Resign in lieu of termination

I was pretty much fired.  In every sense of the experience it feels like a firing.  My employer does not want me to work there any more.

The result, I'm walking around in the rain on a Tuesday contemplating unemployment, my worth, and all the the rest.

I find it amazing that one day all is well and seeming the next the thing you thought was so ordered is all in shambles.

Fortunately, Krissi and I have made some good financial choices which have allowed me a degree of freedom to make good decisions regarding my next steps.  Which brings me back to walking in the rain and wondering who is this guy.  I know him.  He is a hard worker.  Loyal. Trustworthy. And a guy who got fired.

A quick work on State unemployment benefits.  Anybody who claims that people can game the system easily and are profiting from unemployment have likely not attempted to sign up for benefits.  1) The process is not a feel good situation. 2) Every body earns between $158 and $664 per week regardless of what they earned.  So, it's not a huge sum of money.  3) To receive this benefit, you have to not only be looking for work - which is reasonable - you have to document three attempts per week and report this weekly to be considered for the benefit.  As I write this, it seems like a reader could say, that doesn't sound so bad.  Well, perhaps not, but as someone who has been on the job for the better part of 20 years, it feels mighty weird to be reporting attempts and contacts just to get some money while I'm out of work.

One year blogiversary

I haven't blogged  in about a year, not counting starting the corvophoto blog a little while ago.

So whats changed?  What's up?

One thing:  I've found the blogger app and it's a pretty sweet application to just do little blog posts like this.  So,  I anticipate I'll be doing a little 

more blogging seeing as I have a bit of a commute and I don't always like to use FB  as a blog.

Mmmm.  Need a little sleep on this bus.  

Geo out.

Plus,  check out this awesome thunderbird head badge.

cycling rank

Here is what I’m sick of: The near constant bullshit from the venom spewing mouths and angry typing finger tips of people who simply want to hate on cyclist. That, and the fact that this morning crazy-driver-dude aggressively passed me on my left between signs within a block when I was attempting a left turn in to my place of business. This rant won’t be about how cyclists are without fault, because they/we clearly are not. We roll through stops, we run lights, we fail to yield – all pretty much the same moving violations that automobile drivers find themselves doing, or being ticketed for from time to time. In fact, cyclist and drivers aren’t so very different. We often use the same roads. We abide by and break the same traffic laws. Hand signals, of all manner, are the same between cycling and driving. Drivers often lock a Club to their steering wheel to avoid theft, while cyclists lock up their wheels to avoid theft. The difference is, and this is the very basic, underlying difference - besides the two wheels and no motor thing - that when a car hits a pedestrian (or a cyclist) there will be significant injury for the person being hit. When a cyclist hits a pedestrian, sure there will be injury, but certainly not as catastrophic as a 150 pound person being tackled by a 2500 pound, metal object moving at 35 miles an hour. So, the bottom line is, resulting injury from mistakes made while moving. I contend that mistakes on behalf of drivers account for more injury than mistakes on behalf of riders, and when injuries occur with the contacting force of a moving automobile, the injuries are far more serious. Does this simple idea escape folks? Does this idea of mass and force mixed with speed evaporate for folks when they get into their vehicles? I think yes. Failure to realize that the basic result of a driving mistake can lead to death of another person is really the only reason I can come up with that explains why: 1) drivers behave the way they do on the road and 2) drivers behave the way they do when writing or speaking about cyclists.

check out my wife's (our) travel blog

ooopps.

It's been a while since I blogged. My bad.

neighbors

Hi, I'm Crow. I live in the neighborhood.

All I can say is welcome to the 'hood. There was a line in a movie that I don't remember the title to that pretty much sums it up; "Embrace the suck."

Crow.

NYC - Busted

Craigo and I made the trip our east to NYC - Manhattan baby. We drank and ate our way throught the city. Our host, a consumate foodie and bar snob noted that he has never busted a city to the extent that we did on our whirl wind tour.

