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Friday, January 31, 2003

A building fell on the train at 118th street, and friends in Rome found it first on WABC.com.

Hinky 5:57 PM

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Economics. Nothing like redefining the thing. Unemployment has been consistently redefined by the government to exclude people who have given up looking for work after a certain period of time. By excluding those folks, the number remains small, leaving Americans less likely to pitch a fit about employment figures announcements. Don't panic.

America is not alone, I recall reading that England has been doing redefining "unemployment" for decades to ease the shock. It goes back before Thatcher. It must have worked pretty well, we been following their lead for awhile now. Sleepwalking.

Now, NASDAQ is doing it for the stock markets. In the past, companies had to trade above a certain dollar amount (say, 5 dollars) to remain "listed" on the NASD stock exchange. Typically they are given 90 days to break 5 dollars. Well, with so many companies in the shitter, NASD has tippled the amount of time for delisting to 540 days for small companies. I keep thinking about that that known stupid poster of the cat with its claws dug in: “Hang on baby, Friday is coming.”

Pension funds are tapped out for many companies, and the entity that insures those company plans in the event that they sink is also getting pinched as the market drops and so many bankruptcies hitting the wire. Airlines have eaten up a lot of the reserves that are set aside for these situations. Nonetheless, they say there is pretty good cash flow in the insurance plan to cover these ongoing operations. "Operation sunset." Beside that, the government will bail them out for taking outsized risks with Pension money if the shit really hits the fan. Hang on baby!

One of the largest Mutual fund companies (Janus, Rome's God of Commerce) lost 28% of its assets, after 5 billion dollars was transferred out this past year. Two weeks ago, money flows into funds were negative for the first time in 14 years (that's a biggy folks). Yet the stock market keeps hanging on. Friday’s coming. Cheap oil, will that bail it out? Maybe, but not with Iraq’s broken down old rigs. Analysts think it will take 5 years just to get it in working order to get the oil flowing. They also say Saudi Arabian investors pulled 100 billion dollars out of the US markets, and nobody even heard the sucking sound. My friends ask me: "where the hell do you get this stuff?" In the case of the oil analysis, "The Economist" magazine, in the latter, it was this link, which popped my eyeballs, click click(scroll to August 20, 2002 which is listed on the massive timeline put together by a group that is documenting all the media coverage surrounding 9/11.

Worldcom, on the other hand, is being reorganized in chapter 11, not busted out in the under the Bankruptcy code’s chapter 7. Seems they play to vital a role in Law enforcement to allow them to go under. National security and all that. But since that is of such a great value, why not make it available for consumers too. Think about it: listen to your friend’s and neighbor’s long distance calls for a dime per minute. I mean, what’s the harm, as long as you don’t use as evidence in a criminal case, right? Wouldn’t you pay for that? I bet it would become a new national pastime; far exceeding the CB radio phenomina of the 70's, or the Internet Bloggers at the turn of the century. And just think how safe it would make us. If everyone could listen to everyone's calls, and if everyone had a small digital video camera built into their cellphone... All this reminds me of these cats, who are clearly daffy about security

"But what frightens me more than such imputations is the possibility that you yourself may disregard the true path of glory, and instead consider it glorious to possess more power than all your fellow-citizens combined - preferring that they should fear you rather than like you. If that is what you think, your idea of where the road of glory lies is mistaken. For glory consists of being regarded with affection by one's country, earning praise and respect and love; whereas to be feared and disliked, on the other hand, is unpleasant and hateful and debilitating and precarious. This is clear enough from the play in which the man said, 'Let them hate provided that they fear.' He found to his cost that such a policy was his ruin."

--Cicero, The First Philippic Against Marcus Antonius.

Of course this Cicero lost his head and hands, to Anthony's solders (the fellow he had balled out before they cornered him up at the office). They nailed his hands to the Rostra, Rome's ship of state, a podium shaped like a ship, where Cicero had often spoke out to crowds against the extreme actions of his fellow citizens. Fulvia, Antony's wild sex pot wife, about whom Cicero also had a lot of shit to say, nailed pins through his tongue on the spot where he had pierced so many powerful Romans. Moral of the story: stick to remote locations.

Rangers lost a close one last night.

I finally got home link on this blog's home page to work, FINALLY. It was a little shakey for awhile.

Hinky 3:55 PM

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Thursday, January 30, 2003

The Knicks were losing at half time last night, when I got off the social climber at the gym. It took me two trips to the set of Third Watch to get my money from the PA, who were running around playing "A Team" with their walkie talkies. But I got the money. They were nice, but I was still Late yesterday from all that BS. They say that the entertainment business accounts for 6 of every 10 dollar in the economy. Having fun yet?

I found out a third person I that I know is writing a book about their past lives here in nyc, a cold cold town where you have to hustle and jive to stay blah blah blah... and La Bohem is in production this year, again. How about now?

