45.716%

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Canada’s oldest bookstore, The Book Room in Halifax, is closing. I don’t have any particular problem with it closing, I just thought it was cool that the oldest bookstore in Canada was in Halifax.

.:.

Today was challenging at times but things started to gel a bit toward the end. I’m going to have to do some work tonight; need to catch up and prepare some study materials. I still have some work work that I want to do but I don’t think I can spare the time. I don’t want to mess up this exam; it’s much too late in the game to mess up now.

.:.

I finally finished the Naomi Klein book this week. It drifted toward the end — I think the entire section on Israel was a little too micro to carry the same weight as earlier sections — but it was still a very interesting companion piece to this MBA I’m doing. It’s not as if Friedman worship flares up often, but there’ve been some discussions that in class that’ve sounded eerily similar to some neo-liberal scripture.

I think next I might read Incendiary by Chris Cleave (amazon | indigo). I didn’t realize it’d been made into a movie, so I’d like to read it before that comes out.

[tags]halifax, the book room, mba, naomi klein, shock doctrine, incendiary, chris cleave[/tags]

25.887%

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Thank god for Hero Burger. I couldn’t stomach the dinner tonight (veal, chicken something or other, snapper…not good) so a friend drove us to HB where I could get a veggie burger. I feel much better now.

I’m not sure how to feel about this course yet. I have no problem with the math and the logic needed to solve each question. I just don’t always know which logic and math is needed for each particular question. So that’s an issue.

[tags]hero burger, mba[/tags]

5.121%

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Granted, the competition was Rambo, but what does it say about our society that Meet The Spartans won the weekend at the box office? The movie has a 5% rating, fer chrissakes.

.:.

Today wasn’t so bad. The prof is pretty good at explaining things and I haven’t gotten lost yet, but I think it’s only gonna get tougher and I have to be careful not to drift off for a few minutes or I’ll be lost. I’ll have to stay on my toes this week.

[tags]meet the spartans, rambo, mba[/tags]

13/15

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Despite not having nasal passages clear enough to support running, the  no-chocolate thing seems to be doing some good. Lost 1.5 pounds last week.

  • Original weight: 233
  • Weight last week: 224
  • Weight this week: 222.5

.:.

I’m just getting ready to start the intensive session of my course. Just finished unpacking and having a snack, building up some energy before class begins at 1:00. This week won’t be pleasant — the topic is corporate finance — but I believe it’s the last tough course, and the third last overall.

[tags]fatblogging, mba[/tags]

"I can't keep doing this on my own with these…people."

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Nellie and I went to see two movies in a row today:

I had incredibly high expectations for There Will Be Blood (imdb | rotten tomatoes), but it still paid off. I think as the film sinks in over the next few days I’ll get even more from it, but even at first glance it’s huge and chilling and epic and staggering. Daniel Day-Lewis, once again, proves himself a mad genius. At no time in any of his movies do I think of him in any of his other roles. Paul Dano and the other actors kept up, but Day-Lewis was on the screen for virtually every second of the film and swept it along. You may not like this movie, but if you can’t recognize it for the classic piece of filmmaking that it is, maybe you should stick to reality TV.

Cloverfield (imdb | rotten tomatoes) was a completely different animal: a beastie-thriller, but done with a little more flair than we’ve come to expect. The handicam viewpoint was a useful little device, and kept the film from lapsing into the usual cliches (hey look, a spunky scientist finds a way to save the day!), focusing instead on showing the mass confusion of such an event. A pretty decent escapist flick. Oh, and Jessica Lucas: girlfriend du jour.

.:.

Absurdity piled on absurdity: the FCC is going to fine ABC $1.4 million because they showed buttocks on the air. Five years ago.

[tags]there will be blood, cloverfield, jessica lucas, fcc, nypd blue[/tags]

Sure, that's a lot of silk, but…c'mon

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Incredulity, take 1: Shaquille O’Neal’s monthly spending. Granted, it’s probably no worse than any other NBA superstar’s spending, but I haven’t seen theirs broken down like this, so O’Neal’s the topic of discussion.

