GenesisDreams

Business Plan

Quotes
The following business plan is taken from "Cryptonomicon" by Neal Stephenson.

The actual content of the business plan hews to a logical structure straight out of the Principia Mathematica

...

MISSION: At [name of company] it is our conviction that [to do the stuff we want to do] and to increase shareholder value are not merely complementary activities–they are inextricably linked.

PURPOSE: To increase shareholder value by [doing stuff]

EXTREMELY SERIOUS WARNING (printed on a separate page, in red letters on a yellow background): Unless you are smart as Johann Karl Friedrich Gauss, savvy as a half-blind Calcutta bootblack, tough as General William Tecumseh Sherman, rich as the Queen of England, emotionally resilient as a Red Sox fan, and as generally able to take care of yourself as the average nuclear missile submarine commander, you should never have been allowed near this document. Please dispose of it as you would any piece of high-level radioactive waste and then arrange with a qualified surgeon to amputate your arms at the elbows and gouge your eyes from their sockets. This warning is necessary because once, a hundred years ago, a little old lady in Kentucky put a hundred dollars into a dry goods company which went belly-up and only returned her ninety-nine dollars. Ever since then the government has been on our asses. If you ignore this warning, read on at your peril–you are dead certain to lose everything you've got and live out your final decades beating back waves of termites in a Mississippi Delta leper colony. Still reading? Great. Now that we've scared off the lightweights, let's get down to business.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: We will raise [some money], then [do some stuff] and increase shareholder value. Want details? Read on.

INTRODUCTION: [This trend], which everyone knows about, and [that trend], which is incredibly arcane that you probably didn't know about until just now, and [this other trend over here] which might seem, at first blush, to be completely unrelated, when all taken together, lead us to the (proprietary, secret, heavily patented, trademarked, and NDAed) insight that we could increase shareholder value by [doing stuff]. We will need $ [a large number] and after [not too long] we will be able to realize an increase in value to $ [an even larger number], unless [hell freezes over in midsummer].

DETAILS: Phase 1: After taking vows of celibacy and abstinence and forgoing all of our material possessions for homespun robes, we (viz. appended resumes) will move into a modest complex of scavenged refrigerator boxes in the central Gobi Desert, where real estate is so cheap that we are actually being paid to occupy it, thereby enhancing shareholder value even before we have actually done anything. On a daily ration consisting of a handful of uncooked rice and a ladleful of water, we will [begin to do stuff].

Phase 2, 3, 4, ..., n-1: We will [do more stuff, steadily enhancing shareholder value in the process] unless [the earth is struck by an asteroid a thousand miles in diameter, in which case certain assumptions will have to be readjusted; refer to Spreadsheets 397-413].

Phase n: Before the ink on our Nobel Prize certificates is dry, we will confiscate the property of our competitors, including anyone foolish enough to have invested in their pathetic companies. We will sell all of these people into slavery. All proceeds will be redistributed among our shareholders, who will hardly notice, since Spreadsheet 265 demonstrates that, by this time, the company will be larger than the British Empire at its zenith.

SPREADSHEETS: [Pages and pages of numbers in tiny print, conveniently summarized by graphs that all seem to be exponentional curves screaming heavenward, albeit with enough pseudo-random noise in them to lend plausibility].

RESUMES: Just recall the opening reel of The Magnificent Seven and you won't have to bother with this part; you should crawl to us on hands and knees and beg us for the privilege of paying our salaries.

Downtime

General - Music - Quotes Genesisdreams has been has been having some technical difficulties recently. Please don't worry if you tried to access the site over the past couple of weeks and found that you couldn't get here. The site is not down and out for good, and I'll do my best to start writing entries more often as well! Now becuase the site looks weird with only one small entry, I am going to post some song lyrics that I like.

