so sad, but so true

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The brutal job market brought on by the recession has been hard on everyone, but especially devastating on the youngest members of the labor force.
About 60% of recent graduates have not been able to find a full-time job in their chosen profession, according to job placement firm Adecco.
And for those just entering the workplace, a bout of long-term unemployment can affect their career plans for years to come.
Meghan O'Halloran was one of those who had her career derailed by the timing of her graduation.
She left Cornell University with a degree in architecture and six summers of internships at top firms in New York, Milan and London.
"I thought getting a job would be a snap," she said.
But after graduating in December 2008, just as job losses in the economy were reaching a high point, she was confronted with a very cold reception into the labor force.
She followed her boyfriend to China for a year, and found architecture work plentiful in the building boom there. But when she returned home at the end of 2009, not much had improved, and no one was hiring.
"I've applied for temporary work," she said. "The answer is always the same, 'We wish we could hire you.'"
She's decided to leave behind her hopes for a career as an architect and has started her own business making custom fabric, carpets and furniture.
O'Halloran's experience is not unique. Last year, the unemployment rate for college graduates age 24 and younger rose to 9.4%, the highest since the Labor Department began keeping records in 1985.
One reason is because recent hires with limited experience have the toughest time competing in a job market flooded with experienced candidates.
"We know that young people coming out of college have the least experience," said Kathy Kane, senior vice president of talent management at Adecco. "And these entry-level jobs can be the easiest for companies to reduce."
But long stretches of unemployment are only part of the problem young job seekers face.

0:00 / 3:17 Go to class at midnight

Adecco also found that 18% of recent grads have been forced to turn to full-time jobs outside their field of study, often jobs for which a college degree is not required.
Many others are underemployed, or working part-time or temporary jobs and internships.
And the lack of steady income can also delay the start of their lives as independent adults. About a third of recent graduates are still living with their parents, Adecco found, with 17% saying they are financially dependent on their parents. Almost one in four say they are in debt.
Brittney Winters, 23, graduated from Princeton University in 2009 and can't find a teaching job, despite graduating from a top school.
"When you go to an Ivy League school, you figure this degree will mean something -- that it will guarantee you a job," she said.
Winters has taken on other "survival" jobs to get by, including working at a video rental store.
She now works for a public relations firm in Chicago. But the job is a long commute from her parents' home, and she's struggling to fill the gas tank each week.

A long recovery

With hiring on the rise, this year's college grads will find a somewhat better job market awaiting them after graduation. But those already hurt by the recession might not bounce back so quickly.
According to one study performed by Till von Wachter, an economics professor at Columbia University, the drag on income lasts for 10 years, on average.
The outlook could be even worse for the class of '09 or '10, von Wachter said, since the worse the recession, the longer it takes to get earnings and a career back on track.
"In the bad recessions in the past, the graduates recovered in 10 to 15 years. But we've never had such a strong recession," he said.
Princeton grad Winters said she's finding an increasing number of job openings she can apply for this year, but she's still having trouble explaining her résumé of the last two years.
But she's hopeful she'll soon have her career back on track.
"I like to think it was only a minor detour, not a roadblock," she said.

I think it's really sad that this is the state of things, I graduated in '09 and now live at home with my parents, getting a less than stellar paycheck just because my job field is doing so poorly right now. I'm just thankful that I was able to graduate without any debt, I don't know where I'd be if I had to worry about paying off student loans. It stinks because you'd think that a college degree would be worth something, but it's not as good of a thing as it once was. I also think you need to be really smart about what you study, because some fields are really easy to find careers in, and some aren't. My degree isn't necessarily worth a ton, so it's left me in a tough spot. But I do know a lot of people struggling to find jobs or having to move back in with their parents, my situation could have been a lot worse. It's rough out there. 

"I love weddings, drinks all around!"

