Sometimes there is no silver lining

Because I read this via Cafe Hayek, that is the link that I will post to Steve Horwitz' Facebook update about the broken window fallacy.

If you think Sandy is “good for the economy,” you are hereby remanded to my Econ 100 class (and ordered to read endless Bastiat) and I expect to see you cheering the next disaster that kills people because it boosts the demand for funeral homes and cemeteries.

Disasters, whether natural or social, DESTROY WEALTH AND MAKE US WORSE OFF. Period. End of sentence. There is NO “silver lining.” The economy would be BETTER OFF HAD SANDY NEVER HAPPENED. Got it?

NY Highlights

(Some mentioned in vid below as well)

• Seeing a friend for the first time since the 2nd grade
• Nadya's oyster adventure and pleasure
• Meeting Polski jr
• the HighLine
• Confusing Comme des Garcons with an art gallery
• Frantically searching for chicken on the vegetarian restaurant menu
• SLEEP-OVER! 
• a newly-wed's enthusiasm 
• turning my friend in to a human camouflage chair

The Jjimjilbang

An evening at the Korean Spa.

These are slightly different from a spa in way I knew the word. This is a 24 hour facility with a variety of saunas, jacuzzis, a pool, a gym and even a nail salon. They offer a variety of treatments, including what is apparently a fairly typical body scrub - all with fully natural ingredients (the scrub, for example, is just salt and oil).

There are three jacuzzis: hot, warm and cold (I did not try the cold one), and 7 or 8 saunas, each with different healing or restorative properties, as well as designs, essence and themes.

The room looked like this:

And that is all I have time for but I will wrap up with an: "I Liked!"

Lingua Sapiens - this week's DA post

Language goes from slang, to lingua franca, to dying dialect. 

We mentioned before that languages are not static, but evolving entities. Frisian became Anglo-Saxon became old English became Shakespearian English became British English became American English (possibly skipping British English in this particular case).

So the fact is, language is still evolving.

Read More here... 

More 'Murican Food

First off: I express my appreciation for being able to eat dinner outdoors, two nights running, in October. The second half of October. *yay*

Now, on to Fox Brothers BBQ. Here are our appetizers, what they call their Texas Fries and the Tomminator. These were half portions. Of appetizers.
The mains came, of course, with two sides and bread. Sides included things like Fox-A-Roni, Brisket Chilli and much more (look it up).

Preceded by drinks at Victory, which offers specials like the jack & coke slushie and the Root Canal; and followed by cigars at Highland Cigar Shop, which included a drink of 30-day cinnamon, vanilla, clove and orange rind infused vodka.

Life remains good.

Not a click away

This, and every other reaction I have seen in actual Ugandan or nearby sources.

The children of Uganda were never invisible to their families and communities, who long before the first flood of NGO’s to the region, worked for years to protect them. To claim they were invisible because a group of college students traveling through Uganda happened to stumble upon a war they were too ignorant to have known of before going to the region is, to put it mildly, patronizing.
...
The most common defense of Kony 2012 is that it raises awareness. This is the new activist model – to raise awareness through the power of our celebrities. In the context of African politics, both awareness and the answers to the challenges of violence, governance and development are yours to grasp in the time it takes to watch a sitcom. The problems and the lives affected by these are simplified beyond recognition, and since the problems are simple, so must be the solutions.

So bad it was great

That's what happened at a Digital Atlanta session the other night.

The subject matter seemed relevant to my work and I was looking forward to it. The speaker I think was bored with the whole thing. She sat in her chair resting her chin in her hand as she spoke, staring at her screen. She went through the slides and read them, and that was about it.

After 30 minutes Anita and I slid out, as we had to stop the pain, and went to grab dinner and a well-deserved glass of wine. And as we sat there laughing and complaining about how poor the presentation was, we started mentioning all the other things the presenter could have mentioned and next thing you know we're having a brilliant brainstorming session.

So thank you bad presenter for a very effective evening.

Gamify Me

I just learned about Gamification. In particular in fitness, where it is easily applied too. But can you see it? You track your fitness activities, you get badges and points for various outcomes. It is social, so you are seeing your friends' progress and they see yours. They can challenge you too: say you plan to take 3 Zumba classes this week. A friend of yours challenges that saying you won't do it, so if you do, you get extra points. (I'm sure with little thought we can get much more interesting than that, but you get my point).

Korean Film Festival

It is the first ever Korean Film Festival in Atlanta, taking place at four cinemas: 2 in town, one in Sandy Springs and on in Athens.

So yesterday evening I found myself at the Landmark Midtown Cinema to see The King and the Clown, a 2005 film which proved very popular in Korea.

The film takes place at the turn of the 16th century, about traveling minstrels during the reign of Yeonsan-gun. You can barely watch this film without thinking HAMLET! (remember the Charlton Heston scene in Kenneth Branaugh's film version of the play?)

That's all I will say. Go see it. I enjoyed it.

Speaking o movies I finally saw Margin Call, which you - whoever you are - must also go see. This is a good film.

My tennis racket bit me

And then I looked like this:

It wasn't pretty. 

But evening tennis was, very. 

This weekend was Flux Night in Castleberry Hill, where I can successfully banish any regrets - assuming they ever appeared - I might have felt for leaving the art world. Apart from the fact that it's a constant laugh. 

This is a great event. A proper street party with parades, live music, DJs, performance art, installations and all the local art galleries open late. And even Coffee-Bean-Chocolate-Popcorn. 

But now: Korean Film Festival. The King & The Clown here we come. 

Update: At Flux Night we made art: http://gifninja.com/animated-gifs/331558/d/a2ef634a

Reunifications of various sorts

Today is German Unification Day. It is also Gebhardt-Brizi Unification day, as we got married three years ago. Within this parallel Giuseppe has decided I am East Germany. So that's how well my husband knows me.

He is actually actually calling me East Germany all day long.

On a totally unrelated note, I want to point out one thing from the past weekend: Inman Park Restaurant Week. I would like more neighbourhoods in Atlanta to have a restaurant week and please let me know in advance so I can book tables.

Ok I want to point out two things from the weekend: Looper. How sci-fi should be. (And I don't just mean with Joseph Gordon-Levitt).