sound of silver

i ate an apple today for breakfast. my teeth are aching. is that normal? it's like a good ache though, like the skin of the apple cleaned my mouth. what's that old saying, an apple a day keeps the dentist away? right? yep, that's it.

"merging two zombie banks is like have two drunks trying to help each other to stand up."- Nouriel Roubini

speaking of roubini, here's what he has to say about nationalization:

"So why is the US government temporizing and avoiding doing the right thing, i.e. take over the insolvent banks? There are two reasons. First, there is still some small hope and a small probability that the economy will recover sooner than expected, that expected credit losses will be smaller than expected and that the current approach of recapping the banks and somehow working out the bad assets will work in due time. Second, taking over the banks – call is nationalization or, in a more politically correct way, “receivership” – is a radical action that requires most banks be clearly beyond pale and insolvent to be undertaken. Today Citi and Bank of America clearly look like near-insolvent and ready to be taken over but JPMorgan and Wells Fargo do not yet. But with the sharp rise in delinquencies and charge-off rates that we are experiencing now on mortgages, commercial real estate and consumer credit in a matter of six to twelve months even JPMorgan and Wells will likely look as near-insolvent …

…So while Plan A is now underway today’s very negative market response to this Treasury plan suggest that it will not fly. Markets were expecting a more clear plan but also a plan that would bail out shareholders and creditors of insolvent banks. Unfortunately that is not politically and fiscally feasible. It is thus time to start to think and plan ahead for for Plan N (“nationalization” of insolvent banks)."

so the stimulus was passed in the senate, soon to be ratified again in the house. here is how to know if it is actually working.

mish is not happy with bernanke.

if your a muppets fan, this article is like christmas dinner. what? check it out.

always something there to remind me

it's all stimulus talk, all the time. great graphical breakdown in the washington post. amazing graph. check it out here.

mish has got an breakdown and analysis.

geitner wants to bring in private investment as part of his financial rescue plan. it was supposed to be announced today, but was delayed until tomorrow.

i had a greatly successful weekend. i acquired four harry nilsson albums including: pandemonium shawdow show, aerial ballet, pussycats and knnillssonn. thanks to randy for pointing me in the right direction on those. i plan on acquiring three more tonight and tomorrow night.

i was eating crab last night and i tried breaking into this crab leg, like full on force and i ended up stabbing the underneath part of my thumbnail and it's really sore. seriously, those crabs are well protected. we have to bang a freakin' hammer on them to open them up. and then slather them with butter and eat them. what eats crabs besides us? can bears open them up? i know birds have no shot. and sharks might just swallow it whole. i don't know.

the grammys were last night. i taped it and then fast forwarded (yeah, VHS baby!) through the entire thing to see radiohead play. it was pretty cool. it was just thom and johnny playing with the entire USC marching band. my wife and i had the same thought at the same time, "you know each one of those band nerds (i was one) is creaming their pants playing with radiohead right now." when a husband and wife both generate that thought at the exact same time, "wow" is all you can say.

ballroom blitz

it's getting deep in here people. as milhouse would say, "we're through the looking glass." i've been doing some reading on fractional reserve banking and i've found some serious stuff. here is a great article on the topic.

pay particular attention to the multiplier affect shown towards the bottom. here is gist:

"Let's assume that the Fed buys $10,000,000 of U.S. Treasury bills from some "approved" government bond dealer (a small group), say Shearson, Lehman on Wall Street. The Fed writes out a check for $10,000,000, which it gives to Shearson, Lehman in exchange for $10,000,000 in U.S. securities. Where does the Fed get the $10,000,000 to pay Shearson, Lehman? It creates the money out of thin air. Shearson, Lehman can do only one thing with the check: deposit it in its checking account at a commercial bank, say Chase Manhattan. The "money supply" of the country has already increased by $10,000,000; no one else's checking account has decreased at all. There has been a net increase of $10,000,000.

But this is only the beginning of the inflationary, counterfeiting process. For Chase Manhattan is delighted to get a check on the Fed, and rushes down to deposit it in its own checking account at the Fed, which now increases by $10,000,000. But this checking account constitutes the "reserves" of the banks, which have now increased across the nation by $10,000,000. But this means that Chase Manhattan can create deposits based on these reserves, and that, as checks and reserves seep out to other banks (much as the Rothbard Bank deposits did), each one can add its inflationary mite, until the banking system as a whole has increased its demand deposits by $100,000,000, ten times the original purchase of assets by the Fed. The banking system is allowed to keep reserves amounting to 10 percent of its deposits, which means that the "money multiplier" – the amount of deposits the banks can expand on top of reserves – is 10. A purchase of assets of $10 million by the Fed has generated very quickly a tenfold, $100,000,000 increase in the money supply of the banking system as a whole."

that is brilliant.

alan's psychedelic breakfast

i'm so late to this. but i found this at mish and the whole thing is right here. but if you don't have time for that, here is an excerpt from the piece by ron paul in speech delivered in november of 2008:

Before the U.S. House of Representatives, November 20, 2008

Madame Speaker, many Americans are hoping the new administration will solve the economic problems we face. That’s not likely to happen, because the economic advisors to the new President have no more understanding of how to get us out of this mess than previous administrations and Congresses understood how the crisis was brought about in the first place.

Today, a major economic crisis is unfolding. New government programs are started daily, and future plans are being made for even more. All are based on the belief that we’re in this mess because free-market capitalism and sound money failed. The obsession is with more spending, bailouts of bad investments, more debt, and further dollar debasement. Many are saying we need an international answer to our problems with the establishment of a world central bank and a single fiat reserve currency. These suggestions are merely more of the same policies that created our mess and are doomed to fail.

At least 90% of the cause for the financial crisis can be laid at the doorstep of the Federal Reserve. It is the manipulation of credit, the money supply, and interest rates that caused the various bubbles to form. Congress added fuel to the fire by various programs and institutions like the Community Reinvestment Act, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, FDIC, and HUD mandates, which were all backed up by aggressive court rulings.

The Federal Reserve created our problem, yet it manages to gain even more power in the socialization of the entire financial system. The whole bailout process this past year was characterized by no oversight, no limits, no concerns, no understanding, and no common sense.

Similar mistakes were made in the 1930s and ushered in the age of the New Deal, the Fair Deal, the Great Society and the supply-siders who convinced conservatives that deficits didn’t really matter after all, since they were anxious to finance a very expensive deficit-financed American empire.

All the programs since the Depression were meant to prevent recessions and depressions. Yet all that was done was to plant the seeds of the greatest financial bubble in all history. Because of this lack of understanding, the stage is now set for massive nationalization of the financial system and quite likely the means of production.

Although it is obvious that the Keynesians were all wrong and interventionism and central economic planning don’t work, whom are we listening to for advice on getting us out of this mess? Unfortunately, it’s the Keynesians, the socialists, and big-government proponents.

Who’s being ignored? The Austrian free-market economists – the very ones who predicted not only the Great Depression, but the calamity we’re dealing with today.

dayton, ohio 1903

yesterday, i was making a purchase for a three year old whose birthday is this weekend. and i found something amazing to get them and in my excitement, i somehow ordered two. now being that these kids are twins, you'd think that i would give them both one. but that is silly and i will not do that. so i now have an extra copy of this item. everyone knows my love for harry nilsson. he once did an album called the point, which was actually a cartoon that he provided the soundtrack for. it's about a boy named oblio and his dog arrow. "me and my arrow, taking the high road." i've actually made the committment that when i get a dog, i will call him arrow because of this song.

anyway, i got them the point. and i know they'll love it. but like i said, i bought two by accident. so i guess i'll keep one or i can give it to my mom and she can watch it with her grandson. that might be better. i watched it last night. it's good. and the music is great. harry nilsson is the man. i still think "nilsson sings newman" is one of the best albums i've ever heard. ever.

i wrote a little skit yesterday called peanut-butter shakes. it wasn't great, but i miss writing those conversations like i used to. so you'll probably be seeing those more often. i had a whole notebook full of conversations i had written. some were pretty good. i actually looked over the book i wrote and it was good. i need to polish that thing up and send it around again.

