Thunderdome 2015 » Printable Version of Topic

Forum: General Stuff
Topic: Economy
started by: Troy

Posted by Troy on Jan. 13 2009,10:34

Shit really started slowing down at work this week.

Way too much time just doing marketing and sales calls.

Way too much time to just read articles and graphs about current and future problems.

This < Particular Graph > scares the shit out of me.

How are things going for you Catt? Did you find a new position?

Posted by TheCatt on Jan. 13 2009,12:10

I got an offer from where I used to work, and turned it down. So, still looking.

But my job hasn't ended yet either, so.... who knows. Looks like it will end in February now.

Posted by TheCatt on Jan. 28 2009,08:53

Man, job searching sucks. One day it's like "look at all these jobs!" then it's "man, I think I'm going to have to move" then it's "yay! emails!" then it's "why isn't anyone calling me?"

I have two prospects that I believe will be interviews by the end of next week, so that would be great. But man, it's like a freaking rollercoaster ride.

Posted by Malcolm on Jan. 28 2009,09:08

Employers are bitches. The ones that communicate w\ the outside world are typically the biggest liars of all.

Posted by TPRJones on Jan. 28 2009,13:39

Good time to be working for academic institutions, enrollments are booming. Which is normal in a bad economy.

Posted by TheCatt on Jan. 28 2009,15:32

Dunno bout your state, but our state budgets are getting slammed. or do you work somewhere private?

Posted by TPRJones on Jan. 28 2009,16:09

No, it's public, and we may have problems with money from the state later. But most of our funding comes from college district property taxes, student grants (like Pell grants), and tuition. The first is flat, but the other two are up. Lots of people without jobs tend to go back to school.

If universities in your state are purely state funded, then it may be a different story.

Posted by TheCatt on Jan. 28 2009,18:27

We have really low tuition rates, so yeah, most funds come from the state.

Posted by Mommy Dearest on Jan. 28 2009,19:29

Well I wish I had a crystal ball because as most of you know I ko like real estate but I am kinda tight. Am getting ready to bid $250,000.00 on a house that cost $440,000.00 to build in 1991 on a $100,000 lot. and am second guessing myself that the bid is too high. I really do love a good recession

Posted by Alhazad on Feb. 04 2009,10:44

(TheCatt @ Jan. 28 2009,08:53)

QUOTE

Man, job searching sucks. One day it's like "look at all these jobs!" then it's "man, I think I'm going to have to move" then it's "yay! emails!" then it's "why isn't anyone calling me?"

Oh, you get that too?

I had two interviews that went quite well and I'm reasonably sure I'm the most qualified candidate, and yet... the phone doesn't ring.

Posted by Malcolm on Feb. 04 2009,11:30

I've found the most qualified candidate rarely gets the job.

It's kind of like Bones noticing that, "Evil usually triumphs unless good is very careful."

Posted by Troy on Feb. 16 2009,07:32

I got iced today.

Woo....

Posted by TheCatt on Feb. 16 2009,08:03

(Troy @ Feb. 16 2009,10:32)

QUOTE

I got iced today.

Woo....

Um... welcome to the job market?

I'm still looking. I've got a 2nd job interview with a small start-up on Thursday.

Still at work, though.

I kinda don't want to work until June. It'd be nice to take a break.

Posted by Troy on Feb. 16 2009,09:13

Yeah, I'm not suprised, as is obvious by this thread.

In the long run, I'll just use this as an excuse to jump start my move to Atlanta, that I was planning on doing at the end of the year anyway.

I might just have to take a less glamorous job that I would have had I done it on my own terms.

Posted by GORDON on Feb. 16 2009,19:47

You're young... you'd probably make a shitload of money as a gay manwhore.

No pun intended.

Posted by TPRJones on Feb. 26 2009,10:48

Here's a nice little animated sort about the economic crisis: < http://consumerist.com/5157192....and-fun >

Posted by TPRJones on Feb. 26 2009,11:07

For the "whats different to make this happen now?" question, I'd recommend this article: < http://www.wired.com/techbiz....age=all >

Posted by TheCatt on Feb. 26 2009,11:45

We learned about "risk" in our finance MBA classes. I was like "that's not risk, it's correlation." and the prof said "Yes, but it's the best we've got"

Posted by Troy on Mar. 13 2009,19:47

Got a job in Atlanta today.

