All I want for Christmas is a salary

December 4, 2013 7:14 AM , Leave a Comment ,

I’ve noticed that some folks that I know won’t go to black Friday sales and will postpone shopping until the week before Christmas.

It’s not that they hate the maddening crowds or don’t like a bargains.  It’s that in the back of their minds they’re thinking about their paychecks and whether they’ll have a job by the end of December.

Being a salaried employee can be nerve-wracking at times.  Job security is a fleeting thing in the contemporary work place and the competitive nature of jobs can mean that you’re out in the middle of December looking for a job and that it’s going to be a lean Christmas.

So should employers take this into account when considering a dismissal?  Do they have a moral obligation to postpone firings till after the holidays?

Of course not.  The main focus of a business owner is to keep money coming into their business and to keep the paychecks flowing to those workers that are assets to the company.  Keeping people on for sentiments sake is fine but it drains money from the company and keeps your team from working at peak efficiency.

You have to remember that firings are typically not done on a whim or for capricious reasons.  Employees that are going to be fired usually have an established bad track record and that this is the last step of the process, not the first.

I do think that an appropriate step is to let a worker that is of dubious quality know that their job performance is not up to par before the holidays begin and that they are at risk of being dismissed in the near future.  They may decide to leave on their own or at least they can modify their holiday spending plans in advance.  I think that’s as much as an employer can do in this type of situation.

The only other thing I would add is that the employer has to take into the consideration the welfare of the rest of the company team that are doing their jobs well and that due to their efforts are entitled to their Happy Holidays.  Keeping bad employees on for sentiments sake is just harming everyone in the long run.

Posted in: business, Christmas, holidays, jobs

Paid athletes in college

December 2, 2013 3:16 PM , Leave a Comment ,

The first I heard about paying college players for football was a couple of years ago during a 60 minutes report about likeness rights.

Modern video games are so detailed that the faces of actual players can be digitized and used in the games.  Of course someone’s face is an asset and can be bought and sold.  The NCAA is apparently cognizant of this and negotiated these rights to video game makers for a price, and in order to make things legal, they require all prospective players to sign away their college career rights for life.

This particular report featured a former player suing to recoup any profits made from his likeness.  The inequity of the system is pointed out in that the NCAA makes huge profits from the players but it is argued that they receive little in return.

One solution proposed was paying players as if they were employees of the university.  The argument is that this would be an equitable solution for all the players that participate in college sports (particularly football) and don’t make it to the professional level.

My position is that this is a terrible idea for several reasons.

Firstly on the issue of compensation, this overlooks the fact that the compensation originally offered in the understood contract between the schools and the players is the fact that the players are receiving a full college education for their efforts on the field.

Not only are their classes paid for but they receive room and board as well as free tutoring in some programs.  These last 3 are things that the regular students have to pay for or make do without.  Nowhere in the implied contract or actual contracts with these students is it promised that they will make it to the professional level and be able to make a living in professional sports.

Secondly, injecting money into the equation and expecting teenagers just out of high school to make wise decisions about money when in some cases they or their family members have never had substantial amounts of money to manage is a disaster waiting to happen.

Professional athletes already face some of the highest rates of bankruptcy (about 78% among football players).  They are prey for crooked money managers, agents, and even family members.  I have no reason to suppose things would be different for high school players suddenly exposed to large amounts of money.

Thirdly, putting money into the equation will inevitably favor larger schools with larger booster clubs and deeper pockets.  Most school athletic programs already run at a loss.  The additional burden of bidding wars for talent will exacerbate the inequities between large and small schools.  It will also mean that the NCAA will have to devote more resources to police illegal recruitment techniques.

Lastly, it’s an insult to the normal school body.  The majority of the students will not benefit from this.  Rather this is going to benefit a small percentage of individuals with no loyalty or ties to the institution and who would change sides if a better contract came their way.

I do not for one minute excuse the NCAA for their actions.  Forcing kids to sign away likeness rights is inexcusable and just plain greedy on their parts.  But trying to make things more equitable by adding more money into the equation and turning our schools into glorified farm leagues for the sports monopolies is no solution.

 

 

 

Posted in: business, football, school, sports

NaNoWriMo 2013

November 30, 2013 10:27 PM , Leave a Comment ,

I just finished doing NaNoWriMo for 2013.  This is a month-long writing competition where the goal is to write a 50,000 word novel by the end of the month.  This is my second year running and my second “win”

Winner winner!

This is pretty much all the recognition I will get for my writing efforts.  It’s really an exercise in forced writing meant to inspire the every day writing process and exercise the writing muscle and I do believe that it works to an extent.

