经济衰退下美国大学毕业生写照

今天Washington Post的文章，看了令人心寒。BTW, excellent writing.

In recession, one road led back home
After hitting dead end after dead end in job search, new graduate rethinks her path
By Eli SaslowWashington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 22, 2009

Her parents redecorated her bedroom soon after she left for college, as sure as everyone else in this town that Melissa Meyer would not be moving back. They took down the photos of Melissa meeting the Dalai Lama and laughing alongside Joe Biden, placing them in the closet. They packed away dozens of high school honor certificates -- valedictorian, class president, outstanding chemistry student -- and stored them in plastic boxes under the bed.

Melissa had always been too big for this town, her father liked to say. She was editor of the school newspaper, an intern in the U.S. Senate and the only student from Sentinel High School's Class of 2005 to attend college on the East Coast. On her rare visits home from George Washington University, longtime friends liked to tease her: "Hey, Melissa, are you president yet?"

So, how to explain this? Each morning, Melissa wakes up in her old bedroom, scans the foreign decor and thinks: This is the guest room now. I am the guest. I am not supposed to be here.

She graduated magna cum laude from the GW Business School in May, applied for 30 jobs at some of the nation's best-known companies, and it went nowhere. After visiting the campus career center and redesigning her résumé, she applied for 10 more jobs. Still nothing. The lease on her Foggy Bottom apartment expired in June. There was no place to go but home, with a collection of rejection letters and a haunting sense of betrayal. For 23 years, she had advanced down America's path to success -- perfect grades, a $200,000 college degree, a folder overstuffed with business cards -- only to have it dead-end back where she started.

"What was the point?" she asks.

For Melissa, that question is the legacy of the recession as she rises one Tuesday morning in early fall and begins her day with the same routine that defined her adolescence. She rummages through the refrigerator, eats leftovers from a dinner party her parents threw the night before and then retreats upstairs to prepare for a fill-in shift at the same job she held throughout high school. After changing into cowboy boots and a skirt, she borrows her parents' car and drives three minutes to work at Rockin Rudy's, a record store with a peace sign hanging at the entrance.

The shop smells of incense. Classic rock plays through speakers. Customers come and go in tie-dyed T-shirts as Melissa stands behind a register and rings up CDs, bandanas and a gigantic bronze frog.

Midway through her shift, a man approaches the counter ready to buy three necklaces. He introduces himself as a palm reader. Melissa sticks out her hand.

"I know nothing about my future," she says.

* * *

Once, she thought she knew exactly what to expect. She would follow the same direct path to achievement as her father, a partner in his own accounting firm; as her mother, a public health nurse; as her sister, a Truman scholar pursuing a doctorate; as her brother, a pioneering accountant in Australia. For the Meyer family, success had always been defined as a straight line: education, career, hard work and a salary big enough to provide the next generation with a head start toward the same goals.

With that tradition in mind, Melissa applied for a handful of positions during the first semester of her senior year at GW and earned interviews with Procter & Gamble, Deloitte and General Electric. After a few hopeful weeks, she received similar e-mails from all three companies explaining that they were no longer hiring.

Melissa's father, Jack, suggested she could improve her odds by networking, so she chatted up customers while working as a hostess at Kinkead's restaurant in Washington and joined the GW alumni association, introducing herself to strangers during meet-and-greet happy hours. A school counselor told Melissa that she could sharpen her applications by taking a career aptitude test, which revealed that she could market herself as "energetic," "enthusiastic," "flexible," "assertive" and "a good communicator."

Over two months, as spring turned to summer and the jobless rate continued to climb, Melissa applied for at least one position every day, sending applications to Philadelphia, Washington, Seattle and Portland, Ore. She spoke with hiring managers at a company in Seattle that once had tried to lure employees with an in-house gym and wine bar, but now the wine bar was closed, and the company asked Melissa to check back in six months.

As graduation neared, Melissa spent her culminating business class comparing rejection e-mails with classmates. Forty students were in the room. Three had jobs.

