Wednesday, September 30, 2009

I'm tired of everyone trying to save the planet - because frankly you're doing a piss poor job of it.

Ran across one of these thing recently hidden behind a dumpster. Presumably some hipster doofus thought this was the best plan of action. Because yo dude - when they throw stuff out they can just put it in this recycle bin. Of course the local goodwill is less than a mile from this spot. If you just tell everyone your saving the planet it doesn't matter if you create a completely redundant piece of garbage to clutter the world with. You don't hate mother earth. Do YOU?



Monday, September 28, 2009

Not pretty.

See update at the bottom.

Man - I just wish all of this would stop.

So yesterday at breakfast Mr S. and I walked past a news paper stand. Front page was an article about how half of the rental properties in a crappy little city called East Palo Alto were going to be foreclosed upon. Half!

The properties are owned by a company called Page Mill Properties.

The article caught my attention, because of it's sheer magnitude. Sure East Palo Alto is a small city, but a 50% foreclosure of all rental housing in any city is notable. Also, I technically lived in EPA for a while when I was first starting my career. I say technically, because my zip was EPA, but I lived on the frontage road bordering the freeway on the Palo Alto side. It was a rent controlled area.

People think rent control is great. It isn't. And it's only something you can completely grasp until you live it. You understand the philosophy of how landlords can't raise rents so they never do repairs. Yet, you can't understand the magnitude until you experience it.

Anyway, the article made me wonder how many Page Mill Properties there were out there. Companies that moved into low income underdeveloped areas and just started buying cheap real estate. So I plugged Page Mill into a search engine, and much to my shock actually - the word CalPERS popped up. My mouth immediately dropped. CalPERS folks is the California Pension plan! Odd, I didn't see it mentioned in the newspaper article.

From The Registry.

"Palo Alto developer Page Mill Properties and CalPERS, its equity partner, may lose control of more than 1,700 apartments acquired since 2006 as part of a more than $340 million play in East Palo Alto."

The article goes onto to say:

"The California Public Employees’ Retirement System also has remained stubbornly mute on Page Mill’s activities or plans. CalPERS invested $100 million in the Page Mill fund. According to public record, it has written down the value by $40 million."

To me it looks like the pension fund will loose it's entire investment in East Palo Alto. Makes you wonder what else there is out there for them to loose?

Update: This is all happening on the street I used to live. Story here. Man, I haven't been in that neighborhood forever. Now I'm going to have to go look. That street never looked so nice. Photos at the link.

2nd update:

I couldn't believe that I missed the connection between CalPERS and Page Mill Properties when I read the article in the San Jose Mercury News paper. It is something that would have stood out to me. So, I re-read the article tonight. I guess I shouldn't be that surpised that the Mercury News carefully worded the article to make no connection between the two entities. This is what they say about the CalPERS investment into Page Mill.

"Another trashed apartment is the last thing Page Mill Properties needs right now. After using other people's money the past three years to buy and improve nearly half the rental units in this hardscrabble community wedged between the bay and the gleaming city of Palo Alto, a lot more than spray paint has hit a wall. "

When they say "other people's money" - they mean the retirement fund of California State employees and taxpayers.

The Article goes on to say:

"CalPERS, the California Public Employees' Retirement System, helped fuel the buying by investing $100 million, and Page Mill got a quarter-billion-dollar loan from Wachovia, now part of Wells Fargo. CalPERS, under pressure by city officials and activists in East Palo Alto to end its involvement with Page Mill, would not comment. Neither would Wells Fargo, saying only that "the safety and quality of life of the tenants at Woodland Park is of primary concern to Wells Fargo."

Like that? They do mention CalPERS, but not that CalPERS actually gave Page Mill any money. That tidbit I ran across accidentally.

No wonder the employees of the State have no idea how screwed they are. And, just as a side note - by definition CalPERS is a slumlord. They are catagorised as an "equity partner". Partner to me is 50/50 ownership, but perhaps the definition has changed.

