Scatterbrain.

Law of Conservation of Stupidity.

2009-08-09T19:20:00.003-05:00

It's been ages since I've written something on Scatterbrain but have been disgruntled about this subject for a while now. My wife is a fantastic baker and cook, so I'm often seen chowing down on delicious brownies, cakes, cookies, or whatever amazing meal she's whipped up. And people often comment, "Just wait 'till your metabolism slows down." Or "I remember when I could eat like that." Well guess what? I don't remember a time when I've ever been able to pig out on junk food and have experienced some sort of consequence. I'll eat cookies but that's intertwined into a day of multiple, small meals featuring fiber and the correct quantities of protein and carbs, interspersed with protein shakes and.........wait for it......LARGE quantities of exercise.

This is what just spurred me to blab on the internet for the first time in ages:

"People who go to the gym get fatter."

Things like this just blow my mind, but on the same token, it's typical of society. The other day I went to the store to pick up some more protein powder, and the lady at the counter opined, "I've bought this in the past but I'm not seeing any results. It must be working for you, though!" Yeah, that's because I exercise for a couple hours per day and have the correct diet.

One day I'm going to write a book called "The Law of Conservation of Mass." It's going to be the re-unveiling of an ages old concept that almost everyone knows yet few seem to comprehend. I'll change a few dollars for this book of mythical wisdom, and inside the book will the token knowledge that to lose weight you must burn more calories than you consume. It's not rocket science. Seriously. Yes, some people are easier losers than others, and some people have wacky metabolisms that make things harder for them, but I fiercely believe that consistency will ultimately yield people the results they are looking for.

One of the things I'm begrudgingly learning is most of the things that adults told me when I was younger were correct. I had a teacher in high school tell the class "You people want A's, but you don't want to do the work." Welcome to my current view on life in general.

So, for those of you that go to the gym, then hit up a nice Italian dinner featuring a few bread sticks, a large bowl of fettuccine Alfredo, and a large slice of cheesecake, WISE UP and realize why you aren't losing weight. It's really not that complicated. And along the way, don't be surprised when I give you a sarcastic look when you say I'm "lucky" for being in shape.

For Your Amusement.

2009-01-11T08:24:00.002-06:00

I'm not sure who wrote this, and Google isn't telling me, but I found it on a message board and it's too good not to quote here. If anyone knows who the author is, let me know.

"MIAMI (SP) -- Shortly after leading the Florida Gators to a national championship with a 24-14 win over Oklahoma, junior quarterback Tim Tebow announced that he would skip his senior season and ascend directly into heaven.

Tebow entered the press room to wild applause. A reporter for a 24-hour cable sports network burst into tears when the 2007 Heisman winner entered the room. Another threw a pair of boxer shorts on the podium. Tebow smiled at the gesture and several sports reporters fainted.

"Sorry I'm late," Tebow began. "There was a six-year-old boy with cancer in row 54 and I had to make my way through the crowd to heal him."

"I want to start by saying that playing quarterback for the University of Florida, winning two national championships, has been a great honor. There has been some speculation about my future and I want to clear that up right now," he continued.

"Don't go, Tim!" a reporter shouted from the back of the room.

"After much consideration, I have decided to skip my senior season at the University of Florida and ascend directly into Heaven," Tebow announced. Upon making the announcement, Tebow was bathed in a blinding white light and vanished.

In response to the news, ESPN announced they will have a month-long tribute to Tebow. ESPN2 will now be known as ESPN-TEBOW and will feature Tebow highlights (including home videos of Tebow's childhood), re-airings of past interviews, Tebow-centric analysis by ESPN air personalities, a Tebow quiz show and a reality show to find the "most Tebow-like" person in America.

"He wasn't just the greatest player in college football history," said a college football writer at the press conference, tears streaming down his face. "He might have been the greatest person to ever walk on earth." "

Is It Real?

2008-11-23T11:42:00.003-06:00

Right now I'm listening to the new Guns n' Roses album, Chinese Democracy. Yes, the one we've been waiting what, 15 years for? I have to say, thus far, it's freaking awesome. Go buy it!

Overtime.

2008-11-23T09:18:00.003-06:00

Those of you who witnessed OU's absolute drubbing of Texas Tech yesterday might think "wow, OU is impressive and should surely jump both Texas Tech and Texas in the polls. You'd also be wrong. Look at the body of evidence we have, most notably that Texas beat OU on a neutral field. The argument is summarized nicely here: Link.

My second general musing this morning is work; I noted in my last post that I am going to transition into a new position at work soon. I should now say "transitioning." The proverbial can of worms have been opened up already, it seems, and I'm still mostly full-time in my current position, but also doing a lot of work for the new team. The bottom line here is that I worked much longer hours the past week than I have in a long time. They were good hours, though, and I'm happy about the general situation. But yes, I was too tired by the time I got home last week to blog all about it. One of these days I'll be able to write more than once a week, hopefully sooner than later.

In the meantime, remember: OU Sucks!!!!!!

Misc.

2008-11-15T16:51:00.004-06:00

So, why has there been a lack of blog posts on Scatterbrain lately?

Long story short: at the beginning of 2009 I'll be switching positions within my company. This is the culmination of Job Quest 2008: I had decided that after the acquisition of my MBA and the fact that every mentor I know has told me I can't stay in any one job more than "a few" years (and I've been in my current job more than 6) I have been working hard to move to something new over the last few months, and the hard work has finally paid off. On the same token, I found out that job-hunting is one of the most tiring and stressful activities on the planet, especially when you want to keep outperforming in your current job, so by the time I came home from work my brain was a pile of mush. The good news is that the persistence paid off, and out of all the jobs I applied for (there were many), I ended up getting the one I wanted the most.

Of course, there's also the election-and-financial-disaster thing that's been going on lately. I've had so many personal and e-mail conversations with friends and family that I had no inclination to talk about any of those things on the blog either.

Then, there's the last week: Monika and I went to Hawaii! We spent a week on the island of Oahu with a couple friends of ours and had a total blast. Now that we're back it's going to be painful going back to work.

So, the good news is that Job Quest 2008 is over and was a success, the election is over, I've accepted that the economy is going to be heinous for the foreseeable future and we just need to accept it, and I'm now well-rested from the vacation. So hopefully I can get back to writing more than once every few weeks.

Here's a token photo for you, a watch that I bought in Hawaii. The brand is Bathys (pronounced like "Mathis," but with a 'B') and the model is 100 Fathoms. As most of you know, I've become a massive watch fiend, and this is a popular enthusiast watch. Designed in Hawaii, Swiss made. It's a quartz watch, which I purposefully wanted because most of mine are automatics, and I wanted something I could just pick up and put on instead of having to set it. I forgot to take a picture of the caseback, which has a nice relief of all the Hawaiian islands. Enjoy:

My Pumpkin Rules.

2008-10-29T22:21:00.001-05:00

What can I say? It's awesome.

Huge Props!

2008-10-24T23:48:00.003-05:00

In the past I've drawn a few amusing pictures here and there - if I were feeling more inspired I'd probably take the advice some have given me and make my blog exclusively based on amusing drawings. Maybe one of these days I'll find the time and inclination to do so. In the meantime, check out this site. Look through the archives. I haven't laughed this hard in a long time.

nataliedee.com

Today's Sign of the Apocalypse.

2008-10-23T22:21:00.001-05:00

This headline is on CNN.com right now:

"Baby eats crack at party"

What else is there to say?

Random Thought of the Night.

2008-10-22T20:48:00.002-05:00

Faith No More was a visionary band, and it's a shame they aren't together any more. You'll just have to settle for one of Mike Patton's 4,239,832 side-projects. But none of them achieve the greatness of Faith No More.

I was just listening to "King for a Day, Fool for a Lifetime" and it rules. But if you don't own "Angel Dust," go buy it immediately!

Throwdown 2008.

2008-10-08T22:15:00.002-05:00

This weekend a friend is coming into town and we're going to play golf. Unfortunately for him, he faces certain destruction and monetary damage from the experience, just as he did in Super Mario Kart growing up (insert evil laugh here) [and the open offer to bring destruction upon anyone else in Super Mario Kart remains open].

I'm also looking forward to another round of the Texas - OU game...sort of. We've looked fantastic thus far this year, going wildly beyond my expectations. So it's going to be somewhat bittersweet if we take a sound beating from the Sooners. I'm hoping we can keep it respectable. If we can manage to pull it off, then we'll only have to deal with Missouri, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State AND Kansas, AND the Big XII Championship. Is there even a question whether the Big XII is the most stacked conference this year?!

Writing Lessons.

2008-09-28T21:08:00.002-05:00

Teacher. Wordsmith. Madman's swan song is here. Although you're never going to see new content there (although, never say never), you should still check out the archives for the prose and the passion, because it will likely never be matched. You're likely to discover why I named my link on the right "writing lessons."

Here's to Chad, the best writer I know. Now that TWM is off your plate, I expect to see your version of Sin and Syntax forthcoming!

The Blame Game.

2008-09-20T08:43:00.002-05:00

The market is in the dumper. Who or what is to blame?

Unrealistic assessments of risk, period. Taking super-risky loans, bundling them up into AAA-rated securities, and tossing them around until they start to default, which ripples through everyone that had a hand in them (which is almost every bank).

I'm so sick of the political banter. Bush made a brief statement a couple days ago to try to instill some calm. From Nancy Pelosi: "...(he) said very little...what was expected was an explanation to the American people of what is happening, because it has a direct impact on our lives."

It's not as if Bush could actually sit there for hours and explain crazy-ass complex financial theory; as if more than 1% of the American public would have a chance in hell of understanding one iota of what he told them - hell, even the politicians don't really understand what's going on. McCain in speeches says "we need to reform, er, coughcreditdefaultswapscoughcough, excuse me..."

So I reiterate: incredibly aggressive strategies were labeled with incredibly unrealistic assessments of how risky they were, which cascaded through the financial markets and is now taking a dump on all of us. This all goes full-circle back to my general theory on housing that having a house is a privilege, not a right.

The bad news is now the government is going to probably over-regulate going forward which will hurt the country from a competitive standpoint. What a mess!

Misc.

2008-09-15T08:06:00.002-05:00

-Who cares how many houses John and Cindy McCain have? Attention idiots: politicians, by and large, are rich. Obama might not have as many houses, but he also didn't marry a wealthy heiress. Why don't people ever talk to the candidates about issues instead of picking apart their personal lives?

-USC fans are incredibly douchey. I witnessed the massive drubbing that was USC vs. OSU this past weekend, which mind you wasn't even enjoyable because it was such a beat-down, and noticed toward the end of the game that half the USC fans had left. They left a massive drubbing of a huge top-5 rival. That absolutely blows my mind - no, I'm lying, it doesn't blow my mind because I've come to expect it from USC fans, since they are douchebags.

-Yes, I'm sure there are many good USC fans, but come on. Half-empty?!

