Monday, October 31, 2016

Victory is mine!



If you only knew how hard it is to get rabbits to cooperate. I think she might be contemplating if she should have tried to get adopted by another family.





Sunday, October 30, 2016

Evil Clown Pumpkin.





The whole weekend has been tied up trying to get my pumpkin together. First you go to the pumpkin patch where you find that every pumpkin has been picked to look perfect, but finally you are able to find just the right misfit pumpkin. And you take that little baby home.





We decided to make the teeth with fake nails.



They are easy to cut down so they look sharp.











Previous years - Evil Pumpkin Snowman. I think that's the one that started all this craziness.

South Park Pumpkins.  OMG They Killed Kenny.  Pacman Pumpkins.  Packman Pumpkins lit up. Zombie-ish pumpkins.

Friday, October 28, 2016



Wow. Did Hillary say she was qualified to be President because she can stand for four hours?! (shakes head)

Thursday, October 27, 2016

It's a good thing California built all that extra rain storage....

Oh wait - that never happened.

Most of the Bay Area is several hundred percent above average for rain. I'd give you more specifics, but you can't believe how unhelpful all the weather sites are when trying to find this info. I mean, if they made it easy to find then people might start getting super shitty about still having to pay a drought surcharge next year. For example, my city was at about 500ish% of normal before the storm we are getting now.

San Jose is the only place that is still about 60% of average.

Hopefully this is the beginning of the end for these fake companies.

Twitter is shutting down Vine.

I hope Dorsey takes it in the butt for buying this company. After I read the headline it was shutting down I was curious how much Twitter paid for it, but got distracted about all the glorifying of how popular it was. Which was IMO was complete bullshit.

One website giddily crowed that "more than 100 million people view Vine videos across the Web each month."

Yeah, the number is probably true, but we did so BY FORCE. So who knows what the real number is. People who used Vine, so overused it _ I bet that company pissed off more people than it made money from.

For a little while some sites were almost unreadable because they'd embedded so many auto play Vines. Lots of times I'd see a post with upwards of 6 Vine videos and they were all playing at once. You couldn't even play the Youtube video people would link to because your CPU was caved playing all those Vines.  All those Vines and adds were really over the top. Nothing made me want to punch people in the neck more. It's like Twitter said - are these ads annoying the crap out of you? I know, lets add some short auto play vids to make things better. Said in the most sarcastic way.

If each site was using six Vines per article you can see the actual amount of people using the site was probably vastly over reported. I'm betting the only reason they are shutting it down is because it made so many people mad and people stopped going to certain sites with Vine abuse. I'd forgotten Vine even existed because it's been a while since I'd seen any site link to a vid. And it was glorious.


Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Tiny arcade.



This actually worked and you could play tiny space invaders. I tried to get them to give me one... but no luck.



It never gets old.



I just still love that they make server racks pretty these days. This is one of the companies that I used to work for. They didn't make them that pretty back then.

It's a little bit early.



We don't have lush sprawling trees that change color in the fall en masse. We have vineyards. I normally wouldn't start taking pictures this early, but we are suppose to get a good storm tomorrow. Depending how windy it's going to be these might be patchy after it's over.

It's just nice to have anything with color this time of year. After months of brown, brown, brown.

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

This market is so stupid.

It's been trading in a 600 point range since April. This is how you know how badly wall street is in the tank for Hillary. A market that looks like this is so range bound, that I doubt it can go higher, but the hedgies won't let it go lower like they normally would. Why upset the election? Most traders would short the hell out of this market. But the Fed has their finger on the trigger. Who wants to risk it?

Monday, October 24, 2016

Since everyone has a big stick up their butts about scary clowns right now - I'm making that my pumpkin theme.

Saturday, October 22, 2016

Porsche's never make it here.



By this time of year the car shows are only half full. So I didn't really want to go to one today. But, I thought - those guys have really fast cars. Some of them have to have gotten the "big" ticket.

One guy with a lambo told me he had a Canadian drivers licence and he didn't get tickets. I didn't quite understand it, but he said our police have to call in some other police to give him a ticket. What's that about Canada?

