tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13096981.post4000178522012278538..comments2011-08-25T16:42:11.367-04:00Tao Linhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04807160197099916059noreply@blogger.comBlogger29125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13096981.post-35202197374063062442008-01-26T19:00:00.000-05:002008-01-26T19:00:00.000-05:00"When one publicly-traded company loses business another publicly-traded company gains business, except when an independently-owned company gains the business."<BR/><BR/>All businesses can potentially lose money if the masses decide that they should stop buying so many clothes, fluorescent colored and otherwise.Modestmerlinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03335090422417713640noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13096981.post-15460110109785126632008-01-25T12:13:00.000-05:002008-01-25T12:13:00.000-05:00I liked this story a lot. I was arrested in St. Louis once for shoplifting from...I don't know a Younkers or something? I took some really pretty underwear. And I had shoplifted other underwear from another department store and when I was arrested, I lied and said I'd paid for the underwear I shoplifted elsewhere. They didn't ask to see a receipt or anything and let me keep it.Screwsanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07151050620996337840noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13096981.post-76756558093321387832008-01-18T17:27:00.000-05:002008-01-18T17:27:00.000-05:00you're being lazy, incoherent,immature, and you're a charlatan. have i won yet?coryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07138833245227362171noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13096981.post-33138657099890842362008-01-18T17:10:00.000-05:002008-01-18T17:10:00.000-05:00you're immatureTao Linhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04807160197099916059noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13096981.post-79996521730813892212008-01-18T17:09:00.000-05:002008-01-18T17:09:00.000-05:00Tao lin,you're being immature. Its easy to look up the meanings of words that you don't immediately recognize, you're being lazy and immature. Also, what you said about shit and popularity makes no sense to me, you're being lazy, immature, and incoherent.coryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07138833245227362171noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13096981.post-91160137545610602282008-01-18T15:17:00.000-05:002008-01-18T15:17:00.000-05:00shit is deliciousryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11335048746537506804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13096981.post-77331229453972249972008-01-18T15:12:00.000-05:002008-01-18T15:12:00.000-05:00brandi, good, i am glad<BR/><BR/><BR/>thank you gene, that was high-quality shit-talking, i feel inspired to go shit-talk the story now also<BR/><BR/><BR/>cory, no, people don't know what 'pseudo-stoicism' and 'malingering' are, what those words mean, i don't know what 'malingering' means, and i have like .01% of the readers of jonathan safran foer or someone, so you not understanding my popularity is like me not understanding why shit tastes so goodTao Linhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04807160197099916059noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13096981.post-44165898039230106402008-01-18T14:43:00.000-05:002008-01-18T14:43:00.000-05:00i thought people liked pseudo-stoicism and malingering. What is emo? does it have anything to do with wearing really small jeans, and listening to obscure rockbands and acting like a character from an s.e. hinton book.coryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07138833245227362171noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13096981.post-32361807320270222262008-01-18T13:25:00.000-05:002008-01-18T13:25:00.000-05:00i talked shit in the comments section. i liked this story a lot. <BR/><BR/>do people only read raymond carver and hemingway now?Genehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09625285521831772770noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13096981.post-31765630762798754142008-01-17T15:02:00.000-05:002008-01-17T15:02:00.000-05:00I like your napkin-drawing very much and I like that your blog has cute animal pictures. Sometimes I don't feel like reading and its good if I can look at cute pictures of animals and feel okay.Brandihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384451441377704526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13096981.post-8562557114592711792008-01-17T13:44:00.000-05:002008-01-17T13:44:00.000-05:00cory, people like emo<BR/><BR/>thanks colin<BR/><BR/>thanks ignacio<BR/><BR/>thanks ryanTao Linhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04807160197099916059noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13096981.post-33788084167546490342008-01-17T12:58:00.000-05:002008-01-17T12:58:00.000-05:00I left an amazon review for your "Next Potry Book:"<BR/><BR/><BR/> So powerfully did the whole grim act of puberty affect me, January 17, 2008 <BR/><BR/>In this clever satire, tao lin, British