Moe Time

Friendster

I keep getting requests to update my Friendster page.

There's not much I really enjoy about Friendster. It seems to be a more complicated way to do things that I already do - e-mail, messaging, uploading and viewing pictures. The real value is supposed to be in the "network" that you form, seeing the friends of your friends. I guess it's a lot better when you're young, single and on the meat market. When you're older, married and making sure your kid doesn't turn into Britney Spears, it's a lot less useful.

Nevertheless, at the behest of several connected, more socially adept friends, I updated my Friendster page. Now to wait for friendship to roll in!

Posted by moe at 11:56 PM | Comments (1)

It's a New Year! I can make this happen...

It's been a long term, and a good break. I sat often, and questioned why I was writing, and whether I really had the time for it. The Squeeze, while indulging my angst, thought that ?I really ought to make time to write, since if I can't spare a couple of hours a week to write, then there's something wrong with my life.

That much is true.

So I'm starting again. This blog is a year old, and I think it's time I started making a serious effort to make it part of my life. Let's make it happen!

Okay, first order of work for the day - Happy Birthday, bro.

There's so much to cover, that ?I've decided to postpone it to tomorrow. Let's see, a Princess update, a tsunami update a political update, and a story-of-my-life update. It's going to be a long tomorrow.

By the way, as a sign from God that I shouldn't neglect this space, I got mongo spammed. I'm talking 2600 messages. I've cleared most of them, but I'm going to turn off comments for a little while I figure this out. All I'll say is this. I hate online gambling.

Posted by moe at 02:03 AM | Comments (0)

Why Am I Here?

On the blogosphere, that is. I was going to go with a link-fest, but I think I'll do that tomorrow. Here are my quick hits.

Election? Democrat are heading way, way out of the mainstream.

Rather's retirement? Following Brokaw's lead.

Yasser's death? If it isn't AIDS, why don't they come out and say it?

Dijkstra? Lost weight, but has an annoying habit of throwing up on the carpet.

Princess? Traveling around the house in glee, messing with all comers.

There. More tomorrow.

Posted by moe at 09:04 PM | Comments (0)

Voting and German Films

Wow. I was just watching NBC with the Squeeze, and NBC's Peter Alexander interviewed one Johannes who was waiting in line for 10 hours to vote. When asked about it, he said,

"This is very frustrating. I had other things to do today, like working on a paper for my German film class."

I don't think that's particularly funny - just slightly surreal.

Posted by moe at 12:32 AM | Comments (0)

Election Night

The Squeeze and I voted this morning - the Squeeze for the first time. She was looking forward to this after becoming an American citizen in June, having been American in all but name for the previous three years.

We arrived at the polling station at around 6:40 AM, and the line stretched out for forty minutes. I thikn that with the early-voting wait being at least 40 minutes, everyone decided to come early in case lines stretched out for 40 minutes. We voted and got out by 7:15, in time for me to get to school and take my Accounting quiz.

The Squeeze was bursting with pride about her First Vote and did a good job of looking up all the issues before voting. Her mom and dad were equally proud and asking about it. Seeing things like this, I can never be cynical about America. Ever.

On the other hand, I don't like this election. Thanks to my more liberal friends, I discovered that The Economist has endorsed Kerry. I have tremendous respect for The Economist, so that gave me pause. James Lileks, however, seems to be a pretty strong Bush man, and I have tremendous respect for him, too.

All in all, I didn't like voting today. I don't like my choices. I don't like having to compromise on my wartime leader. I want John McCain. I can't wait for 2008.

Posted by moe at 09:45 PM | Comments (179)

Princess Musings

The Princess is making progress by leaps and bounds. She is on the move, chasing her toys across the floor. She's sporting two teeth, which she uses to lethal effect on anything she gets. She remembers things, keeping her eyes on the doors she can open, the papers she can rip and the dog she can torment.

In short, she's steadily approaching toddler-hood.

The Princess has a favorite toy - Shamu. It's big stuffed whale that I picked up for the Squeeze back in the day when we were a young romantic couple - that's as opposed to today, when most mornings begin with the growl, "Get 'er out of here so I can get some sleep." Ah, motherhood.

