Entry #11 | Blog Retrospect

Hello, once again! Here we are now, more than ten blog posts in to this somewhat experimental blogging process for me.  It seems like a good opportunity share some learned insights thus far and as well as a couple of retrospective musings. Starting off, I think the best advice I can give it to make use of the draft function. I definitely found myself creating drafts of topics to blog about, which provided a location to start accumulating ideas and various articles and/or research. This entails a process that is multi-day since the development of the topic rarely happened for me in one session at the computer. I preferred to think about what I wanted to say over the course of a few days. There were also topics that I ended up deleting for a variety of reasons such as lack of information or just finding a better topic. Not all things are meant to be, right?

Another item to consider is the use of images. There are a significant amount of images out there on the Internet and one of the things to remember is that many are protected by copyright. As a student, there are usually allowances for the use of images and/or material since it is for an educational purpose but any serious blogging will probably require more strict adherence. I have found freedigitalphotos.net to be a great source for images that are available for non-commercial use. Google can also be utilized but after you click on the Images link, you will then need to click on the Tools button, which will display another menu below the initial menu. On the Tools menu bar, click on Usage rights and select the appropriate category for which you are searching. Generally speaking, I think Labeled for reuse is acceptable for blogging.

 An interesting resource to keep in mind is your fellow bloggers; check out their blogs and see what they are discussing. There may be a conversation already in progress that you may want to join in order to try to include a different perspective for their consideration. This can lead to community development as well as provide people with ideas from which to further develop more ideas and/or discussions. This can provide ideas for different topics that you would like to discuss in addition to any discussions you may find. This process may be asymmetrical but it can provide a lot of benefit to everyone involved. You can definitely learn more about people from personal blogs and participating in discussions with either your own blogs or in their comments, just remember to keep it civil and don't be an Internet troll.

In retrospect though, this has been an interesting endeavor that has provided an opportunity to learn more about publishing content in a more personal styled voice. The personal styled voice is interesting to think about because I think that we do not really have much of that any longer in our public space. Any correspondence at work is expected to be professional and relatively impersonal. For anyone in college, most of the written work is academic with development focused on more academic and/or professional styled writing...which is again predominantly impersonal. Emailing can be more personal but how often do you use it for that purpose? It is rare that I send a personal email to anyone. Phone calls and texting is much more common for me as a means to communicate with family and friends. Texting is personal, but it is not usually a cohesively written response since it tends to be more acronyms and abbreviations to convey the message via a learned code that is understood between the two people.

Another thing to consider during this moment of retrospective wandering, is the opportunity to learn about what your fellow bloggers are writing about currently. There are so many topics to write about today. Many times there are situational obstacles that would prevent you from ever trying to learn enough about a topic to feel like you could write with some amount of authority on the topic. However, people have many different experiences and it can be exciting to find a topic or story that someone shares that excites your imagination and sparks a creative moment for you. Make some time to read what your peers find interesting to write about because if they are writing then there is a purpose to it.

With all that though, it is time to wrap this up once again. Writing a blog has provided some interesting opportunities to explore some different topics a bit more informally as well as learning more from, and about, some of my fellow bloggers. We will have to see what the future holds for blogs in 2018 but until that time...Happy Holidays! Take care and best wishes, everyone!

Entry #10 | Human Networking

Hello again! With all this discussion and pondering of media it occurred to me that one of the topics that I don't see among all the hustle and bustle of life, as it seems to have become, is that of human interactions. No, I am not talking about the courtesy "hi! and bye!" type scenarios. I mean like the "omg, I need someone that will listen and maybe offer some advice, or even not offer advice" type of scenarios. There is so much information flowing around us but it doesn't slow down for us as individuals. That is something we need to address among ourselves. The casual, or not so casual, perusal of social media with the likes, shares, follows, retweets and emoji-speak are great for keeping up with family and existing friends, but not really the best for meeting new people.

New people...now there's a novel concept, right? For the high school student who had lots of friends and is now in college, there can be quite a disconnect. Then there is leaving college and transitioning into the working world. I suppose one could argue that once a college student has acclimated to the change of college with such a diverse range of students and teachers that the transition to work isn't such a big leap. There will be changes though, like no more avoiding scheduling morning classes at eight o'clock (cuz' sleep) since odds are that their employer will expect them to be present before such a time. Transitioning between employers, or even industries, as a professional requires engaging a new group of people and rebuilding your credibility and/or reputation. None of it is exactly what I would term easy, but we all manage to get through it one way or another.