Went to the wedding of my two friends Brent and Jenny on May 7th at the Draper, UT temple. That time of year in Utah the weather can be a little iffy but thankfully it was a gorgeous day. Windy, but I hear it's always windy up there no matter what time of year. Brent and Jenny are the kind of people you can really get excited about getting married, they dated for a long time and you know they are perfect for each other and that their family is just going to be awesome. They were always really nice to me and not weird to be around like other people who are dating or engaged. I also love the Molen family, they are hilarious. And I got to see a lot of old friends and roommates. I also love Brent and Jenny because they had a dance party at their reception and totally danced it up (and it wasn't the normal boring mormon dance party). I was the DJ and we had awesome music to dance to. Now some pictures.

Jenny and Brent

Me and Jenny

Brent and Me

Jason and Me



I love the Molens and they are so nice to include me on their special day.

the calculation

I came up with this one during a chat with one of my oldest friends the other day. He and I were discussing how we all have expectations for our lives and how we envision things going and the desired outcomes. There are certain things we think we should do/be/achieve/accomplish because of a mental calculation we do when trying to plan out our lives. It goes something like this:

(Knowledge + Skills) X Effort = Accomplishment or Outcome

Mathematically, it makes sense. You take all your knowledge and stills and multiply it by your efforts and then you have your accomplishment or outcome if you will. I think I'm pretty knowledgeable, and I was raised to pretty much believe I have the skills and capacity to do almost anything. But it's the effort part of the equation that frustrates me because it's the area where I lag the most. And if you look at the equation, it shows, a small amount of effort will not help bring about a very big accomplishment. Simple algebra. It also shows me that if I take an accomplishment or outcome and see that I haven't gotten there, it's usually my effort that is keeping me back. It is my own darn fault. Then I (we) beat myself (ourselves) up because it's so true that many of the things I've (We've) wanted to do or achieve were only halted by my (our) own lack of effort. I don't think I'm particularly lazy or good for nothing, but there is definitely a lot more I could have achieved in my life. Sometimes I unwittingly try to put too much emphasis on the other part of the equation, my knowledge and skills, (I've got too much smartness for my own good). But I think there is a good lesson to be learned that it takes all three, especially effort, to bring about any outcome. At least that's what I learned anyway.

Shawn Johnson-someone who achieved a lot in her life

We're Comin' to America

That Neil Diamond song could be the theme song of my trip. I felt like I was coming to America. What a trip I had! It was awesome for the most part and I got to see a lot of really cool things. But can I say that walking around and reading stuff gets a little old after awhile?

Day 1-2 The day we didn't sleep at all.
Drove to Portland, OR, to catch the plane east. Stopped in The Dalles, OR, to get some food, stayed at hotel near airport. Got up at 5:30 to get ready to catch plane. Then we flew from Portland to Kansas City, MO. Got delayed a long time in KC due to "tornadic conditions" in the east. Major weather happening there, so instead of leaving at 4 pm like we were supposed to, we left at 6. As we were approaching Baltimore, MD there was an obscene amount of turbulence. Worse than any I'd ever experienced. It would make my tummy get butterflies like when you are on a rollercoaster. Kind of fun, but not really something you want to experience on an airplane. The pilot decided that it wouldn't be safe to land, so we got diverted to Dulles airport in VA. We landed and sat on the tarmac for a long time because there wasn't a gate for us to pull in to. Finally we got a gate, but we couldn't deboard the plane. Then they had to switch pilots because ours was going to go over his hours. The plane had to end up in Baltimore. So we took off again because the weather finally died down in MD. But as we approached the airport we had to wait our turn just to land. The pilot said we were "vectoring" (making patterns in the air) till we could land. Again we had to wait for a gate. We were 8th out of 12 to get to a gate. People were getting really tired and cranky. It was 3:30 am by the time we finally got off the plane. Then the problem was would the car rental place be open...blessedly, it was and the nice man gave us a car. Then we had to drive another hour and a half to a hotel in York, PA. I did not get to sleep until 5:30 am. 24 hours traveling. Not cool. Not the airlines fault because of the tornadoes, but not something I want to do ever again. It kind of messed up vacation because we were thrown off from the very first day! We slept until 11:30 then went to church at 1 because we needed at least some kind of sleep. Oy vey.

