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no one’s down with a sick baby

Aha, greetings, fair Tuesday.  What’s that you say?  Yeah, I saw Monday yesterday.  She was still dragging from the weekend, and was acting a right bitch.  I’m thinking about calling Wednesday today and see if he wants to hang out with Friday and I; it’s always a good time when Friday’s there.  Alright man, take it easy – say “what’s up” to Thursday if you see his sorry ass before I do.

Let’s get started.

Somewhat related to yesterday’s rant, and the last I’ll talk about it, I think, I stumbled on the full draft text of the Fed’s 700 billion dollar bailout plan online (I’d missed this before, or I’d have linked it yesterday).  In the article I was reading that linked to the text, the author stressed the following language from Section 8:

Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.

Holy crap what?  So… the details of this $700,000,000,000 expenditure will be done behind closed-doors, the taxpayers will get no accounting of how the deal goes down, and no single entity on earth can review, question, challenge, or even see the details of the bailout.  A $700,000,000,000 “blank check.”  No one has to say how the money was used, no one has to account for the money achieving the intended purpose, heck no one can even inquire about what that exact purpose actually is beyond generality.

Your money: No longer your business.  Our tax dollars just got Patriot Acted.

Late-breaking edit: Found this article just before midnight.  It will apparently run in tomorrow’s (today, as you read) Wall Street Journal.  Seems the Treasury has decided, under pressure, that they will indeed have to allow some oversight into the whole process.  Man, and I just wrote all that…

Now, before leaving the topic, I wanted to pass along just a few more pieces of required reading for those who are interested in learning more about the bailout.  You can skip the next paragraph if you hate this stuff.

Slate’s finance-centric site has a good article called, Henry Paulson, Socialist, which does a much better job saying some of the things I was attempting to sputter here yesterday.  The NY Times has an interesting piece about how lobbyists (sorry Kristi, like you need more bad press) are already preparing to ask for additional aide on top of the $700B plan.  Fantastic.  And, for those looking to “send a letter” or “make a call” to ease their conscience in lieu of taking pitchforks and torches to the Lawn, check out the all-senators one-click e-mail link over at Mish’s site.  You can do it all in one feel swoop and use their pre-written text (if you’d like) or write your own.

OK enough; moving on…

The second day of this fair week brings a deepening sickness unto our little Keaton, who is new beset with a wet, hacking cough and faucet of a nose.  When she gets sick, the wheezing thing we dealt with a ways back tends to plague her again, so Sharaun busted out her nebulizer and gave her a “treatment.”  It still breaks my heart to see her wearing that noisy thing.  It really does seem to help her tho (I guess a steroid to the lungs would, however), so I’m not 100% against it I suppose.  Anyway, we’re hoping her wellness returns soon, as no one’s down with a sick baby.

And, randomly…

Fishing for a deal, I called our internet provider the other day and told them I was considering switching to a new faster and cheaper provider, hoping they’d offer me some faster and cheaper deal to stick with them.  Luck was with me, and they ended up bumping up me to the 6 MB up / 760 Kbps down package for $17 less per month than I had been paying.  Today the workerman came to hook up the new “filter” at the house and grant us our new speeds.  And, after running a speed test tonight – I think he may have messed up.  I’m getting unnatural speeds, testing consistently around 15-20MB down and 1.5 MB down.  I didn’t even know this connection was capable of those speeds.  I know they probably haven’t yet turned on some filter back at ISP-central, or haven’t re-provisioned my modem or something… but I don’t want the speed to end.  Bummer.

That’s it folks, goodnight and until tomorrow – Dave luh da kids.

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millions for execs, not one penny for chemo

Happy Monday people.  It’s around 9pm on Sunday night as I’m finishing up writing this thing.  I’ll do a quick weekend catch-up before diving into my sole topic for the day.

Keaton’s come down with a cold and is coughing and snotting all over the place, I always feel so bad for her when she’s not well.  Saturday night we went to the Oktoberfest celebration at Pat’s church, and drank beer with the parishioners and clergy – fantastic.  Sunday I spent a good part of the day working on Halloween props in the garage.  I got a lot done: rebuilt the ghost, rewired the dropper and the coffin, and did some planning for the new wire-track prop.  And now, I’m busily trying not to listen to the TV Sharaun’s watching while I write (it’s distracting, you know).

OK then, politics and the economy.