With all that, I would like to take this opportunity to suggest that you remain cognizant of the people around you. There are sites like LinkedIn that offer the capability to network with people online. As a site within the realm of social media, I would caution anyone to keep in mind that those connections can be just as fleeting as the casual greeting interactions. There is an article written by Mark Suster titled "Understanding the Power of Your Human Networks" which provides and interesting viewpoint on the topic, despite being written in 2014. Another interesting read on the topic is "How Human Networking Works," by Keith Ferrazzi.

I am not a fan of the "look for people that can give you something" since you immediately place yourself at the disadvantage. Admittedly though, human networking can be great for locating employment and it is considered one of the best methods, if not still the best. However, just meeting people to get to know other people and hear their stories as well as sharing yours is powerful, for everyone involved. We are all connected and despite all the nonsense we hear about how there are all these differences is not a reason to allow ourselves to become, or remain, isolated. We all learn and grow through interactions with people, regardless of any category by which people can be divided. Put in the face time, discuss ideas, share stories and just simply appreciate that which makes us all human. Of course, you need to keep your head about you and ensure safe environments. I shouldn't have to say that but it is probably a sign of the times. In the end however, there is so much out there in the big wide world and there are no pictures that can substitute for the experiences that are possible. Take care and best wishes, everyone!

Entry #9 | Spin Cycle

Hello again! Another busy week has gone by and I have been pondering how it seems that most of the news either lacks substance or doesn't seem to have some conservative slant. Granted there may be a story or two that is not too extremely conservative, but it certainly appears to be a concerted effort to push people's expectations further toward the conservative side of the spectrum. Sometimes, it's more about what isn't in the news than what is covered. Take the atrocious tax bill the Senate passed in the early morning hours. Looking at the different supposedly liberal news sites and rarely can I locate a front page item. Check the Wall Street Journal though and the news about the tax bill is at the top of the front page with five more articles linked.

As part of this apparent quandary I have found myself in, I have been searching for other sites over the course of months that are actually providing some more in depth information as well as alternative points of view. Two of the better sites I have found are evonomics.com and The Progressive, which actually discusses some of the inherent flaws in the assumptions of the predominate policies, how daily lives are impacted and differing economic theories as well as proposing more socially responsible alternatives. These are great sites in terms of discussions with people from across labor, business and academia. If you get time to check them out, I would recommend it. There are good discussions and analyses that will provoke some thought, and maybe even some discussions.

There are other smaller sites that are actually providing news and information, as opposed to more advertising space and shallow content. We still need to go out and search for this information though since it's still not going to be able to get any mention outside of the smaller grassroots type organizations. There's a lot of smart people out there resisting the status quo and even if we don't agree with everything they have to say, I would suggest that those very ideas provide an idea of scope and context to ensure that we all feel included as we continue our respective journeys. If you have some other suggestions, please feel free to share them in the comments section below. Until next time though, take care!

Entry #8 | Pay to Win

Hello again! I was scrolling through the news feed on my iPhone and came across this article from CNBC which contends that Gamers are overreacting to EA's 'Star Wars' controversy, publishers should raise price. Whoa! Back up the train a sec. This is a new spin on what has actually occurred. Having seen a few news stories on this topic over the last week, and being a veteran gamer, this immediately caught my attention. So upon the initial perusal I noticed that there are a lot of bank names mentioned in this article, which translates to capital markets. In my experience, that usually means people out of touch with the reality in which most people in the world exist.

For anyone not aware, the pending release of the next "Star Wars" movie is imminent and there is also a "Star Wars" game, titled Battlefront II, which was released by EA Games this past week on the 17th of November. The week prior to this release, the player movement started once they realized that after paying $79.99 for the game, that characters such as Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker were locked behind additional paid content. In a posted reply on Reddit by a EACommunityTeam member, Kotaku reported that their justification for micro-transactions shattered the record on Reddit for the most downvoted comment recorded on this website. The initial estimates reported by Rolling Stone (here) to unlock this paid in-game content amounted to an estimated 4,528 hours of playtime, or $2,100.

In the wake of this negative publicity, it is reported by IGN that an executive at Disney reached out to EA to voice their concern with this negative publicity. The impact of this conversation is speculation but EA initially lowered the costs of these micro-transactions and ultimately pulled them, for the short term at least. This situation gained the attention of governments around the world and The Guardian has reported (here) that regulators are now considering whether loot boxes, which are in-game content, should be regulated as gambling.

This has proven interesting to watch as events have progressed over the last two weeks. In my experience, video games being pay to win is more common than not and so with the events unfolding it appears that there may be action to prevent this type of predatory behavior in the market. I wouldn't hold out too much hope though since the lure of profits never goes away. For the short term though, the voice of the players made a difference and that is a good sign, in my opinion. If you agree or disagree, please let me know in the comments below. I hope everyone has a good week. Until next time, take care, everyone!

Entry #7 | Hashtag What?

