words, words, words

D.C. has finally cooled off a little bit. It is now a bit cooler than, say, hell. There isn’t too much news to report. I’ve been working 7 days a week, 12 hours a day, and that’s about it.

I went to Bethesda a few days ago to watch the new surfing movie, “Step Into Liquid”. The movie was a bit hokey, too much talking, not enough surfing. And as the creator of the X-Files said in the film, and I am paraphrasing, if you are a surfer it is best not to say too much about it. I agree. Nothing is worse than having surfers monosyllabically waxing philosophic.

But it was good to watch some surfing. Makes me want to get out of here, that is for sure.

Bethesda is awful. I forgot why I didn’t like that town. It is filled with self-important wankers.

I am slowly unwinding my stock positions.

Should be back to cash soon.

(However, as I have been watching stuff go up I have been day trading and making some cash. My long-term goal is still to return to cash. (Update Sept-03-2003)

I returned from the beach a few days ago. The family went to Lewes Beach, Delaware.

It was a nice trip, and it was good to see everybody.

The surf was small.

I think I am getting closer to closing a deal. I think that Real Estate in Washington, D.C. will be good for quite a while longer. Also, the family went to Atlantic city, but I didn’t glean any insights from their decrepit casinos.

Also: This just in from the Associated Press regarding Hambali, the Indonesian Terrorist.

“U.S. investigators will seek to determine if Hambali had any success the assignment Bush administration official said was given soon after the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States: recruiting new suicide hijackers”

I have no idea what that means. But it sounds serious, they even used a colon.

More politics?!?

I’m not even going to say anything about “Arnold” and his candidacy for governor of California.

He has every Right to run, and the country needs entertainment, although I think it may bolster our image as a gun-toting, violent nation.

However, I do want to point out one thing. I have a problem with the people who are voting for him or supporting him, and there is one in particular.

Today in the Washington Post, an expert stated there is a good chance that people who are “less well-educated” may vote for Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Ok, that is a nice way of saying “You would have to be a moron to vote for the Terminator for governor.” (Regardless that he is an actor, he is first and foremost a very bad actor, who used to be a bodybuilder.)

On the same page as this article is the following headline: “Bush Lauds Schwarzenegger Candidacy.” In the article Bush is quoted as saying “And yes, I think he’d be a good governor.” Ok.

Let’s go through the logic of this.

Expert A says Arnold is popular with the “less well-educated”.

The President of the United States thinks he would make a good governor, certainly sounds like popular support to me (and a ringing endorsement that was just what the doctor ordered for Arnie).

Therefore, the President of t he United States is less well-educated.

I thought so.

He may pick Arnold as his running partner; he may also spot him when he lifts weights.

But wait, W. went to Yale.

Yes, with a C average and he was a legacy. Dad pulled some strings.

So maybe he isn’t “less well-educated”. Yale is a good school, but he obviously didn’t learn anything there.

Let’s hope the people pulling his strings are smarter than he is.

Seabiscuit.

I went and saw Seabiscuit today. I liked the gritty portrayal of the actual racing (the positioning and the elbowing that goes on) but I thought the movie was a bit cheesy, specifically, the way in which it tried to tie the we are the world crap. It was really a mixed metaphor, It wasn’t a lame or handicapped horse that came from nowhere to win, it had pedigree, it’s father was Hard Tack a good horse, and it’s grandfather was Man O War, an incredible horse.

Seabiscuit was trained improperly, yes, but he wasn’t a come from nowhere winner.

So, in summary, the movie was good, but the American and Apple Pie stuff was a bit over the top. I think the real come-from-behind-story was the story of the author, Laura Hillenbrand. She wrote the book with CFS.

More than making you want to go to the park and gamble, it made you want to buy a stake in a horse.

Holy crap! Are we invading Saudi Arabia next? W. what are you doing?

I just got back from a busy day in D.C. where I think I am going to go into real estate. I’ve dabbled with it for a while, but my friends who are involved are brining me on board. That would solve the job issue.

Notes from the long flight home. England.

I had a very nice trip to England and wrote this from 30,000 feet aboard Virgin Atlantic.

For some reason they give you more crap on the flight to America than the flight from America. Maybe because it isn’t overnight.

I did empty my pockets of change and put it in their charity envelope they have. Not to sound pretentious, but because it is nice to see an airline doing some good. I am, in an uncharitable vein, surrounded by fat, chatty people. Yin and yang.

I’ve been reading “The Guardian”, one of the few English papers without a page 3 girl.

A couple of interesting notes:

In Cambodia, the CPP (Cambodian People’s Party) is claiming a preliminary victory over Funcinpec and the Sam Rainsy Party.

So far the transition has been peaceful, but I wouldn’t bet on that. The tyranny of Hun Sen will not go quietly if they did lose. I’ll keep an eye on it, hopefully the lovely Khmer people will have their live improved through this.

Another interesting letter to the editor, whose facts I haven’t been able to check yet, but certainly piques the curiosity. “Last year the U.S. invested $10 Billion in the region as companies moved to exploit the oil in the Guinea Basin.” That is off the coast of Liberia. Hmm. The author doesn’t deny that there is a real humanitarian crises in Liberia, which is pretty obvious that there is, but they do say that Bush is timing it so that he doesn’t prop-up Charles Taylor and also the opposition won’t have taken over by the time they invade. I think this is a delicate balancing act, but another one that will position Baby Doc (oops I mean Bush) to grow ever richer and paint another smiling face on another humanitarian mission, viz. Iraq, that certainly hasn’t turned out as well as they hoped since the U.S. is currently courting U.N. aide. (That was a run-on sentence.) “They’re killin’ our boys.”

More proof that England is a third world country: First time homebuyers in the U.K. have dropped 31% in the first half of the year compared to last year (Hmm.) But home prices have doubled in the last 5 years (Holy crap!) And interest rates area at a 48 year low of 3.5% (Sell!)

So back to the states and time to see if any of the job seeds I have sown are ready to be reaped.