Vote for Darlene Senger!

a) Vote for Darlene Senger!

I'll be voting early and often for Darlene Senger.

www.senger.ilhousegop.org

Darlene Senger is my rep in the IL House. Earlier this year she co-sponsored the Illinois School Choice Act. The bill was killed by the teacher's union and the dems, as I wrote here: The IL School Choice Program.

I think Mz. Senger's support for this legislation was pretty unique. It doesn't have any direct connection to Naperville. But it's the right thing to do. It also is rare legislation that puts power into the hands of people, rather than pols. Huzzah to Darlene... and good luck on Tuesday!

b) Clam markets

Here's the S&P 500 closing price for the last 6 days:

• Fri Oct 22 - 1183.08
• Mon Oct 25 - 1185.62
• Tue Oct 26 - 1185.64
• Wed Oct 27 - 1182.45
• Thu Oct 28 - 1183.78
• Fri Oct 29 - 1183.26

So, the low for the week was 1182.45 and the high was 1185.64... that's a range of  0.25%, or 1/4 of 1 percent over 6 days. That's crazy calm. And crazy clam.

c) Mormon coffee

The problem is... Mormon coffee, but Mormon muffins are fine.

QOTD

"I've also worn myself out, partly because whenever I make the trip, I tell myself I can do it without sleeping. It's difficult, though. The problem is Mormon coffee. In Utah, the state in the middle of my trek... caffeine is deemed a narcotic, not a vitamin. It's obtainable, sure, but only with an effort, and it's weak when you find it. You sort of have to know a guy."
- Walter Kirn, writer who travels by car, rather than plane (source)

d) Michelle Rhee speaks

Michelle Rhee has a two page article on her tenure running Washington DC schools in today's WSJ.

The Education Manifesto

The article is good, but it's more about the past than the future.
What should repubs do after the election? School choice/reform should be a major emphasis. Make President Obama veto a strong school choice bill. And run, run, run.
vote for darlene... yow, bill

What is historic?

a) Historic?
Fun election stats here... and these guys sort of answer the question "What is a historic off-year election win?"

Historical Midterm Election Results and Market Performance

Intrade currently has it at a 46% chance of repubs gaining 60 seats in Congress or more. A 60+ seat swing has only happened 3 times since 1990. The last time was 1938 when FDR was president and the dems lost 72 seats.

b) CA not "getting" it

California seems to be one of the few states not "getting" it. It looks, right now, like CA will elect dems across the board: gov, Senate, etc. There are some "Props" to make spending easier and government bigger that are leading in the polls as well.

CA will also be voting on Prop 23, a measure on whether CA will institute its own cap-and-tax law. This is a simple op-ed by Si Valley icon, TJ Rodgers:

Prop 23 and the green jobs myth

Shoot, it's OK if CA doesn't get it or want to get it or whatever.
Gold dang, don't ask for a bailout though, boys.
If you want to tax carbon and vote Governor Moonbeam into office, then you're on your own, baby.

QOTD

"Eventually you love people - friends or lovers - because of their flaws."
- Karen Allen, source

nice freckles... yow, bill

This old dog

a) New trick

I'm trying to learn something new here: The Apple Magic TrackPad.

Here at 48 yo, the question is not whether I will struggle with this, pretty fundamental, change.
The question is whether I can remain patient enough to stick with it.
It is painful. But except for the installation manual being pretty much wrong (thank you for the stick save to this little youtube installation video), it's going OK.

I should NOT even admit this... but... um... I've never actually OWNED a laptop. Hey, I've used one. But never extensively. So I get this poor TrackPad out of its box, and I'm smacking the thing around like crazy to click on things. To the continued health and happiness of my 'lil TrackPad, I quickly changed the setting so you just gently tap to do this. He he.
Stay tuned.

b) Controlling myself

I can barely handle an article like this: Tuition, Pell Grants Rise in Tandem.

Oh, for Christ's sake. Read that shit!

8% increase in public college tuition and fees!

