As an industry we took our lumps, learned our lessons, retrenched and came roaring back with companies/products like google, facebook, ipod and wordpress (disclosure: that's where diaper money comes from.)  The people who lost so much the first time around, are back, well some of us.  We understand that its the way to the valley, and we follow the words of Rudyard Kipling:

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

Which bring me to Goldman Sachs, the latest company to be helped by the fed...and Warren Buffett...and Japan's third largest bank.  At $125 per share, you have be Warren Buffett to comfortably afford the investment.

I am rusty on my economics, finance, and credit market studies, so I will not comment on the merits of a bailout vs.world monetary collapse. It just seems to me that wall street is full of cry babies.  They played musical chairs with high-risk debt, and can't believe the music stopped and they are "out."  Furthermore, they are - as my mommy friends would put it -  sore losers.  Life was good while the huge profits and bonuses were coming in, but now that things are going south, well its just "unfair."

Now I must say that I have nothing but compassion, for people going through this.  I am also not ranting at individual employees but the industry overall.  I would not wish this on anyone.

Here is my epiphany for the day, and advise to the people in the financial industry trenches: Necessity is the mother of all invention, and that is were the true risk-takers and innovators congregate.  Spend this time retrenching and looking for the next opportunity, rather then asking for a handout.  The  next big thing will come and fortunes will be made again.

Global warming, my dear readers, is just an urban legend, I believe...

Today however, I felt the need to become a bitter old 70-year-old so I could hit young people in their shins with my cane and loudly announce that when I was young the grass was greener. My office had a "partnership" visit from one of the ministries. A delegation of 7 people. A delegation of 7 people all around my age, including two who graduated their BA with me. A delegation of 7 people who thought it was completely normal to show up in sneakers and jeans. And interrupt the company presentation by the host with questions that they kind of thought would fit into topic. And spend most of the time making jokes at each other.

Please bring back the French nannies and compulsory etiquette classes!

On a lighter note, I had a wonderful weekend in the East. Pumpkin was a wonderful hostess as always - cooking for me and taking me all around the city. One night we caught up with a guy I met at a bar on my birthday - he took us to this great jazz place and kept us entertained all night. And, on Sunday morning I held a workshop on team work for a bunch of students. Considering they were all seriously hung over, I think the fact that only one of them fell asleep during my show is a very good achievement

This pic is taken in the middle of the city actually. Feels like I was on the beach, right? Well, minus the bulldosers, the ethnic music from all the restaurants on the street and the freezing wind, it almost was.

Simulação:

Fulano: "Aposta quanto que eu faço a Gasparzinha chorar em menos de 5 minutos?"

Ciclano: "10k." "

Fulano: "Gasparzinha, Gasparzinha. Sabia que eu vi o Peter ..." (nem precisa completar, qualquer coisa já basta)

E eu fico away no TS nem preciso dizer pra que. ¬¬'

ME DEIXA ESQUECER ELE NA SANTA PAZ DE CRISTO, CACETE!!! ¬¬'

Vai pra merda todo mundo. ,,!,,

Só queria um buraco no chão pra eu me jogar dentro. No meio de uma conversa idiota na esperança de me animar, um abestado (Dan ;*) me disse que me mudar pra outro país ajudaria. Só se for pra outro planeta. Nessas horas que eu adoraria bater com a cabeça e perder a memória. Esqueceria TUDO que aconteceu, e também as senhas do orkut e do msn. Uma lavagem cerebral já ajudaria também. Queria que pensamentos e lembranças fossem coisas que a gente podesse descartar, caso não nos agradassem mais. Tá certo que não sobraria quase nada na minha mente, mas talvez fosse melhor assim. Perderia lembranças "boas", mas em compensação não estaria assim agora.

Que droga. Tem horas que ficar triste é tão revoltante. Tem horas que é só triste mesmo. Nem sei o que é pior.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Bye bye

Apparently, the Crazed Rage-a-holic Old Coot Dome in Sandusky was already booked.

Thank you! I'll be here all week...

Sincerely,

Kevin

p.s. It really doesn't bother me all that much but I'm starting to wear out my delete key.

And then we wonder why this boy is still single...

I mean what is this world coming to?  No wonder no one is reading the traditional papers, but following the Colbert report.

