Waiting Casually

Do you ever feel… not so fresh? About the future of men I mean. What were you thinking? Really? Oh.

When I say ‘men,’ I really do mean men by the way. The Y chromosome types. Well, but that hits right at what I’m getting at doesn’t it? I had this big exposition planned and everything, but I seem to have written something that skips all of it and now I can’t go back. Anyhoooo… It’s hard to look at the male youths of today and wonder a bit about that Y chromosome business. They all seem like such namby-pambies.

I’m not the only one who’s noticed this apparently, as a recent trend I’ve noted in male-focused lidderchur is the rumination on the fate of the manly man and the lament of the rise of the douchebag. And hey, it’s right up my alley. Because I found the rise of the douchebag funny at first! I saw shit like this and laughed heartily. But then I saw more and more douchebaggery (TM fucking pending on that nugget of awesome) out there and I wasn’t laughing so much any more. Men wearing skinny jeans with thin, white, women’s belts, or wearing plunging American Apparel v-necks, or over-tanning, or doing all of the above no longer warranted ostracism from any group, but instead garnerred compliments! What madness was this?

So we semi- and legitimately old guys started wondering what this all meant for men. Some wistfully yearned  for a return to manlier, tough son-of-a-bitch times, while others tried to etch their guidelines for future generations in stone. Or at least HTML. Me, I’d just be satisfied if I thought anyone under the age of 23 looked like they could beat me up in a fight. And I consider myself a wuss! But these guys? Even the ones who are all toned and buff look like little prisses. it’s like they spent all that time in the gym just so they’ll look good in their Zoolander poses. I’ve never been in a fight in my life but I think I could take ‘em.

But why are we so concerned with the douchebag generation? And maybe a better question: does our concern and desire to put an end to their effeminate ways only contribute to their continuance, part of the normal ebb and flow of themes repeated as children rebel against their parents? What will the next generation look like with this much focus on them, or is this the same amount of attention every past generation puts on the next? Is there hope to convince our young men of their ridiculousness or should we give up and go back to chuckling at them privately?

Not skinny jeans should ever be a laughing matter.

Referring of course to the spammers who over the past week have hit my Akismet filter with over three dozen comments. This, after going a few weeks with nothing. Oh well. At least Akismet is doing its job.

Run for it, Marty!

So I’ve wanted to talk about this since I started but didn’t want to jinx myself. Now that I’m over 80% of the way to my goal though, I think it’s safe.

At the start of the year I set the goal that by the end of March I had to run 100 miles. That might not seem like a lot (run a little over a mile a day…), but that would be underestimating the power of my laziness. I’d challenge you to a laziness match, but really, that seems like a lot of effort and it would detract from me molding my couch cushion in the shape of my ass. Also, I failed at this goal twice already last year, so I knew that I’d really have to want it this time.

The good news is that I just passed 80 miles over the weekend! I probably only need to run six more times to meet my goal by March 31. Of course, I’d like to pass that mark by as much as possible, so hopefully I don’t puss out and run more than that in the next two weeks.

The ultimate goal of course is to get rid of my spare tire. If I met this goal I would up the goal to 120 miles in Q2 and so on until… until… I was healthy! So I’m also trying to eat better too and that’s going well. The eating. It’s the drinking I seem to have a problem with. And I’m not talking about soda.

As I’ve already established that I have no will power, I think the only option I have available is to rid the house of all temptation. But that’s a problem though, because I’m also not a big fan of waste and so want to make sure what beer we have in the fridge isn’t wasted… Bad problem to have, I know.

Anyway, wish me luck on the final stretch. What are your current goals?

So after reading all about what GeekTool can do over on Lifehacker, I thought I’d give it a try and make myself a pretty new desktop that puts a lot more information I use all the time right in front of me and out of my web browser. Firefox still crashes occasionally and it’s really a pain when it does, because I end up losing my music player (Pandora), weather info, and Twitter updates on top of whatever else I was doing.

An hour or so later, I now have this:

Slick, eh? I like how the updates blend right into the image. The stuff on the right almost looks like it was written right on the wall. I don’t normally like super-sparse design, but this is really relaxing to look at.

Details:

Wallpaper: Forgot where I got it originally, but a Google search for the filename should do it.

