Ein Prosit!

It’s official - fall is upon us!

This seasonal gem which evokes gluttonous feelings of thanksgiving decadence and the idyllic romance associated with autumn colors also denotes one of the greatest and most cohesive folkloric traditions ever – OKTORBERFEST! Jovial inebriated smiles radiate all across the globe as the clinging of steins resonate all throughout the month of October. I, along with thousands of hops enthusiasts throughout the world take part in this festive convention every year and I freakin love it!

This emphatic appreciation however comes with a paramount need to tighten up…You see, I, like many of my non-Bavarian friends take active part in celebrating by singing along, as loudly and as obnoxiously as possible. Now that’s fine. The issue lies in the fact that I (and I suspect most others) have no clue what the actual words are and if I do, I forget them after the 4th sip of my delicious and frosty lagger. So, at the risk of sounding like a party Nazi (please excuse the awful culturally insensitive pun), I would like to motion that from now on out, as a respectful courtesy to our German drinking buddies, we actually learn and remember the lyrics (well at least the simple and most common ones).
Please take the time to memorize the following short and lovely prose and I’ll see you at the Biergarten. Dunkeshein!

“Ein prosit, ein prosit, der gemutlichkeit! Ein prosit, ein prosit, der gemutlichkeit! Oans! Zwor! Drei! Gsuffa!”

In the Interest of Educating the Childrens

A video tighten up, courtesy of one of the tightest individuals in the public eye.

Numbers are our specialty

If there's one thing that finance professionals and computer science professionals have in common, it's that everything in both fields is built on math (or maths - it's not mathematic - as they say in New Zealand but that's another issue). I'm interested in both and because of my interest in finance, I regularly find myself on Yahoo! Finance, in my opinion the best general finance site on the web. I enjoy the polls that are almost always at the bottom right of the front page, mostly because my opinion has been so much more bearish than average over the past couple of years. I feel pretty strongly that not only are we headed for a weak economy for the rest of the year and into 2008, but that a recession has already started. Needless to say my interest was piqued by the following poll:



I selected 'slam dunk' and was shown these results as of about 4:15 pm EST on 9/27. I immediately saw that effectively 49% of the respondents think that a recession is more likely than not and 54% think that the opposite is true. Unless my addition skills are seriously lacking or I have completely forgotten how rounding is done, this is an impossible result. Calculating these percentages couldn't be simpler and this incompetence certainly does not put a good face forward for a website that is essentially about numbers. Tighten this yesterday.

Tightness Commensurate with Transparency

As a graduate student, I read a lot of job postings. Apart from a couple of other choice nuggets of information, salary is one of the most important elements I look for in such a thing. This is why it drives me crazy to read the phrase "Salary commensurate with experience."

No shit? You mean you're not going to pay me $275,000 to manage the private equity arm of your group because the only thing I've ever managed is my checkbook, not to mention I don't even know what private equity means? I have to have a graduate degree or several years' experience to earn a competitive wage?

BAH! Of course salary is commensurate with experience! Either write down a reasonable range or don't bother writing at all. This is a two-way street: I gain valuable information on the person you're seeking to hire by reading qualifications and salary range, and you save yourself the hassle of sifting through a million applications by giving applicants basic information!

Get tight: get forthright.

Dictator told to tighten

As much as I hear the arguments that he shouldn't have been let within 50 miles of the ivory towers, I think it's pretty cool that Bollinger point blank told Ahmadinejad to tighten up. Sadly, in Iran, Bollinger would not have slept comfortably in a 20 million dollar mansion after calling him out.

One of the less (more) clever signs on campus yesterday.

Genius Grants: Keepin' it Tight

What's tighter than a "genius grant"? Awarding it to a great musician. Denver native, Bates graduate and current C'ville resident Corey Harris is a recipient of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation grant in which he will receive $100,000 over the next 5 years. Two Tight-Nods to the Foundation and for Mr. Harris for always keepin' a wrench at the ready.

Here is a list of all the recipients. Here is Harris' MySpace page. And here is Harris performing "Honeysuckle":

Too Cool for School

Spotted somewhere in central Pennsylvania: a trailer advertising a university-branded line of central air conditioner casings.

If you're crazy enough about your college football team that you feel compelled to express your allegiance through that venerable medium--HVAC equipment--it's time to tighten up.

Sorry Columbia students.... I have to do it

Because it needs to be done.
Columbia University needs to Tighten Up. Way to invite Ahmadinejad to speak at your oh so heavy with Ivy hallowed walls. You've pretty much confirmed for my father that my boyfriend is a wacko leftist weirdo for attending graduate school Columbia. Way to go, assholes.

Now, Columbia, if you're going to do something this stupid, you better man up and be prepared for the firestorm. I can respect you for "robust debate" and I am all for free speech, but you better damn well understand how this makes you look in the eyes of many Americans.

And while you're at it, you could consider a little paint here and there where the students actually have class, not just prettying up the outside all the time so none of the passersby suspect that the historic preservation building is held together with duct tape. It's disgraceful. And I went to a PUBLIC SCHOOL, where a map fell of the wall during class and hit me on the head, so I know a little about class in shitty conditions.

White Bronco Time

1st Clinton Tighten-Up?

How dare you insult the Dark Lord of the Sith...