Ground control to Major Tom Ground control to Major Tom
Take your protein pills and put your helmet on
Ground control to Major Tom
Commencing countdown engine's on
Check ig-nition and may God's love be with you
David Bowie - Ground Control To Major Tom Today was gonna be the day? But they’ll never throw it back to you By now you should’ve somehow Realised what you’re not to do I don’t believe that anybody Feels the way I do About you now Oasis - Wonderwall Hey you, out there in the cold Getting lonely, getting old Can you feel me? Hey you, standing in the aisles With itchy feet and fading smiles Can you feel me? Hey you, don’t help them to bury the light Don’t give in without a fight. Pink Floyd - Hey You And it’s whispered that soon If we all call the tune Then the piper will lead us to reason. And a new day will dawn For those who stand long And the forests will echo with laughter. Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven It’s coming round again The slowly creeping hand Of time and it’s command Soon enough it comes And settles in it’s place Its shadow in my face Puts pressure in my day Powderfinger - These Days Well your faith was strong but you needed proof You saw her bathing on the roof Her beauty and the moonlight overthrough ya She tied you to her kitchen chair She broke your throne and she cut your hair And from your lips she drew the hallelujah Heff Buckley - Hallelujah I used to be a little boy So old in my shoes And what I choose is my choice What’s a boy supposed to do? The killer in me is the killer in you My love I send this smile over to you The Smashing Pumpkins - Disarm

Glorious Saturday Afternoon

Friends - Fun - Personal - Quotes It's amazing to think how much has happened this last year. Exactly one year and one day ago today was the Summer Party 2004 to mark the end of the University year and the official start to student summer (you can read all about what we got up to this time last year in this entry). Well now is Summer Party 2005, and the lot of us, older and wiser, went down early with a disposal BBQ, lots of meat and beer, and camped out on the downs in the glorious sun, and sat off listening to music and having a great time. Karl Kennedy from Neighbours was the "special mystery guest" and he was there with his band playing covers of oasis songs. It was a glorious afternoon. We didn't stay for the whole night (having learnt what a disappointment that was last year), but instead lazed around in the sun having a great time. It's still light out now as I am writing this, and it's wonderfully warm. So we were talking about how much we had all changed since last year and everyone (excluding me the old, responsible, working man) was amazed to think that this time next year they would be finished uni. The topic jumped back and forward between the past and the future. Where everyone thought they would be heading after Uni, where was the best place we travelled to last summer, what was everyone’s plans for this summer, when did we all meet each other originally. Maybe because I am such and old man, and am still looking at it from a semi-outsider perspective, but it was startling to me how much everyone had changed and grown up in the last year. We were playing spot the first years, and I couldn't fathom that everyone with me was a first year just a year ago. They seemed so different. We all grown and change constantly through life, but I think that one of the most pivotal periods is your life is that first year after highschool, when you leave the security of school and enter the real world. I feel lucky to have been privileged enough to be a part of that year for all of my friends here. They are such fantastic people, fantastic friends, and I've really missed them all these past couple of months when we've been apart. I've been lucky like that all through life now that I think about it. Other that a few rare instances I've always had fantastic friends who I get on well with and trust and respect. They have provided support, comfort, jokes and fun. I can just sit and hang out with them all day doing nothing much at all, I can travel to exotic places with them, I can rant and vent to them when I'm stressed, I can rant and rave to them when I'm in love. My friends have been there for me, with me, though so much. I miss you guys, wherever you are in the world. Friends in the US I've never met personally but whom I've told everything to. Friends back in Aus that I left behind. Friends here in my new home, who I don't get to see enough of. Don't walk behind me, I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend. - Albert Camus Thanks again for The Fall Al. It really meant a lot to me. Written while lying on Nikkie's bed, while she studies for her final physio exam, listening to her sing along to U2's greatest hits. Nikkie is my closest confidant, a fantastic, thoughtful, caring, and wonderful friend. I love her more than the world. I am the luckiest.

Trapped!

Friends - Quotes Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. - Mark Twain I am currently imprisoned within my room. My housemates have exiled me here from downstairs, and I'm not allowed out until they have finished with their "preparations". I went out shopping today, and they thought I was going to be gone longer than I actually was. I don't know what they are doing exactly, but whatever it is, I am looking forward to it. So now, being trapped up here in my room, I've got an excuse to write about my weekend. Last Friday Nikkie gave me a lift down to my cousin's house in Milton Keynes. Nikkie was going home for the weekend, and her place is only about 40 minutes from my cousin's so it wasn't that much out of her way at all. My cousin Simone is exactly ten years older than me, and so we were going to have a combined birthday celebration over the weekend before our actual birthdays. We drank stupid amounts, ate a lot of cake, and had heaps of fun. Then on Monday I came home. Sorry for being so abrupt, but I've been granted my freedom! ^_^

