Lee, you need to see this.

Reprinted from 'Medical News Today'

No author was listed, but we can assume that it was either the Monopoly guy, or Scrooge McDuck.


Can money buy happiness?

14 Aug 2005

Financially richer people tend to be happier than poorer people, according to sociological researcher Glenn Firebaugh, Pennsylvania State University, and graduate student Laura Tach, Harvard University. Their research is focused on whether the income effect on happiness results largely from the things money can buy (absolute income effect) or from comparing one's income to the income of others (relative income effect). They present their research in a session paper, titled "Relative Income and Happiness: Are Americans on a Hedonic Treadmill?," at the American Sociological Association Centennial Annual Meeting on August 14.

Firebaugh argues that, in evaluating their own incomes, individuals compare themselves to their peers of the same age. Therefore a person's reported level of happiness depends on how his or her income compares to others in the same age group. Using comparison groups on the basis of age, the researchers find evidence of both relative and absolute effects, but relative income is more important than absolute income in determining the happiness of individuals in the United States. This may result in a self-indulgent treadmill, because incomes in the United States rise over most of the adult lifespan.

"If income effects are entirely relative, then continued income growth in rich countries today is irrelevant to how happy people are on the whole," says Firebaugh. "Rather than promoting overall happiness, continued income growth could promote an ongoing consumption race where individuals consume more and more just to maintain a constant level of happiness."

Firebaugh tested what he refers to as the hedonic treadmill hypothesis, which uses a comparison of age-based cohorts. The hedonic treadmill requires a specific type of relative income effect--one where "keeping up with the Joneses" means continually increasing one's own income, because we can be sure that the Joneses are increasing theirs.

Me: Well, Ethan, don't you know that The Sims 2 is how Satan enters little boy's anuses?

Ethan: Oh, I thought that was Jack Thompson's penis.

http://chatterboxgameshow.com/

Click on the Jack Thompson Interview link.

And by God, I did.

Let me back up a little...

I work(ed) for the world's largest video game retailer. I was the low man on the management totem pole...basically, senior sales. I opened the store, closed the store, pretty much had all the responsibilities of management without any of the benefits. Dan was our manager, really cool guy, and Sam was our assistant manager, an equally cool guy; the kind of guys who are your friends, but you also happen to work with them.

We were managed by Randy, our district manager. Now, Randy was a nice guy, but he was too busy with all the other stores in the district to really pay attention to us much. That suited us just fine. We maintained our numbers, did as we were told, and had a good time doing it. Really fun job. I never once called in sick (in two years) and almost every day was a good one.

Then management went through a procedure known as mitosis, wherein it divided itself into smaller parts. Randy retained the position of district manager, while creating a new position known as area manager. This person would have a more hands on approach with just a few stores, and thus be able to make sure they were following policies, making numbers, etc. Into this position stepped Melanie.

And that was the beginning of the end.

She proceeded to micro-manage us to hell within a few short months. The entire district went from a fairly happy place to a pit; nobody was happy with Melanie. Melanie would make some sort of blanket announcement about a new store policy that nobody liked; when questioned about its praticality or implementation, she would just stonewall us. No answer. Total avoidance. Moving on. Randy would at least listen to complaints, or give us some explanations. With Melanie it was,

Store Manager 1: "How come we're doing that? That's going to ruin my store!"
Store Manager 2: "That doesn't make any sense."
Store Manager 3: "You know, we're actually losing money that way, right?"
Melanie: *brief pause* "Okay, well we're going to go ahead with that. Next on the list..."

We had a manager who recently had to fire his Senior Sales guy (my position) due to some...security problems. Well, this same manager happens to have a really, really good hourly employee who wanted the position, and was far more capable than the guy they had. He explains this to Melanie, and her response is, "Well...I'm going to go ahead and look through some applications, and I'll let you know when I find someone who'll work out for your store."

Nevermind that while she's looking for someone, he's down one manager, and will have to end up working about sixty-seventy hours a week (I actually helped him cover some shifts). Nevermind that it's his store, and his call as to who he gets to work with. Nevermind that this employee is the right guy for the job. Nevermind that it makes NO FUCKING SENSE to hire some noob who doesn't know the system, the company, or his fellow employees for a position called SENIOR Sales. Nevermind all that. With Melanie in town, you don't have to worry about pesky things like having a say in the way your store is run. With Melanie in town, you shouldn't have to think at all.

About two months ago, she gave Dan (my manager, remember) a performance plan to meet. The store's numbers would have to match 90% of the area's average by July 27th, or he would be fired. It was a ridiculous number to have us try for; it was obviously just a way to be able to fire Dan with impunity. Well, regardless, we proceeded to bust ass for the next month to get these numbers. We threatened write-ups, we tried encouragement, we drove every promotion they would give us, and it just didn't happen. And then, last week, we hit some pretty good numbers. Damn good, if I say so myself. These weren't the numbers she was asking for, but they were numbers that mattered more anyway, so things should have been fine, right?

I come into the store to open up on Friday, and see a note in our business planner from the day before: "Dangerous Daniel Lee: 1999-2005. We'll miss you."

So I call Sam and get the low-down, the dope, the dirt, the skinny. Turns out Melanie and Randy had come in the day before and fired Dan's ass. You know, because he's a bad manager.

.....Right?

So I asked Sam how mad he would be if I just walked out the door, right then and there. I had just lost all interest I had in the job. Dan was my friend, and there was no good reason to fire him. None at all. He said, "Jeff, it's going to suck for the next few weeks no matter what, so you just do what you have to do."

So I grabbed my nametag, closed the safe, secured the back room, and clocked out. Then, I took a Sharpie, and in big block letters, wrote in the day's 'To Do' list, "QUIT...Sorry, Sam."

