achtungbaby.net

We are Virginia Tech. We are sad today and we will be sad for quite awhile. We are not moving on, we are embracing our mourning. We are Virginia Tech. We are strong enough to know when to cry and sad enough to know we must laugh again. We are Virginia Tech. We do not understand this tragedy. We know we did not deserve it but neither does a child in Africa dying of AIDS, but neither do the invisible children walking the night to avoid being captured by a rogue army. Neither does the baby elephant watching his community be devastated for ivory; neither does the Appalachian infant in the killed in the middle of the night in his crib in the home his father built with his own hands being run over by a boulder because the land was destabilized. No one deserves a tragedy. We are Virginia Tech. The Hokier Nation embraces our own with open heart and hands to those who offer their hearts and minds. We are strong and brave and innocent and unafraid. We are better than we think, not quite what we want to be. We are alive to the imagination and the possibility we will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears, through all this sadness. We are the Hokies. We will prevail, we will prevail. We are Virginia Tech.

– Nikki Giovanni’s memorial service address

Career-wise, at least. It seems silly, but note to self: never turn down a co-worker for lunch again.

Monster.com: Never Eat Alone

I recall tech’s darker days in 2001. As a fledgling business analyst with little “battle-tested” requirements experience, my resume was often amongst 300 others (according to a recruiter).

The Los Angeles IT sector is becoming a big star

The technology job market in Los Angeles is in a unique position to continue its strong growth while hitching its wagon to the city’s sexiest and biggest star: the movie industry.

While the tech sector in Southern California continues to shine, job growth is being spurred on by several economic factors. Perhaps the biggest factor is Los Angeles’ heavyweight ability to produce cutting edge technologies for one of the city’s oldest industries.

“It is a very hot time for Internet companies,” said Jon Kraft, chairman of the Southern California Software Council.  Things are taking off in L.A., especially in visual and digital media.

And the city’s growing IT market has not escaped the attention of investors.

The venture capital industry invested $10.4 billion in California IT, while tech companies exported $47.8 billion of goods and services from California to countries around the world, according to a recent study conducted by AeA, the nation’s largest trade association for the high-tech industry.

continued on Dice.com

Just flipping the channels and then I saw this, to air on PBS tonight:

NOVA Online | Why the Towers Fell | Deconstructing the Towers’ Collapse | PBS

Deconstructing the Towers’ Collapse
by Brad Kloza

To many who witnessed the horrific attacks on the World Trade Center last September, it might appear obvious why the Twin Towers fell: They were struck at blinding speed by two massive aircraft carrying thousands of gallons of jet fuel, whose ignition generated a fire so searing that it weakened steel beams to the point of collapse.