April 6, 2009
Sometimes I think it would be nice to be the one making the decisions, but then I think think about how much of the job is less about sticking with your convictions as it is about making the right people happy so you keep your job. The last paragraph pretty much sums up the whole article:
The decision to let 1,700 poor kids get tossed from private schools is a moral disgrace. It also exposes the ugly politics that lies beneath union and liberal efforts across the country to undermine mayoral control, charter schools, vouchers or any reform that threatens their monopoly over public education dollars and jobs. The Sheldon Silver-Dick Durbin Democrats arent worried that school choice doesnt work. Theyre worried that it does, and if Messrs. Obama and Duncan want to succeed as reformers they need to say so consistently.
via wsj.com
March 28, 2009
…a lot of people these days are finding the new compact fluorescent bulbs anything but simple. Consumers who are trying them say they sometimes fail to work, or wear out early. At best, people discover that using the bulbs requires learning a long list of dos and don’ts.
I’ve never had a problem with mine, and they are in every socket in the apartment. Our utility bill is significantly less than the neighbors’ every month. They seem worth it to me.
via Compact Fluorescent Bulbs Draw Quality Complaints – NYTimes.com.
March 23, 2009
Jonathan Clements Says the Bonus Tax Creates a Disincentive to Work – WSJ.com.
Consider this truly searing indictment: A 90% tax is downright stupid, creating bizarre disincentives. Exhibit A? That would be me. Once my total income hits $250,000 for the current calendar year, I will have no incentive to work a single day more in 2009. After all, for every extra dollar of income I earn above $250,000, I will lose 90 cents of the bonus I received earlier this year.
Do we really want them all to quit? Even if they weren’t involved in the unprofitable division?
January 14, 2008
I guess this can count as my obligatory “New Year’s Post,” and it’s only two weeks late! I guess the reason I didn’t post anything a few weeks ago when other people were in a hurry to list their resolutions or remember the previous year is because it didn’t seem like that big of a deal to me. But now that I’m back at school, the new year has really started for me. And it really is new.
Everything was different a year ago. Last year I was living in the dorms during the week and going home almost every weekend. This year I have an apartment and I went home a grand total of two times last semester. There are so many other changes that really factor into that. Last year I had a girlfriend back home, which is a great reason to make a three hour drive. Sadly, though, the distance still proved too much.
I also feel much more at home here now. On my way to class today I saw six people I knew on campus in a span of maybe five minutes. That never happened last year. When I got to school my freshman year I knew three people out of ten thousand on campus; now I now hundreds of people here.
I’m racing towards the “real world” now, and it scares me. I have no Plan A, much less a Plan B. And I feel so unmotivated sometimes. I spent today doing almost nothing. In fact, this post may be the most worthwhile thing I’ve done since I woke up, and even now it’s just to kill time. What does that mean for my future? I guess if there was a career I really liked doing it would be okay, but I have no idea what that is. It seems all I can do is hope and pray that I find my true calling, and soon, because I only have 2 more years of this lifestyle left.
January 11, 2008
Two days ago I had some extra teeth in my skull. They aren’t there anymore. I had my wisdom teeth extracted in what is a common procedure, but I still ended up with a quite funny story. I was a little nervous at first, but the nitrous made that go away.Somehow I got a hold of a notebook on the ride home… I don’t know who’s idea that was, but it ended up pretty funny. All I can remember is thinking that I couldn’t think straight. I couldn’t say anything and I could hardly focus my eyes, but for some reason I wrote three pages while coming out of anesthesia. I’m not sure what possessed me to write in a state like that, but I think I might have subconsciously known that it would make for an interesting blog post. I have scanned these pages and tried my best to decipher them below for your viewing pleasure.
Page 1
hiccups
mouth is numb
eyes just now focusing
whole mouth is numb
I wish I had my moleskine
wearing of quickly
almost lucid
eyes can’t focus
mouth is numb but … feelings
don’t remember putting jacket on
more lucid, still can’t make eyes focus
I don’t know how much I will be able to read later
As you can see, especially on this first page, there are parts I can’t even decipher. It looks like I at least thought I was thinking straight, but I cant remember all of it.
Page 2
getting easier to write and think
I have hiccups
mouth is dry
gauze keeps me from closing
don’t remember anything from before I was in the car
tongue is numb
jawn is numb feels like I’ve been sleeping on it
mostly lucid now, but still hard to concentrate
15min
awake
On the second page my handwriting improved dramatically, but I lost the use of articles and even misspelled a three letter word. I think 15 minutes is how long I had been writing, but I can’t really remember. I just know I was trying to keep up with the time. I think I may have pointed at the clock and mumbled something incoherent to figure out what to write there.
Page 3
don’t remember leaving or getting in the car
rolling stones
still have hiccups 30min later
possibly still a little dulled but I feel fine now except for numbness – 11am
chin to bottem lip is completely numb
I think I wrote “Rolling Stones” because I was trying to identify the band on the radio. Even though I wrote that I felt fine, I still barely remember that. Now, two days later the meprozine still makes me loopy when I take it, to the point of feeling like I’m gonna fall out of my chair from dizziness. I took some earlier today and I couldn’t even watch tv… I just laid in bed on some sort of drug trip. I can’t wait to get off of this stuff.
December 19, 2007
The culmination of a game of Balderdash:
“A constipated catfish named Adam tries to become a male fish prostitute but first he must help two old ladies find their baby’s daddy. He is eventually killed by a civil war general with no privates.”
(Movie Description)
Go figure.
November 10, 2007
Writing isn’t nearly as therapeutic for me as simply yelling a lot, but it’s late at night and I don’t want to look like the town drunk so I’ll just work on this little ditty here. In a nutshell, life is so unfair it’s not even funny. Since people I know IRL read this I don’t want to be too candid, so I just leave it at that.I guess I just have a hard time with being satisfied and content. I always like having the best I can get, and sometimes I make unrealistic goals. I could have 3 or 4 options laid out in front of me, but they aren’t the ones I want. The one that would be, in my mind, perfect for me is out of my reach. How can it be there in sight but unavailable? That’s just so unfair that it’s almost cruel.Maybe, hopefully, I’ll get an opportunity soon to realize my goal, but I don’t no how long I can harbor this goal, this desire before I just give up on it and move on. And I really hate losing… but it’s not the first time this has happened to me.
Filed under Life, Personal, college
Tags: college, contentedness, fairness, friends, future, goals, Life, Personal, relationships, satisfaction, therapy
