#i have to move the interview to the busiest part of the quarter and interview the DAY I GET BACK FROM HOLIDAY | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

olko71 · 3 years ago

Text

New Post has been published on All about business online

New Post has been published on http://yaroreviews.info/2021/10/l-a-port-to-operate-around-the-clock-to-ease-logjams-white-house-says

L.A. Port to Operate Around the Clock to Ease Logjams, White House Says

WASHINGTON—The White House on Wednesday is expected to announce a pledge from one of the country’s busiest ports to operate around the clock, a move aimed at easing cargo bottlenecks that have led to goods shortages and higher consumer costs.

By going to 24/7, the Port of Los Angeles will join the neighboring Port of Long Beach, Calif., which started doing the same thing last month. Major ports in Asia and Europe have operated around the clock for years.

Expanded operations at the Port of Los Angeles, which declined to comment ahead of the announcement, would nearly double the hours that cargo can move, according to the White House. It said the extra shifts have been agreed to by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which represents dock workers.

Satellite images show the scale of the backlog at ports in California, as ongoing supply chain issues now threaten the holiday shopping season. WSJ’s Jennifer Smith explains what’s causing the holdups for ships and cargo. Photo: Planet Labs Inc

The American supply chain has struggled to adapt to a crush of imports as consumers shifted from services to home goods, including electronics, and as businesses rush to restock pandemic-depleted inventories. Tens of thousands of containers are stuck at the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports, the West Coast gateways that move more than a quarter of all American imports. Dozens of ships are lined up to dock, with waiting times stretching to three weeks.

Walmart Inc., FedEx Corp. and United Parcel Service Inc. are among the companies that have stepped up operations at the ports, according to a senior Biden administration official, with the expectation that other companies will adopt the same cycle. The companies didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

“By taking these steps, they’re saying to the rest of the supply chain, ‘You need to move, too, let’s step it up,’” the official said.

To get around the delays, some retailers like Walmart, Home Depot Inc. and Costco Wholesale Corp. are paying for their own chartered ships as part of wider plans to mitigate the disruptions.

President Biden is scheduled to meet virtually on Wednesday afternoon with directors of the ports, union officials, chief executives, including those from Target Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co. , as well as trucking and rail associations. Mr. Biden is then expected to deliver remarks “about how to alleviate supply chain bottlenecks,” the White House said.

The administration has been confronted with an array of supply chain problems, affecting everything from lumber to semiconductors, and it has been seeking ways to partner with private industry to ease the backlog. Biden administration officials said they were also trying to help states speed up licensing for truckers, among other measures.

Newsletter Sign-up

Capital Journal

Scoops, analysis and insights driving Washington from the WSJ’s D.C. bureau.

There has been disagreement over 24/7 operations and finger pointing among key players in the supply chain, which includes port workers, truckers, warehouse operators, railways and retailers. On top of all that, there is a shortage of workers.

When the Port of Long Beach initially launched its expanded hours, it failed to attract more trucks, with operators saying the process was burdensome.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, in an interview with CBS Evening News on Tuesday, acknowledged there would be some shortages in the coming months.

“But there is an ample supply of goods,” she said. “And I think there’s no reason for consumers to panic about the absence of goods that they’re gonna want to acquire at Christmas.”

Supply-Chain Woes

Write to Alex Leary at [email protected]

#PAID

0 notes

angeltriestoblog · 4 years ago

Text

Unnecessary life update

I have officially made it to the halfway point of this quarter. And I don’t mean to sound morbid but I didn’t expect to at all!

It’s just that I’ve recently learned that chronic sleep deprivation actually does lead to premature death and I’ve slept at three in the morning everyday since I started online schooling. (Though actual scientific evidence has always been available on the Internet, I found it easier to believe that this was a hoax.) But concerning as it may be, the past two weeks have been so demanding of my time and energy, resting didn’t seem like an option.

ii.

Much to the dismay of Freshman Angel, most organizations in Ateneo require an interview as part of the application process. I remember signing up for three departments in my home org back then: I sweated my way through one screening, completely flunked the other, and ghosted the last. I also applied to be part of our hosting pool and made a run for it at the last minute: despite having spent only two weeks on campus, I easily found a secret passageway leading to the nearest exit just so that I wouldn’t have to run into the officer in charge of my audition.

