31 January 2008

TIME POWER: TODAY…

0001 by Jeff Hess

Today, as I go about my tasks, I’ll think about: Whenever a useful idea comes to mind, never drop it, no matter what else you”re doing. Take a few moments to write it down in your datebook organizer.

There are two appropriate places: the first is the grass-catcher list, and the other is in the to-be-done-today section of the datebook organizer on the particular day you think it best to work on that particular project.

Which of these two lists has the greater sense of urgency? The daily action list, of course. Therefore higher-priority ideas goes there; the lower-priority ideas on the grass-catcher list. p. 92

30 January 2008

GOOD MORNING MYANMAR…

2030 by Jeff Hess

For the second time since the mass demonstrations by monks in Myanmar, pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was allowed to meet with the leadership of her party, the National League for Democracy. Suu Kyi is reportedly frustrated and her party leadership did not bring good news away from their meeting.

From The Epoch Times:

National League for Democracy spokesman Nyan Win said Suu Kyi held out little hope that unprecedented international pressure on the generals would bear fruit.

“Let’s hope for the best and prepare for the worst,” he quoted her as saying, adding she worried that Wednesday’s 90-minute meeting, and another immediately afterward with junta liaison minister Aung Kyi, might give rise to “false hope”.

This is part of the equation I don’t get. When has there ever been an opportunity for hope when negotiating with tyrants?

Nyan Win said she had told Aung Kyi, appointed as go-between after the September crackdown, that talks must include representatives of Burma’s many ethnic groups, which have been struggling for autonomy or independence for five decades.

Suu Kyi also told her colleagues she feared she was being strung along by the junta, a group of generals who have turned promise-breaking into an art form, not least by ignoring their humiliating 1990 election defeat.

“She is not satisfied with meetings with Aung Kyi and with the lack of any time frame,” Nyan Win said.

Like I said. Would you buy a used car from the generals?

30 January 2008

MUCKING OUT THE BLOGPILE…

1400 by Jeff Hess

I’m constantly tossing interesting websites into what I call my blogpile. Some of them find their way here in the form of regular posts, but more often than not they languish and get buried deeper in the pile. The end result is that I have to go back and do a bit of shoveling. Today’s item is Letters from Johns.

30 January 2008

GOOD NIGHT MYANMAR…

1230 by Jeff Hess

30 January 2008

FROM THE SANDBOX…

1200 by Jeff Hess

RN Clara Hart: Asked to see and evaluate an OEF patient in the trauma ICU, I wandered into the bay only to stop short at the sight before me. The wounded patient lay motionless with wires and tubes, dressings and splints all entangling each other. Ventilator high-pressure alarms shrieked off-cadence with the beeps of the heart monitor. Intubated on a vent…

30 January 2008

WAL-MART WEDNESDAY…

1000 by Jeff Hess

It’s been a busy week in Wally World: the Universe’s source of cheap plastic crap. On The Writing On The Wal — the blog USA Today says should be on its readers’ radar — Jonathan Rees, Robert Feinman, Peter Sayles and I continue our work dedicated to drawing back the curtain on the Bentonvile Behemoth’s corporate disinformation and other flackery.

SYMPOSIUM: WAL-MART CEO LEE SCOTT SPEAKS… Wal-Mart Facts yesterday posted the prepared text of Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott”s address to the company”s Year Beginning Meeting. My co-blogger Jonathan has proposed a symposium where we all examine and discuss the speech. Keep reading…

SYMPOSIUM: LEE SCOTT AND JOE STALIN… No. I don”t think that Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott is in anyway the twisted sick monster that Joseph Stalin was. But a story from one of Dr. David Williams undergraduate classes on the Soviet Union is instructive in understanding Scott”s speech yesterday. Keep reading…

SYMPOSIUM: HARMONIC CONVERGENCE…? Of course every other Wal-Mart watcher on the planet took note of Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott”s posted speech on Wednesday. The appraisals range from the snark to adoration, but I found Andrew Leonard”s take on Salon interesting for its comparison of Lee Scott to Bill Gates. Keep reading…

