rants and me

[brasssun]

Okay, wow, I hadn't realized how long it's been since I last posted. I'm still alive. More or less. I graduated with my masters, am finishing up my research position, am furiously job hunting, and will probably be moving to DC in about a month unless I get a job offer from somewhere else within the next four weeks. Life, it keeps happening.

Comments

[sildra]

B) No, seriously, what was wrong with her hair? I thought it looked really nice. It had texture and sparkle even when it was pulled tightly back. The Russian gymnasts with their glitter product just wished they could have hair as good looking as that. So what was the problem?I have not been able to figure this out, and have been completely baffled by it. But then, I haven't seen any of the original criticisms, just the backlash against them

[brasssun]

You make very good points.

The disapproving articles on this or that politician's personal wardrobe are pretty much purely politically motivated. It just annoys me that apparently it works as an attack.

The article I was looking at today was talking about some online community where kids from wealthy families were posting pictures of their extreme excesses. So it's ostentatious and getting them into habits that they're unlikely to be able to continue with their own income and setting a bad example for everyone else.

In other countries it would be completely different--a wealthy person would expect to buy as much as they could and hire as many servants as possible, in order to give back to the community by creating work and spreading their wealth.I wish there were a bit more of that culture mixed in with ours. Not just to get the economy going but because, really, it would be a pretty cool spectacle to see what kind of show the really wealthy would put on if they weren't afraid of being looked down on but also weren't celebrities

[sildra]

I don't know how much outright charity those other cultures have, though. That is the one thing wealthy people in our culture are allowed to spend ostentatiously on. And (as far as I know) that's what keeps much of the arts, as well as various educational and environmental causes, going.

[brasssun]

I was imagining rich patrons of the arts at least, but that's probably more common in fiction than reality. I'm not sure if it's funny or sad that the less I know about a culture, the better it often seems.

[aryky]

Hey, congratulations on graduating (and getting at least one job offer? What is it?)

What do you mean by networking, professional networking, or just finding friends?

[brasssun]

Alas, no job offers yet. I'm moving because it's time for a change, a bunch of my extended family recently moved to DC area, and there's no other place that's calling louder.

As for networking: both professional connections and friends, really. I'm kind of jumping into the new city without any immediate prospects of either.

[sildra]

Well, if you're looking for friends... I'm e-mailing you a list of people we know in common who I know live in the DC area. (I don't know who would or wouldn't want it shared in a public LJ post.)

[aryky]

Oh, sorry I misinterpreted. I'm vaguely excited that you're (probably) moving to DC, except obviously I don't live anywhere near DC anymore. . . .

Well, I would totally have offered you the identity of friends, but I think sildra has already covered that.

[brasssun]

I just found an article on The Mary Sue that quoted some of the complaints. To the extent they were specific at all: visible product and hair clips were the issue? Um... I'm still confused: don't have a problem with it and it matched all the other competitors.

[ccommack]

Anywhere specific in the DC area that you're looking? If you're still looking for places[1], it's not really my territory, but I could scare up some local expertise on short notice, if that would be helpful.

[1] Probably not, since you're moving so soon, but I feel I should offer anyway.

About the rich: it used to be fairly standard for captains of industry to take their fortunes and reinvest them into a new venture. It was exactly this function that was used to promote the financial sector, as it ate the rest of the economy over the last three decades. Despite that, our current financial industry is remarkably bad at enabling people to invest their money in new companies. Venture capitalists are a tiny niche in the financial industry, and mostly do not have a good reputation for enabling long-term growth; most of the money socked away in banks and brokerages is on the casino-style side of shuffling securities round in circles. There are exceptions, mostly from dot.com millionaires plunging into their next big project (Elon

[brasssun]

I'm actually playing it really (nerve-wrackingly) loose at this point regarding my move, since if I get a job offer within the next four weeks, it will effect where I want to be. As is, my one requirement is that it be near a metro stop. Any suggestions or contacts you have would be appreciated.

And huh, I hadn't thought of how investment styles have changed over the years, but that really would make a massive difference. I wonder if it's also a made-money vs inherited-money change in style. People who made vast amounts of money on their own are more likely to take the risk again, believing that they can win again, while those who have inherited money think they can't risk losing it.