ALUMNI: Advice to a young alum who was rejected

Sunday, May 6, 2007

Subject: Life moves on. So should you.

Life’s too short to waste on those who aren’t absolutely perfect for you. Of course rejection hurts, but now is the time to develop your response to it. Now, I’m not Doctor Phil, nor a trained psychologist, nor did I stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night, but I can state unequivocally and with absolute certainty, it’ll happen again. Unless you get hit with the proverbial mack truck in the next ten minutes, (Brother Jasper forbid!), you’ll have to deal with rejection many times in your life. I have. Everyone does. Of course rejections hurt, you invest some of yourself in the relationship. The trick is in your response. You’re smart, beautiful, child of God. Who would NOT want to cherish you? A butt head. Just know in your heart that some day when he’s alone in his soul, he’ll wonder what could have been. And, that’s a killer! You OTOH will know that you did miss a thing. I know that all we can control in life is how we react to “stuff”. Glass half-full, joy! Glass half-empty, sadness. You are how you perceive events, react to or not react to “stuff”, and how you think about things. Your pair-of-dimes (paradigm — your mental models and memes) is your car fare to your destiny. Don’t waste it on a bad trip. Go for the gusto, bliss, or joy. Where ever you see it! Waste not a minute, for all to soon you’ll be old like me, and commenting to young Jaspers. Then think of me saying nice things to you. :-) And, give that youngster good advice. fjohn68

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Posted by reinkefj

LIBERTY: Penalize the specific person who violates some one’s rights

Saturday, May 5, 2007

http://www.ncc-1776.org/tle2007/tle415-20070429-03.html

What Else is there to Say?
by L. Neil Smith

 

***Begin Quote***

4. Government employees, including elected and unelected officials—previously granted immunities to the contrary notwithstanding—accused of violating or evading these measures, shall be removed summarily from office, and upon conviction, fined, imprisoned for no fewer than twenty-five years at hard labor, and forbidden to occupy any position, at any level of government, for the remainder of their lives.

***End Quote***

orrectly identifies ONE of the mistakes the Dead Old White Guys made in drafting the Constitution. They didn’t penalize the specific person in the Gooferment who violates a citizen’s rights. That’s a flaw. But then, the DOWGs never foresaw the IRS, BATF, DEA, TSA, and the countless other private armies created by the Gooferment. Sigh!

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Posted by reinkefj

LINKEDIN: Why a “NIDEKNIL”?

Saturday, May 5, 2007

http://linkedinbusinessdiscussionindex.blogspot.com/2007/05
/open-letter-to-linkedin-552007.html

http://tinyurl.com/2p4vq4

Saturday, May 05, 2007
An Open Letter To Linkedin (5.5.2007)

*** begin quote ***

We’re confused.

Some of us are downright dismayed.

Even some renown evangelists among us have stopped evangelizing. And
others are watching to determine whether or not they should continue
evangelizing.

Still others of us are intensely looking at other networking platforms
to join or to start.

Why?

Because of the indecipherable policies, inconsistent practices, and
unclear procedures that leave us in the dark regarding what IS and
what ISN’T acceptable ways to use Linkedin.

The confusion is compounded by inordinately long dry spells of
communication – coming after we’d been introduced to professionals
whom we expected to hear from on a more frequent basis.

Of course, Linkedin doesn’t owe us a response and doesn’t owe us
regular communication – or anything else.

But, nor do we owe Linkedin anything – beyond abiding by Linkedin’s
policies when on their platform.

Some of us have really championed the name of Linkedin. But, now,
some of us are so desperately looking for a respite from the confusion
of Linkedin’s current behavior that there’s a growing chorus of
“NIDEKNIL”, the opposite of Linkedin. (Think “Oprah and Harpo”.)

{Drop Over To Vincent’s Blog For The Rest}

*** end quote ***

Vincent Wright, the instigator of a bunch of LinkedIn Yahoo Groups to gather like minded people around some aspect (i.e., City; School; Interest), has become really exasperated with the LinkedIn management. He’s been getting conflicting messages from various parts of the LinkedIn hierarchy. Like Yahoo supplanted with Google, LinkedIn could be vulnerable to a competitor.

In the time I’ve known Vincent, which is longer than I’ve been blogging, I’ve never seen him so … … annoyed. He’s got a following, that would follow him to a better service site.

Perhaps the current LinkedIn management is buffing it up for a sale at jugundo prices. But they, or whoever buys it, could be holding an empty bag if all the users take their attention elsewhere. It’s happened before and it can happen again.

