The past few days we have been blessed with an out of town guest staying over. It reminds me of how pleasant it is to:

• Talk to someone older with a lot of life experience;
• who has experienced all these different cultures (Dutch, German, American, Australian) in her life;
• who is so full of life energy;
• with an infectious holistic approach to everything in life;
• and is an excellent Yoga instructor.

So this morning we got to enjoy a private Yoga lesson which brought us to extreme relaxation.

I am also more aware now about how much I enjoy entertaining a house guest. Or at least in the sense that the sharing of food (and other little comforts) really makes me happy. I have my partner to thank for that: I have never before enjoyed food this much in my life. The sharing of food (and looking forward to eating it) has become an increasingly important part of my life. I am definitely on a "seefood" diet...

There is a lot of talk in the media about so-called "green shoots" in the US economy after (Helicopter) Ben Bernanke first mentioned how he was seeing these "green shoots" of economic recovery in mid-march. I think it is a little early to be considering any form of "new growth" unless Ben was referring to the enormous growth in the US government spending (and the Fed's own balance sheets). I do not know that much about gardening but what I do know is this: when all the plants in my garden have been dying for months now and then they are suddenly dying a little bit less - I would not yet call this a sign of "green shoots" or that anything in my garden is "blossoming". I do have to say that it feels like perfect orchestrating by the US government: fool the fools (in the market) that recovery is on its way and then let them capitalize the banks.

On a weekend get-away in Luxembourg these past couple of days, we ran into a nice cartoon(contest) exhibition with a "green economy" theme (environmental). A few of these reminded me very much of the current crisis and of these much debated "green shoots".

The financial crisis has sometimes been referred to as the "Perfect Storm" and right now we might be in the "eye" of the storm. The drawing below at least visualizes the much-needed "deleveraging" of the financial system.

I consider myself to be quite social yet I do not believe I am a socialist. When someone is in need, there should be help. From family, from firends, from other humans, from society and the government. When someone loses his/her ability to work in an accident, that person should be taken care of. When a rich banker is cut on this multimillion dollar bonus because he screwed up, then screw him (or her). When that same banker can not be blamed for his company screwing up because he/she worked in the one department that was actually not making any bad investments and is still turning a profit (without government involvement), he/she can still say bye bye to his million dollar bonus. Or any bonus whatsoever.

How the United States has turned into one of the most socialist countries in the world in less than a year, I still can not understand. Do not blame the Democrats, the Bush administration started this all. Knowing that this form of socialism is of the most unfair kind in the world (Socialism for the rich), can really get my blood boiling.

The Netherlands have always been an outrightly socialist country. Though day-to-day warmth and kindness in the society or sometimes a lot harder to come by. The amount of government interference and rules can literally drive a person crazy. This has left the country in a state where it is more than often considered to be "OK" or excusable to live off other people. Those who know how to "play" the system well enough, - and do not have any moral hesitations in doing so - can get away with living their life in this country without making any effort to stand on their own.

I have learned to be quite tolerant with this kind of behavior. I do not like to see it legitimized though. The TV commercial from one of the health insurance agencies in the Netherlands talks about a guy named Jan Willem Bos. Jan Willem has a job (lucky him) but Jan Willem has a lot of stress. He is scared of losing his job because of the Great Recession. Jan Willem is so stressed that he can not go to work anymore. Jan Willem's boss does not know what to do with that. But that is ok, because Menzis (the health insurer) will take care of that.

Jan Willem gets to ride his bike around the city and sits down reading a newspaper. Jan Willem looks like a loser. To be honest, Jan Willem's behavior makes him a loser. Jan Willem is afraid of losing his job and therefore thinks it is ok to not do his job anymore. Not exactly the appropriate behavior for an employee? Definitely not something that we should be promoting in a TV commerical. Jan Willem should be fired right away. Jan Willem's boss should probably be fired as well because he obviously can not explain to Jan Willem that it is NOT OK to refuse to do your work. Jan Willem should feel lucky that he still has a job. That he lives in a wealthy country and that he probably only has to work 36 hours a week with a zillion holidays. Menzis should be scolded by our government for spreading such harmful propaganda. What if everyone suddenly feels like Jan Willem? And the worst thing about it: in this country Jan Willem can not be fired anymore. Since Jan Willem expressed his fear of being fired and now has mental issues - firing him is virtually impossible. Or at least not without a huge severance pay. I am all about being nice (and social) to each other. But here I have to draw the line. Jan Willem and Menzis have both crossed this line.

After many frustrating hours I finally managed to install MySQLdb for Python on my new Mac machine.

What went wrong? I made the mistake of installing a 64 bit version of MySQL 5.1 a couple of weeks ago. Python, however was build in 32 bit. There are many website dealing with this problem (see here and here) but it still did not seem to be solvable for me. After trying reinstalling the 32 bit MySQL and playing around with Fink (a package installer for Mac OS) I was about to try and start off from scratch. It turned out that even though I deleted the 64 bit MySQL and deleted the Fink MySQL package, some residual files where still left on the system. After removing all of the MySQL versions (both the Fink version in /sw/share/ and the MySQL package installed ones in /usr/local/mysql; /usr/local/mysql-version..) and reinstalling the right package one more time, I finally got MySQLdb too work. Here is moment of triumph:

The upside of my hours "wasted": I got to learn a little bit more about bash, building and compiling and setting colors on the terminal window.

