hothead

two things have happened in the past week which are post-worthy and not whiny, for once, so i should set down a short summary here.

the first is that i nearly died about three days ago, from a 41 degree (106 F) fever - apparently 39 degrees causes permanent brain damage already, but i don't feel any dumber than before, thankfully. one would have expected near-death experiences to be a little bit more glamourous than this, but you can't have everything.

it was a good experience though. don't think i have ever been this sick before. it is quite something else, fainting in the toilet (getting a sprained knee and ankle in the process), and sticking in a prolonged period of delirium, where you're so bad you don't even have control of your body. everybody needs an occasional reminder of their mortality. it is a good tap on the shoulder for several things:

(1) God loves you and saves your ass more often than you think;
(2) Life has gotta slow down a little bit (don't gulp that water, let alone try to rush to the loo);
(3) Health is important, and if you're feeling bored, there are plenty of ways to pay attention to it.

i'm ok now, excepting a slight residual headache from the medication. no more late nights for me for the near future, going back to face the wall of work tomorrow - which, i believe, is surmountable if i don't take it so seriously.

this and last week, i had also taken some time to peruse the annual report of Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. (Disclosure: Your correspondent owns one B share of the aforementioned company).

The "Chairman's Letter" is a very well written piece of business prose, even if some of the metaphors used are a little far-fetched. The sentences are well-clipped and easy to read at a glance, not taking more than two lines each for the most part (contrast unreadable official memos). The business descriptions are generally understandable and also a pleasure to read, and are useful for the uneducated shareholder to have a fairly accurate picture of the business. The educated shareholder is fairly easily able to identify areas of potential loss and / or "further interest".

next year, i think i would like to go to the "Woodstock for Capitalists". apparently there is a special meet-and-greet session for non US / Canada shareholders! =)