In Case You Were Wondering

Yes, FLG is excited about this:

FLG's Fitness

FLG was thinking about his fitness regimen the other day.  A little over a year ago, he began Insanity.  He did that twice through.  Never followed the diet, but still lost 20 pounds.  Ever since he's been in much better cardiovascular shape.   In fact, his cardio fitness is probably close to when FLG played lacrosse and football in high school.  His weight did go back up a bit again, however.

Over time, just to mix it up, FLG began doing some other things - kettlebells, etc.  A few months ago, he decided that since he was so happy with Insanity and wanted at least a little bit of strength training that he'd just pony up the cash and buy P90X.    He's on day 60 of the 90 and happy with the results so far.  Although, he swaps out the P90X cardio workouts for Insanity ones because the P90X ones are kinda boring compared to Insanity.

Ok, so two programs that's he's happy with.  FLG does have an issue.  Some people have a problem with the cost.  They argue you don't have to pay $130-140 just to do pullups and pushups in your house, which is true but FLG likes being pushed even if it's just by some guy on the DVD.  Moreover, since he used Insanity for over a year, he feels like he has more than gotten his money worth.

So, the issue isn't the cost, it's the multilevel marketing business model Beachbody has.  Look, the infomercials are sorta shady enough.   Add in the so-called "coaches" to sell you shit, and FLG is supercreeped out.  From a business perspective, it's clearly working for the company and they do make some great workout programs.  If it weren't for the business model, FLG thinks he'd love the company.

Quote of the day

Buttonwood:

Why should the taxpayer want to encourage higher leverage, when high leverage is the root of financial crises?

DC Celebrity Sightings

FLG saw Bob Woodward at Cafe Divan.  Updating the list.

It's Still All About Time Horizons

Jeff Sachs accusing Paul Krugman of not putting enough weight on the long-term.

FLG still contends that an individual's discount rate of the future is the primary determinant of their political persuasion.

A Conversation

Miss FLG minor is playing with an iPhone.

Mrs. FLG:  It's a nice day today.  We should go outside.

FLG:  What is that smell?

Mrs. FLG:  I think it's the girl.

FLG:  Yep, it's her.  Jesus, you have a stinky butt.

Mrs. FLG:  Whose turn is it?

FLG:  I'm not sure.  I think mine.

Beep.

Siri:  I could not find 'your stinky butt.'  Would you like me to search the internet for 'your stinky butt?'

FLG:  Good God, no!

Pirate Utopias

The Ancient, in the comments of the previous post, set FLG on a wikipedia journey that enlightened him about the concept of pirate utopias:

these pirate enclaves were early forms of autonomous proto-anarchist societies in that they operated beyond the reach of governments and embraced unrestricted freedom.

Quick Update

Mrs. FLG took FLG up to NYC two weeks ago and they saw Wicked and Mary Poppins.  FLG isn't sure whether it was all the hype he'd heard leading up to Wicked or that he's become some sort of artistic snob and the solidly middlebrow show brings it down a notch for him.  He liked it, thought the performances were great, but overall it was just okay.   On the other hand, FLG really enjoyed Mary Poppins, which seems to dispel his fears about being a theatre snob.

FLG was shocked to find that the Stage Deli had closed.  Although, he always liked the Carnegie Deli better anyway.  Speaking of pastrami, FLG recently stopped in at Stachowski Market in Georgetown and got a sandwich.  Damn good.   Different from the pastrami in New York or the smoked meat in Montreal, but definitely of equal quality.

Also, for those of you who have been wondering why FLG hasn't been posting, well, he's been busy.  But he also realized the other day that the world is kinda sorta boring lately.  The economy is limping along as it has been for years, but it isn't crashing.  The financial system is slowly going through changes as well, but the regulatory changes seem to be dribbling out of the bureaucracy rather slowly and piecemeal.  The crisis in Europe is still simmering, but they seemed to have been able to keep a lid on it.  Not that it's going to get much better soon.  Nothing is happening about Syria but hand-wringing.  Though, to be honest, FLG doesn't want the US involved.  Overall though, nothing exciting.  The political system is too dysfunctional to even contemplate.  The Republicans are a fucking mess.  The pope resigning is about the only interesting news in months.  Then again, maybe FLG is just seeing this all through a prism of personal ennui, which renders even fascinating events drop dead boring.

FLG is currently listening to

FLG is currently listening to

Is It Still A Problem?

FLG watched the first episode of The Borgias the other day, which made him wonder -- is simony still a problem with which one should be concerned? 

