The best laid plans of one man and no mice aft a-fatigue
I had plans today. I was going to go see an early movie (love the bargain matinee pricing). I was going to work on an article I'm writing about a director making an indie, with a big name star, who is using Kickstarter to get the last piece of funding. I was going to drive to Fountain Valley to play trivia with my friends and enjoy some pre-birthday prime rib.
One of these agenda items is definitely cancelled and odds are good that the other two won't happen today either. I may do a little work on the article. I may watch a different movie that I have a screener of. But I suspect most of the day will be spent laying down and resting. It's before 9 in the morning and I did my morning walk right on time this morning. As a result I'm more than 50% of the way to the daily goal (which I actually made yesterday after all). But at breakfast I realized I was pretty much out of fuel at that moment and the rest of the day is probably shot.
What's interesting to me is that if I had work scheduled today, I would be there and I would be working at full efficiency. I would use willpower to make that happen. If tonight's trivia game involved money, or was part of an effort to win something major, I'd be there. If today's movie was an invited screening that was the only chance to see the film, I would probably go. But none of them are as important as paying attention to my body's demand for rest. When something is important enough, I'll overcome the physical with the mental.
The big change is I spent decades just doing whatever I wanted to do, without regard to my body's messages. I'd work all day at one job, go to my second job, and then when I got home, surf the web or chat for hours, before grabbing a couple of hours sleep and doing it all over again. Sometimes I'd even skip the sleep thing. Can't do that much anymore.
* * *
At the office we do take checks, but we don't deposit them and wait for the funds to be credited. We have one of those scanners where the check is fed through and the fund immediately debited from the account. We get instant credit and the customer doesn't have time to "cover" the check. So if the funds weren't available when they handed us the check, we would know right away.
I cannot count how many times during my military service when I wrote a check on my checking account the day before the funds would be there. Or even two days. Anything more was just too risky. Writing a Not Sufficient Funds (NSF) check is a big issue for military personnel. Now it's almost impossible to do.
So why is it that when any of us use a bank's online bill-pay service to pay a bill where a physical check is not written, the payee doesn't get the funds the same day? It may be one, or two days delay but usually it is four or five. Where is the money during that time? It was taken from the account the moment the right button was clicked on the payer's computer.
It's "floating" and banks love the float. They make money on the float. This October will be the 10th anniversary of the passage of The Check Clearing Act for the 21st Century. One of the purposes of this law was to eliminate the banks ability to make money by investing other people's money during this floating period.
If they can instantly debit our accounts for point of sale purchases by check, like we do at my office, and they aren't issuing physical checks which are "snail-mailed" to most of the payees of online bill-pay payments, they should be able to give instant credit to those payees. But there is no legal requirement to do so, nor is there any advantage for them to do it.
Time for Congress to act? Yes, but the banking lobby is so powerful that's not likely.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
I prefer DUI rather than DWI as we called it when I was a military cop. Lamar Odom was apparently under the influence of something last night.
I guess the reason is obvious, but I wonder why it is that directors and others associated with films that attend paid showings of their work to talk to the audience afterward don't go to bargain matinees? They want to see a full house at full price of course.
Rupert Murdoch's pay for 21st Century Fox's 2013 fiscal year dropped down to $28.9 million. Must suck to be him.
Is there something ironic in the fact that the shoes Heather McDonald wore on Chelsea Lately last night (she tweeted a picture of them and identified the maker) probably cost as much or more than a week's take-home pay for a third of the show's audience?
A look at the latest figures shows that of the 43% of Americans who will pay no income taxes in 2013 shows that only 1.3% of those households have incomes in excess of $100,000. Without getting into the argument of what someone's "fair share" is, is there anyone out there who isn't taking advantage of every "loophole" and "deduction" to pay the lowest amount legally possible?
Radio Shack is revamping 2,000 stores. They have that many left?
The inventor of the foam finger is upset at how Miley Cyrus used it. Will we hear next from anyone else connected to anything she did or didn't wear at the VMAs?