Be afraid LinkedIn. Be very afraid.

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Posted by reinkefj

RANT: Then they came for me

Saturday, May 5, 2007

FROM MY EMAIL TO 101.5 Radio Station

http://www.nj1015.com/station-info.shtm

*** begin quote ***

Eric Johnson
Program Director
New Jersey 101.5 FM Radio
PO Box 5698
Trenton, NJ 08638

Dear Mr. Johnson,

No I’m not going to nag about putting Free Talk Live on the station this time. (Although I think it would be great idea).

This email is about the recent dust up over ticket blitz, breaking news, and the reaction to it. I don’t care for the afternoon’s entertainment. I think it crass and crude, but that’s why they have a tuning dial and an off switch. However, unpopular speech was exactly what the dead old white guys had in mind when they formulated the First Amendment. The recent disclosure of information and the threat of disclosure was criminal and inexcusable! It’s a direct threat to the station’s people and their families. The gooferment, by way of its union, is way over the line. (The gooferment by “negotiating” with a union of its employees is the height of absurdity. And, by that fact, the union is its creation and its agent!) SO, in a sense, the gooferment is attacking the press. So count me in for the fight. Me, my pitchfork, my blog, and my vote are at your disposal.

I’m reminded of First they came… is a poem attributed to Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984).

Then they came for the Jersey Guys,
and I didn’t speak up because I didn’t like them.

Then they came for me,
and by that time no one was left to speak up.

Let’s put the pig pen in Trenton back in order and in balance. They need to be afraid of the people.

Ferdinand J. Reinke
Kendall Park, NJ 08824

*** end quote ***

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Posted by reinkefj

RANT: The Police Abuse Authority, I’m shocked!

Saturday, May 5, 2007

http://www.nj1015.com/absolutenm/templates/?a=6558&z=3

State Trooper Agrees to Not Release Any More Personal Information
Saturday, May 05, 2007 – Associated Press

*** begin quote ***

After meeting with New Jersey’s State Police superintendent, the head of the troopers union has agreed to hold off on plans to reveal personal information about New Jersey One-Oh-One-Point Five radio personalities.

The union president, David Jones, denies any wrongdoing in his war of words with the station.

But he agreed to comply with a request state Police Colonel Rick Fuentes made during a meeting yesterday to discuss the matter.

Meanwhile, officials are probing whether Jones broke any rules in the squabble.

On Thursday, Jones displayed for T-V cameras the home address and license plate number of the station’s afternoon co-host Craig Carton.

Carton and his partner on Wednesday had discussed anonymous postings on the union’s password-protected Web site threatening a ticket blitz. The posters were upset about the treatment of the trooper who drove Governor Corzine’s S-U-V when it crashed.

The union leader denies there was a ticket-writing campaign.

The radio hosts have demanded an apology from Jones and want him punished. But Jones says he abused no police authority in getting Carton’s information.

*** end quote ***

I think that this needs to be examined in great detail. It’s an abuse of power AND it’ll have a chilling effect on freedom of the press!

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Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: What I want is an “agent”

Saturday, May 5, 2007

I know what I want now. It’s a software agent that is like a robot. My idiot clone.

I can describe to myself what I want to do:

===

VISIT website.

QUERY Find out who came to visit yesterday.

FOR EACH visitor:

IF NEW:

Create an Outlook record. Create flat file record. Send invite. Retrieve LinkedIn. Create JibberJobber entry. Flag for further review.

ENDIF NEW

IF OLD:

Compare their information to their last visit.

IF UNCHANGED

EXIT

ENDIF UNCHANGED

IF CHANGED

Update Outlook. Update flat file. Update JibberJobber. Flag for further review.

ENDIF CHANGED

ENDIF OLD

ENDFOR visitor

EXIT

===

Now I just want an idiot to do that. It’s a lot of hard work. It should be all able to be done in software. Argh! Where’s my FORTAN compiler?

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Posted by reinkefj

TECH SERVICE: FEEDBLITZ fails me again … Argh!

Saturday, May 5, 2007

Included in the May 4th blitz

INTERESTING: Adding my Yahoo Answers
May 4th, 2007

===

Missed
LINKEDIN: LINKEDIN changing their rules a little
May 4th, 2007

Missed
YAHOO ANSWER: Another Job after being fired?
May 4th, 2007

===

Included in the May 3rd blitz
LIBERTY: Economics more powerful than government
May 3rd, 2007

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Posted by reinkefj

INTERESTING: Adding my Yahoo Answers

Friday, May 4, 2007

Three are best in show.

