Updates!

Well I know that I haven't updated my blog in a while, but after I found out that Blogger added a commenting system to the weblogs, I figured it was time to try and keep this a little more current. To do this I'm going to need to recount things that are going on in my life.

1: I am now engaged (yay!), This happened mid-April. I already knew it was going to happen, but I still find it nearly impossible to believe-until I look at my left hand where my black opal engagement ring sits. Why black opal I'm assuming you are asking? That's for another post.

2: My dad is getting married at the beginning of August, which is one of the reasons why we haven't set a date. I want my dad home safe and sound before planning ours. I'm supposed to be a bridesmaid for them, so as this is my first time in a bridal party (oustide of when I was a two-year old flowergirl for my cousin's wedding) so this will be an interesting experience I am sure.

3: The museum where I work is nearly done with renovations (finally!) so I won't have to redirect visitors to the Dome. Now we'll need to redirect them back to the Main Lobby. *Sigh*

4: At the SC (will henceforth replace "the museum where I work") we are in the works for "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban." When we have this movie it will be crazy despite the fact that the price for the tickets will be a little more spendy than our current Omnimax films.

Well, this is it for now!

If outsourcing is good for the US economy, where's the jobs to sustain it?

I am sure that everyone that reads this blog (which I suspect is not all that many anymore) has either heard about outsourcing or experienced it firsthand. It seems to be part of everyday life these days. Just a few minutes ago I read this . It seems that the US Treasury Secretary believes that it is beneficial the economy. He may very well be right...to a point. I can see it very well. Unless the jobs that are being outsourced are replaced with jobs of similar wages, the majority of the populous will be pushed out of the way in favor of the people with money.

How could this possibly happen? Here's an example. Let's say you are the creator of sprockets. You start out as a small business and as the popularity of sprockets grows. As your demand grows, you start hiring more people. At first you simply hire people to make them. As your workforce grows you add managers and marketing to the mix. After that you add custodial etc. Now let's say for a moment that you figure, "I can make more money by shipping my base force out of the US and pay them less" (as one US dollar might be worth two to three times theirs, they would still be paid a decent wage) so you start by shipping the lower part-making aspect overseas and keeping the marketing and custodial for the last part of the assembling. A few of the people that used to be managers of the assembling staff might very well find other jobs within your own company. Then you decide, I don't need this big of a marketing staff, I'll just outsource to another company. That company may or may not necessarily be a US based company.

You're probably trying to figure out my point. Originally when outsourcing first began, it was simply the assemblers that were outsourced. Those people were told, look, there's the computer industry that is still here and kicking, why doing you go there? Well, now even those jobs have been outsourced to countries like India and Russia. Sometimes it really doesn't work to the benefit of the head programmers for a company as they would have to go back through their coding to figure out point by point what they created so that they can tell their programmers overseas "this needs to go there" and so on.

The pitfall of the outsourcing is lost jobs. The upside, the economy's great. The companies that are based in the US are thriving and surviving...but how long can this last when there aren't enough people to buy what they sell? People need real money to afford things like internet access (which customer service for it is generally outsourced) of cable services, cars, etc.

My own job at the museum where I work could be outsourced, but only to a degree. I mainly do reservations, cashiering, ticket-taking at the parking lot and greeting the visitors as they come in the door. Reservations could be outsourced to other companies (some of which may be overseas) but a majority of my position requires direct contact with the visitor in some form. Even direct people service is being replaced to a degree-only it's not outsourced as much as it is replacement by automation. Five to ten years ago it was unheard of to get an e-mailed ticket which you could take directly to the concourse. Now that is standard practice, cutting out about 1/4 of the employee base. Where do those people go?

A few people that I know have been introduced to wireless or internet so fluently that they have no clue how they got on without it. I currently have very few experiences. I live in an apartment complex that, while being fairly inexpensive and in a good neighborhood at the same time, it affords me little in the way of internet possibilities. I do not have cable and cannot afford the monthly fees for it, so I subsist on an inexpensive and yet extremely slow connection (think 28.8kb/s slow). My particular apartment complex does not have laundry facilities on-site (another way to keep the costs down I suppose) so I have to walk a little bit to get to the laundromat (not very far, but it feels far when you are carting a week’s worth of laundry).

