Via Bloomberg, the US government now pays more for credit than several other bonds. This means that investors see Berkshire Hathaway, Lowe's, Proctor and Gamble, and Johnson and Johnson as safer bets fro getting their money back than the US government. Think abut that for a moment. The nation's debt is starting to loom, and the latest vote has added an enormous burden to it over time. Or at least that's how the financial world sees it. The US is in danger of losing it's AAA bond rating from Moody's. Treasuries may no longer be the go-to conservative investment.
I'm really hoping that this will cause some sort of fiscal restraint to enter into the political mindset before there's a real problem. I'm not optimistic though. As long as politicians can promise benefits now and payments later, that is what they will do.
Mar 22, 2010
Mar 18, 2010
The genius of genius
I know, I'm late to the party, especially considering that I work at the Apple store, but I have just discovered genius playlists on iTunes. They're pretty amazing, I've been really impressed with how they work. I kept putting off activating the genius feature because my music library is so huge these days (170.5 gigs and growing). It took forever for it to go through everything, I eventually let it run when I went to bed and it was ready in the morning.
It came up with 12 different mixes from my library, punk, indie rock, alternative pop/rock, new wave, classic rock, alt singer/songwriter, classic R&B, mainstream rock, jazz, folk, and classical. I have serious issues with the names of a couple of the mixes. I loathe the moniker "alternative" when applied to rock music but I understand that it is a commonly used category. They have a much different definition of "New Wave" than I do and Blink 182 and Pearl Jam are poor choices for "punk" music IMO especially considering how much actual punk music I have.
If I ignore the naming conventions I really enjoy the mixes themselves. I think that this works better with really large collections, I probably could have put together mixes just as good but it would have taken me forever. As it is, I can start any of these mixes and really enjoy it.
It also does a good job of making a mix based off of a single song. I've saved a jazz mix on my itunes library and I fooled around with it on my iPod to good effect.
Of course whenever you have an automated system to pick out music there will be errors. I've had a couple of howlers so far. No, I really did burst out in laughter when these things came up. That jazz mix I mentioned is a great collection of mostly hard bop and scat singing. Inexplicably, it also put in "I will Follow Him" by little Peggy March. A quality pop tune, but it has no relation to jazz at all. The best one so far made my roommate knock on my door to see if I was alright. I was listening to the "punk" mix when a Celia Cruz song came on. My reaction was so loud that he worried about me.
Anyway, I'm having a blast and I highly recommend giving genius a try in iTunes.
It came up with 12 different mixes from my library, punk, indie rock, alternative pop/rock, new wave, classic rock, alt singer/songwriter, classic R&B, mainstream rock, jazz, folk, and classical. I have serious issues with the names of a couple of the mixes. I loathe the moniker "alternative" when applied to rock music but I understand that it is a commonly used category. They have a much different definition of "New Wave" than I do and Blink 182 and Pearl Jam are poor choices for "punk" music IMO especially considering how much actual punk music I have.
If I ignore the naming conventions I really enjoy the mixes themselves. I think that this works better with really large collections, I probably could have put together mixes just as good but it would have taken me forever. As it is, I can start any of these mixes and really enjoy it.
It also does a good job of making a mix based off of a single song. I've saved a jazz mix on my itunes library and I fooled around with it on my iPod to good effect.
Of course whenever you have an automated system to pick out music there will be errors. I've had a couple of howlers so far. No, I really did burst out in laughter when these things came up. That jazz mix I mentioned is a great collection of mostly hard bop and scat singing. Inexplicably, it also put in "I will Follow Him" by little Peggy March. A quality pop tune, but it has no relation to jazz at all. The best one so far made my roommate knock on my door to see if I was alright. I was listening to the "punk" mix when a Celia Cruz song came on. My reaction was so loud that he worried about me.
Anyway, I'm having a blast and I highly recommend giving genius a try in iTunes.
