Disqus - Latest Comments for guinness416

Re: How to Avoid Excessive Airline Fees While Traveling

guinness416 — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:54:58 -0000

You might like this story from Ireland a few months ago flexo.

Re: The AVC Reader Census

guinness416 — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 11:21:14 -0000

Thanks for completing the census! Your most uncommon answers were:

* Wear makeup everyday
* Prefer dramatic novels
* Know 4 or more languages
* Female

It's a boyzone 'round here!

Re: linklings, passion, pongo and the end of the world edition

guinness416 — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 15:44:39 -0000

Re perefect job I like that you're posting these musings/asking these questions .... Please do write a separate post on it! My bloggiest wish is that you and the FMF guy would hook up and write a career blog I think it would be amazing.

Given that the dad-pays-for-daughter's-wedding thing is so rare already I expect it'll be truly dead and gone by the time your kid is at that stage; especially as by then one would hope that she'll be earning the equivalent of your son (possibly more if some of the m-f grad rates in non engineering disciplines hold true!). For my family's part we don't talk about such things but I would hope my folks are helping my sister out much more than me and my brother, who need basically no (financial) assistance. In my husband's family it's more about which siblings are supporting the parents which is a whole other story.

Jeremy's toilet stall anecdote is funny .... I recently took a work trip with a colleague who spent the whole drive (she was driving) sending emails. She's quite practiced at it, her sites being pretty far from the office, but it's dangerous as hell. Of course in her mind, and toilet guy's mind, it's probably may as well do it now or I'll just have to stay late looking after these notes.

Re: everyone is special and unique just the way they are

guinness416 — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:06:56 -0000

<<Your attempt at building self-esteem is going to implode when these kids realize, as adults staring at the clock in the cubicle at 4:52 pm, that all of the bubbly anthems declaring that “everyone is special” were a lie>>

is henceforth my default message for cards at baby showers.

Re: side effects of transparency

guinness416 — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:02:37 -0000

Not sure at what point one would run out of content but "The Atheist Dollar" actually sounds like a great blog idea ....

Re: lack of communication, or stupidity?

guinness416 — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 07:34:39 -0000

Weird story. I would think you'd have to be on cloud nine to not even to know the ballpark figure but, like you say, people amaze. Wonder why she was listening to Ramsey to start with? Mind you, I've read a couple of blog posts along the lines of "I'm putting together a folder of account numbers in case I die because spouse doesn't know any of them" and wonder why those are necessary too.

Re: linklings, labor day in Florida edition

guinness416 — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:06:53 -0000

Always nice to have a choice! If you go for the finished one, make sure you won't be redecorating soon anyway, for taste or to correct skin deep flip renovation.

I've found reading zenhabits less interesting or rewarding for me the the further into his own "freedom" he gets. As an ex montessori kid, I'm mildly sympathetic to his beliefs (although would have been nice to see some actual stats to back his opinions up, not to mention some recognition that it ain't possible for everyone) but the constant contempt for the corporate worker in some of these blogs is tiresome. He'd be called on it if he were running down bricklayers or something. ZH sure has quite the amen chorus though.

Re: Tweetbacks and More From Disqus

guinness416 — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 10:43:42 -0000

I also detest the popups, FWIW.

Re: linklings, rush hour 11 edition

guinness416 — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 20:03:27 -0000

Wow, that Onion article is pretty dark. And not remotely funny at all. Very odd. But the good news is that it's just one of eleventy billion posts on a very all-the-rage-in-1999 website. The prop 8 stuff is more upsetting for being real life.

Re: heading to the feds

guinness416 — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 16:15:19 -0000

I have an economist brother who works for the govt. We all thought he was mad not to take the offers from the investment banks ... back then.

I would personally have a lot of trouble with the atmosphere I see in govt offices though - they seem to lack any flexibility or humour, and all that red tape .... The small firm I work for has doubled in size since I got here three yrs ago, and the commensurate changes are already starting to chafe. I think the stress of dealing with a by the book employee handbook would kill me quicker.

Re: the big social media post

guinness416 — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 13:52:58 -0000

delicious is the only one I'd be really gutted to lose. It's fantastic in many ways. Twitter is kind of fun, and I love flickr too, of course, for staying in touch with family. Other than that, I have abandoned and semi-used accounts littering a lot of the others.

Re: what has changed in personal finance?

guinness416 — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 08:54:05 -0000

Interesting discussion on that very issue over at mefi, plonkee (I'm jamesonandwater over there):

http://ask.metafilter.com/106108/America-love-i...

Re: what has changed in personal finance?

guinness416 — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 08:52:22 -0000

Heh, "like the whole country had won the world series" is a great description of the images I saw on tv. FWIW, there was a fair amount of dancing up here too (and TO has actually won the series more recently than some of the yank teams!).

I wish more of your fellow bloggahs accepted the interrelated thing, brip blap.

Re: I know I shouldn’t be happy to get laid off, but…

guinness416 — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 11:45:41 -0000

The combination of only reading the first line of this post's title and the image confused the hell out of me.

A layoff can definitely force you to make positive decisions and lead to something better. Certainly my hubby losing the original job he had here in TO was a good thing, in hindsight. Glad you're taking getting "let go" in stride Steve, onwards and upwards!

