Miscellany of a Cheshire Cat

More comics at: The Chronicles of Monster Cat

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bear, cats, comics, monster cat, napping, silly, tennyson

The markets closed up today… by a lot. A lot of investors appear to have really liked the various government plans for saving the financial world. Plus, the banks were closed today in the U.S. That probably helped too.

I’m traveling for work Tuesday through Thursday this week. Monster Cat will be very upset that I am gone. He would already be suspicious except that I haven’t started packing yet. Just in case you’re curious, the photo here is the current wallpaper on my iPhone, lest I forget my dear little cat during my travels. He will not forget me either. I’m sure he will regale me with long, howling stories of his adventures wen I return. After he finishes whining that I was gone, of course.

This will be my token trip to New England while Fall colors are blazing. *sigh*

Sometime this week I need to write an essay for class Thursday night. The topics provided are thus far uninspiring. Hopefully something will happen when I start writing. (Yes, I’m getting off the plane and going directly to class. Won’t this be fun?) So far the class has been fairly useful. We did workshops for a bunch of our first essays last week and I got some excellent feedback and ideas from my classmates.

So lots to do this week… lots accomplished today (except I haven’t packed yet). I’d be okay with skipping it all and calling tomorrow Friday. Are you with me?

finance, random, travel, writing, monster cat

More comics at: The Chronicles of Monster Cat

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cats, comics, monster cat, silly, tennyson, bear, napping

More comics at: The Chronicles of Monster Cat

Become a fan of Monster Cat on Facebook!

cats, comics, monster cat, silly, tennyson, kittens, flashback, falstaff

More comics at: The Chronicles of Monster Cat

Become a fan of Monster Cat on Facebook!

cats, comics, evil, monster cat, silly, tennyson

This American Life did an excellent episode this weekend that lays out some of the intricacies of the current crisis, which dominoes are falling and what pushed them over. You can download the whole episode as a podcast from iTunes or listen to it online at the This American Life Archive. It’s an hour long and goes into details about the commercial paper market, breaking the buck and credit default swaps and other financial concepts in the forefront these days.

What’s remarkable (to me at least) is just how much bad debt and ridiculous credit were and still are flying around out there in our financial system. Credit card companies will give us tons of credit on little shiny pieces of plastic, assuming our credit is decent. With a little creativity, a person could get a credit line well over their ability to cover simply by spreading themselves across several credit card companies. The greater financial system has a similar exuberance for extending credit it would seem…

Companies were making money by “insuring” bonds without having the capital to pay out in the event of a failure. An institution can hide so much debt that in our (legitimately) paranoid times, no one wants to lend to anyone else leading to the commercial paper market almost freezing up for lack of lenders and available loans. The commercial paper market directly effects businesses’ ability to cover expenses (such as payroll) while waiting to get paid by their customers, expand, and compensate for losses or slow periods. I’m not sure if the above episode of TAL will reassure you, scare you or just make you angrier… but it’s great information to have given that, despite the bailout being signed into law, the stock market is still tanking and credit is still more than a little tight. It’s going to take a while to get out of this crisis.

NPR has also started the Planet Money podcast to try to keep up listeners up to date on the ever-changing news of what’s going on with the markets. I just started listening to it but it’s a little like listening in on a conversation among friends who have more time to keep up with these things – informative, informal and terribly useful.

commercial paper market, credit default swaps, credit markets, financial, financial crisis, podcasts, this american life

More comics at: The Chronicles of Monster Cat

Just like the title text says, how in the world could I possibly ignore a 17 pound cat? Monster Cat has taken to putting his paws up on my leg, shoving his head against my elbow and insisting on getting into my lap. If I don’t respond quickly enough, he’ll squeak at me pitifully. If I continue to not make space for him in my lap, the squeak turns into a whine and then a howl as if I am torturing his very soul by not allowing him into my lap.

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cats, comics, monday, monster cat, silly, tennyson

I may be missing out on lots of New England Autumn Colors, but I do have some colors of my own to show off. My pepper plants are producing some lovely colors. Spicy, colorful tastiness!

In other news, I am having a terribly domestic weekend.

This weekend has yielded an apple pie, a pumpkin pie and 6+ dinners worth of meatballs. The pies are almost gone thanks to very helpful people last night. The meatballs are stashed in the freezer except for the ones I saved out for tonight’s dinner. I also froze 3 packages of Anaheim and Hungarian yellow peppers. I also reorganized the pesky Corner Cabinet of Entropy. Two IKEA lazy susans are finally in place which should help fight the entropy. Maybe.

I even made breakfast today with possibly the most amazing challah I’ve every tasted. Yes, Annyswolf‘s honey vanilla challah is positively sublime. Thank you so much for sending it along to bonk the Fop with! (Long story… with a tasty challah ending.)

baking, challah, colors, cooking, domesticity, gardening, hot peppers

Evil is challenging to photograph which is why she doesn’t appear more often. She does not like the flash on my cameras and scuttles away when they come out. She really does have facial features, but only when she’s glaring or begging. Her face is quite expressive, just hard to capture because it’s so dark and if I start using the flash I lose my subject. She has several batcaves around the house – a summer batcave, a mini-batcave as well as several other seasonal and occasional batcaves. Evil is particularly skilled at disappearing. Unless, of course, the food bowls are empty and I haven’t been quick enough to go downstairs in the morning. In the event that I am detained on my way to making coffee and feeding the cats, I end up with an insistent Evil Cat under my desk, nudging me and licking me until I realize that she is more important than whatever I am working on.

More comics at: The Chronicles of Monster Cat

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cats, comics, evil, glares, monster cat, silly, tennyson

Maverick.

You keep using that word. I don’t think it means what you think it means.

politics, vice presidential debate