New adventures in corporate life

After being laid off last June, I received a surprising call a few weeks ago from a recruitment agency, asking me back to the Big Bank that I worked for most recently. They asked me if I wanted to apply for a similar job at the same bank, and I said yes. I got called in for the interview, and was offered the job the same day, starting next week. I couldn't work Tuesday to Thursday, but I could Monday and Friday, so I went. I trained that Monday for one position, but when I came in on the following Friday, I was informed that the boss lady had given me an entirely different position and found someone else to be her EA. Did I want to be a Communications Specialist for their main IT department? I had no idea what that would involve, but I said yes. All this occurred about two months after I had finally made the decision to apply for a PhD and start on a career path in academics, which is probably the path best suited towards my personality and work rhythms. But communications also fits my personality as a known information spammer and town crier, so as far as corporate jobs go, I could be happy in this one.

OK fine.

Toronto isn't an easy city to live in. There is extreme weather, massively inflated house prices, and people are quite competitive in all spheres. There is a lot of social pressure to succeed, rather than to have a peaceful and happy life. Consumerism dominates, advertising is everywhere, and there's a dearth of social consciousness. There's a lot of violence, and everyone seems to want to take advantage of everyone else in one way or another. There is a lot of opportunity to succeed in general, but the amount of sacrifices needed to succeed are considerable. This however could describe many cities in North America. And I'm focusing mainly on the negative aspects right now, because I just got laid off after working my butt off for 7 months. So I'm bitter -- it's normal I suppose. I'm still not completely used to living over here. For now I notice the contrasts between the EU and NA, and the changes that I see in Toronto are more salient because I hadn't lived here for about 20 years and thus can perceive them more distinctly and immediately. But I really love Toronto in the summertime. The trees really make this city what it is.

Living in a world of delusion and fantasy Noam Chomsky on modern attitudes and perception of Adam Smith's values

Where linguistics and economics interact:

An extra scene from the 2008 documentary: American Feud: A History of Conservatives and Liberals. The 90 minute DVD contains 14 extra minutes of professor Chomsky. Here, Chomsky argues that the conventional notion of "invisible hand" is mistaken and that though worshipped by conservatives, Adam Smith is very rarely read.

It's funny how selective people's hearing can be. Funny how hypocritical people can be, and how much misinformation abounds in society today. How powerful words and ideas can be twisted and debased beyond all recognition.

"The talk about trade or free trade or entrepreneurial values or consumer choice or democratic functioning and so on, these terms are all demeaned. It's putting us into a world of delusion and fantasy."

Omioddio, UniDebito, che ridere...

Rights issue that they cannot sell... Looks like UniCredito might be paying the price for having expanded too quickly in the past decade.