-Metallica: YES, YES, YES. Death Magnetic is so good I wanted to shed tears of joy when I gave it my inaugural listen. Yes, I was jaded too and thought St. Anger was pretty bad. Don't let your hate for Metallica's last few albums and refusal to believe that anything can touch "the trilogy" get in the way. Go buy it and enjoy.

-Hurricane Ike ended up being pretty weak up here in DFW. Everyone I know in Houston is okay but many are without power. To those that remained in Galveston despite "imminent death" warnings, yet still called 911 asking for help after the fact: you are even lamer than USC fans.

Misc.

2008-09-08T21:02:00.003-05:00

-I don't comment much on politics mainly because I am not a fan of either side and I'd rather have the option of voting for Great Candidate A or Wonderful Candidate B as opposed to the "douchebag or the turd sandwich." I'm looking forward to the debates, though, to reveal more about each candidate in terms of how they plan to structure their policies and how they react to some (hopefully) tough questions.

-I'm being banished to "the tundra," apparently. Monika and I went out to Gallery Night in Fort Worth with friends and drunken hilarity revealed that since I didn't know how to skin a bear, I need to be banished to the tundra of the Artic Circle to become one with nature.

-Seen on Gallery night: a series of paintings where an ostrich had it's head stuck in golf holes, and bubbles above the head revealed...ostriches thinking about other golf holes. Seriously!

-Today I showed up to jury duty for the first time in my life. Yes, it was the first time I was summoned, people! Countless hours later I was not selected for a jury on a DWI case. I think the "engineer" thing did me in. The defense seemed to want people that thought that a field sobriety test could easily be failed due to the massive pressure of nerves, wind, or a temporary fluctuation in the earth's gravitational field.

-The new Toadies album is good, but not great, but they tend to grow on me more over time. The new Slipknot is excellent if you are a death-metal kind of guy. But not if you're too much of a death-metal kind of guy because then you'll think they went too soft.

What's Your Record?

2008-08-30T21:52:00.002-05:00

Tonight Monika and I ate with family and friends at the Blue Danube restaurant in Arlington. Dinner was absolutely delicious, and THREE HOURS. Mind you, it wasn't a big deal because we were hanging out as a group and generally relaxing, so it wasn't absolutely imperative to eat quickly, but the stat is impressive nevertheless. Apparently not one, not two, but four servers, i.e. the entire wait staff, didn't show up. That was unfortunate for them since the restaurant was packed.

The food was delicious and I'd certainly go back again, obviously hoping that the waiting time is reduced next time around. I became curious, though, as to whether that was the longest restaurant meal I've ever had; I'm pretty sure it was. Have any of you ever had a longer meal?

Wacky Tiebreak System Costs Liukin Gold in Beijing.

2008-08-18T21:16:00.002-05:00

On Monday, USA competitor Nastia Liukin tied He Kexin in her uneven bar routine, yet walked home with the silver medal instead of the gold. The two gymnasts' routines scored identical difficulty and execution values, requiring the computers to resorts to a sophisticated tiebreaker algorithm to determine the winner.

The tiebreaker algorithm examined deductions from the middle 4 judges in the competition. Shockingly, these values were tied as well.

The computer, at a loss for calculations, had to resort to it's uber-complicated "sudden death" routine. The computer's programmer, who requested to remain nameless, was contacted for an explanation: "The computer chooses the youngest gymnast."

Kexin, at the tender age of 12, was instantly the clear winner.

The High Defolymplics.

2008-08-13T19:11:00.002-05:00

I must say- in years past I've been interested and engrossed in the Olympics, but nothing touches this year. I think my total hours watched for 2008 already surpasses my average total viewing time for any other year. Is it the state of the nation, the exceptionally high level of the competitors, or intrigue about the location? It's a combination of those things and my friend HIGH DEFINITION, which I haven't had until this year. HDTV is truly a thing of myth and legend. The difference between standard and HD for regular programming is large, but the difference for sports is nothing short of massive.

If you want to become addicted to this year's Olympics like me, go buy yourself a find HDTV and tune in.

"Long Sleeves?!"

2008-08-05T06:56:00.002-05:00

Adam made that comment on my last post. People ask me that pretty often since it's counter-intuitive to wear more clothes when it's over 100 degrees outside. The explanation is pretty simple, though: I have incredibly fair skin (shout-out to my mom) and no amount of sunscreen on my arms will keep them from burning after hours in the sun, so years ago when Nike started making Dri-Fit products I simply started covering up, and now I'm used to it enough that I'm actually hotter in short sleeves. The white fabric deflects the sun away from me. Plus I sweat so much it gives me a surface to wipe my face on during the match. The Dri-Fit fabric doesn't stay wet for long, so I'm not bogged down by soggy shirts either.

So there you have it. :)

Today We Hit 107 Degrees in DFW.

2008-08-03T21:33:00.004-05:00

And here's bonus pictures of me serving in said heat last weekend (although last weekend was a pathetic 105).

I Heart Watches.

2008-08-02T09:19:00.004-05:00

I have an Omega Seamaster Professional (the "grail" watch, if you will) and recently picked up a "beater" watch that is extremely popular on enthusiast forums, referred to as the "Orange Monster." The OM is known for having great lume (the glow after the lights are out) so I decided to take a couple comparison pictures. Enjoy!

Tennis Results This Weekend.

2008-07-27T19:38:00.000-05:00

I played in the men’s 5.0 bracket this year. There were only 8 players in the bracket, so the first match happened to be the quarterfinal match. My results:

Quarters: played a guy from Houston that outsmarted me. He had a consistent but returnable serve which I got back about 90% of the time. He came in after just about every stroke (serve, return), etc. In the first set we played it pretty straight and I won with one break, mainly because I had more firepower than my opponent.

In the second set, my opponent realized that his strategy wasn’t working too well so he slowed down the game on me. He took most of the pace off the ball and focused on hitting deeper but slower, and occasionally throwing in some moonballs. That was taking me deeper into the court, and since he’s approach the net after aforementioned balls, I had fewer angles to pass him and he had more time to see what I was doing with the ball because I was so far back. I certainly had my chances in the second set, though, and let myself get down instead of executing passing shots. I can’t even tell you how many bad lobs I hit in the second set, but it was at least ten. We went to a tiebreak (they were ordering Komen tiebreakers in lieu of third sets since it was over 100 degrees outside) and I played horrendously there, and that was it.

Consolation Semis: played another guy from Houston. Friends of mine that play League ball in Houston had been looking forward to this match (although they thought it would be in the main draw). The guy had solid strokes but simply didn’t execute anything. He hit a handful of winners but many unforced errors. I spent most of the match hanging out while he self-destructed (just being honest). In the second set I was up 5-1 and he decided to rattle off a bunch of winners (like I said, he was playing sporadic tennis). He even went up 30-0 on his serve before throwing in a couple more unforced errors, and I put away a couple solid shots.

Consolation Finals: I looked forward to this match because I was to play a league teammate who has rotated with me in the #1 singles spot on our team now and then. I knew that he is a serve-and-volleyer and he knew that I’m a baseliner, so it was to be an intriguing matchup, right?

Apparently when a serve-and-volleyer is red-hot it trumps the baseliner. I lost 6-2, 6-2. A friend said “when you told me that score I figured you either bombed or were dominated,” and it was the latter. Now, there were a handful of things that I could have done better (executing lobs, executing passing shots where I actually had a chance to get a piece of the bal), but my teammate was just so solid from the net that he took away a lot of angles that I normally have on a guy. He took away rallies, period. There were perhaps 4 points where I forced him to stay back with deep serves and deep groundstrokes, and I won all of those. He knew that he’d be clobbered in a baseline fight, so he simply removed that possibility, and he did so skillfully and smartly. Kudos to him for that.

Two major points to take from this match:

-I need to create a serve/volley threat; that doesn’t mean I need to serve and volley, but I at least need to do it on occasion to create an environment where the returner has to at least think a little about what he has to do to keep the ball away from me, which creates errors.

-I need to hit my second serve harder; this is more of a systemic problem that affects all my matches.

All things considered, I’m sore and didn’t have a good record this weekend, but somehow I still feel pretty good about the tournament overall. I feel like I got some good match experience that taught me some things I need to look out for in the future.

Can CNN Top This?

2008-07-26T09:14:00.002-05:00

Black and single: Is marriage really for white people?

I had to do a double-take when I saw this article. But yes, it's really there.

Future headline: "White and Divorced: More white people divorce than any other race; are they just stupid?"

Rice 'n' Noodle

2008-07-25T23:07:00.002-05:00

I'm fairly sure I've mentioned this before, but it deserves reiterating: if you are in the mood for great Thai food (or Chinese food, or bubble tea, or chicken wings), go to Rice 'n' Noodle immediately! Rice 'n' Noodle first popped on my radar screen a couple years ago when Monika and I were about to move out of our apartment into the house. I got a flyer on my door and decided to give the place a shot although I thought the name was one of the oddest names I'd seen for a Thai restaurant. I got red curry and loved it. Afterward I continued to get the red curry for a long time, then switched to the (now-standing) panang curry, which is panang perfection.

An aside: I am addicted to bubble tea. For those of you unfamiliar, bubble tea is beverage of some sort (usually tea based, but it doesn't have to be) that contains tapioca balls at the bottom of the drink that come up with the liquid via a large straw. The bottom line is that bubble tea is ridiculously delicious and I never get sick of it. I used to get my bubble tea from a drink stand in Hulen Mall, but 3 months ago the stand mysteriously disappeared. One day I went to RnN with a fellow Noodlehead and was baffled to notice that they had bubble tea on their menu and I'd never noticed. Predictably, RnN is the new fixture for bubble tea in addition to Asian food now. And guess what? They freakin' sell chicken wings, too. Awesome chicken wings. Once I get the owner to copy Wing Stop's ranch and fries it'll be the go to wing place since they actually have slightly better wings than WS.

If you're not already at Rice 'n' Noodle sucking down bubble tea and snarfing down curry, you're missing out. I'll see you there.

Fort Worth Major Zone 2008.

2008-07-25T23:06:00.003-05:00

Tomorrow I return to the annual Fort Worth Major Zone. I'm signed up for the 5.0 bracket and play my first match tomorrow at 10:30. I'll report back with results afterward.

Apparently I Shamelessly Love Magic.

2008-07-23T21:37:00.002-05:00

When Monika and I went on our Alaskan cruise a couple months ago, the most entertaining show we saw by an order of magnitude was The Great Gaetano. Yes, that's pronounced "Gay-Tano;" yes, he had the fiercest mullet I've ever seen; and yes, he was awesome. He and his assistant, Natasha (or something along those lines), demonstrated illusions of shock and awe to a packed house.

Right now I'm watching "Chris Angel: Mindfreak." I had seen a few ads in Rolling Stone for this show before, but I never thought to actually watch the show. I have to say, this is on TV, so who knows whether the illusions are enhanced in any way, but honestly I couldn't care less. The stuff this guy does is absolutely INSANE! Magic? Illusion? I don't care what you want to call it, this guy is massively entertaining no matter how you classify what he's doing. Check it out!

The Last Salad You'll Ever Eat.

