The blog and contents of the entire greeklish.org site represent the personal views of the site's authors. The views expressed on these pages are the views of the authors alone and are not the views of our employers or of any organizations with which we are affiliated.
Copyrighted quotes and images obtained from third party web sites are used under the terms of Fair Use. Some materials used by greeklish.org are in the public domain.
Family photos are intended for viewing on this web site and should not be reproduced or used elsewhere without the permission of the owners and operators of greeklish.org.
Some
time ago – and against our better judgment – we took a small amount of
money that had been given to us after the birth of our older daughter
and gave it to a financial planner to "invest" it, thinking that by the
time our daughter was considerably older, there might be enough there
to constitute a "college fund" or something of that nature.
Shortly after the investment was made, the market took a turn for the
worse and we lost quite a bit of the small sum that we had put into
this scheme. For several years, the account balance moved just a
little up and just a little down and when our statements arrived, we
would always have some kind of quick but inconclusive discussion on
whether or not to pull the money and place it into a more stable
account, such as a savings account or a CD.
Somewhere
along the way, I came up with the idea of moving the money around
myself and trying to make some kind of "clever" investments that might
give us enough of a short-term gain to make up most of what we lost so
that we could pull the money out with little or no losses. Most
people who know me well know of my contempt for "The Market" and it's
fair to say that the very idea of me engaging in some kind of stock
trading is akin to a vegetarian eating a hamburger. Nevertheless,
I was willing to give it a go one time if the end result was that we
would be in a good position to take everything out in short order with
a minimal net loss.
Over
the course of the last few weeks, we had a small amount of the money
shifted to an online brokerage account so that we could make
investments as we so desired. The set up works kind of like E-Trade,
except the trading fees are something like 3 times more than E-Trade or
Scottrade. Not that trading fees would be a big deal, though, as
we were only looking to make a few key purchases. The first
purchase I had counted on was the much-anticipated Vonage
IPO which seemed very promising to me based on several conversations
with others as well as a bit of reading that I had done on the matter.
I
was a bit taken by surprise on Tuesday morning when I learned that the
IPO would go ahead the same morning and I hoped to buy some shares as
soon as possible. Later that morning, I logged into our account
and prepared to make the purchase, but right before I clicked on the
"buy" button, I noticed something curious: The stock had already
dropped from 17.0 to below 16.0 in just a short time on the
market. I held off – thankfully – and watched Vonage tank
throughout the course of the day. By the market's close, the
Vonage IPO was being billed as the worst market debut in 2 years.
At the close of the market on Friday, Vonage was hovering around 13.0.
This
experience has, by and large, confirmed all of the ill-ease and
suspicions that I have harbored for some time regarding "The
Market." Most of the little that I know of economics and the
market comes from the brilliant but incomplete work "What is
Economics?" by Rosa Luxemburg.
In this text, Luxemburg plainly states the true nature of the market
in language that is as true today as it was when she wrote the words almost a century ago:
Rosa Luxemburg
Today,
a person can become rich or poor without doing anything, without
lifting a finger, without an occurrence of nature taking place, without
anyone giving anyone anything, or physically robbing anything. Price
fluctuations are like secret movements directed by an invisible agency
behind the back of society, causing continuous shifts and fluctuations
in the distribution of social wealth. This movement is observed as
atmospheric pressure read on a barometer, or temperature on a
thermometer. And yet commodity prices and their movements manifestly
are human affairs and not black magic. No one but man himself—with his
own hands—produces these commodities and determines their prices,
except that, here again, something flows from his actions which he does
not intend nor desire; here again, need, object, and result of the
economic activity of man have come into jarring contradiction. *
We
are not sure what we will do with our small sum for now, but we have
surely dodged a tiny bullet through this experience and in doing so, we have
learned a great deal. Many others have had to endure complete financial ruin because they played the market and lost. The
apparent truth of the matter is that "The Market" isn't designed for the
benefit of working people; it is manipulated in spite of them.
* "What is Economics?" is available in the Pathfinder Press compilation Rosa Luxemburg Speaks. It's really too bad that this fantastic work is not available for free on the Internet.
