I found this little gem on ClusterStock. They’re looking to replace the current TARP administrator. One of the comments was as follows, directly from the comments section of the article:
I am going to get myself in a world of trouble with some of my women friends, I am sure. However, I just have to say that this most recent Facebook flare-up with women’s breastfeeding photos being pulled boarders on the absured. CJ Cregg from the West Wing uttered a very true phrase in this particular instance (Different context): “This isn’t a woman’s issue. This is a dumb woman’s issue.”
The argument against Facebook taking down the photographs is that breastfeeding is not obscene. The people making this argument are 100% correct. It is a natural biological process. What these people don’t understand is that Facebook is a “community”. Not in the typical sense, perhaps, but still a community. Everyone in that community has different sensibilities. Some of the people in that community think it’s kinda—-stupid–to parade around in public with a baby attached to you just to say you can. Some of the people in that community have differing opinions about what parts of a person’s life should be public and which parts should be private.
To make it an easier argument, think of it this way. Do you want to see a picture of a guy sitting on a toilet? No. You don’t. Don’t sit there and try to see my argument through to the end and cut me off by saying “yes.” You don’t want to see that. However, what is entailed in sitting on the toilet is not “obscene” by any normal definition. If there was shame attached to going to the bathroom, we’d all be dead by now. “It’s a natural biological process.” However, if Facebook took pictures of guys sitting on toilets off the site and threatened the users with being banned, you’d have no problems with it. In fact, you’d probably applaud the decision.
Anyone you talk to will tell you I am by no means a Facebook appologist. In fact, my Facebook account is basically just a tie-in to my twitter account and my blog w/ some biographical information. I’d like to get rid of it entirely but they’re the only one’s in town. (Don’t tell me Myspace.) However, this breastfeeding issue has come up a number of times in my adult life and I just have not been able to get my head around the other side of the table’s mentality. There are “feeding rooms” in many public and private settings where you can take your baby away and breastfeed them in a quiet, clean environment. I applaud that. I think there should be more of those; women should be as comfortable as possible when doing what could be a rather uncomfortable task. Indecency laws have been softened so that women can’t be taken to jail for breastfeeding. I agree with that also. The kid’s hungry. He should be fed. There are, however, ways of handling it to minimize any discomfort of any bible-thumping ultra-religious types, mothers who don’t want to explain in public what “that lady over there is doing”, and quiet nerds who are still afraid of women’s girly parts. You don’t have to go hovel in the corner in shame. You don’t have to hide in the bathroom. Put the swaddling cloth or other blanket over your chest and let the kid eat. You don’t have to whip one of them out in the middle of the airport terminal (which I’ve seen) and you *CERTAINLY* don’t have to take pictures of it and post them on the internet. That’s skirting the line into exhibitionism and while I have no problems with that, either, Facebook doesn’t have to endorse it.
Well, funny how life changes… 
My brother gave a fantastic speech as my best man at my wedding. In it, he mentions that they found a list of plans that I had made for my future back when I was 18, which included college, grad school, PhD, get a job, buy a house, then look to get married. A friend of mine and my wife, Mara, says that whenever you make plans, God laughs.
Now that things have settled down, I’m in the rhythm of my job and my evenings are, more or less, free, I’m looking to come up with some plans for the future. I figured I’d tie them into New Year’s resolutions, but I rarely stick to resolutions. I don’t want to call them “plans” becauses God will laugh. However, I figured some “guidelines” would be helpful in directing my free time and lifestyle in the coming year.
- Lose 15-20 lbs: With the move, the wedding, traveling every other weekend for 4-6 months, etc. I’ve gained back some of the weight I had lost when I was in Grad School. I’d like to be able to fit into 34’s by the end of the year. I think it’s doable; the max amount of weight you’re supposed to lose is something like 2 lbs a week which would have me weighing what I weighed in 4th grade. The 15-20 lbs I need to lose seems, to me to be more of just a rededication to walking/exercising once in a while and eating right.
- Pay off debt: Jess and I have merged finances and we both had a little bit of debt leaving school, obviously. We both “live within our means”, so we are not having to change our spending habits, just make a concerted efffort to pay things off. With the economic downturn and deflation pressures, now would be a good time to pay off some of that expensive debt and just leave the student loans to pay off while we save for a house.
- Work independently on a software project. This is something I’ve been threatening to do for ages; I even have a vacant separate blog on my development progress, which has been nonexistent. I think I have a pretty good idea for an open-source project that may be beneficial to small groups, organizations, and governments, but I’ll have to flesh it out a little bit more and see how things go. I’ve tried starting things up in the past and it has gotten killed by a lack of preparation, so I’m going to do my homework and then start writing code. At best, I hope to have a framework that includes requirements, architecture, and some high-level design for what I want to do within 6 mo and maybe start writing code after that, if I don’t feel like taking a break from it for a while. It’ll be a little while before I can start on it, though. I have been voluntold to do some web design work for some friends first, so we’ll see how things go after that.