President Obama has increased spending on student aid nearly 50% to $145 BILLION

Lie QOTD

"There's only so much cutting you can do before institutions suffer in fundamental ways"

Truth QOTD

"Unless governors and legislatures stiffen their spines and not allow schools to pass so much of the cost on to families, we are never going to make a dent in access and affordability"

Well, I wasn't cranky. He he.
I imagine this is the stuff that has motivated the Tea Party... President Obama jacks spending through the roof and then throws up his hands at the deficit.

This college thing is a metaphor.
We get this bullshit in Illinois too... every program is cut to the bone.
It's a flat-out lie. A sham.
The battle will be replayed over and over again... governments squealing for more dough vs. regular, old taxpayers.
old dog... yow, bill

Hubris. Hubris. Hubris.

A beautiful, brisk October morning...

a) Hubris

Cracking up this morning, aka right now... the hubris of President Obama's "historic appearance" on a comedy show:

Obama makes historic appearance on ‘Daily Show’

First, the good news... everybody's getting paid here. Obama. John Stewart. The little reporter.
But then, there is the hubris. Times 3.

• The President - President Obama is a pol and gets paid to be full of crap, so there it is. If he gets a story about his appearance on a comedy show being "historic", he's gotta crack up. Right? I hope.
• The Comedian - Jon Stewart is a comedian, and I've never seen the show. I have only seen clips and interviews, where (I assume it's a persona) he comes off as boorish and smug. Fine. But he's got some political rally going this weekend, where he now seems to fancy himself a political leader or guru now. I don't get it. Why would you want your cause headed up by a comedian?
• The Reporter - Well, Rachel Rose Hartman happily occupies the lowest common denominator role here... faux journalist. Nice reporting on "history" there, Rachel. He he. If she were a character on The Simpsons, Crusty the Clown would be hitting on her, and her skin would be an odd yellow hue.

I think that everyone involved, including the viewers, know that this is a bunch of crap. They have to, right? CNN is the leftie FoxNews. Jon Stewart is the leftie Glenn Beck. Entertainment. People getting paid. Blah blah blah.

Well, hopefully, something akin to history... a minor jolt in the political timeline... will come Tuesday. Election day.
We shall see.

b) Chuckles

Chuckles Barkley. He's no role model, but he is on the money from time to time.

QOTD

"There would have been something honorable about bringing a championship to Cleveland."
- Chuckles Barkley, on why LeBron should have stayed in Cleveland

I like that word. Honorable. Good job, Chuckles.
I wonder why that notion didn't occur to LeBron.
young young cybil... yow, bill

Funky, fine Levi's

QOTD

Spied a little thing
And I followed her all night
In her funky, fine Levi's
And her sweater's kind of tight
- ZZ, "Cheap Sunglasses"

a) Jeez, cmon... NO Food Tax!

I heart these guys: Americans Against Food Taxes

Well, let me clarify.
I like those (weird) people against food taxes more than I like the people who run the Illinois lottery.

Illinois State Lottery - Halloween Millionaire Raffle

The radio ads are...the worst. I can't find it on the internet.
If the government weren't running the lottery, then the government would sue the lottery for fraud.
It's creepy.

Bah, maybe I'm just a fuddy-duddy. I guess Israel has a lottery. And look at that... Italy, Australia, Ireland. I wonder who has more revenue: government lotteries or Vegas. Bah again.

The Israeli lottery had the same 6 numbers twice in a month. That should be "an event of once in 10,000 years", but then again that assumes everything is truly random. Oh, never mind.
ah freakonomics... yow, bill

PS - Sorry. I tried. Bit I couldn't resist this one. "Hey baby. Nice hook." He he.

I will work tirelessly to repeal ObamaCare

a) Vote in 1 week

QOTD

"I will work tirelessly to repeal ObamaCare."
- Dennis Miller (excellent) suggestion on a simple ad that every non-dem candidate should run

The last time I was this revved up to vote was 1984. I stood in line a couple hours in North Carolina to vote for Jim Hunt over Jesse Helms. Alas, Helms won: 51.7% to Hunt's 47.8%. (source)

25 years ago, I was voting against (racist) Jesse Helms.
This year I'm voting against (socialist) Barrack Obama.

