This one goes out the the 'Uar

General witty banter in our IM chatroom, and .... ACTION!!!

tl1831(10:09:00): jj, please
je1863(10:11:07): is that a Beatle's song? Please Please
tl1831(10:11:28): the beatles were b4 my time
je1863(10:11:52): LOL
je1863(10:12:14): Mine too
gb4406(10:14:33): could you be referring to the smiths' "please please please let me get what i want?"
kh4796(10:14:57): let me , let me, let me get what I want... this time

Allah loves the little children

All the children of the world.
Red and yellow
Black and white
Loaded down with dynamite
Allah loves the children of the world

Me hope this sensical

So, we have here a graph of how much money banks have borrowed from the Federal Reserve in order to meet their capital requirements. Basically, the bank has to have a certain amount of money before they're leagally allowed to lend you money. This summarizes the amount above/below the capital requirements are from the 1950's to today.

In this chart, the further down the line goes, the more a bank has borrow before they're legally allowed to give you a loan for your house/car/education/etc.

As you can see, what's happened lately is unprecidented. There was a period, right after September 11, that banks 'over-reacted' in the opposit direction. And what my pessimistic ass is trying to tell people is that our nation is in the midst of a shock that easily exceeds September 11, only this one will take 10 years to play out.

Now, I talk about how the bond insurers going under frightens me...they fit into this graph, too. If the bond insurers fail (or for lesser effect lose AAA status) , then that line would go down 5 to 50 times further down than it already is. Their failure would be a $2-$4 TRILLION hit, disproportionately taking a toll on US banks. If it goes that far, every bank will be losing billions of dollars and they'll be legally prohibited from giving out loans. The government, of course, can change that problem by changing the rules or just giving banks a $.5 trillion dollars gift that's funded by tax payers.

All I can say is that you should behave like no one will give you a loan of any kind for five years.

Watch the Market

Remember when I said to keep an eye on the health of bond insureres and that the banks were dependent on their financial health to survive? One of the big ones, MBIA, got hammered yesterday and one of the small ones, FGIC, lost their AAA status.

I know Wall St won't like this but I get the sense that most traders/brokers don't understand how bond insureres work or how they effect banks. This is because most bond insureres don't understand how bond insureres work. Still, it'll be another fun one.

I know, I know. The quality of the blog isnt up to par.

So, while StRA is at it's nadir, please enjoy the musings of Capt. Shitknife @ blinkingline

Moving on to bigger & better, non-duct taped things

Greasing the groove and I ran out of beer.

Moving on to 151...Bad idea.



BTW -- Greasing the groove:
Pistols ( 1 legged squats) , 1 each leg
1 armed push ups, 1 each arm
Pull ups - usually 5
C&P with ghetto bell 35# or 85# barbell, sets of 5
Box Jumps - sets of 5

I cant figure out who is the bigger idiot in this story:

The lady who was making mortgage payments for 27 years then refinanced with some jacked up loan OR the author of the story who tries to make this into a mortgage debacle when he/she clearly mentions people have left in "search of new jobs after the factories shut down".

Correct me if I am wrong, but there is a difference between losing your job then not being able to make ANY payments vs. creating your own shitstorm via ignorance.

This might be an interesting challenge for Lent

The Food Stamp Challenge: $21 a week, or $1 per meal.

Umm... I usually spend $15 to $20 per day on food.
I guess I could buy several bags of pinto beans

The initial discussion was about how poor people tend to be fat.

Crosspost from topic on PR&GW

Banks are collapsing left and right!

And not in Venezuela!

This may explain who was allowing part time teachers to take out $450,000 mortgages:
"He said he retired from the real-life mortgage business to devote his time exclusively to his Second Life enterprises."

Its a sad sad day when a D&D geek gets to call someone a loser.

McCracken vs. Jesus. Winner take all

SCW is A-okay

She lives and works far, far away from the Monte Carlo.

Your daily dose of crude-idity.

Hat tip, Capt. Shitknife.

Fool and their money are soon parted

ENJOY.

What caught my attention:
"no down payment and working as an assistant teacher, she signed on the dotted line for a $470,000"

I cannot summon even the slightest shred of pity for this knuckle-head.

Hat tip to Sweet Dee.

