Never Give All the Heart for Love

Never give all the heart for love,
so goes Yeats’ song.
And so I think of you my love,
and pray that Yeats is wrong.

Never Give All the Heart

Never give all the heart, for love
Will hardly seem worth thinking of
To passionate women if it seem
Certain, and they never dream
That it fades out from kiss to kiss;
For everything that’s lovely is
But a brief, dreamy, kind delight,
O never give the heart outright,
For they, for all smooth lips can say,
Have given their hearts up to the play.
And who could play it well enough
If deaf and dumb and blind with love?
He that made this knows all the cost,
For he gave all his heart and lost.

William Butler Yeats
A Poet to His Beloved: The Early Love Poems of  W. B. Yeats
St. Martins Press, New York, 1985

Bird Surfers

Bird Surfers

Circling, swimming
by the Interstate shore.
Waiting for the perfect ride.

There! Dive!
Just behind the headlight!
Lift your head, whoosh!
Flick the antenna! Yes!
Tumbling in the wash
laughing at the tail lights
and the glimpse of startled face.

Later, on the wire,
stories fly, tales spread.
Lies of legends grow.
The Carrera! The Vette! The Z!
Listen as the youngers tell
of their first slippery hybrid
or green sedan. Smile, remember.

“Hey, where’s Martin?” No one knows.
“He said he would ride the Mack today.”
The wire becomes a silent pew,
broken purple feather floats to the berm.

Ideas for Wall Street Regualtion Reform

Headlines of tainted food, product recalls and dangerous pharmaceuticals seem common place but given the number of new products that consumers are exposed to every year the United States really has a pretty solid reputation for product safety and consumer protection.

As our government considers new regulations for the banking and investment industries maybe we should look to our existing tangible product safety rules and regulations for workable models.  For example, before new exotic financial products can be sold on the open market, it seems reasonable that bankers and investment houses should have to conduct exhaustive “clinical trials” with their new products and schemes in hypothetical market models, with the results subject to regulatory oversight, before these products could be sold to investors. Financial product liability laws should be written to ensure that  the financial inventors & purveyors of these instruments should also be subject to product liabilty laws if their products should prove faulty (or fraudulent) as with the bundling of mortgage backed securities at the center of this economic mess. It seems reasonable that faulty mortgages should be subject to recall & repair at a bank’s expense when systemic errors are found without having to resort to foreclosures and bankrupcies. All tangible product manufacturers have to stand behind the quality of their products, why not require the same accountability of banks and investment firms?

The US economy has been going through the transition to a “knowledge based economy” for so long the term has become cliche.  Financial services became larger than manufacturing as a portion of the US Gross Domestic Product in the 1980′s. As we better understand the fault lines at the origin of the current recession, we should consider whether our consumer protection laws and product safety regimes for financial instruments could use some of the same rigor and enforcement that have ensured quality and safety in our tangible product industries for the past several decades.

Perhaps some of the billions of dollars of lost value from investment and retirement accounts and hundreds of thousands of lost jobs could have been saved if we, as a nation, had been concerned about the quality, not just the quantity, of what our financial services industry produced. We are learning, once again, that the effects of greed can be just as dangerous and devastating as the effects of faulty design and manufacturing of tangible goods.

Job Searching Using Social Media Tools

A very good friend recently asked me to help her nephew, Steve.  He is a recent college graduate looking for a job in the business operations  field of Supply Chain Management.  This blog post is a copy of a recent email to Steve about the use of social media tools like blogs, FaceBook and LinkedIn in his job search.  I think it’s pretty self explanatory so I just copied it verbatim.

Perhaps you’ll see something helpful in this too. Maybe you’ll think I’m all wet. Either is fine with me but either way, let me know what you think. I want to learn from you.

Steve,

Regarding FaceBook, there is a very broad range of opinion about how open you should be. I have mine set so that my friends and their networks can see my stuff. Not wide open but if we have any connection at all, you can probably get to me. I have found FaceBook to be a great tool to get to know people that are casually in my orbit. This has accelerated personal relationships with several people that I previously only knew through work or as acquaintences through mutual friends or activities.In the end you have to be comfortable with how much of you is out there for others to see. There are no wrong answers.