The chance that this election will actually signal a change in how the feds run their business seems microscopic. But voting against anything Obama is the only way to at least give things a chance.

Ultimately, I guess you need some charismatic leader (ala Reagan) to actually go after the feds and cut spending and reform health care and education and the rest. But maybe an Obama defeat next month will prompt some newcomer to step forth in 2012 and run for president. I hope, at the least, that the socialist agenda is derailed for the remainder of Obama's term.

We'll see about that. But in 1 week, I won't be blogging at 7:00 in the morning. I'll be voting against Obamacare and its owner, President Barrack Obama. He seems to have a fundamental disregard for American culture, or more romantically, the American Dream. To that I'll vote NO! or FUCK OFF! or whatever you like... and I'll vote early and often.

b) Dragon tattoo girl, the movie

Movie: "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" (imdb)

Review: 2 bill-stars (out of 5)... meh.

This is a 2-star movie interpretation of a 2-star book. Like a script, the movie has removed massive sections of the book's plot, and the characters are largely two-dimensional. Worst of all, the actress who plays the dragon tattoo girl was not up to the task. I can't quite put my finger on it, but she never seemed like some desperate and disturbed punk girl. Rather, she just seemed like a regular, old skinny model wearing a hoodie for the entire movie.

Also disappointing... the girl's dragon tattoo wasn't cool. I can't find a picture of it online... an indication that I'm right. It's not as cool as this one to the right.

I don't know how this thing got 2 bill-stars, come to think of it.
I'm just an old softie.

c) Of course, the media sucks harder

It's windy outside, so the TV and such... they have to make some money:

Storm to be Worst in 70 Years?

Well, at least they added that little question mark at the end.

No, CBS "News"... it's windy. It's not the worst storm in 70 years.
vote in one week... yow, bill

PS - She's excited to vote next week too!

Brown sugar

The marketing boys at COB are working it, baby. Cha!

QOTD

"Golden oats sweetened with brown sugar, flakes of coconut, a dusting of ground cinnamon, a splash of vanilla flavoring, then sprinkled with nutmeg."
- the back of my Cracklin' Oat Bran box

a) This changes everything

I think I agree with this... Apple's Mac App store and the convergence of all their platforms is 'uge:

Apple's Mac App Store: This changes everything

QOTD2

"This is more revolutionary than the transition from boxed to online downloadable software. Apple is trying to become the software czar for, essentially, every class of software."
-  PC World guy on Apple's Mac store

b) Touchy, touchy

Well, the teacher's union sure doesn't like that "Waiting for Superman" movie... touchy, touchy:

Teacher's Unions - Not waiting for Superman

If teacher's unions are so great, then a little bit of competition will make them ever better.
Yes?

hedy... yow, bill

Shenaniganizer

a) 10 years?!?

Check this out... I cleared some shelf space yesterday by pitching some old investment books. This is some actuarial table on the risk of certain "activities":

So, being an unmarried male costs you 3,500 days... jeez, that's almost 10 years.
Single women only lose 5 years. Figures.
This data is from 1985, so things may be changing as being single becomes more and more common.

It does, however, remind me of the greatest joke of all-time:

Why is divorce so expensive?

Because it's worth it.

b) CCC

Everyone wants to be a big, fat white guy from New Jersey these days:

The Chris Christie Clones

QOTD

"He's the pied piper"
- some repub, on NJ Gov Chris Christie

Most of these "clones" won't become Christ Christie. Why? Because they don't have the balls to stand up and say "No"!

If Chris Christie and New Jersey can say "no".
And stupid Canada can say "no".
And now, Britain can say "no".
Then, we can too.


QOTD2

"You know what you are Flint Lockwood... a shenaniganizer."
- Mr. T, as the cop in "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs"

shenaniganizer... yow, bill

PS - Speaking of saying "No"!

QOTD3

"Don't worry about that. BP is going to pay for all that. All those workers will be eligible for unemployment insurance."
- President Obama on jobs lost because of the ban on off-shore drilling. Argh. When do we get to vote against this nabob?

Death trilogy

a) Death Trilogy

Solid death trilogy this week...props to my brother Mark on this catch.

