Stock Market woes
January 2009 was the worst January in the history of the stock market for guys like the S&P 500, the Dow, etc. Each were down about 8-9% for the month.

We're at 825 on the S&P. At the height of the October panic, there were two days where the S&P went below 800. If we do that here... under more controlled, "normal" circumstances... yikes.

Basketball ups and downs
The positive: Here's a fun story about a college kid, out of nowhere, scoring 63 points in a game: Utah Valley's Toolson thrust into spotlight

The negative: Jerry Reinsdorf goes off on his Chicago Bull here: Del Negro says Reinsdorf's criticism was motivational

Motivational, eh Vinny? A better title: "Del Negro motivated by owner's foot up his ass."
It's hard to pick just one favorite quote out the thing.

QOTD

"You want the grade up ‘til today? What’s the lowest grade you can give? This has been a disaster. It’s embarrassing. But it will get better."
- Jerry Reinsdorf, owner of the Chicago Bulls on his team's performance this season

Book Review
Book: "The Road"
Review: 4 bill-stars (out of very)... excellent!

This is brilliant writing about "real" post-apocalyptic life. The author had an amazing idea... he uses specific devices in his writing to make the reading of the book as bleak as its subject. These include:

• little punctuation other than periods
  
• no names... "the man" and "the boy"
  
• no chapters or numbers or anything... it's just one long mind F
• little plot really... just a father and son walking down the road with no future, no nothing
  
• no quotes when people talk... and dialogue is always kind of tired and repeating
  

All these devices are combined with the book in a completely desolate setting. The Earth is dead as a doornail. No animals. No plants. Almost no people. Soot everywhere. Cold. Wind.

There's none of this "I am Legend" stuff where you drive to the store to pick up your food and batteries and your flippin' German shepherd... the "I am Legend" character is at a deluxe spa compared to the characters in "The Road". In "The Road", the stores and mall and all resources have been pillaged as people tried to survive after the Earth was destroyed (it's never explained how).

So, wonderful writing. I can't go 5 bill-stars because, man, that's a tough read.
And I'll bet you a dollar the movie sucks.

QOTD2

"Two more days. Maybe three. They were starving right enough. The country was looted, ransacked, ravaged. Rifled of every crumb. The nights were blinding cold and the long reach of morning had a terrible silence to it. Like a dawn before battle. The boy's candlecolored skin was all but translucent. With his great staring eyes he'd the look of an alien."
- "The Road"

Politics
I'm mostly staying away from the politics stuff these days, but this is too tasty.
HHS nominee Daschle failed to pay $128K in taxes

Well, that's Daschle and Geithner on the taxes. You've got ole Bill Richardson investigated by the feds. And, of course, Bill and Hillary taking scads of $$$ from any weasel anywhere on the planet.
Change. Huzzah!

Read the story, man. It's the same with each and every these guys... wealthy donors, free cars, chauffeurs... throw in the booze and the hookers and you might have something there. And fuck paying the taxes... I'll pay them when I get caught.

I don't like Tom Daschle. He was a dem senator for a long time and is one of the rare, rare cases of a senator who lost his gig. Maybe he lost reelection because he was especially smarmy about him and the feds telling us how to live.

So let's do this... I know I'm supposed to be better than this, but I'll pretend I'm a regular, old media guys for a second, and I'll gratuitously use a goofy picture of the guy as a cherry on top of my story on what an asshole this guy is:


Mmm. Taxes. Right.
peace... yow, bill

Labels: 4stars, books, politics, qotd, sports

Justice
This is a pretty amazing story/contrast:
www.slopeofhope.com/2009/01/29/classes_and_justice.htm

That "Slope of Hope" site is a fun and informative day-trading blog too.
Of course, you think that story is a head-scratcher: Bernie Madoff jacked people for billions of dollars, and he'll be sitting home tonight in the penthouse suite sipping champagne.

Just a guess, but if financial crimes were punished anywhere near the extent of petty theft, then maybe the Bernie Madoffs of the world might think twice. Oh, forget it.

Slim TV
Another cool one that popped up... a 3 mm wide TV:
shopping.yahoo.com/articles/yshoppingarticles/200/new-hdtvs-that-youre-going-to-covet

The technology is called OLED for "Organic LED". I guess it's more than 5 years off from competing with plasma/LED/DLP, but I want a TV as thin as a credit card. Woot!

Betrayal
I heard someone harshly criticize President Obama over lunch today. Gasp.
Wacky Jim Cramer from CNBC was extremely critical of the Obama $1 trillion stimulus program. I believe the word was a "betrayal", and the bill was described as all pork and little/no stimulus. Stay tuned.

