Cool Day

• Had a lovely sushi dinner
• Work went a lot better than I thought it would
• Talked to a lovely Aussie girl named Kellie who lives across the street
• Cell phone seems to be working again
  

Testing and attention whoring

Let me test the blogger image thingamabob



My new knives that came today.

SCOTUS

So he picked the white bread guy. Word is he is anti-abortion and fairly conservative but not an extremist like Scalia and Thomas. It is hard to say because he hasnt been a judge for long.

Some information(pdf).

The fall of capitalism

How Costco Became the Anti-Wal-Mart - New York Times: "Emme Kozloff, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Company, faulted Mr. Sinegal as being too generous to employees, noting that when analysts complained that Costco's workers were paying just 4 percent toward their health costs, he raised that percentage only to 8 percent, when the retail average is 25 percent.
'He has been too benevolent,' she said. 'He's right that a happy employee is a productive long-term employee, but he could force employees to pick up a little more of the burden. '
...
Costco's profit rose 22 percent last year, to $882 million, on sales of $47.1 billion. In the United States, its stores average $121 million in sales annually, far more than the $70 million for Sam's Clubs. And the average household income of Costco customers is $74,000 - with 31 percent earning over $100,000."

I am not a socialist. I like my stuff. No I LOVE my stuff. I want more stuff. I want enough money to never worry about it. But I don't want anybody to need for my wants. Greed will be the end of capitalism if the assholes aren't careful. We have a company that by all measures is sucessful but they don't make enough money for the assholes. Well, what the fuck is enough? Must it be a race to the bottom where Walmart is the ideal? Fuck that.

And then there was one...

The number one thing about being single as you get older is all your friends are paired off. It isn't intentional for them to isolate you but a lot of things become couple things. It is just the way it is.

Add Pete to the list. Ok, fine I am being a little premature. Unless she is totally psycho, she will be around a while. She plotted to get him. What a fucking novel concept. Women actually interested and expressing that interest in a guy. I wonder what it is like.

Running in circles

Come up to meet you,
Tell you I'm sorry,
You don't know how lovely you are.

I had to find you,
Tell you I need you,
Tell you I set you apart.

Tell me your secrets,
And ask me your questions,
Oh, let's go back to the start.

Runnin' in circles,
Comin' up tails,
Its only science apart.

Nobody said it was easy,
It's such a shame for us to part.
Nobody said it was easy,
No one ever said it would be this hard.
Oh, take me back to the start.

I was just guessing,
At numbers and figures,
Pulling the puzzles apart.

Questions of science,
Science and progress,
Do not speak as loud as my heart.

Tell me you love me,
Come back and haunt me,
Oh, when I rush to the start.

Runnin' in circles,
Chasin' tails,
Comin' back as we are.

Nobody said it was easy,
Oh, it's such a shame for us to part.
Nobody said it was easy,
No one ever said it would be so hard.
I'm goin' back to the start.

Nice Guys

Nice Guys:

"One lesson that feminists crusading against sexual harrassment have successfully ingrained in some men -- and which I wish had been successfully ingrained in others -- is that it's very bad for men to express interest in women in ways that make them uncomfortable. This fits quite well with the other principles generally accepted by nice guys. But if nice guys are uncertain about what could make women uncomfortable, accepting this principle has the potential to paralyze them. They don't want to make women uncomfortable, and if they can't be sure that they won't do so by acting in a particular situation, they hold back and let opportunities pass them by. Or if they act, they do so with the lack of confidence that nice guys have when they're worried that they might be doing something wrong. This does not bode well for their chances of success. "

This is often how I feel. I am by most accounts a "nice" guy. Not 100% pushover but I feel bad if I am being selfish. It is definitely related to my problem with buying anything for myself. I can be shy (though not in the traditional sense). There is the whole physical shortcomings. But lack of initiative (I will explain why I am not saying confidence in a moment), I think is the number one problem for me.

It isn't confidence, or at least not largely so, because there are situations where I am totally confident. Give me a situation that is set up for me, and I can totally be your typical social bee. A new coworker who I have reason to talk to? No problem. Being introduced to a new member of the social group? Easy as pie. Throw me into a room full of attractive women who I have nothing obviously apparent in common and no real reason to be there (and thus no "in")? Crap. Napoleon enjoyed Waterloo more. It doesn't even have to be women though it is somewhat easier for me with men.

I can say honestly that feeling like I am imposing on someone crosses my mind in social settings a lot. I even feel that way with friends on occasion. Unfortunately, a fair amount of my social interaction reinforces that feeling. So much so that it has become as assumption that people are not interested in dealing with me. So I stopped trying. Every once in a while I stick my head back out of my hole. Usually, it ends up with me getting wacked really quickly and I go back in. Occasionally, the beat down comes after a little while. It is bad but its all I can do for now.

London and the Flytrap

To me it has always been clear why I could never be a republican. I am a scientist by nature. I value data and facts above all else. If it doesn't work, then you figure out why it doesn't work. You don't keep doing it in hope that it starts to work. It always astounds me that people do this.

The latest example is that the London bombings provides "proof" that we need to keep the same direction in Iraq due to the Flypaper theory. Of course, this is absurd at best. The Flypaper theory, if it was correct, would prevent things like the London bombing. Hasn't anybody noticed that we have had bombings every year since 9/11 (e.g. Bali,Madrid)? It is time to start to pull out. The Iraqis have to stand on their own. We have to find Bin Laden.

Housing

Bubble or not? I have thought speculative to say the least for quite some time. Most likely bubble even. But assume I am totally wrong and this is totally based on fundamentals. I have heard the arguments that it is all based on the interest rates being so low.What then? Are all the gains safe?

The answer might be no.

Now, the first thing to note about this equation is that a small change in either the interest rate i or the growth rate g can have a big effect on the market fundamentals house prices, and stories that try to explain the surge in house prices in the frothiest communities solely in terms of market fundamentals rely on a combination of the two effects. However, the math works just the same going the other way. If we suddenly see a big move back up in mortgage rates, or if the communities where population growth has been outstripping the construction of new housing run into a slump, the same equations predict that house prices could go down just as impressively as they went up.

I think this is going to be bad. Real bad.

White Black Flag

I know you think that I shouldn't still love you,
Or tell you that.
But if I didn't say it, well I'd still have felt it
where's the sense in that?

I promise I'm not trying to make your life harder
Or return to where we were

I will go down with this ship
And I won't put my hands up and surrender
There will be no white black flag above my door
I'm in love and always will be

I know I left too much mess and
destruction to come back again
And I caused nothing but trouble
I understand if you can't talk to me again
And if you live by the rules of "it's over"
then I'm sure that that makes sense

I will go down with this ship
And I won't put my hands up and surrender
There will be no white black flag above my door
I'm in love and always will be

And when we meet
Which I'm sure we will
All that was there
Will be there still
I'll let it pass
And hold my tongue
And you will think
That I've moved on....

I will go down with this ship
And I won't put my hands up and surrender
There will be no white black flag above my door
I'm in love and always will be

I will go down with this ship
And I won't put my hands up and surrender
There will be no white black flag above my door
I'm in love and always will be

I will go down with this ship
And I won't put my hands up and surrender
There will be no white black flag above my door
I'm in love and always will be

I like it better this way