This just hit me a few minutes ago while looking at this list of layoffs and thinking about Disney's buyout offer. I understand companies are/will be looking to minimize profit losses, and the easiest way is to offer buyouts to older employees (if you're a good company); or simply do the "job re-classification" shuffle, so older employees' positions are no longer needed and the older employee have to "re-apply" to new the job positions... so positions are cut through "attrition".
From a business perspective, it makes sense to cut costs & minimize legal exposure. But to force people into early retirement when the stock market (and 401K) & economy isn't doing well, just isn't right!
I love how another definition for the word "attrition" is "sorrow for one's sins that arises from a motive other than that of the love of God..."
2009-01-28
2009-01-27
More Gloom and Doom
So got word from Chase that they plan to raise our interest rates. I'm assuming since they're doing so badly & not getting enough money from the government to help them out; they figure they can up the interest rates of everyone else to help bail them out. What makes me mad is that those of us with good credit must now bear those who Chase should not have lent money to, to begin with. And instead of holding the people that made bad business decisions responsible (lending money to high risk people), everyone else now has to suffer.
Also on the news, sounds like State Farm is dropping insurance policies of people living in Florida (those with home & renter's insurance) because of foreclosures. Meaning Erika and I need to go insurance shopping soon. When another insurance company started doing this in Florida last year, the state government had to step in. Again, we faithfully pay our insurance, expecting a service to be rendered. Some one makes bad business decisions (offering to insure property that far exceeded steady, realistic market growth, at an over inflated price & people who realistic couldn't afford over-inflated mortgages), and now good, sound, hard-working people loose their policies... This makes me mad as well!
Also on the news, sounds like State Farm is dropping insurance policies of people living in Florida (those with home & renter's insurance) because of foreclosures. Meaning Erika and I need to go insurance shopping soon. When another insurance company started doing this in Florida last year, the state government had to step in. Again, we faithfully pay our insurance, expecting a service to be rendered. Some one makes bad business decisions (offering to insure property that far exceeded steady, realistic market growth, at an over inflated price & people who realistic couldn't afford over-inflated mortgages), and now good, sound, hard-working people loose their policies... This makes me mad as well!
2009-01-26
Manatee Watching
Erika and I went to the Orange City Blue Spring Manatee Festival. Staring out, I didn't have high hopes for it, but we wanted to do something different this weekend. As a side note, when I see "farmers' market", I think produce being raised and sold in lots of booths in an open air market, not one booth of produce and 50+ booths of arts & crafts -- so with that in mind, I didn't expect a "festival" of the same caliber of ones in Ohio.
And I was right. Maybe 40+ booths of arts & crafts, a few food vendors, some carny style games for the kids. And a long line to the shuttle... and really didn't know what the shuttle was for. Come to find out, the shuttle took you into the Blue Spring park, to a location great for seeing manatees! This was the hi-light of the event & well worth the $8 of admission... and it goes to a good cause, the park. :)
Standing in line, one of the marine life (manatee) experts talked about what to expect & the "curiosity" of manatees. What I didn't expect to see was so many! Gracefully swimming up and down the waters from the springs into the river. From what we overheard, there were 100+ spotted in the area, earlier that day... I thought that was an exaggeration, but I lost count after about 40. The manatees were curious... Erika and I were standing out on the of the piers, just buy ourselves, everyone else had moved on. We stood there quietly for a few minutes, when momma and her two babies came swimming right for us... Then people started screaming with excitement. Momma turned tail and swam away from us... the marine life expert said, the best way to attract them was to be really calm & quite.
And I was right. Maybe 40+ booths of arts & crafts, a few food vendors, some carny style games for the kids. And a long line to the shuttle... and really didn't know what the shuttle was for. Come to find out, the shuttle took you into the Blue Spring park, to a location great for seeing manatees! This was the hi-light of the event & well worth the $8 of admission... and it goes to a good cause, the park. :)
Standing in line, one of the marine life (manatee) experts talked about what to expect & the "curiosity" of manatees. What I didn't expect to see was so many! Gracefully swimming up and down the waters from the springs into the river. From what we overheard, there were 100+ spotted in the area, earlier that day... I thought that was an exaggeration, but I lost count after about 40. The manatees were curious... Erika and I were standing out on the of the piers, just buy ourselves, everyone else had moved on. We stood there quietly for a few minutes, when momma and her two babies came swimming right for us... Then people started screaming with excitement. Momma turned tail and swam away from us... the marine life expert said, the best way to attract them was to be really calm & quite.
2009-01-05
Freshly Squeezed Tangerine Juice
Yum. Needs to be colder.
One of Erika's co-workers gave Erika some navel oranges and tangerines from the co-worker's trees. One thing I've learned about tangerines, they need to be cut from the tree and not plucked -- plucking results in tearing the peal, which results in quicker spoilage.
With this in mind, all the tangerines we got were plucked and one started to mold. Hence the freshly squeezed juice this morning. :)
One of Erika's co-workers gave Erika some navel oranges and tangerines from the co-worker's trees. One thing I've learned about tangerines, they need to be cut from the tree and not plucked -- plucking results in tearing the peal, which results in quicker spoilage.
With this in mind, all the tangerines we got were plucked and one started to mold. Hence the freshly squeezed juice this morning. :)
2008-08-09
Olympics
Watching the Olympics last night, I'm reminded a little of the books I once read by Eric Van Lustbader (see: The Ninja, The Miko, & Jian)... To be honest, I was in high school when I read them. I don't remember the exact stories, nor did I realize until just now that Eric wrote the Borne novels that the movies are based upon... but what I do remember one of his characters grew up in China before China became communist, that character had a powerful influence into that decision/direction & a vague understanding that Chinese communism is not the same as Russian communism. From his books, the reason why the Chinese choose communism over capitalism made sense (though I can't remember why now)...
But looking at the opening Olympic ceremonies... 90,000 people in the birdsnest, 2008 performers on the drums, 2008 tai chi performers, etc. The shear size of the performances, the fireworks... The melodrama, the symbolism, the costumes, the colors, the Chinese history, the LEDs, the wires... the shear size of the canvas in which they worked with... you're quickly blown away. And the synchronization of drummers was just fantastic.
Then you start to think... how do you get 2008 people on drums to do that, without a lot of too many mistakes? To make it all seem seamless... I've made my home in cities where the meto area have been between 1.7 to 2 million people... okay, as a contractor, I've lived in larger cities with 5.2 to 6.1 million people... but Beijing has 11 million people in their metro area... almost twice the size of the largest city I've lived in... Not as large as New York or LA, but passing Chicago.
But looking at the opening Olympic ceremonies... 90,000 people in the birdsnest, 2008 performers on the drums, 2008 tai chi performers, etc. The shear size of the performances, the fireworks... The melodrama, the symbolism, the costumes, the colors, the Chinese history, the LEDs, the wires... the shear size of the canvas in which they worked with... you're quickly blown away. And the synchronization of drummers was just fantastic.
Then you start to think... how do you get 2008 people on drums to do that, without a lot of too many mistakes? To make it all seem seamless... I've made my home in cities where the meto area have been between 1.7 to 2 million people... okay, as a contractor, I've lived in larger cities with 5.2 to 6.1 million people... but Beijing has 11 million people in their metro area... almost twice the size of the largest city I've lived in... Not as large as New York or LA, but passing Chicago.
2008-08-07
Molly out for a Walk
2008-08-01
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