Re: linklings, election countdown edition

guinness416 — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 09:19:42 -0000

I'd give almost anything to get that close to a tiger cub. Lucky Vlad.

Re: Glenn Beck’s emails

guinness416 — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 09:18:15 -0000

And Ritholtz of course, here's an interesting post/link/comments from March 2007:

http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2007/03/...

Re: Glenn Beck’s emails

guinness416 — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 13:53:49 -0000

Where'd you dig these up, Steve? Nice find and an interesting read. (I don't get US cable news since moving north so often miss out on these sort of characters .... the third email is indeed comedy gold, but it's in the second one that he manages to work in the ACLU and unilateral Israeli invsion of Iran. Impressive!)

I've read a lot of posts and op-eds summarizing major media summaries on the crisis, which is interesting enough if well written, but do you know if anyone has compiled or otherwise reported on those who foresaw and critiqued this stuff earlier on? Before the relatively recent WSJ op-eds started being published?

Re: once in a lifetime

guinness416 — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 08:34:16 -0000

I was looking for King Crimson's "Elephant Talk" to post as a response here in the comments, and noticed it has been deleted from youtube due to copyright claims and now I am starting my day sad :(

Re: how to make millions, now

guinness416 — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 08:55:30 -0000

You know, right after 11 Sept (when I still lived in NYC) I had to stop reading the newspapers - there was so much garbage and rumour and jingoism being reported as straight news that today it's laughable, but it was making me incredibly panicky. I was reading some of the comment threads at The Big Picture this a.m. and thinking I'm almost at that stage with stock market news now. You're right, in the case of scenario 1 what are we going to do anyway? So why give yourself heartburn over it. On the other hand, all of this doom and gloom makes me really appreciate how valuable my international woman of mystery work permits/residencies, my job and not least my husband are. So that's a positive, right?

Re: have MBAs been devalued by the crisis?

guinness416 — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 09:14:20 -0000

NY Times' freakonomics blog (I think; one of their blogs anyway) had a whole loooong comments thread essentially answering that question - if you're a finance student (or MBA student) or were planning to be one soon, have you changed your mind. It was interesting reading.

Re: frugality versus self-sufficiency

guinness416 — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 12:53:19 -0000

Yes, good post.

You can never have enough potatoes though.

Re: hazard pay

guinness416 — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 12:23:17 -0000

We get offered this a lot in my line too (mostly in backwaters of the middle east but all over - including russia and Iraq), but I've yet to work with anyone who's accepted any of the non-big-city-asia assignments. I somehow think the experience wouldn't be entirely suitable for a short blonde woman, anyhoo.

But an immediate relative of mine has built power plants in some of the hairiest parts of the world over the course of a 30 year career and loves it. He bounces from one crazy locale to the other - but I don't believe it's necessarily for the cash. My relative and his pals live well in terms of experience between contracts (beachside rentals, attending pro sporting events, drinking expensive whiskey) but aren't materialistic and don't have families to support. They love the locations, the work, the stories, the male-bonding. To sustain this I think you have to be built for it rather than just money hungry - in addition to being a talented engineer he's a long-bearded, cowboy-booted, chain-smoking, heavy-drinking hard man; cushy corporate life in Ireland or N.America would probably kill him.

Re: even my barber

guinness416 — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 08:56:01 -0000

Heh. I worked at the most exclusive country club in Greenwich, CT for a summer (my husband worked - and lived - there throughout college). One where all the Steve Forbses and Bushes and old money and hedge fund big-shots are members or come as guests. The Mexican locker room guys were always whispering excitedly about investing tips they got or inside information they overheard.

None of them profited much from it.

Re: 10 reasons to be a good neighbor

guinness416 — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 10:28:35 -0000

We met and keep up with most of our neighbours through my husband's evening cigarettes (and my keeping him company with a cuppa tea) on the porch. For some reason we're on the last street in north america where everyone still smokes and whatever about anything else it's a good social habit. Neighbours were the last thing on our mind when we bought our current place (coming off years of apartment living in NYC, where you barely recognize the people on the same floor as you) but we really lucked out in moving onto a street full of great people. Our neighbours are a mixed bag to put it mildly in terms of age, income and family structure which is nice. My husband the IT guy fixes their computers, and the plumber and labourer nearby help us with construction. Different neighbours take in our mail when we're away, have us over for barbecues, lend us their lawnmower/snowblower and are generally good friends to us in many ways. We don't live in the most desirable part of TO but I'd be reluctant to leave even if a perfect house in a better street opened up to us. It's great.

Re: holding hands, and stupidity

guinness416 — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 10:59:50 -0000

I'll admit it (because nobody else probably will), but I hate homophobes and in particular racists/xenophobes, and those who would advocate for laws and attitudes that have that xenophobic or homphobic tinge to them. Especially the smarter and more mealy-mouthed ones. I've no interest in understanding their backgrounds or reasoning. It's pretty easy in those ultra"liberal" urbanite circles I've always moved in but does take a lot of energy and emotion that could be better directed elsewhere. Like the red sox for instance.