Among [the expenses]: $156,116 in mortgages on three homes (including his $20 million mansion on Star Island, Miami Beach), plus $31,299 in homeowners insurance; $3,345 in phone bills; $1,610 in lawn and pool maintenance; $12,775 in food; $1,495 in cable TV; $24,300 in gas; $6,730 in dry cleaning; $17,220 in clothing; $2,305 for pets, and $110,505 in vacations.

Believe it or not, the one that really threw me was the gas. I don’t get it. Let’s assume Shaq owns 6 Cadillac Escalades and drives them all every single day. Escalades get 13 mpg, and the highest gas price I can find in the Miami area is $3.39/gallon, which means that Shaq (or his family/whatever) would have to drive each of his six Escalades over 500 miles every single day. I think Shaq’s getting ripped off by either his driver or his accountant.

And don’t even get me started on his $220/day dry cleaner.

.:.

Incredulity, take 2: Paul Wolfowitz is back in the Bush administration, albeit as an advisor.

Paul D. Wolfowitz, who resigned as World Bank chief after serving as second-in-command at the Pentagon, has returned to the Bush administration, albeit in an advisory role.

That sound you just heard was every Iranian sphincter tightening simultaneously.

.:.

In 2007, for the first time ever, condos in downtown Toronto appreciated more than detached homes.

Condominiums in the central core appreciated by 12.2% in 2007 compared to 11.5% for single detached homes. West end condominiums appreciated by 7.3% compared to 6.6% for single detached homes. These stats generally capture activity in the resale market.

I’m actually kind of surprised it took this long, but I’m obviously biased toward condos.

By the way, if I see a sustained 12.2% appreciation, I’ll be pretty pleased with that.

[tags]shaquille o’neal, paul wolfowitz, toronto condos, toronto detached houses[/tags]

"I want no part of a world that refuses to congratulate itself."

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Exciting news: I’m going to go for a run tomorrow. It’s the first time since my killer cold last week that I’ve felt up to it (and didn’t have an early meeting to get to). Sad that the idea of a 3 mile run is attractive to me at this point.

.:.

While I’ve quite enjoyed the television writer’s strike — network is for shit anyway — I had to laugh at Conan O’Brien’s strike diary.

With little to sustain me, I am forced to subsist entirely on Reality Television. I gorge myself on marathons of The Real Housewives of Orange County and Flavor of Love, then collapse in a wretched heap. If this is living, I welcome death.

It’s short. Go read.

.:.

I hear a lot of complaints about Starbucks & music…exclusive sales agreements and such. This week, as I walked by the Starbucks every day on my walk to work (actually I walk by three, but there’s one I pay particular attention to) I heard Sia, James Brown and Radiohead. I don’t recall Monday, so either I wasn’t paying attention or it was bad/generic enough not to grab me. In any case, if a Starbucks wants to push decent music to coffee junkies, I’m not going to criticize them. Maybe it’ll counter the Wal-Mart influence.

Speaking of music…what in the sweaty hell happened to Bob Mould? I have no problem if someone mellows out in their old age, I don’t. That’s not my problem. My problem is that the music is (to steal a line from High Fidelity) generic pappy crap, and the man’s used more voice modulation  on his last few albums than Cher. This morning “Jesus Cradle” from the Sugar album Beaster came up on my Zen, and I was momentarily stunned by how good it was. Compared to what I’m listening to right now — a leaked copy of Mould’s latest, District Line — it’s just tragic. Genre differences or not, they’re still worlds apart.

.:.

My brother sent me this link yesterday in an email titled “There goes your day.” He wasn’t lying.

[tags]conan o’brien, starbucks, bob mould, cher, tony-b[/tags]

Banality, thy name is blog

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I have absolutely nothing interesting to say. Haven’t looked up from work long enough to do anything, let alone read anything. Last night I did work while I watched the hockey game, and stopped long enough to watch the latest episode of The Wire (which, by the way, holy crapmonkey!) and then go to sleep. Gonna be the same tomorrow.

Heeeeeeeere Friday Friday Friday…C’mere boy.

[tags]the wire[/tags]

Is there anyone "old, grey-haired, hard-drinking Scottish geezers" can't inspire?

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No time for fancy bloggin’ tonight, kids. Too much work to do. It’s link-dump time:

It could be like this all week, so have some other reading material on hand with which to occupy yourselves.

[tags]triumph, toronto, road tolls, gentrification, wall street journal[/tags]