Also from the Mercury News article:

"Nobody knows what's going on," says Norma Rodriquez, 32, who lives with her husband and their five children, shoehorned into a bug-infested one-bedroom apartment. With the temporary closing of the management office early this month, "I worry about my rent check and I don't know if it's going to the owner.'' "

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Someone has been really - really - busy.

The day started really uneventfully. It's been mind numbingly hot. So other than being on tilt because of it - and having a cold when it is mind numbingly hot, I'd say it was still an uneventful morning. Until I ran across this on the way out of town.



This of course, is a fascinating development. It must have gone up last night. I drove by this billboard just yesterday. We never get this kind of stuff here. I'd say the burb is more politically correct liberal leaning. While people have political views, unless they are protesting nukes - it isn't that easy to get people all riled up. I swear to you - the only time I've even seen protests was over nuke issues. And usually that only happens once a year.

So the idea that these Obama signs are starting to crop up in a lot of places is very interesting. I don't know what it means, but it must mean something. I haven't even seen this crop up in San Jose yet. Which being a big city you'd expect to see.

Anyway, Mr S. and I have breakfast, and on the way back there is an area that has some billboards. I turned to Mr S. and said "hey - they should put some of those Obama signs there. It's prime real estate". I guess they had already thought it of, because they'd tagged the space already.





The interesting thing is - they are only putting these up on retail space billboards. We have taggers everywhere, but these signs aren't in any of the places the paint taggers touch. Hell, the taggers are so bold they will tag the lane dividers in the middle of the freeways these days. To do this you have to run across several lanes on the freeway.

They could put the Obama posters up anywhere, but they are exclusively on retail space billboards.

Here is another one. It was a bitch to capture. I actually put about 10 miles on the car trying to get this shot. No frontage road, and there were trees until you got right up on it. So I had turn around three times in an area that was a couple miles in between exits.





These are all from today. Including yesterdays shots, they are now in three different cities.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Odd sighting.



I have to admit - this thing didn't even register until I'd past it. It's on 580 in the East Bay. Which by this picture looks like a tiny two lane road. It is an 8 lane highway. They have all the roads torn up right now, so the barriers block the view of all the lanes.

I was actually pretty surprised by it. I know these are popping up everywhere, but most of them are a lot smaller. I'd guess in the 8 inch range. You can see by one of the pictures that these must be at least two or three feet in size. Other than a rather devoted bunch Ron Paul followers, we don't get much of this around here. And even the Ron Paul guys are still sporting bumper sticker sized stuff.



I don't really know what to make of the whole thing.

Update:

After I made this post - Mr S. pointed out that the posters all said something different. We couldn't make out what the middle poster said. So I blew the picture up. Here is the result of that.

Friday, September 25, 2009

People have such short memories.

Today apparently, I went completely insane and called to have some flood insurance quoted on my rental property. Say anything to people in California about flood insurance and they will roll their eyes. I swear to you - my agent actually at one point said "oooohkay".

Normally that is maybe what I would have done too. There are a lot of people back East right now who are under water in their homes, and mortgages. And quite frankly it freaked me out.

It used to be that people could get loans easily, or they had equity. None of those things are true right now. And BTW, my rental almost flooded Jan of 08. There was water coming out of the manholes downtown. Here. In my pictures you can see a few homes aren't really that far from having water at their foundations. My agents office is honestly 10 blocks from some of these pictures. My rental is about 3 blocks.

It wasn't even a wet year, just a freak storm. Hell even the old house I lived in came close to flooding every now and then. It was on the other side of town. The grade of the properties around here are all helter skelter.

I don't know how long the administration is going to keep killing the economy. I don't want to spend any reserves on damage. Normally with a little flooding most people would just pay out of pocket. I don't think that is going to be an option this year for a lot of people.

