BILLY BRAGG - WAITING FOR THE GREAT LEAP FORWARDS

It may have been Camelot for Jack and Jacqueline
But on the Hugo Chavez highway filling up with gasoline
Little Donald Rumsfeld spies a rich lady who’s crying
Over luxury’s disappointment
So he walks over and he’s trying
To sympathise with her but he thinks that he should warn her
To prepare to be bombed back into the Stone Age

In the former Soviet Union the citizens demand
to know why they’re still the target of Strategic Air Command
And they shake their fists in anger and respectfully suggest
We take money from our missiles and spend it on our hospitals instead

The Cold War is now over but the stakes are getting higher
I’m frightened of collateral damage
And of friendly fire
And I don’t believe we can defeat no Axis of Evil
By putting smart bombs into the hands of dumb people

Mixing Pop and Politics they ask me what the use is
I offer them my acupuncturist, my masseuses
While looking down the corridor
Out to where my ego is waiting
I’m looking for the New World Order

Jumble sales are organised, all my mates got fat
Even after all this time you can still me a fax
You can be active with the activists
Or sleep in with the media
While you’re waiting for the Great Leap Forwards

One leap forward, two leaps back
Will YouTube give MTV the sack?
Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards

Here comes the future and you can’t run from it
If you’ve got a t-shirt I want to be on it

If no one seems to understand
Start your own revolution and cut out the middleman
Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards

In a perfect world we’d all sing in tune
But this is reality not American Idol

So join the struggle while you may
The Revolution is just an ethical haircut away when you’re
Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards

From the Wall Street Journal (subscription required):

On the Web, Signs of a Click Recession
Google Feels Pinch As Ad Growth Slows; Sweeter Deal for Yahoo?
By KEVIN J. DELANEY
February 27, 2008

Internet advertising may be showing itself more vulnerable to a consumer slowdown than many in the industry had hoped, according to new search-ad data released this week.

The report from research firm comScore Inc. showing a decline in the number of consumer clicks on Google Inc. search ads in January amplified existing concerns about the effect of a broader economic slowdown on the Internet. Many online-ad experts have played down such worries, predicting any economic weakening will be offset by a continued shift in ad spending from traditional media to the Internet. Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said the company hadn’t seen any impact from macroeconomic softening when the Internet company reported earnings Jan. 31. But some investors and analysts have grown anxious in recent months that any pullbacks in consumer spending would hurt online ads.

Going through the process that I have been over the past several months, one of the things that I’ve discovered (not that it was much of a surprise), is that I’m rather resistant to change. I hate it.

I’ve also realized that I need to start making some changes in my life if I want to move forward and not stagnate. Unfortunately; part of this process was getting divorced, which I still wish wasn’t necessary, but maybe it was.

Another is paying more focused attention to my career growth …

So, to that end, I’ve contacted a recruiter (on Kim’s recommendation) to help me find a new job; sent my résumé off to her today.

So I’m making that first small step towards change … and as K’ung fu-tze once said, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”