Sometimes funny, sometimes thoughtful, always a good time
Luke has some interesting taste in music, so during the workday we often get to listen to his wacky random selections. I’m listening to some MP3 tracks that he let me *cough* borrow, and out of the blue this crazy song from Leonard Nimoy came on.
I think my ears are bleeding now. Wow.
Coming up: the classic song “Kana’i Aupuni” by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole, on their amazing album “Ka ‘Ano’i”. It should be interesting seeing what that’s all about.
Ahh, memories. Here’s a beautiful photo of an Atari 800 desktop computer, circa 1983.
I love the box of “certified diskettes” in the top right– I remember when you’d buy 5.25″ disks and they were always “certified”. And of course you’d cut a notch on the side so you could double-side them (I never understood why they didn’t just manufacture them with the notch; I guess it was so suckers not in the know would buy twice as many disks.)
Good times.
I’m on the phone with some yahoo over at Chase Bank, applying for a new business credit card. I have no idea where this particular call center is– probably somewhere in India– but the guy cracks me up because he sounds like one of those computer synthesizers trying really hard to sound like a human.
It reminds me of Stephen Hawking’s speech synthesizer…
In fact, it sounds just like him. Maybe it is him! Astrophysics is such a dull field; call centers are probably much more fun.
An insightful post by Jim Hightower, which exactly mirrors my feelings about the “economic stimulus package” on its way to all of us:
In a celebrated display of bipartisanship, both parties joined hands last month to pass a whopper of a stimulus package. Cash, they crowed, would soon be flowing. “We’re sending a $600 check to you, and $300 to you, and $1,200 to couples, and…well, almost everyone will get money! It’s manna straight from heaven to get our big ol’ economy high-ballin’ down Prosperity Highway,” they exulted.
“Not that there’s anything wrong with our economy,” they quickly added. “No, no,” said the self-congratulatory stimulators. “Everything’s fine. Really fine. Really.” In his State of the Union peroration, Bush insisted, “Americans can be confident about our economic growth.” Treasury Secretary Henry Paulsen chimed in, “The U.S. economy is fundamentally strong.” Buckshot Cheney came out of his bunker to assert that America has a “solid platform” for continued economic growth. And Condi Rice assured world leaders that our economy is “resilient, its structure sound, and its long-term economic fundamentals are healthy.”
Hmmm. If the basics of the economy are in such great shape, why would we need all this cheerleading by the wizards in charge? You don’t have to be in Who’s Who to know what’s what. They can whoop it up ’til they’re hoarse, but for most Americans, the kitchen-table fundamentals are nothing to cheer about.
Let’s say your check arrives and you drive straight to Wal-Mart to pick out some new clothes, an electronic gizmo you’ve been wanting, and a couple of toys for the kids. Pay your $300 to $600 and– listen!– you can almost hear the economic machinery kicking into gear, stimulated by your purchase of products.
But wait– we make very little of that stuff in America anymore. Those machinery noises are coming from China, where Wal-Mart and most other retailers have their goods made. Thus, our leaders are shipping billions of dollars from our public treasury to you and me, asking us to spend it in an economy that’s based on further enriching Wal-Mart’s wealthiest investors and further stimulating China’s massive export economy. How sound is that? Wal-Mart and China profit, but we don’t.
It’s amazing to me that stuff like this stimulus package even gets off the drawing board. But I guess it gives Congresspeople (who aren’t spending their own money here) something to point at when they’re up for re-election. “Look!” they can say, “I was one of the boneheads who voted to grab billions of dollars from our debt-ridden Treasury so you could have a little extra spending money!”
Sigh.
Although I dislike John McCain almost as much as the Bush/Cheney duo, I like his stance on the current mortgage crisis:
Amen! While Obama and Clinton are throwing around ideas about having the Gov pump $30 billion to help struggling homeowners faced with foreclosure or the banks who are regretting their hard-sell tactics of a few years ago, McCain is actually stepping up to say that those people (and companies) made some bad choices, and it’s not the job of the taxpayers to help them.
As someone who has paid his mortgage on time every month for the past twelve years, it irks me that others who are either irresponsible or just plain financial nincompoops might end up with a happy rainbow ending to their sad stories. They were suckered into something that sounded too good to be true or a house much bigger than they needed or whatever, and now they’re whining because they might have to face the music. Well, too bad, so sad. Although I empathize with them, if we don’t let them learn a hard lesson, what’s to stop them from doing it again? And again?
While politicians and bankers and Wall Street experts talk about different bailouts, I think it’s time someone stand up and say we need to let the market correct itself. If a business is too dumb to make good investments, then it should go under. That’s capitalism. Let the strong (and smart) survive, and let the weasels and incompetents fade away.
Zack lost his first tooth today. He was so excited he insisted that I take a picture of it.
Of course he also had to make a little poster with the big announcement. Now he’s running upstairs to put it under his pillow and cash in.
Laralee was shopping the other day and happened to find a bargain bin of calendars (they’re always cheap in March!). She picked up a few puppy and kitten calendars for the kids, and an awesome one for me:
It’s called “The Out of Office Countdown” and includes memorable quotes from our beloved President, as well as a countdown of the number of days we will continue to endure him.
As of today there are 307 days left.
So Barack Obama gave an impassioned speech about race. People have mixed reactions about it (mostly positive, it seems) but the real news is that he wrote the entire thing himself. No speechwriters, no campaign managers, no one but himself sitting up late at night putting the words together. Apparently no sitting president or presidential candidate since Nixon has done such a thing.
I thought this was a great quote about it:
Here’s a fun beach to visit.
Zack shows off his latest schwag from my clients: this time it’s Annie’s Naturals, makers of those delicious little cheddar cheese bunny rabbits.