Day 2 part 2
After church at a very nice ward in PA we traveled out to Gettysburg. There were some very nice small towns and lots of green fields. I am not used to green. At the visitors center in Gettysburg we saw some exhibits about the battle. It was one of the wost battles of the war where a lot of people died. The visitor center had a cool thing called a cyclorama. A big mural on a sheet that is hung in a round room depicts a 360 degree view of the battle. It was cool artistically because it was really well done, very detailed in it's depiction of the battle and standing in the middle having it all around me was a powerful experience. There were also a lot of artifacts from the Civil War. They also talked about the Gettysburg address that happened a few years after the battle. Then we bought a cd to play in the car as we drove around, listening to different stories and descriptions of the battle. I wasn't expecting for it to be as big as it was, a few miles of fields and hills and things. The landscape was dotted all over with plaques, monuments and statues dedicated to different regiments and commanders that were involved in the battle. I wasn't expecting there to be so many, but there were a lot. I've read the book Killer Angels before, and it was a very good book even though it was all about war and battle and maneuvering, so it was cool to see where that happened. The thing that struck me was how the whole war came down to the possession of a small hillside. One small hill. The story of Joshua Chamberlain and the 20th Maine was focused on in the Killer Angels, and it is a great one. I did get a little bored after awhile and the driving in the car put me to sleep. But I did enjoy what I saw! We ended the day with dinner at Friendly's, which is an East Coast thing that we used to go to all the time when we lived there, love the ice cream. Then we drove to another town in PA, past where all the Amish live, but it was too late at night, so we didn't visit.

Day 3
Since we were only like 6 miles away we went to Valley Forge. No battles happened here, but the army spent a very bad winter here during the Revolutionary War. George Washinton was a very great leader because on one side he had to deal with the congress and have to keep asking them for support and supplies for his troops. On the other side he had to keep his men from deserting or leaving the army after their enlistment was over. He was a very great leader to keep all that under control. We saw the huts they stayed in, and the house GW stayed in. Martha even came to visit during the winter there.

Then we went to Philadelphia. I had a long to-do list for this city and got to it all. We went to the big market that had a ton of food. I had some good ice cream there. Then we went to Independence Hall and got to see where they signed the Declaration of Independence and wrote the Constitution. Also where part of National Treasure went down. I also saw the Liberty Bell.

Then we went and saw the Rocky statue and the steps to the Art Museum that Rocky ran up. Plus the famous LOVE statue. We traversed the city and found Genos in the south part of Philly. It was where we got Cheese Steaks. Delicioso! From there we drove through Delaware to Maryland and stayed the night in DC.

Day 4
First day in DC. We got up and rode the Metro to near the Capitol. I was really impressed by the Metro, very efficient and clean. They don't even let you eat on the Metro. We got off and headed to the Library of Congress. I saw a Gutenberg Bible, Thomas Jefferson's personal library, and the Reading Room-"Do you know what the Preservation Room is for? Delicious jams and jellies?" (National Treasure). Then we went in the underground tunnel to the Capitol. They have a huge cafeteria there, we tried to get food but there were too many people, too many 8th graders on their field trip and people on spring break. Then we went on our tour through the Capitol Building. I saw statues and went to the rotunda. All the streets in DC are based off the center of the building. We also went to the room where the Senate first met in the Capitol building. There is a spot where you can stand and hear a whisper across the room. It was rumored that one senator would pretend to be asleep but really eavesdrop on other people. I loved looking at the architecture and the paintings in the building. Each state can have up to two statues of people that represent their state. The state can decide who they want there. There were a lot of awesome statues.

After the Capitol building we rode the Metro down to the Washington Monument. We rode the elevator up to the top. It was so cool to see the city from up so high. Then we went walking. A lot of walking. We stopped at the boy scout statue for my dad and walked by the Treasury Department. Then we walked to the National Portrait Gallery. They had live jazz in the courtyard thing and we sat and listened for a bit. After that we saw the portraits of the presidents. I liked it a lot, and got to see what some of the more obscure ones looked like. We also saw other portraits and other art. I saw a lot of famous stuff that I learned about in school. There were portraits of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. Go Mormons! Then we walked around more to find somewhere to eat but couldn't find anything good. So we rode the Metro again and ate dinner at the hotel. It was a hard day because it was a lot of walking and we didn't eat anything until dinner. I recommend not doing this.

