An update on my earlier post on BarCampLA5. Post BarCamp first day, and I have to say I’m pretty impressed. Wonderfully diverse bunch of people all the way from marketing types, to musicians, to actors/actresses/comediennes, to web bloggers, to linux kernel programmers! There was free entrance with pre-registration, free food, and free T-shirt to mark the occasion, and a full day of interesting talks by interesting people.
More…
There’s an interesting new idea that’s been around for a few years now of get togethers, conferences, whatever, that are communal in nature. My friend Michael Dorausch (of Planet Chiropractic) turned me on to this a year or two ago but I’m only just now getting round to going to one.
Conferences are typically hosted by big business, commercial organizations, etc. but this is different in that it’s the actual participants are responsible for setting the agenda, giving the talks, participating fully and actively in the event. If they don’t, there will be no event!
I heard a story on NPR just today where they were talking about events just like this, and they’ve coined a term to describe them.. “un-conference”.
There’s one happening tomorrow called BarCamp.
More info at the BarCamp wiki, wikipedia, BarCamp Los Angeles meet March 2008,
They come out of the woodwork, they do. You don’t know what you’ve got coming to you, until you leave what you had. I’ve learned that so many times, and it’s awesome to learn it again each time.
A family and a home are things I want, but not having these things just yet opens up other opportunities. For example, I’m in the enviable position of being able to take risks with what I do for work , mostly as I have no commitments, other than my pooches.
It’s becoming obvious that there are a LOT of opportunities out there for me, including ones more geared towards the technical side of things which I find more interesting. I feel lucky 
.
For example I landed a contracting gig a couple weeks after I left Sun. Since then I’ve been working for this customer, mostly from home, with occasional visits to Toronto, Canada. I’ve been up there for a couple visits recently. Last week when I was there it was -10°C without wind chill. I think in the shade with a breeze blowing it hit -20°C!
I really really want to spend some time visiting friends in northern/southern CA, go camping with the pooches again, and play lots and LOTS of drums.
As a follow up to my earlier posting here, I found I’m not alone in being completely in shock at the behavior of Bank of America.
Bank of America abruptly notified cardholders in good standing their rates would skyrocket if they didn’t opt out fast. Is BofA greedy or needy? ..
The major credit-card lender in mid-January sent letters notifying some responsible cardholders that it would more than double their rates to as high as 28%, without giving an explanation for the increase. ..
Bank of America appears to be taking an even more aggressive stance because, beyond credit scores, it is using internal criteria that aren’t available to consumers. That makes the reason for the rate increase even more opaque. “Congress has faulted credit-card companies for lack of transparency in raising rates,” says William Ryan, a financial industry analyst at Portales Partners, a New York-based research firm. “Bank of America is bringing it to a new level.” ..
Bank of America hasn’t made it easy for consumers to reject the new rates. The letters require that consumers write Bank of America to agree to no longer use the card and pay off the existing balance at the old rate—they can’t telephone to do so, nor does Bank of America provide a form or a return envelope. Moreover, consumers don’t have much time to respond. ..
“Either Bank of America has more financial troubles than it is willing to admit or it has a level of institutional arrogance that is unacceptable.”
This guy worked for something like 11 years as a dish washer to earn
around $60k (about 30,000 UK pounds). He was leaving to go back to his
home country where he could make a great life for his family, and he was
stopped leaving the country and they confiscated his money. There’s a
document you’re supposed to fill out if you’re taking more than $10k in
cash out of the country, and he forgot or didn’t know about it, so they
took his life savings.
You can sign a petition here to help:
~ http://proudtoliveinamerica.com/Forms/Main/Default.aspx?L=en-us&P=Petitions
Please sign, and forward the message onward.
I’ve read about this story for some time now, and they finally sent him
home, and only gave him $10k back, keeping the rest.
~ http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/27/immigrant.money/index.html
Some of the circumstances around this are confusing. Some are saying he
hadn’t paid taxes on this, some are saying he *did* pay taxes but didn’t
file his taxes correctly. Regardless, many conservatives calling for him
to be crucified as an example of the harm illegal aliens are doing to
America and the American economy. Thing is, I wonder just how many of
these screaming conservatives would take his place and wash dishes for
$5.50 an hour for 11 years. Here’s one such rant:
~ http://www.theconservativevoice.com/article/28308.html
And comments on this article are even more shocking, suggesting things like the place he worked should be burned down:
~ http://www.theconservativevoice.com/forum/read.html?id=11424#comments
That amount of money doesn’t even buy a small piece of a smart bomb they
like to let loose daily in the middle east, but would make the world of
difference to that man and his family back home.
Bastards.
tweets
