Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Jeff's LiveJournal:

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Monday, June 2nd, 2008
7:49 pm	numbers Usain Bolt has set a new world record in the 100 meter dash. I'm impressed most when I run the calculations and realize that running 100 meters in 9.72 seconds means a human speed of better than 23 miles per hour. Enough to get a speeding ticket in certain condominium developments. (Comment on this)
Thursday, May 1st, 2008
8:45 pm	false alarm, for now The potential bone marrow recipient with whom I was a potential match will not be receiving a transplant at this time, due to a change in circumstances. This, according to the most recent letter I received from the donor registry. So I go back into the pool of potential donors, at least until I turn 62. (Comment on this)
Sunday, April 6th, 2008
6:38 pm	sarcasm alert The Ann Arbor News, which recently enjoyed attention in the New York Times for a shockingly obvious feature describing how high-profile student athletes at the University of Michigan are funneled into easy classes in order to maintain academic eligibility, returns to the forefront of groundbreaking journalism with this article on home foreclosures, which appeared in the print edition of the paper under the following headline: "Unpaid mortgages get residents evicted" Is that how it happens? Wow, who knew? I hope the housing bubble keeps imploding for at least another year. Let the bodies hit the floor! (Comment on this)
Thursday, February 14th, 2008
8:03 am	something different Checking e-mail this morning, I found the following headline: YOU ARE A POTENTIAL BONE MARROW MATCH - PLEASE CALL!! Was it spam? No. In 2003, at a Red Cross blood drive, I had an extra blood sample taken to register myself with a national database of potential bone marrow donors. Apparently now my time has come. Maybe. Next step is to make an appointment and get more blood drawn to determine if this really is a match, or just a false alarm. Updates to come. Current Mood: curious (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 25th, 2007
7:21 pm	bittersweet I got my wish, a tricycle, one Christmas long ago. I opened up the box and that's not what it looked like, though. It looked like random pieces, like a hardware store had spilt. Instructions didn't help, I guess. We never got it built. This year my wish is peace, but... ...what if it already showed? And came in parts, and we're too dumb to get it on the road? --Jeff Mallet, cartoonist, Frazz Merry Christmas to one and all. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 18th, 2007
12:23 pm	turning through the years Another eatery opened earlier this summer in the Storefront Of Death, 414 South Main Street in Ann Arbor, where I used to work when it was W.G. Grinders sandwich shop. Zenaida Lounge (née Zenaida Chocolate Lounge) limped along in that space for a year and change before closing last December. By late next summer, I anticipate writing a similar obituary for Marnee Thai. "The restaurant was nearly empty both times" the reviewer dined there. You think?! (Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007
2:35 pm	microcosm Familiarize yourself with the insights of Jim Kunstler, whose weekly "Clusterfuck Nation" column is a good primer on what's really going on behind gas prices, which this afternoon are settling in around $3.65 per gallon in greater Lansing. And be afraid. (Comment on this)
Thursday, February 8th, 2007
12:29 pm	fame From The Onion: Thousands Lose Jobs As Michigan Unemployment Offices Close (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, January 22nd, 2007
4:26 pm	that which does not kill us They did it again. From Pfizer's press release: "In Research and Development, the company is planning to close three research sites in the United States -- Ann Arbor, MI, Esperion (also in Ann Arbor) and Kalamazoo, MI" but at least the folks in and around K'zoo will still get to enjoy the stench of Pfizer's manufacturing operation, which will remain where it is in Portage. The departure of what R&D remains in downtown Kalamazoo is dismaying but not, I'm afraid, much of a surprise. A couple of years ago, when their downtown presence was shrinking through the demolition of numerous buildings, I wondered aloud if it wouldn't be better for the company to pull out completely from the central city. Evidently, we shall see. In addition to being miserable corporate "citizens" in comparison to Upjohn, the physical presence of Pfizer's facilities has always been bleak and forbidding. Fortresslike windowless buildings and enormous fenced-in surface parking lots only detract from the vitality of a central business district that otherwise has grown stronger every year this decade. Indeed, given that only* 250 jobs are going away, the greatest impact on the downtown will be the blank slate left behind when the closures are completed by the end of 2008. So the kid in me is weirdly excited. The former Upjohn Co. is as dead as it will ever get, its heart and soul having been decimated in successive waves ever since the mid-1990s and now finally torn out wholesale for reimplantation somewhere else. Who knows where and really, who cares? In its wake, Kalamazoo will have huge swaths of vacant property on the south end of downtown. Pfizer frowns on sharing with others the things it no longer needs, so I predict the demolition of their remaining buildings. My unsolicited advice to the City Commission: a proactive