Given the unfortunate display of cowardice, it’s hard to believe that this year, I found myself on the other side. I conducted several ICs (rebranded to individual conversations) in an attempt to welcome freshmen, give them a picture of what awaits them in ACTM, and hopefully serve as one of their first friends, if I built enough rapport with them.

The week after, I had to conduct interviews and screen all hopefuls who wanted to make it into my department. I only spoke with 13 of them through a screen but I had to go through three times more application forms, interview footage, and assessments to determine who would make it to our final line-up. One night, I binge-watched the recordings of all the interviews I conducted in chronological order and I didn’t know if I found my waning energy levels depressing or funny. Toward the last few, I refused to turn on my camera because I had gotten a sudden allergy attack.

iii.

And as if the load I bear as an associate vice president in ACTM wasn’t heavy enough, I joined five other orgs last recruitment week. I wouldn’t go and call the quarantine a blessing because I’m not an asshole but these past few months have made me realize that I want to do and be so many things in life and I missed the opportunity to start on them earlier, since I spent the first few years of college hanging around with no end goal in mind. So in a fit of impulsiveness, I signed up for:

The Development Society of the Ateneo, where I will be working either as an advocacy or consultancy trainee under the research and development department (depends on how my interview this Thursday fares);

Ateneo Education Geared Towards Empowerment, where I will be gathering data from our partner communities to help the organization provide quality education given the online setting;

Ateneo Association of Communication Majors, where I will be under the research and development department yet again of MIRLab, their documentary production house;

Ateneo PEERS, where I will be part of a peer support program intended to help in my self-improvement, and that of others as well;

Project Kabuhayan, where I will be participating in initiatives geared towards empowering micro, small, and medium enterprises

I had general assemblies for most of them: had to ditch two for a midterm, and will be watching the recordings tomorrow. I didn’t even have to talk in any of them; simply watch the officers speak about their projects for the year then head on over to my designated breakout room. But the mere idea of being perceived by hundreds of Zoom call participants was already enough to drain my social battery.

iv.

To top it all off, my major tasks for all three subjects I’m taking this quarter were due last Friday. I had a group podcast for Philosophy class which we had to shoot twice on the busiest day of my week. I wanted nothing more than to get it over with, so when we wrapped up our first attempt, we were ready to let it go through some rushed post-production and submit it without giving it a second look. But I couldn’t stomach the thought of submitting subpar work when the task is supposed to be easy, given enough discipline.

Another group I was a part of had a marketing plan (you’ll never guess which subject it was for) that proposed the rebranding of Adidas Originals to cater to an older target market, or “the active ageing”, as we liked to call it. We only found out a couple of hours before the deadline that our professor was not accepting anything over 10 pages just when we had hit the 40-page mark. All of our well-researched, comprehensive parts had to be cut down significantly, which was the equivalent of flushing many sleepless nights down the drain.

And of course, I had a case study and midterm to accomplish for Law. The minute I received the message confirming the submission of my answers, I plopped down on my bed and napped. Later on that night, I released all the pent-up tension in me by going on my first ever e-numan. I never got the logic behind drinking alcohol in front of my computer: I always thought it was a sad attempt to replicate the bustling nightlife of Katip or the intimate energy of barkada chillnumans in condominiums. But I guess all I needed was the right company, and some sweet-tasting Novellino.

Anyway, before this turns into a full-on advert for a brand that isn’t even sponsoring this post, let me move on.

Reading that probably exhausted you. As the one who had to live through all that, I can tell you: it was even more hectic than you think. Before this pandemic was a thing, my schedule was clear-cut. I could tell the days of the week apart, and appreciate the endless possibility brought by Friday evenings. I could wake up at eight on Saturday morning, smile to myself because of how early it is, and go back to sleep without any feelings of guilt.

Now, the line that separates work and home has been completely obliterated. The Internet promotes that I have to be at the top of my game all the time. Every moment spent in rest and recreation is a moment wasted when there’s so much to do, always somewhere to be even if I’m technically not allowed to leave the comfort of my own home.

I would sometimes report to my friends that I threw my circadian rhythm out the window, which would be met with the same well-meaning outcries. “What the hell! Drop all your commitments! Pace yourself! Sleep early!”. I think they know by now that this often falls on deaf ears. Ironically, whenever I observe or hear of friends falling into the same patterns as me, I’m often one of the first to reprimand. I sentence them to early bedtime like a stressed suburban mother of two, and check in on them constantly to see if they’re doing alright. I tell them not to pressure themselves to perform at their very best, while working myself to the bone, writing this ~2,000 word essay at half past two in the morning.

