Odds and ends.

A few things on my mind, but not yet ready for this week's Martin World News.

First, we just got back from IHOP, where Laurie decided to order the Mega Monster Cheeseburger.  In a huge case of the eyes being bigger than the stomach  mouth opening, she actually had to cut it into wedges to get it into her jaws:

That was approximately a 1/5th slice of this thing.  1/3 of the MMC came home with us.  And I ate her fries, leftover onion chunks, and that poor crumpled up piece of unloved lettuce.


Next up is that I had my work performance review Friday.  Rather than brag upon myself, I wanted to discuss the difference between a current job review and a former job review.

Current:  "We look at five sections of job performance, asking several questions in each one.  We use the answers to grade you on each section."

Former:  "We pretty much base everything on your attendance and how well your overall group is doing, factoring in personality traits that annoy us."

Current:  Chris:  "I gave you something on a silver platter to give me a negative on" (i.e. I just was out sick for two days).
Boss:  "That happens to everyone."

Former:  "EVERYTIME YOU MISS A DAY, SOMEONE HAS TO DO YOUR JOB!  YOU MUST COME IN EVERY DAY!"

Current: "We base your yearly raise on the grade you get on the review.  Here's how much you went up (about 3%)."

Former:  "You hit top scale 15 years ago.  COLA is something you drink."

Current:  You are a great team player, and a valued employee.  Thank you."

Former:  "If your group doesn't pick things up, you can all be replaced (with cheaper Mexican labor)."


This, BTW, is NO exaggeration.  I thank God every day for how fortunate I am.

Next, for anyone who might possibly care:  I am going to post a weekly report on the hockey leagues I'm following on the heretofore-slumbering fantasy football page.  Some leagues are in their playoffs, and others are closing in.  I will be covering any of the teams I'm following if they make their finals RIGHT HERE ON THE MAIN BLOG.  Until and unless, though, you are safe.  Unless you want to go over and peek at how bad China dragon is doing.

Finally, I got asking our IRA guy (Moore and Associates, here in FTW!) about the endless annoying ads about "the price of silver doubling" and "ensure your future by buying our silver Polar Bear coins".  Basically these ads try to convince you that the world is almost out of silver and  the price will soon skyrocket.  Our guy said, number one, we are not running out of silver.  Which makes sense, because the ad says, "there is only about $4 of silver left per person."  At current prices, that is about a 1/5th of an ounce.  At 7.147 billion the current population of the world, that would work out to roughly 45,000 tons of silver.  Wikipedia quotes experts as saying the world reserve is roughly 12 times that number.

Given that their angle of scarcity is BS, our guy explained that while supply and demand has some effect, the main drive of metals prices (gold and silver) depends upon government economic policy and how much money is in circulation.  As a result, he told us, the stock market (and thus our IRAs ) went up solidly last year, while gold tanked.  He said the main things driving their ad campaigns are a) they have a buttload of silver and they want to get rid of it, and b) they are unregulated and can say any half-assed thing they want and get away with it.

Now I understand how it can be that, even though we have such a "silver shortage", they can sell you 20 silver Polar Bears and give you 5 free.

Oh, look! the poor guy is drowning because Global Warming melted his iceberg!  Or, maybe he's just hungry and going out for a seal.