Something Random

udaman

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An inconvenient truth part deux...It's good to be a corporate bigwig, even in the midst of the most severe recession (won't recovery by some current estimates until at least 2013) since the great depression:

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2009/feb/11/city-lights-2/

take a alook at the bottom page to see list of some of the rich people of San Diego, mere tip of the iceberg.

It’s an inconvenient time for titans of industry and commerce to be caught luxuriating in the cabins of their executive jets. Late last month, Starbucks became the latest behemoth forced to try to unload its corporate fleet. An exposé in the Seattle Times revealed that the company took delivery of a new $45 million Gulfstream 550 in December, at the same time it was closing 616 stores and slashing employee benefits. Starbucks also owns two older jets, a five-year-old Bombardier and a seven-year-old Gulfstream V, which it was already trying to sell.


The brand-new plane’s “interior is tastefully completed in neutral tones of gray leather and gray cashmere,” according to a description of the 550 on the website of Avpro Inc., the Annapolis, Maryland broker that has the Starbucks listing. “The Australian Walnut woodwork is high gloss finish and is enhanced with satin nickel plating throughout the aircraft.” The plane has made only 15 flights, including trips that Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz took to Honolulu and Kona over the Christmas holidays.


Only a day before Starbucks announced it would sell its new 550, embattled Citigroup, the New York banking giant that’s acquired billions of dollars in federal bailout money, had to back away from taking delivery of a nearly $50 million Dassault Falcon 7X jet after President Obama criticized the purchase, saying it “was not the best use of money at this point.”


Then there were the General Motors and Ford CEOs who had to unload their companies’ private planes and drive to Washington to beg for billions in taxpayer assistance.
 

Stereodude

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I've got news for you... The aviation industry employs a lot of people. Corporations buying and using private jets keeps a lot people working. That's apparently bad, but big wasteful and unnecessary public works projects pushed by the gov't to employ people are apparently ok.

Why do the #1 wasters of taxpayer money (Congress) get to sit around and lecture other people about wasting the taxpayers money? Congresspeople have no problem flying themselves around on expensive junkets in private jets at taxpayer expense.

The attack on capitalism and success by the President and his team in congress really needs to stop.
 

ddrueding

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This is why I don't like this half-assed nationalization stuff. Either it is a private company and they can do whatever the hell they (and their board/investors) want, or it isn't and they can't. This whole "they can but they shouldn't" BS is just annoying.
 

Mercutio

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I went to the opera today.

Well, not really. But something close to that.

The movie theater in my town set aside a theater for this afternoon to do a live telecast from the Metropolitan Opera in New York. So for $22, instead of the ~$150 it cost the last time I went into Chicago to see a Lyric Opera production, I got to see a $10,000,000 production of Madame Butterfly.

I had been planning to see Watchmen, but I'm certain I made the right choice. The performances were astonishing. It's difficult, in an opera house, to see every detail of the actors' faces, but the sound and cinematography were both first rate, and I got to see professionals working in a way I never have before.


I don't know if anybody else lives near a movie theater that participates in this program
, but having been once I can only say I plan on making as many future telecasts as I can.

And I guess I'll catch Watchmen tomorrow.
 

LunarMist

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Watchmen looks to be quite bad, unless one is a fan of comic books. Anyway, films are around for weeks or months.
 

Mercutio

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Watchmen was an exceedingly faithful translation from the comics to the big screen. The only weak point for me is Silk Spectre's acting. Rorschach is brilliantly psychotic and the Comedian is an utterly charming asshole.

I've seen it twice already.

I got a great big old kick out of the showing where some mid-20-ish mommy had her three little kids in this R-rated movie that shows JFK's brains being splattered all over in the opening credits, get all huffy and leave when it became obvious that Doctor Manhattan's uncircumsized love muscle wasn't going to be covered up or censored.

The scoring is awful. The director obviously didn't give a rat's ass about music. There was some forgettable pop crap, and all the instrumentals were Philip Glass music used in other movies. The muzak version of "Everybody Wants to Rule The World" playing in the scene that introduces Veidt is a nice touch, though.

