Musings

General-purpose musings

There are 780 posts filed in Musings (this is page 48 of 78).

Economic woes

The market is tanking today, and the Wachovia battle isn’t helping. Citigroup and Wells Fargo are still fighting to own Wachovia. Citigroup filed a $60 billion lawsuit, which is, I think, a bit much.

Citi also cites the $225 million “golden parachutes” Wachovia senior executives would receive under the Wells deal. While I’m not usually a fan of golden parachutes, if I were a Wachovia shareholder and the board spurned a $1/share deal for a $7/share deal, I’d say that’s the way to go. As a taxpayer, any solution that doesn’t involve my tax dollars is a no-brainer, too.

If the fighting keeps up, though, there might not be anything left of Wachovia worth buying.

Highway horses

Watching a police officer ride on horseback through downtown this afternoon got me wondering: what are the laws about horses on public streets? Still legal? I imagine there was never a defined point where cars became kings of the road.

Any horse experts want to weigh in?

Can’t get there from here

Looks like when the market tanked today it took The Google’s memory of my neighborhood with it. Typing my address into Google maps once showed me where I live. Not anymore. I’ve become a non-place.

I can understand how my neighborhood, being about two years old, might take a while to get into Google. Its kinda strange to have it in there and then have it dropped, however.

Why can’t Wake County’s Property Tax records work this way?

The L word

Wachovia is being bought by CitiGroup. A CitiGroup spokeswoman declined to speak about layoffs, but the company “expects to realize more than $3 billion of annualized expense synergies through the consolidation of overlapping functions.”

Those of you who play Buzzword Bingo know that anywhere the word “synergies” appears it is never good news. And let’s consider “consolidation of overlapping functions.” Hmm. What could this describe … let me think … perhaps … um, layoffs!?!

I feel for my friends over at Wachovia. At the same time I know I would’ve left a long time ago: corporate doublespeak and I don’t get along.

Missing the stage

This weekend when I was goofing around I began to speak in a commanding voice, declaring with mock seriousness that I would do something ordinary like take the trash out.

“You’re missing your training,” Kelly observed with a smile. “You need a class to teach.”

She was right. I hadn’t had any real “showtime” since my last job, where I would do a demo almost every day or conduct training once a month. While I don’t miss doing demos, I do miss being in front of a crowd and performing.
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Power outage

We lost power last night right after my last post. Tree branches wandered into the power lines on Glascock Street near Norris. I used the opportunity to visit neighbors.

Summertime power outages create impromptu block parties. I talked to more neighbors in 30 minutes than I could’ve in a year. They’re great people, too.

The power returned after 90 minutes but the friendships continue.