Disappointment

When someone very close to you disappoints you greatly, it can blindside you. It can shock and enrage. It can tempt you into trivializing their transgression, or offering immature promises. It can do many things. What it does, with absolute certainty, is provide an opportunity to observe the world more clearly. 

I am currently whether I've got the stomach to take off rose-colored glasses.

Character is Destiny

Character is destiny. Not genetics. Not personal history. Character is destiny. It's the story of Lincoln, of every great American, of every great person who rose from nothing to shape themselves, and to shape their world. It is a terrifying, unforgiving truth, affording no room for excuses. Yet, if we embrace it, it will carry us to where we must go.

New Facebook Virus: "Redhot sexy girl in thong dancing [HQ]"

Update 4 - probably the last (11:27) Daniel Aguilar recommends Antivir Personal, a free antivirus software from filehippo.com. Link is here: http://www.filehippo.com/download_antivir/

Update 3 (10:14): This hubpages page (http://hubpages.com/hub/How-To-Remove-Koobface-Virus) links to free anti-spyware software that received good reviews from CNET (though they warn that some settings can lead to slower performance, story here: http://download.cnet.com/Spyware-Terminator/3000-8022_4-10741021.html). Also, it lists the registry files you need to change, if you should feel like removing it manually.

Death in Tehran

The title does not refer to the current state of Iranian politics. Rather, it’s the title of a story. Here’s the version that appears in Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning:

A rich and mighty Persian once walked in his garden with one of his servants. The servant cried that he had just encountered Death, who had threatened him. He begged his master to give him his fastest horse so that he could make haste and flee to Teheran, which he could reach that same evening. The master consented and the servant galloped off on the horse. On returning to his house the master himself met Death, and questioned him, “Why did you terrify and threaten my servant?” “I did not threaten him; I only showed surprise in still finding him here when I planned to meet him tonight in Teheran,” said Death.

Why is California cutting Adult Education in the middle of a recession/jobless recovery?

It’s sad, but it’s possible that the most important thing I took away from today’s job fair was a news story. The Bassett Adult School rep – incredibly knowledgeable and competent, especially compared to a lot of other reps – informed me that California adult education programs are being cut across the state. Orders aren’t coming from Sacramento – instead, K-12 districts are making the choice.

Previously, adult education was a “categorical program” – a program funded separately from a district’s general fund. This system made sense, especially if some of that money came from the Feds with specific provisions.

1000

Thanks to the readers, occasional and frequent, that helped me reach 1,000 hits. I hope you've found something worthwhile.


Some stats - eliminating pictures, I've written 241 12-font MS Word pages of text on this blog. 12,707 words. My God - this is where all the time went.

I decided to try something and do a Wordle cloud for each year to note some changes. No time right now to comment on it, but even a cursory glance indicates some interesting shifts.

2007

Only Nixon Could go to China - Sunday service at a UCC church on the conversion of St. Paul

Today’s sermon was, as usual, a masterpiece by Pastor Mitch. He piqued the historian in me when he discussed The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History, a 1978 book by Michael H. Hart. Mitch asked all of us to pick our top three, then solicited our responses. (I chose, somewhat incoherently and with buyer’s remorse, “Jesus, Genghis Khan, and Abraham Lincoln”.) He then went through Hart’s top ten, with Muhammad listed as number one, Isaac Newton at two, Jesus Christ at three, and so on.

He said that one name that surprises a lot of people was St. Paul, at number six, just below Confucius and above Cai Lun (the inventor of paper). Mitch points out that without St. Paul, Christianity could have remained a localized sect, one of many “mystery religions”, to borrow a term from a Roman history class.

Summary of DWP research findings

Might not write that report on DWP after all, since I focus too much on unpaid work. Suffice it to say the following:

