9/11 Tenth Year Anniversary

Today is the tenth year anniversary of Sept 11. It is one of those events and moment in time where you would always remember where you were and what you were doing when you first heard the news broke out.

I was still living at my parents' house at that time. My sister who lived in Castro Valley called our house around 7:30 am and told us to immediately turn on the TV. The images from the TV are still so fresh in my mind. The news kept on playing and replaying the airplane flying into the 2nd tower. It looked like a scene out of the movies. I called SQ who lived in Berkeley to turn on the TV too.

The magnitude of the event didn't even register on me at that point. I was naive enough to take the bus with my sister to downtown for work. A lot of people on the bus were talking about the attack.

When I got to my building lobby, one of my office facility managers told me to go home. No work today. So I went home. All this time I didn't understand why SF was so on edge since the event happened in NY.

It was only when I got home and began to be glued to the TV did I realize what all this meant.

A truly sad day in American History. A day we will never forget. A day that has changed our lives forever.

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Networking

This morning, I got a call at work from a Recruiter looking for people interested in Planning positions in the New York area.  She said she got my information via LinkedIn.  In case you don't know, LinkedIn is another Social Networking site out there (like a Facebook), but it is geared toward professional networking.  So yeah, NO weird fetishes and racy photos to be found here.  Your profile is basically your online resume.  You connect with friends, classmates, colleagues, and business associates. And then your network expands because one of your contacts is linked to another and to another.  I must say that this site is actually quite a handy tool.  I joined LinkedIn some years ago, but didn't spend much time elaborating on my profile.  I've outlined the different positions I've had (all within the same company). However, I didn't include any descriptions or details.  Since I've been with my company for over 11 years, I got too lazy to update my resume. But I think it's always good to have your resume updated and ready to go, just in case.  And plus, it's much easier to jot down notes about your current job than try to remember what you did years ago.  I'm going to make an effort this weekend to update my LinkedIn profile.

As for the recruiter, I told her that I am currently not interested in moving to New York, but have a few friends and colleagues in the New York area who may be interested...


P.S. Coincidentally, in case you didn't know, LinkedIn launched its first IPO today; priced at $45/share.  The stock closed at $91.25, +109% on the first day.  Wow...

Just trying to help...

There are issues out there that most people would agree with, but may be too afraid to say it, let alone do it. I ran across this news article on cnn.com and thought it was somewhat hilarious.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/05/23/china.suicide/?iref=mpstoryview

Story in short:
Man in China owes a lot of money and threatens to kill himself by jumping off the a bridge.

Traffic was held up for 5 hours as police tries to talk the man out of comitting suicide.

A passerby, despite police's refusal, climbed onto the bridge, shakes the man's hand and pushed him off the bridge.

The passerby was fed up with the man's 'selfish activity.' If the man really wants to commit suicide, all he did was help him out!

I know this may sound mean, but I was like "YEAH!!" I'm sure thousands of people think the same way - but just too afraid to admit it...

Social Security and Medicare finances worsen

Great. Just great. Today's finance story:

Social Security and Medicare finances worsen

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Social Security and Medicare are fading even faster under the weight of the recession, heading for insolvency years sooner than previously expected, the government warned Tuesday. Social Security will start paying out more in benefits than it collects in taxes in 2016, a year sooner than projected last year, and the giant trust fund will be depleted by 2037, four years sooner, trustees reported.

Medicare is in even worse shape. The trustees said the program for hospital expenses will pay out more in benefits than it collects this year, just as it did for the first time in 2008. The trustees project that the Medicare fund will be depleted by 2017, two years earlier than the date projected in last year's report.

So basically, we're on our own. Don't even think about depending on the government for anything.

The Trade off

San Francisco tries to save money by cutting down street cleaning services in some neighborhoods. In the Sunset, instead of street cleaning once a week, it is now once every 2 weeks. The City saved $1 million a year. But what the officials didn't factor in is the revenue they lost in Parking tickets. The loss is about $3.8 million a year! How ironic. Someone obviously haven't thought the plan thoroughly enough.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/22/BA8H177731.DTL