stran.

It's hot.

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 11:04:46 -0500

Summer is here and it is hot. Yes, hot hot hot!

"Goodbye for now and good luck………. You’re going to need it."

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 22:21:58 -0500

“Goodbye for now and good luck………. You’re going to need it.”

- Awesome financial commentary I saw on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GukmDO89KI)

anyone have a barometer?

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 22:20:31 -0500

I notice a lot of cheerleaders really pumping the economy lately. I may rant about the feedback loop between the market and and consumer confidence later. In the meantime, I look around and can’t help but notice things haven’t changed. Cheerleaders in the MSM aren’t noted for their consistency or willingness to connect dots from day to day, much less week to week.

Unfortunately, this seems to be the case for the producers of doom pr0n as well. Every day there is the “counter-point” to whatever CNBC is hyping, but no real consistent thread or message.

All this makes me wonder if there’s any place that lays out a thesis for the US and world wide economic outlook, does so in simple terms and provides consistent metrics. I don’t mind seening commentary all around it, but I want to see the measurement day by day, week by week.

I guess I’m asking for a little scientific rigor. Perhaps I need to quit complaining and come up with said thesis and metrics!

cheers.

Well, I suppose this can be crossed off my bucket list. What is...

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 22:06:35 -0500

Well, I suppose this can be crossed off my bucket list.

What is it? Well, I don’t have a name for it… perhaps a description will do:

1. One Krispy Kreme donut

2. One 5-Guys single bacon cheeseburger, no bun

3. Another Krispy Kreme donut.

How was it? Not bad at all! Don’t get me wrong, I won’t be repeating it. Here’s the breakdown:

2 x Donuts: 400 Calories

1 x Patty: 280 Calories

1 x Cheese: 70 Calories

2 x Bacon: 80 Calories

TOTAL: 830 Calories ( I didn’t eat fries or a sugar drink )

cheers.

hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia

Fri, 29 May 2009 21:57:34 -0500

Yep, that’s a new word i learned tonight. I say new word, as it’s both new to me and evidently young etymologically.

Denotation:

hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia (uncountable)

The fear of long words, ironically. It is literally the hippopotamus- and monster-related fear of very long words.
Ben is a sufferer of a mild form of hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia

Etymology

From hippopotomonstrosesquipedalian, an extension of sesquipedalian with monstrum “monster” and a truncated, misspelled form of hippopotamus, intended to exaggerate the length of the word itself and the idea of the size of the words being feared; combined with phobia.

How many selfish little weasels do you know? More than one? I know a few…. I hope I’m...

Thu, 28 May 2009 20:50:00 -0500

How many selfish little weasels do you know? More than one? I know a few…. I hope I’m not one, but I guess you’re always the last to know.

Lag… making fools of revisionists everywhere!

Thu, 28 May 2009 09:19:00 -0500

Lag… making fools of revisionists everywhere!

a view to a storm…

Wed, 27 May 2009 14:31:11 -0500

a view to a storm…

Commuter’s Rainbow.

Wed, 27 May 2009 14:30:40 -0500

Commuter’s Rainbow.

EPIC FAIL. I dare you to do worse than this!!

Wed, 27 May 2009 14:29:53 -0500

EPIC FAIL.

I dare you to do worse than this!!

So…the wife asked me about twitter. She’s up to speed on facebook and the like, but...

Wed, 20 May 2009 22:30:00 -0500

So…the wife asked me about twitter. She’s up to speed on facebook and the like, but wasn’t quite sure what the tweet buzz was all about.

It was then that we decided to take a quick survey of douche-tastic names on twitter… here’s our top 5:

baggey_o_douche / Douchey McBag
mcdouchey / Douchey McDouchebag
douchebagelow / douche bagelow
ivanadouche / Ivana Douche
ifollowdouches / E. Normus Douche Whereever particular douches congregate, you will find me.

Back in the office for a second day. The life of a startup is always interesting… there are so...

Wed, 20 May 2009 09:37:00 -0500

Back in the office for a second day. The life of a startup is always interesting… there are so many plot lines going every direction. It’s fun to guess which ones are important since 90%+ seem to lead nowhere.

Anyway, I have to admit to feeling a little restless lately. I’m somewhat disatisfied with things here in several categories and I suppose the time is approaching that I need to do something about it or just let it go…. vague enough, yes? Anyway, there’s no shortage of work to do in the meantime.

It’s raining here in South Carolina. While it’s true that I did get to be home...

