Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Chicago PMI and Consumer Confidence Fall Short...


Duncan showed me how to deduct 'brat points' on my tax return this year... he's really busy this time of year... I also initially put the Peanut Butter Crunch (Captn' Crunch) on the top shelf so the kids wouldn't eat it for dessert... but then I worried that they would try to climb up the stove and fall, so I simply hid the cereal box.

Monday, February 27, 2006

Confluence Indeed... 115.85 Daily Usd/Jpy Support


Philosopher and Plowman, each must know his part, to sow a new mentality... closer to the heart...

but I digress... Strongest catalyst is not BOJ rhetoric, but PRC Yuan rhetoric as Godzilla is still in a slumber... Matsui, don't convert your Yankee dollars to Yen just yet.

A Doorway That I Run Through in the Night... Relax Child You Were There...


Political Satire of any kind is so Old Hat, and smells of diarrhea... I think O.J. Simpson jokes might very well be slightly less Unfunny.

And perhaps, you'll die before me...

Friday, February 24, 2006

Messiah's Pointed To the Door, But No One Had the Guts to Leave the Temple...


Ballsucking insurgents tried to blow up a bomb at the world's largest oil refinery in Saudi Arabia.

I'll say it once more. You want the the end of 'Energy Oppression'. I specify, because even with the end of that, there will always be New Oppressions. Why? Because 90% of the continually proliferating human population is filled with a cesspool of PUSSY genes. Now, your best bet is NOT to drive oil prices up. Thanks to you Well Intentioned Retarded Rebels, well, I'm THROUGH with saying Well Intentioned. Thanks to you EMOTIONALLY RETARDED BANDWAGON IDEALISTS... you just made the very PEOPLE YOU FUCKING HATE... 10% WEALTHIER today, with your little jihad from a small town called Faggotville. Yeah, in ONE DAY, that's right... VLO, XOM, Shlumberger, you name it... Why don't you just chill the fuck out... and enjoy some delicious hummus along the mediterranean or persian gulf or the seas of africa... YOU THINK THE ELEPHANTS GIVE A FUCK?

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Tattoo Filler Post...Lenin Read a Book of Marx...

tattoo removal group yahoo member: jeez, I work in Midtown, so I'm close to that laser removal clinic. Everyone in this group should all meet up and compare tattoos.
Lockheed: really. misery loves company more than 2 is the first positive prime number. Compare tattoos? I have so many tattoos in visible areas that you'd think my line of work was 'Circus Punk' at Coney Island. Yeah, welcome to Coney Island. Through hardcore training and sacrifice of youthful fun, I have abdominal muscles that allow me 'puke at will'. Yeah, they would put a 'bulimic anexoric nervosa' in Hog's Heaven, no finger in throat necessary, just add two parts muscle and one part will power... And please don't flaunt your 'bulemia'... it's not fashionably hip when you actually have it. Um, you pussy.

I'll Read To You Here, Save Your Eyes...


...like a rolling thunder chasing the wind...

The Subconsicous Ego Defense mechanism in all remotely sentient beings prods me to make 'light' of how 'mediocre' my current linear lifespan is, and I almost typed 'will be', but the aformentioned Ego Defense mechanism, will not allow me to write 'will be', because I always leave the door slightly ajar for 'hope', but then again that harkens towards 'religions', and because 'religion' is 'established', it is therefore 100% evil and oppressive, and super unhip to the '..........' man(substitute what you want in the '.........' because I'm pretty sure in your Subconscious Bigotism, you think I mean the '........' man, but I actually don't.(Even though if any of the gods, let alone Jesus lived in your time, you'd fucking ejaculate at his actions and worship what he did, and MTV and the bandwagon liberals would make him its posterboy, as he tore down the establishment, just like you ejaculate to Malcom X and Che and Mao. Of course, 'Rastafariansim' is so legit and straight up, and anything 'unique'.)

I can safely say via P<.001 of null hypothesis, that I am an adept judge of human character and chain of thought. Your actions, inactions, reactions, are predominated by the emotional ball and chain(emotional retardation) and a heavy lack of balls. In the same amount of time of your blind reflex of ignorant motives and rationalization and judgement(yes, you fucking judge as much as the ones you hate), I dissect thoroughly outside of my own self. You don't have this ability. Because it hurts to have this ability. And you are from a bloodline of pussies. Sorry, but I have to become Lockheed, not '..... .... .......' the boy born in linear 77'. It's the age old debate: With all the truthful shit you see with unclouded eyes, is it still better than ignorance? I have to live like it is better.