I set the alarm, I locked the door, and drove away.

And just like that, I was unemployed.

...Doesn't start until Saturday. But that doesn't mean I can't start worrying, right? Our first audience is on Tuesday, and our first run-through was Wednesday. Does that sound like a good idea?

Just came across this particularly kicking document while researching names.

http://www.genealogy-quest.com/collections/allconvicts.html

Dig the bureaucracy.

/monarch

It is patently unfair to call Batman Begins the greatest comic book movie ever made, though it wears that mantle proudly. It is simply not right to limit it to such a small genre. Batman Begins is not just the greatest comic book movie ever made, it is also the greatest action movie ever made.

I am known for making a bit of a fool of myself at movies. I'm the guy who cheers loudly at the end of a big action sequence; the guy who unleashed a string of profanities at the end of the L-Train fight in Spider-Man 2 in a crowded theater, because that was the only way I could express my joy; the guy who stands up as the screen is fading to black and begins clapping so hard that others around me may be partially deaf for the rest of the week. I react strangely to movies, but until Batman Begins, it has always been a way that was still lucid, still coherent. Batman Begins is the first movie to render me incapable of speech. There were three moments (that I remember) that were so...incredible...that I could only yell loudly at the movie, one hand covering my mouth and the other point at the screen, "AAAHHH!! AAAAAHHH!!!" Such was the power of this movie.

Please understand that this movie has removed any other images I may have had of Batman on film. Everything in this movie is better than anything the other movies have done. Christian Bale's "I'm Batman!" simply destroys Michael Keaton's. For that matter, the way Bale fits into the suit is a triumph of humanity, just on its own. The fight sequences, the characters, the action, the drama... This movie is a slap to the face of Tim Burton. It is a bullet in the head of Joel Schumacher.

I love how the criminals weren't over the top; I love how Gotham was a realistic city, a city I could believe in, maybe even live in; I love how practical Batman's gear was, and that there was very little willing suspension of disbelief. Above all, I love how scary Batman was. His job is to make the criminals afraid to commit their crimes, and he does it. I would not have ever believed that Christian Bale could be so scary, but this movie...this movie kept me up at night.

Do not take children to see this movie. They will cry.

Please...please, you have to see this movie. We owe it to Christopher Nolan, to show him that we approve of his work. We owe it to Christian Bale to show him thanks for being the greatest Batman ever. We owe it to Michael Caine and Liam Neeson, we owe it to Bob Kane and Frank Miller, to Alex Ross and Alan Moore...people, we owe it to ourselves.

This is the greatest movie I've ever seen. And that's all that I can really say.

/monarch

His autobiography (Timebends: A Life)is really good, but it's interesting to see that he writes his own story just like he writes those of his character's. With big, big words. I'm proud that I haven't had to look up any words yet, but I also get the feeling that I'm just barely smart enough to understand him. God, that man had a mind that just kept going and going...makes me all the sadder that he's gone now.

Quick update on where I'm at, since I haven't written anything in...three weeks now?

*I start rehearsals for "The Front Page" at Mt Hood Repertory theater on June 26th, so I guess that audition went pretty well.
*Still working at GameStore.
*Currently listening to old-school Michael Jackson.
*Amber and I are still fighting, which it turns out is not as much fun as it sounds. I suppose it's less 'fighting' and more 'heated discussions on the future of our relationship' so it's not really as bad is it seems. Wait a second....
*Seen Star Wars Episode III twice now, and I rank them as follows:
The Empire Strikes Back
A New Hope
ORIGINAL Return of the Jedi
Revenge of the Sith
Attack of the Clones
SPECIAL EDITION Return of the Jedi
All Forms of Cancer (Not a film, per se, but still better than...)
The Phantom Menace
*Life is not actually all that bad right now...it just happens to be spinning around in a storm of confusion and insecurity.

There's more to say, but it can wait for later times.

It was not the best Star Wars movie, no; that award still goes to Empire (along with a number of other 'Best In Show' awards: Best Sequel, Best Sci-Fi). But it was the only movie of the prequel trilogy that didn't make me cringe, and at this point, that's all I was asking for.

Ewan MacGregor (who gets a few Best In Show's himself) did the worst acting I've seen yet in this movie. Shame on you, Ewan. Wooden, unfeeling, and stilted...until the last fight with Anakin, that is. "You were the chosen one!" still makes me all tingly.

Mr. Lucas, thank you. Thank you for focusing on the characters. Thank you for keeping the smarmy dialogue between Padmé and Anakin to a minimum. Thank you for making Jar-Jar silent. Thank you for a movie that I can say is good; one that I will not be embarrassed to own, or to see again and again. Thank you for fixing Star Wars.

Yes, it's a word.  It is now, anyway.

Just got off the phone with the stage manager at Mt Hood Repertory Theater, and I have an audition for Front Page schedule for next Saturday.  I'll need to scrape up a copy of the script before then to get an idea of the characters, since they'll be cold readings.  I'm excited...this is an audition for summer stock; a paying acting job.  I could call myself a professional actor.  Cool.

That's really all the news I have...I found out that I have more free time than I thought I would.  The other two store managers are going out of town next week, so that leaves pretty much just me available to work, but they got some people from other stores to help cover shifts.  It works out nicely; I get the days I need off, and I get some good hours.  It'll be a busy week, to be sure, but an excellent one.

Emily, we should discuss beaching.  While Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday are all booked, it looks like I have an opening on Monday.  Any thoughts, dear one?

/monarch

http://www.theonionavclub.com

Fantastic place, really top-notch reviews, and they review it all.  Movies, books, games, music...obscure music.  Brilliant interviews.  Basically, if I were able to pick a place to write for, it would be these guys.