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.