Yeah, I think, which is most unfortunate, that if I had my .357 revolver which is buried in the memories of wasteful times of youth(I used to shoot it with .38 caliber bullets), I would probably fire six rounds at the moon, because the sun is too far away, and calculate falling trajectory so as not to land in a life-threatening spot, perhaps land in a pond, and thereupon I have a slice of pizza cooking on the Foreman Grill, I have to take it off and put Tobasco sauce on it...

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Cause the Good Ol' Days Weren't Always Good, And Tomorrow Ain't as Bad as it Seems...


Don't be foolish and seek to Tame the Bull, or Tame the Bear, they will both kill you in the most primitive unrepentant natural fashion...
...perhaps, some ample respect, due diligence, and the occasional brass balls... you might survive and learn something worth knowing...
April crude oil gained $1.45 to close at $62.74 per barrel on Tuesday, gapping higher on weekend attacks on Nigerian oil infrastructure that sparked a Shell force majeure on 455,000 bpd of output...(I hear blind domestic homeland cheering from the populist emotionally retarded...um, your pick up truck and your Escalade is going to cost you twice as much again to get you to your favorite bar and whore house now, moron, oh did I forget to mention that most of you are white? So fucking sorry you were born white in America.(give me a break).) Don't kid yourself working class man, thinking you can relate to the rebels, thinking the rebels wouldn't kill you with as much pleasure and fire as they would kill the rich oil man... The average blue collar woker at Valero Energy makes more than $70K these days...You realize they hate us all, not just the powerbrokers, they'll kill the lowliest janitor at Shell just out of raw primitive anger... they don't care if you haven't participated in the American Dream, that you too are on welfare, because your idea of welfare they would consider their fucking guilded trust fund... Blow up one Chevron, and you simply boost the profits, you distribute the profits amongst the Exxons and the Valeros, you need to think these things out, rebels... the end of oil broking is to create Massive Supply, you well intentioned, emotionally retarded rebels... I know as a fact that the rebels' primary objective is NOT to 'cause mendacity amongst those common masses of the United States via skyrocketing fuel prices enough to cause a mutiny against our own domestic government...' that would require too much thinking, and too much brass balls...
Hi Curious, the snow is gone, but it's cold, so cold these days...

Monday, February 20, 2006

The Advertisement Industry Helps Put the Shirt on Your Back, So Why Bite the Hand that Feeds you(pussy)?

This following post states the pretty fucking obvious(hopefully), and will be included as a 'Medium Filler Post'...
The Chuck Norris 'Facts' site has a different format these days. It's still extremely funny and gets millions of hits. With the new format, to submit a fact, it now requires one to 'register'. For the most part, this is because it is bombarded with enough server hits to turn Cisco Systems into a pink sheeet in one minute, and anything with that many eyes on it a day is a solid advertising stream. Of course, the typical mundane onslaught of ''oooh, how evil and oppressive to the common man, the site creator has become a dreaded 'sell-out'', will begin to reverberate from the Anti-All Things Establishment hypocritical pussy type(usually teenagers, or people without the brains for pragmatism)'. I want to tell these children in the voice of Fred Rogers, 'Aww, it's okay to think something is 'nice', even if it's non-accessible to you, sometimes, things are actually 'nice', regardless if it has an air of 'elitisim' or likewise, 'lowliness' to it, it only makes you 'weaker' if you blindly adhere to it, and live way beyond or way below your means because of it(of course 'the image of lowliness is always 'legit' even if it's cheap quality, unnecessary, and unhealthy or unproductive, ie-bring us all down to mudhuts; i won't elaborate on this). Boys and girls, if it means you are helping those you love, and enhancing progress and survival, sometimes, it's okay to be a sell-out. Yes, your Che Guevara Malcom X hipster friends will 'shun you', but at least your kids will be able to afford an education. Yes, I know Mtv says it's a 'no-no', but did you know that Mtv wouldn't exist without 'advertisement'?(and by MTV, I mean, pretty much all the crap that is on every TV station(network or cable), or pretty much everything you hold as ideal. If you have an IQ of 20, you should be able to see this.

http://www.4q.cc/index.php?pid=top100&person=chuck

It's about 922pm est, it would be sad, but I wouldn't mind dying in my sleep tonight... chances are 99.999% that I won't, but I wouldn't mind.

