i wanna be adored

there's a lot going on today. it's the 8th anniversary of 9/11. we're a year on from our financial meltdown that basically starting this blog. and apparently kurt cobain looks like a dancing monkeybear on the new guitar hero video game. nice.

it's the 8th anniversary of 9/11. feels so long ago. anybody else want to play the "where was i when...." game with me? so i was in huntsville and i had woken up and turned the tv on before going to class, like i always did. but by september baseball is wearing down and it seemed like there were highlights from track and field or bowling or something stupid that i didn't like, so i changed the channel and found a building in new york had a hole in it and it was believed to have been caused by a plane. so i sat there and continued to watch. at this point, it was believed to have been a mistake. so my girlfriend at the time and i walked to class, not believing it was anything other than pilot error, and by the time we walked to class and sat down, there had been another building hit by a plane. by this time, it was apparent, this was not an accident. so we sat there through our first class and our second class and watched. watched the buildings fall. watched the ash and debris. we walked back home and stayed there pretty much all day. i called my mom and some other people just to settle my mind. later that night, my girlfriend, myself and another friend went bowling. we felt like we had to something to take our minds off of it. i got home late, probably about midnight and watched dan rather sign off. he had been on the air all day. i called my dad and sat there talking until about one in the morning. i guess it was actually 9/12 when i got off the phone. the next seven years sure were shit as far as our decisions and methods taken to correct such an injustice. but i won't forget the collective feeling i felt with my country that day.

it's also been about a year since our entire financial system fell apart. let me ask you a question: what have we done to ensure this doesn't happen again? the answer: nothing.

did accountants help to cause the financial meltdown?

has the federal reserve bought the entire economics profession?

here's krugman's explanation for why the economists got it so wrong for so long.

so often people forget that simply trust is a big reason why our economic system works.

grizzly bear has a new video out for "while you wait for the others."

also, it's the 20th anniversary of the stone roses debut album. if you don't have this album, buy it, you will love it. it's incredible.

across the universe

the beatles are everywhere, still. i guess it's only been a day since i wrote it, but it's still true. i love listening to their music when i walk into best buy or a starbucks. their music instantly puts a smile on my face and makes me start singing out loud, and i find myself just walking and listening and seeing the world a little different. how many bands can you say do that for you?

but one song in particular i find completely mesmerizing and utterly unguarded, naked in its lyrical approach and almost conscience shattering. i feel like i've left my plain of existence when i sing these words and hear the melody. "nothing's gonna change my world."

across the universe is a lennon triumph. it hits me right where i have nothing, a void is filled when i hear this song. "jai guru deva om." it's gentle. it's comforting. it's sad, yet promising.

it's incredible still.

here are some different versions:

fiona apple

rufus wainwright

there's also a cover by david bowie that i can't find.

i'm looking through you

the beatles are everywhere right now. the rock band game is out and all their albums have been re-released in stereo and mono and dolby. i don't think they do dolby anymore, do they? dolby went the way of the dumont network. actually by being on that dolby website for less than a minute, it looks as if dolby is still around and doing quite well.

what a discussion. anyway, the beatles are everywhere and pitchfork is reviewing each album. their reviews have been spot on for me. even some being more generous than i would have been, see magical mystery tour.

but it got me thinking about music and about artistic leaps. the leap these liverpool lads took from help to rubber soul was amazing. and as good as rubber soul was, the leap to revolver is even more amazing to me. i think revolver and the white album are their best albums. so i started to think about the greatest leaps in rock history. and a few quickly came to mind:

radiohead: pablo honey to the bends
wilco: a.m. to being there
pink floyd: meddle to dark side of the moon
the beach boys: all summer long to today

that's really all i got right now. i'm actually ashamed of only being able to think of these four. this office is hot. i can't think when i'm hot.

does anyone has anymore?

and by the way, go read those reviews at pitchfork. if you can't find them, just search "the beatles" and you'll find them. they're a great read.

lovers at the airport

matthew simmons is at it again. talking about peak oil and such. go here.

ben bernanke has made our financial mess worse. he didn't mean to though. he had to. and he'll do it again.

"massive global wealth destruction."

daisies of the galaxy

daisy wasn't the most socially adjusted dog. she was notorious for bringing you a tennis ball or a stick and setting it down next to you and barking until you finally picked it up again and threw it. this process would go on forever. she would never, ever tire playing fetch. never. it was amazing. what she was though was a good dog. she was good for her owners. she was proud to stay and guard the house, proud to lay by the fence and wait until someone would come home and maybe they would play fetch with her again.

i wasn't close with daisy. but the reason i'm writing about her is because i watched her die yesterday. she had a brain tumor and we'd known about it for several months. by the way, daisy was my wife's mother's dog. anyway, she would wobble and fall over when she tried to get up and walk. but she had good days and apparenty these last few days were good for daisy. she had a friend, a younger dog that the neighbor's brought with them while vacationing from houston. they were playing together and chasing each other and daisy chased the young dog into a pond and got her foot stuck. she didn't have enough strength to get her foot out of the mud. the stress of the water and almost drowning, sent daisy into a seizure.

a young girl, probably 17 or 18 jumped into this nasty pond and rescued daisy. we got there when she'd been out of the water for about 20 minutes. her breathing was labored and she was unable to stand up, but other than that, she seemed alright.

but about an hour later, she wasn't alright. something had collapsed inside her head. her tumor had ruptured and she was suffocating with blood in her lungs. she was drooling blood and she was unable to control her bowels. we found a 24-hour vet who would see her. so we loaded her up on a flat bed truck and my wife's mom rode with her all the way to the vet like that. when we lifted her up and put her on the truck, she started bleeding everywhere and let out this howl of pain and it became very clear to me that it was daisy's last day on earth. i had never seen anything die in front of my own eyes. people, animals, they were either close to dying or already dead. i had never witnessed the event of dying. and although i wasn't there when they put daisy to sleep, i petted her for the last time and her eyes were rolled back into her head. she was gone.

it's tough when animals die. like i said, daisy could be extremely annoying when you were hanging out in the back having beer and just wanted to relax. she would bark and bark and bark until you played fetch with her. but she wasn't full of malice. she was sweet and she wanted your attention. and who can fault her for that. she rests easier today and i'm happy for her.

fruit bats

going to see the fruit bats tonight at walter's on washington. it's my first show at walter's, which is perfect timing because they're going to close that place down and move it downtown, so i'm just sneaking in time to catch a show. can't wait.

popular songs

sons of the silent age

there's giant oil in the gulf.

bailouts, bailouts, bailouts. barry ritholtz, author of bailout nation, gives his take on the bailouts, whether they were successful or not and how they could have been improved.

interestingly enough, the pay for executives at bailed out companies, you know the ones who were poorly run and had to be saved by an injection of taxpayer capital, is actually higher than their peers. so cut loose, run your company into the ground, and you too can make tons of money.

diane sawyer is taking over for charlie gibson on abc world news tonight. i have always thought diane sawyer was so hot. here's picture of her younger.

capture the flag

senator tim johnson is set to take over the banking committee if chris dodd/dudd moves on over and takes the recently deceased senator kennedy's still-warm spot. if this happens, good news people: we won't change anything, because the devil we know is better than the devil we don't, right? right.

