Job Search

So it's time to hit the job market! I've been submitting applications to various companies looking for a job in finance. I'd thought it might be therapeutic to blog about my search. Last year I looked for a bit and had no luck - hopefully this year will be better. I've submitted 12 applications so far - hopefully some of those will yield an interview.

Congrats to XX who landed at least one summer offer! Hopefully that will relieve some of her stress :).

Protectionism

WSJ argues Obama is protectionist.

Voters in America!

Oh my god, this video of a Tea Party protest in DC is friggin hilarious. Also quite terrifying.

Some choice quotes:

"There won't be enough doctors to take care of the people that he wants to bring on. I mean, we're going to be 200,000 doctors short. Q: What should happen to these people without care? A: A different plan. Q: Could a different plan produce more doctors? A: Uh, no?"

"His mother was white, so he's not an African American! But he's going that way because that pays off for 'im!"

"Well... fascism is a form of socialism, I would believe. I mean, they're all intertwined. Communism, Fascism, Socialism... They all have a little bit of each. They borrowed from each other."

"I don't even know why Obama appointed a czar. What are they doing? Czar came from Caesar... in the Roman times... and then the Russian czar. This is America, we don't have czars in America." "... are they going to be given land?"

The left-wing propaganda message at the end is a little much, but ... it's just ... really funny to laugh at people who don't know what they're talking about. Sorry, I know I'm on an elitist high horse here...

http://reason.com/news/show/136044.html

I just wanted to share that article: "The Republican Health Care Failure." I really liked the author's point, and there were some great lines: "[Republicans] did worse than miss an opportunity. They stimulated the public appetite for lavish federal spending on health care while catering to the illusion that it can be provided painlessly."

Obama's speech

Obama delivered his speech to the American public on healthcare last night and I just wanted to put down a few thoughts. He began by talking about the economy, which I thought was very telling. Do we really want to implement huge reforms when there are other problems looming? I was not convinced by Obama who appealed to a moral imperative to do things now. The reforms he's talking about are expensive. Expanding coverage and reforming coverage are both going to cost a lot of money. This will either be higher premiums or come from the government. The idea that it won't add to the deficit seems like some very sneaky and convenient accounting. I don't buy it for a second. That said, the expense of the these reforms and universal coverage do not change the fact that it's a worthy goal. I agree with the president that it is a moral imperative to provide greater access to healthcare.

I don't think we should be blinded by that fact. There are a lot of worthy goals in the world, poverty in the US, poverty in the world, human rights violations, etc. You can use such idealism to promote this reform, but you could use it to promote dozens of other worthy causes. In the end it comes down to cost-benefit analysis. No matter how good something is, we can't do it or buy it if it's too expensive. If the expense is reasonable then we can go ahead.

Herein lies the rub. Finding out the exact expense is almost impossible because the administration keeps combining the expansion of coverage with "cost-reductions" that will save billions. I can't speak to the veracity of these claims, because I don't know the details, and perhaps those details don't exist at this point.

Obviously if we can save billions, that's something we should do whether or not we reform health insurance or expand coverage. But that seems separate from the issue of expanding coverage. I thought it was telling that the president's anecdotes often focused on insured people who had insurance and were denied claims. This was a calculated appeal to the public to support his reforms, which in theory would improve their coverage. Again he's combining reforms on current coverage with expanding coverage to appeal to more people. These are separate things and should be treated as such. Why they are taking this approach seems obvious - expansion of coverage is very expensive.

Finally, the speech showed a rather deep divide on party lines. I don't think Republicans walked away convinced, and I didn't see any substantial concessions made by the administration. I don't necessarily fault him for that, but if these reforms make it through it's because Obama convinced people in his own party to stand with him.

Death Penalty

This Texas judge refused to hold open the clerk's office for a last-minute death row inmate appeal, based on the Supreme Court's announcement earlier that day that it would consider a case with potential ramifications for this inmate. The appeal was not filed in time, and the inmate was executed later that night.

That judge is now on trial for her job. The NYTimes argues that she is unfit for the job: "Judge Keller’s callous indifference in a case where the stakes could not have been higher makes her unfit for office."

