An exciting – and daunting – job interview

We’re all living through hard times lately – yes, even us bloggers have felt the crunch thanks to the latest string of economic disasters. Being information workers, and self-employed ones at that it’s a bit harder for us to lose our jobs, but it doesn’t matter – keeping your job at half your former salary is still a slap in the face. But there is hope, even amongst these dark days – if you know where to look, you can still find employment – and we’ve got the skinny on the places to look.

Experienced job hunter Carol Simms has kindly contributred this inspirational piece about finding employment in the depths of a recession, and she’s no stranger to job hunting (as you can see from her website) – she’s held over 25 jobs in her lifetime! Along the way though she’s been polishing her writing skills on the job market, as you can see from her posts on job search engines and free job posting sites. Thanks Carol!

As we mentioned earlier, there are several sectors of the economy that are well and truly recession-proof. It’s not always dependent on the sector, however, as some companies also do exceedingly well during times of strife while others who have been cutting corners fall by the wayside in the effort to catch up. One of these recession proof companies is Publix Supermarkets, who also happen to be an excellent employer to work for (you can learn more about Publix employment here) as they offer a nice selection of benefits even to those working on the floor in their supermarkets, not just their executives.

Another set of great employers are those who specialize in international business, as they are far more resistant to the hiccups of a single nation’s economy, even one as large as America. They’re not immune to the effects, but still – a company like KBR or even http://dyncorpjobs.org is still increasing hiring in the midst of layoffs from other companies.

All of this is to reinforce the point that thing aren’t without hope. As an unemployed person, you’ll probably find that things start to seem a bit stacked against you – but we hope this post will inspire you to get your mojo back and get back into the game. In case none of the suggestions we mentioned above appeals to you, we have built up a list of other sites that might be useful for you in your job hunting. Some offer job postings, and others give you information that could be very useful when actually applying for a job – whether you’re looking for jobs at Pizza Hut or something more complex like civil engineering technician jobs. Best of luck in your job search!

Walt Disney World Jobs

Penny stock brokers

Manufacturing jobs at Halliburton

Long Island job search

Hospital jobs in Florida

Job advertisements

CVS employee website

Sutter Health careers

Nuclear medicine technologists jobs

Nail technician training

Take care of your health! (image courtesy of novanthealth.net)

Health and wellness have become a pair of watchwords for much of the world. But here in America, there is a unique polarization that is happening. Some people are very health-focused, and other people are completely unwilling to engage. This is fine, of course, since America is the land of the free, apparently, but it can make it very hard to pull yourself out of unhealthiness and start working your way towards wellness. There’s a barrier to entry, so to speak, that prevents those who are unhealthy from successfully changing their lives. And yes, that’s partly a cop-out – people do it all the time – but that doesn’t mean that we can’t try to help make things easier for you. After all, a healthy America is a happy America.

Thanks to health and wellness public speaker Mary-Anne Wollston-Johnson for this impassioned piece about how to change your life. Mary-Anne regularly post around the net on a variety of health and wellness topics, such as hip socket pain and the watermelon diet, and of course she maintains her website as well.

So we’re here today to inspire you to do what you can to change your life for the better. It doesn’t need to be a massive change – the attitude change is the important thing. Whether you’re looking for something serious such as a posture brace, just some delicious new healthy snacks to go with your loose leaf tea, or a total life change with a diet to lose weight fast, we want to encourage you to take the plunge and change your life for the better! One small change can start an avalanche of change – as you start to feel good about the small change you made, it gets easier to make bigger and bigger changes, and as you get healthier you’ll reinforce all of this until you’re a totally new person!

I know it sounds a bit fanciful – but it can’t hurt to try, right? Start with small steps and work up towards bigger ones. As someone once said to me a few years ago, when I was overweight and really needed to get into shape, “Just start walking. No matter how fast you go, you’re going faster than everyone who is still on the couch,” and it was good advice and I’ve never looked back.

To help you, we’ve put together a range of health and wellness information that will give you an idea of the kinds of problems that other Americans have to overcome (and have overcome). When you see your health goals are reachable, it makes it that much easier to achieve them! So get out there and see what you can do to make your life the life you want!

Health connector MA

Palo Alto Medical Foundation jobs

Insulin pump

Posture support brace

Olive View Medical Center address

Top supplements

Eye exam test online

Cigna health assessment

Dermatologist for acne

Regional medical imaging

A few members of a graduating nursing class. (Thanks to nursing-schools-in-maryland.com for the pic!)

A lot of people in the media have been having miniature strokes about the latest developments in the Obama healthcare saga. Those against it claim it’s the evil socialist healthcare monster re-awakened (which is rubbish, of course), and those in favor of it claim it’s the ultimate liberal triumph of Obama’s healthcare mandate (which is closer to the truth, but still not the whole picture).

