• Powell County Distance Earning Forum

    This news release may be of interest to anyone who is interested in a sustainable mode of employment in Eastern Kentucky:

    Distance Earning Telework Forum planned for Stanton
    STANTON – Have you ever wanted the ultimate work-life balance, a rewarding career working from the comfort of your own home, or wished you could utilize your education and work experience to its fullest potential?

    The Eastern Kentucky Distance Earning Initiative will sponsor a free Telework Forum at the Powell County Library, located at 725 Breckenridge Street in Stanton, Ky., at 6 p.m., Wednesday, February 16, 2011. This free event will highlight a new and innovative job creation plan in Eastern Kentucky. Participants can learn about the thousands of telework career opportunities and receive information on the Distance Earning initiatives skills inventory, which it plans to roll out in the coming months to target large scale telework job creation across the region.

    Sponsored by a consortium of Kentucky Community and Technical College (KCTCS) member schools, businesses and the Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program, Inc. (EKCEP), the Eastern Kentucky Distance Earning Initiative is an aggressive economic development strategy that aims to bring sustainable wage jobs that can be performed at home or from a business incubator.

    “Work is no longer a place you go, it’s something you do,” said

    Joshua Ball, who coordinates the program for KCTCS. “This program is not about job creation, it is about creating opportunities for Eastern Kentuckians to work for progressive and innovative companies that are leading the charge to compete in the global marketplace.”

    There are currently thousands of jobs available in a variety of different fields like: data entry, clerical, medical transcription and coding, IT support, computer programming, sales, tutoring and teaching, and a variety of management.

    According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 8 million people worked from home in 2005. Companies like IBM, Dell, American Express and Lockheed Martin have employees who telework.

    “Even during a time when jobs are scarce, IBM has over 2,000 telework opportunities available,” Ball added. “This strategy helps eliminate some of our region’s greatest barriers when it comes to job creation: geography and infrastructure.”
    Interested individuals will receive free resume and interview coaching. Additionally, they will receive twice-a-week telework job postings emails from the program.

    “It’s critical that we do everything we can to link our talented workforce to the many telework jobs that are available,” Ball said. “We know that that there are a lot of people looking for work, and a large number of talented workers who are underemployed.”

    The Eastern Kentucky Distance Earning Initiative will roll out phase 2 of its plan in the coming months: a proactive blitz to use a skills inventory taken from forums held across the region to form partnerships with national companies to develop a pipeline to our workforce.

    Companies across the globe are seeing the vast benefits to telework. Studies suggest that employees who work from home are more productive and tend to miss work less. It also has massive benefits to the environment. According to the Telework Exchange, if white-collar Americans would telework just one day a week, they would avoid driving 134 billion miles, eliminate 120 tons of pollutants from the air and save nearly $162 billion.

    For more information about the program, contact Ball at (606) 487-3205 or 800-246-7521, ext. 73205.

  • Our Destiny is NOT Free Enough

    I just caught the tail-end of President Obama’s 2011 State of the Union Address. He said something to the effect of “our destiny is still ours to make.” It is with a heavy heart that I must disagree with him.

    Slowly but surely, our ability to shape our destiny is being eroded, statute by statute and tax by tax.  President Obama is an advocate of some of the most oppressive legislation of my lifetime. For example, small business will cease to exist in this country as most will be cannibalized by mandatory healthcare supplements for all employees. On paper, this sounds like a great thing, especially for the employees. However, what this will actually do is discourage small business investment because it will create such a high barrier to market entry. Therefore, instead of having a job without insurance, many workers will have no job at all because the small businesses will be forced into extinction.  Therefore, the destinies of thousands of small business owners is now at the mercy of some misconceived, fairy tale legislation.

    Furthermore, Obama’s hatred of coal-generated electricity is beyond logic. Yes, coal is a dirty way to generate electricity. Yes, strip mining has some negative effects of the environments. Yes, coal miners face peril and risk life and limb on a daily basis. BUT, do we have another viable alternative that can generate the amount of electricity needed in America today? BUT, is President Obama doing anything to keep lobbyists and utility companies from impeding these alternatives? I think not. I hope that coal can eventually be replaced, but until its replacement is viable, I think mining should continue uninhibited.

    The saddest part about my objections listed above is that I, an average person, has no ability to bring about change. My elected officials don’t seem to be listening, or are afraid to do what I (and many others like me) want for fear of retaliation by the majority. I can get on this little website and air my grievances, but that’s not going to do much good (beyond therapeutic value for me). I often wish they’d put some big issues to popular vote, but that wouldn’t do much good. Some self-important, power-monger judge would just overturn whatever we decided if he didn’t like the decision. What this all means is that I hate my destiny but can’t change it because of my government. If that’s not a reason to be sad, I don’t know what is.

  • Right-Clicking with a Broken Right-Mouse Button

    I was working on the Health Science teacher’s laptop yesterday and discovered the right mouse button on the touch pad is broken. Since the Commonwealth is broke, replacing the out-of-warranty laptop is out of the question just to enable right-clicking again. (And no, the keyboard for this laptop is devoid of a right-click button.)

    I started Googling to find a utility that would simulate a right click. Come to find out, Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7 all support right-clicking using the keyboard without having to do anything special. The magic command is to simultaneously press Shift + F10 at the same time. The right-click will register wherever your mouse cursor happens to be.

    Obviously, this isn’t something you’ll need to do all the time, but in a pinch with a busted mouse, this tidbit can come in very handy!

  • To All US Veterans

    I want to say thanks to all my friends and family, past and present, who are veterans. America couldn’t be America without you.

    This country is a little shaky at the moment, but because of your willingness to sacrifice, we all have the right to try to change things without fear of oppression. That right is a priceless gift that we owe in no small part to you, the men and women of the Armed Forces. God bless you all!

  • Pride

    Tomorrow, voters will go to the polls in the 91st district and make their choice for State Representative. Win, lose, or draw, I am proud to have stood by Mike  over the last 11 months trying to let the world know why Mike Bryant is what the 91st district needs. Throughout this entire campaign, Mike and myself have tried to conduct ourselves with dignity and honor. We have run a clean campaign. (I know we were accused of otherwise because we pointed out Teddy’s voting record and stated why we don’t agree with it. However, stating a voting record is not underhanded. An voting official is the sum of his or her voting record. But anyway…)

    If Mike wins, I know he will work hard to do what he said he would do: That’s why I’ll vote for him. If he loses, he’ll commence to doing what he has tried to do since I’ve known him: Create great software using Information Technology talent from right here in Eastern Kentucky. Either way, it’s good to have a guy like Mike working to make the 91st district a better place.

    Mike is like a 10-year-older version of myself in a lot of ways. I can only hope to conduct myself  over the next 10 years the way Mike has. I am proud and honored to call him my friend.

    [Facebook folks: If you like Mike and think he’ll do a good job, consider liking this post, or better yet, share a comment about why YOU like Mike!!]

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