I'm baaaack
Happy Lazy Day, everyone!
A new policy has been promulgated at work. That is, it is now forbidden to use Youtube and social networking sites. This means Facebook in particular, but potentially any "social networking" site is forbidden, and I have no way of knowing whether the All-Seeing Eye of Sauron is fixated on LJ as well. If they wanted people not to get on them, you'd think they'd block the sites or hide the DNS records, but it must be easier to play "gotcha". The pat answer is that a small group of people will need to have access for business reasons. Again, rather than deploying a virtual machine running a poxy server to which only this group has access (which I could build in about two hours, and it wouldn't cost dick), it's easier to play "gotcha". With the nature of what I'm doing for work, there isn't always something for me to do 100% of the time (like on an assembly line, for instance), so it's not like I'm lamenting that I can't steal time from the company. I'm going to miss Youtube as well; heavy metal keeps me sharp and hence more productive. I suppose I could get a laptop and a wireless network subscription, but that would involve having discretionary spending money.
Unfortunately, this means it's going to be harder for me to keep up with you folks. That's why I haven't been on here for a while. Sorry, guys, I feel rather bad about that. Since I'm working crazy overtime in the fruitless struggle to make more money than my friends can spend (I've been tempted for a while to take the John Galt Oath here), I'm usually zombified by the time I get off work. By the time I wake up, it's time for me to go to work again. Rinse, repeat, recycle. And that's how my life has been coasting by on fast forward toward the time when I get to shuffle off this mortal coil.
Other than that, I'm rather bummed out about what happened with Amy Winehouse. I suppose it's old news now, but it's rather unfortunate. I'm not one of the folks who, when celebrity meltdowns happen, crow about how they got what was coming. Rather, it's a time to think of how things could have been different, and especially to reflect that celebrities are people too.
The eternal diet hasn't been doing so hot, but at least it isn't too catastropic. Time to redouble my efforts.
Lastly, I've been intending to gripe about the economy for a while. Things would be a lot better if politicians everywhere would quit spending money they don't have. The PIIGS countries keep dragging down the rest of the EU, despite all the money being thrown at them. Then, as you're probably aware, the US debt ceiling business turned into a big fiasco. It would help if the politicians would focus more about fixing problems, and less about bloviating, grandstanding, and especially keeping their constituencies in $$$$$$ while accusing the other guys of doing the same. And The Lightworker just made things harder by insisting that He would veto any measure that didn't raise the debt ceiling high enough so that the next debate would happen some time after He runs for re-election, something that no President before Him required. And on that subject, He vetoed a debt ceiling increase back when The Evil One was in office, stating that taking on more debt was irresponsible. Yes, Virginia, it's all about political posturing. The fact is, the budget crisis is a big shit sandwich, and the only way to swallow it is if everyone takes a bite.
Even so, much could be done by getting rid of inefficiency and graft. If I were running the show, every social program would be required to have at least 85% of the expenditures go to the people they are intended to help. Each program would have six months to get compliant, or career bureaucrats would start getting laid off, beginning with management. Something is wrong with a program if operating expenses eat up over 15% of its funding. And as far as the military is concerned, there is much that can be done toward efficiency there. I can't find the cite, but I recall an article about some Navy ships that were built at great expense, never deployed due to bureaucratic bungling, and then sent to the scrap yard. Would any corporate board of directors put up with a boondoggle like that? And fuel for Middle Eastern operations should be sourced locally (where it costs far less than shipping it halfway around the world, refining it, and shipping it all the way back, with a markup added on top of that), and KBR can go jump in a lake if they don't like it.
Back to the debt ceiling business. There was all sorts of hullaballoo about Congress needing to fix that or else the US would lose the AAA bond rating. The day before the bond ratings came out, the market took a major hit. And, as it happened, the bonds were downgraded anyway despite the debt ceiling being fixed. Could it be... insider trading??? Say it isn't so! (On a side note, there's evidence of political pressure and retaliation on the bond rating agency, which is rather like shooting the messenger, and fairly sleazy come to think of it.) And after the ratings downgrade, the market took an even bigger hit, and it's been a crazy roller coaster ride. On my end of it, I'm actually underwater. Rather than investing, I should have just paid down my credit cards.
But the other side of the coin is that I could leverage into the market while it's down. Or at least lower my interest exposure on the "loans" to my shlimmazl friends. Chase is offering a zero interest deal for one year, after a 1% service charge, for the next three weeks or so. It's a sucker deal for them, actually, so long as it gets paid off within a year. If not, the interest becomes usurious thereafter. I might have to give it a miss, though. As much as I'd like to stick it to them with a rate below inflation, it's perilous to deal with vampires.
Anyway, that's it for now. I'll try to catch up later with you folks. Until then, peace out.
