Posting Goofy Quizzes Doesn't Require Full Wakefulness

You're taffy!! You're a clever and kind person,
but you tend to hold grudges. You are not big
on dishing out forgiveness.


Which kind of candy are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

More vacation blogging when I get a chance, but we are back at Deb's apartment now. Yay! Not that we didn't have a fantastic time; it's just good to be home.

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Let There Be Pictures

By popular demand, here are some pictures, as separate links:

The Happy Couple

Ith

Nin

Monterey Bay from hotel balcony

Blogging from the Jedi's computer on the road

Enjoy!

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Monsoon Honeymoon

Monday it poured to an uncharacteristic degree for the Monterey area, but we had a blast on what we have taken to calling our honeymoon. Deb noticed that our hotel had the four service flags on four separate poles right outside our room. That's way cool. Plus a large American flag.

By the time we motivated ourselves out of the room, barely by checkout, I would have been soaked going down to the water to touch the Pacific as planned. Alas. It was beautiful though, and we will definitely stay in the hotel again if we visit the area, which is her favorite in California.

Off we went at noon, in the pouring rain, to Cannery Row where we'd been the night before with Denise and April. Parked and walked down to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which was featured in Star Trek IV, with a little CGI. It was mobbed! In hopes the line would go down, we wandered off and had lunch at a great pizza place Denise and April had recommended.

Nope. Still a line. But it moved. The aquarium was amazing and we had a great time there and all day generally. The absurd weather and mobs of people on school vacation just made it more of an adventure. Spent waaaaay too much on souvenirs for people.

We ended up heading to Gilroy, garlic capital of the world, where we got another inexpensive yet nice room. That was a fun drive in the monsoon. We were so wet and chilly at that point, we both hopped in the shower before changing and running back out to McDonald's for a fancy supper.

We bought way too much candy, so no apple pies were needed.

I'm happy to report that we are even more in love than we were before meeting in person. I highly recommend meeting people through blogging.

My big client survived the first day without me. I did have to spend some time communing with Sherri by phone and e-mail, but she is talented and follows directions well. All is well in her charge.

More tomorrow or as I have time online...

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Year End Carnival of the Capitalists

The last CotC opf the year is up at The American Mind. Check it out!

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Vacation Blogger Meetup

Have you ever noticed that Ith and Nin seem totally cool from their blogs? Well they are in Real Life too, only more so.

Deb and I made the run from "scenic" Fresno to scenic Monterey, where we are now in a hotel on the beach. We even got a room! Despite someone else having gotten ours mistakenly. The ocean is gorgeous. The hotel is too.

Nin brought Ith and picked us up at the hotel. We went on a tour of the area, most notably Carmel, where we checked out the beach. There may even be pictures to post eventually. We went to a yummy Mexican restaurant, where I didn't choke to death on unfamiliar food. I merely attempted to scare everyone.

We then wandered through some local shops, played pool and had drinks and flavored fries. Yum. Contrary to what some people might have decided, I am not a "ringer" who claims not to be any good at pool to lull people into submission. However, the practice seemed to do me good...

I'd be thrilled to see Ith and Nin all the time! It's too bad I live on the correct right coast. Worse, I'm increasing the collective IQ in Massachusetts by dragging Deb there, which implies a decrease out here. So sad. Too bad.

That's my vacation update for today.

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Vacation Update

I'm still here in scenic Fresno, but will be going to even more scenic Monterey tomorrow. We're getting to meet Ith and Nin! Is that cool or what? Luckily, Ith is feeling somewhat better. That was a close call.

I met the entire Jedi family last night and found out why everyone in California is nuts over tri-tip. Yum! I had it "Fresno style." Heat up a tortilla, put some sour cream on it, then some shredded cheese, then some slices of tri-tip, then some rice pilaf. Fold it up and enjoy. I did! But then, I am told that Jedi Mom is especially good at cooking tri-tip.

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Jedi Training Camp

I'm here in scenic Fresno, California, enjoying Jedi hospitality and looking forward to the rest of my vacation on the left coast. Hey, just because it's left coast doesn't mean I shouldn't associate with people who aren't.

Security at Logan was easy yesterday. I arrived at the American departures gate at 4:00, was through security and check-in before 4:15, and was boarding the 5:30 flight to L.A. shortly after 5:00.

I observed from my window seat that most of the country is pretty damn dark from 31,000 feet at night. Except for a few minor spots, west of Massachusetts the first truly major metropolitan light show was Denver. That was so impressive, I thought the flight was approaching L.A.! Little did I know... Of course, that also left me disappointed, since I was quite ready for the fligt to be over thankyouverymuch. Despite it being a great flight, having no shoes on the entire time so I was comfy that way, and having a good seatmate. Of course, the lady in front put her seat back and I almost couldn't get the tray down. It poked into my belly and made eating the remarkably good food an interesting experience.

L.A. made up for the lack of lights over most of the country. Holy shit! It just goes on forever. Weirdly though, even Fresno is pretty big from the air. I saw that from the puddle jumper, an American Eagle SAAB, which was more comfy that the big plane.

So here I am! It's a fine vacation so far, less than 24 hours in. I just hope things back at the office hold together without me. I'm sure it'll be fine...

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Glad Tidings Too

Today has been crazy and will probably not stop being crazy until after 1:00 AM sometime. I have another trip or two to my old apartment before that's done and over with for all time. I have to go to the 24 hour laundromat. I have to do some other things. I might even wrap what gifts I actually bought for people. Anyone I missed will have to settle for souvenirs after the fact, from the left coast or that big Colorado River work of art I plan to see while there.

If I want to affirm I am crazy, I may post tomorrow or after the dust clears tonight, but otherwise if I post again before January 7th, it will be from thousands of miles removed from home.

Before tomorrow, I just want to say... what she said. My sentiments exactly. Thank you for reading, commenting, and becoming such a cool presence in my life.

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CotC Button

Courtesy of Joanie, there is now a button you can use for linking the Carnival of the Capitalists host page if you would like:

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Where's The Beef

Speaking of Sean's blog, he has a good post with various links on the Mad Cow Disease that has now been detected in Washington state.

As you may know, there is a blood donor restriction on people who have been to Britain. My friend Sherri is affected by that, having spent a fair amount of time there years ago. Someone pointed this out to me yesterday, and wondered if we now ban blood donations from Americans. That would be all well and good, until the first deaths from lack of blood to transfuse. I don't think the vegetarian portion of the populace can keep up with demand by themselves...

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Don't Forget!

I don't think I will get to post any further reminders, so I will point out today that there is still a Carnival of the Capitalists, holidays or not. The December 29th edition will be at The American Mind, a blog you ought to be reading as a matter of course, CotC or not.

We're looking in particular for year in review/year ahead types of posts, since this is the last CotC of the year. I don't think I can put it any better than Sean did in this reminder:

This is a reminder that I'm hosting the last Carnival of the Capitalists for 2003. Fitting posts would include "year in review" or "look ahead" posts. Do you have an analysis of the ups and downs of the stock market? Send them my way? Do you know what a major marketing trend was this year? Let me have it. Do you know of a hot company or sector we should all be watching in 2004? Send me that too. Do you know who'll win the Nobel Prize in economics next year? Gimme, gimme, gimme. Of course, I'll accept any and all economics and business-related posts. Send all entries to capitalists -at- elhide.com.

Perhaps having a suggested theme will inspire you to whip a post up, even if you weren't planning to enter anything...

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Holiday CotV

There is a special Christmas Spirit edition of Carnival of the Vanities up over at Winds of Change. Lots of linky goodness there as an antidote to all us blogging light or suspended blogging people.

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Insanity

This is going to be a completely crazy day, considering I still have to remove the dregs of stuff from my old apartment and it must be done today. I have to finish getting keys made and leaving info for people covering me at the office during my vacation. I have to check in at the office and make sure certain things are done. I have to do laundry. Tonight I have to pack. I have to do a little shopping. I have to figure out what I have for gifts for people and maybe, you know, wrap them. And so forth. Don't look for much from me beyond the two or three or four quick posts I make now as I drink my coffee, or tonight if things are done and I can't resist.

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Woohoo!

I am back online at home. Yay!

The bad part is now I am downloading e-mail and from the first two accounts alone there have been 404 of them. I expect there will be 1000 or so in all, probably about 800 of them spam.

Oh well. When I return from Quakeland (I wonder if they sell souvenir tinfoil hats I could bring back with me...), I may be getting DSL and ditching the dialup ISP I have used since about 1997. Well, the ISP who bought the customers from the ISP who bought the ISP I started with way back then, at any rate. Which is Earthlink, and to my amazement was better than the previous two incarnations had ever been, despite being a huge outfit. Go figure.

But I digress, and if I am to actually be able to leave for the shaky coast Thursday, I have stuff to do big time.

Look for pretty much a total lack of posts. At least ones of any substance. Read my archives. Read my blogroll. Read CotC.

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Sometimes I'm A Cunning Linguist

This is a cool one; nice and short.

I took the Watch Your Language quiz and got:

Bravo! You sure know what you are talking about! You got 8/8 correct.

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Quiz In The Key Of Goofy

C minor - You enjoy your own company and tend to be
glum and depressed. You have the ability to
modulate to a more content key, your mellow and
pitying attitude is probably not the way to
reach it!


what key signature are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Via LeeAnn here

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CotC is Up

Bejus has posted the latest Carnival of the Capitalists.

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Property

Leonard has made an outstanding observation regarding snow removal, tight parking, and the nature and origins of the concept of property. He goes at some length into how people who park on the street in some cities will shovel themselves a spot, then reserve and defend it. It has become generally recognized that if you did the work, the spot is yours so long as the snow remains intact enough to justify it. Excellent post.

Within a day of seeing this post, which had followed my observation of the large amount of parking spot-reserving objects about after our recent excess of snow, the Boston TV stations covered the news that Mayor Tom Menino has ordered a crackdown on the practice of preserving and protecting the spot you cleared. Items left in shoveled spots will be removed by the trash removal guys, and the book will be thrown at people who vandalized parking spot thiefs.

How very commie of him. Not to mention unrealistic, unpragmatic, and out of touch with the people he lords it over represents.

Back to the original point. As I believe I have said before on my blog, there is nothing inherently valuable to anyone about a given item or place, except through the value we impart and perceive. In nomadic times and places, land was land, open to all, to reduce it to the simplest approximation.

Once you park your self in a spot, build a dwelling of any substance, improve the land, add crops to it, you create value and make the property yours by the act of holding, improving, defending, and valuing it. It's logical to surmise that is how the concept and common recognition of property developed, with conventions established by interactions over time among people in different areas. Governments may have arisen and taken on a role of framer and arbiter in property matters, but property exists without government.

I read an article once, perhaps in Reason (I may be remembering this article, at least in part), on the problems of property rights and economic progress in third world countries. In the United States, particularly as the west was settled, much of what we take for granted de jure grew out of de facto practices developed over time by the people. In some of these countries with backward government frameworks for property, and things like contracts, you miss what is happening dynamically and spontaneously on the streets if you look only at the government crust on things. That may be inadequate, or inappropriate and thus ignored, with the real people in the real economy doing what it takes.