Best Friday the 13th ever.

Was an image a while back that reminded me of my interviews.

Only replace Perl with "Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator"

Posted by TheCatt on Mar. 14 2009,07:13

Awesome, what will you be doing?

I assume some sort of male prostitution?

Posted by Troy on Mar. 14 2009,08:05

Marketing and advertising for a a Bio tech firm that makes kits for RNA/DNA isolation.

They didn't hire me on my science skills, luckily.

Posted by GORDON on Mar. 14 2009,10:32

Used to work for a marketing firm. They referred to themselves as a "trinkets and trash" business.

Posted by TheCatt on Mar. 16 2009,11:44

Sigh. 2nd interview with start-up didn't work out.

I was their "runner-up"

Posted by Malcolm on Mar. 16 2009,12:50

(TheCatt @ Mar. 16 2009,13:44)

QUOTE

Sigh. 2nd interview with start-up didn't work out.

I was their "runner-up"

You should begin your next interview w\ the phrase, "I know where you bury the bodies."

Posted by TheCatt on Mar. 23 2009,15:09

So I had a tech interview that was half C#, and half Oracle. I got everything right on the Oracle section, and did OK on the C#. I figured I still had a shot at interview, but chance of not...

I got this response from my recruiter today

QUOTE

I appreciate your prompt follow up about the tech screen, as well. I wanted to pass along some great feedback-you did the best out of all the tech screens scheduled!! They said you passed with flying colors and are a front runner right now.

Either the other people looking for work really suck, or I did pretty well after all.

Posted by Vince on Mar. 23 2009,16:44

I keep a good thought for you.

Posted by thibodeaux on Mar. 23 2009,17:40

Woot!

Posted by Malcolm on Mar. 23 2009,19:06

(TheCatt @ Mar. 23 2009,17:09)

QUOTE

Either the other people looking for work really suck, or I did pretty well after all.

Rock. What sort of C# questions were they throwing around? Both the worthless & challenging categories, if you would.

Posted by TheCatt on Mar. 24 2009,10:14

I dont have all of them written down, but here's a sample:
What is a delegate? What is a multicast delegate?
How do you do event registration?
What is recursion? What happens if you fail to exit?
What are bitwise operators?
How would you access data from a DB? (what objects, calls, etc)
What is reflection? why would you use it?
He created a scenario in which the answer was basically about using derived classes instead of complex switch statements to do things.
What is polymorphism? why is it good/bad?
What are anonymous methods?
Name some collections in the System.Generics namespace
Why do you have to use the var keyword in LINQ?
What are differences between value types and reference types?

What is a hashset?
If you use a custom object for the key of a generic dictionary, what interface do you need to implement to make sure it will function correctly?

I missed those last two. Oh, and I got the stuff about bitwise operators about half-right, cuz I haven't done those since c++ days.

I expected some stuff about patterns, but he never touched on it.

Posted by thibodeaux on Mar. 24 2009,18:13

I would probably fail that.

Posted by Malcolm on Mar. 24 2009,23:10

(thibodeaux @ Mar. 24 2009,20:13)

QUOTE

I would probably fail that.

When I was looking for a job, most of the tech-specific questions were excessively brutal. I think it's cos the managers in charge now remember some of the morons they used to work w\ when they were grunts.

Posted by Vince on Apr. 02 2009,05:20

This irony struck me a couple of days ago: some of the same people that insist that only evolution be taught in schools don't believe in Darwinism in the market place.

Posted by Malcolm on Apr. 02 2009,10:28

(Vince @ Apr. 02 2009,07:20)

QUOTE

This irony struck me a couple of days ago: some of the same people that insist that only evolution be taught in schools don't believe in Darwinism in the market place.

That's cos nature does all the work for evolution automatically. It takes effort for people to apply it to artificial constructs.

