Volitility

I am super glad that we make our money on pork belly options. People know that Mat is a trader but they forget or don't understand which kind he is. Suddenly we are getting phone calls and concerned looks from friends. "You guys doing alright...ya know...with the market?" It would take too long to go into how we are not affected by this whole mess, so we just nod and smile and go back to our champagne and caviar.

its nearly impossible to write term papers when grown men are playing nintendo (not even super nintendo) in your livingroom.

this week in insanity

The LHC broke. Had to expect a HUGE machine to have a few kinks in it at first. Investments Banks got pwned. We are considering holding onto our sturdier cardboard boxes.

Battlestar Galactica has proven to be a hard habit to kick. We dug up more episodes, we consumed them and now almost all of my bandwidth is being sacrificed on procuring us some more. I finally saw the "final five" and I am not shocked at all.

This The Primetime Emmies is on now and this 5 host thing is kind of awkward.

According to quite a few sources, Microsoft will admit on Friday what a mistake the Seinfeld ad campaign was. The 300 million dollar marketing ploy to make Windows and Bill Gates seem young and quirky was an epic fail, on a grand scale. Not only did the ads not make any sense, but they made Bill Gates seem somewhat creepy and self-indulgent, and the ads pulled off the same effect for Seinfeld (but we already knew he was creepy and self-indulgent) I know you should expect this behavior from one of the richest men in the world, but its not exactly something you want to use to get young yuppies to put down their Macs and buy your products.

Phase 2 of the ad campaign will be Seinfeld free. I think the new phase has something to do with insulting people into thinking they are lame for not using Windows Vista. They don't need to insult me, I am on XP, Service Pack 3, running on a Dell XPS 1730. No Mac has this kind of raw power, but Microsoft does need to step its game up. Not spend $300 mil on strange ads.

What the Frack

This may be a coincidence,






September 18, 2008

but this happened EXACTLY where my dream occurred. Broken window, along the train station, on Ashland. Weird Weird Weird.

FROM STNG WIRE REPORTS

Police are investigating the death of a man whose body was found Wednesday on a Bucktown rooftop, where he was possibly electrocuted while breaking into a vacant North Side warehouse.

The man, who remained unidentified early Thursday, was found dead on the roof at the 2000 block of North Ashland Avenue, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office. Pronouncement information was not available.

Police responded to reports of an unresponsive man on a rooftop at 6:34 p.m., police News Affairs Officer John Mirabelli said.

A postal worker riding a nearby Metra train into Chicago saw the man on the 1 ½ story warehouse Monday and Wednesday and called police after seeing the man a second time, Shakespeare District police said.

Authorities are investigation the possibility the body -- a white man in his mid-30s -- was electrocuted while trying to break into the building, possibly to steal copper wire. Burglary tools, such as wire cutters, and “pry bars” were found near the body. There were also signs of forced entry, Shakespeare District police said.

No signs of violence were found on the man’s body and foul play is not suspected. There was no indication anyone else was involved, and the man apparently did not have identification on him, police said.

An autopsy is planned for later Thursday.

Grand Central Area detectives are investigating.

Burger King commercials are in another dimension altogether. I wish I could run into a reverse-pickpocket instead of the traditional kind like I usually do. But I still would not want to ever run into the King on the street. That is the most oddly off-putting character ever. Quite possibly worse than Guy Smiley, who's pill-shaped head cracks open at the center to reveal a creepy game show host grin. Guy Smiley used to give me nightmares.

Speaking of nightmares I had a really bad one last night. I was running north on Ashland in a really exaggerated way. Almost like a moon walk, but not MJ's, but more like Neil Armstrong's. I was running trying to find a corner store. I get passed the tracks at Clybourn and cross the street and head south on Ashland again, remembering that there is a 7-11 on Cortland. I'm running and I see from the corner of my eye a path winding up behind the train tracks. For some reason I climb up the path, which is difficult as it was laid with large white gravel, the incline is steep and I can feel the rocks rolling beneath my feet.

I get to the top and I am suddenly in a shabby old building, not like the ones behind the Clybourn station, but more like the ones behind the train yards in Richmond Hill. Every window a victim of a thrown stone. As I am climbing in I can sense someone is watching me from street level. Once I am inside the person is right behind me and I turn around to see an old train conductor. He looks like when Ringo was on Shining Time Station. But much older. Like decrepid. I try to get away out of another window, which has this weird teeter-totter thing that makes me think that if I'm not careful, I'll fall right off. Before I decide whether to climb on it or not, there is a little girl, also kind of decrepid looking, like a twin from The Shining. She was the train conductor's daughter and she was trying to get away and I grabbed her and we fell off the teeter-totter to the floor.

When I get to the floor I am no longer holding a dead looking little girl but I am holding my cat instead. I am at some weird pet party and Miel, with her hatred of other animals, needed to be restrained. I held her tight but she clawed her way to freedom and before I knew it she was clawing her way through some dog's face. Again. I run to get her but then I wake up. Weird weird weird.

other than the awful dreams, Battlestar Galactica is addictive and now that I am out of episodes something will have to fill the void. Pushing Daisies will shut my pie hole.

sick sick sick
my head is a balloon
my blood, sluggish
nyquil legs, jittery
fan on low is too high

ouch, new york.

this year was a hard one on my heart.

shea stadium...gone
yankee stadium...gone
astroland at coney island....gone

temporary crown

Today I discovered the AOL Radio comedy music station called "WTF." It's 30% weird al, 10% eric idle, 20% dr. demento, and 40% other stuff that I have never heard but am glad to hear now. I'm so sick of listening to music that I already know. I haven't branched out in so long. I never gave the Rutles another listen after I saw the movie until now. It translates well, years later, on an internet comedy music radio station.

EA's Spore, a game that has been leaking trailers since early 2004, is really living up to its hype. All those years in development with Maxis at the helm have paid off. Once using the working name Sims Everything, Spore is like 5 strategy games in one. If you've ever played any of Sid Meier's Civilization titles and wished it was more detailed and not turn-based, Spore has got you covered. If you ever played any of the wildly but inexplicably popular Viva Pinata franchise but thought that the "romance dance" was too drawn out, Spore makes cartoon courtship less creepy. More on Spore later. Below is my own freak of nature, the Dikas.

The LHC goes live tomorrow. Eeek! I'm so excited. I hope something really mind-blowing happens when these hadrons collide. Like perhaps the sudden appearance of a giant black hole beneath Geneva. Oh sure, in the aftermath we'll be all "What have we done?!" but for now I'm looking forward to something futuristic and world-changing.

The VMAs sucked.

Russell Brand was very unfunny, Britney did not deserve any awards and especially not three! Also, when was the last time a lot of the artists on the awards show actually did anything that anyone liked? I mean really, Pink...T.I...Kanye...what is this, 2005? Also, nothing "unplanned" happened. Everyone was so well behaved and stuck to the script accept for that poor excuse for a host who went on a tangent about our government. It's totally cool of an American does it, but when Brit starts complaining it irritates me. Also, who the fuck are Tokyo Hotel? I have never heard of them before. Worst. VMAs. Ever.

also

I like how they put that backdrop of an empty downtown Manhattan behind his glistening skull. Thanks for reminding people that the spot is still null of a fitting tribute. It's hollow like his promises. That speech sucked.

Fuck the Whales!

That is not my sentiment. But this Guliani is not only sounding like he wants to start a lynch mob, but he also doesn't give a shit about the wildlife. Guliani doesn't know shit about Alaska and Palin doesn't know shit about the rest of the country.

This is the most negative, boisterous, mud-slinging speech I have ever heard. What an old fart.