Leftover Chinese goes to the Zoo and Tries to Have a Good Time

Perhaps it was the weather yesterday, but it seems like the Zoo by the lake is a depressing place for animals. Sure they light the trees up every winter so all the yuppies can teach their kids the meaning of christmas but for some reason every habitat kind of depressed me. I felt compelled to portray the zoo with the most depressing images I could find. I'm sure this place looks better in the summer...it's just that I prefer to see the captives in larger spaces.


Oh look. African Dogs in their 'natural habitat'. They all looked like they'd rather be somewhere else.


The exotic birds sure love their cages under the...uh...tropical sun.


Just like the African savanah, these giraffes sure have plenty to do.

...and my favorite:


Oh look, the seal lost the will to live!

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Leftover Chinese and the Music Overload

I haven't had much to say, but recent 2007 releases (actual release or shall we say 'pre-release') have flooded the ol' MP3 player in the past few weeks and I can't keep them straight and/or in the rotation.

I'll list what I've come across (more or less so I don't forget) with an arbitrary rating (on a scale of 11-34) and a sentence.

By no means should you take any stock in my opinions whatsoever. Who's to say what is good and what isn't good?

.LCD Soundsystem "Sound of Silver" (32) - This mildly addicting album was released the other day. I've gone back to this album at least once a week since I got it mid-winter. Definite rotation staple once you get your hands on it.

.Modest Mouse "We were dead before the ship even sank" (27) - I see that fame and possibly riches created a happy pop album.

.A Sunny Day in Glasgow "Scribble Mural Comic Journal" (28) - Despite what pitchfork tells the masses, it's not THAT great. The album features a woman who can't sing and her lack of tonal control ruins the lush electronic landscapes for me.

.Wilco "Sky Blue Sky" (29) - This one grew on me like a bad haircut that eventually turned out okay.

.Of Montreal "Hissing Fauna, You are the Destroyer" (32) - If I played the album for Nick and Will of the old Van Halen cover band, Will would make a homophobic comment and Nick would somehow work abortion into the conversation. I, however, like the album quite a bit.

.Arcade Fire "Neon Bible" (25) - In order of listens I felt: meh, meh, meh, meh, wait...this isn't awful.

.The Aliens "Astronomy for Dogs" (TBD) - I listened to this for the first time on the way to work today and at first thought they played a joke on everybody by repeating the same themes over and over again, but some of the tracks stray from the formula...and those tracks are good.

.Field Music "Tones of Town" (29) - Solid. Accessible. They don't try to shove anything down your throat, either.

.Jesu "Conqueror" (28) - This one kind of bored me. Perhaps I need to give it another chance and listen to it outside of a train.

.The National Lights "The Dead will Walk, Dear" (TBD) - Zzzzzzzzzz. I should listen to it a few more times...maybe that opinion will change to Yyyyyyyy. Get it? Har.

.Panda Bear "Person Pitch" (TBD) - I liked what I heard from a low volume at my desk...but I should give it a better listen.

.Marnie Stern "In Advance of the Broken Arm" (33) - Definitely not for the faint of heart. She shreds. She squeals. She fingertaps. She's on her way to the Steve Vai school of weirdness (but without the self-indulgence).

.EL-P "I'll Sleep when you're Dead" (28) - Amazing album but I have the leaked version that reminds me who the copy belongs to (matthew snyder) a few times on every track. I'll definitely buy this soon and move that number up into the 30's.

Holy shit that's a lot of new music to digest. We're not even into April.

. . [~] .

Leftover Chinese Takes March Madness Home



This being the state of Illinois, the network has opted not to show the alma mater's basketball competition on TV. I have to resort back to the internet while another game plays on. It's a total sports overload.

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Leftover Chinese Has some Cake, then Gets some Mail



Wooooah...a picture of me shooting video at the birthday party. As the kids get older, they get much, much louder.