Melissa redesigned her résumé one final time before she moved home to Missoula. She had all but given up on launching a career now, instead aspiring to any job that would prevent her from being completely dependent on her parents. Her professional résumé seemed too striving to submit to shops more accustomed to hiring high school kids, hippies and transients. Melissa deleted mention of the $36,000 she raised for alternative spring break trips and the 50-person events she coordinated for a women's leadership program, replacing them with new categories.

Restaurant Host: "Greeted patrons, scheduled reservations and arranged seating for a restaurant with 64 tables."

Reception Assistant: "Aided reception staff by answering phones, preparing billing statements and scanning documents."

Sales Associate: "Organized, cleaned and displayed inventory to create a stimulating shopping environment."

This is the résumé Melissa carries with her one September morning as she enters an orientation meeting for prospective Missoula substitute teachers. She has never taught before, nor does she particularly enjoy children, but she has been turned down by a restaurant, a bakery and an herbal shop in the past two weeks.

More than 75 others are crowded into a room when Melissa arrives. There are women in business suits and men in ties, all carrying three letters of recommendation and hoping for a chance to earn $10.29 an hour without benefits by substituting in a school district that has only three high schools. A middle-aged man stands at the front of the room and explains the order in which Missoula substitutes will be selected. He asks those who qualify under each category to raise their hands.

"Who here is an assistant teacher?"

Six hands shoot up.

"Okay. Who has a teaching degree?"

Fifteen more people raise their hands.

"Great. And who has a college major that is taught at the high school level, like English or science?"

Practically the whole room is reaching toward the sky now, but Melissa, who majored in marketing and business administration, continues to scribble on the cover of a seminar handout. Not until 15 minutes later, near the conclusion of the seminar, does the instructor explain how "less qualified" teachers like Melissa can win substitute assignments. She should print out business cards and hand them to her old teachers at Sentinel High School, he suggests. Maybe the staff will help out a former valedictorian by requesting her as a substitute.

"My triumphant return!" Melissa whispers sarcastically.

Soon she is out the door and back in her parents' car. She drives across town for a job interview at a restaurant called the Depot, where the new résumé -- and particularly her experience at Kinkead's -- helps her earn a part-time job as a hostess. She will work three nights a week, from 5 until close. The Depot manager offers his congratulations and reminds her to "smile big and wear sensible shoes."

It is the first good news Melissa has received after six months and 60 applications, but she can hardly feign excitement.

"Sometimes, thinking about what I'm doing right now, it becomes a little depressing," she says later, while driving home.

She turns a corner and her parents' house comes into view. She has plans to have lunch with her dad, maybe go for a hike. Then, nothing.

"I know I am underselling myself," she says. "But maybe there's more to life than what position you have and all those things."

* * *

A few days later, Melissa sits in the living room with her parents, Jack and Shelly. She is dressed for yoga class. Her parents are dressed for work. Shelly puts a hand on her daughter's knee and asks the question that now rules over so many of these moments, even if it often goes unsaid: "So, have you thought any more about what's next?"

It has been more than four years since Melissa has lived with them, and Jack and Shelly now revel in the company of a daughter who lingers with them at the dinner table and offers to help with the dishes. She visits Jack for lunch at his office, goes to exercise classes with Shelly and teaches her parents how to play a game on their porch that involves swinging at rotten fruit with a cricket bat, until they are all competing in a make-believe home-run derby and laughing like 10-year-olds. The highlight of their autumn has been having Melissa home.

Melissa loves being with them, too. Spending so much time with family in Montana has helped her "thaw out from the go-go-go of D.C.," she says. Her dad had a health scare not long ago, and now Melissa watches football with him and asks his advice on relationships and work-life balance. Her parents treat her like an adult, allowing her to come and go as she pleases and to sleep at boyfriend Will Freihofer's house. But Melissa prefers to bring Freihofer home so they can spend evenings watching movies with Shelly and Jack.

And yet there remains this one topic that divides them.

"I'm still figuring out my plans," Melissa says. "I don't know yet."

"When will you know?" Shelly asks.

"I don't know," Melissa says.

"How long will it go on like this?" Shelly asks. "It can't go on forever."