Two of them said they'd been caught doing like 140 but the cops probably didn't want to take them to jail and they got ticketed for like 80-90mph.

WTF? I was only going 1 over. Now I'm sad I wasn't going faster. ONE MILE OVER.

Friday, October 21, 2016

I don't know - when the US announces it's going to start a cyber war Russia and ISIS, maybe it invites a bunch a people to show what a tard country you are and how weak you've become.

Frankly, Russians have always been amazing hackers since the beginning of my career. However I give a very small chance they are actually hacking us. The US is just a giant tard right now regarding cyber security. The US is probably just leaving the door open.

Remember how I've been saying the dollar would get stronger not weaker?

The dollar is the highest it's been since February of this year at 98.64. This means pressure will resume on oil, commodities, exporters and emerging markets. Here. It's about 2-2/5 cents below the high set in Jan when the FeD was insisting they were going to raise rates. When they didn't - it started a downward trend. I think they will raise in December because..... no fucks given then.

It's been a little tense trying to figure out how much stronger it would go. I thought it was possible it was tapped out. But world events keep making it go higher. However, as I said not too long ago - around the year 2000, the dollar was way up into the 120.00 range. Here. I think it could potentially go that high. And that would put immense deflationary pressure on everything. We've been rolling in a 7 cent range the whole year. If the dollar were to go up more than 20 cents - that is a really huge move.

Just to give you an idea -  the dollar went up about 20 cents from summer-ish 2014 to the end of 2015 you saw what happened to oil, commodities and earnings.

Thursday, October 20, 2016

Before you Libertarians get too smug.

Your candidates suck too.

Jill Stein said she would be okay nationalizing the banks. She is like Bernie Sanders but with less math skills. Here.

And Johnson said we should just shut up and take our fair share of refugees. Here.

I don't know how either of these things are Libertarian views.

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

If you want more diversity, Black culture needs to change.

Oh yes, I'm stepping on the third rail today. You see, every time I read an article about how Silicon Valley cares deeply about diversity, but they are totally confused as to why they don't have more of it I just get a little pissed off.

You see - the fact that tech companies have so few black workers has always stood out to everyone who thinks about it for a minute. When Mr S. moved to California he was shocked at how many Black people worked in tech (almost none). We've had many discussions about it.

I don't find the whole thing that perplexing. As I've said many times before - I grew up poor. I never thought about going into tech. I wanted to be a veterinarian. Tech was never on my radar. Until I realized I probably wouldn't be able to be a vet. It takes a really long time. And kids from poor families don't have that kind of time.

After landing a job as a receptionist at a tech company I realized I would have to change my goals. So I started learning sysamin stuff and eventually got a job in a field which was 99.99% men at the time.

How does my situation apply to Black people? Well, as a poor kid  - you do look at Oakland and wonder endlessly why poor Black kids weren't trying at all to get into tech companies any way they could. Like I did. Start on the bottom. Work your way up.

When I grew up we were suppose to be color blind. I think if they would have actually tried they could have gotten in just like I did. But working in tech simply wasn't cool. Being a nerd wasn't cool. And working for whitey would make you an Uncle Tom. After all, poor black kids used get beat up for being smart. Or too white. IMO these are the biggest factors in why there hasn't been more Black people in tech. That's all. Just the cool factor and peer pressure. Seriously!

Likely tech companies don't really have to do much to influence diversity. If it's cool enough to your peers, they will come. You can't make them come if they don't want to. It isn't rocket science.


Tuesday, October 18, 2016

I'm a little in the dog house.

For the past couple of days Mr S. and I have been having a few discussions about my ticket. Obvi!

I think he feels like I'm not taking it seriously enough. Which I completely am! But every time I talk about it, it makes me giggle and that makes him not happy. It's not funny... technically, but it's such a tard thing to do it makes me laugh. Everyone laughs when you tell them you got nipped doing over 100. Because no one is that stupid. You don't even know the extent of how hard I've tried to stay out of trouble because I came from a troubled place.

