Do I NORMALLY write this often? Times as mercurial as these--shiny, ever-changing, poisonous--deserve more commentary. Especially when I can, have, will do something about it.
By the way, this is not safe to read at MY workplace, or at yours, for subversive ideas. Also, it has the word F*** in it. Once.
If this sounds a little harsh at first, consider that human thoughts, fears, and feelings went into it, and that if your company is better managed, I would have nothing to say--a happy employee is a silent employee. If I look like a crybaby for pointing out what I think went wrong, so be it--some things need discussion, even if I can't bring them to interviews or the workplace.
The company I work for has fallen on hard times.
We started the year full of promise, ready to tackle the next wave of sparkly, wire-free technology, attach it to a new box, sell a million and make a mint. Well, that was one man's dream--I wanted to demonstrate a few, learn the weaknesses, fix them, THEN sell a few more, then fix all the bugs, THEN go make a mint.
After uprooting myself and my possessions and moving into the sky-rent district of town, I had a tiny drive to work and all the energy in the world. We were about to go turn in a proposal to some investors and trigger a round of big money to go work more techno-miracles.
Something fell through.We missed this round of big money, and the new stuff can't sell well until we iron the wrinkles out. Meanwhile, we plan to contract the office back from 1400 square feet to 800. This reverse-birth or reverse-vomit or reverse-whatever promises to be as painful as it sounds--especially since we want to do it "right" this time, and not make it look like we did the job with shovels.
So, what happened?
Somewhere along the line, we stopped selling the established products, the beta designs became our only marketed things, and the effort was not commensurate with the quality of the new device. This I call mistake one. Second, we wildly overspent on what are basically side-issues--odd technological partnerships, patent applications, personal edification items--when the core money fountain was still very much dependent on the money we had already.  Lastly, I blame the catch-up mentality that forced us to spend on all these things, when clearly the device can stand on its own, if done right.
Blah blah blah, you say. I've put on this particular dog before, haven't I? Well, the contraction brought a new, personal angle to this crisis: all salaries are dropping 25%, for nine months--until the big money comes back. 
I could tolerate 10%, but 25% down is unconscionable, since it gives everyone a good reason to flee. My writer-star co-worker has already been in the wind, calling and conversing. My physicist co-worker is set to run in a month. Our book-keeper won't even be able to pay the rent, and has gotten plans together to bolt. Everyone's efforts to move the offices have similarly ground to a halt, because we know the doors may close for good any day now--25% cuts will be followed by lay-offs, exodus and firings, and the productivity will crash.
I have no plans to live on 25% of my current salary, gentle folk, if you can believe it. I waited three days for my Internet to be restored (my cable splice work broke on me, and Time Warner Cable understands that I suck at it, so the repair was free! Big props to the technician who fixed it!), then put my resume everywhere. Hope shines on, good gentles, for my biggest quarries--companies I would love to work for--gave me their interest the next day, including a phone screening! My references, including all my soon-to-be-ex co-workers, all agreed to back me up. Finally, I have the sympathy of my whole circle of friends. Big props to you too!
If you can believe it this is just the kick in the butt I needed. I'd endured too many "signs you need a new job" before this to even CONSIDER the fact that they might WANT me to stay.
That book, up there? Read around page 231, where the hero agrees to "...rat out [his] uncle over a plate of [censored] squid." That's about how I feel about work now. Soldier on, but both feet are out the fucking door.
Thank you, once again, for reading.

Online, I am not the same as I am in public.
A great deal of this is due to my freedom to rant at leisure. One false move in public, and I might not get to finish a sentence, but online I can complete things. Similarly, the limitless knowledge I can find makes me an instant expert, and thus I appear smarter. Finally, no corner of pop culture is out of reach. Challenged, for instance, to name a Soft Cell song besides their "Tainted Love," I would be stumped in real life, only to chase them onto Youtube and find a perfect video of "Sex Dwarf" (song is NSFW, by the way).
But a lot of it is due to self-selection of my audience. The only people I meet online share at least the medium as an interest--the Internet, a specific game, a particular site--and as we read what the other has written, begin to share common interests. Mark off a section of the Internet for something, and you have instant friends who may all be saying, "I thought *I* was the only one!" In real life, it can be very hard to separate out people who think and believe as I do. and at work it is impossible. The wrong move there, of course, could also get me fired.
So there's the immunity to be considered as well. If you are offended online, escape is an F4 away, and if you really make others mad, they may just kick you out of the tree-house completely, never to invite you back. And, of course, there are plenty of trees, with houses, out there. Even an anti-tree-house club that meets someplace besides a tree--but I digress. Real life conflict resolution can lead to much more dangerous, noisy, or permanent solutions.
Thus the Internet resembles a zombie apocalypse, a national disaster, or a superhero origin story writ large--how would YOU behave if you had more power, if the laws ceased to affect you, if you were free to act in a way that you wanted to, all the time? If no one and no thing could put the brakes on you?
Yet I am not as Jekyll there and Hyde here. I try to write cleverly, calmly, with a sense of purpose. Why? Because the brakes are still there. Because I know I am among friends, and want them to like me. In other words, the core personality shines. I can no more adopt another than take a second body. So, while I am free to rant about the things I believe here, I mean every word, take every stand seriously, and try to focus on the ideas, not the people.
I still want to be thought of as clever, well-mannered, considerate, friendly, and if possible, brief.
On those last two notes, thank you for reading.