We’re expecting the job losses report to come out today - I know for a fact that a lot of companies cut back in the month of October - AMD was one of them as a couple people I know were laid off.  If you haven’t heard Dell is also allowing employees to take a voluntary severance package in leu of further job cuts.  

Oh and the other thing that really pisses me off is the US auto-industry.  They are asking for some of that 700bn tax payer bailout.  Just like the banks, the auto-industry put themselves in this position.   While I feel really bad for the workers, I think the management for the auto-industry can go fuck themselves.  I’m not paying for your mistakes and poor management - they continued to tool up to sell more and more non-fuel efficient vehicles.  They continued to hold back innovation in an effort to continue to make profit.   I want the US auto-industry to crash hard.

Note: This was originally posted on Peter David’s blog. I felt it important to get the message out, and I hope that the Austin Community can help a family in their darkest hour. Read on, please.

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Most of you probably haven’t heard of MICHELLE CALANOG PRINCIPE`, but she works in the comics industry abroad and is quite involved in many of the comics being published. She manages Glass House Graphics Asia and Studio Sakka, a creative agency and manga studio, respectively, coaching and guiding dozens of artists and colorists across the Philippines, Japan, Hong Kong, and even India. What’s more, she oversees bunches of free seminars each year, bringing in experienced talent to teach hopeful young artsts about the comics biz.

Among her talent roster: Bong (Star Wars) Dazo; Carlo (Hulk) Pagulayan; Stephen (Wolverine: Manifest Destiny) Segovia; Lui (New Terminator) Antonio; Noah (Red Sonja) Salonga; Patrick (Avengers/Invaders) Berkenkotter; Harvey (Avengers: The Initiative) Tolibao; Jonathan (Battlestar Galactica) Lau; Anthony (Bratz) Tan; Wilson (Wolverine Manga) Tortosa, Tina (Space Ace) Francisco, and plenty of colorists for Marvel, Dark Horse, Dynamite, Dabel Bros., and so on.

She’s also been a comic book character. Michelle is the sister of Jinky Coronado (artist of TokyoPop’s Avalon High series and writer/artist of her own series Banzai Girls). Michelle has been a character in every issue of Jinky’s comic book. And the two of them even appeared together in FHM Philippines. So Michelle’s overall ties to the comics industry go pretty deep.

Married at the beginning of the year to her college sweetheart Rhene Principe`, Michelle had a baby exactly one month ago. That should be cause for celebration, and it was. But within 12 hours of taking home newborn Reinee, Michelle found him not feeding and unresponsive. Back at the hospital, doctors discovered what they thought were blood clots in his brain. A catscan and surgery further revealed them to be inoperable deposits of calcification in his brain. Soon they also learned the baby had multiple hernias — intestines pushing through muscle walls — and areas of bowel that were not processing food. Young Reinee went through four weeks of painful surgeries, spending nearly every day in ICU.

Born September 26, 2008, Reinee Jaden Principe` died today, October 26, 2008. But every mother’s worst nightmare HASN’T ENDED.

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