Reflect on the value of ‘brand’ by taking a look at a couple of products. Here’s a Spiderman playtent for kids on amazon, $30. Here’s a Dora the Explorer playtentfor kids on Amazon, $119. They’re the same product, by the same manufacturer, just with different paintjobs.

!!!

Sucks to be the product manager for spiderman these days, I guess, despite having a series of hit movies.

From a New York Times op-ed piece comes this gem:

My mom and dad came to visit for Thanksgiving and spent a couple of days hanging out at my place. We had a great time. For the first time in about 10 years, I cooked the thanksgiving meal. I experimented and brined the turkey, which worked out great. We also went out to eat and wander around a bit in Northampton, the local touristy town, and toured the area including 4 of the 5 local college campuses because they were both interested in them. The weather was brisk which inhibited our exploring a bit, but all in all we had a good time. Anyway, here’s a picture of them just as they were leaving:

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Have some tasty spam fajitas, we think you’ll like them! That was a text ad above my gmail email box today, which I only noticed because I was looking to hit the ‘report spam’ button and right about it, it said spam. Threw me for a loop, then made me laugh. And yeah, that’s a real recipe for fajitas made with spam. Feel free to try it and report back on how they are – me, I’m staying far away.

Just a brief mention that today saw the first snowfall of the year, and it’s sticking, an inch so far with a bit more to come. This has come much earlier this year than last year, when we were still seeing daytime temps in the 50’s into mid-December. It’s also unusual in that I saw not a flake of snow until today when it’s sticking. Usually come winter I’d see a number of flurries and brief spats of weather before we got our first real storm – this is the first year I can recall where the first snow of the year was sticking to the ground.

Dollar in collapse, and the first tangible effect is…not enough hops in my beer?!? Turns out the combination of a poor hop harvest and lower US dollar means many US microbrews are having to change their recipes because they can’t secure enough hops. Oh the tragedy! I’m wondering what my favorite US IPA, Dale’s Pale Ale, will taste like this time next year. Details to be found in the CBC article in the first link.

..we’re fucked. Seriously, seriously fucked. If you haven’t been paying attention, the dollar is in collapse versus foreign currencies, and all signs point to further collapse this Wednesday when it is widely expected that the fed will again lower interest rates. My favorite quote that sums this up quite nicely, from a recent thread on metafilter.com:

The fundamental problem is that we owe, in every level of the economy, far more than we can pay, and that debt is denominated in dollars. We can either have a deflationary debt collapse, or, eventually, a hyperinflationary collapse. The second approach causes much more total damage over a much longer period, but in any given month, it looks less painful, so that’s what we’ll opt for.

And that’s what we have opted for. Apparently the only remaining variable is when hyperinflation kicks in, and I’ve seen charts that suggest nothing will stop it from coming in the next 12 months, roughly, though I have zero idea how accurate they are. What the consequences are beyond that I cannot say. Collapse in housing prices? Check. Collapse in the credit markets? Check. Apocalyptic collapse of the US economy not seen since the great depression? I have no idea. Some credible folks think it likely, like the head of the IMF and Alan Greenspan, the former head of the fed.

Who was it that said they’d rather not live in interesting times? Lately I’m feeling like I agree with that guy .

Please make it stop!

That’s your laugh of the day, courtesy of an email sent to me at work where I monitor the webmaster@ email address. It was from a former student who’s just about to finish grad school, is hunting for a job, and discovered that the number 1 result in a certain famous search engine when searching for his name was an article published by a student run publication as part of an April fools issue that satirized steroid munching student athletes and the effects on their testicle size. While I feel for the guy, I also couldn’t help getting a laugh out of it.

Last weekend I hiked Mount Colden, in the High Peaks region of the Adirondacks, just south of Lake Placid. I finally got a chance to post all the photos online, which you can checkout here:

http://www.metamusing.net/gallery/v/other-adirondak-hikes/mount_colden/

A few samples of my favorite images from the trip to encourage folks to click the link:

Soolin and I at Marcy Dam:

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A view from the summit of Mount Colden

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Hiking mountains can wear a dog out

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