radio and television broadcaster, satirises--in an often uproaringly and hillarious fashion--the feeling of puberty in young males based on the premise of the original book, "Why are my Balls Dropping, Daddy?," but deriving seriousness through euphemism and innuendo. <BR/><BR/><BR/>here is an excerpt: <BR/>cherish such emotions. For though the harpooneers, with the great body of the crew, were a far more barbaric, heathenish, and motley set than any of the tame merchant-ship companies which my previous experiences had made me acquainted with, still I ascribed this -- and rightly ascribed it -- to the fierce uniqueness of the very nature of that wild Scandinavian vocation in which I had so abandonedly embarked. But it was especially the aspect of the three chief officers of the ship, the mates, which was most forcibly calculated to allay these colorless misgivings, and induce confidence and cheerfulness in every presentment of the voyage. Three better, more likely sea-officers and men, each in his own different way, could not readily be found, and they were every one of them Americans; a Nantucketer, a Vineyarder, a Cape man. Now, it being Christmas when the ship shot from out her harbor, for a space we had biting Polar weather, though all the time running away from it to the southward; and by every degree and minute of latitude which we sailed, gradually leaving that merciless winter, and all its intolerable weather behind us. It was one of those less lowering, but still grey and gloomy enough mornings of the transition, when with a fair wind the ship was rushing through the water with a vindictive sort of leaping and melancholy rapidity, that as I mounted to the deck at the call of the forenoon watch, so soon as I levelled my glance towards the taffrail, foreboding shivers ran over me. Reality outran apprehension; Captain Ahab stood upon his quarter-deck.ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11335048746537506804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13096981.post-69184281868445724922008-01-17T02:36:00.000-05:002008-01-17T02:36:00.000-05:00i bought 2 of your books from amazon a few minutes ago. <BR/><BR/>hey, ive published novels too! not as ignacio though. i think the next one will be as innocente777.<BR/><BR/>i used to review for the l.a. times and other places but i don't anymore. i apologize for this.<BR/><BR/>im listening to burial's song "untrue."Ignaciohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08803897779584423922noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13096981.post-9257091705423742612008-01-17T02:03:00.000-05:002008-01-17T02:03:00.000-05:00i read your story and the shit-talking. they were both interesting. thanks.Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07329744956052562942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13096981.post-8941090516199301812008-01-17T01:23:00.000-05:002008-01-17T01:23:00.000-05:00I wrote the following as a search in the google search-space, and decided i should post it hear. I will not discuss the reasoning behind either of those actions. There will probably be typos:<BR/>i thought tao lin was some kind of joke but when i realized he was an actual person/writer that people liked i figured i might be approaching his writings in a manner not conducive to an understanding of his intent, i now think the entity that is tao lin --writings, blog, pugnacious, protective and doppleganger fans-- is amusing. people are impressionable. unless his writing changes radically , i cannot conceive of a time and place within which i will be willing to spend money, mine or someone else's, on his work. i don't know if i would actually read his book from cover to cover even if it just fell out of the sky,however, though a disdain for his character is probably implicit in one or more of my higher order beliefs, i have no intense feelings about his work or persona, besides a consistent and grin inducing befuddlement at his popularity with the learned and idiotic alike and the proportionate rancor he inspires in the same contradictory types.coryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07138833245227362171noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13096981.post-26933868642425066372008-01-16T18:47:00.000-05:002008-01-16T18:47:00.000-05:00personage,<BR/><BR/>thank you for saying 'hi tao' at the beginning of your comment, i felt that that was nice of you<BR/><BR/>taoTao Linhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04807160197099916059noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13096981.post-85822296531864107182008-01-16T18:41:00.000-05:002008-01-16T18:41:00.000-05:00i am glad you liked those things ryanTao Linhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04807160197099916059noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13096981.post-32333825525336561202008-01-16T18:40:00.000-05:002008-01-16T18:40:00.000-05:00you are right, you didn't say i did<BR/><BR/>i didn't say you said i did though either<BR/><BR/>we are both okaytaohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04010674849524502489noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13096981.post-17518647277451702662008-01-16T18:28:00.000-05:002008-01-16T18:28:00.000-05:00hi