dr. doom says he's got some ideas on how to get us out of the spend and borrow pattern we love so much. although after reading it, i'm not sure what the idea is/was.

sheila barr, chairman of the FDIC, says a super-regulator is a bad idea.

we're making some money back from TARP, to the tune of $4 billion. i would like to get all our money back before we decide whether we made a profit or not. you don't win a football game at halftime.

the future of movement, travel and transportation through space could be coming from one company: tesla. if you don't read the story, that's fine, but i highly, highly suggest you watch the video of the rocket taking off and going into orbit. there is a camera on the side of the rocket transmitting the image of it leaving earth. it's amazing.

pitchfork already has a review of yo la tengo's new album "popular songs." it's out next week. i saw this band at ACL in 2007, i think. it was around noon and it was hot as shit, but these three people put on a head rattling performance. it was brutally good.

audit the fed

audit the fed.

this is exactly what i wanted.

but how come i feel like this is going to backfire?

my vege-tables

i meant to post this the other day and didn't. i'm really starting to get into the idea of growing and producing food locally. i've been trying to pay attention to where my food comes from and what it is made of. i've read articles like this before and it's something i believe is important as we move forward/backward as a nation.

there is actually a garbage island floating in the ocean. here is a picture.

it's starting to become clear now that oil speculators were behind the massive run-up in oil prices last year.

i write here about peak oil, but what about peak water? is this something we should be paying attention to?

i've got other articles on banks, but i'm sick of reading about these banks. all i want to do is dance.

prank calls

i'm still cracking up about that bernanke joke from my last entry. that's really all i have to say.

bernanke's back

"bernanke's back
and we're gonna be in trouble,
hey nah, hey nah
bernanke's back!"

ben bernanke has been nominated by the continually confusing president obama. it doesn't guarantee a second term for old ben, but it's about a done deal without really being a done deal. so, should old ben come back for another round? how did he do the first time around? he had a lot to deal with. he made some mistakes of course. but was he really that bad?

here is bloomberg.

the financial times.

mish.

in addition, the fed has been ordered to turn over the names of all financial institutions that received bail-out monies.

krugman's got some thoughts on health care and how it relates to the financial disaster we refuse to really clean up.

kid a is being re-released with as a special collector's edition. i remember first hearing this album and thought, "what the shit is this?" but i kept listening, it had left an impression. and slowly, the album revealed itself to me. brilliant, incredible album. they haven't been the same band since.

here is the list of cheapest cars to own. i'm thinking about getting one.

come on! feel the illinoise!

so i'm back from the windy city. what an amazing weekend. the weather, man. it was 70 degrees with zero humidity. just absolutely gorgeous. we got in saturday morning around 10:30. this is after being up the night before until 12:30 and getting up at 4:00. needless to say, i was a little loopy without any sleep. we got picked up from the airport and headed to the hotel. actually, we stopped for a beer first. then we went to the hot dog stand and got something to eat. then we went to the hotel and laid out. took a nap. saturday evening we had dinner at a greek restaurant. it was alright.

sunday was the big day. we got up and went to church for the service, baptism and blessing of the marriage. then we headed to the restaurant and proceeded to hang out/drink and party for the next 10 hours practically. once the restaurant kicked us out, we went to the groom's nephew in-law's place and hung out there listening to 80's music and dancing in a kitchen hallway until about one in the morning.

monday was a pretty wasted day because of hotel conflicts, people not getting sorted out and the baby's mama being unable to move for the first few hours of the day. that chick partied hard.

once we got into houston, they lost 2 out of 3 of our bags, but right as i was leaving for work this morning, the dude was dropping them off. nice timing. of course, last night would have been better timing, but oh well. the great chicago trip is over. now it's back to work.

i just wasn't made for these times

here is a lecture given by william (bill) black about the banking heist we went through and are still going through. i bought his book "the best way to rob a bank is to own it," but i haven't started reading it yet. the guy is sharp, to the point, and very, very focused on malfeasance within the system. i highly suggest you check it out.

the democrats seem to have finally found something: their balls. they have a majority in the house and the senate, in fact a filibuster-proof majority in the senate, yet they are letting the republicans, who lost every election possible last year, dictate their terms on health care. it's really amazing. the democrats are unfocused and completely unprepared and unorganized for this fight. it's simply amazing.

david alexrod has got some explaining to do. major independence issues, but else is new in washington?

when every right-wing blowhard out there says we have the best health care system in the world, do you roll your eyes? you should. because the WHO doesn't seem to think so. this study took place in 2000, but do you think we've made major improves since then under the bust/bush administration? probably not. so we're still somewhere floating around less than adequate. we've got the technology. that is no argument. we have the best doctors. that is no argument. but it's like having the best equipment and the best players on a baseball team, but the rules of the game make the game rigged, so it didn't matter. that's the problem.

that birdhouse presents....

wilco's got a b-side floating around out there called dark neon.

radiohead's got a song floating around too called these are my twisted words.

plus, i found a free cookie in the vending machine! what a day!

moonage daydream

"keep your electric eye on me babe,

put your ray gun to my head,

press your space face close to mine, love



freak out in a moonage daydream, oh yeah!"



is there anything better than bowie? seriously. the man was a force.

rio grande

"oh the great big river,
goes on and on,
oh the great big river,
makes my heart beat strong."

-brian wilson


this weekend was pretty wild. my wife was attacked by a storm trooper at space center houston. we landed a successful mars mission and found water on mars, which was a big deal. we almost got left behind at rocket park inside nasa after it closed. after that, we went to kemah and ate and walked around the boardwalk. that was all saturday.

on friday night, we took jerry out to eat and watched a fight break out in the bar area of the restaurant in tomball. we went to a cowboy bar/dancehall after that and my wife and i danced and then we got jerry out there in his wheelchair and i pushed him around on the dancefloor during the cotton-eyed joe. it was a blast.

sunday i saw my grandmother and my wife and i made dinner and cleaned the house. it was the best weekend ever. and we went to church together for the first time in a while. that meant a lot to both of us.

it was an awesome weekend. how was yours?

my girls

is it much, to admit i need
a solid soul and the blood i bleed
and with a little girl and by my spouse
i only want a proper house

i don't care for fancy things
or to take part in a precious race
and children cry for the one who has
a real big heart and a father's grace

i don't mean to seem like i care about material things and a social status
i just want four walls and adobe slabs for my girls

*make sure you select a track that is not remixed. just pick one that only has the title of the song without some crazy shit after it

war on war

remember disclosure and transparency? weren't those things supposed to utilized in the new presidency regime? i wonder where they went? because i haven't seen them....ever.

this is a wonderful article on the uselessness and utter hilariousness of the efficient market hypothesis. it's hilarious when you read what these guys factor into their models as constants and wonder why they get these every 400 year events, like every four years. they talked about this some in "when genius failed."

when is the next oil shock coming? because it's coming. and it's coming within the next two to three years. we're running at full capacity people and the only thing keeping us from teetering over right now is a global economic collapse. so i guess there is a bright side to everything. but eventually people are going to start producing and buying shit again. and demand will catch up and surpass available supply. that's when the pain starts. hard decisions will have to be made. and we've seen how our government handles hard decisions. they don't make them.

over at fortune, they are designing the perfect health care system. check it out.