"would you like to come over for tea? with the missus and me? it's a real nice way to spend the day in Dayton Ohio on a lazy Sunday afternoon in 1903"

i got two more books yesterday. "the panic of 1907: lessons learned from the market's perfect storm" and "panic: the story of modern financial insanity." i like how both books have the word "panic" in them. i'm not in a panic. but i believe i have much to learn from these books.

i was thinking last night that every since i was able to comprehend the stock market and markets in general, they've been completely favorable. starting around 1995, i started slightly paying attention and then through high school and college and into my early adult life. of course, we had a couple hiccups like in 1999 and 2001, but reading the book about 1907, it was extremely common to have massive disruptions in the market. i'm talking on an annual basis. i didn't know that and it makes me start to look at the market as something different. i'm not sure buy and hold is the way to go anymore. i want to be able to recognize the market for what is and when it is. examples include asset bubbles. i want to be able to recognize an asset bubble, buy into it and sell before it bursts. now you say, well dude, everybody does. that's true. but most people get so wrapped up in the hysteria of it, they lose their objectivity. they start to think things are permanent, that prices go up indefinately, which they don't.

anyway, i'm enjoying reading these books. i'm learning about. i read a quote somewhere that poor people have lots of stuff while rich people have lots of books. i'm hoping i'll be getting rich off of these books. and if i don't, then at least i'll have plenty of books to use around the house. maybe as a ladder. or doorstop. or maybe to hide things in.

monkey burger

this is a scene from the newly created show: peanut-butter shakes. it stars the two main characters: felix and henry. both are sitting in the car as they drive down the street to the local coffee shop arpeggios.

felix: look at that dude over there. he's eating a burger and talking on the phone. that's what i like. when people call me with a mouth full of burger.

henry: probably calling the guy who made the burger. tell him how good it is. or maybe what he did wrong. forgot the pickles or something. probably.

felix: maybe. i always wondered who was the first person to kill a cow, skin it and then cook the flesh and eat it as meat. that guy was a genius.

henry: he was probably publicly scorned and wasn't allowed to own land. cause that was a big deal, owning land. if you didn't own land, you were a loser. cause there was lots of land. i mean compared to people, there was way more land than people. and trees too. probably more trees than people, but i don't think people were very interested in owning trees. maybe if they had fruit or a creature living in them. maybe then.

felix: makes sense. i don't have any trees. but i have lots of batteries.

henry: (tapping his foot to the music on the cd player)

felix: if you feel around down there and feel some batteries, let me know. there's a guy i know who collects them. he collects batteries and old postcards. from anybody. he doesn't have to know them or anything. just likes reading them.

henry: i once got a postcard from myself from the future telling me about this awesome vacation i had gone on. the card featured a monkey wearing a captain's hat. pretty authoratative figure. he was smiling and holding a drink that was in a coconut. the monkey had a shirt on, but no pants. and his nametag said "ralph." so that's how i knew it wasn't me that was writing the postcard.

felix: you thought you turned into a monkey named ralph?

henry: why would i change my name to ralph? obviously, this insidious monkey was trying to make a quick buck or something and forgot to take off his nametag. his mistake. that's why primates didn't succeed, where we did.

felix: glad we figured that one out. you think you can order a monkey burger somewhere?

let's pretend we're bunny rabbits

if you know the rest of the lyrics to this song, you are smiling right now. if you don't, then you probably hate yourself.

do we ever really know who we elect? this article, op-ed, whatever, from the nyt shows our favorite whipping boy rich milhouse nixon as a man bringing the country together. but the facade worn thin pretty quick and his true intentions were shown. my favorite part was this:

“When Dick was finally elected president he attained eighty percent of all goals in his life,” Bryce Harlow, one of his longtime closest friends and advisors, confided to an associate before the inauguration. “He has no idea of what he will do after he is sworn in.”

the goal in life was merely to be president, not to do anything upon arrival. that's great.

don't have much else today on the way of politics.

been in quite the nick cave mood lately. he's got an album called "the boatman's call" which is an amazing album of somber resolution. the first track is stunning, naked beauty. i want to cry everytime i hear it. here is their (nick cave and the bad seeds) website.

here is a website with all the lyrics from boatman's call. check out the first three and if you disagree with me, you probably hate yourself.

my friend randy found a blog containing nothing but stuff about the great harry nilsson. check it out. it's brilliant.

everybody wants to rule the world

how about that! i no more than question the obama administration's committment to integrity and change and they do it. daschle is out as nominee for health and human safety. are the two connected? who knows. does president obama read my blog? maybe. could happen. i've heard a few little lines here and there that sound familiar. regardless, this is the 2nd obama appointee to pull out due to tax problems. geithner didn't pull out, he was still approved as treasury secretary and bill richardson left due to an investigation in his administration. obama was very proud of his vetting process, but it seems to have failed him in several, high-profile instances.

executive pay is coming under major fire. obama wants to cap it at $500,000 for companies that receive federal bailout loans (hopefully these are loans). i don't like the number. i want it to be $501,721.23. that seems more appropriate, doesn't it?

here is a different take on getting toxic assets off of the bank's balance sheet.

judd gregg, a republican, replaces nominee bill richardson as commerce secretary. get to know him.

in an economy like this, people constantly discuss what stocks/bonds/whatever to buy. i like this idea. keep it with stock dividends. reinvest your dividends and buy more of the stock.

mish doesn't like geithner's ideas for asset purchases.

an interview with three people from the state. not the state, as in government state, but the sketch comedy show the state.

"he said everything is messed up round here, everything is banal and jejune, there is a planetary conspiracy against the likes of you and me, in this idiot constituency of the moon (well, he knew exactly who to blame) and we call upon the author to explain!"- nick cave, dig, lazurus dig, "call upon the author to explain"

winds of change (sorry)

sleep when i'm dead

new day in washington, right president obama? cause it's starting to feel like the new boss is the same as the old boss.

"everybody knows, everybody knows, everybody knows, you only live a day, but it's brilliant anyway." - elliott smith, x/o, "independence day"

so we've got some ethics decisions to make right. we'll think about those in a minute because the stimulus bill is being ramrodded through the house and soon the senate. what's in it? do you agree with what's in it? are there enough egregious items to halt the bill entirely? look at it.

here are some bailout questions answered. some are stupid, some make you wonder.

mish had a good little bit on wells fargo balance sheet yesterday.

"oh, what'll you do now, my blue-eyed son?
oh, what'll you do now, my darling young one?
i'm a-goin' back out 'fore the rain starts a-fallin',
i'll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest,
where the people are many and their hands are all empty,
where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters,
where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison,
where the executioner's face is always well hidden,
where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten,
where black is the color, where none is the number,
and I'll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it,
and reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it,
then I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin',
but I'll know my song well before I start singin',
and it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall."

