Category: Consuming

A propos Luis mentioning his sister’s browser preference: Christine and Pete and Lucia and I were in a conference room thinking of personas for NLD 10 and the thermostat was broken and it was like 80 in there. So the maintenance and HVAC guys came in and fixed it, and said they hoped we weren’t bothering us, and we said, no, no problem, we’re just thinking up imaginary people to sell software to. And they said, what kind of software? Do you guys use Mozilla Firefox? I’m telling you, get rid of Internet Explorer, I won’t touch it.

We were greatly pleased.

Hey you! You right-thinking, left-leaning fella or gal! Stop hurting America and have a Blue Christmas. It beats sinking your cash into real estate speculation, although Fafnir would probably say that you should try and build up a giant debt as a legacy for your children to remember you by.

Beer,
You are the only thing standing between me and rock hard beach-ready abs. Why do you tempt me so? Maybe we should see less of each other.

v.

Do states have the right to regulate wine sales online? Well, this seems like one of those “stupid but constitutional” laws. This is pretty silly, honestly: we can’t even get free trade within the US?

Someone else I read commented on this issue, but I can’t remember who it was. They said something about the WSJ editorial page being knuckleheads, and I skipped over it, because I already know that.

A wonderful take on the current Californians vs the Feds case now before the Supreme Court. Just imagine if, instead of something controversial like dope, the case was about confiscation of, say, a sandwich. Mmmm, sandwich. For personal consumption only! No commercial activity going on here with my personal sandwich!

And now to eat a noncommercial home-made pizza. Mmmm.

Wal*Mart, jumping the shark at last?

A more detailed report on the latest federalism vs. Bushism case, a case full of twists and inversions, endless electric guitar solos, tie-dyed mayhem, and strange bedfellows. And that’s not just among the folks camped out on the courthouse steps for oral argument this morning”. That is, it’s a case about whether cancer patients should be allowed to alleviate their suffering, or if it might be too fun for the puritains in the Justice Department. After all, Justice is not here to provide or even allow palliative care. Justice is about meting out punishment!

Third, in a more fun vein, if you worry about overeating and gaining weight at Thanksgiving, check out the Sumo Diet! You’ll feel so much better about yourself. Just like you feel better about yourself after watching MTV’s “Real Life: I’m Obese.”

So far I’ve read “A Short History of Nearly Everything,” which is quite good. “Motherless Brooklyn” and “A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper” are still to go. I’ve got a couple of pieces of writing started, neither of them very far but not negligible either. I’ve taken the Mini out for a drive (a good time– reverse was a little tricky to find– on the other euro-style shifter I’ve driven it’s push-down-and-go-left, but this was just a pull off to the left, but there wasn’t some sort of trick aside from it being quite a lot further left than first. At any rate, I managed to have some fun turning around in a gravel driveway as I let out the clutch a little too fast and displayed just how much torque there is in that engine… by this point both my parents have managed to fall in love with it, so it looks like neither my brother nor I will get our hot little hands on it after all.) Lastly I’ve walked my grandmother’s dog for her quite a bit.

My parents’ friends Pat and Peter are visiting and I’m looking forward to talking with Pat a little more about finance; she’s quite knowledgeable about economics and business, and I’m curious what insights she might have into the software industry. Tonight’s discussion revealed the depths of my father’s loathing for the pharma industry and its stock-market-driven stupidity; his dislike of things can be quite contagious as you might know.

My brother and I shared our favorite sayings of his: never turn down a job you haven’t been offered, the fish rots from the head, assholes come in all shapes and sizes, there are cheats everywhere– some are rich and some are poor, never attribute to malice that which can be explained by incompetence, the difference between an entrepreneur and a bureaucrat is that an entrepreneur says “nothing ventured, nothing gained” and a bureaucrat says “nothing ventured, nothing lost.”

In all it’s been really, really good. I feel a lot more relaxed and happy than I did just Wednesday. Tomorrow looks like exercise, possible leaf-related chores (amazing how you can forget about this sort of thing in an apartment) and more dog-walking and visiting with grandmother.

Housing prices in the SF area are edging higher still— at least until interest rates rise. In MA, however, housing starts are way up this year, and there should be a flood of new condos near public transit in the next 12-18 months as mills in Lowell and factories in Lynn are converted– not to mention the half-dozen churches the Catholic Church is closing down and selling off to pay for the molestation settlements.

Well, maybe I should just move to Penisland. I mean, Pen Island. For pens. Of course.

I have finally gotten around to placing yet another order at Father’s Country Hams, makers of some of the best salty, smoky pork and beef. All I need to do now is find a pot big enough to cook it, and people to eat it with: the ham on its way is between thirteen and fifteen pounds, dry.

Date suggestions begin now. Eveyone is welcome. Extra bonus for anyone who volunteers to bring collard greens, hoppin’ john, spoonbread, pecan pie, pralines, crayfish, bourbon, corn whiskey, biscuits, blood pressure medication, cardiac defillibrators or angioplasty equipment.

Yet another Provigil trip report masquerading as journalism.

I can’t wait til it’s OTC.