Slowly, swiftly

When it comes,
it comes slowly

but when it goes,
it goes swiftly.

That spark of creativity,
the burst of inspiration.

It rides upon a beam of light
picks up speed as it comes nearer
then,

WHOOSH!

It's gone.

Be quick
lest you miss it.

Changing Seasons

You can feel it in the air...something is different, something has changed.

Yesterday I had some sniffles and a scratchy throat, I thought I was sick. But today I'm fine.

I've turned the air conditioner off the past few nights, only leaving it on for a few hours during the day.

The morning takes longer to brighten and the night is coming more quickly.

First comes the Fall, then the Winter.

The Company Men

First, don't confuse this movie with the similarly-titled, In the Company of Men. Two different movies.

Second, this movie is a farce.

I enjoyed it well enough and will likely watch it again but it has some issues that reminded me of Wallstreet 2.

The main character loses his cushy corporate job and finds himself in the wonky world of the Blue-Collar man.

I think we are supposed to feel like he learns something important about how lucky he is to be living the corporate lifestyle and that the Blue-Collars are important too. But that message is lost somewhere. Maybe I'm wrong and only suspected that to be the plot since most of the White-Collar-man-turns-Blue-Collar stories go that route.

But not this one.

We find out he's been working with his company for about twelve years. He is currently making 120k per year. After a few weeks of being unemployed he has to sell the house and move in with his wife's parents. Sell the Porsche. Get a job with his brother-in-law the carpenter...oh and spend some quality time with his son...I guess.

The problem here is that there is only one major splurge...a golf club membership.

At 120k a year, with only one child, why is he still making payments on the car? Maybe the house was a little big for a three-person family, but it's in the middle of an average middle-class neighborhood...or maybe slightly higher than middle class. It couldn't have cost more than 500k. I'm actually thinking is was more like 200-300k.

So, he's got the house, the car, and a club membership. There is no boat in the driveway or mention of one elsewhere. No additional properties. No evidence of lavish expenditures (we see one corporate wife has just purchased a table that costs a few thousand dollars). He seems to be an average man with average luxuries. Yet with his high income, he is actually ushered into the poor house after only a couple of months. I think we missed something here.

Anyway, he throws a hissy fit an out-state job offer, gets angry over the competition he faces, snubs his nose at his secretary when she asks about her own job security, reluctantly accepts the carpentry job with his brother-in-law...but thankfully gets back into the corporate setting after losing everything.

So, what was the point of this movie?

Was it just to show that corporate executives are people too?

Because with winning quotes like, "I don't want to be just another asshole with a resume!", I think something was lost in translation. Yet, it sums up exactly what the movie is about.

The Numbness

When you are standing on your feet for a twelve-hour shift, it does something to your body. It's a strange soreness. Not like muscle aches or strained joints. It's kind of like the pads of your feet go to sleep and spend all of a day off trying to wake up. Lot's of tingling ensues but if you actually rub or scratch the heel you are not sure there is any feeling.

The sensation goes away. By the time you clock in for the next day of work you're feeling "peppy" and bouncing on those feet like everything is good. And it is, until somewhere around that ten-hour mark and you still have two more hours to go.

Also, it doesn't matter how many hours you work. Be it four hours or fourteen, the last hour will always be the longest part of the day.

Been Awhile

It's been a long time since I posted here. But, honestly that seems to be the suitable intro to most of the posts on this blog.

I've got some personal adventures to share. Lot's of changes (positive ones!) in my life over the past year.

Sleep Apnea
A new house (our first!)
A new baby (or two, depends on how much of myself I've already shared here)
A new job
Writing projects

So much new stuff I haven't shared!

Thanks to Jessica, formerly of the World of Warcraft blog, The Pink Pigtail Inn, for inadvertently inspiring me to dust off this old house!

Wallstreet 2

I think Oliver Stone was a little off his game with this one. He didn't seem to have much of a point. This would have been a good time to show how technology has largely taken the middle man out of the picture and left the most of the action to near-light-speed information transfer systems. The industry calls them black boxes, I guess. Anyway, Wallstreet is a shell of what it once was, almost all the of businesses that once thrived there are gone now. And the floor isn't as full as it used to be.

So then, what was this movie about?

It jumped around a lot. We got a glimpse of banks collapsing, getting handouts, and investors shutting out green technologies to keep the oil profitable.

The lead character was just as fractured as the story. His mother shows up in the middle of the movie but we don't really know why. Then she shows up later asking for money and we learn that her son (our lead character) is having financial problems and can't help her. We missed something here. We know he got fired, but when did he become broke?

His girlfriend breaks up with him because he is a liar and a manipulator, but everything turns out ok because her daddy has a change of heart? How does this change her relationship with our lead character?

So, yeah, this movie lacking in the story department. View at your own risk.

Wealth Beyond Reason

Recently Afghanistan was found to be loaded with copper, iron, and lithium deposits worth over a trillion dollars.

The "officials" who commented on the finds said that all the people of the war-torn nation need do is lay down their arms and set up an industrial infrastructure and all will be fine and dandy.

But, if it is that easy, then why has the African nations and their people not seen similar results with all of their diamond mines? They too are in need of an infrastructure and then things will get rolling for them as well.

The sad truth is that these natural resource markets are quickly sucked up by large corporations and then the product is severely controlled. No system will ever be put in place for local people to learn what they need to know to create their own infrastructure. The third world governments enjoy their personal relationships with foreign banks too much to care about their own people.

It would be great if I could be proven wrong, but I doubt it will happen.