OK, now for something good.
I opened my mail and among the BS was a form letter of apology from the last place that I worked. The photography company was a large corporation and I had a retirement fund which I paid into through a profit sharing program for a few years.
Their concern seemed to be that investors would remove some of their funds from this bird-nest-on-the-ground, due to sluggish performance in the market during this recent decline in fiscal confidence worldwide.
The bad news is that my investment did not grow as expected in the past year (thus, an apologetic correspondence was sent to all plan holders), however, the good news is also part of the letter. It seems that my part of the plan has gone from a net value of $347, 800, at the end of last year, to $386, 000, this year. So, despite the economic downturn, I made over $39,000 last year and I never had to touch a fucking camera.
Even though the performance is somewhat snail-like by previous year's standards (just over eleven percent, instead of fifteen percent-whine!) I still made some money from my past years of hard work.
That's something good!