I'm not sure I agree. Certainly, I think the judge showed a callousness and lack of compassion in refusing to hold the office open. A man's life was at stake, fercryinoutloud, and you couldn't keep the office open for, what, 30 more minutes? But on the other hand, random last-minute appeals are filed all the time. I'm betting the majority of them have no chance of actually changing the outcome. I don't think the refusal to bend the rules makes a person unfit to be a judge...

Of course, there are other issues here as well - something about the court not following its own procedures. But that's the court, not the judge, right? The cynical side of me says, yeah, she's a heartless bastard, but . . . he probably would've lost his appeal anyway, even if his lawyers had filed it on time. C'est la vie. Or, peut-être, la mort.

Review: "Sozin's Comet"

I recently finished watching all of Nickolodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender. Overall, I loved it; it's definitely on my list of my top animated series of all time. It was a fantastic series - something I never expected from a channel like Nickolodeon. Everything from the animation (especially the animation), to the writing, to the music, to the characters was superbly done. Although the dialogue was, at times, juvenile, that quickly fell away as the story matured. As a Miyazaki fan, I very much appreciated the clear Miyazaki influences (such as the Owl in the episode "The Library" and Koh the face-stealer). Also, as a Batman: The Animated Series fan, I also appreciated the generally excellent voice acting -- particularly Mark Hamill (the Joker in BTAS) as Fire Lord Ozai, and Dante Basco (who I only know as Rufio from "Hook") as Zuko.

A four-part two-hour movie, "Sozin's Comet," functioned as the series finale, tying together all of the loose ends and showcasing all of the characters on their way to fulfilling their destinies. All I can say is, "Sozin's Comet" was absolutely amazing, possibly the best two hours of TV (animated or not) I've ever watched. So, what was so amazing about it?

(1) First off, the animation. Some of the action sequences - particularly the agni kai between Zuko and Azula - were breathtakingly beautiful. The pacing in that fight scene was just stunning, and the music was perfect as well. Really, just everything was perfect. The use of color. The interplay of light and dark. The use of shadows. Certainly, the animation style was fantastic throughout the whole show, but in "Sozin's Comet" three scenes totally blew me away: the scene when Ozai and the airships light the world on fire, the aforementioned Zuko v. Azula fight; and the Ozai v. Avatar fight. Seriously, the Zuko v. Azula fight scene ... best animated sequence EVER. (I think it's superior to even the Ozai v. Avatar fight, although that fight is also superbly done.)

(2) Second, the character development. The series was fantastic about developing its characters (including the villains) overall. But even in the series finale, the writers took time to flesh out Azula's character. I won't spoil it, but Azula's scenes are picture perfect. And you really see characters like Zuko and Sokka come into their own, see how far they've come. You even see Toph shed a tear.

(3) Third, the writing. Other reviewers have written this as well, but every scene in "Sozin's Comet" seems to have a purpose. There's nothing extra, and every scene is doing work in adding value to the show. There are some comical scenes (like the birthday party in the bomb bay) which are probably unnecessary, but because they're well written, they fit in well with the rest of the movie. There were some great one-liners, and some really moving scenes (like the Zuko and Uncle reunion, and the Zuko and Aang talk & hug at the very end). There were also great (though sometimes cryptic) scenes that showed Aang's struggle with his pre-ordained mission.

(4) Fourth, the music. Actually, now that I've watched "Sozin's Comet" something like 4 or 5 times, I've really noticed how much work the music does in the movie. Three sequences where the music is just chillingly EXCELLENT are: the aforementioned agni kai scene (the slow music there is just stunning, a beautiful contrast against the flames that are swirling on the screen), the scene where Aang redirects Ozai's lightning strike, and, of course, the energybending scene.

That's all I've got, really. I can't say enough about how "Sozin's Comet" really just blew me away. The series was great overall, with only a few episodes that were blah-dee-blah, but I don't think I would be as enamored with Avatar: The Last Airbender if "Sozin's Comet" hadn't been so well executed. (To a lesser extent, I think I feel the same way about Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, in relation to Batman Beyond, though I think I like Avatar more.)

In any case, that's my review of "Sozin's Comet." Just, really really fantastic. I don't even know if I have any complaints!