Posted by GORDON on Apr. 02 2009,10:44

If we want to be technical, "evolution" does not equal "survival of the fittest." Technically, evolution = a change in a population over time. One business succeeding where another fails is more survival of the fittest.

Posted by Malcolm on Apr. 02 2009,12:17

This appears to be more an example of natural selection rather than evolution.

Posted by Vince on Apr. 02 2009,15:30

(Malcolm @ Apr. 02 2009,14:17)

QUOTE

This appears to be more an example of natural selection rather than evolution.

Actually, natural selection is being thwarted with bailouts.

Posted by Malcolm on Apr. 02 2009,18:54

(Vince @ Apr. 02 2009,17:30)

QUOTE

(Malcolm @ Apr. 02 2009,14:17)

QUOTE

This appears to be more an example of natural selection rather than evolution.

Actually, natural selection is being thwarted with bailouts.

Natural selection works. It takes quite a bit of energy to make sure the worthless fall thru the cracks. We obviously aren't willing to output that much effort.

Posted by TheCatt on Apr. 02 2009,19:00

So..... I still haven't heard anything back about that job. My job ended 3/31.

But I've started my own company, and have a little bit of consulting work to keep me busy. But need more.

Posted by TPRJones on Apr. 02 2009,19:05

It takes no energy at all for natural selection to work. Leave the system alone, and the worthless will wither and die.

The effort comes in when you try to thwart that process.

Posted by Malcolm on Apr. 02 2009,19:21

(TPRJones @ Apr. 02 2009,21:05)

QUOTE

The effort comes in when you try to thwart that process.

Process been being fucked w\ for years. Lots of stored up "fuck up-edness" to disperse harmlessly. An unsupervised collapse isn't an option anymore. A controlled one is preferable.

Posted by TPRJones on Apr. 02 2009,20:16

A controlled collapse is impossible, there's too many people that will keep propping it up until the whole thing becomes too big for the supports and snaps 'em in half catastrophically.

The only hope for a positive result is finding some way that the whole structure becomes unimportant so that when it does collapse it won't matter. Not sure what that would entail, though. If I knew what that better system would be, I'd get rich getting it started.

Posted by Malcolm on Apr. 02 2009,20:35

(TPRJones @ Apr. 02 2009,22:16)

QUOTE

...there's too many people that will keep propping it up...

Yeah well, we just need to get rid of them somehow. Or trick them.

Posted by Troy on Apr. 02 2009,20:36

My company is super busy.

Right on the leading edge techonlogy or something.

We started a few warehouse people yesterday, to help with all the new orders.

I've mostly been doing web site, graphic design, and marketing material type stuff so far.

It's interesting work, I'm liable to spend 60% of my day in Illustrator, which is pretty cool.

Posted by Malcolm on Apr. 02 2009,22:57

(Troy @ Apr. 02 2009,22:36)

QUOTE

I'm sticking around till ...

(a) my boss quits
(b) job market sucks less

Might even land full time by this summer if all goes well.

Posted by Vince on Apr. 03 2009,04:20

Our stocks took a bit of a dip on the news that new cars sales are much higher for last month than expected. Sadly, we've been doing very well through all of this.

Posted by TheCatt on Apr. 10 2009,19:30

Well, that coding position still hasn't had an interview, they're saying within the next week or two.

Meanwhile, the parent of my former company hired me to do consulting on a short term basis. I flew up Thursday morning and just got back for the first two days, and they want two more weeks, possibly more depending on how things go.

The office up there is friggin sweet. They have the entire 55th floor of the John Hancock Center. All marble and wood, and fancy stuff. But, best of all - free cokes, OJ, and Vitamin Water. Well, best of all is a paycheck, but 2nd best... all that stuff.

Posted by Malcolm on Apr. 14 2009,09:07

< Prez chimes in w\ more useless platitudes >.
He draws a comparison w\ Jesus's Sermon on the Mount, which I guess means he's comparing the economy to a religion ... which implies all sorts of other things.