So I bought a t-shirt of off Marmaduke Explained and the guy, Joe Mathlete of the band the Mathletes, offered to hand design a 3x5 index card during the 'pre-sale'. The subject could be anything you wanted. I opted for Clifford the Big Red Dog vs. Marmaduke. Thanks, Joe.

Edit: Feel free to browse the other index cards.

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Leftover Chinese and the March Madness



What happens when corporations look the other way when employees arrange tournament bracket pools using the company e-mail system (an obvious violation of company policy)? Yep...I'll kill two hours at work to watch the alma mater compete in one such basketball competition.

. . [~] .

Leftover Chinese and the Confusing Soup



I absent mindedly opened a can of Beef broth and Chicken Broth. I figured I might as well combine the two forces with the usual mushrooms, carrots, egg noodles, baby bok choy to see what happens. It was good...could have been better if I left out the grilled barbecue chicken from the other day. I'd give confusing chicken soup another shot.

. . [~] .

Leftover Chinese Enjoys the Early Hint of Spring



Warmth, burgers, brats, lasers...a good way to kick things off.

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Leftover Chinese Brings back the Fridays!

In what could turn into a 14 day break from the whole music career (following a 14 day dedication to the music career), I find myself doing things like 'watching TV,' 'hanging out with friends,' 'cooking dinner' and 'shopping.' It's strange living a 'normal' life. But...on the quick paragraphs.

--

The 'Texas Hold Them' development continued last night where I finished 'in the money.' Now allow me to change languages for a second here to lament how I finished:

I picked my spots and managed to be the huge chip leader going into the final table. When we got to the final five, I was going through huge swings but few a good river cards helped maintain the lead. Unfortunately I didn't feel confident on my Big Blinds ($10 at this point) and I stayed patient while my stack got shorter and shorter. Time was getting of the essence so the blinds were raised to $15.00. At this point, I was watching and waiting for a chance to go all-in and take somebody out. I decided to play my A-10 suited and the opponent went with the A-9 unsuited. Nothing on the flop, nothing on the turn, and the river: 9. So it goes. I took out a few poker vets and passed myself off as a "good poker player."

Let's not spoil everybody's fun with the fact that I started playing this game on New Years Eve...2006. Shhh...don't tell anybody.

--

It's much harder to keep my apartment clean when I'm home more than 90 minutes a day.

--

There was a coporate rah-rah even this week that featured "talent acts" between awards. I thought it would be painful to watch, but it was at worse tolerable. The lawyer who did a stand-up routine got a few laughs out of me and the 'house-band' comprised of employees was good enough...that is until they played snippets of songs between awards like they do in the Oscars. Now, I'm not against exit music but there's a big difference between 10 seconds and 20 seconds. When they played the theme song to the Office, I kind of died inside a little.

--

Yeah that's about it.

. . [~] .

Leftover Chinese Brushes Up

Fans of Seinfeld might remember the epsiode where George tries to listen to a text book on tape about Risk Management. Unfortunately, the guy on the tape sounds like him and he can't stand to listen to himself. In studying for a certification related to the day job, I have a chapter on the aforementioned Risk Management. My own voice in my head that reads along with the pages is actually putting me to sleep, but...since 80% of learning is teaching (i made that percentage up) I will outline the chapter on the off chance you want a brief mock-up of Managing Risk.

(The outline will show how well they organized this chapter - some of the notes are verbatim)

---
I. Risk Management

A. Risk Management
1. General Concept - Risks to people in the industry.
a. There is always the obivous risk of making mistakes, the risk of making the wrong statement, or failing to provide important information.
b. People who aren't satisfied will sue.
c. Fault must first be established.
d. Two types of damages.
- Compensatory : Compensate for monetary loss incurred.
- Punitive : Serves to punish an action.
e. Effective risk management will allow two possible outcomes: If employee acted correctly and can prove it, both types of damages will be avoided. On the other hand, if there was fault, the court may rule in favor of the plaintiff and allow for compensatory damages while punitive damages will be eliminated.

