As a career consultant (at OSU) that is what I remind desperate job-seekers who need a boost. Now, those words are ringing true for me. This week I received a job offer. It's not the first offer I've received, but it is the first one I'd actually take.

I'm not going to name names here until I've accepted, but it is a good opportunity, and it's even better to be done interviewing.

And that's not all the good news, either. My mini made it today, after leaving China Monday (via Anchorage and Indianapolis). It looks great on my 17" Dell flat panel. The Panther migration utility neatly transferred my apps, docs and settings. Firefox and Thunderbird came across complete with mail, extensions and profiles intact.

The mini is as-advertised. It's a very quiet, quick machine. Apple did get cheap on the blank media (no blank DVDs or CDs) but other than that, it's a complete new Mac experience.

Before I go, I should mention that (in case you missed it) this Cell stuff looks interesting.

Christopher Reeve died today. Now there's a Superman.

On the big screen he could stop a speeding freight train with his arm, but in reality he could move a nation with his finger.

If you remember, earlier year I was busy in search of a summer internship. With my summer internship over, I'm refocusing on employment upon graduation.

Naturally, that means a new website. Now you can view my skills and credentials via HireBrian.org. This is pretty much an alias to my older hire.brianburnham.com site, but the update afforded me a chance to use some of my new PHP skills.

As a student, I'm rounding out my marketing experience with some unique classes in business models and new product development. I'm also shopping for an Open Source project to volunteer some marketing effort and gain some more experience.

I think there's something very interesting going on in the world of software. If you read here as often as you should, you know I am an ardent supporter of freeware and Open Source software. Now, the best reason to use open software isn't the price tag.

We know that open-sourcers are unincumbered by marketing pressures and corporate tactics. These projects enjoy almost unrestrained creative input. But that's still not all that pushes these applications (and operating systems) to a higher level then their commercial counterparts. It's the passion.

I may be a bit of a diva. I decided in Junior High that no one was going to teach me how to write. Try as they might, I was going to remain stylisticaly pure, and write only to satisfy myself. That's why I never took a class in journalism. Writing meant (and means) too much to me to do it for money. So why do I do it? Passion.

The Internet has made it possible to be a passion-driven hobbiest with a global audience for almost nothing. Freedom, access, and a little free time are all a passionate writer or programmer needs to indulge in uncompromised "art" (be it code, writing or deisgn).

So if you need one more reason to support the Open Source movement, you have it. It's not only free, but it's made by people who love it, rather than get paid for it.

I know I haven't updated in a while. I have rediscovered books. I'm moving one of my sites from MT to Drupal, so I'm diving into the world of PHP and MySQL. It is great stuff. PHP and MySQL make quite a powerful duo, and are free taboot. I'm getting there with Larry Ullman's book.

I've also been feeding my recent infatuation with Linux in reading "Moving to Windows: Kiss the Blue Screen of Death Goodbye". Kind of an odd pick for me, since I am neither using Windows nor moving to Linux. The book is a great guide to transitioning to the sometimes cryptic world of Linux. Who knew KDE had an Outlook clone that has a built-in RSS reader? Even better, for most Windows apps, Linux not only has a free alternative, but a selection of them.

So, if you're interested in a book that will take you from basic to advanced PHP and MySQL (that is actually readable) or are looking for a Linux transition manual that won't have you bashing your terminal, here you go:

That's free as in freedom. Happy 4th to all you Yanks. Time to pay some respect to those who have had the foresight and unselfishness to sacrifice for freedoms we enjoy.

On a completely unrelated note – many are questioning whether Iraq is any better off liberated than under Saddam when electrical power is less consistent than before. It is worth noting that the roots of this country are founded in the belief that it is better to struggle towards freedom than endure tyranny.

Telephone access in Iraq is up 50%, though. A good sign for Telemarketers, because I doubt many of them have made it on the Do Not Call list.

I thought finals would keep me out of trouble, but I was wrong. Somewhere during a few slow marketing lectures I started work on a couple of website ideas - and now coming into finals week I'm bringing a couple projects online.

GearPile.com and LDSreview.net both cater to specific audiences. If you're an outdoorsman/adventure sports type, and are interested in news and reviews get in touch with me at brian AT macmerc DOT com.

For the rest of you, if you're thinking this is just a stunt to build my Google ranks, then you'd be right. Three cheers for free enterprise.

Can't say I wasn't pulling for Pirates. The Rings did racket it up, but don't think everyone in New Zealand made it on stage. Whale Ridder, a real New Zealand film had Keisha Castle-Hughes there up for Best Actress. She wasn't near pretentious enough to win.