clothes line saga

idealism only lasts so long. that's why we love to think back when we were younger, before we realized how the world really works. idealism is a beautiful thing and if you had it, celebrate it. if you still have it and you're as old as i am, wake the F up. this is a wonderful story. it proves finally, once and fall for all, there is no change. our future, the future of us being ruled by global corporations using money and influence to continue to subject us to loopholes and fleece us out of our hard earned, hard fought money, is set. there will be some explanation. there will be backtracking. but don't you just feel it. like you know when someone is lying or cheating. you know it. you might feel it, before you actually realize it and speak it. but you feel it. i'm feeling it. there is no change. "meet the new boss. same as the old boss."

so i have one suggestion: do not you spend your money frivolously. you don't need half the shit you have. hold on to books, music and art. don't use credit cards. question everything. realize your little handful of friends and family is as good as it's going to get, so take care of those people.

here's a Q&A with a writer from the NYT who's covering the town hall meetings on health care.

i'm listening to fruit bats right now. i'm going to see them in september. cool.

here's ten minutes with elizabeth warren. everytime i see/hear elizabeth warren, i fall in love. this woman is the best. she is the top of the shit.

parklife

the fed will be making some announcements regarding interest rates and their/his view of the economy today. ben bernanke. the man. the fed. probably should start to thinking about raising interest rates, just a smidge.

speaking of the fed, they sure like to help contribute to the making/contributing of bubbles, don't they? well they've spent tons and tons of monies this year and last. are they doing it again? have you seen the stock market? what's all that uptick based on? what has really changed? i'm not sure either.

still speaking of the fed, the fed of cleveland is proposing a three-tiered system for regulatory systematically important financial institutions. but, like before, who's watching the watchers?

this article says the bubble will pop in 2012, when the next wave hits. especially read the bottom part. wow.

bankruptcy is changing.

you what i listened to last night and i really, really liked? blur's parklife. this is one of those albums that i bought and never really listened to all the way through. i didn't like it because i didn't know what to expect and then when i listened i just brushed it off. but last night, i listened to mostly the whole thing, it's freakin' long and i missed like three songs, and it was great. terrific pop record. check it out.

our faces split the coast in half

what a weekend. let me take a second......

okay. first, houston hosted it's first, what i would call, real music festival. why was it real? well, is buzzfest real? no, it's hosted by a radio station and all the bands sound the same. is the earth day festival real? no, it's centered around a day to celebrate the earth, not really music. this one had extremely diverse acts and was actually in downtown houston, which buzzfest is not. it had no radio station ties and it was actually really freakin' great. hot as hell, but really freakin' great. here's the story of the great saturday music festival journey. we packed up on saturday morning and walked with our stuff probably two miles. in the heat. once we stopped and regrouped we checked everything out and found our place on the hill. i saw young mammal, fat tony, octopus project, the sword, broken social scene and explosions in the sky. i didn't get burned because i lathered, seriously, lathered myself in suntan lotion. and i wore a long-sleeved shirt. and a hat. and pants, but that goes without saying. or does it?

bss was freakin' great. octopus project was really cool and young mammal was pretty good too. but man, it was hot. so hot that that night after we ate and had like one drink, we all called it a night. i was thinking we would party into the early hours, but i guess, heat, old age and heat made us all a little tired.

so the next day, we woke up and tried to get our cat to eat. see the back story on the cat is, after the move, we put him on new medication for his thyroid problem. that didn't react well with his stomach and he also got into a cat fight, his first one ever, and we changed his food. several bad moves on our part. so he just stopped eating. seriously, like 100% not eating for four days. so by sunday, we were freaking out. but sunday morning he woke up kind of with an attitude that made us think he was feeling better. so we washed him off (don't ask why) and we gave him some water. i had bought some baby food late saturday night for him to eat cause we thought that would be soft enough and gentle enough on his stomach that he might go for it. and sure enough, sunday morning, he ate it. we were so freakin' happy. it was like seeing a miracle to watch this cat eat. and he's been eating ever sense. he hasn't moved to hard food yet, but he's getting there.

after watching our cat eat for a while, we ran some errands and went back to the festival. it was still hot, but it was later in the day, so it wasn't too bad. we got there in time to see what made milwaukee famous, devin the dude and of montreal. wmmf was really good. but of montreal put on this freaky, wacky show with characters in stage and balloons and magicians and little scenes they would act out. total wild. really entertaining and the music was good too.

what a weekend.

on another note, the rolling stone article i posted here a while back is getting some major heat. this guy is defending it. if you have like 30 minutes, you should take the time and read both articles. it's well worth it.

don't go near the water

we're going highbrow today people. this blog isn't just about the latest fashions, sights and sounds. the monkees were great, but how long can we talk about the musical genius of peter tork? the answer: not long. i pack this blog full of articles that i like to read. today i am going to pack it with articles about what i do and see everyday and some things i want to do and see.

the first thing is fas 157. first, what is fas? fas is short for fasb, which is short for financial accounting standards board. fas 157 is all about fair value. see what's happened lately is that with this financial meltdown, as i like to call it, we've gotten sensitive to what is being held on company's balance sheets. are these assets really worth what they are saying they're worth? how do we find out? how are the valuations calculated? that's what fas 157 is about. it's supposed to break down these assets into three levels, with each level determing a different value structure. fas 157 is all the rage right now.

and because fas 157 is all the rage, there is already talk of changing it.

next, what does the sec regulator look for? well we just talked about one: fair value. another is goodwill impairment. what is goodwill? goodwill is the intangible asset representing the excess amount above book value that a company paid for another company. and every year, that excess has to be tested for impairment. and with all this economic meltdown, you'd figure a lot of these have been impaired and you'd be right, but companies have a way of figuring figures that makes them look pretty good. so these regulators have to verify how goodwill is tested and how it is finally determined.

i should point out, i'm not a regulator. but an auditor does basically the same thing. i just do it on a much smaller scale.

a new area of accounting will focus on alternative energy, how to accounting for emissions and such. this is a very interesting article about how companys will value their credits under cap and trade.

and finally, this article is about wind energy and how difficult the logistics of transporting the energy really is. this has nothing to do with what i do, but it's intersting nonetheless.

tickets to what you need

i am totally digging the new place. i'll give you three reasons why:

1) it's smaller. the other place was too big and too awkward in design. it seemed no matter where i was, my wife was a million miles away. with this place, i can be at the computer and she can be in the kitchen, and we can still talk. it's great.

2) there is no cable in the living room. the days of rabbit ears are over, so if you don't have a cable outlet, you get no tv. now we do have a cable outlet in the bedroom and we do actually have cable, like 70 channels or something, but when we get home at night, i turn on music, she lights candles and i will read while she talks on the phone. no television is really nice.

3) all of our stuff is still in boxes. it makes our lives easier, simpler without tons of stuff cluttering up our lives. you really begin to realize how much junk you have when you move.

AIG is breaking up and some folks are making tons of monies off of it.