tao,<BR/><BR/>you haven't, and i was not saying you have. i am just saying that people tend to attach a stigma to public companies that is based on this misperception, and that i think it is irrational.personagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02347329905160644475noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13096981.post-62980915995842378002008-01-16T18:02:00.000-05:002008-01-16T18:02:00.000-05:00i have not typed about independent companies and publicly-owned companies in terms of 'good' and 'evil' or 'ruthless' or 'powerful'Tao Linhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04807160197099916059noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13096981.post-80120550099377685872008-01-16T17:54:00.000-05:002008-01-16T17:54:00.000-05:00tao,<BR/><BR/>i agree with some of your points. people who care where their money goes have certainly found the places they feel confident about and want to support. it is true that corporations strive to make their shareholders happy by raking in higher profits, and it's true that CEOs have to do their best to keep the stock price up if they are interested in keeping their jobs. and yes, decisions are routinely made on purely economic basis.<BR/><BR/>my concern is that people seem to think of independent/privately-held companies as mom-and-pop stores. they never think that private companies can be just as large/powerful/ruthless/economically-oriented as public companies. and that these private companies do have CEOs and armies of lawyers, businessmen, marketing- and PR-people who are paid to ensure that the company continues to make money. CEOs and other higher-ups of private companies, just as CEOs of public companies have a personal interest in increasing the profits because their compensation is usually tied to company's performance.<BR/><BR/>i just don't understand the use of labels "independent" and "public" to define "good" and "evil." people seem to forget that most public companies have started out as independent/private companies. does a company automatically become evil after it decides to raise some funds by selling its stock to the public? what if a company announces an IPO but then backs out of it?personagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02347329905160644475noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13096981.post-77849294134152196102008-01-16T17:07:00.000-05:002008-01-16T17:07:00.000-05:00no more for realTao Linhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04807160197099916059noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13096981.post-69298050543587528562008-01-16T17:06:00.000-05:002008-01-16T17:06:00.000-05:00also you can't pressure a CEO into actions that are 'not means to more profits' because the stockholders will vote for a new CEO if they see that the CEO is making choices 'not means to more profits' unless the stockholders are not investing to make more money but to lose money in service of other things<BR/><BR/>i don't know if that exists, a stockholder who has invested money in a corporation to influence the corporation to do things 'not means to more profits'<BR/><BR/>the stockholder would need to own more than 50% of the stock or it would be impossible for them to do that completely<BR/><BR/>and that kind of stockholder would be better able to influence the world maybe if they used their money independently, so even in this case it does not justify someone spending money on a corporation<BR/><BR/>a publicly-owned company is an abstraction, you can't in concrete reality influence it out of being existentially profit-making, if you killed the CEO, the COO, and like the next ten people the main stockholders will just get new CEO's and COO'sTao Linhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04807160197099916059noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13096981.post-81862405403508522882008-01-16T17:01:00.001-05:002008-01-16T17:01:00.001-05:00no more talking about this here from meTao Linhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04807160197099916059noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13096981.post-10276184400301870312008-01-16T17:01:00.000-05:002008-01-16T17:01:00.000-05:00for a publicly-owned company if they have an oil spill or badly made products (potential for 'recall') there will be calculations as to what actions will make them lose the least amount of money, that is the action that will happen, it isn't a choice, it is a calculation<BR/><BR/>for an independent company there is at least 'the chance' that the owner will factor other considerations besides what will cause him/her to lose the least amount of money, it is an individual choosing, whereas with the publicly-owned company it is a calculation choosing<BR/><BR/>even if it is a 'tiny' difference for someone who is consciously making choices using a certain philosophy it is 'easy' for them to know where their money 'should' go based on what they thinkTao Linhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04807160197099916059noreply@blogger.com