I’m coming up on the 1st anniversary of the blog. I did it primarily to get the muscles working as far as writing goes - in that sense it’s been a good thing.

I had thought to do some kind of overview of the year and it’s major events (personal that is) but, I have yet to be entirely motivated in that direction.

However, today I just wanted to make note of one of those oxymorons which seem to be so popular these days.

Jobless Recovery.

Another jobless recovery? It may be too early to tell, but some economists worry that it's 1992 all over again. —CNN Money June 6, 2002

There’s been much talk in this so-called “jobless recovery” of white-collar job loss. In fact, though, this recession, like its predecessors, is still mainly a working class phenomenon. Of the 2.5 million net jobs lost since the recession officially began in march 2001, fully two million of them have been in manufacturing. For a blue-collar worker these days, it seems, even a lunch break can be risky. —Online NewsHour June 23, 2003

People who study the economy, keep telling us there’s good news and bad news. The good news is the economy is growing, if only by less than a percent in the last quarter. The bad news is, so is the number of unemployed Americans. —The Connection

“The truth is, jobs are shifting from the developed to the underdeveloped world” Hiring is occurring now, although it’s “replacement” rather than “expansion” hiring. Companies are being opportunistic and are trying to replace employees with better talent from the outside. In general, companies are maintaining 2003 staffing levels or adding conservatively. The industries that are seeing a pickup: health care, investment banking, business services, and industrial and defense-related areas. Among the job areas most in demand: finance, sales, and general management.

I’m half-heartedly looking for work these days. I can’t say it has been the driving force in my life at the moment. However, I know quite a few people who are out of work, have been for a long, long time and are hopeless about their prospects (Tom, Roberta, Pete and Ray) and there’s another group that numbers among the recently unemployed through layoffs (Bruce, Jack and Doug).

Needless to say, when I hear of people losing their jobs or having trouble finding a new one, it worries me. I worry for the people I know and also I am concerned about my own prospects.

The question becomes, what is going on in this country?

In my industry, I think the is one of those ‘paradigm shifts’ going on. Beyond the external pressures of the marketplace, the market itself is undergoing a change in the process of work. The niche that I and some of my peers once occupied is getting smaller and at the same time in other areas of the business there is a demand for an increased skill set. Also, there is a shift in the emphasis on what constitutes quality.

So, where does that leave us all?

Well, there’s an election coming up but, I haven’t heard anyone outside of Dick Gephardt talk about the external pressures on the American worker. As Gephardt put it, ‘free trade doesn’t mean a race to the bottom.’ Gephardt is out of the race (unfortunately) but, I’ll be keeping an ear out to hear who addresses that issue.

I got onto talk radio Saturday.

Yes, from time to time, I actually call and get through to those radio talk shows. Saturday, I found myself waiting virtually no time at all before I was on WFAN with Richard Near.

Over the last several days, everyone in New York has been treated to the litany resulting from the A-Rod trade. Yankee fans are ecstatic and Mets fans are supposed to be disappointed.

At least, that’s the way it’s being spun.

I’m a Mets fan, a used to be Yankee fan who got fed up with the circus the Bronx had become. When Buck Showalter and Don Mattingly left after the ’95 season I had my fill and decided to switch loyalties.

It might have been the best thing I could do for the Yankees.

They went off and ran the table for a few years but, their last World Series win came against the Mets in the 2000’s Subway Series which I was able to attend.

The last few years have been tough for me as a Mets fan. Since going to the World Series the Mets managed to finish in last place a few years running. They said goodbye to Bobby V, Edgardo Alfonzo, Turk Wendell, Dennis Cook, Benny Agbayani, Robin Ventura and Rey Ordonez to name a few. They said hello to Roberto Alomar, Jeromy Burnitz and Mo Vaughn.

Funny thing is, I wasn’t a big fan of a lot of those moves and because of that let my Saturday plan lapse.

Baseball is an odd game in that it really is a team effort. Yes, it’s great to have the star player or two but, it’s better to have a group of players that works well together, more a question of the sum of the whole being greater than the parts. The Yankee team that ran the table was like that - Tino Martinez, Scott Brosius, Paul O’Neil were the core of those winning teams, since they’ve left the Yankees have brought in Godzilla (Matsui), Giambi and a host of others to no avail. Three years running and the Yankees haven’t won a World Series since they faced the Mets.

