Stocks take a turn for the worse as investors scoff at the Fed’s decision to step in yet again, this time adding $3 bln in temporary reserves. At $35 bln (the sum of the first two repos), the Fed had already stepped in more aggressively than its actions following the 9/11 attacks to calm a nervous market.

Since a third injection is unprecedented, as such infusions typically only occur during a crisis, investors are again left wondering just how bad the subprime situation is and questioning whether or not an emergency rate cut would even be enough to avert a possible true credit crunch.

I’ve seen Jim Cramer go asplodey before, and mostly I just generally find him entertaining rather than taking his advice seriously at all, but he really went AWOL on CNBC about this same issue recently.

My assessors evaluation this year showed that my place has lost value, homes in the area are now selling for about 10-15% less than I paid four years ago, and many houses have gone to into foreclosure in this area. I’m still waiting to see what prices the homes that recently sold in a foreclosure auction went for wondering how much they will bring the value of my place down. I do somewhat regret buying a place when I was so young, but maybe it’s better in the long run to learn this lesson on a relatively inexpensive piece of property with a standard 30 year loan.

Early Sunday afternoon I started looking around on the interwebs about buying a Wii just for the hell of it. I found a couple of sites which tracked where you could by them online via RSS but I didn’t bookmark them. I’d read somewhere that you can sometimes come across them on Sunday’s because for whatever reason that’s when retailers have been putting them out lately, so I started calling around to see if they had any:

Super Target: “We won’t have a shipment of them for at least a couple of weeks. Even then it’s only a few”
Game Crazy: “No idea when we’ll get another shipment. Just try calling every few days, but it might be a few weeks.”
WalMart: “We had 5 in stock this morning, and I don’t think anyone has bought any yet.”

Wait. Woah, wtf, they have them in stock? I’d just got done selling a bunch of stuff on Craigslist and decided it would be my only chance in quite awhile to get one, so Linz and I hurried down there.

Me: “Hey, I called earlier and someone said you have Wii’s in stock?”
Walmart Lady: (lights up) “Yep, we do. Would you like me to go to the back and get you one?”
Me: “Yep!”

It was kind of crazy– since they weren’t out on the floor no one would have even known they were there. As it turns-out, I just got randomly lucky. Apparently they have been getting about 5 per week, which they usually put up for sale at midnight on Saturday. This past Saturday someone new was working and had no idea about this, so a bunch people came to buy them around that time and he told everyone that they didn’t have any.

As I was buying mine someone else was getting one as well, and you could tell a couple of other people were thinking about it too just because they had them in stock. The WalMart employee (an older woman) was actually all excited about it and it was because she had a Wii as well and got a kick out of someone finally discovering they had them in stock. She gave me a couple of good pointers on games to pick and what accessories I needed (this was definitely an unexpected purchase so I didn’t already know that stuff).

You can read all about how cool it is in other places, and yeah, it’s totally a blast. Lindsey and I played Wii Sports and Wii Play the rest of the afternoon until she needed to go home. So far I’ve mostly been playing Wii Sports– I also have Trauma Center but am waiting until Wii Sports starts getting a bit boring before playing it. Not sure what games I’ll buy next, but I have my eye on several.

Something that has been in the back of my mind for quite awhile was to try out wet shaving using an old school safety razor and associated supplies. I finally got around to putting together a very basic wet shaving kit and I’m very glad I did. My kit looks something like this:

• Merkur “Hefty Classic” Safety Razor
• Vulfix #850 Pure Badger Shaving Brush
• Taylor of Old Bond Street Shaving Cream
• Proraso Shaving Soap
• Neutrogena Razor Defense Aftershave Cream
• A Pack of Assorted Razors
• A Bowl from Target

As far as creams and blades go, you’re supposed to try some different things to see what you like best which is why I have various blades and shaving cream. All of this ran me around $100 or so– the upfront cost is a bit steep, but in the long run I only pay around 50 cents per blade for the ones I’m currently using, and have samples of some that are as low as 25 cents a piece which are also supposed to be decent. The Proraso shaving soap is available at Target in the Spa section, so I really only ever need to mail order blades.