Mar 12, 2010
The stuff that dreams are made of
I've had some unusually vivid dreams the last couple of nights. In one of them, I was essentially on a date with Danica Patrick. It was actually very pleasant. I was with her as she talked about racing to kids and answered their questions. Even when bad things happened (her car fell into a well) she was philosophical and good natured ("I probably would have wrecked it anyway...") We then went to a neighborhood cook out and socialized and enjoyed ourselves. This dream was a little odd in that I don't follow racing at all and probably know her more from her Go Daddy adds than anything else. Anyway, it was a nice dream, Danica, if you're reading this, let's try that for real! LOL.
This morning was different. It started out with me at work unable to help a couple out. I just could not think, I would stare at the computer and nothing would cross my mind at all. It's one of the uglier side effects of MS, the dreaded brain cloud. Everyone was getting frustrated and I left. I found myself in an older, industrial town that I assumed was Binghamton NY. I figured that I'd visit my grandmother since I was there, but I was having trouble finding her house. I kept thinking that if I could just get to the next block over I would have my bearings again, so I decided that cutting through one of the buildings to get to the other side would be a good idea. I went into one, quickly realized that it wasn't the one I was thinking and asked someone for directions. They said, "Oh, try going up the street a little bit more, but I just called the police, you better get going, and watch the traffic for them." Gah, so i beat feet out of there and found another building to try to go through.
This one was clearly the wrong place as well, there were a bunch of people making things and regarding me suspiciously. Oh well, I thought I should sit down and think about things a little bit, I was getting tired from all of the walking around. I went back out to the loading dock and put my feet up on what looked like some pipes. As I did, it became obvious that they were actually glass hoops or tubes or something. They proceeded to rotate and then fall off of the spool and then shatter on the ground. Lots of people rushed up and made it clear that I had ruined everything, pretty soon a "suit" in a hardhat came out to see what was going on. He explained to me that I had just destroyed a shipment that they had just completed, an order worth about $100,000. I apologized profusely and asked if there was anything I could do. He told me that I had done enough, now he was going to have to do something in order for the company to cover its payroll. My frustration and anxiety kept rising and rising throughout the whole episode until a guy came sulking out of the place and explained that he had been laid off because of my incompetence.
The worst thing about all of it was that they were really nice about it. They were mad, but it was if they didn't blame me all the while I had nothing but contempt for my idiocy. I woke up nearly in tears over getting the guy fired in this economy. On top of that, I realized how physically awful I felt too. Apparently I've come down with something. Man, what a way to start the day... Where's Danica when you need her?
This morning was different. It started out with me at work unable to help a couple out. I just could not think, I would stare at the computer and nothing would cross my mind at all. It's one of the uglier side effects of MS, the dreaded brain cloud. Everyone was getting frustrated and I left. I found myself in an older, industrial town that I assumed was Binghamton NY. I figured that I'd visit my grandmother since I was there, but I was having trouble finding her house. I kept thinking that if I could just get to the next block over I would have my bearings again, so I decided that cutting through one of the buildings to get to the other side would be a good idea. I went into one, quickly realized that it wasn't the one I was thinking and asked someone for directions. They said, "Oh, try going up the street a little bit more, but I just called the police, you better get going, and watch the traffic for them." Gah, so i beat feet out of there and found another building to try to go through.
This one was clearly the wrong place as well, there were a bunch of people making things and regarding me suspiciously. Oh well, I thought I should sit down and think about things a little bit, I was getting tired from all of the walking around. I went back out to the loading dock and put my feet up on what looked like some pipes. As I did, it became obvious that they were actually glass hoops or tubes or something. They proceeded to rotate and then fall off of the spool and then shatter on the ground. Lots of people rushed up and made it clear that I had ruined everything, pretty soon a "suit" in a hardhat came out to see what was going on. He explained to me that I had just destroyed a shipment that they had just completed, an order worth about $100,000. I apologized profusely and asked if there was anything I could do. He told me that I had done enough, now he was going to have to do something in order for the company to cover its payroll. My frustration and anxiety kept rising and rising throughout the whole episode until a guy came sulking out of the place and explained that he had been laid off because of my incompetence.
