First me, now my boat is a star

First I appeared in the Left 5 Dead shoot, and now my boat will appear in the fall catalog for a well-known line of boating shoes and apparel. The cast of thousands (well at least dozens) gathered in the March cold and gloom in Port Madison for a photo shoot. Apparently the advertising agency picked my boat out of the crowd at the Elliot Bay Marina, and offered to pay me $1000 for the use of the boat for a day. Well, how could I refuse such an offer?

I arrived in Port Madison at the appointed time, and then proceeded to wait for almost three hours for the shoot to begin. You know how those artistic types can be. In any case, it gave me a chance to have a few rounds of rummy with Megan the Younger (my deck hand for the day) and a decent nap. At about 4PM, the crew, all from New York arrived with a motorhome, two equipment vans, and a couple of SUV's. They took a bunch of shots at the dock with people getting in and out of the boat, and then we went out and took some high speed shots, both from on my boat and from a chase boat. I haven't seen any of those shots, but I hope to. There should be some good ones.

Everyone was off the dock by 6:15 to catch a flight back to New York, and I headed back to my more mundane existence in Seattle.

Bursitis? Bursitis?? WTF??

Olecranon bursitis to be more specific.

Bursitis is one of those familiar words (at least to me), the meaning of which is totally unfamiliar. I'd vaguely think of some old person complaining of bursitis, but not link it to any specific affliction. Well now I know. Yesterday after working in the dirt and bamboo on my deck, the point of my right elbow was sore, like I'd smacked it really hard or something. I didn't do anything like that, and kinda dismissed the pain as no big deal, took my wonderdrug NSAID Diclofen before I went to bed, and thought I'd feel better in the morning. Well, I had a fitful sleep, and the pain was worse if anything when I woke up. I still didn't think it was a big deal until I happened to look in the mirror, and saw what looked like this picture from Wikipedia. Other than all the hair, it could've been my arm!

I had no idea what was going on, so I called Group Health and described the symptoms to a consulting nurse. She didn't tell what it might be, but she did tell me to come in as soon as I could. That was reassuring. So, with thoughts of flesh-eating bacteria or some other horrible affliction running through my mind, I went to see a doctor this afternoon. The doc had the diagnosis done before he got the examination room door closed behind him. The treatment was to suck (with a needle, not a straw) the fluid out of the swelling and wrap my arm in a pressure bandage so the swelling wouldn't recur. If it doesn't get better over the weekend, I'll probably have to go in for a cortisone shot, but short of some nasty infection, that's the worst case scenario.

I should be good as new in no time.

Bamboo

Here's my deck before and after I planted bamboo of various types in the pots of weeds on my upstairs deck. I had been meaning to do something with the deck plants (or lack thereof) ever since Caroline killed all the plants I had on the deck. She was looking after my place a couple of years ago when I was on some adventure somewhere in the world. She decided to give my plants an extra watering with the hose even though I had a drip irrigation system operating on a timer. Normally, that would be no big deal, except that she finished watering, she turned the water off (I'm sure she thought she was being a good and responsible daughter), but turned off the water to the irrigation system as well. I came back home a couple of weeks later in the heat of the summer to find all my plants dead or dying.

Oh, and a word to the wise. If you Google bamboo in Seattle, one of the first businesses to come up is The Bamboo Gardens in Queen Anne. Cool, I thought, that's not too far away. I hopped in the car and went right over. Turned out it was an oriental vegetarian restaurant. Not exactly what I had in mind.

Swoosh sounds

Am I the only person out there annoyed by all the swoosh sounds that seem to have taken over TV? These swooshes usually are heard when scenes change; when the camera zooms in on something; when they go to commercial; within the commercials themselves; and any other time some producer feels it's the right sound for the moment. It's hard to find a show that doesn't have them - I've even watched PBS shows that are trying to be hip, I guess.

A couple of days ago, I logged all the swooshes in watching an hour of talking heads (a half-hour each of Hardball and Countdown) on MSNBC. Hardball had 16 during the program and 17 during the commercials and promos. Countdown (one of my favorite talking-head shows, otherwise) had 23 in the show, and 24 in the commercials. This is getting ridiculous. 80 swooshes in 60 minutes!