-bob dylan, "a hard rain's a-gonna fall"

stockholm syndrome

the superbowl is over. is that one word or two? on this blog, it's one word. the steelers beat the cardinals in a freakin' entertaining game. when fitzgerald blasted up the middle in the 4th, i really thought the cardinals had pulled off the amazing upset. but the steelers had one drive left in them and they won.

observations:
- commercials were lame. didn't see one that sticks in my memory. i changed the channel several times to watch the simpsons or american dad on the breaks.
- bogus calls. how can the superbowl end on a call like that? he did not fumble the ball. it should have been reviewed. arizona deserved one last chance to win that game. also, the roughing the passer call was totally lame.
- bruce springsteen was actually fun to watch. i don't like his music, don't own a single album. but he got in the spirit of the game and delivered a great performance. but, the only thing that bugged me was his moves. the dude was struggling to get around that stage. but he kept insisting on jumping on the piano and running and sliding around the stage. it looked painful for the guy. but, his wife is hot.
- joe namath seemed like he was never going to get to that podium. everyone kept touching the trophy and grabbing at it. i felt bad for the old guy. i mean he's like 60. give him some space.
- the office episode after the superbowl was great. the roast was perfect. "now dwight knows not to cut off the face of a real person."

so now we sit around until baseball season. i believe february is the worst month of the year. football is over. spring training doesn't start for another month. it just sucks. but thankfully, it's the shortest.

i already have my preliminary world series pick: arizona vs. new york. that could change if the dodgers sign manny and some of these other free agents find a home. the astros i have as finishing fourth in the central.

now back to reality:
consumers usually save during boom and spend during bust. now, we're doing the opposite. why is that?

she's hot. she's smart. she's meredith whitney. here's her idea on how banks can get back in the game.

rock and roll suicide

i just wrote the greatest little bit about america being a rock and roll suicide. and i went to publish the post and i received an error. i lost it all. it was beautiful what i wrote. i said how we were young and we were a rebel and then we went corporate and died a bloated rock and roll death. it was great. sorry you didn't get to read it.

and i had a bunch a links with funny stuff, but i'm not going to write it again. here are the links:

mish's global economics: bailout to hit $4 trillion.

msn money: why the bank bailouts are doomed.

bloomberg: US economy shrank by 3.8% last quarter.

avclub: possible arrested development movie.

the amazing sounds of orgy

"the day the banks collapse on us." - radiohead

so the banks are still failing. the original idea was to buy these troubled assets under the TARP program. that didn't happen. so now instead, there is an idea being floated of creating a "bad bank" that will buy these assets and get them off the banks balance sheet. here's the scoop.

here is a great blog that contains major breakdown on the possible nationalization of the banking industry.

"privatize the gains and socialize the losses."

great blog out there that actually reads through company's 10K filings and picks out really interesting stuff buried within the filing. it's footnoted.org. check it out.

great conversation with niall ferguson over canceling the US debt. he describes the various stages of a bubble: Displacement, Euphoria, Mania, Distress and finally Panic. that's where we are now is Panic.

i remember that shirt on the fence

he knows what he's waiting for
he's been shown the door
it's happened to him before

there is no circumstance
no unjust romance
there's only sudden happenstance

making his way through fenced-in fields
marking time, his cloak and his shield
always weighed more than they could yield

he'll rule the day away
from a back room delivery bay
it was always meant to be this way

let it bleed

we have a new treasury secretary. he name is timothy geithner. he forgets to pay self-employment taxes, but we're hoping he can turn a stealth hand unlike hank paulson. there are suggestions of how he should handle part 2 of the TARP plan.

"panic in detroit." i love david bowie's aladdin sane more and more every day. "he looked a lot like che guevara, drove a diesel van. kept his gun in quiet seclusion, such an honorable man. the only survivor of the national people's gang, panic in detroit, i asked for an autograph, he wanted to stay home, i wish someone would phone, panic in detroit." great song.

these companies are not firing people.

cameras processing real time decisions.

FDIC might run bad bank that gobbles up bad assets.

why dealing with indebtedness is so hard.

the kids don't stand a chance

i recently saw sam donaldson make a case for expanding credit and allowing the taxpayer the ability to be able to continue to borrow money. he claimed that would fix the mess we are in. if his solution sounds familiar, it's because that's the reason we got into this mess. cheap money. excessive borrowing. leveraging debt. it's not time to borrow more money, it's time to pay it back.

they also mentioned something called the paradox of thrift. this is a theory put forth by john maynard keynes. this theory says that during times of economic depression, people save their money, thus compounding the situation by a fall in demand and stifling ecomonic growth, thus lowering the real amount of savings for all involved.

keynes magnum opus is a book called "the general theory of employment, interest and money." i've never read it, but i intend to this year.

anyway back to what i was saying earlier, the consensus seems to be that a massive stimulus package will start to grease the gears of this economy. i'm not sure that is going to help. lots of this goes over my head, but it seems to resemble a person who you first thought had a cold and it turns out they're much sicker than you thought. and not only are they much sicker, they were a closer to end than anyone imagined. that's how i'm feeling right now about our situation. hopefully it's just a cold.

lots of new albums out this year already:

ac newman
franz ferdinand
animal collective
andrew bird

the super bowl is this weekend. whoo!

rebel side of heaven

man, it's good to be back on the grid. i've been living in a solitary office with no connection the world outside. they only thing i knew or was able to tell was the weather. that was it.

the top 25 paying companies.

there is a new marketing blog on the street. go here to get an insider's perspective on the marketing scene. i have no idea what he's talking about, but it's quite interesting.

here are the 25 best financial blogs going. i do not appear on the list.

i had a friend recently tell me that only 20% of women actually experience their water breaking before pregnancy. if you watch television/movies, not only does every woman's water break, but it creates a tidal wave, like a splash from a bucket of water three stories high. when in reality, a woman is probably wearing pants, or something, and that will soak up the prenatal bath water. so yeah, apparently 80% of women do not have their water break. which means, they are standing/sitting/jumping one minute, the next minute, there's a baby. that's how it works, or at least that's my understanding anyway.

today has been a good day. i hope tomorrow is too.

prank calls

i've been gone a while.

i'm back.

but now i'm gone again.

beyond belief

the arizona cardinals will face the pittsburgh steelers in the super bowl. wow. pittsburgh's schedule was ridiculous this year. i thought no way they even make the playoffs. but brady goes down, cleveland is, well, cleveland and dallas lays down when smacked around. they showed exactly what it takes to win in the NFL. now, the cardinals. i would go on record as saying they are the most unlikely super bowl team ever. ever!! when has there ever been a team like the cardinals go to the super bowl? huh? they defeated a run happy atlanta team, a what i thought was tough carolina team and finally upending a hot philly team to go to the super bowl. i was rooting for them too. i like kurt warner. i like to see that guy win. it makes me smile.

i went to church with my mom today. i like doing that. i got to see a lot of people i don't get to see regularly. and they always are happy to see me. makes me smile.

i ate a lot of pizza this weekend. too much. i also did a lot of laundry. it was great.

lady grinning soul

weird day man. i feel unmotivated. i feel astray. i have no classes. this is what i dreamed about for so long. but really, was it? probably not. i never disliked school. i disliked the stress. but man, i miss the stress. i miss the deadlines. i miss the decisions, the quick-thinking. i stopped by a local pub and grabbed a beer after work. i just sat there and wondered what am i doing? i have so much more to do, but i have no energy. i have no drive. my goals are right there. i have to think it's only a momentary thing. i know it is. i'm just getting accustomed to new routines. i have to make myself go, no more chapters to be read. no more tests/quizzes/exams. man, those were great. it's fine. i'll get out of it. i wish it warm.

man, i wish it was warm.

when i was at the pub, i scrolled through my phone and realized i literally have no friends in this town. they all live somewhere else. no one to grab a beer with. i've lived here for practically all my life and i have no one to grab a beer with. that's amazing. i need a new phone. with new people's names.

i'm either going to do two things tonight: 1) go to the gym or, 2) get some tostida chips and eat tamales and watch crap tv. i should probably sit here and polish my resume.

i think i'll do that.

watch that man!!