Television Review

Quotes - Television So I've not had much to do lately. Well other than look for a job, but that's a whole story in itself. So I've been watching a lot of TV, shows both old and new. Here's a brief review of what I've been watching recently. Dawson's Creek Season 1 Well I just literally finished watching all thirteen episodes of the first season of Dawson's creek. That's sort of what prompted this post. I love this show. I'm not ashamed to say it. I remember watching this series when it was first screened back in 1998. It was great! The characters in it were fifteen, stupidly over-analytical, used lots of four-syllable words, thought they were more intelligent than everyone else, and were in fact emotionally clueless. In short they were TV versions of me! Joey accuses Dawson at one point of thinking of his life as a Hollywood movie, where in fact things are more complicated in reality. For a while I was the same way with respect to this show. I was sad when I watched the final episode, which I talked about in my You Can Never Ever Leave Without Leaving A Piece Of Youth entry back around this time last year. It was nice now, almost a year later, to revisit where it all started. The O.C. Season 1 Over the last few days I’ve been re-watching the entire first season of The O.C. We’ve been having almost daily “OC-fests”, watching a few episodes at a time, and as Nikkie missed a lot of the episodes the first time round, it’s almost like watching it for the first time again. Seeing her reactions as the story unfolds reminds me of how I felt what I first watched it. This is not high-brow drama here; it’s just a bit of fun. It isn’t as heavily laden with teen angst as Dawson’s Creek was, but then, I’ve grown up, grown out of all of that (I hope) and so I’m not looking to relate anymore. I’m looking for some good clean (and not so clean) enjoyment and the OC provides that. The O.C Season 2 I have watched up to episode 10 in this serious so far. Episode 11 should be released tonight. My housemates and I still have our weekly ritual, getting together (usually in my room) to watch each new episode. The six or so episodes of this season were great, the last couple though have been pretty average, and I’m hoping that it picks up in the next episode. 24 Season 4 I watched episode 07 last night. Oh my God! So bloody cool! I’ve been a big fan of 24 since it started. This most recent season is shaping up really well. Jack’s as big a baddass as ever, and they’ve managed to come up with yet another “threat” that’s actually not that bad. Plus the ending to this most recent episode was just so cool. I’m not going to spoil anything for those who haven’t seen it yet, but you’ll know what I mean when you do. Neighbours I never really watched this that often at home, but now I can't miss a single day of it! BBC1 screens it twice a day, but I am not quite so pathetic as to watch it that often. Still it's addictive and I think there is a law somewhere that states that in order for me to legally live in this country I must follow Neighbours. Hollyoaks So I've been sucked into the British Soap Obsession. Hollyoaks is one of the newer breed of shows like East Enders and Coronation Street. It's a shameless soap, but it's full of good looking girls and funny plot lines, so for half an hour each night I can escape to a little place in Chester and have some cheesy enjoyment. The Prisoner BBC4 screens two episodes a week of this classic series. They are up to episode 14, so there are only a couple of weeks to go before the series concludes. This is such a fantastic show. For all the trouble I often go to in an effort to understand things, this is one show which I like because there is so much about it I don’t understand, so much that I don’t know. “I am not a number; I am a free man!” – Number 6. The Prisoner Written while listening to Keane’s Bedshaped. Be Seeing You ^_^

Happy Australia Day!

General - Music - Personal - Quotes

On January 26, 1788 Captain Arthur Phillip took formal possession of the colony of New South Wales and became its first Governor. The fledging colony soon began to celebrate the anniversary of this date. Manning Clarke notes that in 1808 the "anniversary of the foundation of the colony" was observed in the traditional manner with "drinking and merriment" (Source).

