I’ve mentioned my fondness for the late painting teacher Bob Ross in the past, but it’s time to devote a post to him. The irony is that I can barely draw a stick figure. I have no interest in creating art, but I’ve always found watching artists at work to be supremely comforting. As guilty pleasures go, it’s probably fairly harmless. (more…)
Slope of Hope Blog Posts
Slope initially began as a blog, so this is where most of the website’s content resides. Here we have tens of thousands of posts dating back over a decade. These are listed in reverse chronological order. Click on any category icon below to see posts tagged with that particular subject, or click on a word in the category cloud on the right side of the screen for more specific choices.
My Town’s Transformation
I’ve lived in Palo Alto since the summer of 1984 (it only just occurred to me typing these words that this is my 30th anniversary here – maybe I should get a cake or something). Think about how much the world has changed since then; in 1984: (more…)
Breaking the Spell
“So how come you never buy stocks?”
That was the question “ryans” asked me at SlopeFest. I tried to offer an answer, but I didn’t have a good one. I’ve thought about this a lot over the years. Some possible answers might include….. (more…)
A Change in Tone
“Well, you see Willard . . . In this war, things get confused out there, power, ideals, the old morality, practical military necessity. But out there with these natives, it must be a temptation to be god. Because there’s a conflict in every human heart, between the rational and the irrational, between good and evil. And good does not always triumph. Sometimes, the dark side overcomes what Lincoln called the better angels of our nature. Every man has got a breaking point. You and I have one. Walter Kurtz has reached his. And very obviously, he has gone insane.”
Tenuous
Many of you probably heard the news yesterday that teachers unions received a nasty (and well-deserved) blow from the Los Angeles Superior Court. I grew up in a fiercely anti-union household, and as a child, if I did a poor job making my bed, my mother would scowl and angrily say, “Union Worker!” I knew at that point I damned well better do the bed properly.
Mercifully, as a businessman, I never had to deal with any union issues. I did, however, at one point have to grapple with a salaried employee who, years into her employment, decided to get cute and threaten a state case to retrieve overtime wages based on the idea her job should have been an hourly one. She did not prevail. But it deepened my dislike for any prospective interference of the state into such matters. (more…)
