Facebook

Facebook is the current craze amoung my friends, so I have been spending a lot of time over there. The result is less time in this blog since my overall amount of free time tends to be conserved. If you have a chance, ping me over there as well!

Dentistry

Another root canal this week, this one a particularly unpleasent one. I spent 5 hours in the chair. 5 hours. The anesthetic wore off after 2 and half, I got renumbed but it only last another other hour. After that, it didn't really work at all. As was explained to me afterwards, when one's gums are infected, they are highly resistant to pain killers. The more inflamed the get, the more resistant they become. Needless to say, mine were pretty inflamed. So I spent the last hour and a half with little or no numbing. It took so long because the roots of the tooth were not straight like normal, but curved around in shapes which made it difficult to clean out the root completely and, you absolutely positively do NOT want to leave nerves in there.

I admit freely I screamed loudly at several points. Enough to scare the other patients and some of the staff.

That said, the dentist did a good job and despite the conditions, a very professional one. He called the next and we talked, I think he wanted to a) see how I was doing and b) make sure there were no hard feelings. There are not, I understand why he needed to do what he did and respect him for it. He did confide to me that, "it's patients with teeth like that one which cause some dentists not to do root canals at all".

I thought that was funny. My mouth is a dire warning to others.

Looks good!

The new Star Trek trailer, set to reboot the franchise, looks pretty good.

Investitude

I've been a member of a small investors club for a few years now, and to say the last 12 months have been rough is a huge understatement. We've lost significantly in the market, although some of our private investments have done okay (as well as some investment in gold). Occasionally we make limited, non-controlling buy-ins for various private businesses, either as direct investments or structured loans. Yesterday we agreed to buy a restaurant in Seattle that I have been going to for a few years now. Despite the climate, it looks like a pretty good buy given food, the neighborhood and the management. While not, by any means, a controlling interest, it's enough that we should do pretty well in a market where 2% bonds look like genius. If we have this right, we should be getting around 9% if you don't count the fringe benefits (i.e. I eat there a few times a month or free, they are now stocking my favorite drink etc.).

If you have a chance and are in Seattle, check out Amore on the corner of 5th and Bell.

How 7 of 9 Changed History and Elected Barak Obama

I was thinking about the chain of events that got us to where we are today, I remembered an obscure link between 7 of 9 and the US Presidency.

In 2004, Republican Peter Fitzgerald left the US Senate and Jack Ryan, former Goldman trader, wanted his seat. He ran on a platform of "staunch family values and rock-rib conservative principles". He won the republican primary and his only opponent was a little known, poorly funded black guy named Barak Obama. He was, in other words, a shoe-in.

However, Ryan's wife was famed actress Jeri Ryan, at the time coming off her famous role as 7 of 9 in Star Trek: Voyager. You'd think that was a plus but, alas, not so much. Jeri divorced Jack for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was his taste for group sex and her complete version to joining him. All of this was under seal until the Chicago Tribune sued to unseal the records, was successful, and brought to light a host of highly graphic and, well, hypocritical details.

Ryan dropped out and the GOP ran comedian Alan Keyes as his replacement, resulting in a 70%-30% loss.

And now you know, the rest of the story.