Anyway, if you've read the book, they recreated individual panels of the comic in excruciating detail, though at times details pass by so quickly that you'll miss them.
 

udaman

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Watchmen was an exceedingly faithful translation from the comics to the big screen.
I've seen it twice already.

I can't watch any movie more than once a year at best, even my all time favorites. 2001 A Space Odyssey, no more than once a year...better once every 2 or more?

BSG is in final season, no response from Merc?

Uh, while Ming Na is cute, not another installment of a Stargate series:

http://scifiwire.com/2009/02/lou-diamond-phillips-ming-na-join-stargate-universe-cast.php

OMFG, look to the right column ^^^ twitter is infecting society faster than any Winblows virus! Consequences will be devastating....I predict :D
 

udaman

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So I had a free dinner (oh the hangover, I'm too old to party like a rock star these days, totally out of shape...only 4.5 bottles for all of us, and I had a headache the next morning :drinka:) at my usual haunt...1st time in over 1/2yr though, economy is going to put lots of restaurants out of business...some high-end restaurants have folded in Las Vegas after just a few years.

Somewhere I posted a link here to the 'internet' movie she had a part in, seems even with decent funding, it did not happen? Season 2 coming soon, wtf happened to season 1???

http://www.thescarycity.com/comingsoon.jsp

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1252336/

I barely recognize her in these photos from PR for a play she did locally last month (I didn't know about it):

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3033568/mediaindex

Funny, in person, her eyes look much rounder for some reason. She came into the restaurant with her sister really late around 10PM (guess neither of them needed to be up early...unless they have sleep deprivation habits like our dd :p ). Funny too, she doesn't look much like her sister, or maybe I should say her sister looks more classically Japanese, had pasty white skin, you'd never think they were related...go figure.

Voices are different tone, they both speak English relatively fluently, but their speech patterns seem different too. Then I looked at the one 'cleavage' image, and see--- I guess she must tan easily, while her sister stays out of the sun...maybe tanning bed and plastic surgery explains the differences :p ?? :confused:

http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1738053376/nm3033568

But really, she doesn't look like that in ^^^ person, do you think she could play a teenager of 5ft tall? She's really 28, soon to be 29...wish I looked better in person than my captured image :(

Food was great, but I'm getting too fat to fit most of my pants now, need to lose some weight fast!
 

paugie

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just to say I will be attempting, on 54 year old knees, to climb a mountain over this weekend
if I don't survive, I'll ask my son to post something here. heh-heh

will be bringing the Pentax, maybe post a ho-hum landscape in the appropriate thread
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
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paugie, you live on a tropical southeast Asian island.
I live in a place where, if I leave windows open, I get a 5mm coating of soot on every horizontal surface.
 

paugie

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whoa, where does the soot come from?

here, in the summer, which we are entering and will last until august, our problem is dust which settles quite thickly on every surface, not only horizontal.

most Filipinos (except street dwellers) take a shower/bath or two a day due to the normal hot temperature and suspended particulates in most of urban lowlands.

The other season we have is called the wet season. During that time, we have monsoon rains and typhoons.
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
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whoa, where does the soot come from?

Industrial effluent. Five of the largest steel mills in the United States are within 10 miles of my apartment. They skirt environmental regulations by releasing the majority of their airborne waste at night.

Anyway, I'm sure that your ho-hum landscape would be a huge step up from what it is I get to look at.
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
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Meh. I suspect they're one of the many, many sites that have been hit with that javascript/Acrobat advertising network exploits recently. People have been infected from ads served off CNN and Fark.com recently, too.
 

Handruin

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Today in early celebration of St Patty's day there was a fund-raising race event in Hartford CT that I ran a 5K (3.1 miles) with a few of my friends. No records broken, but I was able to complete my first-ever road race in 34:46 as the official time, but was probably a minute less because it took a while to get to the start line. It went by much faster than expected and I felt great afterward and would recommend it to anyone.
 

LunarMist

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If you have a medical condition, are overweight, are aged over 40 years or haven’t exercised regularly in a long time, see your doctor for a medical check-up before starting any new exercise program.
 

