Washington Mutual (which is often cutely referred to as "WaMu") went under overnight and was bought up by JP Morgan Chase. I have a secondary checking account with WaMu so I consulted a story on Marketwatch to see what the deal was going to be with my funds.
There is a list of questions people might ask including, "I just wrote a check out. Will it clear?"and "What about my debit card?" Both are fine and basically nothing different will happen. One question stood out from the others by asking, "I already had an account with J.P. Morgan Chase and now my combined balances exceed the $100,000 FDIC insured limit. What do I do?"
... This, sadly, was not one of my concerns.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Anatomy of a scam
This 2 bed 2 bath was just posted on Craigslist. Let's take a look to see why it can't exist. Note the balcony entrance that doesn't exist, the "dark wood" cabinets and the distant view of downtown from near Van Ness.
Also, it was listed as $1200, which should have been a dead giveaway.
Note: Does this shape look like the Iberian Peninsula to anyone else?
Also, it was listed as $1200, which should have been a dead giveaway.
Note: Does this shape look like the Iberian Peninsula to anyone else?
Monday, September 15, 2008
Censorship and mass market video games
It's payday, so at lunch today I bought Rock Band 2 because it came out yesterday and I wanted it (see previous post about delayed-gratification Zac being dead).
I've obviously yet to play it at all, as I am sitting at my desk in my office, but aside from "Livin on a Prayer," "Go Your Own Way," songs by Dylan and Pearl Jam, I'm most looking forward to "You Oughta Know" by the young angry Canadian Alanis Morissette.
At one point, as you most likely know, Alanis asks in the song if her former lover is thinking of her during a specific activity he does with his new girlfriend. One thing I have to wonder is, what will Alanis, and those who are singing along with her in the game, wonder about her former lover in the video game that censors song lyrics? When will we, the singers, wonder if he thinks about her?
It's one of the absolute best lines in the song and really nails (heh) the source of the anger and hurt. In the digital, XBOX 360-version of Alanis, does she wonder if he's thinking of her while he "loves" his new girl? "Kiss her"?
"Hug" actually fits pretty well, but only in meter and rhyme and not so much in tone, meaning or fury. Cause really, would she care if Joey from "Full House" is hugging some chick and wonder if he's thinking of his little under-aged bitter songwriter ex-girlfriend?
For that matter, when the Chili Peppers release the entire "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" album next month, most "whats" will not give a damn? And most "whats" have a cold-what stare? I don't even want to think what happened to Kedis after his eyes popped out and before he dropped his jaw in "Apache Rose Peacock."
Like "Creep," these songs are "so very special" if you know the actual words that the artists used while crafting their, you know... art; and not the words that soccer moms are ok with their children singing along to.
I've obviously yet to play it at all, as I am sitting at my desk in my office, but aside from "Livin on a Prayer," "Go Your Own Way," songs by Dylan and Pearl Jam, I'm most looking forward to "You Oughta Know" by the young angry Canadian Alanis Morissette.
At one point, as you most likely know, Alanis asks in the song if her former lover is thinking of her during a specific activity he does with his new girlfriend. One thing I have to wonder is, what will Alanis, and those who are singing along with her in the game, wonder about her former lover in the video game that censors song lyrics? When will we, the singers, wonder if he thinks about her?
It's one of the absolute best lines in the song and really nails (heh) the source of the anger and hurt. In the digital, XBOX 360-version of Alanis, does she wonder if he's thinking of her while he "loves" his new girl? "Kiss her"?
"Hug" actually fits pretty well, but only in meter and rhyme and not so much in tone, meaning or fury. Cause really, would she care if Joey from "Full House" is hugging some chick and wonder if he's thinking of his little under-aged bitter songwriter ex-girlfriend?
For that matter, when the Chili Peppers release the entire "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" album next month, most "whats" will not give a damn? And most "whats" have a cold-what stare? I don't even want to think what happened to Kedis after his eyes popped out and before he dropped his jaw in "Apache Rose Peacock."
Like "Creep," these songs are "so very special" if you know the actual words that the artists used while crafting their, you know... art; and not the words that soccer moms are ok with their children singing along to.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
The downside of public transit
Upside: Read a book, take a nap, see the city from the water (I love being on or in the water), avoid traffic, spare the air, don't have to change tires or oil as often, feel more urban and less suburban... etc.
