Jan 17, 2009
January made me shiver
It is the stupid economy. I learned that my company plans to lay off another 10% of its employees. For those that survive they will get a 10% pay cut. When I think about my salary I often thought I would like to make more and the thought of bringing up 10% less never crossed my mind. Many people I know have been laid off recently and I may join them at the end of the month. As my tweets and posts here have indicated, I haven’t been exactly been hyper enthusiastic about my job. I still do my job well, but I’ve felt it was time to move on. While on my cross country road trip back to Austin, I thought that given the recession I should just stay in my job until things start to turn around and then get out. Now, that decision might be made for me. That is never good, but it could be the kick in my ass I need to find something I like. If you know of a gig, let me know. I have pretty simple desires:
- I don’t want to live in a place where it is cold.
- I don’t want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don’t want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don’t want to do that.
It is finally over. Can you believe it has been eight fucking years of George W Bush? It is a miracle our republic survived. Obama has his work cut out for him. The psychological impact of Obama being president I hope will give us an optimism to get us out of the economic mess sooner rather than later. I expect no miracles, but the nation — and world really — has been in pretty despondent. Good luck Barack. I’ll be tuning in from the office for the inauguration provided the interwebs doesn’t stop working.
Fuck. I’m not surprised that much (really, it takes a lot to surprise me anymore). But I’m pissed off that many of the recipients of the bailout money — money that comes from our taxes — is going to firms which actively dodge paying taxes. Perhaps rather that look to the US government for bailouts, these firms ask the Grand Cayman government for help. A condition of taking the bailout money should be they have to pay taxes. Congress should close that loophole six months ago. Of course, they should have also had better oversight than just give these companies money and hope they’ll do the right thing.
with every paper you deliver? hope you well in 2009, mr. kirktastic. it’s going to be a rough one this year. at least mr. bush is gone–for that we can be happy.