September 20, 2003
Make love, not...
"Clinton called for love to replace hatred."
This stuff is getting REALLY OLD. I mean, give me a freaking break -- he was the president and he's talking like a freaking hippie.
Is anyone else getting really tired that the children have been running the show for so long? And that quite possibly, their abdication of responsibility in the serious matters of life is what's responsible for just about every problem we have nowadays?
Posted by Matt at 10:39 AM
September 19, 2003
Business woes
I have to wonder why I insist on doing most everything the hard way.
When I say "the hard way", what I'm really saying is that I tend to do a lot of learning by trial and error. There simply isn't time to learn everything by means of trial and error. Even if one were to take a life lesson from every one of those errors and not repeat his mistakes, it's still far more efficient to learn from the mistakes others have made so that one doesn't have to waste his time making them all over again.
Hence why I should have gone to business school. I certainly was smart enough for it -- but NO! I had to be an actor. An artist. A psychologist. When I set up my own business, I had to learn everything from the process of failing about a thousand times, with only the framework I inherited from overhearing my dad's conversations about his businesses to guide me. I've had an idea of how to do things... just not the tools to streamline the process so that every transaction and interaction doesn't whip up a new round of "What should be done in this situation?"
So, lesson learned this week: 1) Don't leave anything up in the air when it comes to your business contracts. Set the terms from the beginning. Write them down; get the contract signed, with a specific list of what is promised, and by when, so that both parties are appropriately satisfied for their time and money. Word of mouth doesn't cut it. While shuffling the paperwork might be a little too formal for some freelancers' tastes (including mine), it's a necessary action to take if you want business to go smoothly.
I wouldn't have the problems I'm encountering now (again) if I had better sense in these matters. Live and learn. Now if I can just find a way to learn faster...
Posted by Matt at 1:46 PM
September 16, 2003
I love Thomas Sowell
Here's one of the myriad reasons why:
One of the signs of our times is a recent ruling by a federal judge that those who lost loved ones in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks can sue the planes' manufacturer and the owners of the World Trade Center, among others. This extraordinary -- indeed, unique -- terrorist attack was "foreseeable," according to Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein in New York.By the same reasoning, it was "foreseeable" that there would be jackasses like Judge Hellerstein on the federal bench.
Posted by Matt at 3:14 PM
September 14, 2003
Aw....
Nobody saw this coming.
Posted by Matt at 12:19 PM
September 12, 2003
What????
Man. This is another bad day for entertainment. Johnny Cash has died.
And as if that weren't bad enough, John Ritter collapsed on the set of his show, 8 Simple Rules. He died of heart failure at 54. I really liked him. One of his best performances was in a great episode of Buffy -- he played a crazy robot named Ted who was trying to insert himself into Buffy and Joyce's life as the new father figure, using some kick-ass psychadelic cookies to make everyone love him. Side note, I know, but let's face it: you probably didn't know that before, and now you do.
Sigh.
Posted by Matt at 1:45 PM
September 1, 2003
"Bet on human ingenuity every time"
Mark Steyn on man:
There's no such thing as "sustainable" development. Human progress and individual liberty have advanced on the backs of one unsustainable development after another: When we needed trees for heating and transportation, we chopped 'em down. Then we discovered oil, and the trees grew back. When the oil runs out, we won't notice because our SUVs will be powered by something else. Bet on human ingenuity every time. We're not animals, and it's a cult as deranged as the screwiest fringe religion to insist we are. Earth's most valuable resource is us.
Posted by Matt at 2:40 PM