Posted by TheCatt on Jun. 08 2009,13:19

WOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just got my first consulting paycheck. It's only part-time work, but this check was for April, when I worked nearly the entire month.

And I'm going to Vegas tomorrow.

Posted by Malcolm on Jun. 09 2009,12:16

(TheCatt @ Jun. 08 2009,15:19)

QUOTE

Bet it all on the spin of one roulette wheel.

Posted by TheCatt on Jun. 09 2009,15:16

Despite the soundness of your advice, I think I will decline.

Posted by GORDON on Jun. 09 2009,17:47

I'd have suggested a hand of Blackjack.

Posted by WSGrundy on Jun. 24 2009,09:37

It does seem like a pretty good deal.

US To Trade Gold Reserves For Cash Through Cash4Gold.com

Posted by TheCatt on Jun. 24 2009,09:51

(GORDON @ Jun. 09 2009,20:47)

QUOTE

I'd have suggested a hand of Blackjack.

I ended up playing roulette. The wife played craps. We won around $250 together total.

The cocktail waitress outfits at the Rio are the best.

Posted by thibodeaux on Jun. 24 2009,09:57

I presume "the best" is code for "non-existent."

Posted by TheCatt on Jun. 24 2009,11:25

(thibodeaux @ Jun. 24 2009,12:57)

QUOTE

I presume "the best" is code for "non-existent."

< You win. Slightly NWS >

Most of them were better looking than that. But the same uniform.

Posted by Vince on Jun. 25 2009,15:44

I think that may be a dude.

Fool me once shame on you...

Posted by TheCatt on Jul. 06 2009,06:42

Wooot! I just got a better than expected job offer from a company I interviewed with last week. And, they'll even let me keep my consulting work as long as it doesn't impact my ability to get stuff done.

WOOOOT!

Beers on me.

Posted by Troy on Jul. 06 2009,07:23

Congrats man!

Is it in Raleigh/RTP area?

Posted by GORDON on Jul. 06 2009,07:28

(TheCatt @ Jul. 06 2009,09:42)

QUOTE

Beers on me.

Feel free to hit my amazon wish list.

Posted by TheCatt on Jul. 06 2009,07:41

(Troy @ Jul. 06 2009,10:23)

QUOTE

Congrats man!

Is it in Raleigh/RTP area?

Yep, it's near the airport. Actually, pretty close to where Thib works too.

Posted by Malcolm on Jul. 06 2009,10:48

(TheCatt @ Jul. 06 2009,08:42)

QUOTE

Beers on me.

I'll find some way to hold you to that.

Posted by thibodeaux on Jul. 07 2009,06:27

Bojangles?

Posted by TheCatt on Jul. 07 2009,07:47

(thibodeaux @ Jul. 07 2009,09:27)

QUOTE

Bojangles?

Assistant Evening Supervisor of Fry Seasoning

Posted by Malcolm on Jul. 07 2009,10:34

< Not to underail the thread... >

QUOTE

"Why are we ignoring the cheap energy solution to global warming, which is nuclear power?" argued Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee.

Game. Set. Match.

Posted by Vince on Jul. 07 2009,19:04

Whoa! Stop making sense or else!

Posted by GORDON on Jul. 07 2009,20:39

Because just saying "more nuclear power" doesn't give any particular government entity any more control over the us the way the "green" movement does.

Posted by Troy on Jul. 09 2009,11:21

Hey, here's exactly what a newly moved and underpaid recent college kid needs.

A 4,000 dollar repair bill on his car to replace a supercharger and an exhaust manifold.

Economy fuck yeah.

Posted by GORDON on Jul. 09 2009,11:23

ALmost sounds like some mechanic/dealership is taking advantage of an naive recent college kid.

Or he bought a zoomy car for the status without taking into account high maintenance costs? :-D

Posted by Troy on Jul. 09 2009,11:30

1) it's a huge nissan place, with a 50 person maintence team, so i hope not.

2) it's 03 super charged xterra, that I've driven since I graduated HS.

Posted by GORDON on Jul. 09 2009,11:40

So you hung on to a car with high maintenance cost?

