Julie's Journal

I just spent the last couple of hours looking over the Whitehouse.gov website. It’s clean, fresh, and very up to date with today’s technology. One statement that they make on the site was very refreshing to me.

WhiteHouse.gov will be a central part of President Obama’s pledge to make his the most transparent and accountable administration in American history.

Transparency and accountability. YES! Finally someone up there in government gets it, and that someone is Macon Phillips, the Director of New Media for the White House. He will be one of the people who will be contributing to the Whitehouse blog, providing the American public with up to date events happening in Washington.

If there is one feed that you should add to your RSS reader today, it should be the Whitehouse.gov feed. You can also sign up for Whithouse.gov email updates if that’s more your style.

They are also asking for feedback about the site, so please let them know what you like, what you don’t like, and what you would like to see added by leaving your Whitehouse.gov feedback here.

This is our site, the American people. Read it, follow it, and become a part of it. This is the first time we’ve ever had this opportunity, so take advantage of it.

[tags]Whitehouse.gov, Whitehouse blog, Macon Phillips, Director of New Media[/tags]

I cannot express in words how I felt when I saw Bush walk down those stairs and get in the helicopter. I truly believe that he has ruined parts of the last 8 years of my life, and every United States citizen. I also believe that today is the most historical event that I will witness in my lifetime. I am so proud to be from America today.

You can create your own Obamiconme avatar to show your support for CHANGE.

[tags]Barack Obama, Inauguration Day 2009[/tags]

Yesterday was such a fun and exciting day with almost 4 inches of snow falling in Henderson (Las Vegas), NV that I didn’t have much time to blog about it. I was running around taking pictures and videos and just enjoying playing in the snow with my family, and pets.

I use the FireFox plugin called Forecast Fox, and yesterday was the first time I saw the word snow next to a snowflake icon. It was just crazy for us here in the desert!

Our local school district even called a snow day today for the first time since 1979, even though the snow stopped falling over night, and was almost all completely melted this morning. The only reminder of the snow storm we had yesterday is the snowmen in the front yards of all my neighbors, and the wet and muddy mess that is everyone’s yard now.

I did have a casualty of the snow storm and that was my beautiful Eucalyptus tree. It lost several large branches from the weight of the snow on them, and that made me sad. I love that tree; the smell is amazing, but I’m sure it will grow those branches back.

For more pictures of the snow storm along with videos I did you can visit my Flickr set called Las Vegas Snow Storm.

[tags]Las Vegas, Henderson, Nevada, snow storm, snow pictures, snow videos[/tags]

Even though my husband was laid off from his job at Zappos back in August, I still strongly believe in their company and the culture that Tony Hsieh has built. But it didn’t stop me from feeling deep sadness when I heard about the layoffs of some dear friends that still work there. As the hours went on, my sadness grew even deeper as I heard these layoffs were not only in the development department, but company wide.

I haven’t heard any official numbers yet, but from the amount of twitter messages recorded on the Zappos Twitter Employees timeline, it appears to be fairly large.

EDIT: I just got a note via direct message on Twitter. 135 people were laid off.

Tony did make an official announcement on his Twitter account, and it looks like we will be hearing more details as the day goes on.

EDIT: Tony posted on the Zappos Company Blog going into further detail about the companies layoffs today.

I know Tony personally, and I’m 110% positive he’s not sitting in his cubicle rubbing his hands together and thinking, “Ah ha…more money for me!” His heart is aching as well, and this had to be one of the toughest decisions he’s ever made.

[tags]Zappos, Tony Hsieh, economy, job layoffs[/tags]

I have no words…but fresh hope is greatly needed in this country, and the people have spoken.

[tags]Barack Obama, President of the United States[/tags]