Another busy day @ work.

kh4796(09:12:43): Good times with my chinchilla avatar

Jurek 09:11:55): np, you look fuzzy
KH(09:12:08): I havent shaved in a while hahahaha
Jurek (09:12:15): lol

sp5657(09:13:25): sounds like some ol brokeback mountain stuff....LOL
kh4796(09:13:35): TOO SOON!!!




***SITE ADMIN NOTE ***
The Chinchilla is my totem spirit, which guides me on the journey of life.

This one goes out the H.E.P. Happy Birthday!!!

Chinese urban legend at its finest

So there's some urban legend about a Chinese character for opportunity being an amalgam of risk & danger. Its all bullshit, but here we go.

So my credit card has an offer for and advance @ 3.99% life of loan plus 3% fee (max $199).

Choices that have been discussed so far for taking out like a $25000 cash advance:
(Assuming a monthly payment of $250 ish (min payment + interest)

#1 Sweet Dee wants me to buy a house, 20% down
Pro -- 5 to 1 margin
Con -- Fucking ghetto renters destroy your house.

#2 Dollar cost average the lump into
A) Small cap value mutual fund (my personal preference)
B) Public utilities (Mom's preference)

#3 Ladder CDs at around 5%
Pro - guaranteed return
CON -- virtually Nil return once taxes taken into account

#4 Mom's personal favorite - just invest $250 / month into "X"
Pro - no debt
CON - You can only get rich using other people's money

Anyone ? Anyone ?
The only stricture on advice is that apparently bankruptcy isn't so popular with the ladies, so keep me solvent.

BTW, Sweet Dee & I were drinking heavily when we came up with this.

This Is Not Financial Advice II

A better summary of the previous post is this: we are begining to enter a period where investment bargains can be had! Inflation is not yet out of control, no bank has gone under yet, and people with capital are hiding under rocks. All these banks are competing to make 'good' loans right now while all the builders are competing to stay above water. And all of these people still view the economy with minimal inflation expectations. The situation might change one day when there are less banks, inflation expectations have changed, etc.

I'm not telling you to do anything but I am telling you to be aware of what's going on with your finances.

This Is Not Financial Advice

So pops and I were talking about The Fed moves and effect on interest rates. He is looking into a new mortgage for his mountain condo and Jebus, there are some good rates out there today and this is before the theoretical dip down from Fed actions. If anyone has a mortgage they're thinking about refinancing (especially ARM holders), I would look into it soon. If a .75 point drop translates 1:1 into mortgage rates, they'll be something like 4.5% for a 30 year fixed soon. This is reaching a point below inflation!

For the record, though, this is how Japan got into their current quagmire...they made it free to borrow money after a housing bubble collapse.

The Sidekick & I were wagering on Sweet Dee

That the reason he is so intent on driving the idea of a collapse is that he is heavily shorting entire sectors of the economy, and his triple witching day is coming up soon.

Looks like he should have been shorting real estate.

People say "What exactly do you DO at work?"

And I say beeches, I get the job done.

I sound like a broken record

Jebus, I sound like a broken record saying 'big day on wall st.' but it may be. not sure if you're aware but there has been a near-crash in a many international markets (india, brazil) and huge drops across the globe. we didn't have them because of the good reverand and dr. king.

perhaps this belongs on the other blog, but the reason given is that the arbusto stimulus package is as worthless as the us dollar.

So if you ask someone how they are doing...

That doesn't then give you a right to critique their response.
My standard boilerplate is "Another day in paradise."
The other early morning guy then went off first on the religious aspect that only heaven can be paradise, and then went off on how our jobs suck because of mismanagement, etc... blah blah blah.

So finally I said, "Ok - at least its not Rwanda."

HEP, Possible career change?

This show is darkly funny and original.

Breaking Bad

Straight up the Sidekick's alley.

No stem cells required.

Isn't that a Phil Collins album ???

Good Economy Post

LINK


***SITE ADMIN NOTE ***
Type a word, such as "LINK", highlight word and hit CTRL+SHIFT+A
Paste in link.

Welcome back, AJ. Its been such a long time.

Iron Eagle on AMC

Man I really love that movie! How can you not make a good movie with Lou Gossett Jr. and Jason Gedrick taking out the random Middle Eastern regime.

That's a movie right up RA's alley.

No Need for Food at F&H

Congratulations to The Sniper who has created the best tasting Pot Roast I've ever had. It was absolutely tender, spectacular, etc. It is the leader in the house for best new food discovery of 2008.

