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Broken Bells

Shins lead singer James Mercer and Danger Mouse (née Brian Burton) have a new band, Broken Bells.  I love their collaboration.  And the shins still exist so that’s cool.

Watch their new video.

Poker Face Cover

So I am not googoo for Gaga but I’ll give credit where it is due.  Whoever markets that woman is amazing.  She’s got a gimmick and while it doesn’t work for me I can see how it is so appealing to others.  I honestly can’t stop checking to see what she is wearing.

Anywhoo, here is a really awesome a capella cover that I found.  These boys sure made me laugh.

Obama tells GOP whats what

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/29/transcript-of-president-o_n_442423.html

The job hunt of a recent graduate.

I swear we must smell like skunk because most of us are not getting hired.  If you are a recent graduate you might be a victim of the economy.  So what do we do?  Here is some advise I have heard and how I responded.

1. Go back to grad school while the economy is bad.

Response: I want to work first before I go invest in more school.  I have a lot of debt at the moment and the only reason I would add to it is if I already knew what I wanted to do.  Most students graduate thinking, now what?  Annnd I was one of those.  Do I want to do internet and social media marketing?  Work for a non-profit?  Maybe a different track and something I’m good at like nutritionist/holistic healing.  Maybe I want to teach and get my pdh.  Or maybe some sort of lawyer.  As you can see, grad school is not the place for me yet.  So what next?

2. Volunteer or get an internship.

Response: Ummm I have bills that mom and dad don’t pay for. Plus nice big student loan payments are about to start. Next. . .

3. Apply for jobs (this one has sub-categories)

3.1 – The Admin Assistant/Office Manager – This is a basic job that I could do.  I have answered phones, called people back, written letters and done filing.  I pick up new software ever so quickly. I am organized, dependable, speak and write in a professional manner (when needed) and my communication skills are amazing.

Response: Oh, you need to have 5 years of experience as an admin assistant before you could do this at any place not listed on craigslist.  Nevermind.  Seriously, how hard can this be.  Oh and I forgot that most office managers need to know quickbooks.  MOST COLLEGE GRADS ARE GOOD AT PICKING UP SOFTWARE.  I could download a free trial and have in figured out in a few hours. But, that isn’t good enough.  So on to the next type of job.

3.2 – Something in my field – I could do something with marketing, communications, internet marketing.

Response: No on is looking for entry-level.  I have found maybe two listing, applied, heard nothing.  At this point no company is looking for recent grads.  They can get someone with experience for much less.  However I keep submitting apps. But at this current unemployed, desperate moment I am left with . . .

3.3 – retail (enough said)

Response: Ugh. Doesn’t pay enough, work weird hours, usually people don’ treat you nice and you feel like you should be doing something more every moment you are at your job.  By the way, I have had three interviews for jobs that I am more than qualified for and pays very little and I still didn’t get it.

4. Look everywhere.

Response: I have looked at: WorkInTexas, Craigslist, Banks, Schools, Universities, Non-profit lists, Austin jobs, Statesman jobs.  I have called every coffee shop in my area and most stores that I could stand to work at in two giant shopping centers.

5. It must be your cover letter/resume.

Response:  I have taken about 4 seminars on these topics and I swear to you, every cover letter is different, highlights my qualities and how they apply to the job, ends with the request of an interview and is proofread by myself, boyfriend and/or father.  My resume is neat, lists everything, even internships and carefully states job duties in a descriptive appealing manner.

 

I’ve done all this AAAannnnnd yet, no job.

 

So now what? Which is not only my question, but the question on many other job hunters out there.

 

Social Networking used to raise funds for Wildlife.

I first heard about this story a few weeks ago on NPR and couldn’t wait for it to happen, and then it did.  There is an app on mytwitface (myspace, twitter, facebook) where for a minimum of a $1 donation you can befriend a gorilla in Uganda.  You will receive regular updates, learn trivia and have your new friend’s picture on your homepage.  The dontaions  go to the Wildlife Authority who help to protect the Gorillas who are threatened by poachers.

Ugandan Gorilla

So hop on your fav social media networking site or go to www.friendagorilla.org and befriend a Gorilla today.

UP!

I am a huuuuuuge fan of little kid movies. Loved Bolt, Meet the Robinson’s, Wall-e, Cars, all of ‘em. But recently my heart was swept away by this little gem of a movie. Pixar, you have done it again. How you continuously are able to create animated movies that capture the hearts of young and old is beyond me. I don’t think I have ever seen a pixar movie that I just plain liked. I have always has some sort of attachment to each and every movie starting with Toy Story. Your interesting stories with unexpected plot twist and imaginative characters create movies that are (insert word here that means beyond amazing, wonderful and witty).