I could say so much more - but I feel the tingling sensation of blog-rant-o-itis coming on.

As for aliens living among us- that explains so much.

Did I mention that I got all worked up last night because I had to move almost everything from the old office (new nursery) to the guest room (new guest room/office) last night by myself? What really got me going was moving around a million jewel cases because H has insisted we save all the jewel cases for every cd he owns, which is like 500, and which he has not even looked at in the last 3 years. I was so pissed, and I was trying to decide whether I should just throw them all away without telling H. But then this morning, I asked H if I could throw away all the jewel cases if we saved the liner notes and cds, and H said yes. So it's a good thing I got all worked up about that for no reason.

Tuesday night, we have childbirth class session 2 (out of 6). I just know that the second the teacher says, "Welcome, mommies and daddies," I will be annoyed. Here is my summary of the first class:
1) mommies, don't come into the hospital too early because we will just send you home, and it's so funny that you can't tell when you are supposed to come in
2) mommies, don't come into the hospital too late because that is just ridiculous
3) daddies are more objective and better able to tell when you should come into the hospital, so mommies should listen to daddies, because "daddies know best"
4) mommies know what is best and should trust their gut

In summary, we are screwed.

That's not really fair because I did learn some things about the stages of labor, how to tell if you are in labor, and what to do if you think you are in labor. It wasn't all bad. It was just 75% annoying. Kind of like this post.

From the Washington Post:

Federal agents may take a traveler's laptop computer or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed.

Also, officials may share copies of the laptop's contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation, data decryption or other reasons

I’m pretty sure that illegal search and seizure is mentioned somewhere in the constitution, something about it being a no-no.  Yet that’s exactly what this policy is.  The Federal Government is reserving the right to seize your laptop for literally no reason what so ever.  Furthermore, they are reserving the right to search the contents of your laptop, which in my case would include detailed financial and personal information, also with no prior justification.  Lastly they reserve the right to send that data to a third party.  But don’t worry.

Customs Deputy Commissioner Jayson P. Ahern said the efforts "do not infringe on Americans' privacy."

See, aren’t you reassured now?  Never mind that fact that digital records, like the financial information stored on my laptop, could be sent to a third party and be infinitely replicated at no cost.  The government says I’m completely safe.  The amazing thing isn't that there are so many conspiracy theory nuts but that there are so few.

Found on Pharyngula

Un rang devant moi (20C, cabine Tempo), un couple, la cinquantaine fringante. On est pas encore partis, mais ils sont déjà nerveux, regardent du côté de la cabine Affaires, deux rangs et un rideau plus avant, se murmurent des choses à l'oreille. Monsieur se lève, sans raison apparente, reste debout alors que toute la cabine est assise. Madame le rejoint... encore un coup d'œil ostentatoire sur la cabine Affaires, très peu remplie d'ailleurs... Ils ne sollicitent pas les PNC, ne disent rien. Ils sont là, statiques. Le temps passe, on finit par fermer les portes, l'avion se met en mouvement... Le couple se rassied, monsieur a le sourcil froncé...

Qu'espéraient-ils ? Mystère... Peut-être qu'un chef de cabine les prenne en pitié et les fasse passer à l'avant ? C'est charmant, mais qu'est-ce qui peut leur faire imaginer qu'ils vont se faire surclasser, là, comme çà, une fois à bord ? Ce serait ignorer les mécanismes du surclassement, ces formules mystérieuses qui permettent parfois de se retrouver à l'avant avec un billet touriste (une magie noire qui mérite son propre post, j'y reviendrai...).

Fin du mystère, à CDG: à la livraison bagages, monsieur retire le sien du tapis. Accroché à la poignée, un tag "Club 2000". Pour faire simple, à l'origine, le Club 2000 rassemblait les meilleurs clients d'Air France, ceux qui volaient le plus, pour les distinguer des Fréquence Plus Rouge. Au fil du temps, les critères d'attribution sont devenus plus flous. La carte est maintenant décernée à des chefs d'entreprise dont les troupes volent beaucoup dans le métal de l'ex-compagnie nationale, mais aussi à des politiques, de grands noms de la société civile (artistes, sportifs)...