simon smith and the amazing dancing bear

man this office is lame. nice, lame people.

here is a great interview with niall ferguson.

here is the link for the entire series of "the ascent of money."

i hope people are still paying attention to our economy. obama will be here in less than a week. but it's not looking good right now.

i just ate three just-a-burgers from what-a-burger for lunch. i feel like i want to take a nap, but i'm assuming my coworkers will become uneasy if i strip down bare and cuddle under my desk to take a little nap. i should take this up with HR.

i just purchased another book called "when genius failed."

i'm currently reading three books, one of which i'm reading for the second time. the first one is "the origins of financial crisis." that's the one for the second time and the two are called something and something about something. you can look it up.

tonight is top chef. i will firmly planted on the couch at 9:00 p.m. i would wager that carla is going home tonight. either her or a surprise pick like fabio. by the way, padma is smoking hot. my goodness.

don't let me down

the beatles playing on the roof at abbey road studios would easily get my vote as the coolest moment in rock and roll. imagine your favorite band, collecting their gear and setting up on the roof of a nearby building in downtown somewhere and they start playing new material. not only that, but look at the footage. they look cool as shit. they have beards and awesome british clothes with coats. and it looks cold and dreary and they're rocking out. it literally gives chills every time i see it.

"get back, get back, get back to where you once belonged."

stolen shoes and a rifle

"and a giant waking bird shakes the trees above my head
stolen shoes and a rifle, i just can't seem to stay dead."

phantom limb

i have extremely cracked knuckles right now. ever had cracked knuckles? makes like a little less fun. i also have droopy eyes. that's caused by lack of sleep. i have a lack of sleep because my wife chose to put her ice block feet against my leg last night and i woke up and jumped out of bed. droopy eyes is often the result of that situation.

nice piece on 60 minutes about oil speculation.

here's 44 places to go in 2009 from the nyt. if i could pick a place to go in 2009, it would be someplace warm. probably new zealand or austrailia.

i've been reading an excellent book: the origin of financial crises. i've already read it, i'm actually reading it again. i want all the ideas to soak in. i want to be able to justify these talking points or speak out against if i disagree with them. when people start asking questions and you don't really know the answer or even have a clue, it makes you look like a parrot. a lot of people my age are parrots.

here are some of the top accounting firms to work for in 2008. there's one on there from bellaire that my friend lindsey was working at until she failed two accounting classes and they had to let her go. that sucks.

bono's talking with the nyt.

to my friend who texted me the other day: congratulations!! i was unable to return the message. i will fill you in on the details in a more appropriate location, like skywriting.

cats in the cradle

this is in the top 10 of greatest pictures ever. makes me think of lil benjamin. he threw up the night before. his love of plastic will continue to haunt him. if there was a rehab center for cats with addictions to plastic, i'd take him there. but no such thing exists, because, it's stupid.

put me in coach

there are certain cliches in sports that i live by. "pitching/defense wins championships." that is true. even though they didn't win the world series, look back at the houston astros 2005 lineup. it absolutely blows, but their pitching/defense was amazing. so cliches sometimes are true, so they don't bug me.

short-sighted projections, however, really bug me. i like to say, "just because it's true today, doesn't make it true tomorrow." i try to live by that. a friend might hate me today, but love me tomorrow. nothing is set in stone. behaviors/thoughts change. people change. so that's why it's hard to write what i'm about to write. because it's new. it's amazingly new and i'm already judging it, trying to change it, but i can't help it.

post-graduate life sucks. i'm already sick of it. i have so much free time. i'm accomplishing nothing. i feel sluggish and without motivation. i'm laying around watching horrible television and i don't even have cable!! that's how horrible it is people.

i'm ready for something new. i'm thinking of voluteering. maybe downtown at a homeless shelter or some political group. or maybe a church group working with younger people. i have to do something with my time because wasting it is not an option. i've gone three years scheduling a million little things into a finite amount of time and i was amazing. i have to start doing that again. soon.

interview with darryl from the office.

scrubs is back. it was on ABC last night. i actually enjoyed it. they had succumbed to what many sitcoms succumb to which is the death of relateability with the characters. they become unreal, just cartoons. they were real last night and it was nice. i enjoy these people. fictional people.

trillion dollar deficits are now a reality.

i hear the song teenagers from department of eagles and i love it.

that's alright mama

cassandra was the daughter of king priam and queen hecuba of troy. apollo was enchanted by her beauty, so he gave her a gift: the gift of prophecy. she, however, did not return the love shown by apollo. so he rendered her prophecies useless by making her unbelievable. she can see the future, but no one believes her. that would be rough.

i just recently started drinking coffee and while i find it to be a refreshing pick-me-up, i cannot say the same about the small, coffee straws that can be found in offices and gas stations. these straws are dangerous. if you don't completely wrap your lips around the straw, there is a tendency to suck it down your throat causing massive neurological trauma and possible hypoxia. yes, these little straws need to be put up high away on a shelf so adults cannot reach them and hurt themselves. it's a public safety issue and i hope the obama administration gets to work on this issue right away.

pitchfork took about three weeks off and now they're catching up, calling it "while we were out." there's an entry in there about wilco and it includes jeff's sons blog. it's a pretty good read.

mcdonalds has a 401K plan.

speaking of fast food, here is a jack-in-the-box dietery breakdown of their food. take a moment and see how much fat and calories make up just one jumbo jack or ultimate cheeseburger. you will forever swear off this shit. you can do this for each fast food restaurant you've eaten at.

as far as my football picks go, it was a tale of two weekends. saturday: 0-2. sunday: 2-0. so my AFC superbowl pick is out. i have replaced the colts with the ravens. my NFC superbowl pick is still alive, mostly because they didn't play this weekend. they had a bye. so giants-ravens is where i'm putting my money now.

meebo.

as time goes by

2008 is over. history. in the books. what a year, right? wow. that was something. what am i looking forward to 2009? a couple things.

1. adventure- i'm ready to change my environment. my current environment is starting to weigh me down. i'm ready to see something new. to live in a new area, to experience new people and new ways of doing things. i'm ready to hike, to bike, to take the bus/train. i'm ready to get out of the endless loop of eating out and drinking.

2. new president, new ideas- i certainly hope mr. obama and the brain trust he has assembled will come up with new, invigorating ways of salvaging our way of life. our current means of living is fouled up. it's over leveraged. it's outdated and it's obscene.

3. wilco's new album- nuff said right?

4. 30 years- i will turn 30 in 2009. i accomplished many things before turning 30 and several took me by surprise. so that milestone will not be one of regret and self-loating for being lazy. it will be one of celebration and motivation to continue.

