From CFA Institute.

Vices, Virtues, and a Little Humor: 30 Quotes from Financial History

I was not at all familiar with Bob Dylan until I went away to college on the East Coast in the early 1980s. Not really his best era, but I dug up all of his old stuff and as someone said, It was like busting out of jail. Here’s a list of my favorite Dylan songs, in no particular order and only from albums I actually own.

• Mississippi – Love and Theft
• Brownsville Girl – Knocked Out Loaded
• Shooting Star – Oh Mercy
• Like a Rolling Stone – Highway 61 Revisited
• Things Have Changed – Side Tracks
• Tangled Up In Blue – Live at Wembly Stadium
• George Jackson – Side Tracks
• Everything is Broken – On Mercy
• Mr Tambourine Man – Bringing it All Back Home
• Where Are You Tonight? (Journey Through Dark Heat) – Street Legal

Or listen to the Spotify Playlist.

Before we left Texas I saw a small mouse in the garage. Had never had problems with rodents but figured I’d deal with it. Set out some traps. Noticed some fluff under one of the cars. It was insulation, probably dug out by said rodent. Looked under the hood and he was definitely there at some point. Caught him and thought it was done. Fast forward a few months, after having the car shipped to New Mexico, the A/C started making an ungodly noise. Figured something happened during the move. Brought it to the local dealer to be fixed and it seems said mouse had probably set up housekeeping in my A/C vent. I suppose I got the last laugh (not that anyone is laughing) but he still cost me a big repair bill.

It seems the new Pope has New Orleans roots. He comes from a Creole family from the 7th Ward, Baquie / Martinez. From Verite News.

Pope with Creole ties could usher in era of transparency for Catholics

Google has added this AI overview to its searches. Aside from being anoying and frequently inaccurate, it probably burns up tons of energy doing lots of stuff I don’t want. So save the planet and perhaps a bit of your time and sanity.

Does One Line Fix Google?

We recently moved to Placitas, NM. This weekend is the 28th annual studio tour where dozens of artists in the community open their studios for showings of their work. We really wanted to try and see them all, but we will be lucky to get to half. There is an overwhelming amount of great stuff to see (and buy). We will see how much ground we can cover tomorrow. Have a look through the web sites. I had no idea we were going to have such talented neighbors.

The 28th Annual Placitas Studio Tour – May 9, 10 & 11, 2025

I don’t live in Texas anymore in large part because of ongoing erosion of basic rights like this.

The Texas-Sized Plan To Shut You Up

From Scientific American. Thought I saved this one already but I guess not.

AI’s Bullshitting Obscures Who’s to Blame for Its Mistakes

We recently moved from Austin TX to Placitas NM. I was always interested in putting in solar / battery but the numbers I came up with for the house in Austin were daunting. Of course most of our bill was air conditioning in the summer plus a pool pump that ran every day for 8 hours. Here in New Mexico we dont have a pool and the weather is milder. Plus the house seems to be built in a way that uses less energy. We have only gotten our first power bill but my wife remarked that she hasn’t seen a bill this low since she lived in an apartment.

This brings up a conundrum for Going Green. The investment will be much smaller, perhaps as much as 5x smaller. But then the saving will also be smaller. It makes it less appealing in some ways. We will probably get a full years worth of electrical bills and then figure it out. We will probably go with solar / batteries either way, but now I am of the mind that building better houses that use more efficient appliances might be the bigger win in this energy transition.