They taught their children that a respectable life begins with hard work. Jack's father, a shoe salesman, died when Jack was 14, so Jack went to work at the shoe warehouse to help his family compensate for lost income. Shelly's father, an airline technician, moved six times in 10 years, following his job. Both Jack and Shelly were among the first in their families to attend college. They graduated from the University of Colorado and have worked ever since.

With each paycheck, they stockpiled money into education funds for their three children, promising each fully paid tuition for a state university or a heavy contribution toward the bill at a private school. Melissa's education cost the most -- about $100,000, even after scholarships and financial aid -- and Jack and Shelly paid every cent. An investment, they called it. The return was implied: good grades, a successful career and income to create college funds for children of her own. The straight line.

Maybe, Melissa thinks now. But maybe there is something else, a more wandering path to fulfillment. She is falling in love with Freihofer and indulging whims like searching for Montana's best beef jerky, writing letters by hand and hiking each morning. When Freihofer, who works part time as a rafting guide, asks what she will do next, she mentions not career possibilities but possible adventures she has researched online. "Why waste my time continuing to apply for jobs that don't want me?" she says. Instead, she imagines a future far away. A yoga ashram in Nepal? Trekking through Argentina? Picking grapes at a vineyard in New Zealand? A road trip across Australia?

All she knows for certain is that she wants to save $4,000 for airfare and depart in early 2010, for somewhere. "I don't want to look back after 30 years in a cubicle and think, 'I should have.' "

It is an outlook some in her family struggle to comprehend. When Melissa mentions the yoga ashram, her sister responds with an e-mail demanding a more practical plan, "by the end of business hours today." Her brother visits from Australia and, during a fight over access to the shower, calls Melissa worthless for living at home. Shelly comes upstairs to referee. "You two figure this out," she says, "because I really don't want either of you here." It is an untruth spoken during a moment of irritation, but Melissa bursts into tears and rolls the words around in her head for days. Has she become a burden to her parents? It is the one thought that makes her want to find a cubicle, fast.

"We just want you to be happy," Shelly says now, in the living room.

"I know," Melissa says. "Me, too."

"It will work out," Shelly says.

"I hope so," Melissa says.

They are silent for a moment, looking at each other, and then the conversation begins again.

"What do you think you will do?" Shelly asks.

"I don't know," Melissa says.

* * *

She has invented a dozen ways to say those words -- "I don't know." When former teachers or her parents' friends ask about her plans, Melissa's answer is professional: "I'm looking at my options." When she sees inquiring high school friends, her answer is more casual: "Oh, I'm still figuring things out."

"I used to tell people about the jobs I was applying for, and at least that sounded better," she says. "But now I'm not applying for anything, and I don't really know what to tell them. 'Oh, I'm just hanging out.' Or, 'Oh, I couldn't find a job, so I'm living at home.' You end up getting all these awkward responses and weird looks."

The other possibility would be a complete, honest answer: that, actually, she's doesn't feel in a hurry to find a job anymore. That she is now wondering why she ever felt hurried. That maybe this whole thing is a blessing. That maybe the roundabout path offers more than the straight line.

But that answer, she thinks, would sound strangest of all in this place she once left with such determination, so she reserves it only for Freihofer, who mostly listens and nods and one day agrees that they should leave town and go for a long drive just because they can. They pull away from the guest room, out of Missoula and into the mountains. The air is crisp, and Melissa rolls down her window. Every mile brings a new ambition. They pass a mountain. "I want to climb that," she says. They see a wolf refuge. "I want to visit there."

She drives and eats homemade puppy chow while Freihofer strums a miniature ukulele in the passenger seat. Their destination is Glacier National Park, to the north, but they zigzag across the state to buy beef jerky, pose next to a tacky plastic dinosaur and drink whiskey at a stop in Great Falls, Mont., where a woman dressed as a mermaid swims in a pool behind the bar. All told, it is a detour of 24 hours and 200 miles.

As they continue to drive, Melissa and Freihofer make a game of counting how many of their friends have secured jobs. Freihofer, who plans to spend the winter exploring Antarctica, knows three who have moved abroad to travel, two who work as adventure guides and two who have become teaching assistants. "Jobs, but not really career-type jobs," he says. Melissa knows of friends who are "hanging out" at their homes in California and New York, and of a former roommate who is interning at GW. Another friend was hired by a publishing house in New York but has been laid off.

