Slope of Hope Blog Posts

Slope initially began as a blog, so this is where most of the website’s content resides. Here we have tens of thousands of posts dating back over a decade. These are listed in reverse chronological order. Click on any category icon below to see posts tagged with that particular subject, or click on a word in the category cloud on the right side of the screen for more specific choices.

Rudy! Rudy! Rudy!

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I’ve shown this before over the years, but it warrants another viewing. You see, back in 1996, Rudy Galindo, the ice skater, was going to perform his long program at the U.S. Championships in nearby San Jose. The situation seemed like it was made for a movie:

  • He had recently lost a brother and his father to death;
  • He was the oldest competitor (at 26, that’s ancient in the world of skating);
  • He had lost his skating partner who broke up with him;
  • He was the very last competitor to perform, and in front of a home town audience, the pressure was immense

His performance was nothing short of spectacular, and I’ve always enjoyed watching this clip from start to finish. It shows magnificent grace under pressure, and I’m so happy his hard work paid off.

Buzzsaw

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If you want a vivid illustration how quickly a fad and burst onto the scene and vanish just as quickly, look no farther than Buzzfeed, which merely four weeks ago was the hottest thing in pants. Based on a press release that they were going to use ChatGPT to help write stories (!!!!!!!!) the stock absolutely exploded higher, trading over a quarter billion shares that day alone. Well, some of those gains survived, but the volume is back to where it used to be………maybe a couple millions shares a day. I strongly suspect on the one year anniversary of this announcement, we’ll look back on this as a complete joke.