The Princess loves Shamu. Whenever she sees him, her eyes light up and she lets out a gurgle of joy. She will then grab Shamu and bite him with her two front teeth. I guess that's how she shows affection. Her other favorite toy is also a whale - the Princess seems to like big blubbery things.

She now has an established ritual of exploration. It is almost a scientific methodology, and I harbor secret hopes that this one will discover the secrets of cold fusion when she grows up, thanks to her already well developed sense for the scientific process. Whenever the Princess encounters something, she looks at it very seriously. She then extends her arms and grunts indicating that she wants said object in her hand. We try to distract her if it is a hairball a la Dijkstra, or a serrated knife, or toxic waste. Otherwise, she'll get her hands on it. She will then put it in her mouth. This is, I suppose, akin to cops testing the cocaine by tasting it. After biting on it a couple of times, she will look at it again. Then she will hit it so see if it will cry or make a sound. If that doesn't work, she will bang it against the floor or against Shamu, to see if that has any effect. At this point, if something spectacular has not happened, she'll lose interest.

The Princess is also picking up the level of people food she can consume. She is now emphatically vocalising her desire for Aalu Sabzi, tri-color pasta salad, and Mike's Hard Lemonade. Sorry, sweetie, that's daddy's bottle.

Our baby proofing has been a little slow (I use the word "our" here loosely. Our baby-proofing until today has mostly consisted of the Squeeze baby-proofing the house while I look around and say, "It looks pretty baby-proof. Why do we have to do anything?"). We've installed a baby gate, and put outlet protectors on all the outlets, as a result of which, I can never plug anything in. She's still getting into things, so we have to watch her pretty closely. What's really bothering me is how close she's getting to the DVD player and amp. I don't want her to see how much daddy cries over his broken toys.

Dijkstra's getting more used to the presence of the roiling Princess in his environs. I think that he's finally accepted his last place finish, and turned his mind to his own well being. He's lost over 15 pounds through a combination of diet and exercise and is now a fit 77 pounds. He's taking his walks leash-free now. Although I have to keep my voice nice and authoritative when he encounters other mammals, he seems to be doing okay.

And because you come to this blog to learn something new, here's your interesting fact of the week - when dogs eat diapers, their poop turns into powder. Like fine, dusty powder.

Enjoy the early sunsets.

Posted by moe at 11:08 PM | Comments (97)

Start Your Weapons

Friday was Ayudha Puja, the penultimate day of Navarathri, one of the innumerable Indian Festivals. My family in Madras used to celebrate this festival with great gusto, and Ayudha Puja was the day we all looked forward to, because you are NOT allowed to study on that day. What an awesome day.

Ayudha Puja literally translated to "The worship of Weapons (or Implements)." We are supposed to put our weapons and tools and books in front of the Lord and pray that we have a fruitful time with them in the year ahead ("Want me to put my real weapon there?", leered The Rat). So this year, my marketing management and financial accounting pre-terms went before the gods as I fervently prayed for good grades in both. Only time will tell.

All in all, the break has been good. Tomorrow, term II starts. I will try to keep up this fairly regular posting schedule. Let's see how it goes.

Posted by moe at 11:26 PM | Comments (93)

Colored

A couple of things have turned my mind to slavery and segregation this week. I visited the National Museum of American History in DC when the Squeeze and I were in northern Virginia this past weekend. I also got my almost-new copy of the third volume of Robert Caro's epic biography of Lyndon Johnson, Master of the Senate. I watched Dave Chappelle play a black white-supremecist on his bitingly funny show. The Squeeze, always a scholar in these subjects, pointed me to this review in the New York Times, which addresses a wanton murder of a black man when his son refused to say "sir" to his white neighbor.

Joe Thompson, the neighbor's lawyer, looks at the kid in court, looks at the judge and jury, and says,

"Damn, uppity, nigra."

