Deadweight Loss: The Importance of Holiday Lists

     

       For most people I've talked to, writing lists of gifts one wants for the holidays (or birthdays) makes one come across as greedy. Most people respond with an attitude akin to: "Excuse me, but I put an extremely moderate amount of thought into this gift thus you should be happy regardless as to whether or not you would ever use it in a million years because I thought of you for five minutes and that's a big deal." Of course being thought of for five minutes is a big deal and you should all be grateful that there are people in your lives who acknowledge your existence and are willing to engage in capitalist traditions of spending money on you. However, random, thoughtful gift giving with no guiding resource is not economically efficient in most cases and holiday lists actually show that a person cares about their loved ones enough to want them to optimally allocate their financial resources. Here's why:

The Race Is On! Apple Acquires PrimeSense

Only a matter of time...

       Good news everybody! Apple Inc. is moving to purchase PrimeSense, the company responsible for the development of the technology behind the first X-Box Kinect. The acquisition is set around $345 million dollars. I've discussed the implications of this acquisition with a couple trusted compadres and it's getting pretty heated and exciting. The main thing I could come up with as to what Apple would want to do with this kind of hands-free technology is for an Apple television–I can't see this ever catching on in the mobile technologies sphere, I think that would just look silly–where one would be able to access applications, type, play games, etc. all by waving one's arms around and sitting on a couch. So awesome! Don't worry ladies and gentlemen, that's not even the most exciting part. The most exciting part is that both Samsung and Google are reported to be working on their own gesture-based hands-free technology which means an all-out war has been waged for which technologies superpower will be the first to perfect this technology. Get ready for an awesome gladiator battle of technology between Apple–this being their first big opportunity for innovation since the death of Steve Jobs (may he rest in peace), Samsung–who allready have some really advanced televisions to work off of. Google–a giant monster, and Microsoft–who, in my opinion doesn't really stand a chance against these competitors. My surces and I believe Apple will pull out the first, most streamlined, and perhaps nicest looking design in the short run but that after a while Samsung will pull ahead with a more innovative and advanced system. I'm so excited about this. Stay tuned.

Noble Novels: The Master and Margarita

Woland, Behemoth, and Korovyov

       First off, how on earth has it been so long and I haven't written a Noble Novels on this noblest of novels! Shame on me. Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita is easily one of the best novels of the 20th century. It tells the story of the devil who calls himself Professor Woland visiting Moscow in a belligerently atheistic time period along with a retinue composed of a giant, vodka swilling cat, a sly ex-choir master, a naked witch, and a red-headed gunslinger. As Moscow essentially falls to it's knees as it is enveloped by the flames of devilish chaos, a novel written by a psychotic author called "The Master" about Pontius Pilate's trial of Yeshua Ha-Notsri (Jesus the Nazarene) as Pilate recognizes a powerful and spiritual craving for this peasant Yeshua and yet later reluctantly submits and allows Yeshua's execution causing himself great personal distress. The Devil and his retinue move to break the Master out of a Muscovite insane asylum and to reunite him with his former mistress, Margarita, leaving Moscow's rigid, bureaucratic social structure practically disintegrated in their wake.

Apologies and Updates

     

Ha! Reminds me of my sister...

       Hello! To begin, I would like to apologize for how long it has been since I posted in here. I have, however, decided that I am going to try to post in here more often and see if I can grow this into a fruitful weblog. The reason why it's been so long since I've posted is because since my last post TONS of things have happened! So once again, I apologize for slacking but thank you for joining me while I get you caught up. 

The Savage Surrenders: Grammar

       

I surrender! 

       I confess, I can definitely be described as a "Grammar Nazi"--so to speak-- but I've read some enlightening literature lately that has opened my eyes and I have decided to attempt to initiate a more laissez-faire approach to the english language. Honestly, this is not actually a surrender. I am not nor will I ever be happy about ending sentences in prepositions, subject-verb disagreements, nonsensically misused figures of speech, or homophone errors but I will attempt to look at them with more positivity and understanding from now on. I suppose this is less of a surrender and more the outlining of my demands for a mutually beneficial treaty.       

The Economics of Friendship

     

So cute

       I know a lot of people who have a lot of friends. As a matter of fact, most people I know have more friends than I. I could go on forever with theories as to why this could be (mass political conspiracy, I presume) but this is no time to discuss sociology. Sometimes I think about my relative dearth of close friends and I feel some degree of sadness but most of the time I'm pretty okay with it. I've been thinking of reasons why that may be and what I came up with was a simile involving money.

Horrid Social Injustices Equipped with Feline Compensation!

     

       May it be well known that my home is being remodeled. I'll have you know, also, that this is not your ordinary remodeling. This is a heinous and tyrannical desecration of all I hold sacred. It should also be known that I am being shamelessly dramatic and the preceding sentence is the epitome of hyperbole. However, it is true that my house has turned into a studio apartment and there is one room that is now furnished for three rooms thus resulting in one, seriously cramped dining-living-cooking-room chimera that is, in a word, unpleasant. To combat this issue I decided, this evening, to go for a stroll along my neighborhood. This was painfully boring. This was painfully boring until I initiated a bit of a challenge/ game type thing to entertain myself and that was to see how many cats I could find hiding in and around the properties of their own homes. This was astoundingly successful and was the source of ample amusement for me. Throughout the remainder of my stroll I met somewhere around seven cats one of which was, I swear to god, Behemoth. He was black and he was absolutely giant and not in a fat way, just enormous like a panther and he stared at me with mischievous, unblinking eyes as I walked past. So I suppose it's not all bad; my questionable living environment has allowed for increased feline interaction. Huzzah!

~Nobilis Saeva

Speaking of Behemoth, I think it's about time for another Noble Novel.