Drinking and merriment! That sounds about right to me. We Australian's like our booze. Today is National Australia Day, the day we celebrate the first steps towards the creation of our fine nation (even though we only actually achieved federation in 1901). As I'm writing this the day in full swing over in Australia itself. I got a phone call from Fragma at 2am his time, where only two hours into Australia day he was pissed as a fart and partying hard. Just the way to do it I think. The traditional way to celebrate Australia Day for me has been to hang out at someone's house, with numerous cartons of beer, or kegs if someone has been organised enough to get them, and drink the day away, cooking meat on the BBQ and listening to Triple J's hottest 100 on the radio. I really miss that. I'm not usually very patriotic, I'm certainly not as jingoistic as a lot of people I met while travelling around. I am proud to be Australian though. I would never try to pretend I’m from somewhere else, and I dislike it incredibly when people mistake me for a South African or New Zealander. We antipodeans share a common bond, but we’re not that alike! I often miss my sunburnt land, and wouldn’t have wanted to be born anywhere else. I like Australian’s on a whole, we are an extremely friendly bunch, honest, hard working, and laid back. We enjoy what our country has to offer us, the weather, the sun, the sand. We love our sports, our drink, our women ^_^ I’ve decided to stay over here in the UK. I don’t have any plans to return back to Australia any time soon. This doesn’t mean I don’t love my country; it’s just that sometimes you are drawn away. I know where my home is. Written while listening to Peter Allen's I Still Call Australia Home. I think the following verse is particularly apt. I'm always travelin' And I love bein' free So I keep leavin' the sun and the sea But my heart lies waiting over the foam I still call Australia home.

Penultimate Day

Quotes - University Ok this is an entry completely devoid of any real substance, but tomorrow I will undertake my last two (undergraduate) University exams ever! Of course I am procrastinating, avoiding doing the work I should be doing, and thus, here I am writing this… La! La! La! Told you this entry was devoid of any real substance. At this point in my schooling career, nearing the end of seventeen years of continuous education, I would like to think I’ve followed Mark Twain’s outlook on it all. "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." By this time tomorrow I'll be a free man. Hopelessly intoxicated on Absinthe. Written while listening to Everything is Alright by Fourtet (damnit, it only took me 2 minutes 31 seconds to write this entry, should have picked a longer song ^_^)

Best Friends

Friends - Quotes "a good friend will come bail you out of jail but a true friend is the guy sitting beside you saying we really fucked up this time" ~My best friend Fragma (who shamelessly ripped it off someone else)

Going Nowhere, Going Somewhere

Friends - Music - Personal - Quotes - University 'Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?' 'That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat. 'I don't much care where --' said Alice. 'Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat. '--so long as I get somewhere,' Alice added as an explanation. ~ Lewis Carroll, from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Following on from my previous post; some things are going nowhere, because we have decided that is for the best, while other things are going somewhere, because I've finished University for good in less than two weeks, and then I have my whole world ahead of me. Also, inspired by Brendan's effort over on Digital Iris and looking for ways to procrastinate, I decided to make a quiz. So let me present Michael's Mystery Quiz!. Man I am so restless. I really can't get into the mood to study. I am in a Paul van Dyk mood at the moment, and I always listen to trance when I am attempting to study, so right now I'm listening to his We Are Alive.

Revelations

Friends - Personal - Quotes I am a kind of paranoid in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy. - J. D. Salinger I didn't sleep at all last night. I am glad I didn't.

Childishness

Personal - Quotes

"When I became a man, I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." -- C.S. Lewis.

This is my quote of the moment. I don't know what it is, maybe living in this house, with these friends, with this lifestyle, but I think I am becoming younger by the minute. And I am loving it.

Popcorn, Lord Jim, Extinction

Books - Japan - Quotes Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World Haruki Murakami Wow. This mix of Jungian shadow worlds and cyber-punk-ish Tokyo has totally blown my mind. I generally don’t like making statements about my “favourite X”, because it usually depends on my mood. I don’t have a favourite movie, I don’t have a favourite TV show, I don’t have a favourite actor, or band, or song, everyone who knows me will know I have a favourite anime, but until now I didn’t have a favourite author or book. Well step up Murakami and Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. Sorry Neal Stephenson, sorry William Gibson, sorry George R. R. Martin, sorry to the rest of you. Murakami is king.

"I closed my eyes, I felt a ripple run through my mind. The wave went beyond sadness or solitude; it was a great, deep moan that resonated in my bones. It would not subside. I braced myself, elbows against the backrest of the park bench. No one could help me, no more than I could help anyone else." Haruki Murakami, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, pp:391 (Alfred Birnbaum translation).

