Blue Skies Here | Central Texas

I can feel it in the air...

It seems that along with the very welcome rain and cooler temperatures also came a shift in the Central Texas market...  All of a sudden, there was increased activity, and dare I say - optimism - among the folks I talked with this week.

I gotta be honest - it was nice to no longer feel as though I was living in a sauna.  That I could play outside with my kids earlier than 10:30 pm.  It was wonderful to hear a smile in the voices of those folks I did business with this week.  Excellent to feel a release of the vice grip.

Beyond the "feeling" - this just hit my desk:

TEXAS TO LEAD ECONOMIC RECOVERY

SAN ANTONIO (San Antonio Business Journal) – The four major Texas metros will be among the first in the nation to recover from the recession, according to a nationwide forecast by IHS Global Insight.

San Antonio and Austin will lead the way, bouncing back to their prerecession job levels sometime next year, predicts the Lexington, Mass.–based economic forecasting firm.

Houston and Dallas–Fort Worth are among eight other metropolitan areas predicted to recover by 2011.

Other headlines I caught today: From the Austin Business Journal - Austin's August unemployment was down (though very slightly) from the month before - and worker confidence is up.  Whatever it is, it's okay by me.  I'm happy to see folks with a bit of a spring in their step.  I'm tired of all of the moping around - whether its the weather or whatever, I hope we can keep this up.

Super way to end the week.  Have a great weekend!

Star Wars Design Flaws

While sitting here contemplating the issues I have with zero lender visibility in Texas 1-4 residential contracts...ran across some thinking about other design flaws, Star Wars style on boingboing.net.  Thought I'd share:

Poor design-choices in the Star Wars universe

Posted by Cory Doctorow, August 20, 2009 5:53 AM | permalink

John Scalzi's list of bad design decisions in the Star Wars universe had me LOLing when I should have been working:

C-3PO
Can't fully extend his arms; has a bunch of exposed wiring in his abs; walks and runs as if he has the droid equivalent of arthritis. And you say, well, he was put together by an eight-year-old. Yes, but a trip to the nearest Radio Shack would fix that. Also, I'm still waiting to hear the rationale for making a protocol droid a shrieking coward, aside from George Lucas rummaging through a box of offensive stereotypes (which he'd later return to while building Jar-Jar Binks) and picking out the "mincing gay man" module.

Lightsabers
Yes, I know, I want one too. But I tell you what: I want one with a hand guard. Otherwise every lightsaber battle would consist of sabers clashing and then their owners sliding as quickly as possible down the shaft to lop off their opponent's fingers. You say: Lightsabers can slice through anything but another lightsaber, so what are you going to make a hand guard out of? I say: Dude, if you have the technology to make a lightsaber, you have the technology to make a light hand guard.

John Scalzi's list of bad design decisions in the Star Wars universe had me LOLing when I should have been working:

C-3PO
Can't fully extend his arms; has a bunch of exposed wiring in his abs; walks and runs as if he has the droid equivalent of arthritis. And you say, well, he was put together by an eight-year-old. Yes, but a trip to the nearest Radio Shack would fix that. Also, I'm still waiting to hear the rationale for making a protocol droid a shrieking coward, aside from George Lucas rummaging through a box of offensive stereotypes (which he'd later return to while building Jar-Jar Binks) and picking out the "mincing gay man" module.

Lightsabers
Yes, I know, I want one too. But I tell you what: I want one with a hand guard. Otherwise every lightsaber battle would consist of sabers clashing and then their owners sliding as quickly as possible down the shaft to lop off their opponent's fingers. You say: Lightsabers can slice through anything but another lightsaber, so what are you going to make a hand guard out of? I say: Dude, if you have the technology to make a lightsaber, you have the technology to make a light hand guard.