Negative GDP
GDP "only" down 3.8% (annualized) in Q4.
That's the worst since 1982, but it's better than the forecast.
http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/090130/business_us_usa_economy_gdp.html

As the ridiculous chart to the right clearly shows... none of this makes any sense.
He he.
peace... yow, bill

Labels: fun, investing, politics

Ty census:

• Naperville = 627 people
• Chicago = 1,000-something people
• USA = 1.2 million

It was math time tonight when we got started. I was going to show Ty how to figger how much $1 trillion dollars is for each person in the US. I quickly got a notion that Ty's 9 year-old guess-timates of the size of the world were a little off. He he.

The real census:

• Naperville = ~150K
• Chicago = ~ 3M
• USA = ~300M

So, for the record, (Ty and I didn't get this far with all our census shenaigans) $1 trillion dollars is more than $3,000 for each man, woman and child in the country. A family of 4 is tossing $12,000 into the campfire. A trillion is a million million. I was thinking of penning a letter to President Obama asking for a paltry 1 millionth of the "stimulus" package.

Some other cool stats for you. The US census guys have their own guess-timates:

One birth every..................................   8 seconds
One death every..................................  12 seconds
One international migrant (net) every............  36 seconds
Net gain of one person every.....................  14 seconds

These are from: www.census.gov/population/www/popclockus.html
They also have a people-o-meter with the "current" population of the US running, based on the stats above.

QOTD

"There are a billion people in China.
That means even if you're one in a million...
There are a thousand other guys out there, just like you."
- ???

I heart "Free the Bee" by Melt Banana. Ty too.
I saw Melt Banana in NYNY with Tommy back in the day.
Here's the wigged-out lead (girlie) singer and the Sars-mask-wearing guitarist.



free the bee... yow, bill

PS - Stay tuned... I'm 2/3 of the way through "The Road"... about as fucked up a book as I can recall reading.
PPS - And as the glossy, paperback book cover says, "Now a major motion picture"... www.imdb.com/title/tt0898367/. What the... Viggo Mortenson and Charlize Theron... talk about fucked up. Why didn't they just throw Kate Winslett in there. That inspires a QOTD.

QOTD2

"He'd sell cancer if they paid him."
- Moz

Amen, Mozy.

Labels: fun, music

1. Here come the Hawks

QOTD

"Buy and sell Blackhawks tickets the worry-free way"
- Hawks spam this morning

I got dragged here by the Blackhawks spam I received. You're invited to go here (https://teamexchange.ticketmaster.com/html/eventlist.htmI?l=EN&team=blackhawks) and snarf some Hawk tickets from season ticket holders. OK, I'll bite. Check this out:

• Section 304, row 10 (nosebleed)... $255
• Section 106, row 2 (behind the goal)... $575

I guess that would be "worry-free"... give all your dough to buy Hawks tickers and then got on with the clarity of poverty and hard work. He he.
I'll joined the unwashed at the Wolves games, thank you. I think I spent $35 a pop for Ty and I to sit on the ice at a playoff game last year.

2. School choice
Did you know that Pres Obama attended Catholic school? Me, neither. Here's a good article making the case for Catholic schools as an school choice:

For my money, we have but one hurdle to achieve a real and true equality in America: school choice. If you gave (mostly minority) parents the $12K/year that is spent on the Chicago public schools to spend wherever they choose, then you'd see the inner city change in a generation, or less.

Don't believe me? Go to the south side and you see every flavor of preschool and day care under the sun. They're flippin everywhere. Why? It's because there is no public preschool that parents are forced to use. They shop around for the best deal they can find and go with it. Elementary school and beyond should be the same way. Compete or die!

3. Viewer mail
I have already received so many emails from blog-readers this 2009 calling me either a snob or a faker because of my recent TV-bashing and symphony prattling. To appease such criticism, I humbly present two stupid pleasures:

1. They had that talking ETrade baby during the previews before the movie last night. I guess I was the only one who laughed out loud (too loud). It was, um, awkward. Shit, I could watch that baby spit up or use his crackberry over and over.
2. If I'm surfing past Desperate Housewives of Orange County, I usually get snagged, at least for a little bit. The sad, repellant people on the show are a car wreck embodied. I've never seen an acting performance the radiated self-absorption, arrogance and stupidity as the real people on this show. The acting profession blow, but don't get me going on that.
   

So, yes, I'm happy to join the unwashed masses every opportunity I get.
noonan... yow, bill

QOTD2

"All right. That sucked!"
- Axl Rose

Labels: politics, qotd, sports

Movie: The Reader
Review: 3 bill-stars (out of 5)... worth seeing

I liked the movie, not as much as the book, but I liked it.

The casting of Kate Winslet as the lead is the movie's biggest downfall, I think. Kate Winslet is a beauty queen, um, not a dang German prison guard. And to be honest, I don't think she captured much of the essence of the character in the book. Its hard to look at Kate Winslet and think "not too bright"... and she didn't pull that off as an actor.

The screenplay makes the excellent choice to not have a narrative voice, ala the book. Its much more powerful without narration. They dumbed down a couple things, but that's to be expected. I really liked how the movie swung your emotions from the guy to the girl to the victims... sort of a revolving door.

