Have we reached the bottom yet?

I ran in to a friend of mine yesterday who is an Executive VP in a semiconductor manufacturing equipment company.  He had a smile on his face, even after he was done telling me that their business (along with all other semi manufacturing equipment companies) are 30% down year-to-year.  I asked him what he was smiling for, then.  His response: "We're seeing signs that it's turning around".  They're getting some here-and-there orders and they're seeing the pipeline for Q4 already filling up.

I'm personally not sure if we're at the very trough yet .... I still need more signs to believe it, but my friend was very sure that things are getting better (though mildly).

Is it just wishful thinking, by any chance?

Where do we start?

We all need to start somewhere.  I have been reading blogs for about 4 years now.  I have also been invited to join and write for blogs.  So today I decided to just start one.

The next thought I had was where to start.  My interests are diverse: business, music, art, sports, history, travel, ... all of which make for great blog topics.  So the second decision was to focus this blog around business.

So, here we are..........