Thankfully enough, since the insurance companies think meteors will hit before flooding. Insurance is really cheap. Earthquake insurance though. That will cost you a bundle. Not to mention the 40-50 grand detectable.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Isn't that a weird coincidence?

And I mean that in the most sarcastic way.

Lately I've been marveling at the rather noticeable trend of companies keeping older workers rather than workers in the 16-24 age range. I've never seen such a defined trend. But, I've only lived through a couple of recessions. The teen unemployment rate is practically 20%. Normally companies want younger workers - because they are cheaper.

The government even spent about 15 million in stimulus funds for jobs training for this demographic.

From the AP.


"Vice President Joe Biden described the Workforce Investment Act summer program as a way to keep teens out of trouble and off the streets while reinvigorating the country's summer youth employment program, which had gone dormant for a decade. But the program didn't prevent youth unemployment rates from soaring to 18.5 percent in July, the highest rate measured among 16- to 24-year-olds in that month since 1948.

"The summer program was basically half-disaster," said Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston. "It was too little, too late and too poorly constructed to have any lasting effect on our youngest workers."



After reading this article - the first thing I did was clench my teeth and mutter "these are the people who want to run our health care"? They never seem to tire of pushing through stuff that has less than the desired results and waste a lot of money.

Still the stark contrast of other recessions and not hiring younger workers nagged at me. So I brought it up to Mr S.

Well Snarkolepsy - He said, they did raise the federal minimum wage. If they can keep more experienced workers for the same wage. They are probably going to do that.

Oh yeah! I said. Holy crap, I'd totally forgotten about the minimum wage increase. There's been so much noise. It feels like a million years ago. Still I was curious to see how long it took for the effects of the minimum wage increase to take effect.

Looks like pretty much right away. From CNN Money.

"The federal minimum wage will go to $7.25 an hour on July 24 from its current level of $6.55, according to the U.S. Department of Labor."

I mean, it is sort of odd that the same month they raised the minimum wage, teen unemployment rates spiked. I'm sure they have nothing to do with each other. After all, minimum wage jobs were suppose to be very temporary positions. I guess now that they forced companies to raise it, those jobs aren't so temporary. Older workers are filling them and camping out.

Now that I think about it, I think that behaviour was predicted at the time the government was trying to shove it through. I just don't feel like finding the article right now. Maybe I'll add it later.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Three blind mice.

I hate talking about this. I really do. But, it is the reality that we are in.

Mr S. and I have been talking a lot about the administration. My question always is - do you think they will ever get it? "It" being the psychology of the economy. Mr S. says the Libs never will. They'd have to admit their whole world view was wrong. That giving things away to people can not be sustained. That everything they'd worked for like entitlements don't help people. They hurt people.

I of course understand the entitlement issue. Being a welfare baby and all. It's still hard for me to grasp that they will ignore everything around them to reinforce their world vision to the bitter end. At some point they have to surrender. Right? There just isn't enough wealth to offset the weight of all the obligations.

Honestly, most days I'm shocked that the world isn't on fire. It is a great testament to us as a people. We've kept it together. Yet the strain is palpable. Everywhere. Laughter is replaced by a far off stare. Everywhere.

The moderate part of me thought the administration would make a small attempt to get itself together over the summer. And if it doesn't realize it now - it better soon, it's walking into a public relations nightmare. That's what is important to them. Right.

There is nothing like the Holidays that will focus people's minds on how much they've lost. And how fragmented their families are. People have spread out to anywhere they can get work. Right now, people are trying to hang low and survive. Around the holidays, the media will capitalize on the human suffering. People "camping" outdoors will be forced to take shelter somewhere.

Hell, in SF in a good year when it freezes - there aren't enough beds for the homeless. Where are these people going to go when the weather gets bad? And how will the news not jump with joy at being able to report this?

To see that the administration just thinks jobs are created from thin air is just breathtaking to watch. And people believe him! Hell, even my own family believes him.