DC Sightings

FLG is about 50-50 that he saw Wayne LaPierre walking around in Georgetown, looking slightly lost or confused.

Five Years

This blog had its five year anniversary yesterday.    Hard to believe that it's still limping along..

Dollar Shave Club

FLG isn't sure if he's mentioned this, but he joined Dollar Shave Club a few months ago.  He can confirm that their blades are f**king great.

Merry Christmas!

Free Courses And The Future of Higher Ed

FLG's best guess at the moment is that education is going to break down rather biomodally.  There will be online universities that will offer decent and affordable education geared toward studying the "scientific, commercial, and industrial rather than literary," to borrow Tocqueville's phrase.  While there might be a large number of these online schools, but FLG reckons, just from the economies of scale, that it will settle out to a small number enrolling the majority of students.  Some might be private, some public. 

On the other hand, FLG believes there will always be a market for an exclusive residential college experience; however, he's not sure how much of a market there will be.  The Ivies, Stanford, MIT, and Cal Tech will survive to provide this.  If FLG had to guess, there'll be enough people willing to pay for that experience to keep the somewhere in the top 50, maybe top 100 schools in the residential college business.  

FLG is interested in how the public schools will play out.  Good flagship state universities, like Michigan, Virgina, Berkeley, ULCA, Texas, and Wisconsin are well-placed to be dominant in the large, online university marketplace.  However, FLG sees a lot of the students who attend non-flagship universities being consolidated into either a state or regional online university.   The first to switch over will be the commuter students, but eventually most students will probably attend online.  To take FLG's current state, Virgina, as an example, UVA and William & Mary will probably be able to remain residential.  FLG doubts that George Mason, James Madison, and even Virginia Tech will be offering a residential college experience two decades from now.

But who knows?  The future of higher ed is probably about as up in the air at this point as anything.

In case you were wondering what got FLG thinking about this, well, he registered for two free online courses from Coursera and Edx, respectively - Financial Engineering and Risk Management and The Ancient Greek Hero.

Quote of the day: Object Sex Holiday Gift Edition

 io9:

Still, even though the HEPS Fantastic System can’t blow kisses or lick balls, it’s hands-down the best fellatio simulator I’ve ever had the fortune of using.

Obviously, it's not safe for work.

Quote of the day

DCist:

At Arlington Cemetery a few weeks ago:

A family, clearly tourists with kids ranging from grade school to teenagers at the end of a day of sightseeing, are walking toward the Tomb of the Unknowns and chattering/bickering about who still wants to do what/eat where/is bothering who/etc. The youngest son keeps tugging on mom to get her attention. Finally...

Mom: "What!?!?"
Son (pointing to tombstones): "I really wish all of these soldiers were still alive."
Family: [Sudden silence]
Mom: "Um... me, too. I really wish they were still alive, too."

Boulder

This struck a nerve with FLG.

On Georgetown's campus:
two grad students are comparing their undergraduate universities to Georgetown. One of them went to the University of Colorado-Boulder for undergrad.
Guy 1: "So how does it compare as far as diversity?"
Guy 2: "Oh, Boulder has a VERY diverse campus."
Guy 1: "Really?"
Guy 2: "Well, not racially, no."

 As long-time readers know, FLG spent a few semesters at the University of Colorado at Boulder, which he attended without having visited the campus.  He still remembers how shocked he was at how white the student body was.

He must say, however, that he was even more shocked when he learned that a classmate had only seen one movie in the theaters, FLG thinks it might have been E.T., because she lived three or four hours from the nearest movie theater.  She'd also never driven through a stoplight until her trip to Boulder.

FLG is currently listening to

Out Of Town

The FLGs are heading out of town for the Thanksgiving Holiday, so posting, intermittent as it is, will definitely not occur of the next week.  A few things though...

First, Dance recently sent FLG a link to this article about how Indochino fits people for their suits.  The online custom suit business is really booming.  Besides Indochino, there's Alton Lane, Black Lapel, myTailor, Modern Tailor, and a bunch of others.  After a ton of research, FLG became a customer of Proper Suit, which he highly recommends.  While he's at it, he also recommends DeoVeritas for custom shirts in no small part because they offer the option to have sewn, rather than fused interlinings.

