Monday 24 September 2012
The Dangers of Home Alone
So I leave my husband to a quiet Sunday as I got out for a 5 and 1/2 hour bottomless-bellini-brunch, and I come home to find a power ballad station on my Pandora account. With a Roxette song Thumbed Up, no less. You just can't trust anyone these days.
Saturday 22 September 2012
Don't believe everything you read in the papers
Deirdre McCloskey on Factual Free-Market Fairness.
But anyone who after the 20th century still thinks that thoroughgoing socialism, nationalism, imperialism, mobilization, central planning, regulation, zoning, price controls, tax policy, labor unions, business cartels, government spending, intrusive policing, adventurism in foreign policy, faith in entangling religion and politics, or most of the other thoroughgoing 19th-century proposals for governmental action are still neat, harmless ideas for improving our lives is not paying attention.
Wednesday 19 September 2012
"No one has the right to a world in which he is never despised."
I like that quote.
"From the standpoint of freedom of speech and the press, a state has no legitimate interest in protecting any or all religions from views distasteful to them which is sufficient to justify prior restraints upon the expression of those views. It is not the business of government in our nation to suppress real or imagined attacks upon a particular religious doctrine, whether they appear in publications, speeches, or motion pictures."
From this article on Reason.
"From the standpoint of freedom of speech and the press, a state has no legitimate interest in protecting any or all religions from views distasteful to them which is sufficient to justify prior restraints upon the expression of those views. It is not the business of government in our nation to suppress real or imagined attacks upon a particular religious doctrine, whether they appear in publications, speeches, or motion pictures."
From this article on Reason.
77/100 is not much
On hold with my health insurers, I do their online Health Assessment and receive a 77/100.
This was lower than I expected, but I guess my BMI throws things off. But what was a true surprise was that the average for my peers is 55/100?! How? It actually makes me wonder at the veracity of people's answers.
To note: there were a total of 5 questions about my eating habits, and 5 pages about emotional and psychological disturbances or problems. Which I also found odd, I mean: perhaps that trembling in your fingers is due to a bad diet rather than stress from work. It's worth investigating anyway.
So I wonder how people answer those questions and if having so many specific questions ups the average of problem answers in those areas.
Thinking about it: perhaps my reply to how much full-fat food I consume affected my score (and everybody else's). There were two separate questions for how much low-fat dairy I consume (none) and how much full-fat (minimum 2 servings a day). This is obvious: I'm underweight and I want as much fat and calcium as I can get from my dairy. And I love dairy. But perhaps this is automatically seen as bad intake by the exam standards?
Milk is good people!
This was lower than I expected, but I guess my BMI throws things off. But what was a true surprise was that the average for my peers is 55/100?! How? It actually makes me wonder at the veracity of people's answers.
To note: there were a total of 5 questions about my eating habits, and 5 pages about emotional and psychological disturbances or problems. Which I also found odd, I mean: perhaps that trembling in your fingers is due to a bad diet rather than stress from work. It's worth investigating anyway.
So I wonder how people answer those questions and if having so many specific questions ups the average of problem answers in those areas.
Thinking about it: perhaps my reply to how much full-fat food I consume affected my score (and everybody else's). There were two separate questions for how much low-fat dairy I consume (none) and how much full-fat (minimum 2 servings a day). This is obvious: I'm underweight and I want as much fat and calcium as I can get from my dairy. And I love dairy. But perhaps this is automatically seen as bad intake by the exam standards?
Milk is good people!
Tuesday 18 September 2012
From "The Fury"
By Salman Rushdie:
"Even anti-Americanism was Americanism in disguise; conceding, as it did, that America was the only game in town."
"Even anti-Americanism was Americanism in disguise; conceding, as it did, that America was the only game in town."
Friday 7 September 2012
Reasons to stay at a job you hate
If ever there was a DumbAgent post that confirmed my world view...
You hate your job. Ok sure, sometimes you try to convince yourself that you don't hate it, but you really do. You wake up with dread, your biggest smile of the day comes from when that idiot colleague you hate trips and falls at the water cooler, you are constantly thinking of what you will do "later", when you have made enough money (never, by the way) or retired (really?) or whenever you think this famous "later" actually is. At which point, by the way, you will have so much pent up frustration and so much to prove to yourself you won't know where to begin.
Why are you there anyway? Because the business card looks nice, your think your peers are impressed, the path was set out for you years ago and God Forbid anything in your life ever change. You have to tick all the right boxes, the ones determined by other people.
Well, read this.
You hate your job. Ok sure, sometimes you try to convince yourself that you don't hate it, but you really do. You wake up with dread, your biggest smile of the day comes from when that idiot colleague you hate trips and falls at the water cooler, you are constantly thinking of what you will do "later", when you have made enough money (never, by the way) or retired (really?) or whenever you think this famous "later" actually is. At which point, by the way, you will have so much pent up frustration and so much to prove to yourself you won't know where to begin.
Why are you there anyway? Because the business card looks nice, your think your peers are impressed, the path was set out for you years ago and God Forbid anything in your life ever change. You have to tick all the right boxes, the ones determined by other people.
Well, read this.
Monday 3 September 2012
Movies
A few movies I saw recently (Netflix, not new releases) and worth a mention.
Swimming with Sharks, with Frank Whaley and Kevin Spacey. Spacey is a Hollywood producer and Whaley is his new assistant. Great viewing, I walked away wowed.
Croupier, a British film with Clive Owen and Alex Kingston. Clive Owen is an aspiring author who takes a job as a croupier at a London casino. You take the mental journey that entails along with him.
Marathon Man, Dustin Hoffman in 1976. You've probably heard of it.
Swimming with Sharks, with Frank Whaley and Kevin Spacey. Spacey is a Hollywood producer and Whaley is his new assistant. Great viewing, I walked away wowed.
Croupier, a British film with Clive Owen and Alex Kingston. Clive Owen is an aspiring author who takes a job as a croupier at a London casino. You take the mental journey that entails along with him.
Marathon Man, Dustin Hoffman in 1976. You've probably heard of it.
Sunday 2 September 2012
DragonCon!
Yesterday was the DragonCon parade, for which I have just one question: why was I not in it??
There was a float at one point with some alien life-forms (I presume from a video game I do not know) spouting about how they have come to earth to take us over. And I'm thinking: what if they really ARE aliens come to earth to take us over? They probably think we are the most welcoming planet in the galaxy.
Hey, it can happen.
Anyway, next year we have to be IN the parade. We have 12 months to think up our costumes. I am torn between Captain Switzerland with side-kick Heidi Heffelfinger (COPYRIGHT) or Flashlight. (you don't know about Flashlight? That's news for another day.) I have spoken with my mother who has confirmed that she is also in, and will work on her Angry Birds costume. I think she just wants to shot-put golf balls at people all day. Who's coming with me?
There was a float at one point with some alien life-forms (I presume from a video game I do not know) spouting about how they have come to earth to take us over. And I'm thinking: what if they really ARE aliens come to earth to take us over? They probably think we are the most welcoming planet in the galaxy.
Hey, it can happen.
Anyway, next year we have to be IN the parade. We have 12 months to think up our costumes. I am torn between Captain Switzerland with side-kick Heidi Heffelfinger (COPYRIGHT) or Flashlight. (you don't know about Flashlight? That's news for another day.) I have spoken with my mother who has confirmed that she is also in, and will work on her Angry Birds costume. I think she just wants to shot-put golf balls at people all day. Who's coming with me?
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