And With Flames From the Dragon of Darkness, the Sunlight Blinds His Eyes...


Amex's one second wake took place today at 1:06am est, Feb 20, 2006 c.e. linear time... I woke the sleep from Hay's eyes, took her hand and walked her to the coffin; Curious was out like plush lights, sleeping with Mum in the womb of rejuvenation... Hay was too sleepy to register a sentient thought... I for one, nodded to Valhalla, lost my self, watching these quasi-human hands type vicariously, fragmented digits with CNS synaptic chain of command to the extremities...

Sunday, February 19, 2006

I Should Be Trading, But Those Days Are Currently On Hold...

The other day, my friend and I sat down in this diner in the West Village. It happened to have the Rainbow Banner, meaning 'flaunt your gayness, similar to flaunt your underprivileged childhood, flaunt your poverty, flaunt your humility, flaunt your minority, flaunt that your family can only afford Walmart(yet bash Walmart to death), flaunt that you never went to Disney World as a kid, flaunt you were raped or molested, yadadadada, jeez, you deserve a Nobel fucking Prize (this shit kills me)' . Anyways, the staff at this gay diner treated us noticeably very 'poorly', I don't know the correct term to describe it. I guess you could say they were being 'sexist?' or 'hetero-phobic'. Usually, the most 'elementary' concepts are often the most 'truthful', such as the cycle of the 'Oppressed eventually become Worse than the Oppressor'.

We're going to take the kids to eat with Uncle Pheel. I'm literally going to enjoy eating and not get on a veritable pissdom cyle, I'm going to warp back a few years when things were not so annoying and well, less bullet in the fucking head leaning. But often times, when I do too many 'Filler Posts', I feel an emptiness, a gut wrenching sensation, like I'm being a Deadbeat Dad.

I'm going to hop on the 'L' Train, with nicorette gum in my mouth, and probably, not talk much, even though I wish I could, but a part of me will be chopped off sooner or later.


Friday, February 17, 2006

Other Than Tanith Belbin, Johnny Weir is the Prettiest Ice Skater around...

Sometimes you just know that a business plan sucks. I haven't bothered to look at the charts on Blockbuster, but it's gotta be a crying short, they suck on all levels. Anyways, the topic was about figure skating and various forms... I could see how a hardcore homosexual would love to be in Attica with Johnny Weir, who I've heard is a total typical youthful rebellion dick.

Ashes to Ashes, Fun to Fuck it...



I'm fucking hungry. Need Ramen. I really think that MDMA(that's 'ecstasy' for you MTV breed faggots), Crack, and Cocaine, and Crystal Meth, and Ketamine, should be fully legal, ONLY after one passes a physical/psychological battery of tests proving that they can handle it and moderate the use of these narcotics without causing social or self destruction. I used them all routinely for a good five to seven year period, and was able to stop with the right 'tapering', yeah, do your homework, lazy fuck. No retarded delinquent violent behavior or overdose or anything like it(overdose is only acceptable if you truly find yourself in that rare situation where you have ZERO RESPONSIBILITY and that NOBODY or NOTHING will care a damn OR if those who you influence or those who love you agree that you'll be at more comfort being Dead). It's the Fucking PUSSIES(the loud majority) that do retarded things on these drugs. I tried black tar heroine once on the Crack days in 2002, and truthfully, it was like really good pure MDMA... nothing romanticized at all, and I wasn't 'hooked' to the point of doing white trash shit...Me and Leroy rented a one hour room up in Harlem and attempted to watch NFL playoffs, Leroy two weeks later hustled the shit out of me, and I said leave me alone please) I HATE the fact that now since I've stopped for several years, I now drink fucking shit ass whiskey, which is about 1% as PRODUCTIVE as the aforementioned narcotics, and completely doesn't enhance any physical or mental ability, let alone spiritual(if you're into that)... and is way the fuck less healthy. I also hate that I get about a 30 minute time frame a day alone to fucking be able to trade, right after rollover when the market is deader than zero life. Yeah, I like the long weekend, but I won't accomplish much during it.