But honestly I just feel lucky this is the first time I've been caught. I knew this day would always come. I just didn't know when. I mean when I first started dating Mr S. I told him I made it from Mountain View to the San Fransisco airport in 15 minutes. IN TRAFFIC! So this whole speeding problem was fully in the open the whole time we've been dating.

I don't actually feel any remorse - only bummed I got caught. So a lot of our conversations have revolved around me trying to do my best to not get another ticket. And I think he still wanted me to more remorseful. I couldn't even say that I would never do it again, because that would be a lie. After a couple of days of me saying I couldn't guarantee that I would be more remorseful, but I could agree to be more careful.  I think we agreed on a settlement.

I did get a little arrogant because highway 5 has so many truckers! They watch out for each other. I thought it was pretty impossible to have a cop on that road and not get a Waze notification. But obviously I was wrong. Maybe he was well hidden.

Monday, October 17, 2016

I'm just a little butt hurt. That's all.

Soooooo. I had to start retaining legal council after my trip.  Turns out those tickets of driving over 100mph are pretty much as bad as drunk driving. No foolies. And I don't think I'm reformed because it sounds like if you were going 1 mile over 100 is the same as going 17 miles over 100. Makes me wish a little I'd done the second if it really doesn't make a difference.

That's not a good sign right?

I can't tell if I'm sadder about the fines or never being able to drive that fast again. I think I can make more money eventually. But never being able to drive that fast again sucks.

Nope definitely not reformed.

Sunday, October 16, 2016

Rain gives you an excuse to be lazy.



We are having a first good storm and it's the best thing ever. I'm laying around playing DOOM 2016. I got though like 5 levels yesterday!

Around this time of the year the ground and the sky become one brownish color. The hills because they just don't get water, but the sky because no matter where a fire is the smoke seems to get trapped where I am. A fire in So Cal? The smoke hangs out up here. A fire in Napa or anywhere North, why the smoke goes south and gets trapped in my area too. So it's nice to finally have some rain to knock down all the dirt and stuff. Brown really becomes such a tiresome color. Seriously.

Saturday, October 15, 2016

San Diego.



This was the closest I ever got to a beach. Even though it seems like no matter where you went - the beach was just two blocks away from where ever you turned. But.... I can see the beach any time, I'm not sure I want to drive 6 hours to hit a beach. It has to be a really special beach like glass beach or something.

Kite surfing on the other hand. That is something I don't get to see that often. We have it here too. But it's by the San Mateo bridge or at the ocean. This little lagoon made it so they were super up close. And some of the guys were using a hydrofoil which I'd only seen on the internet.





I mainly wanted to do things I couldn't do anywhere else. And having a California burrito was about at the top of that list. It's a burrito with french fries instead of rice. Mr S kinda thought this was bullshit and just went along with the ride. I figured it was just one of those things I would cross off the list, but they are actually pretty good. The fries add less flavor than you would think, but a little more texture. If we would have found a good place on the way out, we'd have hit that again.

Next? Fresh churros. Seriously! Here in northern California you only get churro's from under the heat lamp. I had them once fresh and Mr S. has never heard the end of it. He thought I was making the whole thing up. How different can they be? But since San Diego is the closest to churro central I figured it was my best chance. Fresh churros are the BEST.

With food out of the way, San Diego was a bit of a challenge to find things to do. It's so completely normal there. They even have a section called Normal Heights. I guess 25% of the people down there are tied to the military so people have to keep their crap clean. I get it. Even if you don't work for a government company in Silicon Valley, there is a chance your company will get a government contract and all of a sudden you are under the umbrella of government rules. You try to stay squeaky clean.

I wanted to do the chalk show, but that bunny show messed that up. So we started asking people what fun things there were to do down there. Besides the beach and the water. They all suggested to the Zoo. Which I was pretty cool with at first. It seemed big. When we got there though, I was really glad I'd picked a Tuesday because the place is filled with screaming kids who's parents are constantly yelling at them. Now I'm not so sure I'm in love with the Zoo. Usually the animals are sleeping and you really have to walk a long way for not that big of a payoff.  And I'm hardly one to complain about walking. But I did that day.