2008-07-21T20:59:00.003-05:00

Man, I wish they would do this in Texas.

Clicky!

The Outback Bloomin' Onion, mentioned in the article, is actually one of the few calorie-bombs I underestimated before I started perusing calories contents online years ago. Who'd have thought that the BO was not only massively unhealthy, but one of the worst possible items that you can order from a restaurant?

This goes back to my general sentiment these days that more should be done to educate the public; food is another area where I believe people are just flat-out ignorant. At least if everyone can see the data right there in front of them, they have no one to blame but themselves as the scale starts moving toward "obese."

Man, now I'm in the mood for a Big Mac. Seriously! I felt the same way after I saw "Super Size Me." I have known for a long time that it's not the sandwich that kills you, it's the sandwich plus the fries plus the pointless large soda. Hence I occasionally enjoy junking out on a DeathBurger here and there. But then again, the reason I can afford to eat that is because I work out like a maniac. Today when I got home from work I was in no mood to exercise, but despite that ran 3 miles and afterward did 100 pushups and 100 crunches.

Mmm...Big Mac...

Why "The Dark Knight" Beat the Hype.

2008-07-19T20:21:00.004-05:00

It feels real. In a time where most movies are so chock-full of special effects that it's hard to pick out a single character that seems like they exist in our world, it's refreshing to see a film that's this organic.

STOP READING NOW IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS!

After the movie, I actually had to think about where CG might have been involved. Obvious answers are the sonar images from the cell phones. Other than that, though, nothing popped out at me. Everything else felt real. After thinking about it (and discussing with a friend today) I realized that Two Face's "bad" size must have been CG, but at the time I thought it was just amazingly good makeup. The scenes where Batman flies through the air seem unbelievably realistic, but they were probably CG.

The music was breathtaking. The "Joker Theme" (not sure what it's called) with the gradually building tension of the string instruments is somewhat terrifying, especially combined with Ledger's much-acclaimed performance. Which mind you, actually deserves every bit of hype it's received as well. Ledger redefined the character. It's like Brando in The Godfather. It's definitive, and can never be recreated better than this. I thought Jack Nicholson was a great Joker until I saw this performance. Now I think of Nicholson's performance as good and somewhat whimsical, but miles away from capturing the depth of the Joker's madness.

The script was ruthless. Refusing to take the easy way out, the brothers Nolan (who wrote the screenplay) torment Batman and the viewers by presenting us with decisions that return no good outcome. Harvey Dent, through mild provocation from the Joker, turns from Gotham's white knight to a black-hearted maniac driven by nothing but hatred for the loss of his love, who at first we believe will be okay but then is brutally taken away from us. In the end, Batman and others have made decisions that hurt themselves and those they love, but there is no consolation prize; we end in ruin, Batman having shed most of his soul to save Gotham for which he cares so deeply, only to be shunned by society and figuratively cut down for his efforts.

In the end, we are left with a film that takes no easy way out. It shows us hard choices and makes us squirm thinking about how we'd react ourselves. It gives us a villain that is sick, twisted, and not necessarily driven by any reason other than to "watch the world burn." It begins in flames and ends in ruin, and it's the best comic-book movie ever created, period.

This Headline Pretty Much Says It All.

2008-07-17T21:53:00.002-05:00

...including me. See you on the other side!

Carbolic Smoke Ball.

2008-07-15T20:31:00.002-05:00

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, puppies and other cute furry animals - please direct your attention to the link on the right, Carbolic Smoke Ball, where you can find the internet's funniest site, including an article today with the best commentary on the Obama cartoon I've seen anywhere.

And don't forget to bookmark it.

“WALL-E”

2008-07-10T22:59:00.000-05:00

It’s rare that a movie outdoes the hype surrounding it, especially when the hype is that it’s outstanding. “WALL-E” one-ups the hype and is a masterpiece. The visuals are stunning, the dialogue is lean, and the plot somehow seamlessly integrates a love story, humor, and a commentary on society in general. Pixar has created fantastic movies in the past, but this one somehow tops them all.

Quote of the Day.

2008-07-08T21:22:00.002-05:00

From Fight Club (the movie; I've read the book too but it might be phrased differently there):

"Tyler Durden: Listen up, maggots. You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You're the same decaying organic matter as everything else. "

This might sound overly obvious, but lately I've found that everything requires hard work. Not just hard work, but seriously hard work. Just when you think you are going above and beyond the call of duty, you realize that every other shark out there is doing pretty much the same thing, if not more, so to differentiate yourself you need to work harder. And believe it or not, think less.

A Day I Never Thought I Would See.

2008-07-06T16:28:00.001-05:00

Tennis is the headline on CNN.com:

And they're right - it was epic.

New Shoes for the Z06.

2008-06-27T18:12:00.001-05:00

Toyo T1R:

Help Find Sabrina.

2008-06-24T21:49:00.002-05:00

Sabrina Allen is still missing.

New Music Musings - Weezer and Coldplay.

2008-06-21T09:07:00.002-05:00

The last two albums I've purchased are Weezer's The Red Album and Coldplay's Viva La Vida, or Death and All His Friends.

Listening to the new Weezer yielded one slightly unexpected benefit - it made me revisit all their other albums and think about how insanely good they are. The Blue Album and Pinkerton are straight-up pop-rock genius, albums that are consistently good the whole way through. Then, of course, there's the dark horse, Maladroit, my nominee for "Best Weezer Album That No One Ever Talks About."

What about Red, you say? Ugh. I was hoping you'd forget. It's not a terrible album (this isn't looking good). It's just not good. Most Weezer albums, even Make Believe, are good albums. Red is just somewhat scattered and self-indulgent. Ironically Rivers Cuomo is usually immune to self-indulgence, but in this case he's had his card revoked, because the thing is all over the place. Three tracks are sung by the three other band members, and two out of three are virtually intolerable - "did they really just release this to a national audience?"

Regardless, it's a Weezer album and retains enough quirky goodness to be worth ten bucks if you're a fan. If you're not a fan, RUN!

The new Coldplay has been touted as the big departure from their first three albums, pure pop-rock self-indulgence. And I'm here to tell you that they were somewhat successful, in that VLV is slightly less mainstream pure pop-rock self-indulgence. They didn't reinvent the wheel by any means, but they at least expanded their palette, and I do give Chris Martin credit for using less falsetto, the typical "go-to." It's only used sparingly here. In a nutshell, I recommend VLV and would probably give it a 7 or 8 on a scale of 10 as a consistently good album that has no real holes other than that it never quite achieves the delirious highs of "Shiver" or "A Rush of Blood to the Head," two standout tracks from their first two albums.

Golf: What a Fine Game.

2008-06-16T20:54:00.003-05:00

Today Tiger Woods pulled off a somewhat improbable (it is Tiger, after all) victory by winning the U.S. Open despite enduring pain in his knee. Kudos to Tiger for staying strong and remaining clutch through round after round to pull off the victory.

But while most will focus on the feat of myth and legend that Tiger pulled off, I couldn't help but be reminded of a perpetual debate among my friends and I: is golf a sport? What exactly is a sport? Typically our definitions involve some sort of scoring system, direct competition, and some degree of athletic prowess. It's the last criteria that tends to get people all worked up, and also one where I assert that golf is not a sport, but a game. The fact is, if you can win a round at the highest level of a particular activity while injured to an extent to where you can barely walk, it's not athletically demanding enough to meet the criteria for sport. Now, Tiger happens to be physically fit and talented enough that had he trained for some other sport, I have no doubt he'd be successful, but that's another story.

For the naysayers: yes, I've seen various games and matches in other sports where players have come up clutch and pulled off victories despite bad cramps, or bad blisters, or slight sprains. But you straight-up don't see players in any of "the majors" (football, baseball, basketball, tennis, soccer) come out with a post-surgery bummed out knee and mow down an entire field.

Also, yes, golf is hard as hell, hence why I am so terrible at it. Just because it's difficult doesn't mean it's athletically demanding.

Bring on your arguments.

Black Cupcake Wrappers - More Valuable Per Weight Than Gold.

2008-06-12T20:59:00.001-05:00

Monika is making cupcakes for her friend's wedding. The bride has requested cupcakes with white icing and black wrappers.

It turns out that black wrappers are virtually impossible to find. Not black wrappers with ghosts on them, not black wrappers with "over the hill", just plain black cupcake wrappers. Does anyone know where the hell to find these things? Anyone who finds 'em gets an e-cookie.

The Law of Conservation of FAT.

2008-06-11T21:39:00.003-05:00

Monika is watching Dr. Phil right now. A woman called in complaining about how her 2-year-old son weighs twice as much as he should for his age and refuses to eat anything but orange chicken. She's concerned and doesn't know who to turn to. "Dr. Phil, can you help me?" We return from our friend the video montage so see Dr. Phil say "Yeah, I have a few thoughts on how to fix this, mainly STOP FEEDING HIM ORANGE CHICKEN." Hell yes, Dr. Phil! "He's two years old. He may not like it when you switch to healthier food, but eventually, he's going to learn to like it, because he's going to want to eat." YES!

I'm going to write the shortest, but most successful book in the history of mankind soon. It's going to be called "The Secret to Being Thin." The book will be quadruple shrink-wrapped and there will be a few combination locks surrounding it for good measure, like the really deviant adult magazines at the Quickie Mart ("Mr. Simpson, here is your copy of Gigantic Asses"). Inside the thick binding there will be a single page where I won't even bother writing anything, I'll just include this handy internet link:

Zoink!

It's called "The Law of Conservation of Mass." But staggeringly, over the years, people refuse to accept the fact that if they eat junk food, they need to exercise to balance the calorie delta, or that the diet version of items that substitute sugar for fat have almost just as many calories as the regular versions.

I know some people that are overweight, but at least it's typically by choice. They know that if they ate better or worked out more they could lose some excess body fat, but they choose not to, which is totally fine. It's the complaint train that pisses me off.

But I have been turning a new leaf these days - I mentioned the other day that I no longer considered it just buyers' faults when the make idiotic purchasing decisions; this stuff simply isn't taught in school. Can we start holding Health classes in Preschool? I remember taking some when I was in High School. Apparently people don't know any better, though, so again I see a situation where the vast majority of the population needs to be educated on nutrition and exercise. Even better - I took gym class in every grade - gym class should feature more explanations of what an activity is doing for the kids and how many calories it's burning. They might not understand it when they are young, but it'll plant the seed for future understanding.

On a side-note, clearly I know that a totally financially and healthfully educated society is somewhat of an impossibility in this country, because it would inevitably lead to a socialist nightmare. I think I just jumped too many thoughts ahead here. We'll just stick with the overweight thing. Burn more calories than you take in, people! That's how you lose weight! I await your campaign contributions.

Unbewiivable.

2008-06-08T21:33:00.002-05:00

I bought Monika a Wii for her birthday and we love it. I have yet to play a game I flat-out dislike, and the general tone is lighthearted, with great games to play in groups. I can see why they are still almost impossible to find.

