birds flew backwards

the doves are another band that i wonder why they're not insanely popular.

i usually lead off with the political/economic stuff, but come on, an interview with will arnett. that leads baby. although he doesn't talk about the arrested development movie. that worries me.

"they forget their job is to protect us from the banks, not to protect the banks."

obama bettin' it all on the failed banksters.

the fair value litany.

has everyone done their taxes? today's the day.

the thanks i get

this article perfectly says what i've been trying to say, which is, to stimulate the us economy and entice consumers to spend more will help to jump-start our sagging economy in the short-run, but it will do nothing in the long run and might even jeopardize our situation more.

warren buffet is investing in chinese company that makes electric cars.

you might be billed by the city next time you get into an accident.

i ate a tres leches cake today that was so full of three kinds of milk, it was soaked through the cake. wow. it was from this place.

it's more fun to compute

here's some weekend reading for everyone:

federal reserve history.

bretton woods system.

fractional-reserve banking.

gold standard.

fiat money.

triffin paradox.

have a happy easter holiday.

working week

is anyone else working today?

what the hell....

complicated shadows

i drove up on the curb today doing like 50 mph. it was the coolest thing ever.

remember i mentioned black swans earlier? here's how to avoid them (even though by definition you can't).

listening to the new leatherbag ep. i'm always really grateful when randy sends me his music. i appreciate him thinking enough of me to do that. it's great and i'm really excited for the guy. he's for real.

if you're a fan of these ten tv shows, might start finding something else to do. they might disappear.

the new legs against arms ep will be called come on let's disappear. i like it. can't wait to hear the final version. these guys have been together barely more than a year and they sound like seasoned vets live. can't wait to hear the studio magik.

pidgin english

went to the astros game last night. we won in 10 innings. totally great outcome. i almost got into a fight with a dude who was yelling at us for standing in the ninth inning with jose valverde on the mound. apparently it's against the rules to stand at a baseball game. so i had to lay down the law for the dude. he totally backed down. pathetic actually.

i'm not really finding any good articles lately.

so here's a list of stuff in my car:

1. box of tissues
2. three bottles of water, empty
3. cds
4. peanuts
5. lint roller
6. two reusable grocery bags
7. three wool hats (it's not winter anymore, those need to go)
8. workout gloves
9. stamps
10. fiber bars (stay away from these, mess you up)
11. more cds
12. gum
13. two tennis rackets
14. spare tire

that's it. there's also loose change, a battery and several rodents. that's not true. i collected the loose change.

but i did forget i have a gallery furniture football. seriously, they're going all the way this year.

let us down easy

on sunday, i rode 40 miles in the space race. the race was not held in space, blatant false advertising, but it was nice anyway. i wiped out about 10 miles before the end. i was taking this corner too fast and became fixated on this pebble/rock. i knew if i hit it, i was done. so i was trying to avoid it, but in the mean time i wasn't slowing down. so i tried to slow down at the last second and didn't get my hands there in time and just wiped out and landed on my left hip. it was easily the coolest thing that happened all day. my hip is a little bruised and i have some scrapes on my left leg, but it worth it.

the astros opened the season last night and lost to the cubs. i'm still sticking with a fourth place finish for this team. it's going to be a long year.

my one year anniversary is coming up next week, april 19th. can't believe it's already been one year. they say the first year of marriage is the toughest. or maybe it's the last year. but either way, the first year was difficult in some regards. marriage has to be a coming together of two people. if those two people try to remain too independent and never meet the other person in the middle, it won't work. you have to sacrifice some things. but it's easier if you're sacrificing things that makes the other person happy. and that's really the end result you want anyway. i've learned a lot about myself, some things good and some i'm not proud of and i'm determined to change. but i'm lucky that i have a partner who listens to me and actually tries to make herself and our marriage better and accepts me for who i am. she will not let us fail and i love her dearly for that. i'm very lucky. so here's to year number two coming up. i can't wait.

reckoner

i caught the last part of this last night. must see TV.

take 54

i just ate a whole bag of garlic pita chips. i'm convinced my breath will smell like garlic in the year 2016. it's intense man.