This year I tried my hand at literary fiction.  A type of novel that deals more with character studies, it is more serious, more descriptive and more in-depth than other genres.  It is also much tougher to write.  Whereas other genres like sci-fi or horror or fantasy have certain characteristics that they can lean on, literary fiction really doesn’t.  I thought I had made a huge mistake starting this novel.  Somehow I finished it though it’s not my best work and it is a far darker work than I usually like to write.

As far as the writing process, I spent several hours tied to my desktop at home but I took the extra step of going to cafes to write for this competition.  I got a surprising amount done at these cafes and really enjoyed the experience.  Although I must say that I began to feel like a permanent resident of the Inner loop with the amount of time I was spending in the cafes in and around the Montrose and Heights areas.

But it paid off.  All the evenings on the desktop and all the weekends drinking coffee and tea inside dimly lit establishments led to my second novel.

One thing I have noticed though is that I don’t want to write any new novels or even short stories for the short-term.

Posted in: NaNowriMo, writing

the meaning of junk

November 30, 2013 3:06 PM , Leave a Comment ,
My "electronic junk" closet.

My “electronic junk” closet.

Inspired to action by a recent post I read.  I decided to haul off and take a turn cleaning out some of the detritus out of my life.  I decided to tackle the electronic junk closet.  If you’ve ever lived with one or are a computer person then you know what this is.  That closet crammed with stuff that any other sane person would label as junk but a computerphile knows is more precious than gold.

So I start tossing stuff but inevitably though I begin going through things and reminiscing.

  • Where did I get this?
  • How did I use that?
  • Why did I put this away and why was I saving that?

Mostly it’s old power cables from computers you no longer own, digital cameras that are laughable now, USB cables, Cat 5 cables, power cables for other devices that are totally unmarked. An old printer with dried out printer cartridges, A CRT monitor that must weigh at least 30 pounds.

Most of it goes into a box that will go to goodwill.

The problem area are the hard drives.  I have this ridiculous fear about my data going out there into the world uncontrolled.  I have long since wiped the memories of these drives and transferred the important things to newer bigger drives.

But, even after erasing, a hard drive’s data can be resurrected.  I know it’s silly but these have to stay.  My plan is to save several of these together and hire a shredding company to crush and destroy these one day.

The closet is pretty clean now but I can already tell that I will have plenty of stuff in here by this time next year.  Technology keeps moving on and I will most certainly be discarding some old devices and adding to my hard drive collection by this time next year.

Posted in: computers, life in general

Houston and charity

November 28, 2013 9:04 PM , Leave a Comment ,
My racing bib and timing chip

My racing bib and timing chip

It’s 7AM.  the temperature is just above freezing.  I’m wearing shorts, t-shirts, and gloves and I’m cold.  At 8:45, it’s warmer, I’m soaked in sweat and tired.  A 10k fun run has just finished and I’ve run my first race in decades.

But something else has happened behind the scenes.  Something that I and the other 15000 participants are barely cognizant of.  Two Houston charities have just raised several thousand dollars to support their community efforts.  The process has been fun for the participants and the city’s people will benefit without having to get government involved.

But it’s always this way in Houston.  This city has made it a habit to mix charity fund-raising and fun events for decades.

We seem to love our soirees, our garden parties, our fun runs, our cotillions and it seems that any big event in the city has to have a charity event as a reason for existing.  It is almost mandatory.

What is amazing to me is that once a charity event is established that it seems to grow and grow.  In fact it seems like events without a charity aspect don’t grow as much or as quickly as those that do.

I’m sure that these things take place in other cities but I think it’s a specialty of our city.  We may not be the biggest or most sophisticated but we are the kindest.

Posted in: Houston

Princes and Princesses

November 26, 2013 8:49 AM , Leave a Comment ,

[Author’s note:  this is an edited version of a journal post that I wrote in 2010]
Sub cultures are interesting if just for the reason that they describe the way people attempt to deal with their immediate surroundings and circumstances by forming coalitions amongst themselves.  Using outward symbols such as speech, dress, and behavior help bind these groups together and set them apart.  The need to belong to something, even if it is a small sub cultural group, is strong in humans.  In ancient times this may have led to the beginnings of clans and tribes

Some people however delve deeper into their sub-culture.  They eat, live, breathe the culture and without it they would figuratively cease to exist.

