The Credit Crisis Visualized

I was listening to a popular NY radio show on satellite radio called Opie and Anthony. During one of their shows, they had one of their regulars on…Louis CK…a very funny writer and comedian. They were talking about politics and the credit crisis came up. During the conversation, they were discussing how uninformed most people are on how we got into the economic state we are currently in. Louis mentioned how took time and spent a few minutes looking into how this happened so he himself could understand. I work for a life insurance company, so I had a good understanding, but wanted to find something that I could share with friends and family that would offer a simple explanation. During my search, I came across a very informative and simple explanation of how we got into the economic mess we are in now. My favorite part is how the creator depicts sub-prime mortgages (hilarious). Enjoy and hope anyone who sees this finds it helpful.

http://crisisofcredit.com

Penis Jousting….

Found this article on the WIRED Blog. Needless to say…anything with the phrase “penis jousting”…my curiosity peaks. WIRED was talking about the top 7 animal mating rituals, the most unique was the penis jousting by Flatworms.

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/02/animalcourting.html

I love the fact the “loser” basically becomes the woman of the relationship.

The phrase penis jousting/penis fencing alone will now need to be included in my vernacular, but need to think of some appropriate ways to use the pharse…

• a more heterosexual twist…”Hey honey…after the kids go down, you up for some penis jousting?”

• Or if something bad happens that’s pretty messed up…”damn…i just got penis jousted.”

Hmmm..I’ll keep working on it. This just has such a high potential for some hijinks and hilarity.

Huh? What the…? Hmmmm….

I was listening to a popular radio show and they mentioned a politcal cartoon that was in the NY Post.  

Uhhhhh...what?!?

 

As a minority, I can certainly understand how this may be misinterpreted. Think I will wait too see what type of reaction it gets before I comment. Meanwhile, feel free to make your own interpreation(s).

David after Dentist

This made me laugh so hard. Poor kid…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b8Q5BK3-ZQ

8/8/08

Luck of the Chinese! Holla!

Tattoo

So 13 years after getting my first tattoo, I decided to get another one. So what made me decide this was a good time to get one…a mid-life crisis? Something “missing” in my life? The need to stand out from the crowd?….bzzzzzz…wrong….none of the above! Honestly, my decision was soley based on it was now or never. At 35 and a manager in a highly visible role with a prominent company, the average person would assume that I am the typical cookie cutter conservative that would frown upon such a “nonsensical” whim and “disecrate” my body. Fooled ya! I had been considering it for quite some time now, but wanted to be very selective about what I wanted on my body. After all, if I am putting something that permanent on my body, I want to make sure it was something I could live with. I did quite a bit of research over the years and more during the last 2 to 3 months. I wanted to make sure it was meaningful, as well as represented me and my culture. Being biracial (chinese and black), it was very important that it had some cultural aspects. I chose a phoenix because of it’s blended connotations; elements of my Asian, African and American roots. In Asia the Fenghuang has very positive connotations. It is a symbol of high virtue and grace. The Fenghuang also symbolizes the union of yin and yang. It appears in peaceful and prosperous times but hides when trouble is near. Shan Hai Jing – chapter 1 Nanshan jing records each part of Fenghuang’s body symbolizes a word, the head represents virtue (德), the wing represents duty (義)，the back represents propriety (禮) the abdomen says belief (信) and the chest represents mercy (仁). Interestingly enough, the ancient Egyptians referred to the phoenix as Bennu and was thought to be the soul of the Sun-God Ra, representing creation and renewal. Both certainly describe the constant evolution of me as a person and of my life.

As I researched, I learned some fascinating information. Did you now that Asian culture regards any image of a dragon tattooed on your body is bad luck, but it is okay to represent a dragon in Chinese script?

They say tattoos have an “addictive” nature too them…and I have started scoping out tribal tattoos for a leg sleeve. I also plan to get more work done to my newest tattoo and have my old one touched up…maybe even give it a new look.

iPhone: Apps, Apps and more Apps

So…Apple’s iTunes released their new “App Store” for those of us not willing to drink the Kool-Aid and fork over another $200 (especially with gas prices at $4.00 a gallon).

Instead, they created applications that could downloaded to your “old” iPhone…near 400 applications that range from games to utilities to social networking tools. Now for the braver and more technically savvy individuals, like my friend MacDork, some of these apps could be installed via the original jailbreak that the not so weak at heart were willing try in order to download and use some of the apps you see on iTunes. Certainly there was the risk of “bricking” their phones through the jailbreak, but you were ahead of the curve. So in response, earlier this year Steve Jobs released an SDK for the iPhone in order to create apps for the technically handicapped and the general public use (like my Wifey).