(so...the two outcomes are win...or lose)

2. Effective Risk Management - To manage risk effectively, the first and seemingly obvious step is to do everything right.
a. Be prepared for any eventuality.
b. Swift Action needed.

3. A Seven-Step Risk Management Program
a. Limit Authority for Handling Problems
b. Respond Quickly
c. Maintain a good Paper Trail
d. Transfer Risk to Experts
e. Purchase Errors and Ommissions Insurance
f. Retain Legal Counsel
g. Include Risk Management in your Continuing Education Programs.

II. Risk Shifting
A. Importance of Risk Shifting - People should avoid making statements that imply that they possess knowledge or expertise that they do not in fact possess.

B. Second Hand Information - When information is passed on from the seller, it should be made very clear that the seller said this.

C. Risk Shifting to Experts
1. Various Specialists - all parties to the transaction should freely avail themselves to the service of experts.
2. Attorneys - We need to look at attorneys as a very important group of experts toward whom risks should be shifted.
3. Home Warranties.

D. Paper Procedures for Risk Shifting
a. Let the consumers know - Necessary that consumers understand what they can expect from you.
b. A Minimum of Three Recommendations - Always recommend a minimum of three experts in a given field because otherwise you coudl be accused of having worked with one particular expert in trying to get that advice.
c. In writing - Documented proof.

III. Proving It
A. Paper Trail - The paper trail that will help a defense and will thwart the attack of adversaries is the best paper trail.

B. Paper Trail and Office Policies - Paperwork in office files will be the single most important tool in risk management.

C. Paper Trail and Listings - Whenever sellers consent to something, they should be consenting with full information.

D. Paper Trail and Disclosures - All disclosures should be in writing.

E. Paper Trail and Fair Housing - Complete paper trail should be kept listing the names, addresses, telephone numbers and races of prospects along with their requirements for housing and financial qualifications.

F. Paper Trail and Risk Shifting - This procedure should always be done in writing.

G. Witnesses - Only other way to prove a case besides documents is by having credible witnesses.
1. Interested vs. Disinterested Witnesses.
2. Careful Records + Credible Witnesses = good.

IV. Build a Sucessful Team
A. Policies and Procedures Manual - It's good business management to have a policies and procedures manual.

B. Inform your boss immediately.

C. Delegating and Limiting Authority
1. People should not be authorized to deal with problems they are not qualified to handle.
2. There should be a clear hierarchy with respect to which problems are handled by whom.

D. Continuing Education
1. First type is the one mandated by the state.
2. The other type is mandated by the company.

E. An Essential Member of the the Team: The Attorney : Working relationships with attorneys are good.
---

So I took the self-test after this chapter and scored a 100%. Some examples of questions:

[T - F] : It is unethical to shift risk to experts.
[T - F] : It is safer never to put anything in writing if you don't have to.
[T - F] : It is best not to respond too quickly because many problems go away with time.

Sometimes I wonder if they could just say: "use common sense" and save everybody's time. However, this stuff apparently needs to be taught. I hope you enjoyed this learning experience as much as I have had rehashing it!

zzzzzz

. . [~] .

Leftover Chinese Was Kidding About That

The running journal would have been just like Monday's post over and over again. You get the idea. How about some random photography of the last month or so? What a month it was.


Let's play everybody's favorite morning game: When will that train show up?


Oh Look. This online poker player amasses stacks of chips, possibly endorses Hertz car rental, and has contracted an STD of some sort. Glad this game isn't in real life.


Bong....bong.....bong....bong.....


Take a listen/wanna give it a listen?/try it again.


Drumline


Show 1


Show 2

Not pictured: Two weeks of a really bad diet; Snow; Being home and awake an hour 90 minutes a day on average; Slush; That one time I didn't vote for the Mayor (shhhh); Finally being able to take a break.

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