As I said in a previous post, I'm afraid of heights. So why not take a gondola? I hate these things more than anything else, But I did get a good shot of the skyline.



Friday, October 14, 2016

Raphael Orlove of Jalopnik is now biggest douche in the universe.

Mercedes Decides Who An Autonomous Car Should Save And The Answer Is Worrying.

I talked about this subject a while back when everyone was freaking out about who died in a self driving car crash. There were all these articles saying your car would be programmed to kill you. Which I thought was the most absurd thing. This is what I said about the hysteria at the time.

"Mr S. and I have been talking about this a lot since that conference. Gizmodo is falling victim to not understanding stated preference vs. revealed preference. Quite simply - People are big fat liars. And if you ask them questions they will tell you all sorts of things, but what they actually do is very different than what they say.

People might say if it's between 10 people dying and me dying - just take me out. But they would be lying. Until this happens everyone is altruistic. But I'm buying a car for MY safety. First and foremost, and anyone who says differently is pretty much lying. No one is buying a car to make sure pedestrians don't die. It's a nice perk, but pretty much I want the car company to make sure I don't die."
Here.

People buy the cars they feel will protect them the best. It's always how we've bought cars. It will always be how we buy cars. But it doesn't stop people like Raphael Orlove from being a complete douche bag by turning this into an argument about how evil rich people are.

"My dude. Holy shit. You know what you’re saying there, right? You’re saying that a Mercedes S-Class or whatever, driving down the road, will happily if not gleefully run over a child if it guaranteed saving the caviar-guzzling millionaire inside. Not just a child. An orphan. A group of orphans. A group of sick, orphans with leprosy.

Pictured: a child begging a Mercedes for its life."

I don't know if this idiot has ever bought a car. I'm often glad these people are always on the edge of ruin because they really are pretty stupid. I guess he might be okay with it if it was just a minimum wage earning reporter and not a super rich dude with a Telsa. Because this is exactly the choices we make right this minute when we buy cars. Cars don't have airbags on the outside! That is not going to change because the car drives itself.

If the car was programmed to kill you over pedestrians - PEOPLE WOULD NEVER BUY THAT CAR. I don't care what anyone says.

Wow. The dollar is quite strong today.

98.09. Two/three cents from recent highs. (here) We logged almost three cents in the time I was gone. No one knows where the dollar is going. A while back I'd started reading stories about how it was set to collapse because some chart said so.

I've always thought the dollar (could) go much higher. Watching the dollar is the only way I was able to spot the oil collapse. And while the dollar right now is stronger than it's been in 10 years - around the year 2000 the dollar was quite a bit stronger. In the 120.00 range. Here. That;s only 16 years ago,

I think if Trump wins we could get a very strong dollar indeed. Not necessarily because of him - because the rest of the world is really having wild currency fluctuations. That makes our dollar stronger. Then the stronger dollar starts reinforcing a safety trend putting more pressure on the dollar to be yet stronger because more people buy it causing a shortage and making the dollar stronger.

Yellen insisting they are raising rates also tends to make the dollar stronger. It's hard to see how the dollar is going to end up. It's been going sideways most of the year. This has caused earnings to stabilized, as well as oil. But if the dollar starts getting very strong again - deflation pressures will flair up. This will bring down earnings again.

I honestly watch the dollar all the time now. Like every few days. We are all it's bitch. I guess if the stock market crashed that might make the dollar weaker. Outside of that, it looks like this trend continues because the rest of the world is worse off than we are.

This could get fun.

Open enrollment for healthcare starts right before the election. Nov. 1.

Thursday, October 13, 2016

I knew he was going to burn this place down, I just wan't sure how.

Obama To Decide Friday On Military Action In Syria.

This is super effed up. He let Syria be a terror University for 4-5 years and did nothing. Now he wants to decide to do something?  Right before he walks out the door? So - messed - up.

I saw Syrians eating a persons heart just this morning! They call it heart plucking. Our guys are going to face some of the most seriously bloody battles when we get into this place.

