The $700 billion bailout needs adjustment.
The $700 billion bailout needs adjustment.
The Triangle Town Center “Riot”
As many people know Amy and I once lived in a house off of Louisburg Rd. behind Triangle Town Center. It’s where we lived when Connor was born. We moved out of the area specifically because it was going down hill. The location became full of dumb little thugs. In fact a house on our street was converted to a rental and the equivalent of a gang moved in. They called themselves a “riding club” as the sped in and out of the neighborhood on their crotch rockets all day and night.
Needless to say I got the hell outta Dodge. It was only a matter of time before the thug culture proliferating in the area moved towards the mall. Crapital Blvd. has always been notorious for these African American bike gangs striking fear into anyone wanting to stop for gas as they congregate by the dozens and enjoy the fact that they’ve staked their turf. That’s right, I called them out as black bike gangs. There is no use burying our head and imagining that this is anything less than a racial and cultural issue.
Some of the the dumb little thugs got outta control last Saturday night and 15 to 20 of them got in a fight in Triangle Town Center causing the mall to be closed an hour early. According to reports approx. 200 little thug bumpers ran crazy in the mall. The media labeled it a “riot”. While it was far from a riot it was definitely a wake up call. A call that may never be heeded. You see the fact that this entire problem was caused by black kids flashing gang signs has been disputed by members of the black community. They denounce the fact that there is any mention of race in the problem.
Let me be straight: In the office next to me is one of the coolest women I know. Her name is Jackie and she is in charge of accounts payable at our company. And she’s a black woman from Durham. She’s great. And she agrees with me on many points I will make here including the fact that if the black community works harder at dispelling the notion that this was not a black on black thug issue verses trying to solve the root of the problem it will never go away.
Many people on WRAL’s GOLO forum are screaming about lack of parenting, supervision and anything they can find to displace the responsibility of this event away from the kids who did the fighting. I can tell you first hand that only people with a completely unrealistic and idealistic view of the world believe that all parents can and should have control of their kids at all times. Sorry Ozzy and Harriet, the world just doesn’t work that way.
The core of the problem is that these black kids have an unrealistic sense of entitlement. And they now feel the only way to acquire what they’re entitled to is through their own. What do I mean by this? I mean through their peers and their attitude. They drop out of school, realize their never going to be an NBA star so they figure what the hell, Tupac and 50 cent got famous, watch me. And this is the lifestyle, and the culture, they make a conscious decision to live in. And the black community at large shuns any criticism, internal or external, of this culture.
If a black man dares speak up about the trajedy of black youth today he will be labeled a traitor by everyone all the way up to the NAACP. If a white person says “black kids today have a problem” they are an automatic racist. Never mind the statistics: 50% of black students will drop out of high school verses approx. 22% of all other races combined. Less than 10% of “gang” members are white. It’s probably below 5% in an area like Raleigh. So when blacks deny that the problem primarily exists among blacks it is only adding fuel to the fire. They are percieved to be accepted and supported by their own.
It’s time to end dumb thuggery regardless of skin color or socio-economic status. If the problem just happens to be among black kids well then, they are the ones going to jail or boot camp. Trying legitimize this gun toting, violent lifestyle by labeling it “Hip Hop” or any other name only gives it the merit required to draw future generations into it’s downward cycle. Here’s a news flash: hating cops is not cool. And if you or anyone you associate with share an anti-law enforcement attitude it’s because you’ve got something immoral or illegal to hide. Making excuses for a dumb-ass thug is almost as bad as being one.
Back with a new look .
The conversion from Time Warner to AT&T DSL is complete. It took a little more time than I anticipated because I didn’t realize their are no phone lines in my office where this server sits. So the server’s on a wireless network adapter now and seems to be going strong – static IP and all. I’m still hosting the DNS with No-IP.com because they’re paid for the remainder of the year.
The world’s focus is on the US economy now and so is mine. My rants in the coming months will focus primarily on this topic. I won’t be watching my language because let’s face it, we’re screwed. We’ve got job losses, banks are struggling because of loans that can’t be paid back, house values plummetting almost everywhere and gas prices that are through the roof. Put $1000 under the mattress and get ready to ride out a depression that makes Grandpa’s look like fun.
The talk show pundits make it sound like it’s going to be alright. The market is “correcting itself” they say. I laugh at you sirs. Please do your part to keep hope alive. As soon as gas hits between $5 and $6 a gallon and the trucking strikes begin you better have food in the house because I hear there’s only 3 days worth on any grocery stores shelves at any time. Gentelmen, start your gardens.
WRAL – Man accused in slaying over kid’s baseball bat accident
A guy shot another man dead in front of both their children. And there are many gun advocates who argue the gun played no role. The aging “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people” argument. This made me mad. So this was my final post in a WRAL GOLO forum thread. Please argue against this logic:
I would not be in support of stricter gun control if we could insure that all firearms that are manufactured fell into the hands of responsible citizens. Unfortunately this is not the case. The supply chain from the manufacturer to the end user / owner cannot be insured. It is now easier for a criminal to buy a stolen gun than it is for a law abiding citizen to buy a legal gun. But the stolen gun had to come from somewhere and it was undoubtedly from a “responsible” citizen. Or a corrupt gun dealer.
More criminals walk armed than there are law abiding citizens who want to. Therefore we are left with little choice but to enforce stricter controls and regulations upon the responsibility of firearm possession. In fact, it’s almost time to hold those criminally negligent who fail to protect a firearm from theft using every available proven resource. Currently even those with a history of mental illness can legally buy a gun. And the NRA argues that’s the way it should be.
