Knowing too much

1. Author Obama
President Obama is a big teacher's union guy, right? Union rights, woo hoo!
Anywho, how about some tasty hypocrisy from from a few years back from author Obama.


QOTD

"The biggest source of resistance [to education reform] was rarely talked about. . . . Every one of our churches was filled with teachers, principals, and district superintendents. Few of these educators sent their own children to public schools; they knew too much for that. But they would defend the status quo with the same skill and vigor as their white counterparts of two decades before."
- B Obama, from his book "Dreams of My Father" (wsj link)

That book is from 2004, 7 years ago now.

"Few of these educators sent their own children to public schools; they knew too much for that." President Obama's kids will never see a public school.

2. Prime pairs

Book: "The Solitude of Prime Numbers" by Paolo Giordano
Review: 1 bill-star (out of 5)... blech
Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/review/show/164202535

Oh, what a tedious book about messed-up teenagers, mostly. It is chockful 'o teen cliches. It read like a crappy teen movie starring Sara Michelle Geller. Oh, look at that... it already is a crappy teen movie (minus Miss SMG): La solitudine dei numeri primi

The hook/metaphor is people as prime pairs. The two disturbed teeny-boppers are like prime numbers, weird and isolated. But they're pretty close to each other because they're prime pairs, as close as they can get as prime numbers, separated by only one number. Sigh. What a head-shaker.

I must cop to a certain shallowness on my part, as well. I think the math reference in the title was a big part of why I bought it. Dop.

3. V

I wonder what these things mean to true students of history: TSA aggressive pat-downs, light bulb bans, federal mandates on everything from diet to exercise to advertising, no smoking in bars, public sector pay nearly doubling private sector pay, health care (gleefully) run by government committee, and on and on and on.

This nerd with his public education and his woeful non-classic studies thinks of an excellent quote from a fun, cheesy movie relegated to cable reruns.

QOTD

"Fairness, justice, and freedom are more than words, they are perspectives"
- V is for Vendetta, imdb quotes

I wonder what President Obama's perspective is when he supports a school system to which he won't send his own children... because he knows too much.


To complete my silly, shallow trinity... this vanity plate made me chuckle yesterday: "L O GUVNA"
The car was wallpapered with British-flavored, soccer-y stickers, but no, it wasn't a Mini Cooper.
peace... yow, bill

An off-brand peach

"I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky."
Most of us are honest, I reckon. And the lies we tell tend to be, pardon my racism here, "little white lies". Or perhaps, we're lying as part of an entertaining game of Liar's Dice. Ha!

But, I think that it's got to be a heckuva thing to step in front of a microphone and just lie your ass off. 


1. The President
Jesu Cristo, my media bubble is being bombarded with stories about President Obama releasing his birth certificate. The best of all these piercings were the cries of "RACISM!!" at the notion that someone, anyone ask the President for his birth certificate. 

QOTD

"We do not have time for this kind of silliness.
We've got better stuff to do.
I've got better stuff to do."
- President Obama, story

Oops. Lie.
Only one person in our whole big, round ball of a planet has kept this silliness alive.
President Obama.

As for "RACISM!!!"... sure, it's obnoxious to hear the blather, but it's not a bad sign. We've already done an election cycle in 2010 where the message of the left was "any opposition to Obama is racist", and it failed miserably. I don't see why that can't happen again.

2. The Bernank
The Bernank gave The Fed's first ever press conference. People argue for and against the Fed's existence, but the easier argument is that The Fed should be more transparent. There is no reason for secret silliness in this day and age.

QOTD2

"Our policy has been and will always be, as long at least as I'm in this job, that a strong dollar is in our interests as a country."
- Ben Bernanke, wsj story

Oops.
wsj - The Dollar's Race to the Bottom


And for those of you without a scorecard, we buy all our stuff using these dollars. This is why so much of the stuff we buy is going up, up, up... because the value of our dollars across the globe is going down, down, down. It's also part of the reason that gold has quintupled over the same time period.

3. The Admin Nabob
CNN did a hit piece Jersey Gov Chris Christie's budget cuts. To do this, they trotted out some kindy-gartners and then some superintendent nabob.

QOTD3

"Those are the students that we fear we need to put a web of support around so that they don't drop out of school and for that matter, drop out of society."
- NJ nabob, newsbuster story

Oops.
Um, sweet pea. These kids in Jersey are already dropping out of school and failing with you (and the present system) at the helm. So, WTF are you talking about? Oh, wait, I see. Budget cuts might eventually mean changes to your salary and pension. So, this nabob keeps trotting out K-8 students the he and the system have failed for years and years and years... budget cuts or no.