Here is a sample:

Craft – this is newer style food, trendy preparations, edgy and front line New York food. Pricy. I think perhaps the price was a bit excessive for what we got. However, with a little better control on the alcohol, the price will be completely manageable. http://www.craftrestaurant.com/


Daniel – Over the top good! This is classic French preparation – spot on execution – world class service. Worth the money, but still, pretty spendy. Due to the economic down turn, they are running mid-week specials –something like three courses with paired wine for 99.00/person. You’ll have an amazing time for two hours. Comparable time/price to a show, and you’ll get to experience one the top five restaurants in the US. http://www.danielnyc.com/


Good Enough to Eat – Breakfast spot. Been in business for 28 years on the upper west side. They gotta be doing something correct. The food is wonderful. Great after a night of drinking. Even better when you can function properly. Price is very reasonable. 483 Amsterdam Ave, New York, NY‎ - (212) 496-0163‎ http://www.goodenoughtoeat.com/html/story.html


The Coffee Shop Bar – Good eats, better views. All the wait staff are models. The food is good for breakfast, lunch and likely dinner although I have never had dinner there. It’s in Union Sq. so it close to everything including all the subway lines. 29 East 16th and Union Sq. W. http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/coffee-shop/


Porto Rico Importing – http://www.portorico.com/store/ Coffee for drinking now and for bringing home. An amazing – although small double espresso. The folks at the espresso bars really know what’s up with coffee which is strangely rare for NYC.

Café Pick Me Up – likely one of the best espresso’s I’ve ever had. 145 Avenue A
New York, NY 10009-4949
(212) 673-7231
http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/cafe-pick-me-up/


There is a stellar pizza place on the west side of Broadway at 92nd street. It’s part of a greek place. Lip smackin’ slices even at 11:30pm.

There is another pizza spot – Sal and Carmine Pizza - Pretty good pie. Don’t talk to the owner, he’s really grouchy. Been in business way too long.
2671 Broadway
New York, NY 10025-5025
(212) 663-7651
http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/sals-and-carmines-pizza/menus/main.html



Bubby’s Pie Co. 120 Hudson Street in Tribeca, NY, NY 10013 (212) 219-0666 . Pie is simply not as good as krissi’s but whose is? Good food in the middle of the night. You might want to try the fried chicken and waffles, especially after 12 am.
http://bubbys.com/



Dylan Prime - 62 Laight St, New York, NY‎ - (212) 334-4783 – Didn’t eat there, but had some cocktails. Expensive, but likely to be best bartender in town. I’d advise ordering a perfect Manhattan or just telling the bar tender what you like and letting them mix something up for you.
http://www.dylanprime.com/


Don’t got to Coney Island. It’s dead. Nathans hotdog, claimed to be the best in town are absolute shit. Stay home and eat Dicks. Better food, better service, less depressing.

AIG = get me some bonus

AIG's CEO Edward Liddy claims that in the cold, competitive reality for customers, revenue and employees, we (AIG) had to pay the bonuses.

I'd like point out that the people getting bonus were from the financial products division. This is the division that has often been cited as the source of failures which have caused, or helped cause, the implosion of the company and subsequent 180 billion dollar federal bail out.

A few questions for you Mr. Liddy: 1) Who is competing for these employees? The US government owns 80% of your private company because of these valued employees’ failures. If in fact there is such fierce competition for these folks, then I've got to wonder who would hire them. 2)Why would AIG want to retain anybody who contributed to such a catastrophic collapse. 3) Why is it that employees who cause a multi-billion dollar collapse get bonuses while manufacturing industry employees are fired, have their retirement stripped, benefits gutted, or simply have their jobs outsourced? 4) Why is it that 11, million dollar or more bonuses were paid to people who no longer work at AIG? In this case, it can't possibly be that AIG is competing for revenue, customers and its valued employees. It simply can't, for the obvious reason that at least 11 people who received the money don’t work for AIG.

This last point brings us to really the crux of the issue and why the issue has so much traction in the press. Liddy claims, - it was necessary - the reality is that the bonuses represent simple entitlement. It very may well be contractually legal. There may be rationales by Liddy and his like to justify these bonuses but, this simply stinks. While the public may not be able to understand collateralized, bundled, equalized hub-dub-ary, I think it has recognized AIG and it’s bonus collecting executives for what they are – a bunch of greedy, entitled, legitimized crooks.