The downfall of grammar

Since more communication is in written form now, you might think that grammar and spelling would improve. I think it's worse. The proliferation of text messaging is partly to blame, since it is dependent on using shortened (incorrectly spelled) words. People don't put any thought into their written words. My biggest pet peeves include "would of," as in "I would of been there" (I would've been there) and using apostrophes for plurals, as in "I have 3 dog's." It's (or its) an endless list but I'll quit there (or their or they're). (I have to admit that I normally violate the "punctuation within quotations rule," and would usually place the comma outside of the quotes in this sentence.)

Email should be a clear form of communication. You have the opportunity to put together some coherent thoughts in your own time. The recipient can then answer at his convenience, also putting time into his responses. This is much better than a phone call, where the caller might blather on endlessly before actually stating the question. Unfortunately, email has degraded into a "type how I speak" form in which the sender simply types exactly the words they would say on the phone. Any semblance of decorum is lost.

Of course, the level of formality depends on the relationship of the two parties. If you are chatting with your buddy, go crazy. If it's a work email or you are trying to prove a logical point, poor grammar really blows your cover.

My son is learning grammar in second grade. I don't recall learning that until junior high school. I am amazed that he can correct a poorly formed sentence. Hopefully, the net generation (whoops, I meant to type "next" but that seems appropriate) will do better.

- schneid

Bear Stearns and the Economy

Wow, that's some amazing news. Bear Stearns was trading for $87 on February 27. One year ago, their stock was as high as $167 per share. Today, JP Morgan Chase bought them out for about $2 per share, a total of about $236 million.

Let's see how much money CEO Alan Schwartz earned last year. $35.7, well, let's just call it an even $36 million dollars. And for what? Losing 98.8% of his company's value in only 1 year! Congratulations! But it's not his fault, you say? If the CEO isn't responsible for the fate of his company, then the CEO shouldn't get paid a lot of money. I believe the CEO is responsible and still shouldn't get paid a lot of money. Give them $1 million and give them a big bonus based on the company's performance. Of course, then they would just cook the books so they could be billionaires instead of millionaires.

I think the economy is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. Oil prices are at a record high, the US dollar is at a record low, banks are collapsing, inflation is rising, unemployment is rising, the market id down, the housing market has slumped for two years, and the fed continues to lower interest rates.

But don't worry, you'll be getting your economic stimulus check soon! That will fix everything! :)

And what will we do with that money? Buy more cheap stuff from China! And the more junk we buy from China, the faster we'll lose our jobs.

Let's just cut out the middle man. Instead of sending refunds to taxpayers, why doesn't the government send 1/2 the money to US corporations and 1/2 the money to the Chinese?

- schneid

This reminds me of a quote from Good Will Hunting.

Will: Why shouldn't I work for the N.S.A.? That's a tough one, but I'll take a shot. Say I'm working at N.S.A. Somebody puts a code on my desk, something nobody else can break. Maybe I take a shot at it and maybe I break it. And I'm real happy with myself, 'cause I did my job well. But maybe that code was the location of some rebel army in North Africa or the Middle East. Once they have that location, they bomb the village where the rebels were hiding and fifteen hundred people I never met, never had a no problem with get killed. Now the politicians are sayin', "Oh, Send in the marines to secure the area" 'cause they don't give a shit. It won't be their kid over there, gettin' shot. Just like it wasn't them when their number got called, 'cause they were pullin' a tour in the National Guard. It'll be some kid from Southie takin' shrapnel in the ass. And he comes back to find that the plant he used to work at got exported to the country he just got back from. And the guy who put the shrapnel in his ass got his old job, 'cause he'll work for fifteen cents a day and no bathroom breaks. Meanwhile he realizes the only reason he was over there in the first place was so we could install a government that would sell us oil at a good price. And of course the oil companies used the skirmish over there to scare up domestic oil prices. A cute little ancillary benefit for them, but it ain't helping my buddy at two-fifty a gallon. And they're takin' their sweet time bringin' the oil back of course, and maybe even took the liberty of hiring an alcoholic skipper who likes to drink martinis and fuckin' play slalom with the icebergs, and it ain't too long 'til he hits one, spills the oil and kills all the sea life in the North Atlantic. So now my buddy's out of work and he can't afford to drive, so he's got to walk to the fuckin' job interviews, which sucks 'cause the shrapnel in his ass is givin' him chronic hemorrhoids. And meanwhile he's starvin' 'cause every time he tries to get a bite to eat the only blue plate special they're servin' is North Atlantic scrod with Quaker State. So what did I think? I'm holdin' out for somethin' better. I figure fuck it, while I'm at it why not just shoot my buddy, take his job, give it to his sworn enemy, hike up gas prices, bomb a village, club a baby seal, hit the hash pipe and join the National Guard? I could be elected president.

Glory Builders

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- schneid

Getting back in the swing

Poker sucked last night. There were 9 players and I was only 1 hour late but was the 9th, which meant that I had to squeeze between two guys at the octagon table. I couldn't catch decent cards to save my life, and folded the winner on the river at least 4 times. 9 players is ridiculous if we're not playing flop games.

I've slacked pretty badly at exercising and thus blogging. I've managed to exercise twice a week, but haven't been running since mid-January. I could play basketball indoors but it's 54 degrees today so I'm planning a run. I'm hoping to run a lot more often as the weather warms up.

Weight: 193. I'm up 9 from my best, but still down 7 from where I started. It's hard to exercise enough during the winter but that's no excuse.

Food:

• 2 granola bars, coffee with Equal and skim milk
  
• big salad for lunch, diet Pepsi, small piece of cake, banana
  
• dinner - taco salad

Exercise:

• lifted weights, then ran and walked about 2 miles.

- schneid

dinner at Charlie Trotter's

On March 8, we went to Charlie Trotter's in Chicago to celebrate two 40th birthdays. Suzette will be 40 in a few days, and my running partner Tim actually turned 40 that day. I can honestly say that our dinner at Charlie Trotter's was the best meal I've ever had.

For a lot more photos, please visit my Flickr page.

We checked into the Radisson Hotel and Suites Chicago around 4:15. The hotel is under renovation, which is a pain. You actually have to go outside to walk from the lobby to the elevators or the pub. Fortunately, the rooms we reserved were not available and we were upgraded to a junior suite.

we walked around Michigan Avenue...

We met up with Tim and Thea around 7:15 and walked over to the Elephant and Castle pub. We had a light snack and some good beer - the Fuller's ESB was great but the Fuller's London Porter wasn't as good as usual.

We left around 8:30 and grabbed a cab to Charlie Trotter's. We arrived early and only waited a few minutes for our table. We could have had dinner at 6:00, but we wanted to eat at the kitchen table which was only available at 9:00 that night.

More details to come. It took over 3 hours to finish dinner!



- schneid