When Did "Blowing It" Become Such A Bad Phrase?

I have noticed that the concept of "blowing it" evokes a hostile response today. In fact, I am in a Best Buy the other day and I hear this employee complaining to another employee saying, "Man, that is why I said that over your earpiece. I didn't want to "blow you up" in front of everybody." Screwing something up is this nasty reality apparently and to the degree that the embarrassment and judgment is insurmountable. Here is the state of the union with regard to this issue at the moment:

1. You try to do something.
   
   
2. You fail to do it (or you don't do it well.)
   
   
3. People want to feedback but don't know how to do it without offending one's tender sensitivities.
   
   
4. So now "blowing it" is OUTLAWed, not as in "you can't fail" but rather "we refuse to accept the concept because it feels so critical"
   
   
5. As a result helpful simple terms like "wrong" or "incorrect" or "fail" are out the window and deemed to be "negative reinforcement."

I don't know what to think about all of this. There are plenty of topics and issues in life that don't fit into analytically black-and-white categories, but to imagine that people don't want to hear that the proposed answer is "wrong" or "incorrect" simply keeps us from finding helpful answers or kills the search for solutions that actually help. I think we are getting a little too sensitive.

If you think I am wrong, consult with a new friend who had to retool some training for the U.S. Army because when the soldier selected the incorrect answer in an e-learning course, they were now being told that they couldn't tell the soldier that they selected the wrong answer, but rather they would be encouraged to "try again." Ooops! Instead of appropriately locking your weapon you discharged that weapon into your friends head... please try again.

Asyncronous Object Oriented ActionScript 3

I have been hit up by so many people that are trying to learn AS3 but who have been hitting a brick wall with Object Oriented Programming (OOP) that I have decided to write a primer (whitepaper) on the topic in hopes that people can get over the basic hump of (1)what it is, (2)how OOP relates to classes and (3)how to write and work with custom classes.

This weekend I am partly launching this effort in hopes to start posting some stuff next week. I am hoping to wiki this and see if others will get involved and help document a super-minimalist entry-level approach to the topic such that people who have been tinkering with the topic can now gain a little personal traction in this space and start doing some stuff.

We will see how it goes.

Sweet Shirt Man!

There is a new shirt in town. Actually, I think I am giving this to all of my friends kids!

Cute stuff!

Saturday Morning Movie: Adventures In Exploring

This last Saturday was the first weekend in DC that wasn't packed with either apartment / moving activities or work or just a slew of events. I naturally woke up around 9:30-ish (which is sleeping in, for me, for the record) and making a break for the movies ran through my head. Actually, messing with my auto insurance ran through my head first, which I quickly took care of but THEN... I thought about how chill it would be to go find a nice place to quietly watch a movie all by myself somewhere in the city.

So after a little bit of checking I read about the "E Street" theater in downtown DC. And they were playing an interesting movie where John Malcovich plays a Johny Carson-esk Karnack-style "Mentalist" who is trying to make a career comeback. It looked like silly fun so I decided to head downtown. After getting all ready for the day, I grabbed up my ipod and flipped through the playlists. My soundtrack for the morning was "The Chieftans: The Long Black Vail" and I headed across the street through the underground mall that takes me to the Metro.



Along the way I exchanged a few text messages with my friend Jerod in Kansas where he educated me on the various communicable diseases that I could catch in DC if I were not careful (so rumored some nurse with which he was associated) as well as advice on other movies I should go see, namely the new film "I love you man" (which I also did go see this weekend. Very funny with a few laugh-out-loud moments.)

The underground mall was abandoned post-apocalyptic-style (spooky empty) and it made for a quick walk to the trains.



The trains into Crystal city headed out of town were quick and plentiful. About every six minutes one would go roaring bye. However, the trains into the city were about as lazy as I was at that moment. After about 15 minutes of waiting it arrived with a yawn and I headed toward Metro Center.


Now, riding trains always results in options and if you aren't paying attention, taking the wrong option makes your day longer. For example, I debated if I should head toward 12th street or toward eleventh when getting off the train. I headed toward eleventh which seemed like the right thing to do since the theater was on eleventh. That would have been a great plan, but I still turned the wrong way and emerged on 12th. It all works out because I found myself near the ESPNZone store -slash- restaurant. I had walked past here the first week I arrived in DC having moved, but wasn't quite sure where this was until this happy mistake. Now I have those bearings all worked out and will find my way back here again. In the mean time, it is now about 10:10am-ish and I have a movie to catch.


