This is not a man with a blog.

Why I exist.

By Shabbir | October 26, 2007 | Comments Off on Why I exist.

Moishe had a doctor’s appointment yesterday, and for some reason I was very nervous about it.  Partly because I couldn’t be there, and partly because the experience of Moishe spending 24 hours in the hospital for tests was still fresh in my mind.  (Notice the bandage on the arm in the photo at left.) Ahead…

Death Valley

By Shabbir | October 23, 2007 | Comments Off on Death Valley

My comic book vendor, Frank at Amazing Fantasy here in SF, has a standing order for anything zombie related for me.  If he sees it, he buys it for me.  The new find is called "Death Valley".  If you want to borrow mine to read, ask Steve.  That’s where all my comics go when I’m…

Convio Summit, Austin TX 2007

By Shabbir | October 22, 2007 | Comments Off on Convio Summit, Austin TX 2007

Convio, one of the leading online nonprofit marketing product companies, had their annual confab this past week.  Here’s my take: APIs, Datasync tools, and extensions New channel conflicts for API publishers The next two years Additional reading APIs, DataSync tools, and extensions One of the non profit bloggers I read but often don’t agree with…

A moment of introspection (at least the stuff I’m willing to tell you)

By Shabbir | October 22, 2007 |

Here’s what I learned about myself while I was in Austin on business travel. 1. Leaving my son breaks my heartI didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to Moishe before I left, and he doesn’t seem to understand what the phone is.  I think he thinks it’s some sort of toy that records people’s…

How to save more money for retirement, without actually putting one more dime into your IRA

By Shabbir | October 13, 2007 | Comments Off on How to save more money for retirement, without actually putting one more dime into your IRA

Since we moved to California I’ve pitched in to take my turn at steering the family finances.  I’ve setup Quicken, combined our money, put us on a strict budget and examined all our retirement finances.  One of the things I became obsessed with is our retirement funds.  One thing I focused on was a Simple…

My existential poker dilemna.

By Shabbir | October 2, 2007 | Comments Off on My existential poker dilemna.

Last night I went to my favorite cardroom and ran smack into a horseshoe.  After sitting down, I played three big hands.  In the first two I simply had a better hand and decided to push a football bettor who was on tilt really hard and he just consistently called my all ins.  In the…

This is the kind of nerd I am. Fun is…

By Shabbir | September 27, 2007 | Comments Off on This is the kind of nerd I am. Fun is…

surfing the fidelity.com website and trying to see what index fund, etf, or mutual fund has the highest performance to expense ratio for the last 3 years. playing microstakes ($0.10/$0.20) Omaha Pot Limit (hi only) and limping every single late position hand, regardless of the quality of my hand.  Just to learn how to steal.…

The great Facebook purge of 2007

By Shabbir | September 25, 2007 |

My random thoughts: the one downside of not having my life heavily segmented is that if something is bothering me that I don’t really want 50 people to know about, I’m not sure who I can confide in.  The nature of discretion is complex.  People can’t assure you they’re ‘discrete’, you have to learn by…

Ok, this is weird.

By Shabbir | September 20, 2007 | Comments Off on Ok, this is weird.

I’ve moved to a place where I have dozens of friends.  This wasn’t unintentional.  It’s the main reason Sarah chose this for "her turn" to move us, and ironically enough, researchers have found that happiness and longevity is linked to spending time with friends.  But it’s definately a new experience.  In DC I would have…

UK students win fight over interest debt with HSBC

By Shabbir | September 7, 2007 | Comments Off on UK students win fight over interest debt with HSBC

From ABC News: (I’ve heavily edited this, see the original) By early August, HSBC formally began applying a 9.9 percent interest to the debts of nearly 250,000 British students. Here in the land of genteel socialism, the response was predictable: fury. But students are always angry about something. But that is counterbalanced by the fact…