Janet Cross, noted healthcare training advocate, was kind enough to take time from her website to offer us this great guest post about the future of nursing and nurse training in America, For more of her work, see her posts on LPN programs, and more recently, her attempt to raise awareness about accelerated nursing programs in NY.

There is one thing that both the left and right forget about when discussing this crucial healthcare topic through their chosen media mouthpieces – no matter which side they’re on, after they’ve finished their mini stroke, a nurse is going to wind up taking care of them – and we don’t have enough nurses in this country to meet the demand! Everyone is focused on jobs and the economy, but seems to be neglecting the jobs-creation and economic benefits of the new healthcare plan. Simply put, we’re going to need more infrastructure. More hospitals, more clinics – and more nurses and other qualified professionals to staff them.

A nurse working on upskilling after the day is done. (Image credit: http://nursing-schools-in-michigan.com)

As if that wasn’t enough benefit, a number of private nurse training institutions are popping up all over the country to help deal with the projected staffing demands: RN programs in California and accelerated nursing programs in NY, from one end of the country to the other. They’re going to be cranking out new nurses and nursing staff as fast as possible to meet the demand – but we have to remember that quantity isn’t the same as quality, especially in something as vital to our well-being as healthcare workers. So just because you’re currently living in New York, don’t assume that have to attend an LPN school in New York. It might be more expensive to relocate to attend a nursing school in New Jersey, but if you’re going to wind up with a salary with an additional $20,000 per year tacked on, the cost of moving to attend school suddenly doesn’t seem so high – and it really can make that much difference in the nursing field. To steal something from the Simpsons, “Did you go to Hollywood Upstairs Medical College too?” isn’t a question you ever want to hear your healthcare staff asking each another.

In case (as Janet hopes) this has inspired you to consider a career move into the healthcare or nursing sectors, we’ve put together some information on some of the more prominent schools with nursing programs in America to help you decide what might be right for you.

Accelerated BSN programs

Free CEUs for nurses

Continuing education for Nurse Practitioners

Free nursing continuing education

Colleges in California for nursing

Medical Surgical Nursing Certification

BSN nursing schools

LPN programs in CT

Nursing Schools in Colorado

University of Illinois Nursing

We’d like to take this chance to thank Claire Benneton, the chief contributor towards international-nursing-jobs.com and an authority on advanced practice nursing and private nursing, who was kind enough to step in and offer us this up-to-date look at how the field of nursing has changed in North America, and what to expect in the years to come.

This can turn out a couple of different ways for those looking to enter the nursing field, as increased jobs will increase the number of people applying, reducing the wages all around – but thanks to the echo of the baby boomer generation, the number of elderly patients who will require palliative care – as well as the families that their children are starting – will only increase the demand once again.

Surgical nurses, one of the more commonly known specialized nurse types (Image courtesy of http://surgical-nurse.com)

A variety of specialized nurse positions have been developed over the last decade or two, and finally formalized into a series of certified positions. As the demand for healthcare professionals increases, you’re likely to become familiar with titles such as advanced practice nurses, neonatal nurse practictioners, surgical nurses and other types of highly-specialized nursing positions.

There are a wide variety of jobs available in the market, and I’m not just talking about the typical geriatric nursing jobs in south Florida that have been around for ages that most people think of when they hear ‘nursing jobs’, but rather these highly trained and specialized nursing positions that command a very high wage. For example, with some experience, the average nurse anesthetist salary can reach up to $120,000, depending on the location you’re working in and whether or not you’ve acquired a masters or doctor of nursing practice degree. Naturally, the higher your level of nursing education, the higher your rate of pay – and working somewhere rural can often command a higher salary and greater tax benefits, although there is something to be said for working in a high-pressure urban hospital environment that can be incredibly exciting.

One question I’m regularly asked is whether or not there is any specific nursing schools that I recommend – and the answer is yes. Not all nursing programs are created equal, and can make a big difference in the final salary you make as a surgical nurse practitioner. The top nursing programs in the United States are found at John Hopkins University (which is no surprise), as well as the Universities of Pennsylvania and Washington. Competition for their nursing programs is fierce, but the rewards are huge. However, there are many other excellent programs both in Canada and the US, so as long as you research the school, and specifically its nursing program, you can be sure that you’ll wind up with a nursing job that is both emotionally and monetarily rewarding!