Just fucking with you. But even i couldn't deal with a $4k routine maintenance bill on a vehicle.

Posted by thibodeaux on Jul. 09 2009,11:47

You can buy a whole damn car for 4k.

Posted by GORDON on Jul. 09 2009,11:56

And btw, dealership repairs are almost always a ripoff.

Posted by Troy on Jul. 09 2009,14:20

They ended up claiming there was MORE wrong with the car(1350 worth).

I told them to put it back together and just charge me for doing that. It was still $500 dollars.

This car only has 60k miles on it. Nissan sucks.

Posted by unkbill on Jul. 09 2009,17:44

(Troy @ Jul. 09 2009,11:21)

QUOTE

Hey, here's exactly what a newly moved and underpaid recent college kid needs.

A 4,000 dollar repair bill on his car to replace a supercharger and an exhaust manifold.

Economy fuck yeah.

Could have done it for 2.000 or less. They love women. older women and young people. Become aware of this an you are one leg up on things. run with it.

Posted by Troy on Jul. 14 2009,21:25

This story has a happy ending.

Took the car to carmax instead of getting work done.

Car was basically impossible to inspect without getting a lot of work done to fix the exhaust manifold and a few other things. That was not even counting the fact that the supercharger had gone from making weird clicking noises and working half the time, to not working at all.

Carmax looked at how pretty i kept the paint, how nice the leather seats were, and made sure it had an engine, and offered me a LOT more than I expected, over bluebook value, even.

I took in it in a second, and now drive a very sports and reliable 2007 Accord Coupe, with 20kish miles, and only owe the bank like 5k . The car is also still under factory warranty, which is fucking greaaat.

Also gets 30 miles/gallon. Love.

Posted by TPRJones on Jul. 15 2009,03:24

Cool. Here's hoping whoever they got the Accord from doesn't have a similar story. ;)

Posted by thibodeaux on Jul. 15 2009,04:34

Yeah, I had a similar Carmax story. I had a car that needed more repairs than it was worth. I took it to Carmax and told the guy, "Look this car needs a lot of work." He said, "Don't worry, our guys in the back will find out what's wrong with it." The gave me way more than I thought I'd get, so I took the money and ran.

Of course, I guess I should have been a LITTLE more cautious about BUYING a car from them, but that's the human brain for you.

Posted by Troy on Jul. 15 2009,06:09

After selling a fucked up car to carmax, I opted to NOT buy the Accord from them

Posted by Vince on Jul. 16 2009,15:58

(thibodeaux @ Jul. 15 2009,06:34)

QUOTE

Of course, I guess I should have been a LITTLE more cautious about BUYING a car from them, but that's the human brain for you.

Heh... you figured if they did you right by giving you a bunch of money for a crappy car, then they'd give you a good deal on another one.

Posted by TheCatt on Jul. 16 2009,17:22

Admittedly, the cost to repair the car is far below the price you'd pay to have the car fixed.

Posted by Malcolm on Jul. 31 2009,18:10

There's the distinct possibility I may be job-hunting by the middle of next week.

I say only this ... DEATH to bureaucrats. Are the admins of every for profit educational institution this blind & fucking retarded? TPR, any word on this? I thought the University of Minnesota was run by incompetent, ivory tower nerds who epitomized everything boring & dry in IT & had the business sense of a used toilet brush. The dudes that run my workplace make them look like black ops A-Team headed up by Richard B. Riddick. I've talked to strung out junkies w\ needles sticking in their veins that've'd a better handle on reason, logic, & common fucking sense.

Posted by TPRJones on Jul. 31 2009,19:47

Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach. Then there's administration.

Posted by Malcolm on Jul. 31 2009,20:07

Teaching .Net is ten times easier & less painful than putting up w\ it in a real, volatile work environment. But if the political bullshit is going to be just as bad, then why the fuck am I putting up w\ getting paid half of what I'm worth?

Time to polish up the resume & skill set again unless I receive decent answers next week.

Posted by TPRJones on Jul. 31 2009,21:31

The bullshit becomes much less annoying when you 1) learn to not care, and 2) make everyone believe you can work miracles they don't understand.

