Anachostic

It's actually kind of pathetic, really.  My life has primarily become about food.  There was on old stand-up routine where a comic was pointing out how different people gave directions.  The religious guy would say things like "Go past the catholic church until you get to the methodist church.  Then turn left one block past the bible store."  The fat guy would say "Go down Main street and you'll see a gym on your left.  You want to keep going right past that.  Don't even slow down.  You'll drive past a Pizza hut, Burger King, and when you get to the Wendy's, which has great food, slow down.  You'll see the place on your left."  Well, that has become me.  All my reference points are restaurants.  I know where to find the food I like in every location I frequent.  I know where most Longhorns are in about a 100 mile radius.  Geez.

So, how did this happen to me?  Simple.  That's my hobby.  If you ask, I also know where most pawn shops are in a hundred mile radius.  When eating alone, it's usually easier and arguably cheaper to eat out.  So, I visit the same places many times, in many different places.  Like my white-collar/blue-collar post, I look for these landmarks when I am in a new locale.

I take a bit of flack for eating the same things over and over.  I can count the number of entrees I eat on my fingers; it's pretty limited.  But my viewpoint is that it's not the same meal.  Eating a burger at Chili's for lunch and a burger at McD's for dinner are different.  They taste different.  That's my variety.  And I can identify the differences between all burgers that I eat, the fries I eat (including the texture of the salt), and the syrup/water/CO2 mixture of the Coke per location.  I've been on the fence for a very long time as to whether it's a good or bad thing to have the server ask "the usual?"  It depends on my mood whether I get annoyed or not.  Also, I'm not sure about getting personal with the staff.  That makes me feel like I'm paying for attention.  Whenever money is involved, I don't believe in sincerity.

Lately, our area has seen a compression of eating locations.  Within the last few months we lost: Roadhouse, Sam Seltzers, Lone Star, Bennigan's, Don Pablo's, Steak and Ale and Ruby Tuesday.  I guess the economy has hit the casual dining market hard, but then again, I never visited these places often (except Roadhouse), so maybe it's my fault too.  I guess I can't save the world, one restaurant at a time.

Now I lay me down to sleep

Whatever happens is fine with me

If I should die before I wake

Whatever.  Fuck it.  I don't give a shit.

Got one of the common letters in the mail, "Important Information Enclosed: Privacy Notification".  Now why is it when I see one of these, the first thing I think of is "Important Information Enclosed: We are reducing your level of privacy".  Would I ever see a privacy policy change that is actually more restrictive?  Here's a quick summary of the privacy policy I got:

• Is my information shared within your family of companies?  YES.
• Is my information shared with financial companies outside your family of companies? YES.
• Is my information shared with non-financial companies outside your family of companies?  YES.

Well, that covers just about everyone.  I guess there's no privileged information anymore.  Wait, there's one more.

• Is my information shared in any other ways?  YES.

Oh, ok.  The notice provides some examples of some ways they would share info, but the only thing that limits this is the phrase "as required or permitted by law".  Well, that covers just about everything.  In fact, this phrase is in the notice: "even if you tell us not to share, we may do so as required or permitted by law."  So technically, if law permits it, we'll share your info regardless of what you tell us.  Another little twist is that your choice of what to exclude is limiting. Think "You are being attacked by three monsters and you have one bullet.  Which one do you want to shoot?  Remember, even if you kill one, it may reanimate and attack you again, as required or permitted by law."  That's what you get.

I haven't ever been a big privacy nut.  I don't really do anything that I think anyone cares about.  And if I do things and am included in an aggregate, I care even less.  But this is about garbage.  Garbage sent to my home, garbage in my email (that's a hopeless cause anyway), and uninvited phone calls.  My use of a company's services makes my personal information their property that they can sell at will.  I wonder when this happened.

This kind of crap extends to virtual businesses.  How is an Internet site valued when it provides a free service?  By the number of users it has.  With a quick sale, a change of ownership and a flip of a switch, all those users can be bombarded with advertising.  The thought that we are being farmed, bred, or fed for eventual sale and slaughter is pretty sickening.

One last note.  The formal letter introducing the privacy policy has the incredulous statement: "Your privacy concerns are important to us, and protecting your personal information is one of our top priorities."  An absolute lie if I've ever seen one.

Part of The American Dream is supposed to be owning your own home.  I am a homeowner and was a long-time renter.  Recently, I noticed a chart in MS Money that made me take notice.  It was the "Net Worth Over Time" chart.

Can you tell when I became a homeowner?  It was February 2007.  The beginning of a steady climb in my net worth.  Prior to this, I was a renter, and the chart shows, my net worth growth was pretty stagnant.  Sure it went up as I put more in my retirement accounts and paid down debt, but not like the climb after becoming a homeowner.

Some argue that the expenses of owning a home outweigh the benefits, since rent covers all housing expenses.  As the chart shows, even with the expenses of a house, the value still grows.  This is equity.  When you buy a house, you have a property worth $x.xx, but you have a loan worth $x.xx, too.  It's net zero.  Current housing conditions aside, as you pay down the loan, one side of the equation goes down, and one remains constant.  Whereas when you rent, you have property of $0.00 and a loan of $0.00.  As you pay your rent, neither side changes (for you.  It does for the rental property owner). You remain at zero.

I just thought I'd make a small post to say that this small visual reminder showed the value of home ownership to me.

I'm going to try and scan a lot of my CD covers for albums that aren't easily found through the general sources.  Not surprisingly, I have a few albums that don't appear to exist anymore and have been forgotten to time.

A lot of my MCA Master Series CDs are not represented, so those are available.  You can get them in my public SkyDrive folder:

Hopefully this helps someone out there who is looking for this album art.