It's always fun to ask, "What would New Jersey parents do if they had a choice on how to spend their $10K?" They sure wouldn't give it to asswipe up there posing with kindergarten kids so that he gets paid. No, they'd give it to some guy who would compete. He'd have competitive educational programs. He'd have competitive salaries and benefits for his staff. And he'd be pitching his successes, rather than proudly displaying his failures in an attempt to keep his government gig.

QOTD4

"She was what you call an off-brand peach, real pretty to some tastes, but a little exotic to the local boys."
- "The English Major"

off-brand peach... yow, bill

Hopeful Eavesdropping

1. Barista Schmarista

I went to SBUX yesterday afternoon for some caffeine and some inspiration, as I am wont to do. It was crowded so I was forced to sit next to a group of people talking. "Sigh", I sighed.'

Well, it ends up that that group was a Starbuck employee meeting. Little eavesdropping skill was required as they were pretty loud. I was kind of irritated at the noise, and they seemed a shrill, ninnified group of 20-something with their reality shows and jeejahs. But then something happened.

The slightly older guy was obviously the manager, and he started moving the meeting to the business of schilling coffee at the Bolingbrook Promenade. I heard snippets about the schedule and clean-up and "just say yes" to customers and blah blah blah. This is important. That is important. Our store and such.

The reaction for the 20-something ninny squad to this managerial preaching?

Rapt attention. Passion.
They debated the tattoo policy at the store. They gave feedback on the new frappa-whatever. I couldn't understand a lot of what they were (loudly) dicsussing because I'm not fluent in Starbuck-ese, but whatever it was, they were all engaged, deeply connected to the store and committed to doing a good job.

The reaction to this reaction by the manager?
Rapt attention. Passion.
He was taking down notes from the conversation with his flock.

It was a wonderful thing to see such passion in the workplace.
It was some hopeful eavesdropping.

QOTD

"I don't like any of the drinks that have been pre-sweetened, in terms of frappuccino and things like that. Those are fabulous beverages, but I'm a purist when it comes to coffee."
- Sbux CEO, on Sbux drinks that he doesn't like, yahoo interview

2. Gas Buddy

On average, gas prices are up about a buck over the past year. Gas Buddy is a nice, simple site to follow this:

 www.gasbuddy.com/gb_retail_price_chart.aspx

Let's see... 12,000 miles a year, getting 24 mpg... that's 500 gallons of gas a year. So, that buck a gallon costs $500 a year. Of course, you might be hit by another $500 buying products and services that are impacted by gas prices rising as well.

3. Visualization

Nice visualization, from the boys at Bespoke.

Source: bespoke post

See the 1987 crash? He he.
buy high, sell higher... yow, bill

PS - Go Hawk!

Win win win!

1. Hawk win!

Hawk 4, Canuck 3 in OT.

A week ago, the Hawk were a dead, rotting corpse, sneaking into the playoffs and down 3-0 to the #1 team in the West. Now, the series is all tied up and the deciding game is tomorrow in Vancouver. Go Hawk!

2. Bull fans win!

Bull lose game 4 to Indiana in yet another pathetic effort.
But Bull's fans win as they took over the Indiana areana!

QOTD

"It kind of pissed me off actually. Every time we huddled as a team, I said I want to shut the Chicago fans up.''
- Danny Granger, on Chicago fans on the road in Indy (trib story)

QOTD2

"The love for the Chicago Bulls is crazy right now. We love it. We thrive off that. We’re excited to go back home. We get a lot of love there, too."
- Joakim Noah, suntimes story

3. Righties win!
As the pressure builds, leftie philosophy bubbles a little more clearly to the surface:

• Competition doesn't work in education
• High speed rail is the answer
• Oil and gas prices are rising because of "speculators" and "fraud"

The teacher's union tells us that, unlike nearly every other human endeavor, competition isn't the part of the answer in education:

wsj - Markets aren't the education solution

QOTD3

"...a heavy reliance on charter schools, performance pay, overuse of standardized tests and ignoring poverty won't adequately prepare our children for college, career and life."
- teacher's union nabob

Ignoring poverty... good one.

President Obama's omni-solution to all our woes is, of course, government-run high-speed rail. Well, the commie bullet train projects in China are struggling a bit. Here's a WSJ summary on their low ridership, corruption and debt:

wsj - China high-speed rail

Here's the original, if you like: wapo - Are China’s high-speed trains heading off the rails?

Rising gas prices? Worry not! President Obama is on the job with, well, high-speed rail. But he has also unleashed the impressive forces of Eric Holder and a task force!

QOTD4

"On Thursday, my attorney general also launched a task force with just one job: rooting out cases of fraud or manipulation in the oil markets that might affect gas prices, including any illegal activity by traders and speculators."
- President Obama, solving high gas price, usatoday link

All good.
win win win... yow, bill

PS - BTW, intrade has President Obama at a 60% chance of being re-elected in 2012. The repub presidential candidate race is an utter vacuum. Intrade has repub control over the Senate after 2012 at 66%.

intrade - Obama 2012 reelection

intrade - Repub Senate in 2012

Bean me

1. Bean book

Book: "M@il for Mikey" by Orson Bean
Review: 3 bill-stars (out of 5)... good.