5. health- 2009 will be all about health. mental health. physical health. the ideas i started putting into action in the latter part of 2008 will be heavily implemented in 2009. it's time to start living life to enjoy it, not to defeat it.

so those are a few things i'm looking forward to in 2009. obviously, i'm really excited still about being married and living my life with my wife. she has been such a positive influence on me. i look forward to continuing to live our lives together and laughing and enjoying our lives.

one of my close friends is having a baby in january of '09. i wish her the best in her endeavor. i wish all my friends and family the best of luck. i know some of you have huge things in play for 2009. and the rest has no idea, which is good too. leave it open. you never know when success/love/joy will come along and knock you in the throat.

i really cannot wait for obama to take office so i can start posting articles again. happy new year.

my favorite buildings

i really hate new year's eve. i always have. i don't enjoy the holiday at all. it's really quite a letdown. you stand around and count down to this moment and then everyone gives each other a smooch and then it's over. and it really sucked the whole time. and usually i spend it with a bunch of people i don't really like. so i'm starting off my new year with lame surroundings. i hope i do something different in 2009.

here are some albums that should come out in 2009. the avetts and wilco are listed. sweet.

i have my picks for the nfl postseason:

1st round
baltimore over miami
indianapolis over san diego

philly over minnesota
altanta over arizona

2nd round
indianapolis over tennessee
baltimore over pittsburgh

new york over philly
atlanta over carolina

Conf. finals
indianapolis over baltimore
new york over atlanta

Super Bowl
new york over indianapolis

eli versus peyton. it's going to happen.

have a safe and happy new year. i hope you're doing something cooler than me.

therapy car noise

i'm back. christmas is over. had a good one. got to spend time with family and friends, which is what i look forward to; that and eating a lot, which i did that as well. i seriously put on 30 pounds in two weeks. never been done. i am now larger than a desk. in fact, i know eat desk-sized portions.

niall ferguson has a six part series called "the ascent of money." i watched part one last night and loved it. each episode is about 45 minutes. you got to check it out. good back history on how banking was created and where and why. it's great.

here are some scenarios for 2009's economic outlook. i am no expert, but i'm banking on the double dip scenario.

here is a video detailing iceland's situation.

7 winning industries for 2009. video games are included as one. i don't quite understand that since video games are crazy expensive and so is their gear. the rational thought is, well spend money once on a video game console and save money by playing at home and not going out. that makes sense, but the up-front cost is large enough to be put off in harsh times. that's my thinking. it also includes education institutions like devry, which is lame. when hard times hit, people enroll in schools, in institutions of learning, like universities. they get master's degrees and law degrees. they don't learn how to weld two bits of metal together and then sell mattresses out of the back of the van in the early evening when mattress selling is at its peak. they just don't.

by the way, how great is it that the cowboys got rolled by philly and missed playoffs. i made a bold prediction before the season started. i said the cowboys and the patriots would not make it to the super bowl. it's amazing that i could have said that neither one would make the playoffs and i would have been right. wow.

it's the end of the world as we know it.....maybe

i'm not ready to concede the 2009 baseball season to the new york yankess. yes they signed mark teixeira. yes they signed cc sabathia. yes they signed aj burnett. they signed nick swisher too, that poor guy is beyond yesterday's news.

before they signed teixeira, i knew they wouldn't win the division or the wild card. now i think they might. they have to overcome defensive liabilities at 2nd and short, with cano and jeter, both whom declined offensively last year. they have to overcome a weak, and declining outfield. but here's the catch. i don't believe they're done. i think they'll sign manny ramirez. i really do. put manny in that lineup with rodriquez, teixeira and jeter and it's done. they will have the division and my yankee hating rage will achieve new levels of absolute hatred.

we'll see though. anything can happen. they started buying free agents with jason giambi back in 2001. and they haven't won a world series yet. hopefully that will continue.

but hey, the astros signed aaron boone!!!

lump sum

i checked my grades yesterday and i am officially a summa cum laude. i got the one A i needed for the fall semester and knocked it out. that feels good.

yesterday was freezing and wet and cold. and the office was freezing and wet and cold. now today it's not that cold out, but the office is still cold. what's the deal?

i don't really have a lot of great articles. this time of year focuses on the year that was and things start grinding down until the new year kicks off. there's no baseball right now and there's only one football game left before the playoffs.

today is my wife's birthday. she's older than me, but i won't say how much older. i'm taking her out to dinner tonight and then we're going out to a performance at jones hall. hopefully that will be sweet. then tomorrow is christmas eve. i love this time of year.

i have been sweating alot at night when i sleep. i don't think that is a good thing.

i don't believe in new year proclamations. they never hold up. i've started certain changes in my behavior in 2008 and in 2009 i plan on hitting them big time. my physical/mental behavior need to continue to improve and fight the natural aging process.

in addition, i will be watching all 6 rocky movies at the same time sometime in early 2009. that will be an amazing feat. and probably my biggest triumph of the new millenium.

everybody have a great christmas and be safe. and be patient with loved ones and be kind.

can i graduate?

my title is in reference to the great third eye blind. i use to take the title to this song and switch it with "can i masturbate?" which was a lot funnier and a lot more of a real question.

so i did it. i graduated this past sunday. i sat in cold, damp minute maid park for something like five hours (i had to be there two hours early) and waited for my turn to walk across the stage and shake someone's hand and move along. the first time i graduated, i looked forward to that moment, that end moment. i think that's a change that's happening as i grow older, hopefully more mature. i'm recognizing that the big finale is really only one more moment in that long journey. focusing too much on it or obsessing about it is unnecessary. i'll remember so many other things about these past three years in school than that moment on stage. but it was a nice moment. my wife was able to see me graduate and she deserved it. she was a huge part of my success. she celebrated every triumph with me and picked me up every time i was down and stressed. she bought christmas/birthday gifts for me for family members/friends when i didn't have time. she practically planned the entire wedding herself because that semester was terribly difficult. she's amazing and half of my degree belongs to her. i'm grateful and thankful that i am exposed to her brilliance.

now i'll take a month off, read a few books, workout a lot and then start my next journey. life is wonderful.

i did have a strange moment saturday night when i drove home. my wife was snoozing and i suddenly realized how many times i had driven down memorial from downtown and that i would probably never do it again that often. i realized i knew every crack in the road, i knew every bump. i knew the way the lights changed and where to expect to see cops and where to expect to move over because no one else knows what they're doing. i knew that road backwards and forwards and it was time for me to separate from it. it was a strange feeling.

10 stock picks by fortune from early 2008. see how they did.

the chinese growth fantasy.

i've been thinking of what constitutes a "safe" investment if i determine stocks are a raw deal. here are fours places where money can be "safely" deposited.

say it outloud: wow

year in photos. there is some amazing stuff.

furr

pitchfork and i finally agree on something. they think the fleet foxes debut album was the best album of 2008. i agree. here is their whole list.

hearya has their top 50 list for 2008. the title of this blog is in reference to their number 1.

deep throat is dead.

there's not alot going on right now. the auto industry is being bailed out. i got my last two cds in the mail today from birthday monies: the department of eagles and i'm from barcelona. both excellent albums.

i rode the elevators four times today. there was a fire drill. i guess it wasn't a fire drill, the alarm went off and we all went outside and waiting to be rescued. then a DHL van pulled up and i yelled, "they're here to save us!" and we all piled into the back of the van, waiting to be shipped to safety.

i went home for lunch and watched two episodes of arrested development. i also let the cat lay on my stomach and paid for it with a white, hairy shirt. because even if i don't pet him, he stills wiggles and rubs off tons of hair on me. i had a dream last night that we didn't feed him for several days and he got really upset and starting bucking like a bronco. and he got really high in the air and was meowing like crazy. it's funny now, but in my dream i was really thinking the cat had gone mad.

i found a ruler today. that's going to make me very efficient.

my car almost exploded. that's a daily event lately.

sunday is graduation. i'm going to party the next two nights. i haven't partied in a while, so i'm probably not going to feel too good the next few days.

recap of 2008:
1. married
2. honeymoon in reykjavik
3. graduate from college again
4. found new auditing job
5. got lots of new albums
6. discovered a love for coffee
7. went through a hurricane. or i guess the hurricane went through me.
8. went to my first texans game. actually 2.
9. watched many banks implode
10. took a nap

the appliances have gone berserk

something about jeremy piven cracks me up. he's got that face of a lovable loser, but even when he plays an arrogant jerk, he still seems like somebody i would want to hang out with. he's currently doing a stint on broadway and the only way i know this is because he had to quit due to a strange medical condition. he actual tested positive for mercury poisoning. so that's terrible right? but check out david mamet's (the playwright) quote about piven:

"it's my understanding that jeremy is leaving show business to pursue his career as a thermometer." that freakin' cracked me up. the dude is in serious medical condition and this guy is cracking jokes about being a thermometer. that's funny.

apparently madoff's auditor, doesn't actually audit. pretty sweet gig.

pitchfork is counting down their best albums of 2008. here is 50-26. tomorrow, the rest.

here are some facts about global warming. if you don't believe it is real by now, i really don't think you're a functioning human being.

i can't believe oil is tanking so hard. i knew it go down from it's meteoric high, but this fall is amazing. opec keeps cutting and the price keeps falling.

wow

there is actually a christmas song called "please daddy don't get drunk on christmas." that is hilarious. john denver covered it.

i stop thinking about a family sitting around a fire singing christmas songs and then this one comes up and everyone is singing with a slight grin towards daddy and he's looking back smiling with this awww shucks grin as if to say, "i know, i know. i probably shouldn't get drunk again this christmas." and it's all a big joke.

that is some funny stuff.

school's out, pt. 2

i am done. i have the possibility of graduating summa cum laude, but if not, then i will definitely be graduating magna cum laude.

i can't believe i'm finally done. i'm done with step 1.

step 2 is acquiring my cpa license. this will probably take another few years.

step 3 is an amalgamation of differing scenarios. they all involve public action. we'll see.

but for now, i'll concentrate on celebrating finishing step 1.

school's out

in 12 hours, three years of busting my ass will be over.

war is over

we have a little more than a week to go until christmas. it feels different this year. people are hurting financially, but amazingly, it seems to have helped them rediscover the real joy of christmas. not gifts and fancy gadgets, but family, friends and miracles.

my favorite christmas song is "happy xmas" by john lennon. if you hear it this holiday season, turn it up and think about it. then call your family and tell them you love them. here are the lyrics:

So this is Xmas

And what have you done

Another year over

And a new one just begun

And so this is Xmas

I hope you have fun

The near and the dear one

The old and the young

A very Merry Xmas

And a happy New Year

Let's hope it's a good one

Without any fear

And so this is Xmas (war is over)

For weak and for strong (if you want it)

For rich and the poor ones (war is over)

The world is so wrong (if you want it)

And so happy Xmas (war is over)

For black and for white (if you want it)

For yellow and red ones (war is over)

Let's stop all the fight (now)

A very Merry Xmas

And a happy New Year

Let's hope it's a good one

Without any fear

And so this is Xmas (war is over)

And what have we done (if you want it)

Another year over (war is over)

A new one just begun (if you want it)

And so happy Xmas (war is over)

We hope you have fun (if you want it)

The near and the dear one (war is over)

The old and the young (now)

A very Merry Xmas

And a happy New Year

Let's hope it's a good one

Without any fear

War is over, if you want it

War is over now

Happy Xmas

favorite waste of time

as you can tell, i'm in a picture mood.

here is paul kedrosky's list of best financial books of 2008.

the u.s. was positioned as low-risk, high-return. that's not really the case.

list of industries with strong hiring potential. accounting is listed. i think my move was a smart move. my next move will be ever better.

people, big people, are losing big on madoff.

have you seen jennifer aniston on the cover of some magazine wearing a tie? wow.

the money hole part II

the actual onion link for the money hole.

the money hole

"if you love america, you throw money in its hole."

christmas on mars

wowie zowie

ex-nasdaq chairman arrested on what might be biggest scam in history. bigger than the federal reserve.

the street knew he was cheating, and that's why they invested with him. smart.

various people sound off on madoff scam.

this guy says a trillion dollar deficit is a good thing.

some reading material for the weekend.

i don't really like mates of state. i saw them in concert and found them cute, not kind of lame. but i do like the fact they're husband and wife who play together.

obama is a smoker. he's trying to quit, but until he's totally quit, no one here and there, he's a smoker. we should let him smoke.

white winter hymnal

here are some lists of best albums of 2008 from various websites:

-the onion avclub

-rolling stone

-time

-paste magazine

-pitchforkmedia (site is down right now)

-thatbirdhouse

open letter to cc sabathia

mr. sabathia,

i hear you are going to sign with the new york yankees for seven years, $170 million dollars. maybe you didn't notice because you had your head buried in a bucket of nachos, but the yankees are dying. they're as good as dead. your presence will not resurrect them. the franchise, blinded by success and adulation, maneuvered itself into obscurity by doing precisely what you and the franchise engaged in, signing free agents to hilarious deals before they actually pitch in new york. carl pavano comes to mind. so does kei igawa. so does jaret wright. so does randy johnson. the yankee model is a relic of bloated baseball inventory. if you didn't notice, the tampa bay rays won the division with youth, speed and team chemistry. you have jeter as your captain, but with every new free agent signed, his influence is diminished. your team is a bunch of a-rods. high paid, hollywood stars that wilt when the time comes to produce. when the "team" needs a leader, there is no leader to found.

and those of us with a memory do remember you started horribly in 2008 with the cleveland indians before being dealt to the inferior national league and racking up big wins, mr. sabathia. that did not go unnoticed. now you've signed into a division that bleeds rivalry. you will have to stand tall against the red sox. can you do it? you did not in 2007 championship series. you will have to stand tall against the entire american league. we'll see if you can handle the pressure. the pressure of new york. the pressure of this contract. the pressure of being the ace of the staff because that's what you signed to do.

you might wonder why i would have such a visceral response to what is a common occurannce during the baseball offseason, the signing of free agents. it's because baseball players don't get it. the world series featured the tampa bay rays versus the philadelphia phillies. both teams featured highly paid players, but both teams had exactly zero big name free agent pickups. they grew their players from within. then they filled holes through free agency. the yankees did not even make the playoffs last year. it's amazing to see that baseball's "greatest" team still does not know how to succeed after being as dominant as they were from 1996 to 2001. during that period, they grew their players from within and signed guys like paul o'neil and scott brosius to fill holes. then they started signing guys like jason giambi and alex rodriguez and they got worse.

but they're stuck in this holding pattern. it makes me smile. because i love watching people/teams who think they are entitled to succeed fail. they think all they have to do is show up and they'll win because the other team will vanish into oblivion out of fear. it doesn't work that way. every team wants to win. and every team will fight to win. so good luck this year yankees. i'll see you when you finish in third place.

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remember, that just because certain people are filmed and recorded and beamed out to thousands/millions of people, it does not mean they have any idea what they are talking about. draw your own conclusions. 10 worst predictions from 2008.

here are fortune's top 25 companies.

did coldplay steal joe satriani's melody? you be the judge.

the title of this entry is a song title from jim o'rourke's album eureka. it's a great freaking album. check it out.

the race

it's that time people. time for me to assign a numerical ranking to the top ten best albums of 2008. and just for fun, i will also rank the 19th best album of 2008. so, without further ado, here they are:

1. fleet foxes- fleet foxes
2. kelley stoltz- circular sounds
3. magnetic fields- distortion
4. dr. dog- fate
5. the walkmen- you and me
6. langhorne slim- langhorne slim
7. blitzen trapper- furr
8. brian wilson- that lucky old sun
9. cut copy- in ghost colour
10. my morning jacket- evil urges

19. travis- ode to j. smith

and those are the top ten, w/number 19, best albums of 2008. it was a pretty good year for music. some honorable mentions include coldplay, sigur ros, elbow, nick cave, m83, the black keys, the last shadow puppets, beach house, the dodos, spiritualized, phantom planet and department of eagles.

