start your own business and use your imagination to find a way to survive. We celebrate the stories of people who rise from the ashes to new heights.

The world has changed since the days of our parents in every area. It's time to change the way we think and the way we approach the world.

Saturday, April 28, 2007

This is just cool

http://www.maniacworld.com/Praying-Mantis-vs-Mouse.html

Yeah... that's awesome.

Friday, April 27, 2007

Amusing Story

Quick shout out before I get started - Thanks to Paulyterp for the shirt I am currently wearing. Yes son, I am Huge in Japan.

Ok, so today I went in for an interview with a software company.

I go in and meet a few people, do the normal chit chat and bs routine where you make them feel like you're really excited and then they get excited and all that. Then they spring this surprise skills challenge on me. Now, I'm smart and I have a CS degree but I also haven't programmed in about a year (thanks a lot Raytheon Solipsys) so I'm a little taken aback. I start working through it, trying to remember syntax, looking some stuff up online when I run into a total memory block and proceeding ok. I'm not tearing this thing up, but I'm managing ok.

This is a small company of about 15 people, so in comes the two co-presidents of the company to give me a little talk in a conference room they have across the hall. I walk over with them and I look at my watch. I came in for this interview at 10 and I thought it would be real quick so I had a phone interview setup for 11. It's now 10:52. So I tell them, at 11 I have a call that I have to take and couldn't reschedule but I'll pick up and tell them I'm in the middle of something and have them call at another time. They are ok with it and they begin asking me a few questions. I give the casual responses and things are going pretty well. Then 11 o'clock comes and my phone rings. I tell them I'll be right back, leave the room and answer the phone.

"Hi, is this John? This is Ron and I've got Ryan and Chirag here with me, you're on speaker phone."

At this point I realize that I'm going to have to do this interview. So I proceed to have a 15 minute interview in the room across the hall while the co-presidents of the company I am applying for sit and wait for me.

Wow right? Yeah.

So everything goes well with the phone interview and it sounds really exciting. So I'm pumped about that job. (Yes, I know you think I'm a dick)

Once I wrap that up I go back across the hall and they are gone. At that point I'm thinking, "Crap, maybe I should just bail, I'm not doing very good anyway." I decide to hold on see if someone comes back. No one comes back for a couple of minutes. So I looked around the shelves and they have Rich Dad, Poor Dad, the E-Myth and some other interesting looking books. I grabbed one and started reading it. More time passes.

Finally after about 15 minutes (I guess it's only fair) a person stumbles back over and realizes that I'm just sitting in there waiting for them. So they come back over and apparently they had a lunch thing to go to so they are going to head out. At this point I figure it's time to cut and run. I chat a little bit about the books they have with them and then they head out but they say to talk to the lady I talked to when I arrived.

So she comes back and we talk some and I tell her I have to leave and can't finish the program. She's like, are you sure? So I say, "Yes, yes I am". Then I leveled with her and said that she's probably looking for someone who they can hire and can hit the ground running and I'm just not in a position to do that (thanks again Raytheon Solipsys - woohoo!). She wishes me luck and I head out.

At least one interview went well.

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Hindsight

http://netscrap.com/netscrap_detail.cfm?scrap_id=514

I'm only 22 and I agree with a lot of this guys advice already. Rushing through college and getting a degree in something I didn't really like just because I knew I could make more money has cost me a lot.

Now that I'm living with my parents, working a 40 hour week and not having a social life I really feel like I missed out on a lot. That is probably where most of my motivation comes from to change my life, which could be a good or a bad thing.

Regardless if you believe this guy, another view point is always worth reading.

Stumble Upon

Stumble Upon is most likely the best thing to happen since pictures came to the Internet. I encourage everyone to first of all, stop using Internet Explorer, then pick up the free Stumble Upon plug in for FireFox.

This thing has brought me more fun and entertainment than all the video games I've spent $60 or so on in the past 3-5 years. Before I'd just do random searches or chain links from different articles I enjoyed in hopes of finding something entertaining to do on the Internet. Now with one click I bounce to some website I would have never found on my own and more and more of those long minutes at work are eaten away with pure amusement.

Give it a test run of your own and I'm positive you won't look back.

What this blog is about.

Everyday as we go about our lives we run into things that just don't seem right. This is what I'll be writing about. Everyone has their own perspective of the world, I'm going to share mine with whoever wants to read it.

I think that what gives us our value in society is the system we use to make choices that determine what we do everyday. I will also be sharing my system and my critics of other's systems.

Feel free to contribute your thoughts.

I hope you enjoy.