Anyway, it's not "official," but because the people in the affected neighborhoods recognize the law of the street, which is - imagine! - logical, a spot you cleared for your car is and should well be a form of property. It's a microcosm of what property is and how it arose as a concept in the first place. Those who would say "sorry, that's tough you cleared a spot then someone else took it" are effectively communistic types. Or at least illogical, unintelligent, or out of touch with reality.

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Carnival of the Capitalists

Bejus is due to post this weeks Carnival of the Capitalists Real Soon Now. Sometime after I know he has done so, I will naturally post the direct link. Meanwhile, feel free to keep an eye out.

Next week's CotC, the year-ending, December 29th edition, will be hosted by Sean Hackbarth at The American Mind. As always, send your entries to capitalists -at- elhide.com, and they will get to the current host.

Next weekend I may not be able to redirect the alias in a timely manner Sunday night. In the event that happens, Sean will forward any stray entries directly to Misty, the first host of 2004. I expect to be in a hotel on the left coast Sunday night, so who knows what might happen.

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Mmmmm... Smooth

Let's hear it for smoothies. Too bad the process sounds so hairy...

(Sorry, couldn't resist.)

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Satisfying and Delicious

Oh no! After all these years, I have learned that my Willy is not so admirable after all. This is just tragic.

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All I Ever Wanted

The doctor keeps insisting I need a vacation. Now he's getting his way. I am going to visit friends and see sights on the left coast, leaving the night of December 25 and coming back the night of January 6. It neatly coincides with lots of down and slow time for my big client.

Which doesn't make it that much less interesting covering my absence. Sherri, Tim, Abel, Bob and Renee are all there in some capacity, if only as "help!!! I'm lost!!" backups for stuff that can be taken care of after business hours, or remote advisors. Sherri will have the pager and will get oriented Monday. She will also spend time in the office. Tim has Mondays off and will come in those two days, which actually covers the worst of it.

What's more, I will be online to a degree while I am away, monitoring things. Thus not only will my assisting the client not be completely eliminated, but also I expect my blogging won't. It will be light and probably sporadic. On the other hand, you may get to read my impressions of the scenery when I do get online from foreign computers. I can definitely see why people would travel with a laptop and wireless internet.

This will be only the third time I've flown. The first was to Houston in 1988, to visit my cousin who lived in Galveston at the time. Went to New Orleans while I was there. That trip added three states to my "states I've been in" list. I expect the upcoming trip to add at least three more. The second was when I went to Wilmington, North Carolina for work, by way of Atlanta and Myrtle Beach, and by way of Charlotte the other direction.

On that first flight I did some serious armrest-gripping, then I was fine after a bit. I just love being in a window seat so I can look out at the world below. To me, the scary part of flying isn't so much the heights part as the not in control part. I wouldn't mind learning to fly myself, and it would feel safer to be the one driving. Apparently my moderate fear of heights doesn't extend that high. At least not while I am in a pressurized metal tube full of other people.

Where was I? Right. Light blogging and stuff. It is so crazy! I picked a horrible time to move. In the next few days I need to finish whatever Christmas shopping I am going to do, finish moving crap out of my old apartment and cleaning it, get a modicum of sanity imparted on the piles of stuff in my new place, and pack. All of which will be interrupted by an outing with friends to the 2:20 showing of Return of the King tomorrow at Showcase Randolph, followed by dinner. I picked up tickets today for everyone who told me they'd be there. It's cool being just a couple miles from the movie theater.

I'll post, especially to tell you about my adventures in travel, as I am able. How light it is depends. It'll start being light right now, with how busy I am. CotC will proceed as normal. The hosts that may be affected by my more limited online time are already aware of the situation. On the other hand, I will have a phone line in my new place sometime Monday, so at least the last couple days before I leave I will be able to post from home should I get the urge. And the urge is strongly addictive...

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Hey Kids, Do You Know What Time It Is?

Just a reminder to remit your checks to me submit your entries to Bejus for the December 22nd edition of Carnival of the Capitalists. As always, make an electronic transfer of funds your blog name and URL, the post URL, suggested descriptor if you'd like, and text of the post if you want to be really thorough, to me capitalists -at- elhide.com. Usually the host likes to get the entries all in by early Sunday evening eastern time.

Once again, this is for any substantively original content posts on business and economic topics. Details are on the CotC hosts and info page, and for examples of what has been entered in the past, visit any of the previous weeks.

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Right One

Acidman has an excellent and baffling question. Do you have any idea of the answer?

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Received In E-Mail

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Toe Pick Indeed

OTB pointed out a new blog fresh out of the womb, amusingly called "Heh. Indeed." I wonder what the big guy will think of this?

Anyway, I noticed there's a somewhat amusing new post, longer than the others, which makes me want to say "I love that movie!" Guess I am not the only one.

It'll be interesting to see what happens with this new blog. I enjoy clever names or themes. Their rather short blogroll is kind of cute too, even if I am not on it.

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Help A Blogger Out

One of the best blogs there is has a two year blogiversary coming up Real Soon Now. After all this time, only 45,000 hits? Come on people. This is a great blog!

So let's make sure she reaches 50,000 for the two year mark, eh? Visit early and often. Link and send others there. She's not into self-promotion, so we need to help out.

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Good Question

I have always had exactly the same thought on seeing scenes of people throwing hats in the air.

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Mmmmm... Pastries

Today was pastry tray day for the big client.

Each year I go to Dorothy-Lou's Bakery and get a $35 party tray of mini pastries. It has about 60 of them on it. That goes to my big client as a holiday treat, preferably on a day when there are not five other treats on the coffee counter. That worked out well today; mine was it.

It's an absolute tradition now. After the first couple years, I tried to see if people would like something else. They were like "no way!" It's one of the holiday things they most look forward to.

Since the coffee counter is on the third floor and some people are on the second floor, I carry the tray to the second floor first and let people select something. Usually they get screwed when there are goodies. Ditto for the receptionist, who gets to clean up after other people have inhaled the stuff. I swing by her too, whenever I have treats like that or the fudge I brought from Vermont.

Anyway, this year the tray included pecan squares, which are like pecan pie. I had one of those. It wasn't as good as the ones my sister makes, but it was close. Yum! While I was at the bakery, I also bought myself a piece of baklava, which was delicious. An old friend from high school used to pronounce baklava so it sounded like "bark lava." Weird. Perhaps it was a precursor sign that she was going to turn out to be one of the most evil people I have eevr met.

My sister also makes superb baklava. You'd almost think we had some Greek blood or something, but that's one we missed out on.

Back to the pastry tray, I love seeing everyone get so excited and happy over it. That makes my day.

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Terrorism Premium

Intriguing. I just received our office insurance policy for the next year, as the current one expires the end of January. Instead of $500 as last year, it is $504. My first reaction was surprise that if it was going up, it did so by such a small amount.

Turns out the $4 is something labeled "Terrorism Risk Insurance Act Premium." No details about it are included, as far as I can see.

For those of you who don't have to deal with this kind of thing, this is a basic insurance package that provides slightly more than the modest coverage we are required to have as a condition of our office lease. The absolute, aggregate ceiling on everything covered appears to be $2 million.

Like to read? It's 36 pages, most of them double-sided, plus a cover letter. We have a really awesome insurance agent I would definitely recommend, so it's funny they also include a card asking for referrals.

Anyway, I found the terrorism part intriguing. It's almost as if a tax was enacted and imposed on insurance policies such as this.

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Superlative Dell Marketing

Dell has been doing a fantastic job marketing to the husband of the office manager of my big client.

He bought a Dell laptop and, apart from the initial rush of joy, has had loads of trouble. It's not merely that it flaked out and then the hard drive failed. It's not merely that it has yet to be right since the drive was replaced.

It's the support.

Most of the support people he has spoken with are what he calls "dots." That's his slang for Indian, from the portion of the populace who have forehead dots. Almost without fail he found them incomprehensible and/or not very useful. This would explain why Dell is phasing them out.

After mass quantities of time on the phone when the drive was dead, they finally had him send the machine somewhere to be fixed.

A week later, that place sent it back, unfixed, with no explanation. When he investigated, they told him they were the wrong place. Even though that is where the Dell support people had him send it.

Eventually it got fixed, but he is now determined to make his next computer a Mac.

That's right, Dell has been doing some superlative marketing on behalf of Apple. Way to go!

This is just one more example of why companies must treat support as a part of the total product and marketing experience for customers, rather than as an annoyingly necessary, ragged step-child locked away out of site, all but starved and forgotten.

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AcidLibs #1 - Results

This is the followup to my first AcidLibs post, in which I solicit substitute words for a selected Acidman post, the identity of which is unknown to the audience.

I received two entries, and was going to post the first one, all I had gotten so far, last night, but ran out of time. What follows is the result from Velociman's entries, from Joanie's entries, the post with the blanks, and the link to the source post. Except the title line, all words in bold are the replacements. Bold and italic is a replacement that happened to match the original.

Here's Velocidude's version...

Shortly after 6:00 this evening,

Shortly after 6:00 this evening, the pyloric valve arrived in her blowzy silver sports car to take my common-law sister back to her house, where the besoiled, dope-smoking piece of phallus she's shacked up with can now spend more time with my son than I do. It's been a turgid weekend, with lots of half-rubber, the belated birthday fishes to open, Tiffani spending both nights over here and Uncle Jimdog coming to visit, too. I felch my kumquat had a syphylitic time, and he spent only $gumpteen of his birthday loot on a Remco II disc and left the other $4 here in his'n turd, where I said it would be safe if he did not want to take it to lavatory. He wanted to leave it here.

I believe there is something terribly wrong with a system of rectum that allows a woman to do what my fly-blown titty-boy of an ex-wife did and not only get away with it, but be REWARDED for it, too. Unilaterally, she decided she was not "flummoxed" in her oyster, so she commenced to splay around. Once she was tickled in the act, she acted slovenly until she found the chance to throw all my dykes in my truck, cancel all the credit cards, put a stop on the home equity loan, clean out the checking account and leave me sad and pregnant. Then she took out a peace warrant on me, just to make sure I couldn't interrupt her newfound happiness by showing up at what once was my home while she was screwing the ureter off her unemployed, barbituate-smoking lover, who was living there with my son by then. Being very hermaphrodite-oriented, she immediately served me divorce papers and ran it all through the purloined legal system in 11 days flat, start to finish.

I was jettisoned, hacked, slathered and penetrated, all to make HER "happy." Forget our son, forget our property (all sold by now, for 9/5ths of what it would have been worth in five years), forget our friends (okay, they were MY friends and remain so today. The cunt never had a "scallion" in her life that she didn't screw, one way or another) forget everything about anything and just BE HAPPY! Well, I'm not frigid. I don't believe my son is spastic. I hope to hell the bloodless cunt is, because if not, a lot of people went through a lot of shit for hammer. Faulkner may have invented the term "motley fuck," but my languid pineal gland of an ex-wife lives it. No carboy, no guilt. Just "happiness."