Wow. Maybe Stallone has earned my $$$$

The question:

In the eighties, John Rambo took on villains who were the real villains of the day: ruthless, invading Russian commie b—-rds hellbent on global communism. So I always assumed that if Rambo returned he’d be taking on the real villain of this day: extreme, radical Islamist b—rds hellbent on worldwide jihad. It seems like all of today’s movies have [wimped] out on making Islamofacists the bad guys even though they are clearly the bad guys in the real world right now. Why is Rambo [wimping] out on this mission? Has he become politically correct?

Stallone’s answer:

I thought the idea of Rambo dealing with Al-Qaeda, etc. would be an insult to our American forces that are actually dying trying to rid the world of this cancer. To have at the end of a 90 minute movie the character of Rambo seizing Osama bin Laden in a choke hold then dragging him into the Oval Office then tossing him in the President’s lap declaring “The world is now safe, Chief” would be a bit insulting. We’ve seen today every film that deals with the Middle Eastern situation has failed because it is a subject people find incredibly painful to sit through while it is ongoing. Maybe ten years in the future a good film will be produced on the subject. Right now I believe revealing a situation like the ongoing genocide in Burma provides a compelling story simply because it is true and is the longest running civil war in the world.

WWE Raw in HD?!?

Will this be good? Or very very disturbing?

Beeching about Xbox live scored me a free month

Those of you who play online games may have noticed that with the rush of noobs after Christmas, performance sucked. Or suxr-ed.
So I have beeched & moaned to some poor girl in Manila, who had no clue WTF I was talking about, and had to say everything 4 or 5 times, had to tell her my last name is not my first name, and many other things -- but it paid off!!!

Fucking Bellsouth / AT&T

So I have (had) the ass end of DSL service, DSL "Lite".
Looking at my credit card statements: about $35 a month
Go online to look at upgrading - looks as if the monthly charge is now only $19.95.
Next highest is actually $32 a month.
So twice as fast, and 10% cheaper.
Mother fucker.
My plan is, Monday, to find out how long I've been paying $16 a month more than necessary, and to smack some beeches around.
Oh, and now I have 1.5M download speed, beeches.

Okay, forget it

Did I say the DOW would be under 12,000 this month? F-that. Read this article. The DOW will be at NEGATIVE 12,000 in five years. Then I'm packing it up and moving to Kenya where a man can still live comfortably.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ts/080114/10398317.html?.v=2&.pf=retirement

Bullshit. There is no way those guys were drunk.

Tigers in captivity are just naturally aggressive and prone to jumping 10+ foot walls to attack and hunt down random bystanders.
I've seen "Ghost & the Darkness".
Granted, thats lions, but they're all the same.

Drinking @ work

Good for you, and a good to lower health care costs for businesses.

Dont cry, Sweet Dee.

Bobby Fisher is dead.

You may not be aware, but the Dee was a badass @ chess.
He may still be!!!

What's the Plan for Big Russ' B-day???

Anyone? Anyone?

If you have missed out on Tom Cruise's nutiness...

Another funny Day on Wall St

I'm trying to only post on days that I know stock volume will be high and change will be severe. Today is one of those days but I must admit, I don't know the DOW will act.

Merril Lynch reported quartersly losses that were almost three times worse than expected (about $10 billion in 3 months). Also, some data from the construction industry says that my Chevy was still rolling on its factory tires when new housing starts were this bad. So we should see a big decline, right?

But I get the feelign that a 'dead cat bounce' is very close. The Fed is behind economic stimulus and the Tresurery will probably lower interest rates earlier than expected. And I think there's a general feel among investors that it won't get any worse so it's a good time to buy (boy are they wrong).

My call for today is a big loss early but there will be an afternoon rebound in prices.

Again, my disclaimer is that I'm essentially predicting a random series of events, so when I look very, very stuipd at 3:45 please don't send me hate mail.

Good times at work.

Blah blah blah backstory... and ... ACTION!!!

kh4796(08:11:48): LOL -- i was trying to be subterfugeous without mentioning names . HAHAHA

rd3406(08:14:28): subterfugeous = not found in dictionary

mk0817(08:14:35): hahaha

kh4796(08:14:54): neologism

mk0817(08:14:54): sad part.....I just went with it...I believed it was a big word that I didn't know

kh4796(08:15:07): kevin = neologismite

sp5657(08:15:19): bs-er=KH

Thats right beeches. Growing by leaps & bounds.