CNBC's ratings are way, way down. that could be because they're idiots.

is buffet the product of government bailouts and agressive lobbying?

speaking of, burkshire hathaway is going to post "blockbuster" results evidently.

with a girl like you

i'm over the moon on this cover of the troggs hit "with a girl like you." apparently this dude is a member of tv on the radio, who i'v never really gotten into. anyway, great arrangement, great pacing. really well put together.

the treasury is selling more debt. anybody want some of this?

i've been saying for a while that how can be tell how well our economy is doing when the government is spending so much money? isn't this just another version of a pumped-up, artificially inflated economy? mish agrees with me.

what is with all these texas instrumental bands? explosions in the sky. octopus project. balmorhea. enough people. say something!

mama says

i went to the dentist this morning. i got beat to hell, but i was told i was in good shape. so i don't think i'll brush for the next month and see what happens. actually my teeth are holding up pretty good. we'll see how they're doing in another 30 years.

i am totally excited about this weekend. music festival in houston! that is a rare thing. i've been listening to tons of broken social scene. i don't have anything by the rest of the bands, except of montreal, but i don't know where that is.

we went grocery shopping. i don't think anything beats the feeling of coming home with tons of good groceries. it's better than christmas morning.

almost done

-if i cranked up broken social scene, i wonder if anybody would care

-why are my hands so dry and cracking? i should probably look into that

-if i had to put an over/under on how much longer my car will last, i'd say less than three years

-i've been trying to eat tons of blueberries because i'm convinced they unlock some sort of super-powers for my brain

-benjamin is throwing up a lot and it has me very worried

-when will they have mailboxes like the bank slots in the drivethru? i bet they won't because someone could put something in there and you'd bring it into your house and wouldn't know until it was too late, like some bees or something

-i still have vhs tapes. why am i keeping these things?

-i have business cards and i actually gave one out the other day

-i think the peak of tom hanks career was bosom buddies

-i am certain i could be friends with pat sajak

-how long would it take the grass/weeds to cover a road?

-going through the hurricane last year, no matter how small it really was, was an amazing experience, not one i'd ever want to relive though

-i've had three cups of tea today

-it's been too long since i've had muenster cheese

-i have a lot of euros in my car cup-holder

-i still haven't developed my black and white film from iceland

-my teeth are going to be beaten the hell up tomorrow when i go to the dentist; on a side-note, i read a study that said redheads are more sensitive to pain; so i'm not a weiner after all

-there is a song on the dark was the night soundtrack that is blowing my mind. this is it.

moment of surrender

i think i'm slowly realizing how much of myself i have to let go in marriage. and it's not parts of me that are vital to who i am or my personality. it's the parts that rally for victory rather than understanding. it's the parts that knock over the catcher to score another run when i was already winning and could of easily trotted home. it's those parts. those parts ingrained in me that would rather fight, than listen. those parts that would rather go to sleep proclaiming individual victory, rather than team victory. my wife is better at certain things than i am. she's better at certain things that i should be better at. for example, we were loading up the futon in the back of the truck to take it away finally and we had these straps that we were using to lock it down. i had seen them used before, but i just needed a little bit of time to figure them out. that's how it is with most things for me: give me a minute or two and i'll figure it out and i'll never forget. but she figured it out faster. and internally, it frustrated me. i wanted to figure it out first and make it work faster. but i didn't and i had to give that one away. but who am i giving it away to? i'm giving it away to my team member. because there's only one team i'm on and i only have one teammate. so if i don't score the game-winning run, hopefully she will. i have to work/think like this. it's not just my show anymore. it's our show. it's our life. it's our future. i'm getting it. slowly. but i'm getting it.

krugman points out there's more high jinx (sp?) going on with some big investment firms. i'd heard about high-speed trading on NPR not long ago.

apparently the UK is going to be investigating high-speed trading/cheating.

do you bank with guaranty bank? well if you do, your bank is teetering on the verge of collapse.

what about afghanistan? what are we doing there?

i've been watching the bronx is burning again. man, that is a good show.

the seldom seen kid

man today is one of those when i am feeling strong. the move is over and the new place is taking shape. i've been working out again and i feel stronger than a freakin' horse. i'm looking into certain accounting issues like accounting for carbon emissions and wondering if maybe i should become some sort of expert in this field for the future of cap and trade in already upon us. i don't know. i signed up for the journal of accountancy and i get it at a discount because i'm a cpa candidate and not a cpa. i feel good today. i've been listening to elbow all morning. i dropped off the keys and the garage door openers and all the stuffs for the old place. so we're out completely from the old, heat infested place. things felt so spread out, so out of place, so lost just a few weeks ago, but it's coming together. i love when a plan comes together.

i feel like i could lift this building right up over my head. i hope everyone gets to feel like every once and a while.

gorilla dust

just thinking about iceland today, so i thought some pictures might help me out.

absolutely

"don't try to confuse the issue with half-truths and gorilla dust."

-bill mcneil

got nuffin

really, i got nuffin today.

i ate jalepeno sausage for lunch today with fried potatoes and red cabbage. it was actually really good. i didn't eat all the cabbage.

speaking of food, while i was in austin, my dad took me to alamo springs cafe in fredericksburg. apparently their burgers are so good, they were voted some of the best in texas and made the cover of texas monthly. the burger was awesome. the fries were great too. it's about as in the middle of nowhere i have ever seen a restaurant. i really want to try some of the best burgers in texas before i leave. roznovskys and christian's tailgate are next on my list.

the lake

the lake did me in again. we went to austin this weekend for my wife's sister's birthday and i took off to hang out with my dad for his birthday. but before i did that, i made another valuable contribution to a texas water body.

the first contribution happened in july of 2008. i had just gotten married in april and was getting used to my wedding ring. it was kind of loose and i didn't think that was normal. i told my wife about it and she said, yeah, it should be a little loose. i said okay. so we're out on her brother's boat in lake scummerville (sommerville) in brenham. we jump off for a bit and start throwing around the football. i dive for a throw to my right and when i come up, i feel around my fingers and notice that my wedding ring is gone. totally gone. flew off at some point when i dove for the ball. we (my wife, me and two friends) spent the next two and a half hours looking for that ring. this water was kind of nasty too and i'm not sure what exactly i was touching down on the bottom. that was my first contribution.

my second contribution came this past weekend. we get to her sister's kind of late friday night, like around 9pm. we start hanging out and having a good time. we leave and head out to this awesome house on the lake, that's where we're staying the night. so this place was amazing. hot tubs upstairs, all kinds of flat screens and stuff. we sleep, get up and we're (just five of us who stayed there) are going to take the boat out on the lake before everybody from the party gets there. and it was not easy getting the boat in. the water on lake travis was down probably about fifteen feet. we had to fanagle that thing in. but eventually, it got in. we drove around, found a good place to wakeboard and a terrific time. the last person to wakeboard was my wife's brother. once he gets done, my wife asks for my help pulling in the wakeboard. so i'm happy to help. but while i'm bending over to help pickup the wakeboard, my left hand comes up too high and i knock my glasses in the river. gone. sunk like a stone. i stood there, dazed for a second, not believing i had done it again and this time, now i was literally disabled because of it. but, i laughed it off. that's something you can do when you lose your wedding ring. but i had no way of getting to my dad's now for his birthday.

anyway, long story short, we went to walmart and i got an eye-exam and a trial pair of contacts and able to see again. the prospect of not being able to see for two days was really horrible. thank goodness for walmart. so between the ring and glasses, i've not contributed about $1,000 to various water bodies in texas. if you find either one, please return them to me.

