What Happens at the end of Work from Home?

If you’ve noticed the paucity of communication coming from me, it’s because I am cruising through the northern part of the Pacific Ocean with no satellite service. Providers train their satellites towards near-shore areas, where the bulk of their clientele work and play on drill rigs and yachts. Outside the primary deep-sea trade routes, the satellite providers cut their losses. If you’re wondering, the Search and Rescue satellite system (GMDSS) does ping six times per day as they pass through their respective orbits. This summer brought a number of large-scale return-to-office experiences, from Wall Street, to Main Street Richmond, Virginia. In this case, telework-capable state government employees were given two-months’ notice to return to the office four days per week, or to request additional WFH days from their agency leadership. Records show that 58% of employees accepted four or five days per week; and 93% of employees accepted at least three days per week. The State Highway Department did lose 10 or so engineers over this ask (and a few more who took retirement over this decision), but in the whole, attrition over the issue was less than 1%. Most requests were to preserve the enhanced telework arrangements certain white-collar employees had prior to the Pandemic. As a right-to-work state, government employment in Virginia is more similar to private employment than in other state governments. Thus, private employers can allay fears of workplace exodus, when they chose to return to an in-office schedule. The one caveat is that Richmond, Virginia is home to more traditional industries like medicine, tobacco, and public utilities, where in-person work is a given expectation.

Curation or Censorship? eBay's Very Public Decline

Recently, eBay crossed the Rubicon by prohibiting the sale of now-collectible Dr. Seuss works, relatively obscure books that are now out of print by the decision of the Seuss estate. With that action, among others, eBay lost its market distinction as an online emporium.

At one time, eBay was a unicorn. The online business achieved a level of trust in which customers feel comfortable carrying out large transactions in gold and silver, electronics and jewelry. The scammers are becoming more sophisticated, though, so security is an area where eBay must focus. In this new cybersecurity paradigm, eBay does not have time for nitpicking the merchandise decisions of its core sellers and buyers; nor can afford the overhead of having staff manually cancelling listings.

The premise of the online marketplace is that customers search for what they want and find it. If they can't find what they want, they will take their business elsewhere. I am sure that eBay lost bibliophiles who look for collectible and out of print works. That was eBay's niche in the book market, and they blew it in one week. Amazon and Barnes and Noble remain top sellers of commodity works like in-print books and textbooks. eBay was not competing effectively in that arena, nor should they try.

eBay is still the preferred marketplace of coin buyers. But if they go on a whim to cancel listing of coins from certain countries or regimes, then the credibility of eBay as an open marketplace diminishes for the numismatic community.

Now, staying above the line of the law was a founding value of eBay. Drug paraphernalia and cockfighting tools are banned. Prohibiting these sales likely helped to bolster the reputation of e-commerce. eBay has also engaged in well-understood social policy, such as not selling Hypodermic needles - though this is part of a lively debate on the risk and benefit of access to clean needles: deterrence and mitigation. Early in the current pandemic, it was advisable to stop marketplace sales of PPE- but small , certified, upstart manufacturers lost sales as they could not communicate with eBay et al. that they needed a wider distribution stream that e-commerce could provide. (NY Times)

User experience has suffered: by 2019 users were “bombarded” with irrelevant advertising. Sellers note that the pages have been overrun by “cheap Chinese merchandise”, and that “eBay can NOT operate as another Amazon”. To top it off, the flailing company is cancelling its longtime eBay bucks program in April.

eBay forgot it’s flea market roots, where buyers move on to the next seller's table, if they find one table to be distasteful. The browser does not quit the market, unless the majority of sellers have gone rogue. Or the owner of the market makes bad strategic decisions. 

Branded by Social Media

The month of June means time for Beach Week, an annual, mid-Atlantic tradition. Celebrating the end of an academic year, unchaperoned high school and college students rent houses, inhabit hotels, and populate the beaches. It is a tradition dating to 1982 or earlier, when the Honorable Brett Kavanaugh, now the most junior US Supreme Court Justice, infamously attended.  During his recent Senate Confirmation process, lawmakers perused fading photographs, yearbooks, a Mark Judge novel, and hazy memories; looking for evidence of unsuitability and lapses in personal judgement.

Times are different today for the young. Smartphones and social media eliminate the possibility of plausible deniability; instead indemnifying any young adult who made a juvenile decision. Such is the case of Kyle Kashuv, whose admissions to Harvard University in Boston was rescinded for social media posts made at age 16. 

