Dear Speaker Boehner…
You’re an idiot.
And I mean that in the nicest way.
Actually, I don’t.
Let me put it to you this way. *I* am in the tax bracket that would see a hike when the Bush tax cuts get repealed. *I* am a small business owner.
Tax cuts don’t do SQUAT to push me to hire. I can’t hire anyone until DEMAND picks up. DEMAND isn’t going to pick up as long as you’re pushing this stuipd zero-growth agenda of yours.
We all know you’re in hock to the coporate interests that handed out bags of cash to get idiots elected under the “Tea Party” mantra.
We all know you’re beholden to them.
We all know that the only reason you won’t consider raising taxes on people like me is that companies like Exxon, who didn’t pay a DIME of taxes in 2009 but instead received on the order of 130+ Million in tax REBATES, continue on the gravy train.
So I ask you this. Exxon has gotten the tax credits, loopholes, and reach-around that you promised them. Why aren’t THEY increasing hiring?
Oh – it’s because DEMAND hasn’t picked up.
DEMAND for gas hasn’t picked up for an obvious reason…because people like me, and my customers, are cutting trips short in order to save money, because people, like me, are losing their jobs as a direct result of the federal spending cuts you’ve blackmailed your way into passing.
(My last consulting job was a federal contract, I lost it as a direct result of your stupidity.)
Luckily for me I can get another job. But a *LOT* of the people you put on the street can’t.
THEY are the ones who drive the economy. The ones who will take every dime of a 2% tax rate cut to Walmart, Target or the Grocery store. THEY will bring this economy back while your fat-cat multi-billionares sit on their asses and watch.
But it makes sense. They WANT high unemployment. High unemployment creates a massive pool of cheap, captive labor. People who have to settle for lower pay, who can’t leave their job for a better one. Who don’t have a position to negotiate.
Could it be that a national crisis of unemployment is exactly what the folks at Bank Of America, Exxon, Haliburton, and Lockheed WANT?
The same companies that are probably out there shorting stocks as we speak in hopes of a default… (I’m ugly, not stupid.)
You’re so transparent… You are putting profit ahead of the well-being of your country. It’s a pity that you have the rest of America so duped by your treason…
Or do you? We’ll just have to see how badly you get spanked.
Which home is home?
Travel. When you work in Information Technology, you eventually come to a point where you’ll either be traveling or your career is dead in the water.
If you’re lucky you get the, “I’m leaving town on Wednesday but I’ll be back on Friday” kind of travel. Those are the ones we all hope for. Those little trips allow us to get away for a bit, maybe a nice steak dinner out or a movie we wouldn’t otherwise be able to see with the family in tow.
And then there’s me. I spend 11 out of 14 days at a minimum away from the family. I’m home every other weekend at best, (every third sometimes when work calls for it). I have an address in another city, another state, another coast.
This is how it will be for at least the next 10 months at this point.
I catch myself calling my apartment “home” and I started wondering exactly what constitutes home. There are no kids to greet me at the door when I get here, no dog to bark, no cats to ignore me, no fish-tank to clean, and no ‘honey-do” list.
For all intents and purposes, I live here.
When I come home, it’s after a pretty grueling day consisting of a full day of work, a 6 hour overnight flight, (I don’t sleep well on airplanes) a two hour drive from the airport, and what should be a Friday with the family and my first day “off” ends up being a Friday that is more recovery than anything else. Saturday is breakfast with the kids, then tackle a household project that has been put off for way too long. Sunday is usually “relaxation” with the family, which usually means we’re going somewhere, to see/do something, and the only relaxation is going to come at the end.
Then I pack my bag back up (which I haven’t really unpacked since I only carry my laptop case when I go home) and at 4am Monday morning I’m back to the airport.
“Relaxation” as a rule doesn’t come until I’m back to work. Sick as that is.
So…where am I home?
Happy 4th?
Well – I had this great plan for my 4th of July post…was going to take a lot of pictures, get the post up tomorrow a-la wordless wednesday.
Well – given that I completely forgot to take pictures this weekend, you’re stuck with my lame attempts to describe what happened..
When we do the 4th, we really do the 4th. I made a quick drive up to Pennsylvania for Fireworks, as did about 6 of my neighbors, thus insuring that my neighborhood is one of the best places to be on the 4th.
That being said, we also had a few left-overs from last year.
The first shot hung in the tube… Picture the big ‘kaboom’ of a spectacular arial 500 gram mortar… happening about 12 feet off the ground.
My wife says she heard me say “oh shit” as the shot went up.. I don’t remember much after that….
Turned out the paper the shot was wrapped in had come loose..causing it to not clear the launch tube..
It’s going to be a while before I live that one down.
Happy 4th of July. 
Hope everyone’s fourth was safer and less eventful than mine.
Fucking up the end-game…
“These things happened. They were glorious and they changed the world. And then we fucked up the end game.”
