Real Life and What's Happening...

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My mother-in-law is one of those rare ones that you like. I’m like the son she never had. :hehe:

I'm lucky, my wife's mother is very pleasant. I feel kind of bad, because my mother treated my wife horribly. To her credit my wife didn't sing Ding Dong the Witch is Dead, when she passed away, or at least not while I was present. She was absolutely entitled to do so.


I’m from Scandinavia, so it’s not like I’m used to this kind of heat either. But I’m still alive so far.

I was in Denmark and Norway in June. Well technically Sweden as well, but we only stopped for gas. My friend is Danish and he apparently still holds a grudge for 1658. :shock:

It was mid to high 20s while I was there (in between the rain) and everybody kept talking about the heat. I thought it was quite pleasant, but 90F (32C) is a typical summer day at home, with 100F (38C) not being uncommon. It will occasionally go as high as 115F (46C) but thankfully that is unusual and provides a definite excuse to head to the coast.
 
We don't have children who are going to clear out our house when we pass. Therefore I don't feel obliged to clear out our parents' houses when they pass.

And among the same lines:
We don't have children who are going to take care of us when we get old. Therefore I don't feel obliged to take care of our parents when they get old.
 
[ . . . ]

Does it think it's a drinking place or something having to do with gambling, due to the dice discussions:wink:?
No, this is a Lloyd's managing agent, an outfit that writes hundreds of millions of dollars worth of speciality cover on billions of dollars worth of risk each year, mostly transacted over liquid lunches.
 
No, this is a Lloyd's managing agent, an outfit that writes hundreds of millions of dollars worth of speciality cover on billions of dollars worth of risk each year, mostly transacted over liquid lunches.
Lloyds of London? The one with the peers who assume the risk?
 
Lloyds of London? The one with the peers who assume the risk?
Yes, although traditional syndicates have been substantially displaced by large capital investors (essentially a syndicate with a single 'name'). There are some syndicates made up of names left, though. Essentially the syndicates put up the money and the managing agents run the underwriting process and are responsible for compliance and suchlike. These days the entry point for becoming a name is about £500,000.

All business has to be done through brokers and pretty much everyone has offices within walking distance of the Lloyd's building (I'm working in the 'Cheese Grater', which is just across the road), so the liquid lunch is alive and well. There are literally dozens of pubs and eateries within a couple of blocks of the Lloyd's building.
 
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Yes, although traditional syndicates have been substantially displaced by large capital investors (essentially a syndicate with a single 'name'). There are some syndicates made up of names left, though. Essentially the syndicates put up the money and the managing agents run the underwriting process and are responsible for compliance and suchlike. These days the entry point for becoming a name is about £500,000.
Any clue what the returns are for someone who is a name?
 
Any clue what the returns are for someone who is a name?
Historically, it's quite good, because you don't have to come up with the money, only demonstrate that you have it in something that can be liquidated at short notice. That lets you get two lots of investment income off the money. On a good year, a syndicate could return 30-40% on captial. On a bad year, you could lose everything. There were a spate of incidents that wiped out a lot of names in the '80s. Many were lawyers who couldn't practice law as a bankrupt, so it really screwed them. Nowadays you can get stop loss cover that effectively limits your liability.

However, there is a glut of capital in the market at the moment, mostly hedge funds and other capital management firms who can't find anything better to invest in. These are particularly heavy in reinsurance, often called 'non-traditional' reinsurers. This means the returns aren't as good as they were traditionally. The brokerage side has also undergone a massive consolidation to a handful of large broking firms (mostly Aon and Marsh), who prefer to deal with bigger players, so there is less room for smaller syndicates.

The market historically runs on a roughly 7-year cycle - what it really needs at the moment is a few big catastrophe losses to bite the hedge funds in the arse good and hard.

Fun fact: London (the square mile) has the most expensive office space in the world, half as expensive again as New York.
 
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We don't have children who are going to clear out our house when we pass. Therefore I don't feel obliged to clear out our parents' houses when they pass.

And among the same lines:
We don't have children who are going to take care of us when we get old. Therefore I don't feel obliged to take care of our parents when they get old.

...I hope I'd never understand, or encounter IRL, this kind of logic!

No, this is a Lloyd's managing agent, an outfit that writes hundreds of millions of dollars worth of speciality cover on billions of dollars worth of risk each year, mostly transacted over liquid lunches.
There you go, Real Economics In Action:grin:!
 
