jablanca

My grandma just sent me this in an email.....man it takes me back. Life was once a simpler time.
A picture of me and my brother in Chicago, obviously I am the one on the right. This picture really blows me away...I find Sean's face hilarious, the bunny ears (back when they were funny) and my giant head.

This TV ad is seriously one of the dumbest I've seen. First of all, the idea that Americans are too stupid to understand foreign words that have been ingrained in our culture is insulting. And second of all, at the end they talk about Dunkin Donut's lattes. Hello? Latte is Italian for milk? Someone needs to bitch slap some intelligence into their ad department.

President Bush busts a move. Classic white guy dancing! But actually, Africa is one of the places that Bush is the most popular, not that that's saying much.

This summer, request for your employer to pay you in Euros. They probably won't go for it, but if you didn't know, the Euro is at an all-time high, and it probably is overvalued right now, but permanent shifts are causing the change, not temporarily economic weakness. Including, not limited to, the increasing use of Euros as a reserve currency, Euroization of oil, etc.

Political statisticians are predicting this is going to be a "ground-breaking" year where youth vote really makes a huge difference, citing Obama and Clinton's appeal to youth voters. They even came up with a phrase, the "youthquake." This is a crock of shit. They've been saying that every election for the last 48 years, and nothing's changed. When election day comes, youth vote percentage's will be about the same as the last few elections. Predicted.

With the whole sub-prime crisis deal going on, banks, and politicians from both sides of the aisle are calling for a bailout. There's a lot of reasons why they shouldn't, but the basic idea is this- These loans are being made to people who should never have gotten them. A bailout only rewards continued risky and stupid behavior by banks and irresponsible behavior by homeowners. Good comment by a UofR economist here. (Warning: it's fairly intellectually-stimulating)

Also, in regards to the sub-prime mortgage, another simple fact. Housing prices have risen way too much recently, it's been ridiculous pretty much anywhere in the country but Upstate NY. So it's a simple market correction, after a lot of speculation, it's time for prices to come down. It'll take some time because housing is not as liquid (easy to trade) as much as money, stocks, or general property.

So, this is roughly the dimensions of my room, as it was set up last semester back when I had a roommate. I no longer have a roommate, he graduated. So, tell me, what do you think would be the best setup for space, or chillness? The beds can be bunked. The door at the top right opens to the outside, the door in the bottom right opens to the bathrooms. I don't use the closets too much, so I'm not too concerned with them being blocked. Recommendations?


Oh yeah, there's two shelf things over the desk on the right and over the bed/fridge on the left side, about 4' up.

Comedians I now dislike-
Stephen Colbert
Dane Cook (He was funny for a bit but now I think he's incredibly lame and obnoxious)

Comedians I like-
Jon Stewart
Jerry Seinfeld (I love his standup)
Bill Maher (Probably my 2nd favorite political commentator just behind Stewart)

Over this weekend I read Stephen Colbert's book, "I am America: And so can you." It was not very funny, nowhere close to Stewart's book, in fact, it was not worth reading. But it's not just his book, I've been Colberted out. I realize I don't really like to watch his show, after 10minutes or so he ceases to be funny. The Daily Show, on the other hand, I find hilarious still. Jon Stewart's a genius. Bill Maher is about as funny as Jon Stewart and much less politically correct, which resulted in him getting canned occasionally. On a side note, Ann Coulter is speaking at Tulane tonight. I can't stand her at all.

In music, I downloaded In Rainbows by Radiohead last week. For those of you who don't read the news, they've gotten a lot of attention because since they are not signed to a record label, they released their album online, and you pay what you want, including free. I paid $5 for it, whIch is a lot more than they'd receive if they released it through a record label on CD. Supposedly they've made 6-10 million in just this week alone. I think it's a fresh departure from the shitty business model of the incredibly stupid recording industry.

The album is awesome. If you like Radiohead, you will really like this CD. Well done, with nice variances in the musical style. Like all of Radiohead's music, it's pretty mellow and chill. Check it out at www.inrainbows.com