This was a quote from the movie “Charlie Wilson’s War” – I don’t know how accurate the quote itself was, but it definitely says it…
Texas Rep. Charles Wilson says, “we fucked up the end game.” It didn’t have to be that way. In 1994, after the fall of Communism, the mujahideen groups in Afghanistan were bickering and fighting among themselves, with support to these different factions coming from their patrons in Pakistan, Iran and Saudi Arabia. That was the time when the United States, at the height of its global power, abandoned them completely.
There was no diplomatic leadership from America to resolve the conflicts, and to set in motion a rebuilding of Afghanistan. Families who had suffered and sacrificed, taking the frontline brunt of *OUR* fight with Communist expansionism, were abandoned by America to suffer even more after the “victory”. When we left, we left a country where a large percentage of the surviving population was under the age of 18.
In the context of our current drift into quagmire in Afghanistan, the most disturbing message to be had, to those who care to think about it, is that our country has not gleaned even an ounce of wisdom from these fuck-ups of the past. With a President who couldn’t even remember his personal history from 30 years ago, and an Administration that erased archives and makes “I don’t recall” a mantra against accountability, perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised.
We is what CREATED the Taliban, Bin Laden, the lot of it. That is what CAUSED 9/11. If we want to know whose responsible, we have but to look in the mirror.
If we don’t do the exit right this time, we are doomed to repeat the history that we’ve obviously forgotten. And we deserve it.
Supply and Demand – Econ 101
Scenario-A
Bob makes widgets. He’s made a good living over the years selling his widgets and makes a pretty comfortable income. Bob employs 10 people making widgets which he sells on the open market.
Fred needs to buy widgets. But he makes minimum wage and so can only afford to buy 2 widgets per pay-period..
Republicans are in congress and think that Bob needs a tax cut so that he can produce more widgets and employ more people.
So now instead of being able to keep $85,000 of his $100,000 income, Bob keeps $95,000. He has more money and can afford to hire more people.
But Fred can still only afford to buy two widgets. Demand for widgets doesn’t increase.
Is bob going to spend his extra $10,000 hiring more employees if demand for widgets doesn’t go up?
If he does, there will be a surplus of widgets and the market tumbles, reducing his profit on each widget made. If he maintains production, the status-quo is served and he gets to keep $10,000.
There is more money to be made not hiring people.
————–
Scenario-B
Bob makes widgets. He’s made a good living over the years selling his widgets and makes a pretty comfortable income. Bob employs 10 people making widgets which he sells on the open market.
Fred needs to buy widgets. But he makes minimum wage and so can only afford to buy 2 widgets per pay-period..
Democrats are in congress. Federal programs are passed that increase demand for widgets. Tax cuts for the working class are passed that put more money in Fred’s pocket.
Instead of the usual 2 widgets per pay period Fred can now afford three. He’s happy, feels wealthy, not as nervous, and more productive.
Bob’s sales increase by 30% because there is more money flowing in from consumers. Bob took home $85,000 the previous year, but thanks to the 30% increase in revenue this year he’s going to gross $150,000 and take home approximately $110,000, a net increase of $25,000 over the year before. He’s also hired three more people to make widgets…who in turn spend money on widgets…incraeasing revenue even further.
—————–
But of course, Bob supports the republicans, because at heart he’s a lazy fucking bastard and doesn’t want to actually work harder for his increased share. He’d rather increase his profit margin by laying off people like Fred and hire them overseas for half the price. Of course then demand for widgets falls which causes him to lose more and more money every year…forcing more layoffs… ad nauseam…
Recession.
Despair…
I’m 41 now…
The realization that this is as good as it gets, and that this sucks.
I’ve made a *LOT* of mistakes in my past… I fractured the occasional law in my pre-pubescent years…and my pubescent years… yeah…that kind of childhood. I spent years screwing up my life, screwing up my relationships, all of it.
I keep thinking that there has to be a point when you’re forgiven. A point where your good deeds and ‘clean living’ outweigh the negative, outweigh the hurt…
But now I’m thinking I’m wrong. The world doesn’t forgive you for your transgressions. People don’t forgive you for your mistakes.
Maybe I don’t deserve forgiveness. Maybe I deserve to spend the rest of my life living down what a shit-heel I’ve been in the past.
Maybe that’s how lessons are taught. With a sledgehammer.
Six days does not a week make…
My favorite quotes, from one of my favorite movies (“Barefoot in the park” -Robert Redford, Jane Fonda, 1967, though I first saw it as a TV stage production starring Bess Armstrong and Richard Thomas in 1981)
(I’m writing this from Seat 1A of AirTran flight 749 to Baltimore, which is just *WAY* too cool for words. Love me some in-air wifi. – I’d name the company, but they aren’t paying me. 
Besides the point. Here is the actual point. Tempered by the four glasses of chardonay I’ve had since this flight took off…
I’ve now been gone almost three weeks. This is probably one of the longest ‘single’ trips I’ve taken without being home…and the time difference makes it worse. By the time I’m off work and ready to chat, she’s ready for bed and I’m left to wallow in my Law & Order induced hell.
Here’s the part where I find out if she reads my blog or not.