It
seems as if our "new tank syndrome" has finally cleared up, so I
thought I'd try adding another Mollie to our aquarium. Chloe II’s
new companion is an all-black Dalmatian Mollie . I named our new
fish "Cronos" after the bassist/frontman of Venom, the most evil heavy metal band of all time.
Thus far, the two fish are getting along well, but only time will tell...
A few weeks ago, Thomai and the girls gave me a small aquarium and 2 Mollie fish
for my birthday. It was a great gift, as I have wanted some pet fish
for some time. One fish was a Dalmatian Mollie and the other was a
Creamsicle Mollie. I named them "Frank" and "Chloe" (respectively)
after an old Daffy Duck cartoon entitled "The Impatient Patient." In
the cartoon, Daffy plays a telegram delivery man who has to make a
delivery to a customer named Chloe. Chloe lives in a castle that
belongs to a mad scientist and when Daffy is first greeted by Chloe, he
is surprised to find that Chloe is a giant monster. Chloe greets
him with the words, "Duuh...My name's Chloe. Let's you and me
rassle." Daffy responds by reading his telegram aloud: "Happy
birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Chloe,
happy birthday to you STOP, Signed Frank N. Stein." I guess the
important thing here is that at least I think this is funny.
Anyway, Frank and Chloe got off
to a rough start due to something called new tank syndrome.
The water in our new tank quickly became cloudy and nasty-looking
despite the fact that it was fresh tap water and that it was treated
with aquarium conditioner. Within a few days, Chloe died.
This apparently happens from time to time as a result of the new tank syndrome. Most pet stores have some kind of warranty
when you buy fish, but you have to bring in the dead fish with two
water samples to start the refund process. If the death of the
fish isn't covered by the terms of the warranty (this is determined through tests run by the pet store), then you're out of
luck. It's kind of a hassle. So we simply bade Chloe
farewell with a very unceremonious flush of the toilet.
Chloe II
We tried to tidy up the tank a
bit shortly after Chloe's untimely demise. We changed out some of
the water, scooped some of the crud off of the gravel, and rinsed out
the filter while Frank got used to life as a single fish. But
shortly thereafter, we tried our luck again and we introduced another
Mollie to the tank. She was a Gold Dust Mollie and I named her
Chloe II. Chloe II was bullied relentlessly for a few days by
Frank who insisted on making it known that he was the boss of the tank.
Eventually, things calmed down and Frank and Chloe II began to coexist
peacefully.
By this point, a decent film of
gunk had accumulated on the floor of the tank and it was clear that the
time had come for a thorough tank cleaning. I purchased a gravel
vacuum which was supposed to operate like a siphon, but the vacuum
required a significant amount of back and forth movement to begin the
siphoning process and the result of this attempt was that I created a
much bigger mess than was necessary. The tank actually became a
bigger mess because of all the movement that was needed to get the
vacuum running. I returned the crappy vacuum to the pet store the
following day and I got a battery-powered vacuum instead. The new
vacuum seemed to work very well, but after a thorough cleaning, there
was quite a bit of debris that was still floating in the tank. I
am now of the opinion that this was the cause of the demise of Frank,
who passed away about one day after I had finished cleaning the tank.
The following evening, we took
Chloe II out of the tank and put her into a separate bowl and we
completely drained and cleaned the tank. We thoroughly cleaned
the gravel and plastic plants and returned Chloe II to her home.
A day or so later, I brought a new Marble Mollie home to join Chloe
II. This time, it was Chloe II's turn to play the part of the
"tank bully" and for the rest of the evening, she chased and
badgered Frank II. Frank II died about 24 hours later.
Chloe II is alone again and the
water in the tank is now very murky despite our best efforts.
Tonight, I vacuumed out some sludge off the bottom of the tank and I
switched out the filter. She is hanging in there for now, but the
odds seem to be stacked against her. We're going to keep at this
until it works. Who knew it could be this tough to take care of
some little fish?
We've added a new photo gallery for March-May 2006. The gallery includes some family pictures as well as some pictures from visits to the park and other places.