this weekend i watched a movie that left me with such massive disappointment that only my eventual children will be able to succeed. "the darjeeling limited" directed by wes anderson was so bad, i thought several times about turning it off in the middle of the movie. "rushmore" is one of my favorite movies of all time. "the royal tennebaums" is stylistically gorgeous, with an awesome soundtrack and beautiful framing. "the aquatic life w/ steve zissou" is quirky and cute. "the darjeeling limited" is tedious, uninteresting, frustrating and completely lacking of direction and character interest. these guys are boring. they are lame. they are totally devoid of human connection. i was harshly disappointed. so disappointed it needed to be documented and read by a couple of people.

i took a quiz this weekend. i now have two finals left and i'm finally done. three years baby. i will continue the countdown until i'm finally done with collegio. that's college for the anglos.

if i had a dog, i'd name it buckley. or arrow.

we all love nixon. here's a list of nixon media.

cool waves

i had my last class last night. the presentation went fine. i sped through my part, as i always due when i'm nervous. the worst part was, i had prepared note cards. but i had the first few memorized. so i was speaking very conversationally at first. then i'd get past the information from those first few cards, and have no idea what i was supposed to say. i took a jim rome pause (which is probably between 5 and 10) seconds to flip through and find my place in my note cards. that was the worst of it, so it wasn't so bad. but i have three assignments (quiz, final, final) until i can say i'm done.

when i first started back to school, my wife was my girlfriend, the astros were the defending national league champions and i had yet to discover my love of oatmeal.

there's not really anything in the news today except that over 500,000 jobs were cut in november. so if you have a job, be grateful.

have a good weekend.

blonde over blue

today, my friends, (can i start saying this again without visions of old, tired republicans?) is the last class day for the fall 2008 semester. tonight is my last class, not counting finals. i will have three assignments to do after tonight that will satisfy the requirements for graduation for the university of houston- downtown. it's so close, i can feel it.

great article from the economist. is saving money really coming into fashion, or is it like conversation when oil prices shot up this summer?

great list of reading material from infectious greed.

college tuition is quickly becoming a hit in the nuts. when i started in spring of 2006, the tuition increased some $600 dollars a semester by fall of 2008. that's incredible.

market volatility explained. we'll see about that.

uncorrected personality traits

i do not understand credit cards. i have never encountered anything like them in business. you sign a contract with them, and if the terms of the contract no longer favor the credit card company, they will change the terms of the contract and there is nothing you can do. they will also stagger billings so that it's more likely you'll miss a payment. then they charge you with a fee and jack up your interest rate. also, if you miss a payment on one, they report it and the other credit card companies will raise your rates as well. now with the current economic climate, credit card companies are raising your rates as much as 15% above your current rate. that is unacceptable.

i don't know about you, but i'm sick of it. i call for a complete and total boycott on credit cards. they have screwed me/us for the last time. use your debit card. use a check. don't use a credit card. use cash. use gold. barter if you have to, but don't use a credit card. this is bullshit. these companies who are "too big to fail" need to be kicked in the ass. they're poorly run. they practice deceiving business practices. they are of no good use. just because we've done it this way for so long doesn't mean we have to continue. live within your means and don't let these companies screw you.

on another note, langhorne slim's self titled album is pretty freakin' good. buy it with a debit card. or cash.

i haven't done a recipe in a while. but i'm sure everyone is tired of turkey and dressing. here is a recipe for garlic soup with potatoes and broccoli.

funny little frog

when i was younger, i would go to the mall with my mother. for whatever reason, she always chose to enter the mall through mervyns. maybe it was because no one else parked there, i don't know. but she rarely bought anything there. i didn't get any clothes from mervyns, but i always hated that place because it was the first we would look every time we went to the mall. well, mervyns is no more and here's how it happened.

oil prices only get attention when they're high. for some reason our elected officials are only willing to watch over oil speculation when prices are high. they should be watching all the time.

the recession is official. i'm so glad we're finally official.

the dow is down over 600 points today. stocks i've been tracking ticked up last week over the past month. i sure have a gut feeling though the holidays will be brutal and obama cannot make announcements everyday to appease wall street. once this thing is down around january, that will be the time to buy. if we get another week or two of upticks, i might be singing a different tune though.

i remember when i got back from my first european trip, i commented that florence was more beautiful than paris. take a look for yourself.

apparently U2 has a new album due out in february. i actually liked their last album quite a bit.

the tourist

hope everyone had a great thanksgiving or giving of thanks, as i like to call it. i went out and bought two books today as a means to congratulate myself on having one week of school left, which means i'll be able to read whatever i want, whenever i want.

i bought "the origins of financial crises" by george cooper. in chapter three, he mentions this video by the ECB that helps to explain inflation.

here is the link. it's actually pretty good. i mean there are some parts that are broad generalizations that exist outside the realm of reality, but it's good anyway. check it out.

the other book i bought was "twilight in the desert" by matthew simmons. i've been talking about this guy for a while on this blog and i finally get to read his book. can't wait. can't wait.

and finally, "in bruges" is one amazing film. it's written by this playwright named something. i saw his play at the alley and it was the funniest, bloodiest thing i'd ever seen on the stage. there was buckets of blood in the final scene, but it was good. and the film was even better than the play.

now i must continue to eat cookies.

dig lazarus dig

i wrote something the other day:

"i cannot think of anything worse than being a woman
marginalized
by waistlines
by the style of shoes you wear"

and in typical perverse fashion, i can't finish it. it needs to be corrupt and yet sympathetic. it should humiliate but offer understanding. i thought of this while i was driving to school after work listening to nick cave. maybe i should recreate that experience and see if anything else comes.

if i can't finish it, hopefully one of you can.

have a great thanksgiving. i'll be out tomorrow.

4 minute warning

so citigroup has intercepted the auto industry's money and run with it. they're going to be bailed out. during the hurricane, i kept hearing the phrase "hunker down" which i used before but probably won't again after hearing it a million times on the news. the same goes with bailout. although i don't use that phrase very often. i won't start for sure. bailout. bailout. bailout. now it's out of my system.

here's more detail on the citi bailout. bailout. bailout.

it's pardon time. you have to love it when the outgoing president sits in a big, comfortable chair and listens to why everyone should be pardoned. that has to be one of the greatest times during the presidency. here's the list so far.

is there anything better than chick-fil-a?

even though i only did it in my head and i didn't tell anyone, i did pick the jets to beat the titans this past weekend. i did, seriously.

there is a film about harry nilsson that has not made it to a large distributor yet. here is the trailor. it looks freakin' great.

new career in a new town

dealbreaker.com is a great website. this headline is classic. it's not like the onion, where stories are hilarious, but false. these stories/events are real, with a sarcastic, funny spin.

the case for buying oil stocks is solid. this recent crash is just screaming for a major buy-in. you can get these stocks dirt cheap. oil will rebound hard and when it does: payday!!

if you have a financial investor, fire them. trust me, unless they are warren buffet (even he's sucking hard right now) they don't know more than you. they cannot predict the future. because they're so deep in the business, they're probably following trends that they recently overheard at some convention or worse, they're pushing stocks on you that make them money, not you. fire them and throw a dart at a stock chart. you'll do just as well or better.

walmart has a new ceo. and they have patio furniture on sale this week.

i can't believe i understand this and find it funny.

another review of the chinese democracy. i'm obsessed with this album.

good luck this weekend. have fun. don't forget where you live.

the mouth breather

i just got off the phone with a woman who seriously was ingesting the phone while i was talking to her. there was so much deep breathing, that i felt the hot air coming through the phone receiver. she must have just gone up 40 flights of stairs or maybe ran from one side of the road to the other in a wild attempt to disrupt passing motorists. whatever she was doing, she now has a phone in her trachea.

we keep hearing about obama's new deal. but about the old new deal? we know it was FDR who birthed it. but what was it? go here.