Silicon Valley has jumped the shark.

A furious anti-Silicon Valley rant goes viral.

I read this article and laughed because the whole time I've lived here I've never seen so many people want to change the world yet produce so painfully little. Everyone acts like they are working on the most important "new thing", yet I've been pissed for about a year because all I see is shit.

I would love for this area to actually start making real things again instead of all this effing vapor ware. Seriously. Not that vapor ware is a new thing..... but all the lending sites have just put that crap on blast. Anyone can come up with a pie in the sky idea. But can you make an actual product out of it? From how many products never make it out of kickstarter - I'm guessing NOT. But people do like to gamble. So their bad.

The Valley is pretty eye rolling right now though.
Wow the dollar got super strong while I was away. 3 cents over a weekend is actually a pretty big move. I was starting to feel like it might have been topping, but we have very little control right now unless they print or something. Currencies in other countries rule the day and they are getting weaker making our dollar stronger.


Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Dayuum - I guess my trips just got longer.

Today I got a ticket for doing 101mph. And while that is not great - I'm pretty lucky. I've done worse and not gotten caught. But Waze didn't save me this time.

So I guess I'm that girl now.

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Do you really overcome a fear of heights?



I didn't really know this was in me until a few years ago. I was on the top floor of the De young Museum which is all windows and I was completely overcome with vertigo. I was pretty shocked because I was in a building and not in a place you might expect to have a problem. Like the railroad trellis in Capitola I walked a couple of times which is probably 100 feet up with questionable wood slats. If you make the wrong step you will fall to the ground. I've been in super high places and never had a problem. Climb down a huge beach cliff? Fine. Go to a museum? Not fine. Super not fine. Panic, queasy stomach and the whole thing.

I don't really understand what triggers it and every since the museum I'm never sure how my body will react to things. I try not to let it stop me within reason. So, why not step on the rattle snake den by going indoor skydiving?

Last night I really started freaking out because you realize you have to sign your life away. And
I've never even broken a bone. I mostly did this because I thought Mr S. would find it fun. And thankfully he did have a lot of fun.

They take you on two flights. One you only hover a few feet above the ground. The next they take you much higher.

On the first run I almost completely freaked out. Unlike skydiving you aren't plummeting to the
ground. You are being pushed up in the air by fans. The way you hold your body is actually pretty
challenging to keep yourself flat and I would have been in an uncontrolled spin if you didn't have
a guy in there with you. I got out and I was shaking and it was then Mr S. realized how freaked I was.

The second run I was holding my hands like I was clawing at the air! I'm undecided if I had fun or not. But at least I didn't mess up my collar bone! When you go through the safety briefing it's pretty
obvious that is probably the worst thing that can happen to you.

I probably wont post again until I get out of San Diego which is tomorrow. When I land in a
city I try to wring as much out of a city as I can. So it's hard to post until I have more time.

Sunday, October 09, 2016

Where else is a guinea pig gonna keep her credit card?



Our plan was to check out the rabbit show down here and then head over to the chalk show in the little Italy section of town. So far I've only made it a little more than a mile from where I'm staying.

You see, I think I've just been to the CES of rabbit shows. A truly stunning amount of bunnies. When I close my eyes I just see rows and rows of bunnies. I thought this thing would be about the size of my fair and then Mr S and I would be off to do other things. But I spent about 4 hours at this thing an not because I was ogling tons of bunnies. There were just so many of them. Literally thousands I'd guess.

I'm basically trying to shore up sources for one breed. Velveteen's are really not easy to come by right now. I mean they are out there, but it's not as easy as you'd think to get someone to let you have one.

Initially I was sure I was going to get a spare because when Jasmine kicked it I was without a pet for about three months. And it kinda sucked. But I'm just not sure I want to make Lacy jealous yet. Yes, even bunnies get a pecking order and their behavior can change. Lots of times for the worse.

Anyway, even though this story about bunnies, I'm not going to give you any pictures of that. Instead you get these guinea pigs because I've never seen this before. I'm not into cavies(guinea pigs) they were just there.