So far, I am pleased with what I have seen and downloaded quite a few apps…

I have added a couple more since I started this post (last week…what can can I say…I’m busy), like Monkey Ball and Aurora Feint. I am also trying to decide between Pandora and Last FM (currently using) for my social networking radio, but have not had anytime to really evaluate them.

Overall…happy with what Apple has done with the iPhone and . One huge complaint is the back-up process. It stinks and takes waaaaaayyy too long. MobileMe will help alleviate that issue, but hopefully Apple will quickly find a solution.

Another Great American Icon …George Carlin died June 23, 2008.

Grammy-award winning comedian George Carlin, best known for his Seven Words You Can Never Say On TV routine, has died of heart failure aged 71. The star was admitted to a hospital in Los Angeles on Sunday with chest pains and died later that day. Jack Burns, Carlin’s comedy partner in the early 1960s, told the Associated Press agency: “He was a genius and I will miss him dearly.”

Carlin performed as recently as last weekend in Las Vegas.
Anti-Establishment icon

The star, who had a history of heart problems, was scheduled to receive the John F Kennedy Center’s prestigious Mark Twain Prize for American Humour in November.

Carlin became known for his unpredictable performances and for pushing boundaries during his 50-year career.
He achieved status as an anti-Establishment icon in the 1970s with his provocative and controversial acts.
His Seven Words routine led to his arrest in 1972 for disturbing the peace after he performed the act at a show in Milwaukee.

Carlin became known for his edgy and provocative performances
The same routine, which was played on a New York radio station, resulted in a Supreme Court ruling in 1978 upholding the government’s authority to sanction stations for broadcasting offensive language.

Carlin produced 23 comedy albums, 14 HBO specials, three books, a couple of TV shows and appeared in several movies.
He also hosted the first broadcast of Saturday Night Live, won four Grammy Awards – each for best spoken comedy album – and was nominated for five Emmys. — http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7468681.stm

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Wow…just on the heels of Tim Russert and similarly, he died of heart related disease. Another great icon who was relevant even at 71. We’ll miss you George…

iPhone 3G

So the announcement of the infamous iPhone 3G was finally confirmed last week making it’s debut at the WWDC 2008. I will not lie…I was hoping that the new iPhone 3G would offer more than just a faster phone and GPS. Needless to say, I was disappointed and other than 3G…pretty much yawned at the new features. Most of the new features are already available for people who took the plunge and hacked their phones. I dropped a line to my boy, MacDork…who agreed it was much ado about nothing. I certainly like the new aesthetics…an area where Apple always seems to make huge strides.

Gizmodo did a nice FAQ regarding the iPhone…check it out.

http://gizmodo.com/5016398/the-iphone-3g-faq

Tim Russert…last of the great journalist

June 13, 2008, 4:51 pm
Washington Mourns Loss of Tim Russert
Susan Davis reports on Russert’s death.

The shock of the untimely death of Tim Russert, host of “Meet the Press,” reverberated across and outside Washington today as the politicians, candidates and pundits who sat across the table from Russert on his popular Sunday morning news show mourned his passing. According to news reports, Russert, 58 years old, died of an apparent heart attack while at work in Washington. (See Tom Brokaw’s news report.)

Tim Russert (Associated Press)
Speaking in Columbus, Ohio, Barack Obama recalled meeting Russert for the first time at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. “He’s somebody who overtime I came to consider not only a journalist but a friend,” Obama told reporters, “There wasn’t a better interviewer in television, a more thoughtful analyzer of politics and he was also one of the finest men I knew, somebody who cared about America, cared about the issues, cared about his family. I am grief stricken with the loss and my thoughts and prayers go out to his family. And I hope that even though Tim is irreplaceable that the standard that he set in his professional life and family life are standards that we’ll all carry with us in our own lives.”

John McCain offered similar remarks, calling Russert “a great journalist and a great American.”

“Tim Russert was at the top of his profession, he was a man of honesty and integrity. He was hard but he was always fair. We miss him,” McCain said. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and we know that Tim Russert leaves a legacy of integrity of the highest level of journalism and we miss him and we will miss him a lot,” he said.

“The momentous nature of this election will not be captured as well without Tim Russert,” said Democratic pollster Peter Hart, who has worked since 1989 with Russert on the Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.

In 1989, Russert coordinated with Al Hunt, then the WSJ’s Washington bureau chief, to form the first media-sponsored poll so that the network and the newspaper would have a public-opinion source independent of the candidates’ own polls. They enlisted one pollster from each party; while the Republican pollsters have changed, Hart continues to conduct the polls.

“It was the first media poll to use outside pollsters and became the standard,” said Hunt, now Washington chief for Bloomberg News, and a longtime friend of Russert. “We put it together seamlessly. In 16 years, we always had fun and never had a disagreement. That’s because he was always right.”

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Damn! One of the last great journalist and a great American. My Sunday mornings will not be the same. Whoever takes over has some gigantic shoes to fill.