This is the website of Abulsme Noibatno Itramne (also known as Sam Minter). Comments here or emails to me at abulsme@abulsme.com are encouraged... or follow me on
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The election is over, and Sam and Ivan are here on Curmudgeon’s Corner to discuss how things turned out. You’ll hear their thoughts on the overall results, problems with polling, how things went in Florida and Georgia, the Senate results, how Trump is reacting, and much more. They have to toss in a few other things even on a big politics week, so Ivan talks about a random technological observation from the 1990s in Argentina, Sam notes a major milestone for the show, and of course, they can’t go a week without at least some pandemic talk. As an extra bonus, after the show proper, you can listen to a condensed version of the Curmudgeon’s Corner election night live stream. Enjoy!
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Show Details:
Recorded 2020-11-07 Length this week – 3:20:49
(0:00:01-0:02:11) Time Check
(0:02:34-2:11:25) The Actual Show
Arcades in Argentina in the 1990’s
Episode 700
Exhaustion
No repudiation
Polling problems
Losing Florida
Red mirage
Winning Georgia
The Senate
Biden’s unity theme
Slow calls
Trump reaction
Trump in court
Progressives vs centrists
Lots of racists
Pandemic trends
(2:11:43-3:20:48) Condensed Live Show
The Curmudgeon’s Corner theme music is generously provided by Ray Lynch.
Our intro is “The Oh of Pleasure” (Amazon MP3 link)
Our outro is “Celestial Soda Pop” (Amazon MP3 link)
Both are from the album “Deep Breakfast” (iTunes link)
Please buy his music and support his GoFundMe.
On this week’s Curmudgeon’s Corner, Sam and Ivan discuss the latest in politics and pandemic news as they always do. But this time you also get a book review from Ivan, some insight into Sam’s sleep patterns, some economic talk, and even a bit on the tradeoffs between global and domestic sourcing of products. Plus a fun electoral vote strategy to consider!
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Show Details:
Recorded 2020-08-01 Length this week – 2:31:36
(0:00:22-0:31:19) But First
Ivan Book: Underwater [2020]
Hurricane headed for Ivan
Sleep Patterns
(0:32:04-1:07:58) Politics
Veepstakes
Delegitimizing the election
Problems with mail-in voting?
(1:09:08-1:50:07) Pandemic
Ivan goes to Disney
Sports bubbles
Latest stats
(1:52:08-2:31:08) Potpourri
Economic Update
Political responses to the virus
Domestic production of critical supplies?
The Curmudgeon’s Corner theme music is generously provided by Ray Lynch.
This Week on Curmudgeon’s Corner, Sam and Ivan cover Mayor Pete, Avenatti, Assange, Brexit, accusations that Obama spied on Trump’s campaign, the Democrats not being aggressive enough on investigations, bad sleep habits, and a book Sam read. Oh, and Alex contributes a song.
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Show Details:
Recorded 2019-04-12 Length this week – 1:37:55
(0:03:00-0:06:56) Intro
The nature of lightning
(0:08:00-0:50:08) Lightning 1
Ivan: Sleep
Sam: Mayor Pete
Ivan: Brexit
Sam: Avenatti
(0:51:51-1:37:34) Lightning 2
Ivan: Assange
Sam: Book: The Bull from the Sea (1962)
Ivan: Spying on Trump?
Sam: Dems being weak
The Curmudgeon’s Corner theme music is generously provided by Ray Lynch.
This week on Curmudgeon’s Corner, Ivan finally gets his Potpourri segments! In those, he and Sam talk about Ivan being cold, reports of Texas voter fraud, an update on the economy and markets, the Huawei fraud charges, and a bunch of other stuff. Including Sam getting blasted by a famous poll watcher. Oh, and of course they talk about the shutdown ending and the continuing Trump/Russia scandals.
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Show Details:
Recorded 2019-02-01 Length this week – 2:12:40
(0:01:26-0:11:37) But First
Agenda
Sam is tired
(0:14:15-0:56:39) Potpourri! Part 1
Nate Silver calls Sam incompetent
Ivan in actual real cold
Economy and markets update
Huawei Fraud charges
(0:57:16-1:19:26) Potpourri! Part 2
Texas bullshit
Venezuela
Brexit
Howard Shultz
(1:20:46-1:39:14) Shutdown
Trump Caves
Negotiations
SOTU
(1:39:45-2:12:20) Trump Russia
Roger Stone
Capone model
Cohen testimony
Mueller almost done?
Cohen rigging online polls
Concord Group papers
The Curmudgeon’s Corner theme music is generously provided by Ray Lynch.