"The economy is almost convenient in a sick way, because everybody is off on adventures," Freihofer says. "It's an excuse to do whatever you want."

"Yeah," Melissa says. "I don't think my parents would understand if I was turning down jobs and doing this."

"I figure if I don't have a real job in two or three years, my parents will get on me," Freihofer says. "My dad doesn't want me to get too comfortable floating around and selling myself short."

"I probably have a year," Melissa says, "but I can stretch it."

"Vague, short-term goals -- that's all anybody has right now," Freihofer says.

"We can figure out the long-term stuff later," Melissa says.

They pass through an Indian reservation, continue over the peaks of Glacier, exit onto a dirt road and travel toward the Canadian border. Finally, just before dusk, they arrive at a tiny outpost called Polebridge and throw their sleeping bags onto a sagging mattress at the North Fork Hostel. The town, population 50, lacks electricity, so they use propane lamps and candles to play cards late into the night.

They walk outside at 10 p.m. to look at a sky littered with stars and scan the surrounding mountains for mountain lions, moose or bears. "I think I see something," Melissa says, before deciding it's only a bush.

The sun wakes them up early the next morning, and they decide to go hiking. Melissa knows of a trail that ends at a fire tower, so she leads. She follows a dirt path around one switchback, then another, and another, until she has ascended a mountain and reached the base of the tower. She climbs a ladder to the top, stands on a platform and surveys the vista. There is nothing to hear but the wind. There is no one to see for miles and miles. There are no office buildings, no expectations.

All she sees are deep blue lakes, snow-capped mountains and clouds floating above dense forest. The view seems endless. So do the possibilities.

She turns to Freihofer: "I wonder what our friends are doing right now in their cubicles."

Metro ride

One thing interesting about working at odd hours is that you've got to ride metro with odd people instead of stone faced morning commuters.

Today, Friday night 11pm, I overheard the conversation between a girl and a guy, looking like two late night bar hopping teenagers.

Girl: You are a nice guy.

Guy: No, I'm an A-sshole.

Girl: No, you are not. You are nice to E-verybody.

Guy: I'm only nice to you.

Girl: You are nice to me. And you are nice to A-ll my friends.

Guy: You mean XXX? She's such a slut.

Girl: She's not. She's just loud and obnoxious.

Guy: She's a bitch.

Girl: She's my best friend since 7th grade. You know what, she does gymnastics.

Guy: No way. She weighs like, a half TON. She could lost 100 pounds.

Girl: Noooo, may be 20 pounds.

号外！号外！

Photo from: realitytvmagazine.com

CMT News
Julianne Hough Won't Return to Dancing With the Stars' Ninth Season

Julianne Hough will not participate in the ninth season of Dancing With the Stars, according to an interview with Ryan Seacrest on Monday night in Los Angeles. Hough was attending the film premiere of New Moon in Los Angeles. She did not elaborate about returning to the show in future seasons. Hough is not participating in the current season of Dancing With the Stars. She and Chuck Wicks, her boyfriend and dancing partner from a previous season, broke up earlier this month.

我说吧，我说吧，上一季Julianne和Chuck参加Dancing with the Stars时，我就大胆预言了他们俩很快就会散，被我说中了吧。俩人一块跳舞都没chemistry。要我说，Julianne跟Chuck当时高调公开恋情还以情侣身份参赛，就是利用这个节目和Chuck歌手的身份为她自己进军歌坛造势，这不，现在人家专辑也发了，广告上也露脸了，电影也拍了，也就该散了。

奥巴马VS乳腺癌

photo from washingtonpost.com

奥巴马访华，昨天在上海与青年对话，今天与胡CORE举行新闻发布会，中文媒体上至新华社下至未名绝对是头条呀。新华社用只有国庆阅兵或神六上天才用的超大字体在首页打出中美联合声明的横幅，未名已经人肉出了向奥巴马提问的“假学生”来头不小，凤凰网独家披露胡CORE请奥巴马晚宴吃切羊肉，对比美国几大报纸今天的头条，足见总统访华在美国人心目中的地位。