I was out at breakfast this weekend and the owner of the place was talking to us. He said, "people are scared. I've never seen anything like it". I'd guess the guy about about 60. You can't go anywhere without people talking to you about it.

I never quite understood why the administration tried to ram things through in this fashion. I know they try to get the big stuff out of the way while they still have traction. Yet, it would have been easier to do - if they'd let people stay richer. They could have gotten so much stuff through while we weren't looking. Now, I honestly think his presidency is lost. He may not know it. But it is.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Srsly?



Honestly, I'm such a dork I didn't realize people still used paper calendars.

I really don't know why you'd want to stare at the first lady everyday. I still find it creepy. Like this shot I took at a car show this summer.

I never really remember seeing a first lady calendar. So I plugged in the old first lady to see if I just wasn't paying attention. My brief search turned up nothing. And, we all know they didn't make a calendar of Hillary.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Cell phone providers - the retarded monkeys of the technology world.

Is there anyone in the world who can tell me why it takes 8 phone calls, and over 4 and a half hours of time to switch cell phone providers? Anyone.

It's clear to me that none the of management at these providers ever use their customer service systems - because if they did they would be (should be) embarrassed beyond belief.

The story starts out over at Sprint. My potential new provider. They only sell the phone I want online. The HTC Touch Pro 2. The phone arrives, and I need to call to have it turned on. No big deal. However, I'm not a Sprint customer - I'm a Verizon customer. So it takes about an hour and a half to get the phones transferred over onto Sprints network. Indian call centers have quite a bit of international lag on the phone lines you know.

Since the Sprint network was overloaded they couldn't finish the process and required another call after midnight that evening. Which we did. Then Mr S. wound up calling the next day because his Sprint TV was not activated, and my phone wasn't fully activated either. He gets that sorted out.

Then my Sprint TV wasn't working which required a tech call, only to be told their servers were down and they couldn't do anything anyway.

On Saturday we figured we'd just stop into the local brick store. Spend 15 minutes there to get it fixed and get on with our lives. Over an hour later we finally managed to escape the store. And we went in at 10 in the morning. There was only one guy in the store in front of us.

Two days ago I got a letter from Verizon. Only the main number had been ported and they wanted to make the secondary line the primary. And of course, if I just ignored the letter they would make the line the primary at the cost of a primary line, and start charging my calls by the minute. I wasn't making any calls, but the letter pissed me off a little anyway. I kind of took it as - I know you are leaving me - I always thought you were ugly anyway. So eff you. Especially since I'd been with them probably for 4-5 years.

I call Verizon to try and tell them both phones were ported to another provider. But, oh yeah. They won't talked to me because cell carriers don't understand the concept of having anyone other than the account holder manage the account. No matter how many times it's put in the file that I have permission. Or the fact I have all the security information.

Once they get Mr S. on the phone they want to start setting up all these pins. When he finally gets it across he just wants to cancel the whole account he gets transferred.

They don't seem to understand the phones numbers were already ported, and he has to tell them this probably a half a dozen times. He also wants to shut of his data card for the laptop. Which requires another transfer. He tries to inquire about keeping the OnStar line with Verizon, but is left on hold for roughly 5 minutes or so. Then the girl wants to transfer him again to an Onstar rep. He winds up calling Onstar directly because even though we cut the service to Verizon, he wants to make sure that Onstar starts billing us directly, and doesn't cut the phone all together.

When they got that all sorted out, the OnStar rep says "thank you for choosing Verizon". So really, he was just getting passed from department to department.

And the thing that is so effing annoying is that through every transfer they want to know why you are leaving, and they want you to take their friking survey.

Now, it may just be me - but this doesn't seem like a good business practice anytime. Little alone in a recession.

And just because you guys are so smart, why not discourage customers from upgrading cell phones by locking them into a two year contract. New phones aren't coming out all the time. People won't wait to buy. Lets give the cell providers a round of applause for a job well done. If the job is to make your customers extremely resentful.

