Inauguration Day

It's a big day in history, today is.

The dope is out, hope is in.

Lots of black people excited that one of their own is becoming President, lots of white people wondering what happened to the other half of the ancestry. Lots of people of every hue who don't really care, either way, about that.

Conservatives certain that this starts us on our way to hell in a hurry, everyone else figuring this is the first step toward getting out of hell.

Joe Biden becoming familiar, the Wasillabillies fading (thank heaven) into obscurity.

The administration that presided over the worst eight years most of us have ever known has packed up their gear (and their zero accountability), the Chicago Gang coming to town with a national legacy to be determined.

Empty nesters leaving the White House, a family with two young children moving in.

People hanging on every word spoken by the man who's entering, people having long since stopped listening to the blather coming from the man who's exiting. "Yes, we can" replacing nothing that anyone can recall.

Inspiration instead of desperation.

Big party today. Big work starts tomorrow. For the ride to work, here's the new Ground Force One.

Buckle up, gang. It's going to be interesting.

Monday Morning Sugar

A friend sent me this list. It's from Dale Carnegie Training. I liked it, and I think you may find it useful too.

1. Live in a compartment of the present.

The professional with a commitment to service seals off each interaction with a customer so that negative experiences don't poison future interactions. Don't allow past successes or failures or future anticipated success or difficulties influence your current performance. When it comes to customer service, live in the moment.
2. Don't fuss about trifles.

A "trifle" is something that is insignificant in comparison to other things in your life. When you focus on trifles, you lose perspective. Keep the big picture in mind. Doing so will help you objectively sort out the small stuff from the important issues.
3. Cooperate with the inevitable.

Realize when your situation is inevitable. If you can learn to recognize situations where you have no control, you can gain some control over the emotional aspects of the situation. By cooperating with the outcome, you are making a conscious choice about how to respond to an inevitable situation.
4. Decide just how much anxiety a situation is worth and refuse to give it any more of your energy.

Once you make it this decision, it is easier to find ways you can improve on the situation or let it go and move on.
5. Create happiness for others.

This principle appeals to your nobler motives. It is difficult to sustain a negative attitude when you are doing something good or helpful for someone else. Simply put: Doing good for others makes you feel better.
6. Expect ingratitude.

In your job, you provide many diverse services. When you do so, you probably expect in return some signal of gratitude for your assistance. This expectation is rarely met. If you do receive heartfelt thanks from someone, you should count yourself lucky you are dealing with a grateful person. Most people are simply not accustomed to being grateful, even when you provide them with excellent service. You shouldn't let ingratitude deter you from providing top-quality service.
7. Put enthusiasm into your work.

Enthusiasm is the positive energy and sustained effort that keeps you driving toward your goals. Making a decision to have a positive outlook can be critical in enjoying your job and working with your internal and external customers.
8. Do the very best you can.

It can be difficult to deal with criticism, especially if you feel it is undeserved or if it hurts your self-esteem. One way to put criticism in perspective is to ask yourself if you are doing the very best you can with what you know and are able to do. If you are, then you can avoid taking the criticism personally. If there is room for improvement in your performance, you can look at the criticism objectively and take responsibility for improving your performance.

How's that feel, now?

New York Amazes Again

You know about the plane splash that occurred yesterday in New York City. The pilot, Chesley Sullenberger III, has been hailed as a hero, and I think he is. The actions of the crew also were exemplary.

Nobody said anything about the other heroes.
The guys with the water taxis.

I cannot imagine that the guys who drive the water taxis (and yes, I know they are licensed commercial captains, not just some group of yahoos in bass boats) have every been told to expect to go to the rescue of an airplane in the Hudson River. But when the moment arrived, these guys were right there.

New Yorkers are amazing.

