Ok. File this one under wrong.

Colorado to use inmates to fill migrant shortage
Tough laws passed last year against illegal immigration have created a need for farmworkers.

From the article:
Prisoners who are a low security risk may choose to work in the fields, earning 60 cents a day. They also are eligible for small bonuses.

The inmates will be watched by prison guards, who will be paid by the farms. The cost is subject to negotiation, but farmers say they expect to pay more for the inmate labor and its associated costs than for their traditional workers.

So farmers are upset because they have to pay $.60 a day for a worker - plus the minimum wage for the security guard to watch them - because that's more than they're used to paying. Sixty cents. And prisoners will be willing to DO the work for that sixty cents... And in the mean time we give Apple a hard time for the Chinese I-pod manufacturing facilities...

Along those lines - last week - IBM wanted to charge me several thousand dollars for management modules in 1U servers I'm having deployed in China for remote management - things that could open and close the DVD tray... do a little more than the typical remote login functionality. When I did the ROI, I realized I could pay 3 shifts of chinese workers 4 years of salary before I broke even - to sit there all day and push the button when i needed it.

The 'invisible hand' of capitalism is about to destroy your way of life America... and in the mean time you're so focused on chasing ghosts that you're not doing anything about it.

It continues

Terrorists: 2
Boston: 0

we are a nation of pussies...

Ok - i post a lot of video links... but my history degree forces my hand on this one. There are just days when people hit it exactly right...

See... it's funny because it could be true. Ok - maybe the idea is a little more surreal than some of the other crazy media frenzy stories of the last several weeks - but it's still bad. You know what this feels like? It feels like the time when the media was totally wrapped up in Gary Condit - right before 9/11... and suddenly everyone realized that all these crazy 'dumb biatch shaved her head' stories were pretty silly when you got right down to it.

The money quote?

Mr. Klein added that for the foreseeable future, “at least 29 of the 30 video monitors on Wolf Blitzer’s ‘The Situation Room’ will feature Anna Nicole Smith, and the other will have that crazy astronaut chick.”

I had a brunch date with a very nice girl yesterday... and I find myself interested...
Whether anything comes of it - I dont know...
But she's very cool - in a 'damn it... i might be in trouble again' sort of way

I seem to enjoy trouble though

So we'll see what happens

Otherwise - work is a bear... lots going on... we hit our launch date and successfully integrated with our big partner - so things are going well there... the team is burning hard - but they're hanging in there... a lot of positive direction there - just getting tired.

Still, when the girl somehow asserts herself as the highpoint of being up here, that's a general indication of being in trouble.

So I watched the Superbowl ads on Youtube (we dont get the US ad feeds up here... instead we're barraged with the same damned Rogers Wireless ad over and over... occasionally interspersed with some annoying ad for Fish Sauce - no i'm not kidding - i think i saw the same fish sauce ad 15 times - and i still dont remember the name of the company)

Anyway - some good ones. I thought the snickers ad that has people unhappy was funny... though i do think it, like others, could have been funnier. In fact - a lot of 'potential' was missed this year. The blockbuster mouse ad could've had a 'follow up' crack about optical mice and 'lasers'... The FedEx 'Not what it seems' FedEx Ground ad - with people acting like their names... they really blew that one... They needed a guy named 'Dick'... and he needed to be wearing a 'box' in front of his fly... that SOOO would've pissed some people off...

The winner in my book? Robert Goulet as the Boogeyman vs Emerald Nuts. Brilliant.

My Job

There aren't many days when my job is fun.
Somedays I'm a carebear... i keep the team happy, try to keep them motivated, take them out to play pool - buy them drinks - have fun. Me? Bah. I'm just fine reading a book or doing things that are with non-work friends.
Somedays I'm DPS... i have to manage the fight, line it up, make sure the Skull is on the right mob, that people arent trying for too big a pull just because they think they're better than they are...
Somedays - like today - I'm the tank. I make sure the firebreathing boss is aimed the other way so everyone else can get their crap done. I try to get my sunders in before anyone pulls aggro - and i try to pull him back onto me when he gets angry about something else...
It's sorta fun today...
but at some point doing this 40 man raid content with 15 has gotta stop...

Yes... i'm still harping on it... The Boston LED Party

It begs an important question...

how many Bostonians does it take to blow up a lightbulb?

