Monday, June 7, 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010
Winston!
My favorite movie of all time is called The Longest Day. It came out in 1962 and it is about the D-Day invasion of Normandy during WWII. It was this movie that peaked my love for studying history. I then would watch religiously The History Channel every day after I came home from school. I still remember coming home from high school every day and turning the television on to watch Great Chefs of the World and then turning it to The History Channel to watch Greatest Blunders in History. Food and history are a winning combination.
Anyway, there is a scene from the movie The Longest day with a beach master who was called Commander Colin Maud of the Royal Navy. He was directing the movement of the troops on the beach to move inland against the Germans. What is great about this scene is how he had a small, chunky companion by his side. It was an English Bulldog. Commander Maud named his companion Winston. Obviously after his Prime Minister, Winston Churchill.
Ever since this scene, I have been determined to get an English Bulldog and name it Winston some time in my future. Now this brings me to the real point of what I'm getting at. I read this morning on MSN a slideshow titled What His Dog Says About Him. The last slide mentions the bulldog. This is what it says:
A bulldog man is usually a meat-and-potatoes, football-every-Sunday kind of guy. He's also the kind of guy who may let his underbite-baring, kinda-funny-looking dog grab Cheetos straight from his mouth. One might find that a bit gross . . . or totally endearing.
They nailed it!
Thursday, May 20, 2010
I am either a skeptical empiricist or a limousine driver!
I'm currently reading an interesting book called "The Black Swan". The author shared this story:
"Once, on a transatlantic flight, I found myself upgraded to first class next to an expensively dressed, high-powered lady dripping with gold and jewelry who continuously ate nuts (low-carb diet, perhaps), insisted on drinking only Evian, all the while reading the European edition of The Wall Street Journal. She kept trying to start a conversation in broken French, since she saw me reading a book (in French) by the sociologist-philosopher Pierre Bourdieu--which, ironically, dealt with the marks of social distinction. I informed her (in English) that I was a limousine driver, proudly insisting that I only drove "very upper-end" cars. An icy silence lasted the whole flight, and, although I could feel the tension, it allowed me to read in peace."
The author was actually a very successful quant trader on Wall Street. You will have to read the rest of the chapter to really get what he is illustrating. I thought this was interesting. Black Swans are everywhere!
"Once, on a transatlantic flight, I found myself upgraded to first class next to an expensively dressed, high-powered lady dripping with gold and jewelry who continuously ate nuts (low-carb diet, perhaps), insisted on drinking only Evian, all the while reading the European edition of The Wall Street Journal. She kept trying to start a conversation in broken French, since she saw me reading a book (in French) by the sociologist-philosopher Pierre Bourdieu--which, ironically, dealt with the marks of social distinction. I informed her (in English) that I was a limousine driver, proudly insisting that I only drove "very upper-end" cars. An icy silence lasted the whole flight, and, although I could feel the tension, it allowed me to read in peace."
The author was actually a very successful quant trader on Wall Street. You will have to read the rest of the chapter to really get what he is illustrating. I thought this was interesting. Black Swans are everywhere!
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Two episodes left and I'm more confused now then before!
Last night's episode of Lost was way confusing. How will the show end?
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Q&A #1 - LOST
OK boy . . . give me your thoughts on LOST and what you think will happen. I cried when Sun and Jin died, but are they really dead since the plane never crashed now?? So confusing! - Katie
I first need to share that I am huge into LOST. What is great about the show is the fact that you never truly know what is going to happen. It constantly keeps you thinking and speculating. There are tons of allusions to religion (the picture that the cast took that alludes to the painting The Last Supper which Lost fans have dubbed The Lost Supper), mythology (Greek and Egyptian), mathematical equations, philosophic thought and literature. There is a huge fan base and they call themselves LOSTIES. The show is so big and frustrating that a website patterned after Wikipedia was created called Lostpedia along with another website titled Theories on LOST where fans can share what they think is happening. However, there are only three episodes left of the entire series. The finale is on May 23rd and I just read that ABC is going to add another half hour to the finale. It will be two and half hours long. I can't wait!