If you’re looking for more information on nursing topics, try these sites which are also maintained by the talented Claire:

advance for nurse practitioners

becoming a midwife

certified nursing assistant job description

family nurse practitioner job description

how to become a legal nurse consultant

legal nurse consultant jobs

jobs in nursing informatics

psychiatric nurse jobs

nursing jobs international

Dozens? Heck, we only have fifty states in all — that’s, let’s see, four and one-sixth dozen — and the archived ACLU statistics from a year or two ago run down how many of them have had their ancient sodomy laws overturned or repealed. As of the time that that page was compiled, 26 states had repealed their sodomy laws by legislature, many of them in the 1970s. Another nine had had their sodomy laws overturned by courts. That leaves fifteen — or, er, one and a quarter dozen — three of which are listed as “status unclear” because of court rulings suggesting their sodomy laws also might no longer be valid. What ho, that gives us an even dozen, and even in those states the laws aren’t really enforced anyway.

The rest of Jackson’s ten reasons to be an anti-American aren’t much better. For example, number six on the list:

When other countries defy or ignore international treaties, they should be bombed. When the US ignores or abandons international treaties, they are asserting their rights as a sovereign nation.

A little intuition regarding what she’s talking about there demonstrates how she’s moving the goalposts. The U.S. is making the case for war against one country, Iraq, which has been covertly breaking treaties that it signed itself a decade ago for the Gulf War ceasefire, and has also been violating binding U.N. resolutions (unlike the nonbinding resolutions against Israel). Meanwhile, I can only assume that the U.S. must be being judged for not signing the ICC and Kyoto accords, rather than signing and then violating them, and for pulling out of the ABM Treaty strictly according to the withdrawal process that’s specified in the ABM Treaty. A country defiantly violating treaties it’s signed and ignoring binding U.N. resolutions is manifestly different from a country declining to sign treaties it does not like and lawfully withdrawing from another treaty — apples and oranges, Karen.

Of course, after spending all these months reading Blair’s blog, I’d never expect anyone in Margo Kingston’s orbit to check their facts before posting to the Webdiary anyway. This way, I know they’re not going to disappoint me the way one Phillip Knightley has disappointed Professor Bunyip.

Hey, we should cut the Lebanese a little slack and not just assume they are culturally backward. For instance, one of Lebanon’s technology companies has just created a new second-generation whisper-quiet robotic lawn mower that uses a seriously high-tech computerized guidance system to reduce the strain of yardwork (it’s hard for people who are blind or otherwise disabled) and also cuts down on pollution by using a rechargeable battery pack. A pretty impressive–

Oh wait, did I say a Lebanese company? Actually, the RoboMower RL800, profiled in yesterday’s New York Times, is made by Friendly Robotics of Kadima, Israel.

After posting that, I was thinking we should count ourselves lucky that this RoboMower article was printed in the NYT, which despite its flaws isn’t quite as off-the-wall on Israeli stuff as some news sources. Imagine if the NYT reporter had submitted the exact same story to Reuters — they would have kept his byline on it but rewritten it so it would mostly consist of:

Editorializing about how the Palestinians are suffering through no fault of their own while the Israelis lead such bourgeois lives that they have time to think up things like lawn-mowing robots
Quote from a Western “peace” activist saying the robot lawnmower is designed to run on batteries so it doesn’t consume the precious oooiiiiiiiiiiiil that Israel’s patron the U.S. needs to power its SUVs and for George W. Bush to shampoo his hair with
Quote from unidentified UN source lamenting that the Palestinian economy is being destroyed now that Israelis can have robots mow their lawn instead of hiring Palestinian kids to come to their houses in Israel and mow the lawns with their teeth and eat the grass which is the only thing Palestinian kids are allowed to eat due to the evil Israelis
Quote from an unidentified Palestinian “security officer” saying that Sharon wants to force Friendly Robotics to cut it out with the robotic lawnmowers and vacuum cleaners and start making robot tanks and robot bulldozers that he can use to run over Palestinian kids and collect their squashed innards in big storage containers to be shipped to Israeli bakeries for making Purim pastries
Statement near the end about how the reporter was unable to reach Friendly Robotics for comment on these allegations
The sentence “At least 12 Israelis and 14.7 trillion Palestinians have been killed since the latest uprising began in September 2000, although it was unclear at press time how many Palestinians had been killed by Israeli yardwork/deathsquad robots.”

In the current Affirmative Action environment, blessed by our Supreme Court this past Monday, there is nothing that any American of African descent can do that can separate himself or herself from the unspoken accusation that he or she is the beneficiary of more than they deserve.

Let me illustrate my point. I am willing to bet that I am the only member of this list who feels compelled to put his standardized test scores and National Merit award on his CV. Why do I do this? For those of you who do not know me personally, it is not a matter of braggadocio. Every September I have to deal with nearly 60 prima donna first year law students whose first and only (initial) reaction to my skin color is that they have been cheated out of a “real” Contracts professor, and are stuck with an “Affirmative Action” instructor. Many of them come around when, as some “gunners” often do, they look up my CV and find that I have outscored virtually every single one of them on the test around which they have centered their lives, the LSAT.