I look forward to future book and movie reviews that are nazi free.
blitzkrieg... yow, bill

Labels: 3stars, movies

QOTD

"This shirt will change your life!"
- Banana Republic email ad this morning

I love marketing. Bunch-a 20-somethings in a room with a couple-a oldies sprinkled in.

Oldie: "OK, how are we going to sell this crap."

Youngie: "Well, everything is Obama, and Obama everything. So how about something related to 'change'."

Oldie: "Done! To the bar..."

Speaking of marketing... you know what a word cloud is, right? These guys define it and also have software to let you make your own word cloud: www.wordle.net

Here's a word cloud of Pres. Obama's inaugural speech. I forgot the source of this. Dop.


"Less... nation... every... time"... pops right out, eh. And "Common".
You can make a fun game out of it too... can you find words like: freedom, liberty, believe, Americans?

How about Ronald Reagan's inaugural cloud?



"people... freedom... Americans... must... believe", and Reagan's #1 anti-indicator "government".
The Reagan cloud, and other inaugural speech clouds are here:
Word Cloud Analysis of Obama's Inaugural Speech Compared to Bush, Clinton, Reagan, Lincoln's

Youtube is a great generation gap indicator. I rarely watch youtube videos. And, I don't get it... watching a tiny, crappy video of some cat falling off a roof or something on my PC. This is the bestest, most perfect example: Top 10 YouTube Videos of All Time... a 6 minute video of a guy dancing alone on a stage. I bailed after 2 (painful) minutes. That said, I did stay for the whole 5 minutes of some hooligan teenager playing Pachebel's Canon on electric guitar. It's #4 in that link above, called "Guitar." Not bad.

QOTD2

"She's 68, but she says shes 24!"
- Ty Krieger singing Rage lyrics at Outback Steakhouse last night... stupid Guitar Hero. He he!

Off to wrestle with Mr. Market.
peace... yow, bill

PS - May go see "The Reader" tonight... read the book, see the movie before it disappears. Let me get this straight... Kate Winslet as a big-boned, kind-a homely German prison guard. What the? Well, at least I will go in with low expectations. He he.

Labels: politics, qotd

Movie: "Revolutionary Road"
Review: 1 bill-star (out of 5)... really really bad

What a train wreck:

• Bad acting... shoot, I like Leo and Winslet, but they have no chemistry in this one. There's lots of yelling and fake hysteria. Nearly ever performance in the thing seemed stilted.
  
• Bad directing... no way this looked or felt like the 1950's. It looked like the 21st century with cool 50's cars driving around and everyone smoking in every scene. "Look, I'm smoking... I must be from the 50's!" Huh?
  
• Bad screenplay... they commit the cardinal sin: boring! Flat as a pancake.
• Bad book... I think I gave the book 3 stars, but a lot of that was in appreciation of the writing style. A book/movie hitting us over the head about the cliche of marriage and suburbia in the 50's is itself cliche by now. I found out (IMDB) that director Sam Mendes also did "American Beauty" which had a similar (boring) theme but was at least mildly entertaining.
  

I had this urge to give Rev Road 2 stars. I don't know why. I guess because I had higher expectations, and it's gotten pretty good reviews. The book wasn't this bad. I don't want to be too cranky. Whatever. I got over it. That was a boring, bad movie, so F it.

On a more exciting note... why the financial meltdown?
This guy lists another guy's 6 reasons: Six Ideological Errors That Led to Financial Crisis

I think that list is OK... here's my ranking in order of importance:

1. Sky-high leverage - Who knew that banks were leveraged 30:1. That's about the dumbest thing I ever heard. If banks and investment houses weren't torqued up 30:1, we'd be having a normal recession/correction, right? Isn't this the most obvious thing to come out of this whole mess?!?!
   
2. Sub-prime surge - This is a pretty cool and viscous little cycle of bad lending: a) cheap money from the Fed... to keep the economy cranking, b) lenders pushed by the feds (Fannie/Freddie)... to give lower-income buyers a chance to own a home, c) borrowers accepting the deal... hey, a no down-payment house sounds great, d) belief that housing prices will keep rising... a classic bubble, e) everyone from Wall Street to mortgage companies to mortgage brokers making money... making money is good, and f) The lending model changed; banks no longer kept their loans and Wall Street, armed with 30:1 leverage began buying them... bad risk models (hello former Master-of-the-Universe Robert Rubin of Citi) justified the shift and the incredible leveraging.
3. Wild derivatives - CDO's and CDS's and all kind of esoteric acronyms. If things are too complex too understand, then they're probably too complex to risk-evaluate.
4. Foreclosures - Well, this is a weaker point, but it does add to the general malaise of the country. Also, it adds supply to the housing market and drives down everyone's prices. But this is probably a necessary step t get back to reality.
5. Tarp's detour - I don't buy this one at all. If we get out of this with a nasty recession, then history will be extremely kind to Bernanke and Paulson, I think.
6. Letting Lehman fail - I don't buy this one at all.

