Molt Be Blog: 03/01/2005

Thursday, March 31, 2005

I never, ever, thought I'd see Wolfowitz approved as President of the World Bank. Things are really backwards around here.

Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Currently waiting for Graham Coxon (former Blur lead guitarist) to start his set at the blackcat (aka my least favorite venue in the world).
A few things in the news today, that, if I have the time I'll go back and link to later.
1) Johnny Cochran died. This is weird because he didn't look 67 and he didn't look that sick. Let's just say that it was karma. I cam up with the lame line, "if the morgue can wait, you must cremate."
2) They're going to accept wolfowitz as prez of the world bank tomorrow. That's pathetic.
3) Congress is holding weekend meetings regarding individual citizens. I'm scheduled for sometime in 2020. I guess they were always just too busy during the week, so I understand that they hadn't started solving the problems of each person separately until they realized they could spend tax dollars on weekend sessions as well.

Saturday, March 26, 2005

This is weird and interesting.

Friday, March 25, 2005

My company is consolidating all of its DC offices into our office space this weekend. In a very office-space-like moment, everyone is moving cubicles. I'm moving to a new cubicle ten feet away. Someone I work with is moving into my cubicle... why they didn't just move her to where I'm moving, I'll never understand. There are several good results of this move. I'm going to be much closer to the door, kitchen, bathroom and will be able to see a window if I stand up. Granted, the bottom half of the window is frosted over, but I can gaze skyward as much as I want to stare at the big antennas on top of the roofs of other buildings. Another good outcome is that the movers are coming at noon today, which means that I get to wear jeans to work and only have to be there until noon. Hot dang, that's a free half day.
R and I are going out to Frederick, MD to dogsit for her boss' great dane this weekend. They have no internet access out there, but they do have horses and ponies Must remember to charge blackberry and see if at least that works. Trouble is I also have to go see interpol in DC tonight, so it's a drive out there to drop R off, a drive back in and then a drive back out on Sat. morning.
Ok, off to work for me.

Saturday, March 19, 2005

For a relaxing experience I recommend the fly guy.

Thursday, March 17, 2005

It's tiny, it's endless world's smallest website

Wednesday, March 16, 2005

Random, random thought: If life starts at conception, shouldn't babies be dubbed 9months old at birth?

Finally, with IBM's new tremor-resistant mouse I can use the mouse when I've got the shakes. That's a bad joke, but an amusing story.
And this Wolfowitz nomination for World Bank President is too absurd for words.

An article yesterday in the Washington post concerning intelligent design made me start thinking about it again. The idea behind the theory is basically this: human beings are so complex that they could not have just occurred randomly as evolution proposes, but that something must have designed us. Some might start with the analogy of a watch and a watchmaker when trying to explain the theory. "Can you imagine a watch just occurring in nature? No. It had to have a maker," they'll say.
There was a much more in depth article on this topic in the October, 2004 issue of Wired, that also mentioned how proponents of this theory are trying to have it inserted into school curriculums along side evolution as an alternative theory. Of course, proponents also argue that they're not trying to insert religion into schools and will skirt around questions aimed and who or what was intelligent enough to design such complicated things.
Two questions which have popped up in my mind (and I don't recall how much these are due to having read stuff or if I actually came up with them myself) are:

Who designed the designer? Any being that is able to design something so complex as us must be so complex that it must have a designer itself, right? It would seem that intelligent design is more of an argument for an infinite number of more and more intelligent designers.

If this intelligent designer was so intelligent, why do we all have an appendix and bad knees? Honestly, we're not built the best. This was not a very intelligent watchmaker. We're like Casios down here. Except for some Rolexes (supermodels) and Calculator watches (nerds).

Tuesday, March 15, 2005

Five Unmatched Socks

Nothing says doing laundry like five unmatched socks. I didn't even know that I owned this many different types, but here they are. Now, you might be thinking that #s 1 and 2 are actually a match, but if you look closely, the elastic at the top of #2 is much wider than #1. Infuriating? Yes. Amusing? Slightly... for you. I managed to find matches to #s 1,2, and 5 in the bottom of a drawer, but 3 and 4 have proven quite independent. Perhaps its time for them to strike out on their own. What's the addage "If you love it, set it free"? Well here's their chance.

Monday, March 14, 2005

Uh oh

Saturday, March 12, 2005

I'm selfishly republishing an email that I wrote to my grandpa because I forgot to save it on the blackberry and have to save space, so I'll save it here:

------------------------------
Hi to Greg!

What is your solution to the social security tax "problem"? My
immediate problem is income tax so I'm turning in to snooze on it!!!