I know this point has like already been made (and probably more eloquently and better-researched) elsewhere online, but the thought came to me almost independently, so I’ll go ahead and write up my own thoughts.

A lot of folks, namely my GOP brethren, tend to scoff at Democratic plans to “socialize” the nation’s medical care. I can actually understand this, and will grant that there are several legitimate concerns with any plan to make it happen.   However, with the recent goings-down in our fine nation, I can’t help but see a plank in some of these folks’ eyes.  Why?  Oh, so glad you asked.  (See, I wrote all this crap, and I really needed a reason to post it.)

You see, despite the GOP doomsayers’ collective recoil at the prospect of national healthcare, the current Republican administration has effectively authorized the “socialization” of much of the country’s financial institutions’ failures.  Doing some quick math, the Fed is proffering a near one trillion dollars in taxpayer-funded loans for floundering institutions. This (very roughly) works out to around $10,000 per tax-paying citizen.  Their debt, their fault, your money.

I know, I know, if I only understood the complex world of the global financial markets, I’d realize the Fed is only throwing this “hail Mary” to nip a potential total meltdown in the bud.  Thing is, I do understand this; in the very same fundamental way I understand the unpleasant necessity of amputating a gangrenous limb.  In this way, the government (and ultimately, the taxpayers) must come to the rescue of the festering giants whose mortgage-backed securities are now worthless, and inject them with some “real” money to keep the whole thing from imploding.  At it’s most basic level, I believe I understand both the mechanics and “virtues” of the federal bailouts.

However, I’m not getting any closer to making my point.  So, I’ll make it quickly now and do so being as incendiary as I can:  What the administration seems to be telling me is that it’s OK to socialize the debt of private industries which are failing, but it would be a bad idea to do the same for the cost of providing private citizens access to health care.  To make it more exclamatory: Our money is perfectly suited for providing some AIG CEO with a two-million dollar “severance payout,” but we’d be flirting with Marxist evils were we to propose using those same funds to give your grandmother the drugs she can’t afford.

Sure, that’s oversimplified and pregnant with hyperbole – but it’s the kind of stuff that pops into my head when I think about a one trillion dollar bailout.

Ahh yes, folks, I know… you desperately want to get back to the whole concept of a temporary “necessary evil” versus wanton and unnecessary permanent socialization.  Oh and yes, I know the “administration” I refer to above makes no moves without our illustrious 110th (Democratic) Congress at its hip.  And yeah, I know that bailouts could technically be structured as loans and not handouts, and would then theoretically be paid back (with interest) after time, and a national health plan would be an ongoing expense.  I also realize folks may say it’s something of a reach to say the bailouts “socializing” private debt.

It’s OK, you don’t have to point these things out to me – I know them already and understand.  It doesn’t change the fact that I still feel like the above healthcare vs. bailout thing is an incongruity worth pondering.  I mean, it’s a trillion dollars.  Think of what could be done…

Hope I didn’t lose you, you know I love all of you… goodnight.

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before the blessed weekend

Friday.  Yahoo.

I took the day “off” today.  Too bad that doesn’t really mean anything in the context of the modern-day e-worker; I’m still sitting on my butt (just on the couch instead of my well-worn swivel chair in my dreary cubicle) doing e-mail, sick or not.  It’s OK, I suppose… afterall my brain doesn’t seem to be suffering; just my sinuses.  Anyway, my morning thus far has consisted of working while vetting the “street” version of the new Of Montreal album today and am busy listening ot that a high-volume as the pile of used tissue grows next to me (yes, I’m writing at midday today, since I’m home and have the opportunity).

At my appointment with the doctor, I saw the nurse practitioner.  (Does anyone get to see a real Ph.D’d doctor anymore at the general practitioner these days?  I think I’ve seen the guy whose name’s on the building all of one time.)  It was a different NP than I’m used to seeing, and I ended up really liking her.  I’ve never really gone to the doctor looking for assistance with any kind of medical mystery, and I’ve usually already self-diagnosed myself and am just looking for confirmation and the almighty Rx to get me back on-track, so I’m usually pretty ambivalent to the “care” I get.  Maybe that’ll change as I get older and start to develop some more obscure infirmities, but for now I typically only need a doctor for their prescription pad.