What an ugly expression. Much of the same sentiment can be seen among the Southern senators in the 50's. Robert Caro describes the Democratic Party in the 50's as split between the liberals and the southerners - the former, Paul Douglas, Scoop Jackson and the eloquent Hubert Horatio Humphrey of Minnesota crusading for stronger civil rights platforms, while the latter, led by Richard Russell of Georgia, standing as a bulwark against them.

The strange thing is how little we, Generation X, know about the sentiments of that time. The 50's is Leave It to Beaver, not Strom Thurmond attempting to filibuster the 1957 Civil Rights Act into oblivion. And to us, nigger is not a pejorative - it's what rappers call each other. Niggazz.

We don't have that great defining moral issue today - the closest we can come to that is the gay rights movement, and that is not as operatic in its scope and tragedy as segregation was. Nor are either issue alive with voters today - Barack Obama's speech at this year's convention, lauded for its honesty, is all over the map, touching on all issues, and stronger more on platitudes than on desire. Do they want to adopt a strong anti-war plank? Are they strongly pro-gay marriage? Everything is watered down. John Kerry is against gay marriage, but thinks that gays ought to have the right to live "in dignity." What does that mean if you are against the legalization of a gay couple's relationship? He claims to be against the war, but won't come out and call it a mistake and a waste, something that the more brash (and honest?) John Kerry was willing to say about Vietnam, right or wrong.

Say what you want about Republicans, but even if you disagree with them, you have to admit that their plank is a lot more cohesive, and a lot less vague. You know that Bush is against gay marriage, so against it that he is willing to consider a constitutional amendment. You know that he thinks that a war of liberation is a good thing. Can we possibly say that the Democrats have the same unity of purpose?

I know that it is fashionable today to say that dissent is patriotic - that the true voice of America can be heard in the Democratic Party simply because there are so many different opinions there. However, it is hardly a voice of leadership.

Robert Caro spends most of his time in Master of the Senate talking about the Democratic Party because it was the home of Lyndon Johnson, but also because the real moral battles of those days were being fought for the soul of the Democratic Party. Today, that party seems to have no soul, offering comfortable bromides that try to be all things to all people. Under John Kerry, France will join the coalition, there will be equality for all races, and the crippled will walk again.

That is not real leadership, no matter how much the Democrats wish it to be. Real leadership is taking a hard stand, be it right or wrong, and going with it. Real leadership is Humphrey in 1948, making that speech and going against all the advice he received. Real leadership is Johnson seeing the writing on the wall and refusing to run for a second term. Real leadership is Reagan in 1982, confidently saying that Communism will be confined to the ash heap of history. They may not have always been right, but they were confident enough to go with it. The Democrats are going to need that in 2008 if they want any chance at all at recapturing the White House.

Posted by moe at 04:26 PM | Comments (57)

Quick Hits

Okay, political musings, first.

• The debates were-God-awful. Kerry makes better points, but "I have a plan" just isn't the same as "I have a dream." After the 17th time she heard "I have a plan", my mother-in-law was heard to mumble. "Why does he keep saying he has a plan? What's his plan? What is it, some sort of Chidambara rahasyam (divine secret)?"
• The vice-presidential debate was much better. Cheney is probably the best speaker among them. He has such gravitas.
• Veerappan is dead. Check out the hole in his head.
• Jon Stewart is right. I just wish that he had included himself in his analysis. You can only be cansidered fake news for so long. When presidential bids are announced on your show, you aren't fake anymore.
• The question is not whether mentioning that Mary Cheney is a lesbian is right or wrong. The question is, why has it been mentioned twice? By Democratic nominees?
• Is it possible for the soundbites to get any more trite?

I need an Aspirin.

Posted by moe at 04:39 PM | Comments (58)

Release

What a lousy blogger I've been.

Okay, so I made an attempt to take 20 minutes out of every day and try to give you, my voluble readers, a slice of my day. Unfortunately, looking for a job is, apparently, not the easiest of ventures. Between that and the fourteen thousand clubs I've joined, I've blown off writing here for far too long.

But now, I can reorganize, make my life better and pay better attention to my life. Why? It's fall break.