what

self defense is useless
self defense is useless
cutting against the grain
marble slabs, your soul, your brain,
intimate, i see your stain


self defense is useless
self defense is useless
combat, combat, shoot out the lights,
tempermental, keep your rights,
in reverse, i dream these nights

blasting fonda

blasting fonda is an amazing wilco b-side from their "being there" days. great tune.

front page news: the astros sweep the cardinals. we're one game back of first place! what the hell is happening with this crap-ass team? i mean seriously! geoff blum and chris coste are playing over their heads. it's incredible. i think it's this new gatorade i've been drinking. those electrolytes are amazing. and they taste good. i sometimes sprinkle electrolytes on my cereal.

we've got an open letter from mish to president obama in regards to health care.

why is everyone obsessed with the idiot known as sarah palin? is it because she's a hot politician? really? thank you john mccain for bringing this person to our national stage. really good.

the dow is over 9,000 and people are freaking out.

sheila barr is calling for the largest financial institutions to pay a fund for the next time we all come tumbling down. good idea? don't know. the government loves to touch some monies that have been sitting for a while.

this guy says we're just now hitting the depression.

"i'm going where there's no depression,
to a better land that's free from care,
i'll leave this world of toil and trouble,
my home's in heaven, i'm going there."

-carter family

california stars

i would like to rest my heavy head today because i am exhausted from the move. saturday was one long freakin' day, full of heavy stuff, lots of boxes and lots of corners from upstairs to downstairs. it was hot as hell in the midafternoon and raining in the hours before evening. so we had all the elements come into factor. but we're about 99% done with stuff at the old place. i still have my clothes and a couple small things laying around, but it will take about an hour to get the rest. then we move on to cleaning and organizing our new place. all of our stuff fit though. i was surprised. my wife did an amazing job of packing and organizing. i thought all along she was messing up and not really getting things done, but the day of the move, i finally realized how incredible the job she did was. all the boxes/containers were color-coordinated for each room and she knew exactly how to stack everything. plus, her brother is really good at moving/stacking boxes. so both of them made our day easier.

i have to good stuff i'd like to post, but i'm busy and i don't have internet at home yet, so i'll be popping up every now and again.

common people

the move day is fast approaching, so every minute of day is full right now with boxes and tape and benjamin laying in my way while i'm carrying a 50 pound box full of random cleaning products, most of which i bought in 2003 and never used. so i'll be out and mostly about well into next week.

in other news, i started writing a play. it has no name at this moment and the only thing i know for sure is it involves a nun from the church of euthanasia. it's going to be spectacular. or not.

this year's girl

"a bright spot might corner the market in this year's girl,

you see yourself rolling on the carpet with this year's girl,

those disco synthesizers, those daily tranquilizers,

those body building prizes, those bedroom alibis,

all this, but no surprises for this year's girl." (the song is there, just type "this year's girl" and search)

i always feel like a tool typing up lyrics, but man, elvis costello is so freakin' good.

wow doesn't even begin to describe this

i just found this video with this kid freaking out. this is absolutely insane. check it.

look at these people

seriously. when is this a good idea? what is this you ask? this is kajagoogoo. meet them. love them. just don't dress like them. ever. or smile like them. it's slightly unnerving.

too shy

"too shy shy
hush hush, eye to eye"

classic.

i love how the wikipedia page has a paragraph called "success and decline." which is perfect that they are combined into one, small paragraph, because the success and subsequent decline took place over three days.

it's true. look it up.

innocent man

awesome new term: bankslaughter. just like manslaughter, but it involves killing a bank due to reckless behavior and gross incompetence. nice.

here is an article with jeff tweedy in the new york times.

glass houses

where we last stood, ron paul was trying to audit the fed. well we've hit a roadblock. it's called the senate. it's not dead yet, which is a good sign and it's also gained some steam, which is also a good sign. but none of that matters if that twerp barney frank takes it and eats it during a senate finance hearing. he'll cover it with jam and eat it. i know he will. anyway, write your representatives and senators and tell them AUDIT THE FED!!!

i think it's amazing we're already talking about a 2nd stimulus bill when so little of the first one has been spent. seriously, what is the justification for a 2nd bill? the 1st one is not even out the door yet. most of it hasn't even been spent. apparently it's hard to spend billions of dollars. i'm not sure how that is so hard either. you buy lots of cds, fourteen houses, six cars and the moon and you've got yourself a billion dollars spent. watch out for this. if this starts gaining momentum, look out.

speaking of the 1st stimulus bill, where is that money? here is the answer.

here are the 500 biggest companies in the world.

rolling stone has an excellent, ranting article on goldman sachs. really good work.

speaking of speculative bubbles, remember john meriwether? the guy who got booted from salomon brothers and then almost brought down the market singlehandedly with long-term capital management? well his latest hedgefund just bit the dust. surprise, surprise.

i can't stand it

i said i was done and i am done. i'm not writing another word about the new wilco album. but.... here are several reviews that you can read to make up your mind. and trust me, you'll need a shower after reading the rolling stone review. i had the same feeling after they reviewed the new U2 album.

pitchfork

the onion avclub

paste

popmatters

rolling stone

houston chronicle

stranger

i have decided not to review the new wilco album. what is the point? i've made my feelings known. there's really nothing else to say. it's the worst album of their career. it's flat, unimaginative and musically and lyrically uninspired. that's all. i'm done.

robert mcnamara died. if you haven't seen the fog of war, you should. speaking of, here is a clip.

steve "air" mcnair died this weekend too. his death was a little more complicated. the details are still being unearthed. mcnair, eddie george and chris johnson were supposed to be the next trio of stars for the houston oilers. but instead the team moved to tennessee and became stars there. except chris johnson, i don't know what happened to him.

interesting article about the american marriage. i have extreme hope for marriage. it's not easy, but it's worth it. every little heartache is worth it. i like the joke between a son and his dad. the son says, "it's amazing dad. 50 years and you never once had an affair. how did you do it?" the father replies, "i can't drive." nice.

no more sarah palin? what a shame. here's five reasons why she quit.

big shot

we're back to the groovy titles of sir william joel for this end of the week blog. it's the end of the week because i don't have to work tomorrow. or saturday. or sunday. i don't have to work again until monday. and i think it's appropriate to use the works of sir william joel for this end of the week blog.

i actually have my review written for the new wilco album. i have it written in my head. i'm not sure i'm ready to share it yet. i don't know that i have totally devoured the album yet. but i can say how disappointed i am in the 2nd half of the album. starting with "country disappeared." that song sucks. and "solitaire" jeff's voice is double-tracked or manipulated in some way that is very unflattering to the song. and "i'll fight" is generic. and the last track "everlasting everything" is such a pile of generalizations and trite melodies and overwrought strings. it's enough man. i suggest not even listening to the 2nd half of the album, except maybe "sonny feeling," which isn't that great a track either, but it's better than the rest. does jeff get melody anymore? did he ever? was jay the melody-maker? cause there are zero to zero melodies on this album. the music is mostly uninteresting. the lyrics are banal and jejune. i really thought i understood why the band made sky blue sky after the intricately played and performed a ghost is born. i thought they needed a break from that type of sound/recording and just wanted to cut a new album of some fresh, albeit simple tunes. great. i'm all for it. but what is happening now? is this a pattern? is this a settling?