These swooshes come in a bunch of different forms. I think they started out as a sound of a rush of air from a passing car or from a suddenly opened door. But the swooshmeisters have been hard at work. Here are some of the variations on the basic swoosh:
-breaking waves
-a roll of thunder
-cars skidding on gravel
-burning fuse
-Star Wars spaceship noises
-a timpani drumroll
-a rolling door closing (or opening)
-escaping steam

I think it's time something was done. When the pitchfork brigade is done with the bankers, they can take on the swoosh producers. After all, maybe the swoosh sounds are the sounds of our money evaporating, or burning or otherwise disappearing.

Left 5 Dead

The nightzero.com folks have posted a bunch of the finished and touched-up Left 5 Dead photos at Flickr. I still don't know exactly what they're up to, but I'll let you know as soon as I know.

A Somewhat Wonkish but Understandable Explanation

If you took a couple of economics courses in college (like I did), or if you have sufficient interest in the problem of the government bailing out financial institutions, you'll like this article. Instead of securitized mortgages, collateralized debt obligations, and credit default swaps (all of which can make your eyes glaze over), the author uses the analogy of taking over a nearly bankrupt used car lot when the condition of the cars is unknown.

The Big Takeover

In spite of the rise of the markets lately, I've had this uneasy feeling about the direction Obama and Geithner are taking with regard to the bailout of the financial industry. Reading this article from Rolling Stone has definitely not made me feel any better. The author, Matt Taibbi, is an irreverent and very smart writer and commentator whose work I've enjoyed in the past. This is a long article, but it's not filled with technical financial BS jargon. It's well worth reading.

Bear Market Rally?

I'm sure glad to see the markets stabilizing and heading up a bit, but I can't help but think that it's just a bear market rally, and that the worst is yet to come.

I wish that Obama and his administration were a bit more forceful and a bit more clear in what they're trying to do. They seem to have taken "nationalization" of the banks off the table, but instead are going to try to make the banks solvent by buying up the toxic debt. Today, the Fed announced that it will spend $1.15 trillion on treasury securities and bad assests of troubled banks. I wonder what price they will pay for those assests and whether there will be any hope of getting back the taxpayer money. It seems to me to be the classic way to privatize profits and socialize the losses. Another thing they didn't say is that they will pay for the $300 billion in treasury securities with $300 billion of freshly printed money. Normally, China or Japan or other big holders of US currency buy the securities and have to be paid back at some point. Usually the Fed only buys enough securities (by printing money), or sells them (and takes the money they out of circulation) to set interest rates at the point they want to keep inflation under control. They don't normally hold large amounts of treasury bills in their own account. When they sell those securities (assuming they can find a buyer) interest rates will rise because there will be less money in circulation, or because they have to offer higher rates in order to sell them. If they don't sell them, the money they paid for them is still in circulation. Either way, inflationary pressures will inevitably increase. I think that Obama and his crowd's policy is to inflate away the trillions of dollars they've borrowed and then reverse course and tighten the money supply to keep hyperinflation at bay.

It's a pretty narrow path to the bottom of the cliff, and I hope they can pull it off safely. The other option is to let everything crash and sort itself out. Either way, you get to the bottom, and it's not going to be pretty, but I think a sudden crash should be avoided at all cost. American society is far more fragile and fractured than it appears on the surface.

The thing that Obama is not addressing is the structure of the banks during and after the fall. I think they have two ways to go. One option is to have a half-dozen large banks that are tightly regulated (like Canada); the other is to have a lot of small banks that are severely limited in size so that none of them get too big to fail. I think the second option would be better in that bankers could more easily innovate and experiment and regulate themselves. The caveat would be that if they fail, Big Brother wouldn't bail them out.

As for the AIG bonuses - I think the money should be confiscated and replaced with some of the Collateralized Debt Obligations those brain children thought up. If those CDO's were such a good idea in the first place, they should now be a valuable asset in the hands of their creators.

Cool videos

For those of you too busy to surf the net to find stuff like this.