Cut Loose the Anchor or Drown When the Sea of Shitclouds rises over my nose...

it's bad enough that I take anxiolytics to get through the work week. Worse even that nowadays I need to use them to have some 'peace of mind' on the weekends. Before, I didn't have too. Ands it's a long weekend coming up. What was once 'a career and an intellectual and almost athletic endeavor', I no longer have the appropiate time and circumstance to trade, hence this blog is sparsely limited with good data on barter.

I've accumulated enough data points on many topics. If things stay the way they are, and by 'things' I include many situations, not just the conventional... if things stay on this path, I'd be much better off fucking dead as severe fuck. Once again, there are no teachers qualified to advise me on these matters. And those that are, cannot be accessed at this time. It's a shame, that when you take things to a level beyond friendship, you place the friendship in jeopardy. It's an IDIOT'S GAME. More so, you open the box of malice from all associated parties, especially if the parties are of a certain uncultivated type with uncontrollable emotions. An ASSHOLE's GAME. After work, I will drink twice the amount of Jack or Dewars and keep my phone on silence.

Thursday, February 16, 2006

I Measure Units in 5, 8 and 13's sometimes...

in about 5 months there should be a nexus of sorts... that means approaching June 2006...things will die in a way... hopefully, bad things... i am already scathed but no one can perceive it, you would have to be different from 'human' to perceive it... you have to see the scar before the wound ever occurs...

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Amex Our Turtle Died the other day, Feb14th, 2006 c.e. linear

He was getting weak, Chewy sensed it, and we lifted him around midnight onto the basking plateau, he actually opened one eye to say bye to mum, me, and the kids... He's in a small wooden casket now, and we might bury him in the Ramble in Central Park... Amex was a great swimmer in his days... I told the kids that he's been there before, (rigormortis and bodily death)... that's why he wasn't afraid when he knew it was time again...

oh but sooner or later you sleep in your own space...

Sunday, February 12, 2006

If You Can't Ride with a Broken Back, At Least You Could Polish the Fenders...



And you're twenty one and still your mother makes your bed... and that's too long.... just a little push and you'll be flying...

Well, yeah, we just got back from the Billy Joel concert in Madison Square... It was great showmanship, packed to the brim, and veritably entertaining, with great lighting effects, and he played for a full 2.5 hours with no breaks whatsoever... Ever since the kids, I stopped listening to Billy Joel, and would only occasionally play the opening to Captain Jack on the piano... it would simply make me too somber that song... So anyways, the kids didn't recognize many songs, except the jukebox classics... and the opening to Miami 2017... But a great surprise was when Billy Joel strapped on a six string, and called out this big heavy metal guy called 'Chainsaw' to sing... and they actually played a mighty rendition of 'Highway to Hell', with the lead singer throwing beer cups at the crowd, vintage ACDC... Hay immediately recognized the opening chord because I frequently play Highway to Hell when I'm long USD and getting ripped, or Back in the Black, when I'm well, back in the black... Immediately she pumped her fists in the air, looked at me and mum for approval or dissaproval, and when she witnessed me playing air guitar, she started to bang her head(I told her to stop because brain sloshing against porcelain is detrimental)... all in all, I was impressed by Billy Joel's endurance.

China's under martial law, I can't take it anymore... Hay didn't start the fire.

Saturday, February 11, 2006

Toy Fair at Ethical Society, and Terrible Toy Fair III


they say it may snow... me and mum are going to see concert at MSG tonight... we'll be taking kids to the Terrible Toy Fair III in Brooklyn. We kept 'kidding' Hay that we were going to get her 'appraised'. Then she got bratty and kept wearing my glasses, saying, "Daddy, where are your glasses?... oh.''

Thursday, February 09, 2006

First Generation Lost in Space...With No Time to Start Again...

Perhaps the action is done before the G7 meeting this weekend... dropping yuan bombs as Lenin read a book of Marx... not a word was spoken, the church bells all were broken...

Please see Previous post... to see how the action unfolded...

Japan Strongest CPI in 16 Years= LOCKHEED CLUSTERFUCK





...Pajamas, new shoooooes, and a case... I said to my reflection let's get out of this place... that's all it equals... so ride captain ride... into oblivion...