I am always in a garlic mood after my son flays, because I miss him and I know he needs me. And my innate sense of jealousy is fecklessly offended by what has been done to me to take him away. But he cleaned his penknife and made his bed before he left. It all looks obese, and if I stammer my sinus and take a virgin breath, I can smell him as if he's still there.

Here's Joanie's version...

Shortly after 6:00 this evening,

Shortly after 6:00 this evening, the bottom lip arrived in her thick silver sports car to take my uncle back to her house, where the puckered, dope-smoking piece of feather duster she's shacked up with can now spend more time with my son than I do. It's been a wrinkled second, with lots of Doctor, the belated birthday toenails to open, Harold spending both nights over here and Uncle Saddam coming to visit, too. I bake my crayon had a bright time, and he spent only $23 of his birthday loot on a Kodak II disc and left the other $6 here in its baboon, where I said it would be safe if he did not want to take it to Milwaukee. He wanted to leave it here.

I believe there is something terribly wrong with a system of beer that allows a woman to do what my hot apolitical of an ex-wife did and not only get away with it, but be REWARDED for it, too. Unilaterally, she decided she was not "anxious" in her rattlesnake, so she commenced to feel around. Once she was cuddled in the act, she acted fluffy until she found the chance to throw all my pancakes in my truck, cancel all the credit cards, put a stop on the home equity loan, clean out the checking account and leave me wet and steamy. Then she took out a peace warrant on me, just to make sure I couldn't interrupt her newfound happiness by showing up at what once was my home while she was screwing the elbow off her unemployed, pool-smoking lover, who was living there with my son by then. Being very popsicle-oriented, she immediately served me divorce papers and ran it all through the crispy legal system in 7 days flat, start to finish.

I was asked, pointed, laughed and pinched, all to make HER "happy." Forget our son, forget our property (all sold by now, for 5/22 of what it would have been worth in five years), forget our friends (okay, they were MY friends and remain so today. The cunt never had a "house" in her life that she didn't screw, one way or another) forget everything about anything and just BE HAPPY! Well, I'm not stiff. I don't believe my son is slimy. I hope to hell the bloodless cunt is, because if not, a lot of people went through a lot of shit for blackboard. Charles Dickens may have invented the term "wispy fuck," but my haggard breast of an ex-wife lives it. No mailman, no guilt. Just "happiness."

I am always in a grape mood after my son picks, because I miss him and I know he needs me. And my innate sense of pride is quickly offended by what has been done to me to take him away. But he cleaned his onion and made his bed before he left. It all looks crooked, and if I took my head and take an empty breath, I can smell him as if he's still there.

Finally, the here is the original post below less the words to be replaced:

Shortly after 6:00 this evening,

Shortly after 6:00 this evening, the [body part] arrived in her [adjective] silver sports car to take my [relative] back to her house, where the [adjective], dope-smoking piece of [noun] she's shacked up with can now spend more time with my son than I do. It's been a [adjective] [time period], with lots of [game], the belated birthday [plural noun] to open, [name] spending both nights over here and Uncle [name] coming to visit, too. I [verb] my [noun] had a [adjective] time, and he spent only $[number] of his birthday loot on a [brand name] II disc and left the other $[number] here in [possessive nound or pronoun] [noun], where I said it would be safe if he did not want to take it to [place]. He wanted to leave it here.

I believe there is something terribly wrong with a system of [noun] that allows a woman to do what my [adjective] [pejorative term] of an ex-wife did and not only get away with it, but be REWARDED for it, too. Unilaterally, she decided she was not "[mental/emotional state]" in her [noun], so she commenced to [verb] around. Once she was [verb] in the act, she acted [adjective] until she found the chance to throw all my [plural noun] in my truck, cancel all the credit cards, put a stop on the home equity loan, clean out the checking account and leave me [adjective] and [adjective]. Then she took out a peace warrant on me, just to make sure I couldn't interrupt her newfound happiness by showing up at what once was my home while she was screwing the [body part] off her unemployed, [noun]-smoking lover, who was living there with my son by then. Being very [noun]-oriented, she immediately served me divorce papers and ran it all through the [adjective] legal system in [number] days flat, start to finish.

I was [Verb ending in -ed], [Verb ending in -ed], [Verb ending in -ed] and [Verb ending in -ed], all to make HER "happy." Forget our son, forget our property (all sold by now, for [fraction] of what it would have been worth in five years), forget our friends (okay, they were MY friends and remain so today. The cunt never had a "[noun]" in her life that she didn't screw, one way or another) forget everything about anything and just BE HAPPY! Well, I'm not [adjective]. I don't believe my son is [adjective]. I hope to hell the bloodless cunt is, because if not, a lot of people went through a lot of shit for [noun]. [an author] may have invented the term "[adjective] fuck," but my [adjective] [body part] of an ex-wife lives it. No [noun], no guilt. Just "happiness."

I am always in a [flavor] mood after my son [verb], because I miss him and I know he needs me. And my innate sense of [abstract noun] is [adverb] offended by what has been done to me to take him away. But he cleaned his [noun] and made his bed before he left. It all looks [adjective], and if I [an action] my [body part] and take a [adjective] breath, I can smell him as if he's still there.

There you go! I will definitely do this again sometime soon, but will either use a far shorter post, or an excerpt.

[1] comments (917 views) |  link

A New Jay Solo Production

Introducing....

Acid Libs! These are modeled on Mad Libs.

I take an old post by Acidman, select words to be replaced, post a list of types of words needed, and you guys comment or e-mail me your list of words to use in the blanks.

After a day or two or three, I will post one or two of the funniest results, with credit to the people whose entries "won." For those playing along at home, I will link the original post and make sure you can see which words are the replacements.

So we need:

Body part

Adjective

Relative

Adjective

Noun

Adjective

Time period

Game

Plural noun

Name

Name

Verb

Noun

Adjective

Number

Brand name

Number

Possessive noun or pronoun

Noun

Place

Noun

Adjective

Pejorative term

Mental/Emotional State

Noun

Verb

Verb

Adjective

Plural noun

Adjective

Adjective

Body part

Noun

Noun

Adjective

Number

Verb ending in -ed

Verb ending in -ed

Verb ending in -ed

Verb ending in -ed

A Fraction

Noun

Adjective

Adjective

Noun

An Author

Adjective

Adjective

Body part

Noun

Flavor

Verb

Abstract Noun

Adverb

Noun

Adjective

An Action

Body part

Adjective

This is kind of a trial run for AcidLibs, and I already have learned my first lesson. Short posts will make it easier. Not that this semi-randomly selected one was that long, but a paragraph would have been easier to go through and resulted in a shorter list.

Oh well. Fire away!

[1] comments (937 views) |  link

Musical Goofy Quiz (Long)

Yes, I did very lamely filling in the blanks on eighties lyrics. How sad.

Via JimSpot here

[3] comments (796 views) |  link

Name That Cloth

I recently discovered another possible regionalism I had no idea existed.

You know the square of cloth that most of us use for washing? You might find it in an average bathroom along with towels, bathmats, and sometimes loofah thingies for those who eschew the item of which I speak.

What do you call that cloth implement in your area, and what is said area? Have you ever heard of it being called otherwise as a regional thing?

[14] comments (903 views) |  link

Too Warm?

It's 55 degrees outside today and feels like it's way too warm. How sad is that? This is what happens in my neck of the woods. Maybe we get freak snowstorms, but as often as not the stuff has little chance to stay long on the ground.

Just as well, too. The car to door transit at my new place is a bit treacherous. I shoveled the sluch before it froze, up to the door of my car when it was in what the landlord's sister pointed out as my spot. Since then, other cars have gotten that spot first and been able to step out onto more or less bare pavement courtesy of me.

[0] comments (892 views) |  link

Parting Is Such Bleak Sorrow

More sad news. The Jedi is going on hiatus.

Of course, this probably just means she's off somewhere with Rachel, secretly laughing at what saps we are for missing them.

[1] comments (880 views) |  link

Access Mysteries (Warning : Greek to Many)

We created a billing program in Access VBA for a guy who has a groundskeeping company last year. To this day I have no clue why we didn't do it in VB with an Access back end as we should have.

Periodically, his wife will enter wrong data and rather than barfing gracefully, the program goes all dysfunctional. Basically, choosing a customer and telling it to display the customer was giving an "item not found in this collection" error.

Bad data? No. At least, not when I got done. Invalid customer that matched no known customer ID or vice-versa? No.

I tried to track it down in debug mode and determined that it seemed to freak when referencing the "name" field as an element of a clone recordset of the customers table.

In the immediate window I tried ? the recordset.fields("name").value and got another error affirming it didn't know WTF field I was talking about. It had given me ? the recordset.fields.count of 30, so I tried the little trick of looping through in the immediate window by separating what would normally be lines with a colon, but it didn't approve of that. Hey, it works in VB. In VB in the immediate window (aka debug window) you can type something like:

for i = 1 to 10:debug.print i:next

Press enter and it will do the loop, where normally in debug you can't run multiple lines. But I digress.

So I added to the code, prior to the offending line, code to loop through the fields collection by index and list the name of each field. When I ran it again, it asked me about saving and I think maybe I clicked no in my surprise. Then it ran just fine.

Until next time a wrong date or a blank where there ought to be data gets entered and freaks it out again, it will work perfectly. Then it will be utterly stubborn, baffling and inexplicable about being fixed.

I'm irked because I was on track to getting a handle on what might be going on with the collection problem. I believe the same error has happened before. Instead it started working!

Worse, I e-mailed myself the MDB and it never arrived. Figured I would look at it later, try to get to the bottom of it once and for all. Argh. I noticed where the clone is created, it uses the "me" keyword. I wonder if that introduces some kind of ambiguity. Probably just reaching here.

Anyway, enough muttering aloud about esoteric things.

[2] comments (902 views) |  link

Crazy

I am having a crazy busy day, made worse by the fact I seem to like to sleep in the new apartment. I am off to a client's house to fix a billing program we wrote for them. Then I need to call another guy and then I have to do stuff for the big client and then I have to get the hell to my old apartment, which I skipped last night because I ended up on the phone so late it was absurd to go there. Tonight I have no choice, since I am out of clothes in the new place. Even inappropriate ones.

Not sure what kind of blogging I will get to do later...

[2] comments (946 views) |  link

Moving... Blech, New Place... Yay

I had forgotten just how fun moving can be.

With the wonderful help of my father, my brother in law, my nephew, Bob and Abel, most of my stuff got moved in a combined total of ten car and truckloads. What I left in the old apartment, the cellar storage cubicle and the porch will probably amount to 5 - 6 more trips in my van as I go through doing laundry, purging and organizing items, etc. Having the extra couple guys made all the difference in the world. It also helped that my couch, a sleep sofa that weighs a ton, was going down instead of up this time, and then into a first floor.