I was working on my review of a Chinese film, "The Grandmaster" and I noticed it said the budget was 240 million. My eyes bugged out and then I realized that was in Yuan, not Dollars. Scared me for a second, as I didn't see $200 million worth of movie on the screen (it's actually $38.6 million).
Do parrots named Polly really prefer crackers over other food?
Toyota gave the man who bought its 50 millionth car sold in the U.S. with another new Toyota. He'll have to pay taxes on the gift, insure it and the like. It's still nice, but it isn't as generous as plain old cash would have been. But then again, one shouldn't look a gift car in the radiator.
* * *
This Date In History:
On this date in 526, King Theodoric the Great dies of dysentery (what a way to go...yuck).
On this date in 1572, Guru Ram Das becomes the Fourth Sikh Guru/Master.
On this date in 1590, Tokugawa Ieyasu enters Edo Castle.
On this date in 1791, HMS Pandora sinks, after running aground the previous day.
On this date in 1835, Melbourne is founded.
On this date in 1836, the city of Houston is founded.
On this date in 1918, Vladimir Lenin is shot and seriously wounded by Fanny Kaplan.
On this date in 1945, Hong Kong is liberated from the Japanese by British forces.
On this date in 1956, the Lake Pontchartrain causeway opens.
On this date in 1963, the "hotline" between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. begins operation.
On this date in 1967, Thurgood Marshall is confirmed as the first African-American justice of the United States Supreme Court.
Famous Folk Born On This Date:
David Hartley
Mary Shelley
Anita Garibaldi
Huey Long
Shirley Booth
Joan Blondell
Fred MacMurray (most remember him for "My Three Sons" but I remember him best for "The Caine Mutiny")
Richard Stone
Ted Williams
Daryl Gates (a lousy chief of police but a decent host of talk radio)
Bill Dailey
Warren Buffett (what do you get a multi-billionaire for his birthday?)
Jack Swigert (no relation to Jack Swaggert)
Elizabeth Ashley
Jean-Claude Killy
Tug McGraw
Molly Ivins (a great journalist, RIP)
Peggy Lipton
Christopher Collins (proud member of "NO MA'AM" on "Married With Children)
Timothy Bottoms
Martin Jackson
Michael Chiklis
Cameron Diaz
Lisa Ling
Cliff Lee
Andy Roddick
While my friend Joel will note most of the notable passings on this date, let me pay tribute to Charles Bronson and wrestler Killer Kowalski, both of whom died on this date.
Movie quotes today come from "There's Something About Mary" in honor of Cameron Diaz's birthday (only woman I've ever seen trying to learn to surf in a swimming pool):
[spying on Mary]
Pat Healy: Husband... negative. Children and a Labrador... negative. Tight little package... affirmative.
#2
[after Mary addresses Ted by name]
Ted: I couldn't believe that she knew my name. Some of my best friends didn't know my name.
#3
Dom: Here you've been in therapy, you know, thinking you blew it with the greatest girl ever, and really it turns out that getting your dick stuck in your zipper was the best thing that ever happened to you.
#4
Pat Healy: My real passion is my hobby.
Mary: Really, what's that?
Pat Healy: I work with retards.
Mary: Isn't that a little, uhm, politically incorrect?
Pat Healy: Well, heh, to hell with that... no one's going to tell me who I can and can't work with, right?
Mary: No, I mean...
Pat Healy: We got this one kid, Mongo... He's got a forehead like a drive-in movie theatre, but he's a good ship. So we don't bust his chops too much. So, one day Mongo gets out of his cage...
Mary: They keep him in a cage?
Pat Healy: Well, it's just an enclosure...
Mary: No, but they keep him confined?
Pat Healy: Right, yeah.
Mary: That's bullshit!
Pat Healy: Well, that's what I said! So, I went out and I got him, uh, I got him a leash.
Mary: A leash?
