Barry Bonds Squash And Some Random Thoughts

Things have been a little crazy on the work/study front this week as I am trying to come to terms with my schedule for the fall semester. It looks like I might get more obsessed with saving minutes instead of saving dollars for the next few weeks.

Also, with each passing day in grad school, I have a better understanding of why “PhD” stands for “Permanent head Damage.”

Anyways, look what I got from our farmer’s market yesterday:

That’s a long squash in the picture. The tennis ball is just to give you a size reference.

At almost 3 feet, this is probably the longest squash I have ever seen. It weighed about 5 pounds and cost us about $6. The moment I saw it, I named it as “Barry Bonds Squash” because:

• well, it looked like a baseball bat (almost).

• it also looked pretty juiced up.

I was later relieved to find out that this variety of long squash can indeed grow naturally up to three feet. Sorry Barry Bonds, no stimulants involved.

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A Novel TV Idea

Here is an excerpt from a small piece of on BBC about the much touted $100 laptop:

“One of the things that has been developed in concert with the laptop is a device that can be used to power it,” said Mr Blizzard.

The OLPC [One Laptop Per Child] is fitted with a ripcord that owners can crank to power up the device.

“What we are hoping is you will be able to get a 10 to one ratio - that is for each minute you pull and crank on the laptop you can get 10 minutes use out of it.”

Here is a fancy idea - someone should apply that technology to TVs (and on the pretext of global warming, make such TVs mandatory). Instead of a ripcord, just design it with some treadmill or a cycling machine. Want to watch TV? .. here, run on that treadmill for about 30 minutes - that will power the TV up for the next hour.

The only worry about this idea is that dedicated couch potatoes will start hiring cheap labor (or perhaps dogs or other suitable animals) to run on treadmills to keep their TV running.

Who knows, may be it will work well for the kids.

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Read Letters From Credit Card Companies Carefully

In light of the ongoing mortgage mess, watch out for letters from credit card companies in your mailbox. They may probably be carrying important changes to your interest rates, credit limits, introductory offers, etc. Here is an excerpt from an article on Yahoo Finance that suggests that the subprime fallout may prompt credit card companies to change the terms and conditions on your account:

Credit card issuers, meanwhile, have begun to take steps to protect themselves. Curtis Arnold, CEO of CardRatings.com, has seen evidence of issuers boosting transfer fees and introductory rates, reducing the periods for which lower introductory rates are valid and even lowering credit limits on existing cardholders, including some prime customers.

People who are borrowing large amounts on 0% APR credit cards should be especially careful about this.