Hat tip to Andrew Sullivan, one of my daily must-read blogs.

All the news you need

I've often said that its a pity that you can get all the news you really need from Jon Stewart and the Daily Show. For those of you who don't follow the show, here's a must-watch clip from last night's show. If you haven't been paying attention, Jon Stewart and Jim Cramer have been in a weeklong media shouting match about Stewart's takedown of the financial cable network CNBC.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Jim Cramer Unedited Interview Pt. 1

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things w/ Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Jim Cramer

I almost felt sorry for Jim Cramer and the dressing down he got. It's like watching a video of some kid in the principal's office trying to defend himself when he truly knows he was caught red-handed.

The clip isn't as hilariously funny as a lot of Stewart's stuff, but it's well worth watching.

Is there hope for Farley?

I tried to embedd this video, but for some reason it wouldn't take, so click on the link instead. It's worth sitting through the commercial at the beginning.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/peggy/smartest-dog-ever

Weather Forecasting

I was going to take out my boat yesterday. I hadn't had it out since December, and was about due for a run. The weather forecast called for a 40% chance of rain, which I figured was about as good as it gets at this time of the year. So I invited a few friends to go out with me and was looking forward to a day on the water. Then on Saturday, the forecast took a turn for the worse. 60% chance of rain and snow. Well, I wasn't that hardy a boater, so I cancelled the boating expedition and invited the friends over to my place for a few drinks and snacks instead. It was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

And the weather? No snow, no rain, and patches of blue sky. I guess I should have known.

Rational Uberance?

On December 15th, 1997, Alan Greenspan used the term "irrational exuberance" to describe the rising value of stocks. At that time, the DOW stood at 6437.

Yesterday, the DOW closed at 6627, which by any measure that includes inflation, is far below 6437. So more than 12 years of "gains" have been wiped out. Most of the news has been on the banking sector losses, rising unemployment, bailing out AIG and the banks, stimulus, budget deficits, and on and on. I haven't seen a whole lot of news about what's happening to pension funds and 401k's. With all the baby boomers set to retire and their retirement funds evaporating, what are they going to do?

Perhaps it's time for a new word or phrase to describe that sinking feeling.

Rational uberance anyone?

Holy Cow, Did you see this?

I always make it a point to go into a heavy snark suppression mode when I cross the border back into the USA. It's a good thing I do, otherwise I could easily end up in a story like this.

'Say please' at U. S. border nets pepper spray
Canadian traveller says demand for politeness met with use of force
Matthew Coutts, National Post Published: Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Killing Zombies

Many of you have admired the pictures I posted last Sunday, but have wondered what they're all about. Well, the short answer is 'I dunno,' but it sure was fun.

Here's what I do know. Anthony, an old (actually quite young) acquaintance from my UW Spring in Vienna days is producing an online graphic novel called Night Zero using photographs rather than drawings. (A graphic novel is a comic book to us old-school folks) The video game Left 4 Dead inspired him and his crew to do a series of photos based on the video game. One of the characters is a tough and gruff Vietnam-era vet named Bill. When casting the shoot, all of these 20-somethings had a hard time coming up with someone to portray Bill until Anthony thought of me. Even though we hadn't been in contact for a couple of years, he found me and asked if I wanted to participate. I figured, sure, why not? So I spent most of last Saturday with the cast and crew in a warehouse in Ballard. It was great fun!

I don't know exactly how they get the effects on the photos. Each scene is shot in RAW format with a burst of three high resolution photos. Somehow the three shots are recombined to give the effect you see. I think they look great!

I don't know what Anthony and his team plan to do with the photos. Maybe a graphic novel short story? Maybe it's the beginning of something more.

In the meantime, I'm waiting for a deal on action figures based on my character. And my agent tells me that there could be a demand for characters like me, now that Nick Nolte is getting too old for action films.

If any of you know of a demand for my talents, have your people call my people.

Left 5 Dead

I'll bet all of you thought I was slacking off in not updating my blog for a week. Well, I too busy saving the world from zombies!



3/15 Update: The marketing gurus say I have to strike the draft photos from my blog, so they there were... gone!