They got their hair did yo. I guess they do this because their hair gets all tangled. Which has got to be a ridiculous amount of work for a pet. But what can I say? I'm in San Diego trying to find breeders for Velveteen lops. I don't have any moral high ground.



Saturday, October 08, 2016

At least you guys have me covered down here in San D.



Just in case any of them followed me. I think Mr S. got this on the Grapevine. I thought San Diego was the only sane place to go 30 days before the election.

Friday, October 07, 2016

I'm not proud of myself - but I went there anyway.



You have to understand.... none of my other bunnies would put up with this crap one tiny bit. I'd probably get bitten because most of them didn't like the camera. Lacy is way more chill. So, this is more of an experiment of how far can you go. And here is the next step.

Seriously people. It's not my fault. Pets mart has a costume line for bunnies now. Ya know - so they can get humiliated just like dogs and cats. I provided a picture so you wouldn't think I was nuts.

Mr S was pretty mortified.





Thursday, October 06, 2016



Well, if we aren't already in recession we will be after this weekend. There now is ZERO percent chance they will raise rates this year. A couple of days ago I thought they would raise in December because -  what do they care at that point? They might as well do a mike drop and be done with the whole thing.

But this storm is going to do so much damage and be so expensive they will not be able to raise.

Wednesday, October 05, 2016

This is the October surprise.


Source.

Crazy. There is more of a chance that storm is going to circle back and hit Florida twice than it going out to sea.

Yahoostasi.

Yahoo helped the U.S. government spy on emails, report says.

On one hand - companies have no obligation to keep your data private if you don't pay them. Yahoo is a free service so you take your chances.

Having said that - even back in the day when you couldn't even get on the internet unless you worked for a company or university that was connected - they were not this intrusive. Even when those companies dealt with the government.

Tuesday, October 04, 2016

Welcome to the internet of nothing.

I think if I go to one more IOT conference I am going to lose my mind. I guess the latest fad is motion tracking clothing. Ya know - like they do in the movies for graphics with the leotards and ping pong balls. Replace the balls with sensors and it's fitness clothing. Apparently. The Valley is KILLING me right now.

Now, there are some fitness nuts who would probably buy this kind of thing - but companies are pouring so much money into a very small market. I don't know why 20 year olds feel the need to track their heart rate all the time. It's the craziest fad ever. It's a little like naval grazing.

I guess when the economy sucks this hard you might as well constantly check your heart rate to make sure you are still alive.

Monday, October 03, 2016

If you thought Trumps trade plan was bat shit crazy.....

Hillary just took things to a whole nuther level.

I've always thought that Trumps plan to punish companies for leaving the US was a bit of a potemkin village. He knows that all he has to do is lower the tax rates and he doesn't have to punish anyone. Companies will gladly stay here. But at the end of Trumps administration he gets to look tough while in the end having done exactly nothing.

But Hillary just upped the game by being punishier. You will have to give back every tax break you ever got. That is crazy. And probably not possible. You see I get audited pretty often too. I've always had good relations with the IRS. But I still affectionately call them sharks. Not because I've had problems, but because from time to time they will come and bump you to see if you are honest. All of my encounters have just involved providing additional documentation. Or sometimes even documentation you've already sent. If you are being honest - no problems.

Also, he was getting such shit for for saying he will punish businesses for leaving, and now he can be like - well, look at this crap she wants to do. She just neutralized the outrage over his plan. I just can't even believe it.

These two just can't get out in front of themselves I swear.

Sunday, October 02, 2016

Doom says be better.



I'm basically hanging out this weekend playing DOOM 2016 because I'm going on a road trip to San Diego next weekend. And we might get the smallest amount of rain today which is exciting.

I've been stuck on this level for a week. I think I'm gonna make it today. It's sooooo hard! I had to cheat and do a walk through because I didn't think it could be done. That's how hard.



Saturday, October 01, 2016

Resting robot bitch face is real man.



I bet you didn't believe me about the robot in my last post. The robot would start out like trying to hand you literature. If you didn't take it or tried to walk away you got this....

These pictures are from CES2016,