Pat Healy: Yeah, one of those ones you can hook on the clothesline, and he can run back and forth and, uh, there's plenty of room for him to dig and play. That kid is really, uh, he's really blossomed.
One of these agenda items is definitely cancelled and odds are good that the other two won't happen today either. I may do a little work on the article. I may watch a different movie that I have a screener of. But I suspect most of the day will be spent laying down and resting. It's before 9 in the morning and I did my morning walk right on time this morning. As a result I'm more than 50% of the way to the daily goal (which I actually made yesterday after all). But at breakfast I realized I was pretty much out of fuel at that moment and the rest of the day is probably shot.
What's interesting to me is that if I had work scheduled today, I would be there and I would be working at full efficiency. I would use willpower to make that happen. If tonight's trivia game involved money, or was part of an effort to win something major, I'd be there. If today's movie was an invited screening that was the only chance to see the film, I would probably go. But none of them are as important as paying attention to my body's demand for rest. When something is important enough, I'll overcome the physical with the mental.
The big change is I spent decades just doing whatever I wanted to do, without regard to my body's messages. I'd work all day at one job, go to my second job, and then when I got home, surf the web or chat for hours, before grabbing a couple of hours sleep and doing it all over again. Sometimes I'd even skip the sleep thing. Can't do that much anymore.
* * *
At the office we do take checks, but we don't deposit them and wait for the funds to be credited. We have one of those scanners where the check is fed through and the fund immediately debited from the account. We get instant credit and the customer doesn't have time to "cover" the check. So if the funds weren't available when they handed us the check, we would know right away.
I cannot count how many times during my military service when I wrote a check on my checking account the day before the funds would be there. Or even two days. Anything more was just too risky. Writing a Not Sufficient Funds (NSF) check is a big issue for military personnel. Now it's almost impossible to do.
So why is it that when any of us use a bank's online bill-pay service to pay a bill where a physical check is not written, the payee doesn't get the funds the same day? It may be one, or two days delay but usually it is four or five. Where is the money during that time? It was taken from the account the moment the right button was clicked on the payer's computer.
It's "floating" and banks love the float. They make money on the float. This October will be the 10th anniversary of the passage of The Check Clearing Act for the 21st Century. One of the purposes of this law was to eliminate the banks ability to make money by investing other people's money during this floating period.
If they can instantly debit our accounts for point of sale purchases by check, like we do at my office, and they aren't issuing physical checks which are "snail-mailed" to most of the payees of online bill-pay payments, they should be able to give instant credit to those payees. But there is no legal requirement to do so, nor is there any advantage for them to do it.
Time for Congress to act? Yes, but the banking lobby is so powerful that's not likely.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
I prefer DUI rather than DWI as we called it when I was a military cop. Lamar Odom was apparently under the influence of something last night.
I guess the reason is obvious, but I wonder why it is that directors and others associated with films that attend paid showings of their work to talk to the audience afterward don't go to bargain matinees? They want to see a full house at full price of course.
Rupert Murdoch's pay for 21st Century Fox's 2013 fiscal year dropped down to $28.9 million. Must suck to be him.
Is there something ironic in the fact that the shoes Heather McDonald wore on Chelsea Lately last night (she tweeted a picture of them and identified the maker) probably cost as much or more than a week's take-home pay for a third of the show's audience?
A look at the latest figures shows that of the 43% of Americans who will pay no income taxes in 2013 shows that only 1.3% of those households have incomes in excess of $100,000. Without getting into the argument of what someone's "fair share" is, is there anyone out there who isn't taking advantage of every "loophole" and "deduction" to pay the lowest amount legally possible?
Radio Shack is revamping 2,000 stores. They have that many left?
The inventor of the foam finger is upset at how Miley Cyrus used it. Will we hear next from anyone else connected to anything she did or didn't wear at the VMAs?
I was working on my review of a Chinese film, "The Grandmaster" and I noticed it said the budget was 240 million. My eyes bugged out and then I realized that was in Yuan, not Dollars. Scared me for a second, as I didn't see $200 million worth of movie on the screen (it's actually $38.6 million).
