February 28, 2009

Pondering

Work has been insane the last few weeks, plus a last minute trip to Taiwan for grandpa's funeral and an 11 hour Tai Chi jian seminar tucked away in there. My brain is pretty fried, and in a few hours, I'm going to be back at it, for month end accounting projects.

Before then, I do have two questions:

Does there have to be a blind spot in cars? Can't a rear view mirror be designed that spans the width necessary to see the entire length of the car, without interfering with forward vision? Or is it physically impossible?

And why does conditioner come in the same size bottle as shampoo? Conditioner is so much thicker, I always end up using less. Can't they package a set matching on density rather than volume?

February 8, 2009

NYC Comic Con 2009

This year's NYC Comic Con was pretty awesome! I think they've figured out a groove for this event.

While not as large as San Diego's con, the focus on comics at NYC is much more prevalent. Artist's Alley was jam packed, even on Sunday!

The highlight was definitely our acquisition of an Alex Ross original. Hell yes! Since we got it, a constant squee has been galloping through my head. Even writing about it, I have a silly grin on my face. Because not only is it an original Alex Ross painting, but it's from one of my favorite series, and one of my favorite covers from that series too.

I present to you, the cover of Astro City: Local Heroes #5!


Out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone flip past this puppy in a portfolio and as soon as they left, I hopped over. I knew we had to get it, when the guy behind the booth pointed it out to a prospective buyer and my heart skipped a fearful beat. So now we are in possession of this beautiful painting, and believe me, no photo or scan can do it justice. Ross is simply in a league of his own - I have never seen anything so precise and brilliantly rendered.

We also met Frank Beddor, who hosted a charismatic panel about his Through The Looking-Glass inspired world, that is, until the adjacent stage erupted in live song and drowned his voice. Vic and I needed to leave for another signing, but by signaling our departure, we kind of ended his panel too. We felt bad, but after showing at his booth to apologize, he was actually glad we stopped the panel early. He was a great guy, very funny, well spoken and utterly passionate about his characters and story. Oddly enough, he was the producer on There's Something About Mary - who would have thought he'd be such a fantasy geek!?

Get this: the guy who played the stormtrooper in Star Wars that repeats the "These are not the droids we're looking for" phrase was there. Yeah. He was old and needed money. But he was having a good time and took it all in stride, so we got his signature.

Cryptic was there and got us signed up for the Champions Online beta. There were demos and I really like the art direction of the game. The animations were super smooth and really how can anyone argue with using super powers to battle dinosaurs?

All in all, it was a fun weekend. Much more crowded than anticipated, but still a wonderful time. We met a lot of cool people and picked up lots of awesome artwork, which Vic should have up on gninjagnome eventually. I think the quality of art this year definitely surpassed last year's, and hopefully it continues that way!

February 4, 2009

Bonus Bashing

OK, I'm sick of people making a big deal about the recent Wall Street bonuses.

First of all, the top tier at major banks did NOT get bonuses. This includes executives at Citigroup, AIG, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Merrill Lynch. These people are the target of much anger, yet they did not receive any bonus.

Second, the $18 billion reported to the New York State comptroller includes all firms classified as "financial institutions" which is not compromised solely of poorly performing banks. You've got smaller community banks, funds, agencies, as well as investment banks that did not get any federal funds. If you consider the entire financial industry in New York, $18 billion is really not that much.

Third, much of the bonus money went to rank and file, like HR personnel, administrative assistants, call center reps, IT support and developers, accounting, internal legal counsel as well as professionals who earn on commission or whose individual business units actually turned a profit last year. As much as everyone hates on Wall Street employees, the vast majority are just people working hard to make a living, like anyone else. They had nothing to do with the bad financial decisions at the top and are simply being rewarded for doing well at their particular job.

Fourth, that $18 billion is before income taxes. Uncle Sam and local governments get close to half that amount as revenue.

And last but not least, most people bitching about this aren't thinking about the flip side. If they were offered similar bonuses, would they refuse, due to some "taxpayer money shouldn't be spent this way" principle? Not a chance.

So seriously, folks, shut up already!