Downside: When the Internet I work on breaks at 5:33 and it takes 20 minutes to fix I miss the 5:49 bus back to the ferry station and city leaving only the last bus of the night for me to catch in my attempts to get to my desired destination of pants shopping and home. The last bus leaves an hour after the bus I wanted, which makes for an extra long day.
I'm still not quite giving up though.
Downside: When the Internet I work on breaks at 5:33 and it takes 20 minutes to fix I miss the 5:49 bus back to the ferry station and city leaving only the last bus of the night for me to catch in my attempts to get to my desired destination of pants shopping and home. The last bus leaves an hour after the bus I wanted, which makes for an extra long day.
I'm still not quite giving up though.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Euro Trashed
This is a little project I just started. It's roughly a third of all of my pictures from my trip that started almost exactly a year ago. I think it's pretty cool (the song definitely is).
Look for more installments soonish
Look for more installments soonish
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Free-verse meetings
I'm a big lover of language. I think my course of studies in college (American Literature) and my profession (editor/journalist) are a dead give-away of that. Also my narcissistic obsession with things I've said and thought of, but that's neither here nor there.
The English language gets a bad rep a lot of times. What with its frustrating spelling and grammar rules, and the thing where any word can be any form of word. For example, just verbize some letters to have a new English word.
But language is great, and can be very poetic if you're willing to hear it. I just finished reading Bill Bryson's biography of Shakespeare (which was fascinating and incredibly entertaining), which combined with my discussion with Derek on the matter, has me ready to share with the world some of my poetry.
What I often do is, while in meetings at work (it actually started years ago in Ramona Silver's philosophy class), take notes as people talk. Most meeting attendees will do this, I'd imagine, but I don't do it to remember ideas or project dates (frankly, I rarely care) - I write down snippets, word-for-word, of what people say, usually as fast as I can keep up. Since people talk faster than I can move my hand, I end up missing some key words but the results of my selective editing are sometimes profound, often pretty and always fun.
I may one day publish a book of my collected poems, which I have tentatively titled "Meeting Poetry," (kind of a pun, and kind of direct) but I'm sure I'll think of something better after a career of not paying that much attention to what the bosses are saying. [edit: how about "Bored Room"?]
Here's two untitled poems from the summer I spent at Ascend Media (before I quit and went to Europe). I don't now know what the speaker's point was, but I've made them my own, and I know what they mean to me.
Early in the meeting
and then slow time
The English language gets a bad rep a lot of times. What with its frustrating spelling and grammar rules, and the thing where any word can be any form of word. For example, just verbize some letters to have a new English word.
But language is great, and can be very poetic if you're willing to hear it. I just finished reading Bill Bryson's biography of Shakespeare (which was fascinating and incredibly entertaining), which combined with my discussion with Derek on the matter, has me ready to share with the world some of my poetry.
What I often do is, while in meetings at work (it actually started years ago in Ramona Silver's philosophy class), take notes as people talk. Most meeting attendees will do this, I'd imagine, but I don't do it to remember ideas or project dates (frankly, I rarely care) - I write down snippets, word-for-word, of what people say, usually as fast as I can keep up. Since people talk faster than I can move my hand, I end up missing some key words but the results of my selective editing are sometimes profound, often pretty and always fun.
I may one day publish a book of my collected poems, which I have tentatively titled "Meeting Poetry," (kind of a pun, and kind of direct) but I'm sure I'll think of something better after a career of not paying that much attention to what the bosses are saying. [edit: how about "Bored Room"?]
Here's two untitled poems from the summer I spent at Ascend Media (before I quit and went to Europe). I don't now know what the speaker's point was, but I've made them my own, and I know what they mean to me.
Early in the meeting
and then slow time
the strategy i have
how to fit that in?
what kind of cycle is he?
try to fit that all in
you're getting down
what kind of process
what kind of process
to stimultate and create
a limited commitment
tell them what I'm looking for
Later, in that same meeting
I’ve had success introducing myself
Even if its not that person
Sometimes I struggle
The attendees look
Pretty much everything
[Please note that I wanted readers to take away from this post the thought that I am kind of a bad employee and not that I'm super-creative. It's fun to do, you should try during your next meeting.]
a limited commitment
tell them what I'm looking for
Later, in that same meeting
I’ve had success introducing myself
Even if its not that person
Sometimes I struggle
The attendees look
Pretty much everything
[Please note that I wanted readers to take away from this post the thought that I am kind of a bad employee and not that I'm super-creative. It's fun to do, you should try during your next meeting.]