My search engine comment was really around things like Monster.com and other job search sites. You can set up profiles and custom searches to have job leads emailed to you on a regular basis. I get daily emails from Monster and CareerBuilder that typically have 5 – 8 specific job postings each. I discard most of them but probably have 2 or 3 a week worth pursuing. Also look for professional associations (and groups on LinkedIn) – many have job postings that anyone can get to. Many are for members only but it’s worth looking – organizations are losing members fast because professional dues are often first-cut expenses. Some progressive organizations recognize this and are offering free or deeply discounted services to earn your loyalty for when your budgets return.

Finally look for supply-chain blogs (and other professional topics that interest you) and on-line publications. Subscribe to their RSS feeds through a tool like Google Reader. Yahoo.com has a good reader also. This way you can have info aggregated in a single spot that you can scan quickly on a regular basis for things of interest without having to bang around dozens of sites to find. I believe in turning on the fire hose of information and then drinking what you can. In my view it’s better to see data and discard it than to not see it at all. Just beware that it takes discipline (which I often lack) to not get sucked down into time-wasting rabbit holes chasing cool but irrelevant ideas.

Hope this helps. I’ll let you know if I have any specific comments about your LinkedIn profile.

Best,
John

Lamentation for Detroit

The March issue of Atlantic Magazine on-line includes a very thoughtful and comprehensive article titled, “How the Crash Will Reshape America,” by urban theorist, Richard Florida. It is an vital analysis for anyone who cares about American cities and essential reading for those of us in planning, real estate, urban policy and economic development who will be dealing with the enormous changes this economy will bring over the next several years.  Wrenching change will not be limited to the Rust Belt but not surprisingly, one section of the article is subtitled “The Last Crises of the Factory Towns” which begins with this:

Sadly and unjustly, the places likely to suffer most from the crash – especially in the long run- are the ones least associated with high finance. While the crises may have begun in New York, it will likely find its fullest bloom in the interior of the country – in older, manufacturing regions whose heydays are long past . . .

Not surprising to even the casual student of American cities and our industrial economy.  Narrowing in to where the damage is greatest and most apparent, a later paragraph reads:

Perhaps no major city in the U.S. today looks more beleaguered than Detroit, where in October the average home price was $18,513, and some 45,000 properties were in some form of foreclosure. A recent listing of tax foreclosures in Wayne County, which encompasses Detroit, ran to 137 pages in the Detoit Free Press . . . and in December the city’s jobless rate was 21 percent.

Bleak.

Today, I happened to be looking at a new copy of The Bible that I brought home from church yesterday. I happened to open it randomly to the Book of Lamentations, an Old Testament book that I am not very familiar with. With Florida’s article (and likely my own unemployment) on my mind, I turned to the beginning of Lamentations and read the three verses below. I was shaken by how relevant the text is to today. With no intention to imply cause or blame, I have changed only one word in the text to create a sad modern prayer for the people and institutions of this once great American city:

A Lamentation for Detroit.

^{1 [a]}How deserted lies the city,
once so full of people!
How like a widow is she,
who once was great among the nations!
She who was queen among the provinces
has now become a slave.

² Bitterly she weeps at night,
tears are on her cheeks.
Among all her lovers
there is none to comfort her.
All her friends have betrayed her;
they have become her enemies.

³ After affliction and harsh labor,
Detroit has gone into exile.
She dwells among the nations;
she finds no resting place.
All who pursue her have overtaken her
in the midst of her distress.

(TNIV©)

A Pretty Good Pot of Chili

I just started throwing stuff together from the back of the fridge and cupboards and ended up with a pretty good pot of chili tonight.  As best as I can remember, here’s what went in:

1 lb ground round
4 left-over Bob Evans sausage links, diced
1 pkg precooked Perdue Carved Chicken Breast, Southwestern Style, diced
1 16oz jar Ortega Thick & Chunky Salsa, medium heat
1 green pepper, diced
1/2 onion, diced
3 Tbl worchestershire sauce
3 15oz cans of dark red kidney beans including the liquid
1 15oz can of diced tomatoes
1 heaping tablespoon Hershey’s Cocoa
2 Tbl sugar
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried thyme
2 tsp black pepper
2 cups water

Put the beans and  tomatoes (including liquid) and the water in a stock pot on medium high heat.