I first started wet shaving for a couple of weeks using my normal mach 3 razor just to get used to the process, and finally moved to the safety razor this week. I’m happy to report that I’ve shaved successfully without any nicks with the safety razor, and my skin seems to generally be much happier with the wet shaving. Even the fun “neck bumps” (ingrown hairs I assume?) are starting to go away. It does take a lot more time for me to shave this way, but I limit it to a few times a week in the evening. I’m also getting a much closer and longer lasting shave, and my face doesn’t feel like it’s on fire after shaving. Actually with the Proraso shaving soap it’s quite the opposite– it has glycerin menthol in it which feels nice and cool.

I’m definitely glad I made the switch, and highly recommend checking into it! I have a few links here if you’d like to research it yourself. I think the two most helpful links to pass on is this very detailed overview on how to get started with wet shaving, as well as this video series which shows you how to actually wet shave.

• I haven’t talked to my dad specifically about the whole snow situation recently, but I have heard that the counties in SE Colorado were rejected Federal Aid by FEMA. Luckily the area has finally been getting in the press from time to time, so I felt like I didn’t necessarily need to do any updates myself. I actually e-mailed a number of local papers and TV stations about getting more coverage about the story, and in one instance, I felt like I may have made a small difference. One of the people I e-mailed directly was a reporter at 9News, and I saw him on location in La Junta the following day. It was also the lead-off story on the nationally syndicated NBC Nightly News one evening. New Colorado Governor Bill Ritter also came in and did a good job with the situation taking over where outgoing Governor Bill Owens left off.
• I started a new job, and it’s great. We’ve been getting both local and national press lately, and the last one I know of is an article in the Denver Post that came out last week. It’s so nice to be in a small company again despite the crazyness of a startup, and I’m already engaged in a cool project. The commute to downtown Boulder sucks at times, but surprisingly I find that it’s cheaper to eat lunch there compared to The Barrens of Broomfield.
• As part of the new job, I decided it was time I switched to a Mac. I now have a work issued MacBook Pro which is loaded to the gills. It’s awesome. Time to sell the laptop, and hopefully get something Mac’ish at home this Summer to eradicate myself of anything Windows related…
• Farecast rocks. I signed-up long ago when it was still double secret beta or something and only served Seattle and Boston, but I just scored some round-trip tickets from Denver to Las Vegas for Lindsey and I @ $108 each. My advice– sign-up for the e-mail notifications just to make sure you check the fares a few times a day, it’s crazy how quickly they change. The RSS feeds don’t seem to work quite right yet.
• I wrote a blog entry that turned into an article which bumped out Bruce Eckel to be on the front page of the Java Developer’s Journal for a few days. We’re totally in the same league now. </sarcasm></egosurfing>

Until next time…

According to my server logs, two of the biggest fans of my Snacks On A Plane spoof are the US Department of Justice, and The Pentagon.

I also have a brother-in-law in Kansas who works for the local power company as a journeyman, and last I knew he hadn’t been home in 7 straight days. Nebraska and Kansas seemed to receive the brunt of the ice storms, while Baca County seemed to be hit the hardest by the snow.

It warmed up very nicely in Colorado Springs and Pueblo on Wednesday, so you may think that the danger is behind us for the storm battered southeastern plains.

But analysts are saying that ranchers can lose $2 billion in cattle in this storm. And that’s just the cattle industry.

Factor in collapsed buildings, people trapped in remote homes, businesses shut because they can’t get deliveries and customers can’t reach them, and a terrible disaster is looming.

Volunteers on snowmobiles, eight national guard helicopters, and even two F-16 spotter jets were involved in Wednesday’s frantic effort to save the cattle, who’ve been without food and water for a week now.

