Savings Account

I opened an account with ING Direct on Tuesday night. I got a little flyer thing from picking up the notecards in Calhoun's class. He was providing them for all of his students. The deal was that if you open an account, they will put $25 in it. Not bad...especially considering that it pays a risk-free 4% interest rate. I guess the catch is that it's an online bank and you can't walk into a branch and take your cash out. Instead, you must transfer it to a "linked" checking account; such a process could take a few days. Neil suggests that it's better to have a savings account set up that way because then you can't just get money out right when you want it (and end up blowing it on trivial stuff).

I ganked a flyer for Neil too. He thinks he's going to open an account up. I don't know how they're hooking people up with $25. Sounds good to me. I did read the fine print, and it's cool. There are no fees. Ever. No minimum balance. Seems perfect.

I plan to use it as a pure savings account, as opposed to my "savings account" that I currently have that just serves as a holding tank for money I'm going to pay bills with. Who knows what this money will eventually be used for? I would like to be able to set aside about 5% of my income or better for this thing.

Disclaimer: economics follow.

I wonder what that says about my intertemporal elasticity of consumption. Imagine an Euler equation that's not done one period after the other (forget about a dynamic program). My marginal utility of consumption for the cash I deposit every period must be equal to its present discounted value at every future period. When I withdraw the money, t periods in the future, you have beta^t times {that period's (marginal utility of consumption)...how the fuck am I going to know what that will be??? times (accrued compound interest on the period's deposit + the deposit itself)}.

You want a distortion? Figure out how much tax I'm going to have to pay on the interest. Does that make me less likely to hold this position? Well, my money could instead go to: pay bills, buy fun stuff, other savings accounts, CDs, stocks, bonds, foreign currency...some of that stuff yields at a known rate and others at a stochastic one. Different taxes for different holdings.

I think that the biggest reason to make this choice is that I get utility from knowing that it's there. I've been wanting a pure savings account for a while. Maybe I'll get utility from making a deposit, knowing that it will grow over time, or that I'm able to get by today without using all my income (I don't think I'd spend all my cash holdings every period).

Enough of that. If you want a promo code, let me know and I'll see if Calhoun can hook one up.

Flickering Flames from my Fantastic Fireplace

I had my chimney swept last Friday and have since had 2 fires with those artificial logs. They sure make things easy. 10 seconds to get the fire going. 4 hours later, they're burned out and don't leave much ash. My first fire was on Friday night. It made me happy inside. So far, I haven't felt much heat coming out of my fireplace. I don't know if it's designed like that or if I'm doing something wrong (no, the doors weren't shut) or what.

I had one on Monday night because I thought that it might help me get work done. I sat on the couch in front of the fireplace and did economics on TV tables. It actually did help, even though I had to take breaks where I turned out all the lights and watched the glow of the blaze dance around my living room.


I think I might buy some firewood from a local guy. I hear that it's pretty cheap. Kind of strange how I used to think the idea of buying firewood was absurd...but now, I can't chop down any of the trees in my yard. And I don't have a truck to haul off some good forest wood. I hear that you're supposed to "age" the wood anyway.

I want some wood that burns different colors. Have some green flames. And purple. Along with the standard blue/yellow/orange.

I wonder if chicks would totally dig some sweet music playing in the background while having some wine (or other drinks) in front of the fire. Maybe I could capitalize on this thing. But in a romantic way, not in a creepy one.

Pick of the Week

If you went to college with me, then you probably know about how I loved to share music on the network. I can't do that anymore since my network consists of all the computers hooked up in my house (and the laptops getting wireless). I decided that I would like to sort of keep a weekly suggestion going for all of you who look to me to provide you with good music.

Here's the deal: each week, I will pick a song that I like and recommend that you start to like it also. I don't know if I'll be able to post it anywhere so that you can download it, like I used to, but I could email it if you can't find it anywhere.

A selection criterion is that I cannot pick a song by an artist that is previously listed.
Disclaimer: just because I pick a song does not mean that it is my favorite by that artist. For example, my favorite AFI song is "Days of the Phoenix," but "Totalimmortal" was thematically selected during the week of Halloween.

I'm going to start with: Sergio Mendes featuring the Black Eyed Peas remixing his samba song "Mas que nada" It's off Sergio's Timeless album. It's pretty good at making you move, but it does get old after the 10th time you play it. But by that time, you should be looking for next week's recommendation.

Just to bring you up to date, here's an almost exhaustive list of my previous picks:

2005-2006
Ben Folds - The Luckiest
Ben Harper - Diamonds on the Inside
Days Away - That's What She Tells Me
Driving Blind - Crown
Hot Rod Circuit - Let's Go Home
Midtown - No Place Feels Like Home
Outkast - Rosa Parks, album version and Remix
Yo La Tengo - Return to Hot Chicken
Youngbloodz - Damn (aka the Martin J Sweet song)