Dice the sausage and chicken. Brown the ground meat in a skillet. When cooked, add all the meat to the stockpot along with the salsa, cocoa, sugar and spices.

Sautee the green pepper and onion in the worchestershire sauce (in the same skillet used for the ground meat) until tender. Add to the stockpot when complete. Simmer on medium low heat for 30-45 minutes.

Served with grated cheddar cheese on top, cold apple slices on the side and a beer. Pretty good stuff. Eat what you can, freeze the rest for later.

9 Weeks, 2010, Place Your Bets

$3,987.oo ÷ $443.oo/week = 9 weeks

That’s when my last unemployment check will show up. In 9 weeks.

I think I know why the House Republicans voted unanimously against the Stimulus Bill last week. It’s because they believe President Obama is right when he says that the economy is going to get worse before it gets better. They believe the President when he says that it’s going to take a very long time to get things back on track. They know President Obama is right about the economic conditions he inherited from failed Republican leadership and they are betting they can twist his honesty with the American people to their political advantage.

The House Republicans unanimously placed the bet last week that the economy is not going to be better, and potentially will be worse, in 2010 when mid-term elections will be in full swing. They are betting that American voters will have forgotten President Obama’s honest prediction of a long recovery. House Republicans are betting that even if the stimulus package is the right thing for our country in the long term, it’s positive effects won’t be showing by election time in 2010. They are betting that if they vote against it now, they will be able to wag their fingers at the President, saying “I told you so,” and recapture their lost political majority in the House of Representatives.

It’s their political bet that the American people are impatient, fearful and ignorant. It’s a variation of the same bet Republican leaders made when they defended the $1 trillion wasted in Iraq by labeling the opposition “unpatriotic.” It’s the same bet they made in manipulating the tax code to create benefits for the wealthy by promising the benefit would “trickle down” to the rest of us. House Republicans are placing the same old bet because they are willing to put their selfish political ambition ahead of the public good.  They are betting that we’re fools.

My unemployment benefits run out in 9 weeks. If necessary, I’ll put my engineering degree and 25 years of experience to good use cleaning floors or pushing patients through hospital corridors or working in a rail yard as I try to support my family. In 2010, long after my unemployment checks have been spent, I will remember the bet House Republicans placed against me last week.

The Super Bowl is Tomorrow. Who Knew?!

I am going to a party tomorrow and don’t want to appear more foolish or out of touch than usual. Apparently, the Super Bowl is tomorrow evening so that’s the theme of the party. I wondered why someone would schedule a party on a Sunday evening when people have to go to work the next day. Now I know.  Through some research, I have learned that the Steelers are playing the Cardinals. While the Steelers are still in Pittsburgh, it turns out that the Cardinals have moved from St Louis to Phoenix, who knew?!

This may surprise you, but it’s been a while since I’ve paid much attention to professional football. For example, I also learned during my research that Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris and Mean Joe Greene have all retired so I don’t really know any of the players for the Steelers.

Football means the smell of Ohio Valley autumn leaves to me so I just can’t root for the Cardinals – there aren’t any trees in Phoenix for Chrissake!! Besides, I grew up in the shadow of the Black & Gold. I always liked that guy that played with half his foot blown off in Viet Nam. What was his name? You gotta love a team that would give a fella like that a chance. Nice bunch of guys, don’t ya think?

So here’s where you Steelers Fans come in. What are FIVE things I should know about the Steelers in order to cover up my total ignorance of the NFL? Nothing too complicated that would be difficult to memorize, please.  It would also help to have two or three things to help me trash talk those good for nuthin’ city hoppin’ Cardinals but don’t worry if you can’t come up with anything or you’re just to polite to diss the competition.

Thanks for your help.

frozen trees

Haiku 012809

Sunshine slicing through the clouds.
Ice on trees like prisms, splitting light into tiny colored sparkles.
Beauty.