Which of course, is why I want to mention that I had to return ours to Gamestop yesterday. Here's why:

- Guitar Hero III: every time we tried to play the Social Distortion song, the game would seize up and we'd get a disc read error. Every other facet of the game worked perfectly except for that one song. When we first observed this, we actually returned the game for a new one, and the new disc showed the exact same symptoms so we knew it was the Wii that had the problem.

- Mario Kart Wii: every time we reached the third lap of Koopa Turnpike (I believe that's the right name), the game would freeze and we'd get a disc read error. The first two laps always worked correctly, and every other track worked perfectly.

- I called the Nintendo help line and was a little surprised to hear that they had never heard of the aforementioned problems. Apparently, though, there are myriad problems with Super Smash Brothers. So it figures when we borrowed that game from friends it worked just find on our system.

- There were other miscellaneous problems such as problems syncing the controllers in various games, but we'd eventually get those things to work. At the end of the day we had to return the buggy system because in Mario Kart, for example, we literally wouldn't have been able to complete the game because we have to be able to beat that level to unlock everything. At least in Guitar Hero you can choose 3/4 of the songs in a given level to advance to the next one.

Anyway, our poor Wii has been returned and we're waiting for Gamestop to call us when they receive a new one, which will hopefully be within a week. Luckily for us, we have friends who are addicted to Rock Band on their PS3, so they literally do not use their Wii and let us borrow theirs until we get our replacement system.

Here's How My Friday Went. How About Yours?

2008-06-07T19:38:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was a crazy day.

Attention High School Planners:

2008-06-05T15:10:00.002-05:00

Before graduating from high school, all students should be required to take a basic class that goes over money, explaining interest rates, time value of money, basic supply/demand, etc. Someone sent me this link earlier:

Clicky.

First one:
"Before losing my job we were somewhat overextended with several credit cards due to inattention and the American need for instant gratification"

UGH. Just because everyone else buys things they can't afford, I should too! More on this later, though.

"We also really did not plan for the high cost of daycare when we purchased our home"

Before you have kids, you need to figure out who is going to take care of them, and if you are going to put them in daycare, you better know how much freaking money it will cost! People spend all sorts of time finding out invoice costs when they buy a car, but then they have a kid and don't even know how they will afford taking care of a human being. Unreal.

Second one:

"We had revolving debt that was manageable and we qualified for a mortgage on a fixed rate. Our credit scores were okay, but they were not good enough to qualify for an adjustable-rate mortgage."

You've just got to cut it off right there. ARM mortgages are complex financial instruments that are powerful, but only for those who CLEARLY KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING, which is only about 1% of the people that actually buy with ARMs. It's fundamentally messed up that someone would be upset about not qualifying for an ARM.

Part of the "New Badger" is that I actually don't think these things are entirely these people's faults. I think that fundamentally, most people don't understand the concept that if they buy things they can't afford and pay the minimum credit card payment, for all practical purposes, they will never pay it off.

It's time for the education system to start helping these matters. I know I've done a lot of complaining about the sub-prime crisis, but this is just a glimpse at a bigger problem. If we don't start working to temper this type of behavior, we will only face worse crises in the future.

Behold the Majesty!

2008-06-04T22:50:00.007-05:00

For those of you who've wondered whether you should take a trip to Alaska, I can tell you the answer should emphatically be YES. It was an amazing trip, filled with relaxation and views that you can't see unless you head that far north.

Here is a picture of Monika and I in Juneau:

Now I have to give you one of my favorite picture sequences of all time, featuring my beautiful wife. For those of you that are unaware, Monika is actually a bow hunter, and when we were walking around the land surrounding a glacier, Monika was determined to find a bear with her binoculars. I took each of these about 10 minutes apart; here is the sequence:

"Are there any bears around here?"

"How about over there?"

"There must be one here somewhere!"

"I found one!!!!!!"

You've got to love it.

I also highly recommend cruises in general - this was my first one. You can't beat it for an absolutely worry-free, relaxing experience.

Going on a Cruise.

2008-05-22T10:59:00.002-05:00

Alaska, here I come!

From Interpol's "Take You on a Cruise":

We sail today...
Tears will drown in the wake of delight.
There's nothing like this built today.
You'll never see a finer ship in your life.
Along the way...
The sea will crowd us with lovers at night.
There's nothing like this built today.
You'll never see a finer ship, Or receive a better tip in your life.

Attention People of Earth:

2008-05-18T09:00:00.002-05:00

I bought Monika a Nintendo Wii for her birthday (which is tomorrow, but I gave it to her early so we could enjoy it this weekend), and a friend bought her Mario Cart Wii. We are hooked up to the internet and ready to rock (we have Guitar Hero III as well), so the gist here is that I am ready to destroy you all in these games. Especially this guy. :D (we have a long-standing Mario Kart fued going, so until the powers that be get it together and put Super Mario Kart available as a download, this'll have to do)

Administrative Note: GHIII is a great game, but is still a little glitchy for some reason. Any time we try to play the song "Story of My Life" by Social Distortion, the game completely bombs out and we get a message that says "Disc read error: consult the Will instruction manual for more information" (or something along those lines). We also had a lot of trouble getting a second guitar in the loop because it's NOT obvious. You have to hit "home," I believe, which asks if you want to exit the game, and at the bottom there are controller settings, which you click on and go through.

A Breath of Fresh Air.

2008-05-15T11:11:00.003-05:00

I want to give quick kudos to John McCain - see the CNN story here, and notably this:

"McCain's speech was unusual -- and somewhat risky -- in that it lays out benchmarks on which he could be judged."

In a political age where most of what all candidates say is either neutral or circuitous, kudos to someone for actually having the balls to lay out the potential for some accountability! Well done!

"The Slip."

2008-05-06T22:41:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I mentioned you could grab the new Nine Inch Nails album, The Slip, for free. Chad created a much better write-up about the release, which I encourage you to read here.

Even better, The Slip is the shit. It has a old-school NIN feel about it, kicked off the by lead single "Discipline," which has an almost Pretty Hate Machine vibe to it. But what stood out to me the most about this album was the grand finale.

After kicking things off with six more traditional NIN rockers, we reach "Lights in the Sky," a somber, piano-driven song that shifts the tone of the album. Instead of then shifting back to the harder stuff, though, we then reach "Corona Radiata," a lengthy, trippy soundscape, which is followed by another instrumental track, "The Four of Us are Dying," which feels like one of the tracks from Ghosts. Then, finally, we are confronted with the breakbeat-style march of "Demon Seed," which closes the album.

Now, the four songs that close The Slip aren't the best NIN songs I've ever heard by any means, but they are incredibly enjoyable for the subtext. To me what these songs communicate is that Trent Reznor is no longer making music for record companies (who would probably object, conceptually, to the final sequencing and the general "indulgence," shall I say), but for himself. When I listen to these last four songs, I feel like I'm listening to someone that's really feeling the music they are making and putting it out there with no boundaries. It feels natural, and it's a beautiful thing to hear music like this.

And Then There Were Two.

2008-05-05T12:52:00.002-05:00

Looks like Trent Reznor is following in Radiohead's footsteps. Bravo! New Nine Inch Nails album, "The Slip," for free, here:

http://theslip.nin.com/

Once I've heard it I'll review it.

Stone Temple Pilots.

2008-05-04T19:57:00.002-05:00

STP is back and touring this summer. I'm delighted and have had fun reading various posts in the blogosphere about how underrated STP have always been, which I agree with (The nutshell version, lest you forget, is in the past STP were regarded similarly as Nickelback is today. Of course, now that we have today's music and today's Nickelback [the worstest bad of all time], we realize that STP are actually incredibly good and simply caught flack because their contemporaries were Pearl Jam, Nirvana, etc.).

Okay, I'm escaping the parentheses now. The point is that STP's music is fresh and excellent, and as I've been going through their catalog lately, I can't believe how well it's stood up over time. There's Core, the introductory, grunge-heavy, "Plush"-featuring classic; Purple, an album somewhat more diverse, with higher highs and lower lows; Tiny Music...Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop, which sounds like Scott Weiland at the peak of his drug use but accordingly also has a trippy swagger and rough edge to it that differentiates it from their other work, No. 4, cough-cough excuse me, moving on; and Shangri-La Dee Da, which I didn't play excessively back when I purchased it but am now realizing might actually be their best work. I haven't listened to it nearly enough to know it back and forth like the other albums, but it certainly seems to carry all the best qualities of their earlier albums, but also has a cohesiveness as a work front-to-back that's really enjoyable.

STP are coming to DFW in a couple months, and despite my usual expectations, friends with whom I'm going obtained tickets for us in Row N through Ticketwhore, and as long as they don't get lost in the mail (I'm knocking on wood) we should have an excellent view for when the boys come back to town.

In the meantime, I recommend you all go purchase Shangri-La Dee Da. You might have the first three albums and thought that was all you needed from this band, but trust me, you're missing out.

How Dare You Take Away My Obesity!

2008-04-28T10:42:00.002-05:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080427/ap_on_fe_st/odd_jail_diet

I am truly baffled. And I can't figure out the worst part of this story; there are so many options:

-Slothful Murderer (SM) gets the opportunity to eat 3,000 calories per day while millions worldwide starve to death

-SM complains about only getting 3,000 calories per day while millions worldwide starve to death

-SM gets down to 300 pounds and complains about "starving to death."

-SM is allowed to file a frivolous lawsuit, and even wants to force hot meals at the resort, I mean jail.

Which one is your favorite?

Carly Got Robbed.

2008-04-24T09:07:00.002-05:00

I'm not a hardcore American Idol fan (for reasons like this post) but I certainly watch it and enjoy the best parts of it with assistance from my friend, Tivo. I happened to miss the show last night because we had our third bout of tornadic weather here in the last couple weeks, and my crappy satellite TV cuts out once the rain moves past the "sprinkle" phase. But I digress.

It seems as though for the first time in a few seasons viewers have made up their mind on what they want the pecking order to be, and the performances week-to-week have little influence on when people will get the boot. When you think about it conceptually, this was a logical week for Carly to get kicked off, and Syesha to be number two, based on the entire arc of the season and general sentiment about the two contestants. But anyone who watched the show on Tuesday night - seeing Brooke stop her entire performance and start over, coupled with her incessant characteristic of looking like she's about to spontaneously combust in a tidal wave of emotional self-destruction - clearly knows that she had by far the worst performance, only slightly rivaled by that of Jason Castro, who was also craptacular. Yet it was the weekly least favorites that wound up there, regardless of their solid performances on Tuesday.

The good news, though, is that the remaining weeks should be pretty transparent. The contestants to be voted off for the remainder of the competition will be Syesha, Brooke, and Jason, leaving the two Davids in the final. Something tells me Archuleta will win, not only because he'll get more teeny-bopper votes, but also because I don't think David Cook wants to win. I think he'd rather pull a Daughtry, and that doing so somehow gives him more credibility as a rocker. It'll be interesting to see how it turns out.

Misc.

