Howdy y’all!
Have you ever found money? You know like the cliche under your couch cushions, or like I’ve done pushed to the bottom of a pants’ pocket or, perhaps, a drift in a bag? I have. I think the most money I’ve found like that is a twenty dollar bill. Twice, I found a one hundred dollar bill on the floor at school, but made sure it got returned to its owner. For a fun game, I’ll put my latest found money anecdote in the comments, if you will. It is astonishingly large. You won’t want to miss it. Okay, I will even if you won’t, which, statistically speaking, you probably won’t, but maybe you will after you read mine? Hey, this is a kind of experiment!
Release Ma Belle Femme! Ma Belle Femme has been released from quarantine and is back home among us. While it is nice having her home and all, she talks a lot. Much more than I’m used to. Luckily, I’m in the pre-school opening orientation meetings so talking a lot more, but still, it’s exhausting.
On hiatus? This week, unfortunately, I have to cut this post a little short. The school opening is kicking my ass. I’ve got three classes to teach, but I’ve never taught any of them before, so there is a steep preparation curve that feels a bit Sisyphean to me. I guess that makes me a Sisy. Hahahahahaha! See what I did there? Sisyphean, Sisy, sissy? Man, sometimes I just crack myself up.
Anywho. I may not be posting as much in the next week or so because of it. I know I’ve just disappeared before, but this time, I am making an announcement! This divergence from the normal planetary routine will probably cause an increase in both the frequency and severity of sunspot activity, so expect interference with whatever it is that sunspot activity interferes with. I know it interferes with something because I saw that in a movie once.
Things I’ve Read This Week
Because it is the truncated version, this is going to be just everything collected so far in one confused grab bag.
We’ve made a new blogging friend! Be sure to check out Henri’s Happy Paintings where he displays his marvelous colorful paintings for kids of all ages. There’s some fun stuff to be found over there.
Wandering Chinese elephant herd, update: I really loved this story. I followed it all year. (1) They’re headed home, back to the reserve where they started out. (2) A NEW herd has ventured out. And (3) the Chinese surveillance state was instrumental in monitoring their progress and other adventures. There are cameras everywhere in China. They can locate any face in eight minutes anywhere in the country… okay, camera network. Is it limited to the country or does it extend beyond Chinese borders? Hmmm… Maybe. Maybe not.
The economic impact of #COVID19 will be affecting people around the world well into 2022 and the pessimist in me says beyond. The Diplomat reports on the massive job losses in SE Asia, which is why Cambodia’s prime minister keeps going out of his way to reassure us that the country is not going broke. While employment in the US has returned to pre-pandemic levels, there has been massive disruption to the world’s job situation and people are suffering mightily because of it.
Conspiracy Theories 401, The Recovery. Politico had this nifty article about how being a Bernie Broette primed one young woman to be a conspiracy theorist. Eagle-eyed readers or at least those with good memories will remember a Ye Olde Blogge reporting on the personality traits that Bernie Bros and MAGA Nation share. So, I told you so. I guess.
Organized foreign crime rings organize identity theft to fraudulently claim US jobless #COVID19 benefits to the tune of billions. This is an amazing story that if it slipped by you, you should go back and read. Identity theft and government sloppiness made it easy pickings for these folks.
From our favorite Aussie political cartoonist, The Carrot Conspiracy comes this little gem about The Post-Anthropocene Age. Give it a visit. I’m sure you’ll get a chuckle and a little bit more to worry about.
Bobcabkings invites us to help the poet, Pattimouse to help decide on the title of her next book of poetry. Have a look and give a vote. You’ll be glad you did.
That men over interpret the expressions and gestures of women is a well known science fact, here’s another finding that helps explain why men are such sexual dipshits. From our favorite, Neuroscience News, we get drinking impairs the ability of men to recognize facial expressions. Like we needed science to tell us that. No not tell us, confirm. Without the evidence it is just an observation like horse dewormer cures #COVID19.
If you thought blogging was a lonely adventure, wait till you catch up on the travel blog of solo RV’er, Alexis Chateau. In her latest, she wonders where all the millenials are in the RV parks. Having RV’ed to visit my mom — she’d book us side-by-side slips — I can tell you, it is still an older person’s thing.
