News
Everywhere I turn there is talk about all the people getting laid off from their jobs. There is talk about the economic downturn everywhere and the need for America to stay competitive and efficient.
The UAW gave concessions to Ford to keep the company opening. What they’re going to give back to GM is still in question… and whether or not it will be enough to save it even with tens of thousands of layoffs.
Two local hospitals closed at the beginning of this month, members of the HealthCare Local 1199. That’s 6,000 people without jobs or benefits, including EMTs and Paramedics who can’t even get hired in another union shop because… there’s a hiring freeze! Surprise!!!
The San Francisco Chronicle also got concessions from their union to hopefully stay in business.
Unions are not providing their members with job security. They have been giving concession after concession and when a shop closes they’ve been tossing their now non due paying members to the curb, which makes you wonder just where is the benefit?
Yet, Congress wants to make it easier to organize unions (which are businesses by the way) whether or not the majority of the employees want one or not. Do people who think that belonging to a union equals job security watching a different news station (CNN, NBC) or read different papers (NYT, Daily News) than I do?
I belonged to a union at one time. I paid them $25 a week for six months so the Union officers could go on vacation in the Bahamas while I worked in the snow, only to be let go come summer because I was a “provisional” employee. In my experience unions don’t provide job security. According to all the headlines about layoffs, unions don’t provide job security to other people either.
Really.
So if unions aren’t the answer (which I clearly don’t think they are although I’m sure others disagree), what is the best form of job security?
Is it any big secret that writing has for a very long time been a passion of mine? I really hope not… especially since I started this very blog to get over the writer’s block wall I was experiencing, and to some degree still do. So I’ve done quite a bit of writing and had quite a few published articles in a couple different magazines. Of course, everyone has to start somewhere and I started at five cents a word for a gaming magazine called Scrye. I started out writing simple army builds for the MechWarrior: Dark Age CMG game, gradually got some features, expanded into the DuelMasters CCG, and even had a cover story for a MechWarrior release.
While the clippings from there lead to some bigger and better paying freelance gigs there was nothing that was as consistent as Scrye. Every month I’d get an e-mail for queries, I’d either pitch or I wouldn’t, but when I did I would get a green light or perhaps a twist on my original idea with a word count. While the payment was not the best, it was always on time and allowed me to afford certain luxuries at the time… like a trip to Chuck E Cheese.
Yesterday I received this e-mail:
January 29, 2009
Dear Scrye Contributor:
We at F+W Media continuously analyze our publishing strategy to determine if we are meeting our readers’ needs and company goals. We take into consideration the marketplace we serve and the opportunities available for each of our magazine titles.
After much analysis and deliberation, we have determined to cease publication of Scrye magazine; the final issue will be the April 2009 edition, issue #131.
You have helped provide our readers with a consistent supply of information, instruction, and entertainment. On behalf of everyone at Scrye Magazine, I would like to thank you for your contributions to the magazine.
Best Regards,
Joyce Greenholdt, Editor
It’s important to remember that Dragon and Dungeon magazines both ended their print editions in September of 2007. While they had been filled primarily with material supporting Wizards of the Coast role playing games while Scrye featured the broader collectible gaming market, they were mandatory reading for gamers across the country. With the additional loss of Scrye, nationally distributed gaming magazines have officially become extinct thanks to the internet. The fate of GamingReport.com, which is Scrye’s online gaming property remains unknown.
It is a very sad day in gaming.
Some of you may remember that a week ago I was kinda psyched because I had discovered a need for something. I promised everyone an announcement this week. So I’m summing the announcement up in three words:
At noon today this nation will bear witness to a historic event.
Barack Obama will become the 44th President of the United States.
Of greater historical significance, Barack Obama will become the 1st President of the United States with African American heritage. There will undoubtedly be a number of people who wax poetic about this achievement, and it is absolutely nothing to shrug off. It truly is a historic moment when the people of the United States vote for the candidate and the ideals they represent as opposed to the skin color that adorns them. The whole “don’t judge a book by its cover” metaphor in action.
There are huge challenges for him to overcome. Here at home the economy continues its downward spiral. Across the world there is military conflict in addition to the economic crisis that has affected the global economy. These are not challenges that he will be able to overcome with a sweep of his hand… and he knows this. He knows he needs help and has assembled an extraordinary team of leaders in their own right and advisers, if not the best team on the basketball court, to help guide him in the decisions he will be making.