2008-04-21T10:57:00.001-05:00

-The wind has been blowing at 20+ mph in DFW for the last two months. This condition reminds me of what I perceive Seattle to be like, with the gloomy skies and frequent rain over the majority of the year – it wouldn’t bother me at first, but after a while it would start to grate on me. In DFW it’s often windy for a day or three, but lately it’s just been ridiculous.

-Yard work is a pain. This year my lawn has been a personal breeding ground for weeds of the world. I’ve hammered it with some spray-weed killer and last night I laid down some Weed n’ Feed. Hopefully the grass will start to look half-decent soon.

-The mood at work has been less than stellar lately. It is publicly released information that my employer has been going through reductions in force, but the actual experience is even worse than the concept. My wife was asking me the other day what I say to those that are leaving – the answer is “not much.” Usually someone comes by and says they’re heading out, and we say it was nice working with you, good luck, etc. I think in general though, this is a working environment, and no one wants to dwell on this stuff, so it’s more like ripping the band-aid off. People generally have a few words then get out as soon as possible.

-I’ve been pondering a lot lately what the impact is of being required to show up every day to slave away for “The Man” as opposed to having a personal business. The great benefit of my job is that it’s literally 40 hours, then I’m out. I have friends who are working on their own businesses on the side, putting in who-knows-how-many hours on the side, and they’ll probably have financial freedom from The Man within a few years. But at what cost? For about 5 years they will have been working almost every waking hour on their business, hours that I spend enjoying life with my wife and generally relaxing. It’s a fascinating trade-off – time now for time later.

-I played a league tennis match on Saturday and wound up facing my mirror-image – essentially another player that hit hard, solid groundstrokes off both sides in any direction, who was also extremely fast and hit great passing shots and lobs. The net result of all this was more groundstrokes than I’d ever hit in a match. I got a blister on my left hand (yes, left, and I’m right-handed) from hitting so many backhands. I wound up losing in a third-set tiebreaker and was simply out of gas. Yesterday, my wife and I did a tough workout at the gym. Today I feel massively sore and can barely move. And I love it!

New Running Buddy.

2008-04-18T09:33:00.003-05:00

Now when Miles and I go running together, I can track how outrageously slow he runs, with this (the one on the left):

It's generically known as the best G-Shock for running since it has a stopwatch that tracks time to the thousands and can keep track of multiple split times, best times, etc. When you absolutely, positively, must know whether you ran a mile in 9:02:338 or 9:02:337. Or when you want to try to stop the watch on a certain time so you can chuckle about how the human brain can't even send a signal to your hand fast enough to measure even hundredths of seconds. Ah, the wonders of technology.

More Subprime Fun.

2008-04-07T20:23:00.002-05:00

Earlier while perusing the 'net I stumbled upon an incredibly outrageous thread on an exotic car message board. It's actually far more complicated than just this part, but what I want to focus on is the fact that "a kid" purchased his "wet dream" car, a Lamborghini Gallardo, from a dealer who let him purchase the car using 9 (that's N-I-N-E, nueve, or however else you want to put it) credit cards. NINE CREDIT CARDS. It gets even better, since this kid wanted to flip the Gallardo for cash, which he wanted to use to get a Murcielago (an even more expensive Lamborghini), but I digress.

What the hell is wrong with society? From the tender age of about ten, I've fawned over Lamborghinis, had models, posters, and drew them ad nauseum, and have imagined what it would be like to own one one day. And yes, you can count on it - I WILL own one some day. It might be well-used and I might be well past my retirement age, but when i get it, I'll be able to afford it and I'll consider myself a legitimate owner. What the hell is up with a dealer letting some douchebag kid buy a Lamboghini on NINE freaking credit cards? Many posters in aforementioned thread say it's none of our business what the kid's personal finances are; perhaps he wasn't extending himself at all and he just happened to want to arrange the purchase that way. I don't buy it. Reading the kid's approximately 10-year-old-level writing tells me this isn't a wunderkind exploiting the benefits of interest rate arbitrage. It's just some dumbass maxing himself out so that he can get his dream ride. It'll eventually be repossessed, so no harm, no foul, right? Wrong. WE pay for it. Somehow, through the repo process, through interest rates, through dealer markups, we end up absorbing the costs of morons who buy Lamborghinis on nine credit cards, just like we are paying for the actions of the irresponsible buyers and lenders in the mortgage crisis.

I always thought that guys who owned Lamborghinis were richer than stink, with so much cash that when they had to pay for a $20,000 routine maintenance they would have no reaction other than "it better be fast." I'm still sure that the vast majority of owners are that way, however, I'm still surprised by the number of stories I run into where someone with seemingly no means is driving a car waaaaay beyond their reach. They aren't ruining our party, but I guarantee you that their actions are somehow screwing every one of your bottom lines in less-than-transparent ways. So by all means, if you run into someone that's fully-leveraged on a Lamborghini through diversified credit card schemes, kick them in the nuts for me.

Yes, I DO Still Have an iPod.

2008-04-02T21:34:00.003-05:00

My wife calls me at work today and says "you have your iPod with you, right?"

Well, no, I didn't. I last used it on Monday, when I mowed the lawn. When I finished mowing, there was a cul-de-sac party of sorts going on (i.e. all the neighbors were out in their lawns as well) so I remember hurriedly taking off the iPod and placing it down somewhere.

Apparently that "somewhere" was the rear bumper of a Toyota 4Runner.

My wife got an e-mail at work today from a coworker explaining that they saw "something valuable" fall off her 4Runner, and inquired whether she could think of anything she was missing, perhaps something that may have been in a gym bag. She responded no, she has her iPod, and her pedometer, so what else could it be...

Well, it could be my iPod that I apparently left on the 4Runner. My black iPod video is encased with a translucent silicon bump protector (thank God) so when the silicon meets rubber (on the top of the bumper), it sticks. Well, it stuck for the freeway miles to work, but not as my wife sped away from work afterward.

Kudos to our honest coworker that saw my iPod fall off in the enormous Lockheed parking lot and figuring out who owns it. Plus, imagine my frustration if my iPod had simply disappeared into the void? It boggles the mind.

He's Famous!

2008-03-27T21:26:00.004-05:00

My good friend the T-Rapper worked on the operation on the front page of CNN! Kudos, T-Rapper!

Welcome to Subprime Hell!

2008-03-27T20:34:00.002-05:00

Link.

Executive summary: single mom formerly making $70K/year loses job, forced to get food stamps.

Particularly disturbing: "She has had to take extreme measures to pay for her interest-only mortgage of $2,500 a month. "

Interest-only loan of $2500 per month is $30,000 per year?! Even at 10% interest (which is almost impossibly high), that's a THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLAR HOUSE. For a single mom making $70K per year! How does that happen?

I used to think that "predatory lending" was BS. I've changed my mind.

Note that I still hold the buyer accountable as well for for doing something so heinously irresponsible, but a buyer shouldn't even have that option!

Is the recession going to get worse? My guess is yes.

What is a "Stealership"?

2008-03-26T15:14:00.002-05:00

Today I read an interesting article about a guy who went undercover as a car salesman to learn the ins and outs of how everything works in that business. I was originally guided to that article by one of my favorite car forums, where people were discussing what it's like to be a car salesman. People commonly refer to dealerships as "stealerships" and I can see where they are coming from in some aspects, but I think that usually the terminology is BS.

First, examples where "stealership" actually applies: 1. You agree on a price and the transaction is seemingly finished, then you find out the dealership wants to charge you $800 in "document fees." Some dealers charge $50, some charge $100, others charge more. Those that have outrageous document fees they they are "helpless" to decrease are probably just trying to fleece you after you've spend hours arranging a deal. 2. They steal your time. My wife and I went to a dealer once for a transaction that was very cut and dry; I qualified for what is know as a "Supplier Discount" at a Chevy dealer and went in to find out what the price would be on a particular car. The salesman left us waiting for more than 15 minutes before returning and requesting that I sign something saying that if I was satisfied with the "mystery price" which could only be accessed via one "special computer" that I'd commit to buying the car. And note that this dealer didn't even have a car I wanted.

Clearly such practices are bad the dealers lose a lot of goodwill when they screw around with people with hidden fees and time-wasting. However, I always chuckle to myself regarding price. Is there really such a thing as "overpaying" for a car? If a car's MSRP is $25K, but deals can be found for $21K on the internet for out-of-town dealerships, if someone actually pays $25K, did they get fleeced? In my opinion the answer is no. Lack of knowledge of market conditions might have led to a transaction where a buyer gave a seller more money than was necessary to close a deal, but at the end of the day the buyer was the one willing to pay $25K for the car, because they valued the car at that amount. As a different example, there are plenty of limited edition cars out there which sell for vast markups. Of course, people complain about said markups but then when they want a car that's incredibly common they want to pay less than invoice. A dealer must make a profit of some sort to make a profit.

Make no mistake, though, I pretty much hate going to dealerships for reasons 1. and 2. I listed above. In a couple years, I'll be looking into a Toyota Sequoia for the family (if we can afford it, if gas isn't $10/gallon), and hopefully by that time, for a car that seems relatively common, it'll be straightforward to arrange a deal with a dealership over e-mail so that the transaction is as smooth as possible. One of my friends recently purchased a car, and after initially hearing "we can't go lower than $500 off MSRP" from a dealer his family had bought many cars from, when he knew that such cars were commonly going for $4K under all over the country, he simply took his business online, where he found another dealer a few miles away that happily arranged a deal with no hassle. Ah, the wonders of technology.

T.I. Given Date with Jesus.

2008-03-20T15:05:00.002-05:00

Link.

Is this news? I keep rubbing my eyes, wondering if I really just read a link on the front page of CNN about an entertainer, under house arrest for trying to buy an army's worth of machine guns, who is given permission to go to church.

DST.

2008-03-15T07:21:00.003-05:00

Daylight Savings Time has been messing with me since it popped up last weekend. On Monday and Tuesday I had an extremely hard time getting up, in fact, the net result was that I got up at the same time as always, and it happened to be an hour later with DST. On Wednesday, my wife and I drove to San Antonio to attend a funeral, thus on Wednesday morning I legitimately had to get up early. Thursday and Friday were a sort of semi-awake-semi-zombie state at the midpoint of the old and new waking times, thus it makes logical sense (yet no sense) that today, on the first weekend day, I woke up at my typical 7:00 a.m. It's still dark outside, though, and it seems like I should still be sleeping. It's not going to happen, though, since once I feel fully awake, that's all there is to it, and there's no stopping the awake-train.

At least I don't have to worry about the rest of the family sleeping in, which they do with pleasure. Miles has learned a new trick over the past 6 months or so: since I'm almost always the first to get up, and depending on what time it is, Miles may or may not be in the mood to get up as well. These days, whether he's in the mood to get up with me or not, when I'm about to head out the door to go to work, he looks at me from the hallway with the stare of "YES! Mommy cuddle time!" He runs into the bedroom and hops into bed with my wife and they sleep like hibernating bears for a couple more hours. Lately, he's become brash enough to attempt this feat even earlier, i.e., as soon as I step outside the bedroom, i.e., right now. Miles likes to sleep later for DST as well.

