Slashdot | Nearly 50,000 IT Jobs Lost In Past Year

Slashdot | Nearly 50,000 IT Jobs Lost In Past Year

As most IT professionals realize, it is harder and harder to find work these days. Staffs are smaller, leaner and not as specialized as they were once before. This is where good IT consultants come into play who will keep your costs down and allow you to have the same level of IT support that you need for a lot less cost.

The State Journal - News for West Virginia's Leaders

The State Journal - News for West Virginia's Leaders

Charleston has been ranked as one of the top ten fastest dying cities according to Forbes magazine. This isn't totally unexpected due to the constant movement of jobs leaving the state which has left it struggling for investment. Luckily, the rise in coal prices has spurred new developments in that particular area, but as we know coal is a finite resource. It won't be too long before all of the coal is gone and then what will be left?

Success

In my last post, I talked about a problem that seemed to have no possible solution. It was indeed dire times and one that really challenged everything I had learned and thought of during my career. However, even during those dark times, I never stopped thinking of possible solutions and ways to make everything just work. All of that hard work and dedication paid off when I was able to make the system work as designed. I was very relieved but also very proud of the way I conducted myself in the face of such a difficult assignment. The client was very happy and impressed with the system working properly which is a big plus for me, and I also managed to learn quite a bit along the way, which is really all that matters. 

After this engagement, it was time for a bit of a get away, so Carmen and I went to Louisville to see Dave Matthews in concert with Willie Nelson as an opening act. The bonus about our trip to Louisville was the fact that it had an Apple store which is one of my favorite places to visit when I am out of town. It was about a 3.5 hour drive up to Louisville, and we left just in time to get there for the concert and check in to our hotel which was right in downtown. I used my iPhone 3g to map our way to walk to the stadium where the concert was, which still blows my mind to have smart, accurate GPS directions in the palm of my hand. The concert was really good and you can check out the pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/rickyjmitchell. 

That morning we headed to the local mall and found the Apple store. Carmen was oh so close to getting an iPhone but due to a problem with her account having a discount added to her plan, she was unable to complete the purchase. Talk about the ultimate kick in the face! She had her case picked out, there was no line, they had all of the phones in stock - and then, bam. Ouch. The trip wasn't a complete waste as I picked up a 500 gig Time Capsule to take my backups of my Mac which I will talk about in a later post. 

Once we left the store, we headed back to WV and it was time to get Noah for our next adventure, which was a camping trip to Summersville, WV. More about that trip later.