this lineup reads like a murderer's row of musicians. but they've produced nothing together. there is no excitement. there is no angst. there's no tension in the band. they're all nice/unassuming personalities. and that's not working. i think they have one incredible album in them. but this ain't it. and sky blue sky wasn't it.

anyway, this isn't my review. this is just me venting. be prepared to read more about this album and how utterly clueless i am about what this band has turned into.

right now

vote for legs against arms to win the hot sauce race.

you can vote every day, once a day. do it! do it now! 1, 2, 3, do it!

sonny feeling

what a day thus far. i picked up wilco's new album and grizzly bear's too finally. both only 9.99 at best buy. i haven't listened to all of either one of them yet. the cd play on my laptop starts whirling and the fan gets really loud and then i can't hear the music unless i turn it up really loud and then if i do that, i can't hear anything else in the office. so they're in the car, waiting for me.

speaking of wilco, the avclub has graded the new wilco album.

plus, time did a little Q&A with the tweedster. he speaks briefly about jay.

i had a hell of a time finding out what green shoots were. apparently, i wasn't the only one.

enterprise is shaking and making deals here in houston. and it's not the rental car place. it's the energy place. didn't know about it eh? well it's now one big bad energy company. we've those here before in houston. some of them don't exist anymore.

here are the dumbest moments in business, thus far in 2009.

i'll fight

i'm momentarily suspending my title tribute to william joel in honor of the release of "wilco the album" tomorrow. i'm actually listening to "you never know" right now. tuesday at 9a.m. the best buy on richmond opens and i'm going to be here, cash in hand. i think it will make the perfect soundtrack to my fourth of july extravaganza, which consists of diet soda, my wife and a movie and lots of boxes. and the cat. by the way, pitchfork gave it a 7.3. i'm shocked.

this weekend was a pretty good one. we drank wine and watched austrailia, which was about three hours of ridiculousness and predictableness, but still pretty good. what is hugh jackman eating? that dude is ripped. i think he could beat the crap out of carrot top, which is saying alot because carrot top has turned into a muscular monster.

saturday we got to packing a lot. but it got so hot, we couldn't really concentrate anymore and we were getting really agitated, so we went to the movies. we saw "away we go," which if you're married, that's a good movie to watch. if you're not married, it's a good movie to watch because the relationship between the two characters is something you hardly see in movies. they actually love each other. and care about each other. it was refreshing to see that for a change. plus it's pretty funny. we saw it at the river oaks theater. i love that place. it's old-style movie watching.

sunday we got back to packing and ran some errands. made it to the gym. that's about it.

wilco the blog post

wilco at the mountain winery in california.

got a clip of "hummingbird." check it out.

my life

i was really too young when "thriller" came out to get how groundbreaking the video was or what a cultural force this one album had become. i really didn't get how big michael jackson was until the early 90's when he released the "dangerous" album. i remember fox, which at that time was still struggling to become the fourth network, debuted the "black or white" video with macaulay culkin. i remember thinking, "how big is this dude that they moved back their regular programming for his video?" and they did it again for "remember the time." but it wasn't long after that, that the rumors and allegations and lawsuits started. and he quickly turned into a punchline. not a real human. he wasn't human to us. he was a fantasy figure existing in our realm of reality, something artificial, something innocent, but broken. the 80's were michael jackson, bill cosby and coke for me. i don't partake of any of those things anymore, but i'm still sad to see them go. i'm sad to see them go because we all knew those things. i'm not sure what we all know anymore.

lester bangs said this about elvis when he died: "but i can guarantee you one thing; we will never agree on anything as we agreed on elvis. so i won't bother saying goodbye to his corpse. i will say goodbye to you."

i don't know how, but that perfectly fits what i feel.

excellent article from time: the death of peter pan.

evidently the simpsons will be the death of television. bring it on.

plans

grizzly bear covered by band of horses.

the words forming in your mouth: whoa shit. or cank sure. it's 50/50.

or tartar sauce. it's less than 50/50. it's 40/40. i don't think that's right.

embryonic

possible album cover for flaming lips new album. nice.

the kids

lou reed's berlin is an audio representation of a nightmare. the listening experience is brutal. it is desolate, it is desirable, it is completely devoid of human comfort. lou goes out of his way to beat you over the head with misery. the kids screaming at the end of "the kids" is intolerable. the little boy screaming "mommy!" makes your eyes glaze over and stare ahead and eventually lie behind your eyelids for security. it makes your heart beat slower and your breathing grows longer.

it's 4a.m. and lou is singing "and this is the room where she took the razor and cut her wrists that strange and fateful night, and I said, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, what a feeling, and I said, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, what a feeling."

i'm almost thankful i broke that cd that night.

pot kettle black

"i, myself, have found a real rival in myself."

-jeff tweedy

say goodbye to hollywood

in the words of william joel: "so many faces in and out of my life, some will last, some will just be now and then, life is a series of hellos and goodbyes, i'm afraid it's time for goodbye again." william joel, telling us that life isn't permanent, that the people we know are not permanent and that it should be appreciated before it's gone. william joel everyone.

with this recent depression still in our minds, i have to ask, will we actually change our behavior from just a few years ago? will we realize how irrational, unsustainable our behaviors had become? we'll see.

the government is giving money to tesla to build a new car. i hope they don't mean these guys.

elizabeth warren is a professor at harvard, but more importantly she's the chairman of the congressional oversight panel of TARP. and while i'm not sure how well she's doing overseeing TARP, i do enjoy listening to her when she speaks. she is clear, she is honest and i believe she has good intentions. here is her suggestion for moving forward.

i've read several reviews of the new sunset rubdown album and i can't wait to hear it.

i heard the news today, oh boy

jay bennett died of an accidental prescription drug overdose.

shit man.

famous last words

by the way, a week from today, the new wilco album comes out. i know i've bashed it pretty good, but i'll be there front and center tuesday afternoon putting down my cash for a copy. i will probably also buy a chick-fil-a sandwich because there's one right next to best buy on richmond.

worse comes to worst

the piano man. the album starts out with what sounds like someone blowing on a jug and it ends with a song about masturbation and dying in a swimming pool. that's why this album is a classic. william joel put it all together for this album. and although he's characterized as a singer/songwriter from the 70's/80's, he was always different to me. guys like james taylor, jim croce or jackson browne were writers of sweet/pretty tunes, which william joel did too. but william joel wrote with a snarl of attitude, he was like a little punk, that kid in school who was 5'6 but would fight you no matter what. that's william joel.

ed mcmahon is dead. he was 86. he was found in a closet tied with by his hands and genitals. i'm kidding. that only happens in thailand. there was a joke on snl weekend update with dennis miller years ago that said there was a break in the kennedy assassination because they had an audio tape that captured the three shots during the motorcade and then someone yelling "YES!" like ed mcmahon used to do on the tonight show. that joke always hung around with me.

derivatives are still around. in some circles, their image is changing from months ago. is that correct? or that is already memory lag from the fall?

ben bernanke could be out of a job come jan. 31. it's highly unlikely, but look for some image control as we get closer to that date.

this website/blog is pretty cool. it takes us day by day concurrently with the present day through 1930. so if you click it today, you can read about june 23, 1930. pretty sweet.