Update: Mr S. just reminded me that we also had to call to get our GPS working. It worked the first few days we had the phones, but then stopped working. That also required a call.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

You can't live inside my head rent free.

The relationship with my renter has really become fragile the last few months. Some of it's the hundreds of dollars in water bills. Some of it is him falling out of pattern range in paying rent. Perhaps at the very base is that everyone in your circle these days is in completely different spots in life now. Everyone is trying to readjust socially.

Then there is the constant tethering. Every month he is taking up space in my head in some fashion. And I'm just tired. It's been a long hard year. Oh yeah, and the constant thought that since bachelors are living in my house, they are acting like monkeys flinging poo.

So, today when I got a note from him at the door - I thought "okay, it isn't the greatest time. But, it will be sweet relief." I'd been preparing for this moment forever. Though, between now and January doesn't seem like a great time to rent a place. Lets face it - if it's between stuff for the holidays and paying rent. The holidays are going to win every time.

Anyway. When I called him - the first thing out of his mouth was "Snarkolepsy, you had a sprinkler pipe broken in the back yard. I fixed it". I'm a bit in shock because I think he's moving out. After asking him if he wanted me to reimburse him, he replied - No, I'm putting the water bill in my name tomorrow.

Oh yes he did, Mr S.

He'll be reading this and falling over in shock.

He went on to say that his girlfriend was moving in. Which almost made me cry. In case you don't know, when men go through divorces - they loose their fucking minds. Honestly. And it takes them forever to get their shit together. This whole drama started right about when we bought the crapshack.

I don't really care what their deal is, I just feel hope that maybe I can have a couple of months of peace. And maybe we can heal our relationship. Eventually.

We'll see. I was so close to being done with the whole thing. 11th hour done.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Just write.

Last night I was telling Mr S. I had the most incredible writers block ever. Well, why not write about Jeff - He said. Or the crappy time we had getting new cell phones.

Mr S. - I have plenty of things to write about - I just can't get them out. Snarkolepsy, He says - sometimes the only way to cure writers block, is to write.

I think one of my problems is that once people start disappearing I start getting agitated. It really makes me panicky.

The recession is really a little like walking out onto a frozen lake on a sunny day. You know at some point you are going to fall through. And, no matter how well you pick your steps - you still feel like you may never make it to the other side. Each day you make it, but you know that tomorrow you have to walk the lake again, and people are constantly punching holes in the ice.

As much as I try to enjoy the stuff I'm doing, you can't escape the feeling of danger.

Take for instance last week. I had to take the Chrysler in for a new tire. The place was empty, and the guy working the place started giving me the soft glove treatment. Most people might have thought "hey, look at that, I have the power now". For me.. it made a shiver run down my spine. Not that I don't enjoy the better treatment. Yet, when repair shops are fighting for your business - it's just something that is noticeable.

I've been going to this place off and on the whole time I've lived in this city. While they care about customer support, the vibe was completely different.



Then, the freeways the past two weekends have been completely empty. This is last weekend going through Oakland at 6:00pm.



This was on 280 in Sunnyvale around noon this weekend. At those times both of those freeways should be pretty busy.

This is just something that is filling my head with a lot of static right now, and making it hard for me to write.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Sunday, September 13, 2009

9-13. San Jose.



I don't know what to say about these protests. I think they are getting to the stage where the message is being hijacked. For instance - did you know who Lyndon LaRouche is? Me neither really. Though I do recall the name. I was walking around taking shots and Mr S. pointed out a table where a couple of guys were handing out literature. The LaRouche crowd are apparently also the ones with the Hitler/Obama signs.

Honestly don't know where this group came out of. There are tons of extreme groups in the bay area, and that isn't one I've seen before.











Saturday, September 12, 2009

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

In 20 years no one will believe people dressed like this.



