I remember hearing somewhere that Alcohol and Entertainment were generally unaffected by the Great Depression of the 1930’s. The idea being that people were still spending money on things that provided relief from day-to-day woes.

So I get’s ta thinkin’.  What sort of things would people hold onto nowadays? Drinking would surely stick around, but I don’t think Grey Goose will continue selling as before. Malt Liquor on the other hand. I do a bit of research (read: I looked it up on wikipedia) and found that Old English has taken a dive since October.

Then I start plugging random things. Things that I imagine are strong. Walmart? Down. Halliburton? Down. McDonalds, Verizon, Apple, Down, Down, Down.

Then a light in the fog. 99 cent store, almost tripled since October. What? Lets try Dollar Tree. Dollar Tree? Doubled.

I guess it makes sense. Even with their recent price increase, 99 cent store is slowly becoming a one stop savings shop for anything you need from household items to food. If they manage to keep their prices low and follow through on ideas like a ‘gourmet section‘ and wine/beer sales, they will probably take a hefty chunk of Walmart customers and make it through these times on top.

Of course, as I am clearly well versed with all the in’s and out’s of investing, you should forget the grain of salt and jump at my financial advice immediately.

I’m not sure, but I don’t think Axl really updated this album from it’s original incarnation. I guess he knows best though. Here’s a short list of the tracks I’ve seen.

• Baby’s got my (beeper) number
• Fuck Reaganomics
• Down with George H. Bush
• He reached Nirvana
• Let’s settle it (feat. 2Pac & Notorious B.I.G.)
• USA out of Kosovo
• Here come the INTERNETS (Y2K mix)
• Do the Bartman
• Danger at the WTC - Remember ‘93
• how come no one told me Seinfeld got canceled?
• Slash’s snake pit is doomed to fail

Oh you think it’s that easy?! Here’s the challenge in two parts.

Part 1.  Take This blank map template. And fill in all the countries you know.  You can either print it out and do it at your leisure (a’la Crossword Puzzle), or open it in photoshop and color code your right and wrongs.

Part 2.  Post your results online, mine’s linked in the image here. This is the “are you willing to admit you don’t know” part of the fun. I am supremely embarrassed by my results, but I figure it should at least motivate me to pay less time looking at my house on Google street view, and more time wandering the globe.

Much thanks to my Muddy-buddy for thinking up this bit of fun (Jerk).

UPDATE: Mud wanted me to post HIS map, just to rub it in my fizz-ace.  (Even though I rock his Photoshop Skills)

Lurking through Soledad en Masa’s bloggy-dog, I ran into a meme that Tirado is trying get going around the bloggosphere-net-com.  The rules seem simple enough.

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open it to page 56.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
5. Don’t dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST

“The Error Checking tab contains other checkboxes that prevent Excel from marking cells that exhibit other characteristics”

Frye, Curtis. Excel Annoyances. Sebastapol: O’Reilly Media, 2005.

Unfortunately, my book was far from interesting.  I hope some of you remember this though.  If you find yourself wanting to prevent Excel from marking cells that exhibit other characteristics, use the checkboxes in the error checking tab.  (I wonder how many will unknowingly be sent to this blog for Excel advice)