"worse comes to worst, i'll get along, i don't know how, but sometimes i can be strong." the words of william martin joel.

go to extremes

i think instead of using random song titles for each blog entry, i will now only use the song stylings of mr. william joel. cause every time i see "anthony's song (movin' out)," i get a smile on my face. and that's what william joel does best, he makes people smile and enjoy life. i was riding my bike the other day and "uptown girl" came on. i probably looked like the queerest dude in the neighborhood on my bike because i was riding with no hands and dancing while i was riding. it was a great moment that perfectly symbolized the shot used as credits roll at the end of a movie. it was that momentous.

i've complained publicly and privately about the quality of wilco's (jeff tweedy's) lyrics going downhill. here is a song though that is still lyrically exciting.

michael lewis was on charlie rose the other night. check it out here.

lots of big names give the best advice they ever got. my best advice: life is only as good as your last sandwich.

here's an interview with sonic youth on pitchfork. never been a big fan of their's, but i respect their creativity and longevity.

the two girls in front of me are talking how gross it is to have dead skin on your lips. they're going through how to get rid of it. one suggestion is putting lip balm on your lips when you go to bed. another is a thicker version of vasoline called aquafore (?). they're still going on about this. i went from downtown in the tunnel, where it's happening, to sitting here listening to this shit. i got to get back downtown.

now she's talking in armenian. wow. this is so brutal. i'm putting my headphones on.

anthony's song (movin' out)

we signed the lease. we're moving.

i have no idea how we'll put this off, but we will.

the ballad of el goodo

sammy sosa's name is apparently on the 2003 steroid list. this list is compiled of players who tested positive before baseball implemented its new, strict anti-performance enhancing drugs policy. first off, no shit sammy sosa's name is on there. that dude went from a scrawny kid from the d.r. to this behemoth in like a year. he went from hitting 10 home runs to hitting 60 in like two years. so that's no big surprise. what bothers me is the double standards in sports. if a guy gets caught using steroids in baseball, his career is over. just like that. no coming back. i mean jason giambi might be the lone exception. in football, guys take steroids and get suspended like shawn merrimen and almost win defensive player of the year awards. they don't get run out of the game. i don't understand that. also, what about this guy? donte stallworth is driving drunk and kills someone. he gets 30 days and he'll be back playing this year or the next. does that make sense to you? you take steroids, you're out forever. you kill someone, well, we'll let you back in after you serve time in your house. what the f?

what is going on iran? these people are pissed. i like their spirit. i like how the internet, meaning twitter and facebook, two simple web applications are being used to drive home their story and send images around the world. no dictator can stop that.

obama introduced sweeping financial reforms today. check it out here.

big star released number one record and radio city again. i'm not sure why. i don't think there's extra stuff on it and i don't think they've been remastered. but great stuff anyway.

randy, i still listen to burgers. i actually listen to it while i take a bath. i relax in some hot water and listen to burgers vols. 1 and 2. thanks again.

i had a stuffed snapper today that was heroic in taste and flavor. wow. i also had oatmeal. it was less tasty. but good for me.

iowa city adieu

this engagement is nice. it's in downtown and i've been eating lunch in the tunnel. the tunnel is great. although it has no bathrooms. seriously. not one.

oh yeah

a friend of mine sent this to me who works at fox sports. she said this aired yesterday during an angels game.

free ride

"free ride." can you believe it? i missed "free ride." one of the partners here has gotten wind that i'm a rock and roll encyclopedia and he's taken to asking me to name the group for each song that he names. and i missed free ride. anybody know it? it's the edgar winter group. yeah, i know. what the hell? i've gotten most of his questions, but he's found my soft spot which is late 60's, early 70's soul, groups like the spinners, the ohio players and billy preston. i'm not as familiar with that as i should be. free ride. damn.

there's all kind of stuff going on out there (iran elections, switch from analog to digital, and other stuff that i don't care about on a friday.

by the way, looks like we're moving again. i know, it never gets old, does it?

"If I am the one
Blood on the sofa
Blood in the sink
Blood in the trunk
High at the wheel of a bull black nova
And I’m sorry as a setting sun
This can’t be undone
This can’t be outrun"

what is going on with those lyrics? freakin' me out man. by the way, i had a sandwich today and i had the realization that a sandwich without mayonaisse is just a sandwich. mayonaisse actually makes the sandwich. it really does. cheese is optional. lettuce optional. i think these rules apply to a hamburger as well, but that has not been tested yet. further results may differ.

hoodoo voodoo

garn- st. germain depository institutions act.

depository institutions deregulation and monetary control act.

obviously these are just small wiki pages, but i haven't found more than that yet.

3 rounds and a sound

2nd post of the day.

i haven't posted from mish lately, but he's got a plan to save the fed's image. he has this because the fed is investing in actually improving their image. i think bernanke should shave his beard and start wearing stone-washed jordache.

here's more on fractional reserve lending and how it, and the fiat economy, are undermining our banking/financial institutions.

also, the real worry i have, besides massive infectious disease and deepening socio-economic divisions, is the great debt threat. it's coming if something isn't done and the worst thing is, to do something about it, is going to hurt. all of us.

they done wrong/we done wrong

another day, another swing in the move/won't move movement. after searching endlessly, we have one more place to see tonight. after tonight, if this place isn't the one, it's starting to feel like we're going to suck it up, pay the new rent rate and work feverishly to find jobs out of state before the end of our lease is up. that seems to be the new game plan. although the game plan is constantly evolving. the game plan like ten minutes ago was to move to arizona and raise komodo dragons. but that game plan is already gone. see, they move quick.

i had a quick epiphany last night. my wife was supposed to cook some chicken for us for lunch, but due to her mom calling and unleashing more of her middle-aged drama, she didn't get a chance to do it. but i brought it up how the chicken would go bad if she didn't cook it because it had already thawed out and was just sitting in the fridge. so she trudged downstairs, upset, and went to cook it. now this is about 10:15p.m. when this happened. now usually, i as the husband who never forgets and always has the nightly outline laid out and signed off on, would have continued to lay in bed and read for my CPA test. but this time, it flashed in front of my eyes. she's going down there to do this for me. she didn't forget because she was lazy or watching television. she forgot because she's always dealing with her mom's crap and she became upset about her mom and therefore forgot. don't punish her. the punishment of an irresponsible, immature mother is enough. so i grabbed a book (a heartbreaking work of staggering genius by david eggers) and i went downstairs with her and read to her while she cooked. she loves when i read to her. it's these little breakthroughs that i hope to continue to have that keep my marriage a successful, happy one. it not always easy hearing about her family and how they're always purposefully butchering their lives, but it's not her fault.

sweet leaf tea is the best.

here is a quick scene from the office where jim dresses as dwight in the cold open and dwight repays the favor in the close. check it out. it's actually very funny when seen onscreen:

Jim: [Dressed as Dwight] It's kind of blurry. [puts on his glasses] That's better. [exhales] Question. What kind of bear is best?
Dwight: That's a ridiculous question.
Jim: False. Black bear.
Dwight: Well that's debatable. There are basically two schools of thought---
Jim: Fact. Bears eat beets. Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica.
Dwight: Bears do not--- What is going on--- What are you doing?!