On most days I only cart a book or two, but the last time two times I was there, I brought my laptop computer instead. As I do not have a portable CD player (I have bad karma with CD players, more on that another day) I usually bring my laptop with me to the laundromat so that I can listen to my CDs while I’m waiting for my laundry to finish. Earlier today when I had my computer on listening to one of my Christmas gifts from my sister (“Harem” by Sarah Brightman) I wonder what it would be like to have wireless access wherever you go. Think about it, you would be able to boot up your computer and be able to browse the internet while you are waiting for your laundry to dry at the laundromat, be able to do research from your lunch table in Subway.

I know that a few places already are offering these options. Nearly all St. Louis Bread Companies have wireless access. If there was a St. Louis Bread extremely close to me, I would be there regularly (that is, after I bought a wireless card) and cancel my dial-up access. I was at Borders almost a month ago and they have wireless access, but it cost. I suspect that places like that will have to wake up and smell the coffee, if they want people to use it and make it worthwhile, they will need to either get rid of the cost or make the cost worth the access in order to attract people as places like St. Louis Bread do not charge for their access.

Some companies have already tried this here and there. I remember an article that I read one time which was bemoaning the lack of access and tried to address it. McDonalds had tried a foray into wireless access by doing test stores. There is one big reason that it fell-McDonalds are known as a kid’s restaurant. Business people rarely go there because it is considered not an image they want to portray for business meetings. They would prefer to go to a coffee; bread, bagel, and luncheon place over a loud cartoonish rarely customer-friendly restaurant because it promotes a professional, customer positive atmosphere. McDonalds has been trying to stop a slump that is has been having due to over saturation of their market and that of their own doing (they over franchised their brand) by closing franchises that under-perform and by trying to create unique atmospheres to entice more people to go and “hang-out” hoping that those same people will buy more food and drink while there. One of these particular tests was adding what are called “hotspots” (areas where wireless access are available to some of those restaurants. Main problem is there has not been much demand in the United States and thereby there has not been much in the way of additional hotspots.

Hopefully the day will come that I can sit at my local laundromat and browse the internet while getting my laundry done. I can only hope.

I guess you could call me a big outdoor-type. On Monday we had the warmest day since the end of the Indian Summer back just before Thanksgiving. Being as it was so nice outside and to top it all off, I had the day off. I decided that I wouldn't sit indoors and waste away my day off like I normally do. I pulled out my bicycle, layered up and headed out. It later turned out that I didn't need as many layers as I had on so off came one sweater jacket that was keeping the heat in. I got some of my shopping done and learned another bus route in case I ever wanted to get back out to REI, Whole Foods or the Galleria Mall.

On my way back I was contacted by John (my current interest, more on him later) asking how I was doing and what I was up to. Originally he asked if I wanted a ride, but I nixed it as I knew that we couldn't have gotten my bike into the back of his car even if he had wanted to, so instead he said that he would meet me at my place (I had hoped that I would beat him there, but it didn't happen). From there we just had a nice evening at home (his home that is). ;)

Just yesterday we had our first substantial snowfall for the year. As less than thirty days ago we were still having an Indian summer, I suspect that this coming winter is going to be a long one. I remember hearing once that you generally enjoy weather closest to your b-day. Well, I don't. I was born on February 28th (I'm a pisces for anyone that really tries to count that sort of stuff) and I absolutely despise winter. I remember on my thirteenth birthday I asked for a swim party for my birthday. the party ended up being a suprise birthday, but that's another story for another day.

By the way, I don't have a weblog commenter just yet, so until I do, send all comments to me at belle.chris@juno.com

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Hey all, I don't think anyone besides friends or family will be reading this, but I will try to keep this updated-and Smackie, I'll try not to make a Woman with a Problem blog.

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