I have been looking up Columbia on the State Department site. This book, Killing Pablo has me thinking. I am thinking about Joan Didion, who explained: "I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear," but I think there is enough to fear in the papers every day, if you are looking for something to fear. The kids are cutting their mother's heads off in California. Back here, the weather is warmer, but two people who raised money for a winning Senator, a Gov.and a NYC Mayor were found in their Brooklyn condo with plastic bags duck taped over their heads last night. They were Chinese Americans who worked to put 3 republicans in office. "The truth is out there," just outside the Homeland security. Still, not fun?

My nephew took me for lunch downstairs, price fixe. The steak was a little bigger than the buttons on his coat. I still have the F-ing Heart burn. I cajoled him for over an hour to go get an MBA, the way my brother used to cajole me to be a go as far as the college train would run. I sang the old: "Money comes and goes, so it's all about what you know." song for him, until it made me sick to hear it. He emailed me info he had looked up about it. Call it, Hinky's feable attempt to give something back.

I need to write a book, someday.

Hinky 6:09 PM

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Wednesday, January 29, 2003

Got the Zenmatic.tv Intro page on for the Hinky Blog-- Big time stuff. Now let's see if I can get my 20 bucks back from the Location manager of Third Watch for almost towing my F ing car this morning.

Hinky 5:02 PM

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A was a good morning until I woke up late, my coat string broke, and the crew of television's Third Watch with the NYPD Tow squad (with their Big, New trucks) relocated all the cars that were parked with mine on my street this morning. Luckily I noticed the hubbub with the Tow squad, and got my car. But all this crap made me LATE.

Of course there was the mandatory argument with the toady production assistant in charge of the towing and street cones for the show. Of course he insisted that the signs were up for a week. And of course the signs were up for a week, but they had to tow the whole block of cars, right? He lied. He lied entertainment industry style, with Great Big Enthusiasm, a fast talking insistence that was too smooth by half to be true. Call it what you will: Gilding the Lilly, icing the Twinkie™, talking out of the neck; it’s all the same thing. I have to pay for parking today.

I told the toady that I was calling the city anyway. So I called the Location manager, whose number was on the sign. I told him that the signs were not up yesterday, no matter what the guy with the Crow shay hat might claim with his rehearsed Horse shit

He offered me cash for the cost of parking if I can find the guy after work and hand him my receipt for parking. We'll see what happens tonight after work; and I'll let you know when I see you

The news isn’t much better, starting with the story of this kids on Long Island who dug up 5 dead bodies and dressed them up for a party. I am pretty sure they did not say they got the idea for this on the Sopranos, like the two kids who confessed to cutting their mother’s head off yesterday. But hey, the Knicks and Devils won last night; and the weather broke. It’s less cold, but nobody is sunning themselves on Park Avenue this week. And a coworker reminded me that it could be much worse and she is right. The house next to hers was blown off it’s foundation this morning at 5am. It was safe, clean, affordable Natural gas.

Got a new page made for Zenmatic.tv last night… as always, feedback is welcome.

Hinky 1:46 PM

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Tuesday, January 28, 2003

Just a final run before letting out into the night. Working on Zenmatic.tv tonight... seems the servers have left the building. Looks like the US is planning to drop 800 cruse missles on Iraq in the first two days according to the Austrialian press. I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that; that or Saddam H.'s son, Uday, who said 911 will be like a picnic if the US comes to bagdad. As I recall: "Tough Guys Don't Dance".

It was cold that winter, the winter that the war broke out. The economy was shitters, the crooks tanned and bloated on the bread from Bathizar, or however those bar owners spell the name of their french bistro downtown, near the site where America lost her front teeth. And if I get a parking space on Thursday, I won't have to fork over the 20 dollar bill to my amigo, who has me clocked within 4 minutes on the days I pay for parking the zenmatic.tv chariot.

Hinky 5:52 PM

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It's cold again; radio says it feels like -2 blow zero. The papers are running the story about the kids who are lost after a boating accident in the East river. 911 didn't respond to the cell phone call that faded out at the time.

I am upping the Vitamin D (heard it fights the sunless winter blues). This just in: A Japanese study of more than 25,000 workers found that workers who spent more than five hours per day in front of a computer screen were significantly more likely to complain of mental stress and sleep-related symptoms. Go ahead: Tell us about it.

Two kids cut their mother's head off, stating that they got the idea from watching HBO's The Sopranos in their confession. The oldest was a Good science student at Cal State, in San Berdu, California. What's next? George Bush speaks about the Economy and Saddam tonight.

Speaking of Narco-Terrorism: I was lent a new book, "Killing Pablo," by Mark Bowden. It's about the hunt for Drug Kingpin Pablo Escobar. Looks like a good primer for a Brave New World.

Hinky 1:31 PM

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Monday, January 27, 2003

I am back and busier than a dog with two winkies. It's still cold as it is.

Hinky 5:03 PM

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