And here's a picture of when he was a puppy just for the hell of it, since he's so ridiculously cute:

Health Care.

2008-03-14T15:37:00.002-05:00

I found this story interesting. On one hand, Ritter's doctors were cleared of charges. On the other, we have this:

"Eight other medical personnel and the hospital have settled lawsuits. Ritter's widow and his four children received $14 million from those cases."

I'm guessing that eight other medical personnel and the hospital thought they were innocent of charges as well, but settled because it would have been more expensive to go through trial by jury. So there goes another $14M down the drain.

It's a shame when someone passes away, but it's unfortunate to read about cases like this. It's no mystery why health care in this country costs so much.

LOST: The Highs, the Lows

2008-03-07T09:57:00.002-06:00

After last week's Desmond-centric time-travel-fest I was blown away and craving more. Last night was either somewhat of a let-down or just couldn't follow behind what may have been one of the best episodes of LOST I've seen in a while. So Juliette is owned by Ben - and...is that a real revelation? The real kicker was the kiss between Juliette and Jack, to which my wife and I both said, "oh, come ON!" Needless to say, we aren't a big fan of LOST's love-lines.

Here's hoping we pick up on the madness next week...

Election Musings.

2008-02-28T15:37:00.002-06:00

Today I went to a lunch where Kasey S. Pipes, a former speechwriter for politicians including Ah-nuld, spoke about the upcoming election in historical context. It was fascinating to hear him speak because the things he was talking about shadowed my general thought process of what's going to happen from a macro standpoint, as opposed to the low-level issues-based rationale. i.e., the speech was about how two-term presidents are usually followed by change agents, hence the Democratic offering is likely to be formidable this year, but he also cited some interesting statistics about voter turnout in the primaries thus far. I believe it was North Carolina, a predominantly Republican state, where approximately 400K voters showed up to vote for what was an extremely competitive race at the time. A week later, in this predominantly Republican state, more than 500K voters showed up to vote in an election where Obama was already the clear winner. The moral of this story is that the Democratic base is fired up right now and excited about what's going on in their party, and Democrats are showing up in droves to vote.

This is a really interesting article I was pointed to courtesy of TWM: Link.

The last part of that article is the real kicker, though. If Obama does indeed take down Hillary, what happens when we start comparing McCain to Obama? Honestly I think McCain has a more favorable chance against Obama because McCain presents the beacon of experience and patriotism while Obama is green and we're not sure what we'll get with him. McCain vs. Hillary is different, though - both bring the experience, but Hillary has a greater ability to be an agent of change, coming from a different party than the incumbent. One of the speaker's big points about the downfall of the Clinton campaign thus far was that Hillary mis-played her opportunity to present herself as a change agent, and rather stuck with the platform of experience, which doesn't give her a competitive advantage in a climate where historically the American people are likely to want someone who will create change.

I didn't get a chance to ask the question since we ran out of time, but I wanted to know who Pipes thought the VPs would be. I think it's pretty clear that McCain will have to be matched with someone young and vital to provide a contrast for his older-than-dirt disposition, whereas Obama paired with Hillary could potentially set up some sort of Super-Democrat, kind of like the Transformers that connected together to make a bigger robot.

Anyway, I haven't proofread this so I apologize for the scattered thoughts, but I wanted to throw this out there while it was fresh in my mind.

Tennis Today.

2008-02-25T22:09:00.003-06:00

This seems to be the norm in DFW, eh?

Current Front-Runner for Funniest Video of 2008.

2008-02-25T22:05:00.001-06:00

From Jimmy Kimmel Live, "I'm F#$king Ben Affleck." Absolutely priceless.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lcmNaXmjvs

I'm The Badger and I approve this message.

Something Subtle.

2008-02-20T21:01:00.003-06:00

I just finished watching American Idol for the first time this year (I typically don't watch 'till it's reduced to 12, but I just happened to catch it today). This year, there is somewhat of a wildcard among the women - one named Carly, who once had a recording contract, but supposedly never caught on and is now a "ringer" of sorts in the competition. I noticed tonight at the end of the show, after Ryan Seacrest walked off the state, every girl congratated in a sort of group hug, talking to each other about the night and finally getting a chance to relax. Carly, however, stood a good 6 feet from said huddle, and it was really obvious and a bit shocking to me. I'm not sure if she's purposefully acting like a diva (as Simon implied) or that the other girls resent her because of her history, but either way having no girlfriends among the group will not help her as the show progresses, in my opinion.

Attack of the Killer Tomato!

2008-02-18T08:11:00.002-06:00

Last night my friend and I went to the beach. Upon arrival, we reached a small, empty wooden cabin with a bunch of coworkers where everyone was depositing their beach towels, and other random things they brought with them. In the corner of the room was a large sphere (diameter 6 feet) covered in light green leaves.

Flash forward a little later, where everyone is cooking out and having a blast on the beach. Suddenly, the green sphere came rolling out of the cabin and shed the light green leaves, whereupon it was revealed that the sphere was actually a crouched version of a killer tomato (KT), but this KT had a human-like phyisique. KT then had a hearty chuckle and started tossing mini-leaves (that came out of his wrists, similar to Spider-Man) at people that were apparently so thin they sliced right through anything. Cue the gasps of horror and pandemonium. My friend and I happened to be close enough to KT to grab one of the giant light green leaves he shed before he busted out of the ball and in a moment of sheer panic raised the big leaf in protection when KT attacked with small leaves. Fortunately the big leaf was protection from the little daggers KT was throwing at us.

I'm not sure how it ended since I woke up, but since my friend and I had officially out-witted the terrible tomato, I can come to no other conclusion than we kicked his ass and then enjoyed fine spaghetti dinners for three months.

The "AMEN" of the Month.

2008-02-17T09:14:00.002-06:00

I just read this on TWM and must reference it here, because it's so absolutely dead-on that everyone needs to read it and nod their head in agreement:

When Arlen Specter stops investigating the New England Patriots and Congress finally tires of Roger Clemens, his wife, and his swollen, bleeding ass, perhaps they will remember that most of us in America are not nearly as concerned about the integrity of the game as we are about the integrity of our government. As long as the economy's tanking and the war's still raging and there are kids all over the country without decent (or any) health care, I think we can all get over the thought that Bill Belichick might have known the Rams' offensive formations, or that Roger Clemens' wife wanted to look good for her Sports Illustrated photo shoot. So cut the pandering, people, and remember your priorities.

AMEN!

I Got Tickets.

2008-02-16T13:19:00.002-06:00

I'm fairly surprised I got tickets. Row UU, far left of stage. Not good tickets, but tickets nevertheless.

My internet went down 12 minutes before tickets went on sale. Thank God my neighbors were home so I could go use theirs, otherwise I might be destroying the universe as we speak :)

How Much Fist-Shaking Will I Do Today?

2008-02-16T11:29:00.001-06:00

In about half an hour, Radiohead tickets so on sale. I'm not a big fan of Ticketwhore, I mean Ticketmonopoly, as you all know, so I'm preparing myself to be disgruntled at the outcome. We'll see how it turns out. If I can manage to get tickets anywhere, including lawn seats, I'll consider it a success. We'll see how it goes...

Weird Al is a Freaking Genius.

2008-02-15T17:43:00.001-06:00

Enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nej4xJe4Tdg&NR=1

I Suppose More People Stumble Upon My Blog Than I Thought.

2008-02-14T22:17:00.002-06:00

Yesterday I reviewed the new and different Promax bars after rediscovering them in new, zero Trans Fat form. Tonight I noticed a comment to my review which I am reproducing here:

Glad to hear that you are back on the Promax bars. We are striving to make them as healthy as possible and as such have removed all artifical ingredients and made them all natural. If you like the Promax flavors ( Double fudge and Cookies & Cream) and you really want a great tasting protein shake, you should try our Promax Protein shake with 33g of protein, 0 trans fat and 1/2 the fat of the other leading brands. A great choice. You can buy it online at GNC.com and Vitaminshoppe.com

Enjoy

Tim Welch
President
Promax Nutrition Corp

Well I'll be damned. I just Googled "Promax" and my blog didn't come up on the first page, nor for any other obvious search thread I could think of. So is it possible that the Promax President randomly reads my blog, having been directed here from some other source? Man, I really need to return to blogging more often.

And Tim, if the Promax shake tastes anywhere near as good as Muscle Milk and won't fry my brain, I'll be a customer!

LOST Tonight.

2008-02-14T22:11:00.002-06:00

I really want to write something about LOST and how absolutely mind-boggling the show is, but I'm at a loss for words. Why the hell does Ben have so much power over everyone? Who is Sayid killing? Why did Hurley help Locke?

I just had a thought: the end of season 3, Kate refers to a male spouse (?) while she's talking to Jack, and at the time we assumed that was Sawyer. Could it actually be Ben?!

And what's up with the 31-minute-late test beacon? The beacon seems to be a homing device from one source to another, but obviously the beacon took longer to get to its destination than intended. Is the island physically moving? Is that why it's so hard for people to find it?

Promax: Good News, Bad News.

2008-02-13T09:31:00.000-06:00

For years I ate Promax protein bars like they were going out of style. Double Fudge Brownie, Chocolate Mint, Raspberry Truffle, and Cookies and Cream were all delicious and nutritious. That is, until the FDA made printing Trans Fat content mandatory on all consumables. I’ll never forget that fateful day when I discovered that my beloved Promax bars contained a couple grams of Trans Fat.

Now, did that change anything? Not really. I had been eating them for years, and my cholesterol level is a champ, and they were by far the best protein bar brand I’d ever had. But alas, the mental image of taking in bucket of Trans Fat disgusted me, and so I had to end my relationship with Promax.

Last Sunday Monika and I were at Central Market and I picked one up, just for kicks, to shed a tear and reminisce about the days of old. To my surprise, a cursory glance at the package revealed “all natural” and 0 grams of Trans Fat! Could it be true?! I grabbed a couple bars to see if my old friend had really returned. Well, I just finished the staple, Double Fudge Brownie, and am pleased to report that Promax still tastes better than the alternatives, but not nearly as good as it used to taste. Whereas I used to think of them as “delicious” I now think it’s just “good for a protein bar.” But such is life. Damn you, delicious Trans Fat!

At least Promax is now an option again, and wasn’t banished from my life forever, like Muscle Milk. If you’ve never heard of Muscle Milk, it’s a protein shake loaded with fat, and it’s absolutely delicious. It literally tastes like a milkshake. But of course, all good things must come to an end, and Muscle Milk met its demise in my eyes when my wife sent me an article about how MM gives you brain damage over time. Promax, you were never that bad!

Misc.

2008-02-10T22:00:00.000-06:00

-I saw "There Will Be Blood" Tonight. If Daniel Day-Lewis doesn't win the Oscar for Best Actor, I'll be floored.

-Amy Winehouse? I don't get it. She's okay, but why all the hype?

-I haven't been blogging much lately, and I attribute it to brain-drain. Work has been very busy the last couple weeks, and I'm now realizing that when I get home my brain has been transformed into a pile of inanimate goop. And you all don't want to read the ramblings of a pile of goop. Well, you shouldn't, at least.

