Category: personal

Mix CD for Pat

1. Manowar – Blow Your Speakers
2. Metallica – Fade To Black
3. Voivod – Astronomy Domine
4. Metallica – Damage, Inc.
5. Jimi Hendrix – Castles Made of Sand
6. Warren Zevon – Knockin’ on Heaven’s door
7. Tori Amos – Thank You
8. Bad Brains – Sailin’ On
9. Charlie Parker – Bird of Paradise
10. Beach Boys – I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times
11. Golden Smog – Glad & Sorry
12. Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here
13. Trespassers William – Vapour Trail
14. Warren Zevon – Don’t Let Us Get Sick

I created this CD in memory of my brother Patrick. Some of the songs are by artists he introduced me to, such as Voivod, Manowar, and Metallica. We were both into that kind of thing at about the same time, although he was always a bit further ahead of the curve than I was. There are a couple of songs that I was listening to a lot while he was in the hospital: Vapour Trail, and the Zevon songs, specifically. Then, there’s some stuff that just seemed appropriate, like “Wish You Were Here”.

Civic

I just got the 90,000 mile service done on my Civic, and it cost almost as much as my new laptop. I console myself with the fact that this is pretty much the ONLY service I’ve had done on this car since I bought it, at 49,000 miles. Also, the laptop was refurbished, hence not that expensive. Still, it’s going to be a bigger than usual credit card bill this month!

big picture

I was just looking back on some financial stuff for the last year. It seems I often forget to look at the big picture with this stuff, instead getting caught up in the details. One mutual fund that I have in my IRA has been a bit of a dud since the market went south in 2000/2001. I was gratified to see that it had gone up from about $25 to $35 over the course of the last year. Then, I zoomed back a bit more, and remembered that I bought it at around $40 back in the nineties, and that it had hit a high of about $100 before the crash. Oh well, maybe it’ll get back to $40 before I retire, so it won’t be a net loss.