1. Tom Bosley, TV Dad in "Happy Days"

2. Barbara Billingsley, TV Mom in "Leave it to Beaver"

3. Bob Guccione, Penthouse publisher

BTW, there is a blog dedicated to death trilogies: deathtrilogy.blogspot.com
Alas, it looks like the death trilogy blog has died. Can you name two more dead blogs?

QOTD

"If I were asked for a one line answer to the question: 'What makes a woman good in bed?' I would say, 'A man who is good in bed.' "
- Guccione, source 

b) New "Glitter" ETF

There's a new ETF coming out this week (I think)... GLTR, or "Glitter".
The deal is:

• Glitter will hold 4 precious metals: gold, silver, platinum and palladium. 
• Like GLD, they will actually hold the metal, not buy futures
  
• The expense ratio is a thrifty 0.60%
• Glitter will be a nice one-stop way to diversify into precious metals. "Each share represents at inception 0.03 ounces of gold, 1.1 ounces of silver 0.004 ounces of platinum, and 0.006 ounces of palladium". I don't want to do the math to convert that to percentages using today's pricing. Oh well.
• These guys (ETF Securities) already run precious metals ETF's for each of these four components: SGOL gold, SIVR silver, PPLT platinum, PALL palladium. Even though PPLT and PALL are new for 2010, they already average over 50K shares traded per day.

Not bad.
goldfinger... yow, bill

And now, Great Britain... we can do that, too

Click on the photo for the big ole version:

"Wildflowers"

a) Canada. And now, the UK
My last post: Canada? We can do that!

In this post, the UK jumps on the "austerity" bandwagon: UK Spending Plans Consistent with Triple-A Rating

Did you catch that?

• 5.7% real cut in government spending
• Reducing the size of the UK feds by 500,000

Wow!


QOTD

"As I’ve given various speeches over the last year, it has become clear to me that very few Americans are aware of the extraordinary recovery Canada has achieved since the mid-1990s. When I bring it up, most people seem surprised that Canada could have gone from a laughing stock to the envy of the developed world in just a decade. But, actually, 10 years wasn’t the true recovery period. And that was my big surprise from reading The Canadian Century. The reality is that Canada achieved stunning progress in a mere three years."
- David Hay, investor bigwig (source)

"It isn't that simple" or "What are you going to cut"... I've heard this (bogus) mantra from (bogus) President Obama and others. It is that simple. You stop spending money that you don't have, and you decide what to cut (ObamaCare) by voting on it.

Prediction: In 5 years, Britain will be stronger, and these cuts (gov programs and employees) won't even be missed.

b) Illinois too

I won't be voting for Pat Quinn for IL Governor.
His first act after taking over from Blago was to announce a 50% income tax hike.
F off.

Here's an April 2010 article from i) the crappy trib, ii) a dem, iii) blaming Pat Quinn, and iv) and pointing out that the IL problem isn't revenue... it's spending!

Want to solve the budget crisis? Say no to spending

"We have more money than we had in 2007"... IL doesn't have a revenue problem. Set your budget. Vote on what you're going to cut.

The United States is next.
cross my fingers... yow, bill

Canada? We can do that!

a) Boeing and Obamacare
Dear Boeing workers... how do you like ObamaCare?

Citing Obamacare costs, Boeing pares employee health plan

QOTD

"The newly enacted health care reform legislation, while intended to expand access to care for millions of uninsured Americans, is also adding cost pressure as requirements of the new law are phased in over the next several years"
- Boeing nabob

b) Canada?!?!
I didn't know a) that Canada was in such bad shape 15-20 years ago, and b) that Canada attacked their problem, bounced back, and is in good shape now.

O Canada!

And how did Canada turn themselves around... in just three years!
Here's how:

• Cut spending - Canada "reduced [government] program spending by 8.8% over two years"
• Reduce fed payrolls - "federal government employment was reduced by 14%"
• Cut spending - "Federal grants to the provinces were reduced by 14% as well, but the trade-off was that they were allowed to control how the money was spent"
• First cut spending, then raise taxes - "While some taxes were raised... spending cuts were 4 ½ times tax hikes"
• Reduce taxes on productive behavior - "Corporate tax rates were cut by nearly a third, taxes on corporate capital were abolished, and personal income and capital gains taxes were reduced"

Turnaround in three years.
We can do that.
But will we?

c) Cub. Wait till next... owner?