Someone needs to edit the Wikipedia article on the Boston Teaparty to point out that Sam Adams was a terrorist mastermind and an inspiration to Al Quaeda operatives everywhere.

This picture of Boston's officials at the press conf on the subject just says so very very much about it all... and now they continue to insist on using the term 'hoax' and describing these things as 'infernal devices' in an effort to make the case someone intended people to believe these were explosive.

Idiots. Complete and absolute idiots. Not as big an idiot as some... but god damn.

Ok. The Mooninites controversy.

Comedy Central ran a guerilla marketing campaign featuring a number of light brites featuring an LED display version of their cartoon characters and placed them all over a number of cities.

Our nation reacts as one might expect - from a nation of complete and total pussies. WTF happened to my country. We see a god damned lightbrite and we run for our lives? God damn it!!! These pathetic sacks of shit make me sick. Someone needs to send Henry Rollins to Boston to kick all their sorry asses.

A Perfect Example

Last year, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp shelled out $2.9 billion to meet the benefit plans for 59,0000 US Airways employees that the company said it wasn't going to fund. That PBGC entity is a federal corporation created 30 years ago to insure the benefits of 44m Americans - and every participating company pays a little bit of money into it to safeguard against the horrible day when things just go so awry that they cant meet their debts to their workers.

Ok - that's a big chunk of change... but fine... if the bankruptcy judge felt it was what was needed for US Airways to be able to survive - ok. I can see how that might be allowed.

Then it turns out that last year US Airways had a $303m profit - and was (until this morning) offering $10b (including $5b in CASH) for Delta.

So I wonder... how is this different from the guy who says 'oh gosh, hit by a car, i can never walk again' and is filmed running in the NYC Marathon? Isn't this insurance fraud writ large? Shouldn't people go to jail for this? Lots of people? PMITA 'watch your cornhole buddy' jail?

Here's to hoping every one of them (their kids, pets, and friends) dies in a fire.

So...
I've mentioned before that I tend to have Bill Murray moments working with all of the Chinese... lots of 'is that really what that says' events... long phone conversations where the result is an abbreviated "he says yes"
The other day, we had a series of emails - and it kept translating one term as 'carboplatin' - a cancer drug... something along the lines of 'we want to encourage our players to buy more cancer drugs'. I figured it out by inference - but it was still amusing and i mentioned the somewhat sketchy nature of the online translator services.

Today, a note back to one of our partners in China included the translated phrase "Today, our team of government payments are capped at you for doing the test."

Needless to say - i was somewhat amused. I went to Cheryl for a better translation - and her response... "What - we're a big multinational corporation - selling cancer drugs and working with governments - i thought you knew"

She's funny... and she screws with me...

Dangerous combination ;)

"I know there is skepticism and pessimism and that some are condemning a plan before it's even had a chance to work," the president said. "They have an obligation and a serious responsibility therefore to put up their own plan as to what would work."

"I want to make gold out of this lead... what?... you tell me my plan to take a shit on your kitchen table isnt going to work?... then you have an obligation to tell me what will!!!!" See... it all comes back to Humpty Dumpty, George. Did Bab's not read you that one? The part about all the king's horses? yeah... that's the part... yeah, I know... she was a shite mother... not your fault she never loved you... yeah - i know... it's ok to cry about it... See George - this isnt happy magic pony land. You want Iraq to work out for you? Do what the other happy magic pony people do... pray... and stop wasting my money and my countrymen's lives. That way if it doesn't all work out - you can spout off some 'god works in mysterious ways' bile and still sleep at night.

You are an ass. We told you not to do it. We told you you'd break it and cause us all horrible horrible problems - just like the environmental scientists are screaming 'if we dont stop this global warming crap now it's all over'. If we - as a society - are incapable of addressing such a fundamental threat to our long term viability - then we will fail. I'd send you a book by Toynbee on the subject mr president... but you've still got the rest of those 'shakespeares' to read.

I know... i shouldnt blame you... you're the symptom.

COLD.

VERY COLD.

I cant imagine getting off the boat in September and saying 'lets stay here... seems like a nice place...'

I mean we're already talking ears falling off my head cold -- and it's supposed to go down to -27 next week.