Tuesday 2 March 1999
Pic of the day:
Well, my hair is gone
and my friends are gray
I'm aching the places where I used to play...
OK, so I'm transposing a bittle lit on Leonard Cohen's song.
It's not like he's ever gonna notice my tiny little website
(particularly now that he's a Buddhist monk). Anyway, my
hair is, if not gone, suddenly reduced in
stature. In other words, I've gone and had a haircut. It
should be fully fluffable before the wedding, though.
Various sources, including lately Maggie the Margarita goddess, have informed me that flowers is an important tool in certain interpersonal relationships. (Like any male, I feel somewhat squeamish about killing a perfectly fine flower slowly even though it has done no discernible wrong.) Worse, I've read the slogan "say it with flowers!" but never got around to learning the language. Ideally I would like to know at least the difference between "Get Well Soon" and "I Wanna Do Pushups On You".
I'm probably more worried about this surgery thing than my friend is, but that does not necessarily mean much. She sounded pretty certain that she would survive. God, I hope so. It's probably safer than driving to work. Not that I drive to work. I take the bus. As commented our bus driver today as we barely avoided a front collision with a small speeding car: "We would have won that collision."
Came home from work to find a new load of junk mail in my (physical) mailbox. To add insult to insult, one of them had even wrapped the paper in plastic that I had to remove before recycling. Then I came in and checked my e-mail. Only one spam! And in addition to a couple of abnormally bland e-mails from otherwise great friends, there was an adressed advertisement from The Economist, offering me a month's free, no obligations access to their web edition (which is, in fact, the entire magazine, one of the most sensible in the world). Now, this is the kind of advertisement I was wishing for, people. They know that I'm interested in their product, and they do something positive to convince me instead of just spamming people.
Also, The Economist supports Alan Greenspan, savior of the world economy. I sincerely hope that the US administration keeps him aboard for another term, since he's one of the best things that have happened to modern civilization. Well, just wanted to remind you. The American economy is going to crash, and in the near future. (In the long run, people can't spend more than they earn.) But whether it is going to crash and burn, too, depends on the actions of the federal reserve (and the inaction of the government, hopefully).
The economy here in Norway is already spinning down for a bumpy ride.
It would been worse had not America gracefully offered to cushion the
world economy with an unwarranted import boom. But the situation is
so serious that an agreement is emerging: That all workers except
teachers are to get little or no nominal pay increase
this year.
Why teachers? Because they are crucial to the future economic growth
of our country. If we don't educate kids today, they can't feed us
when we grow old, and we're gonna starve to death in our own feces.
Sorry about that, but life is tough and then you die. The time is
over when old folks lived on the farm and nibbled food from their
daughter-in-law's kitchen.
In other news, February and April
have announced an intent to merge. The new month will be named
Febril, and will gain a dominant position in the month market,
says a press release. February in particular was a natural target
for aquisition because of its smaller size and inherent instability.
Analysts reckon, however, that there could be more mergers as other
months rush to meet the increased competition.
In particular, neighboring March and May are expected to join forces
in an even larger month, tentatively called Mary.
Keep tuning in, folks, for the latest news and then some!