What do you believe in?

I was pondering this question the other day and it occurred to me it might make for good (if not a little contriversial) blogs(I am going to split it up so its not too rambling). So here it goes:

With the whole holiday season it has become all the more appearant that I think this country has a lot of problems and they are very deep rooted. Obviously the economic downturn is highly discouraging and worrisome, and yet I think this is truly the tip of the iceberg. We are a nation that has always prided itself on tolerance; both ethnic and religious. We preach equality for all; and yet I don't think that we grasp the significance or perhaps even danger of such naivety? Is that possible? The fundamental issue I have with this (as in physics) you need a reference point; and that point has become blurred to the point of non-existance. Do you think it was a odd whim of our government to emblazen "In God we Trust" on our currency? The fact is that our legal system is based on the common principles of the 10 commandments and the fear of God. And that has and should continue to be for the country to be successful. In a court of law we are asked to swear on the bible or other such holy book, to tell the truth and nothing but the truth so help me God. Why? Because it assumed that the only thing worse that prison is the wrath of an angry God on our soul. Without this what do we have? How is justice supposed to happen if lying leads to... freedom? Exoneration? Perjury? pah its relatively difficult to prove and the perjury sentence is minimal often compared to the actual crime; Playing game theory economics if you are guilty and you don't fear God, YOU SHOULD ALWAYS LIE. Disagree? I challenge you to convince me; and no plea bargains don't count, and even then embellishment couldn't hurt could it? Does that scare you? Surprise you? It does me. If we have as a nation in general reached a point where the average person does not believe in God hasn't our constitution failed us? Become obsolete? Shouldn't this also signify the downfall of our nation? Doesn't it sometimes seem that way?
The economic spectacular collapse of the mortgage industry follows suit; instead of doing what was morally right, the market was allowed to become a false god; It was said bailouts were necessary because the 'market needs/requires/must happen' In God we no longer trust; we trust in the market, and the men; honest some, dishonest some we put our trust into.

Engaged!

So in a bit of exciting news (at least to me) Timea and I got engaged on Christmas Eve. I succeeded in surprising her (that was one of the 'rules') she also is a big fan of the ring which I will try and post a picture of soon. Perhaps even a group shot of all three of us (Me, Timea, and the Ring) Anyway I'm excited, and no we don't have a date, none of that stuff; give us a second to let the fiance part sink it first. Here's to an exciting upcoming new year and beyond.

Cheers!

Let the skiing begin...

So I apologize for slipping on the blogfront; last two days were epic powder days in VT. I know when you read that you think "Wait there is no powder in the east." And typically you'd be right- but it so happened that Magic mountain perhaps one of the most poorly run ski mountains in the US who don't believe in 2 things; Snowmaking and Grooming. They also happened to have their opening day on Monday after over two feet of snow Friday thru Sunday. And it had stayed cold so no crusting on the top. Hence a mountain offering first turns of 2 ft pow from a lift; midweek (so nobody there) Myself and about 200 people had the best day of the season on the first day. Pretty wild no? It was just blowing up everywhere, you could just float through it, and when(you had to) you fell it was softer than landing in a bed. So there you have it 1755' runs of powder turns. Made for an Epic Epic day.


Merry Christmas Everyone, hope you and yours have a great holiday. And if you don't celebrate Christmas please don't be offended- I'm wishing you a Merry day- not instant pain or suffering.

Who says theres no free lunch?

So its that time a year again; time for company lunches. Basically it’s a who’s who in the company by how many lunches you go to. Today was the lunch for a PL (project lead) I have worked for a few years who in my humble opinion has easily the best lunch. We get pizza and beer (hooray Sam Adams) and basically proceed to stuff ourselves. He also hands out these fun little gadgets; sometimes tools sometimes other things. The best part of course is that it is a freebie. (minus the blood and sweat tears of the entire year; and if you think this is an exaggeration ask Dave) This was my fourth one. My first year it was a Swiss army like knife, second year a pen, third year a ratchet screwdriver (awesome), and this year I got a LED flashlight that has a dyno in it so after a few pumps it stays lit for quite a while. I’m seriously impressed; I mean this thing probably costs less than five bucks, yet it stays lit for hours on 30 seconds of hand action. Which brings me to this: If a cheap little flashlight requires so little, why not make it bigger; say foot pedals, a larger array of lights for more light and have one at each cube? Then when you’re not there the lights would go out anyway, otherwise it’s a little pump to get your cube lit again. It might be interesting to see if that’s practical. Personally I have an overhead lamp, a lamp and two under shelve fluorescent bulbs just in my cube. I also have a fountain of flowing water and my pc. All told a decent amount of electricity…how much could I power during the day? And get exercise too? It sounds pretty good to me. Certainly the PC would need a sourced power, but all the light? They could work with the self-created power.