Squats Are The Devil.

2008-02-05T10:12:00.001-06:00

A quick note: two days ago I did squats for the first time in a while at the gym. Expecting the backlash and wanting to avoid massive soreness, I went light with low reps hoping to come out okay. Sure enough, two days later I am massively sore and cursing squats under my breath.

It makes me think about the concept of the "carbon footprint," where in discussing hybird vehicles we can't just consider mpg, but the power used to create/destroy the batteries, etc. I spend so much time sitting on my ass after squats, reeling in pain, I can't help but wonder if the "squat footprint" actually works out to be a bad thing...

LOST: The Best AND Worst Show EVER!

2008-01-31T21:33:00.000-06:00

As I sit here pondering what I just saw on tonight's LOST, I can't help but continually go back and forth in my head, at once praising the show for being brilliant and blowing everything else on TV out of the water, but also cursing it for continuing to throw me for loops and wondering what the hell is going on. What was Charlie going to tell Hurley? Why did Hurley say he should have gone with Jack when Hurley wants to be back on the island but Jack was leading the group of people trying to get off the island? Who was the tall black guy Hurley spoke with in the mental institution, what did he want, and was he real, or a figment of his imagination like Charlie? If one of both of the tall man and Charlie were figments of Hurley's imagination, why did other people in the mental institution point out said characters to Hurley? Was Hurley imaging the whole lot of people in the institution? And finally, "The Oceanic 6." Jack, Kate, Hurley...Who are the other 3?

So many questions, and only 7 more episodes, for now, to get answers.

Seiko SKX173.

2008-01-28T19:01:00.000-06:00

I heart watches. Since my lenghty dissertation a while back I've been researching watches trying to figure out if there is anything awesome out there which I can actually afford. My journey wound up taking me to the Seiko SKX173, a dive watch with classic looks and historically reliable automatic movement. By the way, clearly I don't dive, but the translation of the concept for me is that the watch is fairly large, waterproof, has a nice lume (i.e. glows in the dark) and durable. I'm sure there are some non-dive watches with these characteristics, but why bother when these look so awesome?

Picture:

Since I've had this all of two hours now I can't make any sort of definitive, long-term definition, so that will be forthcoming. But I can say that for the value, my gut reaction is that this is a must-purchase for anyone who wants a watch with these characteristics (Seiko sells about 100 different spins on this watch with different-shaped number markers, dial/bezel colors, etc., although the 007 and 173 are the "classic" variations). Another thing I like about this watch is that the second hand sweeps; not with Rolex-like precision, but something like 6 beats per second, which I think is more elegant than the one-second tick. Also, I'd read some negative reviews about the rubber strap being too stiff or generally uncomfortable, but I'm shocked by how much I like it. It's actually quite comfortable and attractive. Anyway, that's all I've got for now; I'll try to update later with how well the automatic movement keeps time.

Kudos: Home Depot.

2008-01-27T17:02:00.000-06:00

The other day I went to Home Depot to buy air filter replacements. The filters my house uses are 20x20x1 and 20x14x1. The latter, it turns out, is an abnormal size because it can occasionally be tricky to find; 20x16x1 is the more common size. So, of course, even though I literally had what I need to buy written down on a sheet of paper, I managed to screw up the oddball filter, and only realized it after I took off the cellophane. As I prepared myself to grovel at HD and profess my stupidity, I was cut off because the exchange was a total non-issue. The customer service lady just said "no big deal" and sent me on my way.

So thanks, Home Depot, for helping out the scatterbrained population that somehow screws up a simple shopping list. :)

"3:10 to Yuma".

2008-01-24T22:52:00.000-06:00

I just finished watching "3:10 to Yuma," and was taken back to my memories of "Unforgiven," the last Western I saw where afterward I felt that I'd seen one that will go down as a classic in the history of the genre (although I can truthfully say this still wasn't on the same level as "Unforgiven"). I won't bother adding a plot summary for a movie that came out long ago, and a remake at that, but I'll tell you that the performances all around were excellent and the finale was worth the buildup. Check it out.

The Cloverfield Spew-Fest Continues.

2008-01-24T09:02:00.001-06:00

It turns out I'm not the only one that got a not-so-fresh feeling from the film, since it's now national news.

Anyway, I still think it was a good movie. But the sequel better have normal camera action - there is no way they can pull off that gimmick twice.

Break-Fest.

2008-01-22T21:17:00.000-06:00

I'm watching the Australian Women's Semifinal between Venus Williams and Ana Ivanovic, and I have to say, it's pretty disappointing and somewhat annoying when the pros are involved in a huge crap-fest. In the first set, there were 6 breaks of serve in a row.

If I were really hardcore, I'd stay up 'till 3:30 a.m. tonight to check out Federer vs. Blake, which if anything, will be intriguing from the standpoint of seeing whether Blake can be competitive against Federer for once. If Blake could upset Fed and Nadal wins, Nadal would take over the number 1 ranking from Fed, which would be mind-boggling.

Whenever I see professional tennis on TV, I always feel motivated to grab my racket and hit the court. Too bad it's in the 20s outside right now. I'm hardcore enough to play outside when it's in the 30s, but not the 20s. Hopefully it'll warm up tomorrow.

On a closing note, let's enjoy a brief moment of recognition for my friend Chris, who finally broke down and purchased clothing for the first time high school (only partially joking). Good work, bro!

Misc.

2008-01-20T20:06:00.000-06:00

- The Patriots won earlier today to my chagrin, because that means we're now one game away from decades of debates and discussions about how godlike and amazing the 2008 Patriots were. Even three games into the season I thought the Brady-worship was a little crazy, but if they pull this off we'll never hear the end of it (seriously).

- The Packers and Giants are playing in ~-20 degree wind-chill conditions. Jimmy Johnson showed his glass of water frozen-solid at the pre-game show. It's been in the 30s here in Fort Worth this weekend, which is pretty painful to my Texas-acclimated skin. These guys are insane.

- Speaking of "Cloverfield: Bring Your Barf Bag," my poor neighbors have been afflicted by a barf-fest that's rotated from their son to both parents. I'm somewhat curious whether Cloverfield indeed had the epic yacking-power I believed it did or whether the inclination for hurlage was actually aided by some virus action. Mmmm...chunky.

- Monika and I are dog-sitting this weekend for Miles' friend, Caedmon. After approximately 50 hours of playplayplayplayplay the dogs are finally out of commission. I almost can't believe it.

- The Australian Open has been pretty interesting thus far. Who'd have thought that Tipsy would take Fed to five sets? Suddenly the Swiss machine looks like he might be beatable. That's only in theory, though; every time I begin to think that Fed decides to turn it on and prove us all wrong.

- My wife is the best chef ever. I've mentioned that before, but it frequently deserves reiteration.

- The Giants/Packers game is actually shockingly tight right now. Time to pay attention to the rest of the game...

"Cloverfield": Bring Your Barf Bag!

2008-01-18T19:36:00.000-06:00

I just returned from Cloverfield, and it was an excellent movie. I won't describe anything in the movie in detail so as not to spoil anything. I do want to caution you, though - I almost hurled. The camera was unsteady - seriously unsteady - relentlessly unsteady. I felt sick to my stomach afterward. I just want to warn you.

No Particular Reason Other Than It Makes Me Smile.

2008-01-16T16:55:00.000-06:00

Tired and Happy.

2008-01-13T22:29:00.000-06:00

There's a lyric in the Radiohead song "No Surprises" that says "you look so tired, unhappy," but whenever I hear it, my ears transform it into "tired and happy," a phrase that I believe describes my general disposition fairly well. I spend a lot of time working hard - at everything - and often, at times like 10:33 PM on a Sunday night after a long day with a fun birthday party, I'm exhausted and just want to collapse into bed. And I wouldn't change a thing.

Closer to 30 than 25.

2008-01-12T15:01:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow I'm turning 28. In celebration of my achievement of making it 28 years thus far, I encourage you to check out the most amusing song of 2007, "Birthday Dethday" by Dethklok (yes, this is supposed to be hilarious):

Many years ago today
Something grew inside of your mother
That thing was YOU!

You! You! You! You! You!
Did she scream?
Did she cry?
Only those that are born are ones that get to die!
One more year closer to dying
Body organs ripping, frying
Biological discordance
Birthday equals self-abhorrence

R S V P Please
For the death of me
You have little time
You're running out of life
Happy Birthday.
You're gonna die!

On a side-note, a couple days ago a friend recommended a band which he said "makes Dethklok sound like Bon Jovi." I need to check that out.

Fun.

2008-01-09T09:06:00.000-06:00

The other day I was chatting with a friend about investment-related stuff. He mentioned that he was joining up with a couple different groups of friends on occasion to talk about investments, and that he’s learning a lot, and that I should join up, because it’s a lot of fun. I took pause at that comment, because I certainly do not consider talking about anything business-related “fun.” He thinks it’s fun, though, and I know a lot of others that do. In fact, I have many friends that consider it fun to constantly learn new things about investments and the business world in general, and constantly strive to go to meetings and make new contacts because that’s what gives them their kicks.

This is not the case for me. When I think about fun, I think about hanging out with Monika, playing tennis, lifting weights, running, listening to music, painting, or driving my car. In other words, whereas I work in a “math-related” industry, I get little to no pleasure from participating in more activities that involve 0s and 1s.

Of course, the grand conclusion here is that I need to quit my job and become a professional athlete, rock star, artist, or race car driver. Does anyone know people that are hiring in any of those slots that want someone with no to limited experience?

Another Gem from the Dilbert Blog.

2008-01-09T08:41:00.000-06:00

I must quote this since it's not only hilarious, but also so applicable to my summer tendencies:

"I opted for the slow but certain death of sun exposure. My skin is just thick enough to keep my organs from forming a pile around my ankles. It can’t handle much sun. I had so much sunscreen on that all I needed was a tiny model of a bride and groom on my head and I would have looked like a wedding cake. But I still kept checking my pulse to see if the sun had killed me yet. It was nearly 80 degrees on the beach, and about 120 degrees inside my hard shell of sun screen."

"Vacation Challenged" - check it out!

Work = Boo.

2008-01-06T21:19:00.000-06:00

I've now been on vacation for 17 days, and tomorrow I have to return to work. I'm not looking forward to it.

How Many Handles Are In My Kitchen?

2008-01-03T10:36:00.000-06:00

Yesterday Monika and I traveled to Frisco for a Great Ikea Odyssey. Those of you who have been to Ikea know what I'm talking about - it makes Wal-Mart and Super Target seem like convenience stores in comparison. When we reached the kitchen section, we found cabinet handles we liked a lot. So, we started counting the number of cabinets in our kitchen, and were somewhat shocked at the realization of just how many we have. Want to take a guess? You're not going to believe it. Scroll down for the answer (I'm shrinking it so you don't cheat)...

59.

Yes. You read that right. We have a big kitchen, but never in a million years would I have thought we have THAT many drawers/cabinets. It took me about 4 hours all-in to install all the handles, and the vast majority of the work was measuring and marking where to drill holes, which was more difficult than you'd think.

