I cannot write worth a damn, and I sure have a big problem editing what I write.  Usually this is due to the fact that I read every third word.  Sometimes I will “read” words that are not there.  It’s like my mind fills in the blanks.

Just so we are all clear – I’m saying I am highly aware that I lack when it comes to being a writer (and I’m OK with it), however, I know that at my worst I would have the ability to be a writer at the AP.

Read this line from the story “Chrysler execs say cash will run short in January”

Kolka says most suppliers are working with Chrysler and getting payments in the normal 45-day cycle. But LaSorda says an oil company that is making billions has demanded cash before shipments.

 (emphasis mine)

Is this a quote, biased “reporting” or simply poor writing? If this is a direct quote it should be denoted as such (hello quote marks!) and the editor should be looking for a new job. Assuming it is not a quote, because why would the AP actually bother to have a writer and editor read over something before it goes to press, both the AP and Tom Kirsher end up looking like they are highly biased in favor the auto industry bailout. 

What this line says is this: a well-managed company, one that is able to turn a profit, should obviously be “spreading the wealth” to a company that may, possibly, be unable to pay the bills.  This single line continues to promote the idea that the oil companies are evil and the automakers are innocent victims.  As a result of being a victim, on principle alone, the U.S. give automakers a bailout.

No, I don’t think so…

Again, I understand I have limited ability as a writer, but if Tom Krisher can be a writer for the AP with crap like the above, so can I. 

Where do I sign up?

One attribute I possess, and one that I am quite proud of, is my ability to admit when I am wrong. Did I make a mistake? I was wrong, and I accept responsibility for my error. I don’t attempt to deflect blame when my error has caused others difficulty. Most of the time, not always, but most time I also tend to not make excuses – this is simply the way it is, I was wrong and let’s move on from here.

I have a big problem, however, taking the heat when someone else is the cause of the error. When the poor performance of another individual impacts me, and I have no ability to influence the other person’s performance, I have a big issue.

Not that I am the best, but I cannot stand incompetence.  Period.

Here is a hypothetical, pure hypothetical.

Let’s say one gets a loan for a specific service, and this loan in going directly to a service provider in your name. As such, you, the consumer, begin to move forward with the utilization of said service. Time begins to move on and you, the consumer, are happy with the service being provided.

One day the service provider contacts you and says “Oh, by the way, you owe us a very large sum of money”, you would be confused, wouldn’t you? You were under the impression you had a means of paying for this service. You believed you had a loan in place to cover your costs. It turns out your service provider rejected the loan and returned it to the lender without your knowledge, leaving you responsible for the cost.

It would have been nice for the service provider to tell you, I don’t know, more than 3 days before your bill was due? Wouldn’t it?

For the last 10 years I have been an active investor in the stock and options markets. During my time I’ve seen three significant downturns (2000, 2002 and 2008), and if there is one thing investing taught me it comes down to this – uncertainty creates fear. If Wall Street doesn’t understand where the market is headed stock indices tend to react with major volatility.

The idea that uncertainty creates fear isn’t solely confined to the financial markets; I believe this is a normal human reaction. Think about it… if an individual is uncertain about what may happen they begin to protect themselves today because they are unsure if they will be able to do so tomorrow.

Take corporate America for example…

Here we have MegoCorp, a Fortune 10 company. It turns out, due to economic conditions, MegoCorp will miss profit numbers by 10% and management is in a panic. As of a result of the confusion, different members of the senior executive team are not speaking with the same message (uncertainty) and a rumor begins – layoffs are coming. Now middle management begins to take action to “protect” their turf (fear).

Cross-divisional projects are hastily cut to save the budget of one area without giving thought to the impact of another division. Different teams begin holding information from each other due to the misguided belief they are creating a competitive advantage for their own area, and before you know it morale in MegoCorp has hit an all time low. Not only is the business now in danger, workforce productivity has dropped, which will only deepen the misfortunes the company is facing….

The MegoCorp example happens all the time, and cases exist when companies never regain their former glory after such events, but with the understanding that uncertainty creates fear, when I hear mixed messages, I begin to take notice.

Now read the following passages from a TimeOnline article “Barack Obama is warned to beware of a ‘huge threat’ from al-QaedaSecurity. Officials fear a ‘spectacular’ during the transition period”

Passage one

General Michael Hayden, director of the CIA, this week acknowledged that there were dangers during a presidential transition when new officials were coming in and getting accustomed to the challenges. But he added that no “real or artificial spike” in intercepted transmissions from terror suspects had been detected.

Passage two

Lord West of Spithead, the Home Office Security Minister, spoke recently of a “huge threat”, saying: “There is another great plot building up again and we are monitoring this.”

Passage Three

Intelligence chiefs on both sides of the Atlantic have indicated that such warnings refer more to a general sense of foreboding than fear of an imminent or specific plan.

Passage Four

“As far as we know there is nothing from the intelligence world to indicate that anything has changed dramatically in recent months to put us on alert for an attack at the moment,” a source said. The present threat level is “severe”, which is the second-highest alert status. But a senior counterterrorism official suggested last month that this should be regarded as “the severe end of severe”.

So, which is it?

Are government officials in the UK and US simply saying it’s business as usual, just be aware that anything can happen, or is there “another great plot building up again and we are monitoring this.”

Again, mixed messages are a good way of creating uncertainty, and that is exactly what security officials in the US and UK are doing. In times filled with enough fear as it is, how will such messages be interpreted by the general public and what will the collective impact be?

I’m tired of the uncertainty and fear.

I took a nap this evening because I wasn’t feeling too well. It was a simple matter of needing to sleep it off, not that it totally worked in my favor. Anyway, a number of things…

1. Due to a four hour nap I didn’t get to working on the things I wanted to this evening, more specifically, working on the studio
2. I really don’t want to sit in a 5 hour meeting tomorrow
3. My Dell Laptop, the one that is the workhorse of my studio, seems to have suffered a major crash. This is not a good thing for countless reasons.
4. My cat Bender is on my bad side right now – I cannot stand him

All that said, I have the Venture Brothers to keep my company for another 20 minutes. Thank god for that.

UPDATE

For the love of all thing holy, it looks like there is an error on the boot sector of the laptop. This is not going to be fun to fix.

UPDATE 2

I am sleepy but I’ve managed to get past the boot error and into safe mode. It looks a system restore of some type will be an option.

UPDATE 3

Woo hoo, it’s back!