- Write a book. I think that I have a good idea for a series of books. I thought I might go the Issac Asimov’s Foundation route and start out with a couple of good short stories and then tie them into a novel. If I could get the idea fully fleshed out in my mind and have 10 pages of something written just to say “I’m working on a book.”, that alone would be enough to satisfy me this year.
- Keep up with the blog more. With the wedding, I have obviously been pretty swamped however, I’d like to write at least once a week on the blog and hopefully more. Jess and I have discussed the possibility of continuing the wedding blog as a discussion of our married life. We’ll have to think that one out a little more (The conversation was two sentences: Me: “Hey, maybe we could continue blogging about married life now that the wedding is over.” Jess: “Hey, maybe we could!”) but it could be an interesting angle on creating a site we could actually monetize.
- Update: Go “paperless”. I’m going to do everything I can do to eliminate my mail. It clutters the apartment and it’s a waste of paper. I’m going to try to get to the point where I scan in documents (bills, not critical documents) and then just get rid of them. I’m also going to try to get myself added to “do not mail” lists that are available.
So here’s the list. Nothing extrordinary. Just some things to guide my year. No “climb Mt. Everest” goals or anything like that. We’ll just run with it and see how things go. As part of my writing, I’ll try and post periodic updates.
I’ve been tracking the Obama transition and I’ve gotta say I’m somewhat satisfied with his decisions but I have to say, I’ve never understood the selection process for cabinet members; they immediately go to existing politicians and vanquished opponents. That or they pick people whose ideas they like or who have good policy ideas. This seems to me to be the wrong way of staffing the executive branch. If you think of the executive branch as a large corporation (and, yes, it is a large corporation), each of the secretary departments would be different divisions of the company. The office of the CEO has a number of smart people the crunch the numbers and help him make decisions. The department secretaries need to be good *administrators*, capable of getting things done in their particular field. The people in the office of the CEO have to be brilliant, capable of providing the information that the CEO needs and force him to think about the ramifications of decisions by arguing, playing devil’s advocate, etc. Having capable administrators in the cabinet means that you also have a good continuity in the event of disaster.
I’ll update this blog entry if and when I think of other people I’d put in my cabinet/staff if I was president. Some of it will be serious. Some of it will be funny or not really realistic but to make a point. I’ll start with the principle Secretaries and see how far I can get.
Secretary of Defense: John Shalikashvili–Former Supreme Allied Commander Europe. Gave him experience with all 4 branches of the military (in theory) as well as international joint operations. Sufficiently political without being a Wesley Clark-type.
Secretary of State: Richard Holbrooke–Former diplomat. Worked through negotiations with Serbia, etc. Knows diplomats, respected around the world. If you could keep him away from a microphone, could do a good job at organizing and running a collection of diplomats.
Secretary of Treasury: John Bogle–Investor, founder of Vanguard Group. Believes that investment firms should be helping the investor and not the financial advisors. Has knowledge of the market, ran a large investment firm that is very well respected among investors and is low-key for the most part.
I just….I can’t….how can they….why are we….what have they…they just…..20 years or so ago…no change…the cars are….unions….we just passed a 750…GM wants to become a bank……they were making money….where did it…why didn’t they make something other than SU….talked before congress…flew in on a private jet…one of ‘em…9 million……other countries…better cars…say they’ll make better…..can’t afford to change….but claim they’re too big to…..head hurts…..pissed off..gotta throw something…..can’t risk breaking anything with this econ……alright. That’s it. Naptime.
Well, it’s Halloween again and it is time for my annual freak-out. Is it ghosts? No. Is it zombies? No. Is it clowns? No…well, yes, it is but it’s not the point of this blog. No. I had the glancing memory of it today that I normally have around this time of year and it has now dominated my thoughts and fears for the past 8 hours.
Garfield’s Halloween Adventure (Seen here, here and here)
I don’t have the strongest constitution for scary movies, but I’ve seen the Exorcist and gone “meh”. *THIS* show scares the ever lovin crap out of me. I hope I don’t have to get up tonight. I don’t know which I’ll be more scared of–ghost pirates or *shudders* that old man’s voice following me around the apartment tonight. Good lord, what adults do to kids! I thought there was a higher calling for adults to try to make things better for their progeny, not emotionally and mentally scaring them for life!! What the hell were my parents thinking showing me this show!?
Mom (Or Dad): “Oh! Watch it honey, it’s Garfield. You like Garfield, don’t you?”
Me (At 5 or 6): “Actually, the first couple I thought were funny but the past couple of years it’s pretty obvious that he’s phoning it in.”
Mom: “And Odie! You like Odie?”