You
know, it’s a real shame that I don’t drink because I think I discovered
the perfect drinking game while I was driving home from work the other
day. Here’s how it works: Tune in to AM 700 WLW
for the 5:00 PM newscast. Every time someone says the call sign of the
radio station ("700 WLW"), take a drink. Assuming that you are
drinking a 1.5 ounce shot of 100-proof whiskey for each call sign, you
will consume somewhere around 15 to 18 shots between 5:00 and 5:08
PM. So shortly after the newscast, your Blood Alcohol Level will
be somewhere between .512% and .617% BAL.
Most people go comatose around .400% BAL and death is imminent around
.500% BAL, so play at your own risk. Being drunk might slightly improve
your listening experience if you’re tuned to WLW. And if you’re
comatose, then you won’t even notice any of their tired old
jokes, right-wing grandstanding and perpetual race-baiting. So
there really is a trade-off to be considered here, right? As for
me, I think I’ll just stop listening to WLW altogether before it drives
me to take up drinking.
I
always feel like I should object when I hear people proclaim that CNN
and FOX News are pretty much the same. I think it’s probably
just "wishful thinking" on my part, as I still get a large
portion of my television and web-based news from CNN. It’s still
a force of habit for me, but an ever-eroding habit for sure.
In the not too distant past, the
similarities between CNN and FOX News were less apparent to everyday,
run-of-the mill viewers. Most regular viewers might not be too
likely to dwell on the fact that both of these networks are controlled
by super-rich moguls with ties to political machinery on both the left
and the right of mainstream American politics. And most regular
viewers might not reflect too long on the fact that these “news
organizations” would gladly censor or edit the content of their "news"
reports and programming at the behest of their sponsors and parent
companies. This stuff is generally in the backs of our minds when
we watch the news, but it’s easy enough to forget (or ignore) from time
to time.
Nowadays, the similarities
between the two networks are much more apparent, as is the
overt politicization of infotainment as a whole in America. For example, FOX News no
longer has the market cornered on obnoxious right-wing talking
heads. A few months back, CNN picked up former Reagan cabinet
official WIlliam Bennett despite a torrent of public outcry over insensitive and bigoted comments made by Bennett on his talk radio show.
More recently, CNN gave a prime time television slot to Glenn Beck,
one of the most crassly offensive right-wing radio hosts in
America. Leading up to his May 8th debut, CNN shamelessly paraded
Beck on shows like Anderson Cooper 360 (summary 1 | summary 2), Nancy Grace (summary), and American Morning (summary)
to promote his new show. Beck’s brand of rhetoric often borders
on "hate speech," but perhaps that is giving him too much credit.
Maybe it would be better to call it "hate shtick." Whatever
the case, Glenn Beck is CNN’s new Golden Boy for the time being.
Media Matters has compiled a short list of some of Glenn Beck’s most
offensive bits here.
But while CNN moves to the right,
FOX News is moving a bit left to embrace a rather strange bedfellow.
On May 9, it was reported that FOX News CEO Rupert Murdoch will host a
political fundraiser for Hillary Clinton later this year (full story).
Murdoch is allegedly an admirer of Clinton’s work as a Senator despite
the fact that FOX News and other Murdoch media organs have vilified and
antagonized the Clintons for the better part of the a decade.
Murdoch and Clinton seem to be at work building their own little "mutual admiration society" as of late. Both Bill and
Hillary Clinton recently made an appearance at the gala celebration for the 10th
anniversary of the FOX News Channel. There was a time when right-wing
contempt for the Clintons was the singular raison d'être of FOX News. This was also back when folks still called CNN "The Clinton
News Network."
We're definitely through the looking glass now. Can it get any weirder? Stay tuned.
Yesterday was Free Comic Book Day 2006. Now, to be honest, I still don’t know a lot about the origins and purpose of the event. I briefly scanned the official web site,
but I must admit that I didn’t read too closely. I think it has
something to do with celebrating the comic book as a uniquely American
form of pop art. I think that’s what they said on the web site,
anyway.