This week on Curmudgeon’s Corner Sam and Ivan’s main topic is Trumpcare passing the House, the implications of that, and what comes next in the healthcare debate. But they spend plenty of time on other things too. From the latest book Sam has read, to Ivan changing data plans, Puerto Rican bankruptcy, Clinton on why she lost, violence on Facebook Live, and much more. Oh, and at the very end Sam reveals his new secret project.
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Show Details:
Recorded 2017-05-05
Length this week – 1:37:10
(0:00:12-0:17:53) But First
Agenda
Book: The Fellowship of the Rings (1954)
Mobile Data Plans
(0:18:32-0:54:16) Healthcare
House succeeded!
Voting for “something”
Big win for the R’s?
Counting the Losers
Preexisting Conditions
Other impacts
What will the Senate do?
Getting things done
(0:55:58-1:36:50) Lightning Round
Puerto Rico Bankruptcy
Violence on Facebook Live
Clinton on why she lost
Georgia 6 Runoff
Impact of Healthcare on 2018
Trump leaving the country
Bill O’Reilly and Fox News
Zuckerberg 2020? Others?
Budget Deal
Sleep Deprivation
Secret Project
The Curmudgeon’s Corner theme music is generously provided by Ray Lynch.
On this week’s Curmudgeon’s Corner podcast Sam and Ivan talk about this week’s Election 2016 craziness… Trump in Mexico and Arizona, the FBI notes on Clinton, all of that stuff that you could possibly want. Before that though, they do a lightning round covering all sorts of other things… burkinis and Colombia, exploding phones and Anthony Weiner… and more. Oh, and they both want to sleep more. ZZZzzz…
Click below to listen or subscribe… then let us know your own thoughts!
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This week on the Curmudgeon’s Corner podcast Sam and Ivan start out with an old fashioned lightning round covering the Olympics, Gawker, EpiPens and more. Then of course they settle in to talk about this week’s developments in the race for the Presidency. Looking for your weekly fix of Clinton and Trump craziness? We have it for you here as always. Oh, and Sam complains about cars on the beach and annual reviews.
Click below to listen or subscribe… then let us know your own thoughts!
Recorded 2016-08-25
Length this week – 1:32:06
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Show Details:
(0:00:10-0:10:04) But First
Exhausted Ivan
Agenda
Sam Beach Trip
Work Reviews
(0:12:03-0:34:05) Lightning Round!
No disasters at the Olympics
Time Delayed Olympics
Gawker Shutdown
Louisiana Flooding
EpiPen Pricing
NSA Hacked
Proxima Centuri B
(0:35:14-0:56:44) Clinton Stuff
Clinton Email Again
Clinton Foundation Again
Clinton Health
(0:57:23-1:31:46) Trump Stuff
Trump on Immigration
Phil is Thirsty
Trump pivoting?
Trump’s appeal to African-Americans
Trump supporter racial anxiety
Trump sticking to the script
FAU Florida Poll
Fake Polls
The Curmudgeon’s Corner theme music is generously provided by Ray Lynch.
The dots are individual readings taken approximately daily (with some gaps) showing the percentage of the previous 7 days I spent sleeping. The red line is a smoothed trend of those first data points.
I said a few times that I did the election stuff mostly in “time I otherwise would have been sleeping”. You can see that quite clearly here.
Although the red line, the average of the average as it were, only dipped to about 21.3% (about 5 hours and 7 minutes per night), the lowest individual reading was on October 15th. On that day, I’d only slept 17.5% of the previous 7 days… or an average of 4 hours and 12 minutes per night. The reality was that although I slept a decent bit more than that on the weekend, but a lot less than that during the week.
It was brutal for a little while there. I just couldn’t sustain the not sleeping. I was starting to be less functional and less efficient during the time I was awake, both on the election stuff and at work. Even worse, I was starting to have to fight to not fall asleep on my commute back and forth from work, which was downright dangerous.
So that’s why as we got to the last week and a half before the election, I started taking some time off from work. First some half days, then actually fully taking off the few days right around the election. Much better to actually take the time off than try to sustain doing everything with so little sleep. That just wasn’t working.
Once I made that change, my sleep started to recover. Once the election was actually over, it recovered dramatically. The trend lines seems to have peaked now, so I thought it was a good time to post. At the beginning of December, I actually got to the point where there was a 7 day period where I spent 31.6% of my time sleeping (about 7 hours 36 minutes per night average). That is the best I’d done in well over a year.
It still isn’t the over 8 hours I’d really like to see, but I just don’t think that is going to happen again any time soon.
In any case, I just thought it was remarkable how clear an impact my election activities had. I really was doing it in “time I otherwise would have been sleeping”.