CEOs and Legislators

California's public civil service employees share a similar fate with those who work in industries where flawed decisions are made by corporate CEOs. A recent judicial ruling tentatively stipulates that the CA Governor can reduce the state employees' salary to minimum wage (or about $11/hr for managerial staff) until an overdue budget is passed. These workers have no control over the legislators' or CEOs' decisions.

The legislators who cannot come together in agreement for a working budget by its deadline earn around $120,000 plus many perks (e.g. daily per diems at approximately $175). Maybe not as extravagant as the millions a CEO can pull down, but about twice that of the average state worker. Yet instead of docking their pay, the worker bees are the ones being penalized.

I'm sure those folks who are being laid off by Detroit's Big Three aren't flying around in their fancy jets asking for handouts. Just rambling.

Obama's Cars

In tonight's Presidential address to Congress, Mr. Obama referred to automobiles as an American invention. Actually, most historians credit the first internal combustion engined automobile to Karl Benz of Germany. Steam-engined cars are said to have preceded this and was the brainchild of a Frenchman. Henry Ford was an American whose contribution was the introduction of the assembly line; he made automobiles widely available to the masses.

At least it's not like our Prez lays claim to inventing any widespread commodity.

Ouch

This is my clutch hand (for motorcycling), as well as the one that is needed in conjunction with my throttle hand to keep the bike upright and not lying on its side. My first cast ever, and first broken bone that I was aware of (oblivion has its merits... maybe). This keeps me from my two favorite activities: volleyball and motorcycling. The past few days our temps were from the mid-60s to 70 degrees and sunny. Curses... our reservoirs are well below normal and I would love for all the rain and snow to fall while I am decommisshed (although for my indoor vball league I can only show up to root for my team, often wondering if I could... um, dismiss that thought).

March 20th comes the 1st day of Spring and so too comes off the cast, and in time to celebrate for my birthday on the 21st. The entire weekend will be cause to celebrate as my boys see their 11th birthday on March 22nd (who just got their shots yesterday and none too happy about the ordeal, but leaving with a clean bill of health).

Woo Hoo for Hulu!

This website (www.hulu.com) hit the internet last summer and took off like gangbusters... or so I've heard. Alec Baldwin is the company's pitchman on TV, but I won't hold it against them. Now I can catch up on TV shows and movies that I missed, or when I'm waxing nostalgic. As long as my bandwidth keeps up, all is good in my neighborhood.

Phelps Photo

Of course, the photo depicted Michael Phelps with what looked to be a marijuana bong, but it could very well have been a vase after the roses were discarded. Maybe he was getting a residual sniff.

Or it wasn't even the evil weed that was burning; I heard that hookah bars came into vogue a little while back. I don't know much about these places, but assume they are, or were, legit.

And the best explanation if it truly was a cannabis water pipe, which seemed to work effectively for a former Commander-in-Chief?

"I tried marijuana once. I did not inhale."

Still Here

I'm still here, but this past week I've been dealing with a cast. It's on my left hand, up to my forearm, just to immobilize a broken finger. Needless to say, typing has been a bayutch especially since I am a touch-typist... and I'm struggling with the hunt and peck.

Gotta go back in next Friday for more xrays. Word is that the surgeon wants a better look than the last set of pics. I'm concerned, and hope surgery is not in the works.