…then the plane turned in the right direction, and I’m on my way home.
Ironically, this isn’t the first time I’ve been in the air today; I went pseudo-skydiving this morning. Indoors. There’s this place that took a wind tunnel, stuck it on its end, and you lie on top of it. Brings literal meaning to the joke that the only way to save money in Vegas is that once you get off the plane, you walk straight into the propellors. If you get a chance, go try the folks at Flyaway a shot.
I’m skipping the in-flight movie listening; somehow I suspect The Dukes of Hazzard might be better with the sound off.
Maybe I’m just a tad overdosed on the country thing. The rodeo was just coming to town as I was leaving, which explains why every casino has someone like Lee Ann Rimes and Jo Dee Messina booked this week. Between all the people walking around with cowboy hats combined with Christmas music in desert heat, Vegas seemed even a bit more surreal than usual.
Other than that, not too bad. Got a hour of seven card stud in before the flight (the one in the plane), was up, was down, got even, and was down a bit when time interfered. Busted out two guys at the table during my short time, so I’m reasonably confident I would have gotten well ahead again had scheduling permitted. Next time. All in all, I broke even on the trip.
As for the other gambling activities, it looks real good. I’m looking forward to seeing it in full action. I also have a few other projects that I need to tweak. Mwah-hah-hah.
So let’s see, what’s next? Editing the RPG, shipping out a LOT of comic books (and getting ready for a few new collections to go along with it) and watching a lot of episodes of The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and Countdown.
So, what did I miss while I was gone? Let’s see what’s in the News Queue…
Hmm. Adobe acquiring Macromedia. One stop shopping– although one wonders if this will be the death of Freehand, again.
In an op-ed today, he tries to debunk the success of the Toyota Prius by noting that, like other vehicles, it doesn’t always get the amount of milage that the manufacturer advertises; that it runs in part on gas; that buyers won’t recoup the higher costs of the Prius in saved gasoline; and so on. All of which is obvious.
People don’t buy the Prius because it will save them money on gas. They buy it because it enables them to drive while using less gas. What’s more, people think the car is cool because it runs in part on electricity, which means it doesn’t make noise, waste gas, or emit noxious fumes while it is idling. (Would that the same could be said of Jenkins’s colleagues.) As I’ve noted before, the Prius is less likely to eat up drivers’ time and money by requiring trips to the repair shop. The economic, cultural, and psychological case for the Prius and other hybrids revolves around much more than gas milage and simplistic calculations about the cost of gas.
On the other hand, it’s not surprising that Jenkins has a tough time wrapping his mind about market success. By now, he must be something of a connoisseur of market failure. In recent years, the WSJ editorial page has seen its programming fail to catch on in the competitive marketplace of television–twice. The print version of the Wall Street Journal is failing to turn a profit consistently in the competitive marketplace of newspapers because it can’t attract enough advertising. And I’m guessing the op-ed page is a net drain on the paper’s cash. (Jenkins’ column today runs above a cheesy ad for $160 fake diamonds such as one might expect to see in the New York Post.) Finally, Dow Jones management, without whose sponsorhip the editorial page wouldn’t exist in its current form, has for years failed in the ultimate marketplace: the stock market.
I prefer John Rogers’ take on it: How screwed up of a culture do we have to be in when it costs nothing more to do the right thing, and we still won’t do it?
Americablog: Vatican: 9-11 Martyr Fr. Mychal Judge Unfit To Be A Priest:
Oh, they’ll deny it because the brave and stirring image of Fr. Mychal Judge sacrificing his life to provide the sacraments to dying firemen and cops is about the only good news the Catholic Church has enjoyed in the past five years. But the Catholic Church’s scapegoating witchhunt to root out gays is a direct slap in the face to the memory of Father Mychal.
Via Steve Gilliard comes this disturbing question:
How the hell are we going to get out of Iraq?
Costly Withdrawal Is the Price To Be Paid for a Foolish War
November 25, 2005
The number of American casualties in Iraq is now well more than 2,000, and there is no end in sight. Some two-thirds of Americans, according to the polls, believe the war to have been a mistake. And congressional elections are just around the corner.
What had to come, has come. The question is no longer if American forces will be withdrawn, but how soon — and at what cost. In this respect, as in so many others, the obvious parallel to Iraq is Vietnam.
Confronted by a demoralized army on the battlefield and by growing opposition at home, in 1969 the Nixon administration started withdrawing most of its troops in order to facilitate what it called the “Vietnamization” of the country. The rest of America’s forces were pulled out after Secretary of State Henry Kissinger negotiated a “peace settlement” with Hanoi. As the troops withdrew, they left most of their equipment to the Army of the Republic of South Vietnam — which just two years later, after the fall of Saigon, lost all of it to the communists.
Clearly this is not a pleasant model to follow, but no other alternative appears in sight.
They’re telling us to turn off the electronics, so I’m going to end this here and post when I get a connection.