The NP I saw today though was completely different than the drug-pushers I normally deal with.  Instead of going right to the pad and pushing me out the door with a scrawled script for antibiotics, she instead recommended an “easier on the body” (as she put it) nasal spray first (although she ultimately did prescribe an antibiotic in case that course of action failed to work).  In fact, she actually reviewed with me the two prescriptions I currently take regularly, suggesting potential ways I could eliminate them from my routine.  I liked this for some reason, maybe it’s her bedside manner or whatever but it worked to inspire trust with me.  Kind of a strange notion to have a doctor unprescribing things… but a welcome change in my opinion.

Tomorrow it’s back to work, feel like I’ve been away from my little desk for too long now (although, I did manage to get an impressive amount of work done today from the couch).  One day of work before the blessed weekend.  Saturday we’re going to Pat’s Catholic church to drink beer and eat pork at their annual Oktoberfest celebration (we had a blast last year).  Can you imagine a protestant church having a celebration which is essentially centered around drinking beer, in the house of worship?!  My hat’s off to those progressive folks, and I can’t wait to dance to some oompah with Keaton.  Sunday I work on Halloween.

Until Monday, goodnight.

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everybody is different kinds of smart

Here I am on Wednesday night suffering miserably from what I’m positive is a sinus infection, something that’s been killing me now for about four days – and that is finally dragging me stubbornly to the doctor tomorrow.  Enough is enough, I tell this foreign species trying to make me its host.

My two days across the state were long, sniffly, and uncomfortable because of this stupid sickness.  As I sat in line waiting to board the company jet bound homeward, sniffling and hacking and blowing my nose, the guy next to me pulled a bottle of that Airborne snakeoil from his bag and popped one.  I couldn’t blame him…

Where I work I’m surrounded by smart people.  I interact daily with people who have gobs more brainpower than I do, so intelligence is something I feel like I’ve come to take a bit for granted.  Because of this, when I meet someone who stands out above the normal din of firing synapses I encounter daily, it’s something I take note of.  Over the past couple days, I met a guy like that.  Not an engineer, but a finance guy.  Talked miles above me, talked about things that made no sense to me, “betas to the market,” and “the earnings ratios of S&P500 companies,” and how the treasury and federal reserve and interest rates and securities work.  It’s like the guy stepped right out of a Bohemian Club weekend for a few days to rub elbows with the serfs.

I like meeting people like that.  It’s humbling.  And, while this guy likely wasn’t trying to, he had me walking the tightrope at the edge of my conversancy.  I was hanging on by my fingernails, jumping in when I thought I could make a comment that wouldn’t immediately illuminate my comparative ignorance.  The beers and lobster helped; I can talk about beer and lobster.  I can wax about the Dow dropping forty points over the course of my waffle at breakfast.  I can tell you how many takes it took the Beatles to record “Hey Jude,” and from which of those recordings the version you know from the radio was assembled.  I can tell you my best-known-method for calming down a seemingly inconsolable two and a half year old girl who wants to play “for a couple more minutes” before taking her nap.

I guess everybody is different kinds of smart.

Goodnight.

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the sheets and pillow are calling

Hey there Tuesday people.

I’m off again today, taking the corporate sawmill shuttle across the state a ways to work over there for a couple days.  More of the “meet and greet” business, with a little effort thrown in to justify the whole thing.  So, an evening in a hotel and two days away from the fam… could be worse I suppose.

I’m just dreading the 4:45am rise-and-shine… which means I better get to typing here – I got music and Halloween for you today, not much to write home about.

Lately, I’ve been on this soul music tear – acquiring (through absolutely unquestionably legal channels) tons and tons of vintage 60s and 70s soul records to try and flesh out my collection. In the process, I’ve found some simply amazing stuff – the cream of which so far has got to be material by one O.V. Wright. Someone I’d never even heard of before, it’s hard to believe this guy isn’t held in the same esteem as classic performers like Otis Redding and Marvin Gaye. His voice is incredible, full of emotion, and his songwriting isn’t so serious that you can’t get a chuckle here and there. And the music, oh man the music. All the right horns and cymbal crashes in all the right places… this stuff makes you feel.

Anyway, it’s just the tip of the iceberg. Some seventy albums into my bender, I realized I’ve now got too much to appreciate before something new comes along – and I’d better come up for air and actually take in some of what I’ve grabbed. Soul is a relatively new area for me, so I’m excited to get educated. I know, you’re riveted right no.  I’ll continue to thrill you with the following, I’m sure…

I was thrilled today as I came up with a really neat concept to “soup up” the Halloween prop setup. Right now I’ve got live power (at 120V AC) running all around the place to power the props. I’ve long worried about this being unsafe, as a lot of my connections are simple wire-nut jobs and could conceivably be susceptible to shorts (and, less plausible but still a concern, human contact). Today I hit upon a way to move most of the dangerous high-voltage hookups under the safety of the front porch roof enclosure – and wire the props in the yard with low-voltage 12V power.

