« November 2008 | Main

Pardon me..

While I do a little year end site maintenance.

Comments and trackbacks will be spotty while I test some new tools for fighting spam. I will also be adding some new tools for commenting, such as twitter.

I think I shall also be updating my blogroll for the first time in about 3 years too.

Posted @ December 23, 2008 11:02 AM | Comments (0)

my 'moment of zen'

I have a teenage son. Back in the 70's, I was a teenage boy and I was also a complete and utter hellion as well. So it is that context that I can relate the following parental "moment of clarity":

Every day, as I strive to come to terms with effort and patience that is required to raise my son, it is only now through this struggle that I have come to fully understand just how much it was that my father loved me. The proof for one persons love for another is always suspect to those outside the relationship, but the truth of it is, you don't put up with this much hell for someone you merely "like".

I hated the teenage years and I hated every moment of being a teenager. It was the most miserable part of my life and I was never so glad as I was the day I turned 21. Until now, I only thought about how bad being a teenager was for me, I never gave a thought to how it was for anyone else. I find myself now having gone full circle, witnessing my 'little crimes' all over again but now I'm forced to pass judgment on them from the bench. Where once I thought I stood in my defiance as a "brave rebel against the system" , I now see just a scared little boy, all too cool and proud to be bothered to take the simple, straightforward and worthy advice of "doing his homework".

It's Gods little joke, the "teenage" years. Its the years of your life when you are most in need of the advice and council given by your parents, while at the same time you find you are in possession of a brain chemistry that makes you completely incapable of doing so.

You just cant argue with the genius behind that sense of divine symmetry.

Posted @ December 18, 2008 11:06 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

For your Viewing Pleasure: The Blue Max

Remember when Flyboys came out recently? Remember how you went into a rage and flipped over the popcorn maker in the lobby of the theatre? Remember when you grabbed a perfect stranger and asked him "Does every single German plane in this movie have to be a Fokker Triplane - A RED FOKKER TRIPLANE!!!". Well here's a real movie using real airplanes to remind you just how good an aviation themed movie can be. Be sure to catch Ursula Andress's highly-improbable-but-safe-for-1960's movie-audience "Towel Dance" near the end.

Tv on the web? Well sure, happens all the time. Give some of these a whirl:

Joost.com
Hulu.com
usanetworks.com
ABC
CBS
NBC

Look at that. 5 minutes of HTML and I already have better programming than your local cable provider.

Posted @ December 18, 2008 08:33 AM | Aviation | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Name is Destiny?

Bernard Madoff...hmmmm

Bernard "Made Off"? As in Bernard 'ran away with the swag'? I wonder if his family name was "Abscond" before they had it changed at Ellis Island?

That said, I think the descendants of Charles Ponzi can have their name back because 50 Billion Dollars! earns him the new shorthand name of "schemes to defraud". As of now, its no longer a "Ponzi" scheme, its a "Madoff".

Say what you want about Darwin, there really is a sucker born every minute. Mr.Madoff and his victims are yet another proof of that theory.

Posted @ December 16, 2008 03:48 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Hey whats it gonna take to get you folks into this car?

Used Cars - A 1980 Kurt Russell movie, where the protagonist, a used car salesman, tries to buy a senate seat.
Coincidence? You decide.

You've been there. You go to buy a car, you walk on the lot and before your second footstep, a human remora has attached himself to you. Helpful to the point of annoying, the ballet begins where handshake, names, cards and pleasantries are exchanged. Well, lets be serious, the remora is the only one doing the exchange, you are looking for a handiwipe.

You continue in your quest, looking for a specific model, and a specific car. Of course that car and model doesn't actually exist. Yes, you've seen the advertising, youve seen other people driving that very car in that very color but you cant find it here at the dealer. Your remora finally guides you towards some other car that you don't like nearly enough but to get the remora to shut up, you tell him its ok. You find yourself being pulled back to his office, which is really a desk sitting in the lobby with all the sense of permanence of a used paper cup.

Your interest dropped off hours ago but the remora insists. Help him out, let him see if he can make you a deal. Be a pal. Paper begins to fly about the desk and improbable numbers begin to appear on the improbable contract paper. The paper is shoved in front of you.

"Is that a great deal or what!" Says the remora with a smile that looks more painful than happy.

You couldn't care less. Your hands are attached to your side as if they were stapled there. The remora reluctantly goes back to work,moving the improbable numbers about the page of paper that looks like it might be legal and contractual. The paper slides back across the table with small imperceptible changes in the actual numbers.

Your reaction is the same. You don't want the car, you never did. The car you actually want and the whole reason you came to the lot in the first place isn't on the lot and any discussion of the car you want is met with "impossible","doesn't exist" "not as good as you think" and my favorite " Wait till you see the XXX model, now that's a great car, but your car is actually the better car".

You then decide that the show is over and get up to leave. Panic ensues. As you get out of the lobby door and suddenly a new character arrives. He's the "sales manager" he ensures you that the car you came to get is actually here after all. He tells you that your remora is new and he's just training and now the "sales manager" wants to help you directly.