This was pleasant, simple book. The format is simple: an email conversation with a recovering addict. The message is simple: the narrator's life has been transformed by accepting God and religion into his life. And Orson Bean's writing style is very honest and succinct.

QOTD

"When I was a kid, my father used to tell a joke over and over. An apple and a dog turd are floating down the river. They float for three days, and finally the dog turd says we've been floating a long time, haven't we! And the apple says where the hell do you get that we stuff."
- Orson Bean, "M@il for Mikey"

Orson Bean is a pretty funny and interesting guy. His wife is Alley Mills, the Mom on "The Wonder Years". The unusual part is their 20-something year age difference. Bean is 82, and she's 60. Man, that's tough one to get my head around. Perhaps, Orson has some killer genes or something.

2. Bean evolution
In part of his argument for a God, Bean questions evolution. Now, you can't question evolution these days. It's more religious that religion. Bean, however, doesn't argue for creationism. Rather, he argues that a higher power is part of evolution.

Well I don't know diddly, but there is there is an odd thing about evolution from a nerd perspective. Evolution is an algorithm. It's a pretty dang powerful algorithm, if you ask me. And over the years, many a nerd has scratched and thought, "If I could bring the power of evolution's algorithm to help solve my problem, then this would be a good thing." Indeed, the notion of using evolution's algorithm has a name in the nerd biz: genetic algorithms.

That's a pretty cool, sexy notion. Genetic algorithms. The only problem... it doesn't seems to actually work all that well. As far as I can tell, there are no revolutionary or hyper-popular genetic algorithms. Hey, there are some pretty boffo algorithms out there: sorting, hashing, linear programming, "the cloud" and hyper-sophisticated decision trees and searching... but genetic algorithms sure aren't taking over the nerd world.

Another thing that I haven't seen... there aren't any interesting programs that put natural evolution into software form. You know, evolve humans or other species for a few thousand generations in software and see what you might get. Rinse and repeat. What might the next ear look like? What new kids of insects could be heading our way? What new technologies might be gleaned from being able to simulate evolution?!?!

Bean's final hook on evolution and God (this is just a couple paragraphs in the book, BTW... I'm just rambling) is that science will eventually prove the existence of some higher power through its further understanding of evolution. In other words, some scientist proves that evolutionary change (mutation and such) isn't quite as random as people think, and then what.

3. Gotta run

An ever-so-helpful sign at the Arboretum.

Thank you Arboretum nabobs. Ha!
gotta run... yow, bill

Three seconds

1. Need

Three seconds. This is what you need: Comcast's Faster Internet Service.

QOTD

"[it] will allow a user to download a 10-song music album in just three seconds."
- Comcast new Extreme 105 internet service, link

2. I heart Earth Day

I heart Earth Day.
It took me a while, I'll admit. Hey, it takes a big man to admit dot dot dot.

I heart Earth Day because it has become a retail holiday.
I've gotten at least a dozen spam emails today alone, and that's not even checking my spam folder.

My Earth day affection is a symptom. I REALLY love the companies that are adjusting to the nonsense and making a buck.

Go GREEN, baby... $$$!!!

3. Dino proof

(50-1) years old, and I want what other people don't.
Here's what do people want in a cell phone (chartoftheday - link):

• 38% platform (apple/google)
• 33% features
• 8% apps

Me? What do I want from my cell phone?

• I want to make a fucking phone call
• I want to hear the other person when they talk
• I don't want my call to drop mid-sentence

4. SOC

Jump into the stream... the stream of consciousness:

• Étouffée - wikipedia page and a Heaven on Seven recipe
• Coconut beer - Two Brothers Pahoehoe Golden Ale
• Grotto cooties - Legionnaires'-causing bacteria found in Playboy Mansion's famed grotto
• 2nd worst OPS all-time - That would be Brandon wood, usatoday link

QOTD2

Beavis: I'm hungry. I wish they had something big, like nachos.
Butt-head: Yeah. We need something with a lot of ingredients.
- Beavis and Butthead versus the vending machine (link)

ingredients... yow, bill

Schneider's List

Art shot. Can you spot this one?

"Boston Ranger 55"

1. Set the scene

The QOTD scene: last night, jam-packed junior high gym, Ty at the microphone announcing the band's next selection, a John Williams medley.

QOTD

"...and Schneider's List"
- Ty, listing John Williams' movie soundtracks

Schneider's List. LOL.

Next QOTD scene: last night, Hawk win in Vancouver 5-0, go 2-3 in the series with a chance to tie on Easter Sunday.