Another storm is expected to hit on Friday. The prediction is for minimal snowfall. However, wind could cause a ground blizzard, once again covering the roads that have already been plowed.

Nearly 3,000 people are still without power near Lamar and Walsh because of downed power lines caused by the storm.

However, things are looking up. Both Govenor Owens and US Senator Ken Salazar are asking that Bush declare the area a disaster area to start getting Federal assistance, and the National Guard has made it’s way down to the SE corner to help get crucial supplies in. A friend of mine that I grew-up with is in the National Guard and was actually headed back down to that area from Denver to go help with the work going on down there.

A lot of volunteers have made their way down there, including snowmobile clubs and various people trained for this sort of disaster. They’ve also got equipment from everywhere from Pueblo to the Denver International Airport helping to clear snow, and food shipments are starting to make their way there as well. All that I can really say is a big thank you to all of those who are helping out. If I felt there was something I could do other than get in the way and I wouldn’t get stuck myself, I’d head down to lend a hand.

Some updated media coverage:

• Crisis looms in snowed-in southeast Colorado – Currently the headline story for the Rocky Mountain News. Be sure to check out the slide show too.
• Race to find, feed cattle swirls across Colo. ranches
• Baca County digging out – Several good photos of Springfield CO, which is about 18 miles from my hometown of Walsh CO and is the county seat of Baca County.
• Groups scour southeastern Colorado for trapped cattle
• Situation on southeastern plains dire – Streaming video with this one.
• Ranchers Racing to Feed Livestock – More streaming video coverage here.
• Grocery Stores and Cattle Both Lacking Food

He said they received 45″ of very heavy snow there, where drifts are regularly at 6′ and in places reach up to 14′. Quite a few roofs in the area have collapsed under the weight of the snow (including the Fire Department and Nursing Home), and he’s been spending most of his time digging people out since he’s one of a few people in the town with a front-end loader. Most people who live there keep a lot of food around, but there are at least 100 people stranded there at the moment who were en route on a group ski trip, and it’s been hard to keep them with supplies as nothing in that area really keeps enough stock on hand for events like that. It also sounds like various common animals in the area are starting to die (birds, rabbits, etc.) not to mention the livestock there.

The coverage by the Denver media is pretty shitty, but I did come across a few other sources which more accurately depict the situation down there including this article. The link may or may not work because of registration crap, so I’ve copied a good bit of text out of it:

Using helicopters, snowmobiles, tractors and whatever else they could lay their hands, rescuers on Monday opened roads and ferried supplies and feed to ranchers isolated by the blizzard that buried Southeastern Colorado.

“Everybody is looking for whatever resources are available,” said Polly White, public information officer with the state Division of Emergency Management.

“Yesterday (Sunday) and the day before, Colorado National Guard Blackhawks (helicopters) were out taking people literally off the road east and west on (U.S.) 160,” White said.

She said grocery stores in Springfield in Baca County were running out of food and the Guard would try to take in supplies via Humvees.

Residents of the sparsely populated Eastern Plains counties rushed to help their neighbors in the face of 10-foot-tall drifts of snow that closed highways and rural roads.

“We are doing all we can to help each other out here,” said Helen Emick, whose family runs a cattle ranch about 28 miles south of Lamar near the Baca County line.

Emick said the only way that people are able to travel in the area is by Caterpillar tractors.

From Rescue Teams Keep Busy – Pueblo Chieftain.

Some of the Denver media coverage:

• Effort to save cattle begins
• State fears agricultural disaster
• Baca County works to rescue stranded motorists
• Food, aid may come by chopper

My dad is supposed to send me some photos soon– I’ll post them when I get them.

As for news and general life updates, I’ve really been very burnt-out on school (yet again) lately and decided to take a long break from it. It eats up all of my free time and between it and work it makes me very one dimensional. I’ll eventually go back like I always do, but I really need a break from it for awhile. I honestly struggle with whether or not I should finish. Part of me wants to take a few more of my CS theory classes and call it a day, and the other part wants to finish-up the degree and for some reason consider grad school.