Yes, today is crappy picture day. I have a bunch of stuff to talk about - I'm just having a problem formulating it into an interesting story.

This guy however was walking around my city this weekend. And, I thought he should be mocked. Yes. I really did.

I'm not a mean spirited person - but really? His baby momma was behind the pole. And, BTW - you never really understand what pain in the asses utility poles are until you are driving down the road trying to get a shot of a guy with his pants down.

So I forced Mr S. to flip a u-ey so I could get a better shot of him. By this time he'd spotted me and started throwing his hands up like "yo daaawg - wut u lookin at". It was around this point his baby momma started walking towards the car, and I decided to bail on this bit of amusement.

So, all you get it this crappy picture. Enjoy.

Khaaaaaan!

Monday, September 07, 2009

If I could just live in the bathroom.

You guys know I always go out to breakfast on the weekends. So, I don't have to go over that bit of detail. Same routine today.

When we were finished, Mr S. left to go to the restroom, I go to pay the check.

A minute or so later he meets up with me at the cashier and tells me he has a story to tell me when we get out of the restaurant. This of course makes me excited. If he can't tell me the story right there, it must be good.

When we are safely in the car - he tells me the following.

Him - "So, I'm in the bathroom at the urinals, and there's a black guy in the urinal next to me. He's about my age" (mid .. late 40s) (I don't know why that matters, but it is part of the story) Mr S. goes on to say "the guy violates urinal etiquette by starting up a conversation with me while we're peeing."

The man says to Mr S. "Man, Sometimes I wish I could just live here and forget the rest of the world. "

Mr S. asks - "Here in the restaurant? Or here in the bathroom?" Expecting him to say the restaurant.

The man answers - "Here in the bathroom." Which surprises Mr S.

He replies - "Oh... okay." After thinking about it for a second Mr S says "well... I guess if you have your cellphone you could just call into the kitchen and have food delivered here to the bathroom."

With a straight face, Mr S. says the man replied "I tried that once. My wife found out and she got mad. "

The man washes his hands and as he is leaving the man says "Hey, life sucks sometimes."

It wasn't even like it was a fabulous bathroom. It was just your average diner.

You will read this.

You will.

So.

I'm guessing at least 90% of my posts have at least one paragraph that starts this way.

Saturday, September 05, 2009

The arts.

Today I was up at the Sausalito Art Festival today. I'm not that crazy about my shots, but it's not that unusual for that to happen. Especially artsy stuff. Getting a good shot at these things has a high level of dificulty, because they aren't there to let me take great shots. They are there to sell art.

So they have all sorts of crap in the shot making it hard to make things look nice. So, this is all you get for now. And, of course I asked 5 million artists for their cards, but this is the only artist I can't credit, because I don't know who it is.



When Mr S. just now walked into the room I said the following.

Me - Mr.S, I hate my shots. It isn't even that I don't like them - I hate them.

Him - Okay.

Me - What? Why do you say it that way?

Him - You'll feel better later. You always hate your shots.

Thursday, September 03, 2009

It does raise an eyebrow.

I don't have much today, because I had one of those forced doctors visits.

Why do I get forced into the doctor every 6 months? Well mostly because I have a thyroid problem and my doctor cuts off my prescription. Maybe - once a year I need to have something adjusted, but mostly I'm stable. But, it always leads to a ton of visits I don't really think I need. I do play the game I guess.

Usually my doctor and I just chat. Which in all honestly I resent. Even though my doctor is a nice guy. He's fun to chat with. Yet, I know he's busy and I'm taking up time someone else can use. I will have to dredge up the post from the last time. Of course I can't tag this stuff so I can find it or put a recognizable subject line.

Sometimes I scour my body for things that I can fill the time with. If I wasn't forced to go in, I don't know - I'd probably still have a few skin tags I had him cut off.