...this Snapshot coincides with Lunchtime in Tokyo... Friday, Feb 10, 2006 c.e. at 11:50am... that's 9:50pm Est Thurs, Feb 9, 2006 c.e.... nobody is attempting to fade this move... Seven consecutive downed candlesticks (15minute periods)... After some sushi and a whole lot of wasabi... let the fundamental rationalization continue...

Jack Flash sat on a candlestick cause, fire is the devil's only friiiieennd...

time to find some kind of sanity in this shit, blood, and come on my hands...



Wednesday, February 08, 2006

First Test Positive, Second Test Negative... I Fucked Up that Event Risk...

Panic buying into Euros and Pound... dumping USD and JPY... still waiting on the Third Test... false positives abound...

MeeaahhActing Like A Robot... Who's Metal Brain Corrodes..







The Cycle Continues with a Vengeance that my small soul cannot currently withstand... damnation upon damnation... solidified, need to pound the table with the iron fist soon, or I will be gone... and the venerable timeless populist pussies will never understand(the truth makes them piss in their pants and fuck for distraction)... the weakness in me says I should wipeout some of these scum... but I'll let them exist in continual counterproduction... they will erode themselves... bicker without taking rational action until their mouths dry up... and caked blood coats their lips... they have no real leaders, nor do they want to take on the responsibilities of leadership... I will smite the next white janitor who completely unprovoked, cracks an unfunny asian joke to my face... that's the least I can do...

XTO earnings beat the street enough to keep it treading water for the day... NFG I don't know... long energy positions closed out a significant wave yesterday... no fresh shorts, so I see a buying opportunity... would've been nice to lock in 14% in two months and roll the rest in tax free paper... would've beaten most fund managers at least on $5MM assets... of course, you could get 200% returns on small assets in the same amount of time(as in forex)... but after $3MM in moderately liquid long only equities, it gets difficult...



Tuesday, February 07, 2006

I Found a Sand Snail...

1040pm. XTO and NFG earnings tomorrow. Sizable closing of long positions in crude, gas, energy, and commodities in general today... follow through tomorrow? Perhaps, a good buying opportunity... but this isn't going to be a late night strategy session... I have about 5 months until I have to make a decision... the wisdom and compassion behind it will be realized and appreciated by all involved, but only at a much later date, perhaps a few years, because emotions will run wild and muffle healthy rationalization, as they frequently do, and that's natural, but what's natural does not always equate to what's good, even though people lean towards this thinking, and that's what's going to suck initially.

Monday, February 06, 2006

I Have Found, Some Kind of Temporary Sanity in this, Shit, Blood, and Come on My Hands...

GuilderPrime... relative strength neutral... stasis and baby steps... after fetal position... one pip, ten ticks... 161.9 magnetism... Euro 1.1980-85 like brundlefly tape in a New England kitchen, or form of a kitchen, whatever one could afford in those days... ladybugs, procreate... on the corners of the narrow window...

XTO and NFG Eps/Rev figures on Wednesday the 8th of a cold snowless February 2006c.e... I promised I would find the unshakeable joy in pulling the kids around on the snow saucer(a plastic circle convex) in Central Park or in the Crab Apple mini-field along Riverside Park(Hudson River, away from the river)... There is no snow, so the pulling will be more tenuous upon hard ground and the apples cores of blunted youth... Hay, being a 'tween' at the time of this post, she will pretend she's having fun just so I won't feel bad at the ball and chain sentient condition of pure affinities(as I did as a child, when my chinese dad dressed up like Santa Claus once, he made some cotton swab beard...I pretended I believed it was fucking Santa Claus, and he was so fucking happy that his youngest boy appeared joyous and carefree, he believed for real.), although plenty rough and tumble it will be...George might pout a bit... but he will learn to be a better man than me.. letting the days go by, let the water hold me down...

Sunday, February 05, 2006

Sweaty Palms and the Metal Sound of Monday Morning after Pigskin and Whiskey...



...mum and the kids and me went to Chinatown before the game to mingle in the Year of the Dog parade and festivities... we bought some 'party snaps' for Curious and Hay, and Curious kept dropping them without the necessary force to make them 'pop' and Hay kept admonishing, 'George, you keep wasting them'... so we showed him that he could stomp on them to set them off too. We then bought some Hamburger buns and Tostitos for Super Bowl fun... Duncan just stumbled into the door smelling like beer and wet bar wood, and said, 'Got anymore 'Roethless' burgers?'... Hay just rolled her eyes and said, 'quit Hasslebacking us, Duncan'. I will now take one dose of overthecounter sleeping pills and read some Dune Chapterhouse before I attempt to sleep, but probably won't doze off for a while.

