So, being a shareholder, I occasionally receive notices that annual reports / stock reports / shareholdery-type things will no longer be sent to me in paper form, but will rather be available electronically. The problem is that these notices and procedures require a great deal of paperwork to become paper-free.

For example, I received one today telling me that I would not be sent a company’s annual report, but that I could download it from their website. However, to confirm that this is ok and it’s what you want and it’s alright and it’s kosher and it’s giving the lawyers an excuse to bill outrageously, you have to sign and fax a paper form to a company saying that yes, you will in fact download the file.

People really are idiots sometimes.

Raimi Readies “Dead” Remake

The VCR is dead. Long live the VCR. Please rewind tape.

I just downloaded two songs — “And The Rest Will Follow” and “Will You Smile Again” — from the forthcoming …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead album Worlds Apart, and they’re brilliant. As in, I’ve listened to them 4 times tonight. Source Tags And Codes (pitchfork | metacritic) might be the best album I’ve ever heard; the new disc can’t be better, can it?

Can it?

After finally seeing Fat Girl (imdb | rotten tomatoes), it’s become official: I hate Catherine Breillat‘s movies. I think she’s manufactured a reputation for herself of being a put-upon genius by making senseless, dreary movies with a few (or many) sexually shocking moments. I thought Romance (imdb | rotten tomatoes) was one of the worst peices of crap I’ve ever watched — I couldn’t even bother to finish watching it — and this movie didn’t do much to repair her image in my mind. It’s the last time I’ll make the mistake of renting one of her movies.

Thomas Walkom of The Star wonders if we should indict Bush on war crimes when he pops up for a visit next week. It won’t happen of course, but it raises an interesting question. It also makes it pretty clear why the US didn’t want to join the International Criminal Court.

from Matthew Good’s blog

One down, a dozen or so to go. I got back from the intensive portion of my first MBA course on Friday, after 6 days just north of the city at our training facility. The work (kind of like a cross between finance and economics) wasn’t too bad, it’s just being trapped in there for 6 days, taking in piles of information, bland food and recycled air, takes a toll on you. But I know more about yield curves and derivatives now than I did a week ago, and I got to know many of my classmates. All in all, a good first trip…the first of many. I go back again in January.

Since I’ve gotten back I’ve done my best to relax…ordered food and basically justacted like a zombie Friday night, went out with G&C last night for steaks and beer. Today’s been chore day, and involved me stupidly getting on the subway at the same time that all the parents & kids heading to/from the Santa Claus Parade. Bad, bad idea. I’m never willingly having children.

We watched Man On Fire (imdb | rotten tomatoes) last night, and I was prepared for it to be pretty bad — a co-worker said it was awful, and the reviews haven’t been stellar — but I actually quite liked it. I liked the style most of the time, it wasn’t overly predictable, and Dakota Fanning is too good an actor to only be 10 years old…it was rather alarming. And am I the only person who doesn’t mind when Denzel Washingtonn does something other than chew the screen with an Oscar-worthy performance? I like seeing him play the semi-everyman in dumb-ish action movies like Crimson Tide or Fallen.

I always find the vengeance movies a bit hard to swallow, but this one seemed to keep the avenging-angel heroics under control. It was terribly long (2.5 hours!), but not a bad movie at all for a lazy weekend.

I’m off for a week to attend the intensive part of my first MBA course. I likely won’t be able to post while I’m up there (it’s just north of the city, but we stay there for the whole week), so I’ll talk to you in a week.

Be good.

I’ll be off the air for a little while. I’m away for a week and, while I’ll likely have access to a connection, I probably won’t have time to post (nor anything to post about anyway).

Rawk.