You are looking at posts that were written in the month of November in the year 2006.
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JimmyC
Digital Insight Corporation - Intuit to Acquire Digital Insight
I don’t write much specific about work here but had to post this. This is an exciting bit of news - it means we are now a real powerhouse and have much to offer in our marketspace. Not sure what it means for me specifically but there is no overlap so all of us only expect good things (I’m keeping my job)!
my irish eye is a Photoblog from Michelle Mitchell in London & Ireland - I’m not sure where she is now. But she has a great website and just gave me a great idea for building a photoblog within this site! And The Site to help me do it. Excellent….. Thanks Michelle!
“We will make our economy fairer” vowed House Democrats, in a campaign manifesto.
I’m all for economic opportunity for all. I’m also all for social responsibility but I’m worried a bit about what irrational steps congress will not take to “level the playing field.” Today’s Wall Street Journal had an article called: Democrats Target Wealth Gap And Hope Not to Hit Economy, Wessell points out some serious challenges to current economic policies in the works. Minimum wage is sure to go up. Small business owners will probably cut staff unless they think it through and find a way to protect them. College kids and other people in the same kind of jobs will also suffer. Or prices will go up to support added payroll expense and since these companies are typically serving the lower middle market - everyone will suffer. But Wessell points out that if this isn’t too severe of a raise it won’t hurt that bad and might help.
Limiting income, imports, outsourced labor and boosting labor unions seems more likely and those are slippery slopes. Not that there is anything wrong with organized labor but contrived laws to boost it and protectionism designed to control consumer behavior is dangerous. We don’t live in a huge surplus economy anymore, our nation is economically dependent on the world and our labor forces don’t want to do the work going overseas - no matter what the politicians say; history proves these are political moves designed to gather votes with false promises.
Tax is going to go up. “most of the focus is on taking more from the top” Estate tax, Top tax rates, FICA ceiling, and capital gains tax increases. Muckrakers call the lower capital gains tax a “war on work” saying its unfair to those who work for income vs. those that trade stock. Hay, I do both - every dollar I put in the market came from work - duhh. If I can’t invest it for my future neither can the low wage earner. If companies can’t get capital for expansion, they won’t hire the low wage earner. If they raised the capital gains rate imaging the stock market crash as we all sold in a fury!
Aging baby boomer’s that have fixed income beware if you are millionaires (and who isn’t if you hope to live and not work to a ripe old age). And boomer’s - think about your kid’s ability to get there… its going away. We could very well end up like our grandparents generation, in a depressed transitional economy with no room for innovation or transformation. If we remove the economic incentives to be the best there will be no “best” in our country - only mediocrity; Asia will have it all - countries like India and China will rule the economy as they mill people and exploit trade imbalances. Its a pessimistic view, I know.
I’m just getting on the highway now and trying to find a way; I don’t need roadblocks or even speed bumps. Let me open it up and take some people with me on the way. I promise to buy a buss and take others with me when the ride gets easier; why wouldn’t I. Oh yea - anyone who tries to get ahead is selfish and evil. NOT.
This is an image of my professional and financial life right now.
At Retail Delivery this week I saw old friends, old contacts, felt old memories. People who had taken risks and were now very wealthy, starting the next company. People who make the consistent cash and were moving forward, continuing to do so.
In my life, I see the blue sky but the ground before me is unclear like these foothills at dusk in Arizona. Do I take the path and work through it? My hair is grey and falling out. My weight is gaining and my knee is hurting again. I’m struggling right now:
Trial and task, move ahead, move through it, move to it.
Okay, I’m 41 now. The next ten years are to be my best. What can I do? I have been working for 20 and now I have 20 more to go. I’m not where I thought I would be but I still can get there.
The ground is dark,
the sky is blue,
the choice is there,
what will I do?
Perhaps I have breathed a word about my loss too much… if this is the next step towards my next chance of pitch-and-toss…
On an airplane on my way from ATL to Las Vegas
What do you believe - on being Jewish from a mixed background. Is it your culture, a religion, inspired or required?
