Great news. My office isn’t going to be closed! I’ve suspected this for several months, especially after we got new computers in January. I’m going to continue taking classes though, because I don’t ever want to feel occupationally vulnerable again.

You with the sad eyes don’t be discouraged
I realize it’s hard to take courage
In a world full of people, you can lose sight of it all
And the darkness inside you can make you feel so small
But I see your true colors shining through
I see your true colors and that’s why I love you
Lyric from Cyndi Lauper, True Colors

I got my cast taken off last week. Actually, I took it off myself. I was tired of wearing it.

When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.
Quotation from Thomas Paine

The economy is stuck in an unvirtuous cycle.
Quotation from Mark Vitner, Wells Fargo Bank economist

Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. Those are the five stages of, well, everything seriously bad that happens to us– grief, lost relationships, addiction, job dislocation and death– to name a few (as if one can bargain with grief and death).
Nothing in life seems quite so orderly, however. Some people never get past their own feelings of anger and bitterness. Others seem to live in a perpetual state of grace and total acceptance (though in the interest of disclosure, I haven’t yet met anyone that fits that description). Life is an ongoing process, and I feel blessed– even in spite of it all.

Romeo: Lady, by yonder blessed moon I swear…
Juliet: O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon,
That monthly changes in her circled orb,
Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.
Quotation from William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

Blessed are the forgetful: for they get the better even of their blunders.
Quotation from Friedrich Nietzsche

You do not want your resume to say more than you are willing to admit. Such as: My work experience includes being a Night Stalker at WalMart. I am currently on maturity leave.

The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition.
Quotation from Carl Sagan

Most people work just hard enough not to get fired and get paid just enough money not to quit.
Quotation from George Carlin

“What’s in the cookie batter?” she wanted to know. “Lots of sugar,” he said. “Just remember I’m not responsible if you don’t like them.”

Goldman Sachs charged with fraud by SEC “These charges are far more severe than anyone had imagined,” and suggest Goldman teamed with “the leading short-seller in the industry to design a portfolio of securities that would crash,” said John Coffee, a securities law professor at Columbia Law School in New York. (Reuters)

Abacus Allowed Goldman to Shuffle Mortgage Risk Like Beads “The SEC said that Goldman Sachs created and sold Abacus 2007-AC1 without disclosing that hedge fund Paulson & Co. helped pick the underlying securities and also bet the CDO would default. Paulson was proved correct, and his hedge fund eventually turned a $1 billion profit and CDO investors lost a similar amount, according to the SEC.” (Bloomberg)

The product was new and complex but the deception and conflicts are old and simple. Goldman wrongly permitted a client that was betting against the mortgage market to heavily influence which mortgage securities to include in an investment portfolio, while telling other investors that the securities were selected by an independent, objective third party.
Quotation from SEC Enforcement Director Robert Khuzami

Here’s my plan: I want to be practical. I want to work in the writing/photography/graphics field, but my background is in banking/economics/finance. I need to be completely honest with myself, but I’m torn. Do I make the risky choice or the safe choice? Tell me– What should I do?

Don’t compromise yourself. You are all you’ve got.
Quotation from Janis Joplin

I have been struggling for many years in pursuit of a career in opera and am finding that it’s the people who have money behind them who are getting places, whether or not they have the best voices… So, yes, I’d marry for money at this point. After all, having the career would make me happy.
Quotation from “pvlstar” on iVillage.com

While $1 million or $2 million may sound like a lot to people making $30,000, it’s hardly enough to transform someone’s life or make them “rich” by contemporary billionaire standards.
Quotation from Robert Frank, Marrying for Love of Money

I’ve been flying by the seat of my pants. It has been a month since I’ve been told my department will be shutting down in six to twelve months, so time is precious. I’ve decided to take the Series 66 Registered Investment Advisor examination. I don’t know if that’s really what I want to do, but it gives me another option to pursue careerwise. And that means my updates to Encore Seraphine (and my time online) will be less frequent for a few weeks to a month.
Yes, I’m doing this on purpose. I love you all, and thank you for understanding.

Happy were she could finish forth her fate
In some unhaunted desert, where, obscure
From all society, from love and hate
Of worldly folk; then might she sleep secure.
Poem from Robert Devereux, A Passion of my Lord of Essex

I hear people say we should raise the stakes in Afghanistan. Or we need to raise the stakes in the War on Drugs. But you rarely hear talk of raising the stakes in the war on poverty. Why is that? If we are going to “raise the stakes,” we should do so for jobs, women’s rights, the environment, health care, financial reform and schools.

Drug cartels exploit illegal immigrants by forcing them into economic bondage or prostitution. “Drugs are only sold once,” Rep. Loretta Sanchez, the chairwoman of the House Homeland Security border subcommittee, said in an interview. “But people can be sold over and over. And they use these people over and over until they are too broken to be used anymore.”
Quotation from Josh Meyer, Drug cartels raise the stakes on human smuggling
(The Los Angeles Times)

I want to be free. No responsibilities. Sitting in a cafe drinking kir royale while reading a book, observing life and people between the pages until they become real.

Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
Quotation from Steve Jobs, Commencement address delivered to Stanford University

It’s like being in high school and knowing I’ll graduate in six months. The real world is out there and I’m wondering what I’m going to do. People tell me: “Some day you’ll look back at this and think how wonderful it was.” Ha!

Richard Vernon: What did you want to be when you were young?
Carl: When I was a kid, I wanted to be John Lennon.
Richard Vernon: Carl, don’t be a goof. I’m making a serious point here.
Quotation from the movie The Breakfast Club

Andrew Clark: You don’t have any goals.
John Bender: Oh but I do.
Andrew Clark: Yeah?
John Bender: I wanna be just like you. I figure all I need is a lobotomy and some tights.
Another quotation from the movie The Breakfast Club