I like the fact the Yankees went out and got A-Rod. He’s a great player and he’ll make it all the more fun to watch the Yankees over the coming year but... they’re not a lock.

Just another reminder of how much the world has changed since I was a young man...

Like many other guys his age, Rick, who has never rented an X-rated video and considers strip clubs ‘a little gross,’

There’s been a lot of media play about gay marriage lately. Somehow, I think it will be less of an issue when we hear the story about the first person to lose half their sh*t through “gay divorce.” Why shouldn’t everyone benefit?

As bad as the intrusion on privacy has been in this country, apparently it’s been even worse in Great Britain and there’s been a backlash...

Similar surveillance plans have been proposed or implemented in the U.S. In the wake of Sept. 11, Washington police set up a centralized video-surveillance network that can zoom in on people from as far as a half-mile away. The network was installed without any notice to Congress or the local city council. And despite complaints from privacy groups, the system remains in place. The popular EZ Pass system, which allows commuters to speed quickly through toll booths, also permits extensive tracking without adequate promise of data protection, privacy advocates fear.

The lady who bought you the bomb - there’s an article in MacWorld’s March 2004 issue on Susan Kare. She’s the lady who designed the Mac icons we’ve become oh so familiar with (the March issue isn’t up yet but, I’m sure it will be shortly).

In the meantime, there are two links to Susan’s own site and a profile of her on designboom.com.

Heh, heh, heh, heh...

Ned considers faking a form of generosity; he knows the orgasm matters to the woman but is bright enough not to blame her for the problem. “Some guys don’t have the presence of mind to fake it...”

Usually in the past Fridays had been one of my more productive nights when it comes to entries - I’ve been out of practice of late so, maybe I can start a roll here.

Hmmmm. So where to begin, where to begin...

I’m almost tempted to do the things I give a crap about versus things I don’t give a crap about. Deluged by the stories of the moment, what matters and what doesn’t?

Anything related to Martha Stewart, her trial, what star is sleeping with what other star, the Oscars. All that sh*t just rates really low on the radar - actually I find myself slightly offended by just how much it occupies the public focus.

It’s not that I haven’t had anything to say, it’s just each time I get to writing about something the app crashes or it’s a long entry and my train of thought gets derailed.

It’s not like I’ve stopped writing either - I’ve just gotten to the point where I’ve od’d on the whole computer/web surfing thing and if I’m going to get things done I have to spend less time on the computer and more time actually finishing stuff.

Baseball’s Most Valuable Packages

Package Value	Contract Period	Player	Team
$252,000,000	2001-2010	Alex Rodriguez	Texas Rangers
$189,000,000	2001-2010	Derek Jeter	N.Y. Yankees
$160,000,000	2001-2008	Manny Ramirez	Boston Red Sox
$141,500,000	2003-2011	Todd Helton	Colorado Rockies
$123,800,000	2001-2008	Mike Hampton	Colorado Rockies
$120,000,000	2001-2008	Chipper Jones	Atlanta Braves
$120,000,000	2002-2008	Jason Giambi	N.Y. Yankees
$116,500,000	2000-2008	Ken Griffey Jr.	Cincinnati Reds
$105,000,000	1999-2005	Kevin Brown	L.A. Dodgers
$91,000,000	1999-2005	Mike Piazza	N.Y. Mets
$90,000,000	2002-2006	Barry Bonds	S.F. Giants
$88,500,000	2001-2006	Mike Mussina	N.Y. Yankees
$87,500,000	1999-2005	Bernie Williams	N.Y. Yankees
$85,000,000	2002-2006	Jeff Bagwell	Houston Astros
$84,000,000	2000-2005	Shawn Green	L.A. Dodgers
$80,000,000	1999-2004	Mo Vaughn	Anaheim Angels
$75,000,000	1998-2003	Pedro Martinez	Boston Red Sox
$75,000,000	2000-2005	Larry Walker	Colorado Rockies
$72,000,000	2002-2005	Sammy Sosa	Chicago Cubs
$68,000,000	2001-2004	Carlos Delgado	Toronto Blue Jays
$68,500,000	1998-2003	Gary Sheffield	L.A. Dodgers
$65,000,000	1999-2003	Albert Belle	Baltimore Orioles
$57,500,000	1998-2002	Greg Maddux	Atlanta Braves

I just realized, I’m a member of the Pepcid generation.

