A little late—I’m afraid I forgot it was Friday until I got to work. Oops. [Update: Actually, this was supposed to be posted last Friday, but I had—you guessed it—trouble with my host. It’s a long story, but it’s fixed now.] In any case, here’s Sebastian:
Still on that Traffic book. I might finish it this weekend, but there’s an awful lot going on (including planting about three dozen garlic cloves for the winter), so we’ll see.
Have a great weekend!
As if you need another reason not to eat at McDonald’s.
In other news, the film in the series last night was In Search of a Midnight Kiss. I recommend it. What really struck me was how dense it was—there was an awful lot going on besides the basic main storyline. That gave a nice sense of depth to the characters and the film as a whole. Rather than feel like this was a thing that happened, you feel like you’re peeking in on a little slice of lives already in progress. That’s sadly unusual in movies, but very welcome.
Not much time to write--I woke up late and have to get to work soon, but I did want to take a moment to review a couple points on the financial situation.
First, as a Washington Mutual customer, my bank has been seized and sold. That doesn't bother me--I just used it as a parking place for my long-term savings since it offers such a high interest rate. I don't have enough to worry about the FDIC insurance not being sufficient to cover any losses. My biggest concern is that JPMorgan Chase won't keep the high savings interest rate. But even if they do lower it to more industry-standard (i.e., ridiculously, laughably low) rates, there are plenty of other high-rate accounts out there.
I also have a couple thoughts on the stock market situation. That doesn't affect me directly since the only money I have invested is for retirement, so I have no plans to take any money out of the market. In fact, I've been considering increasing my IRA contributions this month. But it does affect me in other ways. For one thing, it will probably tighten up the job market, which is unfortunate since I am now looking for work. Even so, I'm in a position to more easily find a job given my education and work history. Perhaps more serious, the tightening credit market means that I'll have trouble selling my house in the next couple years if I need to. But even that isn't too bad. I see no reason that I can't rent it out a while. In fact, that may be better--fewer people in the market for houses means more people looking for rentals.
So the short version is that I will be somewhat inconvenienced. But I'm one of the lucky ones. Many people will find their already tight budgets dry up, and will have to make some serious sacrifices (not just canceling a Netflix subscription). It will be far worse for those who lose their jobs. The fact that things will be so bad for so many only highlights the obligation of the rest of us to help out where we can. This may be financial or in kind, but it will become increasingly important.
This post was supposed to go up on Friday, but there was apparently some weird meltdown in my server. I’m not sure what happened, but apparently it took a long time to fix, and it had to restore an older backup in from around Monday (thus losing two posts from later in the week). They’re still in the database, though, so I could restore them.
Here’s Sebastian in the crate in which I receive my vegetables from the farm:
He doesn’t look happy, but I swear that I didn’t put him there just for the photo. I found him in there, but by the time I took the photo, he wasn’t looking at the camera.
A couple things:
- My phone also actually sounds like a phone—and I’m proud.
- This robot is totally awesome—I love it when the guy tries to kick it over.
- The press account of Justice Scalia’s appearance at our bar conference—I was there, and the article is reasonably accurate.
- Wondering about my choice for President? Here it is. Only the cognoscenti need click.
In other news, I finally started playing Team Fortress 2. TF2 is an online-only game that pits two teams against each other. A player can be any one of nine classes, and each is quite unique. I’ve had the game for almost a year now, but I’ve never really played. Part of this is that I’m not nearly as adept at the first-person shooters as many of the people playing this game, so I was reluctant to inflict myself on the general public. While I figured I could be passably good with time, I hate to cause a ton of frustration on others while I learned.
Tonight I dove right in, and it was really fun. I wouldn’t say I got to be particularly good, but I managed to become a passable medic, one of the support classes.
I’m still working on the Traffic book, so I don’t feel the need to repost it here. In any case--
Have a great weekend!
Nobody tried to run me over yesterday. That’s always nice.
Don’t forget, you can get a free electronic copy of Neverwhere. Check it out.
Today was not a great day. First there was there three times that I almost got run over. But wait, that that's not all.
On the other hand, there were certain good things. First, I was never actually hit by a car. I suppose that counts for something.
But still it would be nice to take a walk at lunch without having to avoid the motorized vehicles.
In other news, and I watched the season premiere of Heroes. I liked it. After the … unfortunate second season, I wasn't sure that they would pull it off. But, the new season of actually seems interesting. Of course, the series that I'm really waiting for is Dexter. For my money, it has always been one of the most innovative, fantastic, and smart series in recent memory.
There is, of course, more. Pushing Daisies will be awesome. So will Breaking Bad as soon as it begins again. For anyone who hasn't seen it, definitely check out Breaking Bad. You won't be disappointed.
Not much else to say right now.
