Tag Archives: Obama

Rise and Shine

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Well today was a weird day for sure. I was fine, Tom Chin was out after having words with Vivek (who has the flu). A 2 day work week for Tom Chin, sitting at home in a form of protest. Vivek is a screamer. He never screamed at me, but he is a bit of a spoiled brat.

Rich family you see. Never really had to struggle for anything. He phoned this afternoon, telling me he wasn’t coming in until after 4:00 since the market was tanking and he feels like he should see all of his stocks. And also I could go whenever I saw fit.

In the office today, it was Greg Stevens and myself for my team. The right wing nuts were in again though. They love to listen to the psychotic voice mails my stalker leaves me. This morning it was about how she hates my father and my brother and how I should fire that evil French guy.

So Frank, Brian and Henri (or Pierre or Alain or Jacques), be on guard. Crazy Korean chick is on the loose and she’s gunning for you!

I was finished with whatever it is I had to do around 1:30, then I just surfed the next 2 hours. Believe me, I would rather have had something to do. I did finish Sarah Vowell’s The Wordy Shipmates.

It was ok. Couldn’t get into it as easily as I did her other books. She seems like someone I’d like to have a pint with though. And it was a day late, so I was out $0.10. It was a good book, not her best.

I think I’ll take out David Sedaris’ last book, What to do When Engulfed in Flames next. I enjoy his essays more than his non-fiction. I hated most of Holidays on Ice. Just felt so forced. His life story is more entertaining.

Myself, I can’t tell a joke to save my life, but I could tell you about something that happened to me and more than likely you would be laughing.

Oh that damned liberal media, tearing apart President Obama’s mortgage plans. Let the people lose their homes! Let empty houses stand in neighborhoods! Why should there be a safety net? Who are we? Our brother’s keeper?

That was the lead on NBC News with Brian Williams announced by Michael Douglas, a financial reporter in the Chicago Mercantile exchange spurting angrily about the economic plan.

Damned liberal media! Nothing should be done! Let things correct themselves! After all Wall Street did such an excellent job of policing themselves thanks to Reagan and his deregulation initiatives. And no one complained then!

Sure someone would have to pick up the tab, isn’t that why there are children’s children’s children? I know it’s convoluted and perhaps a bit Swiftian.

Something has to be done immediately and what I believe Obama is doing is what is best at this moment. I work alongside some of these Wall Streeters who are vehemently anti-Obama, but they offer no solutions, just towing the republican line, tax cuts.

Tomorrow’s Friday which is something to look forward to, I hope.

Rhythm is a Dancer

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Another day, another night, another opening, another show. Last night was quiet. Juan was running late and decided to take a raincheck on stopping by which was fine by me. I spent sometime with Julio & Stine and Superboy.

Hung out, Julio burned some DVD’s for me so I might send them to the left coast as a Christmas present though I was told no Christmas presents, this costs mere pennies so that means I won’t hear ‘Oh you spent too much money, you shouldn’t have’ from Annemarie. This year it’s going to be a cheap holiday gift giving season.

So it was a quiet night and I wasn’t in bed by 11:30, but more like 11:45 which isn’t that big of a deal. Slept really well. Once again my pillows have gone bad and I’ve been waking up with an achy neck.

Since Bill is in Stuyvesant Town I decided to add one of his pillows to mine and voila! It worked and I slept really well. Still some difficulty getting out of bed when the alarm goes off but it wasn’t that bad and I was up and mobile at 6:30 and out at 7:15.

No Casey bus today, but progress is being made. It’s more than likely that when I eventually do catch the bus that I used to see Casey on, he won’t be there. Nothing on him, just the way the cosmic joke is on me, rather than being included on the cosmic joke.

Work was busy, the new subtenants were annoying. There was a new guy and so their discussions around the trading desk were political and had a tinge of anti-Obama feeling to it.

The other day as they were watching CNBC, there was an article on the TV about how investors are sweeping in on India and taking advantage of the chaos following the attacks in Mumbai.

This is the disaster capitalism that Naomi Klein writes about. Something happens, the people are in shock. Public companies are privatized, unions dismantled and occasionally brutalities occur.

Scratch that ‘occasionally’, brutalities happen quite often. Murder, displacement, rampant unemployment, government crackdowns in democratic societies, people going ‘missing’ all in the name of free trade.

That is The Shock Doctrine, as put forth by Milton Friedman and his gang from the University of Chicago. I mentioned it as the news was reported and got a few strange looks as I spoke. I guess a tirade against unregulated capitalism doesn’t go down that well when you’re dealing with traders in a financial institution.

I’ve been reading this book for months now, I read it usually on my way home since it’s generally so upsetting and it angers up my blood. I have less than a third to read and Naomi Klein writes about what happened and continues to happen in Iraq.

I guess I should have paid more attention to the misdeeds of Paul Bremer and his ilk, but I hope that I am making up for lost time and my ignorance.

Like yesterday, I got really tired after lunch, a salad. Sort of crashing. Maybe it’s because of the drop in temperature as the day goes on, it could also be the errands that I have been doing usually in the morning. If I could take a midday nap I would but I can’t so I ate a banana, which helped.

This evening I went to Steven’s Institute of Technology to attend a lecture by Dr. Oliver Sacks, whom I have written about before. The gist of the lecture concerned music and it’s relation to the brain.

I heard about it through Rand and once again I am in his debt. Dr. Sacks is personable and mentioned a few times that the paperback has some rewrites as well as additional case stories which made me regret purchasing the hardcover when it came out. Won’t do that again.

I was hoping to get a chance to talk about my brother Frank and his aphasia. His aphasia seems to go away when he’s talking about music and he’s just as passionate about music as I am. But the opportunity never arose and I was hungry.

I did thank Rand for telling me about the lecture and now here I am mere moments later writing about it. Still tired and a bit hungry now so that’s it.

I have photos from last week to today, but since I’m on Bill’s Mac I can’t figure out how to upload them.