I recently concluded a 3-month job search. As part of my networking, I met a number of unemployed people in other fields who were having trouble not only getting jobs, but even getting interviews. I talked to a lot of people and averaged about an interview a day, including phone interviews, mostly for development manager jobs. For every development manager job, there are multiple development jobs, so if you’re a developer, your situation is even better than mine was. I live in Southern California, but the demand is not just local. I had multiple contacts from companies outside the SoCal area that can’t find qualified candidates. I’ve been working again for over two months, I no longer have an active résumé on job boards, and I still get emails and calls every day from recruiters all over the country. Agile and Scrum are in demand The situation with Agile and… Read more →
August 2012
Rand Paul at the RNC
Highlights When I heard the current president say, “You didn’t build that,” I was first insulted, then I was angered, and then I was saddened that anyone in our country, much less the president of the United States, believes that roads create business success and not the other way around. Anyone who is so fundamentally misunderstanding of American greatness is uniquely unqualified to lead this great nation. In Bowling Green, Kentucky, the Tang family owns The Great American Doughnut Shop. Their family fled war-torn Cambodia to come to this country. My kids and I love doughnuts, so we go there frequently. The Tangs work long hours. Mrs. Tang told us they work through the night to make the doughnuts. The Tang family have become valedictorians and National Merit Scholars. The Tangs from Cambodia are an American success story, so Mr. President, don’t go telling the Tang family that they… Read more →
Condoleezza Rice at the RNC
Highlights You see, the essence of America, what really unites us, is not nationality or ethnicity or religion. It is an idea. And what an idea it is. That you can come from humble circumstances and you can do great things, that it does not matter where you came from, it matters where you are going. My fellow Americans, ours has never been a narrative of grievance and entitlement. We have never believed that I am doing poorly because you are doing well. We have never been jealous of one another and never envious of each others’ successes. And on a personal note, a little girl grows up in Jim Crow Birmingham. The segregated city of the south where her parents cannot take her to a movie theater or to restaurants, but they have convinced her that even if she cannot have a hamburger at Woolworths, she can be… Read more →
Aside
David Anderson: What Kanban Coaches Do and Don’t Do
The Name on the Back
Penn State announced that its uniforms will feature player names on the back of its jerseys for the first time in school history. Once the Nittany Lions run out on the field this weekend, USC football will be the only FBS school never to have had surnames on the back of its jerseys. By being traditional, USC football has become unique… — The RipsIt Blog We don’t play for the name on the back of the jersey because there is no name on the back of the jersey. We only have numbers so our moms can recognize us from the stands. Read more →
Clint Eastwood at the RNC
That was hard to watch but he did point out one important fact: We own the country. That’s often overlooked, especially by elected officials themselves. Politicians are employees. We hire them, we pay them, we give them unimaginable sums of money to spend as they see fit, and we hold them to such ridiculously low standards . . . Read more →
Occupy Tampa
Residents and merchants here have grown weary of the Occupy Tampa movement’s 6-month presence in their midst, and some of them aim to take action. On Thursday they plan to take a petition to the Tampa City Council. It maintains that the movement has turned a privately owned park on Main Street into an impromptu squatters’ village that is unsightly and, at times, unruly. Since adult nightclub owner Joe Redner made his Voice of Freedom Park available to the movement in December, it has filled with pup tents, and has become an eyesore that is unclean, disorderly and unsafe due to people using drugs and drinking alcohol, the residents say. — West Tampa group wants Occupy Tampa out of park | TBO.com What we have here, then, is a dispute between a rich man asserting his right to use his property in any way he sees fit and the residents… Read more →
Rara Avis: Female Republicans and Tax-Paying Democrats
Here’s a headline from NBC News coverage of the RNC: Women share their reasons for being at the Republican National Convention NBC does a lot of editorializing in their “news” coverage. I propose the following headline for next week’s DNC: Taxpayers share their reasons for being at the Democratic National Convention Read more →
Intimations of Mortality
Medical office visits are intimations of mortality . . . I had an appointment this morning to have blood drawn. Of the patients who went ahead of me, none of them left the office without elaborately thanking the receptionist. “Thank you,” they all said with immense politeness. Everyone is superstitious in the face of death. I’m a good person. I’m going to show what a good person I am by graciously thanking a humble receptionist and maybe they won’t find anything bad in my blood test and maybe I won’t die . . . Read more →
Mac Wilkins: What The Discus Can Teach You About Life
Deadspin has an excellent “as told to” story on former Olympic discus thrower Mac Wilkins (What The Discus Can Teach You About Life: Lessons From One Of America’s Greatest Throwers) Wilkins made four straight U.S. Olympic teams, winning a gold medal in 1976, a silver in 1984, and finishing fifth in 1988. He was also the first man to throw the discus more than 70 meters, and he held the world record for over two years, bettering his own mark three times between April 1976 and August 1978. Some excerpts: So one day I go out to train and I say, Oh, what the heck. Let’s just give it a little extra effort today. And I did, and I got better and it went farther. And I thought that was kind of fun. What if I could that again tomorrow? And so pretty soon, I’m hooked on, Can I do… Read more →
Cutest Photo Ever of a Pug in a Bunny Suit
Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all. — Dale Carnegie
What’s on Your Bookshelf?
