January 30, 2004
WISH: Week Off
WISH and I are taking a vacation this week. See you next Friday!
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January 29, 2004
Another Houston Stereotype Story
And here’s the Houston piece in the New York Times. Ah, yes. Football and space, and the inevitable comparison of football and religion. Although they did bring up another thing I love about this town—it’s in the 60s and 70s here this time of year. Now excuse me while I go buy all that cold-weather gear I’ve never had any use for living in Houston.
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January 28, 2004
Houston’s Image Problem
This article on outside opinions of Houston was pretty interesting and less inaccurate than most of what I read about my home town. I tend to come at articles about Houston from a different perspective from most people, because I’m that rare bird, a native Houstonian. When I read comments about how Houstonians can’t really describe what we like about our city, I wonder whether people who live somewhere else could tell me three things they love about their home town. (Mine are: friendly people, great food, and low cost of living. Oh, and the Duck, which kind of sums that all up.)
I think Houston should spruce up enough that its image isn’t a deficit, but I’m not sure that’s possible. Most national coverage of Houston relies on stereotypes and easy stories, and the easy story for Houston is already written. It involves ugliness, and that’s not going to change. The “put your smile on: company’s coming slogan” is silly, and does nothing to solve the image problem.
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January 27, 2004
H-1B Cap News
I may have to eat my prediction about when we’re going to have to reach the H-1B cap. The federal government has just announced [PDF] that at the end of the first quarter of FY ‘04, which began October 1, 2003, it had approved or was adjudicating 43,500 H-1B petitions that counted against the cap (via ILW). I thought it would take until summer to hit the cap based on last year’s adjudication numbers, but they may actually hit the cap by the end of Q2.
And, by the way, let me say one more time that the federal government did not “slash the cap” from 195,000 to 65,000. Congress didn’t extend the higher number, but it was always supposed to be temporary.
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Two Terrible Tastes That Taste Terrible Together
Michael is complaining today about the big virus outbreak. The random mailbox thing sometimes produces humorous results; I’ve gotten one from me to me so far. I’ve also gotten two “enhancement” pharmaceutical spams with the virus attached. Talk about hitting the motherlode of address books!
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January 26, 2004
Query: Cross Country Movers?
We’ve got too much stuff to haul it ourselves, so we need a mover. I know some of you folks out there have done it, and would appreciate some recommendations, or, for that matter, anti-recommendations.
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