rezoning of all the land. Either target the area for high-density, owner-occupied residential units, or create a framework for something entirely new, a mixed-use urban district comparable to the embryonic redevelopment of the east side riverfront. If the community can avoid excessive handwringing, I believe there lies beneath this latest crisis a genuine opportunity. * While the loss of 250 jobs is never insignificant, at least Kalamazoo has learned to endure such abuse before, usually on a much larger scale. Ann Arbor's losses are the real stunner here: the entire R&D operation, close to 2,000 jobs spread out over a campus nearly as large as the Portage manufacturing site, is to disappear, also by the close of 2008. I never would have guessed. Bad things don't happen to Ann Arbor. Current Mood: resigned (Comment on this)
Friday, December 8th, 2006
5:30 pm	the money pit I note with smug satisfaction the closure of Zenaida Lounge, née Zenaida Chocolate Lounge, the doomed-from-day-one business that occupied space once leased by my former employer, W.G. Grinder's in downtown Ann Arbor. The ground floor retail spaces in that building will continue to serve as a revolving door for any business owner dumb enough to operate anything other than a front for laundering drug money. Say... Much more upsetting: the same weekly column in the Ann Arbor News from last Friday, reporting that another former employer of mine shuttered its newest store. Tios Stone School never built enough consistency in its business to pay the rent on its mammoth on-site commmissary. The owners' plans to expand the Tios brand through franchising also appear to have died a quiet death. (Comment on this)
Saturday, November 18th, 2006
7:16 pm	a word about the game Fuck. (Comment on this)
Friday, November 17th, 2006
8:10 pm	man in the mirror Earlier this week, I tried to load my LiveJournal page and got something unfamiliar instead. Though the page clearly said mindgasm at the top, the formatting was very different. I felt a wave of mild panic as my mind considered the odd possibility that a malicious program had infested my computer. Closing Firefox and going back to LJ appeared to solve the problem. But it just happened again a little while ago. I looked closer only to see that my moniker is no longer unique. I concocted the name "mindgasm" while on a plane from Frankfort to Detroit Metro, at the end of my spring break trip to Germany. I'd tired of reading whatever books I had with me. I don't recall precisely my motivation at the time, but I distinctly remember I was ready to move on from my first LiveJournal persona, enigmaticblue. Ideally my new identity would convey the same spirit of the old, but perhaps with less pretentiousness. I think I bombed on that part, but the journal lives on. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
3:21 pm	Counterpoint Read the following account of what happened to a UCLA student who refused to comply with campus security officers' request. See also this more indignant take on the incident. I'll offer a couple points of discussion. Could the moral of the story not be "Student learns common sense the hard way" - common sense being that, when a uniformed law officer asks you to do something, you do it? Complain later if necessary. I find it not at all unreasonable to enforce an affiliates-only policy in university buildings after a late hour. Whether the student was aware of this policy is unclear. Whether the apprehending officers explained the policy before attempting to escort him from the library is not explicitly stated in the article that I could find. Of course, these days, the whole world is watching. The first three minutes of video reveal some unknown miscommunication between the student and the two officers attempting to remove him from the premises. The student repeatedly states that he was trying to leave. The officers repeat their command to "stand up" at least a couple dozen times. What "medical condition" the student refers to having is unclear. About all that is clear to me is that the officers were white, the student was not, and since it happened in Los Angeles, race will infinitely stymie objective discussion of the matter. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
9:55 am	two things I. Milton Friedman, free-market economist, dies. The Wall Street Journal pays tribute by printing its front page entirely in black, though looking closer one realizes that Friedman's profile appears in a ghostly dark grey. II. The Game Predictions for tomorrow: - Ohio State scores first - Game is knotted 14-14 at halftime - Michigan wins in the final 1:30 with a field goal FINAL SCORE Wolverines 23, Buckeyes 21 If so, a Jan. 8 rematch becomes more likely. I don't know if that's a good thing. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, November 12th, 2006
