I've Lost My TweetDeck

But can someone on the planet reassure me that Radiohead didn't ALSO steal from Heligoland's "pitcher, flask and foxy moxie?"

Facebook Ads Spark My Imagination

This sounds great.

Does it involve dropping your inhibitions (and your pants) in front of a cam while doing odd things to your private parts?

Well then! Sign me up!

Oh... only the young and cute with six-pack abs need apply? Damn. Never mind; I'll keep my day job. Besides, it isn't so great if you can only work an hour a day, and having to skip a day every now and then.

Gonna Make a Mistake, Gonna Do It On Purpose

Day #4 of a new job has just ended. It was a better day than yesterday. It HAD to be. Otherwise I was on the verge of doing something which would probably have been a huge mistake.

I awoke around 1:30 this morning after horrible anxiety dreams involving media software and Excel (not uncommon for me) and then had trouble sleeping the rest of the night. When I did there were even more anxiety dreams. Horrible stuff.

It's probably natural to have anxiety when changing jobs, but I think it's probably more acute when you are leaving a job you love for something you think you'll just like, if you're lucky. But I'm coming around. I actually got a lot more comfortable today dealing with the subject matter of yesterday's post. It's just a matter of memorizing when to hit F4, F1, B for one function, R for another, and the all-important Q for Quit.

I was about ready hit Q when I rolled out of bed this morning. It's getting better though. And tomorrow is Friday.

The reality is that, despite the technology hurdles, there's a real opportunity in my new position for growth and that is something that isn't always guaranteed for someone who has been at it in the same industry for as long as I have. New learning experiences are also on the horizon.

I just need to calm the fuck down and get through the first week or two of adjustment. That's always hard and throwing in the towel seems like an easy way out. Last night I was so frustrated I was ready to waltz back into my old job. That would have been a mistake. And I've made enough of those already. It's not so much the job I miss as the software. (Yes, I'm a software snob!) I need to get over it. I'm among old friends and simply need to adapt.

Marijuana Is Deadly

The New York Times was full of interesting stuff today.
Gang Fights in Prison Injure 22 and Kill One

That's right here in the lovely state of Texas. Something seems horribly wrong if you can't control gang activity IN a prison.

A federal prison in Texas erupted in violence early Friday when two gang-related fights broke out almost simultaneously in facing housing units. One inmate was killed, and 22 were injured, officials said.

It was the second outbreak of fighting in a federal lockup in Texas in three weeks.

[...]

The dead inmate was identified as Servando Rodríguez, 38, an illegal immigrant serving 54 months for marijuana and parole violations.

That's 4 1/2 years for marijuana and whatever the parole violations where. Probably marijuana-related. I guess he won't have to finish his sentence. Now there's an open bunk for the next marijuana conviction.

In other news, keep an eye on your automotive underbelly, especially if you drive a large SUV. Catalytic converters are becoming hot items in our new economic reality, thanks to trace amounts of platinum.

Inside the lobby of the New Windy City Mufflers and Brakes shop, Mr. Fernandez said he had heard a rumor that catalytic converters had suddenly become the rage on the black market here, but he did not believe it until his went missing on a well-lighted North Side street.

Theft of scrap metals like copper and aluminum has been common here and across the country for years, fueled by rising construction costs and the building boom in China. But now thieves have found an easy payday from the upper echelon of the periodic table. It seems there may not be an easier place to score some platinum than under the hood of a car.

[...]

People who may have thought their lives had nothing to do with the booming commodities market are finding out the hard way where their connection is — in their car’s exhaust system.

The catalytic converter is made with trace amounts of platinum, palladium and rhodium, which speed chemical reactions and help clean emissions at very high temperatures. Selling stolen converters to scrap yards or recyclers, a thief can net a couple of hundred dollars apiece.

None of this may matter in the long run though. When a giant particle accelerator near Geneva, Switzerland starts smashing protons this summer, some scientists fear the earth may be sucked into a black hole.

But Walter L. Wagner and Luis Sancho contend that scientists at the European Center for Nuclear Research, or CERN, have played down the chances that the collider could produce, among other horrors, a tiny black hole, which, they say, could eat the Earth. Or it could spit out something called a “strangelet” that would convert our planet to a shrunken dense dead lump of something called “strange matter.” Their suit also says CERN has failed to provide an environmental impact statement as required under the National Environmental Policy Act.

That would certainly take care of my daily frustrations: the lawn mower maintenance, the roof replacement, garden pests intent on destroying our tomato crop, and of course the credit card bills and other financial woes would get sucked into the hole along with everything else. And an early end to a nasty presidential campaign with no winners needed.

Fire this baby up!