The dance begins again. "You want this car?" he says. You say no. He says that you will after you see the numbers. You see the new numbers. Your reaction is the same. You get up to leave. Panic ensues yet again. You sit down and another round of improbable numbers appear on oddly contractual looking paper. You are shocked. The numbers are about half of the original improbable numbers. "Oh, see you do want the car after all!" says the "sales manager". You say no, you're just stunned by the numbers. you begin to look closer at the improbable numbers. You begin to notice that the improbable numbers are describing a completely different car with completely different set of options.

Again, you get up to leave and panic ensues. As you leave the lobby another character arrives. He's the "vice president of sales" and hes glad to make your acquaintance. He's very impressed with the car you wanted to get, the one that's not on the lot because "I've got one of those too! I love that car!". He seems like a genial fellow who's somewhat disconnected and aloof from the all the spittle and sweat that covers the sales floor.

You make your case, you want the car you want at the price you want. He says that seems reasonable, "so if we can get you in that car at that price we can make a deal, right".

Then you make the first mistake of the night.

You say "Yes".

You move to the executive office, a secretary gets you coffee. She likes you, you can just tell. Improbable numbers cross the desk on improbable paper that somehow looks all official but you cant actually read the text, but the deal somehow seem more reasonable. Yes, the model isn't exactly the same but you are assured by the "vice president of sales" that its close enough that no one but you can tell. He tells you some slightly related story that gets your attention because he tells it so well. You think your important, hes talking to you and he's a vice president.

The dance goes on but the show begins to draw to a close. 2 hours later and moments before the place closes for the night, you sign the deal, you get the keys.

Your nose begins to anticipate the wonderful scent of "New Car Smell".

And that's when you discover that instead of the 2008 Challenger, you actually bought a 1984 Dodge Colt. Worse, you paid twice what the Colt was worth when it was new in 1984. Worse still, a week after you get home, you get a call from the "improbable finance company" telling you that they need another 1500 bucks to make the deal or they will have to take back the car and no, the car you traded in is gone so you cant have it back. You signed the contract sir, you should've have thought about all this before you bought the car...

What's all this mean? Well, I realized this morning that all this negotiating that's going on in Washington for the "Car Bailout" was nothing more than a macro version of the basic "car sale dance" that occurs in showrooms across the country. Everyone knows its going to happen, everyone knows it will cost more than everyone says. Everyone knows that 6 months from now, once we are all on the hook for 16 billion in wasted money that the argument will be that we cant let that go to waste and we just need to spend a little bit more and after all whats another 10 billion to ensure the jobs of America?

And this is why everyone hates the deal. We've all been there and we all know where this is going.

Posted @ December 16, 2008 08:15 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (2) | TrackBack (1)

New software holds the key to mapping your dreams

Apparently there is someone out there who has decided to map your dreams.

Naturally, as a software practitioner, this makes me wonder. I think if you hooked me up to this contraption, the 'map of my dream' would look something like this:

Kinda takes your breath away, doesnt it?

The only thing better than being lucky enough to have seen a Connie in the air is actually having been in one while it was in the air. Ive done both and yes, I still dream about her. What a machine...

Photo from 'Flyings Golden Age' The colors are much more vivid in my dreams...

Posted @ December 12, 2008 06:39 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)

Its going the be the four most interesting years in human history

hehehhheheheheheheheheheheheheheheheh.

Everyday, every single day since the election, I find more and more of these moments where I just fall over laughing.

Posted @ December 11, 2008 06:46 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (2) | TrackBack (1)

Jerry mahoney - Call your Office!

In this post on the WSJ, I had to take a second look at this photo, because it looks like Daschle is so small that he's a ventriloquist puppet sitting on Obamas lap:

Wow, Who knew!

Tonight episode of 'Winchell-Mahoney Time' is sponsored by Studebaker trucks and your local Kaiser-Frasier dealer.

Posted @ December 11, 2008 02:21 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (4) | TrackBack (1)

Dont call it a comeback

I just watched Michgans Sen. Stabenow exclaim "Bankruptcy is out of the question, but its clear that a complete reoganization is called for" Yes boys and girls, thats what passes for thinking in Washington. That line of thinking made my head whip around Wile E. Coyote style, just what does she think a 'bankruptcy' is?

It occured to me that we should just create a special legal plan and process just for the Car Manufacturers that has a sitting judge preside over the reorganization of the company, one that ensures that the debts are fairly paid and allows the company to become solvent again, to benefit both the shareholders and the debtors in a fair and orderly way.

Rather than get all wigged out about the word bankruptcty, we can just call it the "Giraffe" Plan instead. Everyone hates the word Bankruptcy, so dont call it a bankruptcy, but everyone likes Giraffes dont they? So call it a Giraffe and be done with it.