By request of multiple members of the StRA community, I have created "The Deuce".
Thats right.
A blog for you to spout your opinions about politics, religion or global warming with no fear of the dreaded Ban-Hammer.
Enjoy.

Cloverfield, the good and bad...

The good:

- Seeing it three days early

- The movie rocks (mites, you'll understand when you see it)!

- Actually going to a movie which exceeded my expectations (don't go in expecting explanations, there are none)

- Not having to sit through 45 minutes of commercials before the movie.


The bad:

- Having to go to Cary

- Having the misfortune of sitting in front of "that guy" (the asshat who decides he and his buddy are going to go "MST3k" from the moment the first frame of the film starts up)

- Having the Admir0l nearly get into a fight with said asshat after the Admir0l asked "are you going to talk during the whole movie?" (I will admit; however, that asshat did quiet down after that).


Other than that a wholesome time was had by all; go see this movie!

I will obviously let the Sidekick have the final word

But lets just say, when the shit goes down, ya'll know who is strapped.
Bring your canned goods.
Password: Thunder
Response: Lightning
Anything else & I start blasting.

If only Tzom had waited 2 weeks ...

Hitler would have answered ALL his HD-DVD vs. Blu Ray Questions.

For the guy who cares...

Keep your hands and feet inside the cart if you're watching the market today...inflation is the worst it's been since 1981 (unexpected) plus we get bank earnings(expected).

Come on - you have to admit....

Sometimes I am a funny sum-beech.
So after wandering off into discussions of Indian history & mythology the past two days w. a co-worker, the discussion turned to how much I eat, ie, the internal furnace.

I mentioned that I'm trying to convince a bunch of my friends to run the Nashville marathon @ the end of April.
The co-worker said "Nashville ? Do you know of Ganesha?"
Me "Ganesha is graceful!"
Co-worker "Exactly. There is a temple to Ganesha in Nashville I would like to visit."

There are times when I wish I could write

because then I might write something like this:

J. Alfred Prufrock may have measured out his life in coffee spoons, but I use a different metric: mine is divided by save states and memory cards, cartridges blown into and discs scratched from wear. My memories are organized by console, game folder. An entire life etched out by videogames.

Basically, our generation's answer to 'High Fidelity' (and when I say 'our generation', I'm referring to myself, the Admir0l, and the GP, that's it. The rest of you cunts are bebbbeees).

Cribbed from this article

Highlight of 'The Mike and Mike' Roast

hosted by Jeff Ross:

From the Press of Atlantic City

Baltimore Ravens safety Ed Reed had jokes written for him, but didn't read any. Admitting he was drunk, Reed was pulled off the stage by Washington Redskins running back Clinton Portis and former Jets star Joe Klecko. "I didn't realize his middle name was ‘Can't,'" Ross joked.

Link to rest of article

HFS. This Guitar Hero / Rock Band thing....

might be getting out of control.

Interesting Picture

Firework, lightning and shooting star all caught on camera at the same time. You would think that the firewrok would be in the middle but then again I have never tried to take pictures of fireworks. They do appear to be somewhat unpredictable.

Only thing I hate more than zombies & vampires...

Getting up before 6 AM.
This new schedule = suckage.
My brain doesnt kick in until about 10 or 11 anyway, so now I have to "function" for another hour with no emergency backup systems.

BTW - Barak Obama is a Muslim agent and will betray us all to the Caliphate.

Umm, GP, we may need PS3's

You just got knocked the fuck out!

My favorite part is the ref still counting after the guy gets blasted.

Baby bandolier 2

Baby bandolier 2, originally uploaded by Lee Mc.

This one is for Mr. Pennypacker...they exist and I have one; now all I need are a series of babies to load in and sling around!

onion infographic

Uh, here's another option.

Apparently,

Diego Maradona had a little problem with nose candy, not that you can see it around a minute into this video or anything...

List of Banhammerable offenses has grown by 1.

No Religion.
No Politics.
No Global Warming.

Speaking of Goldberg

This one goes out to all you Ron Paul voters.

Aliens, Predators, Commies, Libertarians and, well... shit.

Interesting read for those technophiles out there

Apple bucking the system

Oh to be young and a rebel

and functionally illiterate...

Too Late for a Poll

So, if the DOW loses an additional 20 points in the next 45 minutes, today will rank in the top 20 days all time. Do you think it will happen? My answer is 'No'

We didn't listen!!!