But one conversation I had with one of my friends stood out. He told me how proud he was of me: that even if I’m so busy juggling so many things, it all pays off in the end because I’m genuinely happy and fulfilled. I get to see the fruits of my labor and share it with the world.

Which is so true. I honestly enjoy the success that comes from this hyperproductivity, and take pride in the output that I manage to churn out. I’m willing to give up hours of sleep if it means getting to do what will help me make my pipe dreams a reality, or create something that sets my soul on fire.I don’t mind going out of my comfort zone if it’s to talk to new people who have the potential of being some of my greatest friends in the future, or advocating for causes that I’m passionate about.

In fact, I am so willing to prolong my period of working to welcome the new members of my department or create even more articles to talk about pressing cultural phenomena. It will be hard as hell while the sacrifice is still ongoing but I always know that it will lead to something greater and bigger than I am.

Besides, when I feel like I can no longer take it, I don’t think I’ll have it in me to force myself. It might not look like it but I am afraid of the serious health risks and will try to slot in more time for sleep if need be. But I have no plans of backing out of anything right now since I’m still on top of everything. Guess I’m fueled by a genuine desire to give/be/do as much as I can, while I still can.

Where did this post even go, honestly… This was supposed to be a simple life update, complete with a pop culture recommendation to supplement my experiences. I did not expect it to spiral the way it did so now I have no idea how to transition from one part to the next in a way that isn’t entirely awkward. Oh well.

I managed to preserve my sanity these past two weeks by listening to only one artist. Anyone who follows me on Spotify must think that their Friend Activity tab is glitching but the rumors are indeed true: I have been listening to chosen songs from The Boyz’ discography on a constant loop, like an actual zombie. Count on me to get into a new K-Pop group during the busiest week of the quarter as a coping mechanism.

I was an anti of this group when they first debuted because they are home to a former Produce 101 contestant whom I hated. (Still do, up to now. Don’t know how to reconcile my conflicting feelings.) So you could say I was heavily biased from the start and refused to give them a chance. Thankfully, one of my best friends recently converted after watching them on Road to Kingdom and sent me some of their performances to reel me in. Since I am a girl with a working brain and pair of eyes, I was easily impressed. When they came back recently with The Stealer, I officially fell and made no active efforts to get up.

If there are any Deobis reading, (1) congrats, you are a person of taste; (2) please be my friend. My current favorite songs other than their latest title track are No Air, I’m Your Boy, and Break Your Rules. I’ve also started most mornings with their Danger live stage. Who needs caffeine when you have acrobatic stunts and good-looking men?

I also have a lot of exciting things coming up, which I just felt the need to share:

I’m going to be a panelist at a talk for Developh, an organization I’m a part of which leverages technology for social good. This Friday, October 16th, I’ll be joining three brilliant go-getters from different fields to talk about my internship at makesense Philippines (which warrants another blog post) as well as my experience as a freelance writer.

I have a couple of published pieces in the pipeline right now that I absolutely cannot wait to share! I honestly think they’re some of my favorites. Over the past few weeks, I have written about Internet study communities, the Subtle Asian Dating Facebook group, and unpaid internships. I’ve also pitched a couple more to my bosses and they’ve given me the green light at the same time so yes, once again, I am running on tight deadlines.

I’ll be applying for internships once this quarter is over and I’m already considering a couple of start-ups as good prospects. I’m making my personalized CVs for each company and saving the contact details of the designated point people in a neat little Notion spread for easy access.

Feels weird to end this post with stay safe and healthy, and don’t forget to rest. Maybe I’ll just make that a note to self.

Love and light,

Angel

#angeltriestoblog #life updates

0 notes

viralhottopics · 8 years ago

Text

SXSW 2017 didn’t have a darling app, just a constellation of ride-hailing madness

Image: mashable composite/associated press/blended images

SXSW is known for having breakout apps of the year. There was Twitter, Foursquare and, most recently, Meerkat.

But this year it’s not about anything innovative in tech that’s got every attendee pulling out their smartphone and opening the app store.

SEE ALSO: Uber’s Travis Kalanick: Yep, I’m a jerk, basically

In Austin, Texas, there’s no Uber or Lyft. To make the 25-minute drive from the airport to downtown Austin, you have to either rent a car, hail a taxi, or download a new app.