Finals!

I know its been a few years now since I had 'finals' being several miserable days of studying/cramming/caffeine binges, however this past weekend I was diligently working on my final for JAVA. The final in this case is only a project, which I have to say I don't know why mine doesn't work. All the information and calculations and process happen; I can watch them fly by in the console. Its just that my table to tabulate all this great stuff doesn't happen. On the plus side my grade is pretty good already so I'm not terrible concerned. I have a A now I think so even with a C on this I should get at least my B which is pretty much what it comes down to. (that's the cutoff for 100% tuition reimbursement). So yeah the plan is that by August I'm officially done, then I get a $1400 check and go down and buy me something fun.

For those keeping score I will now have 2 classes to go for my masters. Which is good. Its taken me 3+ years to get to this point; ironically it will take me 4 years to complete my masters- the same time it took to me to get my BS.

On the plus side this is my last week of work, then 2 weeks off. Let it snow!

The thing about Unions

I for one have never liked unions; sure they were great trendsetters when working conditions were terrible and it was the first steps for the blue collar worker to gain a reasonable salary, be provided adequate benefits and had provisions for some level of safety on the job. However, now they are bloated egocentric dinosaurs of a past age that are single handedly bringing down the economy. Harsh? I don't think so. NOBODY has pensions anymore except: policeman, fireman, other city jobs, and union members. Why? because it bankrupts everyone; health care is absurdly expensive and people are living longer, so those deals of the past just don't work. Not to say that's the solution the health care issue is the larger issue here. For example my great aunt worked at GM, she was union, and received I think it was 75-80% pension for the rest of her life after 15 years? That was over 50 years. Not a bad deal for her. The costs GM must pay out for one vehicle are ridiculous; its no wonder they lose so much money.

And now we reach the crux of it yesterday, the big three ready to make concessions and cut costs to qualify for the government influx of cash; guess why it failed? UAW refused pay cuts. That's really a great idea, protect benefits and salary of your members so the companies they work for fail and ALL of you lose. I heard a quote this morning on the radio from a satisfied union member "I'm a single mother of three, I can't afford a pay cut." Oh but you can afford to lose your job completely when the company shuts its doors. That makes total sense. Having worked with some union workers I feel I can also with some degree of certainty say that it is a culture that promotes laziness; its the entitlement. Whenever I asked a union guy to do something outside his normal routine(as is common in an engineering environment when troubleshooting a question) I got a lot of excuses and no results. Basically if it ain't in my contract I ain't gonna do it. Great stuff.

Workers are protected by many organisations these days from safety to workers rights. Its time to move on, we hear all this talk about making the US competitive in the auto industry again. One of the first things that's going to have to change then are the unions.

Idiots!

So in a new dramatic and most idiotic move made yet by a Governor of Illinois (don't forget that the last one is currently in jail):
"CHICAGO – Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested Tuesday on charges he brazenly conspired to sell or trade President-elect Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder as part of what federal prosecutors called a "political corruption crime spree." "
Awesome!

I mean seriously this guy must have big brass ones to think that he could literally auction off a senate seat to the highest bidder; oh and by the way somehow not get caught? Bill Gates could have totally gone for a power grab and outbid everyone. Heck I would have submitted a bid if I had enough money. I mean why bother with the whole political process when you can just pay for it? And a senate seat is 1/100. Its good to know the citizens of Illinois have such good choices of character. Poor Barack, you're going to have to answer for this even if you had nothing to do with it. However, you two did share a relationship with Antoin "Tony" Rezko, another solid citizen who is awaiting sentencing for charges of using Blagojevich's administration to help his $7 million dollar kickback scheme.
Awesome!