IT'S COMING !!!
Over there!!!
Now is over there!!!

Every fucking time some jackass talks about the effects of global warming on their life, right now, I want to pull my teeth out.
AGAIN.
We're talking about 15 hundredths of a degree change over the next 100 years, and no one can even be 100% sure that its man made.
The amount of hysteria and stupidity that has been ginned up by the fucking watermelons (Green on the outside, Red on the inside) makes me so angry.
Its like we're living through a hippy version of "The Music Man", and every huckster and snake oil salesman is slapping a "Green" or "Bio" sticker on their product.

Honestly, its really a death cult. They want to stop and then retrograde all human advancement from the past 300 years, back to some imaginary time when everyone lived in harmony with nature. Haven't they seen "Brotherhood of the Wolf" ?
WOLVES EAT PEOPLE.
BEARS EAT PEOPLE.
Without modern things like "toilets", you die of FUCKING CHOLERA!
Jackassery.
Out.

Too Soon ???

So our ticketing system tends to lock up & freeze occasionally.
And... ACTION !!!

kh4796(11:36:49): AOTS hung up for anyone else ?
kh4796(11:44:54): 10 minutes to see asset history
tl1831(11:45:02): nope
kh4796(11:45:37): oh, ignore -- asset was UNKNOWN
kh4796(11:45:39): hahahahaha
rd3406(11:46:18): nice
kh4796(11:46:51): I live for the enjoyment of others
kh4796(11:47:00): like Sammy Davis with two eyes

Good times at work

Gee(11:33:49): so my friend MR. X says: "i need to get laid...maybe i'll call the ex"
"well, it's cheaper than a hooker, but with a hooker, you get to keep your self-respect"
KH(11:34:07): I understand him COMPLETELY
KH(11:34:19): and thats just trying to find a pet sitter
Gee(11:34:32): hookers do pet sitting?
KH(11:34:49): OMG I WISH

Let me just say this first, before I start ranting.

I think being overweight and trying to lose weight has got to be insanely difficult.
All my running from July to December took me from 230-ish down to 205.
The split second I quit running 30+ miles a week, I bounced right back to 230.

That said, being obese: Not a "Lifestyle Choice"
The comment that caught my attention:

"But you can't say if you quit going to the drive-through, exercise more and eat more vegetables, you'll lose weight. There are so many more factors involved."

Umm.. sorry, but yes you can say that. There are no Star Trek machines that create energy & matter out of thin air. If you burn more calories than you take in, there is a 100% guaranteed end result. I'm guessing in our fast paced world, the expectation is that it would happen overnight.

I think Tzom gave me the following equation: Every twenty 20 minute blocks of exercise, after the first 20 minutes, will burn off 1 pound.
So you run 4 miles a day for a month, thats 1 pound.
ONE pound. HFS.
Losing weight by exercise alone is damn near impossible.
So yes - don't eat junk, don't eat too much of anything, and exercise.
Oh, and probably dont drink.
Sounds to me like "Be a Protestant".
HAHAHA.
Out.

****SITE ADMIN NOTE****
THE ANSWER TO YOUR PRAYERS!
Chew away the pounds.

Live Blogging The First Day of the New Era

Well shit, I fully expected Wall Street to feel comforted by BoA/Countryslide merger. However, it's taken five minutes for the DOW to drop 1%. Not sure what's going on here...opinions please.

And Now it Gets Interesting...

So Bank of America bought Countrywide Financial. This is big but it doesn't mean that I can tell you why, I just know that financial historians/investors will say this is the 'beginning' of whatever credit-diseased weirdo reality we're stepping into (please note: I'm not elivating this to an event any more dire than the Savings & Loan scandal).

My gut says that the financial institutions are beginning to 'circle the wagons' in an attempt to survive this period. I think we'll see a lot of this happening in 2008. Things like Wachovia aquiring Washington Mutual and Citibank being bought by Goldman Sacks. By 2010, the number of mega-banks will be 1/3 of today and they'll disapper through aquisation. In the end, some of these banks might be trying to become so large that no one will allow them to fail.

The effect on the stock market will be unknown. Certainly, we'll see it shoot up today and everyday after such a merger. The more these banks merge, the more likely we are to have a real stock market crash one day in the future. I think this merger will keep the DOW above 12,000 throughout January. However, DOW is still trending down and will do so until 2011. I think it will bottom out a smigit under 10,000 sometime around 2009 and then go sideways in the 10,000-11,000 range before taking off, and I mean taking off, again.