I'm lucky, my wife's mother is very pleasant. I feel kind of bad, because my mother treated my wife horribly. To her credit my wife didn't sing Ding Dong the Witch is Dead, when she passed away, or at least not while I was present. She was absolutely entitled to do so.




I was in Denmark and Norway in June. Well technically Sweden as well, but we only stopped for gas. My friend is Danish and he apparently still holds a grudge for 1658. :shock:

It was mid to high 20s while I was there (in between the rain) and everybody kept talking about the heat. I thought it was quite pleasant, but 90F (32C) is a typical summer day at home, with 100F (38C) not being uncommon. It will occasionally go as high as 115F (46C) but thankfully that is unusual and provides a definite excuse to head to the coast.
Weird grudge to hold. It was 360 years ago and it was a war that Denmark started, because they thought the Swedes would be easy pickings as they were busy with war elsewhere. Then they lost hilariously.

Yeah, Scandies don’t generally get that kind of heat, which means we have no AC in our houses and no strategies to deal with such heat when it comes. Last summer we had a sweltering heatwave all through May, June and July. Complete pandemonium was the result.
 
Getting a nice high 10s to low 20s (Celsius, of course) Brazilian winter here.

Fine excuse to cook comfort food and drink red wines, strong dark beers and spirits. (As if I needed any!)

It’s not that I love the cold per se, just that our winter is mild. If our summer was mild I’d love it too (I still enjoy it, but 40+ ºC is a bit much).
 
Weird grudge to hold. It was 360 years ago and it was a war that Denmark started, because they thought the Swedes would be easy pickings as they were busy with war elsewhere. Then they lost hilariously.
Well, people being angry about losses in wars is hardly limited by time elapsed:smile:.

Yeah, Scandies don’t generally get that kind of heat, which means we have no AC in our houses and no strategies to deal with such heat when it comes. Last summer we had a sweltering heatwave all through May, June and July. Complete pandemonium was the result.
For some of us, though, this is not heat to begin with:wink:.

Also, I don't have AC in my house despite today's temperature being a seasonally mild 28C. According to a pulmologist whose help I needed once, ACs send them more patients than pretty much anything else, maybe short of cigarettes.
Opening the windows and drinking hot teas are my preferred options by far:shade:.

Getting a nice high 10s to low 20s (Celsius, of course) Brazilian winter here.

Fine excuse to cook comfort food and drink red wines, strong dark beers and spirits. (As if I needed any!)

It’s not that I love the cold per se, just that our winter is mild. If our summer was mild I’d love it too (I still enjoy it, but 40+ ºC is a bit much).
I usually eat icecream in winter. Many people are surprised, forgetting that I also eat icecream in the summer, spring and fall as well:tongue:!
However, you seem to have the kind of winter where I can see eating icecream being an uncontroversial idea:grin:!
 
Weird grudge to hold. It was 360 years ago and it was a war that Denmark started, because they thought the Swedes would be easy pickings as they were busy with war elsewhere. Then they lost hilariously.

Yeah, Scandies don’t generally get that kind of heat, which means we have no AC in our houses and no strategies to deal with such heat when it comes. Last summer we had a sweltering heatwave all through May, June and July. Complete pandemonium was the result.

I think it is one of those Ford vs Chevy things, don't need a real reason, anything at hand will do. :smile:

When I'm out of my home town I want to see everything I can. I don't care, I'll happily stop and visit the sardine can key museum.
 
I usually eat icecream in winter. Many people are surprised, forgetting that I also eat icecream in the summer, spring and fall as well:tongue:!
However, you seem to have the kind of winter where I can see eating icecream being an uncontroversial idea:grin:!

I drink bold reds in the height of summer. When people bitch about it being “too hot for red wine” I close the windows and turn the AC on.

Ditto for neat whisky. (Only way I drink whisky.)
 
I think it is one of those Ford vs Chevy things, don't need a real reason, anything at hand will do. :smile:

When I'm out of my home town I want to see everything I can. I don't care, I'll happily stop and visit the sardine can key museum.

Oh it definitely is. Sweden and Denmark are old arch-rivals. As far as I know no other two countries have fought as many separate wars with each other as Denmark and Sweden. Still, look at a map of Scandinavia in 1523 and then another one from 1820 and I think you’ll see why the Danes are generally more upset about it.