Reading Walking the Bible by Bruce Feiler I’m remembering the stories I have read for years, as Bruce did to start the journey – wondering if they were history or myth, fact or fiction. On page 184 he finally confronts the “main character†God. Up until this point he has been covering historical figures like a news reporter tracing clues and places, situations and opinions. Between Sa el-Hagar and the Suez Canal – on the journey to the parting of the Red Sea he recants Gods change from working through people in the bible to a direct commandment that we observe Passover to remember the Exodus.
Now I’m back to my persistent discontent with Judaism, Not the Judaism of the Reform movement to some extent, but tradition. If Reform is inclusive – making it more of a religion then a culture. If it is what I once learned of Napoleon’s nationalistic command to the French Jews – If you are Frenchmen first and Jews second, then you are free to stay. A nationality within a nationality doesn’t work – it breeds jealousy, exclusion and hatred. It prevents a leader from total control as well. And this may be the biggest problem for Jews through history – the same force that has held the culture together, the religion together, is the same force that has made so many to hate the Jews. For most cultures do not allow for both - most countries controlled their people with Religion.
So for me this is my biggest source of discontent. For so many Jews – bloodlines are important. Most will say it is to combat assimilation – and the eventual disappearance of the Jewish people and faith. Some gentiles say it is an arrogance and source of exclusionary power designed to consolidate wealth and power – a wealth and power within each society they live that is a club few really can join. I have the bloodline – it’s thin but it is valid. My mother’s mother was a ‘purebred’ Jew – if that makes sense. My father is a ‘purebred’ Greek – if that makes sense. But how can it make sense – how can it be possible or probable. All cultures blend, my mother’s father is Italian – or Sicilian, really. He is the only of my grandparents that is living. He will tell you that no one from Sicily really knows what being Sicilian means. And that is my point – and my problem, and my pleasure. Any one of these people could be mixed from any other culture of the world. My love of of God and Judaism comes from my heart, what I have read in Torah and the teachings and laws of these stories. Do I believe them all to be true, does it matter what tribe I am from? It upsets me when I am asked - “Charanis, is that Saphartic?” It’s a test, a hidden probe of validity. Maybe, maybe not. I am what I am…I believe what I believe…
Greeks (Charanis):
Grandpa was directly from Limnos, Greece – an island not far from Turkey
Grandma’s ancestors are from Sparta, but from Main, USA
Italians (Capizzi):
Grandpa’s parents came from Sicily and surrounding islands.
Jews (Waldman):
Grandma’s parents came from Hungary
Wandering Eastern-European Jews could and probably did come from Mesopotamia originally, or fled form Spain or traveled from Greece. They could have been Jews in the land of Israel or what was Israel occupied by first Greeks, then Romans, then German Crusaders, then English Crusaders, then they finally (having enough) left and traveled north. They could have intermarried during the Greek Empire, Roman Empire or Byzantine Empire. They could have thrived under the Ottoman Empire and practiced Judaism all the while the Moslems built their culture and power. They could have been silent Jews during the inquisition and fled after; or, powerful Jews in the Holly Roman Empire or Germanic Kingdoms handling the money for the royals because good Christians didn’t do that. Maybe they had latched on to Alexander as he marched through Asia from Persia and stayed in what is now Hungary. Maybe a Jewish princess married a Greek warrior in Alexander’s army, convinced him that there was only one God and settled in for marriage and babies and life as it has been lived in a nuclear family for millions of years.
Sicilians living on the islands off of the tip of ‘the boot’ were also people of the sea. Through history they have lived under the rule of Greeks, Romans, North Africans, Arabs – whoever took their ships to this land and saw the beautiful beaches or mined the marble and pumice and said – this is for me. These were strong people with an unmatched survival mentality. They took the gods of the Greeks, then the Romans, then the God of the Germans who embraced Roman Catholic Church built from a crumbling empire revived as the Holly Roman Empire split from the Byzantine Empire. Perhaps a Greek sailor from an island in the Aegean or a Jew from the land of Israel boarded a ship and landed in Sicily. Perhaps a daughter of a Greek soldier in Sparta fed up with the oppressive colony culture of that city stowed away on a trading ship to Sicily. Perhaps this daughter and that sailor married because they were both people of the world with a common spirit; the spirit that draws any man and woman together – to live, to love and to build a family.
