The Wright Amendment

Just a quick political rant. I'm not sure if you are aware but there is a Federal law called the Wright amendment(see Shelby act as well) that prevents Love Field in Dallas from having flights to any states that do not touch TX. In theory this helps the economy, in reality it makes us pay artificially inflated rates for airlines since competition is stifled (read as: AA is afraid of competing directly
with Southwest and other low-cost carriers).

For more info :
http://www.setlovefree.com/
http://www.fightwright.org/

For the opposing view :
http://www.keepdfwstrong.com/

My favorite quote concerning DFW airport's "impartial" review of opening Love field up is :
"What we got was a 15 page PowerPoint presentation with no concrete examples or explanation of the modeling scenario that was used that rambled on about how Southwest would devastate the International Flights (ahem.... SWA is a domestic airline). Each scenario seemed to lead to a 31-square mile smoking crater between Irving and Hurst. It focuses on worst-case scenarios and regrettably does not have a "best case" scenario. When reading it, note one important thing: The word
AIRFARE does not appear in the report. Not even once. Since it was a report to study the economic effects of repealing the Wright Amendment, not mentioning airfare is truly a smoking gun result. It either means that SH&E is incompetent or DFW micromanaged that report from day one."

The good news is that TX Rep Sam Johnson announced yesterday that he and TX Rep. Hensarling are going to work towards repealing this. If they are your reps then write and thank them and if they're not poke your Rep with a stick, while you are at it you may want to poke the TX Senators with a stick to get them on the bandwagon as well. If your Rep is Rep. Joe Barton, find a bigger stick as Barton said he will "vigorously fight any effort to repeal that measure."

As always you can reach your congressional peeps at :
www.house.gov
www.senate.gov

Of course, since it is a Federal law, anyone in any state can get their Reps and Senators looking at this as well.

I want one

I want to hook my DVD player up to this.

If you can't fix your problems ... blame television

Seems that Tom Delay is attempting to get his own show "Law & Order : Wag the Dog" :
Take a look at this CNN article.

My Linguistic profile

Your Linguistic Profile:

60% General American English

25% Dixie

15% Yankee

0% Midwestern

0% Upper Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

How to get hired, or at the very least, how to get me to take a 2nd look at your resume

I was taking a look at some resumes this week and I was taken aback at the state of most of resumes that were submitted. So here are some basic rules for anyone who cares to listen :

1. Use spell check.

2. Use punctuation, at the very least use an occasional sentence and end it with a period.

3. If you use an Objective section, make sure the objective somehow applies to the position for which you are sending in your resume.

4. In your work history/class description(for a new grad) make sure you actually describe what you did not just that you did it. For example :

I worked on a group project where we wrote a program that did X.

VS

I worked on a group project where I wrote the network code for a program that did X in C++ and used a CVS repository to store the code. The code was developed in a Solaris environment using the GNU compiler.

Which one of those two comes off better? In the first you would probably end up with a list of buzzwords somewhere on your resume with no context, in the second you can forego the list since your buzzwords are there and in context. OK, the example was a bit contrived but you get the idea.

5. If your GPA is below a 3.0 don't put it on your resume. GPA's are optional on a resume and a verbal 2.7 comes off alot better after you have wowed them in an interview.

6. The truth will set you free. If you worked part/full-time to pay your way through school, say so, don't just say you waited tables. It will make that 2.7 or even that 3.9 look alot better.

7. A lie will damn you. Don't pad your resume, even if you're a very smooth talker padding may ruin an otherwise great interview if you happen to get caught.

A Star Wars Diversion

Why don't you try this little game and let me know if you find it a little disturbing.

Revenge of the Sith

It gets a Thumbs up!

I think it is the best of Star Wars first three episodes. I won't say more for fear of giving anything away. What the heck, I'll give away the ending :

Anakin Skywalker = Darth Vader

Broadcast flag struck down

Link from Cnet

Egads ...

Just took this quiz, (un)fortunately seems to hit pretty close to the mark.

I am: 54% Republican.

"Congratulations, you're a swing voter. When they say 'Nascar Dad', they mean you. Every Republican ad on the TV set was made just for your viewing pleasure. Don't you feel special?"

Are You A Republican?