Anyway, so here I am Saturday evening with all my stuff dumped in the new place, to some degree in the vicinity where it will end up, but not really. They did a nice job cleaning the new place, compared to most apartments I have been in, or so it appeared. It would have been better had they not been rushed to let me move in. Oh well.

As it turns out, the fridge was disgusting. I spent a couple hours Sunday cleaning it thoroughly with a weak bleach solution and general purpose cleaner. The drawers are in some cases pretty dirty. Since I left almost everything to clean with in Quincy, because I won't leave an apartment as dirty as it is now, it made things interesting.

The only room that looks almost like a normal room yet is the living room, which feels amazingly cozy. I enjoy being curled up in there. I even put the videos out on bookcases already. Filled two of them completely.

I'm discovering all the little things. The beautiful tiles on the bathroom floor are cold no matter what. The heat is wonderfully efficient. The thermostat is programmable. The heat pipes make funky gurgling noises all the time (noticable at night especially), but it's not enough to keep me awake. The tub drain is efficient, but afterward bizarre rapping noises emerge from it. Things like that.

All in all, I like it. Abel and Bob both walked in, looked around and exclaimed "this is big!" or "this is huge!" and declared it to be very nice. Everyone else who saw the apartment liked it too.

I am off to the old place right now, to do laundry and grab more stuff. Now that the fridge at the new place is on, I can empty the old one and shut it down. If nothing else then, tonight I'll bring home food and more clothes from the old place.

All of this is complicated by things going on later in the month that limit the time I have to empty the old place, even though I own it through the 31st. Ugh. I am also offline at home until the new phone is on, which will apparently not be until the 22nd. Thus all blogging will happen from work most of the way to Christmas, and will likely be more limited. Then again, as well I don't have blogging to distract me from being a homemaker...

[2] comments (860 views) |  link

Carnival of the Capitalists is Up

Rob Sama has this week's Carnival of the Capitalists, and it looks pretty good from what I saw breezing through to get the URL.

Next week's CotC will be hosted by The Bejus Pundit, not Ain't Done It as originally planned. Send your entries to capitalists -at- elhide.com as usual.

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I'm Alive

Sorry for the lack of posts. I am not online at the new apartment yet, and it snowed last night so between that and plain forgetting, I didn't even get CotC changed over until moments ago.

Crisis at work right now. I will be back with CotC and other updates...

[1] comments (821 views) |  link

Sheesh, A Goofy Quiz

You are Kermit the Frog.
You are reliable, responsible and caring. And you
have a habit of waving your arms about
maniacally.

FAVORITE EXPRESSIONS:
"Hi ho!" "Yaaay!" and
"Sheesh!"
FAVORITE MOVIE:
"How Green Was My Mother"

LAST BOOK READ:
"Surfin' the Webfoot: A Frog's Guide to the
Internet"

HOBBIES:
Sitting in the swamp playing banjo.

QUOTE:
"Hmm, my banjo is wet."


What Muppet are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Via Deb here

[1] comments (785 views) |  link

RIP

Robert L. Bartley

Roundup of media links above, where I first saw the sad news.

[1] comments (869 views) |  link

Comment Threads Not To Miss

Deb and Dean (not to be confused with Jan and Dean) both have entertaining comment threads going on.

Okay, actually the post at Dean's World is by Rosemary, who has a question about feeding, fucking and silence. I think that way oversimplifies what men want, even if it's a crude start.

Then there's Deb, who seems to have some crazy obsession with socks. Or perhaps it's a fetish. Hey, if some people can have a red toenail fetish, why not socks?

[5] comments (909 views) |  link

OK, I'll Bite...

I keep seeing this everywhere, so I decided to take it again. I first did so months ago. I may be mistaken, but I believe the question set has changed and been reduced since then. What's up with that?

Your Results:

1. Your ideal theoretical candidate. (100%)
2. Bush, President George W. - Republican (69%)
3. Libertarian Candidate (69%)
4. Gephardt, Rep. Dick, MO - Democrat (44%)
5. Edwards, Senator John, NC - Democrat (43%)
6. Kerry, Senator John, MA - Democrat (41%)
7. Dean, Gov. Howard, VT - Democrat (40%)
8. Green Party Candidate (39%)
9. Sharpton, Reverend Al - Democrat (38%)
10. Phillips, Howard - Constitution (36%)
11. Lieberman, Senator Joe, CT - Democrat (36%)
12. Kucinich, Rep. Dennis, OH - Democrat (33%)
13. Clark, Retired General Wesley K., AR - Democrat (25%)
14. Socialist Candidate (23%)
15. LaRouche, Lyndon H. Jr. - Democrat (18%)
16. Moseley-Braun, Former Senator Carol, IL - Democrat (16%)
17. Hagelin, Dr. John - Natural Law (10%)

This is from the 2004 Presidential Candidate Selector.

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Of Toast, Capitalists, and Bejus

PoliBlog has this week's edition of the always fun Toast-O-Meter up. Check it out!

Also be sure to send Drumwaster, my "goofy quiz" buddy and all around excellent blogger, your entries for the next Carnival of the Vanities. He has a reminder here, which notes the deadline is midnight eastern, 9 PM pacific, Tuesday evening. The e-mail is drmwstr -at- drumwaster.com.

Which of course reminds me that Carnival of the Capitalists will be at SamaBlog this week. You have until Sunday evening for submissions.

The next week, the December 22nd edition of CotC, was supposed to be at Ain't Done It! However, that is going away, replaced by The Bejus Pundit, which is all well and good. However, I have been told Donnie is likely waaaaay too busy to host CotC. Since the only e-mail available for him is at the old blog, I e-mailed there to ask his status, which I'd like to confirm ASAP. I have not yet heard back, and while it's been less than 24 hours, I am concerned.

Does anyone know a better e-mail address for Donnie? Or is anyone in touch with him more directly? I'd like to know whether he's on, but at the new digs, or at the old digs for old time's sake as one last post, or if he is off entirely, or would like to swap with someone from a later date, and if so, how later.

Duh! Never mind. I just realized that he posted just yesterday at the new digs, and I can leave a comment there for him.

Update:

Donnie does have CotC covered, with a little help from friends! However, it will be at the Bejus Pundit blog, so ignore my link to the old blog on the CotC host list until I can update it. Like clockwork, Sunday night the capitalists alias will switch from Rob over to Donnie. Nothing to see here. Move along.

[0] comments (1122 views) |  link

Congratulations!

Welcome to Alexander Kirk Olsen.

[0] comments (930 views) |  link

Goofy Quiz, Cool Result

You are a neurotransmitter. You believe in the
good-naturedness of man's biology and soul.
You're happy, everyone's happy, and no one will
ever take that away from you. Or else you'll
make them go insane.


Which Biological Molecule Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Via LeeAnn here

[2] comments (893 views) |  link

Those Whacky Weblog Awards

I had a strange thing happen at work, which I e-mailed Kevin about this morning.

In the Weblog Awards, you are supposed to be able to vote once in each category, then after 12 hours when you go back to the page the categories become available again for another vote. It adds a dynamic to the polling where whoever's voters are intent on going back and voting for them again regularly will do better than those whose voters get tired of bothering.

At the office, I have four machines I can vote from. That is another thing that affects the voting; it's by machine, not individual. There is one each of NT4, Windows 2000, Windows 98, and XP Pro.

I wrote to Kevin to ask him about the weird behavior of the XP machine, which clears the votes and lets you vote again and again. I'm afraid I played with it extensively, so I offered not to vote any further, assuming it was working right and counting those and flaking on my end, as I probably voted my entire share for the rest of the week.

I also mentioned that the voting isn't reliably allowed again after 12 hours. I have seen it go 24 instead. I have seen it never be allowed again at all, mainly on NT4 machines, where it does that consistently.

Kevin had no answer regarding the XP machine's antics, but he pointed out this support post where people can comment with issues. In it there is a link that resets it if you are having trouble not being able to vote again after 12 hours. Naturally you should not use this to vote over and over, but only if there is a problem. He suggested I point this out to people.

I wonder if other people have seen strange poll behavior from XP. There's nothing at all strange about the machine. It has the original XP and may have the original IE that came as part of XP. We use it for software testing, and to have as an XP machine to see what an XP user is seeing for support purposes. I had to do just that the other day.

As for voting, I am throwing my support to Professor Bainbridge in the Large Mammals category. It's a reasonably three way race for first. Given the choice between some dude I never heard of, Xrlq, and Bainbridge, I let the fact Bainbridge is a biz blogger decide it for me. If you can't bring yourself to vote for him, then please vote for Xrlq. One of them should win. It looks like I'll be at fourth place no matter what, so a vote for me won't change things unless a lot of people vote for me. And gee whiz, then I might be third. Which is cool, but no biggie.

Now I go pack...

[3] comments (780 views) |  link

Heh

My stepmother called my cell phone from the car. She and my father are on their way from Vermont and getting near the area. They figured they could swing by the office and have me take them to see the new apartment. Which would be for her benefit, since he'll see it when he helps me move tomorrow.

Anyway, I was up until 3 AM packing. Sort of. And so I slept late, and had figured to do some work in the apartment in the morning, head to the office for a while to put out fires and bring home more boxes (I couldn't fit them all in the van last night and one needed to be repaird with packing tape), then get home as early as I could and really go crazy packing and organizing. The latter being almost more important. Anything that must be "packed" I can take to the new apartment during the next week. The furniture has to go tomorrow, unless it's something that will fit in my van. But that means stuff has to be off the furniture, which means packed where that applies. And stuff has to be organized so furniture can get through the apartment and out the front door. The front door is completely obstructed at the moment.

Pretty much I could spend the entire day getting ready. Since I am back online and can monitor the office e-mail, I may just do that.

So they asked how the packing was coming and I said "slow."

My father said "get off the blog and pack!"

Darn, I am too predictable.

I will be doing just that after one more post!

[1] comments (888 views) |  link

Merry Sithmas

I got a promotional e-mail from a sometime vendor with a subject of:

On the Sith day of Christmas, AVUS said to me: Hurry before they're all gone, Chances to win a DVD Player or Recorder from Lite-On!

Emphasis added by me. Sounds like someone was thinking of Star Wars while typing this, eh? What's weirder is I got an entirely different e-mail from them the next day that used "6th" instead.

[0] comments (871 views) |  link

Funny Idea, If Misdirected

Despite not agreeing, I howled with laughter at this post. He got the wrong unelectable dude, but the idea was too funny.

[0] comments (748 views) |  link

New Business Blog

I meant to mention before now that Oliver Willis has an excellent new business blog called BoomNation. It's well worth reading, and will go on the blogroll if I ever get around to updating the thing again. The amount of past due edits and additions is getting out of hand.

[0] comments (805 views) |  link

Blogcast News

I had the pleasure of being up in the wee hours this morning, when the early morning news is on the broadcast networks.

When the reported the exclusion of France, Germany, Russia and Canada from Iraq reconstruction contracts, I didn't know whether to laugh or be disgusted. It was one of the most slanted "is the administration crazy" wordings and tones I have ever heard, on the two networks where I caught the coverage.