He will also need our help. He will undoubtedly need the support of the American people as a whole, irregardless of party lines, to effect the change that he has promised with the decisions he will be making. We all have a part to play in changing our nation… in changing ourselves. This doesn’t mean we automatically and with a zombie-esque stare nod our head in compliance. Faiqa put it in words better than I can. Obama is now the man. Still we should not look to belittle the accomplishments or expound on the failings that undoubtedly will occur.
The moment has come and let us savor it for what it truly is as opposed to what it appears to be, the swearing in of a man of color to the highest office in the land. This is truly a moment of a significant shift in thinking of the American consciousness to desire what once was unimaginable to generations. More importantly we should not just allow this moment to come and go. We need to extend it on in both time and further its effect to those who continue to be disengaged from the main consciousness. Savor the moment that has finally come but refuse to let it dissolve away.
And don’t forget to eat your cereal.
So it turns out that President-Elect Barack Obama has chosen Virginia Governor Tim Kaine to head up the Democratic National Committee. Are you wondering why you should care? With 20 million supporters through e-mail lists and the social networks, the information is an internet marketer’s dream come true. So if you were an online Obama friend/supporter then it becomes really important to you, because it is no longer Barack Obama you’ll be friends with online… but rather Time Kaine.
Considering they’ll be prying the Blackberry out of Obama‘s hands, the President won’t be able to maintain his campaign social networks since legal restrictions won’t allow his White House to contact the people on those lists directly. What do you think he’s going to do with all his Twitter Followers (the same account was hacked last week since laying dormant since the end of the election), Facebook Friends, and his own social network at MyBarackObama? Turning over the information to the DNC is a logical answer, but is it the right thing to do?
All of a person’s information, in theory, would be available to both national, state, and local Democratic organizations for their use. I for one truly don’t want to be spammed by my local Democrats. I think its important that the DNC recognize the reasons for Obama‘s success… a grassroots foundation, enthusiasm built at the base around the concept of community, the integrated use of community contributions… and while that information may have been vital to him it may not necessarily help the rest of the party who have not started from the ground up. Of course Obama’s model is one I think the DNC (and RNC for that matter) should look to replicate, but I don’t think its one to just take. The Republicans for years have maintained databases of supporters… and what exactly did that get them? An electoral pummeling.
Obama, don’t turn your friends into cattle and sell them by the head to the DNC. Instead, keep that information for yourself, and when its time to commemorate your library and send everyone on those lists an invite. They’re the ones who gave you what you needed when you needed it… not the DNC.
[Source]
I’m sure that if you watch television you have seen how the corporate monger Burger King is spreading their corporate poison in unsuspecting under developed countries and villages through their ”Whopper© Virgins” series. Everyone is well aware of the predatory nature of the corporate mongers on unsuspecting people when they are promoting their goods so it isn’t surprising or even newsworthy at this point.
However fair is fair and Burger King has really come up with something spectacularly fresh and I must give them the accolades they are due for it. If you are a Facebook user (which as I pointed out yesterday there are 150 million of them) then you have an opportunity to do both some social networking cleaning AND get a free Whopper©. Going directly against the trend of ”add me”, ”follow me”, and ”friend me” with a new gimmick that will surprise and amaze you in both its simplicity and its novelty.
The gimmick is called Whopper© Sacrifice. The twist is that it is a Facebook app that will reward you with a free Whopper© if you “sacrifice” a measly 10 friends. How do you “sacrifice” your friends? Following the 3 steps instructed in the app, you remove them as one of your friends and then notify them (even though Facebook says they will not be notified, they are!) through the app that while you may like them… you love the Whopper©! Who else would reward you for actually getting rid of friends… who in reality are probably not friends at all!
Of course, gratification is not instant. Once you sacrifice your 10 friends the app takes you to a web form to fill out so they can mail you a coupon… and there is a limit of only one coupon per person no matter how many friends you offer up to the fires of broiling…
Yes… I sacrificed Cereal Wednesday for a 760 calorie Whopper with Cheese. Man cannot live on cereal alone dammit!
They better not charge me extra for the cheese.