The end product is awesome, though - it was worth the effort. I'll upload pictures and post them shortly.

"The Price is Wrong, Bitch!"

2007-12-31T10:03:00.001-06:00

Quick notes since The Price is Right just came on TV:
1. Drew Carey is no Bob Barker.
2. When the four contestants bid to enter a game, they bring out an item and the bidder closest to the price without going over wins. The fourth bidder, therefore, has a competitive advantage because they can bid $1 and will win if everyone else is over. The third bidder at this moment just bid $1200, then the fourth bid $1199, i.e. she literally has no chance to win unless the price is specifically $1199. Am I the only one that gets annoyed watching this type of behavior?!?

Welcome to the 21st Century.

2007-12-31T09:59:00.001-06:00

Let us pause for a brief moment of silence to thank God for my parents' new acquisition of DSL, where they will no longer play victim to the perils and heinous waiting times of dial-up, re-acquire use of their telephone, and operate at about 5,000 times their previous efficiency. Bravo!

The Rocket - *?

2007-12-23T19:03:00.000-06:00

Roger Clemens posted a video in defense of the Mitchell Report statements:

Link.

I have mixed feelings on the statements made about the Rocket in the Mitchell report. Clemens is a Longhorn, a former Astro, and a general fixture of Houston, the city I grew up in, not to mention I met him once (I'm pretty sure I did, at least) since his house was next to that of one of my middle school classmates growing up.

Did Clemens take steroids? I don't necessarily think it matters since the Mitchell report was comprised of "statements," not "accusations." So what this situation amounts to, as has been mentioned in the media, is a smear campaign of sort that has no impact on anything but his legacy, which is obviously important to him.

When I first saw the report, I was happily surprised to see that Alex Rodriguez wasn't present on the list. Then I thought, is A-Rod just that much of a talented freak of nature that he can be totally uninvolved in all the roid-rage and still be better than everyone else?

I'm not sure if Clemens used steroids, and no one will ever know for sure, in my opinion. But one thing that we do know for sure is that baseball over the last 15-20 years has a gigantic asterisk looming over it. It's hard to see one player singled out like Roger, but also unsurprising given his historical feats. It'll be interesting to see if he can refute the statements made against him, and what lengths he'll be willing to go through to make that happen.

If there is one thing I can say for The Rocket, it's that unlike other roid-accused peers, he never went through a phase of turning from a shrimp into a bulging giant (see Exhibit A: Barry Bonds and the gigantic head). Plus Roger was a dominating pitcher in the period of time before he supposedly started used steroids. In his case, the "right in front of your face" evidence does not stack against him like it does for others, and for what it's worth, I hope he didn't do it.

In Rainbows Boxed Set Pictures.

2007-12-22T08:10:00.001-06:00

The people demanded pics, so I oblige...

What you're looking at when you get it:

After you remove the grey sleeve, you get this:

...Which folds out into this. On the right are the two CDs (a bonus CD with previously unheard music came with this, that I mentioned yesterday) with a large lyric book. The left and right sides have the two LPs. The left side has a large book of artwork.

Sometimes it pains me thinking about how much Radiohead rules.

Cold Air.

2007-12-21T22:35:00.000-06:00

There is something particularly enjoyable about driving a sports car in cold weather. With steam coming out of my mouth and hands shaking, when I turn the key on my Vette, the growl emitted from the 4 tailpipes is raspier, meaner. With throttle application the same sentiments are accentuated, and once I’m rolling, even more so. The combination of slightly increased power (colder air = denser = stronger combustion) and less traction (cold rubber and concrete = less traction) gives me a much greater sensation of power through the gas pedal, available in all gears.

It’s a shame that I’m so addicted to Vettes and sports cars in general. Life would be much easier and money would be much less wasted if I were content to drive around a Chevy Aveo or something of the sort. But then, life would also be less interesting...

The First Listen.

2007-12-21T08:47:00.001-06:00

Yesterday I got my "In Rainbows" boxed set in the mail. Well worth the $90, to say the least. The package is impressive. I'll try to get some pics up later, although they are all over the internet already, I'm sure.

What has me perplexed at the current moment is the unique experience of listening to a new album from your favorite band for the first time (the boxed set came with an "In Rainbows II" album, with 8 other tracks I've never heard). For me, listening to music is a powerful experience that grabs hold of my soul and squeezes tightly, so it's odd that when I listen to a Radiohead album for the first time, I'm almost "zoned out," like I can't believe it's actually happening. But I never forget the first listen. It morphs in my mind over time from and event that was a bit unbelievable to one that takes on mythical proportions. The first time I heard "OK Computer" I was in a Best Buy parking lot in Houston, TX, in my 1987 Dodge Ram Charger with Alpine head unit and Eclipse speakers mounted in mini-boxes in the rear seats (the Dodge had no rear speakers from the factory); I put the album in, and I'll never forget the first crack of electric guitar that struck my ears from "Airbag," telling me that the album was a different animal than "The Bends."

I wonder how I'll reflect on this one years from now.

The Watch Watch.

2007-12-19T21:17:00.000-06:00

Lately I’ve become somewhat infatuated with watches. This sounds somewhat ridiculous because until 6 months ago I never even wore watches on any sort of consistent basis. I have discovered at this point that’s for two main reasons: 1. The only watch I had at that time, although I like it, has a bracelet that pinches hairs on my wrist when I wear it, so it’s sort of an annoying experience to wear it. 2. Said watch is a pretty good watch, but it’s not a watch that I love. Those who know me know I’m the type of guy who’s really passionate about things. I am typically borderline obsessive (see: cars), passionately negative (see: most top-40), or purposefully indifferent. So you can imagine that in the case of a watch, or “man jewelry” as some on the internet would say, I’m not likely to wear it often unless I’m really into it.

My wedding band is red gold. Somehow, months ago, I became someone fixated on the idea of getting a watch that matched my wedding band, so I began eyeballing red/rose gold watches (brief editorial note: gold is “yellow.” There are variations including red/pink/rose which have varying degrees of silver and copper mixed in which give the gold a general copper-color hue, which I love. I have discovered that although my wedding band is called red gold, most of the time this color is referred to as “rose” gold, although it means the same thing). I shortly discovered that watches made with solid rose gold are hellishly expensive. However, on Overstock.com, I discovered a wide variety of watches that are rose-gold plated. After a couple months of deliberation, I wound up purchasing a skeleton watch by Stuhrling with automatic movement, rose-gold plating, and a black leather strap. And I must say, the watch has exceeded my expectations and I actually like it quite a bit. I’ll get to the gripes in a moment, but I wear it every day, unless I’m wearing one of the other watches I bought – a Fossil with a brown strap to match brown shoes or a white Casio G-Shock to accompany gym clothes. The gist, though, is that I now wear a watch all the time.

Here’s the thing about the Stuhrling, which I wear the majority of the time: for starters, the watch was well worth the price for the materials and craftsmanship. In other words, the watch was on the order of $150 and it has real gold plating, self-winding movement, etc. That’s not a lot of money for a lot of functionality. As far as materials are concerned, though, the crystal isn’t of supremely high quality, unsurprisingly. In almost any light condition I can detect imperfections in the crystal, which amount to “cloudy lines” here and there, which are annoying. For the movement, I was actually shocked and surprised to see the second hand “swoop” through the dial Rolex-style when I first fired it up, as opposed to “ticking.” However, the pendulum on the back of the case, which is behind the kinetic powering of the watch, apparently doesn’t do a well enough job of powering the watch under normal wear. In practice, I actually have to physically wind the watch on a daily basis using the knob on the right of the case, until I see the wound spring in the skeletal movement get tight enough to know the watch will be okay for the rest of the day. This problem isn’t the end of the world by any means, but it’s a gentle reminder that my watch isn’t exactly the highest quality piece.

Regardless, I’m still a big fan of my Stuhrling and can without hesitation say that based on my experience, I’d recommend this brand (from Overstock) to anyone looking for a well-presented, perfectly functional watch that looks great. On the same token, I’ve become incredibly intrigued by the concept of watch craftsmanship, movement, and rarity. It’s fascinating to me, for example, that many watches like Rolex, Omega, Hublot, Tag, etc. simply do not lose much value over their life span. Plus, if you never want to get your money out of it, at some point in your life you can pass the piece down as a family heirloom, and it carries the sentimental value. A messageboard I often frequent had a heated debate about whether a watch is worth more than $500, the conceptual argument being that watch movements are mostly similar, and otherwise you’re just paying for name and/or materials (gold, platinum, etc.). Ultimately, there is no argument to be had here since value is in the eye of the beholder and if a watch sells for $20,000, it’s because the purchaser simply valued the materials and craftsmanship of that piece at that price; it’s really no different than those that spend excessive amounts of money on Lamborghinis, diamonds, speed boats, etc.

So, I’m thinking about buying a Patek Phillipe because they are only $20,000 and I think that it would be a good investment for…admit it, I had you going there for a second!

Seriously, though, clearly I don’t have the money for something like that nor do I personally value one watch for that much money, especially since I’m obsessive about matching and could probably never pull off just one. However, I have become intrigued enough by the craftsmanship and materials to start watching the prices on some watches that have solid red/rose gold in their construction, and hopefully I’ll be able to save up and pick up one such example in a year or so. I figure that if I’m still this interested by the time I’ve saved up the money, the purchase will make sense and it will have been well-thought out.

Leggo My Preggo!

2007-12-19T08:05:00.000-06:00

Britney Spears' 16-year old sister, Jamie Lynn, is now pregnant.

"It was a shock for both of us, so unexpected," she said. "I was in complete and total shock and so was he."

She continued, "I mean, I didn't know that having sex is how babies are made. I'm only a sophomore in High School, people, give me a freakin' break. I haven't taken that class yet."

Casey Aldridge, the father, was found toilet-papering a friend's house for comment. "I think I'm ready for this. I mean, I just got my license and now I'm banging a rich chick so my life is pretty much taken care of - hey, who are you? Turn off that recorder!"

If everything goes according to schedule, Jamie Lynn's 17-year-old beaver will be appearing on gossip websites in approximately 1 year, setting a new record for underage debauchery.

Inspired By "The Dark Knight."

2007-12-18T21:03:00.000-06:00

Walking down a dark alley bring feelings of brooding and loneliness, accentuated by the incessant drops falling from the gutters, mercilessly hammering the ground below, slowing eroding the surface. The moonlight beams down upon me at a 30-degree angle, elongating my shadow, intriguing me to ponder what life would be like if I were taller and thinner. If my arms and cape were longer, I could glide for longer, maybe forever; I’d fly through the night casting my gigantic shadow on the ground below, reminding criminals that I’m everywhere, watching, waiting…

Absolute Jibberish.

2007-12-18T17:37:00.001-06:00

Something tells me that
Without further explanation
You can see further than
You previously thought you could
But in case by chance
You have a moment of revelation
Sufficient to bring you further clarity
Instead of banging your head against the wall
You’d instead bang the wall against your head.