The worst thing about all of it was that they were really nice about it. They were mad, but it was if they didn't blame me all the while I had nothing but contempt for my idiocy. I woke up nearly in tears over getting the guy fired in this economy. On top of that, I realized how physically awful I felt too. Apparently I've come down with something. Man, what a way to start the day... Where's Danica when you need her?
Mar 11, 2010
"The film major that didn't like films"
That's what I become known as back in college. It's mostly true, I don't particularly like the idea of watching films in general anymore. The thing is, I wasn't always that way. I did, after all, pursue a film degree. I started thinking about this again after a co-worker and I chatted about films. Her reaction brought up my curiosity about my dislike of films again.
I let it go and didn't think of it much until yesterday. While reading a book that was set in Nazi Germany, one of my most shocking and indelible film-related memories came back to me in a flash. I think it was during freshman year, in the film theory 101 class (whatever it was called). We watched part of "Triumph of the Will." For those of you not familiar with it, it is a "documentary" of the 1934 Nuremberg congress/rally for the Nazi party. Why were we watching it? Leni Riefenstahl had created a masterpiece, that's why. Triumph of the Will is generally seen as one of the most influential films ever made. Hitler was the official producer and it is as emotionally manipulative as he was.
I have to tell you, seeing all of those people being whipped into a frenzy over Hitler was soul destroying. Thank God that sound design wasn't all that advanced back then, the recording of those thousands of people yelling "SEIG HEIL! SEIG HEIL! SEIG HEIL!" was chilling enough as it was. I think I may have shed a tear watching it, it was that horrific.
We then spent the rest of the class discussing the effective techniques used in the film and all of the films it had inspired. The one that stands out in my mind was the professor's off hand comment, "Does anyone remember the award scene from Star Wars?" It was a pretty good appropriation of the techniques in Triumph of the Will.
Looking back, I think that sunk in over the following weeks and months and it colored my perceptions of films. That whole semester was really about film techniques, about viewer manipulation. I don't view films in general as Nazi propaganda films, but I do think an association was made in my mind. I remember recoiling against the emotional manipulation in that film and I think I become hypersensitive to other films doing the same thing.
Thinking about this, it is now hardly surprising that I find the idea of sitting down to watch a film distasteful. I think I've actually mellowed a bit since my college days, but I still prefer a good book or even audio to films.
I let it go and didn't think of it much until yesterday. While reading a book that was set in Nazi Germany, one of my most shocking and indelible film-related memories came back to me in a flash. I think it was during freshman year, in the film theory 101 class (whatever it was called). We watched part of "Triumph of the Will." For those of you not familiar with it, it is a "documentary" of the 1934 Nuremberg congress/rally for the Nazi party. Why were we watching it? Leni Riefenstahl had created a masterpiece, that's why. Triumph of the Will is generally seen as one of the most influential films ever made. Hitler was the official producer and it is as emotionally manipulative as he was.
I have to tell you, seeing all of those people being whipped into a frenzy over Hitler was soul destroying. Thank God that sound design wasn't all that advanced back then, the recording of those thousands of people yelling "SEIG HEIL! SEIG HEIL! SEIG HEIL!" was chilling enough as it was. I think I may have shed a tear watching it, it was that horrific.
We then spent the rest of the class discussing the effective techniques used in the film and all of the films it had inspired. The one that stands out in my mind was the professor's off hand comment, "Does anyone remember the award scene from Star Wars?" It was a pretty good appropriation of the techniques in Triumph of the Will.
Looking back, I think that sunk in over the following weeks and months and it colored my perceptions of films. That whole semester was really about film techniques, about viewer manipulation. I don't view films in general as Nazi propaganda films, but I do think an association was made in my mind. I remember recoiling against the emotional manipulation in that film and I think I become hypersensitive to other films doing the same thing.
Thinking about this, it is now hardly surprising that I find the idea of sitting down to watch a film distasteful. I think I've actually mellowed a bit since my college days, but I still prefer a good book or even audio to films.