Une attribution discrétionnaire, et un processus un peu glissant, car là où toutes les cartes de fidélité ont une date d'expiration (la fidélité, c'est meilleur quand ça dure), les cartes Club 2000 n'en ont apparemment pas. Bien loin des 2000 clients privilégiés des débuts, le Club compterait un nombre de membre à cinq chiffres (si quelqu'un a l'info, je prends) [Mise à jour du 7/8/8: une source bien intentionnée me confirme un chiffre tournant autour de 14000. Mais bon, forcément, le "Club 14000", ça ressemblerait à rien]. Une inflation qui a failli s'arrêter net lors du rachat de KLM et du passage de Fréquence Plus à Flying Blue. Mais AF a fait machine arrière, et a maintenu le Club... pas simple de froisser des milliers de VIP à la fois.

Aujourd'hui, les avantages des porteurs de la carte sont peu ou prou identiques à ceux des membres Flying Blue Platinum (franchise de bagages, priorité sur liste d'attente, livraison bagages prioritaire, comptoir dédié, etc). Seule différence entre les Club 2000 et les autres, que rappellent souvent les personnels d'Air France dans les forums: eux n'ont pas gagné leur sésame en passant leur vie dans un avion, la majorité d'entre eux volent rarement, mais maltraitent souvent les PNC ou ceux des comptoirs d'enregistrement. Les histoires de politiques, d'hommes d'affaires ou de VIP abusant (ou surestimant) des pouvoirs du sésame bleu sont légion. De quoi leur coller, globablement, une fort mauvaise réputation... Bref, pour le dire gentiment, des boulets, qui ont souvent un tropisme naturel à penser que tout leur est dû.

Maintenant, si AF m'offre une carte Club 2000 à vie, je suis tout prêt à changer d'avis... (-:

Cédric

P.S.: Dans mon vol aller, il y avait un autre Club 2000 probable: Maurice Levy, patron de Publicis. Lui était charmant, souriant, plaisantait avec l'équipage. Mais il doit faire assez de sauts au dessus de l'Atlantique (ça fait quand même quatre fois que je le croise dans un vol ou au salon AF) pour ne pas avoir besoin d'une médaille en chocolat. Plus je croise cet homme, plus je trouve qu'il respire l'humanité et l'intelligence.

P.P.S. qui n'a rien à voir: notre Club 2000 déçu devait être cadre dirigeant d'un grand laboratoire pharmaceutique, que par charité chrétienne je ne nommerai pas. Si j'en connais le nom, c'est parce qu'il a laissé traîner pendant tout le vol des tableaux de stats marqués "Confidentiel", portant toutes les parts de marché de ses différents médicaments, entre autres infos croustillantes. Dommage que je ne couvre pas la santé... Mais j'ai gardé quelques chiffres, ceux marqués en gras. On ne sait jamais...

The Bad:
The seller is in ENGLAND and the transaction is taking longer than I anticipated. So, guess what? I probably won’t have my two brand new super cute bathing suits for the beach when we go next week. I might have been slightly overly optimistic in thinking that I would have the bathing suits by the end of the week. STUPID!

The Ugly:
GAH. Now I’ll have to go and try to find a bathing suit with a top that will fit these two very large cantelopes that sit on my chest and try to pass themselves off as boobies. That should be easy……HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! Though, after hours of trying on every bathing suit top in the store I might not be laughing so much as uncontrollably sobbing. Fanfuckingtastic.

Sigh….if only we lived in Spain.

Tuesday night is our first baby class. We have to bring pillows and a blanket along, which kind of scares me. What the heck are they going to make us do that requires pillows and a blanket? They do know that the baby has already been conceived, right?

The U.S. budget deficit will widen to a record of about $490 billion next year, an administration official said, leaving a deep budget hole that will constrain the next president's tax and spending plans.

The article goes on to detail the causes for the deficit shortfall (two wars, economic stimulus package, tax receipt slow down, etc).  Long story short, the short to medium term prospects look pretty grim right now.  But fear not says White House Press Secretary Dana Perino.

Asked today if the administration still believes it's on a path to a balanced budget by 2012, White House press secretary Dana Perino said , ``I believe so, yes.''

She called the deficit ``temporary and manageable.''

That's great, the administration that spent like a drunken sailor, that failed to meaningfully address the growing cost of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, has left us a road map to solvency.  Why am I not excited?

*Title is in reference to this

Thank you for putting me down on your CV as a reference person. I would find it a great honour, except for the fact that you told me about it after you had sent it in to your potential employer.

