i’ve had this exact same question my entire life. the bachelor solution was to just steal them, but i don’t think Amo would appreciate towels that say Hilton in our bathroom. unfortunately, nobody posted a good answer to the question…

Where can I buy bath towels like the ones they have in many hotels?

[From Yahoo Answers]

so the $700B bailout plan was rejected today and the street flipped out. the Dow closed 777 points down, and the leader unfortunately was AAPL (down 17.4% to 105.90). i’m heavily invested in Apple through work and even with my own money, but i have to say, i’m really not that worried about it. here’s a few reasons why:

1. i’m glad the bailout plan failed. one thing i’ve learned is that when Bush is on the telly urging America to act quickly to save ourselves from disaster, then our response should be to move slowly and with deliberation. [Jon Stewart: Bush Bailout Speech Just Like Iraq Speech]

2. i’m long on AAPL. i’d buy more now if i had the money. today’s price drop was caused by analysts revising their estimates and basically saying that Apple would be affected by the consumer slowdown (surprise!). the slowdown affects everyone (like say, Apple’s competition), so i see the macro-environment as increasing the opportunity for Apple to extend it’s lead in various efforts. we’ve got $20B of cash reserves in the bank, and investors have been questioning why Apple doesn’t go out and make some big acquisitions. well, this is why. i’m hoping the price will stay low through december, when we make our bi-annual ESPP purchases.

3. i’ve got 28 years until i’m 65. this is a big dip, thanks to shitty republican leadership, but over the long-haul it will smooth over.

after probably several hundred transactions on craigslist, i just sold a portable hard drive to probably the worst buyer ever. he made every single annoying mistake in the book;

• responds to my ad by just saying “call me”
• doesn’t realize i’m in SF, even though it’s in the ad. says he can pick it up from my office
• asks for a lower price (i say no, and he still wants to go ahead with it)
• calls me 5 times (i don’t answer unknown callers) and doesn’t leave a message
• we finally talk, and i can’t really understand anything he’s saying
• asks for directions to where i am
• asks to meet somewhere else because he’s taking public transportation
• we finally meet out on the street near my office, and he asks a bunch ridiculous questions like why it only formats to 300GB when it’s a 320GB drive (all drives do that).
• asks about 5 times that i email the receipt to him
• asks if we can go up to my office to look up the warranty
• asks again to lower the price
• he finally pays for it, and as i start to walk away he stops and asks me to email the receipt to him again
• as i’m walking away (again) asks me where the bus stop is. looks confused when i say i don’t know.

’twas a good burn this year, though we ended up staying for only 3 days. amo was done by Sat, so we packed up and left before the burn. that turned out to be a good thing, cuz right as we were leaving a 7 hour whiteout was just beginning. in fact, the burning of the man was delayed from about 9p to 11p and they cancelled the usual fire conclave show before the burn.

anyways, we’ve been back about 2 days now and are just getting back to normal. by tomorrow i should be able to actually do some work when i head back to the office. you know you’re old when you need a days recovery for each day on the playa.

here’s an ‘after’ shot on our way out of Black Rock City. I had to fix the bike rack
and was out in the whiteout for a few minutes and got a nice dusting

the gang, L-R: yukie, frank, grace, amo, smruti, dev, eraj, rich

this year’s temple

party at our camp, The Deep End