AT THE WALLY PLEX… There are sound stages on Hollywood”s back lots smaller than Bentonvile”s behemoths, so it”s no surprise that budding video talent has been sneaking cameras in at odd hours. And now for the midnight show at the Wally Plex featuring twinkiemp. Keep reading…

WAL-MART”S MANIFEST DESTINY… I”m not sure why this op-ed piece from 2004 popped up this morning, but I like it as a time capsule of then. Written by a senior writer for the Ayn Rand Institute – the epitome of the cult of me – it portrays Wal-Mart as the true protector of the American Way. Keep reading…

A PEAK BEHIND THE CURTAIN… The events detailed in the three-page memo from Owen Barder are nearly 10 years old and much as changed in the Wal-Mart world, but the story remains instructive of the level of access the company has wielded in the past. Keep reading…

WHICH SET OF NUMBERS OUGHT WE TO USE…? Others have taken notice of the innocuous line in Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott”s speech last week concerning Wal-Mart”s intention to help employers, “manage how they process and pay prescription claims. thus signaling its entrance into pharmacy benefits management. Keep reading…

WALK-IN CLINIC GOES BUST AT WAL-MART… As part of what I see as it”s attempt to lease out over-built retail space, Wal-Mart has rented space to 80 walk-in health care clinics across the country. That number dropped when nurses at 23 CheckUps came to work and found the doors locked. Keep reading…

WILL MOVING TO NEW YORK HELP…? We”re all used to reading stories about thousands of people lining up for jobs at Wal-Mart. What we haven”t seen is news that Wal-Mart is laying off workers; not in the stores, but in the Bentonville-based apparel department. And the people who don”t lose their jobs? Keep reading…

30 January 2008

FROM MY DAD… VIDEO WEEK…

0800 by Jeff Hess

I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.

30 January 2008

GOOD AFTERNOON MYANMAR…

0430 by Jeff Hess

Would you believe a different blog devoted to Myanmar for every day of the year? Blog aggregater Myanmar Blog Directory very well have passed that milestone by the time you read this. I was there last night and counted 360 blogs in the directory. If you read one blog a day, you may never reach the end of the list. Cool.

30 January 2008

FROM MY CHAPBOOK…

0400 by Jeff Hess

My name is Jeff Hess and I’m a biblioholic. I own hundreds of books. Not valuable books, mostly Science Fiction paperbacks and text books, tomes rescued by the bag from library book sales. A few years ago, in the interest of not burying myself, I began reading more books from the library and taking notes. My electronic chapbook was born.

This is a passage I copied from Midrash and Literature edited by Geoffrey H. Hartman and Sanford Budick.

Tannaitic sages: 70-220 CE, and Amoraic sages: 220-400 CE. p. ix

30 January 2008

DON’T FORGET BURMA NO. 78…

0230 by Jeff Hess

30 January 2008

TIME POWER: TODAY…

0001 by Jeff Hess

Today, as I go about my tasks, I’ll think about: Five questions to prioritize you most vital goals:

Which of the items I have listed will best help to achieve my long-range and intermediate high-priority goals?

What will help yield the greatest long-term results?

What will give the highest payoff?

What will happen if I don”t do each of these projects today? Whom will it effect? Will anyone suffer?

On a long-term basis, which items will make me feel best if I accomplish them? p. 85-8

29 January 2008

GOOD MORNING MYANMAR…

2030 by Jeff Hess

China is in a tough place when it comes Myanmar. It wants to maintain trade relations but it doesn’t want the generals to cock up the Summer Olympics. What’s a nuclear-armed authoritarian/communist nation to do? One answer is to attempt to keep your crazy allies quiet by maintaining their flow of shiny new military equipment.

From Vimutti:

Chinese-made FAW brand six-wheeler light trucks for military use has arrived again in Ruili and Jehong on Sino-Burmese border destined to be handed over to Burma.