9:29 pm	Via a New York Times columnist, on George Allen, ousted Virginia senator whose awkward, psuedo-racist remarks at a campaign event contributed to his defeat, and ultimately turned the Senate over to Democratic control: "As it happened, the “macaca” who provoked the senator’s self-destruction, S. R. Sidarth, was not an immigrant but the son of immigrants. He was born in Washington’s Virginia suburbs to well-off parents (his father is a mortgage broker) and is the high-achieving graduate of a magnet high school, a tournament chess player, a former intern for Joe Lieberman, a devoted member of his faith (Hindu) and, currently, a senior at the University of Virginia. He is even a football jock like Mr. Allen. In other words, he is an exemplary young American who didn’t need to be “welcomed” to his native country by anyone. The Sidarths are typical of the families who have abetted the rapid growth of northern Virginia in recent years, much as immigrants have always built and renewed our nation. They, not Mr. Allen with his nostalgia for the Confederate “heritage,” are America’s future. It is indeed just such northern Virginians who have been tinting the once reliably red commonwealth purple." [Emphasis mine. Sweet, sweet irony.] And that's all the gloating I'm going to do. Human events have me hopeful as they haven't in years. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 29th, 2006
8:59 am	what's on your mind? Last night I dreamed that I was eating live mice. Chewing, crushing, swallowing, everything. And the worst part of it was knowing that I was killing innocent, delicate little creatures - not the taste or texture, which would probably be more objectionable in reality. I was chowing down on pets, not vermin. It was unpleasant. [/understatement] (Comment on this)
Saturday, July 15th, 2006
5:13 pm	Partnership for a Drug-Free America? From the Disturbing Trends department: The New York Times reports today on the increasing prevalence of heavily medicated youth at summer camps. "Between a quarter and half of the youngsters at any given summer camp take daily prescription medications, experts say." In a sign that dysfunction begets dysfunction, a private company has found a market in purchasing and prepackaging doses of the most commonly taken drugs, which are then sold in bulk to camp infirmaries so as to simplify the process of distributing the campers' meds. A pediatrics faculty member at the University of Michigan is quoted saying "...we know that the people prescribing these drugs are not that precise about diagnosis. So the percentage of kids on these meds is probably higher than it needs to be.” Probably? I'd say he's being too diplomatic. If any pharmacists or physicians should happen to read this post, I wonder what they'd have to say about why today's kids are so doped up. Is it the aggressive, irresponsible marketing practices of pharmaceutical companies? Is it the failure of parents to devote sufficient time and attention to their children, abdicating these duties in order to work more hours to pay for treating depression and other mood disorders that might not exist if they took a more personal role? Or is there a legitimate reason? Maybe the U-M pediatrician is wrong and better diagnoses really are discovering problems that have never been treated to the degree that they should. Maybe it's just coincidence that "a tenfold increase in childhood allergies over the last decade" dates back to precisely the time that direct-to-consumer marketing of prescription pharmaceuticals became legal. As I recall, it was the summer of 1995 that the onslaught of ask-your-doctor advertising began, and seasonal allergy medications were among the very first products pitched in such a way. Not to be cynical, or anything. Read the article and shake your head in sadness if you're so inclined. I'm more inclined than ever to pursue a child-free life. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 11th, 2006
10:37 am	F--k you, too Trying to start a meaningful if potentially contentious discussion, I asked, "Dad, at what point do you consider the fetus to be a viable human life?" He replied, "When you graduate college and get a damn job, and not an instant before!" Current Mood: silly (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, July 8th, 2006
4:19 pm	I've never posted one of these But I found it refreshingly non-inane. I'll appreciate the effort of anyone who takes the test and is willing to share what he or she finds out. You are a Social Liberal (80% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (31% permissive) You are best described as a: Strong Democrat Link: The Politics Test Speaking of politics, I heard someone defending Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert against an alleged ethical lapse as follows: "He [Rep. Hastert] doesn't have an evil bone in his body." Parse carefully. What went unsaid was that Hastert is a worm and therefore has no bones at all. Still, I'm not sure I agree with "strong Democrat." I strongly agreed with statements such as (paraphrased) "It is unfortunate but inevitable that millions of people starve" and "People who don't use a lot of government services should pay less in taxes"* and "Something like natural selection explains why some people are homeless." *In my mind, I interpret this as "If you aren't willing to pay your fair share of taxes, then don't bitch about the level of government services you receive." What's that - the ambulance took 45 minutes to arrive when you had your heart attack or stroke? Paramedics knew not to hurry because they cross-referenced your name and address with the database of who pays how much in taxes, and you were on the stingy list. That's one of my visions of a perfect world. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
4:01 pm	squatter@umich.edu Apparently, since I'm writing this from the Michigan Union, one's uniqname and password remain valid even after one's M-Card expires (11 Jun 2006). What the hell? I haven't had University e-mail in over a year, but am I going to be able to log in on the computers here forever? (Comment on this)