So for the record not only was he trying to auction the senate seat, he was getting kickbacks for state sponsored jobs for 'friends' (allegedly he was pissed that 2.5mil he expected for kickbacks to the campaign was late) now THAT is a solid citizen. Have fun in jail asshole. Say hi to the last Governor for me.

Fantasy Football Update!

So its the first week of the playoffs this week, and I move into the playoffs with the 5th slot. In a ironic twist which I'm very happy to explain I did win the regular season points title, Charles was second and got the final playoff spot with a win last week. Meanwhile the first and second placers were fortunate as their record belies the fact they were 6th and 7th respectively in points. The odds of that seem strange, regardless I find myself down 10 pts after last nights game and just have an overall bad feeling about this week. My oponent has a lot of good machups and as stated a 10pt lead now. Anyway it should be interesting, I'm looking to back up my last years championship we'll see how it goes.

To see the action and my team:
http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/f1/214566

"Your warranty may be expiring"

So lately (well actually for about 6 months) I've been getting calls on both my work and cell phone from a recording telling me that the warranty on my vehicle is expiring. Now I believe that I am in the very unique situation where I bought my vehicle but the only way I could get .9% financing was twofold 1) I had to pay it off in 2 years 2) I had to buy their extended warranty BUT at the end of the extended warranty if I had not used it I get the money back. Don't worry I have this in the contract. Needless to say I have my doubts about ever seeing this money (its about 2k) Now my car will be five years old in 3 weeks so I think that the initial warranty is almost up 5yrs/60k miles. So being the idiot that I am I pressed the button 'to be connected to a representative' I get a gum chewing (I could hear it through the phone) girl who asks if I want to buy a new warranty. Um no I wanted to verify that my extended warranty is still there. So I ask are you associated with Nissan? No we're an insurance company. So you don't know about my car? "Well do you want a new warranty?" Goodbye! But its aggravating because they somehow have my cellphone but also my phone at work. Of these two my phone at work has no caller id so without fail at least once or twice a week I start swearing into the receiver as its therapeutic, besides there's no one on the other end anyway. How do you get a machine to put you on their do not call list?

To Ooma or not tooma

I'm a big fan of technology; usefulness is secondary to coolness factor; and I sometimes make poor choices after being hamstrung over xbox360 vs ps3; the issue was the blu-ray. However, now that I own the blu-ray, now I want a xbox360 because it has games that actually are challenging and fast and real looking. And well I just don't have one and the wii has failed to fulfill my gaming needs. So http://slickdeals.net has a really good price on 360s or ps3s:

Dell Home has Playstation 3 80GB Console for $400 - 15% coupon CTV2$2HX963145 - 5% coupon TP5NV0VMFJ9BCZ = $323 ($313 with DPA) with free shipping. Thanks WhiteStallion
They also have Playstation 3 80GB Gaming Console w/ Far Cry 2 Game $460 - 15% off coupon CTV2$2HX963145 - 5% coupon TP5NV0VMFJ9BCZ = $371 ($360 with DPA)

Xbox 360 Pro 60GB Holiday Bundle with Lego Indiana Jones and Kung Fu Panda $241 ($234 with DPA)

Anyway there is also this thing called Ooma out there which advertises free home phone forever, it also has all the stuff that's nice, call waiting, caller id, 911 etc.... Obviously there is a big catch; it requires a broadband connection. SOOOOOoooo since I have dsl that makes no sense. To get the deal I get on DSL we need to get the phone; which you have free if you have the Ooma; which requires a broadband connection.... and catch22.

This raises the question what about cable? If I got just the cable Internet would it be cheaper than phone+dsl? I need to check.

But it does sound cool. I like free stuff; but its 'free' phone being that it still isn't entirely free I still need to research. I'll keep you all updated.

