Away

Apologies for the lack of posts, but I haven't had much to rant about lately.

I have regressed into further nerdom by playing online mmorpgs. And am focussing on trying to grief other players. Collecting smack talk is actually great fun, though unproductive.

Tomorrow I am off on holiday. Hopefully I will not die. Oh well.

I've been watching the bank bonuses lately, and even a mercenary capitalist like myself is confused at the pay that is being awarded by companies that were saved by governments. On the one hand, people should be paid for doing good work, but if they've got lucky due to government cash injections, it's not really fair. However, if the banks aren't allowed to pay, then the employees can leave and go elsewhere. I guess one of the issues that needs to be addressed is that fact that bonus driven workers are paid to take a risk free punt. New plans to lock in bankers for several years (e.g. giving them defered shares) just annoy the staff. Some pundits have suggested that traders should bear their losses, if they have them, but if that's the case then they'd stop offering services such as market making. That would stop large corporations hedging their risks in things such as currencies and interest rates. And many traders would be better off in trading arcades where they don't have to deal with shitty clients.

An economist was saying that the world is about to have another bubble due to the high asset prices. Despite record unemployment in the US, asset prices are rising across the board.

I'm not sure what the solution to all this is. If prices crash, I should make good cash at work. But taxes will go up. And I don't really want to pay higher taxes, as I'm not one of the cunts that either sold or took out large loans. I guess I'll just continue to be lazy and take things easy. If I earn too much my taxes will just go to cover the mistakes of others.

A Reason to Vote For the Evil Tories

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8263284.stm

I went to a poker tourney on Monday.

Top prize was a seat in the WSOP.

However, I was bored shitless. Amd didn't like the place. So just before the first break I went all in with 89o and got knocked out. 5 minutes earlier my friend, who was chipleader, was so bored that he just got up and walked off. The dealer didn't know what to do, as the rules didn't have anything to deal with such unorthodox behaviour.

Fucking Scary

A very cool yet scary video.

Anit Black Racism Rife On The Tube

I was peacefully sitting on the tube. Reading a book about Frenchmen killing Moslems in Egypt.

I hear a baby screaming, and then a woman muttering about priority signs.

I do the London thing and try to immerse myself in my book.

The woman carries on being angry.

I look over. On tubes, there are two flipping seats next to the centre doors. A black woman was sitting on the seat furthest from the door. In the space of the other was a baby in a pushchair. Next to it was the baby's mother and one of her friends.

The black woman is trying to read her paper. And the two other women are criticising her for her bad face. The black woman points out that after they'd pointed out the priority seating sign to her, she'd moved for them. But they still criticised her bad face. Black woman asks if what they really wanted was for her to stand up so they could sit down. One of the other women tells her she should go back to where she came from. Everyone on the tube looks down into their books waiting for erruption. Another woman opposite takes a snipe asking if the mother just felt entitled to a seat.

Video about savings stuff

here

Need to watch that later as I have no sound on my work machines.

I'd fail media studies

I got 4/7 on this test:

test

Enough Reason To Vote Agsinst Labour

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8180195.stm

Harriet Harman's comments are often a good reason to vote against Labour.