So the US Government thinks that sending everyone $600 (or so) as economic stimulus will spin up spending and everyone will have new big screen TVs and expensive watches.

My check was deposited last night and this morning AMEX got a payment. Not exactly what government economists expected.

Apparently I am not the only one thinking this way. A lot of the finance blogs (including $1 Million to My Name) bring up this very point.

Then again, when I get my payout for the company buyout that just happened I am going to pay off a chunk of my truck and dump the rest in my IRA.

I just passed the 1/3 marker on my way to 700 miles. We are just about 1/3 of the way though the year- I’m on track to do this.

April has been tough for me. I laid off a bit after the 10k and got a bit lazy. Then I did things like yard work instead of running. Good for the health, not so much for the distance. Plus it got hot enough not to be able to run at noon or after work, luckily I have been waking up at 5 am for some unknown reason. This has allowed me to run in the coolness of early morning. It is dark and quiet which allows me to think about life, work, friends, and anything else that I happen to be pondering.

Today is Eeyore’s Birthday Party here in Austin. I’m probably going to head down there this afternoon.

As of about 8pm last night, my company officially “merged” with Dell. We had our intro meeting this morning and our Day One stuff is this afternoon.

Same. As. It. Ever. Was.

And no, I did not and will no make millions. I don’t know what the final number is but I am hoping for low thousands. It will help pay off my truck. I did get a nice laptop backpack though. Exciting isn’t it?

Off to get the Dell chip implant, hopefully the scar from the IBM chip doesn’t hinder them.

Today is the one year anniversary of the Virginia Tech shootings.

It is hard to imagine what the families and community has had to deal with. They need our continued support and vigilance.

I just got the email about the 2008 ACL Festival lineup (full list available here).

Things that standout to me:

Big names include: Foo Fighters, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Beck, John Fogerty, and The Raconteurs.

Smaller, but cool names include: The Mars Volta, Gnarles Barkley, Robert Early Keen, Patty Griffin, Iron & Wine, Neko Case, Silversun Pickups, The Black Keys, Against Me, and G. Love.

Pleasant surprises: Jakob Dylan is touring (and I can understand his words); also What Made Milwakee Famous, MGMT, and Joe Bonamassa will all be here.

It all kicks off September 26th.

I have my ticket, but Al’s Bash is that same weekend… Decisions decisions.

Don’t forget Weekend At Mookie’s in just over two weeks. I got Friday off, so I am ready to go. I should have taken Monday off as well…

Test post to see how the WordPress upgrade went.

The blog is now on the new 2.5 version. 2.5 has a hugely different admin UI but all of my plugins still seem to be working.

Here is a new feature list for those interested.