QOTD2

"My hands were a little moist."
- Stan Mikita on the Hawk big Hawk win last night, wgnradio link

Prediction: Easter Sunday night... I'll be flipping between Hawk game 6 and "The Ten Commandments". "Beauty is but a curse to our women"... he he.

2. 20% is the bogey

Keep it simple, stupid. 20% spending by the feds is the bogey.
Alas, President Obama says, "MORE!"

wsj - Obama's permanent spending binge

From the article above, this graph is all you need:

You don't need to talk about plans or budgets or deficits or tax cuts/increases or whatever...

• If the feds are spending more than 20% of our dough, then you know something is wrong. 
• If a president or political party says that the feds have got to spend more than 20% of our dough, then you know they're full of crap.

The dough is something of a fail-safe. By capping fed spending at 20% of GDP, you limit the feds' shenanigans and damage.

So, this is the bogey. 20%.
If we get there, hook or crook, then we're spitting distance from getting the country back on the right path.
bogey... yow, bill

Just a Bil

1. I found Bip!

I posted a while back about one of my fave commercials ever, the Bip Roberts rookie card commercial: williamt - Potpourri. I couldn't find it back then, but huzzah to technology... here it is:

youtube - Bip Roberts rookie card commercial

And a repeat QOTD... with perfect accuracy this time.

QOTD

"Yo, Bip, man... you were lookin' at Robin Roberts.
Says here you're card's worth 4 cents."
- Tony Gwynn, youtube

2. Just $7B
The (creepy) pointy heads in the White House gather in a circle, sing Kumbaya, and magic shit happens. Here's an example... President Obama tossed $7B into the kitty, en homage to the senior citizen vote in 18 months.

ap - Obama administration eases pain of Medicare cuts

Correct that. "Just" $7B.
So, what's the dough for? Well, the dough delays cuts that Obamacare makes to supplemental insurance for Medicare. It just doesn't make sense to show the true impact of Obamacare before 2012.

3. Just $6B

When President Obama doles out his hard-earned cash, he expects you to kiss the ring.

QOTD

"[Texas] Gov. Perry helped balance his budget with about $6 billion in federal help which he happily took, and then he started blaming the members of Congress who offered that help"
- President Obama, story

And Perry's response.

QOTD response

"I think Texans agree they don't want Washington, D.C., and some faceless bureaucrat 1,500 miles away from here telling us how to run our state, or educate our children, or for that matter deliver our health care,”
- Texas gov Rick Perry, story

I agree, but I would add "creepy" in there... creepy, faceless bureaucrat.
yow, bill

Tattoo QOTD

"All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream."
- Edgar Allan Poe, link

Sexercise

1. Google Map Maker

Google has added a deal to Google Maps so that you (and I) can interactively add detail to Google Maps.

Add your local knowledge to the map with Google Map Maker for the United States

Well, that's pretty cool... sort of Wikipedia-ish. But this is just messed up. Google has a deal where you can watch these changes being added to Google Maps interactively. Jeez.

www.google.com/mapmaker/pulse

For example, here's a grab of some guy modifying some church on the Champaign map:

Just to answer your obvious question: "To confirm Map Maker user contributions are accurate, each edit will be reviewed. After approval, the edits will appear in Google Maps within minutes—dramatically speeding up the time it takes for online maps to reflect the often-changing physical world."

2. Exercise and sex

The fucking geniuses at OkTrends have done it again. Incredible reading!

oktrends - 10 charts about sex

My fave chart... the one about women, age, orgasms, and exercise. Shocking!

Look, it's all flawed, but it's still giggly great. It's all flawed because there's a huge built-in bias to the group of women (and men) who are 1) on an Internet dating site, and 2) willing to voluntarily and publicly (pubicly?) answer that they "like rough sex" or "have difficulty achieving orgasm". Cha!

Snort.

3. Giving up

Book: "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek" by Annie Dillard
Review: incomplete... couldn't finish it
Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/review/show/142437319

Page 40. I can't read this. It's just not for me. Sorry, (author) Annie Dillard. My bad. But jeez, it was slow and too detailed. Nature. Ugh.

I don't like not being able to finish a book. And it's not that it's really "bad". It's just not my cup of tea.

So, I'm going to do an experiment, and I'll let you lay blame: me or Ms. Dillard. I'm going to randomly open the book three times and pick a nature sentence for you. Ready?

1. Page 119 - "There is a muscular energy in sunlight corresponding to the spiritual energy of wind."
2. Page 182 - "The picture of fecundity and its excesses and of the pressures of growth and its accidents is of course no different from the picture I painted before of the world as an intricate texture of a bizarre variety of forms."
3. Page 260 - "For weeks I found paired monarch wings, bodiless, on the grass or on the road."

Shit, weeks of of finding butterfly wings. Ugh again.
Yet, this book has a 4 star (out of 5) rating on goodreads from more than 4,000 flipping people (link)!

