Godspeed Discovery

1. Think of the first word that comes to mind when you think of me.

2. Do a Google Image Search for that word.

3. Reply to this post with one of the pictures on the first page of results — don’t tell me the word.

4. Put this in your own blog so that I can do the same.

So, I had an interesting discussion today. Jobs move overseas everyday, for a combination of reasons: union greed, corporate greed, personal greed.. Lots and lots of greed, on all sides–although I’m sure there are certainly other motivating factors.

As a programmer, this is something that concerns me every day. In the last few decades, we’ve seen the United States lose the consumer electronics industry. No longer in any great significance do we manufacture items such as TVs or radios for the general consumer.. Most components for PCs are made in Japan or China.. What if all of the overseas computer science (and other technical areas of study) college students take back not only a knowledge base to their home countries, but also the jobs for which they are training?

Our economy is leading towards (and is already most of the way to) a service economy. Customer service jobs are replacing many technically-driven jobs. Even those service jobs, in many cases, are being sent over to India and other nations across the sea. We’re losing our technical edge–the edge that innovates instead of maintains or troubleshoots.

It leads to an interesting question. I don’t think it would ever get to this extreme, but maybe so…

…would you rather work for McDonalds, flipping burgers for the rest of your life here in America.. Or would you rather go overseas and continue the profession you love?

The third option would be to change careers entirely to something this nation needs and could not get rid of–the fireman, the police officer, the doctor, the lawyer.. But what if that’s not what you love?

Would you jump the sinking innovative American ship for the career you love?

Well, ok. I don’t really have a punchline for that one 🙂 But, if anyone does, let me know. hehe.

Chillin’ at the ‘rentals, watching the Cubbies take on the Pirates. Cubbies have won 6/7 this week. They’re back up to .500, so maybe they’ll start to take off–if they don’t, then alas the season is lost. Cry in your beer.

I saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory last night, which was uberly entertaining. Johnny Depp played a very smashing Wonka, the Oompa Loompas weren’t quite as chilling as they were in the original (thank goodness), and their musical numbers were equally cheesy, though not quite as acid trippy 🙂 The end was also very awesome; definitely better than the ending of the original. I saw a trailer the for Corpse Bride, which looks like a very interesting flick–it’s almost as if Tim Burton is going back to his roots.

I also saw War of the Worlds again with my brother in the afternoon. Frickin awesome movie 🙂

It hasn’t been too hot around here this weekend. Today it’s around 84, although there’s an uber good bit of humidity–feels like 92. Hurricane Dennis didn’t leave much in the way of super nasty weather, just a lot of rain.

I went to the Huntsville Museum of Art with Ruthie and a couple of other NASA people. I literally haven’t been there in years, and I think it’s been a couple since I went to Big Spring Park. Thing’s have really changed around there. They’re starting to build like crazy. Maybe the town has finally woken up from it’s stagnant slumber (ppppppfffffttt.. yea, right)

I’ve found the Holy Grail, or at least I feel like I have. I have been tinkering with it on-and-off for years, but I have finally gotten WiFi working under Linux!! w00t!! This is just so frickin cool that it’s unbelievable. Interesting thing, though.. WPA is only supported with major config file tweaking. This isn’t so bad, I guess. It might be one of those things where I downgrade to WEP and settle with it for now *eyes WEP suspiciously* Oh, this is a major geek day, indeed.

In other news..

It’s been rather dreary in the skies around here, mainly because of Dennis. I don’t know when/if the rain will arrive here. I’m assuming the hurricane will thrust north inland and then head east. The big stuff might miss us altogether, I don’t know. I’m glad that Dennis didn’t visit the beach last week while we were there.

Cubbies are on a little winning streak after being on a 7 game losing streak. This is just going to be another flat year, I think.

Went to a little soda fountain place called Payne’s in Scottsboro yesterday. It was so cool. They make Coke there. They pour in the syrup and then pour in the seltzer. They had an awesome turkey sandwhich, too. Scottsboro, at least the downtown portion, is chillingly like a town I saw in a Twilight Zone episode–the one where William Shatner stars; his character and his wife stop off in a little cafe in a town where they end up sitting at a table where a fortune-telling napkin holder tells them what is to come. It was quite strange.

Anyhoo, off to play with Linux some more *drool*

So I saw this on w00t.com today (if you see this over the weekend, it’ll probably be gone). It looks like a very awesome & spiffy device. The only problem is that I believe it uses WEP for the Wi-Fi. I’m not going to downgrade from WPA just for this device of coolness, no matter how spiffy it is. Am I being too uber paranoid about my network security to not have this device of utter uber awesomeness? I mean, other than the WPA.. I would soooooo get it *drool*

So there are still quite a few fireworks going kablooey out there at the moment. Today was fairly overcast, and a storm even came through, but the night ended quite nice and certainly clear enough for some fireworks awesomeness. There’s nothing better than celebrating the independence of your nation by blowing up a small part of it 😉

I went to the beach with Ruthie and a couple of other people. It was a really nice time, although I did get a little burned–nothing major, though. I caught up on War of the Worlds, which I am still trying to finish–I’ve been reading snippets here and there, and the most I read consecutively was on the beach.

I saw 3 or 4 sharks while I was there, or at least I think they were sharks. I know that on one of them I saw vertical tail and dorsal fins, so I know for certain that I saw at least one. Needless to say that I didn’t venture any further out than up to my shins.. Even that was probably too close for comfort.

Grr. Back to work tomorrow. It won’t be so bad; good project going on, and the week is only going to be four days. w00t! 🙂

I am most definitely going to have to see War of the Worlds again this week.