My first term is Over! And it was a doozy! I had finals last week, and after an evening's carousing, the Squeeze, Princess, mother-in-law and I went off to northern Virginia for a much needed break. Two days without chores or a class to attend. Bliss.

So now, I'm back. I'll put out a couple of posts today, just to get back into the flow, and then start my regular ramblings further along. It's good to sleep.

Posted by moe at 03:59 PM | Comments (55)

News Creep

Between Sandy Berger's pants and Dan Rather's reporting, the blog world seems to have been on quite a roll this last couple of months. I personally have been out of it - between school, job searches and Princess-work, I really don't have much time for the news.

Until today.

I spent a glorious hour just now reading the news. Hurricane Ivan is back! Jeff Garcia got a 0.00 rating?! Hatemonger has only gotten funnier! John Kerry goes windsurfing? Cat Stevens deported? Holy cow! The world out there is so alive!!

That being said, I still think that there are more interesting things going on in macroeconomics, which is rapidly moving into a tie with Managerial Effectiveness as my favorite subject. I read a case on the Banking Crisis of '33 that had me absolutely riveted. As a history nut, I find any historical reading that I'm gven to be tons of fun, but this one surprised me. I mean, come on, banking?

Yes! What a story - intrigue in Congress, vainglorious corporate leaders, people bartering hogs for suits, shirts and shoes - this is one story I couldn't believe. Lots of people find macro boring - it's too general, and macroeconomists are always changing their stories on the fly. But stories like this make the subject come alive to me. I don't think there's anything in engineering that can match it in sheer fun.

And then Andy reran the test on the rtx. He looked at the results. And again. Was there really a bug in the FIFOs? He thought about the possibilities. Were his SAHE/DAHE values wrong? Was there a clock mismatch? He thought of calling his team lead, but he knew that Joe was in a meeting to discuss the new sysem bus. He had to make the decision now! Was there a bug? Was there?

Just doesn't have the same punch, does it?

And one new thing I learned - Star Wars is out on DVD. As soon as the Squeeze blesses the enterprise, I'm there. I can't wait...

Posted by moe at 03:04 PM | Comments (59)

Ivan the Terrible

It's been pouring rain here in Durham thanks to the machinations of yet another hurricane. It's getting a little tense (it's rare that I've seen that much water just cascading down), but I think I'll weather it. Shades of Fran from 8 years ago.

We've installed out first baby gate. It's awesome. I suppose that's one of the downsides of becoming a father - things like baby gates, minivans and Mott's Apple Sauce become "awesome". But after installing it, and watching the Princess paw fruitlessly at it as she tried to roll her way down the stairs and into the hospital, the first thing that crosses your mind is "awesome". Given how hard it is to baby-proof a student apartment, anything that succeeds in doing so is, in fact, "awesome".

The Princess also seems to be heading towards her first tooth. She drools a lot (okay, that isn't very different) and likes to chew on hard things. She's also a litttle more restive, and I think those are the signs that impact is imminent. The Squeeze is commemorating by taking as many pictures of that angelic, gummy smile as possible. My position - seen one smile, seen 'em all.

Okay, that's not true. I do hope we have lots of pictures to smile proudly at.

The Squeeze has also taken on the bulk of responsibility running our lives. I'm the one in business school, she's the CEO. Every day, I receive action items and talking points to work with our creditors (and there are a lot of creditors). I make calls, make sure things are clarified, and keep the larder stocked when I can. It's good to have some things run that way. And the Squeeze seems to like ordering me around. Shows her that all is still right with the world.

All right, my twenty minutes are up. Mid-terms are a-comin'. Time to hit the books. Wish me luck.

Posted by moe at 04:25 PM | Comments (65)

Will the Madness Never End?

First Tigger, now Goofy. There's no innocence left at the House of Mouse.

Posted by moe at 03:21 PM | Comments (143)

Plug and Resolution

Okay, this is getting out of hand. It's been ten days since I saw my blog, let alone posted to it. So Now, I'm going to have to make a solemn word to post to it at least 3 times a week. This means writing for about twenty minutes a day. I can afford twenty minutes a day, right?