In my 'younger' years I used to play a lot of (PC) video games. I must have spent hours playing games like the Settlers or Warcraft. When I grew older, I successfully fought the urge to immerse myself in these games. I also did not keep up with new game releases as frequently anymore. The time was spent well on other things. One thing I have noticed is that a lot of the times when I did play games, I always wanted to finish a game as quickly as possible. Not that I did not want to enjoy the game - I really did. But more that I wanted to experience the game completely, get through it and be done with it. In the case of First Person Shooters I often ended up using cheat codes to finish the game as quick as possible. I was not that interested in being an expert shooter, I just wanted to have finished the story.

A couple of times a year I still have this urge to play a computer game (aside from the occasional Wii-ing that I do). The last couple of times that went something like this: I install a game and start playing it. More and more hours are 'used' up on playing. I get frustrated with how much time this is costing me. I decide this is a waste of my time. The game is deleted from my computer and will not be played again.

Every time this happens (it does not happen a lot), I feel like I have overcome some kind of addiction.

On another note. If I have to choose my all-time favorite game it would probably be Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders. Sushi in fishbowl did not end the game well with me. She had to be transferred into that desk lamp and then somehow I could not resist the urge to "Turn on + Lamp".

These early (graphical) adventure games did wonders for my English btw.

In case you missed 2008 in terms of financial news (the BIG crisis), here is a musical overview to get you updated:

I recommend loading the song on your iPod for work-out memorization of the biggest meltdown in our lifetime.

This is actually a new version of a early 2008 video/song about the 2007 meltdown. Things got more interesting since then however and the quality of the video improved as well.

Another week of incredible news. Bad news that is. Yet it still feels that a lot of people are underestimating the severity of the crisis. I have to admit that initially I thought this crisis would mostly affect the USA. I knew that the rest of the world was going to be hit hard as well, but not 'as hard'. Now, it seems that the rest of the world is actually going to be hit harder. I can not help but feel that it all seems a little unfair. Not necessarily for Western Europe but mostly for the developing world.

At least we are living in very interesting times. Aside from all the doom and gloom, I am happy to be part of such a 'historically significant' time.

In the latest Heroes episode (season 3, episode 17), Noah Bennett uses the phrase morally grey again. Apart from me joking that morally grey would not make a nice wedding color, it also made me wonder what shade of grey it would really be. I actually believe 'morally grey' should not really exist - a contradictio in terminis maybe. Isn't something either 'good' or 'bad' and making any excuses just pulls it in the grey area and therefore admits it was 'bad'? I guess it also depends on what definition you go with.

As for the current state of the world: it seemed that for a lot of people in business and politics 'morally grey' was (and is) their favorite color. Makes you wonder when the day of reckoning is going to come.

I spent a good deal of my Saturday morning reading an elaborate rant by James Quinn titled "The Burning Platform".

Here are some of my thoughts (while reading the article):

• The disparity of wealth in the US always seemed enormous to me. Somehow the system seemed to sustain itself well in the past decades. Recently I have seriously started to question if the 'poor' in the US will put up with it much longer.
• Illegal immigrants are really convenient when you want someone to landscape your garden, tile your roof or make you brunch in one of your favorite restaurants. Seeing tens of -- probably illegal immigrant -- day laborers waiting in vain along the streets of Berkeley last december, was a little disturbing. Fully aware -- as they were -- that they were not going to be picked up that day anymore. Now that things are seriously slowing down and even the California 'rich' (a lot of them with jobs that anywhere else in the world would only grant them a 'middle class' life have little interest in hiring day laborers (tax free) for a day, it makes you wonder what all these 'laborers' are now going to for a living.
• Social unrest (and a upsurge in crime) cannot not be ruled out in the US. The same definitely applies to developing countries. China as the new world power will only happen if they can actually keep things together politically and socially.
• Good to read that our health care system is not even that inefficient. Yet I still believe it is extremely inefficient.
• I have always held the opinion that the US has become so wealthy (and pleasant country) partly because they were more inviting to immigrants. Immigrant were also happier to go there because they had a dream (the American Dream). Hard-working immigrants has always been a large part of the backbone of the US economy. These immigrants were the cheap laborers of the US economy. It is now interesting to see that one of the solutions for America's problems might be to let in highly educated immigrants. I have always supported similar ideas in Holland -> do not have strict immigration laws against highly skilled/educated petitioners. On a socialist level that might however touch some sensitive nerves because it stresses the fact that not every man is equal. How about this proposition: give anyone a US green card who has a Master's degree or higher and invests $500,000 or more in the US (buys a house for example).
• The part about the military industrial complex it a little scary. I do not see the US downsizing it army personnel in the near future however. That would only add to the fast growing jobless mob.
• This is an interesting quote: "The founding fathers envisioned representatives who did their civic duty for a short time and then went back to their real profession." A country that has a law that prevents anyone from become a full time politician might fare better. I agree that it would be wise to set a 6 to 8 year term limit for US Congressmen.
• What is it with developed countries making their tax systems so extremely complicated. Why do I pay taxes for one thing and get refunds or deductibles for others things.
• What a mess we find ourselves in. And yes, this crisis will effect every person on this planet -- if not directly, then indirectly.

Anyone who wants a thorough explanation of how the Credit of Crisis actually came about should watch this awesome video:

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

I was sad to reach the end of the video. Maybe they can eventually do a follow up that explains the government interference in the markets (bail outs etc.) and the politics and corruption that are fueling part of this crisis. The video was extremely non-partisan or judgmental. Everyone seemed to just do there job and wanted to make money. That this also led to outright greed and morally questionable behavior cannot be gotten from this video.