My fish ! Mine !

Heard an interview on BBC last night about worldwide fishing stocks (they're in trouble). One guy was talking about a single bluefin that recently fetched $30,000 at auction in Japan.

Wonder if the cat will get any.

Elephant Revival

Just wrapped an hour interview with Dan Rose, bassist and de facto press spokesman for the Lyons, CO based string folk troupe Elephant Revival - their eponymous CD is available all over, and highly recommended.

Gorgeous, occasionally haunting, jig-friendly and generally leaning more toward folk/songwriter seasoning than bluegrass. Unforced, poised, beautifully crafted under the producer's hand of longtime area string music master David Tiller.

Piece will appear in next Thursday (2/5/09) Boulder Weekly.

Back from Cleveland

Nice visit, very busy since returning. A few words about stimulus, pricey fish and other matters tomorrow, time permitting.

Cheats the hangman

...but we all know who has the last laugh, don't we?

President Obama

Barack Obama was sworn in as President of the United States today. The several days have witnessed a fever pitch of excitement and a prevailing sense of being witness to history - if anything, frankly, a little overplayed in the media.

The man has a gigantic task ahead of him. The economic situation seems to be growing worse (the DOW dropped 300 points today), and despite the utter relief that Bush's eight years (upon which I'll reluctantly withhold commentary) is finally over, people are scared, institutions are disappearing and every time we think we see a bottom, it recedes downward again.

If nothing else, it's hard now to imagine John McCain, in his early seventies, having the vigor and resiliency to handle this crisis. Barack Obama is a young man - 47 - and he'll need to draw from that.

In fact, for the first time in my life...the president is young than I.

Yikes.

Good luck, President Obama. We've got your back.

Massive Big Blue layoffs?

There is a buzz on the net that IBM plans to lay off 16,000 employees this coming Friday. Apparently it originated at the AllianceIBM website. I had my yearly review with my boss on Wednesday 1/14, she gave me a high rating and didn't say anything - but she wouldn't have been allowed to anyway.

Nervous - again. At this point, I've been worried about getting the axe for so long, I'm not sure actually getting it would feel like such a shock.

Either way, if it comes to pass, I hope they get mountains of toxic press over it.

More on this from The Register.

Loveland Day 6

Amazing day. 30 degree F, no wind, packed snow, sun all day.

Crowded, but I got up there early enough to make it into the Basin pasking lot - no minor feat, as the place was very busy all day.

My skiing was better, but it would be, since I do best on packed snow in good visibility. Got 24 runs in, and a little sun-color on my face today. At least 8 comments on the hat - one guy I rode up with said he thought he had ridden the lifts at least six times with me over the span of 15 years, and said "you may not know this, but you're a fixture here." It was a nice, and slightly weird, comment, and I took it as a compliment.

This is probably my 20th season up there. Fifth since Karin passed. I guess he's right.