Say nothing, live on!

Such easy words to type and say.  But you know what they aren’t.  It is singularly the most devastating disease to live with. Actually I sorta got that wrong. It’s singuarly the most devastating disease to live with and soul destroying to those who have to live with it.

Why because I know, and I really really wish I didn’t.  I’m going to say something many people will find terrible but it was actually easier to watch my grandfather die of cancer than to see my grandmother did from old age with Alzheimers.  And yes I know cancer up close and very way to personal. (I walk around with one testicle and my mum walks around with survivor breat tatoo’s, so umm we have an few thoughts)

Even after all this I still hate with a deep passion Alzheimers.

Well for the moment. It was thought that working for an investment bank was easy money, and yeah for sure alot it was.  I look I won’t deny that probably our totaly packages have been very good.  But not all of us who work in the industry pull down the huge salaries you see in the media.  Most of us are the back office people who enable it all. And guess what, who are these cuts hurting.  Not the ones who made the money.  They are gone.

Whats left are the ones who worked behind it all and thats who is being laid off around the world now.  Not the ones who made huge killings on the market, just the ones who goes back to the kids and wonder about the mortage.

I’m lucky, in this round of cuts I still have a job, am I sure I still will have one.  No.  As the markets keep going down the componies keep cutting.  That means more people out of work and not spending.  And guess where that is now hurting?  Take a look at the auto bail out going on in the US and you are no far off.  Its moving down now.

Want to know what really pisses me off is that all the people who caused this whole issue, many of whom made alot of money are now out of it and just watching it all goto crap.  Call it the free market maybe?  But legistlature allowed this to happen, why because those whom made the money had interests to allow it too.

I thought I would spend a few minutes on what I consider the big five on Kyoto.  Let me list them first then comment.   So in no particular order.

Kyomizudera – A truely spectacular temple on the hillside to visit, and the view is amazing. 

Ginkakuji – The Silver Pogoda – Of the big five my personal fav as the gardens (particularly the hillside views are amazing)

Kinkakugi – The Golden Pogada – One of my most over-rated scoring places.  Try and get there well before the crowds.  It is good, but so so so exploited.

Ryoanji – The Zen Garden – I do like Ryoanji, but its also part of the tourist route and most don’t seem to get the concept that you are suppposed to stop talking at this place and respect the silence of it all.  The concept of this garden is quiet contemplation, not tour buses of people taking picutures and chatting away.  It loses alot because of this.

Maruyama Park – Shared Nomination.  This one covers the general area actually as Mauryama park is entered via Yakasaka shine and during Spring and Sakura is a total mess.  To be fair here there are alot of areas around here that are not quite so touristed depending on the time of year.

Arashiayama – Shared Nomination. Part of the big five depending on the time of the year.  Included because in spring its a not there, but in Autumn its huge.  Everyone goes there.

I’ve not include Nazen-ji or the philsohpers walk here as they are very popular, but tend to less seen by the tour bus groups and are also two of my most favouristes.

more below the fold.

Our last day here. The plan was to head over to North Easy Kyoto to some of the least visited sites. They are certainly not on the ‘Big Five’ list.  

Just back from four fantastic days of Autumn leaf viewing.  We took friday and monday off to try and beat the crowds and overall did really well.  I’m process the 500+ photo’s I took!  Just about used up the entire 2gig card.  Now the work begins of cleaning them up and removing the duds!!

Just over two years ago we came across a great place to stay in Kyoto.  Di found it by accident as the name of the place does not ring Japanese.

Its a small guest house in North Kyoto called Casa de Natu.  It was originally the owners parents house and she has been lovingly restoring it over the years.  It a very traditional old house, and has two main bedrooms downstairs.  There are two rooms upstairs, but she tends not to let them out as they don’t have direct access to the bathroom (except via the other two bedrooms). 

The price is very reasonable 4500yen per person per night and includes a simple breakfast.  The location is north of the city centre, but is located well to subway and bus.  The neighbourhood is very nice and quiet with a good select of restuarants and coffee shops.  If you are looking for a place thats away from the crowds of Kyoto (and lets face it when is Kyoto not filled with tourists) this is an ideal location.  We have found on the occasions we have stayed there thats its very easy to get to the locations you want to and with some careful use of the subways and buses you can avoid alot of the crowds (or surf ahead of the crowds as we call it).  

The owner is wonderful and speaks English well. She has a basic website (link above) and will accept bookings via email.  The directions are a little tricky the first time getting there, but she will send you a map.  Its a really great way to stay in Kyoto in a traditional old house.  The accomodation is simple and comfortable and even now its getting cold there you have a snug nights sleep!

An odd title I agree, but there is a reason.  One I like to find titles that grab, but also have meaning to what I want to write.  Why this title.  Well drop below the fold and I will explain.

There is alot going around the media at the moment that the banks who received the bailout money are using it to pay bonuses. Well that really hit home to me today listening to it.

I cant’ abviously say which where I work, but yes it is one the top banks that was called into and basically told to take the money to loosen up credit.

What the media is not saying is that well before the bailout funds were available we were advised that the bonuses had be accrued over the last year and were stable dependant on the final quarter results.

So yes hopefully we will get good bonues in early next year, but we also know it not likely to be the same after that. 

But hey wait, before you say rich bankers, hold on.  None of us have hugh salaries. Nothing like the players of the market.

We are made up of everday people who go into work and come home, feed the family, pay mortages etc. Nearly everyone thinks you work in a bank then you are loaded.  Well no we are not.  95% of us are just everyday ‘joe the bank worker’. 

Sure there are some who a making a killing out of this crisis. To them I  just say, karma.

At lunch yesterday someone told us about this radio program on This American Life.  Its called the Giant Pool of Money and is by far one of the best explanations for the housing crisis we had ever heard.

Its is an hour in length, but trust me you will be so hooked on the story telling it will just pass by.  Its explained in the most everyday terms, and involves sound bites from real people through out the chain.

Anyway, go have a listen yourself.  I really do recommend it.

A few entries ago I wrote about how to do dynamic report names in MS Access, and really thought I had the solution.  Well I sorta did.  It appears I was halfway to the solution. I ran into problems and at the time I was working at home on 2003 and it all seemed to work.

When I tried the same technique in 2007 at work it all stopped working and I was stumped.  I did work it out and the code I used is below in the fold.

The trick seems to be open the report in design mode.  Make the updates to the fields you want, including the query.  The close the report with the save option.  When you then next invoke the report the new parameters take affect and you are off.

I am not entirely sure if this is the ‘best’ way to do this but it certainly seems to work. What I’m so surprised about is that the entry I wrote before is referred to as its seems a burnign question.  I hope the code below helps people.

(oh after thinking more on this code, I know some will say it won’t work well in a heavy user environment.  My answer, in a heavy user environment why are you using Ms-access?