Monday, August 25, 2008
Clap if you believe in ferries
So, more on my job. I mentioned briefly that after seven months of glorious unemployment and further racking-up of credit card bills, I finally found a job that appealed to me (and who also wanted me). I am a Web editor for a business-travel magazine in Sausalito. Sausalito is a small burg located 35 miles away from my current home, but only about 10 hopefully from my soon-to-be-living-in home.
I started in late June, and after two months of commuting 45 minutes in each direction, I decided to give mass transit a try. As a big proponent and lover of trains and metros, the idea greatly appealed to me, despite the numerous transfers and doubling of the time it takes to drive.
From the East Bay, I took BART to San Francisco's Embarcadero station (added benefit was that I rode with my sister, who lives across town from me and works in Union Square). I left Athena before her stop and walked from the station to the Ferry Building to sit in the queue for the Sausalito-bound ferry. I boarded the vessel and took the half-hour boat ride mostly in awe of the beauty that is the Bay. I also read some because really, you can only appreciate beauty for so long. From the ferry stop in Sausalito, I hopped a bus down the street to my office and sat down early for the first time all week.
After work (Fridays during the summer are half-days, so I left at a little before 1:00) my boss said that if I walk through the shipyard, I would hit the shoreline park and could follow it all the way to the ferry stop. The roughly 2-mile trek was on a gorgeous day and I submit to you the photos of my commute, taken with my new cellphone (which, in an aside, may actually be quite broken/faulty).
Some of the highlights not captured on film include: the hippies sitting in the grass by the water's edge; the poetic metaphor of a black dog and a white dog playing in the waves; the conversations overheard in German, Portuguese and accented English while waiting to hop on the ferry back to the city; and the recently wed gay couple who were wearing matching white linen suits and tuba rose leis, toasting with champagne on the ferry ride back to the city.
The Ferry Building, roughly 7:30 am. My boat would leave at 7:45.
Five minutes into the ride. Stern of the boat and one of my 8 co-commuters.
Random stone shop in the Sausalito shipyards.
Part of the shoreline.
This is the kind of thing you can't help but think the artist thinks is famous/renowned.
Random gazebo where perhaps the gay couple was married. But probably not.
White pants? Check. White sweater tied around his neck? Check. Aviators? Check. Unshaved? Check. Pink polo with collar popped? Check. Ladies and gentlemen, we've found "that guy."
I started in late June, and after two months of commuting 45 minutes in each direction, I decided to give mass transit a try. As a big proponent and lover of trains and metros, the idea greatly appealed to me, despite the numerous transfers and doubling of the time it takes to drive.
From the East Bay, I took BART to San Francisco's Embarcadero station (added benefit was that I rode with my sister, who lives across town from me and works in Union Square). I left Athena before her stop and walked from the station to the Ferry Building to sit in the queue for the Sausalito-bound ferry. I boarded the vessel and took the half-hour boat ride mostly in awe of the beauty that is the Bay. I also read some because really, you can only appreciate beauty for so long. From the ferry stop in Sausalito, I hopped a bus down the street to my office and sat down early for the first time all week.
After work (Fridays during the summer are half-days, so I left at a little before 1:00) my boss said that if I walk through the shipyard, I would hit the shoreline park and could follow it all the way to the ferry stop. The roughly 2-mile trek was on a gorgeous day and I submit to you the photos of my commute, taken with my new cellphone (which, in an aside, may actually be quite broken/faulty).
Some of the highlights not captured on film include: the hippies sitting in the grass by the water's edge; the poetic metaphor of a black dog and a white dog playing in the waves; the conversations overheard in German, Portuguese and accented English while waiting to hop on the ferry back to the city; and the recently wed gay couple who were wearing matching white linen suits and tuba rose leis, toasting with champagne on the ferry ride back to the city.
The Ferry Building, roughly 7:30 am. My boat would leave at 7:45.
Five minutes into the ride. Stern of the boat and one of my 8 co-commuters.
Random stone shop in the Sausalito shipyards.
Part of the shoreline.
This is the kind of thing you can't help but think the artist thinks is famous/renowned.
Random gazebo where perhaps the gay couple was married. But probably not.
White pants? Check. White sweater tied around his neck? Check. Aviators? Check. Unshaved? Check. Pink polo with collar popped? Check. Ladies and gentlemen, we've found "that guy."
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