Posted by GORDON on Aug. 01 2009,04:54

(TPRJones @ Aug. 01 2009,00:31)

QUOTE

1) learn to not care,

That's a big one. My first couple programming jobs I "cared," then I finally learned the company didn't.

Posted by TheCatt on Aug. 01 2009,06:18

(Malcolm @ Jul. 31 2009,23:07)

QUOTE

...then why the fuck am I putting up w\ getting paid half of what I'm worth?

Regardless of anything else... why would you do this?

Posted by Malcolm on Aug. 01 2009,10:13

(TheCatt @ Aug. 01 2009,08:18)

QUOTE

(Malcolm @ Jul. 31 2009,23:07)

QUOTE

...then why the fuck am I putting up w\ getting paid half of what I'm worth?

Regardless of anything else... why would you do this?

Those kinds of jobs are even more mind-numbing than the one I've got now. Course, that difference is decreasing rapidly.

Posted by Malcolm on Aug. 01 2009,10:16

(GORDON @ Aug. 01 2009,06:54)

QUOTE

(TPRJones @ Aug. 01 2009,00:31)

QUOTE

1) learn to not care,

That's a big one. My first couple programming jobs I "cared," then I finally learned the company didn't.

The problem w\ the company not caring means it won't back me up if I encounter stupidity I need a higher authority to crush. Then I have to find clever, creative ways around the idiocy, taking far more time than necessary. If one manager would just admit, "No, we really don't care. This is all about the money," at least everyone could get on the same page.

Posted by GORDON on Aug. 01 2009,13:40

As long as you have no expectations of loyalty by a company to its employees. The rest is just varying levels of middle management having varying amounts of skill as managers.

Posted by TheCatt on Sep. 14 2009,14:24

I can't remember where I was ranting about the NC ESC being a bunch of dipshits - but my appeal was heard last week and decision arrived today - with a $2,000 check!

woot!

Posted by unkbill on Sep. 15 2009,15:58

(TPRJones @ Jul. 31 2009,19:47)

QUOTE

Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach. Then there's administration.

Good Lord. that just struck a nerve. Because work is slow here I just took a job to teach a couple yahoos home to side a house. Because the owner is to fucking tight to pay my my hourly wage. So he talked me into teaching for less pay. The deal was no ladder climbing and pounding very few nails.
As for aministration the owner bought a siding book. The only thing I look back at it is the fact that the first step they took when starting (against my advice) is that the siding has a 95% chance of falling off in the next 2 years.

Posted by GORDON on Sep. 15 2009,16:03

(unkbill @ Sep. 15 2009,18:58)

QUOTE

The only thing I look back at it is the fact that the first step they took when starting (against my advice) is that the siding has a 95% chance of falling off in the next 2 years.

We'll need to revisit this thread with pics if that happens.

Posted by unkbill on Sep. 15 2009,16:11

I explained my reasoning to the yahoos when the owner wasn't around. Every time I go back to teach a new trick they tell me how much slate siding has been cracking and falling down behind the siding. It tends to work down to the bottom. Weight bulges out the siding and siding falls off.

Posted by Troy on Aug. 30 2010,06:10

So I put my two weeks notice in on Friday.

Starting my new gig as a Consultant after I finish. New job is pretty cool, 30% travel, office two blocks from where I live, and much better pay.

Posted by TheCatt on Aug. 30 2010,06:18

What type of consultant?

Posted by Troy on Aug. 30 2010,09:16

(TheCatt @ Aug. 30 2010,06:18)

QUOTE

What type of consultant?

Trial Services (Mostly graphics)

Posted by TPRJones on Aug. 30 2010,12:32

You make those drawings that illustrate courtroom trials?

Posted by Troy on Aug. 30 2010,12:57

(TPRJones @ Aug. 30 2010,12:32)

QUOTE

You make those drawings that illustrate courtroom trials?

Heh, no.

I will help litigators and in-house defense teams prepare for trials. (and be on call during trials)

Overall, the company is like that shadow company from "The Runaway Jury". Only, you know, legal. Trial services is a small part of their larger contracting portfolio.

