Confessions of a Capitalist

On Friday evenings, while the rest of humanity happily sings "Everybody's working for the weekend" we secretly sing "Everybody's working for MY weekend."

Buuuhawhhhhahhawhhahhhhaaaa.

Note: I can only imagine what Paulson secretly sings on Friday nights. Gawd.

Red A behind the Red Curtain

I'm drinking a cold Samuel Adam Boston Lager I scored at HK airport's 7-11. For a lager its excellent, really tastes like an ale.

Had some Peking Duck, dumplings, and sweet and sour pork.

I'm down-loading Hot Spot Shield, which supposedly let's you change your IP and avoid the Great Firewall.

Not bad for being in China.

Walking back from dinner there was this pretty young woman pumping up her bicycle tire. Man, if I was single that would have been an easy target..."Excuse me, can I help you with that?"

But since I am a bearded pudgy foreigner who is married, I let her do her own pumping.

Haram

Haram means "forbidden" and refers to things Muslims can't eat/do, etc.

Now, at our house, we are taking a sort of "don't ask, don't tell" policy with regards to pork-related products and the Nanny because its sometimes hard to know what Taiwanese cooks are throwing into the food you buy.

But definitely, bacon whiskey would be haram. Though, technically if a Muslim has no other choice they can eat/drink haram items. (Because suicide by starvation is a greater sin.)

If I were a Billionaire

Now with corrected grammar!

...Karl has been promoted to Director of Grinding, Tapping, and Horizontal Boring. He did such a good job at Faggoting that we feel he needs to be cross-trained so as to be bi-functional. And, uhhhhhh, synergy. Yes, there will be some synergy somewhere. Trust me.

Now is a great time to be a cocky motherfucker. For example, I was reading a very instructive article at the Wall Street Journal counseling me to wait until February to do anything stock-market related. So, do you think I did that? NOOOOOOO. I went and bought some more stocks.

I am going to blame this on the Nite Ranger effect.

That wraps up this meeting. Oh, I almost forgot to welcome a prospoective new member who is visiting us at "if I were a Billionaire." A big welcome for Warren Buffet.

Its always sort of bittersweet when we gain another member because that means somebody lost enough money to have to start using the conditional tense in relation to their Billionaire status. We're here for you Warren.

If I was a Billionaire...

I would open a big metalworking plant and hire Karl.

He'd be Director of Faggoting.

Maybe Michael Schumacher could be my Director of Lapping?

Today's waste of time inspired by bevel, chamfer, and fillet.

Also...

Interested in how to read weld instructions on technical drawings?

p.s. You can tell because I am learning these terms that one of our products has some problems with how it is welded.

Here is my sum total experience with welding:

Avoid welding on any product wherever possible because factory welders seem to rejoice in doing crappy work that is discovered a few months later.

Seriously, invest in that die-cast tooling instead. Machines don't have hangovers, chew betel nut, or daydream about Jessica Alba.

Now, I am sure someone will tell me that there is some machine that can quality check welds...

Anthromorphism

So, one good side effect of the construction of the Footbridge to Nowhere is that my daughter can see the men and machines working out the window, including a cute little blue backhoe.

We have also been watching the construction of an apartment building about a block away, and she also likes the yellow steam shovel that they are using (CAT brand by the way.)

So yesterday she informed me that "The blue backhoe is a boy. And the yellow one is a girl."

Maybe they will get married and have one of those really tiny ones called Bobcats?

Placebos

I think I actually did not post this story about the use of placebos by US doctors.

Survey: Half of US doctors use placebo treatments

LONDON -- About half of American doctors in a new survey say they regularly give patients placebo treatments - usually drugs or vitamins that won't really help their condition. And many of these doctors are not honest with their patients about what they are doing, the survey found.

Most doctors used actual medicines as a placebo treatment: 41 percent used painkillers, 38 percent used vitamins, 13 percent used antibiotics, 13 percent used sedatives, 3 percent used saline injections, and 2 percent used sugar pills.

My wife's doctor uses homeopathic pills. I guess he's just keeping up with Western practices.

Smaller studies done elsewhere, including Britain, Denmark and Sweden, have found similar results.

So nationalized healthcare also has this "problem" too.

In fact, Karl mentioned that since placebos and alternative medicines are cheaper than real medicine, they help bring costs down. But that only works if the homeopathic placebos don't cost NT$ 1,500 / treatment and you "need" 3 treatments per week.

Big Brother Society

People worry that the spread of CCTV cameras will erode our civil liberties, and while that could be true, sometimes the opposite occurs. This video led to the official's firing.