Friday Balance-Sheet

If I had the power, I'd restructure the weekly schedule as follows:

- 3 Mondays in a Row: Work Work Work.

- 1 Wednesday in the middle: I Loooove the End of the week.

- 3 Fridays (aka Saturdays): Weekend Weekend Weekend!

To make a long story short, I'd work 4 days a week and rest 3 but I'd like the weekend to maintain the name "Friday" for 3 days in a row. Because I truly love the sound of the word Friday. For me, it's like Free-Day. Being Italian, if I read the word without pronunciation, it would really sound free-day. I adore it.

So, where do I stand? What's new?

And what about the Sky?

I haven't really been taking care of myself. I have fully devoted my body to work in the past week or so and this is another valid reason for me to love the upcoming few days. My diet got a bit abandoned but it's not precisely easy to maintain a healthy lifestyle in hotels... Especially because I am a big fan of buffets.

The Hesperia Tower Hotel is quite an adventure itself (link to picture) with its wicked architecture from Richard Rogers... A definitive interesting experience for hi-tech lovers!

I have been quite disconnected from the worldwide ups and downs so I don't have much to comment. One interesting - and extremely scary - piece of news was the summary of the 2007 Executive Pay. To be honest, I read it with crescent shock and astonishment and I am very curious to get my hands on the 2008 one.

Top compensation (& benefits) package for 2007: John Thain, (former) Merrill Lynch CEO, with over $83 million in total. Luckily, his request for a $10 million bonus for 2008 ("I saved Merrill Lynch with the Bank of America operation") hasn't been approved and his (and others CEOs) attitude during 2007-2008 has been judged by Vice-President Joe Biden as "offensive for sensibilities".

At the bottom of the black list, two names stroke my attention: Steve Jobs (Apple) and Jerry Yang (Yahoo!).

Both of them received $1. Yes, 1 dollar. But with one significant difference. While Steve Jobs holds 99% in shareholders return (well, at least he takes accountability for the company's performance... Up = salary - profits. Down = salary - losses... Or at least this is the theory of it), Mr. Yang resigned from his CEO role in November 2008 and no wonder why his shareholders return marks a grey -9%. Many bad choices during his management career (e.g. the multiple-failed deal with Microsoft) led to one sole conclusion and Mr. Yang went back to Director of Technology and Strategy (will he be able to prove that his Guide to the WWW is still a hit?).

All in all, my conclusion is that the world is overwhelmed enough not to bother too much about these people's paycheck and I highly admire those taking responsibility for their companies' performance. We are all surprised because now there is One Man who tries to redesign the asset of the economic world and, while the medias list the possible (tragic?) consequences of the government intervention into the executive (macro)salary micro-world, I can only think about one word: Integrity.

...Which leads me to one question... Where has Integrity gone?

Now, one quick look at the Sky.

Monday, February 9th is a day to remember and please do mark it in your calendar.

We'll have a Full Moon in Leo during the Lunar Eclipse... An overwhelming and possibly confusing sky will rule and all I can say is that we need to respond with gentleness and grounded feet. It's not all lost and there will be great chances for ideas and plans to be at least developed in their drafts. It won't be a time to realize things but our brains will be stirring concepts faster than usual. I recommend a very interesting article by Astrodispatch that defines the Moon in Leo as ruled by the world Accentuation, which I particularly like.

I believe I said it all for now... So I will enjoy this accentuated days and do my best to remain grounded.

A.