"Wait a minute, that's your big secret? Alcohol? ... But isn't that just a temporary solution?"
"It's only temporary if you stop drinking."
-- Two And A Half Men.
...Written by bitter writer Chuck Lorre*. I like it a lot, but still miss his earlier show, Dharma and Greg, for which Jenna Elfman deservedly won an Emmy.
* His writing is not bitter. Except for his "vanity cards", which are inserted in a split second after each show. He is relentlessly bitter about his life. Although it may actually mainly be an attempt at humor. Of course he surely would not make the jokes like that if there were no truth at all to it.
Oooh, you gotta love Wikipedia, I just found out that while season 2 of D&G has not been released in the US, it has been in much of the rest of the world, and I'm getting it. The same thing happened recently, I thought season 2 of People Like Us did not exist, but it had actually been released in Australia, so on to eBay Australia I went, and got it. God bless the Internet and Wikipedia.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
What kind of girl
"What would you say if I offered you a hundred thousand to have sex with me?"
"Your place or mine?"
"Actually I have a cash flow issue this week. How does a hundred sound?"
"What kind of girl do you think I am?!"
"We've already established that, now we are haggling over price."
---------
Isn't it funny that most people would be offended if you offered them money for sex? Most of them already do things five days a week that they wouldn't do if they were not paid. What's the big difference?
"Your place or mine?"
"Actually I have a cash flow issue this week. How does a hundred sound?"
"What kind of girl do you think I am?!"
"We've already established that, now we are haggling over price."
---------
Isn't it funny that most people would be offended if you offered them money for sex? Most of them already do things five days a week that they wouldn't do if they were not paid. What's the big difference?
Good times/bad times
I'm always struck by the fact that pundits universally proclaim times of rising real estate prices as "good times" and falling ones as "bad times".
Sure, rising prices are great for banks, for sellers, and for builders. But they are surely not great for buyers, especially not first time buyers. In much of the world right now, young buyers have simply been priced out of the market.
If the price of bread was rising 15% per year, it would be proclaimed a big crisis. But when it's real estate, that's somehow considered a big party.
Another thing which is striking is how little historical awareness pundits display, either by ignorance or duplicity. There are never more than 20 years between big falls in the real estate market (or any other market), and yet when trends are upwards, the feeling always seem to be that these Golden Days will continue forever. It's stupid and dangerous, it creates bubbles and "hard landings" as the Danes call them. This behaviour goes back to the Tulip Bubble in 1637!
Hans Lysglimt talking about markets. Relevant for stock owners.
The Danish economist Svend Jørgen Svensen says that the last real credit market crunch in the USA was in 1929, and that this was, along with a housing market crisis, actually what led to the more famous stock market crisis. Spooky.
Sure, rising prices are great for banks, for sellers, and for builders. But they are surely not great for buyers, especially not first time buyers. In much of the world right now, young buyers have simply been priced out of the market.
If the price of bread was rising 15% per year, it would be proclaimed a big crisis. But when it's real estate, that's somehow considered a big party.
Another thing which is striking is how little historical awareness pundits display, either by ignorance or duplicity. There are never more than 20 years between big falls in the real estate market (or any other market), and yet when trends are upwards, the feeling always seem to be that these Golden Days will continue forever. It's stupid and dangerous, it creates bubbles and "hard landings" as the Danes call them. This behaviour goes back to the Tulip Bubble in 1637!
Hans Lysglimt talking about markets. Relevant for stock owners.
The Danish economist Svend Jørgen Svensen says that the last real credit market crunch in the USA was in 1929, and that this was, along with a housing market crisis, actually what led to the more famous stock market crisis. Spooky.
Out of the mouths of babes
Translated from Danish by Eolake
In a nursing home the teeth are loose. They take them out at night and replace them in the morning. And pray.
Camilla, 6
Grandmas have very big bras. I can sit in one shell and my brother in the other.
Kaja, 7
The best thing about grandpa is that he is himself, he doesn't pretend to be some kind of normal person.
Magnus, 6
If a man says "I love you" to an old woman she becomes furious, because she's tired of hearing about it.