Love,

Grandpa

------------------------------
Grandpa,
They're actually supposed to talk about president Bush's social security “solution” this morning on Meet the Press, which I'm watching right now. This is, of course, after they do a quick discussion on the not so important topic of steroids in baseball.
My solution to the social security “problem” is based around the fact that social security doesn't have much of a problem. It might run out in 40 years, but allowing people to gamble a percentage of their paycheck in the stock market seems like more of a gift to wall street and the companies that they invest in than a solution.
I think there should be a new advertising campaign and some new marketing for the current social security system. Basically, it will be a “reminder” campaign whose purpose is to reinform people that social security is not meant to be a retirement plan for everyone, but for those who could not afford to save for their own retirement. A reminder that Social Security is not a govt. retirement plan, but a safety net. Given the way that Bush talks about social security, folks could easily lose sight of its intended purpose, since his plan appears to be tiny, govt. regulated 401ks for everybody. Can you imagine the reaction of red state voters if you told them that Bush's plan was really government regulated retirement with an increased risk of being broke when you retire?
What people really need to realize is that they just need to start saving their own money for retirement and think of social security as a bonus for them and a charitable contribution for those that weren't able to save money for themselves (though, I wish their were ways to differentiate between people who couldn't afford to save and those that were wasteful). A good idea would be to increase the caps on social security taxes, which according to the tv here only taxes the first $90,000 of someone's income. Good luck seeing Bush ever raise that one!
Overall, I think that people are talking way too much about something that is really a distraction form real social problems in this country like corporate control of the government and environmental policy, the lack of a real health care system, and an education system that favors those who can afford to live in wealthy school districts. I imagine that fixing some of these problems might lead to a country with more people prepared for retirement.
Are you and grandma worried about social security? I forget that you're already retired sometimes with all the piano tuning!

Talk to you soon,
Greg

PS - They just ran a pro-bush social security plan commercial after Meet the Press, which showed the true hypocrisy of the Bush plan. It starts by showing graphics explaining that when social security was created, there were 16 workers' wages supporting one retiree, that currently there are 3 workers supporting one retiree and that soon it will be just two. I find it very strange that after outlining “personal retirement accounts” very quickly, they don't show the graphic depicting the resulting ONE worker funding ONE retiree, which I think is what Bush is really proposing. Ha!

Friday, March 11, 2005

Wow, Something New

I'm feeling a little less sick, but have to wear a suit to work today... which is making me really not want to go. This generosity index is really neat. It ranks all of the states in terms of the average amount that people earn and the average amount that they give to charitable institutions. DC isn't on there, so I can't brag. But philanthropy isn't supposed to be about bragging anyway, right? The list is kind of confusing when you see a lot of states that you were just sure were full of greedy republicans ranked high for generosity (a calculation based on those who have the least and give the most). Reading the FAQs, one realizes that their numbers are from from tax return deductions and thus, are based on what the US government considers to be charitable contributions, including church and other religious group donations. Hence, why Utah is so high up on the list. What with the Mormon giving addiction and all. Dang, time to go to work.

Tuesday, March 08, 2005

Sick

Ambulance LTD at the Black Cat on March 5th

The Secret Machines at the 930 Club on March 4th

I've been home sick for the first time in a year and a half for the past two days. It's not that I go to work sick a lot, it's that I just don't normally get sick. It may have had something to do with going to concerts on Friday and Saturday night and having my mom and sister in town, but I won't blame them... much. We all went and saw The Secret Machines on Friday. It was incredible. One of the top five shows I've seen in the past year. I'd put it up there with The Arcade Fire, The Beta Band and Snow Patrol. Saturday night we saw Ambulance LTD at the Black Cat, which is downright the crappiest venue ever. Low ceilings, way too much smoke, and the acoustics aren't that super either. Not a great place for a show. Ambulance still put on a really good show, despite the venue, but it paled in comparison to The Secret Machines the night before.
Ok, time to go crawl onto the couch to see if my fever will go away.

Friday, March 04, 2005

Coffee

If the quality of coffee were measured by the distance it had traveled, this morning I would be drinking an even better cup. This stuff was brought to me by R's dad when he came back from Sweden. It's got Swedish written all over it with its å's and whatnot. The beans for the coffee, however, came from central America (specifically, Brazil and Columbia). Thus, the beans had to travel overseas to Sweden before being ground up and bagged and brought to me. Twice over the Atlantic is quite a trek, but I'd like to try some Coffee from Hong Kong or Australia that was grown in Columbia or Peru. Unfortunately, there was only a drop of milk left this morning, so as soon as such a small amount hit my hot coffee it curdled into a million pieces. If I still had the camera out, I'd take a picture, but I'm late enough for work as it is.
My mom and sister come to visit this weekend and I'm picking them up immediately after work, which reminds me. I forgot to blow up the air mattress. Without the pump, it takes quite some time and gives one a huge head rush. I'll look forward to doing that this evening, then.
The four of us are all going out to see The Secret Machines [turn speakers down if you're going to click on that], which should be nice and loud.

Sad

Tuesday, March 01, 2005

Uh-oh. Looks like an upcoming thinning of the herd thanks to bird-flu. [link]

Amazing that the constitution can be interpreted so differently depending on who nominated one to be a Supreme Court justice, but at least they can still make good judgments. You'd think that today would be a happy day for right-to-lifers, but that would be way too logical. Either way, I wholeheartedly approve of the Supreme Court's decision to effectively ban the execution of minors and the mentally retarded. If only they could rule the same way on all executions. It's a good thing I approve too, as Rehnquist and Scalia are always calling to ask my opinion.