And yes, you read that right: Not even Lyft.

In Austin, for almost the last year, the two biggest ride-hailing companies in the United States haven’t operated. It’s a complicated tale of citizens versus corporations, of distaste for a duopoly and annoyance for not complying to town rules, that’s left Austin as one of the few areas in the U.S. where “Let’s get an Uber” just doesn’t fly.

Instead, you’ll see this:

Image: uber screenshot

Austinites and visitors, like the 70,000 people who traveled for SXSW, have to use Ride Austin, Fasten, Fare, Get Me, Arcade City, Wingz, zTrip, Chariot, pedicabs, taxis, and walking insteadjust to name a few options. In a world (well, city) without Uber and Lyft, innovation’s emerged, some say, with dozens of new players seizing the opportunity to grow a transportation business.

“I would say Austin is innovative and developing. Frankly, I’m just proud of my city for being able to adapt in real-time for the loss of the big players,” Austin city Mayor Steve Adler said.

But others critique that what has happened in Austin isn’t really that innovative. “Is it really innovation, or are they just less sophisticated ride-sharing platforms?” said Austin city council member Ellen Troxclair.

Over a week spent taking cars, interviewing the new players, the tech giants, the legislators, the drivers, the riders and the visitors in Austin, we came to learn that in some ways, the city’s just created another duopoly, which has led to a state of confusion and mismanagement. Is it worth it? Is it really safer? And then, of course, what about that black market player we discovered, the one operating a service on the blockchain?

What’s really happening when you catch a ride in Austin?

Welcome to Austin

When I arrived at SXSW on March 9, the Austin airport greeted me with a sign for Ride Austin.

Downloading fake Uber http://pic.twitter.com/DxzAqMLxHQ

Kerry Flynn #SXSW (@kerrymflynn) March 9, 2017

I was joking, of course. But when I cracked open the local-use app, I found a design strikingly similar to Uber itself. How do they get away with it? Well: Just ask Facebook how they get away with all three of their Stories products. They do it because they can.

My Mashable colleagues, who I tasked with sharing their ride-hailing experiences with me, found Ride Austin to be their go-to service of the trip.

“I used RideAustin just now and it was basically exactly like Uber, but I didnt feel like shit for using it (given all the recent news/management problems),” one colleague wrote to me on Slack. “Nothing bad about the service. It was great. The car I had smelt like cigarette smoke, but the driver was so lovely that it didnt bother me too much.”

Another one of my colleagues, who’s quite familiar with product design, didn’t have an enjoyable time with the app, however.

“Ride Austin on Android is a really bad experience, to the point where I couldn’t even use it. The first screen gives you single option to sign in, on the next screen you can authenticate with FB, or use an existing email/PW combo. If you do FB it lets you go through the whole rigamarole and then gives error that you have to sign up first,” she said. “On the plus side, the cab line went fast.”

According to my first Ride Austin driver from the airport to the hotel, Austinites and visitors should have multiple ride-hailing apps on their phone in case of congestion. He drove for Fasten, as well.

“The app was crashing a bunch the first time I used it, and kept signing me out, but it seems to be holding up now,” another one of my colleagues said. “All in all, it doesn’t feel like I miss Uber all that much.”

Companies drive in

So why no Uber and Lyft? The two companies left the city last year after losing a fight against a ballot measure to eliminate the need for drivers to have fingerprint background checks. Lyft and Uber argued that this safety measure was unnecessary and funneled millions of dollars into lobbying against it.

But when the giants left, smaller players looked ahead, such as Fasten, a ride-hailing app that had so far only operated in Boston.

“We saw opportunity to do something good here. Multibillion companies have been built on top of drivers who do all the work. Why would we take a quarter out of each drivers dollar just because we can? We recognized the mistakes that Uber and Lyft were making. We saw room for a company for putting people first,” Fasten CEO Kirill Evdakov tells me in their WeWork space a few miles up from downtown Austin.

Sitting across from four men at a table, I learn that while these men consider their business to be the third biggest player under Uber and Lyft, they don’t see ride-hailing as an innovative business.

“Ride-sharing being an innovation was so much of a hype,” said Fasten CMO Roman Levitskiy. “Ride-sharing is a new business for America, not for Russia.”