He leaves out cheap money for too long from Alan Greenspan's Fed. I'd out this at maybe #3/#4 in my list. You can't have as big a bubble without access to the cash, eh.

QOTD

"No arsenal or no weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women"
- Ronald Reagan

My Obama-fueled media blackout continues. Ah, the bubble (he he).
I had one small leak in my bubble when I woke up to the clock radio, and in like 30 seconds I heard some (radioactive) voice compare Obama's inaugural address to Reagan's. Ugh. I patched this tiny breach with a slap of my snooze button. Victory!
freedom... yow, bill

Labels: investing, movies, politics, qotd

Book: "The Reader" by Bernhard Schlink
Review: 4 bill-stars (out of 5)

I liked the book, plot and characters. I like the sparseness.
I tired of the author's endless angst, but the ending was strong.
Now, off to the movie.

You have an idea, a notion, a philosophy... seems it gets challenged or outright refuted in the span of 15 minutes for me these days. The author argued one point with which I disagreed. He argued that, in a relationship, events that follow can ruin the wonderful memories that were once there. I felt that a personal choice... didn't have to be that way. Then, I had a nice dinner followed by "The Amazing CSO Vomit Incident", and sure enough, it was tough to look past the vomit. A weak analogy, but stranger than fiction, baby... stranger than fiction.

Streaming...

Movie: "Schindler's List"
Review: 5 bill-stars

Beautiful and powerful and Schpielberg exploitative... easily a 5 star experience. Top 10 movie? I don't actually have top 10 list written out, so if not, it's close.

Maybe I'll watch Schindler tonight.
peace... yow, bill

Labels: 4stars, 5stars, books, movies

QOTD

"At least something good came out of the game"
- Martin Havlat, Chicago Blackhawks player on scoring the million dollar goal

This is one of those "I wish I was at that meeting" deals. So, a bunch of the marketing nabobs at the Blackhawks get together and concoct a promotion where if a Hawk player scores exactly at the 10:00 minute mark of the game, then some random fan will get $1 million.

[comedic pause]

And then, 5 days later, it happens. Dop.

Here are the links:

• Yahoo sport story:Illinois Lottery reconsiders contest after Chicago fan wins million
• Chicago Tribune story:Chicago Blackhawks fan wins $1 million on timely Martin Havlat goal

If you have a minute, compare those two journalistic "efforts". The Yahoo Sports guy, Greg Wyshynski , does a nice tidy wrap with enough detail to tell the story. The Tribune guy, Chris Kuc, gives a much more typical journalistic effort with a short and thought-free blurb.

Ah, journalism... lowest of all professions. What's going to eventually replace all these crappy papers and network talking heads, BTW? I guess blogs and websites and such, where maybe the work ethic and a commitment to fairness in reporting will be resurrected. Or maybe not.

BTW, the Havlat quote is cranky because the Hawk lost the game.

Book: "Revolutionary Road" by Richard Yates
Review: 3 bill-stars (out of 5)... worth reading

I love this guy's smooth writing style. That was very nice and made the book worth reading. But it's a book with lots of plot and cliche and caricatures... not really my cup of tea. The 1950's, marriage, suburbia... bad. I get it. Jeez. Oh, and I am so tired of people whining about their parents. Please! And the ending happens in a blur.

I also accomplished my goal of reading the book before the movie disappeared. Huzzah! So, stay tuned for the "Revolutionary Road" movie review coming soon to a williamt blog near you.
shoot the puck... yow, bill

Labels: 3stars, books, qotd, sports

QOTD

"In a crisis, only the correlations go up"
- investing truism

The US markets are down 4% today... fear = correlation.
See?
...

...


And I may be smarter than the average bear, but I don't "get" how W and the wacky US real estate market and banking and stock market, etc crashed the UK: Is the U.K. 'Finished'?

And "we" crashed everybody else on the planet for that matter, so it seems.
Why has globalization led to such close coupling... or is globalization the answer to that question?
Like I said, you got me, man.
I gotta go workout this afternoon.
yikes... yow, bill

Labels: investing, qotd

QOTD

"We are not, as some would have us believe, doomed to an inevitable decline. So, with all the creative energy at our command, let us begin an era of national renewal. Let us renew our determination, our courage, and our strength. And let us renew our faith and our hope."
- Ronald Reagan, inaugural speech Jan 20, 1981

I'll admit it... I was going to rant today. Stupid fucking media... snarky yuppie lawyer Obama... irrational worship of a silly politician... blah blah blah.

This is a really great article:


28 flippin' years ago, man. Jeez.

Reagan understood the key to the whole dang ballgame, right?

It's you and me.
It's personal freedom and responsibility.
It's faith in people and the human condition.
It's positivity and growth and the human spirit.
It's not the feds or some program or bureaucrat. Government isn't the solution; it's the problem.