Me *smiling broadly*: “Yes. I LOVE Odie! Oh. They’re sitting by the fire getting warm and cozy. That’s cut….OH MY GOD!!!!!! Who is THAT? WHO IS THAT????”
Mom: “It’s ok, sweetheart. It’s just an old man.”
Me: “It’s not an old man! He has a green face!!!! Grandpa is old. He doesn’t have a green face!! JESUS!!! His voice!!! That voice is Satan’s voice!! What is WRONG with you??!?!?
(10 minutes later after being forced to sit and watch this like Alex in A Clockwork Orange)
Mom: “You’re just being silly.”
Me: “….whatever. At least now he’s gone. WHERE DID THAT SHIP COME FROM?!?!? Run Odie! RUN! Ok. They’re safe. They’re hiding in the cabinet. The pirate ghosts didn’t see them. They’ll be fine….[something incoherent, screaming like a girl, running from the room.]”
(In the interest of full disclosure, my parents are wonderful people. They did not pin me down and force me to watch it. This is some freakish fear that has manifested itself in adult life and I felt the dialog was sufficiently humorous to post. Happy Birthday, Dad.)
Remember those good old days where the President could push through whatever bill he wants, Republicans could win (re)elections by simply saying if you vote for a Democrat, you might as well be voting for Bin Laden? Well those halcyon days are over. The bailout bill passed not because of the President’s leadership and vision but because they loaded it down with enough pork that congressmen couldn’t vote against it. This week, the Republican Incumbent Michelle Bachman lost all of her media buys from the NRCC for going on TV and asking for a return to the days of HUAC and McCarthy.
It would appear that President Bush actually managed to fulfill one of his campaign promises and one of the main reasons I voted for the man 8 years ago…he’s changed the tone in Washington.
I’ve been using Twitter as a way to vent more recently than I’ve been using the blog. Why? It’s infinitely quicker and if it’s not perfect or well crafted, oh well. However, if you’ve been reading my past couple of tweets, I’m rather frustrated about the current effort to bail out the financial industry. Bear in mind that I am sitting from the position of being an apartment renter and have not had to fear a foreclosure, etc. (although that really doesn’t have much to do with the current crisis, but I want you to know that I’m sitting in a glass tower making these observations.) I have to rant on a number of things:
- What happened to these poor people that work in investment banking? I’m not talking about the fact that they now don’t have jobs, I’m talking about why they took the jobs at all? Besides Alex P. Keaton, who on earth grew up wanting to be a financier? What do these people do all day? They take money that other people worked hard to make, and they make *more* money, seemingly out of thin air. And you know what? The only way they are able to do that well is through criminal activity.
- It’s amazing how much comedians can be on the mark. Lewis Black once wrote: “If a company can’t say in one sentence what it does, it’s illegal.” Let’s look at AIG as a case study. “AIG sells insurance.” That was easy. “AIG sells insurance, and then to further extend profits, we take the money from premiums and reinvest them in complex investment engines to increase profits and reduce principles that people pay.” We now have a problem.
- How are these CEOs walking away with millions while their companies are tanking? I think CEOs are entitled to huge amounts of money–over time. They don’t get signing bonuses. They don’t get millions in stock options/salary per year. They get a predefined amount of stock from the contract and a reasonable living stipend. During some negotiated window, they cannot sell stock. Once that time is up, they are allowed. That way, they need to think long(er) term, depending on the length of the contract. No more situations where there’s a CEO there for a year, tank the company, and then leave with 50 million. This way CEOs are able to make their fortunes but they have to do it by doing something meaningful with the companies they work for.
</rant>
I read a number of articles like this today and it’s really making me doubt whether I want to get this Iphone, as unbelieveably pretty as it is. Apple is being really petty in this particular case and really stupid. Think about it. Mac Mail competes with Mac Entourage and Thunderbird and they’re all allowed on the machines. For web browsers you got Firefox and Opera competing with Safari. Android may not be as nice yet or as ready to go but it’s opensource and, unless google changes the policy, a developer won’t waste weeks/months of their time to have their programs rejected.
I’m playing with a business idea and I am consequently working on the requirements for the application. I started out using a program called Virtual Paradigm. It’s nice. But not great and certainly not worth the cost of an actual license. My hypothesis is that I am going to be able to do a much better job by using a wiki to document the requirements. True, it won’t provide some of the bells and whistles, like being able to create traceability automatically, etc. but it certainly allows for people to quickly read, review, and refine requirements. During my last semester of classes, I took a course on requirements engineering where we reviewed a number of software requirements development systems. Sitting in the calm, thoughtful world of academia, they look like a good idea but, in reality, I don’t think it gains people anything. For example, with the company I work for, they use a glorified document editor to create and track requirements. I’m pretty well convinced that a wiki is going to be better. Any thoughts?