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Posted by reinkefj

LINKEDIN: LINKEDIN changing their rules a little

Friday, May 4, 2007

>I have to give LinkedIn credit for a really excellent solution to this

Well, I would NOT call it excellent. And, I recognize that it LinkedIn’s “ball” and they can take it home any time they want.

However, if I was them, I’d have went at this a little more sensitively. I’ve been on LinkedIn for a long time. If I wasn’t in the first wave, I was in an early one. When they were trying to get recognition, it was “upload your address book and get connections”. Now, like a reformed prostitute, they want to move “upscale”. No more “connection sluts” wanted. (Sorry if this is too graphic.) They are saying “we used you to get our buzz; now buzz off”. I’d have communicated with people, everyone, what was changing, why, and an attempt to build a community agreement of “best practices”.

I get upset with heavy handed approaches. FWIW I have 60 invites left. And, have been rejected for an increase. As an alumni ezine publisher, I have over 2k or active readers and a rolodex of 6k “live” alums. (And, some dead ones too. RIP! Whose families use their email account to keep in touch.) I also have professional rolodex of 10k from my consulting days. I can’t guess at the percent I know personally, but it is high. But LinkedIn doesn’t seem to see that as a legitimate use of their service. But, their “group” group just accepted LinkedInJaspers as a valid group. Like most organizations, policy and procedures aren’t uniform.

Like Digg just learned the hard way, the community can revolt. If LinkedIn doesn’t recognize that they have a tiger by the tail, then they should. Assume that one of the movers ‘n’ shakers gets annoyed at some tactic or other, LinkedIn could be faced with a competitor. If some one had the time and inclination, you could use them as a model. Do it better based on the mistakes they have made. And, poof, NIDEKNIL is born! All the Open Networkers move. Followed shortly by all the Recruiters. Followed shortly by all the JobSeekers. Followed shortly by all those employed but scared. LinkedIn will have its employees, those too lazy to move, the clueless, and the “strawmen”. Since NIDEKNIL is coded from scratch and knows the volumes, it can be better, faster, and cheaper than LinkedIn. Heck, it can even do an export / import from LinkedIn like those bozos at Jigsaw did. They sucked every public source of profiles, turned it into a db, and started selling it. They’re still there so I assume they are making money.

So, gazing into my crystal ball, I see that there is a path that LinkedIn could take to their doom. Hope they don’t take it, but they seem to be very oblivious to just how fickle the marketplace can be.

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Posted by reinkefj

YAHOO ANSWER: Another Job after being fired?

Friday, May 4, 2007

*** begin quote ***

Is it true that once you’re fired from a job, it’s hard to get another one?

People tell me that, but my nephew stole from a job & got another job at a manager’s position. How can that be? I was told I can be fired for having a depressive-crying episode, & employers don’t care if I’m mentally disabled or not.

*** end quote ***

It depends.

There’s a saying on Wall Street that if you haven’t been fired that you’re not pushing hard enough. I like to say I have been fired 4½ times. ;-) It all depends upon why you were fired. In today’s economy, getting fired may have nothing to do with you, your performance, or your value. Take Enron for example. Anyone who worked there “got fired” when the place went belly up. And, they were tarred with the stigma of having been there. Fair? Nah, life’s not fair.

Your nephew’s alleged theft? It depends if he was charged and convicted. And, theft of what? Everyone takes the boss’ pencils. In some places, the office supply folks don’t give out pens and pads at back to school time. Or ration them. It depends upon what is on the record. What the old boss will say; most places on a reference check will only say that the person worked there from this date to that for fear of litigation. And it depends about what kind of story one can tell. Lastly it depends upon the perceived need that he will fill.

As far as you and your medical, most states are “at will” states. Meaning the boss can always fire you. They can always do that. It’s about what you walk away with. Various gooferment laws may give you “rights” that can give you a big club to extract a better settlement. To say that employers may not care is probably true, but their CFO, legal department, and HR types sure do. You on the other hand share an interest in keeping stuff quiet since a legal action can be found by a future employer. So, if your current employer nukes you, run to a lawyer. Say nothing; sign nothing! Absolutely don’t sign ANYTHING period. One Wall Street firm “made” you sign a mini severance agreement to get your last check. If you signed it, you basically agreed to waive your rights. If you can play poker like the guys on TV, you too can get “paid off” to go away. You have to realize that once they decide to fire you, you’re gone. The only question is what you get to go away. It usually in both sides interest to keep it quiet.

Hope this helps,
fjohn

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Posted by reinkefj

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