President Obama sounds like the opposite of Ronald Reagan, but we're going to find out about all that in these here next 4 years.

QOTD2

"There are no great limits to growth because there are no limits of human intelligence, imagination, and wonder."
- Ronald Reagan

peace out... yow, bill

Labels: politics, qotd

QOTD

"The power of Christ compels you!"
- Max Von Sydow, "The Exorcist"

Well, I'm going to church today. And Gram isn't even here to drag me. He he.
No, I'm just going to see St Eth's choir sing at a church. It burns... it burns!

I bought a new gas can yesterday (nice segue). The thing looked like some Rube Goldberg contraption, so I asked the Ace Hardware guy where the plain, old gas cans are. "We can't sell those any more... EPA rules."

Needless to see the "contraption" was and is just fucking ridiculous. So, here I am. I'll tie this back into religion in a minute... post-rant.

Well, I googled. I can't find a specific rule, but I did find this:


I like this.

QOTD2

“By allowing citizens to trade in old gas cans and in return receive free environmentally friendly cans, we are cleaning up the air throughout Illinois, especially in larger metropolitan areas."
- Renee Cipriano, Illinois EPA schmoe

Isn't that sweet... gas cans... menace to society. Idiots.
Oh, its not even fun ranting on this stuff. You know. I know. Everyone knows we don't need a rule to make gas cans all fucked up, and we don't need to fucking give them away. Jeez.

Here's the tie back to religion. I'm not religious, but there's something going on out there. The world seems built in a nearly perfect balance. Example: You dole out a thimbleful of authority out to some dolt like EPA Renee or Senator XYZ and boom... I don't care how well-intentioned, it get abused in the end. There is no Daddy out there, and if there ever is, he'll screw you in the end.

The point: The balance in our world... why? and where does it come from?
You got me, but I'm suspicious that it didn't just crawl out of the mud, ya know.

This is interesting (more interesting than my shallow theology)... EPA Renee bears a striking resemblance to Linda Blair in "The Exorcist". See?


Quickie...

Movie: "The Exorcist"
Review: 5 bill-stars (out of 5)... on my top ten movie list and absolute no-brainer as the scariest movie ever made. Though still not as scary as EPA Renee.
church me up... yow, bill

QOTD3

"In another University of Chicago survey, this one of married couples, 75 percent of the Americans who pray with their spouses reported that their marriages are 'very happy' (compared to 57 percent of those who don't). Those who pray together are also more likely to say they respect each other and discuss their relationship together."
- from Five Things Super-Happy Couples Do Every Day

PS - That QOTD above is an easy call... you gotta believe. If you don't, life's a rough ride, eh.
PPS - Not believe in God, necessarily... just believe in something like yourself, or humanity or President-Elect Obama (he he he... sorry, couldn't resist) or whatever.

Labels: 5stars, movies, politics, qotd, religion

It's nice to have nerd-only entertainment some times... like xkcd.


And...

I like xkcd because it's nerdy and really positive.
The wikipedia summary page is good: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xkcd

QOTD

"It's not actually an acronym. It's just a word with no phonetic pronunciation -- a treasured and carefully-guarded point in the space of four-character strings. "
- What does xkcd stand for, from www.xkcd.com/about

nerdy fun... yow, bill

PS - I read an interesting comment somewhere (sigh)... a guy postulated that the market may go up next week because of the inauguration. Hmm.

Labels: fun, qotd

QOTD

"My investors and the advisers that bought the fund are easy to pick out -- they are the guys that are smiling at cocktail parties."
- Tom Forester, manager of the Forester Value Fund

Tom baby up there is the manager of the only mutual fund investing in diversified US stocks (out of 1,700) to not lose money last year. Wild stuff.

forester... yow, bill

Labels: investing, qotd

What do you want first, silly or not so silly. I thought so.

Silly... QOTD

“... climate change is an unambiguous security threat. At the extreme it threatens our very existence. But well before that point, it could well incite new wars of an old kind over basic resources – like food, water and arable land.”
- Hillary Clinton at her Sec of State confirmation

And not so silly... QOTD2

"The rating (for the U.S.) was affirmed despite our judgment that fiscal risk has noticeably increased as we expect that the fiscal deterioration will be temporary."
- S&P comment on the United States' AAA credit quality rating

Temporary fiscal deterioration. Gulp.
We see treasuries down-graded from AAA by S&P... then I'll start paying attention to the "sky is falling" blogs and such. Gulp gulp.
chicken little... yow, bill

PS - "Chicken Little" is a surprisingly good movie. Review: 4 bill-stars (out of 5). Plus, they cast Joan Cusack as the ugly duckling, and she's quite good, actually. I want to be at that meeting though: "Joan, we want you to be the ugly duckling in our movie." And Joan Cusack's back straightens, "What the hell did you just say to me!" He he.