Bookman, my favorite local used bookstore, had a 25-percent-off sale this weekend and here’s what I got: Read more →
R.I.P. Jerry Nelson aka Count von Count, Sherlock Hemlock, the Amazing Mumford …
In Memoriam: Jerry Nelson – The Sesame Workshop Blog Read more →
Bill “Spaceman” Lee Pitches a Complete Game. He’s 65 Years Old.
USC baseball alum Bill “Spaceman” Lee, age 65, pitched a complete-game 9-4 victory for the San Rafael Pacifics of the independent North American League Thursday night, to become the oldest pitcher to win a professional game. Lee already held that record anyway, having won a Can-Am League game in 2010 at age 63. The notable thing here is that for some reason, professional pitchers in their prime can no longer do what a 65-year-old man can do, and that is to pitch a complete game. Knucklehead of week: Bill ‘Spaceman’ Lee – SFGate If you’re too young to remember Bill Lee, he was a major league pitcher from 1969 to 1982, primarily with the Boston Red Sox. He is regarded as one of the game’s all-time colorful characters. (If you’re wondering whether that reputation is deserved, Baseball Almanac has compiled some Lee quotes for your perusal. Read more →
Neil Armstrong, 1930-2012
Neil Armstrong photographed by Buzz Aldrin after the completion of the Lunar EVA on the Apollo 11 flight (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Astronaut Neil Armstrong, first man to walk on moon, dies at age 82 – Cosmic Log I’m sorry to hear this. For people my age, NASA and the space program were such an important part of our childhood. We’d wake up any hour of the day or night to watch launches and splashdowns. Astronauts were as famous as pro athletes and rock stars . . .actually, they were more famous than athletes. Being a pro athlete in the 1960s wasn’t what it is today. It would be nice if I could let this go without mentioning that Armstrong was a graduate of the University of Southern California, but I can’t. R.I.P. Neil Armstrong Read more →
Great Moments in Government Regulation
To paraphrase President Obama: Look, if you’ve been unsuccessful, you didn’t get there on your own. If you were unsuccessful at opening or operating a small business, some government official along the line probably contributed to your failure. There was an overzealous civil servant somewhere who might have stood in your way with unreasonable regulations that are part of our American system of anti-business red tape that allowed you to not thrive. Taxpayers invested in roads and bridges, but you might have faced city council members who wouldn’t allow you to use them. If you’ve been forced to close a business – it’s often the case that you didn’t do that on your own. Somebody else made that business closing happen or prevented it from opening in the first place. You can thank the bureaucratic tyrants of the nanny state. — Mark J. Perry, Great Moments in Government Regulation: How… Read more →
Now You Know Why Democrats Oppose Voter ID Laws
In a story ignored by the national media, in April a Tunica County, Miss., jury convicted NAACP official Lessadolla Sowers on 10 counts of fraudulently casting absentee ballots. Sowers received a five-year prison term for each of the 10 counts, but Circuit Court Judge Charles Webster permitted Sowers to serve those terms concurrently, according to the Tunica Times, the only media outlet to cover the sentencing. Sowers was found guilty of voting in the names of Carrie Collins, Walter Howard, Sheena Shelton, Alberta Pickett, Draper Cotton and Eddie Davis. She was also convicted of voting in the names of four dead persons: James L. Young, Dora Price, Dorothy Harris, and David Ross. — Mississippi NAACP leader sent to prison for 10 counts of voter fraud | The Daily Caller Read more →
Restoration Massacre
An elderly woman has destroyed a 19th-century Spanish fresco in a botched restoration conducted without permission. — The Independent “Restoration conducted without permission” = ignorant destruction of artistic treasures. This is why it pays to leave art restoration to trained professionals. Read more →
Aside
Tobias Mayer: How to Write an Agile Job Ad