The house two doors down from us is for sale. The house across the street is empty and for sale.
The woman behind us and the woman next door, who was recently laid off, have asked my wife if she knows anything about loan modification . . .
A Case of Honorable Intentions?
My friend G.L. Hoffman sent this to me:
I just want to add that I knocked my wife up on the first try, in case any of my neighbors are reading this . . .
Distributing Useless Information
Intranet teams must stop distributing information and start deleting it. The vast majority of intranets would be far more productive and collaborative if they deleted at least 90 percent of the content they currently have.
Distributing useless information is how you destroy productivity and collaboration.
The Conundrum of Fame
Here’s conundrum of fame, as I see it: It’s always said that if you want to be famous, you must endure criticism. The fabled “trade off”…
…But the whole reason people want to be famous is to be loved. They’re love-addicts. Hating a celeb is like kicking a hemophiliac.
Like I bet Tom Hanks internalizes a shitty remark way more than, say, the HR lady in your office. He’s needy. That’s why he’s Tom Hanks.
All right, enough Psych 101. My Chihuahua looks like Billy Crystal and my Shepherd is Gheorghe Muresan. They need a development deal.
What Kind of Vegetable?
My wife says to the boy, “What kind of vegetable do you want with dinner?”
“Cauliflower,” he says. “What? We don’t have any? That sucks.”
He’s not a big fan of vegetables . . .
Microblog: 2009-04-01
- These are the days of miracle and wonder / And don’t cry baby, don’t cry, don’t cry… #
- Love Southwest ads: “Air…is a 35 dollar…UPgrade.” “I want that!” #
- Seek to move forward toward a particular goal, by biasing your behavior toward action: http://tinyurl.com/5z2rg6 #
Microblog: 2009-03-31
- Do now what must be done eventually and can effectively be done now: http://tinyurl.com/5z2rg6 #
Two Bright Spots in the Recessionary Landscape
I Will Not Try to Reason with Idiots
DOGBERT: From now on, I will not try to reason with the idiots I encounter. I will dismiss them by waving my paw and saying “Bah.”
DILBERT: Just because someone thinks differently from you doesn’t mean he’s an idiot, Dogbert.
DOGBERT (waving his paw): Bah.
Suicide Bombers Have a Union?
Ducks Visit WIHA
The Devil Dogs played in the WIHA tournament in Irvine last weekend, losing in the Bantam AA finals to the Reebok Blades.
Wild Wing, the Ducks mascot, was there.
Two of the Power Players were there too. You can’t see the girl on the right because I’m a bad photographer, but there are better pictures of her here.
My son is the taller boy with the crooked sneer he likes to be photographed with. I hope he outgrows that.
Someone said to me, “I bet you wish that was you in the photo.” I must be getting old because I hadn’t thought of that.
I did get to fist bump the Duck mascot though . . .
Tweets on 2009-03-30
- Offering and accepting only rational, results-oriented behavior and communication: http://tinyurl.com/5z2rg6 #
- Financial collapse shows failure of free markets? http://tinyurl.com/cmoqqw #
- Diners can ‘have a ball’ at testicle festival: http://www.modbee.com/weird/story/645349.html #
- Obama to Back GM Warranties, OnStar Operator Service: http://tinyurl.com/c8k4xz #
- In Fargo, goodwill runs as deep as the river: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29962032 http://tinyurl.com/cw9o89 #
Tweets on 2009-03-29
- The guys who’d starve without Carl’s Jr.? Wouldn’t we be better off without them? #
Tweets on 2009-03-28
- Staccato signals of constant information… #
- At the rink for WIHA tournament #
- FIGHT ON! RT @PeteCarroll: First day of spring ball at SC…. Football is back!! Gotta love it! #
- RT @KathySierra: Dressage Olympian Robert Dover to talented young riders, on focus: “Because U dint have a vision, U created something avg” #
Tweets on 2009-03-27
- RT @presentationzen: NYTimes on learning how to think. http://snipurl.com/enerw [Are you a “hedgehog” or a “fox”?] #
- RT @KathySierra: RT @magdaZINE “math without numbers” http://www.morenewmath.com/all/ #
- Speak always and only when you believe it will improve the general results/effort ratio: http://tinyurl.com/5z2rg6 #
Communication Bandwidth
As I’m writing this article, I’m trying to formulate ideas, understandings, and experiences into words. When you read this article, you try to understand what I’m saying within the context of your experiences. In the process of narrowing my bandwidth to words, and you trying to expand the bandwidth from words to your understanding, a lot is lost. No matter how well I write and you read. And, most of us are not superb writers and readers.
Thomas Jefferson on the Financial Meltdown
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — If anyone could emerge from the AIG bonus debacle looking good, it could be New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.
Cuomo. KWOH-moh. Italian, I suppose.
I have no personal animosity toward Mr. Cuomo, but despite his favorable write-ups in the press, he is certainly no hero in these matters.
Americans have short memories. Even members of the press — or “the media,” as you now call them — who should provide context and perspective, have short memories.
Set the Wayback Machine to 1995. Bill Clinton is president and Henry Cisneros, the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) secretary, institutes a requirement that 42 percent of the mortgages financed by government-sponsored entities (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac serve low- and moderate-income families.
Things only got worse under Cisneros’ successor, Andrew Cuomo:
Cuomo raised that number to 50 percent and dramatically hiked GSE mandates to buy mortgages in underserved neighborhoods and for the “very-low-income.” Part of the pitch was racial, with Cuomo contending that Fannie and Freddie weren’t granting mortgages to minorities at the same rate as the private market. William Apgar, Cuomo’s top aide, told The Washington Post: “We believe that there are a lot of loans to black Americans that could be safely purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac if these companies were more flexible.”
Hey, I’ve got an idea! Let’s put half of the GSE money into mortgages for very low income black people! And let’s not trouble them for a down payment either:
Fannie also developed a “flexible” product line, providing up to 100 percent financing and requiring borrowers to make as little as a $500 contribution, and bought $13.7 billion of those loans in 2003.
And yet I often hear the ensuing financial meltdown being blamed on “greed” and “the evils of capitalism.”
That was not capitalism; that was government manipulation of the housing market.
Americans have very short memories . . .
Overheard
It’s Not All About You
No, but it’s mostly about me . . .
Tweets on 2009-03-26
- It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult. –Seneca #
- The definition for “value” that I recently started using is “what guides us when we have to make a hard decision.” http://tinyurl.com/chzkqp #
- @tweetmeme @smashingmag Reading ‘Designing Drop-Down Menus: Examples and Best Practices’ http://tinyurl.com/dnzeyh #
- Love the Weinerschnitzel vs Carls Jr 2 for $3 chili dog battle. The customer is the true winner! #
- RT @BonnieLowe: Reading “Thirsty plants cn twttr 4 water w/ new device.” nxt it’ll be yr cat tweeting 4 snacks. http://tinyurl.com/dfh8dk #
- RT @KathySierra: Choosing a dog based on breed name is ridiculous, but the coder in me is geekily drawn to: http://tinyurl.com/d3gmkc #
- At Uni High 4 Irvine Band Festival #