In the American lexicon there exists the expression “Jewish American princess”.  Typically it refers to a shallow, materialistic, young female (Jewish in this case) that is distinct enough to categorize.  Generally it is thought of as an offensive term though some take pride in the label.  These young ladies will generally band together to share their thoughts, dress alike, talk alike, gossip, make plans, and generally just hang out together.  To some extent their world view is shaped by their self-identity and they will generally scorn or eschew anything or anyone that contradicts that.  Whereas others might put away this identity for leisure time they live this identity all the time.

At first I thought this to be a unique circumstance but looking around you begin to realize the term prince or princess can be applied to any individual that is so subsumed, so deep into their sub culture to the exclusion of all other things, that in a sense nothing else exists.  The self-identity affects not only the outward appearance but also in their speech and their thought process.

In Texas for example you have the cowboy sub culture.  The cowboy prince or princess will generally dress in jeans or western wear for work or play.  The symbols of the sub culture show up in every aspect of their lives.  The boots, that hat (though most save these for social occasions), the music, the food, even the vehicle (pick up trucks or full size trucks) are all relics of that sub culture.  But the changes are not just outward but inward as well.  Their point of view favors more rural attitudes, more traditional opinions as to social issues, and derision of anything that does not conform to the lifestyle.

Goths princes are another good example.  They tend to be more urban, they favor certain types of clothes, certain music and ideas.  Again, they tend to scorn things outside of their world view.

But sub-cultures are not solely limited to choices of music or clothes.  Just about every aspect of human endeavor can be sub-culturized.  I have seen sub-cultures based around computers, the Air Force, fitness, religion, science, wine, boats, cars, even blogging.  Just about anything you can name has a sub-culture.  Of course in all of these you will find the princess and princesses.

Although I’ve taken an interest in various sub-cultures I was never able to fully integrate into any sub culture as deeply as one of these individuals.   I could never take that final step and say I will fully and totally join in to the exclusion of all other things.  It’s something that I was always leery of but also envied to an extent.

I should explain that last part.  When you fully take on that sub culture you know what you’re about.  The parameters of your world are fully developed and you know how far you can safely wander away and how to get back to safety.  I imagine that this is comforting to some people.

But it comes at a price.  You artificially limit yourself.  Not only is your individuality compromised but there is no room to grow beyond the parameters of that sub-culture.

My individuality was always more important to me.  I could not allow that to fade into the background of a sub-culture.  I could also not limit myself to a limited pattern of thought.  I cannot claim to be totally unbiased but such an artificial limit on my mind is unacceptable.

I chose a life outside the sub-cultures.  But there is a price to be paid by those of us that walk outside the lines.

Posted in: culture, life in general, relationships

How far we’ve come

November 24, 2013 7:29 PM , 1 Comment ,

Saw an article a few days ago detailing the professions that have arisen since the turn of the century.   So many things that we take for granted now did not exist even recently.  It’s scary to think that people can’t make do without some of these conveniences nowadays.

This got me thinking of the changes that have taken place in my lifetime since I was a kid growing up in Houston all those decades back and if these changes have really improved my life, complicated it, or are in fact stifling it.

I had no internet or computers as a child.  My first brush with these was early in high school and it was laughably primitive.  Computing was mainly a one machine affair with crude graphics, monocolor TV screens and little to no storage capacity.  Video games were similarly limited.  My first pocket video game was the colecovision football game.

Texting was unheard of.  Beepers were high-tech gadgets.  Fax machines were the wonder of the age and some cost as much as $5000.  Phones were firmly plugged into the wall and using them required parental consent.  We only had 2 phones, one in the kitchen and one in my parent’s room.  I am probably one of the last people who you will meet that knows what a Telex machine is.

My cell phone can now carry out all the functions of the last 2 paragraphs combined and can do many other things besides.

Black and white television sets were still widely available.  I had a small portable black and white TV.  In the living room we had a Curtis Mathes 25 inch color TV.  Curtis Mathes was at the time the Samsung/Sony/LG of televisions and the television console itself was the size of small table.  Cable TV existed but I didn’t get this till after college.  We had a large overly complicated TV aerial on the roof that inevitably blew over or fell after a large storm and I had to climb on the roof several times to rearrange it and shout through the chimney “Is the picture better or worse?”  VCR’s were the best recording technology and I was the only one in the family who understood how to program them.

Television is in the process of ceding its dominance over the American household to mobile devices and the internet.  The process is long-term but definitely taking place.  We are no longer bound by the 3 TV networks of old and can watch what we want, where we want, when we want.

My father had a 1982 Oldsmobile Cutlass and he kept that car for nearly 12 years.  I learned to drive on that car and when my dad was on business trips I would drive that to high school.  As late as 1990 he had complete strangers drive up to the house and offer to buy it.  Eventually he passed it down to a granddaughter.  The most advanced electronics in the car were in the analog radio.