Day 5
I really wanted to go to the National Zoo because they have two Giant Pandas there. We drove up there and walked into the zoo because all the Smithsonian things are free! I headed straight to the pandas. They were so cute. I had my huge lens and got some good pictures of the animals. They hope the female panda is pregnant with another cub. Then I went to the zoo store entirely dedicated to the panda and got my stash of panda supplies. Pretty much the only souveniers I got on vacation were from here. I also saw elephants, tigers, lions and orangutans. The orangutans were cool because they let them climb these telephone pole-like things and they can climb over your head. There were two old ones and a baby one. The neighborhood around the zoo was pretty. Lots of cool old houses.

After the zoo we went to one of the National Air and Space Museums out by the Dulles airport in VA. It is pretty much a ginormous hanger that has a lot of planes. Planes from the beginning through the different wars up to the Concord jumbo jet. My favorite was the Space Shuttle Enterprise, it was huge! I also got to see other stuff related to space including astronaut underwear and space food. The sattelities were pretty cool too. It's awesome that they have all these aircraft in the same place. After the air and space museum we headed off down to Williamsburg, VA. Stopped again at Friendly's on the way for some food and ice cream.

Day 6
Williamsburg is a rebuilt replica of the colonial town. It used to be the capitol of Virginia. It was pretty cool. They rent clothes out to little kids so they can wander around looking like colonials, a lot like the American Girl doll Felicity. I wanted to sport one of the dresses. We saw the Governor's Mansion, the Magazine, the Courthouse, some famous guy's house, some gardens and other stuff. There were a lot of people dressed up in colonial outfits that were there to talk about life in that time period and actually acted like real people who lived there. It was interesting.

Day 7
Last day in DC. We got up early so we could have enough time to do things in DC. It threatened rain, but we had so much to do! Sadly, we had to skip going to Arlington National Cemetary, I'll get there next time. We were able to find free parking though near the Jefferson Memorial which we visited first. The building was pretty cool and had a statue of Thomas Jefferson. One can look across the tidal basin and see the Washington Monment and the Lincoln Memorial. Then we walked to the Museum of American History where I saw the flag that the Star Spangled Banner was based on, the original Kermit the Frog, Dorothy's Ruby slippers, Nastia Liukin's leotard and Apollo Ohno's speed skates. I also saw an exhibit about the gowns the first ladies wore. There were some very pretty ones, and some boring ones. There was a Teddy Bear, Lincoln's top hat and Julia Child's kitchen. One of my personal faves was the exhibit on technology and they had a replica of the B-reactor from Hanford. They included a t-shirt from Richland High School that had the R and the mushroom cloud on it. Love it! Richland Bombers in the Smithsonian, woot!

I met up with my friends Jenn and Aaron who drove down for the day. It was so fun to see them after almost two years of being apart. I made them walk all over town and they were good sports. We tried to go to Ford's Theater but it was being used for a play. We walked by the FBI building, holler. Then we walked up to the back side of the Capitol building. It's an impressive building, also you can see from the building down the National Mall to the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. Then we walked by the Supreme Court Building, the Library of Congress, and the front of the Capitol Building. Then down to the Air and Space Museum. We saw cool stuff there too: the Spirit of St. Louis, the Wright Brother's airplane, the Apollo 11 command module and the Lunar Module. Our feet got really tired and we were really cold from the rain and getting soggy wet. We met up with my mom, dad and Gretchen and had milkshakes at the giant McDonalds inside the Air and Space Museum to rest for a bit. Then we headed outside again for more rain and walking. We walked all the way down past the Washington Monument to the WWII memorial. It's one of the newest things down there. They have things to represent each state and both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters where the war was fought. The reflecting pool was under construction so there was no water in it. Then we went to the Lincoln Memorial. It was my favorite. The statue of Lincoln is huge! His eyes follow you wherever you go. They have his second inaugural address written on one of the walls. It was cool because it started to get dark while we were there, all of the monuments looked really cool in the dark. I said good-bye to Jenn and Aaron, they had to leave to drive to PA. Gretchen and I walked over to the Vietnam War Memorial and saw that. After that we walked back past the Lincoln Memorial in the dark. Abe is lit up and peeks through the columns looking back up at the Capitol Building. Anyway, it is very impressive to see in person, especially when you learn more about what Lincoln did for America.