New Cub owner, Tom Ricketts had a golden opportunity to clean house and at least try to establish a new order, a new culture within the Cub organization.
He has decided otherwise and yesterday announced that interim manager from last year, Mike Quade, will stay on as manager for the next couple years (source).

So, next year in 2011, Cub fans will continue to see Jim Hendry and Mike Quade and Larry Rothschild and Soriano and Zambrano and Fukudome and blah blah blah.
Same old. Same old. Same losing.

I don't care if Mike Quade won every game he managed at the meaningless end of last season.
The point was to send a message... things around here are going to CHANGE!
Oh well, Cub lose.
Cub fans lose.
yow, bill

Hot for teacher

Well, well, well... the Naperville teachers union chimes in on school choice:

‘Superman’film sparks debate among local educators

Cha.
You get it right?
Crappy schools. Negative, non-learning environment. Incredibly high dropout rates. Inner-city families stuck in a public school system that fosters generations of poverty and violence.
For the teacher's union, all that is secondary to getting paid, baby.

QOTD

"I don't feel tardy"
- David Lee

hot for teacher... yow, bill

One point four trillion

President Obama wants to send $250 to seniors, eh.
Just for the hell of it.
This op-ed is money.

Buying the Senior Vote

Go:

• "It's hard to imagine a more blatant vote-buying exercise"
• "Social Security is now running a deficit—paying more in benefits than it collects in taxes"
• "the $250 checks would cost taxpayers close to $15 billion"
• "the fiscal 2011 deficit that is already estimated to be back to more than $1.4 trillion"

One point four trillion dollars.
Not spending.
Not taxes.
Deficit.
The feds spending $1.4 trillion more than they take in.

• $1,400,000 = $1.4M.
• $1,400,000,000 = $1.4B
• $1,400,000,000,000 = $1.4T

There. Got it.

$1,400,000,000,000

And, $1.4T divided by 300M people... well, $1000/person would be $300B, so 5 times that is $1.5T.
So, roughly $5000 for each person in The States... in deficit/extra spending.
november... yow, bill

Six Times in One Hour!

a) Mandelbrot, RIP

Benoit Mandelbrot, RIP...

Benoit Mandelbrot 1924-2010

Coding up Mandelbrot sets was a lot of fun when I did it a million years ago. What class was that in? Jeez. Never mind.

The recursive nature of fractals is nerd-vana.

QOTD

"Clouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones, coastlines are not circles, and bark is not smooth."
- CWS blog (source) 

b) 6 times an hour

I don't believe this, but...

Average Teenager Sends 3,000 Texts per Month

That's 6 texts per waking hour.
I can't believe it.

c) The enemy

What creepy, snarky deal, right.

Obama seeks $250 checks for seniors

I enjoy that:

• The money doesn't come out of stimulus dollars not yet spent
• The money doesn't come from a cut in some other program
• It's just more needless spending out of the blue to curry favor some group of voters

Do you need a better metaphor?
Are we as a country going to get serious about spending and the size/role of government... or are people, as President Obama hopes, for sale at the tidy price of $250 a head.
Freedom ain't cheap, but losing it... the price is a mere $250.

QOTD2

"We urge members of Congress on both sides of the aisle to support our seniors, veterans and others with disabilities who depend on these benefits."
- Robert Gibbs, White House spokesman (source) 

Well, cynics. Count me out.
Oh, November!
fractal this... yow, bill

PS - And the  coup de gras... Mandelbrot back tattoo in this young lady:

Eating crackers and spanking your monkey

a) Three chicks
Ahhhhh...

Butthead: So if you could bring only three things to a desert island, what would you bring?
Beavis: Well, let me think. Well, I'd bring some crackers. And some Cheese Whiz to put on the crackers. And a magazine so I'd have something to read. How about you?
Butthead: I'd bring three chicks.
Beavis: Wait I wanna bring three chicks! I wanna do mine over again!
Butthead: Beavis, you can't do it over again. I'll be scoring with three chicks while you'll be eating crackers and spanking your monkey!
Beavis: Dammit!

