Yeah, yeah. The last post smelled a bit like sour grapes.

I've been working hard for a major milestone coinciding with E3.

I am not a gambler. The only gambling I've done has been in the giant government-sanctioned casino of the stock market. I have gotten nothing but screwed for it. Every time it appears that I might hit a minor jackpot, events seem to conspire against me.

I had lingering stock options at Broadcom which I had to exercise by 17 April (90 days after leaving the company). A bunch at 8-something and a bunch at 15.75. The stock was at 14 the day before my deadline. It had been fluctuating around the 14 mark for a while, so I cashed in the 8s. The next day, I was excited that the stock jumped a bit. It was at 16.50 and suddenly my worthless 15.75 options weren't underwater. I sold them; it was the last day they were viable. It wasn't worth much, but something is better than nothing.

So today the stock is at 18.50, which means I would have made more than triple what I did on the 15s. It ties my stomach in knots. Dammit! Is there any way I'm going to make back the $150,000+ AMT screwage from momentary paper gains I am never going to realize?!

It's been three years since the AMT debacle and thinking about it fills me with rage. I may never forgive the government for stealing all my savings.

What bothers me most about this is that I am upset about any of it. The only reason I care is because of Greed; I want that money. And wanting it makes me sick.

BUNNY!

I just remembered that I love nacho cheese Doritoes.

Supermarket checkout:

Mother: 2 kids, 5 and 7 yrs old, bananas, two boxes of sugary cereal, bananas, bag o' salad, bananas, 2 pounds of chicken, box of white wine, pack of menthol cigarettes.

Me: 3-day beard, jeans and fraternity t-shirt, deli sandwich, ambrosia salad, box of Ritz crackers, cheddar cheese spread.

Thin woman: makeup, tan slacks and red blouse, 4 six-packs of diet coke, 4 cans of slim-fast, two market tabloids.

Alan Greenspan on patents:

"Ownership of physical property is capable of being defended by police, the militia or private mercenaries," he said.

"Ownership of ideas is far less easily protected."

One ancient example, he commented, was that of calculus, the mathematical tool discovered by Gottfried Leibniz and Sir Isaac Newton in the 17th century, noting that their discovery was made freely available, triggering massive intellectual advances elsewhere.

"Should we have protected their claim in the same way that we do for the owners of land?" he asked.

"Or should the law make their insights more freely available to those who would build on them, with the aim of maximising the wealth of the society as a whole? Are all property rights inalienable, or must they conform to a reality that conditions them?"

Grotius (father of international law, died in 1645) on the war with Iraq:

Q: OK, I'm relieved to hear you say that. But here's the problem. How do we know when to believe a leader who says he's waging war for another people's freedom, and when he's abusing our credulity to achieve other aims?

Grotius: Pretexts of that kind cannot always be allowed, [as] they may often be used as the cover of ambitious designs. But right does not necessarily lose its nature from being in the hands of wicked men. The sea still continues a channel of lawful intercourse, though sometimes navigated by pirates, and swords are still instruments of defense, though sometimes wielded by robbers or assassins.

The Totem had an outage for a couple hours today. It was caused by something going bad at the central telephone office. Seems fine now.