Layoff news

Well, Carole has finally confirmed that layoffs are a real possibility in the editorial department. She said we'd have more specifics within the week. This is bad news, but at least we're getting some clarity.

Power crisis redux

I just got a wireless notification from the state of California that we're in a stage 2 power emergency. At stage 3, the power starts going off.

Who Wants This War? - And why don't we find out before we start one?

It looks like I'm not the only one a little unnerved by Bush's unilateral declaration of war.

Michael Kinsley writes:

The eerie non-debate we're having as vast preparations for battle are made before our eyes is a consequence of a long-running constitutional scandal: the withering away of the requirement of a congressional Declaration of War. Oh, the words are still there, of course, but presidents of both parties flagrantly ignore them—sometimes with fancy arguments that are remarkably unpersuasive, but mainly by now with shrugging indifference. The result is not just a power shift between the branches of government but a general smothering of debate about, or even interest in, the decision to go to war among citizens in general.

Interesting point.

No Quick Crucifix

Speaking of church and state, here's a Slate article outlining some of the downsides to school vouchers, at least from a mainstream Christian perspective.

Visual Studio .NET

One strange thing after installing: when another application crashes there's a new "debug" option. I guess Microsoft wants me to take some share of the blame.

The New Republic Online: Pledge Class

In light of the controvery surrounding the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals pledge of allegence ruling, here's an interesting counterpoint to the widespread outrage.

Just as the founders of this country rejected the idea of a king, so they rejected the idea of an official state religion. Here in the United States, religion is a personal matter, not subject to state control. And if most Americans would stop and think about it for a moment, they would agree that they prefer to keep things that way. Who really wants to have Congress writing prayers and weighing in on questions of faith?

The full article is worth considering.

Happy Independence Day!

With Andrea in Atlanta, I think I'm going to spend the next four days learning C# (the language, not the note), playing video games, catching up on reading and watching movies. If I'm feeling really ambitious, I might even look for an optical connector for my DVD player.

Everything except thinking about work.

S.F. bans urinating in public

Only in San Francisco would this be controversial.

Brazil Back on Top of Soccer World

After staying up until 6 a.m. with two screaming Brazilians, I still don't understand what the big deal is about soccer.

Bush to be sedated....

CNN.com

Asked about the decision to transfer power, Bush said, "I did so because we're at war, and I just want to be super cautious."

Am I the only one irked every time he says this? When did Congress declare war?

smattering.org >> the friday five

Since all the tech companies have shut down early in anticipation of next week's "holiday," I actually have time to do the Friday Five:

When was the last time you...

1. ...sent a handwritten letter?
Years. I don't know what I'd do without e-mail and instant messaging. Luckily, most of my family is pretty tech-savvy, too, so that's how we keep in touch.

2. ...baked something from scratch or made something by hand?
I made some capellini a few weeks ago -- everything was hand-prepared, except maybe the noodles. (No, I didn't squeeze out the olive oil or milk a cow for the cheese, but let's get real.)

3. ...camped in a tent?
College, I think. Not something I enjoy all that much.

4. ...volunteered your time to church, school, or community?
This is something I need to do more. That last time was Feb. 14, when my church undertook a "kindness project" in downtown San Jose. I signed up to pass out food, but ended up on the team passing out flowers.

5. ...helped a stranger?
I helped an old woman cross the street in San Jose a few months ago, at her request. No lie. A few months before that, I helped another elderly woman get her car out of a tight parking spot. She actually trusted a complete stranger to get in her car and back it out of the parking space. We have a lot of retirees around the area I work.

Bush's lucky Enron break

Bush vows investigation into WorldCom scandal

Why is Bush so suddenly interested in a federal probe about accounting fraud? Because WorldCom contributed to Democratic candidates.

The chickens come home to roost

Bush Facing Test in Fight to Avert a Financial Crisis

Of course, he'll find a way to blame this on terrorism and not his government giveaway to the rich.

Argh.

Within minutes of my implementing the new system, it goes down. The error is completely on their end, so I can only assume it will be fixed soon.

New comment system

I added a new comment system that's easier to customize and manage. Unfortunately, that's means all of the old comments are gone forever. Easy come, easy go, I say.

Planet Replay receives a subpeona

Now the movie industry is dragging ReplayTV enthusiast-matching site Planet Replay into its lawsuit against SonicBlue. With uncertainties at the workplace, this may not be such a bad time to start boycotting movies.

Who's next?

Charmain, a secretarial-type assisant for our special events coordinator, got the pink slip today.

I don't know what to make of that. She was a part-time employee, so the move isn't going to save much money. What's even scarier is that she was plenty busy, so it wasn't like they were getting rid of deadweight or anything.

I guess I shouldn't worry about things I can't control. The only thing I can do is keep applying like crazy to other jobs.

No news is ________ news.

No big news today; Mr. Bernhard just wanted to sit in at our meeting and hear our story lists. They're really trying to shift our coverage of "hard news," or at least their very narrow definition of the term. Typically, that means news not found anywhere else -- even if that's because it wasn't a big enough deal to warrant coverage in competing publications. Needless to say, this is not the sort of thing that gets me excited -- and contradicts just about everything our editors have been telling us since we got here.

But if that's what they want, that's what I'll have to do. That sort of news is a lot easier to do, but is completely irrelevant in this market.

Dia dos Namorados

For those of you who don't know, today is Dia dos Namorados, or the Brazilian version of Valentines Day. and if you're dating a Brazilian, that pretty much makes it Valentines Day for you, too.

Closure?

Here's an excerpt from an e-mail everyone in the newsroom received this morning:

Wanted to let you know that Kent Bernhard plans to sit in on our staff
meeting tomorrow morning, via conference call.

I'd like to please ask that everyone make a special effort to get here
for a 9 a.m. sharp start time.

Kent is vice president for editorial forparent company American City Business Journals and almost never sits in on a newsroom-only meetings -- at least, he hasn't during my time here or at the Phoenix business journal.

Even if this doesn't mean layoffs or salary cuts, his presence augurs big changes for the job. On the bright side, at least we'll end the agonizing uncertainty. I'll keep you posted.