华盛顿邮报、纽约时报和华尔街日报三大报今天的头版全部都是一篇乳腺X光的文章，说一个由政府任命的独立小组建议40岁以上的妇女不用每年照X光来查是否得乳腺癌了，每隔一年照一回就行了。华盛顿邮报首页倒是登了一张中国街头卖的奥巴马身穿红军军装的文化衫。CNN还专门跑到上海一个市场去暗访卖这种文化衫的商贩，结果被市场保安轰出来了。http://us.cnn.com/video/?/video/world/2009/11/15/chang.china.obama.anticipation.cnn

New York, I Love You

Mike生日这天我们冒雨去看New York, I Love You。这部电影堪称纽约版建国大业，里面叫上名的叫不上名的明星一堆堆的。

IMDB上一个评论很是确切：It's like having to search through a bag of mixed nuts full of crappy peanuts to find the few almonds left。这部由13个不同导演拍的短片组成的电影，有的给你惊喜，有的不明所以。

其中我最爱的是小偷和大偷的故事，还有作家和妓女的故事。

据说电影要求每个导演只有24小时拍摄时间，一个星期的剪片时间，并且故事需反映纽约一个区的特色。

最后看字幕才知道小偷和大偷是姜文导的，故事和拍摄手法都令人想起杜其峰的《文雀》，但在光天化日之下纽约一个酒吧里轻声放着崔键的歌，这么矫情的事也只有姜文干得出来。

Holiday gift idea

This is one gift idea recommended by the New York Times 2009 Holiday Gift Guide: bra $478 and panty $388.

Are we out of recession? Definitely yes, according to the NYT editors.

And the bloody bra and panty set isn't the most outrageous idea at all. Among the Guide's "bonus round" ideas are: $4,850 Chanel fur muff,

$1,395 men's jeans, and "price upon request" Doir pendant.

让子弹飞

我写中文喜欢用成语，没有成语四个字也行，朗朗上口呀。今天看到这则新闻，读起来真上口呀，到处都是四个字四个字的，这个记者真有水平！

由英皇电影、中影集团、中联传播、幸福蓝海和北京不亦乐乎电影公司共同制作，投资近1亿5千万港币的传奇巨制《让子弹飞》，是国际级大导演姜文历时三年准备、自导自演的心血作品，荷里活巨星周润发及中国国宝级演员葛优领衔主演，及陈坤、胡军等多位型男主演，可谓华语影坛空前绝后的创举。电影计划于明天国庆档期全国上映。

电影讲述北洋军阀的荒唐年代，发生在中国南方的一个传奇故事。影片以型格的西部特色灌入幽默讽刺的剧情，笑位不绝，更具备连场惊险的动作场面，必定是华语影坛有史以来最受期待的巨制。纵使2010年全国贺岁片汹涌而来，但刚刚开拍的《让子弹飞》却抢去所有即将上映大片的风头。

《让子弹飞》于昨日下午(11月10日)在北京举行首个记者发布会，全男班演员首次亮相，华语影坛三大巨匠姜文、周润发、葛优震撼登场，并携陈坤、胡军、姚橹、廖凡、张默等六大小生集体亮相，共同见证了这部华语影坛史诗传奇大片的破冰首航。导演姜文更为每位演员度身订造一个前所未见的形象，令每位演员也有破格演出，保证为观众带来崭新惊喜。三位主角的角色性格亦正亦邪，未到最后一刻也难以摸清各人底蕴，令观众的想象空间一直无限伸延。

身为主要投资方的英皇集团主席杨受成先生亦有亲自出席北京发布会，身体力行以表重视。另一投资方 -- 中影集团的董事长韩三平更预期《让子弹飞》可以冲击中国电影票房纪录，成就华语电影新传奇。