Sun, 17 May 2009 22:30:30 -0500

It’s raining here in South Carolina. While it’s true that I did get to be home yesterday, it simply wasn’t enough to keep me smiling through the rain tonight….

I’m a little….

Travel Weary.

Well, no transcript, so no juicy quotes. Our new President continues to quietly shed light on the...

Fri, 15 May 2009 06:41:00 -0500

Well, no transcript, so no juicy quotes.

Our new President continues to quietly shed light on the policies of the previous administration, such as those in support of torture. He does this with the full knowlege that he also shines a light on the inactions of his fellow party members.

That’s INTEGRITY.

Those responsible for promulgating policies justifying and allowing torture in the name of U.S. security should be identified and dealt with appropriately. This sort of policy diminishes the standing of the United States not only as a world actor, but in the view of its own citizens. Shepard Smith said it best:

“We are America. We don’t f*cking tourture!”

To the point: Yesterday, The House Speaker gave a press briefing slamming the CIA and Bush Administration- not for having a policy allowing torture, not for torturing, but instead for misleading the congress about it. While her allegation against the CIA and others are likely true, I was frankly offended that she used them to absolve herself and the congress of their responsibilities.

By her own (complicated) admission she was made aware that “waterboarding” had been justified in 2001 and perfomed as early as 2003 (this based on a formal letter of complaint she had knowlege of).

Did she take action then? No. Instead, she states that the letter being registered was the correct action and implying the matter was…. Handled? Out of her hands? Perhaps that she had sufficient cover to avoid a risky political fight over something like torture?

Fast forward to 2006. The general public is pissed at GOP policies, our stance on torture among them. Democrats gain control of the house. Pelosi is now House Speaker. Did she “follow up” on the letter? Nope.

Look, I object to the Speaker of the House of Representatives ducking responsibility for defending human rights, much less the Constitution. If she KNOWS evil is being committed by a branch of government that congress is meant to check and does NOTHING to address it, then she is COMPLICIT. Indeed, the Speaker’s continued complaints of malfeasance on the part of the Bush administration only highlights the need for swift action from the congress.

If not the duly elected representitives of the people, then who?

I wanted to make some quick comments on a press briefing given by the Speaker of the US House of...

Fri, 15 May 2009 05:36:00 -0500

I wanted to make some quick comments on a press briefing given by the Speaker of the US House of Representatives today.

I wanted to… but I ran into a snag.

So, I saw the “live” briefing yesteday morning, but after looking for a few minutes I’ve discovered there isn’t a public source of transcripts on the Internet. The result is that I’m reduced to referencing whatever AP writers or CNN have decided to say about it… which isn’t much.

"You can now search the future!"

Thu, 14 May 2009 23:22:55 -0500

“You can now search the future!”

- Wayne Feick, speaking about Mark Logic’s alerting feature.

Have you seen that new verizon commercial? You know, the one where the family is at an ice cream...

Thu, 14 May 2009 23:20:54 -0500

Have you seen that new verizon commercial? You know, the one where the family is at an ice cream shop and compares the container of sprinkles to available minutes?

yeah… that one.

Am I the only one that goes cross-eyed watching it? It seems like a whole crap-ton of sprinkles fall out before the level inside the container starts to drop…. I suspect editing magick at work, likely designed to make my brain even more squishy.

"We’ll soon find out whether an organism the size of the United States can run an economy based..."

Thu, 07 May 2009 22:57:00 -0500

“We’ll soon find out whether an organism the size of the United States can run an economy based on one family selling the contents of its garage to the family next door.”

- Jim Kunstler

media collusion.

Wed, 06 May 2009 10:20:30 -0500

So… GM is wiping out all their current common stock/equity holders… this was news yesterday, May 5. NO MENTION of GM at all, much less this news, was made this morning on CNBC, CNN or any other “major” news outlet I looked at. It’s now 11am eastern, the only mention I’ve found so far came out at 10:45 eastern in a little headline down the page on CNBC.

I’m not ready to talk about the horror of what this move means for the citizens of the USA, particularly in light of what’s going on with Chrystler… but what I want to point out while it’s still happening is the BLATENT collusion of the media in burrying this story. This is a big deal and it’s being ignored… not downplayed, ignored. Literally.

It seems to me it takes considerable power to silence the media as completely as has been done with respect to the size of the company and story… and done on purpose. Remember GM is still larger than most national economies of the world.

"One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to..."

Tue, 05 May 2009 22:34:33 -0500

“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It is simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been so credulous.”

- Carl Sagan