Amalie, 7
When you die you go to Paris.
Line, 6
God is just damn good.
Julie, 6
God is a soft man, he is almost transparent.
Kate, 6
God owns the sun. He turns it off at night because of the environment.
Nicoline, 5
God's mother is called Godmother. She is mother to all his children: Jesus, Moses, and Santa.
Henrik, 7
Being an angel is womens' work.
Anna, 9
Boy aren't like angels, not even when they smile.
Cornelia, 7
In Paradise they use greenery for underwear.
Therese, 7
If you kneel and beg in front of the priest, he'll give you a biscuit.
Frida, 6
I have a dog who believes in God.
Ida, 5
Reeza doesn't believe in God, he believes in Allan.
Kate, 6
When you die they put you in the ground, and the priest says "earth to earth, and stay there", and pours dirt on your head.
Hans Petter, 9
In a nursing home the teeth are loose. They take them out at night and replace them in the morning. And pray.
Camilla, 6
Grandmas have very big bras. I can sit in one shell and my brother in the other.
Kaja, 7
The best thing about grandpa is that he is himself, he doesn't pretend to be some kind of normal person.
Magnus, 6
If a man says "I love you" to an old woman she becomes furious, because she's tired of hearing about it.
Amalie, 7
When you die you go to Paris.
Line, 6
God is just damn good.
Julie, 6
God is a soft man, he is almost transparent.
Kate, 6
God owns the sun. He turns it off at night because of the environment.
Nicoline, 5
God's mother is called Godmother. She is mother to all his children: Jesus, Moses, and Santa.
Henrik, 7
Being an angel is womens' work.
Anna, 9
Boy aren't like angels, not even when they smile.
Cornelia, 7
In Paradise they use greenery for underwear.
Therese, 7
If you kneel and beg in front of the priest, he'll give you a biscuit.
Frida, 6
I have a dog who believes in God.
Ida, 5
Reeza doesn't believe in God, he believes in Allan.
Kate, 6
When you die they put you in the ground, and the priest says "earth to earth, and stay there", and pours dirt on your head.
Hans Petter, 9
The marketing of fear
Update: a quite funny speech by Seth Godin, video.
The marketing of fear, post by Seth Godin. I like that guy, he has the big picture.
Another good one of his, which links into my own old money article.
Also Seth's: the intelligent "clowd".
And a good one on email etiquette. (Hmm, it's starting to look like I should just have pointed you to Seth's blog in general. This is unusually high signal/noise ratio.)
Golddurnit, another one, related to one of my pet peeves: that ebooks are priced like paper books, despite radically reduced cost of production and distribution. And also about old industries committing slow suicide by fighting new media instead of using them.
Audio interview.
The marketing of fear, post by Seth Godin. I like that guy, he has the big picture.
Another good one of his, which links into my own old money article.
Also Seth's: the intelligent "clowd".
And a good one on email etiquette. (Hmm, it's starting to look like I should just have pointed you to Seth's blog in general. This is unusually high signal/noise ratio.)
Golddurnit, another one, related to one of my pet peeves: that ebooks are priced like paper books, despite radically reduced cost of production and distribution. And also about old industries committing slow suicide by fighting new media instead of using them.
Audio interview.
iPhone pricing
The new iPhone can be considered to be more expensive, not cheaper, because subscription rates have gone up.
"The Reality Distortion Field is starting to wear off, and I'm getting a bad feeling about the iPhone 3G. Don't get me wrong - my complaint isn't about the iPhone 3G itself or how much it costs, but about how much more it will end up costing U.S. customers than the original iPhone thanks to higher monthly fees, and how Apple and AT&T are hiding that price increase from potential customers. (It appears that things are different in other countries, where plans for the iPhone 3G are little changed.)"
"The Reality Distortion Field is starting to wear off, and I'm getting a bad feeling about the iPhone 3G. Don't get me wrong - my complaint isn't about the iPhone 3G itself or how much it costs, but about how much more it will end up costing U.S. customers than the original iPhone thanks to higher monthly fees, and how Apple and AT&T are hiding that price increase from potential customers. (It appears that things are different in other countries, where plans for the iPhone 3G are little changed.)"
