Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
Every day is better with a little bit of all right from the Beatles.
(via loveallthis)
Inspired by jeannr, I flowcharted the Beatles classic, ‘Hey Jude.’
Halloween 2009
I’ve used the same Halloween costume three years running; it’s probably time for something new. Then again, I keep explaining to my kids that it’s unwise to spend a lot of money on a costume you’ll only wear one evening a year (probably once ever in their cases), so I’ll probably stick with Martin Luther. Again.
The only question is whether I’ll shave my head into a monk’s tonsure. Again.
There are treehouses, and there are treehouses.
This is the latter.
Want.
(via thedailywhat)
Treehouse of the Day: Designed and built by 56-year-old landscape artist Horrace Burgess, this 8,000-square-foot tree-tower stands 100 feet tall (11 floors), and comes complete with its own basketball court.
Cap My Pay!
The legal, political, and philosophical issues raised by the concept of a “Pay Czar,” are staggering. I’m still not sure why this isn’t an enormous embarrassment for the White House. The administration naïvely granted huge sums of money to firms without asking whether those companies were paying out huge bonuses, and now, after the fact, want to ensure the money isn’t given to multi-millionaires.
“After the fact” is just one of the problems. Ex post facto laws, especially punitive laws, aren’t allowed under the rule of law, or under Article I of the U.S. Constitution. The rhetoric has mercifully died down, and it looks like the new salary limitations will be for future payouts, not past payouts.
I’m still uncomfortable with the idea of a bureaucrat dictating compensation, but since it’s only for companies that have received tax dollars in the form of TARP funds, I can see why others aren’t bothered. Of course, some companies were forced to take TARP funds, so I still have an issue with it.
Frankly, I’d love to see an approach that is both more voluntary and more widespread, and I think such a thing is possible: I would like the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ to lead the world in requiring a compensation ratio for all publicly-traded companies. Ideally, European and Asian exchanges would follow suit, preventing U.S. companies from fleeing across the ocean.
A ratio of 20:1 caps executive compensation at $290,000/year relative to a minimum-wage ($7.25/hour) worker. A ratio of 40:1 works out to $580,000:14,500. Details are always tricky, but with a couple of years to get things into shape, and stock options calculated at strike price when they vest, and all benefits included at their cash value, the exchanges are in a perfect place to allow very high but less ridiculous compensation for the highest earners, or justification for paying above minimum wage for the lowest earners, all voluntary, since a company need not be listed on the exchange if they don’t wish to be.
Of course, for already-public companies, it’s very hard to buy up enough shares to go private, but when the alternative is granting an unelected bureaucrat the authority to cap compensation without appeal, this still seems more voluntary than not.
I know this video is years old; I first saw it years ago.
I’ve been feeling that this video is a metaphor for my life lately. I build monuments to greatness, and find out that some small-minded idiot has toppled them.
It’s just the drugs talking*, don’t mind me.
Though the broadcaster’s “I don’t know what to say” seems profoundly inadequate, it’s more than I’m likely to hear.
* Mom, I’m kidding. Actually, it’s probably just the sort of depression that follows any big accomplishment, and I happen to have an easy target for personifying things.
On Writing
There’s so much to keep track of when writing anything of length that I get a headache just thinking about thinking about it.
Recently I realized that one fatal flaw in what I’ve written so far is that I was thinking about novels as lots of short stories joined together, rather than as a longer short story. The events in my short stories can take place in hours or days, but any novels I’ve written or outlined ended up covering months or years.
I don’t want to read books that cover months or years, not generally*. I prefer books in which the events take place over days or weeks, but those weren’t the books I was writing or planning. Six months year, five years there - who has that kind of time? Who can demand that kind of commitment?
So my new plan is to take my fascinating characters and describe a very short span of their lives. Turning points. The intense but brief periods of time that make them who they are.
And maybe they’ll all take place in a way that someone who reads a dozen of my books covers many years of someone’s life. Or maybe not.