So, what are my thoughts and what I think will happen? I really have no idea. Who is MIB (John Locke or I should say, the man in Black)? Who is Jacob? Are these two characters types of God and the Devil (or Egyptian Gods) and is the Island, Hell, as Richard said it is? There are allusions in some respect to Dante's Inferno about Hell. Everyone on the Island had a troubled past that inflicted some form of guilt (true Hell) upon them while on the Island. Why does Jack feel that he should not leave the Island? Is Jack a Messiah figure (this is a stretch)? He heals, leads, and advocates on others behalf? Will he replace Jacob? What about the Island itself? Is it a parallel universe or is it an alternate reality? These and a host of other questions cannot be answered intelligently (in my opinion).
A question that I was thinking about after last week's episode is with Sayid. After he was resurrected earlier in the season, he turned bad which is evident in the horrific killings and dirty work on behalf of MIB. But, I don't think he killed Desmond (Brother!) and he willingly sacrificed himself by blowing himself up in the sub. Was that an act of redemption which, perhaps, will save him to see his wife? Also, at the end of the episode, MIB (John Locke) knew that not everyone died in the sub. How? Why did he want them to die?
Like I said, I really have no idea about what will happen in the end. But as you can tell, I think too much about this. It's just so darn good.
I first need to share that I am huge into LOST. What is great about the show is the fact that you never truly know what is going to happen. It constantly keeps you thinking and speculating. There are tons of allusions to religion (the picture that the cast took that alludes to the painting The Last Supper which Lost fans have dubbed The Lost Supper), mythology (Greek and Egyptian), mathematical equations, philosophic thought and literature. There is a huge fan base and they call themselves LOSTIES. The show is so big and frustrating that a website patterned after Wikipedia was created called Lostpedia along with another website titled Theories on LOST where fans can share what they think is happening. However, there are only three episodes left of the entire series. The finale is on May 23rd and I just read that ABC is going to add another half hour to the finale. It will be two and half hours long. I can't wait!
So, what are my thoughts and what I think will happen? I really have no idea. Who is MIB (John Locke or I should say, the man in Black)? Who is Jacob? Are these two characters types of God and the Devil (or Egyptian Gods) and is the Island, Hell, as Richard said it is? There are allusions in some respect to Dante's Inferno about Hell. Everyone on the Island had a troubled past that inflicted some form of guilt (true Hell) upon them while on the Island. Why does Jack feel that he should not leave the Island? Is Jack a Messiah figure (this is a stretch)? He heals, leads, and advocates on others behalf? Will he replace Jacob? What about the Island itself? Is it a parallel universe or is it an alternate reality? These and a host of other questions cannot be answered intelligently (in my opinion).
A question that I was thinking about after last week's episode is with Sayid. After he was resurrected earlier in the season, he turned bad which is evident in the horrific killings and dirty work on behalf of MIB. But, I don't think he killed Desmond (Brother!) and he willingly sacrificed himself by blowing himself up in the sub. Was that an act of redemption which, perhaps, will save him to see his wife? Also, at the end of the episode, MIB (John Locke) knew that not everyone died in the sub. How? Why did he want them to die?
Like I said, I really have no idea about what will happen in the end. But as you can tell, I think too much about this. It's just so darn good.
Check out this article to unlock the The Lost Supper code
Saturday, May 8, 2010
World Cup Fever!
This is a great commercial for the World Cup next month. I love watching the World Cup. There is just something about watching nations go head to head in a sport where the U.S. does not dominate. It's fun and exciting. One of my goals in life is to attend a World Cup championship game.
Friday, May 7, 2010
Good time to visit Europe . . . The Dow
The Euro is at $1.27 compared to the US dollar. The last time I was in Europe the Euro was at $1.60. It would be a great time to visit Europe.
I read a couple of theories today about why the the Dow dropped 1,000 points yesterday. One of the theories for the drop is simply from the worries about Greece and their troubles, but for the Dow to drop 1,000 points just because of Greece's problems does not sit well with me. Another theory I read is that an analyst on the trading floor accidently pushed a button to trigger a trade worth $2 billion instead of pushing the button to trigger a trade worth $2 million. How do you make that mistake?
I read a couple of theories today about why the the Dow dropped 1,000 points yesterday. One of the theories for the drop is simply from the worries about Greece and their troubles, but for the Dow to drop 1,000 points just because of Greece's problems does not sit well with me. Another theory I read is that an analyst on the trading floor accidently pushed a button to trigger a trade worth $2 billion instead of pushing the button to trigger a trade worth $2 million. How do you make that mistake?