"i sang my balls off for you baby, i worked my fingers to the bone, i closed my eyes to get the high note, but when i woke up i was alone!"- take 54, harry nilsson

i love harry nilsson.

has anyone heard this joke: hey, did you hear? social security is broke! that's the joke. not really funny, but true.

ha. ha.

we finally watched the queen last night. i thought it was a great movie. it definately highlighted how much i do not understand the british monarchy. not because of their actions, or stoic nature towards life and the public in general, but their actual existence. i suppose it adds stability to the political landscape, but what does that stability actually afford? nothing in the way of state decisions or policy-making. the queen/king might be consulted or informed of agendas or party ideology, but at the end of the day, the queen/king cannot institute or enforce policy. i've, obviously, never lived under a monarchy, figurehead or otherwise, so my relationship to one is based on observance of others. we no longer believe the queen/king represents a chosen figure by God. their families are not ordaned by prophecy or memento to lead absolutely. they were the best at the consolidation of power. they used aggression and the wealth of their times to keep their power. nothing more, nothing less. and good for them. but to stand and ask me to bow to a woman/man of this earth and hold them in such high regard is ludicrous. the monarchy seems to me nothing more than a tourist attraction. it's a soap opera. and when all the lights are turned on, the british monarchy actually costs the citizens of britain about $40 million pounds. maybe more is taken in from tourists, but i cannot find those numbers. the bubble that exists for the life of the royals seems to have been punctured by the constant glare of their uselessness. i wonder if i will see the end of the british monarchy in my lifetime. it seems i probably will.

burning down the house

the market is way up today. it's also raining and i just ate something really weird tasting chicken. not from the chicken restaurant where the chicken wants to beat me up or i want to beat it up. not that one. just normal chicken. i made it. it's gross.

with the economic downturn comes horrible consequences for us all. but one consequence that actually benefitted us was lower gas prices. remember when gas was almost $4.00 a gallon? that's coming again soon, but here's some explanation on why that happened.

there are new rules being/about to be put in place regarding mark-to-market accounting. this is a big deal in the way that banks/financial institutions value their assets. here's what's happening.

i ran across an article listing the top ten ideas changing the world. normally i would read it and roll my eyes at the obviousness of the things on the list. this list, however, is quite intriguing.

there's a new cigarette tax in place. cigarettes are currently more expensive than toilet paper and diet soda. i'm sticking with the latter.

how tarnished is america in regards to the collapse of our economy? krugman has a nice article on the topic.

brian mctaggert, from the chronicle, and i have been going back and forth about the yankees. there is no way, no way, no way, the yankees are winning the world series. it ain't gonna happen.

back at the chicken shack

so there's this chicken on 290 and W. 34th street that stands outside this new chicken restaurant and tries to get customers who are driving by to stop and go to the chicken restaurant. this chicken is pretty tall, probably about my height and it kept doing this hand motion while i was sitting there, like a motion to move over and come and eat some chicken. then, the chicken looked right at me and made some weird motion with it's hand that was like telling me to eat it. i started laughing and shrugged my shoulders, saying, i don't know what you're saying, you're a chicken. but it did it again and walked away in a strange chicken walk. it was surreal. i kept picturing the chicken from family guy who fights peter. i thought about getting out of my car and fighting the chicken, but i don't know that i would be able to stop laughing enough to fight it.

unstructured finance says break up the banks.

did obama pull a "reagan?"

hussman funds discusses the urgency of abandoning the purchase of toxic assets.

rush limbaugh is casting a large shadow over the republican party. avoid the pun in the road.

war pigs- the cost of a global empire.

amazing shots from earth hour 2009.

avclub has 25 great albums best played start to finish.

spin the black circle

how was the weekend? mine was quick. and monday is starting off with a bang.