Right?

We had a discussion in class today about the Reagan Plan. The economic recovery plan by Reagan, which, according to my macro professor, was grounded in all that is sound in macroeconomic theory. The only concession that the professor made to the "other side" was, "you may not like his policies, or you may feel differently about his priorities", but as far as he was concerned, the policy of cutting taxes for increasing productivity and GDP - the cutting of any taxes at all, is pretty economically sound.

The presentation of the case in class was made by a guy who hated Reagan. I mean, really hated him. "When he died, I raised a champagne toast" hated him. Overall, though, he had put together a pretty balanced presentation - he did give credit where credit was due, and pointed out that inflation did, in fact, go down, and TFP did, in fact, go up. He also threw in some stuff about deficits and the cutting of social programs to make his point, but the presentation ended far more tamely than I thought (and hoped, daresay) it would.

All in all, I liked the Reagan plan. And I liked his address. Yeah, it was political, but that man could sell it like no one else, and that really made the difference in America in the early 80's. A lot of what was happening was due to a lack of confidence in the system, and Reagan put much of that confidence back in.

And now, because I'm in school, a plug - read the Long One's entries on diversity. Not agreeing, not disagreeing, but they make damn good reading.

Posted by moe at 03:02 PM | Comments (160)

Krishna Is In Da House

I spent most of today studying. The weekend, which I spent in Charlotte, was extremely relaxing, the the price of an extremely relaxing weekend is a a need to labor on Labor Day. There is no worker's paradise for real workers.

As I studied my Managerial Effectiveness, the Princess showed her Republican side by repeatedly clubbing a baby rabbit against the end-table. Ah, bliss. This one is not going to turn thirteen and start firebombing pharmaceutical companies. I plowed on with ME, proud of the kid I had begun raising.

Managerial Effectiveness is a lot of reading. So is Macroeconomics. The only course with Major League assignments is Computer Skills, and those are Word and Excel assignments, not the C++ and Unix behemoths that we know and love. That I've saved for later. The Princess and I labored together, clubbing and reading and awaiting the festivities of the evening.

Today is Gokulatshtami, Krishna's birthday. Krishna was born three thousand million billion years ago, and married 16,000 women, which is why men everywhere like to celebrate his birthday.

One of the favorite Gokulashtami traditions for the ladies is to dress up whichever kid is around (toddlers are best) as Krishna. As the Princess was around, she got to be Krishna. This involved maiming the expensive mask from Venice that we bought on our trip to Italy. The mask had peacock feathers, Krishna's plumage of choice. The Squeeze "carefully" clipped off one, to be stuck back on at a later time sometime in the year 2044. The Princess was bathed and decked out in a pink cloth, with lots of jewellery and the peacock feather in her hair, a process that was accomplished with much laughing and squealing about how cute she was. Those of you who want to see photos, you know where to look.

The Princess looked exceedingly adorable, partly because her mass of long curly hair looks cute with peacock feathers. The revered mother-in-law added kajal to her eyes and gave her a small cup of butter to complete the image. Dijkstra, who's Indian name means Krishna, eyed the butter much as his namesake would. Assorted saintly friends came to bear witness to the religious ceremony, performed by Yours Truly, wearing a panchakaccham, which I only get to wear two or three times a year.

There was much eating of food and drinking of milk. In the spirit of the day, I allowed Dijkstra to polish off a couple of vadais bathed in butter, which he enjoyed immensely. The Princess changed back into civvies, and we all nodded at a good day's work.

So now I proceed with my computer skills assignment, which will testify to my skills in Microsoft Word.

Don't even ask about the news. I have no idea what's going on. I haven't even read the business section, which I'm supposed to. All I can tell you is that if you look at a graph of the world's largest economies in 2050 as predicted by Goldman Sachs, you will see 3 tall towers representing China, India and the U.S., followed by 7 midgets, the tallest of which is Japan. The world is going to be very different in 50 years. Watch.

Posted by moe at 10:26 PM | Comments (1)