Up the block, past a nice little Barnes & Noble (also went past this particular B-n-N in that first week and it is nice to know how to get back here) I found my theater. It looked a bit artsy, and small, but put together and nice. Worthy of note, I have yet to speak a word all morning. Not an excuse me or a phone call or a hello. Some days it is nice to just chill and absorb the world around you without contributing verbally.


Once I was in the theater I realized it was a very nice place. In fact, from the lighting to the bathrooms it was amazingly nice. I didn't realize this but they even sold bear at the food stand which was unexpected. Had it not been 10:20am-ish, I would have endulged with a nice Saboro (Japanese) tall can (I know - can of beer? Isn't that, well, goofy.) Goofy is having a beer in the theater. Goofy is having a beer in the MORNING!? I wasn't feeling goofy (and they don't serve beer until at least eleven and while I desperately wanted to use the line "It is eleven-o'clock somewhere!", I wasn't really in the mood anyway.) Again worthy of note, I have to talk to the ticket man upstairs a moment ago and now this is my second conversation of the day: beer in the theater.



The movie was good. Very funny and it had an interesting feel to it. All of the acting was mostly good except the female love-interest role... that was some crapy acting in my humble-but-deadly-acurate opinion. I still managed to enjoy the experience. There was lady behind me laughing it up the entire time. It was a bit infectious (note to Jerod: the infectiousness laugher didn't seem to have anything to do with the diseases you mentioned in the text messaging, though I did catch what she had a little bit, so there might be something to that nurses communicable infectious in DC conversation.)


After the movie I headed to the B-n-N for a capucinno, the latest issue of "PRINT" magazine and walked over by the "National Theater" to do some people watching and drawing (I will scan those later.)



After that I wondered over to the Whitehouse for tea with the President.


OK, that part isn't true, but I did jump the fense and get this great shot on the south lawn. OK, that isn't true either, but it is an OK shot. I did a little praying for the government and wisedom and headed back for the Metro.

By this time I was listening to the "Garden State" soundtrack (nice songs there) and riding, and reading, and drawing and thinking about... "I love you man"... the movie. There are some day tha just call for a double-header and this was one of them, I suppose. So I rode right past my place and on down to the mega theater (the huge AMC) in Alexandria. This movie called for an audience where everyone could get a good laugh in together.

Quite a cool little day.

Dem. Chris Dodd + Whitehouse = A.I.G. Bonuses

It's now formal. The man who is debated to be the largest political donation recipient from AIG and the chair of the Senate Banking Comittee, Chris Dodd is now changing his story from "when that language left the Senate, that I wrote, that language was not included" to "we wrote the language" and claiming that he is proud to have written that late addition into the bail-out bill enabling and empowering AIG to pay out over $100 million in bonuses, giving them the thumbs-up to go for it. For the record, if you are looking for the man-behind-the-man, Chris Dodd says that man was the Whitehouse Administration (i.e. the President) who told him to write that provisional language.

I think Edward Liddy needs an apology, odd as that may sound. Edward Liddy is the guy who came in to help AIG recover, is getting paid $1 per year to simply give them new direction, and the bill from the senate said he should uphold those executive bonus contracts. Now, mind you, he didn't have to do it. But he also didn't need to sit under the chastisement of our Congress as they told him -in writing- to uphold those bonus contracts and then crusify him publicly after he did it!

I guess the mystery is over. This also explains why the Whitehouse is hotly attempting to tell the country to focus on the next stuff coming rather than the past (even if the past is less than a month old and we're still in the middle of it ... sorry, Mr. President, you can't convince us to stop paying attention to current events.)



Update: Three cheers for continuing to pay attention to current events!! I''ve finally watched the President Obama interview on Jay Leno and I have a few take-aways from that which are well worthy of a blog or two, but instead I will update this entry with one:

President Obama said that the answer to this situation with AIG has everything to do with mitigating risk through better government oversight. In theory, I understand what he is talking about. The trouble is the breathing example we have of this RIGHT NOW in Senator Chris Dodd (Democrat.) This man CHAIRS the committee that currently brings oversight and at the same time he is a HUGE RECIPIENT of election donations by AIG (and others.) It was his personal team that made the change in this bail-out bill SPECIFICALLY to allow the contractual bonuses. And rather than debate or explain or justify... HE LIED ABOUT IT! So... this is oversight.