Follow up to the Last Shot

So it seems my previous blog was right on; to the point where it was almost eerie. My man Mike B (Bloomberg) mayor of NYC went out and proceeded to back up my words almost to the letter. "It would be a mockery of the law..." Amen to that. It also seems that Jerry Reese (the Giants GM) structured Plax's contract so that if he gets into any "conduct unbecoming the team" they can cut him and owe him nothing. His contract allowed him to make much more than the 35mil in incentives; it also had a poison pill to kill it should he act up. Reese has shown himself to be one of the best GM's in a very short time. Finally, the hospital, Mike has said that he intends to go after the hospital! Whoever that Dr. who stitched him up is; he/she better start looking for a new job. No hospital is going to go up against the city government, its bad for business and just not a good idea to hold onto people who flaunt the law; it just screams for a further investigation.

Bloomberg has made handguns one his top priorities to eliminate them from the streets. He even sued a gunmaker because the guns looked like toys. Lets face it, its not a huge leap to say that if there are less guns on the street there will be fewer issues of gun related violence. What it comes down to is fairness, a kid gets caught with an unlicensed gun they go to jail; no issue. Can we then allow an entertainer to get away with this? Especially if it is a clear cut case. The answer is definitively NO!

Now its no small shock that over history powerful and influential people have literally gotten away with murder, but the fact that entertainers have more time in the spotlight than those who make the laws for the country is more than a little disconcerting. For example every night on CBS, NBC, and ABC a half hour is devoted to national news. In most cases this is followed by an hour(2X as much) of tabloids and what I wouldn't even consider news. I really don't care what Oprah's dog ate while at the dog spa. Regardless we have created idols out of these people, and they live apart from the common citizen but if we put them above the same laws we live under we have nothing.

Last shot

First a very happy Thanksgiving to all, I took a break from the computer these past couple days to enjoy doing nothing at all! It was most refreshing. Now I can't wait until my TWO WEEK vacation starts in only three weeks. (Its our plant shutdown for one week, vacation for the other) But its two weeks that I'm not going to be at my desk, so its all good.

I have to comment today on Mr. Plaxico Burress. The NFL has had, and will continue to have idiots of epic proportions (Mike Vick, Maurice Clarett, and a running back from Nebraska who sold his Superbowl ring for $500- can't remember the name right now) Anyway today begins the fallout from what could be (some would say inevitable) one of the fastest falls from stardom since, well Vick. For those late to the party Mr. Burress just this fall signed a 5 year 35 mil contract, and as of Friday shot himself in the leg.

This has so many avenues its fascinating. First financial; this is a non-football related injury so its not in his contract; I would be disappointed if the Giants didn't go after his a)signing bonus b) salary for missed time. He could lose all of that contract (Plus the money hes already been fined)

Two; Legal issues; He was carrying a hidden weapon without a permit. (It was also a .40cal, not a pea shooter) he carried said gun across state lines, he carried it into a nightclub, he discharged his gun in a nightclub! In NYC carrying an unlicensed firearm carries a MANDATORY 3.5 year jail term. He will be in jail longer than Vick!

Three; Casualties of Hurricane Burress; Plax's pants (big hole and bloody), Plax's lifestyle. Also all the suckers who thought they were helping him out by NOT doing the right thing (which by the way would be following the law) The club, which did not report the shooting, The hospital which also did not report treating a gun shot wound personally inflicted or otherwise, the doctor who treated him. These people also should take a long hard look at whatever they were thinking (or not thinking) It will be interesting to see what happens to them too. It was the NY Giants organization that finally reported the shooting, not just because it was the right thing to do, it was the right thing to do because it is the LAW. I'm sorry the law has to be bigger than a football star, I will miss Burress as a supreme talent on the football field, but his stupidity is going to cost him; I don't see anyway he can wriggle out of this without the city of NY looking really bad, and as I said earlier the law has to be bigger than 6'7" receiver for the NY Giants.

The Dallas Cowboys are counting the days until his release.

Dedication

I think the single most difficult challenge to maintaining a blog is finding a new topic that has some semblance of interesting subject matter. During the past few days PE B Obama has unveiled his cabinet selections for his administration and they seem ok. I think Richardson is a good pick (though I thought he deserved a better slot) Hilary as Sec State makes sense from a power play move (unify the party and all that). She should do well there; but its a bit interesting as she is significantly stronger at foreign policy than Obama; in fact in this position she could (should she feel vindictive) really make Barack look bad. I really think she could drive foreign policy without really conferring with POTUS, or potentially throw him into some situations he might not know all that much about. Now I don't think that would be a good idea, but it does put a bit of a hammer over his head.

