Archive for January 8th, 2009

Obama Begins Selling Americans the Stimulus Plan – BusinessWeek

I don’t have a ton to add to this article, but I thought it was a worthwhile one to read. 

One idea that came up in my marketing and economics classes the other night was what if something clearly tangible and understandable – cash or something akin to vouchers- were put into the hands of consumers with an explicit requirement to use that money to buy “something” were put into play.  Every consumer understands the idea of something of actual cash value, and the idea that “spending helps the economy” is one which is sufficiently entrenched that the population will get it.*

I can see where Obama’s credit to businesses for creating jobs makes sense to businesses (not saying it will be effective – I’m saying that business owners will understand the point even if they ignore it).  But there is no stipulation that the businesses then use that money for something that will actually continue to stimulate the economy.

Actually, it’s kind of like the luxury tax in baseball.  I’m a big Yankees fan (and have been forever).  Every year, their payroll is so high that they pay millions of dollars to other, smaller market teams.  It’s supposed to balance the system (whether it does or does not is a different discussion altogether).  But at one point the Yankees asked the very reasonable question “are those other teams actually using that money to compete for the players which they supposedly can’t afford, or are they just pocketing it to help their bottom line?” 

* – I am not saying that the general population has trouble understanding basic economic principles.  But “spending money helps the economy” is a heckuva lot more logical than “decreasing interest rates decreases the cost of capital and therefore gives you more money to work with.”  They are essentially the same in effect, but very different in perception and impact.

climbing vines

Originally uploaded by kaiyen

I have a few new goals this year, photographically (other than just trying to have more fun with it). The first is to carry a camera with me everyday. This is not a “photo a day” project, because I won’t get something every day that I like. But I want to always have something with me. And I want to mix up the cameras, too. Film, digital, point-n-shoot, pro SLR, etc.

The other is to post something to my blog everyday from my photo collection. The photos make me reflect on why I took them, what I was thinking at the time, and other aspects, so it’s a good way to keep me going.

However, this poses a challenge – I don’t want my blog to become a photo-dominant one. So I’ll have to try and be actively posting other items as well. Which really isn’t a problem consider all the crazy news out there (just saw something on Obama’s pitch of his stimulus package that is worth a post, I think), but I will have to be dedicated.

Anyway…this is a pillar at the entrance to Santa Clara University. I have it geotagged so you can see exactly where. I shot this specifically to convert to black and white. The combination of colors were not so great and I realized that the lines and chaos of the vines and branches might work better in black and white tones than in color. I’m not saying that I’m a master at “seeing” in black and white, but I think that my initial education in that medium (film, specifically), has helped me to visualize in tones and I think it worked here.

Not a great photo, but it’s about how I was thinking when I took it.

So now Plurk has a plug-in that lets you send something to them (to “plurk” I guess) and have it update your FB status.  Twitter has had this for a while.  

I have been torn ever since I started seeing people use Twitter for FB updates, and am now even more so as I try to use plurk effectively.  I don’t have nearly as many people following me or whom I follow in plurk so it’s a bit more manageable right now that my Twitter “existence” and lets me work around in it a bit more.

The first time I used twitter extensively, it was at the ELI Annual conference, so most of the people whom I follow are professional peers.  Not that we don’t exchange random stuff via twitter now and then (Educause ’08 was fun), but for the most part the stuff I put up as my status on FB is not of the same vein as that which goes up on twitter. 

And now plurk can connect to FB, too.  Now, I have been having more fun on plurk because of the smaller number of followers and etc, but that is actually the cause of my dilemma.  I feel that one needs some separation between all these systems.  

I don’t know.  It’s a tough one with which to deal.