Captain Marvel Adventures #33 (1944)
What
I do know about the event is that my favorite local comic shop marked
the occasion event by selling everything in their store at 50% off! This was a
pretty big deal for me. I only bought 3 comics yesterday, but the
combined regular price for them would have been over $150 and with the
Free Comic Book Day sale and an additional discount because I have a
"mailbox" (subscription) for new comics, I got all the books for less than a third of their combined value.
One
of the comics that I picked up is Real Clue Crime Stories vol. 2, no. 10 (December
1947). I generally enjoy comics from the 1940’s and this
particular series was a Hillman publication. Hillman also
published Airboy Comics in the 1940's and 1950's, which is one of my
all-time favorite comic book series. I also picked up a
copy of Wings Comics no. 55 (March 1945 ). This is the first
issue of Wings Comics that I have obtained for my collection. I
have always been kind of curious about this series, especially since I
am so keen on the Air Fighters/Airboy comics from the same era.
My
most exciting purchase of the day was Captain Marvel Adventures vol. 6, no. 33
(March 1944). I only have a few issues of Captain Marvel/Whiz
Comics in my collection and these issues are generally hard to come by
at affordable prices. I have had my eye on this issue since I saw it at the 2006 Gem City Comic Con a few weeks ago and I was surprised they still had it—and even more surprised that it, like everything else in the store, was half price. This particular issue is in great condition
(in my opinion, anyway) and I am really excited about reading it.
What a great haul! To quote C. Montgomery Burns, "Huzzah for the shopkeep!"
Upon learning of our new iMac, our pal Corey sent me a note suggesting
I check out the new Mac application called Photo Booth. He
described it as "the most hilarious time-waster." He was
right. Here’s how I wasted my time with it...
Our new Intel iMac arrived yesterday. Last night, we spent a couple of hours
rearranging our furniture and workspace to accommodate the new
unit. This "couple of hours" included: (1) disconnecting
the computer and all peripherals (2) moving all the furniture around to
new aesthetically and ergonomically "better" locations (3) realizing that our new furniture arrangements were no
good (4) moving all the furniture pieces back to their original
positions and (5) reconnecting all peripherals and networking the two
computers (old and new) together. It was a textbook "Mike and
Thomai" operation.
We
got our new iMac from MacMall which had the best price we could
find. Our iMac has a 17" display (the 20" was a bit too pricey)
and we got a RAM upgrade and a new Microtek scanner as well. The
new iMac is amazingly fast. I haven’t checked out much of the new
software and features, but I was particularly amazed by the new setup
feature which allows users to connect an old Mac via FireWire and
quickly import all applications, files, settings and keychains from the
old computer to the new computer with just a few clicks of the
mouse. Maybe I am easily impressed, but I had never seen anything
like this before. It was considerably less intense than my last
OS upgrade.
I
am not accustomed to the flat screen display yet and I didn't like the
new mouse at all, so I have replaced it with my trusty old Logitec
trackball. The iChat video conferencing feature has some minor
problems with blurry video when chatting with 2 or more people at a
time, but I am thinking this is a fixable problem.
All in all, it's an exciting piece of equipment and I think we’re going to get a lot of good use out of it!
May 1st is May Day,
which is also known as International Workers Day. This holiday is
observed in many countries and locales, in recognition of the
achievements of the working people of the world.
May 1st also
marks the anniversary of the beginning of the 1886 nation-wide strike
in support of the eight-hour workday. In Chicago, a mass meeting
in support of the workers' movement ended tragically with the "Haymarket Massacre" on May 4.
Rise like lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number,
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you–
Ye are many–they are few.
This May 1st, the US will also experience the first ever "A Day Without
An Immigrant" strike. Events are being organized nationwide to
protest the recent wave of anti-immigrant rhetoric and the push for anti-immigrant legislation in
the United States. Clickherefor much more information.
Ohio's U.S. RepresentativesDeborah PryceandTed Stricklandboth supported theHR4437proposal. Both are running for office this year. Pryce is
seeking reelection and Strickland is running for Ohio Governor. Ohio voters: Remember this when you go to the polls!