Labels: 4stars, globalwarming, investing, movies, politics, qotd

QOTD

"[Geitner's] service should not be tarnished by honest mistakes, which, upon learning of them, he quickly addressed."
- Pres-elect Obama statement on his Treasury Sec nominee not paying taxes

Good one: Geithner failed to pay personal taxes

Do you know what happens when you don't pay your taxes?
And, ya think the head of the NY Fed doesn't know how to pay his flippin' taxes?

Politicians not paying their taxes... the guy is Bernanke Jr. anyway... change, huh?
Whatever.

Movie: Wanted
Review: 2 bill-stars (out of 5) not worth watching
Website: who cares... I'll find a picture for you.

I'll contribute 1 star for the picture (boring, not enough action) and 1 more for Angelina Jolie... though she looks too extra-bony in this movie. See?



Yuk.
peace out... yow, bill

PS - How does natural gas (UNG) go down 6% today? Hopefully, I'll have the answer tomorrow. He he.

Labels: 2stars, movies, politics, qotd

QOTD

"The S&P 500 rose or fell more than 5% on 17 trading days in 2008.
When one considers there were only 17 trading days in the previous fifty years when the S&P rose or fell more than 5% in a day, then I think you can appreciate the unprecedented volatility we have experienced!"
- some investing newsletter

I would buy a realistic robot pet in a second.
No poop. No feeding. Turn the dang thing off when you're on vacation.

But a pet robot baby seal... I don't know about that one.
www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5hTQhd4evOkhhJww1S1bmzmAubNBQ

I don't recall any Blizzard Watch or Blizzard Warning in 1967 or 1979 or 1983... whippersnappers!
I think we need a woosie watch these days.
Shovel, ahoy!
he he... yow, bill

Labels: fun, investing

Hey, cut me some slack on the racist joke, ok... it's from a movie. He he.

QOTD

"Oh, I've got one. A Mexican, a Jew, and a colored guy go into a bar.
The bartender looks up and says, 'Get the fuck out of here.'"
- Clint Eastwood, racist joke from "Gran Torino"

Movie: "Gran Torino"
Review: 4 bill-stars (out of 5)... excellent!
Website: www.imdb.com/title/tt1205489/

This is another great effort by Clint Eastwood. For 30 minutes, I thought this movie was going to be a bust.

• It seemed the audience was laughing at Clint's racist character at times when he wasn't really intending them to because he was so over the top.
  
• I feared a politically correct collapse of the whole deal.

Nope on both counts. This was a funny movie with a nice, sappy plot to it... just like I like it.


Gran Torino was different and good; that's the money, right? There was a lively discussion after the movie over blue (bleu?) cheese burgers on whether this was a 4 or 5 star movie. I liked Gran Torino a lot but thought that Clint's "Million Dollar Baby" was better (5 bill-stars).

Gran Torino has a lot of similarities to Million Dollar Baby. Unlike my whining about "Benjamin Button" ripping off "Forrest Gump", however, Gran Torino is good enough and different enough for it not to really matter.

The other post-show discussion was Clint's young wife. Clint is flippin' 78 years old now (and in amazing shape, seemingly), and his wife is 43. They have a 12 year-old kid together. No, I can't say that I "get it", but I have a feeling that Clint doesn't give a rat's ass. [Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clint_Eastwood]

So, that's the 3-fer weekend... it was fun on a blustery January weekend in Chicagoland. Here are the reviews from the weekend and related shrapnel:

• "Benjamin Button"... 3 bill-stars
• "Forrest Gump"... 4 bill-stars
  
• "The Day the Earth Stood Still"... 1 bill-star
• "War of the Worlds" (Tom Cruise remake)... 3 bill-stars
  
• "Gran Torino"... 4 bill-stars
• "Million Dollar Baby"... 5 bill-stars
  

I just picked up "Revolutionary Road", and I'm speed-reading it (cough) trying to finish the book before the movie disappears. Now, get the fuck out of here... he he!
3-fer... yow, bill

Labels: 4stars, 5stars, movies

3 fun topics today, a beautiful Sunday morning.

Fun Topic #1 OBAMA
Topps, home of the planet's best baseball cards, humbly presents... President Obama trading cards:




My favorite Obama card is #13 depicting Pres-Elect Obama getting a discount on his new mcMansion from Tony Rezko. He he!

Things are already better with Pres-Elect Obama, I must admit.
I'm watching less TV and channel-surfing less. I used to surf those talking-head channels in the 50's. Now, surfing the talking heads is like radioactive or something... the Obama-mania in the media seems pervasive as we reach a new level of ninnification.

I saw that ole beard-a-bees Bill Richardson dropped out as Commerce Secretary or something... click, click, click, there's Lynn Sweet from the Sun Times on CNN or something telling me that this is actually a good thing. Oh, my bad Lynn... how could I miss more Obama goodness! To paraphrase reporter Sweet, this gives Pres-Elect Obama a chance to really appease his more activist (re. wackos) supporters by naming someone loopier and farther left than Gov Richardson.