Valkyrie

Some movies are challenged beyond the norm of suspended disbelief because of their subject matter. Take the movie Titanic, for example. You know before the movie starts that the boat is going to sink, but you watch anyway, and you hope that they miss the iceberg and you hope that everything will turn out fine and you buy into the story and the performances and when the boat hits the iceberg you're shocked as if this might have been the story about that other Titanic, the one where everybody lives happily ever after. Valkyrie faces a similar challenge in the subject matter, and the challenge is broadened by The Tom Cruise Controversy.

Challenges made, challenges met; Valkyrie is a winner and Tom Cruise gives a terrific performance.

The context of the story is familiar. Germany is losing the war and dissidents band together to kill Hitler and seize control of the German government. We know how their attempt is going to turn out. The movie takes us through a series of events leading up to the kill and coup sequence and the tension steadily builds as we await the results of the attempt. There's a brief historical retrospective at the film's end about the real people upon whom the film is based.

The Tom Cruise Controversy (wouldn't that be a good name for a band?) has been bandied about in the popular press. They warn us that there were issues filming in Germany, and there were issues with the Church of Scientology, and there are issues with Top Gun Maverick playing a WWII German army colonel.

We ain't got no stinkin' issues. Tom Cruise renders an excellent performance. There are top shelf supporting actors who likewise do an excellent job.

The only problem I had with any portrayal was that of Eddie Izzard, and the problem is mine. Izzard does a great job as a German general in charge of communications at the Wolf's Lair, the Hitler version of Camp David. Eddie Izzard, if you're not familiar, portrays Doug Rich on the terrific but overlooked A&E TV series, The Riches, and Eddie is a stand up comedian. Eddie performs his standup in his choice of garb, that being the short, middle aged transvestite that he is. The first time I saw Eddie perform his stand up on HBO, I had to turn it off after just a few minutes. I had to turn it off not because his act was bad, but because I found my brain unable to grasp what I was seeing: a short, stout, middle aged man with a cockney accent, wearing knee high leather spike heels and and leather shorts and a little leather cap and make up and you get the picture. Now, take that same guy and make him a WWII German general. He does a good job, but I was distracted by the image I had that he would go home from a hard day of general-ing and put on his transvestite clothes and prance around singing "See Vot de Boiz in Ze Bokroom Vill Hav" in a Marlene Dietrich voice.

Even if you haven't seen Eddie Izzard's act, you'll love Valkyrie.

The Net, The News and the Medium

I just read a story on News Busters that suggests that the New York Times, arguably the greatest newspaper in the world, is likely to go bankrupt in the first half of 2009. When the Times emerges from bankruptcy, it won't look like it does today. It is likely that the daily printed edition of the newspaper will be gone, while the Sunday edition will survive.

The Times currently boasts about 20 million on-line readers per day, and about a million and a half print edition readers. The print edition readership numbers are steadily declining. The revenue stream created by the print edition readers is substantial on a per reader basis. The income stream created by the on-line readership is not nearly as strong.

As a result, the post-bankruptcy version of The Times will not be able to financially support the staff that has previously been supported by the print version. This means jobs will be eliminated. Writers, and the information and ideas and nuance that they convey, will go away. Content will come from co-op sources.

The New York Times, the greatest newspaper in the world, will be a commodity depository with some home grown content included to distinguish it from...USA Today?

Now, the Sunday New York Times is one of the greatest pleasures in which you can selfishly indulge. Mi esposa would buy me one from time to time, not lately though, as the paper isn't easy to find here near Stately PFOS Manor and there aren't too many empty Sundays, though winter is a great opportunity.

I don't know what the end result of the Times bankruptcy will be, and surely the people who run the great newspaper will offer something that will make it continue to be distinctive. I do know that technology has once again commodity-ized a product that we have been accustomed to enjoying in a highly customized form.

In this case there is a rather incisive irony. The internet, the medium that has advanced the dissemination of knowledge at a greater pace than anything in the history of the world, is the primary instrument forcing the reconstruction of the great newspaper, and the end result will be something less than that with which we began.

Nobody's fault, no one to blame. Less is more, sometimes, but not in this case.