So, no harm, no foul. And no star-rating on this one... just incomplete.

yow, bill

Best bobblehead of all time?

"Not free"

1. One

Zee media.

QOTD

“The guys who are running newspapers over the last twenty or thirty years have to be singular in the manner in which they destroyed their own industry. It’s even more profound than Detroit in 1973 making Chevy Vegas and Pacers and Gremlins and believing that no self-respecting American would buy a Japanese car. Except it’s not analogous, in that a Nissan is a pretty good car and a Toyota is a pretty good car. The Internet, while it’s great for commentary and froth, doesn’t do very much first-generation reporting at all. The economic model can’t sustain that kind of reporting.”
- David Simon, maoxian.com/a-disincentive-to-tell-the-truth

Newspapers? Dude, you're talking journalism, the whole profession: newspapers, magazines, TV, radio... the whole she-bang.

2. Two

Zee repubs.

QOTD

"They need to learn to fight like a girl."
- Sarah Palin, on the repub Congress, foxnews story

3. Three

Zee MVP.

QOTD

"With Derrick Rose on the other team? With Derrick Rose on the other team, no. It's like a crazy stalker ex-girlfriend. Every time you tell her you don't want to talk to her, she'll show up at your door again."
- Danny Granger, Indiana Pacers, espn game recap

4. iPad
I heart this Crossing Wall Street guy. That's a dang good blog.

In the video in this post, Jesse Jackson, Jr. applies leftie ideals to the Apple iPad. Hey, this is the party line, but it's a little funny to hear it applied to the iPad.

cws - Bastiat 2011

President Obama is more opaque, harder to follow. Bur Jesse Jr. will tell you... right to the point. It's all there: the evil rich (Steve Jobs), protectionism (iPads are made in China, ya know), and we're losing jobs to this dang technology (iPads improve productivity over your average legal pad and pencil). and there's no way anybody involved in all these iPad shenanigans are paying enough taxes. Cha!

5. Bobble

Bold statement: Best bobblehead of all-time? Rickey holding his record-holding stolen base over his head is at least in the team pic for best bobble ever.




cha... yow, bill

You know who

QOTD1

"Crazy, huh?"
- Kyle Korver, on game 1, trib story

QOTD2

"People are starting to compare you-know-who, with you-know-who."
- Sports radio nabobs on D-Rose and Michael Jordan

...

QOTD3

"The kid’s out of this world. He’s got Allen Iverson’s speed, Jason Kidd’s vision, Chauncey Billups’ shooting and Michael Jordan’s athleticism. How do you guard that? We did a good job on him. He was too much."
- Pacers coach on D-Rose, csnchicago post

...

QOTD4

"Derrick kept telling me he was going to be looking for me, and I told him I was going to be ready. That's why I'm there."
- Kyle Korver, doing his best Steve Kerr/John Paxson impersonation,

Well, I'm not comparing D-Rose to you know who, but if...

• D-Rose is 22.
• Here, in his 3rd season, D-Rose should easily win the MVP this year. Michael won his first MVP in his 3rd season in 1987-88.
• Michael won his first title 20 years ago, in the 1990-91 season. he was 28 yo. And D-Rose?

Game 2 tonight.
bull win... yow, bill

Woof

1. Many quickies

I'm sure that writing headlines for Yahoo news isn't as glamorous a job as it seems. Cough. I wonder if their proclamation of a video of Megyn Kelly giving birth created any traffic for Yahoo.

This was inevitable, but it's still cool to note that it happened last year. Web-based ad revenue was greater than newspaper ad revenue or TV ad revenue in 2010.

QOTD

"Internet-ad revenue in 2010 surpassed that of newspapers, which amounted to $22.8 billion, as well as $22.5 billion from cable TV networks, $17.6 billion from broadcast TV networks and $15.3 billion from radio."

- wsj - Web advertising eclipsed newspapers in 2010

VP Biden fell asleep during President Obama's budget speech. That's pretty funny. So, it the Tribune's take on Biden's nap. The Trib's insight: "Bah. It happens."

trib - Joe Biden falls asleep during speech; he's not alone

QOTD2

"You can't even use the 'n word' to decry its use."
- Orson Bean, commentary on political correctness

2. Great sports stuff

The Bull first playoff game this year:

Bull 104, Pacer 99

So sweet:

• We were down 10 points with 3 1/2 minutes to play.
• The Bull finished the game with a 16-1 flurry that was amazing to watch.
• D-Rose was incredible. Duh.
• What a job Kyle Korver has. I know the guy makes millions of dollars playing basketball, but the pressure! His job comes down to one shot. He makes the shot, success. He missed the shot, he's a bum. Yesterday: 20 seconds left in the game, D-Rose drives the lane, pitches the ball back to Korver for three... Ka-ka-ka-boom! Heck of a way to make a living.
• Kudos to Coach Thibs. He sat D-Rose for 5 minutes in the 4th quarter even though the Bull were losing. That rest made the energy and ju-ju of the last 3 1/2 minutes possible. Great coaching!