Hello again! So another curious item that I have been contemplating as a result of a conversation with some friends this past holiday, the hashtag. I have one friend that likes to hashtag-it-up in conversation and posts on social media. This got me to thinking about it since I don't use hashtags in my minimal use of social media. Is this just a way to add flair to a post or is there really a purpose to their use?

After performing a search on Google, I found a few interesting bits of information. From the Twitter homepage, clicking on the search icon and typing "trend" into the search field will result in a list of the current trending worldwide hashtags. It appears that you can actually type anything in the search field to get to the native site but using the search term trend seems a good way to start. There is a menu across the type of this page that defaults to the Top results for the search. Clicking on Latest will show the most current results. The results in these multiple selections will continue to update and clicking on the new results will expand these new entries so they can be viewed. The results today have been interesting to watch, from the Alabama football and basketball games to what appears to be a cooking show in Brazil and two items trending in what appeared to be Arabic.

Finding a live feed for hashtags on Facebook proved a little trickier since I was searching for something similar to Twitter. Typing a topic or hashtag in the search field at the top of the browser will provide the search results along with the current trending news. However, this is not a report for trending hashtags. It appears to be for actual news articles which are being accessed via Facebook by users. There is a Facebook Media page but this appears to be more targeted to different types of professionals and businesses looking to create content and/or organize a campaign on this platform.

This has been another interesting topic to learn more about this afternoon. The potential here appears significant for any business or professional with a purpose.  However, it does seem that all the random hashtags may be more noise than anything purposeful. Twitter seems to have more focus in the use of the hashtag which makes sense since this was the social media platform that started the use of the hashtag on such a scale. Watching the live feed is almost akin to people watching, which can provide some entertainment, when time permits. Until next time though, take care, everyone!

Entry #6 | Educational Options

Hello again! The topic of school costs versus time investment came up this morning over breakfast and I thought, "Hey! Another opportunity to share." Something to point out though, I will provide some specific examples of my thought process on this topic but I will suggest that the process of gathering information, comparing information and/or data and making a decision based on your own circumstances is what is important here. There may be more take-ways, which is all the better for you, I think.

A little history first...before I made the decision to start taking classes at Glendale Community College, I had been looking for a formal curriculum to acquire a more thorough knowledge of Cisco networking in order to pass some of the multitude of certification tests offered. The Cisco Networking Academy has been growing since it started in 1997. When I initially started my search, most of the Internet searches I performed resulted in privately-owned educational organizations. Once I discovered that the Maricopa colleges offered these classes, I made my decision to enroll.

The conversation this morning involved the question of why I would spend so much time taking classes at the community college instead of a training program. For those that aren't aware, most professions require some sort of continuing education to ensure that professionals are staying up to date on the latest information/education in their respective field of expertise. This can usually be accomplished by attending a one-day seminar, sometimes multiple seminars, during the course of a year. Another way to meet this requirement can be to attend a training program. Utilizing Google, I searched the current pricing for a one week Cisco CCNA training class in Phoenix and found three different businesses offering a class for $3,050, $3,250 and $3,495. In technology circles, these are usually referred to as "boot camps." The classes are scheduled for 5 days duration and you should expect about 8 hours of instruction, usually online due to technological capabilities, and then another 6 to 8 hours outside of class reviewing the material. I assume the idea is to cram as much as possible into one week in order to get through the material and be able to pass the test at the end of the week.

Compare the time and cost to that of a Maricopa college. Most Cisco Network Academy classes at one of these community colleges will be 4 credits and be scheduled for 8 weeks duration. For an apples to apples type comparison, remember there are two classes that would cover the material for the first half of the initial Cisco certification and then another two classes that would cover the second half of the material. All four classes together would cover the material for the Cisco CCNA certification. So at the current resident tuition of $86 per credit hour, that would amount to $1,376 and 32 weeks of study. If you want to analyze that a little more, that is a difference of paying a current average of about $82 per hour at a private business versus about $4 per hour at the community college or:

((3050 + 3250 + 3495) / 3) / 40 = 81.625
(1376 / (12 x 8 x 4 )) = 3.583 (this assumes 4 hours in class and 8 hours study time per week)

One could argue that the study time for the training class should be included too, though there is no homework assigned so it is actually up to the person paying for the class as to whether they want/need to study more outside of class. Sometimes these classes are paid for by employers and thus the time spent in class is also compensated, which would entail extra time being paid or just not putting in any extra time. Even if study time was added at a maximum value of 80 hours, instead of 40 hours, that would still equate to about $40 per hour which is still significantly higher than the community college.