Do parrots named Polly really prefer crackers over other food?
Toyota gave the man who bought its 50 millionth car sold in the U.S. with another new Toyota. He'll have to pay taxes on the gift, insure it and the like. It's still nice, but it isn't as generous as plain old cash would have been. But then again, one shouldn't look a gift car in the radiator.
* * *
This Date In History:
On this date in 526, King Theodoric the Great dies of dysentery (what a way to go...yuck).
On this date in 1572, Guru Ram Das becomes the Fourth Sikh Guru/Master.
On this date in 1590, Tokugawa Ieyasu enters Edo Castle.
On this date in 1791, HMS Pandora sinks, after running aground the previous day.
On this date in 1835, Melbourne is founded.
On this date in 1836, the city of Houston is founded.
On this date in 1918, Vladimir Lenin is shot and seriously wounded by Fanny Kaplan.
On this date in 1945, Hong Kong is liberated from the Japanese by British forces.
On this date in 1956, the Lake Pontchartrain causeway opens.
On this date in 1963, the "hotline" between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. begins operation.
On this date in 1967, Thurgood Marshall is confirmed as the first African-American justice of the United States Supreme Court.
Famous Folk Born On This Date:
David Hartley
Mary Shelley
Anita Garibaldi
Huey Long
Shirley Booth
Joan Blondell
Fred MacMurray (most remember him for "My Three Sons" but I remember him best for "The Caine Mutiny")
Richard Stone
Ted Williams
Daryl Gates (a lousy chief of police but a decent host of talk radio)
Bill Dailey
Warren Buffett (what do you get a multi-billionaire for his birthday?)
Jack Swigert (no relation to Jack Swaggert)
Elizabeth Ashley
Jean-Claude Killy
Tug McGraw
Molly Ivins (a great journalist, RIP)
Peggy Lipton
Christopher Collins (proud member of "NO MA'AM" on "Married With Children)
Timothy Bottoms
Martin Jackson
Michael Chiklis
Cameron Diaz
Lisa Ling
Cliff Lee
Andy Roddick
While my friend Joel will note most of the notable passings on this date, let me pay tribute to Charles Bronson and wrestler Killer Kowalski, both of whom died on this date.
Movie quotes today come from "There's Something About Mary" in honor of Cameron Diaz's birthday (only woman I've ever seen trying to learn to surf in a swimming pool):
[spying on Mary]
Pat Healy: Husband... negative. Children and a Labrador... negative. Tight little package... affirmative.
#2
[after Mary addresses Ted by name]
Ted: I couldn't believe that she knew my name. Some of my best friends didn't know my name.
#3
Dom: Here you've been in therapy, you know, thinking you blew it with the greatest girl ever, and really it turns out that getting your dick stuck in your zipper was the best thing that ever happened to you.
#4
Pat Healy: My real passion is my hobby.
Mary: Really, what's that?
Pat Healy: I work with retards.
Mary: Isn't that a little, uhm, politically incorrect?
Pat Healy: Well, heh, to hell with that... no one's going to tell me who I can and can't work with, right?
Mary: No, I mean...
Pat Healy: We got this one kid, Mongo... He's got a forehead like a drive-in movie theatre, but he's a good ship. So we don't bust his chops too much. So, one day Mongo gets out of his cage...
Mary: They keep him in a cage?
Pat Healy: Well, it's just an enclosure...
Mary: No, but they keep him confined?
Pat Healy: Right, yeah.
Mary: That's bullshit!
Pat Healy: Well, that's what I said! So, I went out and I got him, uh, I got him a leash.
Mary: A leash?
Pat Healy: Yeah, one of those ones you can hook on the clothesline, and he can run back and forth and, uh, there's plenty of room for him to dig and play. That kid is really, uh, he's really blossomed.
posted by me at 3:56 PM
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