Greeks in Sparta were strong willed and relentless fighters. The colony-mentality of the Spartans thought as a unit, freedom was freedom from choice. Resources for the common good were gained through power and war. Needs were – well, “Spartan” and goals were basic and focused. The Athenians had the deep thinkers and politicians that discussed all matters of great importance and fought wars with the Spartans and other city-states until all resources, solutions and eventually their young men were exhausted. Not so different then our country and the Arabs?
Greeks of the islands were the People of the Sea in many historica texts and biblical stories. They could have been from Troy, Turkey, Asia Minor or Greece. It all depends on the time and place in history. What I do know is that I felt very comfortable sitting on a patio at a bar in Lemnos sipping coffee and talking philosophy with a complete stranger. Turkes, Greeks or misplaced people from Crete - This is the stuff of Homer. The Greeks in the Aegean were people of the sea. They traveled to the coast of Egypt during biblical times, and Turkey (Troy) during the time of Odysseus. They left soldiers and settlers everywhere. They joined forces with the Athenians and eventually the Mesopotamians under Alexander. The Greeks conquered all of eastern Asia, Eastern Europe, and yes Sicily. Alexander took it further east to Persia and Israel. Any one of these people I have described were all a part of this same Greek culture under Alexander’s Empire and could have met at any point in history.
So I am my own culture – it is a powerful story and a common thread to what is common among all of us. Humanity is the act of living, loving, traveling, growing and gaining. Most of all it is a faith in the future, a desire to grow and know. Know what makes things go. Know what makes things as they are. It is human to wonder and it is human to recognize greatness. There are so many things about life that create the desire to know what could possibly be behind it all. The idea that this is one big accident is fathomable but unlikely. The idea that we know right from wrong and that evil exists to be confronted and controlled through a faith in the future. This for me is the essence of my faith in one God and one force of nature. I do not want to cloud it with idols or kings or spiritual leaders. I do not need to base this faith on identified miracles and individuals who were spontaneously born or possessed to change and control a culture.
This is the only part of my discontent as a Jew. This is why I shy away from the culture of my Jewish heritage; because it is not the same for me. My culture is a blend of all that we know of history in the lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. When people ask me if I’m a Jew I say yes – I practice Judaism as it is the one religion that I can find enough of a connection to God as a force of nature and the one truth of humanity. The truth is that we should just be nice, simply follow the golden rule. So it is not because my grandmother’s people were genetically Jewish – it is because of the underlying message that resonates thorough every story in the Torah and the teachings it has spawned.
As Hillel stated on one foot under the skepticism of one who had not studied – “That which is hurtful to you don’t do to others. The rest is commentary, now go study.†This is the underlying message I want to be in the back of my head when I make any decision, teach my children, go about my work or play with others. It is not enough to follow the rules or follow your dreams – we live and depend on others and as long as there is that interdependence there must be that one key rule. That rule is God; it is our conscious and our guide. It is the spirit that spawned our ability to grow and conquer the world. It is not war and hatred that create but cooperation and love that make people and allow them to survive. It is so simple and yet so hard to follow. That is why there is a Torah, a God and what we call Religion. It is a look from your mother, a guiding hand from your father, an kiss from your wife or husband and a hand from your fellow man.
So I am not a Jew simply because my people came from an ancient tribe in Israel, I am a Jew because it was a gift given to me by my Grandmother on my thirteenth birthday in the form of the poem “IF†and the logic and reason I have learned by studying Torah.
My little girl isn’t little once again. Well, she is still young and small - 11 and growing. But she has today had her first day in Ballet practice with her pointe shoes. She came home so excited and ready. I’ll let her write more on our family website but here are my thoughts.
I’m a proud dad, she is my first and my most dedicated at these activities. Its been over 7 years since she started and she earned this. She is a beautiful dancer - always has grace and always pays attention to details. While other girls may be more athletic, she floats and with time she will get stronger and shine even more.
I do worry about the work though. This is going to hurt - band-aid’s and bruises. Blood and blisters. I don’t know if she can take that - its her biggest challenge. I hope she does because she loves dancing so!
WordPress has come along and more and more people make cool templates for it. I’ve recently updated this site - maybe folks will figure out how to change the background! I changed our family website too - www.charanis.com is now a blog and perhaps the kids will start adding to it; they all have login id’s now.
