My Utah sweetie tweaked her back/shoulder a couple of weeks ago. I think the situation is catching, Did the same thing a couple of days ago and haven't been able to sleep well for a couple of nights as a result. If I seem delerious, it's because I am.

• Barry is spot on about the sheer stupidity of credit agencies now saying that maybe they need to have some kind of a "warning label" on various derivative crap products that they rate:

  WARNING: THESE BONDS HAVE BEEN RATED AAA BY A MAJOR RATING FIRM. THESE RATING FIRMS HAVE PROVEN THEMSELVES TO BE CLUELESS, MONEY-LOSING INCOMPETENTS IN EXCESS OF A TRILLION DOLLARS IN LOSSES. THEY WERE PAID HANDSOMELY BY THE BOND UNDERWRITER, AND ARE HOPELESSLY COMPROMISED. PURCHASERS OF THESE BONDS ARE ADVISED TO IMMEDIATELY KILL THEMSELVES, THUS SPARING THEIR LOVED ONES EMBARRASSMENT IN THE FUTURE. ALSO, THESE BONDS MAY LOSE VALUE. I JUST WET MYSELF MERELY THINKING ABOUT THIS PAPER. WHILE PAST PERFORMANCE IS NOT INDICATIVE OF FUTURE RETURNS, YOU SHOULD BE AWARE THAT PAST PERFORMANCE ALSO SUCKED. DONT BLAME US IF YOU LOSE ANY MONEY, AS WE HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE F$#@ WE ARE DOING ANYWAY. REALLY, YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN.

• This follows up Barry's earlier revelation, that Moody's was considering a pretty radical downgrade.
• I'm not especially political, but I must confess to being at least a bit excited that a guy like Obama could make it so far. And not only because he was just three years ahead of me at Columbia and we probably bumped elbows in the library at one point or another during my freshman year.
• All this education and I still think I'd be happier as a ski/mountain photographer.
• I did have fun at a winter camping seminar at the local REI. And ran into more people I think I have things in common with than I have anytime since getting back from my last Utah trip.
• Yeah, I know. I need to get the fuck out of L.A.

Going to try to sleep a bit now.

-btc