Donna
So, when you receive a MySpace friend request from “Donna” who doesn’t have a picture, and lives in another state, and who’s only friend is “Tom”, what do you do?
Yes. And I was just about to delete the invitation, but I noticed some oddities. She wasn’t 18 or 21 or 26, like most MySpace spam, but 41.
And she’s in Geismar, Louisiana. That sounded vaguely familiar, so I looked it up. Suburb of Baton Rouge.
Hmm, I actually know a Donna of that age that lives in the suburbs of the Red Stick. I guess I’ll give her a day or two to put any identifying information onto her account.
But Donna, MySpace is so 2004. Where’s your FaceBook account?
Dark Markets of Enron
If you haven’t noticed, our government hasn’t been regulating things in this country for about eight years. It cuts across almost every agency in the bureaucracy. Mostly they just unfunded the regulators or told them to stop doing their jobs. See recent headlines on airplanes being grounded because they hadn’t been inspected in timely fashion for an example.
You need only listen to the news any given day to be reminded. We haven’t been keeping our government accountable. Neither has our corporate media. So, we can blame only ourselves. Or only our media, if we are cowards. (Yes, I consider ignoring our own failing an act of cowardice. Blaming others is the height of it.)
It was interesting to hear of another regulatory failing on Marketplace on Monday night. This one not of Executive Branch malfeasance, but one of political will-bending in the Legislature in December of 2000.
I’m sure everyone remembers Enron. They went south in a very large way about a year later. But before that they got this legislation passed. Basically, deregulating (and effectively hiding) the trading of about 30% of the energy market.
Recently, we’ve had out-of-control rises in the price of crude oil. All the analysts say we’ve got plenty of supply. So, whatever could be the cause of the price rises?
Well the Legislature has finally fixed their part in this non-regulation snafu. Soon it is of course passing back into the Executive’s hands. What will happen there, only time will tell.
Michael Greenburger, previous Head of Trading and Markets for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission says “many observers believe that because those markets are not being policed, malpractices are being committed and traders are able to boost the price virtually at their will… From my own experience as a commodity regulator, I believe that if the Bush Administration were serious about its regulation, we could begin seeing prices drop within a month.”
If things don’t start moving in a positive direction, let’s make sure we tell our elected employees we aren’t happy about it.
Comment on Dark Markets of Enron
Tim Russert, 1950 – 2008
58 doesn’t seem that old (and it isn’t) when you’re sitting here with your age starting with a 4. Droping dead at work, hard to believe. So many people survive heart attacks these days; it’s hard to believe a witnessed one can be fatal. Here’s the reminder.
Here’s Tim from a month ago, speaking what was obvious to many while invisible to many others:
4 Comments on Tim Russert, 1950 - 2008
DVD-rama
I used to use peerflix.com to get DVDs, but I got busy at one point, and didn’t have time to watch the movies I was receiving. So, I let the account go stagnant. They threatened to remove my account for inactivity, and though I can still login, the account page is all wonky.
When I emptied out my 300 carousel DVD player after it broke, I re-discovered all the forgotten movies. The trick is none of them have containers for me to put them in (unlike the CDs which I had in four 100 CD albums).
Watched – If you want to borrow, let me know.
- The Girl in Lovers Lane – 1959, black and white, almost watchable
- The Manchurian Candidate – wide screen and “standard” – 1962, Frank Sinatra, Janet Leigh, classic
- Paycheck – Ben Afflec, Uma Thurman
- Die Another Day – Pierce Brosnan Bond, 2 discs
- Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle – excellent, I really need to see the second one
- Anchorman
- Free Enterprise – an indie geek romantic comedy about two trekkies who meet a messed up William Shatner, funny, with an insane number of sci-fi, comic book, and movie culture references
Unwatched – When will I find the time? Tell me which ones to watch first.
- Y Tu Mamá También
- Everything is Illumated
- Se7en – 2 discs
- Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
- A History of Violence
- Spanglish
- Yes
- Syriana
- Paradise Now
- Nine Lives
- True Romance – unrated directors cut, 2 discs, started to watch and didn’t like
- Capote
I had also received a copy of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King via swaptree.com but it didn’t play on my old DVD player, it’s quite scratched up. When I was re-boxing all of the other DVDs, I put it in the new player on a whim figuring it might have better oversampling/correction. Indeed, the $50 player had no problem at all with the disc!
Unfortunately, I put this classically epic movie in after 10 pm on a week night and at 1 am had to turn it off with over an hour left.
Distinguished Alumnus
I was reading my Alcalde, because I am a lifetime member of the TexasExes, and I was struck by the one of the award winners. It’s actually not surprising to me, having attended there. They have a Distinguished Alumni award and this year there were six recipients. (I assume there are usually six recipients.) They graduated from the University of Texas at quite varied times (1943-1986). They have led quite varied lives (US Ambassador, actress, CEO, general rich guy from oil, president of one of the UT sister schools. Three have been UT regents (hmmm). They live in Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio, New York. But the most interesting is
Salam Fayyad, PhD ‘86, Jerusalem, is prime minister of the Palestinian National Authority and a former representative to the International Monetary Fund. Fayyad is widely respected in international circles and seen by analysts as one of the best hopes for peace between Palestine and Israel.
