If it's the songwriter I'm thinking of, oh how I love him. Some of his lyrics were just achingly beautiful.

If I had my 20s to live over again, I would definitely (among many other things) pursue a skilled manual labor trade.

I wish I'd stuck with it more, and paid more attention at the time. Although I will say in non-union states, like here, it's not the greatest gig in terms of pay and bennies. In 2000 the lead framing carpenter at the GC I worked for made $15/hr, only $5 more than me with my scant 2 years of experience, and got health insurance only after he'd worked for the company for 15 years. That "years" is not a typo.

I wouldn't take dating advice from her either.

Right!?!

Oh, and the shrinking industries article?

It's not always easy to see what's coming down the pike but the American auto industry was just plain stupid and stubborn. They resisted concerns about fuel economy and got their asses handed to them by the Japanese in the '70s. They resisted concerns about renewable energy sources and the Prius came and took that segment away when it could have been a growth area for the US. The only car thing they've gotten "right" in the last couple decades was SUVs, which are not sustainable long-term unless they're developing SUVs that run off of renewables.

I've seen a lot of incredibly dumb decisions made by obscenely highly-paid businessmen. There's so much respect given to those guys (while simultaneously disrespecting the average worker) yet when their decisions completely screw their company, their industry, there's very little accountability. I'm not sure whether it's the fault of America's business schools or whether it's the stockholders. Few American business leaders seem to be concerned with a timeframe longer than next quarter. Some don't look further ahead that 2 weeks, it seems.

I've seen a lot of incredibly dumb decisions made by obscenely highly-paid businessmen. There's so much respect given to those guys (while simultaneously disrespecting the average worker) yet when their decisions completely screw their company, their industry, there's very little accountability.

Pretty much. Rather than innovate they try to protect their business model. It's frustrating to watch (and be a part of). It doubly fucks the workers too, because they could be learning new skills that would actually be transferable in the new economy, but instead the "Great Businessmen" petrified (in the sense of wood) everyone.

I just got myself a gig presenting at the next department meeting.

Hmm. I don't mind presenting, but I so much prefer complete strangers. I mean, I actually love presenting to complete strangers.

Oh, sorry, Spidra. I meant Seska. That's my zip files kicking in with the first and last letters. Oops.

And yeah, JZ, it's probably who you're thinking of.

ITA, Spidra.

In the '70s, the American auto industry desperately fought regulations to increase average fuel economy. They lost the fight, and the regulations saved their asses during the '79 fuel shortages.

Same thing happened in the '90s and '00s, except they won the fight against the proposed higher fuel economy standards. And with the fuel price spike of '08 it came and bit their asses. I mean, they seriously believed they could continue to make lots of SUVs and everything would be fine.

I have a feeling I'll be helping boss with her presentation at next week's staff meeting. I've already started writing out a job description for myself. I'm just glad I won't have to present it. Big Boss who runs the thing is a good enough manager and guy, but there's something about the way he stops the presenter in the middle of something and has these epiphanies constantly would make me roll my eyes.

We seriously had to take a moment to talk about the yahoo messenger error message that popped up on the presenter's computer.

For all that, it was a productive meeting and I did get stuff out of it.

Random photo - #23 in this slideshow [link] is cute.

I love the caption too:

A cat eyes a squirrel intently as it makes it's way along a fence in Ormond Beach Fla. Cat and squirrel parted without incident.

Wrong "it's", though.