NP: John Cage, 4'33" (extended dance mix)

As long as I'm just sitting here waiting for various shoes to drop, I may as well hope for a big one. After Cingular bought AT&T Wireless last week, or agreed to buy them, or whatever, there's been a host of speculation that European telecom giant Vodafone will make some sort of play for Vivendi, due to the former entertainment conglomerate's holdings in the wireless market across the pond.

I'm rooting for this, because it might give me a nice passive aggressive way to cover another couple of months' rent. I picked up some shares in Vivendi after they laid me off, along with a couple others, because I couldn't fathom that the stock could stay that far down for very long. In an homage to my late grandfather, the notion was to hang on to them as long as humanly possible, so that a grand and a half invested in 2003 could be some presently incalculable amount at some unspecified point down the pike.

Except that circumstances might cause me to hedge that particular bet, and I don't want to do it. So if Vodafone comes in and pays cash, the decision gets made for me, and I've still got some Time Warner and Level 3 to go long with.

I know, not the grandest of investing strategies, but it works for me.

Vaughan's was downright boisterous last night, as to be expected on "Do I Look Fat In These Jeans" Tuesday. As such, "Hey Ya!" once again killed. I think Eamonn hinted at maybe paying me for the open jam, or having me do some solo gigs, or something. Tomorrow has been designated "look at potential solo musical options" day, so I'll get to that then, along with a few other things. I've been maintaining my daily pace of investigating potential income-generating opportunities for almost two solid weeks now (for the record, weekends don't count), and while that still creates the post-effort lull and subsequent twiddling of thumbs, it's still a good head of steam.

Nice to see former Fire defender Carlos Bocanegra snare two assists yesterday in the FA Cup. Better to go into his three-match suspension on that note than after the dismal performance against Wolverhampton last weekend.