It's nice to be able to jump 4 feet in the air when you celebrate. Ha!

On a more obscure (cough) sports topic, my 16 game home run streak came to an end yesterday. The Naperville Oriole hit at least one home run each day for the first 16 days of the 2011 season. I am big and burly. Click to see.

Fantasy baseball rules!

3. Book strolling

The best place to book stroll is Anderson's Bookshop. Their selection is OK. The ambiance is perfect Naperville faux friendly. The best part is the haphazard array of 3x5 notecards taped up everywhere with employee recommendations on books. It's a real personal touch, and it does make finding a new book easier and more enjoyable.

The conventional wisdom used to be that places like Anderson's would be pushed out by the big fish like Barnes & Noble and Borders. Well, it ends up that the big fish are getting pushed out by an even bigger fish, Amazon. So, Anderson's may survive as a niche place where people can actually go and physically peruse books. They also do a great job at having lots of events at the store with author book signings and kids stuff going on all the time.

I was at Barnes & Noble looking at books. That's a fun thing to do. They had a little "employee favorites" section with little 3x5 notecards that the worker bees had filled out about this book or that. It was fun (did I mention that already?). But I also realized that it was going away. The B&N in Bolingbrook is huge and stuffed to the gills with over-priced books. The future is going to mean a lot more virtual book strolling

My favorite cousin introduced me to this book review site: www.goodreads.com. So far, I'm just dipping my toe in the water, but I'm trying. The biggest thing I can't figure out is how popular goodreads is. Is there a clear #1 leader in book review/reader sites? Is there a WAY better and cooler website out there? I don't know.

The problem with goodreads isn't this feature or that feature. It's, "Will this website survive?" I do want to give some website my profile of likes and dislikes, so that my future virtual book strolling is easier, but I don't want years of reviews to go down the toilet when some website goes under or gets gobbled. I have the same problem with my reviews on yelp and my photos on flickr.

So, my solution, for now, is to post reviews here and on goodreads. For example, here's my conflicted 4 bill-star review of "The English Major" over at goodreads:

goodreads review - "The English Major"

It's an easy copy/paste, so let's try another, shall we?

4. Book review. Woof
Book: "The Art of Racing in the Rain" by Garth Stein
Review: 2 bill-stars (out of 5)... woof.
Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/review/show/161630479

I found this book at B&N from one of the employee recommendations. It touts a dog as the narrator of the book. I can understand why someone would like it. People love dogs. It's a sappy, light read, so why not?


Well, I heart sappy books and movies too, but I don't recommend this book. It's pretty much a chick book, and the characters and plot are 2-D. There are two hooks with the book:

1. The dog narrator, and
2. The author presents his life lessons (gag) through (hold onto your hat) auto racing parables. For example, the book's title, "racing in the rain" means navigating your life when times are tough.

Argh. I got the feeling that the poor author had these two hooks, but not much else to put on the page. The auto racing thing was a hoot though. "The car goes where the eyes go"... Good Lord.

I just found this. It looks like they're turning this book into a movie. If this trailer doesn't back up my 2 bill-star review, then nothing will: ww.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ0CTcU0Fd0

Blech!

4. Defining moment
I loved President Obama's little speech about the 2012 budget. Little as in tiny. Paul Ryan and President Obama are perfect symbols for the two sides of the budget battle. We all get to pick!

QOTD3

In all the pages Paul Ryan produced for his budget, its most important five words were: "This is a defining moment."
- WSJ nabob, wsj story 

go oriole... yow, bill

Pissing in the whiskey

1. Great, great, great

So much great stuff going on:

1. Weather! - Absolutely gorgeous Spring weather in the Great Midwest
2. Ding! - My fantasy baseball team, the Naperville Oriole, has hit at least one home run in each of the first 14 days of the baseball season. Tulo, Prince, Donkey, Joey Bats... the Oriole are large, angry men.
3. Bull win! - The Bull finished the regular season with the best record in the league at 62-20.
4. America win! - Paul Ryan and those of us in favor of fiscal discipline are reeling up win after win. President Obama gave a speech yesterday that was nothing more a flaccid response to Paul Ryan's budget proposal.

"But Bill, hold on a second," you say. "What are you talking about? The media is lauding President Obama and hates Ryan." Indeed. Here's a good example of silly, toady praise for President Obama: time mag - Mr. Prudent: Obama preaches deficit sanity

The point is that the debate has shifted 180 degrees. We're now talking about cutting spending, entitlement spending... this much or that much. President Obama is talking about miniscule tax increases in comparison. Cut, cut, cut!

Su-weet!

