Lately a lot of questions have been floating around; Bailout or not? Recession or not? It’s hard to make sense of what happened and how we got here. If you’re like me, you know just enough to get you in trouble but not much beyond that. I suggest you take a listen to this.

This American Life’s most recent episode Another Frightening Show About The Economy explains in plain English just how big the hand basket is:

Alex Blumberg and NPR’s Adam Davidson—the two guys who reported our Giant Pool of Money episode—are back, in collaboration with the Planet Money podcast. They’ll explain what happened this week, including what regulators could’ve done to prevent this financial crisis from happening in the first place. You can learn more about the daily ins and outs and join the discussion on the Planet Money blog.

You know what? Shit like this isn’t helping.

As mentioned in the above blurb, NPR has a new blog called “Planet Money” that’s chronicling current events related to this issue. You can follow it here.

Apparently there have been numerous reports lately in regards to the safety of the bridge (a major artery that sees almost 60 million crossings each year). The Federal Bridge Corporation had responded saying that the bridge would be closed if there was any real danger to the public, but just 2 years ago we had an unexpected overpass collapse, which killed several people.

There are already some maintenance plans under way for the bridge, and some ideas floating around for replacing or expanding the bridge…but people I know take that bridge everyday and they’ve commented that they already feel nervous each time they cross.

Some people seem to think that these commercials fail to communicate anything, but I have to disagree.

While it’s true that there doesn’t appear to be any crunch to the information being presented, I think the message it communicates is much clearer. If you haven’t seen them, the ad spots present Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld as an oddball couple in mundane-yet-bizarre situations.

They’re not (overtly) trying to sell anything, they’re not trying to recreate the Seinfeld TV episodes, they’re not trying to outwit the Mac vs PC adds. They’re just having fun and saying “Look. We’re not taking ourselves too seriously and neither should you.”

Ultimately, I think the goal was to refresh the Microsoft image into something a little more fun, carefree, and not the cold, unfeeling corporate machine that most people associate with the name. Whether or not they succeeded is a subjective matter that I leave in your capable hands.

I’m not a Microsoft fanboy, I’m not a Mac fanboy, I’m not an anything fanboy lies!, but I think these ads were hilarious and I’ll be sad to see them go.

@%$#^!!!!

I had to Flintstone’s it back to our place.

There. There’s your damn update!

After struggling with the pool (leaks, uncooperative weather), the stars aligned and we took a dip this past Sunday afternoon. The water was cool and the sun didn’t stay out for very long, but we had enough time to splash around a bit and feel refreshed.

Both of our birthdays passed and gifts were exchanged. No cake though, which is unfortunate. I snagged a DS Lite and the New Super Mario Bros. game while she got a pair of tickets to le Cirque, which we’ll be seeing later in September.

Well, I hope I’ll be seeing it. I gave her both tickets so I supposed I need to be on my best behaviour.

I picked up a few more games for the DS; Brain Age 1 & 2, Puzzle Quest, Big Brain Academy and The World Ends With You (which is exquisite). Soizic seems to have taken a liking to Super Mario Bros however, and I am barely able to wrest the device from her hands for my daily training.

I fear our union may dissolve with the release of Chrono Trigger DS.

After 3 weeks of waiting, some of our furniture has finally been delivered! Our living room set arrived last night around 10:00 PM, and the delivery guys still had 4 more drops to make! The dining room set should arrive on Sunday…

My neighbor (and friend)’s shed caught fire Thursday morning and almost burned down the neighborhood. The last part is a slight exaggeration. As we were getting ready to head off to work yesterday morning, a strange orange glow caught my eye. I looked outside the window and sure enough, their entire shed was a writhing inferno, a thick plume of black smoke drifted in the wind above.

I called 911 but they were already aware and said the firemen were on the way so I rushed outside and across the street. His girlfriend and their kids were leaving the house in their pajamas (he was off to work at a construction site already). No one was panicking (visibly anyways) which was a good sign.

One of the other neighbors tried to approach the blaze with a garden hose but the heat was too much. We later learned that the internal temperature of the fire had reached 1000 degrees. I took the neighbors across the street and back to our place where she called her husband. A lot of people came out of their houses to watch the show.

Meanwhile the flames had gutted the shed and were now going after the surrounding fences and overhanging power-lines, which obligingly began to snap, crackle and pop like it was breakfast time.

After a few moments the firemen arrived and took charge of the scene, the fire was controlled and extinguished.

The aftermath: They lost everything that was in the shed; bicycles, car tires (new), toys, expensive tools, their backyard pool pump & filter and part of the pool itself was melted, so they have to scrap the entire thing. The back corner of their fence has completely disappeared, and there is some heat damage to the sheds and patios of some of their neighbors.

The good side is that no one was injured, and their house wasn’t damaged. The firemen think it was the pool timer that sparked and started the blaze.

Funny story: The husband works on a construction site about 10 minutes away. They were working on a roof and saw the smoke rising in the distance, casually commenting “Wow, something’s really burning…”. Cue the husband’s cell phone starts to ring, he sees our number calling him. “Hello?” It’s his wife: “Honey, our shed is on fire.” He drops his tool belt and starts running, calling over his shoulder “C’est chez nous!!!!”

Hearing a lot of good things about The Dark Knight, so I’m looking forward to seeing that this Friday.

We’re having a lot of fun with the D&D campaign. The theme so far is “zombie apocalypse” and I think the players are really enjoying it. I’ve put up a brief log of the game so far here, but some of the players have been working on much more detailed character blogs that you can check out too.

Work is busy as usual, which is good news in the greater scheme of things.

Speaking of work, back to it…

You can find more details about the campaign by clicking here and then clicking on “Campaign”. In there you’ll find some details on the characters as well as player blogs.

Too bad it costs $21,000. Link.