But men's fashion aside, Dance's email got FLG thinking about something that has long a topic of debate in the business world -- the shift from mass production to mass customization.  Basically, the idea that the computerization of the production line makes it possible for each unit produced to be different than the previous unit, but at a marginal cost similar to producing the exact same item each time.  Computer companies, especially Dell, were probably the first real success story, but over the last few years, a bunch of products have begun to offer mass customization options, for example, Converse, Nike, and even M & Ms.

The thing that is interesting to FLG about these online suit companies is that it's not so much the back-end production that is computerized (sure, they store pattens in the cloud and send them via the Internet for production in China), which really could have been done via telegraph by simply sending a message to a tailor in Shanghai.    It's that 1) the Internet allows for customers to input their own customizations without involvement from any company employees and 2) the existence of global logistics networks that facilitate cheap, efficient, and timely international delivery. 

For the longest time, FLG thought the key to mass customization was the ability of the production line to shift for each production unit, but that's not the real problem.  Robots can easily be designed to take a new set of instructions for each person's order.  And sure there's the additional inventory issues associated with maintaining a large selection of materials at any one time.  But the real issue that prevented mass customization sooner, and in FLG's mind slows its adoption more generally, is the ability for individuals to easily and quickly make transmit their preferences.  Modern internet websites help greatly with this.

All in all, not a huge insight, but it was one for FLG.

Second, inspired by Flavia, FLG has begun alumni interviewing this year.  He's only done one interview so far.  The DC area is littered with Georgetown alumni, so he guesses they've pretty much got the region covered block by block.  His interview was with an applicant from about half a mile away. 

Lastly, Miss FLG Maior and even Miss FLG Minor are growing up way too fast:

Here's hoping you all have a happy Thanksgiving.

A Conversation

Miss FLG Maior:  Is that Santa?

FLG:  No, that's Dean Martin.

FLG is currently listening to

Veteran's Day

It should come every day, not just once a year, but thank you to all who have served to protect this great nation.

Post-Election

FLG is fine with the results in the Presidential election.  While he wishes Romney had won, he is okay with President Obama.  Sure, Obama's instincts are a little too far left for FLG's taste, but he believes the President is trying to do the right thing.  FLG is surprised that virtually all the swing states went Obama's way.  

HOWEVER, FLG is beside himself, apoplectic even, over the Massachusetts Senate race.  Fucking Elizabeth Warren?  There is no politician in America that FLG cannot stand more than Elizabeth Warren.  Okay, maybe Harry Reid.  But Warren will undoubtedly overtake him shortly. 

Hopefully, somebody decides the best thing to do is to put her on some Fish and Wildlife committee or something. Somewhere where she can't do too much damage.  Anything but the Finance, Banking, or Agriculture committees.   (For those of you who don't know, derivatives originated to manage agriculture price fluctuations.  Thus, the main market for them is based in Chicago and the Agriculture committee has jurisdiction over them.  Well, at least the ag related ones.)

Of course, because the people of Massachusetts have decided to torture FLG, Warren will inevitably be appointed to the Consumer Protection subcommittee.  And for the next six years, FLG will have to keep all sharp objects away from himself whenever CSPAN is on.

Quote of the day

Bill Clinton:

who wants a president who will knowingly, repeatedly tell you something he knows is not true?

FLG must say, he loves the moxie that comes with Clinton's complete lack of shame.

Voting And Helicopters

FLG was at his local polling place when they opened at 6 this morning.  There was already a long line.  Took him about 45 minutes to vote.

On a completely unrelated note, every once and while FLG recognizes one things that makes the DC area different -- helicopters.  FLG will be driving across the Key Bridge and see tourists gawk at helicopters flying very low overhead.  At this point, FLG barely even notices.  Military helicopters fly up and down the Potomac so often it's no big deal.   It's like a helicopter freeway.

One doesn't really see or notice helicopters all that much in other places.  FLG guesses that there are probably a goodly mount in NYC, and perhaps the buildings are so high that it's difficult to notice. 

Why FLG Is Voting For Romney

Withywindle and Andrew both asked why FLG switched his position and decided to vote for Romney, whom FLG has referred to on numerous occasions as the Plastic Presidential Superhero.

Obama lost FLG's vote back when Obamacare / The Affordable Care Act was passed.  For FLG the actual content of the law, although he has problems with that too, is almost irrelevant; instead, it is the manner in which it got slammed through with parliamentary shenanigans in the face of widespread public skepticism.

 So, the choice facing FLG was to abstain from voting in the presidential election, vote third party, or go with Romney.   Right up until the first debate, FLG was solidly in the abstain category.   He's got problems with Obama, but on the other hand he doesn't think the man is a complete and utter disaster.

