I’ve been so absent-minded lately, that I thought it may actually be me. Did I go to London last week to protest? That would explain the hangover. If it wasn’t me, who was this socialist protester, this anti-Nate that had surfaced? I mean, I know I’m part British, but I didn’t realize it was that big a part.

Then I had this fantasy that I was, come nightfall, some type of socialist secret agent, something straight out of the Cold War, leading an underground movement to topple world governments. Then I realized: that would be an awesome idea for a TV show. I could get somebody handsome, maybe a bit dark - like Christian Slater - to play me. As usual, somebody stole my idea.

Nevermind the fact that, when things were good, I yelled from the rooftops that government needed to stay out of my business! Less regulation! Less oversight! Leave me alone, I’ve got everything under control, and you’re just getting in the way.

But assets aren’t supposed to go down! That’s completely crazy. I know, I know, “what goes up, must come down,” but the idiot that came up with that phrase obviously wasn’t schooled in modern portfolio theory or Keynesian economics. After all, we live in an advanced, New Era economy, where the Federal Reserve can create money and credit to ensure we not only have the things we need, but every possible thing we want or think we want too.

So when I heard about the $700 billion you’re offering, I’d like to request some of that too.  I don’t have much - just a few thousand here or there - but it would certainly improve my mood.  And looking at the bailout, it seems like a decent deal.  You take over all the payments, and I still get to keep my BMW.  So my payments go to $0 - which means I can start making more deals right away - and somebody else pays off my BMW while I still get to drive it around.  Thinking about it, I guess in hindsight I really should have bought two, rather than worrying about whether I could make the payments.

Just FYI, in the future, if you could just let us know ahead of time that we didn’t have to worry about the consequences of our actions, that would be a big help.

Anyways, I’m sure you guys are busy, so I’ll let you go.  But thanks for picking up the tab, I really didn’t want to have to pay for my own decisions, that would have totally bummed me out.

After years of fighting the forces of chaos from the bottom-up, I was passed the management cup and, this time, took a sip of the punch. Once it hits your lips, it’s so good! While it is the default corporate promotion path, I think it’s worth recognizing that it’s not for everyone. Consider this:

I was the “de facto manager” at my ex-employer, Sun Microsystems during the dot.bomb implosion. Sun went from soaring like an Eagle to crashing like a Delta, finally arriving at the breakup-sex marketing phrase Why Not? Yes, if you look at that cute little 35x-peak there, the stock really did go from 3 to 80 back to 5 in 4 years.

Where was I going with this? Oh yeah, so, my manager left (one of the few smart ones). But, there was a hiring freeze, so as a replacement we got an “interim manager” from the Bay Area. I was “elected” to be the “lead” in San Diego. Keep in mind that, during this time, Sun was having rolling layoffs every 6 months. Anyways, the remote manager didn’t last too long, and I got stuck with the shaft. I didn’t get paid any more, but I did get to do 2 jobs and layoff 3 people.

Yeah. That kinda blew.

But somehow I didn’t learn, and now I’m back in the driver’s seat as the “Manager of Production Technology” for PlayStation Online Games. So, WTF does that mean? Stayed tuned and I’ll let you know.