It’s been a hectic week or two. Changing hosts can be a real pain: downloading everything from the old and uploading it to the new, creating all new mail accounts, learning to navigate a whole new admin area, working all the little bugs that crawl in while you’re occupied elsewhere. Add to that updating a plugin or two, changing jobs and trying to get an online business going and eight hours of sack time becomes a rare and sought after thing.

And speaking of plugins, I managed to finally update the Birthday List to make it compatible with Wordpress 2+. What a chore that was, half the chore being just finding the time to do it. I beta tested it until my eyes began to melt and I think I got all the little wrinkles out. It’s here on the site and up at the Wordpress plugin database under Misc.

I also managed to start a short story though the deadline is a week away and, with starting a new job today, I’m a bit fearful I won’t finish it in time. Such is life, right?

Gotta run, the new job starts at 6AM, if you can believe that, and it’s coming up fast on 4:30.

Technorati Tags: Birthday List, Wordpress

Dear Mr. EJ

Thank you for the submission of your manuscript. Though the work is skillfully crafted and the writing superb, I fear I must pass. Were this a work of Science Fiction, which I do not represent, it’s possible you could find a market but, as mainstream fiction, I fear it hasn’t a chance. The characters and plot line are simply implausible.

A presidential candidate, a former prisoner of war, who advocates war and torture? A female running mate with scant political experience, who’s proud to be a hockey-mom and has a husband who refers to himself as first dude? These characters are so unrealistic as to be absurd.

Further, although the economic structure of any country is complicated and in constant flux and, to be sure, there is a great deal of greed involved, the level to which your novel portrays the financial situation is simply beyond believability. A housing market in disarray, CEOs of failed companies being given millions in bonuses, major financial institutions failing, a 750 billion dollar bailout from the government that will only enhance the rich and leave the taxpayer with nothing? No one would believe such a scenario.

You are obviously a talented writer but your imagination may have gotten away from you on this one.

Please do keep me in mind for your next endeavor.

Sincerely,

Big Time Agent

Has anyone else noticed the massive fear campaign directed at us by the media? It would seem the Rich and Greedy have nuzzled up with their political mouthpieces and are now in the process of trying to scare the hell out of us with their lies and innuendo.

C’mon, guys, give it a rest, will ya. You’ve been sucking the system dry for years, collecting your ridiculous salaries and obscene bonuses while running the companies into the ground. You walk away with millions and a whole lot of poor working folks end up losing what little they have and queuing up at the food line. Well, loath as I am to use a cliché, the chickens be coming home to roost.

You’re out there trying to scare us into thinking that our failure to support this staggering level of corporate welfare will somehow force the banks to stop lending which in turn could jeopardize company payrolls, car loans, mortgage loans, college loans, even, and I find this so absurd, cause people’s FICO scores to go down. Man, you all are getting desperate, huh?

Well, here’s a thought for ya: if people’s FICO scores are going to go down over this, why don’t we just really screw the scores and call a general strike: stop paying those mortgages, those auto and student loans, rip up those credit cards and toss the next credit card bill in the trash. We might go down but you’d go down with us and that, IMHO, would be cool.

I’ll be the first to admit I know little about economics but I do know this: If a bank loans me a dollar, that dollar is making money for the bank. If they don’t loan me that dollar, they make nothing. So please, don’t hand me your crap about financial collapse. If I don’t have the dollar, I’ll get by. Been poor a long time. I may not like it but I’m used to it. Are you?

This is High Noon, Shoot-out at the OK Corral. I just hope there are enough of us brave enough to stare you all down. By and by you’ll loan the money that needs to be loaned. After all, ya gotta pay the payments on those multiple dwellings you own and, you know, those high-end autos need a lot of maintenance, and jet fuel for the Lear, I mean, have you seen the cost of that stuff?

***

I just read an interesting article by Michael Moore: “The Rich Are Staging a Coup This Morning“. I think he may be on to something there. Hey, every despot who’s been forced out of office loots the treasury on the way out the door. Our despot is getting close to the end of his term. Sure looks like that’s what he’s doing here.