2. The English Major

Book: "The English Major" by Jim Harrison
Review: 4 bill-stars (out of 5)... half incredibly great, half meh

Halfway through, this was as fun and as funny a book as I've ever read. And it was a great guy book, wonderfully inappropriate. Cha! "The English Major" was all set to join Bukowski's "Post Office" in my permanent vacation guy-reading rotation. I was getting "what's wrong with that dude" looks because I was laughing out loud reading this book over lunch.

Ah, the beginning. How's this for a hook? The protagonist is a 60 year-old cherry tree farmer in Michigan. Improbably, his similarly-aged wife has an affair and leaves him. Cliff, the farmer, is 60 and pretty much without any stuff or any plan. He packs everything up and finds a puzzle of the United States that he used to do with his Down's Syndrome brother. It's one of his happiest memories. So, he decides to load up his crappy, old car and take a road trip to each state in the puzzle. And shenanigan ensue.

I guess I should be a little concerned that I identified so much with a 60 year-old farmer. He he, fuck it. His frustration with cell phones and society and ex-wives and women and sex and... it was hilarious and right on. I can say no more... the blog has ears and eyes! He he.

One QOTD doesn't do the author justice on how many one-liners this guy threw into the first half of the book. I started reading with a highlighter in my hand. I could reel off a dozen, but come over and borrow my book instead.

QOTD

"That's Vivian for you. She was always adding fuel to the flame, or as Dad would say, pissing in the whiskey."
- "The English Major"

Alas, the book crashes a little past the halfway point and dies a horrible, twisting death. Example: part of the second half is Cliff's devotion to renaming all the US states to names of Indian tribes that used to be there. Ugh. Good lord. I won't be a spoiler and say more about the ending, but the first half of the book was more than worthy.
great... yow, bill

Meditate

I like to meditate, mostly because hot chicks seem to do it.



Sorry. Just kidding.

This traderx blog follows a sort of formula for authoring an uninteresting investment blog. (Imagine that... me calling someone else's blog uninteresting... he he) What's the formula? First, you need to act like some sort of guru. Selecting a guru-y name, like traderx, is a good start. Second, you never ever post how you're doing. There's never a annual return or average return or winning trades or whatever posted. Third, your posts should be vague and mysterious, further enhancing your status as a guru. Traderx's gig is day-trading. He'll post charts and mark them all up and "Voila!"... you have an investment blog.

So many investing blogs follow this boring template. I just haven't gotten around to deleting xtrader from my reader yet. And... wait for it... good thing! The dude is dead-on with this (non-investing) post: trader x - Just say om

I lustily agree with his three components to success:

1. Work hard,
2. Keep your positivity, and
3. Meditate

I have the first two, work and positivity, pretty well situated. That third one, meditating, has been inconsistent for me. I do meditate, but it's not religious. It comes and goes. That's an important area I hope to improve.

I believe in meditating because it really helps me control my little Bill-loop. The Bill-loop keeps whirring in my head trying to solve this problem and that problem... problems of all different flavors. It seems that a lot of us have a problem controlling our inner loop. Even with my weenie-level of meditation, I have improved the level of control I have over the Bill-loop.

Now, I say I believe in this stuff, but I'm a big faker. My investment in meditation technology thus far has been my "Meditation for Dummies" book. I shit you not. It's that silly.

There's a link to a program in traderx's post: www.meditationshift.com.
Maybe I'll try that.

I also point out (to myself) that there's a big, ole upside to following these big three: work, positivity, and meditation. Even if you fail and fall flat on your face doing this, you've got a great chance of being happy and healthy regardless. Cha!
ommmmmmm... yow, bill

PS - Look. There's another hot meditation chick. Told ya!

Ixnay

QOTD

"Ixnay on the Elfreypay."
- Razzball guy, fantasy advice on NY Met pitcher Mike Pelfrey (link)

1. The Community Reinvestment Act

I don't know diddly about diddly, but isn't this Community Reinvestment nonsense part of what got us into the mortgage/housing crisis?

crains - Oak Park bank slapped on community lending

QOTD2

"Mr. Noll [bank CEO] added it's not easy finding borrowers that meet the CRA's criteria and also are safe bets for the bank."

So, do you know what's going on here? Here are your choices:

1. Mr. Noll and the Community Bank of Oak Park River Forest are racists asswipes who intentionally refuse to serve customers because they are poor and/or minorities.
2. Fed nabobs are hassling a bank based solely on statistics, rather than procedures and conduct. This regulatory harassment is a part of why bad loans were made to people who couldn't afford them in the first place.

I don't like racists, and I don't like nabobs from the feds. So, who's right or wrong here? Dang, I don't know. Is there any way to get the real story? Little help? All I know is that the onus is on the nabobs, as they are offering the charge. And they're jerky nabobs.

