Rare find: Exemplary goodness

Now that’s something we don’t see any too often: a person who is genuinely content with their lot and extremely generous with their resources.  Downright rare, particularly in a celebrity, yes?

So many people slam Keanu Reeves for wooden acting (tell me how he merits more dissing than Clint Eastwood?); but his generosity surely can’t be knocked.  He’s given £50 MILLION from his earnings to the costume and special effects crew of the Matrix movies series.

Amazing.  Perhaps he gets some lumps because he’s clearly not cut from the same cloth as the rest of the Hollywood machine.

10:58:39 PM    comment []

DharmaSurfing:  Wow, the surf is BIG and it’s WILD

Ever have one of those opportunities that seemed to just carry you away, drag you off in its jaws?

Here I am, drafting this post at 12:00 am 05-JUN-03 for posting after 9:00 am 06-JUN-03, on the phone with an accountant until 10:45 pm, flailing away on a business plan draft ever since, taking a break to update my poor lonely little blog while I mentally regroup.  This should tell you something.

This is it, the BIG ONE; stuff is moving so fast that I can’t keep up.  I need a consult with a lawyer before Monday morning.  I could use a consult with a CPA right now, too, or so the CPA tells me.  Nah, lawyer first; number gathering completion comes second, CPA crunching the numbers comes third. 

I need to incorporate within two weeks and hope like hell another party is willing to give me the time to do that.  My spouse is out of town again, out of pocket by phone; I’m going to have to do this all while second-guessing what his opinion will be about this entire project.  Guess that means updating hubby on project and progress comes fourth in the line up.

Over the last three years I’ve played with this business idea; I’ve held it up in my hands, rolled it around like a toy, put it on the shelf like a shiny bauble.  It’s just been a game, something not quite real.  More like a pretty piece of Lalique crystal, an eye-catching bit of beauty that had no impact on my day-to-day life.  Now I’ve taken it off the shelf to be pressed into service.  Will it survive this trial by fire?  Am I being suitably cautious or am I being cautious to extreme (I suspect I’ve been overly cautious, based on what I’ve seen in the last 24 hours)?  What barriers lie out there that might trip me up?  Upon which one might I smash this former bit of beauty?

If I could have a super power right now, it would be foresight.  I want to know if this will make it without tearing up my family and me, or without irreparable harm.

But all I’m going to have is hindsight.  With effort, I hope I’ll have no regrets.

Back to the grindstone.

9:16:53 AM    comment []

RantsCounterRants: A surprise and no surprise for Martha

No surprise that Martha Stewart stepped down yesterday from the CEO/Chairmanship at MSO after the indictment.  I felt she would leave the CEO/Chairmanship if indicted; it's in the best interest of her personal investment as well as her shareholders' investment. Staying at the helm would only have run the stock down further, making this move most prudent for someone with ultimate fiduciary responsibility to the corporation.  She's still the Chief Creative Officer and on the board, as well as the largest stockholder; to say she no longer has any control over the company would be incorrect. 

It's still sad to see her have to give up anything she worked hard to get.  I watched Nightline last night; Koppel had a panel with Naomi Wolff, Tina Brown and Jeffrey Toobin talking about Martha last night.  They were all very sympathetic towards her.  Naomi called the buzz about Martha's plight "schadenfreude" repeatedly.  Tina feels Martha is threatening in more than one way, and that's what really causes the hostility towards her; Martha’s threatening to men, who may feel inadequate next to her capabilities in business, and threatening to women, who may feel inadequate in the housekeeping department next to her.  (A teacher once told me, If a person feels threatened, maybe they should be – and they should do something effective about it, deal with the root cause, besides whine and complain about feeling threatened.  Sage.)

But the indictment itself is a surprise: since when is rebutting a charge by saying you’re innocent of the charges a crime?  Fercryingoutloud, why didn’t they just pull out the Patriot Act and haul her off under that?  The prosecution has very nearly done that, using this “unusual twist”.  Heck, if that’s a legitimate crime, every innocent business manager employed by a publicly-held company who’s ever said, Hey, I didn’t do it! is guilty of a fraud. 

Yeah, tell me again it’s not a witch hunt.

12:26:34 AM    comment []