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics! PLTHOMASEDD writes over at Radical Eyes for Equity, and exposes the ways that the GQP are whistling to their dogs through all the statistics. It’s a great post walking us through how statistics can be used to mislead and specifically the way conservative media is doing it.
PingBacks
- BURR DEMING‘s weekly list has been posted over at Fair and Unbalanced with its usual snarky annotation of various and sundry news and blog items from around the web.
- Of Cabbages and Kings is the maddest of the mad pingbackers! Not only does he link to Ye Olde Blogge pretty often and comments, too, he links to many others. Check out what Robert has linked to recently!
- Mock, Paper, Scissors provides a daily rundown of the day’s news and events littered with a pleasing amount of snark, sarcasm, and the occasional profanity.
- Mike’s Blog Round Up provides links to some of the Interwebs smaller quality blogs. It has been hosted by Crooks and Liars. for nearly 20 years now.
- I spend too much of my monday going through INFIDEL 753 ‘s weekly posting of interesting stuff from around the Internet. You should, too.
Huzzah!
Jack
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Image Attribution
“Key West, Feb 2012 – 08” by Ed Yourdon is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
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Categories: Cognitive Psychology
The Psy of Life 
From your comments I take it you’re living in SE Asia? Concerning school: I was teaching conversational English, after normal school hours,
and swimming on weekends, but because of the Covid situation, here in Thailand, I’ve had to postpone everything. Peace my friend.
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Howdy Chris!
Yes, I’m living in Cambodia, who has handled the #COVID19 pandemic surprisingly well… and they’re not going broke, or so the prime minister has repeatedly assured us. My wife and I teach at an international school, so rich kids. It’s fun and has let us see the world and help mitigate some of the suffering in each country we’ve lived in.
#COVID19 has limited us as well. School is back in session, but online. We can travel somewhat, but our daughter isn’t vaccinated, so we’re hesitant to expose her to the Delta variant.
We started off in the mid-90’s teaching conversation and then transitioned to being licensed school teachers to carry on. It’s been a good life.
Huzzah!
Jack
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Reblogged this on cabbagesandkings524 and commented:
Calico Jack – A busy week coming, money found, and more
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Wow! Your dear spouse back home and a windfall surprise thanks to the wonders of compound interest! I think my biggest found money ever was about $800 from a small life insurance policy my Dad bought in the 1950s, probably due to an error in buying a travel policy for a business trip that got filled in with the destination address rather than the home address and ended up in a state unclaimed property office.
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Howdy Bob!
We’re still chuckling over it. Of course, getting the money out of the vehicle will cost us tax-wise, so we’re looking at how best to do it.
I remember seeing the state of Texas advertising for people to claim abandoned and inactive bank accounts by listing the names in the local paper. Some of the accounts had quite a bit of money in it. Those unclaimed properties can add up. I’m glad you found your dad’s life insurance policy and was able to collect the money. $800.00 is a helpful amount.
Found money is always the best. It always seems like a bonus of some kind.
Huzzah!
Jack
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It does feel like a bonus, although in the case of claiming that insurance money there was a fairly complicated process involved, with the death certificate, my birth certificate, his will making me executor, etc. It all delayed settling the estate for about four months. I had to work for it and have not tried to calculate the pay rate per hour.
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Howdy y’all!
As promised, here’s the story of the astonishingly large amount of money Ma Belle Femme and I found under our virtual couch cushion. We got an email from our financial advisor that we’ve been working with for the past 25 years. He asked us what we wanted to do with an investment fund that we had started 25 years ago by taking money from our paychecks over the course of several years.
We had moved countries a few years after starting it and never updated the policy to take money from our new jobs. Essentially, we had forgotten about it. Forgotten all about it. As in, what the hell is he even talking about forgotten about it.
Then we looked at the amount. Over the years with interest rates and stuff, it had grown to $100,000.00 US. One Hundred Thousand US dollars. One. Hundred. Thousand.
Man, Christmas is going to be good this year. Nope. We’re paying off the newly purchased house as early as possible. It just goes to that. But, still. One hundred thousand dollars that we had no earthly idea that we had until the email arrived.
Can you believe it?
Now, what’s your found money story?
Huzzah!
Jack
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