did anyone else ever get the feeling the last fifteen years that there was just too much? too much of everything? too much excess? too much indulgence? i didn't feel it when i was younger because i was more worried about getting laid. but after that, there was just always this lingering feeling of too much. i know this economic downturn is horrible for people out there. some people have lost their jobs and are having to make great sacrifices. i understand and i feel for them. but with every horrible event, there has to be something learned. and i think we as a country should learn something from the last fifteen years, which is, we don't need so much shit. our place in the world is not a given right, we have to work for it and yes, sometimes put off instant pleasures. our wallets got bigger, but so did our waistlines, so did our indulgences and with that self-restraint and patience was lost. and i read this article the other day and it's stuck with me: the end of excess. and while i think it's too early to call this thing, i hope we're learning about ourselves in the process.

krugman is now a celebrity economist. here he is on the cover of newsweek.

i preach the stylings of warren buffet on this blog. my man didn't have a good couple of years. the buffet way is under attack.

wow, just looked at the market: it's tanking.

GM ceo is out. and it's about time.

pets

we have a pet. his name is benjamin. he's very demanding. he likes to drink water out of the bathroom sink. he likes to be petted constantly, unless he's asleep, then he wants you to leave him alone. he also throws up quite a bit. this is kind of what he looks like. that's not him, but it's pretty damn close. and in spite of all these things, i really him. he lays on my stomach when i watch tv. and when he wants me to pet him, he'll start petting my face, usually around my chin. other times, he'll be walking and just plop down next to me. and other times, he'll do something out of the ordinary, like get up on the dining room table or answer the phone. he doesn't answer the phone, but i like to think he could.

here's a building that is alive.

tesla (not the band, or the man) has a new electric car.

i create lists all the time. i'm a list guy. one of my favorite lists is of the astros: best, worst. all that. so this guy has a list of recent (post-2000) draft flame-outs. check it out.

all my thoughts

i'm always amazed by what i'm thinking about when i'm driving. it's rarely about driving. it's usually about late nights in huntsville. or early mornings when i was a in high school. or outside fox sports at 4 in the morning. or mostly about where i think i'll be in five years/ten years. or about diet soda. it's usually one of those.

coconut records is so good. they're on the border of almost cloying annoyingness, but they walk that line so smoothly, that i love it. they're great. schwartzman is great. i have to thank tboyd on that one. that was his call.

anyway, good talking to you.

sunshine superman

this could be the coolest thing i've ever seen/read.

can we still be friends?

i'm having a change of heart on the new u2 album. not a total change of the heart, but i'm listening without my mind made up already. there seems to be two u2's on this album. that's a difficult sentence to type and think. the first two tracks are incredible. the title track and "magnificent" have this yearning, pushing feel to them, that they might be break apart or speed off into nothing. the next two tracks are pretty good. but then the change happens. all of a sudden we get languid melodies and fill-in-the-blank lyrics. then comes "get on your boots" which i still think is a terrible song. the album then tries to turn back into the first part again.

it's somewhat of a shame because it seems they had some serious ideas about where to go, but sacrificed just enough to water down the album.

rolling stone looks at 45 new albums coming out this spring. wilco and the avetts are there.

lucky old sun

i did the bike ride yesterday. i rode 60 miles. and today i feel great. except for being burned to a crisp on my arms and legs. i put sunscreen on my face because my nose always burns, but i neglected my arms and legs and i am paying for it today. i'm going to take an oatmeal bath tonight and soak out of the heat. this is intense. but the ride was great. i had a blast and i think i did pretty well considering how little i actually ride. it was seriously a tour of houston. i mean we went back and forth and saw the same area like two/three times. there's another ride coming up out at nasa that i think i might participate in also. i love bike-riding. plus the bike i used was pretty sweet. i was clocked around 20 mph, at some points a little faster. the wind man. i was like the wind.

all things to do with the bank bailout today. first, what the hell was TARP? we basically gave the banks $700 billion and now we have to buy their toxic assets for $1 trillion? what is going on here?

breakdown of the plan.

analysis from businessweek.

mish's take.

krugman's take.

frontline will air a program entitled "ten trillion and counting" this tuesday. check local listings for airtime.