Handruin

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You can walk a 5K, you don't have to run. :) There were overweight people and 40 year-olds running with us. Maybe they saw the Dr. first. ;-)
 

Handruin

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Not that I saw, but there were also over 2000 people in the race. Many of which I never saw.
 

ddrueding

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First sailboat race of the season was today, we did incredibly poorly (off the winning pace by 20%+). Perhaps it was that we hadn't taken the boat out or done any maintenance during the off-season.

Sunburned and thoroughly exhausted, but I had a good time.
 

paugie

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Hike up Mount Pulag

I'm back. And really glad.

Wasn't able to take pix to speak of, it was raining most of the time we were there. And it was really cold (for us) maybe 11 degrees centigrade. If one is used to 28 degrees or higher, that's quite a temp to get accustomed to.

If it wasn't drizzling, one could see the mist coming down. When we went for the peak, it was an hour and a half hike in the rain. Left at 4p.m., got there at 5:15, left at 5:25 and got back to our tents around 7p.m. It was dark the last 45 minutes and were using flash lights and lamps to illuminate our way.

Very memorable, but I don't think I'll be doing it again. At least, not in that kind of weather. But it's all screwed up now, it's raining here in Manila when we should be having sunshine, sunshine and unbearable heat and humidity.

Look up the place I went to in this link. Somebody else's adventure. Sorry, lots of pictures but it's what I went through. They had good weather, we didn't. If we had the weather they did, I'd maybe taken more pictures than them.
http://mountpulagadventures.blogspot.com

BTW, this pic I took shows where rainforests have been cut down to make way for vegetable gardens.

paugie-veggiegarden3a.jpg
 

Handruin

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Sounds like an interesting trip. That stinks the weather didn't hold out for you. I'm glad you made it back in one piece. :)
 

paugie

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Yes, thank you, Handruin.
Your 5K is great. I have not had one since 1988. Been quite sedentary ever since.
My friend who was acting as team leader was waking us up at 5:45 yesterday morning, "Get up, let's have breakfast, clean up and break camp. We've got a 3 hour walk down the mountain and a 10km bumpy ride down to town. If we don't get cracking, we'll miss the bus home and have to stay another day and we can't afford it, blah-blah"

Still in my tent, I said, "Give a guy a break. He's been slumming around having a nice time of his life, then you get him hiking in the mountains for 6 hours in one day. And you expect him to get up just because you say so?"

"Why, you complaining?"

"Nope, bragging!"

Frankly, I was still ok until this morning, even after the overnight bus trip home. But now, I feel like a truck mowed me down. I'm taking 2 paracetamols and going to bed.
 

udaman

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29760888/

Gold digger...maybe?

A 36-year-old Swedish countess divorcing a former CEO says she cannot live on $43 million.

Marie Douglas-David, a former investment banker, says she has no income and needs her 67-year-old husband, George David, to pay her more than $53,000 a week — more than most U.S. households make in a year — to cover her expenses.

incroyable



Speechless?!?! Makes Paris *almost* seem palatable... almost (nearly impossible) :p Well I suppose given his estimated net worth of $300M+, he can afford to marry another 2 of these women before he even has to start worrying/breaking a sweat...cool under fire! :D Tis good to be fabulously wealthy!


Obama is on Jay Leno (Tonight show) tonight, good humor.
 

udaman

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Darn, I forgot to bid by the deadline :p


http://www.canonrumors.com/category/photography/canon-500d/

An Ultimate Aero only needs 5/8 of a mile to surpass 200 MPH…..While the Bugatti Veyron needs a full mile to achieve the same 200 MPH

@750K the reserve was not met.

Ah well, might as well get the 2009 model with an additional 100hp and only $600k. Heh, probably can beat Shaq's early version.

LMAO, Q & A at bottom of listing...what kind of mileage does it get.

A: 20mpg with a 34 gal. tank you could get 680mi @70-75mph...sure, as long as you don't mind the body skirt disintegrating along the way, it looks like it's only about 2in off the road surface. No typical public roadways could be driven without pot holes destroying that part of the car.

1.jpg
 
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