A new policy has been promulgated at work. That is, it is now forbidden to use Youtube and social networking sites. This means Facebook in particular, but potentially any "social networking" site is forbidden, and I have no way of knowing whether the All-Seeing Eye of Sauron is fixated on LJ as well. If they wanted people not to get on them, you'd think they'd block the sites or hide the DNS records, but it must be easier to play "gotcha". The pat answer is that a small group of people will need to have access for business reasons. Again, rather than deploying a virtual machine running a poxy server to which only this group has access (which I could build in about two hours, and it wouldn't cost dick), it's easier to play "gotcha". With the nature of what I'm doing for work, there isn't always something for me to do 100% of the time (like on an assembly line, for instance), so it's not like I'm lamenting that I can't steal time from the company. I'm going to miss Youtube as well; heavy metal keeps me sharp and hence more productive. I suppose I could get a laptop and a wireless network subscription, but that would involve having discretionary spending money.
Unfortunately, this means it's going to be harder for me to keep up with you folks. That's why I haven't been on here for a while. Sorry, guys, I feel rather bad about that. Since I'm working crazy overtime in the fruitless struggle to make more money than my friends can spend (I've been tempted for a while to take the John Galt Oath here), I'm usually zombified by the time I get off work. By the time I wake up, it's time for me to go to work again. Rinse, repeat, recycle. And that's how my life has been coasting by on fast forward toward the time when I get to shuffle off this mortal coil.
Other than that, I'm rather bummed out about what happened with Amy Winehouse. I suppose it's old news now, but it's rather unfortunate. I'm not one of the folks who, when celebrity meltdowns happen, crow about how they got what was coming. Rather, it's a time to think of how things could have been different, and especially to reflect that celebrities are people too.
The eternal diet hasn't been doing so hot, but at least it isn't too catastropic. Time to redouble my efforts.
Lastly, I've been intending to gripe about the economy for a while. Things would be a lot better if politicians everywhere would quit spending money they don't have. The PIIGS countries keep dragging down the rest of the EU, despite all the money being thrown at them. Then, as you're probably aware, the US debt ceiling business turned into a big fiasco. It would help if the politicians would focus more about fixing problems, and less about bloviating, grandstanding, and especially keeping their constituencies in $$$$$$ while accusing the other guys of doing the same. And The Lightworker just made things harder by insisting that He would veto any measure that didn't raise the debt ceiling high enough so that the next debate would happen some time after He runs for re-election, something that no President before Him required. And on that subject, He vetoed a debt ceiling increase back when The Evil One was in office, stating that taking on more debt was irresponsible. Yes, Virginia, it's all about political posturing. The fact is, the budget crisis is a big shit sandwich, and the only way to swallow it is if everyone takes a bite.
Even so, much could be done by getting rid of inefficiency and graft. If I were running the show, every social program would be required to have at least 85% of the expenditures go to the people they are intended to help. Each program would have six months to get compliant, or career bureaucrats would start getting laid off, beginning with management. Something is wrong with a program if operating expenses eat up over 15% of its funding. And as far as the military is concerned, there is much that can be done toward efficiency there. I can't find the cite, but I recall an article about some Navy ships that were built at great expense, never deployed due to bureaucratic bungling, and then sent to the scrap yard. Would any corporate board of directors put up with a boondoggle like that? And fuel for Middle Eastern operations should be sourced locally (where it costs far less than shipping it halfway around the world, refining it, and shipping it all the way back, with a markup added on top of that), and KBR can go jump in a lake if they don't like it.
Back to the debt ceiling business. There was all sorts of hullaballoo about Congress needing to fix that or else the US would lose the AAA bond rating. The day before the bond ratings came out, the market took a major hit. And, as it happened, the bonds were downgraded anyway despite the debt ceiling being fixed. Could it be... insider trading??? Say it isn't so! (On a side note, there's evidence of political pressure and retaliation on the bond rating agency, which is rather like shooting the messenger, and fairly sleazy come to think of it.) And after the ratings downgrade, the market took an even bigger hit, and it's been a crazy roller coaster ride. On my end of it, I'm actually underwater. Rather than investing, I should have just paid down my credit cards.
But the other side of the coin is that I could leverage into the market while it's down. Or at least lower my interest exposure on the "loans" to my shlimmazl friends. Chase is offering a zero interest deal for one year, after a 1% service charge, for the next three weeks or so. It's a sucker deal for them, actually, so long as it gets paid off within a year. If not, the interest becomes usurious thereafter. I might have to give it a miss, though. As much as I'd like to stick it to them with a rate below inflation, it's perilous to deal with vampires.
Anyway, that's it for now. I'll try to catch up later with you folks. Until then, peace out.