Dwight: [walks in dressed as Jim] Pam.
Pam: Hey, Dwight. You look really nice today.
Dwight: [scoffs] Pssssh. I look like an idiot. Hey Karen.
Karen: Hey, Dwight, lookin' sharp.
Dwight: Yeah, that's cause I'm... you're boyfriend, Jim Halpert. Hey, Karen, wanna get t-together later and have sexual intercourse cause you're my girlfriend?
Jim: Do you?
Karen: No.
Jim: OK.
Karen: I'm good. Thanks.
Jim: [Dwight imitates the "Jim face"] Look at that.
Dwight: I'm Jim Halpert. [more horrible "Jim faces"]
Jim: Spot on.
Dwight: Ah-luh-luh, a little comment. Muh.

foux da fa fa

having lunch with a friend is great. get out of the office, have some laughs. very good monday thus far.

we're going to look at two different properties today and tomorrow. i haven't mentioned this before, but it looks like we might be moving. we'll still be here in houston, but our lease is up and our landlord is being a little bit crazy in her approach to negotiating. so we've taken it upon ourselves to begin searching for a new place. i think we might have found one that we're going to see tonight. moving will be a major bitch, but by moving we'll be sticking it to the landlord and her "chance to make some money" will turn into her financial black hole.

foux da fa fa.

as jon stewart helped to point out when he pantsed jim cramer a few months back, financial television is a mess. bloomberg television is actually pretty good, but the beast in question is CNBC, which had the market cornered for financial/business news and still leads the market by quite a bit. i have no numbers, but i can tell from the coverage on blogs/websites. this guy has 16 suggestions on how to fix it and most of them are pretty good.

the federal government's money is being spent too slow apparently, which i didn't think was possible. but obama says speed it up. he wants to create 600,000 jobs by the end of this summer. when compared to the 10% of the workforce out of work, that's really nothing, but it's a start.

top 10 housing markets for the next 10 years. i've looked at fort collins. looked at it, i haven't visited it. but i can see it from my house.

so did the government get it right by not buying bad assets before with TARP money?

if you have a macy's card, apparently that's one of the worst credit cards to have in the world. the world! but also if you have a macy's card, you're probably in love with yourself or hate yourself. this is all true. so here's some really bad credit cards to have.

love and mercy

love and mercy.

two weeks

yes, grizzly bear is blowing my mind. they actually have a song on the dark is the night compilation album called deep blue sea and it's amazing. the national have a song on there too that's incredible.

david carradine is dead. i had never seen him in anything until kill bill, which i thought he was strangely calm and unnerving. his superman speech is great.

this is nice: a worrier's guide to economic recovery. after all these months of pessisism (sp?), could we really be coming out of it? can i believe yet?

because then you read something like this that says rising interest on the world's debts will continue to sap growth.

look at this prius!! it gets 50 mpg! that's incredible!!! wow. i want one.

kicking television

did anyone catch the entire "earth 2100" last night? i only caught the last 45 minutes of it. i'm going to try and find it on the web and watch the whole thing. it deals with the possible environmental ramifications of our actions if we do not accept that our current way of life is unsustainable. i've been making this joke lately that my mom and other baby boomers don't really appreciate, but at least they laugh. the baby boomers experienced the most perfect period of life on this planet. they were raised during u.s. dominance and they matured and grew older when stocks were high, land was cheap and medicine was advancing. they could run their air conditioners all day and they could drive their inefficient cars as much as they wanted. but that period is ending. and the aftermath will fall on us.

i have no scientific data to back this up. but i'm not an idiot. i've seen changes in my life. i've seen the choices we have made about how we live, work and surround ourselves with exploits of life. so i wonder, what will change during my lifetime? i wonder if world leaders are determined enough/smart enough to really get a handle on the seriousness of the situation. do they understand what raising sea levels will be like? do they really understand how fast disease will spread when changing temperatures allow it to permeate and breed much more easier in areas where it used to be uncommon? do they understand that globalization will end overnight if our infrastructure is challenged and compromised? and it really wouldn't take much for that to happen.

one of the reasons i want to leave houston so bad is because i would love to live in a city where a car is not a necessity. i dream of the idea of waking up, grabbing a book and hopping on a train and reading the whole way to work, or listening to a new album. it would make my life so much easier and cheaper and also help the environment around me. i see all these condos going up inside the loop here in houston and i wonder, how do they plan on moving all these people around? cause each high-rise will have about 100-200 tenants and each one of those people will get into their car and drive to work everyday. they have no choice.

we've taken "the old ways" and we've industrialized them. what happens when we have to go back to the old ways? we'll have to have a garden and grow our own crops and possibly raise our own animals to eat. and think of all the advancements that have been stored in some electronic database that will be lost. it all seems so pointless when you think about it in these terms. why did we advance ourselves to the point where we ended our civilization?

and i'm not saying these things as a means of scare-mongering. this is real stuff. our actions have consequences. our choices have consequences. we never realized we were partners with the earth and maybe we never will. but the earth knows we're just renting from her. and she'll evict us eventually if we don't change. i know we have the technology to do this. but do we have the stomach? it's got to be our generation that mandates these changes, otherwise, when we're 70, we won't recognize the world around us.

so what changes can you make right now around you? well not big ones. but you can change your light bulbs. you can insulate your house and install thicker windows that don't leak. you can grow a garden. you can ride your bike or take the bus/train/lightrail if you can. i know in texas that's not easy/plausible. you can use re-usable bags instead of plastic bags. you can turn down your water heater a few degrees and maybe your a/c too. that's also not easy in texas summers. i don't have any grand ideas for your everday life. those will have to come from somewhere else. but imagine a world where your car is electric and you drive to work/home and you plug into something like a carport that is outfitted with solar polars that are used to recharge your car. those are the kinds of ideas we need to get behind.

anyway, i just think our lives will be so much simpler when we do make this leap. our generation will experience the worst. we'll have to work out the kinks and pay the highest prices for this change-over. i'm ready to do it. i can't wait to see it.

the good part

apparently this song is on the war on war single. the good part. check it out. it's a little tasty tune.

what is the deal with this jon and kate make eight or something? who are these people? i had never heard of them until like two weeks ago and now everywhere i go, i see their faces or i'm staring at their pictures in line at the grocery store. did these people have eight babies and they were given a tv show? is that what's happening here? man, i really want to punch these people in the leg. like real hard for interferring in my life. i also had gone this long without hearing that old scottish woman sing until last night when my wife had on the jimmy kimmel show and she was singing. i was proud of myself for going this long without hearing her. it's not that she's bad, it's just that i do not appreciate cultural phenoms thrust down my throat. or hot pizza bagels.

here is an important piece of journalism...can white women and black women get along. i thought oprah was bringing all the women together. oprah has let me down.

during the summertime, the avclub does reviews of old classic television shows while the real shows are on hiatus. newsradio is one of them. it's in my top five of all-time sitcoms/television comedies which are numbered as such:

1. arrested development
2. seinfeld
3. newsradio
4. the simpsons
5. cheers

number six would be out of this world.

"would you like to swing on a star, oh oh oh, carry meanbeams home in a jar, oh oh oh, and be better off than you are, oh oh oh, or would you rather go to earth?"