9-11-2011 a Swarm of Noise.

Today is the 10 year anniversary of the largest scale attack on U.S. soil in the entire history of the United States of America.

As I was driving into work this morning I was constantly fighting back emotions that made it difficult to drive. It just struck me that this is the first time out of all 10 anniversaries that I was particularly emotional.
As a nation I think this is generally true. I think for all of the other anniversaries we've been more preoccupied with fear. Is there going to be another attack? The memory of that day was too fresh. On my way to work I heard personal accounts of the day for the first time. I heard stories about individuals who were brave, scared, confused. And many of them died.

I think now, 10 years later, that we as a nation are finally done running and done fighting. Our collective fight or flight response is finally turning into greif and into healing.

One particular story I heard on Komo News Radio in Seattle really got to me. Tami Michaels was staying in a hotel across the street and after the first tower collapsed they decided to try and evacuate. In the thick black smoke she describes hearing a storm of loud beeping and chirping. She described it as a swarm of noise all around her. She found out later that the beeping noise she heard was a piece of safety equipment that firefighters wear. If a firefighter is doesn't move for over two minutes their alarm goes off. The swarm of noise was fallen heroes all around her.

I can't find a link the audio I heard but this is her blog about interior design: http://www.komonews.com/living/tami-michaels
And this is a link to Komo News Radio: http://www.komonews.com/

College Grads: Hire yourself.

Is it young vs old in our current job market?

Experience has been the biggest nightmare for me in finding a job. After graduating from the University of Washington I thought I could take on anything. Employers were put on notice that I was available and accepting offers. Boy was I naive! I had zero experience!

Experience seemed to be the most important qualification that employers were looking for. With that being said I was consistently being looked over as a potential for more experienced and older applicants. I was only looking for entry level work but because of the state of the economy and unemployment rate, many experienced professionals were applying for entry level work.

How can young graduates effectively compete with experienced professionals for jobs that traditionally no experienced workers would take?

With few number job openings that are significantly outnumbered by the number of unemployed the outlook is bleak. I am calling on the college graduates of my generation (2009ish) to use there collective skills and entrepreneurial spirit to create new jobs, business, industries and corporations. It is up to us to fix our economy and to be ready for the next generation of college graduates.

Create a plan, get a loan, if you fail... repeat. Create a new plan, get a new loan until you succeed. What are we the best at? Social networking. Instead of sharing a picture of a cat recruit someone to help your new business. Create a partnership. Create your own opportunity. Skip the whole interview process and higher yourself.

For myself I am on fail number one. Working hard towards success on number two.

Grand Re-opening soon!

Grand Re-opening of Austin's Rants and Raves will be happening soon! I recently realized I have more time on my hands and I wanted to start writing again. It's been years but my old trusty blog is still here. Blogger has had some major updates! The newest version is amazing. I will be playing with changing the look of the blog for a while and learning some of the new features. Also really happy to see an auto-enabled mobile theme!

When I get this blog rolling again you can expect to find my opinion on news, culture, and world events. Local events too- mostly from my little town, Seattle. I want to mix things up; have an argument; share something funny; etc etc... Don't expect to find funny cat pictures though. Ridiculous.

As soon as I learn all the new tools that blogger has gained since 2009 and get my layout just right I will unleash Austin's Rants and Rave onto the world wide web once again.

As always,
This is my blog. I say what I think.
-Austin