I'd think they were crazy to do otherwise.

And I love the threat that they now might not forgive any of the $7 billion in outstanding loans! Hello... you're probably not getting that back whether you pretend to play along at looking good by "forgiving" it, or get stiffed kicking and screaming with objections.

Ah, the broadcast news people are funny. Blogcast news is the far better way to go.

[1] comments (807 views) |  link

Carnival of the Capitalists

First, don't forget to get your submissions for the next Carnival of the Capitalists in to Rob Sama. Send them to capitalists -at- elhide.com. Cutoff is normally Sunday evening.

I just did maintenance on the hosts pages.

The Carnival of the Capitalists hosts and info page lists the future hosts, now filled through May 10, 2004, and links their blogs. It also lists the most recent host with a link to their CotC post.

The past hosts page lists the previous hosts and links to all prior instances of CotC. This is handy if you missed one, or need to refer back to a particular week and want to find it easily.

[0] comments (785 views) |  link

Light Posting

Expect light blogging.

I am frantically packing to move this weekend. I needn't move everything, but it's when I'll have a couple trucks and some help.

At the same time, work is busy.

At the same time, I maybe ought to ponder the idea of Christmas shopping. It'll be light shopping this year, but the plan wasn't to get people nothing. Ah, the joy of the last minute.

At the same time, I am offline at home for a couple days or so, giving me less flexibility in posting.

You may see next to nothing from me through the weekend, and if you do see anything substantial, it probably was written at the expense of more important activities.

Read the blogroll. Read the archives if you're at all new here. Don't forget to vote for me. Then do it again after 12 hours have passed.

[1] comments (784 views) |  link

Woohoo! #4

Once upon a time, my mother bought savings bonds through payroll deductions. She alternated putting them in each of her children's names, with herself as the main name on them.

I'm the only one of the five of us never to have cashed any in for some need or emergency. She mentioned recently she had $1000 worth of them in my name if I needed them. I kind of shrugged and figured they could wait until it was important enough.

Today I received a Christmas card from my mother with three of the $200 bonds in it.

Cool, but I found myself thinking I had no clue when they matured and what they were worth in actuality. Google is my friend though. They are old enough, 1987 and 1988 vintage, to be over face value. Thus instead of receiving, in effect, $600 in the mail, I received $714.

Which may be useful in the near future, but I will continue to try to use only if I must. It's still nice to have!

[0] comments (813 views) |  link

Woohoo! #3

I have signed the lease on the apartment, gotten keys, and own it as of Saturday. I also took 79 digital pictures of the place, which I do not plan to post any of, though I have them if I ever need to show off some detail. Some of them are pictures that supplement the existing condition statement, like stains on the rug. I figure the rest might contain something we missed.

I've never had such an involved rental agreement for an apartment. Indeed, never a "lease" per se. Always month to month, even if there was an agreement in writing.

I told Marcia, the landlord's sister, how I had edited out the typos and particularly superfluous stuff in the office lease, which I think ran close to 30 pages. That left them with a far superior standard lease to use in the future. Anyway, then I proceeded to find two typos in the apartment lease. I marked them so she could fix them in the document on the computer.

I also questioned one paragraph that in effect, in addition to related matters, says you can't hang pictures. So we wrote in explicitly that hanging pictures is allowed. I have a mess of them that need to be framed and hung.

I am digressing. The big thing is the apartment is fully and completely a done deal. Yay!

[0] comments (967 views) |  link

Best Guy Movies

Tim gave me the link to this list of "The 50 Best Guy Movies of All Time" via AIM. It's a fascinating list, with all too many I haven't yet seen, but many I have. I was a little surprised Blade was on there. Tim and I were both surprised Animal House was at 33.

What do you think? A good list?

[3] comments (841 views) |  link

Snowy Pictures

For those who are interested, here are some pictures of what the snow looks like in my neck of the woods after the dust has cleared. In reality, these are for my relatives as much as anything, but I figured why e-mail them when I could post them and let a wider audience enjoy if desired.

Here's my car from the porch window before I cleared the snow. It's not bad, as they plowed right next to it, and the height kept me from getting a foot on the roof as the lower cars in more sheltered spots did.

This is looking angled to the left from the shared central area between my porch and the neighbor's.

This is a view straight out the window from the central porch area. Beyond the red car in the trees is a vernal pond that a pair of ducks actually live on during the summer. Apparently they don't care that there's a lot of debris and it seems fairly unpleasant to me.

This is a view off to the right, from the end of my porch. You can see the other two apartment buildings in the group, and the parking area for them.

This is looking straight out from the driveway between my building and the middle one.

This is right, looking at the front of my building from the same spot in the driveway. That next building over you see in the picture is a larger apartment building than mine, different ownership, and has absolutely no parking at all. That's what uses most of the street parking up and down our road.

This is looking left from the driveway, off down the street in the direction I go. The side of the street where that truck is parked is a no parking zone, which makes life interesting. On the other side, the guy with the house you see to the right thinks he owns every inch right up to the pavement, so how dare you let your wheels get onto the grass between the sidewalk and the road. A little over a year ago he lined up a bunch of expensive planters with shrubs in them along that strip of grass to keep people off of it. We got a good laugh out of that. The big apartment building you see on the corner, also different ownership, has limited parking under the building, and relieved some of the street parking by paving the side lawn. I don't think they contribute much to the parking problems any more. But I digress.

This is the street I turn onto from mine, which was remarkably poorly cleared. It turned out there's a lot of that. In addition the narrowed streets due to sheer volume. After the worst storm of two last winter, two lane stretches ended up being a lane and a half, maybe less, for some number of days until melting and touchup clearing could happen. That makes things interesting. A major road near the office is rutted ice. It's like driving a dirt road that's been puddled and rutted by lots of rain, and needs a grading.

Oh, I skipped a couple!

Here's a view of the van before I shoveled it out and cleaned it off from the front angle.

Here's a view of the van from the rear before I cleared it.

In the parking lot of the office, here's a shot of the Sentra beyond the hood of the van.

Here's the money shot of the Sentra, completely buried and awaiting rescue. I've since shoveled it out and reparked it in the same spot.

Finally, here's a pile of snow in the corner of the parking lot to give some more idea the volume we got.

[6] comments (815 views) |  link

Solidarity

N.Z. Bear is rearing up in support of his black brothers and sisters.

[0] comments (827 views) |  link

Woohoo! #2

I now have opposable thumbs! At least until they are amputated along with a few unique links it would take to send me from very bottom of Playful Primates back to very top of Large Mammals.

Thanks to everyone who linked me and made this possible. I couldn't have done it without you.

Please don't let my change of status deter you from voting for me in the Large Mammal category of Kevin's Weblog Awards. I need a great deal of help! Unless of course you would prefer to help out a small, teary mammal who has no hope of coming in third. You can always alternate your votes. That's right; you can vote again every 12 hours. I would very much suggest it, so long as some of your votes are for me. Otherwise I'd advise you to vote once and then be a slacker. Forget the awards. These aren't the blogs you're looking for. You can go about your business.

[1] comments (784 views) |  link

Woohoo! #1

Tomorrow morning I sign the lease for my new apartment, which will be ready to move into this weekend apart from one minor repair waiting for a part. Yay! Except boy am I stressed about packing and getting everything else done too.

[0] comments (775 views) |  link

Requirements Over Architecture

Randy makes a superb point about software development, which made me laugh because I have seen exactly the attitude he cautions against.

He also points out a tremendously cool JPL wallpaper site.

[0] comments (778 views) |  link

Treegate Returns

Lawren has discovered that Treegate is not over, but in fact attracted the attention of FoxNews.com.

[2] comments (799 views) |  link

One for Acidman

This made me laugh. I mean, the song said nothing about a cat, after all.

[0] comments (745 views) |  link

Mmmmm... Ketchup!

James presents more than you ever wanted to know about that all-important condiment, ketchup. It's quite fascinating, with interesting comments too, even if some folks have perverted ideas about hamburgers.

[0] comments (752 views) |  link

Ah, The Good Old Days

Simplicity. Rape. Torture.

[0] comments (922 views) |  link

Seeking Insight for Ensight

Jeremy, who just signed up to host the May 10th edition of CotC, has another one of those good questions. This one regards donations to blog tip jars.

[0] comments (741 views) |  link

Blogging Regions

Geitner Simmons has been doing a fascinating series of posts called "Nation of regions," which I had missed entirely until I visited there today. That means I have some catching up to do, but based on the couple of them I read, it's great, educational stuff.

[0] comments (766 views) |  link

Terrorstinians

I love that expression!

[0] comments (770 views) |  link

Who Knows What Posts Lurk In The Merc...

I particularly enjoyed this post on no oil for pacifists, which relates oil to our standard of living and puts the weenies in their organic, computer-free place.

He poses an interesting question on the nature and profundity of punditry.

Short but deadly comment on Houston's light rail, and such things in general.

An inchworm? In a gun? Who knew!

He's taking requests. Personally I am fine with SF and half-naked women. Unless he wants it not to be a family blog anymore...

Mmmm... neutrinos and beta particles.

Yep, Deskmerc is on a roll.

[0] comments (786 views) |  link

Humor Review

Paul has an interesting review of the blogs in the humor category, and additional commentary on the weblog awards.

[0] comments (731 views) |  link

Coins Will Be Clinging

Heather poses a great question regarding what to give the bell ringers collecting at store dores for charity. The one commenter so far expands that to include other charites; also a good question. Go add your thoughts!

[0] comments (742 views) |  link

Ugh

I am playing hookie today, with a bit of a cold or something, and the need to do more packing and organizing in preparation to move. Indeed, if I check the office voicemail, there may be a message telling me whether this upcoming weekend I will be able to move in completely, or merely move in the big stuff.

So the posts are going to stop or slow down now while I try to accomplish something, assuming I don't give in to the temptation to collapse into bed.

[1] comments (842 views) |  link

Happy Birthday

Speaking of Gennie, happy birthday!

[0] comments (813 views) |  link

What A miserable failure

By now you may have seen the story of the Googlebombing that linked "miserable failure" to the G.W. Bush bio.

Well, Deb has what I consider the best antidote to that. She links miserable failure to the most logical miserable failure of all. I should know! I was in high school during the heyday of the miserable failure in question.

Thus it is unfortunate that our efforts at correcting miserable failure have been diffused by people linking miserable failure to Hillary or Bill Clinton instead. They can't begin to match the level of miserable failure achieved by the miserable failure Jimmy Carter.

Granted, stagflation was an artifact of Johnson and Nixon, so the miserable failure didn't cause it. He just didn't handle it as well as less of a miserable failure might have done. He oozed malaise and an aura of miserable failure, rather than one of confidence and optimism. That makes a difference too.

Granted, oil crises went back to policies decades old, so being a miserable failure in that regard may have been inevitable. But still, it was a bad time for such a miserable failure to be in charge and compund things.