In other news, my shoes gave out a couple of days ago. Sandals still going strong, but I’m going to head for a shoe store tonight. It’ll suck breaking in new shoes when doing 30 k walks though. Gonna wear em for an hour tops to start with I think.
 
Ahh!!! It's been a great vacation.

I kicked off my vacation with Day 1- winning a lawsuit that was ongoing for two-years! Then I pulled a muscle in my back celebrating. Subsequently I had to cancel my vacation trip to Angel Fire. Pain was excruciating. Fuck it - I'm making the best of it. We decided to turn all the money we were going to blow into a badass staycation. First thing I did was turn my phone off and unplug (mostly).

Day 2-5 - Eating out every night as some awesome eateries in Dallas. Lots of gaming. Writing. Reading. Meditation and CBD for my back pain. I GMed despite the pain - kickass session. Players fought an alternate reality Thor, who worked for Hydra, plus his minions - the Serpent Society. Epic. No civilians died, but we did destroy a few buildings.

Day 6+ - Fasted for 4-days straight. Drank insane amounts of water (with salt) to stay hydrated and keep my Brawndo-levels of electrolytes up. Fasting does *wonders* for brain-activity. It really gets my creative energy to crazy levels, it makes solving design and structural issues a lot easier.

Day 7 - Broke my fast with a chicken breast, roasted with basil, asparagus, salad, and half an avocado. It was like eating Thanksgiving. Celebrated my daughter's 18th birthday. I bought her a *sweet* butterfly-knife. And a car. Her mom got her a gold bumble-bee nosering.

... now I'm back to work. Only 472 emails in my box. 15 emergency issues waiting for me. Such is the circle.
 
Had a great but exhausting workout this morning.

A buddy I haven't seen since February is coming over to play games tonight.

Visited an rpg forum I've largely abandoned because I had a fairly urgent question about a published adventure I was planning to run. Turns out the same nonsense that drove me away from there is still going on. Sigh :sad:. I did get my question answered though.

Looking forward to my day off tomorrow.
 
Visited an rpg forum I've largely abandoned because I had a fairly urgent question about a published adventure I was planning to run. Turns out the same nonsense that drove me away from there is still going on. Sigh :sad:. I did get my question answered though.
glad you got your question answered. culture is important, thus we avoid that stuff :smile:
 
I made it back to Maine from Tennessee. It was tragic. I was going down to help out with my dad who had a stroke back in December (and multiple strokes since). I got into Memphis at 5pm, but he had passed away at 2pm.

He was 80 years old and an avid fan of Skyrim. If you're ever in Riften, kindly drop an old bow at the Shrine of Talos for me in his honor.
10655
 
I made it back to Maine from Tennessee. It was tragic. I was going down to help out with my dad who had a stroke back in December (and multiple strokes since). I got into Memphis at 5pm, but he had passed away at 2pm.

He was 80 years old and an avid fan of Skyrim. If you're ever in Riften, kindly drop an old bow at the Shrine of Talos for me in his honor.
View attachment 10655

I'm sorry to hear that, friend. I've never even made it to Riften, but if I ever do, I'll remember it.
 
Sorry for your loss, Picaroon.

In my world, I’ve been painting for at least six days straight, getting the condo ready to show. Thats what I look forward to when I get home; nice relaxing painting while listening o my Spotify playlist.
 
I am sorry, Picaroon. Not much more I can say.

In my space, I am a gov contractor. Today, my gov people finally saw the path they had been pursuing for a year counter to our admonishments was idiotic and incredibly expensive (literally costing 5x what it was replacing) and things were going to move differently. so many changes that I don't even know what to say other than WE TOLD YOU SO. :shade: Now, to get them back on a path that makes more sense.
 
I am sorry, Picaroon. Not much more I can say.

In my space, I am a gov contractor. Today, my gov people finally saw the path they had been pursuing for a year counter to our admonishments was idiotic and incredibly expensive (literally costing 5x what it was replacing) and things were going to move differently. so many changes that I don't even know what to say other than WE TOLD YOU SO. :shade: Now, to get them back on a path that makes more sense.
Something tells me you kept a paper trail in a folder either labeled "Told you so" or "Covering our asses."
 
I made it back to Maine from Tennessee. It was tragic. I was going down to help out with my dad who had a stroke back in December (and multiple strokes since). I got into Memphis at 5pm, but he had passed away at 2pm.
I'm sorry to hear that. It's good that he had family around him when he passed, even though you couldn't be there yourself.
 
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