Last month I drove a rental car that did everything but fly and had electronics undreamt of in the 80s.

I could go on but won’t.  Do these new things improve my life?  In some ways yes.  I am not tied to traditional office spaces anymore for work, I can access a nearly endless library of data, information, and entertainment at a stroke of a finger.

But I have to wonder, is that in fact the trap?  If tomorrow the internet crashed, if all these techno toys shut down at once and in fact were in danger of never returning, how would we move forward?  What would the social media specialists do?  The web page designers, the e-sales people?  How would we access our clients overseas?  Would the vast forests of TV aerials sprout up again?  Are we the masters of our technology or are we its slaves?

 

Posted in: life in general

What I see in movies

November 22, 2013 6:06 PM , Leave a Comment ,

“The book’s better than the movie.” is something I hear all the time and often say myself.  I sometimes wonder if scriptwriters even read some of the properties that they are asked to transcribe to the big screen.  I can’t blame them though.  Some concepts, descriptions, or character personalities are impossible to describe adequately in a script.

But sometimes actors, directors, and writers create something special, something memorable.  I can’t say that they’re better than the book but they are in their own way special.

“Gone with the wind”, “The Shining”, “The Godfather”, and one of my favorites “Blade Runner” are all good examples.  In the case of “The shining”, Stephen King hated the movie but most fans acclaim it as one of the greatest horror movies ever.  I would like to take a look at a scene from one of these in particular.

“Blade Runner” became the standard for sci-fi movies in the 80s and 90s.  Some consider this to be the most beautiful scenes in science fiction movies.  I think it displays very well what I mean about actors contributing significantly to a work.  In the scene below, Roy Batty, an android, is dying as Rick Deckard looks on.  Both of them are sitting on a building roof in a pouring rain storm.  Roy briefly explains his life to Deckard and accepts his imminent death.

Roy gets a dreamy expression on his face as he describes “C-beams gleaming in the darkness”  As the audience you don’t really have to know what C-beams are to get an impression that they are impressive looking.

Roy continues on and gets a mournful, regretful expression as he concludes “all those moments will be lost in time, like tears in the rain”.  Rutger Hauer, the actor that played Roy Batty, actually came up with this line right on the set.

Finally comes the coup de grace as Roy dies and releases a dove that he was holding to fly away into a blue sky.  A seeming allegory of his soul leaving his body and ascending to heaven affirming that the android really was human in his own way.  Deckard clenches his eyes shut finally realizing that his job deactivating these droids for all these years has been tantamount to murder.

Many people consider the film to be superior to the book, “Do androids dream of electric sheep”, that it was based upon.  Most of this can be attributed to the director, Ridley Scott, however as can be seen above actors can also make these movies and even add value to the material.

 

Posted in: movies

Creatives

November 20, 2013 8:49 PM , 2 Comments ,

I’ve been on a bit of a culture kick this year.

Going to art galleries, live theater, listening to new types of music, going to book readings and just really getting to know more about this world.

It’s not just the art work that draws me in but the people who created the works themselves.  I find it fascinating to learn about these creative people and how they came up with their ideas.  Mostly I love to hear about how they decided to share those gifts one day with the public and tell everyone ” Here I am!”

I can’t even fathom how that works.  To take something that was so private and so innate to yourself and think “yes, this is great and I must share it”.  I don’t know if I could do that.  So naturally I look up to artists.

I am also amazed at their levels of talent.  When you think of the amount of time and dedication put into these art works.

Simply amazing!

Posted in: art, ideas, talking, thought

Extending my reach

November 18, 2013 9:06 PM , 2 Comments ,

Sometimes I feel that I have too many obligations and that I am trying to keep too many people happy.  To be honest it’s true.  I do have a tendency to do that at times.

Okay, a lot of the time.

During those times I often think to myself that I should not make so many new acquaintances or that I should limit my interactions to just a few people so I can keep as much time free for myself.

But how selfish is that?  Above and beyond that, I am hurting my own self.  When I interact with more people, when I share, when I get to know those people I often find new perspectives open to me, new ideas, new resources.  Far from hurting myself it’s actually helping me.

What is really hurtful in the long run is to cut myself off, to become isolated.  I end up having less friends and resources to draw upon.

This doesn’t mean that I have to spend every waking second pleasing everyone else.  I can limit and balance my time between my needs and their needs.  This isn’t a zero sum game, if played properly it’s a game that everyone can win and prosper in.

Posted in: friends