From My Perspective

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Can You Survive a Month Unemployed?

Can you survive a month unemployed?

My brother shared this with me yesterday and, after going through it a few times, it really got me thinking. I suggest you try it yourself and see what your results turn out to be.

It's especially staggering because of the high unemployment rate in our country.

One of the first questions they give you was deciding whether or not to purchase health insurance, which took out a huge chunk of the pay. I did purchase it each time because I know how unbelievably expensive it can get to receive medical attention without any medical insurance, but I was just thinking I am going to do the simulation one more time without purchasing it to see the reality of it.

As a recent college graduate myself who is trying to outweigh the balance between going right back to school for a master's degree in hopes of getting a job or just looking for a job and going back to school later after working for a few years... let me tell you neither is very easy. It's almost like a catch-22. If I go right back to school, I might be missing out on job opportunities that may become even harder to find in the future. If I don't go back to school right away, I might not be "qualified" for jobs.

Or: If I go back to school, I'll be adding another huge chuck of loans for school on myself on top of the ones from undergraduate that will quickly get very high. If I don't go back to school, I might not find a job with a good enough pay to help pay off the loans feasibly.

Frustrating, isn't it?

P.S. Don't forget to leave me a comment below on your thoughts! As always, I'd love to hear from you.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Jeopardy: Man vs. Machine

Anyone else watch jeopardy for the last three days? What did you guys think of it?

I've been regularly watching both Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune ever since we moved to Canada way back in 1995 with my parents (and my maternal grandfather when he is here)... and it's never been this interesting and intriguing to watch. I can't believe how long I've been anticipating to watch these three days worth of Jeopardy (especially because if you know me, I don't watch much TV).

Sure, watching through Ken Jennings' winning streak and seeing how long it would continue for was something and watching the teen competitions is always fun and uplifting because it highlights their intelligence (it's nice to know not all American kids are clueless about the world)... but this was something different.

Past Jeopardy champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter played two Jeopardy games across the span of three days against Watson, a computer created by IBM. Jennings holds the show's record for winning the most consecutive games (74) and Rutter is known for earning the most money in the history of Jeopardy.

In the first game, *SPOILER ALERT*, Watson dominated and beat the other two by a large difference. I believe in the second day of the first game Jennings and Rutter combined only answered five answers!

Watson wasn't without fault though. Because Watson could neither hear or see he repeated a wrong answer that Jennings had just given. Watson is fed the answer in text form at the same time the information is made available to Jennings and Rutter. Watson then goes through its database for an answer that it finds to be appropriate... and it cannot use the internet. It would only buzz in to respond if his surety met a certain threshold.

Technology continually advances in front of us and it's amazing to see what will come next. Kind of crazy/scary how much of human actions are or can be replaced by a computer isn't it? It's nice in the sense that we can learn so much more much faster -- like medical advances or accessing information through the internet (I can't even remember the last time I went to the library). But take that same thing, and can you imagine how many librarians amongst other professionals lost their jobs because of such advances? Think about self check out lanes in your grocery store (compared to those who had jobs as cashiers before). That's just one example out of oh so many!

What's your take on this? The Jeopardy segment and/or the larger scenario.

P.S. Don't forget to leave me a comment below on your thoughts! As always, I'd love to hear from you.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Snow

Exactly a month after the blizzard last month, we got another huge snow storm yesterday into today.

I'm not sure what the exact amounts are yet, but definitely in the 15+ inches range for sure.

Here are some pictures. The first two are from yesterday and the rest are from today:

that's our pool that you see can barely see behind the fence

I was reading on NJ.com earlier that this is the snowiest January in 62 years... and no one that has resided in NJ can argue that. It's been snowing all month long following the blizzard the day after Christmas.

From my phone this morning: