TMoney

The same basically applies to me, just on a smaller scale as I am a tax bracket or two below you. I'm glad its been working for you so far. And yeah Grahame, I agree that AMEX seems to be losing touch. Losing Costco was one very public outward sign of what seems to be internal malaise.

Signed up for a new credit card today because this NYT article (along with other research) convinced me that the Amazon Chase card I've been using for 99% of my spending is not the right one for my shit-head, yuppie millennial lifestyle. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/14/business/american-express-chase-sapphire-reserve.html?ref=business I am an idiot, but given my travel and restaurant spending the the rewards should more than make up for the annual fee. I've always used a credit card as a cash substitute and I have always paid my cards in full each month. This is 100% about optimizing reward benefits given my spending habits.

I'm psyched as hell to watch the beard-man and the wild-man go at it. That is going to be one heck of a fun 1st round series. Once we get to the 2nd round things should really heat up.

Rogue One and Force Awakens have set the bar so fucking low that this one has to be good, right?

Awesome! I'll be rooting for the Jazz too, but the Clips are going to be a tough out with CP3 and Blake healthy. LA Live/Staples is a damn nice place to see a game.

https://cleaningtheglass.com/why-are-these-games-different-from-all-other-games/ On why the NBA playoffs are so much fun: "[There are] three important ways that the playoffs are different from the regular season: they are more intense, they are more strategic, and they are more exhausting."

We have chosen.... poorly.

Gotta love the culture-wars!

Reading through some of Richard Rhodes' (phenomenal) books on the development of the Atomic Bomb and Hydrogen Bomb taught me that Nuclear Power and Nuclear Power Plants are tremendously complicated issues that are woefully misunderstood by the general public. I can understand the fervor of the anti-nuclear movement as well as fervor of the pro nuclear side. The Fukushima disaster, unlikely as it was, seems to have ended the prospects of new nuclear power plant construction in the 1st world. Sucks for Toshiba, but that is the way the cookie crumbles. -- Good thing we have Rick Perry in charge of the Department of Energy. A man who didn't even know what the DoE did.

His Chapelle show skits with Rick James and Prince were all-timers! "I'm Rick James, Bitch! Fuck Yo Couch!" RIP

Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

New MacBook instead? I have the touch-bar model and, while it certainly has some quirks, it is a fantastic machine. If you don't need workstation class hardware the MBPs are awfully nice to use. I use mine attached to an external monitor/keyboard/mouse like so:

Pooooooooooooooooooochinki!

POOOOOOOOCHINKI!

On my way to go hear Michael Lewis speak at the Marin Civic Center. I think I've read about half his books so yeah, big fan!

Been listening to her back catalog in addition to her new album. This is actually pretty strong as far as live albums go, IMO. Smart, hip, and chill.

http://www.marinij.com/social-affairs/20170405/13-reasons-why-author-talks-teen-bullying-suicide-during-larkspur-visit I didn't realize "13 Reasons" was filmed in Marin. That is cool.

Happy birthday!

I'm embarrassed for the NCAA. That game was so shitty I think I might be done with college hoops for a long, long time. This ESPN piece about sums it up. http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/19072726/referees-missed-shots-poor-play-make-forgettable-national-title-game

Actually I'm now basically 100% on track to become a first-time homeowner in the fall as long as I keep maintaining some semblance of financial discipline. It has been a very long road to this point but the end goal is finally in sight.

It might be a small victory, but I used some money from a work bonus to pay off the remainder of the loan balance due on my WRX today. I now own her free and clear. I am happy.

Fascinating piece on Uber and their drivers: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/04/02/technology/uber-drivers-psychological-tricks.html?_r=0

In anticipation of Ken Burn's Vietnam series this fall, I decided to give "Vietnam: A Television History" a watch. Over the past few weeks of watching VaTH it is hard to not think constantly on how tragic all this episode of our history was, especially given what we know now. A couple of things in particular really stood out to me. War is hell. The images and video speak loudly and clearly. How pointless stopping the "spread of communism" was. After billions of dollars, tens of thousands of American soldiers dead, and more than a million Vietnamese dead, what was accomplished? A total strategic defeat in the region. Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos would all fall to communist forces in 1975. While that fact matters a great deal to the citizens of those countries, it sure doesn't seem to have had much of an effect on either the Cold War as a whole or on US interests in general in the 40+ years since. Ideas like "containment" and the "domino theory" have not held up well to historical scrutiny. The faith of Americans in our government was irreparably harmed. The government doesn't seem to have ever been able to communicate the reasons the war was being fought outside of "stop communism and protect democracy." The cooking up of the Gulf of Tonkin incident and the dishonesty from the government in general and LBJ in particular are black marks on what should have been one of the great presidencies of the 20th century. Blaming "the media," "the elites," "the students," and "the city dwellers" while at the same time saying that the "silent-majority" of ordinary Americans support something is a good way to tell that there is bullshit afoot. It is scary how similar the soundbites of some of these politicians and military leaders sound to our present day situation. The inability to commit to any kind of end-game scenario outside of a cease-fire/stalemate and the lack of a strong ally worth supporting put the US Military in a very bad spot. The leaders and governments we backed/propped-up sure seemed incompetent, corrupt, sadistic, or all three combined. It is not hard to see why the populace of the region was sympathetic to the communists and the insurgents when you see what was going on in Saigon. Not invading North Vietnam or more aggressively going after the Ho-Chin-Minh trail made "victory" damn near impossible against a smart and determined foe who was always in it for the long game. Nixon might be a real shitty human being, but he and Kissinger's "peace with honor" plan probably should have been the strategy from the beginning. At least to me, Kissinger looks very prescient here. Other than not getting involved in the conflict in the first place "peace with honor" sure seems to have been the best reasonable outcome. The real story of the Vietnam War and Indochina conflict won't be told until we hear China's side of the story. While the cold war and US/USSR conflict is and has always been in the historical forefront, interesting developments were going on during this time period that put China on the track to be the dominant power in the east and eclipse Russia. Anyways, enough ranting out of me for one day. Feel free to disagree with anything I've said. I am no expert or historian and the above is just my reactions to the content in the documentary. I am looking forward to what Ken Burns' doc has to say roughly 30 years after VaTH. While Burns has the benefit of 30 additional years of scholarship on the topic, he won't be able to interview many of the prominent interviewees in VaTH that no longer with us. 5/5. Obviously.

Turns out the best game in March was in the Women's tournament. Awesome finish at the buzzer. http://screengrabber.deadspin.com/mississippi-state-ot-buzzer-beater-left-downs-uconn-en-1793916859