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The Enigma Diamond

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Written by: Rod Boyle

Category: Found

Published: 23 January 2022

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Less a treasure "Found" than a Treasure "Made". 

A 55 facet 555.55 Carat Diamond goes up for auction at Sotheby's Dubai, home of the world's silliest money. 

Link: https://www.cnn.com/style/article/enigma-diamond-sothebys-auction-scn-scil-intl/index.html

Now, this is NFT's or Cryptocurrency made tangible - the stone itself, hardly rare, or beautiful, it's an example of manufactured demand - cut perfectly to an Arabic version of a "Lucky Number", it's purchase is entirely designed to grant the buyer "status" - a preposterous luxury purchase of absolutely no intrinsic value.

The Sum of all Self-Loathing

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Written by: Rod Boyle

Category: Blog

Published: 20 January 2022

Hits: 1404

This job. It's built into it - a staff meal, consisting of a bit of salad, and a pasta of different shapes tossed in oil. 

The contrast between what the staff are fed - and what the customers eat - is huge. It's an abyss, a gulf, a chasm, and the meal, it's a way of reinforcing it. This food, you wouldn't feed it to dogs, yet - 

Well, it's war, really.

And the service - the maitre-d breathing down my neck the whole night, telling me I'm not keeping up, if I just offered water to a table and they declined, and he - on my heels, offers and they accept I'm at fault. Everything is my fault. I can't tell if he hates me - personally - or this is just the "break your will" portion of it. Every night I expect to be fired - and - really, apart from the immense financial inconvenience - I'd be grateful. I cannot recall a job I've hated as much as this, that so preoccupies me with the despair of having to go into work. Better, by a long shot - to work at a Denny's or Smitty's than here. 

My section - 3 tables. 2 deuces, 1 four top. They're drinking - each of the deuces spend upwards of $1500. The four top - in excess of $4000. It's spending money for the sheer joy of spending money, there is no correlation with a real-world economy, no amount of "foody" justifies this - every course left partially unconsumed, the wine, the liquor goes. 

This - I would once have considered $150, $200 a pretty good "date night", but here - well, that gets your coat checked. It's - quite literally - a full order of magnitude above anything I've experienced.

So you struggle on, night after night, hoping it either gets easier, or just ends. My preference - well, I know - the end would be a damned sight preferable - but - I need wheels and so I would prefer to drive onward, as I still apparently have a little too much baggage. 

Canada's Housing Market

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Written by: Rod Boyle

Category: Link of the day

Published: 20 January 2022

Hits: 1217

Which I've known for any length of time, but - despite "knowing" the bubble merely gets bigger and bigger and one simply watches in disbelief.

Link: https://jacobinmag.com/2022/01/canada-housing-market-real-estate

Even if he's wrong, at least there's someone out there thinking a bit like me. 

Another Point of View: https://betterdwelling.com/canadas-real-estate-bubble-is-so-big-even-the-mother-of-all-crashes-cant-fix-it/amp/