Comments for Tricia Romano

Comment on Ask A Small Plane Pilot: What’s Up With the All the Crashes, Dude? by Matt

Matt — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 19:04:02 +0000

Also, a big difference is that small GA aircraft have one engine. Something goes wrong, and you’re making an emergency landing. Depending on the situation you’re in, it can lead to a fatal crash (such as in mountainous regions, or at low altitude where you don’t have the time, altitude, or location to get down safely.)

An airliner must be able to maintain a reasonable altitude on only one of it’s engines (I believe. It may be half of it’s engines so a 747 has to be able to maintain on 2, but I think the 747 can even run on just one. I’ll have to look it up).

Regardless, a commercial plane can lose an engine and be fine. The chance of losing both engines to a mechanical failure are very very low.

Coupled with the facts stated above, it is more dangerous than commercial aviation, but I still wouldn’t consider it dangerous by any means.

Comment on My Cat and Her Many Looks by Elle

Elle — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:13:14 +0000

These are wonderful, I am completely familiar with every one of these. Thank you for posting it. I especially love “come closer to the edge of the bed in your bare feet”, having experienced it for myself.

Comment on In Memory of My Dad by barbara morris

barbara morris — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 02:19:16 +0000

touching

Comment on Lost Season Five Finale: You’ve Shark Jumped On Me by zooromeo

zooromeo — Mon, 18 May 2009 03:51:10 +0000

they dont just make things up – the time travel etc.. is part of the entire story/plan which they had written years ago – some details are fleshed out as they go but time travel has always been the intention – LOST is not a show that can be made up on the fly or it would have jumped the shark years ago !

Comment on Lost Season Five Finale: You’ve Shark Jumped On Me by tromano

tromano — Sun, 17 May 2009 18:12:18 +0000

isn’t that our ultimate fear? that we’ve invested all this time for nothing. btw, saw star trek last night and thought, hmm both are jj abrams productions. which one got time traveling notion first? trek was started in 2005, which would have been season 2-3 for LOST. my theory is while working on star trek, they came up with the time traveling bit for the movie and when reaching an impasse during season 3 they wrote in the time travel for LOST. it’s really stupid. seriously, I tried to explain what was happening to my friend last night and I stopped midway, “it’s just stupid.”

Comment on Lost Season Five Finale: You’ve Shark Jumped On Me by sherri

sherri — Sun, 17 May 2009 18:01:13 +0000

what if season 6 turns out to be the worst of them all? what if they mess up the finale? what if they never explain everything? what if they forget about those damn polar bears?

Comment on Lost Season Five Finale: You’ve Shark Jumped On Me by philthepill136286

philthepill136286 — Fri, 15 May 2009 16:14:44 +0000

I don’t think it’s fair to call the show out on finally showing its hand after five years. It may not have been the reveal we were expecting, but looking back on it, I think it’s making a very interesting story arc. The time travel shows how this is a destiny many generations in the making and I don’t think what they’re showing you is a distraction from the lack of mystery…I think it’s heading to an endgame and “weird, undead Locke” is a crucial part of that. I also really like the evolution of Ben…his wicked manipulation always seemed like a front for his insecurities. This makes his character more real and sheds light on his power complex. I’m glad you’re sticking with the show and I think fans of season one are going to love season six, for the most part. I’m really dying to see how this light side vs. dark side thing works out.

Comment on Why You Shouldn't Tell Me I Should Write A Book by zachfine

zachfine — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 07:09:14 +0000

I’d agree with everything you say except the initial financial analysis. The phrase “after taxes it’s barely minimum wage” is nonsensical, as it’s comparing a post-tax amount to a pre-tax amount. Both minimum wage and that author’s advance would be taxed. Comparisons of both the post-tax or both pre-tax amounts will show the author’s pay to be well above minimum wage.

Assuming my estimate of a minimum wage yearly salary are right, that the author will take 3 years to write the book, and that the agent takes his/her 15% off of an amount equal to $100,000, the pretax comparison would be between an annual salary of $16,000/yr and the writer’s $28,333/yr (out of which would come expenses, though if those are substantial they might lower his/her taxes to the point that he’s in the same tax bracket as the minimum wage earner).

I’d do the tax calculations for real, but I should be spending the time finishing my own taxes.

For what it’s worth, it’s a similarly crappy situation for the wannabe independent filmmaker. I’m hoping when the time comes that I get off my ass and make a film, I can muster up enough naïvete to think that it’ll be among the <1% that actually get any distribution.

Comment on Why You Shouldn't Tell Me I Should Write A Book by tromano

tromano — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 05:51:06 +0000

well, i think what he’s saying is that after taxes it’s barely minimum wage and it’s true. after taxes (20percent) and standard agent (15%) it’s 68,000, and that comes out to 22,000 a year. you can’t support yourself on that. if you can write it in six months, then it’s great, but it depends on what you are writing. Also you are discounting any expenses incurred in writing a book. if you are not a fiction writer or a memoirist (and even sometimes if you are), research is expensive. You may need to buy books–as you can’t mark up library books, you may need to buy writing materials, paper and computer supplies, you may need to travel to a destination to do an in-person interview or visit a facility that you are writing about. Writing a journalistic, non-fiction book is actually costly because journalism is costly. I imagine David Carr got quite a swell book deal– reports say he got a six-figure book deal in 2006-and he traveled all over the country to interview people from his former life. (it’s a reported memoir). he also hired people to help him investigate and chase some stuff down (because he had a job at the times, thought i am not sure if he took time off to work on the book), and he paid money for transcribing of interviews, because it’s impossible to transcribe several hundred hours of interviews yourself and ever expect to get to the writing portion in a timely fashion. that’s a lot of money to spend. trust me, the time/money ratio is not always worth it and very rarely pays big bucks out the back end. you also get this money in thirds or in fifths. if you are doing a complicated book, this is basically your full time job if it’s going to come out in a timely fashion and be newsworthy. many people write books as a glorified business card and a way to one-up their profile. it doesn’t always work. the key to overcoming a shitty book deal/work ration is to have a sexy storyline that the hollywood people want to make into a movie. then they can by the rights and that’s where you can possibly make real money for all your hard work. again, it’s a gamble. IMO, unless your idea is smokin’ hot, it’s totally not worth the time.

Comment on Why You Shouldn't Tell Me I Should Write A Book by zachfine

zachfine — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 22:07:33 +0000

Does not compute.

minimum wage in CA = $8/hr * 40hrs/wk = $320/wk

$320/wk * ~50wk/yr = $16000/yr

$16000/yr * 3yrs = $48,000

$48,000 != “low-six-figure advance” (the “!=” is a “does not equal” symbol)

Either the dude’s manager/agent/editor is eating over half his pay, or he’s having trouble with basic math.* Anything in the low-six-figures for 3 years is more than double California’s $8/hr minimum wage. I’d have liked to see the NYTimes reporter call him on the mistake, or at least make a “world’s smallest violin” joke.

Here’s another data point: A friend of mine wrote a book in 4 months while at the same time holding down a full-time job. She was paid for writing, still receives royalty checks, and kept her day job.

It doesn’t seem like the world’s worst gig, at least for someone with an insane amount of drive. Then again, had I been given an advance 3 years ago I’d probably still be staring at a mostly blank page, eating top ramen, and looking for a sympathetic ear.

* I know that the NYTimes article counts losses due to taxes, but I don’t think that’s completely fair. All wages are subject to tax, including those earned at minimum wage.