2004-5
Badly Drawn Boy - Something to Talk About
Beautiful Mistake - Light a Match
Belle & Sebastain - Get Me Away From Here, I'm Dying
Big Sky - Slow
Bluntside - In Loving Memory
Boy Sets Fire - Full Color Guilt
Counting Crows - Holiday in Spain
Diana Krall - Frim Fram Sauce
Dispatch - Elias
Fabolous - One Day
Foo Fighters - Up in Arms
Fran Perea - 1 más 1 son 7
Hawthorne Heights - Silver Bullet
Hey Mercedes - The Frowning of a Lifetime
Less Than Jake - Hell Looka A Lot Like L.A.
Lola Ray - She's a Tiger
Millencolin - Hellman
Northstar - Is This Thing Loaded?
Orbit - Rockets
O-Zone - Dragostela Din Tei
Radish - Simple Sincerity
Semisonic - This Will Be My Year
Stéphane Pompougnac - Clumsy (Feat. Michael Stipe)
Sublime - Scarlet Begonias
The Curve - Ride
The Decemberists - July, July!
The Streets - Has It Come To This
Vast - What Else Do I Need

2003-4
AFI - Totalimmortal
Allister - Jacob Thinks I'm Gay
Beethoven - Romance No.2 in F Major
Before Braille - a cinema spine
Better Than Ezra - Porcelain
Blink 182 - Wasting Time
Café Tacuba - Come Te Extraño Mi Amor
Coheed and Cambria - Devil in Jersey City
Dan Mackenzie - Hide Away
Fountains of Wayne - Please Don't Rock Me Tonight
Guided by Voices - Chasing Heather Crazy
Juliana Theory - Understand the Dream is Over
Lit - Over My Head
Marvelous 3 - Let Me Go
Mest - Chance of a Lifetime
Nada Surf - Inside of Love
Relient K - 17 Magazine
Sloppy Meateaters - Give Me Something
Story of the Year - Sidewalks
Stroke 9 - Washin' and Wonderin'
The Early November - I want to hear you sad
The New Amsterdams - All Ears
Vroom - Charleston

Fire in the Kitchen!

I had a great idea for breakfast. Well, it was more like lunch today considering that I had class at 10am on a Sunday!...Moving on, I had an idea bout a week ago to make my own hash browns by grating a potato on a cheese grater then frying it. I made one batch and it was so awesome that I decided to go for round 2. I called my house to tell them how good this was, and ended up talking to my brother. While on the phone with him and grating my second potato, I left the hot grease on the stove because I was about to dump more stuff in there to fry. Something happened, and I heard that :::whoomp::: sound that happens when a fire first starts. So I looked behind me and saw 18 inch flames coming out of the frying pan. I said to my brother in a very calm voice "oh, shit, there's a fire in my kitchen." He thought I was messing with him because I sounded so calm. I thought "hmm, if I use the fire extinguisher, I'll have to buy another...let's get some baking soda from under the cabinet." I told my brother "hey, I'm gonna have to put you down for a minute, be right back." I opened a new box of baking soda (remember, water is a BAD idea to try to put out grease fires) and dumped about half of it into the pan.

Right about this time, my smoke detector goes off. Now, come to think of it, my LIFE SAFETY smoke didn't go off (the ones that you're required to have outside of the bedrooms), but my PRO-TECH (tied into the security system) smoke detector went off. So my alarm goes off. So my siren starts blaring. So I turn off the alarm. But then I'm thinking "crap...they're going to call the fire department, etc." But the monitoring people called me and I told them that everything is under control.

I guess I've always wanted to try that baking soda thing to see if it really could put out the fire. It can! That whole thing sure did make a mess though. I had baking soda all over the counter and stovetop, the pan is charred on the inside, but I think it will wash out with some steel wool and elbow grease. Thankfully, nobody/nothing got hurt.

My brother thanked me for the story that he's going to tell at school tomorrow.

Sleeping by Yourself...

...at night can make you feel alone. - Sublime.

I think that Bradley &c. are correct in their assessment. You know what else? The awareness of loneliness has become worse now that it's cold. I was used to sleeping next to a human space-heater. Now I just have to put on another blanket. Every time that happens, I remember that I used to be able to just hold her a little tighter to quell the cold.

I guess sleeping solo didn't bother me much at first, after the break-up. I went home, and I never sleep with anybody when I'm there anyway. Besides, I have a twin bed (but that's the size I was used to sharing). Now I have a queen size and its vast void all around me produces an aweful, lonely sensation. At least I don't feel like the monsters under my bed are keeping me company.

I was thinking that it would be cool to get some chick to come to my house and sleep with me at nights. But I don't think that anyone in their right mind would come over every night JUST to sleep. Furthermore, I'm not sure that sleeping with somebody who has that that sort of relationship with me would make me feel any better. Maybe the comfort of sharing a bed comes not from just having a body next to you in the bed, but rather sharing it with somebody who cares about you, even if they're only a friend. Note: it doesn't count if it's freezing outside, you're sleeping in a plywood bed with a quarter inch of dirt in it, still dressed in all your day-time clothes, and there's a limited supply of non-dirt-floor space to sleep on.

Dos cuerpos

Dos cuerpos frente a frente
son a veces dos olas
y la noche océano.

Dos cuerpos frente a frente
son a veces dos piedras
y la noche desierto.

Dos cuerpos frente a frente
son a veces raíces
en la noche enlazadas.

Dos cuerpos frente a frente
son a veces navajas
y la noche relámapgo.

Dos cuerpos frente a frente
son dos astros que caen
en un cielo vacío.

-Octavio Paz
de la colección Libertad bajo palabra (1960)

Abbey

Snapshot of my doggie. She's not been able to live with me while I'm at school, but I still like seeing her when I go home. I think she's everyone's favorite member of the family.