I’ve started back up again on some minor projects around the house, and would finally like to start restoration/performance work on the Z in the Summer since I don’t plan on being back in school for at least a year. Lately I’ve also been poking around in Django as well as starting to browse through a Java certification book in my free time. I’ve been working in Java fairly exclusively (finally!) for a couple of months now and find myself enjoying it a lot more than doing scripting despite all of the falsehoods about how it’s “dead” now. Maybe it’s just because it’s a new tool, time will tell, but I find it actually enjoyable because of the tool support for it. That and I’m dealing with fun Computer Science problems like connection pooling and thread blocking rather than “can you make that phone red?” type boring bullshit.

Right now I’m on a needed two week break from teh works and am getting caught-up on a lot of things that I’ve been needing to get done.

Anyhow, I doubt I’ll write too many posts like this in the new blog as it keeps the stalkers a bit too informed. Not to mention, this isn’t a LiveJournal.

Oh, one other fleeting update after pulling an all-nighter to get this blog setup– it snowed.

The first day was mostly a travel day– we got into Seattle in the afternoon, avoided the Jewish Center shootings which were only a few blocks away from us, and headed down to the Pike Place Market but didn’t stay too long. We were very hungry and ended-up grabbing some dinner and beers at the Pike Place Pub– I ended-up having a Pub burger which was honestly not that great, and Lindsey had some sort of chicken pizza which was delicious. Before heading back to the hotel for the evening, we took a water taxi to Bremerton Island and back just to get out in Elliot Bay and see the skyline of Seattle.

On Saturday, we headed down to check-out Pike Place Market again and took some time to stroll through and check-out more stuff there. From there we headed to the Ivar’s Fish Bar for some cheap seafood eats and to feed the gulls. On a side note, it was interesting that one of the few places around Seattle to see Seagulls was at Ivar’s. After eating at Ivar’s, we took a ferry to Bainbridge Island. We mostly browsed around on Bainbridge Island for a few hours, then headed back to Seattle. We didn’t plan ahead very well for an evening meal and had to settle for a late dinner at Ill Fornaio, which was probably the worst meal of the trip. For spending about $30 a piece, the food was terrible, and the service was even worse.

Sunday we went to check-out the Ballard Locks, which apparently are the second busiest locks in the US. I think the coolest part of the locks is the Salmon ladder. We were there during the peak of Sockeye Salmon season, so there were swarms of them swimming up the ladder to Lake Washington to spawn and die. After visiting the Locks, we walked down the street to visit Archie McPhee’s. A small part of the loads of stuff they have in there is not on their website, and I have NO idea why it’s even there. Examples include taxi fare boxes, welding gloves, and various sizes of O rings.

Sunday evening we went to the waterfront and dined at Typhoon!, a local Thai restaurant chain which had many good reviews. I had the Balinese Pork Tenderloin with a Sapporo, and Lindsey had the Five-Spice Crispy Duck. Both meals were perfect, and I’d go back to Seattle again just to eat there.

Monday we headed to the Museum of Flight to check-out an impressive display of aircraft. Unfortunately I wasn’t feeling well and didn’t get to see as much of the museum as I would have liked, but I got to check-out a lot of jets in person that I’ve always wanted to see– a Concorde, F-14, the first Air Force One, and an SR-71. I also got a chance to sit in the cockpit of an F/A 18 Hornet, and an SR-71 Blackbird. Cool stuff! From the museum we headed to the Seattle Aquarium which was pretty cool, and much better than the crappy restaurant / tourist trap Denver Aquarium. I think my favorite part was watching the various types of Otters swim and play. From there we proceeded to The Fisherman’s for a typical tourist desire– a seafood dinner on the pier overlooking Elliot Bay. I had some delicious fresh Salmon, though I doubt this would be a place I’d regularly visit.