Instructions for clock/day/date

Weather and font info

Uptime and more

iTunes/Pandora

One minor problem I’ve noticed with the PandoraBuddy PandoraBoy app is that if I minimize it, the GeekTool script won’t pick up on the track change and I don’t know how to edit the script to fix it. As far as I can tell, a minimized app should still be picked up System Events, but perhaps not. Oh well. I’ve just taken to hiding the window at the far edge of my screen so I don’t see it and the script still works.

UPDATE: As an astute reader notes, hiding (clicking the red button) the iTunes or PandoraBoy app will remove the app from the screen and still result in updated song info with the script. Huzzah!

Ordered. Will post pic once I pick it up next week.

Color me expectant.

Is it a sign of getting older that I have a powerful desire to buy a nice watch? Aside from the watch I received as a wedding present, I’ve never owned a watch that cost more than $75 or so and the prospect of wearing a grown-up looking watch (leather strap, large, but not too large face, restrained-yet-bold design) is very enticing.

Fine.

You know what? Yes. Yes, I know I’m a yuppie. Like my Banana Republic wardrobe, 20×200 art collection, and Restoration Hardware-fixtured house don’t all scream that at me.

Anyway, like I was getting at, I wonder if my desire for things like watches and tools and providing for my family stems from some male genetic coding. Women get the F5 MUST HAVE BABY NOW YAAAAAH tornado so maybe my MUSTHAVEGROWNUPTHINGSDOITDOITNOW impulses are part of the same genetic storm.

Moral of the story? Jeff’s going to blow part of his bonus on something grownup.

I don’t intend for this to be a financial blog or anything like that, but the economy has been on my mind more or less full time recently.

Anyway, I read Warren Buffett’s annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders and I recommend you do the same. It displays a level of honesty and transparency that are (in my opinion) completely lacking in the rest of the financial world. Really, there’s something special with a man who can come out and say, ‘…the terrible timing of my purchase has cost Berkshire several billion dollars,’ about his high-volume purchase of oil securities when the price per barrel was near its highest in the shareholder letter and no one asks for his head on a pike. On the contrary, I’m sure at the Q&A portion of the annual shareholder meeting, people will speak up if only to declare their opinion that he is the only man who can see the company through this downturn.

He’s like the Bill Adama of the US financial system. And so really the Bill Adama of the world economy.

A bit cuddlier and funnier maybe.

If you don’t read all 22 pages of his letter (though you should), at least read his introduction and his closing regarding the logistics of the annual meeting in Omaha. He’s really quite a funny man.

I’ve included some teaser quotes below as well.

Our borrowers simply looked at how full-bore mortgage payments would compare with their actual – not hoped-for – income and thendecided whether they could live with that commitment. Simply put, they took out a mortgage with the intention of paying it off, whatever the course of home prices.

Putting people into homes, though a desirable goal, shouldn’t be our country’s primary objective. Keeping them in their homes should be the ambition.

Investors should be skeptical of history-based models. Constructed by a nerdy-sounding priesthood using esoteric terms such as beta, gamma, sigma and the like, these models tend to look impressive. Too often, though, investors forget to examine the assumptions behind the symbols. Our advice: Beware of geeks bearing formulas.

Clinging to cash equivalents or long-term government bonds at present yields is almost certainly a terrible policy if continued for long. Holders of these instruments, of course, have felt increasingly comfortable – in fact, almost smug – in following this policy as financial turmoil has mounted. They regard their judgment confirmed when they hear commentators proclaim “cash is king,” even though that wonderful cash is earning close to nothing and will surely find its purchasing power eroded over time.

Indeed, recent events demonstrate that certain big-name CEOs (or former CEOs) at major financial institutions were simply incapable of managing a business with a huge, complex book of derivatives. Include Charlie and me in this hapless group: When Berkshire purchased General Re in 1998, we knew we could not get our minds around its book of 23,218 derivatives contracts, made with 884 counterparties (many of which we had never heard of). So we decided to close up shop. Though we were under no pressure and were operating in benign markets as we exited, it took us five years and more than $400 million in losses to largely complete the task. Upon leaving, our feelings about the business mirrored a line in a country song: “I liked you better before I got to know you so well.”

Participants seeking to dodge troubles face the same problem as someone seeking to avoid venereal disease: It’s not just whom you sleep with, but also whom they are sleeping with.

If I had $75,000 I’d buy a share.

UPDATE: Of course, I forgot to point out what I’d originally intended to when I read the letter. This is only the second time in 44 years that BH has posted a loss for the year and it’s the worst of the two by a fair margin. It’s just about madness that he’s this open, hopeful, and nearly peppy when delivering this fact.