And no, this is not a mood thing. Like Eva, I think I will love this book however I feel. Also interesting to note is that the anime Haibane Renmei seems to be influenced by Murakami’s work. The End of The World in this book refers to a village in the middle of land surrounded by a high wall (at least on the surface, I’m not going to delve into its deeper meaning here). A lot of the descriptions of the town and the wall seem to respond directly with what is depicted in the anime. Also the protagonist in the book is a newcomer to the town who is different from everyone else and who has no memory of his previous life (just like the Haibane). It’s also interesting to recall back to The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle as that book contains a scene where the protagonist has a revelation while trapped down a well. Calvin, if your still collecting anime DVDs, pick up Haibane Renmei, I think it’s just started being released in Australia. In short, I love this book.

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Books - Japan - Quotes

"I saw myself as the wind-up bird, flying through the summer sky, lighting on the branch of a huge tree somewhere, winding the world's spring. If there really was no more wind-up bird, someone would have to take on its duties. Someone would have to wind the world's spring in its place. Otherwise, the spring would run down and the delicately functioning system would grind to a halt. The only one who seemed to have noticed that the wind-up bird was gone, however, was me."
--Haruki Murakami, "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle"

I finished The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Harukai Murakami last weekend, I've just been too busy until now (when the hall bar is closed on a Sunday night) to write about it. It was the second of Murakami's book's I had read (see my Midori entry for more details) and I like this one the best so far. It was incredibly dark in places, but I that was one of the things I liked the most about it. At some points it made me want to physically go out and find a well (read the book and you'll understand). I don't really know where I found the time to read this book. Most of it was devoured during the long train trips to and from Liverpool, or the bus trips to/from Milton Keynes. Between those points, as much as I wanted to read it, I didn't really find the time. I’ve gotten a hold of Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, but I think I’ll leave off reading that for a while. Murakami is fantastic, but I think I need a break from him.

Prelude

Personal - Quotes "I'm beginning to feel like the curator of my own museum. A huge museum no one will ever visit, looked after for no one but myself." - Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

Midori

Books - Japan - Quotes Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami I just finished reading Norwegion Wood by Haruki Murakami. I'm becoming more addicted to Murakami's work with everything of his that I read. He is a great writer, and his stories are so refreshing. I also think it was the right time for me to read this book. It's about going away to University, about life and love and pain and loss. It reminded me a little of Catcher in the Rye in places. I think I'm going to have to re-read it before I go. I particularly liked the Midori character; she was intoxicating, perverted, spontaneous, cute and honest.

"So I made up my mind I was going to find someone who would love me unconditionally 365 days of the year. I was still in primary school at the time, but I made up my mind once and for all." "Wow", I said. "And did your search pay off?" "That's the hard part," said Midori. She watched the rising smoke for a while, thinking. "I guess I've been waiting so long I'm looking for perfection. That makes it tough." Waiting for the perfect love?" "No, even I know better than that. I'm looking for selfishness. Perfect selfishness. Like, say I tell you I want to eat strawberry shortbread. And you stop everything you're doing and run out and buy it for me. And you come back out of breath and get down on you knees and hold this strawberry shortbread out to me. And I say I don't want it anymore and throw it out the window. That's what I'm looking for." "I'm not sure that has anything to do with love," I said with some amazement. "It does," she said. "You just don't know it. There are times in a girl's life when things like that are incredibly important." "Things like throwing strawberry shortbread out the window?" "Exactly. And when I do it, I want the man to apologize to me. 'Now I see, Midori. What a fool I've been! I should have known that you would lose your desire for strawberry shortbread. I have all the intelligence and sensitivity of a piece of donkey shit. To make it up to you, I'll go out and buy you something else. What would you like? Chocolate mousse? Cheesecake?" "So then what?" "So then I'd give him all the love he deserves for what he's done." "Sounds crazy to me." "Well, to me, that's what love is. Not that anyone can understand me, though." Midori gave her head a little shake against my shoulder. "For a certain kind of person, love begins from something tiny or silly. From something like that or it doesn't begin at all." Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood, pp:99-100 (Jay Rubin translation).

I like everything about this book, so much so that I'm going to take it with me. Sacrifice some of the scarce free room in my backpack, and bring it along. I might have to bring one less pair of socks! I'm listening to Norwegian Wood by the Beatles at the moment (of course!).