Still, the men are competitive against their rivals in Austinparticularly with Ride Austin. Fasten has 60 percent of the market in Austin, according to Fasten.

Image: created by fasten

Some riders, and drivers, preferred Ride Austin due to its nonprofit status. Riders can choose to roundup to the dollar and donate the rest to a charity of their choices.

So while there apparently seems to be another duopoly at play in Austin, SXSW attendees did have some other options. Chariot, a startup acquired by Ford last year, was running its shuttle vans throughout downtown.

“Our goal is to become the first global mass transit,” Chariot CEO Ali Vahabzadeh said. “Food, clothing, shelter, and transportation has become the fourth standard of living. We’re really excited that Chariot can become a part of the solution.”

Wingz also runs in Austin as a personal driver service, coordinated through an app. “Our drivers are waiting for you, rather than you waiting on the curb for Uber and Lyft,” CEO Chris Brandon said. “You are completely under the control of the Uber and Lyft platform. On Wingz, you schedule the time. You schedule the driver.”

An underground option also exists. Arcade City takes rides via Facebook Messenger (and an app) and is built on the blockchain to bypass regulations. I asked for an interview with the regional director in Texas only to be told in an email: “I’m out there running on the front lines with the other drivers as well. So I sleep very little and drive all the time.”

The comeback

SXSW didn’t run seamlessly. Ride Austin and Fasten had “glitches” Saturday nightarguably, the busiest time for SXSW events.

The mayor, who spoke with me on the phone several times over the week, was quick to defend and champion the apps. “We had a glitch on Saturday. I can remember being at the [Democratic National Convention] in July and Uber didnt work,” he said.

“I think the real thing you should look at is how did they recover last night? I havent heard from Fasten, but Ride Austin was 14,000 [rides] strong,” he continued.

There’s always other, non-tech options in Austin. The weekend after Uber and Lyft left a conference across the street from City Hall hired pedicabs, according to Council Member Troxclair.

Image: ellen troxclair

Uber and Lyft may come back soon. During the second week of SXSW, a new ride-hailing bill was presented to the House Transportation Committee of Texas.

“Uber wishes to be in many, many more cities in Texas, and our hope is that one day we can cover the entire state,” TrevorTheunissen, Uber’s Public Affairs Lead in Texas, said in his testimony before the committee. “However, the local regulations under which we currently operate vary as much as Texas landscape, and it presents unique challenges when it comes to moving people across multiple lines of jurisdiction.”

One driver said he didn’t really miss Uber. “They were so douchey to deal with. They could care less about us,” he said.

Several of the drivers I rode with during SXSW used to work for Uber and/or Lyft. One driver said he didn’t really miss Uber. “They were so douchey to deal with. They could care less about us,” he said.

“As a consumer,” he said, “they were a good deal. I had to get a regular job when I was driving for them because there was no minimum fare. The cost got so low.”

Austinites are rather apprehensive over Uber’s return. “There are a lot of people in Austin that do really miss Uber though just for convenience factor, just because it’s a little cheaper, but most of us would rather pay $2 more,” said Elise Graham, an Austin resident and cofounder of Olivia AI.

Sometimes, though, technologybe it a major player like Uber or a minor one like Ride Austinjust doesn’t work. My boyfriend was left stranded at a strip mall after his Ride Austin ride took him to the wrong address. It was either walk in the rain for 30 minutes, wait for another driver, or find a different solution.

Turns out a few kids in the parking lot were willing to offer a ride back to downtown. Good ole Southern hospitality.

Back in New York

Walking through New York’s LaGuardia airport, after eight days in Austin, I was quickly reminded of Uber and Lyft.

Lyft!!!! You’ve been missed http://pic.twitter.com/Sp6WVQyNal

Kerry Flynn (@kerrymflynn) March 17, 2017

And Uber. Except #DeleteUber http://pic.twitter.com/NNqz8mzrUF

Kerry Flynn (@kerrymflynn) March 17, 2017

Three Uber employees were stationed by the exit, dressed in Uber shirts, holding Uber bags and handing out cards for $10 UberPool rides.

One of the employees said she “loved working for Uber because I get to help people get home. It’s a good company full of loving people.”

I thanked her for her time and said I had to go catch my Lyft outside.

“Lyft, they’re good too,” she said.

WATCH: Ditch your nail and hammer. Build your dream house in just 2 days using only wooden bricks.