Another celebration of our Nation’s birthday has come and gone.  Last week I found myself taking down the wife’s flowery flag while putting up our American Flag…..Ol’ Glory!  As I was hanging it up, the red, white and blue were bright and beautiful.  I actually said to myself, “Why am I putting this up only during the 4th of July and only for a few days?!?”.  There is a certain amount of pride I feel when I come home and see that flag on the front of my house…or when I walk out the front door for an early morning run.  That flag WILL STAY UP FOR A WHILE.  Not just on the 4th…not just Memorial Day and other times when “the nation calls for it”.  It SHOULD and WILL stay up for a while because I am proud of my country and proud to be an American.  USA!  USA! USA!

I am normally used to reading about the fabulous new updates on Google’s Blog and how they added this or made better that for searching. But lately I am so fed up with Google making my search life miserable. Actually, sad, hurt and frustrated. I mean its one thing to deal with my 6 year old twins saying no to everything (6.5 to be precise, lest they spot mommy saying this on the big WWW) but now even Google? What’s up? I am in no mood to be sorry or accept any Google apologies. It’s been my favorite engine of choice by choice (not default!)

I am talking about those annoying messages that pop up when you use too many asterisks in a Boolean string, develop a complex string with inurl: and more often than not when X-Raying Google for LinkedIn Profiles or any site using the site: command. You then have to prove to Google that you are indeed a part of the Homo sapiens species and decipher a CAPTCHA.   To quote one of my current most favorite writers in the search world, Glen Cathey, this has something to do with the issue of Google thinking everyone has suddenly become a malicious bot sending automated queries to their servers.
 
The nerve!! I mean don’t sit in the dark. The whole search community is up in arms over this. Folks who are the foremost authority on all things search and Boolean are talking, from Glen Cathey on Boolean Black Belt to technical wonder whiz Irina Shamaeva’s Technorati post, the blogosphere is abuzz.

Maybe all the attention is getting a bit too much for Google to handle – I think I’ll dash off a personal letter to Google CEO Eric Schmidt on some non technical good ole fashioned rolled up parchment scroll so it will stand out in all the bits and bytes of code.
 
“Dear Google, I was a “Resident Alien” before I became a US Citizen but I assure you I am 100% HUMAN. No green blood, electronic nerves, mechanical motor hearts nor intent to harm. You are a premier search engine & a smart one too! What’s with the captchas? We ask for Search Engine Freedom!!!! Please release us from this bondage. You must find a way out.”

To prevent this issue you have to
(1)regularly clear your cookies (how painful is that, I’d rather loose my memory first!),
(2) switch browsers
(3) try Bing or Yahoo!
(4) or interestingly enough I just stumbled across this
(5) I am sure we will find other work arounds

This is putting a real crimp in my search style and it’s been going for a while now. Do me a favor – voice your opinions please!

We all take things for granted. Basic things, simple things. Its normal, isn’t it? We live in a routine, for the most part, and the more routine, the more dependable things are, the more we stop noticing it. Like, we don’t stop to notice each time we take a breath, or each time the dog takes one.   We don’t really pay attention to the sidewalk we are walking on, unless we trip over something and fall.  For example, my garage door opener.  After 11-years, the battery finally stopped working- never realized how much I relied on that little device!  My neighbors AC unit broke over the weekend, and she said to me, “what did people do before air conditioners”… I didn’t have an answer, only to say they obviously survived somehow. 

In the world we live in, we take so much for granted and do not pay attention to the smaller things in life.  A new blossom on a flower, or the cucumber plant sprouting thru the dirt. 
You can’t live your life taking note of every single thing. But every now and again, examine your world and marvel at it. It will do you good, I bet.

Running is like recruiting.  Last year I started running which I found to be very fulfilling.  The going seems tough in the beginning, it does seem a bit painful at times but at the end, there is a sense of accomplishment.  Some runs are shorter, some take longer, but you always have to pace yourself and find your stride.  Is recruiting any different?  No it is not.  In 15 years, many positions have been short sprints and some have been long grueling marathons.  But in the end, through trials and challenges, crossing that line with that placement is well worth it all.  Running is like recruiting.