- www.billionquotes.com/index.php/Beavis_and_Butthead

b) Condi

Nice interview with ole Condi Rice:

An Extraordinary Memoir: Condoleeza Rice

55 and still hot... too bad Condi plays for the other team. Or so it seems. So be it.

QOTD

"Black Dog"
- Condi Rice's fave Led Zepellin song

Hey hey mama
Said the way you move
Gonna make you sweat
Gonna make you groove
he he... yow, bill

Heartbreaking

One of my fave 3 resigned yesterday. Michelle Rhee, poobah of the DC school system, was forced out after the mayor who hired her lost his primary election.

Rhee described her resignation as "heartbreaking".

Here's the snarky Teacher's Union view, from our good friends at the AP:

Schools reformers mull meaning of Rhee's departure

QOTD

Had she [Rhee] "exhibited a little more sensitivity," he added, she would have fared better.
- Teacher's Union guy

Do I have to comment on this... argh, control... control. I am not going to rant here.

Here's the WSJ view:

Education Reform Setback

QOTD2

Ms. Rhee's resignation "won immediate support from the Washington Teachers' Union," a strong signal that her departure is a victory for the adults who run public education, not the kids in failing schools.
- WSJ op-ed

Victory for the adults and the teacher's union... enjoy the dough and the pension and fuck you (oops).
And this is a loss for the students of those crappy public schools.

And where is President Obama?
In his first year in office, the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program was killed off. This moneyhad been helping thousands of DC schoolchildren attend private school.


And here in his second year in office, President Obama has nothing to say as the person reforming and actually making positive change happen in DC public schools is forced out.
See, it's the two-fer... force inner city kids back into the public schools by taking scholarship money away, and then throw away the person reforming the public school, so they stay as crappy as they currently are.

EZ conclusion: Union leaders are higher up the Obama totem pole than the children of Washington DC.
And what does Obama care? His kids are tucked away in private school, so fuck it.
Nice record, Mr. President.

QOTD3

"Rico! I need a corporal.
You're it, until you're dead or I find someone better."
- Starship Troopers, imdb

Sorry. Rerun last night. He he. Starship Troopers is dang fun, mindless entertainment.
yow, bill

PS - Interesting side note on Rhee. I guess she is considering a move west because... "Rhee is engaged to Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson (KJ), a former NBA player."
PPS - KJ's dunk over Hakeem is one of the NBA's all-time best:

Reptilian Desperation

a) Reptile pols
President Obama and the dems. Desperate pols.
In these trying times, the President is sharpening his laser focus on jobs by (wait for it) attacking the bejesus out of the US Chamber of Commerce.
Cough.

QOTD

"Well, there’s desperation and then there’s reptilian desperation."
- Krauthammer, on President Obama and the dems campaign tactics, source 

Desperate and pathetic.

b) Great, non-reptilian story

Great human story... the Ranger skipped the champagne in their playoff series victory celebration, so that teammate (and alcoholic) Josh Hamilton can join in.

Rangers celebrate with ginger ale

QOTD2

"It meant a lot. It just says a lot about my teammates, them understanding the sensitivity of my situation."
- Josh Hamilton

peace... yow, bill

Butthead search

a) Beavis and Butthead
I found a great copy of the first Beavis and Butthead here: Frog Baseball.
Quality.

Most (all?) of the videos I've seen don't include the music videos... copyright woes, I presume. So, there are a lot episodes on youtube, and MTV has this site glommed together as well: www.mtv.com/shows/beavis_and_butthead/series.jhtml

I found a guy who claims to sell Beavis DVD's which include the music videos: http://bnb.host.sk/. I haven't ordered them yet, so stay tuned.

QOTD

"I am Corholio!
I need TP for my bunghole."
- Beavis, video

b) Interesting dilemma
Well, well, well... interesting.
Vince Flynn's new book just came out: American Assassin.
Yes!