Posted by Malcolm on Aug. 30 2010,13:50

(Troy @ Aug. 30 2010,14:57)

QUOTE

I will help litigators and in-house defense teams prepare for trials. (and be on call during trials)

So, you make the Starbucks runs?

Posted by Troy on Aug. 30 2010,14:01

(Malcolm @ Aug. 30 2010,13:50)

QUOTE

(Troy @ Aug. 30 2010,14:57)

QUOTE

I will help litigators and in-house defense teams prepare for trials. (and be on call during trials)

So, you make the Starbucks runs?

I knew something was missing from my portfolio.

Next time I job hunt I will add all these receipts for coffee I have laying around.

Posted by Malcolm on Aug. 30 2010,14:19

Are you the dude that intimidates the witnesses? "Helping litigators" is a rather nondescript description.

Posted by Troy on Aug. 30 2010,14:39

(Malcolm @ Aug. 30 2010,14:19)

QUOTE

Are you the dude that intimidates the witnesses? "Helping litigators" is a rather nondescript description.

Presentation preparations, mock-ups, boards, data presentation and graphics, expert witness coaching, mock juries, settlement studies, data analysis and reporting, public relations and media management...

I only know how to do about half of those things, but this is all what my future team currently does.

Posted by GORDON on Aug. 30 2010,14:43

The best justice money can buy.

Posted by Malcolm on Aug. 30 2010,18:11

QUOTE

expert witness coaching, mock juries, settlement studies, data analysis and reporting, public relations and media management...

QUOTE

Are you the dude that intimidates the witnesses? "Helping litigators" is a rather nondescript description.

So that's a "yes," then?

Posted by Troy on Sep. 17 2010,19:48

60 hours the first week, about 55 billable. Probably going to do some stuff this weekend too.

Talk about jumping off the deep end. At least I seem to be hitting the ground running.

Posted by Malcolm on Sep. 18 2010,10:47

There's no way in hell you'll ever find me dropping 60 hours any week into something I call "work."

Posted by TheCatt on Sep. 18 2010,13:53

(Malcolm @ Sep. 18 2010,13:47)

QUOTE

There's no way in hell you'll ever find me dropping 60 hours any week into something I call "work."

I work about 50-60 hours / week right now. I have a FT job, plus my own PT consulting business.

Worth it.

Posted by unkbill on Sep. 18 2010,15:47

(TheCatt @ Sep. 18 2010,13:53)

QUOTE

(Malcolm @ Sep. 18 2010,13:47)

QUOTE

There's no way in hell you'll ever find me dropping 60 hours any week into something I call "work."

I work about 50-60 hours / week right now. I have a FT job, plus my own PT consulting business.

Worth it.

I was told a little concept many years ago. Buy low sell high. For younger people that is buy and sit on it. Older people don't have that option but still are afraid. Just saw an old friend from Cincinnati last weekend. He works for Ford. He is killing the market in the ups and downs in Ford stock. If you are afraid of trading just buy and wait for the dividends. I know to many old people that sold low when they scared. And are waiting for the market to recover before they put the money back in the market. Why just not let the money sit in the bank at what 2%. WTF. Wish I had more money to invest. Well I invest what I can.

Posted by TheCatt on Oct. 07 2010,10:01

Layoffs at my work today. Boo. Some days I just want to work somewhere stable. But when I was somewhere stable, I was bored.

Posted by Malcolm on Oct. 07 2010,10:23

We got about a dozen fuckers that sorely need to get laid off.

Posted by TheCatt on Oct. 07 2010,10:36

(Malcolm @ Oct. 07 2010,13:23)

QUOTE

We got about a dozen fuckers that sorely need to get laid off.

The one guy who got laid off was pretty much exactly the guy I thought needed to get laid off... but still.... I've never been anywhere that there was just one round of layoffs.

Posted by Malcolm on Oct. 12 2010,11:53

< Here >.

Quote of the year ...

QUOTE

“We’ve got to go and spend less money. I think governments have promised people too much.”

... from the Governator himself.