I don’t know much about Ayn Rand, other than the standard Cliff’s Notes summaries of her books, and her name has been coming up repeatedly in the news, tied to (mostly) Republican politicians on budget-cutting stampedes. It’s interesting, then, to learn about her views of common people, the super-wealthy, and her own dark history. Slate’s review of two recent biographies goes into a little more detail and puts the recent upswing in Rand’s popularity into context.
I got lousy sleep last night, which means I’m not only tired but grouchy too.
The MDF experiment went well last night; one coat of primer raised the fiber on the routed edges of the boards, but after it dried I hit it with a block sander and it smoothed out immediately. While I was in there, I put some 2″ nails in the molding, caulked the edges, and painted both french doors with high-gloss white so that we can finally pull the plastic off the panes and let some light into the living room.
Attempts to sell my old MacBook Pro on Craigslist have been met with nothing but bullshit PayPal scam attempts and one text spam; I’m going to take it off the table and reconsider what role it might play at our house. I don’t know how else to sell it other than eBay, and I don’t have any selling history there.
Hey, I finally got off my ass and donated to Habitat For Humanity’s Japanese earthquake response fund. NPR.org has a great list of charities, if you prefer one organization over another. It really looks like they can use every bit of help we can give, so I urge you to consider giving whatever you can afford.
File this under the 2011 to-do list: How to Create (and Stick to) a Realistic Budget with Mint.
I love most every beer Anchor Brewing produces. Enough so that I’d be willing to wear a T-shirt with their logo on it. However, even though their merchandise is priced affordably, none of it is worth buying. All I want is a navy blue shirt with the main Anchor brewing logo, perhaps distressed. Is that so hard?
File this under Awesome: Beastie Boys Annotated. Want to know where the samples from “Shake Your Rump” came from? Want to know where the “grafitti guys” sample in Professor Booty came from? It’s all there. (WARNING: Site last updated in 2004.) (via)
Here’s an excellent and frightening overview of the global economy from the managing director of an investment company.
The constructive way is to stop making paper and start making things. Replace subprimes, and yes, Treasury bonds with American cars, steel, iPads, airplanes, corn – whatever the world wants that we can make better and/or cheaper. Learn how to compete again. Investments in infrastructure and 21st century education and research, as opposed to 20th century education are mandatory, as is a withdrawal from resource-draining foreign wars….
…Unlike the United Kingdom, where Prime Minister Cameron has championed fiscal conservatism, or even Euroland, which is being forced in the direction of Angela Merkel’s Germanic work ethic, the United States seems to acknowledge no bounds to what it can spend to bolster consumption or how much it can print to support its asset markets.
I spent only a short amount of time in front of the TV this weekend, but reading this article made me glad I didn’t see the news: Apparently the Republicans have coerced convinced enough of their representatives that tax cuts for the insanely wealthy are still a good idea. I’m fine with extending them for families making less than $250K, which seems to be the way the rest of America is leaning, but these pricks are hell-bent on making their rich friends richer while we all get poorer. This article makes it sound as if the White House is going to compromise; what I want is for my President to stand up, shame these assholes into submission, and tell them to get bent once and for all. Grow a pair, Obama. Quickly.
All I can say is, I better hear good news on this vote: House tax break vote expected Thursday. I don’t advocate gridlock, and I’m tired of Partisan politics, but this is one of the things I think they need to stand firm on. If they cave on this for some stupid reason, I’m going to have to register as an Independent.
Jen and I are not what you might call clothes horses. I think our daughter probably has more clothes than the both of us combined when you remove things like socks and underwear; the only thing that helps us stomach that fact is that we’ve only actually bought about 5% of her wardrobe—the rest have been hand-me-downs or gifts. My own clothes have a median age of about 7 years or so; I’ve got some pants that date back to high school (Vietnam-era jungle fatigues that are as rare as hen’s teeth), a few shirts of the same vintage, and boots from freshman year in college. I tend to wear clothes until they fall off my back or Jen tells me to get rid of them, which makes my daily ensemble a pretty ratty look.
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve finally started listening to Jen when it comes to proper sizing, eschewing big baggy clothes for things that actually fit my frame, so the older stuff I’ve got is slowly getting winnowed out as I replace it. This means things like pants that need seven belt loops are getting donated to charity and XL-sized coats have been gifted to my father. I still have some baggy stuff but I wear it only rarely, and it sits in a big tupperware bin waiting for the veterans collection people to haul it off into the sunset.
On the hunt for a proper pair of jeans two years ago, I tried several different brands. My old go-to, a standard pair of Levi’s 501’s, failed to fit me as they had in the past. And I tried. About 15 pairs, to be exact. Every single one fit differently, and every single one looked funny in an I’m-not-spending-$40-on-these sort of way. Some were the male version of Mom Jeans, which is not a look I’m dying to emulate, some looked like I was dragging two bedsheets below my knees, and some hung down around my butt like rolls of elephant skin.
I finally found a winner with the Gap, who sells a flavor called Straight Fit (low on the hips, straight legs, small inseam) which fit me less like Poindexter and more like a fashion model: that is to say, the waist doesn’t come up to my armpits, the pockets aren’t the size of trashcan lids, the fabric is relatively durable and the inseam doesn’t reveal 3/4 of my pasty shins when I sit in a chair. Swell. Sign me up for four pairs.
Well, it didn’t work like that. I could only find one pair the night I tried them on, and that was on a back shelf under some other jeans. So I left with what I could find. Fast forward to this afternoon: They still make this style (thank God) but it’s impossible to find anywhere near the neatly folded wall of denim—they have it sprinkled throughout the store in groups of ten, casually hung or draped or hidden in odd places so that I had to go and ask one of the sales drones. They’ve also jacked the price up from ~$40 to ~$65, negating most of the benefit of a 40% off sale. I wandered around for a little while, doing the math on my iPhone and trying to rationalize the purchase, then finally plunked my card down.
Now, I need to find a winter coat that actually fits.