发布会的焦点定必落在姜文、周润发、葛优三位天王级人物身上，三位对影坛史上有重大影响力的大人物终能首次合作，实现了“三英会战”超级阵容。发布会上，姜文、周润发和葛优彼此间惺惺相惜、默契十足而且幽默地互相揶揄，令整个发布会充满了英雄豪情及欢乐气氛。同时三人亦散发出不同男人味，他们更笑言三人市场不一，分别吸纳不同女性，所以必能和平共处，彼此不会「争风呷醋」。

在谈到这次梦幻组合时，周润发称这是一部让他感到兴奋和期待的作品；葛优以惯常的幽默表示合作新鲜有趣；姜文则透露身兼导演之责，将会令每位演员最精彩的部份带给观众，更透露三位主角将有斗智斗谋及刀光剑影的场面，令观众有感一秒也不能错过。

An Education

Photo from http://teaser-trailer.com

周末跟Joyce看了电影“An Education”，非常励志的电影。

故事设在60年代的伦敦，Jenny是个16岁的漂亮女中学生，她的梦想是去巴黎，听法国音乐，看法国电影，想什么时候听就什么时候听，想什么时候看就什么时候看。她的父母希望成绩优秀的女儿进牛津大学。有一天，她遇到一个年纪至少大她一倍事业有成的David，他对她展开了任何一个情蔸初开的少女都难以抗拒的攻势。他带她去听古典音乐会，去高级餐厅，去舞厅跳舞，去巴黎。这不就是她梦想的生活吗，甚至比她梦想得还要好，那还要上什么大学呢？就在她放弃考牛津准备和他结婚时却发现原来这一切都是个大骗局。

影片试图驳斥“干得好不如嫁得好”的理论，告诫怀春少女不要为爱情蒙蔽双眼，而是应该争取受教育自强自立。但是电影的讽刺意义却在于，虽然家长和学校都试图向Jenny灌输上大学才是正途的思想，但他们都没能给Jenny一个有说服力的理由，为什么要上大学？最后David的骗局及时揭穿，Jenny重拾书本考进牛津。但要是这个骗局没有那么早被揭穿呢，要是这根本不是骗局，David就是一个完美丈夫呢？那是不是就没必要上大学了呢？

当Jenny质问校长为什么一定要上大学时，校长说那样你就可以当个公务员什么的呀，这对怀着巴黎梦的16岁少女来说显然没有任何吸引力。Jenny走投无路来找一直很赏识她的戴着黑边方框眼镜的女老师，外表刻板的单身女老师住在一个小巧但宽敞的公寓里，客厅明亮而温暖，墙上挂满了画和明信片，随处可见的书籍零乱而有序，桌上摆着精美的茶具。她在这一刻似乎明白了教育的意义。

教育的目的不是钓到金龟婿的跳板，也不仅仅是获得糊口能力的途径，教育的目的应该是帮助你获得心灵自由的能力。

在IMDB上发现好玩的一点，片中饰演David合伙人兼好友的女朋友的是Rosamund Pike，她在傲慢与偏见中演大姐Jane，在这里她演一个无脑金发美女，她本人可是正宗牛津毕业生呢。

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Gore’s Dual Role in Spotlight: Advocate and Investor

我是相信气候变暖并支持绿色能源的，很大原因是受美国前总统戈尔的纪录片《不便的真相》的影响，当他站在梯子上都够不到一个图表中几年后全球二氧化碳排放量攀升的水平时，我相信电影院中每个人都和我一样被吓着了。

今天《纽约时报》一篇有关戈尔与他的绿色投资的文章，虽然没有动摇我对绿色能源的支持，但这篇文章的确提出了戈尔同时作为倡导者和投资者是否存在利益冲突的问题。

文章说，戈尔所在的风险投资公司去年给一家制造可以提高供电效率的产品的公司投资了7500万美元，这家名叫Silver Spring Networks的公司将为家庭和企业用户安装智能电表。上个星期，美国能源部宣布政府将拨款340亿美元安装数以百万计的智能电表，其中5.6亿美元将投给与戈尔投资的公司有安装合同的电力公司。这就意味着戈尔和他的风投合伙人在未来几年就可以收回数倍于他们的投资。