What is more devistating is that Obama hints at knowing more than he is willing to let on in the interview. He says at one point that the legal decision to change the bill to allow the bonuses was actually a good decision because if they had said that AIG has to abandon the contractual bonuses that those executives could sue for 3-times the contractual amounts and likely win. Obama called that a good legal decision implying that the decisions being made now are either (1) not good or (2) some other form of good or (3) good but from a non-legal standpoint. In other words, yeah, he knew all about this and like a good democrat he was ramming this stuff through Congress mis-managing the effect and outcomes of everything and now that people don't like those outcomes (i.e. a good emotional response and not a good legal one) he is now pretending to be morally outraged.

If Obama is outraged, then he is outraged because the people on the receiving end of the contracts (the AIG execs) wanted AIG to honor those contracts. If you work at AIG, then you are in a loosing situation no matter what happens, because the Senate gave you the right to your contractual "bonus" (which, if it is a contract, then it is not performance based as much as it is a form of payment outside of your annual salary) but then ate you for lunch if you actually exercised that right. I don't feel too bad for people getting millions as a bonus, but I think this proves that government oversight under the current leadership sucks rocks if this is the best they could do to manage this situation.

There is no way in this context that you don't feel that the president's "outrage" is an act IF he actually knew that the bonuses were allowed into the bill based on it's legal justification. That is like offer someone your friendship and acting all offended and outraged when they accept it. I recall being a kid in middle school and I was in a class and my teacher told all of us to stay in our seats. I needed to throw something away and my friend acted like they were going to watch the teacher so I could hop out of my seat to toss something in the trash. When I got the sign to go for it, I hopped up and went for the trash can. And as SOON AS I WAS ON MY FEET... my friend spoke out loudly to the classroom and teacher, "STEVE IS OUT OF HIS SEAT!!!!!!!" Sounds familiar to me!?

It seems clear to me that this situation didn't slip through like some would make it seem. President Obama along with his administration and the banking subcommittee knowingly took the action they did and rather than defend their "choice" are busy broadcasting lies and conflicting stories and opinions. This doesn't feel too much like leadership or honesty or even an effort to be honest. This is pandering and positioning and politics at its "best."

Pretty Little Budget Book

Due to new rules in the government about adhering to a "more true" representation of reality the new administrations budget headed for Congressional approval had to be reprinted. Luckily enough I happen to get a glance at the current cover, and I have to say I like the design. The objection has far less to do with the design than it does with the word choice on the cover.

I have to say that I really like the font choice as well as some of the appointments and color selection. It says "classic" or "classy" but the font is definitely "fresh" and "contemporary.


On an even cooler note, I was able to grab a look at the new cover for comparison (consulting with the government has it's perks!) Notice that the presentation is fundamentally the same, while the copy has been "updated" to parallel a more realistic representation of the budget as well as current events. Have a look. I think they did an O.K. job!




(All applicable copy rights reserved: This post is for political purposes only. Any offensive element of this work of fiction is intended for the purpose of ribbing my friends who love Obama in hopes to provoke fun political banter because sometimes I really enjoy getting people going. If you have no response to this presentation whatsoever then you might want to look into changing your medication.)

The U.S. Economy MUST BE BETTER!

Holy Crap! At first I thought it was just a ridiculous meandering Presidential priority goof-up.

I figured that the stress of the Presidency had broken him and as a result he wanted to go back to being a talking show media-spot figure-head.

But it ends up that while I assumed there was plenty of serious stuff to be tackling right now on the domestic and international level, that our national -slash- international woes MUST be over as the President seems to have time to make guest-stops on late night talkshows. Fhew!

I mean the U.S. economy must be better, otherwise why in the world would our President waste his time and our time "marketing" his budget to Americans when he can't get a Congress full of Democrats to agree to it or feel good about it?

Does he think that somewhere between skits of "jaywalking" and songs by Garth Brooks we are going to suddenly abandon the fact that his crazy spendthrift plans are failing before our eyes? Is he going to toss us a few jokes and tell us NOW that the "economy is (suddenly) sound" even though just a few months ago he lambasted John McCain for saying the same exact thing (or is that just the speach he gives the Chinese when he is trying get a loan against our national debt )?

I think I trust Jay Leno's Comedy Stimulus Plan better than President Obama's fiscal plans so far.