She may not have banked the Oscar, but she landed a role in the third Star Wars prequel as the Queen of Naboo. And Whale Ridder is a classic example of a great show that lacks enough explosions and mortal combat to win any awards. Take it from a film major who saw this film in NZ, it's worth the rent.

Yep, this week I became a dad. Aside from discovering that the individual that coined the term "weaker sex" has never witnessed a birth, I found many Mac skills relevant to fatherhood:

Compatibility Issues

Diapers: there are as many systems as there are brands. You have velcro, tape strip inside, tape strip outside and lick-and-stick. All of this is very fun in the dark.

Sound Sets

Just like good old OS 9, babies come equipped with a sound for every event, though they can be slightly harder to decipher. And they have some even scarier that the dead mac startup chime.

Market Share Minority

Mac users are secure enough to be different. New parents have to be too. This morning after most New Year's celebrators were turning in, I was up ready to offer my soul to any pagan god that could get the baby to stop crying.

It's good to be a Mac user, and even better to be a parent. While both require creativity and, at times, patience both are worth the work.

Now, if you couldn't already tell, it's time for me to get some sleep...

Rumor has it that blogs are taking off any day now. Just in time for the new year, I'm cleaning house.

You made it. Welcome to brianburnham.com. Update your feeds, update your links. Come back soon for a new year of more frequent updates and new content.

If you've noted my absense, you'll be pleased to know I'm back. This was finals week, and I had four.

Last night I posted my 77th episode of Freeloader Friday. I guess I missed my chance at a special 75th episode, but the 80th will fall in January, when MacMerc celebrates its birthday. That wil be a fine time for a special.

Some of you might know that I'm pursuing an MBA (hence the finals) at the moment. I'm also on the lookout for an internship for the summer. I have been modestly successfull finding contacts in the social networking pipeline.

If any of you are in the biz and would like a link, this is my shameless plug: I'm on LinkedIn and Tribe.net. A search for MacMerc should bring me up. Go ahead and request me as a connection.

LinkedIn and Tribe are both doing well these days. In my exploration of social networking systems, I turned up an interesting alternative. FOAF, or Friend of a Friend is an open source effort at decentralized social networking. It's basically vCard meets RSS with a smiley icon (see sidebar). There does seem to be an OS X FOAF App in the works as well. I'm still messing with this myself. I'll have more on FOAF later.

Getting back to school has been a little crazy, especially coming back late from a wedding in California...

My classes all seem interesting, and the work load reasonable. I have one professor that seems to have learned English from NPR. He says some interesting things. Here are last week's best:
"...my unique style of pedagogy..." and "...to consummate the business transaction..." I will be sure to post more zingers from "Professor Z".

Friday we presented our first case. I think we broke records with our 45 PowerPoint slides in 30 minutes. All in all we did well enough for our first project.

My brother-in-laws wedding was a nice opportunity to see my wife's side of the family. They are always entertaining.

I am now a certified "Career Counselor", so bring me your bad resumes. I'm getting a lot of practical training, which will come in handy in the future.

This weekend I posted pictures from our New Zealand vacation.

We got in today at 2 AM. The jet lag isn't hitting too hard, and plenty to catch up on.

In the Auckland airport we did bump into the Fiji Rugby team. Big guys. The flights weren't too bad. The inspection guys in Ontario were a little rude. It is amazing what people will do to your luggage even though they know you are watching.

School activities begin for me this week, so I will be busy preparing. My assistantship has been doubled in hours. I will be working in the Career Placement office, which should be a great place to make connections.

All said and done, it is good to be back home.

We're wrapping up our trip to New Zealand. We've seen quite a bit and enjoyed ourselves. There will be plenty of pictures once I get back to my Mac. For now, here's where we've been.

In the last two weeks we have seen the geysers and mud pots in Rotorua, as well as a sheep show at the Agradome and some Mauri culture from the thermal village "Te Waka".

We saw the New Zealand temple in Hamilton and then turned south to see the glow-worms at Waitomo. All in all we drove about 1,000 kilometers (on the wrong side of the road to boot) in our rental car.

In the second week, we visited the South Island. We went down on the ferry to Picton, then drove to Kaikoura where we stayed two nights at a beach house. We saw Dusky Dolphins on a tour, they were very energetic. We finished up in Christchurch. We spent a day shopping there and flew back to Wellington that night.

Tonight we are packing up to leave, but we're not going to miss the Rugby game on TV.

We have found the countryside unbeatable, the driving challenging and the sights worth every dollar.

Hey look, I've got a blog. I do plan on filling it with reams of thought, but for now I'll stick with hi.

I'm off to New Zealand for 2 and a half weeks of tourist fun. In the mean time, visit my family blog to check out pictures of my due-in-December daughter here. Sorry Jon, I already had this one set up with Blogger.