How do you say Mocha Frappacino in Chinese?

SHANGHAI -(Dow Jones)- U.S. coffee giant Starbucks Corp. (NasdaqNM:SBUX - News) said Thursday it has sued a chain of coffee houses in Shanghai for copying the Starbucks name in Chinese.

September 9, 1993...
...The PLO considers that the signing of the Declaration of Principles constitutes a historic event, inaugurating a new epoch of peaceful coexistence, free from violence and all other acts which endanger peace and stability. Accordingly, the PLO renounces the use of terrorism and other acts of violence and will assume responsibility over all PLO elements and personnel in order to assure their compliance, prevent violations and discipline violators...

Sincerely, Yasser Arafat
Chairman, The Palestine Liberation Organization



Thu Jan 29, 7:44 AM ET
BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AFP) - The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed offshoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat ’s Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for Thursday's suicide bus bombing in a phone call to AFP.

Tadano added: “I'm not gay. I’d like to clear that fact up right now.”

Not that there’s anything wrong with it...

“You could tell he was nervous,” said Sizemore, a top prospect who lived with Tadano this winter. “But I don't think it changed anybody’s opinion of him. After it was said and done, nobody thought anything more of it. He’s a great guy and a great pitcher.”

...must fight ...urge ...to make ...really ...really ...bad joke. ...must ...keep from ...putting foot ...in mouth.

Tadano knows he may face fan abuse in major league parks such as Yankee Stadium, where heckling the visitors is part of the pageantry.

He joked that he's ready for it.

“I don't understand English, so it doesn't really matter,” he said.

More baseball fun from the people who gave you Chief Wahoo.

Captain, My Captain...

Keeshan's "Captain Kangaroo" premiered on CBS in 1955 and ran for 30 years before moving to public television for six more. It was wildly popular among children and won six Emmy Awards, three Gabriels and three Peabody Awards.

Back in the good ’ole days when I first started using the computer, I used to do things like make sound files for system sounds, make custom startup screens, custom desktop pictures and the like. At some point a few years ago (sometime right around system 8 I think) I just stopped doing stuff like that.

I think a lot of people did, you used to be able to go to the MacWorld website and download sounds and things, I don’t know if people are really doing that kind of thing anymore - there’s all the multimedia for the web, mp3s all kinds of things now that make the fun things I used to do seem so simplistic.

The other day though, I heard something that I thought would make a really good alert sound, it was the spastic yell that emitted from Howard Dean at the end of his speech after the Iowa caucuses. I don’t think I’ve witnessed anything as ugly from a politician since seeing GW’s brutalization of the english language. GW speaks english as if its his second language.

As far as the Howard Dean spastic war cry, I can’t find it and believe me I looked - watching him give that speech was like watching a bad car wreck.

Me? Which I'd rather be ? You know what I'd rather do? If I thought, had any idea, that I'd ever be a slave again, I'd take a gun and just end it all right away. Because you're nothing but a dog. You're not a thing but a dog.

Fountain Hughes interviewed by Hermond Norwood in Baltimore on 06/11/49 at the age of 101 talking about growing up as a slave in these United States.

Voices from the Days of Slavery. Library of Congress site on American Memory provided via blog sensei.

Last week Ted Koppel and Nightline did a series of shows from Baghdad.

The author of the Dear Raed Weblog took Koppel on a tour of Baghdad and it was fascinating. While we attempt in the west to paint the region with a broad brush to justify our nation’s actions, it’s interesting to see there are other perspectives to the situation.

It’s also an interesting read (the weblog that is) - the stories up on the Nightline site are fairly interesting too.

Blog Sensei put a link to a metrosexual quiz up. I scored an 8, slovenlynous always wins out in the end.

Comedy Central is running this show called the Blue Collar Comedy Tour. The last comedian up is this guy called ‘Larry the Cable Guy.’ The guy has a great act and it’s worth checking out - he’s the first white trash comic I think I’ve seen.

It’s on Monday night at 7:30 but again the guy is up last so, you probably won’t need to watch the whole thing unless you like Jeff Foxworthy.