The interesting part is that the price of the hardcover book ($15) is the same as the Kindle version. As a new Kindle owner, that doesn't make me very happy. Maybe this is just a first couple weeks phenomenon. I don't know.

So, my options are:

1. Buy the hardcover, chop chop, for $15.
2. Wait a couple weeks and see if the Kindle price comes down.

Wait for the new Vince Flynn... seems unlikely. We shall see.
peace out... yow, bill

Simple as possible, but not simpler

I like this one... click on the photo for the money.

 

"Arch Fave"

a) Blech
Movie: "2012"
Review: 1 bill-star (out of 5)... blech.

So, the apocalypse comes, human civilization is annihilated, leaving an ark of only a few thousand people to carry on... and John Cusack is still acting (badly). Argh. Terrible.

I thought 2012 would be similar to Tom Cruise's "War of the Worlds"... silly, fun CGI effects.
Nope. It sucked.
Will the crappy sequel be called 2013?

b) Move this

Book: "Who Moved My Cheese?" by Spencer Johnson

Review: 2 bill-stars (out of 5)... not good enough.

I am not anti-self-help books. I enjoyed "I'm OK, You're OK. I read the seminal positivity book, the name I can't remember right now. And more importantly, I'm a believer. The power of positive thinking cannot be understated.

This book discusses how we should deal with change in our lives. It uses a really simple parable of mice whose cheese has been moved.

OK. But "Who Moved My Cheese?" is too simplistic. If you're an incessant whiner about every nuance of your life, then knock it off. But a lot of "change" has a deeper, subconscious impact that is more difficult and subtle to deal with.

Need more convincing... the 7 tenets of "Cheese" are:

1. Change happens
2. Anticipate change
3. Monitor change
4. Adapt to change quickly
5. Change
6. Enjoy change!
7. Be ready to change quickly and enjoy it again and again

 Einstein pegs this book.

QOTD

"Make everything as simple as possible... but not simpler."
- Albert Einstein, source

c) Tech salvation

Interesting interview with Peter Thiel, cofounder of Paypal, where he talks about the role of technology in our economy and more...

Technology = Salvation

His thesis is pretty simple:

1. The US economy fundamentally depends on tech innovation to improve productivity and grow.
2. We haven't had enough tech innovation lately. He likes information technology (the internet), but "Pharmaceuticals, robotics, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology—all these areas where the progress has been a lot more limited than people think."
3. The Obama administration isn't supportive of points 1 and 2. He doesn't say it, but I think that Obamacare will be especially negative for medical advancement.

This QOTD is so dead-on... about innovation and the American Dream in general.


QOTD2

"Innovation, he says, comes from a "frontier" culture, a culture of "exceptionalism," where "people expect to do exceptional things"—in our world, still an almost uniquely American characteristic, and one we're losing."
- Peter Thiel, source

"Frontier culture". "Exceptional". "American characteristic"
These things are anathema to President Obama.


And curse my crappy, weak-ass vocabulary:

• fecund - "very productive or creative intellectually"
• phlegmatic - "not easily excited to action or display of emotion"

phlegm addict... yow, bill

Raise the banner!

a) Raise the banner!
Toews skated onto the ice with the Cup, and the Blackhawk hoisted a banner in the Stadium as the 2010 Stanley Cup champions.

Here's the video. 

The first few minutes are the money:

video.nhl.com/videocenter/console?catid=35&id=78033

The Stadium was rockin', baby.

I've been to a lot of games in my day, but my fave sports event where I was physically there was a banner-raising ceremony. It was 1999, the first game after the final Bull championship. They raised the banner for Michael Jordan's final championship. Everyone was gone... Michael, Scottie, Rodman, Pheel. The video before the game showed highlights from 10 years of basketball, 6 titles and the reign of the greatest player in the history of team sports.


It was absolutely electric, and I wasn't the only one whose eyes welled up by a long shot. Those were the fucking days.

Patrick Kane and Captain Serious, Jonathon Toews, are both just 22 yo, so maybe for the Blackhawk these are the days.
We shall see.

QOTD

"Rock-y! Rock-y!"
- chant at the Stadium for Hawk owner (and savior), Rocky Wirtz

hawk win... yow, bill