One thing that does bug me however are these comparisons of Obama to FDR and JFK and Lincoln. No, no, and no. Let him govern for at least a few months ok? I know everything today is covered in hyperbole because we have stations of 24hr news and they need something to talk about. And lets face it the more controversial the better; it sells or gets covered and its publicity. Also Lincoln was a visionary in that he filled his cabinet with the best people; not the best people in a party; but the best people. They didn't get along all that well, but they were smart and they had best interests at heart. Its sad now that we can't do that; too many favors are owed to to many people to put the country first. However, despite this, I'm optimistic for this administration, we need to pull together on core understandings for the better of the nation; not just parties, the time is right to do that, as we are looking for a leader and optimism. I think Obama has that now, he needs to follow through. Its going to be challenging because the expectations are so high, but if he recognises this he can do very well. I hope he will.

Pirates!

So if you watch or read the news at all these days you'll see that pirates are all the rage these days. They recently grabbed a boat full of tanks and heavy weapons and the other day grabbed a supertanker full of oil worth around 100mil. Now governments refuse to talk with the pirates, but insurance companies and the shipping companies find it much better to deal and often pay the ransom on the ships and everybody is happy. The pirates essentially have their own town/port on the coast that is owned and run by the pirates; not unlike the islands featured in pirates of the Carribean. This is good news for those concerned with climate change because according to the gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM), Global warming is inversely related to the number of pirates! So with estimates that there may be close 6-10 thousand pirates running around again, that means in the past 8 years we should have dropped over a full degree C in global temperature. See my updated chart here:

What this means: Well clearly if you've been paying attention it has gotten incredibly cold already this year, this indicates the onset of global cooling due to the afore mentioned revival of pirates, which importantly means (hopefully) very good skiing this year!

Al Gore there is no need to worry anymore!

For more information on this topic:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster

Going.....Blu?

So it seems that 'going green' is all the rage now. I have noticed that NBC has spray painted the poor peacock all green (why? I don't know some kind of environmental kick?), so I guess by making the green people happy it has offended PETA because everyone knows that spray painting your pets is evil and meat is murder. Personally I'm all for eating meat, not only is it important to a fully balanced diet it tastes DELICIOUS. Case and a point a few weeks ago Timea and I went to Ruth Chris' and ordered a steak which i could cut with a fork. (It also tasted amazing)

Anyway I was sitting on my couch the other day playing with my Blu-Ray again. See when I first bought a dvd player I did the same thing; you need something to watch. So I am adding to my growing library which currently consists of the matrix box set, I am Legend, Space Cowboys, Pans Labyrinth and Band of Brothers (Iron Man Special addition is $19 this week at Target is next) I was watching band of brothers, and yes the led on the Blu ray does glow blue when on. So it looks really really great; and I really like the series because its powerful and its based on real history to the extent that the actions and persons were real even though some of the stuff seems impossible for a human to do. I guess a lot of it pride and courage and other stuff that might just happen in the moment. They call those men part of the greatest generation; I would have to agree, I just don't see my generation being able to shoulder the demands of global war. However, while watching this my eyes were distracted by my Wii which was randomly glowing blue. I don't know why it does that. It is not 'on', (by that token clearly not 'off' either as its using electricity to glow) and its annoying because then I have to go over to it and unplug it. But I have to question whether the wii feels inferior and therefore glows blue (of all colors) requesting use. Weird.

Necessity is the Mother of Invention

So I played hockey on Friday night which was a lot of fun. It was a class down from the last game so as I suddenly was a major contributor to our team; it was significantly more enjoyable.

