I don't know if the name Usul is going to come out. In the coming attractions Chani says, "Tell me of the waters of your homeworld, Muad Dib." But that's not what the actual quote should be...it should be "Tell me of the waters of your homeworld, Usul."
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"I don't care what is written about me so long as it isn't true."
I've been working in the tech industry for 10 years now and not one employer has ever offered onsite daycare. The best of the employers offered a benefit called a flexible spending account. They remove the amount of money that you spend on daycare pre-tax, you have to tell them how much you want removed, then you save your receipts and request the money back from your flexible account. You can do this with medical expenses as well. Be careful though because you do not get this money back if you do not have the receipts for it. The company gets it if you don't spend it.
For the small companies that I work for I doubt that internal daycare is cost-effective but they could offer other benefits that would be helpful to the employee such as flexible spending accounts, daycare reimbursements, and telecommuting. Currently, it's up to each techie out there to bargain for their own benefits. There are no real incentives for the company to offer you these benefits other than what we all know...a happy employee works harder! If I don't have to worry about picking up my son from daycare on time because my daycare is right in the building where I work then my company is going to get more work out of me.
I think it's unrealistic to expect small companies to support any of their employees by having onsite daycare but we in the industry can certainly encourage them to offer realistic benefits that help maintain the family unit. I'm not really interested in staying home with my kids all the time. I love them but honestly believe that they need to have influence from other adults that I trust to love and care for them. Whether this is dad, grandma, teachers or daycare workers. It takes a whole community to raise healthy children. Good companies will recognize this and help to support it.
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"I don't care what is written about me so long as it isn't true."
Re:Banks -- love him or hate him.
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Inversions
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· Score: 1
I think you're right about the love him or hate him as an author point of view. Personally, I loved Feersum Endjinn even though it was one of the hardest books I've forced myself to get through in the last 5 years. Right up there next to Cryptonomicon which, even though I'm enjoying it, is not an easy read. He's got a pretty quirky writing style that I find amusing. I've read all of Ian M. Banks scifi works and none of his more main stream stuff. If you really want to get into Ian M. Banks as a SciFi writer you should start with his books about the Culture and move into other stuff from there. His character development in Use of Weapons and Consider Phlebas makes both books worth reading. The stories themselves deal with a lot of societal issues and I love some of the ideas that he introduces in his books like the idea that ships have names like "Love is Hard" and personalities that match their names.
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I don't know if the name Usul is going to come out. In the coming attractions Chani says, "Tell me of the waters of your homeworld, Muad Dib." But that's not what the actual quote should be...it should be "Tell me of the waters of your homeworld, Usul."
-------
"I don't care what is written about me so long as it isn't true."
I've been working in the tech industry for 10 years now and not one employer has ever offered onsite daycare. The best of the employers offered a benefit called a flexible spending account. They remove the amount of money that you spend on daycare pre-tax, you have to tell them how much you want removed, then you save your receipts and request the money back from your flexible account. You can do this with medical expenses as well. Be careful though because you do not get this money back if you do not have the receipts for it. The company gets it if you don't spend it.
For the small companies that I work for I doubt that internal daycare is cost-effective but they could offer other benefits that would be helpful to the employee such as flexible spending accounts, daycare reimbursements, and telecommuting. Currently, it's up to each techie out there to bargain for their own benefits. There are no real incentives for the company to offer you these benefits other than what we all know...a happy employee works harder! If I don't have to worry about picking up my son from daycare on time because my daycare is right in the building where I work then my company is going to get more work out of me.
I think it's unrealistic to expect small companies to support any of their employees by having onsite daycare but we in the industry can certainly encourage them to offer realistic benefits that help maintain the family unit. I'm not really interested in staying home with my kids all the time. I love them but honestly believe that they need to have influence from other adults that I trust to love and care for them. Whether this is dad, grandma, teachers or daycare workers. It takes a whole community to raise healthy children. Good companies will recognize this and help to support it.
-------
"I don't care what is written about me so long as it isn't true."
I think you're right about the love him or hate him as an author point of view. Personally, I loved Feersum Endjinn even though it was one of the hardest books I've forced myself to get through in the last 5 years. Right up there next to Cryptonomicon which, even though I'm enjoying it, is not an easy read. He's got a pretty quirky writing style that I find amusing. I've read all of Ian M. Banks scifi works and none of his more main stream stuff. If you really want to get into Ian M. Banks as a SciFi writer you should start with his books about the Culture and move into other stuff from there. His character development in Use of Weapons and Consider Phlebas makes both books worth reading. The stories themselves deal with a lot of societal issues and I love some of the ideas that he introduces in his books like the idea that ships have names like "Love is Hard" and personalities that match their names.