And, for the fact that describing our co-operation brief would be a great overestimation. We've only done two projects together one of them never got implemented, and in another one you just showed up, whined and complained, spent most of the time with your nose in your Macbook and then made a presentation based on someone's old powerpoint presentation.

And for the fact that after that last thing I promised myself I will never ever work with you again. And, last, but not least, despite you do happen to have some very strong positive sides to your character, tonight I am so not liking you at all.

Good luck with the appliction,

Adorably Bitter

PS: And don't hesitate to put me as your reference when you're house-hunting either. I can also give great testimonials on what a great (cough-cough-cough) roomie you are, based on all those approximately 25 days we've shared a room on different events altogether.   

Le mec avec qui je parlais depuis 2mois et dont je parlais ici s'est révélé être un autre cave naviguant sur le net à la recherche de baises de toute sorte en se qualifiant être quelqu'un de sérieux, pas comme les autres, honnête.... pfffffffffffff BULLSHIT !!!! Ce matin il a prit le bord des  msn blocker/supprimer/anéantis, après que je l'ais vu en pleine scéance de cruise en vu de "sauter" la dite personne mdrrrr OHHH MYYY GODDD tout un homme différent des autres ça ;)

Je lui dit gentiment : VA TE FAIRE FOUTRE STI DE MORRON !

Awwwwwwwwwwww ça fais du bien :P

From the Wall Street Journal:

For children's parties, many companies around the country provide costumed characters popular with kids…In recent years, corporations that own the rights to some of the more popular characters…have sent cease-and-desist letters, threatened lawsuits and in some cases received settlements from companies that market unauthorized character impersonators.

So some hole in the wall family entertainment company, you know the ones in the mall that are constantly going out of business, represents a huge threat to these huge corporations.  Why, you ask?

Attorneys note that if they do not actively police their trademarks in one realm, a court might later rule that they have forfeited their rights to enforce it in others.

Whatever else they might say; this is what it boils down to.  These companies are protecting their right to shove Dora the F(uck)ing Explorer down your throat at every goddamn opportunity and profit from it.  So every time your kid gets you to buy the Dora box of Mac n’ Cheese or the Disney Princess can of Pringles, they make more money.  That’s it, if they cared about brand integrity or any of that other shit, they wouldn’t put Thomas the Train anywhere near my kid’s underwear.

Meanwhile they won’t even offer the services that these parents are looking for:

Dan Martinsen, a spokesman for Nickelodeon, says that while the company doesn't offer walk-about characters for birthday parties, it does send such characters on national tours and sells tickets to see them.

So to the kid in East Bum Fuck who loves Diego because it is literally impossible to escape these characters if you’re watching any channel other than Spice, well it sucks to be you doesn’t it.

Fear not though because I’m offering a solution, a new branded character for the average American. 

That’s right kids it’s the ANGRY AMOEBA!!! 

He’s foul mouthed spirited, He drinks heavily ‘s jolly and he’s here to spread diseases happiness.

And parents, if you want someone to dress up as the Angry Amoeba and swear at your kids, raid your liquor cabinet and stink up your bathroom (cause that’s how the Amoeba rolls) be my guest.  Hell, if your liquor cabinet is well stocked enough and you don’t live too far away, I’ll put the damn costume on myself.  In the meantime, I’m going to use google image search and photoshope to compromise some brand integrity.

During the 2006-07 period under investigation, seven games refereed by Scott Foster had lopsided enough betting on one team to move the point spread by at least 2 points; those seven teams were undefeated against Vegas meaning that the big-money gamblers won a 7 of 7 times on Fosters games; the odds of that happening randomly are less than 1%.

The NBA needs to get out in front of this yesterday.  The refereeing was already a running joke before the gambling allegations.  Now they have one former ref about to go to prison and apparently another one under investigation.  This bullshit has already tainted my own enjoyment of the league.  How many more fans can the league alienate before they adequately address the problem?

Hattip to Deadspin

Also, I just signed up for Twitter. Why? Because it seemed like a good idea 33 minutes ago. I don't really know what I'm doing, and I accidentally made my Twitter page kind of purple, but here's a link for your stalking pleasure: http://twitter.com/Andyouknow. Am I supposed to start butting in on people's conversations now? I have nothing interesting to blog about, and yet I am now signing up for something new? Aargh.