Laden with casually-strewn racial slurs, the posts reflect on Kashuv’s maturity at the time, and on the society in which he was raised. That was in Parkland, Florida. Rachel Slade, author of Into the Raging Seas, noted the state’s proclivity to racial slurs and use of the n-word. Fittingly to this case, William Faulkner’s  The Sound and the Fury, set in the 1920’s, demonstrated the culture clash between Southern racial hierarchies and Boston’s progressive attitudes on racial equality.   Today’s Harvard talks the talk of promoting racial justice. Does it walk the walk?

  Since World War Two, the US Army has taken a proactive role in fighting this kind of ingrained racism. In an era that still had segregated lunch counters, Blacks were assigned as Sergeants in charge of turning Southern White recruits into soldiers, physically and morally. Fixing prejudice hands-on, as the US Army has done, is something Harvard has shown unwillingness to do, in rescinding a young man’s admission letter. A more important observation, though, is that the digitally-native Generation Z is coming of age in a zero-defect culture; while previous generations got a pass on their youthful indiscretions- even into the Ivy League.   

“We are sorry about the circumstances that have led us to withdraw your admission, and we wish you success in your future academic endeavors and beyond”, wrote Dr. Fitzsimmons, Harvard’s dean of admissions in a personal letter to Kashuv. 

(Source: Patricia Mazzei, NY Times, 6/17/19)

When a Vacation Gets Busy

While I was at work, it was easy to say "I don't have enough time" to be worried about activism and protesting. Now on vacation, 'not having enough time' is my own problem, not one I could attribute to my boss or shortened days caused by time advances. At the same time, while at work I could shout as loud as I could off the gunwale of the ship, and no one would hear me. It was an eye-opening experience to trade a weak satellite connection for wifi and broadband; to use internet configured for me rather than one optimized for sending simple text emails. Yes, I did some of my recent blog posts through a satellite connection. I'd write ahead of time, and then wait for early morning to access blogger.com, when the absence of "higher priority" traffic allowed me a connection to the host website. I will be the first to tell you MSNBC clickbait, used as my ship's internet homepage, does not an informed citizen make.

When I was traveling for work, I sectioned attention to friends and family into a 20-minute phone call or a paragraph email, and a twice-weekly Facebook check. Otherwise, my afterhours were my own to plan and divvy. So when I got home at the beginning of the four-day Independence Day weekend, I was surprised by how much time went to 'family time'. A devotee to an art would tell his or her associated to "leave me alone". A dilettante like myself seeks to appease, placing others' desire for attention above attention to the craft.

For me, the 'staycation' does not work. I created, and am working through a punchlist of items that I couldn't readily complete overseas like tax adjustments, ordering books and videos, and making appointments, visiting Mr. Liedman, my coin dealer. Things I guess people do over lunch break, or late afternoon at work, for the lucky ones. So to get away, I take a 'real' vacation, like my week tramping around the old Austro-Hungarian empire of Central Europe (material for another blog post). I left the US on Inauguration Day (faster than a talking head celebrity), and arrived back after five months away. I was quickly reintroduced to American culture: upon arrival in the US, it appeared that half the border control agents took Friday afternoon off! This was only unusual to me since six full days of work a week is the norm on my ship, and seven days is normal too. Instead of "getting ready for the weekend" on Fridays, the anticipation was "getting ready for the overtime".

I feel like a have just a handgrip keeping me from obsolescence. Tinder, where women sort through virtual binders of men, and men do likewise, was the butt of jokes when I was in college just three years ago. Now I've read that online dating had replaced the 'bar scene' as a matchup forum. I landed at the airport alone in one's own city: In Washington, DC, the summer social calendar is light; and none more so than the week of July 4th. As the weeks away from the US turned to months, I needed to take the time reconnecting with friends. They said Mitt Romney was stuck in the 1950's; he missed the 1960's and ensuing cultural changes as a husband and a Mormon missionary. If I wanted to, I could become a virtual hermit on the ships, with a W2 wage statement and a portfolio ledger as my sole concerns in life. That is not the life for me.  To know that I will go out again, I vow to have all matters better organized for my next vacation!

Fall and a Server

Today us in the National Capitol Region experienced the simple delight of cool, clean, crisp air in the morning. A forebearer of fall, the darktime cool will extend into the daytime hours. After plugging college applications for a good part of the afternoon, I decided to learn more about the heart of computer-to computer communication; ie, the basis of the internet.

A student whom some would attest is morally opposed to computers was plugging lines of code into Java for AP Comp Sci. It's easy to teach a young dog new tricks. On that basis, I quickly learned how the digital world works.

The internet is not exactly a bunch of tubes with trucks. It is, however, an efficient post office system of sorts. Your computer request information in a protocol manner and the server responds, possibly asking you for your credit card number. This back and forth happens frequently on your trip to the WWW. These days, the dialogue is continuous. The tube concept derives from this development. In more primitive days, the information would travel via regular phone lines (ohh- graphics were such a pain to load!) By the way, the computer would tie up the phone line while using the internet!