The pain and embarrassment that Marcus Cole feels is real, and is certainly an unintended consequence of affirmative action programs.

I was moved by Mr. Cole’s words, and planned to cite them as an example of how affirmative action can hurt people it is intended to benefit.

But then I took the time to respond to Mr. Cole’s invitation to look at his CV. Note that he’s teaching at Stanford Law: US News ranks them the #2 law school in the country; I don’t know if I’d put them that high, but there’s no question that they’re in the top five, and that it’s one of the hardest places to gain admittance either as a student or a professor. Nearly all of Stanford’s faculty graduated at the top of their classes from a top-five law school; the recent hires nearly all have two or more of a Supreme Court clerkship, a substantial publication record, experience teaching at another law school, or a second graduate degree.

Mr. Cole’s LSAT scores are in the 98th percentile: above average, but hardly spectacular, and at least a quarter of the Stanford Law students do as well or better. Mr. Cole graduated Northwestern Law, a good, but not top-ten, law school in 1993, and apparently was not in the top 10% of his class, as he does not list “Order of the Coif” or honors on his resume above “Dean’s List.” He was not on the main law review at Northwestern. He had a reasonably prominent (but, again, not top tier) Eighth Circuit clerkship. When he was hired in 1997, after three years at a top Chicago law firm, his only publication was a book review in a second-tier student law journal at Northwestern, and he does not appear to have had any law school teaching experience. Mr. Cole may be an excellent teacher, and may have realized the promise that Stanford saw in him with his post-1997 work (though his publication record of five scholarly law review articles (none in top journals) in six years seems decidedly below average for a tenured Stanford Law professor). I promise you that Stanford Law will never hire a white law professor with the resume that Mr. Cole had in 1997. (When I considered entering teaching that same year with a better resume–and by better resume, I mean better law school, better GPA, better clerkship, and marginally better publication record (and even a better LSAT)–I knew that I had next to no hope of getting employment at a top thirty law school, much less a Stanford. Please note that I am not claiming that my resume is worthy of a Stanford Law professorship–it’s not, under normal circumstances.)

Mr. Cole may not be happy that he is stigmatized as a professor who was hired because of affirmative action. He may honestly believe that affirmative action makes African-Americans worse off. But he’s kidding himself if he thinks he wasn’t hired because of affirmative action. I’d say that he personally is a net winner under affirmative action policies, and that it is perfectly appropriate to point out that he wouldn’t have had the opportunity to win teaching awards at Stanford Law if that institution had applied the same hiring criteria to him that they apply to white males.

Fortunately, NPR loves its website users and put together this page which contains a written variation of the aired version as well as a full 32 minutes of the interview itself, apparently unedited. At the bottom of that page, more links to audio and webpages about Garrels.

I was definitely impressed that Garrels apparently has an electrical engineering degree, since she variously ran her laptop and contraband satellite telephone off either the lightbulb outlet powered by the hotel generator, or using a car battery that she hauled down and up 11 flights for its daily recharge. You’ll have to listen to the interview to discover why she called in to NPR while naked.

Another notable thing was that the journalists in Baghdad quickly realized that the bombing was very accurate and restricted to the Government centers, nowhere near the reporters. (This apparently caused some aggravation to the home-desk anchors on the BBC, as I recall.) But their fears quickly turned to the Iraqi minders, who were always adversarial and had less and less to lose by vanishing a reporter, stealing or demanding cash or equipment.

Her tale is probably typical of the Palestine Hotel-based journalists, and the elements from it will no doubt be added to the traditional romance of the foreign correspondent lifestyle. Government minder-thugs will go up there with the waiting by the teletype machine, padding receipts, hotel-bar drunkeness, bombed-out cynicism, and trying to find a new angle on an old story.

Note also that an earlier site about the Masonic symbols acknowledges that Louisiana Avenue, the upper half of the Masonic “square”, wasn’t actually on the plan that L’Enfant was ostensibly using to depict the Masonic symbols; I can only assume that L’Enfant, canny Frenchman that he was, foresaw that it would be built there anyway.

The wackily distended pentagonal wheel thing centered on the Pentagon reminded me of that section in James Randi’s Flim-Flam! pointing out that the UFOlogists’ famous Betty Hill “star map” was vague enough that you could fit it to just about anything. I like how the author of the above-cited Freemasons/Martians Web page explained this away by saying the pentagonal wheel thing was intended to be viewed from the east by the great architect of the universe.

Update: In case you can’t see all the pictures on the Freemasons/Martians page because of the low Geocities bandwidth allotment, there’s another copy of the page here, and you can find all the same pictures with mostly the same descriptive text here.