I’v also created a website on Flickr to host photographs.
CSTV is lazy and small minded. I’m an OS X fanatic, you know, but I’m also one that realizes the benefit of coding to the masses, including all not excluding any. That’s why I don’t like stuff that limits you. Using Microsoft tools or formats on the internet is against what the internet is about. If you write code to work in Firefox following standards you will by default work in Internet Explorer. If write .net code that is only using Microsoft tools, you only run in I.E. and don’t run on Unix or Mac OS X. What I’m talking about is my inability to listen to my UM Terps over the internet on
Their excuse or rather answer is:
Though we understand that there are passionate college sports fans within the Macintosh user community, we are currently unable to support OS X. Though there are currently no solutions for viewing All Access in OS X, Apple has released a public beta of “Boot Camp” which is built to more easily allow Mac users to install and run Windows XP on an Intel-based Apple computer. Apple will include this technology standard in their soon to be released OS X, Leopard. For right now, this software can be downloaded through the following link provided by Apple.
That is just stupid. They are saying buy a new Mac using the new Intel chips, buy a licensed copy of Windows XP and then you can view our site. Is Microsoft paying them, maybe! Just stupid and pissing me off. It would have been so much easier - there are college kids that would code for them for free as interns just to say they worked on the site! Here is one guy who isn’t looking at their advertisements. stupid and pissed me off.
Don’t go to cstv.com - CBS or any of those jerks.
A friend said to me today …
That’s the problem with being a Democrat…our party leaders think you have to pander to all the freaks, gays and minorities to win, wheras I believe a simple message of jobs and peace would carry the day. Honestly, both parties suck, and usually we get a choice between two candidates who both suck for different reasons but who both represent the extremes of their party ideology. Oh, for a true centrist.
Funny - how that is. I’m an idealist myself - I might have been a confederate considering my state’s rights POV but your point about pandering and issue driven politics would have put me squarely in the north. The fact is, issues drove politics back then too, not party ideals. Even as far back as the birth of our Country - great thinkers and politicians like Jefferson, Hamilton and Adams were build and defeated by issues and personal smacks more often then the ideals they all had. Hamilton wanted a stronger central government because he knew we wouldn’t last as a nation without it - but he was marked as a monarchist and ego-maniac, as well as a womanizer and blue-blood wannabe. Adams much the same, but it was because he refused to play the game that he lost power. I find myself ebbing and flowing on my politics as I get older. Much like my life experiences. In my 20’s I was a product of my father and our leader Ronald Reagan. I still think he was one of our greatest presidents but for the right reasons now - not just because my daddy said so. In my 30’s I was on the edge of frustration so many times in so many ways - and I felt like everything in the world was selfish and temporary - our economy, our government and all the business people around me. So I made my push with a few entrepreneurial ventures, built a family, bought a house and eventually wore myself out like our bubble economy and selfish leaders. The past 5 years have been the biggest test of my life - 80% of what I do every day with all my earnings is done before it starts. Mortgages, children’s needs, schedules, retirement planning, etc. I make very few choices and yet I make some of the biggest of my life every day. Its the top of the hill brothers and we are the kings right now. Our country is no different - all the world is watching our every move; and we got a little too confident, a little to arrogant and very freaked out about our responsibilities. This is where we should be hitting our stride and I pray we keep our heads level and make those big decisions with the maturity and wisdom of our experience - not the ego and arrogance of our age.
As we all hit our stride in our 40’s we all are going to come to realize how much we actually know, vs what we thought we knew in our 20’s and what we realized we didn’t know in our 30’s. So my politics are much the same. I don’t get upset about issues because I know the world isn’t coming to an end with one election. If anything this one wakes up my party too and we all come to the center a bit. The middle of the Regan administration, much like the middle of the Clinton administration were great times. Both for very different reasons. There is no panacea and no silver bullet either. We are better off in the middle - whether the tree-huggers, hollywood-liberals, fundamentalists, or supremacists like it or not. Personally, I just want that silent majority of apathetic generations x and y to wake up finally and start doing something.
A new speaker - liberal, smart and loud; a lame president - conservative, average and arrogant
But that’s just my opinion…and point of view.