And Up!, ohhhh Up! You made me feel bipolar as I had tears streaming down my cheeks one minute and my face buried in my hands from fits of laughter the next minute. First thing I did when it was over was turn to my boyfriend and say in a little kids voice “can we own in when it comes out puhhweeeees!” So if you have not seen it yet I highly advise you do so, regardless of what age you are.

Obama on the Tonight Show

I was proud last night.  Do you want to know why I was proud?  I watched the Tonight show with Jay Leno and saw him interview President Obama.  And this is not another rant about how he will make a great president or how I hate Sarah Palin or yay for minorities.  I am proud for a really simple reason.  He is normal.  He is a normal human being who can kick back, make jokes, form sentences and make statements that did not have to be pre-written by some speech writer.  He did not memorize sound bites before he went ok.  He probably wasn’t planning about talking about the new dog or his horrible bowling score.  It just happened the way a normal conversation takes place.  It is slightly weird that I am proud of something so simple as a decent conversation between a talk show host and another human being.  Maybe it was because I am 22 meaning Bush went into office when I was 14.  14-15 was when I started paying attention to politics.  All I have really known is a president who fumbles his words, makes bad jokes, has a weird, almost fake, Texas accent (when he is not even from Texas) and basically does not seem like one of us, one of the people, an average joe.  Now I am not calling Obama an average joe in terms of intellect or integrity, I mean he is someone who speaks and acts like a normal human.  I should not be proud of this aspect because I personally think it should be the norm for a president.  A president should be able to relate his ideas to the people without saying things wrong or having to rely on sound bites.  He should be able to state his beliefs and policies off the top of his head.  I don’t get lost when Obama speaks.  I don’t get distracted.  I don’t want to give up and change the channel.  I don’t shake my head at half of the nation who voted from him.  I’m just proud that the nation picked him.  He is articulate and personable and has some great ideas and is willing to go the distance to put them into action.  Let’s see what happens.

Obama and Jay Leno - Welt Online English News

Math and Science for Kids

So I just started my last semester today and my firs class is called Science in Perspective. Interesting. My professor, who has such a awesomely dry sense of humor that it is completely lost on half of the class, was speaking about how behind American’s are in teaching their youth about science. I completely agree. I honestly don’t feel like the science classes I took in middle school and high school made me want to consider any career in the sciences. Mostly because they are focused on the basics of sciences and not so much as to how they apply to our world and society. Meaning they don’t make science interesting enough or important enough to gain student’s interests from an early age. Sucky! So what to do? We always talk about hiring new teachers and paying them more and blah blah blah, but how about restructuring all those early science education classes in addition to paying more and such.

I am also writing this because a few days ago I read Thomas Friedman’s latest blog called Tax Cut’s For Teachers.  He really makes a good statement about helping out math and science teachers so that they can better teach the youth of America.  Cuz really, what good is it if we start tomorrow making energy safe cars if we don’t teach our youth to continue it?

Failed Auto Bailout. New Business Model. Arctic Warming

Rant time!

There are some articles that I have read over the past few days that have been rolling around in my head and have twisted themselves together.

It started with the whole auto bail-out.  Honestly, I don’t want that many Americans to lose their jobs but the companies they work for that need assistance have no hope.  They are selling cars that the majority of Americans don’t want.  I own a toyota and my next car, is going to be a toyota.  A lot of people I know feel that way toward toyota and honda and other foreign car companies.  Why?  Fuel efficiency ?  Innovation.  Alternative fuel efficient cars.  Foreign car companies are thinking ahead.  That is when I came across Thomas Friendman’s article “While Detroit Slept“.  If we were to do the auto bailout he stated:

“our bailout of Detroit will be remembered as the equivalent of pouring billions of dollars of taxpayer money into the mail-order-catalogue business on the eve of the birth of eBay.”

That’s when it hit me.  These companies need a plan to be able to receive aid, but I bet none of them included looking into more fuel efficient cars.  Or figuring out a better business model for the American auto industry.  Click on the link above to read about the Better Place electric car charging system that Friedman talks about.  Now there is an idea.

Pouring money into the auto industry would fail.  It would do no good because they would just keep doing things the exact same way they have been causing taxpayers dollars to be flushed down the toilet.  So I was happy when I read the article “Senate Abandons Automaker Bailout Bid” the other day.  I mean I feel bad for all those losing their jobs but taxpayers should not be used to keep a company afloat for another couple of months until they fail again.

But after this article I started to think about how I wish we could give them money only to be used to create fuel efficient cars.  Then I read “Arctic warming ‘points to ice-free summers’“.   And I thought, well great.  Global warming and we can’t get our American auto companies to even think ahead to creating environmentally safe cars. “The Arctic had been predicted to see ice-free summers by 2070, but many scientists are now predicting it could happen within the next 20 years, according to the newspaper.”  This is where I wish that we could bailout the American companies so long as they make better cars.  Electric, Solar, Wind, Hydrogen . . . whatever.  Anything.  We can do better.  We need to.  We need something better than we have now.