Now in light of my forgetting gloves at the last game, I made doubly sure that I had all my equipment. So upon getting to the rink and opening my bag imagine my dismay missing a very vital piece of equipment. For a guy its a really really important piece. That would be my cup. So that left me with two options play sans one, or not play. Rummaging through the bag again in a desperate attempt I pulled out one of my flip flops. It is foamy and firm yet mildly flexing. In a moment of sheer necessity I tied the flip flop to my pants in he area where the cup should be, a few pieces of tape and voila! makeshift ball protection! Needless to say I told no one about this lest I be poke checked to test the integrity of my design; but it was pretty comfortable and I made it through the game. I was just hoping that it wouldn't fall out and I'd have to explain why there is a flip flop on the ice.

See Charles you aren't the only one with makeshift athletic equipment.

James Bust; neither shaken nor stirring

So as the title (I thought it was pretty clever actually) might suggest we saw the newest James Bond movie Quantum of Solace on Saturday. It was, in my opinion not only the worst of the series but far and away the most disappointing. Maybe it was that I thought the remake of Casino Royale was a highly enjoyable romp and I thought that Daniel Craig makes a much more gritty and interesting character as Bond that I was highly anticipating his return performance. Unfortunately despite the fact that Craig is highly accomplished and believable in his role, he was given no script or plotline to follow. Clearly following the all too popular trend of selling out, Bond has become episodal like 24. Basically nothing happens between the end of Casino Royale to the end of this, nothing is answered, nothing makes any sense (Potential Spoiler alert, nothing concrete however)


It was quite evident at the end of the movie that the writers working on this couldn't agree on the story or which way to go (maybe the first set were fired?) There were inclinations of a potentially interesting and engaging story of intrigue; instead the viewer got a whole lot of action scenes with nothing to stimulate at all any sense of resolution, no unravelling of any semblance of secret organisation, just frustration as questions mounted with no answers. Perhaps most insulting even is there is this 'organisation' that has a vague purpose, Bond questions the man who headed it (apparently during a car ride, which the viewer is not privy to) and on leaving the car he says "I've told you everything." No he hasn't; he has said nothing! I would highly recommend NOT seeing this movie unless you just want to see lots of violence and action; and have your brain hurt from lack of use and insult by the end.

Hockey Tonight!

So for second time in about 5 years I will be strapping on some skates and playing in an organized hockey game. The last time was several weeks ago; and while it was fun, it was an interesting time.

First I got dressed and was impressed that I had remembered everything so I got up and then it hit me: gloves. Crap. I had forgottten my gloves (as they are actually used when I play roller hockey) So I had to ask the rink attendant for a pair of gloves from the lost and found. They were like mighty duck gloves; purple, teal, and white; why someone would buy them is one thing, why they would leave them behind; not so hard a decision.

Second, my skates which had not been sharpened for also 5 years were.... well not sharp. As a result I spent a good time of the game sliding on all fours. So the plan is to have nice sharp edges and looking for a goal tonight. Last time I was surprised that I wasnt as badly winded as I expected to be, we'lls see if I repeat tonight. Stay tuned!

The Ski bug

So its about that time when I really start thinking about skiing. And it doesnt help (Whistler people pay attention) when you send me emails with pictures of the mountain covered in snow and say 40cm in the last 2 days with more on the way. I'm not going to Whistler this year, so don't torture me more than I already am doing to myself. I'm excited to see everyone in Minnesota, but next year I think I will need to go big again. Maybe Jackson Hole as the new tram will be a year old and have hopefully worked out the kinks. Jackson was a lot of fun. Big Sky also looks really good, Utah, Colorado...

Anyway so i plopped on the couch the other day and stuck in a ski video (in my new Blu-Ray player) and I must say the upconvert does do a pretty good job. However, my opinion of Blu-Ray and hi-def in general is mixed. I think it looks better; but its still TV, I can still see pixels, blurring.... I dont know. I feel this is all a big scam to make us think we are getting 'great picture.' When they re-record movies to Blu-Ray did you know what they are recorded at? Its actually 4 times the resolution of a Blu-Ray so a Blu-Ray is what 25GB/layer. So out there are plans for a 200GB/layer (assuming disk media) So why record it at that resolution if theres nothing in the pipeline? Makes me think that the Blu-Ray will be short lived- maybe 5 years? This of course also infers that a new standard of TV is also indevelopment to take advantage of this.