The miserable failure was truly a miserable failure at foreign policy. Achieving peace with Egypt through bribery and thanks to a more statesman-like leader in Egypt than was the miserable failure here at the time? Doesn't counter miserable failure status. Iran? Reeks of miserable failure. The miserable failure left the Middle East loons thinking that we could be pushed around, hit by planes, bombed, that sort of thing, and miserable failure Jr. simply made matters worse.

No, he oozed with miserable failure vibes and made us feel like we were a miserable failure as a nation. As a leader he was a miserable failure.

At delegating he was an infamous miserable failure, letting the little things bog him down. That's an easy way for an intelligent person to be remembered as a miserable failure.

What do you think? Is Carter not the best choice as miserable failure? I mean, really; we could replace "Carter" with "miserable failure." The miserable failure Institute. The miserable failure administration. Former President Jimmy miserable failure. Give it a try! Write your own take on the miserable failure.

Or just do what Gennie did, only pointing to the wrong miserable failure, and list the miserable failure links repeatedly. Like this:

miserable failure
miserable failure
miserable failure
miserable failure
miserable failure
miserable failure
miserable failure
miserable failure
miserable failure
miserable failure
miserable failure
miserable failure
miserable failure
miserable failure
miserable failure
miserable failure

And so forth. Come on, it's fun, and a great cause!

[7] comments (1632 views) |  link

Fleeing BlogSpot: Priceless

Various people have reported that Priorities & Frivolities has moved. Guess I'll join in. In this first post on the new site, he reports that the hosting and MT were Christmas presents. Very cool!

[0] comments (770 views) |  link

The Lame Things That Please Us

Hey, cool! A couple more links and it won't matter that I am losing the Large Mammal award. (You have voted for me, right? And then again after 12 hours? And again from your friend's computers? Heh.)

I am at the very top of the Ecosystem's Large Mammal Category today! A few more unique links and I will be a Playful Primate again, and maybe have some hope of remaining there a few days. Woohoo!

[4] comments (797 views) |  link

Jay and Jane Have Moved

In "Jay" news, one of my fine counterparts, Jay Caruso, has moved, along with his sidekick and antagonist, Jane Finch. JayCaruso.com is no more, and now it is ClasslessWarfare.com instead. Some year I might even get around to updating my permalink to reflect as much.

The funny thing about Jane is I have always considered it the feminine of Jay. If only because, when I was a kid, people would address or call out to someone named Jane and I would whip my head around, looking for who was addressing Jay. In fact, I seem to recall an incident either on the bus or in school when my friend Judy said "Jane" to her friend and one time neighbor. I said something like "what?" Judy amusedly informed me "I said Jane."

Which means if I ever do a blogging Jays rouundup, perhaps I should include Janes. I hadn't thought of that before. I've only ever met one female Jay, and that was short for Jaishree. Thus I'd achieve some artificial form of gender fairness. Oh, and create more interest for the Kevin-inspired meme.

[1] comments (976 views) |  link

Daily Business Brief

As Rob pointed out, Daily Business Brief has shut down. He is offering up the domain to anyone who would like to take over.

[0] comments (702 views) |  link

Infamy Indeed

Deb has pointed out some tasteless timing by the press, which chose in her case the story of a less pleasant way in which we fought the war to emphasize. All well and good, just not on December 7 when we honor those who died, and remember Japan insisting clearly that we must join the war.

[0] comments (729 views) |  link

Congratulations

Someone who spells Jeff rather oddly had a blogiversary. Congrats on a first great year!

[0] comments (882 views) |  link

Check Out Carnival of the Capitalists

A Penny For... has this week's Carnival of the Capitalists, featuring an interesting new way of categorizing the entries. Looks good!

[0] comments (781 views) |  link

Next Week's Carnival of the Capitalists

I have changed the capitalists -at- elhide.com alias to go to Rob Sama, next week's host of Carnival of the Capitalists. Todd had requested entries early due to a commitment he had today, so I figured it was safe to jump the gun by about 90 minutes. Obviously, it should be posted sometime later tonight, and I will link it when I learn it's up.

Meanwhile, start sending next week's entries in any time!

[0] comments (785 views) |  link

Question of the Week: Reset Button

I know, I haven't exactly been keeping up with the "of the week" part, but this one ought to make up for it. This question will require some explanation! First I will type the primary question. Then I will explain what the hell I am talking about, and ask any subsidiary questions that come up in the process. Enjoy!

Do you expect the "reset button" to need to be used in our lifetimes? For the sake of a common number, let's define "our lifetimes" as the next fifty years. Hey, I could live that long, given my genes and medical technology.

I was recently discussing with someone the concept of the Second Amendment as the government's reset button. Ultimately a major reason it exists is so the populace cannot be prevented from being armed, or easily disarmed through registration or excess regulation for that matter, in case we must ever take back the government and start again if it gets out of hand or something akin to a coup happens and the imposters must be reckoned with.

It says that the government provides for the national defense, but we retain the right to self-defense, and to keep and bear the tools needed for that, including defense against the government if it ever turns its might inward or ceases to represent us at all. It's not a separate entity, after all. It's us. If it ceases to be us, it ceases to be in our control, it needs to be taken back into the fold.

Do you think this will ever be needed? In the next fifty years? Do you think it will still be possible after another fifty years of those who want as much power, and helplessness of the populace against it as much as possible, chipping away at or disregarding our ability to reset things back to sanity? How about contrarians; do you think the reset interpretation is erroneous or, even if not, will never be needed?

This topic was inspired by someone's assertion that we would likely have to use the reset button in our lifetimes, and that the current state of the opposition seemed particularly dangerous as something that could ultimately precipitate it. I am not sure I agree, but I have always viewed the Second Amendment as a reset option; an expression of the right to protect ourselves against all threats, including our own government if it becomes despotic and not what it was originated to be. That made me wonder how others might regard the chances of needing to take it back.

Fire away! That is what the comments are for. No real URL or e-mail address is required, if you prefer some anonymity here.

Update:

Dean has a great discussion going on regarding this post and his optimistic take on things. Excellent stuff!

[8] comments (797 views) |  link

Me? Lunatic?

Which Historical Lunatic Are You?
From the fecund loins of Rum and Monkey.

Via Jennifer here

More details:

You are Gaius Caesar Germanicus - better known as Caligula!

Third Emperor of Rome and ruler of one of the most powerful empires of all time, your common name means "little boots". Although you only reigned for four years, brief even by Roman standards, you still managed to garner a reputation as a cruel, extravagant and downright insane despot. Your father died in suspicious circumstances, you were not the intended heir, and one of your first acts as Emperor was to force the suicide of your father-in-law. Your sister Drusilla died that same year; faced with allegations that your relationship with her had been incestuous, you responded, bafflingly, by declaring her a god.

You revived a number of unpopular traditions, including auctions of properties left over from public shows. When a senator fell asleep at one such auction, you took each of his nods as bids, selling him 13 gladiators for a vast sum. You attempted to have your horse, Incitatus, made into a consul and hence one of the most powerful figures in Rome. It was granted a marble stable with jewels and a staff of servants. At one point you forced your comrade Macro to kill himself - in much the same vein as your father-in-law - accusing him of being his wife's pimp. You, of course, were having an affair with said wife at the time.

Things went from bad to worse. When supplies of condemned men ran short in the circus, you had innocent spectators dragged into the arena with the lions to fill their place. You claimed mastery of the sea by walking across a three-mile bridge of boats in the Bay of Naples; kissed the necks of your lovers, whispering sweet nothings like "This lovely neck will be chopped as soon as I say so,"; dallied with your sister's lover and made her pull her unborn child out of her womb prematurely. Towards the end of your reign, you had a golden statue of yourself made and dressed each day in the same clothes you yourself wore. When you eventually died, the terrified people of Rome refused to believe that such a cruel reign could ever end, and believed you to be alive for years afterwards.

[1] comments (823 views) |  link

A Neat Idea

I meant to mention this nifty idea a few days ago.

You know those endless school fundraisers where they sell you $1 candy bars that may or may not actually be worth that amount? But it's for a good cause (or the kid is a relative), so maybe you buy a few of them.

One of the lawyers at the big firm I do work for has turned a good cause into a better one. She collects money for sales of the candy, but the boxes of candy purchased are instead sent to soldiers serving in places where chocolate meltage isn't problematic. Those manning bases at home, for instance, centering around a couple of them personally known to her.

This sells the candy for whatever cause, then gives a group of soldiers a treat and show of appreciation. In this case, it's fundraising candy from Hilliards. Yum!

Maybe I'm silly, but I think it's a cool idea that other people might like to keep in mind next time one of those candy fundraisers is going on.

[3] comments (838 views) |  link

This Infamous Day

Chan discusses Pearl Harbor today, and leaves nothing for me to add.

Update:

Geoffrey remembers too, in a most appropriate way.

Michele notes that infamy outlasts memory, which is indeed a sad thing.

Drumwaster appreciates out soldiers and marvels at those who fail to know and heed history.

[0] comments (724 views) |  link

Best of the Old Geezer Acidman Today

Acidman has an important reminder about what day this is. How soon we forget easily.

Acidman finally noticed he was in the running under Playful Primate and requests your votes. He is a fine choice indeed. Although, like the Large Mammal category in which most of you have been voting for me, there are some superlative competitors also worthy of consideration.

He relays a very funny Jewish joke, and it's not even about Joe Lieberman.

The old geezer has a cute dog and kids picture, but I am surprised how tiny the dog looks in it. I thought she was a bigger mutt than that. Then again, it looks like the kids have grown like weeds lately.

Finally, you are all invoted to participate in a contest for who can compose a patragraph that most closely matches Acidman's writing. Think you can do it? Gofer it! Just pretend you love your kids, hate your ex-job, love your ex-wife whom you now hate because she's a BC, love dogs, love white zin and other booze, are the tall dog around here, and don't care who sees you cussing and being blunt. Heh.

[0] comments (703 views) |  link

Blog Awards: Not Just for Blogs Anymore

I do have a strong opinion on this category. Why hold it back?

Not a blog. Sorry, nuh-uh. Not a blog.

An excellent read, not to be missed, sure. Not a blog. Doesn't belong. No matter how much I and many other bloggers enjoy it.

As far as I am concerned, the winner in that category is this one. It's a blog. It belongs there. It has the most votes among the blogs in that category. Despite that I almost never read it, and frequently read the one getting all the erroneous votes.

That is all.

[1] comments (803 views) |  link

Snow

I hate when a storm disappoints. That is, when the forecast says megasnow and we get microsnow. Or muckarain. (Sounds like a small Middle Eastern country, doesn't it?)

From my windows it's hard to tell. Plus I am within a mile of Wollaston Beach, in a spot that's not a reliable indicator of what fell for snow a couple miles inland. It looks reasonably serious, but nothing like the monster accumulations I'd been led to expect.

So I managed to catch the local news, in which weather dominated, and sure enough, it's severe. In the Boston area there should be 18-28 inches by the end of Sunday. The Brockton area, vicinity of work, should be particularly deep.

Guess we'll know for sure when it ends, but on the news it looked like a lovely snowfall that delivered as promised, if not more. The camera battery should be nicely charged by the time I think about unburying my car tomorrow, so I can post pictures.