We had our first “fight” this week…usually they happen a lot sooner. It all started with “What do you want to do for your birthday?” (My birthday is this weekend, for those who want to send large amounts of cash in small unmarked bills)
It wasn’t really a fight, but an “emotional discussion”
Apparently she forgot the WHOLE discussion we had about my neighbor throwing a special poker-night just for my birthday party.
But that actually wasn’t the part I was upset about.
My wife and I have been together for the last 12+ years. We’ve known each other for, I kid you not, 27 years. That’s *WAY* over half both our lives. I have loved this woman since I was 13. She was my first kiss. You get the picture.
You’d think she might have an idea what I want / want to do for my birthday by now?
Listen. I know it took me a LONG time to figure out the things she likes to do. Things like the Theater, Ballet, I was even going to try for a potomac dinner cruise one of these days. (as soon as I can get us living in the same time zone again.)
But at the very least, I’m finally past the point of having to ask her what she wants for birthdays/christmas/mother’s day, etc.
I was honestly a bit hurt…. No, I was a lot hurt. Not that she didn’t know, but that she didn’t seem to care that I had already told her what I was hoping we’d do.
I know that we’re currently living the one thing she wanted to avoid. I’m spending 11 of every 14 days away from home, and in fact three timezones away. She’s left to deal with the household. By herself. With *MY* kids. (We’ve discussed my kids here, right? “Chaos, Panic & Disorder”)
I don’t know. Growing older just isn’t worth it anymore. I’m *TOTALLY* cancelling my next birthday. I can do that right?
Oh – and the title’s relevance? I’ve been gone 3 weeks….if a week is six days.
A good weekend…
You know… it’s weekends like the one I spent right before I left for Seattle that make me remember that despite everything, life is good.
Started out on Friday by taking the day off. Well not “off” but “work from home” without any actual work-from-home to do.
So coffee with the wife, turned into a trip to the book store where I found some of the most interesting things.
Like “FarmVille for Dummies”
Really? Is this really necessary? It’s not like it takes a PHD to play the damned thing… (Granted, I’ve never played it, I like to think I have better things to do with my time, like pick lint out of my navel.)
Saturday was Picture day for Chaos. Soccer pictures. Wee. Nothing like getting up at the ass-crack of dawn to drag my unhappy, opinionated, WILLFUL child to pictures.
He did ok, but the end-result may be a slightly forced smile, because he truly didn’t know what the hell was going on.
The picture will be all telling… (I’ll post it when make my way home next weekend.)
For all the stresses in life. My family is happy, everyone is healthy. And I’m still working.
There are worse things in the world.
More on that next time.
Week one…
Welcome to Seattle…
So far, so good. Work is…working. I’m getting along with at least 3/4 of the people I’m teamed up with. The last one was born an asshole and just got bigger. But I’m used to dysfunctional organizations… Functional organizations don’t need consultants to come in and fix their problems.
So asshole got pretty steadily dressed down yesterday, possibly written up… I don’t know for certain but I do know that he’s significantly more mellow today. :
This is my first real trip away from the family in a long time. I’ve spent the last 26 months on a contract in DC, just over 50 miles from home. WHile the commute sucked, I was home every night.
Before that I travelled, but not extensively. I did a few ‘distance’ engagements, but most of them were 4 day a week travel and home every weekend, which is easy when you’re staying to one side of the country.
This is different. It’s a 5-hour cross-country trip, which, added to the 3-hour time difference, makes life hell.
So, because of the difficulty of the travel, I’m only going home every two weeks.
I miss my kids, but Skype has made that easier…I talk to them every night. I see them every night.
*THAT* is what the internet is for.
It makes distance evaporate in the smile of a six-year old showing off his homework.
It’s raining….
Friday/Saturday I gave up the majority of my weekend to work on a stupid project at work, conceived by stupid people to stupid purposes.. The fact that on Monday morning there was a minimum of problems can only mean one thing.
They failed at being stupid.
*AFTER* giving up 24 hours in two days, I went to work on Monday to find out that the contract that was supposed to keep me employed for another year had fallen through the cracks, and that I had technically become unemployed at Midnight on Saturday night.
They didn’t bother to tell me this until 2pm on Monday..thereby allowing me to do almost 6 hours of work for free.
Believe it or not, that was the HIGH point in my week.
This morning, the full realization hit me that I’m going to have to find a new job quickly. My budget doesn’t allow for ‘lulls’ in the workload. (In fact my budget has told me in no uncertain terms that it prefers i work two or three jobs, cracking a whip the whole time)
So I called an associate and asked them what they had for me. Wow – they had something. It required experience with some new products that I hadn’t really touched yet, but I’m usually pretty good at doing some reading and faking it.
They said they’d call later to set up an interview. Apparently by later they meant, *AS SOON AS WE FUCKING GET OFF THE PHONE*
Needless to say, I completely bombed the interview. The stress of the situation, the craptastic day, all combine together to give me a memory like swiss cheese and a stutter.
Oh, and I killed my son’s fish deader than hell trying to change the water in their tank… So now they have a nice clean tank with beautiful blue water to…not…live…in…any…longer…
In related news, Captain Morgan is yummy.
My Pictures
