Zen and the art of dealing with high gas prices

An article on MSNBC talks about gas price these days and how people react to it. It is quite interesting that people are still buying SUV, which uses a lot of gas, knowing that the gas price is skyrocketing. There are alternatives ways to counter this issue, but people just got in the habit of driving their car to work and choosing an alternative way to save money on gas is not an option; even though they are still whining how high it has gone up lately. National Petrochemical and Refiners’ Association executive vice president, Charles Drevna, said that the reason for gas price to go up was because of the process of turning crude oil into gasoline.
The process of turning crude oil into gasoline has become more complicated over the years, particularly as different governmental entities have mandated changes to the chemical makeup of gasoline for environmental reasons. It takes more equipment, more complicated processes and more oil to make gasoline now than it used to, Drevna said.

I think that is a legitimate explanation for the high gas price these days. With the demand of gasoline everyday, it would not be surprise if the price keeps going up. In my opinion, the only way to counter this problem would be to cut back on the usage of gasoline with bus, bicycle, or carpool; but it is easier said than done for people that live like 50 miles away from work. Some find that it’s very inconvenient for them to carpool someone to work and will have to wait for the driver if they happen to get out of work early, or there is an emergency and the driver cannot get out of his/her work.
That is one of the real concerns that most people face while trying to cut back on driving. But I think that if we can somehow lower the demand on gas, then perhaps the price would goes down a bit.

Is Wal-Mart good for America?

Is Wal-Mart good for America? This is a question that someone asked the instructor in my Economic class. My instructor made it a debating topic among the student since many students seem to have different perspectives on this. Most students answered this question with a “no, Wal-Mart bad for America” but few other answered yes.

A few students stated that Wal-Mart is good for America. They argued that from buying stuffs from Wal-Mart, they have saved a lot, and so do many Americans. It is true that a lot of low-income families are really benefited from shopping at Wal-Mart. They save more money and get the quality of the products they needed. Also, with many Wal-Mart stores opened everywhere across the U.S., it’s also true that Wal-Mart did create a lot of job. These are points that some students came up with in saying Wal-Mart is good for America.

Most other students said no, and they came up with many arguments, which are very convincing. But it is all relate to Wal-Mart’s business model, and how it indirectly affected America’s economy. Most of us already known that Wal-Mart’s prices on their products are really low, but we never asked how did they keep their price so low and still gain profit from it. It is simple; they forced their suppliers to comply with their way of pricing products. Supplier will bid against each other to see who can supply product to Wal-Mart with the lowest price. And many of the American suppliers that want to continue to supply Wal-Mart with products have been forced to move overseas where they can get the cheap land and labor that they need to be able to sell their products to Wal-Mart at such low prices but still making profit; this takes many jobs out of America. In the long run, eventually there will not be any plants left in America, we will be importing more than export.

So what I think is that while Wal-Mart is creating a lot of jobs, they are indirectly taking a lot out of America; this would cause the unemployment rate to go up. In a long run, this might look bad for the American since all the manufacturers are moving their factory oversea for lower product cost in order to compete with Wal-Mart or to continue working with Wal-Mart. To answer whether Wal-Mart is good for America or not is up, i would say that it is not.

Lights, Camera, Hired!

I came across an article online that discusses about a new way to present our resume. It’s a video version resume, which Chris Dixon, a college senior, did so that his resume could stand out from other job search competitors. John Dooney, spokesman for the Society for Human Resources Management, said that video resume works well for applying to position that require creativity. Careful when trying this because professional and traditional firms might think that we are mocking them or are not taking it seriously. There are also a few other creative ways to present our resume such as blog, podcast, or a Web site with writing samples.

I think that a video resume is not an efficient way to apply for a job. Not that it is a bad idea, but I think it lacks of seriousness and reader might need to rewind the video many times to review the resume, which would create a negative impression from the reader toward your application. At the moment, I do not think that it a good idea, but sometimes in the future it might be a requirement for resumes.

Does a resume have to be one page long?

I came across a reading titled “Does a resume have to be one page long?” a question from a person named Stymied to Anne Fisher regarding on how long should a resume be. Stymied stated that he/she has seen a recruiter who asked Stymied to fit the resume into one page. Stymied tried but found out that would leave out a lot of information.

Anne’s reply was that it is a strange thing for an executive recruiter asking for only one page long resume. She also stated why according to a survey, which showed that recruiter willing to spend more time reading longer resume so that they can justify the application.

My thought is that a professional resume, in my opinion, should have at least 2 pages. That will allow one to have enough space to introduce his/her-self and why should he/she be qualified for the job.

You can go here to post your thought about this matter or see how other people think about it.

How to feel safe when your job isn't

"What do you do if your industry is shrinking, but your monthly bills aren't? You come up with a plan - and hope you don't need it." an article by Josh Hyatt, Money Magazine senior writer, suggested a few things we could do when our job is on the edge. First thing is to change our way of living; cutting back on unnecessary expenses and save more. Second thing is to have an emergency fund that equal to 6 months of our income. Getting additional training also helps us up to date on new skills and practices. The most important thing is networking; it’s best to get to know other people in different field and to hunt for another job while we are still having one.

I found this article pretty much useful because these days, the American’s average saving rate is like 1%, according to my finance professor, and if something happen to our job, what could we do to for the next few months while looking for another job? A back up plan should be undergoing while our current job is still secure. Also, cutting back on our lifestyle would help us from going into shock if something happen and we have to adapt to a sudden change.

The next phase of instant messaging.

I came across an article about a website called Meebo.com, and it’s a website for instant messaging from anywhere. It’s like an Instant messenger with all the possible instant messaging programs out there combine in one place. Just log into Meebo.com and you can see all your buddies from AIM, Yahoo, and MSN etc from anywhere, there is no downloads or installs required to run it. The founders started this website in 2005 and as of today, an average of 700,000 users logins per day, and an average of 69 hours staying online for each user.

I would say that Meebo.com would become a competitor with Myspace. If they issue stock, I would buy from them because they are like Google when it first started. The founders said that there will be plenty of ways to make money from Meebo, but it hasn’t been their focus just yet; probably because they are trying to make it looks more professional, or getting more users and then start putting ads and other features up.

Making online calls private.

An article in the Mercury News on Sunday discussed about the use of VoIP (voice-over-the-Internet phone), an instrument that renders any of our calls completely private. People like hacker or even the FBI will not be able to tap our wire and listen to your conversation. The article has an interview dialog with the creator of VoIP that discussed about the advantages and disadvantages before and after 9/11.

I find that it is quite interesting about this article because it showed a controversy between privacy rights and national security. VoIP seems to be a well privacy protector, but it also can be a communication tool for terrorists. I do not know if people would value their privacy more than the lives of many people, supposed that the government find out where the terrorists will attack. In my opinion, VoIP should be put in use to secure our calls privacy from unauthorized people, but the government should get some kind of decryption software from the VoIP developer so that the government can monitor incoming and outgoing calls. I do not find it bothers me knowing that the government is listening to my calls, unless I have something to hide from them.