oil is below $50.00 a barrel. that is absolutely incredible considering that a few months ago it was up over $150.00. this is a clear indication of a slowing of production. companies are ordering less, requiring less shipping. that includes trucks and boats. people are driving less. less goods are being produced. this is absolutely wild.

indicators are indicating bad things happening.

here is chart charting global deflation.

here are five things you can do to hopefully reduce/limit your exposure to alzheimers. one of them is to take fish oil. there are a lot things that are supposedly good for you that become popular fads. fish oil is constantly promoted in various publications as an amazing ingredient for your body and i believe this one. i've read enough about it that it's not something i can poke holes through. it seems legit. i've been taking it for about a year or two now. i also take magnesium and a normal multivitamin. by taking these things now, i'm hoping i won't have to take twenty pills later.

the clouds are nice

more reviews for the chinese democracy. i won't believe this thing exists until i see it with my own two eyes. i always like the more ambitious side of guns and roses. songs like "estranged" and "november rain." those songs were epic. the changed themes, they had plots, they were these huge productions. i hope the chinese democracy is something like that. or, it's just axl eating a corn dog for 60 minutes. that would be the best gag ever.

speaking of albums, i just listened to kelley stoltz's "below the branches." that album has got to be one of the top 15 best albums i've ever heard. every song is an instant classic. i knew the guy was good, but this is amazing. anyone who actually reads this, do me a favor and go to the hype machine and listen to it. it's really, really, really freakin' good.

are there really pirates still out there? that is amazing. apparently they do not partake of the old pirate garb. gone are the peg-legs, the talking birds and the swords. these pirates have no imagination. just a lot of money.

should we raise the gas tax to eliminate future spikes?

thanksgiving is only a day and a week away. i can't wait.

me and my arrow

hope everyone had a good weekend.

here are six reasons why investors are freakin' out.

here are some signs that the bear market is over.

oh that mark cuban. he looks like frankenstein and he's also an inside trader. that's a shame. but if i did have a list of the most annoying people in the world, it would go:

1. bill o'reilly
2. mark cuban
3. alex trebek
4. robin williams
5/6. both of those osmonds

"is expired toothpaste dangerous?" seriously, i could not believe this was in the new york times.

five alternatives to banks.

two jabs please

two quick hits today. the first: why isn't elbow bigger than they are? i don't understand why they're not huge. it might have to do with the fact they came from the circle of bands that were influenced by the radiohead sound and weren't taken seriously. i don't know. i find it weird that bands i listened to when i was 15 are now influencing other bands. could that be it? i don't know. but they are sweet. i love me some elbow. check out the seldom seen kid.

the second: i often can't get lines out of my head, whether they're lines i created or lines from songs. this morning, it's one i created: "maybe it's time you forgot yourself." i am temporarily paralyzed by school, but there's independence on the immediate horizon. there's a million easier ways to say that, but anyway.... the main point is that once i'm out of school and we settle down somewhere, that it's time i forgot myself. it's time i started to make a difference. to help people: kids, the elderly, the something. i don't know. i can't shake it. and it's getting more of my thoughts. it's time i forget myself.

the weather is great. enjoy this.

quick roundup for the day

citi is handing out pink slips and raising your interest rate.

americans eat too much corn.

fidelity will cut 1,700 jobs.

i might be the only one, but i don't care about james bond. never did. never will.

100 greatest singers from rolling stone.

my top 3 greatest singers are:
1. brian wilson
2. harry nilsson
3. jeff buckley

your car has been crushed into a cube

i just had a very simpsons moment. i ordered 3 cds off of the best buy website with a gift card i got for my birthday. here are the three email titles i received shortly after purchase:

1. welcome to bestbuy.com
2. thanks for ordering with best buy
3. your item is backordered

very nice. does anyone else have a hatred for best buy? i do. they come into town and run the local record shops off. but they focus more and more on big ticket items and start cutting back on the number of titles ordered in music. so they chase off the independent store with everything you could want and then stop ordering a diversified number of albums and order eight million copies of jessica simpson or incubus.

best buy and circuit city. hey, remember media play? or sam goody? i worked at sam goody for a while. they also had another big media store that i can't remember the title of right now that failed. they were green usually. or maybe i'm thinking of media play again.

who knows. all i know is you matter how you slice, the chicken is one tasty bird.

frankie lee and judas priest

i love when curse words are overdubbed for regular television. i can't remember what movie it was, it might have been "back to the future" when doc or marty said "jesus christ," the overdub could be heard saying, "judas priest." that was always one of my favorite overdub moments.

top 10 most accountable companies.

here's a quick recap of what is in store for the president elect.

year of flops. the phantom and the shadow.

does it make sense to save the auto industry? at least without some quid pro quo? the industry cannot rise to the challenge of increasing miles per gallon and lowering emissions. they do not have answer to the asian auto market. if they are given a bailout, they should be held accountable for performance standards, not only of their company, but of their product. by the end of the next decade, detroit should be able to roll out a new car that is efficient and cheap. and if they don't, payback is a bitch.

what do you think? or how about you?

they punctured my yolk

after yesterday's confessions of emotional comeuppance, it's now back to business. we're hitting the stretch run for the 4th quarter. it's not looking good out there. stand back, cover your eyes and get ready to fork over all the dismal christmas money you get this year, because soon after obama takes office, the market will turn bullish again. the end of december to mid-january should be the time to jump in.

this guy has advice. and so does this guy. but i don't care for his advice.

this was from yesterday. the fed loans out $2 trillion of the money outside of the congress approved TARP. so who is it going to? they won't tell you.

"a trillion here and a trillion there, and pretty soon we're talking about real money."

article is somewhat weak, but good breakdown of how your money is taxed as you invest and is distributed.

good entry in popless about wilco. right at the top.

this guy actually heard "the chinese democracy." i'm starting to think it's real.

carry that weight

this is the longest non-posting span i've had since i started. friday was my birthday. saturday was my birthday party and sunday was a day of sleep.

i don't have any links. today is a weird day for me. my birthday is over. the party is over and now it's back to work. back to getting my last month of school over with. i realized something on sunday, a few somethings. the first is that i want to change my behavior. this is something that's been on my mind for some time. i do not enjoy staying up late and drinking anymore. i do not enjoy the way my body feels afterwards and i do not enjoy the thoughts and emotions that i experience when i am in that way. it's not real emotion. it's enhanced and fabricated and it betrays me because it masquerades as real. i do not want to experience it anymore.

the other something was a feeling of extreme change. in the past year, i've been married and i will graduate this winter and i had rarely felt change like this spirit of change i felt on sunday. i hadn't because i initiated those changes, getting married, going to school, etc. i am amazed by them, but i made them happen and i was fully aware of most of the changes those decisions would bring. the change i am speaking of now came from visiting my best friend's grandmother house. it was the house i thought of as my own home. it was the house i spent a lot of time in from the age of 15 to 19. i felt so free at that house. it was right on the river and we would take the jet ski out and under the bridge, over to where to the nice water started. we would leave around midnight and go play pool under 2 in the morning. we would listen to new bands and get on the internet when it was new.

i saw that house this weekend and was shocked at how it looked. the upstairs is lonely and foul. the downstairs is lived in and mostly the way it was the last time i had been there. but there was an overall sense of decay with the house. i can't imagine being over 80 years old and having to clean that big house all my myself so i completely feel for the wonderful woman who lives there. it's just amazing how your mind carries on the image of something indefinitely. and it won't change until you confront your mind with reality. the reality was sad, which it often is. but as i sat and spoke with my friend about the house and all of time hanging out there, i began to think of the house as a huge safety net. it had caught various members of my friends family and it had even caught me. i'll cherish being in that house with my friend and his family because i always felt welcome and made to feel like a member of the family. i was lucky to have walked through its door.