Today I asked about my shoulder. Did you know when you dislocate your shoulder more than twice, you are basically fucked? There is like a 90% chance you will dislocate it again. Which I guess is interesting to know. I already knew that eventually when it bothered me enough, I'd have to go a shoulder guy who will want to perform surgery. I'm not really keen to surgery. It doesn't always turn out the way you want, so it's always a last resort for me.

Anyway. The thing that was notable about this visit was that he asked me if I smoked. Yeah, that's it you say? Click, next page. I don't smoke, but when he logged the information he said "it's a bit of social information we need." Now, that struck me as really odd.

I don't smoke. Though, there has probably been enough cigarette smoke go through my lungs that I need a warning label. My whole family smoked. A lot. Also, I've been seeing this guy for like 10 years. All of a sudden he wants "social information". And it's just such a specific phrase. I literally tilted my head because I couldn't believe he phrased it that way. I imagine it is in preparation of the upcoming President Money Bags care where they get to deny stuff I need if I were to smoke.

The other stupid thing was he got a nifty new laptop - which I guess all my medical records are on. He's only 50, but pretty computer illiterate. Which was annoying. I wanted to rip the laptop out of his hands and put in a request for my freaking medication myself. All that time we usually spend chatting was taken up with him trying to put a prescription request though.

End.

Wednesday, September 02, 2009

All that remains of hope.

What does it say, when the sites I troll that track layoffs - have completely stopped updating them? Yeah! Recession over, like all the hack economists are saying? Hardly.

At least one of the sites gave an explanation in the vein of - this is taking up too much of my time and is crushing my soul.

So it is with great amusement that a bunch of reasonably smart people are saying the recession probably ended in July. And, I mean that in the most sarcastic way. Australia said just last night on Doomberg, that their economy had grown .6%. With a whisper at the end "well, without stimulus, we would have actually shrunk .3%".

Holy crap, that is quite a spread! +6 to -3. If only these people had thought of this before we could have never endured a recession. Why not make the growth rate +12? +20? Why stop there?

And.... I mean that in the most sarcastic way.

Listen, I believe that the only reason all shit hasn't broken loose already is because the market went up. This quarter is isn't going to be that easy. All that stupid bullshit of "better than expected earnings" - which was really "hey, at least we are still making a little profit" won't make wall street happy. If President moneybags was smart, he would be lying in the middle of the oval office curled up in a ball with a box of Kleenex sobbing his eyes out.

He has lost all control.

There are places in California that now are at 20+% unemployment. I read yesterday that Puerto Rico had 17% unemployment. BTW - that is a pretty cool link. Each state is clickable to find the unemployment number for them.

Hey, if you want something guaranteed to the make the words "holy crap" explode from your mouth, click on that link- then click on Florida, Georgia, and Nevada. That crap will make you dizzy.

Jobs should have been his only fing priority. Not making them, but making it so companies can create them. His way though - much better. And I mean that in the most sarcastic way.

Factory after factory shut. Oh - and all the states have run out of time, so the 6 month notice they've needed to provide for the unions will be kicking in this month and next. Because of you know - plunging tax revenue.

They can't even control the unemployment departments. They are completely overwhelmed. The web sites crash. People can't get through on the phones. I don't even know how many states are borrowing money to fund unemployment at this point. Hey, even I've given up tracking it. Oh wait - I'm so crafty sometimes. Look here. This is from August - which I'm pretty sure more are borrowing. But, it fun and exciting to see how many numbers they can string together.

So yeah.. when the stock market pulls back - which apparently it historically does at this time. Who knows what will happen. I do know that barely anyone gets hired in the tech world from October to January. My whole career I made sure to never be unemployed at this time.

I don't know.. it's hard to be positive. They layoffs are starting to tick up again. Despite what they told you on the news today. Subscribe to a twitter feed on layoffs. That's what I've had to do, because they websites that track this stuff have just given up. Yeah, it's depressing.

Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Fish Taco?

I just found it odd.