So its a vicious cycle of spending and consumer naivity; which is fine by me; I love my toys

Oil Change

I changed my oil the other day. I sometimes feel as thought I'm the only one who actually does it themselves. And per usual I smashed my fist on the bottom of the frame when the wrench slips after breaking the seal on the oil plug. Its a vicious cycle. Somehow I think that my blood contribution makes my car happy and running so it will continue. But seriously every 3k miles I run down to Walmart get 5qts of oil and then to Napa for a filter and I change the oil. We have creeper at home, if you change your oil or like working under the hood you should get one (if you dont already)

Speaking of which I am debating stopping by this random house and asking the owner if I can buy his mustang. Its a '70 and its been sitting under this tree forever. I think it would be a fun project. (It would need new.... everything)

Blogging isnt easy.... its a serious commitment

Ick....

So I am full of phlegm today; which is really gross. I'm sure everyone was really desperate to know that, but this is a really poor blog. It really is amazing when you think about it what a delicate balance the human body maintains, we rely on thousands of bacteria to make everything work correctly; but you throw in a virus or another bacteria the human bacteria karma is lost and anarchy reigns. Oddly enough most of the parts of our lives are the same way. Maybe we need to simplify every now and again to balance it all out.

Perhaps I will take that approach with my fantasy football team this week, strip it down to the simplest denominator and try not to over analyse matchups.
FIN

Congratulations Barack Obama

Well I went to bed last night content with the decision of the country, I didn't vote for him, (I didn't vote for McCain either) with regards to my personal agenda of voting for a third party I was more content with it than I think any vote I have ever cast. Why? well for the first time I wasn't with people who only vote for party or for the most popular but instead for a change vote that would have really shaken things up.

At the end of the next four years I guarantee we will still be talking about:
Healthcare reform
Reforming Social Security
Medicare being Bankrupt in 10 years
(I think Iraq will be done thank God)
Pakistan will be a mess

Social security never was a 'Right' it isn't in the Constitution nor was Medicare. Both were started because someone smart thought hmm we take in more in tax money than we put out. Hmmm maybe we should take this and create a fund for elderly people (boomers) to support them through retirement.

The US doesn't take in more than we give away anymore. That's why these are going bankrupt. Balance the budget and a lot more problems go away than getting rid of pet projects. Its what we must do.

Barack Obama has to realize that only about half the country voted for him, he has to bridge the differences and make people believe his ideas are best for the country. He is my president too, but I worry that he has created this aura around him that people truly believe he will make sweeping changes and the streets will flow with milk and honey. I am actually afraid for him that he will disappoint his own backers even by being a decent president. He has a lot of work ahead of him, but a congress and house to back his bills. I'm scared of the rubber stamp. But today I am hopeful and optimistic. God bless the United States of America

Woohoo the first Post!

I really like the Libertarian party. I can't vote for one which is crap (thanks CT judge) But it comes down to fiscal responsibility.
Q)How well does a company stock do if the company constantly looses money every quarter?
A)Its stock goes down until it prints more stock to regain capital. The stock price falls further

This is inflation, our government is doing the same thing. They continue to print money and as a consequence my money is worth less. I hate that.

The situation is such where
1) I don't have enough money to buy a house.
2)The money I save is depreciating in value so I still can't buy a house as I save
3)The value of the house I want to buy is deterioration because the dollar is worth crap but at a slower rate than that my money is deteriorating.
4)My tax money is being used to bail out crooks who failed the entire nation, AND THEN PAY THEM BONUSES!!!!! 50 million of the first 125 million doled out has been EARMARKED FOR YEAR END BONUSES TO PEOPLE WHO MAKE BETWEEN 80-600K A YEAR!!!! How is that possible? Permissable?

I hate that we are the world police. Get out. Now. If they really want to kill eachother why should we stand between them?
I like the idea of re-instituting the gold standard.
I like ending global aid (How do we dole out money we don't have?)
I like getting rid of the income tax for the lower and middle class. Why not? Cut spending! and voila excess money!
I like running a country like you'd run a well run company. Who better than Mike Bloomberg in 2012!