The trucks arrived in Ruili since yesterday evening and are now undergoing cleansing at car washes around Ruili. There are about 100 vehicles, it is learnt.

Also in last December, a total of similar 450 FAW brand six-wheeler military light trucks were delivered to Burma Army authorities on the border at Jehong-Muse.

As military equipment goes, the trucks are pretty tame on the surface, but in the 21st century, soldiers don’t march anywhere anymore so mobility is a strength multiplier.

Is it possible to bring enough pressure on the Olympics to make China rethink its sales?

29 January 2008

MUCKING OUT THE BLOGPILE…

1400 by Jeff Hess

I’m constantly tossing interesting websites into what I call my blogpile. Some of them find their way here in the form of regular posts, but more often than not they languish and get buried deeper in the pile. The end result is that I have to go back and do a bit of shoveling. Today’s item is Letters from Working Girls.

29 January 2008

GOOD NIGHT MYANMAR…

1230 by Jeff Hess

29 January 2008

FROM THE SANDBOX…

1200 by Jeff Hess

1SG Troy Steward: HATE… ANGER… PRIDE… SADNESS… PRIDE…. SORROW…. FEAR…. PRIDE… These are the emotions that have been swirling through me like a f***ing tornado as my family took my oldest son to the airport and put him on a plane to start the journey that will take him into war. With every bad feeling came pride. How could I not be proud of…

29 January 2008

FROM MY DAD… VIDEO WEEK…

0800 by Jeff Hess

I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.

29 January 2008

GOOD AFTERNOON MYANMAR…

0430 by Jeff Hess

The bravery of souls able to move their family thousands of miles and immerse themselves in unknown cultures humbles me. How bad would my life have to be in order to convince me to move from Cleveland to just another part of the United States? How much more so to a place where I don’t look like the population nor speak the language.

From Reuters:

After three months in Ireland, Sa Nga and his family are struggling to master the English language but say their new home offers many more opportunities than a refugee camp in Thailand.

The former driver, his wife, six children and father-in-law are among the first ethnic Karen refugees from Myanmar accepted for resettlement by Ireland. They are starting new lives in the scenic north-west after last year leaving the confines of Ban Don Yang camp in the tropical forests of Thailand.

The minority Karen have suffered persecution for decades and nearly 140,000 are living in closed Thai refugee camps after fleeing across the border. The Thai government, which does not let them leave the camps, now accepts that the Karens are unlikely to be able to go back to Myanmar any time soon and has accepted resettlement as a solution for some of them.

How wonderful it is that Ireland has opened its doors. How much more so it will be when we Sa Nga and his family may return to their homes if they wish.

How do we make that happen?

29 January 2008

FROM MY CHAPBOOK…

0400 by Jeff Hess

My name is Jeff Hess and I’m a biblioholic. I own hundreds of books. Not valuable books, mostly Science Fiction paperbacks and text books, tomes rescued by the bag from library book sales. A few years ago, in the interest of not burying myself, I began reading more books from the library and taking notes. My electronic chapbook was born.

This is a passage I copied from Parallels and Paradoxes by Daniel Barenboim and Edward W. Said.

DB: “… It wouldn”t be the same; it wouldn”t be the same sound; it would be the same river with different waters. And this is what gives music its particular sense of eternity.” p. 160

29 January 2008

DON’T FORGET BURMA NO. 77…

0230 by Jeff Hess

29 January 2008

TIME POWER: TODAY…

0001 by Jeff Hess

Today, as I go about my tasks, I’ll think about: Seven questions for identifying your high-priority immediate goals:

Of my long-range and intermediate high-priority goals, which should I work on today?

What projects will give the highest return for the time invested?

What projects, if left undone, will represent the greatest threat to my survival with the company or the survival of the company itself?

What projects does the boss consider the most vital?

Which items in my previous daily action lists are grass-catcher list should I work on today?

What do my unifying principles suggest?

What has not been considered that will help yield long-term significant results? p. 83-5

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