Saturday, February 04, 2006

Filler Post: Me, Mum, and the kids are going to feed ducks and watch a scary movie...

...some times, when you go the movie theater, it's super fun..... but don't eat too much popcorn, or your belly will hurt....
actually, now it's cold raining, so next door in the church, we are going to see a play in the Arclight Theatre, which is always fun, because it's small and awkward and right next to us and has and old church smell to it... then we might eat rice with meat and pineapple for nutrition... i'm trying my best not to be frozen in a maelstrom grimace, because weekends always do this to me... we all want the Steelers to win tomorrow just for fun...

Friday, February 03, 2006

Of New Cartoons, Concert Tickets, and How My Imaginary Children Will Be Better People Than Me...



The cycle of replacing a fixation with a lesser fixation, a damnation with a lesser damnation, is that the old damnation solidifies, and this process replicates the Pyramid, the most structurally sound object of architecture...

I saw an 'add' for a new cartoon that I know Curious would think was 'awesome', and it would also get him up early on Saturday mornings... but I don't think I can let him watch it... it's called 'Ben 10'. It's about a 'caucasion superhero boy with hi-tech gadgets'... do I need to elaborate why I can't let Curious watch this? As a sidenote, I'm saddened that the Curious George movie will draw out such old hat criticism because of its 'symbolism', similar to King Kong... If you seriously make the connection between a Monkey and a certain Race, than you have serious fucking problems... and who is going to make this retarded 'observation'? That's right, the very people who think they are helping and advocating all this political correctness and the 'uplifting' of the---enough said. I'll just say 'fuck you' ahead of time.

Now, about that new cartoon... The Loud Majority(the average and below average and the extreme tail end of elitism) will say, this cartoon is about another white hero boy, who's third generation Wasp parents have the luxury of equipping him with expensive gadgets, because they 'stole' all their wealth(never worked a day in their lives) from the '................' man. I'll say it again, if you're one of those 'Complaining' third generation white persons in America, and you still find yourself in the 'self-limiting oppressed' category, than you're just plain dumb, and probably a royal pussy...who can't grasp the concept of self-destructive hypocrisy...because you're too lazy to 'think', but always ready to plunge your dick into any willing or unwilling broad... No Abe Lincoln, man is not created equal, grow up... Related note: this was triggered by a recollection of a few months ago when a white 'complaining' type and I were standing near a basketball hoop, and he straightforward said to my chinese face,'So, like, when I see the Asians playing hoop at the Y, I take my keys and lower the hoop to five feet... I get a real kick out of that...' I laughed politely, but it was a really 'boring and unfunny stereotyping comment'. Some stereotyping comments are funny, but that was just tedious. Yet, if I ever said something to that degree towards him, oh my god, call the wrath of god on me. That's why I have full respect for Mexicans in this country... I always see them busting their asses and never complaining... and I know they'd let their kids happily watch 'Ben 10', because they don't have the time for false indignation.

So I've never been to a 'real concert' in a real arena, but I have recently scored myself TWO tickets to the REAL Billy Joel at Madison Square... it's damn unfortunate that Billy Joel(allentown, moving out, captain jack) has now been 'labeled' 'Preppy Pop Music'... I think it's because of the double disc greatest hits that all 'college' kids have. Yes, 'college kids', simply put 'evil spoiled white or jewish or japanese kids'(whatever)...Now where the fuck was I heading... oh yes, I mean, 'oh yeah', my imaginary children will be a better man and woman than me... 5 more decades and I can rest for a little while, we can rest for a little while...

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

1.4% YoY Japan Monetary Base Expansion... Children of the Rising Sun, you need 3.4% at the least...


That came out at 800pm est. That's 10am in Tokyo. Dollar breaks the figure of 118.00 trading at 118.26 per yen, Euro/Yen trades high of session 142.66... After riding the buy stops in the Yen, look for the counterpunch... I believe a 13 pip fade begins in 23.6 seconds. Cut loose from the noose...