Well, that's certainly clever. It does somehow bypass any critique of how Pres-Elect Obama and his team of Super Friends managed to miss that Richardson was being investigated by the feds for some governor shenanigans. Dop. And it reinforces the notion of making cabinet choices just to appease constituency groups, rather than on merit.

Thanks Lynn... for the anti-analysis.

Fun Topic #2 MOVIE
Movie: "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (on Imax!)
Review: 1 bill-star

This movie was gawd-awful, even on the Imax.
If you get a chance to watch the original on cable or something... it's a keeper at 4 bill-stars.

I figgered this movie would be like the remake of "War of the Worlds" (3 bill-stars)... dumb, but lots of cool stuff blowing up.
Nope.
This movie was dumb with hardly any stuff blowing up.

Two redeeming features:

1. The robot was pretty cool for the first few minutes.
2. It was great to see Will Smith's uber-attractive 10 year-old kid be completely free of talent and stiff as a board in his part.

Fun topic #3 NINNIES
This is an instant classic: The environmental impact of Google searches

These geniuses advise we be more judicious in our usage of google and other internet facilities.
I (non-genius) advise... all these guys, I mean, scientists have web sites, books, lectures, appearances, tenure, grant money, etc... all fueled by publicity.

The irony is crystal clear. Even if there was global warming, the answer is not conservation, using less, taxing the bejesus out of people and going low-tech. The answer is growth and using technology to solve the problem. More ninnies... more!

I'm hoping to make this a 3-fer weekend with another movie today. We shall see.
More coffee!
peace... yow, bill

PS - BTW, more 2009 excellence to note... the Imax theater. I'll never forget seeing "Dark Knight" that first time on Imax... it's just a stupefying overload of the senses. Awesome! The preview of "The Watchmen" was better than the movie we saw. I'm not big on all the plot-less and character-free "graphic novels" turned into bad movies these days, but I might give "The Watchmen" on Imax a roll.

Labels: 1star, 3stars, 4stars, globalwarming, politics

QOTD

"Hello. My name is Forrest, Forrest Gump."
- First line in "Forrest Gump"

Movie: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Review: 3 bill-stars (out of 5)... worth seeing
Website: www.imdb.com/title/tt0421715 and www.benjaminbutton.com

So three things:

1. 3 bill-stars mean the Benjamin was worth seeing. I liked it; it was fine. I like sappy movies... like Forrest Gump.
   
2. The movie didn't meet my high expectations. IMDB screwed me, and that's pretty rare. IMDB users gave Benjamin an 8.5/10 rating... I don't recall seeing a rating that high ever on IMDB, which is usually pretty curmudgeonly. No way, no how, is this movie anywhere near that good.
   
3. "Benjamin Button" is "Forrest Gump 2".

I rarely talk about plot or anything like that in these reviews... why bother? Go read the book or see the movie. This one's a little different because I'll list some of the many ways in which Benjamin Button is just like dang Forrest Gump. So:

Ah, much better.
Go:

• Both stories are told in flashback
• Both have strong, saint-like mothers
• Both are based in New Orleans
• Both have leg braces/crutches
• Forrest has his floating feather... Benjamin his hummingbird
• Forrest has Bubba Gump... Benjamin has some weird black guy who lived in a zoo (???)
• Both have first-love girlfriends that pop in and out of the movie
• Forrest was army... Benjamin navy (sort of)
• Both spend a lot of time on boats
• Forrest has Lt. Dan... Benjamin Capt. Mike, and if my memory serves both Dan/Mike introduce Forrest/Benjamin to the hooker
• Both inherit money so they don't have to really work
• Forrest had his unique (for the time) special effects (interacting with famous dead people) and Benjamin has his (Brad Pitt as an old man)
• Forrest has his "life is a box of chocolates" and Benjamin has his "You never know what's comin' for ya"... pathetic head-shakers both

There are surely many more... just ask google.

Forrest Gump is a superior movie (4 bill-stars) for a lot of reasons including that Tom Hanks is better than Brad Pitt. Also, Benjamin is a needless 3 hours long. I think they took the movie and its message a little too seriously, eh. [Side note: Forrest Gump has the exact same 8.5/10 rating that Benjamin has... nice synchronicity there... he he]

Also, Benjamin starts out as a sympathetic character and ends up not very, for my money. The plot twist where he has to leave his family because he's getting younger is silly. So, at around physical age of 30, Benjamin ditches the family, travels the world banging anything that walks, and then lectures us that anyone can restart their lives. Huh?

One thing stood out for me in the Benjamin blather was a good metaphor. The movie ends with a crappy digital clock replacing a big, old, beautiful analog clock at a train station. The digital clock is hi-tech, cheaper, more accurate, easier to read, won't break down... and still it's such a step down from its analog predecessor. Yeah, Bill the Luddite and his blog. He he.