批评人士，大部分是右派政治人士和气候变暖理论怀疑者，说戈尔很快将成为全球首位“二氧化碳亿万富翁”。

戈尔回应说，他只不过是言行一致，把他的钱投资在他所倡导的领域罢了(he is simply putting his money where his mouth is)。他说，“你觉得在这个国家积极从商有什么错吗？我对此感到骄傲，非常骄傲。”

戈尔说，过去几十年来，他的投资活动一直都与他的公开倡导相一致。

戈尔2001年离开政府时，他公开的资产不足200万美元。作为普通公民，戈尔没有义务公布他的收入和资产。自2001年以来，他的身价飙升，受益于他在苹果电脑和谷歌的适时投资，出书和电影的收益，以及演讲收入。尽管戈尔目前的净资产不得而知，但从他最近慷慨解囊投资朋友公司的大手笔中也可大概猜测出他自己的财富规模。他最近投资3500万美元给eBay首任总裁Jeffrey Skoll创办的私人股本基金Capricorn Investment Group。

在NYT网站上给这篇文章留言的读者中有人说，戈尔是在利用人们的恐惧来赚钱。还有一位自称投票选了奥巴马、克里和戈尔的读者说，当戈尔宣布加入风投公司Kleiner时他感到非常失望，因为他觉得这对他的客观公正性大大打了折扣。你不能又当球员又当裁判。还有人说，要是戈尔没有自己投资，右翼派和气候变暖怀疑者就会质问他为什么自己不投资在他口头上支持的行业，现在他投资了，这些人又开始质疑他的动机。

戈尔今年4月在国会一个能源委员会的听证会也遭到一位议员的类似质疑。戈尔对议员说，如果你认为我为全球气候变暖问题奋斗了30年是因为贪婪，那么你不了解我这个人。

我对戈尔的人格没有任何怀疑，我对他致力于绿色能源事业的动机也毫不怀疑。但我也认为这里的确有利益冲突问题，就像分析师推荐一个股票时也必须披露他是否持有这个股票，投资者有权获知这种信息，然后再决定他是否信任他的推荐。

NYT article link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/business/energy-environment/03gore.html

11月星象：有外块！

Your first opportunity will come November 11, when Mercury and Uranus will work together, allowing you to come up with a bundle of fresh ideas for a creative or literary project, or to make more money. Mercury is now in your second house of earned income and will send a beam to Uranus in your house of work projects. You may get a new client or side job or find a way to make overtime pay. Work and money will be nicely united on this day, November 11.

On November 13, a Friday, and the following day, Saturday, November 14, you will have an outstanding opportunity to find more work, perhaps to do on the side, perhaps over the weekend. Keep your cell phone powered up because the opportunity could come in weird and very sudden ways. It looks like you will be at the right place at the right time.

You will have a chance to improve your finances even more after the new moon, November 16. In fact, you may even hear of a raise or get an offer for a new job.

Uranus, the planet that brings lightning bolts of news, will be very friendly to that new moon, so expect the unexpected! Uranus is in your house of work projects, so it appears that your performance on a current project may put you on the short list of "employees we don't want to lose." If you're interviewing for a new job, you will go on the list of "candidates we need to compensate well to attract and keep." Either way, you could be sitting very pretty. I will admit that if you change jobs this month, you would likely move to a job on the same level, not one that brings more power or responsibility. There will be a major eclipse in your career status and honors sector next month on December 31. That eclipse may bring big news, so before you make any big decisions, you may want to wait to see what happens then.

Halloween costume?

You may wonder if this is a Halloween party. But no, this is Thom Browne's lineup at Paris Fashion Week.

From Jak & Jil's blog: http://jakandjil.com/blog/?p=2835#comments

也有不难看的LV

I don't mind having a LV like this one.

From Jak & Jil's blog: http://jakandjil.com/blog/?p=3013

Chic Hoodi

没想到Hoodi都能这么Chic，回头就把我的袖子剪了，再梳一大背头。

From Jak & Jil's blog: http://jakandjil.com/blog/?p=3152#comments

Flower & Yarn

A gloomy day like today makes me depressed, so I bought some flowers. The whole room is brightened up, so is my heart.


I also bought some yarn. This will be my next project.