here is a quick history of the federal reserve. check it out.

bicycle race

tomorrow i'll be riding in the tour de houston. i haven't rode in it since '06 when i rode a mountain bike and was easily passed by grandmas and their fat, overweight grandchildren. but somehow i got through 40 miles and i'm going to do 40 again, unless anyone else wants to do 70. i'm pretty sure i can do the 70. a friend is going to hook me with a sweet bike, so hopefully i'll be gliding through the air, my wheels barely touching the ground.

has anyone listened to the new u2 album? what a bunch of crap. i kinda of liked their last album. but this thing....wow. "get on your boots" is terrible. it's a total hunk of pro tools vomit. the rest is slow-paced and lyrically abysmal. i expect a lot from u2. "the joshua tree," "achtung baby," and "zooropa" are great, great records. since "pop" they really don't seem to know their way. or something like that.

here is an exerpt from another wildly outrageous, but ultimately entertaining and truth-laden rolling stone article:

"It's over — we're officially, royally fucked. no empire can survive being rendered a permanent laughingstock, which is what happened as of a few weeks ago, when the buffoons who have been running things in this country finally went one step too far. It happened when Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was forced to admit that he was once again going to have to stuff billions of taxpayer dollars into a dying insurance giant called AIG, itself a profound symbol of our national decline — a corporation that got rich insuring the concrete and steel of American industry in the country's heyday, only to destroy itself chasing phantom fortunes at the Wall Street card tables, like a dissolute nobleman gambling away the family estate in the waning days of the British Empire."

the rest is here.

upstairs at eric's

i don't know why that album title cracks me up, but it does. "if you want me, i'll be upstairs at eric's." i'm laughing typing that line. i am in a slightly abandoned part of a building. the cleaning lady is the only person i have seen all day unless i ventured out on my own. so i'm in this old abandoned office and i keep hitting my foot on this giant computer tower. so i'm checking it out and i notice a stack of cds on top of it. here are the cds i found:

1. yaz- upstairs at erics
2. inxs- kick
3. erasure- the innocents
4. just say yo- a volume II of just say yes (some kind of remix compilation)
5. inxs- X
6. the church- starfish
7. concrete blonde- bloodletting
8. zz top- greatest hits
9. the outfield- play deep
10. pat green- dancehall dreamer

so by the looks of these cds, this office has been abandoned since 1986. i love the 80's theme with zz top and pat green mixed in there. and what is the outfield? and why do they have an album called, "play deep"? that is so funny. i already listened to inxs "kick" and yaz "upstairs at eric's." i'm currently listening to erasure. i can turn this up as loud as i want and no one will be bothered because i'm in the center of nowhere.

dude, "ship of fools." erasure, yes!

we came along this road

systemic risk. is AIG a systemic risk? they sure think so. here's an internal letter from those great civil patrons at AIG.

seems obama is going to try and undo the bonuses at AIG.

here's a list/story of who's on AIG's bankroll.

AIG's latest disclosure from footnoted.

i'm a little obsessed with this story. not because they gave out bonus money from our tax money, as asinine as that is, but because someone actually believes bonuses are deserved! what the hell? you have a company on the bubble accepting government money to continue operations. does that sound like someone is doing a good job? anybody? are these bonuses going to the guys who clean the floor or empty the garbage? because those guys probably are doing a good job even when the company almost doesn't exist. it's amazing. corporate america is amazing.

in other news.....

the avclub has a great list of television shows that changed characters/plots/entire stories. most of the ones from the 80's i remember, like charles in charge and valerie and the facts of life. even though i was young, i was like, "who are these people? what happenend here?"

finished the watchmen book this past weekend. i also saw the movie. i actually saw the movie before i finished the book, which usually wouldn't be a big deal because the movie never follows the book. but this movie followed it to the letter. i mean whole passages of dialogue were the same. plus, you ever watch a movie and think it's pretty good, but the further you get away from it, the more you think it wasn't very good. that's how i feel about this movie.

bob dylan's going to be releasing a new album soon.