I think at this point, a person will need to weigh the opportunity costs associated with the options.  This is related to an economic determination of a person's time spent doing one thing versus another. There are many calculations that can be made here but to keep this brief by pointing out that one of the calculations to consider is whether 384 hours (12 x 8 x4) of time versus 40 hours (or even 80) is worth the lesser cost. The answer will differ per person but in essence this is one of the things that each person will consider, maybe not in these specific terms though.

And so here's the rub, so-to-speak....if someone else values your time at the higher cost, are you accounting for that. For myself, I prefer being able to analyze and be allowed the opportunity to understand more comprehensively but that doesn't always consider other people in my life that would rather I take the shorter duration, more intense learning opportunity. As professionals we may have to negotiate a middle ground, though sometimes that is not an option and it will require a choice one way or the other. I don't know that there is a single, correct answer but it is definitely something to consider. Take care all, everyone.

Entry #5 | Smoke and Mirrors

Hello again! I read an article this morning that caught my attention. It may be from last year but as a topic that persists in today's society, it is definitely worth some discussion. In the article from azcentral.com titled "Ducey: Why Arizona needs more college grads,"  the governor advocates support of an alliance to increase the current percentage of Arizona residents that attain a certificate or college degree by 18% in the next 22 years.

This op-ed is more reminiscent of a carefully manicured public relations advertisement than any serious news story.  There are links provided in the main body of text that point to another op-ed, which is also cross-linked back to this story, by the regional president of Wells Fargo as well as some mysterious entity called achieve60az that will recommend donations through the nonprofit collegesuccessarizona.org in order to enable the attainment of this goal. Let's just take a break and ruminate on that...state funding cuts to the budget for education have been what I, and many others, would describe as brutal. And the proposed solution, which the governor supports, is to put Arizona's future in the hands of a single mysterious entity in partnership with a non-profit. The words that come to mind are probably not fit for general public discussion.

So about that mysterious entity called achieve60az. It appears that the Arizona Department of Revenue does not allow public business record searches. My search included Google and yet I can find nothing of substance outside of their website and various news op-eds touting their cause. I did a little searching on the "dark web" and found where information about this initiative is posted on the Office of Education website. On a side note, I'm not sure what the purpose of the fire department locker room is as the backdrop but it does make for a lot of red. Anyways, being  a little familiar with networks in general, checking the DNS records for the website reveals that at least the web side of this alliance is being managed by the Arizona Board of Regents, if not all of it. Seeing as the governor appoints members to this board it becomes evident to me why he would support such an endeavor...watch the left hand, people, pay no attention to the right.

This is interesting given the budget cuts to education in Arizona. Recent rankings differ by organization but between the best and worst reviews I could find, Arizona education rates in the lowest 6% to 18% of all the United States. The Center for Student Achievement reports that Arizona ranks 49th in education funding with a current 31% deficiency compared to the national average of all states. The Education Week report rates Arizona 47th in School Finance, a "D-" on their scale...yes, that is barely passing. The Best States report by U.S. News shows another interesting detail, aside from ranking Arizona 43rd in Education, which is that the percentage of college educated people in Arizona is 36% with a median income for a population of 6.83 million people of $26,678 currently. Yes, those are some interesting statistics to let sink in. On average that equates to an hourly wage of only $12.83 per hour if they only work 40 hours per week AND the percent of college education people in Arizona is reported to be 6% lower in 2017 than what achieve60az reported in 2016, and still reports in 2017. Did a group of graduates move out of state? Doubtful since statistics like this do not tend to be tracked in such a short window of time, in my experience. As with most things economic, there are probably different assumptions being made for which there should be no expectation for clarity up front.

On that though, I think we will have to wrap this up for the time being. I don't find any value in this article other than to be on the lookout for another money grab by politicians in alliance with private enterprise. The raid on the state land trust with Prop123 arguably set back the education funding decades and despite the governor's op-ed saying that this money is being allocated to "K-12 education," notice the lack of the word "public" in any of his discourse. There are still public schools being closed due to building maintenance that cannot be afforded. Overrides are an annual request from school districts to cover lack of funding. Teachers are not getting any significant raise any time soon. A recent news report by 12 News reported a suggested 0.4% to 1% raise to teacher salaries, which to be honest is insulting. In the private sector, if I had an employer offer me a 1% raise to stay I would be pursuing other employment opportunities. I say that as a hypothetical but the reality is I have done this in the past with prior employers. If an employer can't afford to compensate their employee properly then it's not a business worth working for and frankly it's probably not a viable business that should be allowed to continue. Of course, the government is there for a purpose and it cannot go away, nor should it. What the government should be doing is taxing businesses more appropriately and ensuring that the state institutions, and the resulting employees, are also funded properly. That is not a short wrap-up, but for the rest I will leave it as a topic for another time perhaps. Take care, everyone.