I also know the DOW is not a good representative of overall financial health but it's what we know and love best.

Continuing with China's One Child policy.

I think there is a parallel in the U.S., and that may be part of the bru-ha-ha over the war.
Used to be, us papists would send one child to the army, one to the police, one to the church, and one to the university. Now, that is definitely not happening.
I'm guessing if you looked at the size of families in the 30s compared to today, it would probably be stunning.
As I was running, I gelled that with the reaction to war. Say you have 13 children. Losing one in a war is dreadful, no doubt, but in WWII there are many instances where we lost 4000 troops in an hour. So theoretically, we could fight for the next 500 years and just barely break even with WW II. Obviously not going to happen.
And that also affects how everyone else views the war. I dont know ANYONE that is active duty. I've met at most two people who have served in either Iraq of Afghanistan.
Tying in my bitching about taxes, how can the general population feel invested in their rights if they aren't paying any price for them?
Being a pessimist about both tax policy and military service, I would assume over the next generation, as family size continues to shrink and fewer & fewer people serve, the government will move toward a citizenship service, letting 3rd world-ers fill the ranks and bleed for the fat, lazy no-tax paying plebes.

Almost as impressive..

as the 'Jordan' full combo..



This now means that all GH2 songs have finally been full combo-ed. As for GH3, I think there is 'Raining Blood' and, of course, TtFaF...

Company website that provides great ease of use.

Allstate.com
Think about it.
You log in once every six months to pay your bill.
Who remembers their username and password six months later???
Not me.
They allow you to enter name, DOB & parts off SSN, then provide you username & password.
That is vunderbar.

Sidekick's greatest find of all time

Andre the Giant drinkin' stories.

These guys must have raised the mortal combat kids

Weekend At Bernie's 3?

Past blog entry

Hey I added links. Yay. Thanks Sidekick.

Politics & Religion are verbotten, but econmics is OK!!!

So this new fangled threat by Arbusto to give tax rebates to consumers to spend and corporations to invest make me so fucking angry I could spit nails.
Its like, how many times does something have to be done, AND NOT WORK, before folks on the Right side of the aisle give up on trying to placate the masses and just do what's morally & economically right, and btw, also FUCKING WORKS: Cut taxes or spending.
Beeches.

Mother. Fucker. I hate fucking micro-managers.

So the powers that be are merging two groups. There seems to be some kind of power struggle about who will end up being our manager.
At this point, it looks as if the fucking sum' beech micro-fucking manager who cant go two seconds without telling someone how to do their jobs is winning out.
Case in point.
Best schedule on the planet I've ever had, hands down: working 7-3. No lunch.
7-4 w. OT was also nice.
As the wheels slowly ground, pulling out two teams together, that got pushed to 8-4.
Still, a reasonably nice schedule.
Now, the MOTHER FUCKING COCK KNOCKER IS SUCH A FUCKING DOUCHE, I am being forced to work fucking 9 hours, mandatory lunch.
7-4.
Mother fucker.
I cannot express my disdain for this piece of shit.

Tray Dee Pick, Part Duex

So there is another bubble forming. It's gold. No idea how long it will last but if I was investing right now, it'd be nothing but gold stocks and American Eagles. Be prepared to ride a three-year bubble, though. And, as an added bonus, you can begin rooting for terrorist attacks.

I never thought my cat was reincarnated...

But this CANNOT be coincidence.

Trey's Pick

So my pick is for today to be the biggest single-day DOW loss in recent memory. Something in the 3%-6% range. Nothing earth-shattering but enought to take notice.

Disclaimer: I admitt to being somewhat of a pussy here...the stock market futures market suggests the market should go up today. I waited an hour to post this to, you know, cheat and make sure the market didn't go way up.

Disclaimer: The odds of me being right here are about 75-1 so please don't beat me up over this unless you're willing to post a day where you think we'll see a 4% rise/decrease in the market.

Potentially related to the post below...

was anyone else looking forward to the new American Gladiators?

I am quite disappointed. What's all this human interest bullshit? Injured gladiators? What? Pansies, I say.

Dear SCW...

You need to rent 'The Shield' Seasons 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. It's the best show in the history of television.

Yours in Christ,

The Sidekick

Moms is a fucking beast.

