Last year’s results were N. This year’s results were anticipated to be N-1, but turned out to be N as well. N is OK, but N+1 would be better. Even so, things turned out better than expected. Especially when, if you count the one-time windfalls, the results are N+87.
Why is this considered disappointing? Bah, humbug. Wall Street is dumb.
Start reading here, where our hero, a femme mostly-lesbian named Heathen, finds a “wayward” does of testosterone. Continue upwards toward the conclusion of the experiment. Caution: contains dirty words.
See also the Slate review of Jose Canseco’s latest book which describes it as less an expose and more a discussion of how cool steroids are. (The press surrounding the book has treated his tales of racism in the press and in the game as an aside, at best– not surprising, I suppose, since we already knew about the racism and nobody ever admitted to the drugs before).
Anyway, it all makes me think steroids are cool. No wonder gynecomastia is in the news so much these days!
Today I got a letter from Mrs. Jesus. She wanted to know if I wanted to have some fun, since her man was away. I also got a message titled “Advanced Degrees.” It was a letter from my college alumni office, asking if I had an advanced degree, and if I had, would I please let them know, so they could put together a list. I wrote back and asked if I should have an advanced degree, and if they had an opinion about which was best, since they seem to be pretty easy to buy online.
Project Runway, on Bravo. Funny, addictive, “reality” tv show. It’s ending this week, but Bravo is showing all the episodes in order on Wednesday all day. Tivo them if you dare.
Every weekend I read the real estate sections in the Globe and the Times and I get vaguely uneasy. Today: people who love sprawl, which is to say, lots and lots of people. Well, they all have bad taste. I guess someone keeps buying those hideous SUVs and driving them everywhere. “Walk everywhere with five kids?” says the interviewee. They have legs, don’t they? Maybe you need a giant stroller. Or a leash. At least it keeps the squalling brats out of my cafes.
Also, yet another article that supports my contention that the real estate market is an unhealthy and ineffecient market. I don’t just mean that the prices are too high, although they are: I mean that the way the market is structured, proper prices can’t be determined. The article suggests that it’s getting better, but I won’t be satisfied for some time yet.
I made the mistake of playing a few rounds of Unreal Tournament at the AMD/Sun demo stations this week. Now I’m halfway through downloading my kernel sources so I can recompile my kernel to take advantage of the latest ATI 3D drivers just so I can play the demo– I haven’t even had time to get the full version of the game yet.
Argh.
Today I am revising a whitepaper and using the OpenOffice.org Track Changes feature. All the text I change is in red; all the unchanged text is in black. I think my reputation as an editor is safe.
Deeshaa.org is Attanu Dey’s thoughts on the economy and development of India. Highly regarded by the big-shots and also I like it.
LinuxWorld Expo is in Boston this year. I think that might mark a step down for the… well, not venerable exposition. But certainly it’s been around for longer than many other Linux events. It’s certainly smaller this year than last. Last year was smaller than the year before. Conclusion: indicates maturity in the market. Or maybe it’s just not insane anymore, without being actually “mature.” Whatever that means.
At any rate, there were still some funny moments. Intel reception afterwards celebrated their 64-bit Linux software achievements. The theme was ’64. There was a Beatles tribute band. Jello was served and slideshows illustrated Intel scenes from the mid-sixties (pre-bunny-suit technicians soldering transistors and wearing beehive hairdos). Conclusion: nobody at Intel is old enough to remember the sixties.
Also, the KDE booth advertised itself as “The Enterprise Desktop” which makes little-to-no sense, given KDE’s hacker-oriented focus on flexibility and configurability above all else. Conclusion: “Enterprise” is now totally meaningless, except in the context of Star Trek.
Oh, in addition to literature, I consumed some of the local products in Belize. Many of them, like the local beer and rum (Traveller’s One Barrel being the finest and of course not available in the US) and fish and chicken, were quite delicious. In the spirit of JBZ’s most recent Tastings review, I offer you the following:
Rendezvous Estates 2004 Chardonnay, Belize. It has been said that anyone can make a decent white wine. After all, you just chill it well and the off flavors disappear. Not so: the flavors of rancid nuts, plastic, and oil permeate this beverage at any temperature, even mixed with soda water or ginger ale. I hope, for the sake of everyone drinking this, that our bottle was just a case of truly disastrous handling, contamination, or heat stroke, but I doubt it.
Mr. P’s Cashew Wine: Cashew Wine is actually made from the cashew apple, the pseudofruit of the cashew tree. Cashews, see, have the fruity outside, then a second layer which is toxic, then the inner nut, which is yummy. The apple can be made into a wine which is just too nasty to drink. But I bought some and tried it. It tastes like a combination of week-old sesame-seed oil, turpentine, and sugar. The really unpardonable factor, however, is that at only 10% alcohol by volume, it can’t justify its off flavors the way cachaza and moonshine do. It’s just plain nasty.