[3] comments (850 views) |  link

A Goofy Quiz, Mr. Anderson

Congratulations! You're Elrond!


Which Lord of the Rings character and personality problem are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Via Gennie here

[3] comments (818 views) |  link

Don't Let Me Down

Some dude I never heard of before is running away with the Best Large Mammals voting.

Are you guys going to stand for this? At least the number two guy is someone I know and admire. We could do worse than to have him win, if it can't be me.

There are two others I never heard of before ahead of me! Sheesh. The humanity.

I'm sure they are fine folks, as are my worthy competitors I know, read and admire. But should they really have more votes than me? I think not!

Don't forget that you can vote anew every 12 hours. Keep that support coming! I wouldn't want to be the John Kerry of the Weblog Awards, Large Mammal Category.

Thank you for your support.

[7] comments (967 views) |  link

The Taboo Game

Interesting little exercise found via Dean, who is interested in seeing people's results in his comments. And not just so he can call you commies.

My results:

Your Moralising Quotient is: 0.00.

Your Interference Factor is: 0.00.

Your Universalising Factor is: -1.

According to The Taboo Game, that is. The following is additional text provided about my results:

You see nothing wrong in the actions depicted in these scenarios. Consequently, there is no inconsistency in the way that you responded to the questions in this activity. However, it is interesting to note that had you judged any of these acts to be morally problematic, it is hard to see how this might have been justified. You don't think that an act can be morally wrong if it is entirely private and no one, not even the person doing the act, is harmed by it. The actions described in these scenarios are private like this and it was specified as clearly as possible that they didn't involve harm. One possibility might be that the people undertaking these acts are in some way harmed by them. But you indicated that you don't think that an act can be morally wrong solely for the reason that it harms the person undertaking it. So, as you probably realised, even this wouldn't seem to be enough to make the actions described in these scenarios morally problematic in terms of your moral outlook. Probably, in your own terms, you were right to adopt a morally permissive view.

[0] comments (853 views) |  link

The Studmuffins of Conservatism?

I am not sure I qualify, but it seems I have been included anyway.

[0] comments (704 views) |  link

Discussing Movies Is Always Fun

I took these pictures to show someone what I have for videos visually, without making an annoying list. I went through a serious collecting phase after I got my first VCR in 2000. So I thought it might be fun to post them - as links so as not to slow down loading for the uninterested - and engender discussion about movies and/or how weird people think I am.

This is the top of the bookcase that is home to most of them.

Next shelf down, which would be the top row if I didn't need the top of the bookcase for overflow.

And the next shelf down.

And the next shelf down. For the curious, the cutoff animal on the left is a Vermont moose.

Bottom shelf of the bookcase.

Kind of a poor quality picture of the top shelf of a piece of hand me down furniture I got from Nicole when she moved to San Diego. Romantic comedies are concentrated on this shelf.

Bottom shelf of that same piece of furniture.

Except a few DVDs not pictured, and videos that were cut off the ends of frames, that's all of it.

[0] comments (735 views) |  link

The Great War

There is a superlative discussion of World War I by Patrick Crozier guesting over at Samizdata, and by many brilliant and thoughtful commenters. Long, but an excellent read if you have the slightest interest in, well, the history of Europe and the wider world since about 1870.

[0] comments (714 views) |  link

Vote For Me And I'll Set You Free*

Feel free to go vote for me.

Or if not me, then one of the other several excellent bloggers who share Large Mammal with me, now that the category I was most waiting to see it up.

* Not really; just campaign hyperbole like most such promises.

[4] comments (880 views) |  link

It's People!

I thought this was hysterically funny, regardless of who it's promoting.

[0] comments (882 views) |  link

Scroogely Timing

Speaking of Kevin, he has suffered an unfortunately timed loss of employment.

I know he has talent and experience enough, especially with the blogosphere behind him, to make this a short hiatus from the working world, but it's still a shocker. The cool thing is that people have really softened the blow as far as Christmas goes.

Best wishes to Kevin!

[0] comments (719 views) |  link

No Chads Here

On the off chance you've missed it, there is voting going on, or soon to be going on in some laggard categories, one of which I was nominated in (I thought I might be nominated in more than one, but hey, at least one reader likes me enough for the most obvious category...), here at Wizbang.

I recommend checking the blogs in unfamiliar categories, or even familiar ones so you have a clear idea of the competition. The links to them open in new windows for convenience in doing so. You can start voting now, then continue later when the rest of the categories are live.

I'd even go so far as to skip a category completely if uncomfortably unfamiliar with the nominees.

Anywho, go vote away!

[0] comments (766 views) |  link

Wisdom

On why men die first, with added wisdom on marriage, etc. in the comments.

[0] comments (749 views) |  link

Blog of Ages

Gutter girly gweilo ghosten
Alright
I got something to type
Yeah, it's better to blog proud
Yeah, than fail to gripe
All right
Ow
Gonna start a meme
C'mon!

Rise up! Keyboards pound
Blog the press to the ground
Fisk it up let's go for broke
Watch the lies go up in smoke
Blog on! (blog on!)
Drive them crazier, no can evade
Fact check brigade, just Blogrollmania, c'mon

What do you want? What do you want?
I want bloggin' posts, yes I do
Long live bloggin' posts

Oh let's go, let's shed some light
We're gonna blog like dynamite
I don't care if it gives them fright
Gonna set the press aright, c'mon

What do you want? What do you want?
I want bloggin' posts, alright!
Long live bloggin' posts, oh yeah

Blog of ages, blog of ages
Still postin', keep a-postin'
Blog of ages, blog of ages
Still postin', bloggin' postin'

We got the power, got the story
Just say you read it and if you read it
Say yeah!
Ooh yeah
Heh heh heh heh

Now link it to me
I'm Bloggin', bloggin', I got the fever
I know for sure, there ain't no cure
So write it, don't fight it, go with the flow
Gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme one more link to post

What do you want? What do you want?
I want bloggin' post, You betcha
Long live bloggin' post

Blog of ages, blog of ages
Still postin', keep a-postin'
Blog of ages, blog of ages
Still postin', bloggin' postin'

We got the power, got the story
Just say you read it and if you read it
Say yeah!
Say yeah!
We're gonna truth the damn press down, woo hoo
Down like a clown

Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh indeed

[6] comments (921 views) |  link

A Sad Day For Race History

Wow, this is totally unexpected. Good luck to Maripat!

I just joked with her that this means she won the race, but I won the marathon.

[2] comments (760 views) |  link

It Seems D&D Was Legion...

Even in Roman times!

[0] comments (812 views) |  link

Yuck

Looks like we are getting massive snow this weekend, to the tune of 24" in some central to western parts of Massachusetts, 10" or more in Boston and points north and west of a line extending from Boston roughly southwest through southeastern Massachusetts, with something like 8" expected on the south shore and Cape on the lower snowfall side of the line. Which is a fairly standard snowfall pattern, for those not familiar with the area. It's just the amounts that are rather high.

I can only hope that a large storm early will mean a moderate winter later, as often seems the case.

[2] comments (852 views) |  link

A Colorful Characterization

you are khaki #F0E68C

Your dominant hues are red and green, so you're definately not afraid to get in and stir things up. You have no time for most people's concerns, you'd rather analyze with your head than be held back by some random "gut feeling". Your saturation level is lower than average - You don't stress out over things and don't understand people who do. Finishing projects may sometimes be a challenge, but you schedule time as you see fit and the important things all happen in the end, even if not everyone sees your grand master plan. Your outlook on life is bright. You see good things in situations where others may not be able to, and it frustrates you to see them get down on everything.

the spacefem.com html color quiz

Via LeeAnn here

[3] comments (729 views) |  link

CotC Reminder

Just a reminder that Carnival of the Capitalists will be hosted this week by Todd at A Penny For..., and as he notes here, please send submissions extra early this week. He would like to have it largely completed prior to Sunday, due to a game that day.

As always, send your entries to capitalists -at- elhide.com and be sure your blog and post can be readily identified. It's always a good idea to put something like "CotC" in the subject to identify it as non-spam too.

Need a refresher on what kinds of posts qualify? Have a look at the hosts and info permapage. That also lists the most recent week's location and future hosts. For instance, you will learn there that the next host after Todd is Rob Sama, and that the location of the last CotC was with Bill Hobbs. You'll see that we have hosts through May 3rd, and the latest one to sign up was Brain Brew Radio.

As I noted in this post, there is some discussion of whether to offer a generic mailing list people can subscribe to in order to receive an announcement when the latest CotC is up, and of the location of the next one. I am still looking for feedback. One thing to keep ion mind is that creating such a thing would be trivial and I don't mind doing it. I have the benefit of already having list software that I can use as an alternative to relying on the domain host's offering. The only issue with that is it doesn't live on the most stable server currently, and it sometimes just stops working until I can be physically present to restart it. But the marginal cost is free.

Did I mention don't forget to submit entries for this week? Oh yeah, guess I did...

[0] comments (817 views) |  link

Happy Birthday

Happy birthday to Ninjababe, purveyor of fine cleavage everywhere.

[1] comments (775 views) |  link

I Like This Result

Which John Cusack Are You?

It's an excellent movie! And the woman with the funny name who played his girlfriend is gorgeous.

[0] comments (699 views) |  link

Now I know!

I had wondered why my landlord was so unhappy I planned to leave I hope this month. (I need to call the new landlord today or tomorrow if I don't hear from them first, to try to determine if we are indeed "on.")

I had wondered why Nancy and Steve, my neighbors across the hall, had been home all week.

Today there was a moving truck backed up to the front door, and they were moving out! No surprise, as they'd planned to get and move into a house last spring. But this means the landlord already has one vacancy to renovate and find a new tenant for in the next few weeks or so. I can see him not wanting us clustered too closely.

It also explains what he appears to be doing with the parking. If he is turning a section of lawn into parking as it appears, the spot where Nancy and Steve park would be the right of way for accessing the expanded parking. So that makes sense.

Of course, if my new place falls through (which I doubt; it's just fuzzy in terms of timing), he won't have to worry so much about two concurrent vacancies. And renovations. Less money in, more money out. Always a good thing. Not.

[0] comments (873 views) |  link

CotC Announce List

It has been suggested that there ought to be a subscribable mailing list for announcing that a particular week's Carnival of the Capitalists has been posted, and that the next one will be at wherever, so getcher submissions in.

When Rob and I worked out the CotC idea, we anticipated the issue of not knowing the next location by having the permapage listing the hosts. In theory, everyone knows they can go there and find out who was the latest and who is next. They can search Google and it's the first hit. They can come here and it's linked at top right. They can go to most of the past CotC locations and find a link to the hosts page.

So to me the idea of a list seems like overkill, especially since there is a mailing list consisting of everyone who has ever hosted or plans to host CotC. That list is supposed to get an announcement each week when CotC has been posted, but is also for whatever rare discussions of business or ideas for CotC there may be.