There. Problem solved. The second part of my plan to help General Motors involves the public humiliation and execution of the executives who approved the Pontiac Aztek for production. I suspect that will be somewhat more difficult to accomplish, though the pay-per-view tickets on directTV might just fund the whole bailout process.

Oh, and my hats off to the President for saying that the money has to be paid back to the treasury. That little idea keeps getting overlooked in all this. Its a loan, not a gift, but you'd be surprised how fast one becomes the other in Washington politics.

Posted @ December 06, 2008 11:58 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Anyone Interested in this?

Since being invited to work with Rick Moran on a couple of occasions on his excellent radio show, Ive always wondered what type of Blogradio show would work for me.

And as such, I think I may have hit on one idea that might be worth the effort:

"Ask A Telecommuter!".

Apparently this is an area that many of you are interested in and its something I know more than a little bit about since I've been doing it for the past 8 years. You would think that most people would be doing it by now, but it comes to my attention that many of you are still getting up in the morning and leaving your home to go to work.

I'd like to do my bit for the worlds climate, for the country and for your well being and put a stop to that anachonism if I can.

I'm thinking that it should be a little streaming video show on "How to do it" in regards to telecommuting, what to look out for while you are doing it, what kind of technology that you need to do it and so on and so forth. General help and support for the aspiring non-commuter class.

SO - whattya think?

Ok - Comments are open now, so if this is something youre interested in covering, speak up.

Posted @ December 05, 2008 12:06 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

Theres a lawsuit in here somewhere

See, I told you that TV is bad for you.

Posted @ December 05, 2008 08:56 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

"Thats some catch that Catch-22!" said Capt. Yossarian. "Its the best there is" said Doc Daneeka.

Since the beginning of the current banking and credit crisis, Ive been waiting to hear the sound of the rat trap as it snaps closed on the neck of the general American populace, and I'm here to tell you that I've just heard that fatal "snap".

For the past few months, all these banks have been running to Washington to get their hands on cash to cover their losses, losses largely caused by lending regulations imposed by Congress. "Yippie"! they all scream when the 'Peoples Purse' is pried open and gold coins sprinkle down from heaven, saving the poor unfortunate bank from certain financial doom. What a heartwarming story. Why it occurs to some people that every bank should take this sort of largess. Its there, its available and what could possibly go wrong?

Ah but remember kids, Washington favors always come at a high price. Check out this little blurb on the subject of loans to the Big Three car makers. They are sitting in Washington DC right now trying to get their hands on a little of that money themselves and rihgt off the bat, some Senator figures out real quick whos really in charge of the banks.

"As an alternative( to a cash bailout), Utah Senator Bob Bennett suggested Thursday that those banks getting money from the Treasury be required to convert any car maker debt that they hold into equity, thereby easing the Big Three's cash crunch."

Let it sink in for a minute. Ponder exactly what it is he is saying here.

Oh no... You mean the Government is now going to double down on the bad financial advice for banks? You mean to tell me that the same government that told banks via regulations to give people home loans who clearly could not qualify for the loans or even pay them back, is now going to tell the same battered banks that they have to give loans to the Big 3 Automakers, (companies that also cant qualify or pay back loans) because after all according to Senator Bob Bennett - Its the Congresses money that we gave you, right? We helped you, now you go do what we tell you to do - or ELSE!

This is how it ends. As of right now, the Senate IS the banking system. You just try prying the banking system from the hands of the Senate now. You want a loan? Sure, lets just check your voting record, lets see what kind of car you want to buy, oh darn its not a certified government "greenmobile", well sorry mr. Consumer, we cant give you a loan for that new Toyota Dual Axle truck for your ranch, but how about a new Chevy Cobalt Hybrid? Sure thing. Sign right here Mr. Consumer.

SNAP! Thats just how easy it is for you to find that you no longer have any economic choices. No banks - then no bank loans. No bank loans - then no economy. In point of fact, your entire economy is now run by just 100 people. 100 people that if most of us were in an elevator and any one of them got on, we would then get off and walk up the rest of the building rather than risk our well being by exposed to their close proximity.

Posted @ December 05, 2008 08:11 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)

Just so you know

While Detroit is in DC begging for money to make things no one wants at prices no one wants to pay, The Amazon Kindle is sold out.

Oh, and those "big discounts on big screen Tv's" and "Shoppers not buying", take it from my personal observations over the past few days that both of those things are simply not true. It might not be as big as last year, but after standing in lines in several big item stores over the past day, I can assure you that people are buying big ticket items.

And I just checked a couple of the real estate options I have been watching closely, and both of them have sold in the past week. They have been on the market for about a year, and both of them have sold - in November! I also know of two Christmas tree lots in the area that are already sold out of trees. Did they plan for the downturn and simply not bring as many trees? Probably, but is that bad? I dont think so. Sure, it goes against the current "boo-hoo bad news" paradigm, but there you go.

There might be a recession going on out there but I'm just choosing to not participate in it.

Posted @ December 04, 2008 09:43 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)