Something happened in that first debate that changed FLG's mind.  As Jay-Z might say, Romney got his swagger back.  But it's not so much Romney doing well as FLG saw in Obama a sort of presidential ennui combined with a glaring assumption that his policies aren't just correct, but self-evidently so.   It a couple more debates for FLG to determine that first one wasn't just some one-off.  FLG gave Obama a chance with his 2008 vote, but after really thinking about it, FLG decided that his Obama vote was a mistake.  FLG had hoped that Obama would be a reasonable and pragmatic leader, and in the president's mind he probably is, the trouble is that his default, gut reaction to things is, unsurprisingly, a liberal one.  As FLG was thinking about all this, he realized that his perception of Obama as seeing his administration's policies as self-evidently correct dovetails with a post FLG wrote a few years ago in response to a comment by Ezra Klein.

A lot of conservatives believe, I think, that their philosophical preference for small government is counterbalanced by other people's philosophical preference for big government. But that's not true: Their philosophical preference for small government is counterbalanced by other people's practical preference for larger government in certain areas where it seems to make sense.

Ultimately, FLG realized he may never be able to convince himself to vote for a Democratic presidential candidate again.  The logic of -- There is a current problem. The government has the ability to address the problem presently.  Therefore, the government should address the problem (and stop wasting time talking about potential unintended and long-term consequences with abstract sounding names like moral hazard.) -- is just too powerful.  Moreover, the self-conception of liberals as being rational, logical, scientific, and, most of all, practical only exacerbates the issue because objections based upon potential, longer-term consequences are often dismissed as irrational, illogical, unscientific, and ideological.


In the end, FLG's Romney vote is about 25% for Romney and 75% against Obama.

FLG is currently listening to

Daddy Issues

FLG has a long-standing theory that ambitious men are, with few exceptions, the offspring of abusive or absent fathers.    While this is true of men in a variety of fields (athletics, business, etc), FLG maintains that is particularly true of political leaders going back even to Alexander.  Julius Caesar's father died when he was 15.  George Washington's father died when he was 11.  Thomas Jefferson's father died when he was in his teens.   Churchill longed for a relationship with his absent father.  Joe Kennedy was no picnic. Stalin's father was abusive.  Ditto for Mao's.  The list goes on...

Anyway, the other day FLG came across this article, which delves into the paternal relationships of recent presidents.  FLG is half tempted to really sit down and write a book about this theory.

2012 Election

FLG hasn't been writing much about the election, but here's the deal.  He's recently swung from the Neither column to the Romney column.  Given that FLG has voted for the winning candidate in every presidential election he's ever participated in, this bodes well for Mr. Romney's chances.

In fact, after the debates, FLG puts the probability of a Romney win at about 55% (if you really pressed him he might even say 60%), which means he's seriously considering putting some money in those prediction markets.   They are way overconfident about an Obama win.  Last time he looked, they've got Obama at 55 and Romney at 45.

Jack-O-Lanterns

Last year, the FLGs did Dora and Swiper.  This year, Miss FLG Maior insisted on Disney characters:

A Conversation

FLG's Boss (to a coworker):  I'm going need you to go over there again.  There was some misunderstanding.

FLG's Coworker:  Ugh.  I spent so much time in that meeting.

FLG's Boss:  Sorry, it has to be done.

FLG:  Henry V, Act III would've sounded so much better.

FLG's Boss:  What?

FLG:  Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more.  I'm not picking up even a flicker of recognition.

FLG's Boss:  I gotta say, that's almost as pretentious as when you said I was the loser from that war from Ancient Rome or something.

FLG:  Not Ancient Rome.  It was the Titanomachy.  And at that time I said it was too soon to tell if you were Zeus or Cronus.

FLG's Boss:  Too soon then, but what would you say now.

FLG:  Oh, definitely Cronus.

FLG's  Boss:  He lost, right?

FLG:  Yes.  Yes, he did.

Obsession

FLG just learned Darren Aronofsky is making a movie about Noah.  Yeah, the guy who built the Ark.  Fits perfectly into FLG's analysis of the underlying theme that runs throughout Aronofsky's films.

A bit of aside here, but FLG has never been able to isolate and lucidly articulate what theme runs through Kubrick's movies.  There's definitely one there, but FLG isn't sure what it is.  Something about human weakness, but that's too broad. 

Quote of the day

Buttonwood:

if zero interest rates and unlimited deficits were the answer to our economic problems, you think we would have worked it out before now.