On Tuesday, we did a fairly disapointing tour of the Boeing factory. It basically consisted of getting on a bus, being driven to the HUGE building that they assemble 747′s, 767′s, 777′s, and soon 787′s in, going up to an overlook for 10-15 minutes, and then getting bussed back to where we started. That was literally it. It was cool I suppose, but there was probably a better use of time and money, especially considering that no photos were allowed. Once we got back from the tour, we headed up further into Capitol Hill to grab some Dick’s Burgers and walk around a bit. Dick’s is probably my new fast food burger favorite– while they don’t have the “secret” menu like In-N-Out, their burgers and shakes are simply delicious. Capitol Hill in Seattle is very similar to Capitol Hill in Denver– lots of hipsters who need a hug, a shower, and drug rehab / therapy, though I didn’t see any crack dealers. From Capitol Hill, we went back and chilled-out in the hotel for a bit.

Tuesday evening we headed-out to West Seattle for Sushi at Mashiko. Notice the URL for Mashiko is sushiwhore.com– awesome! I started off my meal with a bowl of the Miso vegetable soup, then split Charlie’s Angels Roll, Temptation Island Roll, The Red Violin Roll, and a Bowler Roller roll with Lindsey, and washed it down with my favorite Sushi beer, Sapporo. All of the rolls and soup were delicious, and I’ll definately go back again.

Wednesday was basically a travel day. We checked-out of the hotel, grabbed some delicious sandwiches from the Baguette Box (owned by the same guy who owns Typhoon!), and headed to the airport via the Gray Line Airporter to fly back to Denver.

What is Seattle like compared to Denver? I’d say they have a lot in common– both are the most populous areas of the state surrounded by mostly small cities and towns, they are similar in size (the population of Seattle proper is around 500,000, and the Seattle metro area is 3 million). I like the climate in Seattle better than Denver– it stays around the same temperature year round (60′s-70′s), and doesn’t rain nearly as much as it has a reputation for. It seems that typically the summer mornings are overcast, then the clouds are mostly burned away by the afternoon. Seattle doesn’t have nearly the suburban sprawl problems that Denver has, though the traffic is probably just as bad because of all of the water they have to go around/over. They are currently building out a light rail system, and the bus system itself is excellent. Other than a tour and transportation to and from the airport, we pretty much used the bus system. A couple of times we did take a Taxi to get from place to place downtown, but mostly a $5 fare was worth not having to climb from the waterfront back to our hotel after a long day on our feet. Denver has great restaurants, but it seems like Seattle has more great restaurants to choose from. Denver people are usually pretty friendly, but literally everyone there were really nice, and not in a “please leave me alone” overbearing Southern nice way. Speaking of Southerners, I only encountered one Texan/Southern/White Trash couple there (I really can’t stand, racist, sexist, white trash, homophobic, uneducated rednecks). Who else would wear a shirt that looked like a big Texas flag? Sheesh.

Because of the influences of successful tech companies such as Microsoft and Amazon, there seem to be a lot more tech jobs in Seattle, as well as money being poured into projects like The Experience Music Project by people like Paul Allen. The downtown area is also more active– after 6 PM on the weekdays in Denver, downtown is pretty dead aside from lodo. I couldn’t tell you which is more bike friendly between Denver and Seattle– some of the hills are so steep there I’d only want to ride one way and then bus back the other way. I didn’t see many people attempting the hill climbs, but there were a few. Bainbridge Island seemed like the place for more flat landed bike riding. It did seem relatively dog friendly– we saw tons of people with dogs, and some people even took them on the ferry, etc.

In short, I’m pretty sold on Seattle and think I’d probably like living there more than Denver– perhaps I’ll even move there someday. The metro area is just a bit bigger than Denver with more things to do and in general offers all of the amenities of a bigger city without all of the problems of a bigger city.