 After that we were really tired so we decided not to go see the Korean War Memorial or the FDR Memorial. Next time, I guess. Lots of walking this day. There is so much to see! Then we had to drive back up to Baltimore to fly out the next day. Thankfully, there were no problems flying home and we came in to beautiful weather in Portland. You can see Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens I think  from the plane. And then we drove home very tired.

Different introspections from vacation
-I cannot sleep through snoring, I wish I could but I can't. I had earplugs, it helped. But I didn't do a whole lot of sleeping this vacation.
-It was so good to get out of town. Nice to leave everything behind awhile.
-I enjoyed all the sassy black people I ran into. There aren't a whole lot of black people in the TC.
-I witnessed a lot of kids having meltdowns. Vacation is hard. For that matter I witnessed a lot of adults having meltdowns too.
-Washington DC is very nice. Lots of history, cool buildings and very clean. City is set up well and streets are easy to navigate.
-There is too much to see in DC. You could spend two weeks there and not see everything. I tried to make a short list of things I really wanted to do and almost did it all. The plus side is that most of the stuff is free because it belongs to America.
-I started skipping reading all the plaques and stuff in the musems. You learn to just look at and read selectively.
-Walking takes a lot of time and energy.
-I was kind of bummed the weather was overcast most of my trip, but it only rained on us one day. So we were lucky.
-Overcast weather meant my pictures did not turn out quite like I wanted, but I'll live.
-Started in Washington, went to Oregon, Missouri, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, saw New Jersey, touched down in Tennessee, switched planes in Colorado. I was all over the map!
-All these places are hundreds of years older than Richland. Have cool history. Also they have a buttload of monuments, plaques and statues.
-It was tons of fun seeing Jenn and Aaron, they are awesome to come visit me, and troopers for walking all over Capitol Hill with me.
-I learned lots about America's history and am kind of jealous that kids back east get to go on trips for school to see this stuff.

Anyway, it was a great trip. I'm glad I was able to go to these places because it's been a goal of mine for a long time. I learned a lot of history but also experienced a lot of different things that I don't get being from the West Coast, even the highway being lined with trees is new to me. It was great!

PS. Blogger and Facebook don't do justice to my pictures. They really look a lot better than it seems.

thoughts on a Sunday night

So the news came on, they announced that Osama Bin Laden is dead. Then President Obama came on and gave a short speech, but I guess he made everyone wait over an hour for the speech. Now my Facebook is full of comments about the event. Some people were annoyed with Obama making America wait, thinking he was trying to pull a power play. Trying to get back at Donald Trump by interrupting the broadcast of his show. Some were quick to state that Obama had nothing to do with it, and that he was taking credit for the whole operation. I don't get political very often because when you do, you open yourself up for attacks and people just get mean and nasty very quickly. But I need to say a few things but not necessarily on Facebook.

-I think it's a good thing that a very bad man was caught and now he cannot hurt people any more.
-President Obama is the Commander in Chief of our military. As such, it was his call to order the operative to go after Bin Laden. I believe he did the best he could to wait until they had enough information, and to do it in such a way to minimize bloodshed. They had a hint of his whereabouts in August.
-Obama's speech in no way took all the credit for what happened. This event has been a long time coming and many people made it possible. It wasn't Obama, it wasn't George W. Bush. It was very many people over many years.
-I believe Obama made sure to recognize the familes of all the people who lost their lives on 9/11 and the families of the military and other organizations who sacrifice so much to provide national security.
-I DO NOT believe Obama was trying to interrupt Donald Trump's tv programming. Speeches like this are a big deal. Careful consideration needs to be made to the wording and inclusion of certain information while not including other information. Plus he is the president and can give his speech whenever he wants.
-If breaking news is interrupting your Sunday night programming and you were planning on watching Donald Trump, I'm sorry, but that is poor taste in tv shows.

Thank you.