Additionally, I dreamed up a way to reduce the amount of clutter I have by triggering the coffin “popper” and ceiling “dropper” from the same motion sensor. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but to me it means a lot less wiring, a lot cleaner interface between the props, and some cool new features. For instance, both the dropper and the popper can have (timed) associated sounds and targeted lighting now, in addition to the always-on “ambient” soundtrack that was there last year.

What’s more, if everything goes right – in addition to springing down on you from its hiding place above with a blood-curdling scream and scary spotlighting, the ceiling dropper will now spray a burst of fog towards you as well. It’s probably hard to visualize, so I’ll just post a video when I get it working.

Ahem… I’m outta here.  With such an early start to tomorrow, the sheets and pillow are calling.

Before I go, I keep meaning to mention that Ben posted his pictures from our abbreviated John Muir Trail hike over at his site.  Check them out here.

Goodnight.

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the halloween workshop

It’s nearing 2pm on this fine windows-open Sunday afternoon.

I just put Keaton down for a nap and Sharaun’s away at a baby shower.  I put on the new Of Montreal album (which is seriously growing on me, despite my initial skittishness) and decided to write a bit.  Now, writing wasn’t really my intention (nor has it been for the past week, as you’ve likely noticed if you’re a regular visitor here) – but I had no choice.

See, I had intended to get all the Halloween props down and start doing an assessment of what all needs to be repaired and what materials I’ll need to get everything back to working order.  But, all the Halloween gear is inside the fake coffin I built so many years ago to hold the pnuematic pop-up coffin dude, and that montrously heavy contraption is tied to the exposed rafters in my garage for storage (serisouly, where else am I going to store a full-size coffin?).  Problem is, other than my sneaking fear that the thing is gonna come crashing down randomly one day and wreck a car parked under it or worse smoosh someone as it falls, I can’t get the thing down all by my lonesome.  It’s just too heavy and unwieldy.  So, as Halloween prep goes, this morning was a complete loss.

Later in the day though, Sharaun got home and helped me lower the thing from it’s hold up in the rafters.  After that, I was able to get all the gear down from the various places it’s stuffed up into our roof and take a full account of things.  And, surprisingly, I’m not as concerned about the work as I was before.  Yeah, the rubber masks have all rotted and are tearing – those’ll have to be replaced, and I already knew I had to rebiuld the ghost… but everything else is just improvements: rewiring things for low-voltage operation in the name of safety, making cosmetic improvements, improving triggering and timing for the more complex animated props, etc.  I know you care dearly about all of this, so I’ll leave it at that level of detail and be done with it.  But, I’m happy to say that my side of the garage has now been officially transformed into the Halloween workshop; ’tis the season.

Shifting gears then…

Today as I walked in to pick Keaton up from her Sunday School class at church, her teacher turned to me and said, “Keaton had a day today.”  “Uh oh,” I said, recalling how we’d already struggled with her ourselves from the start as well.  “Yeah,” she continued, “I’ve never seen her like this.  Not only did she have four kicking and screaming on the ground fits, but she bullied every single kid in the class!” “Oh boy,” I sighed, looking down at our little angel sitting forlornly on a chair in all her infinite cuteness.  As Sharaun slid in beside me her teacher went on, “She pushed Madeline and pinched Matthew and just wouldn’t listen.”  Sharaun, having borne the brunt of Keaton’s earlier “No!” and hitting fit, screwed up her face and sternly asked Keaton to apologize, which she did.

Of course, after church she was a perfect little girl for me when Sharaun was away.  I sometimes think she acts out more for Sharaun than she does me, maybe because she’s got more to prove to her since she’s with her all day long or whatever.  Y’know, asserting her authority most to the one who’s the authority for most of the day, or something.  It sometimes makes me feel bad, because there are instances where she flips like a switch and instantly behaves better for me if Sharaun’s removed from the situation… but then again I also figure this is just the beginning of her wrapping me around her little finger so she can exploit me later in life.  Nah… I’m just playin’.  But I dunno y’allz… this girl can flex some bad, straight-up bad.

OK, whatever.  Goodnight.