Kurt's Thoughts

I know this is a little gratuitous but I’m really proud of our dog Sheepa.  He’s come such a long way.

Before I begin, I want to stress that 99% of adopted dogs aren’t in the condition that Sheepa was in.  He was the "dog nobody wanted" and thus was a project that I undertook.  Most dogs available for adoption are in great health and good spirits – they just need a home.

In the beginning, he was a tattered mess.  Sheepa’s fur was in such horribly bad condition that it was impossible to brush and coarse to the touch.  Because no one wanted him, he didn’t get the greatest of care & his fur was urine-stained and smelly. And what was worse was that he had ticks & fleas all over him and was genuinely unhappy all the time because no one treated him very well.  He was such a mess.  As you can see in the picture he actually started smiling a little once we got him home in a comfortable environment.  He was no longer in a kennel and could romp around freely in an air conditioned condo without worrying about other dogs bothering him. 

Within 48 hours he’d been completely shaved.  We called this, “Lamb” mode since he no longer looked like a "sheep".  His fur was less than 1/4 of an inch long and he was VERY VERY scrawny.  We were shocked at how skinny he was underneath all that bad fur.  He literally took two days of grooming to have him completely cleaned & trimmed of bad fur.  He hadn’t been cut so short in a long time that he seemed cold.  When he came home, he slept… for probably a good 18 hours.  We kept checking him because we didn’t know if he was still alive he slept so soundly and for such a long time.

Over the next few months we kept him well groomed and well fed.  We switched to a better brand of dog food (Innova) which he really ate up and we started feeding him some canned food too to make sure he was absorbing it all.  As you can see, his fur grew out very nicely – soft and cushiony!  What was more important however was the fact that he was SMILING.  He started smiling and licking his chops whenever we would bring his ball out or his snacks.  We did discover that his stomach was very sensitive and wouldn’t take certain types of snacks, but one thing was for certain:  He was very well incented by food and he loved to play. 

Over time, he got healthy.  VERY HEALTHY.  No seriously – he actually wasn’t really fat like in the picture.  This is just what happened when we bathed him and put him under the blow dryer.  He looked huge but he really wasn’t that fat.  Although he did gain 5 pounds, this was just a little above normal.  He had a lot of body mass to make up after all.  The ticks from his previous life had leeched away most of his body mass we think and he was just making up for lost weight.

And this is the Sheep today.  He’s very happy and he has a really big smile most of the time.  He’s active and although he’s slowing down due to age (he’s 13) and he can’t hear any more (he went almost completely deaf when he was 12) he still does just fine.  He follows us wherever we go and he’s generally quite happy.   He now knows how to shake, sit, lie down, rollover and stay.  He also knows when it’s time for dinner and he sleeps next to me when I play video games in the living room.

Sheepa’s been the greatest gift.

I’ve been listing to one of the podcasts below – “The Vegas Cabbie”.  It’s basically this guy “Rick” the cabbie who drives a taxi in Las Vegas.  He talks about stuff that’s happened in Vegas and gives the occasional tip about what to do when in Vegas. 

Now I thought this dude was an utter train wreck when first started listening to him.  I mean, he’s sounds… like… CRAZY!   But after listening a few podcasts, I think he’s alright.  I question whether or not he’ll actually keep doing the podcast, but whatever. What changed my mind?  He actually had a couple good tips.  And when I thought about it, who better to advise visitors on things Vegas-related than a cabbie?

Here’s an example of some of the things he answers:

• “How do you get through airport security quickly, if you’re late to your flight?”
• “How do catch a cab at McCarran Airport without waiting in the cab line?”
• “When is the best time to fly into Vegas?”

Not bad ‘eh?  I can think of a 1000 questions to ask him and I’ve left a message or two for him.  But nonetheless, this could be good if he keeps it up.  And yeah, he’s a little eccentric and nuts but I think that’s part of what’s entertaining about him.  I think he’ll be a permanent fixture in my Zune.

NOTE TO VEGASUNDRESSED.COM
Not everyone owns a f-ing iPod y’know?  Some of us prefer the Zune or the iRiver or the Zen.  And the only reason I found your podcasts was because Vegas Cabbie got posted to the Zune Marketplace – not iTunes.  Also, would you consider getting a Vegas BARTENDER to do a podcast?  I would think that’d be a fun podcast to watch – plenty to talk about, lots of advice to give, etc.  And maybe a Vegas casino host.

Anyway, it turns out that his podcast is just one of 4 podcasts posted to Vegasundressed.com.  I can’t say I’m fans of all of them, but I’ll let you be the judge of them.

The Stripper Method
Two Las Vegas strippers teach you on their video podcast what it is they do and how they do it.  It’s more like a distance learning podcast for women in the exotic dancing profession.
http://www.vegasundressed.com/StripperMethod/tabid/55/Default.aspx
http://feeds.feedburner.com/StripperMethod?format=xml

The Vegas Cabbie
Rick the Vegas taxi driver tells you through his video podcast how to get around town and otherwise enjoy Las Vegas from his years of expertise as a cabbie.
http://www.vegasundressed.com/VegasCabbie/tabid/93/Default.aspx
http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheVegasCabbieShow?format=xml

That Show with Those Guys
A video podcast with 3 dudes that sit around and run through a ton of ‘guy talk’ in Vegas about Vegas stuff from differing Vegas locations like the Palms, the Rio, etc.
http://www.vegasundressed.com/ThatShow/tabid/54/Default.aspx
http://feeds.feedburner.com/tswtg-atv?format=xml

G-Spot
An audio podcast about the arts and entertainment scene in Las Vegas.  Being that I’m not a Vegas resident, this really doesn’t appeal to me but for anyone that is in Vegas as a resident I’m sure this might be interesting.
http://www.vegasundressed.com/GSpot/tabid/56/Default.aspx
http://feeds.feedburner.com/vegasundressed/gspot?format=xml

God, this is funny.  It’s so well done – it’s probably the product of a big name firm like Crispin Porter, Chiat Day, or BBDO.  Half of the people I know in the Media & Entertainment industry can probably relate to this video.

LINK:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnxSEg8pQlw

I got this in the mail today.  This is just incredible – this place has been an institution for selling puppy mill dogs to the Hollywood elite.

This is something that I never thought I’d actually hear about again. 

Way back in the day, (1995ish) Penn & Teller had a video game made called “Penn & Teller’s Smoke and Mirrors”.  It was never actually released because the game developer went out of business before it hit the streets.  The game has become something of legend.  It was a a collection of just mini games that were intentionally designed specifically to fool your friends.  One game – the game that put Smoke and Mirror’s on the map, was called Desert Bus.  How they came up with this idea, I’ll never know.

To quote Wikipedia:

The objective of the game is to drive a bus from Tucson, Arizona to Las Vegas, Nevada in real time at a maximum speed of 45mph, a feat that would take the player 8 hours of continuous play to complete, as the game cannot be paused.

The bus contains no passengers, and there is no scenery or other cars on the road. The bus veers to the right slightly; as a result, it is impossible to tape down a button to go do something else and have the game end properly. If the bus veers off the road it will stall and be towed back to Tucson, also in real time. If the player makes it to Las Vegas, they will score exactly one point. The player then gets the option to make the return trip to Tucson—for another point (a decision they must make in a few seconds or the game ends). Players may continue to make trips and score points as long as their endurance holds out. Some players who have completed the trip have also noted that, although the scenery never changes, a bug splats on the windscreen about five hours through the first trip, and on the return trip the light does fade, with differences at dusk, and later a pitch black road where the player is guided only with headlights.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_Bus#Desert_Bus

What made this game LEGENDARY is that it takes 4 days and 12 hours to actually complete the journey in REAL TIME and some group of yahoos from LoadingReadyRun actually completed the journey for real and did it for charity.  They called it “Desert Bus for Hope” and they even got donations for Penn & Teller themselves.

Well, guess what?  It’s ON AGAIN:  Desert Bus 2:  Bus Harder

It’s going on RIGHT NOW and I’m absolutely beside myself.  I can’t believe that they’re doing it again… and I’ve made my donation.  This is really really insane but I have to absolutely give serious props to these guys.  It’s a great cause and shows serious dedication. 

What’s more – they’ve been driving for 5 days now and they’ve raised almost $70,000 dollars.  Can you believe that?  Their original goal was just a lousy $10,000 and they’ve gotten more than 6x that amount.

They’ve got a live feed going of the actual effort and they’re doing things like singing songs to keep everyone going.  They just got through singing the theme of Gilligan’s Island.  And they’re also streaming a live feed of the actual stream of the game screen in real time.  And it’s every bit as boring as you can imagine.  But there’s lots of people in that room.

My favorite quotes:
”Yay!  We tripled last year’s donations!  We’ll never get to go home!”
”In celebration, I’m going to bed.”

Dear God.  They’re singing the lyrics to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles now.  This is actually good Internet viewing.  Good for you, you guys.

Oh.  And Penn Jillette has chimed in on his podcast:

Seems to me another reason to upgrade to Windows Vista.  (I’m sorry.  I couldn’t help myself.)

LINK:  http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1886349

I forgot we had these.   This is a photo of the ol’ pooch in his Halloween costume.  As you can see, he went as a pumpkin which he genuinely enjoys because it gets him a lot of head pats and scratches. 

I don’t mind saying that he and I were the hit of the block.  I don’t have photos of myself in my costume, but because of its size and professionally created design, it’s unmistakable from a distance and those of you who know me well enough know what I went as.

People often ask, “Are you one of those people that dresses up their dogs in clothing?” and I can unequivocally say “Hell no”.  But during Halloween, it’s a great time for him and I to go trotting around the town, giving him a good walk and me something of a workout due to the nature of my costume.

And in my younger days – man oh man – would Sheepa and my costumes have been a great way to meet people.

It’s probably no surprise that I have a really strong deep-seeded psychological love and caring for animals.  When I look back on my life, it’s probably because animals have always made me feel better going back as far as my kindergarten years.  And while I often found myself sad or upset after going to Disneyland or Six Flags for one reason or another, I always came away from the Petting Zoo very, very happy.

So it hurt to concede to myself that Proposition 2 really didn’t stand a chance given that both the California Democratic and Republican party advisors recommended AGAINST its passage.

(And BTW:  Thanks a lot you partisan sheep & cattle herders – especially you bleeding heart liberal leader types from the Democratic party.  Christ – you get the opportunity to do the morally right thing – Republican mother-effers & others be damned – and instead you side with special interests.  I swear, what good are you people?)

Now it’s the day after Election Tuesday.  I open up the LA Times and… well, whuddayaknowaboutthat.  It passed!

• http://www.latimes.com/news/local/politics/cal/la-2008election-california-results%2C0%2C1293859.htmlstory?view=2&tab=1&fnum=0

I sit with a tear in my eye, STUNNED that Prop 2 passed 63% to 34% – I mean, this was against all odds in my opinion.  Californians stood up and said NO to animal cruelty above questionable claims of price hikes and erroneous statements about health risks. 

Californians voted for the moral choice – not the economically-focused one and for once, not the one that falls within party lines.

Now I’m a realist:  I know there’s an underlying reason for Prop 2’s success that has nothing to do with a sudden change of heart in California’s traditional voter base.  My thinking cap tells me that the rationale around this miracle is:

1. YOUTH VOTE
   On the strength of the youth or emotional vote from the Obama campaign, a lot of new voters with few monetary responsibilities and few familial burdens and ignored claims of price hikes.  They voted emotionally – the way fresh-out-of-college types vote, and they helped push the vote to victory.

   Normally, this sort of voting nauseates me.  But the fact of the matter is that rarely do supposedly thinking voters think about issues much more than skin deep and that would have led them to believe the deceit of the farming industry in California and that would have been wrong. 

   Is this thinking Machiavellian?  I don’t think so.  Because this is a moral issue and ultimately what I would have liked to have seen are people whose thinking transcended dollars & cents and even personal welfare and said to themselves, “No no no no no.  This is just wrong.  Voting no is a tacit acceptance with state-sanctioned torture on the living creatures of California and like a certain “other” government policy we have, we simply can’t… can’t… CAN’T morally allow torture of any kind when we can legislate otherwise.  I’m better than that.”

2. ADVERTISING
   Having the President of the Humane Society of America – a powerful figure from a respected national organization – get up and say, “Folks – we’re the honest ones.  And we’re trying to do the morally correct thing.  Please follow our lead.  It won’t cost you more than a cent an egg and you’ll be helping the quality of life of so many living entities in our state.” 

   Meanwhile, the opposition was pretty incompetent.  A “No on 2” ad actually claimed that “eggs would be diseased” having come from Mexico and that more eggs would come and hurt Californians.  WHAT?  Never mind that this is more than an egg issue:   Soooo what about all the eggs that are already coming into California from Mexico?  Where’s the huge health risk there? 

   And telling a state that has a substantial population of Mexicans that Mexico is lawless & disease-ridden doesn’t exactly endear them to the “No on 2” cause.

To quote Prop 2’s campaign manager:

“It is a simple and yet profound principle we have advanced: that ALL animals, including those raised for food, deserve humane treatment.”

….

God smiled on the meek of California today.

….

More information:

• YES ON PROP 2
  http://www.yesonprop2.com/
• LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OBJECTIVE EVALUATION SITE
  http://www.smartvoter.org/2008/11/04/ca/state/prop/2/

<paraphrased to protect the innocent… or the guilty>

MSFT FTE #1:  You can get 25% off anything at eBay using Live Cashback!

MSFT FTE #2:  It was 30% until some time this past weekend.

MSFT FTE #3:  It looks like it’s off again. 

MSFT FTE #4:  No, it’s still up!

MSFT FTE #5:  I hope this doesn’t affect the search relevance of eBay on Live Search.

MSFT FTE #6:  I don’t care as long as they keep offering cashback on Joe Biden. 

—————–

I laughed so hard at this I peed a little.  I imagine special interest lobbyists paying off Joe Biden through eBay and using Live Cashback to get a 25% discount on all their bribes… err… I mean, “contributions”.

I guess this is a continuation of the entry I made back in February:
http://kurtsthoughts.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!97895BBB8AD10F37!768.entry

• Crackle: Penn Says… (Penn Jillette’s video blog)
  http://crackle.com/rss/ipod/pennsays/featured.rss
• Barely Political – Funny Political Videos:
  http://feeds.barelypolitical.com/barely-political/rss
• Comedy Central Stand-Up
  http://feeds.feedburner.com/comedycentral/standup
• The Best of Youtube
  http://bestofyoutube.podshow.com/feed.xml
• Lewis Black’s Root of All Evil Podcast
  http://feeds.feedburner.com/comedycentral/root_of_all_evil
• Sessler’s Soapbox
  http://www.g4tv.com/thepile/podcasts/39/Sesslers_Soapbox.xml
• Technet Radio
  http://www.microsoft.com.winme/0512/25568/technet_radio.xml
• The Bungie Podcast
  http://www.bungie.net/podcast/bungiepodcast.xml

I love Lewis Black.

http://images.video.msn.com/flash/soapbox1_1.swf

http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?vid=7752324f-774a-4d60-a462-103aa1d809c1 

As taken from the Washington Post – June 2008:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/06/09/ST2008060900950.html

Note each policy are based on FAMILY income, not individual income.

(Someone asked me yesterday about this topic so consider this a public service announcement)

For any of you that buy tickets to shows in Las Vegas you’ll always read that “you must pick up your tickets at least an hour before the show but no sooner than 24 hours beforehand” or they will be given away or some absolute crap like that. 

You do NOT have to pick up your tickets beforehand. 

I’ve strolled into the box offices of the shows I’ve attended so many times with just 15-30 minutes to go, picked up my tickets and strolled right on in.  I remember when I was young, I would have all these shows that I planned on going to and I’d have to pick up the tickets beforehand the day of the show.

This is really annoying that they ask people to do this.  Like we don’t have any f-ing better things to do with our vacation time than cab over to their stupid box office just to pick up a pair of tickets to a show later that same goddamned night.  All just so that they have an accurate count of how full the show is or not – despite the fact that you’ve already PAID for the ticket.

Note:  If you go through VEGAS.COM or one of these online sites, you can often times PRINT your ticket online.  For example, MGM Grand provides printable e-Tickets for virtually every event the put on.  But otherwise, don’t feel compelled to pick up your tickets early during the day just because they say so. 

Assuming that you’ve already paid for your admission, you can just walk in 30 minutes before show time… just like every other show in the world, and pick up your tickets and walk into your venue.

Fareed Zakaria spoke with Bill Gates about his extraordinary charitable work and his views on the American economy.  Specifically, Bill said that there is no crisis of capitalism.

"The economy may go down somewhat, but nothing like a big recession or depression," Gates added. He said that the amount of investment "is actually greater today."

VIDEO:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/
2008/10/06/fz.bill.gates.cnn?iref=videosearch 

LINK:
http://entmag.com/news/rss.asp?editorialsid=10270

Join Best Friends LA and Come Adopt a New Friend or Walk to Help Save Homeless Pets!

What: The Largest Pet Adoptions Festival in California and the Strut Your Mutt Walk

When: Sunday, October 12, 2008
• Pet Adoption Festival runs from 11:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
• Strut Your Mutt starts at 9:00 a.m., prizes awarded at 11:00 a.m.

Why: Because every animal deserves a loving home!!! Over 1,000 dogs, cats, puppies, kittens and rabbits will be at the festival just waiting for you!

Walkers can fundraise and compete for prizes!

1st place: Wins a two night stay in Kanab and a VIP Tour of Best Friends Animal Society
2nd place: Wins a Dyson animal vacuum
3rd place: Wins a one-year supply of premium dog food

All Walkers get a “Strut Your Mutt” t-shirt and goodie bag!

For more event information, call (310) 202-4336
To Register for Strut Your Mutt and learn more please visit strutyourmuttla.com
Registration for the walk is $25 in advance / $30 at the event.
Learn more about what is happening on behalf of the animals of LA by joining the Best Friends Network Los Angeles Community.

I can think of so many things that this photo is symbolic of. 

Couple things to keep in mind:  The dog might not be as quick but the dog is stronger.  And it’s going to get even stronger.  Oh, and the dog was taken by surprise.  How dumb does the cat have to be to break out the claws on a dog.  The sequence after this photo was taken of the cat & the dog couldn’t have been pretty. 

My bet is on the dog.

I thought that the one or two of you that are actually reading this would find this internal dialogue here at Microsoft interesting.  This by the way is obviously not a recommendation… it’s just a stuff I’ve read.

The other day, someone in the company (on one of our many internal discussion/mailing lists) asked the question, “Who’s converting their 401k to cash?”  A legitimate question for people concerned about their future savings.  No one wants to be left penniless in their retirement.

When do you want out?
One person chimed in that the big question revolves around when that money matures and when the person is looking to need that money.  If it’s in the immediate future, well, there might be something to think about there but if it’s in the next 10 years or more, this is more than likely a buying opportunity being that he had confidence that the markets would recover during that period of time at which point he’d then need the money.  Timing the market is a scary thing unless you’re willing to put a huge amount of time figuring things out… and even then it’s just and educated guess.

Your funds are already hedging
Someone else chimed in and said that funds are all hedging right now anyway.  A person’s change of making a difference short term, in a way that could actually be measured 20 years from now is slim to none.  The only thing you can do at this point is pick a good fund and stick with it because they’re already hedging.

It’s a good time to buy
One person said that his financial advisor also said, like everyone else’s, that now is the time to buy.  Getting out of the market i.e. cashing out is a move to avoid according to his financial planner because you’re probably getting out at a much lower period than what will be available in the future.

Don’t listen to soothsayers
Now one of our ‘think tank’ folks strongly came down on the idea of “financial wizards” or forecasters being that soothsayers don’t exist.  Most of them have massive losses and/or are barely escaping bankruptcy.  He recommends asset allocation by using money going in that increases what you are trying to generate interest on.  He also mentions a technique known as the barbell approach.  Simply put:  “…the good investment strategy is to put 90% of your money in the safest possible government securities and the remaining 10% in a large number of high-risk ventures. This insulates you from bad black swans and exposes you to the possibility of good ones. Your smallest investment could go “convex” – explode – and make you rich.”

In his own words: 

“Driving what I do is, yes, loss aversion– if I am 100% richer  I am not 100% happier but if I am 50% poorer I am very very unhappy.  Money needed to pay for things promised to people I love is not money I seek high risk growth on.  

The enemy of performance is trading and the fees it generates and fee generally. The other enemy of performance is chasing performance. Stocks could go up tomorrow or down. In the long term stocks will go up at a reasonable pace. Will I buy new stocks soon? Unlikely. Not buying more stocks is not the same as moving to cash by paying a commission.

I told you what I do with my money.  It is not intended as financial advice.  If you want financial advice read Buffett, Lynch, Munger, Swensen (of Yale), etc.”

More financial perspective from the Maverick Blogger
Someone else said that Mark Cuban apparently wrote an article about investing and diversification.
http://blogmaverick.com/2008/09/08/talking-stocks-and-money/

Personally, I have to admit that Mark Cuban’s posts are very interesting.

Sponsored by Windows Mobile, a member of Ellen’s audience survived breast cancer, and she displays her courage once again by sitting atop Ellen’s dunk tank!

Watch what happens when Ellen hits the target, in an effort to find a cure for Breast Cancer.

Good stuff.  Really.