Irrelevance Glorified

Week 30, July 21st – July 25th

Magic Tipper

I assure you, no cgi magic was used to make this video.

Four-Pointed Star

I’m intrigued by this one. If I folded up steel to make this, I wonder if I could make a real shuriken.

Monkey Climbs the Mountain

Not only origami, this sounds like one of those Kung Fu forms that Jackie Chan might go through in Legend of Drunken Master(go to the 4 minute mark).

Message In a Bottle

The key, of course, is that you write a message on the piece of paper and then use it for the origami. I doubt it’s watersafe, though, so you might not want to go this route if you’re stuck on a desert island.

Buck Bra

This origami was really really hard to take a picture of. This is pretty much the best I could do. I certainly wasn’t going to model them. So stop asking.

As always, these origami designs were found in the Origami Page-A-Day Desk Calendar.

A grand total of three people other than myself have been in my apartment. That’s actually alright with me; that’s just less cleaning I have to do. But at least one person has asked me what the place looks like, so I thought I’d post some pictures. It’s a standard, overpriced California apartment, but it’s overall it’s pretty nice. I don’t have a patio or balcony, but I also share only one wall (and one ceiling, obviously) with neighbors (and so far, no mariachi bands — although Thursday nights are often karaoke night upstairs). Continue Reading »

Well, in the past few weeks there’s been a lot of turmoil in the markets…you’d have to be living in a cave not to see that. I’m sure all my fans out there wonder what I think of the situation.

Why are you asking me? I don’t know anything.

But I can mention some of the websites that have provided interesting economic information over the past few years. None of them offer stock advice or anything like that — most of the time it’s just opinion, analysis, and explanation of economic data. While I, not being an economist, am not in a position to critically analyze them, I’ve followed some of these websites for two or three years, and history has borne a lot of what they’ve said to be right, and that has to count for something.

First up is Paul Krugman, for both his New York Times column as well as his blog. He is often shrill, and is probably considered a bogeyman to conservatives — oh wait, that’s probably something in his favor. His column is mostly policy stuff, his blog is mostly econ stuff. But again…he’s often been right.

More recently, I’ve been reading The Big Picture, by Barry Ritholtz. I started reading it probably over a year ago, when the sub-prime stuff started to really heat up, because he does a lot of stuff on housing. Anyways, he’s an econ nerd and laughs at stuff that’s really only funny to Wall Street types like him, but everything I’ve read has seemed reasoned and, again, is often right.

Lastly, there is Calculated Risk. Less analysis, for the most part, and mostly just news. When I was waiting for my bank to fail, I was checking this blog a lot, because they were doing pretty regular posting on the wheelings and dealings going on by the various players.

Finally, I just found out about a series of shows on This American Life that have focused on the current economic crisis and what caused it. In particular, you should look at Episode 355: The Giant Pool of Money and Episode 365: Another Frightening Show About The Economy. Both are available streaming for free, and you can download Ep. 365 for free and Episode 355 for pay. I listened to both today and I highly recommend them, as they go through some of those terms you may have heard about like collateral debt obligations and credit default swaps and explain the incentives behind the sub-prime bubble, all in a very accessible and entertaining way, with lots of interviews with mortgage brokers and corporate treasurers that have been down in the trenches over the past five years.

So, frequent visitors and random guests, I hope you enjoy the links. Since The Internet is one of my superpowers, it’s only fair that I give back to the community.

Week 29, July 14th – July 18th

Catamaran

Definitely seaworthy.

Flower

I don’t know where this design came from….perhaps from this article speculating on plants on other planets.

Goldfish

I tried to liven it up by giving this goldfish a face.

King’s Crown

If you have to resort to a crown like this…maybe you need to rethink this whole “King” thing. Maybe you should lower your expectations a bit. Like maybe become a pizza delivery person or something.

Knight’s Helmet

This guy would probably be very interested in this concept.

As always, these origami designs were found in the Origami Page-A-Day Desk Calendar.

I opened up iGoogle this morning and this is what confronted me….

Rain!! It hasn’t rained since I got here, over six months ago. And rain is the predominant forecast for Saturday. Will I know what to do when I see rain? Will I find out that my apartment isn’t waterproof? I’m used to Midwestern rain….is Northern California rain totally different? Does it taste like vanilla? The possibilities are truly endless.