Of course, maybe the story could have included at least a shred of detail on the charges. So, I vote against journalism... the lowest of all professions. Ha!

2. Flipping out
Cisco killed the Flip video today:

forbes - Cisco to close Flip video

I'm bummed, I guess. I bought Ty a cool Flip video camera for Christmas. They had a deal where you could upload an image and they would print it right on your camera. Ty's camera has a pic of him in his Neo Matrix costume. Too cool. Of course, the dang kid hasn't used the thing much.

QOTD3

"While the Flip line has admirers, the widespread availability of video-capable mobile phones undermined demand for the kind of simple stand-alone video cameras offered in the Flip business."
- E Savitz at Forbes

I get it. I don't like it, but I get it.

Jeez, I don't want to take video with my phone. But then I'm already the demographic that isn't of concern to Cisco or Flip or anybody else for that matter. And huzzah to that!
peace... yow, bill

Fire Elsa Carmona

1. You're fired
This should be a story at The Onion.
This story is a metaphor... for the fucked-up reality at the Chicago public schools:

trib - School's food is the only option for some kids

QOTD

"Nutrition wise, it is better for the children to eat at the school. It's about the nutrition and the excellent quality food that they are able to serve (in the lunchroom)."
- Chicago elementary school Principal Elsa Carmona, on why home-made lunches are banned at her school

And, oh, you mean someone is making money on this decision... and you mean that the feds are paying for it. Really!?!?!

QOTD2

"Any school that bans homemade lunches also puts more money in the pockets of the district's food provider, Chartwells-Thompson. The federal government pays the district for each free or reduced-price lunch taken, and the caterer receives a set fee from the district per lunch."
- mandatory school lunches at some Chicago public schools

Hey, Principal Carmona, everyone makes mistakes. I'll even bet a dollar, you're a super lady.
But you're fired.

See, in a business, you screw the pooch this bad, you're out. You put your (middle) finger in the eye of your customers, then you're done. Explain how your parents/customers are all idiots in your interviews for a new job.

You only see this level of arrogance in a monopoly. In the US, that means the public sector. You wouldn't see this shit in a private school. And, best of all, if you did, then parents could pack up their kids and leave for a better school.

school choice... yow, bill

PS - And speaking of arrogant and completely out of touch...

QOTD3

“This is an agreement to invest in our country’s future while making the largest annual spending cut in our history.”
- President Obama, on the 1% budget cuts (nytimes - link)

That's a gol dang head-shaker.

CC and Prince

QOTD

1. To crush your enemies,
2. See them driven before you, and 
3. To hear the lamentation of their women

- Conan the Barbarian's list of what's "best in life", in nerd-list form (imdb quotes)

1. CC and Prince
My fave Sports Onion story ever:

CC and Prince keep imagining each other... 

2. Unemployment and re-election

Quick, interesting post from the Crossing Wall Street guy.

cws - Employment and Re-election

If I may paraphrase (um, steal)... since 1948, 10 presidents have run for re-election:

• 3 times the unemployment was >= 7.4%... the incumbent lost
• The other 7 times, the jobless rate was <= 7.2%... the incumbent won

Nice, easy math there. So, s little more than 18 months before the Nov 2012 elections, unemployment is currently 8.8% and headed south.

Tonight's dinner fortune cookie:

"Life is a series of choices.
Today yours are good ones."

You bet your ass.
yow, bill

All goob

"Sooby Spring"

These are halcyon days!

Spring! Everyone in Illinois is slowly emerging from their cubbies after a long winter. It's sunny and beautiful outside. I hosed down and cleaned my gross garage floor yesterday. I went over and had some beers with the neighbor. Huzzah!

Run! I've been running for a while now. 5 miles in the sunshine, and I slept like a coma patient last night. Cha!

Sports! The Chicago sports scene is rocking with the first-place Bull, the most exciting team in the NBA. The Blackhawks make their final push for the playoffs this afternoon. And the Cub and the Sock are at it full swing. Today, all four teams play. Nerd-vana!

Little league! Ty had his first little league game yesterday. It's a ton of fun, and we a blessed to have the best youth sports coach ever in charge of our team.

Paul Ryan! Ryan's budget proposal has lefties in an absolute tizzy. Story after story leaks through the seams of my media bathysphere. There is one constant in what I've read... chaos. The left is flummoxed, for now at least. Ryan cuts too much. Ryan doesn't save money. Ryan hurts the poor. Ryan starves the elderly. We have two people to thank for this most wonderful situation: 1) President Obama for proposing multi-trillion dollar deficits ever forward and not giving a rat's ass, and 2) those violent, racist Tea Party knuckleheads. Ha! This political about face from disastrous Obamacare to today's rally against government takeover has been absolutely breathtaking. Dang, jack... keep going!

As Ty would say as a young lad... it's all goob.
halcyon... yow, bill