Not Going to LA Today

Last week I booked a business trip to LA for today. The plan was I'd fly down to LAX this morning, attend a few meetings nearby, and fly back home this evening. With my Covid bounce and positive test yesterday I decided to pull the plug on that trip out of caution and respect for the people around me.

I am both happy and sad about canceling today's trip. ...Happy, because I enjoyed not having to get up until 7am today. If I had to catch my 7am flight I'd have set my alarm for 4:45a and been up by 5 and out the door by 5:30. ...But also sad, because meeting people in person is one of the things I enjoy about sales. And part of the reason I enjoy it is it's so much more effective than meeting virtually.

I proposed to my account-exec counterpart that we reschedule today's meeting to the first week of January. Yeah, that's 3 weeks away, but what I see across so many of my customers is that most business projects are being paused for the next two weeks. So many people are taking time off around the holidays that only truly critical projects are being worked— that early January is effectively only a delay of 1 week.

But in sales, of course, everything is the #1 absolute most important problem ever. Like, Christmas will be canceled if we don't meet today. So the account exec frantically called my manager for help, and they tapped one of my colleagues to fly down to LA last-minute. The poor guy didn't even know what he was supposed to do— or how to to it. WTF? Really?! It's better to send a warm body today than to wait one virtual week and send the right person? And no, this is not an or-Christmas-is-canceled emergency. In fact it's fairly low priority. So maybe I'll travel to LA in a few weeks anyway to fix what doesn't get done right today. 🙄

Breaking Bad S5E13-14: Walt's Empire Crumbles

I'm treating season 5 episodes 13-14 of Breaking Bad as one long episode. The break between the two episodes as aired is in the middle of a big gunfight. What a frustrating spot to have to wait another week to see what happens! I'm so glad I'm streaming it after the series is finished so I can just keep watching. That said, ep. 5.14 is widely considered by critics the best episode in the series. Many call it the best hour of TV aired that year. Some say it's the finest TV episode of the 21st century.

Anyway, this pair of episodes together are where the story goes totally Shakespearean Act V. As in, tragedy. People die. Good people die. And Walt sees everything he's built, the empire he failed to build earlier in his life, crumble and fall.

In S5E13, Walt and Jesse are both trying to flush each other out to hurt the other. Jesse threatens to destroy Walt's trove of cash, now hidden. And Walt has now decided it's time to kill Jesse. He hires the Aryan Brotherhood gang to do it. What Walt doesn't know, though, is that Jesse is currently hard to find because he's working with the DEA. ...Or not with the DEA, per se, but with two agents, Hank and his long-time partner, Gomey, who are pursuing Walt "off the books" for now.

At the climax of 5.13,( Eps 5.13-5.14 Spoilers (click to open) )

Fallen Empire

The last scene of the episode shows Walt going into hiding. He's hired the local guy who specializes in creating new identifies. He leaves town, presumably for New Hampshire.... Flash-forwards earlier in the season show Walt using an assumed name and saying he's from New Hampshire.

Walt's life, his empire, is a shambles. He's watched friends and relatives be killed or dragged off by thugs. He's alienated from his family. Everything he did for his family, they likely won't benefit from now. In fact they'll probably spend the rest of their lives picking up the pieces of the wreckage he's created.