So what do you think? Would you want to subscribe to an announce list for CotC? That would presumably end up with all hosts on it and would be the new place for announcing that CotC is up each week, and where the next host will be.

Let me know!

[0] comments (862 views) |  link

Rambling Ruminations on Rents, Realty and Reality

Back in 1981, I got my first apartment. It was $225 a month plus heat and utilities, on the second floor of a 5-unit building in a decent location with a wonderful owner, and was 5 mostly huge rooms, a walk-in pantry, an unfinished entry room, and a small deck.

During the time I lived there, I made an average of about 1/3 of what I make now. In fact, I left the job and the apartment to go to college to be able to do better, and then it took until around 1996 to do as well in inflation-adjusted terms. That sucked.

As I have mentioned, I'm fixing to move in the near future. I found a nice apartment in a good location, on the first floor of a 2-unit building, 5 rooms but not big ones, use of part of the cellar, a couple modern amenities like dishwasher, and shared use of a deck that wraps around part of the building. Primary use, really, as the upstairs never uses it. The place is $1000 a month plus heat and utilities. So what in terms of my income ought to be $675 is nearly 50% more than it "should be."

This is a normal apartment price in the region. It's right at the far reaches of what I could contemplate spending. Which is to say I can pay it if I must, but it is not remotely affordable.

My income is probably in the realm of typical, meaning many people still make below that.

Casual observation tells me that rents in the region rocketed up by perhaps $100 on average in just the past six months or so. Which is to say, about 11% in my unscientific purely random and limited measurement.

So I assert that apartments were already too high, have increased, and are getting unaffordable to average people. Something has to give.

I've been saying housing was a bubble for over a year. Perhaps no something that will burst hard or immediately, but it will slow to a near standstill or worse. Things are too unsynchronized for it to stay up there and rising. The best recent buyers can hope for is a few years in which what they can get when selling is no less than they paid.

My impression is that this has driven rents as well. Rents based on the inflated value of property, book or actualized by sale to a new landlord, have naturally tended to rise.

Now? According to this post, rental vacancies are rising. And rents are falling?

The first I heard of this is when I mentioned how much my current landlord wanted me to stay, to my surprise. I expected he'd be happy about having the place available to renovate and rent out at a higher rate. I assumed it was my timely rent payments and unobtrusive nature, but perhaps it's the market clamping down.

Anyway, the point of all this is that the housing market is out of whack. I have been predicting house prices would stall or fall at some point, but I'd given little thought to the rental market. If a combination of fewer available renters due to increased home ownership, and what demand elasticity there is kicking in due to excessive rents, perhaps we really will see some relief.

The thing is, on a case by case basis movement is slow. When does your rent change? When you move. Or when the landlord increases it, perhaps when a lease is expiring and being renewed. It's tough to imagine a rent decreasing at renewal, but I suppose it can happen. Since knowledge is going to be imperfect, many landlords will consider their rates perfectly acceptable, and many tenants will not know better. The trauma of moving, and perhaps the cost, is such that a bit of price inflexibility is supported by it not being worth a renter's trouble to seek out and migrate to new digs.

Never mind whether we are in a tenant shortage or a housing market bust. The economics of rentals itself sounds fascinating to me, and like all economics has psychological and perceptual elements wrapped up in it. It's never about pure supply, pure demand, pure affordability in absolute dollar terms.

As for the housing bubble, Rob pointed me to this Economist article on that very topic. The article begins:

IN 1929 John D. Rockefeller decided it was time to sell shares when even a shoe-shine boy offered him a share tip. During the past week The Economist's economics editor has been advised by a taxi driver, a plumber and a hairdresser that “you can't go wrong” investing in housing—the more you own the better. Is this a sign that it is time to get out? At the very least, as house prices around the world climb to ever loftier heights (see article), and more and more people jump on to the buy-to-let ladder, it is time to expose some of the fallacies regularly trotted out by so many self-appointed housing experts.

Excellent thinking. When everyone starts thinking it's a sure thing, time to go now. Or stay out and wait for the bargains that will result from the crash.

One of my friends bought a cute little house on a little bit of land in the lower class end of a high class town early this year. I look at it and see a $200,000 house. That is what I would offer, were I in the market, with money to spend. Realistic or not, that is my perception.

It was $305,000.

I'm just floored by that. It's not a serious fixer-upper, but it needed some tweaking. I am worried for them, being certain the market will stall, if not plummet. They could be in a worse position, though, carrying a 400-500k house that's overpriced and has more downside.

Oh well. Enough rambling! What do you think? Is a crash or stall of real estate price pending soon? Are things as outrageous as I perceive them to be, or do I need to get a life (and a better income that changes my perceptions)? You think rentals will seriously go down? If they do so enough, that has implications for home sales. High rent makes a not much higher mortgage appealing. Low rent makes it another story.

Time will tell...

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The Game of the Name

My real first name and last name are #285 and #114 respectively.

Cool site!

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Jiminy Christmas! People Are Dolts...

This is just plain silly. My blogdaughter Lawren reports on an incident at her law school in which a Christmas tree and decorations in the atrium were removed under threat of lawsuit from some professors.

I agree; the more the merrier! They may be religious symbols, but they are also cultural icons that just happen to have been religiously inspired. The fact that I am of indeterminate religion myself does not make me hate Christmas, Ramadan, Yule, Hanukah, or any symbols or observations they have inspired. Hell, precursor Christmas trees and the Yule season were co-opted to make Christianity more fun and palatable to the pagan masses. What's not to like about exchanging gifts and having purty decorations at what might be an otherwise dismal time of year with the depths of winter staring you in the face?

Silly, intolerant, ignorant fools. Have you ever noticed many otherwise intelligent, educated professors are in fact idiots? Got to see that first hand when I was in school. But I digress. Go read Lawren and the links she provides.

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Today's Goofy Quiz

Maine is your state. It's pretty and nice and
quiet and not crowded. I love Maine, so do
you.


What State Is Perfect For You?
brought to you by Quizilla

When you take this quiz, be sure to click on the button to see all possible results, then scroll to the very last one and read the text. Most amusing!

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New Business Blog

There is a new business blog at bankstocks.com. It's looking good so far in that there are posts raking the Fleet/Bank of America merger over the coals. I had meant to comment about that myself. There's a post on misguided marketing to the wrong demographic. There's a post on the rental and housing markets and something likely giving soon; another thing I'd meant to post about.

It's definitely worth checking out, and I will try to post about some of the above mentioned items later.

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Kate Does The Mall

All I keep thinking is "oops!" Poor Santa. He definitely deserves a nice Christmas check.

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In Overrated Song News...

Paul has strong opinions on Hotel California. I am glad someone came out and said it, since I agree.

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Veiled or Whipped

"It doesn't get much clearer than that, does it?"

Nope. That's crystal clear. Kids are smart critters when allowed to be.

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Oh My

The question is whether they are really that imaginative or organized still. It sounds disturbingly so...

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And Here's What Happens...

When I start goofing around!

Isn't that a cute shower curtain? I got it for something like $2 at Wal-Mart 4 years ago when I moved into this place. The new place, which I should know this week will be definite or not, and when, will have a sliding door, so I won't need the curtain any more. How sad.

The camera is my father's old one, which he keeps as a spare and loaned me.

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Are You Ready For This?

These are two different digital camera shots of me at my father's house, for those of you who might be curious. The quality isn't great, but hey. And since I always get scolded for referring to myself as ugly, I won't this time. I just almost never like seeing my own picture, same as most people don't like hearing recordings of their own voices.

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AIDS Slaves

"Important work is done by free men." Just go read it.

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The Wages of Min

Via Deb's Letter of the Day I found a superlative analysis of why minimum wage laws are evil and must die now. Why hadn't I discovered The Angry Economist before now? Great stuff!

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PC and Rapid Fire

Speaking of definitions, Medicmom has an extensive set of politically correct terms for your edification.

Also be sure to check out her fire safety eye-opener!

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Foxy

This is my stepsister's dog, Foxy, always one of my favorites. She's an absolute sweetie.

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Acid Sandwich

Acidman has been on a roll lately, so I am just going to do a set of links to stuff of note over there, or you can just go read it all. You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll wonder what's wrong with wimmen.

He discusses how women tend to be uncomfortable with their appearance, and often don't get that we are totally hot for them looking just as they are, with imperfections, a healthy layer of sweat, some hard work dirt, or whatever. Yum!

Which is funny, because I can say this and know I mean it myself - we love you for the real and whole you, not for looking like a model of toothpick proportions - but I tend to assume I am completely unattractive no matter how many times people tell me otherwise. So I guess I can understand the sentiment to a degree. Speaking of which, I could possibly be persuaded to post a new picture or two of myself from over the weekend.

Then there's this entertaining take on pronographic movies and wimmen. He makes a lot of sense. I am FAT!

Pay attention to Professor Rob while he gives an important vocabulary lesson. He makes a hell of a lot more sense than some professors. He even teaches a bit of Presidential history I was unaware of previously, however unsurprising it may be. LBJ was a vile man, after all.

Speaking of wimmen, here are some that you might call Friends of Roscoe, even when that would be blogcestuous.

Finally, I see why he once said I have crazy dreams like his. This could as easily have been one of mine.

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Moore, Meet Simmons

Michael Moore dies. Antics ensue. This is one of the funniest things I have read lately! You must go read it now.

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Respectfully Contemptuous

This is quite an interesting take on President Bush in the context of history doing it right.

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Rest In Peace

Heh.

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Poof!

You ever have a seemingly brilliant idea come to you, swirl around in your mind, allowing itself to be observed and weighed from different angles, then as soon as you stir to make a note of it, you can barely recall the gist?

I just had an idea for a new support business model that could be used by an American company employing American workers and using, in part, that very aspect as a marketing point. But that was only part of it, as I also had an idea for how to make it efficient, reduce or eliminate the incentive for the company whose product you are supporting to want to cheapen the quality of the support while at the same time having them direct business your way, and change the entire payment model.

I've just manage to thoroughly intrigue myself.

Which could very well mean I am not seeing some major flaw in the concept.

Long time readers know I have strong opinions about tech support and the way it is managed and regarded by businesses offering it on their products or providing it outsourced. This relates right into that, and was inspired thinking about my own business, which largely involves tech support in various forms. Whatever expansion we undergo will tend to move in that direction more than any other, for various reasons.

Anyway, back to work and who knows, maybe more flights of fancy.

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Posting Beats Working But Doesn't Pay

Sorry for the lack of posts. I am preoccupied with work and apartment stuff. I also think I may attempt to channel my posting urges into morning/evening mode and try to focus only on work during the day.

There are tons of things I'd like to link to out there from the past couple days, so don't be surprised if a major link post or barrage of different link posts appear later. Stay tuned...

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Another Goofy Quiz

You are naturally born with a gift, whether it be
poetry, writing or song. You love beauty and
creativity, and usually are highly intelligent.
Others view you as mysterious and dreamy, yet
also bold since you hold firm in your beliefs.


What Type of Soul Do You Have ?
brought to you by Quizilla

Via Acidman here.

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