I bet he’s an interesting guy. One I’d like to meet, have a beer with, and discuss things.
Comment on Distinguished Alumnus
Memorial Day Weekend: Friends, Beers, and Games
A chronological list of my holiday weekend, with duplicates removed. It was over a week ago, but I’ve finally put it all down in writing. I have included the ratings for the beers and the games (taken from RateBeer.com and BoardGameGeek.com). The beers are ranked by percentile. The games are rated out of 10, and ranked in order.
- Franziskaner Heffe-Weisen (90) – a fabulous summer beer, light and refreshing
- Yspahan (7.5, 83, Sébastien Pauchon) – a fun and light game with wooden camels, and an interesting dice mechanic; a very approachable game for “non-gamers”
- Unibroue Maudite (96) – a fabulous and dark complected beer, with riotous carbonation; i discovered this Quebecan gem when I was living in Alberta, and have loved it ever since
- Hacienda (7.3, 151, Wolfgang Kramer) – take your cattle to market on the South American pampas frontiers; lots of bits, moderate difficulty
- Lord of the Rings (7.1, 187, Reiner Knizia) – a co-operative game, where everyone is playing a hobbit, trying to help the ring be destroyed, quite a bit of variety, with multiple boards, we lost horribly
- Dvonn (7.6, 69, Kris Burm) – one of the Project GIPF series (all 2-player abstracts), Woody’s son Mac happens to be very good at it and he trounced me
- Anchor Porter (98) – my favorite beer is the next one I’m having, variety is the spice of life, and the variety in beer styles is what I like, but when pressed, this is the beer I call my favorite, it’s chocolatey goodness is unsurpassed
- In the Year of the Dragon (7.7, 53, Stefan Feld) – this was a new “big box” release last year, and got a lot of play, though mixed reviews at last year’s BGG.con; i was slow to warm up to this game, but by the time my first play was over, i liked it
- New Belgium 1554 Brussels Style Black Ale (85) – the lowest rated beer so far, likely because it’s not true to style; it is true to total deliciousness, and I have several friends who like this beer a lot, but aren’t really beer drinkers
- Twilight Imperium, Second Edition (7.2, 794, Christian T. Petersen) – this 2000 game was superseded in 2005 (3rd Edition, 7.9, 27), last year I bought the 2nd edition w/ expansion for rock-bottom prices; this was the first real play I’ve had, it was very enjoyable, it would be great with 4 (we had 3), and yes it would take 6 hours or so
- Tribes – hmm, a week gone by and I don’t recall this game
- St. Arnold Summer Pils (36) – a good light but moderately hopped beer
- Unibroue Trois Pistoles (99) – a dark belgian ale, another fabulous example from this brwery
- Lindeman’s Framboise (90) – it seems that lambic variety has dropped in past years, Lindeman’s can always be found in the Houston market; this is their raspberry infused version; not as sour as tradition would dictate
- Tigris and Euphrates (8.2, 4, Reiner Knizia) – a classic, and tough to get your brain around, such simple mechanics, such complex interplay, best with 4, very Knizia
- Lindeman’s Cassis (76) – this may be one of my favorite lambic flavors, this one is black currant
- Goa (7.9, 21, Rüdiger Dorn) – this one has sat in the box at Wimberley many, many times, and this is the first I’ve played it; it was a great game, i’d love to play more
- Avery The Reverend (87) – a quadruple that was deliciously sweet and complex
- Alagash Dubbel Reserve (87) – a taste beer from Maine
- Hamburgum (7.4, 159, Mac Gerdts) – i wasn’t quite sure about this one on my first play a month ago (despite beer being one of the resources in the game), but playing it a second time I really came to enjoy, and grok, this one
- North Coast Brother Thelonious (90) – a strong ale from California, named after the Jazz icon
- Tripel Karmeliet (98) – a fabulous belgian tripel
- Ra (7.9, 19, Reiner Knizia) – this multi-round bidding game is nearly 10 years old and a classic
- Lindeman’s Pêche (79) – peach, a standard, but less common lambic flavor
- Lindeman’s Kriek (82) – the classic version of the flavored kriek; cherry
- Traders of Genoa (7.5, 76, Rüdiger Dorn) – we play this one fairly often at Wimberley, this time it was reinforced that the game play can vary drastically depending upon the opponents – there’s deal making afoot
- Recess! (5.4, 3643) – a kids game where you try to steal the lunch money from everyone else while not getting caught by the nuns, getting one of your boys to kiss one of your girls ends the game and earns a bonus
- Keythedral (7.1, 131, Richard Breese) – a game I had to have for the octagonal pieces, generally enjoyed by all
- Las Vegas Showdown (7.4, 116, Henry Stern) – a great build-your-own-casino theme, implemented with a bidding mechanism that’s not too threatening, mean new-comers always enjoy it; lots of fun
- Wits and Wagers (7.2, 175) – a great solution to the party trivia game – bet on everyone’s answers; this one was in constant play last year at BGG.con
- Pandemic (7.9, 29, Matt Leacock) – brand new and hard to find, this game is amazingly fun, even when you perpetually lose; well balanced, it’s a shame it maxes out at 4 people
1 Comment on Memorial Day Weekend: Friends, Beers, and Games