In a worst case scenario, it wouldn't even be important that I give a photo credit to Valerio Mezzanotti for The New York Times. When we're all possibly getting a free ride to the other end of the universe, who cares?

Crossposted at Big Brass Blog

Holy Shit! Is The Recession Over Already?

That was fast!

Some of the Yahoo features seem overly simplistic sometimes and intended to soften our fears and anxieties. This one via CNNMoney.com almost made me scream. What kind of drugs are these people taking?

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- It may be the best time to buy a house in more than four years.

Home prices have dropped so quickly and so far that valuations - the difference between what a home should cost and its actual price - are the lowest they've been since 2004, according to a report.

Since 2004? Really? Well, hot damn, maybe I'll just saddle up my pony and ride out and buy two then!

I really don't think my memory is so bad, but in 2004 I seem to recall we were in the midst of a real estate boom in which prices were skyrocketing. The fact that now things are back to the level they were then is not what I'd call the bargain of a century. I'm trying to remember what else was going on in 2004/2005... oh, I think that's when I was spending a lot of time watching the Suze Orman show in which she was constantly warning us about a likely housing bubble... back THEN.

"Housing valuations are almost back to long-term norms," said National City's chief economist, Richard DeKaser. He called current affordability "the best in the past four years."

But DeKaser cautioned that home prices could fall even further.

"This isn't to say home price declines are over," he said. "We could move below historic norms. By the end of 2008, housing markets could be broadly under valued."

I'm not telling anyone what to do. You want to go plop down a few hundred grand for a California cottage? Be my guest. Snag 'em while they're hot and there's easy credit.

Who needs drugs when we have reality such as this? Forget that. Have a second opinion and then sleep on it a few weeks.

"The break line of good to bad credit used to be a FICO [score] of 620," he explains. "Over the last year, it's moved to 650, then 680 and now it's starting to push over 700." Borrowers who have lower scores may have to come up with higher down payments, or settle for loans with higher fees or interest rates.

Getting a home with low or no money down, meanwhile, is a thing of the past. Lenders may even require more than the traditional 20% in markets that are especially hard-hit.

That is disturbing news in and of itself as it will eliminate many people from the housing market who previously might have been able to swing a deal. And foreclosures?

Foreclosures are touted as great deals (especially by services that sell foreclosure listings). In some areas, real estate agents have even started taking potential buyers on "foreclosure tours."

In reality, however, buying a foreclosed property — or even one in a neighborhood plagued by foreclosures — is risky. "A heavy concentration of foreclosures indicates that there's some sort of economic problem in the region that will keep your home value from at least remaining stable," says Miller. "Or that there was some speculation and there may still be some air left to come out of that market."

This show ain't over yet folks, so sit yer asses down and enjoy the spectacle.

Quincy Jones

If we are going to evolve as a species, we have got to learn to play trumpet without risk of popping a blood vessel or suffering a stroke.

Perhaps Minstrel Boy can add something about trumpet players and strokes.

txrad is wondering if he should get another trumpet. He's worried about brain embolism.

Burning Sensation and Discharge

txrad and I were just talking about lye and lutefisk. I brought up lye soap.

It brought back memories of my teenage years when I would masturbate with soap. Bad idea. (Good idea with Aveda shampoo, but that's another post.) I'd take a pee afterwards and it would burn like Almighty Hell.

Then on my favorite stoner radio program, "Beaker Street," on KAAY in Little Rock between 11p and about 2a give or take, depending on the dope ingested -- by the DJ/engineer, not me) I'd hear ads (about the ONLY ads) which talked about venereal disease and one of the symptoms was "burning sensation and discharge," and instructions to call your local clinic for testing.

Well, after jacking off, I sure as hell had a discharge, and when I pissed after whacking with soap, I sure as hell had a burning sensation. So off I went to the free clinic to be tested.

This was a rather awkward moment for a 13-year-old boy in a small town. It started when I walked in to get tested anonymously and the receptionist happened to be our neighbor the next farm over. Just great.

I was then taken to a room and given a cotton swab to collect some of the discharge. "Jesus," I thought, "do they want me to jack off right here in the room?"

I tried but to no avail. So finally I just wiped some piss or precum onto the swab and called the nurse.

I waited anxiously for the next week or so for the results. When I finally called in, the person on the phone said, "You're negative."

I'm negative??? I have the fucking problem; of course I'm negative.

That really didn't answer my question at the time. Do I have a venereal disease or not? I finally figured it out.

But Thank God for the days of free and anonymous testing. I still love the early 70s.

But to this very day, I often wonder if that neighbor from down the road ever called my parent to say, "I think you better keep an eye on that son of yours; he seems to be a Tom Cat."

You know, people do talk. Nothing is really and truly anonymous. And things are getting far less so, in case you weren't paying close attention.

Start.