Site Went Down – All appologies.
One of the pitfalls of hosting my own blog is trying to keep Time Warner at bay. They got me and the site went down for a while as they haggled me about using Dynamic DNS for hosting public services against my consumer grade contract. So I took an outage during negotiations to avoid paying over $200 a month for a Road Runner Business Class account. time Warner didn’t budge so I took the site down for a while.
My AT&T DSL was installed Friday and I’ll be buying a modem later this week. They were the same price and they gave me a static IP Address (no more Dynimic DNS hosting required). I get 3MB down and 768K up. That’s better upstream than I usually get with cable. There maybe another site outage whileI work to get the new serviceon-line and my DNS changed over. Sorry in advance.
In other news – Tiger may lose the 2008 US Open in a minute. Yay!
Why can’t you search and browse through all prints of a certain size on art.com?
I think I know the answer: If this were possible then people would go buy a frame and then browse for prints of a certain size to fit that frame. Art.com must feel this will result in a loss in sales of their outrageously priced frames and custom framing services. They’re probably not making a ton on prints by themselves so they are banking on the revenue from the frames. Therefore I feel their website is designed specifically to detract from people browsing for prints of a specific size to fit an existing frame.
Art.com is a located locally to me right here in Raleigh. I do think they have dominated the on-line decorative print store fronts so I find any alternate answer hard to believe. There’s no way their site designers can’t find a way to query all the prints of a certain size for a return result. Instead they require you to specify an artist’s name or title of a print before you can narrow down the size of the prints you want to see.
I might just buy the new prints for my office elsewhere due to this intentional inconvenience.
Hey IT Guy – Work on your resume.
If you’re looking for your next IT job work on your resume. Personally I quit updating my resume on Monster and Dice regularly because every time I made a change two weeks or more of phone calls would follow. A lot are from Indian call centers for staffing agencies. I do not respond to these at all because they are pure opportunity chasers taking chances on big returns for a small percentage of candidates placed.
Lately I’ve been doing the hiring again. Soon I’ll be taking on another desktop support person and Sys. Admin in Raleigh. I’m reminded why only a small percentage of the IT resumes out there get noticed and others get passed over. These problems could negatively affect a resume in any industry, not just IT. They are mostly unintentional oversights or problems caused by lack of attention to detail. Some are blatant fact manipulation. Here’s the basics of what draws or detracts my attention to or from a resume. Some of these will might increase your resumes visibility on job boards.
- Spelling – Use the spell check. The English one.
- Grammar – I will hire a foreigner, but not one that obviously can’t communicate in good English because they can’t write it.
- Simplicity – Good formatting makes all the difference. Personally I don’t look at a resume that isn’t formatted with some thought using proper chronological order. I don’t want to see the first job you ever had bagging groceries listed first or certifications glorified before experience.
- Present an index or bullet points of your skill set under your objective. This will really help on job boards because most headhunters are searching by keyword and the more matches you get the more communication you will receive.
- Don’t submit your resume for jobs you’re not qualified for after making quick modifications to fit the posted requirements. This is usually obvious to the hiring manager and it will only come back to haunt you at interview time.
- Don’t try to emphasis or supplement corporate or industry certifications for experience. Certifications are generally considered to be a plus these days, not a requirement like professional licenses.
- Narrow down your resume to a specialization if possible. I always thought my resume was too broad in terms of technologies I’ve administered when I was applying for a jobs with titles like “Exchange Administrator”. Now that I’m in Management I feel a little better about presenting a spectrum of experience. Starting out I would suggest getting your foot in the door with a specialization. If you genuinely have experience in more than one area of an industry keep multiple resumes highlighting accomplishments in each discipline and field them to opportunities accordingly.
- Know what you’re really worth. Decide and post your salary requirement ahead of time. This could save everyone a lot of time. If you’re too high you won’t get called and you can’t eat the cost of living decrease anyway. If you’re low a recruiter will question the authenticity of your experience or smell desperation. Get in the right range and you’ll get a call. Believe it or not I’ve learned that most headhunter’s really do know what a position is worth, not just what their client’s willing to pay. You should too.
I’m sure I’ll think of other things I could add to this list over time. All I can say is that these are some of the rules I follow and it works for me. But I am a headhunter’s worst nightmare – a waste of their time. I receive as many as 70 headhunter communications a month and respond to less than one a year with genuine interest. At this point I even have recruiters leaving job descriptions on my Contact page.
“Citizen’s Media Integrity Board” – A good idea?
A Huffington Post commentor posted the following recommendation in response to an article regarding the possible opportunities for criminal action against Rush Limbaugh for election tampering. Althoughthe post is very senstational I actually agree with most if not all of this idea:
“Election tampering Laws will only be enforced if it helps disenfranchise minority voters.
ABOLISH this government! Patriots Day April 19th, Philadelphia Independence Hall 9am:
State and Territorial Governors will assume authority over all Federal Agencies pending Ratification and Amendments to the Constitution including but not limited to: Ban on ALL forms of Torture, Publicly funded elections only, Mandated media contributions of equal time for all qualified campaigns, Ban on any form of Bribery of any nature to all public servants, Establishment of Citizen Media Integrity Board with Mandate to ban Campaigns from media for false or misleading adds and revoke broadcasting licenses from any broadcaster misusing the public airways and cable networks for false or misleading commentary or propaganda.The seat of Authority in our Nation was forcibly removed from the hands of Tyrants and secured By The People For The People. And it Shall Not Perish From This Earth.”