(1) the Mayor's opponents will attack his leadership of Solar LA - this will have an unknown impact on Villaraigosa's plans for higher office
(2) Controller Greuel's audit, due in a couple months, will either be buried or blown out of proportion. I suspect it will indicate that Solar LA is too ambitious at current levels of revenue, and recommend either a rate hike, scaling back of solar projects, and/or divestment of some "green energy" projects.
(3) if LA eventually takes over DWP, and LA eventually files bankruptcy, Roy's pension will possibly be toast given McManus's rulings on Vallejo, which filed for bankruptcy in 2008. Vallejo ended up not touching pension terms with currently retired individuals, but did change terms for new hires.
(4) a smart private company will scoop up the inevitable solar divestment by DWP, provided they receive tax credits/incentives. If Edison International or Pacific Gas & Electric aren't looking into this, they should be. I will bring it up in a hiring interview if it comes to that.
(5) Board of Water and Power commissioners serve at the pleasure of the City Council, and especially the Mayor. The last 20-30 years has seen a steady erosion in their independence, reflecting a trend toward accountability and away from autonomy. Don't expect independent oversight. Do expect continued unanimous decisions.
(6) Related to (5) - the DWP was a political punching bag, and willingly took one for the team. This will, unfortunately, help let the mayor and the city council off the hook. You can criticize DWP for a lot of things, but they appear to have been deliberately made the villain. After all, they are the only ones not facing elections.

Quick comparison between Obama's space policy speech on Thursday and Kennedy's Moon speech

Counting words in a speech isn't the same as analyzing content. However, it does provide some quick and interesting clues, especially when contrasted with speeches of similar scope and ambition. That's why I love Wordle. Here's a quick comparison between Obama's space policy address at Kennedy Space Center on Thursday, April 15 and Kennedy's "Moon" speech at Rice University.

Obama's Address on Thursday

Preliminary thoughts on the Power Politics at LA DWP/City Council

1. I still hate the general style and substance of LA Times articles, but they are good for highlighting specific points that might otherwise be missed. For example, the LA Times reminds us that the Mayor's office sent out a memo (later leaked) that made the transfer to the general fund contingent on a rate increase.

2. With his personal life, I don't know how Antonio Villaraigosa stays awake, much less effective. Oh, and his Wikipedia entry details lots of less than stellar qualities. Anybody fail the bar four times?

2a. I will being using a litmus test consisting of (1) homeliness, (2) presence of a homely companion, and (3) happily, boringly married. Not sure it would've avoided Sanford, but it would've helped for a long list of names.

3. There are serious governance and accountability issues that stem from the relationships and responsibilities of the Board of Water and Power Commissioners, the Mayor's office, the City Council, and the District Attorney. These problems are chronic and systemic, but there is no easy fix - they represent a trend that reflected a set of preferences regarding accountability and independence.

4. RAND continues to put out good reports, but I'm itching to get a copy of the PA Consulting report. There's a Youtube video that appears to be a presentation to DWP on the report, but I want to get the actual document.

5. It seems that the green energy agenda will not survive the results of the audit. It was a nice sentiment, and Villaraigosa appeared to have staked a significant portion of his political capital on it, but DWP isn't, and maybe ought not, be an R&D outfit/first adopter of these technologies.

6. Wendy Greuel's Wikipedia entry does read like a political advert. I'll need to dig into the archives to see whether her relatively nuanced and careful position as of late is calculated or actually an indication of good temperament and sound judgment. (She was previously a member of City Council, where, no doubt, she had more political leeway to be a bit more aggressive.)

7. This looks like a battle between the Mayor and City Council. However, I'm open to the possibility that Freeman and others at DWP have something to gain from this.

Time to nap and/or chug more Theraflu. Just scratching the surface of this dirty drama.

Suspicious phone call from ADT security representative

I just received a rather strange call from an "ADT representative", who had the homeowner's name and our street address, inviting us to a vague "event" this weekend, which, when pressed, sounded like a door-to-door sales pitch. But it really, really irked me that the representative could not provide an 800 number. I declined to tell him when the owner would typically be home.


This stinks of at best, horrible salesmanship. (He made a lame pitch about just getting one for his mom and his sister.) At worst, I suspect someone is trying to figure out when the house is unoccupied. Be careful out there.

The Taliban are Very, Very Smart

NYTimes article on new Taliban tactics

This is very, very smart. As Stephen Biddle at CFR noted in 2008, the Anbar Awakening happened, in part, because the local tribal leaders were fed up with Al-Qaeda in Iraq interfering with their traditional system of patronage.

This approach -- using existing systems of patronage -- appears to be harder in Afghanistan, in part, because those preexisting systems might involve the drug trade. Setting up a new system can work, but it's more vulnerable, especially to the tactics described in the article (intimidation and misappropriation).

Embrace Life - Always Wear Your Seatbelt

The most beautiful video I've seen in a long time