QOTD2

"The Sure Thing"
- Vibrator on Oprah

Ah, another excellent life lesson from that Oprah.
You think you've got it bad?
You could be one of those poor schlub husbands on Oprah talking to the world about not getting their wives off.
Gol dang it... I feel better already!
buzzzzzzz.... yow, bill

Labels: 3stars, 4stars, movies, qotd

Some more examples of incredible excellence and achievement all around me:

1. My little Sooby... best car I've ever owned in 46+ plus years. Subaru was like the only car-maker on the planet to increase sales in 2008: biz.yahoo.com/ap/090105/subaru_auto_sales.html
2. I drove my little Sooby to dinner with Holly and Kim39 last night. It's a place called Risorante We. I gave We 4 yelp-stars out of 5 (yelp review), but my point is broader. There are so many outstanding restaurants out there. These are people busting their ass and producing high. high quality food and service.
3. Yelp is great. I use their reviews all the time... like last night in finding the We Restaurant.
4. Yelp plugged a link to my review right into my Facebook page. Facebook is magnificent engineering. Every aspect of the site oozes care and thoughtful design.
5. After dinner, Kim39 and I hit the symphony. The CSO is excellent personified. We heard Barber's "Adagio for Strings", a Mozart piano concerto, and Brahms #2... incredible pieces, each and every one. A show at the CSO is one of the deepest dives into the excellence pool that you can have. Each player represents thousands and thousands of hours of practice and natural talent up the kazoo (he he).
6. I had an Eliot Ness Beer after the show at the bar right near the CSO. Excellent brew! That's the orangest amber I've ever had, but it was smooth as butt-ah. And what's that bar called? Oh yeah, I think it's Rhapsody.
   

Excellent... Mr. Market calls!
peace... yow, bill

Labels: fun

It's a beautiful, wintery mess out there. Yow!

I bumped into two separate examples of excellence... worthy of note in these times!

1. Discount Tire - I need new tires for the SOOBY. These guys are better, cheaper and (important) nicer than my Subaru guys... or anyone else for that matter. I go to the one on Ogden, just west of Naperville Rd. Why can these guys treat you so great, where so many places struggle to even acknowledge that you're a dang customer.
   
2. NFL Cheerleaders: Best of 2008 - Hey, football is OK... especially playoff football... but I don't see many players with the kind of dedication to their craft that these girls have. Holy crap! Thanks to Chris the Commish for the pointer.
   

Huzzah!
excellent... yow, bill

PS - Hey, I guess I should add that Google is really excellent as well... google, gmail, blogger, and so on.

Labels: fun

A picture and a thousand words:


So, nice chart... dop. There are 4 million houses for sale in the US which is almost double the average of 2 million. No wonder I didn't sell my castle. He he.

QOTD

"I race cars. I play tennis. I fondle women.
But I have weekends off, and I am my own boss."
- Arthur Bach, "Arthur"

"Arthur" is a nice 4 bill-star movie (out of 5). It's wonderfully light and positive and funny. No more... no less. I can't believe it's almost 30 years old.
yow, bill

Labels: investing, movies

QOTD

"In the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it."
- Robert Heinlein

New Year's day was pretty much a wonderful, lost day.

• Watched the "Winter Classic"... Hawks v. The Commies (aka Detroit). It was fine, but I felt the hype crossed the line when Bob Costas dropped his trousers to show everyone his "Winter Classic" boxer shorts that John McDonough gave him. I heard the word "brand" (as in "developing a brand") 3-4 times in 10 minutes, so I flipped the channel back to Bugs Bunny.
• Classic Looney Tunes was on some channel all day long. So great...
• I also caught a few "Twilight Zone" episodes at night, including the William Shatner one on the plane. That episode is 45 years old. Shit.

Speaking of old, all this classic geezer TV drove home the point that I don't have a single new TV show I follow. None of the million CSI's or other crime shows... no reality shows or dancing or singing... no game shows... no cable-only shows with lots of swearing so they can be avant garde... no nothing. I do watch iCarly with Ty. He he.

Getting old?
I'm cranky about TV.
I don't want a cell phone that can also make toast or turn into a widescreen TV.
I'm reading more.
I'm buying less.
I suppose it's a natural process... turning away from popular culture (or vise versa).
I suppose (again) that's not a bad thing either.

I'm losing it with sports too... gotta admit.
I do miss passionately watching sports, I guess. But it feels like I'm being driven away from that as well. I mean the Orange Bowl last night was flippin Cinncinatti against Virginia Tech. Huh?!?! I flipped to it and they were reviewing a nonsensical, meaningless and obvious play. I can't watch instant replay. It's nonsense. I just can't do it.

Yup. Old, old old... old Bill.
he he... yow, bill

PS - Hey, these aren't too old... two great "scenes" I watched last week.

1. The chase scene in the "Dark Knight"... #1 of all-time followed by "Bullit", "To Live and Die in LA", um "French Connection"...
2. The drowning scene in "The Abyss" is awesome. Crazy Ed Harris.
   

Redemption?

Labels: qotd