With the advent of DSL, this problem disappeared. I remember the surprise the first time a call came through while looking up info (that's all there was back then!) Back in the dial-up days, blogging might have been done on computer software, then with modem flipped on, the text would be transmitted to the server. Doing work online (ie writing blog posts) was, to my knowledge, not common. Back then we also relied on landline phones and couldn't tie them up for an hour.

Now who wants to be an internet historian?

Exotic Trips by Car

A survey of my classmates indicated that nearly all of them have visited Canada, by land, sea or air. However, not so many have visited Mexico. I have to warn you that dawdling in many countries is different than taking a fling in USA north. The US State Department offers a pamphlet on things you should know before you travel down south. As a matter of fairness, border crossings in Canada have been secured in recent years to the level as they are down south, so no big surprise there. Don't see surprised if you see a chicken truck.
Pay the special protection fee- you'll need it

Don't drink tap. Some nice hotels have central water purifiers, but don't risk it!

Make sure that the currency exchange gives you recent coinage rather than devalued older money.

Keep a low profile and don't look out of place (DC people are pretty nice about this; cartels may not be so tolerant).

Navigating traffic circles in Mexico City is a futile task.

Read an official travel guide and do not goose step down there based on this information. Of course, booking an impulse trip to Cancun is a different matter.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

On Money

A double or nothing bet. On my tennis skills. It's on the Tuesday after next. So whatever has been going on, little brother has taken an interest in buying collector coins on eBay. Yes, I come home and he's there with his account card and coin price book. So yes, he just started this on Sunday, and he expects to start receiving deliveries from across America- tomorrow.

Presidential IQ

It's just too bipartisan- ranges for Bush the 2nd range from a paltry 91 (low-average) to 125 (above average). And many presidents were over 150- which should be a rarity- Nixon at 155, JFK at 174, and Clinton at 182--or, according to some, a significantly lower 137. And everyone's been wondering at Obama. The staunch Republican put Obama at 116 based on his LSAT guesstimation- an IQ just above average. Actually, many think he is the smartest president ever.

The thing about Bush Jr. having exactly 1/2 of Clinton's intelligence may be just a political hoax, according to reports.

To my knowledge, no official data or records have been released or sleuthed.and IQ's don't measure performance- Reagan measured in at 105.

It just doesn't work.


http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/presiq.asp


Whups--- what bad journalism. Based on scientific fact, his IQ is probably between 105 and 125. He just didn't act it. I said these #'s were biased!

Day 2

my bad. You can ride trolleys at the DC streetcar museum!
Anyway, time was limited again. I was put out to jog at 8:15, and then go food shopping. Adding breakfast, that took us to 10 am. Then an hour later, I had to prepare for going to lunch with mommy, and then fetch her special-order newspaper from one of the last authentic shops in Chinatown. That was after I traded coins at the Mint Shop. And then home, and soon afterward, daddy came home and took me for a walk. Then, Trader Joe's, and here.
9 am tomorrow- orthodontic appointment. Some major work to be done.

Subway

That's a tag for my latest Youtube video, Riding the Staten Island Railroad, and it seems to be working. On the theme, here's a cutie: Subway (1970's vintage Sesame Street song)

A critical analysis of the head2head Haiku contest:
I used depressing Haiku about closed factories and dying soldiers to make it to round 2. Terrible that I had to do that, but I lightened up on Round 2, with a sure-to-win haiku about a Panther victory. No match for Ian's fire- he used his best haiku round 2. And probably a mistake- one about the internet portal to a whole universe. Same result, and I was finished.

Hey, anyway, if you don't have a physical mansion, why not build a virtual one, like I did?

Withdrawal Symptoms

Yesterday, I went a whole day without using the Internet (I suppose to the disappointment of our viewers). Of course, I would have been lonely without it if I had not gone to Saint Anselm's athletic banquet. Yes, I researched about creating a crew team/club, but the only setback was the cost of obtaining the shell (that's the 54' long boat). The golf club sounded like a much more feasible idea. However, the school will still not have any water activities. Maybe a marine club, where we go and sail Sunfishes?

I was filmed yesterday doing a '50's dance to a new song by an editor of ipolomac43, about blasting into space. You'll have to hear it to know. I'm watching out on Youtube for that film.

Remember-
my memory card on my cellphone is full
buy your discount-priced stamps today before the price goes up
i think there is free Haagen-Dazs ice cream on Delli's half-birthday, May 13.

Delli-can-drive countdown: 3 days