So, I NEVER haggle over price. I always assumed that the market had determined the optimal price, and being part of said market, I paid what was expected.
Not so much my mother.
HFS.
She scored a sink w. a ding and a cabinet in an off color for like $150 below marked price.
Wow. She is an argumentative BEAST.
The salesman just gave up and called his manager, who gave in.

need technological savvy concerning DVD player purchase

My post got too long, I leave it here for entertainment value. Here's the nitty gritty.

Q1)In the short term - 3 to 5 years, what kind of disc format player should we buy to continue to play kids videos and mail in rentals around the house?

Q2) Can we continue to play the movies and episodes we already own on a newer format player or is this going to be similar to the couple of hundred cassettes I have buried in a closet somewhere as I refuse to part with the tuneage of my childhood. Do we keep the dinosaur around patching and unpatching cables between formats?

the overcoffeenated version below.




I'm proud of my luddite status. I've also had way too much coffee this morning. Please read this offering and help me.

I can do things with a light action 6' mitchell-300 spinning combo loaded with 8 pound mono while waist deep in a muddy river that most folks can only dream of and regrettably for the trees wearing tons of loose tackle (and good for sporting goods stores) many folks simply cannot do.

Yet, many other simple man-things are simply beyond me. Beyond plugging in my pc, I'm useless with electronics. If ctrl alt del doesn't fix it, I beg kevin for help with vague promises of steaks and breakfast meats that I frequently make good on.

I understand the Sidekick may be the resident expert, although wonderfully distracted by the newest addition to our local community.

Our DVD player has been giving us a lot of trouble, playing most dvd's but often leaving us a wreck for many of our rentals. It NEVER plays a burned DVD. Every now and then it sounds like an electric pencil sharpener* while reading the discs.

We dealt with this with little discomfort until we rented a Thomas the Tank Engine DVD for our pizza and movie night**. "We" were all excited about it only to have the movie go straight to the special features menu, from which we could play the trailer OR return to the special feature menu. The dvd played fine through the desktop, but it's not pizza night upstairs at the pc monitor. So the DVD was good, our old DVD player is probably on it's way out.

So we also read today that there's all this 'blue ray***' and HD-DVD debate and that there's probably a push to blu ray ahead of the eventual HVD. I remember reading about blue ray in a physics text about a decade ago.

Q1)In the short term - 3 to 5 years, what kind of disc format player should we buy to continue to play kids videos and mail in rentals around the house?

Q2) can we continue to play the movies and episodes we already own on a newer format player or is this going to be similar to the couple of hundred cassettes I have buried in a closet somewhere? Do we keep the dinosaur around patching and unpatching cables between formats?




*I don't actually own an electric pencil sharpener - much to my students dismay as they have to "crank" the handle on my hold out manual - but there are many in my school building.

**Pizza and movie night involves a picnic downstairs on a blanket and freely eating food in the lap while the cats are sequestered in the laundry room.


***I'm down with the smaller wavelength greater storage capacity issues.

Hey Sweet Dee, when is your tasting shin-dig?

Because I have some ideas for your wedding!

THIS might be the party where we drink like we're 19!

Fuck you, Hokies.

You, too, Jayhawks.

Labels, mother fuckers. Labels.

So the blog is nigh unsearchable, at this point.
I think we need to do a better job of adding viable labels to posts besides "Scooters, fall, vacation".
First person that can find the post where Ultimate Warrior goes nuts talking about space ships gets an atta-boy. Shoot me the link, if you would.

Maybe I'm a slight overcooker

I just made a gi-fucking-normous chicken casserole.
Should be good...for about 2 days.
OMG.
If anyone wants some, you are more than welcome.
WHY!!!!

HFS. Umm... I prefer laying on the couch

The Scots, apparently, do not.

Very unhealthy 24 hours of getting my grub on.

Lunch yesterday - 1/2 bag of Doritos.
Dinner - the Bo.
Breakfast -- chocolate chip cookies.
Lunch - finished off Doritos.

Whats horrible about all this -- I actually have food @ home -- including eggs,bacon, biscuits and sharp cheddar.
Lazy.

Question of the Day: Define yourself w. one word.

If you had to tell someone
"I was born with a _____________ in my hand"
WHAT exactly is your answer?

For me?
A chicken wing.

'10 Items or Less'=One Funny Show...

...saw it for the first time at 12:30 and am staying up for the 1:00 showing.