On Feb. 11, personnel at the Westinghouse plant -- the largest nuclear fuel facility in the United States -- discovered they had lost 16 sample vials of uranium hexafluoride or UF6 that had been delivered a week earlier.

What is really interesting about this story isn't so much that nuclear fuel has gone missing (which still sucks) but how the Nuclear Regulatory Commission chose to comment on it.  They focus on the investigation being conducted and the controls being implemented and how the radioactivity doesn't pose a threat to public safety.

The vials contained a total of about 4.5 ounces of low-enriched uranium calculated to contain approximately 409.4 microcuries of radioactivity, which translates to a calculated maximum radiation dose of five millirem per year, or the amount of radiation one person would receive by taking a one-way flight from New York to London.

So there's no problem right?  Um...no.  What the NRC failed to mention, is that when the material in question (UF6) is exposed to water it generates HydroFlouric Acid which is a deadly poison.

When the material comes into contact with water -- including moisture in humid air -- it creates deadly hydrofluoric acid. In 1986, for example, a worker at the Sequoyah Fuels plant in Oklahoma was killed when a UF6-filled cylinder ruptured and he inhaled the resulting hydrofluoric acid.

From Wikipedia:

HF interferes with nerve function and burns may not initially be painful. Accidental exposures can go unnoticed, delaying treatment and increasing the extent and seriousness of the injury.  Death can occur if as little as 2.5% of total body surface area is exposed to concentrated HF.

There isn't enough material missing to say, poison the water supply, but is it too much to mention in the article that the material in question is in fact dangerous?  I don't think there is any malicious intent in this omission, but I'm irritated that the report from the NRC would fail to mention a fact that I learned in high school chem class.

I haven’t really had any great desire to knit lately. Partly because it’s summer and hot and the thought of touching wool seems unbearably hot and partly because nothing has really caught my attention or desire. Until now. In the last three days, I have knit almost the entire shawl. I’m on the 6th repeat and possibly would have been knitting the edging last night if I hadn’t spent the better part of it trying to untangle my yarn.

A word about the Brooks Farm Acero: HOLY CRAP THERE IS A LOT OF YARN IN ONE SKEIN. I wound that sucker up, but it wasn’t easy and apparently I didn’t do as good of a job as I thought. If I had? I probably wouldn’t be battling the tangle monster now.

I finally went to bed around 1:00 a.m. last night, defeated. I’m going to give it another go tonight and if I can’t get the bloody mess untangled, then I’m cutting it. It gives me no real pleasure to say that and I hope it doesn't come down to that. But drastic times call for drastic measures.

Wish me luck.

When I found out I was pregnant, H and I went out and bought What to Expect When You're Expecting. You guys, this book sucks. Do not buy it. We had to go to this Welcome To Being Pregnant session (not the official name) at my obgyn's office before my first appointment, and the nurse warned us all that the book sucked and we should not read it. But it was too late; we already had it.

Mostly, this book is just boring. The only parts I care about in the book are what is going on with the fetus this month and what symptoms (that's not the right word, is it) I may be experiencing. That's like a total of 20 pages out of this 550+ page book that I actually like. One of the reasons my doctor's office recommends not reading this book is that apparently it lists pretty much everything that can go wrong and unnecessarily freaks out mothers. It does not freak me out though because, as I mentioned, it is so boring, and because it is so poorly written. The worst part of the book is these fake Q&As they have in every chapter. I will include some examples below.

Actual fake question from the book: "I look and feel more like I've been in a boxing ring than in a birthing room. How come?"
My suggested response: Dear fake question asker, are you a total idiot? YOU JUST GAVE BIRTH. How did you think the baby came out?

Actual fake question from the book: "I'm a week overdue. Is it possible that I might never go into labor on my own?"
My suggested response: Yes. And the doctors will never induce you. You will be pregnant FOREVER, and there is nothing that can be done about it. Good question.

Actual fake question from the book: "My new son was premature and is going to be in a neonatal intensive care unit for at least two weeks. Will it be too late for good bonding when he gets out?"
My suggested response: Unfortunately, because your baby was in the NICU for two weeks, he will never bond with you and never love you, and he will probably become a serial killer. Better luck next time!