Monday, June 16, 2008
Canon 40D
The Canon 40D has become really cheap recently. Under $1000/£600! I am not sure why, it seems unlikely that it is about to be replaced.
[Video review. tOP post about it. Text review.]
It's a great deal, because it's not out of line to consider it a professional camera, for example it can take 6.5 pictures per second, which is very capable indeed. And it has rubber sealing for weather proofing and interchangeable focusing screens, both of which are features traditionally reserved for professional cameras.
It is not totally inconceivable that the 40D may be replaced soon, but that would be very early for Canon, who usually has an 18-month cycle, and this one is from August 2007. More likely is that a replacement for the full frame Canon 5D might come soon, which may have a very powerful low-light capability. But such a camera, of course, is sure to be over twice the price of the 40D.
The 40D is a much more capable camera than the 400D or 450D, but the latters are not at all bad, and much smaller and lighter:
... The D40 (still on the right) is dwarfed by the D1 Canons, though...
Good companions to the 40D are the new image-stablized zooms, the 18-55mm and the 55-250mm. Both are low-weight and economical lenses with high image quality. (Be sure to get the IS versions. Not only is IS invaluable, but they are sharper too.)
Paul said:
Excuse my ignorance, what´s the meaning of IS?
"Image Stabilization". It means it has a mechanism which counteracts the shaking of your hands so you can use longer exposure times, and thus shoot in lower light. It's very effective.
Other manifacturers have other terms for it, Nikon calls it "Vibration Reduction" and Sony calls it "anti-shake", etc.
[Video review. tOP post about it. Text review.]
It's a great deal, because it's not out of line to consider it a professional camera, for example it can take 6.5 pictures per second, which is very capable indeed. And it has rubber sealing for weather proofing and interchangeable focusing screens, both of which are features traditionally reserved for professional cameras.
It is not totally inconceivable that the 40D may be replaced soon, but that would be very early for Canon, who usually has an 18-month cycle, and this one is from August 2007. More likely is that a replacement for the full frame Canon 5D might come soon, which may have a very powerful low-light capability. But such a camera, of course, is sure to be over twice the price of the 40D.
The 40D is a much more capable camera than the 400D or 450D, but the latters are not at all bad, and much smaller and lighter:
... The D40 (still on the right) is dwarfed by the D1 Canons, though...
Good companions to the 40D are the new image-stablized zooms, the 18-55mm and the 55-250mm. Both are low-weight and economical lenses with high image quality. (Be sure to get the IS versions. Not only is IS invaluable, but they are sharper too.)
Paul said:
Excuse my ignorance, what´s the meaning of IS?
"Image Stabilization". It means it has a mechanism which counteracts the shaking of your hands so you can use longer exposure times, and thus shoot in lower light. It's very effective.
Other manifacturers have other terms for it, Nikon calls it "Vibration Reduction" and Sony calls it "anti-shake", etc.
Small is the new Big
I am listening to the audio version of Small Is The New Big by Seth Godin. It's totally excellent. Chock-full of provocative ideas and concepts for entrepreneurs. Warmly recommended.
One of the many things Seth takes up is that if your company has a need to engage in disingenuous marketing, that's a bad sign. If you have to trick people into buying your product, what does that say about it, or you? How about this for an example? (The popcorn has been added low on a Snopes page.)
One of the many things Seth takes up is that if your company has a need to engage in disingenuous marketing, that's a bad sign. If you have to trick people into buying your product, what does that say about it, or you? How about this for an example? (The popcorn has been added low on a Snopes page.)
Drawn Together
So I'm about done with Drawn Together season three. It's filthy, amoral, immoral, and patently offensive. Gotta love it.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Poor construction
Phun fotographers fotos
Phun fotographers fotos.
See, these are some positions which can be avoided with cameras with tiltable screens:
I like the expression on the cow's face:
See, these are some positions which can be avoided with cameras with tiltable screens:
I like the expression on the cow's face:
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