crunchtastic

People are weird and intractable in their habits. Cap'n Crunch lives on the pointy end of the stick when it comes to tech and electronics and gadgets, but when it comes to his finances, while he has various bank accounts and mutual funds, etc, he refuses to use bill pay, he refuses to pay with a debit card, and on payday he drives all over town to various places to pay his insurance agent and his credit card bank in person. He waits in those insufferable lines at the Heeb to pay the utility bills and the associated 'service' charges. He waits in line to get money orders for certain things, because he doesn't even have checks. In my mind this is irrational behavior of the highest order. I can't even conceive of wasting my precious free time in such a way. But, I stopped nagging him. Had to just let it go--it is his way, and as much as it pains me not to argue.......some things are not worth the argument.

There are still plenty of things that will get made, new technologies, etc. The vast majority of humans on this planet, however, will not be able to afford to buy any of them. The debt bubble is a sign that markets have been reduced to eating themsleves. That, I believe, is very much the new normal.

My 8 year old niece requested (and I gave her) a Taylor Swift CD for her birthday. I weep for the youth of America.

Not impressive at all. The most relevant 'pocketbook' numbers are wage growth and unemployment (the real unemployemnt number is U6), and by those measures we've lost ground the past 10 years. If you measure revocery in terms of workers/consumers, and not just GDP, it looks like the recovery could last longer than the recession itself. It seems that the Fed finally got the memo: Fed Officials Say Recovery Will Be Hampered by Unemployment http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=avesmJ.KupaM&pos=5 Talk about understatement of the year. Have they been living underground, or what??

I am OK with speedy checkwriters, they need love too, but it's just that ..... I've never seen one. Seriously, I could chisel my name out of stone tablets in the amount of time it takes the checkwriters I'm always trapped behind at the gulfgate heeb. I find I shop there less and less, because the crowds and lines and the thousands of screeching, sticky children are just too much, plus they have no self check. I rock the self check. I could win the international self-check speed contest. I can self check a cart full of non-stickered produce faster than the actual checkers. Self check should be everywhere!!

Would never work, because so few people care enough to inconvenience themselves. After all, we live in a city where only 20% of the citizens vote for mayor. Wealthy, modern humans have become such a vile lot of self-absorbed consumption machines.

One of the best things about Houston is the grocery store competition. Living in San Antonio, one thing I really disliked was that it was an HEB company town. The old Handy Andys shut down, Albertons didn't last, Kroger, Safeway/Randalls did not dare expand there--with the exception of Whole Foods and Sun Harvest (which was like the original, small Whole Foods when only hippies shopped there) there was no place to shop but HEB. And while I like them a lot for fresh foods, they have an annoying tendency to not carry a lot of national brand dry goods in favor of their house brand. Attention meat shoppers: Seller's Bros is undercutting all comers this week on pork butt at $.67 a pound. mmmm, time for some crock-pot carnitas!

Why yes I have heard! That's the one I'm not a big enough trader to profit from! Pardon my grammar. Sometimes my lack of outsized annualized returns affects my communication skills.

I'm in favor of no more bubbles. Wages are trending down. Permanent underployment will be one of the new normals=price bubbles bad.

Good luck with that, what with inflation and the shitty state of current credited interest rates. Other than gambling on the markets, you're better off putting in under a mattress or spending it on cards and hookers. Might as well buy the windows.

ack! no kidding, I had a momentary little freak out. Historic buildings in short supply, and whatnot.

I sort of gathered from your posts that you were looking and buying. Awesome! Welcome to the money pit. So glad you found your home!

They're people, not trees. Relocating someone against their will is called 'kidnapping,' or, en masse, 'internment.' I will have to respectfully disagree with the intelligent individuals on this one.

The vast majority of people in the Houston area have not even had the opportunity to get a shot because the supplies have not been widely distributed yet. Am I scared? No. Will I get the shot? I don't know because none has been made readily availalbe to me. I get the regular flu shot mainly because it takes about 10 minutes out of my day to ride the elevator downstairs and get one at the office. If it were any more hassle I probably would not. There is no conspiracy: it is simple epidemiological fact that a rapidly mutuating airborne virus has the potential to become a deadly pandemic. You can ignore the risk, or not. But there is still risk.

And he did marry well, didn't he! I chafe at the way certain supporters talk as if he's some urban planning academic heavyweight. I'm still trying to figure out the last noteworthy building he actually designed or supervised himself.

They're afraid the bums on the Metro will either try and steal my laptop, or tempt me with cheap liquor and weed. So in the town car they know they're still getting their pound of flesh out of me while I take calls and clack away without distractions.

And for us airport commuters who appreciate the time value of money, god invented car service. It's remarkable. You call the number, the nice man in the town car shows up and speeds you to your terminal. Or the reverse!

Wow! That last pic makes the Galveston surf look like the Amalfi Coast. Photoshop rules! This is one instance where I can't hate on Tilman. The important thing is bringing back the hotel.

She's looking good! She's saying "hahahahaha! You chumps voted against transit 25 years ago. I'm in Hawaii now and you're still debating the same old crap!"

As much as I love a good Chupacabra, I think an open bar for all your friends would look a whole lot better in your new gameroom. Just saying. Go Phillies!

Save The Gulf Oysters Petition: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/save-raw-oysters

the Heights can get their own damn Chupacabra! Leave the East End's alone!

Taxpayers would not have to pony up anything if the leagues and team owners paid for their own facilites. Municipal funding for privately owned teams is a boondoggle, always has been. Corportate welfare of the worst sort. And until someone documents and proves the itemized net financial gain to both the county and the local economy, I'm tired of the same ole' BS about 'economic growth' and 'creates jobs.' Not only are we paying their way, we're not even getting championship teams in return. I'm on the hook for a private enterprise's poor financial risks, and the Astros hire a damned bench coach! The Sports Authority and the owneres and the leagues can kiss my ass. Their teams can't win rings, they price their product so that the average person can't afford it, and expect us to be grateful??? No thanks.

That's easy: Sugar Mama. (or Daddy). Then that outrageous rent to live downtown won't hurt so bad, will it?

That's totally average expense-account steakhouse pricing. I'm not familiar with the name, though. Is III Forks in the same category? Capital Grille, Vic and Anthony's, Ruth's Chris, etc. Or is it more fancy-suburban like Perry's? I wish we had less steakhouse and more good Italian in this town. A southern Italian (or even better, Sicilian) version of DaMarco. Or a Batali outpost.