What are we paying for?

More than once, I have claimed that bad things happen when members of our government start getting along.  My position has been that we're better off when the government is at a full stalemate.  Need proof?  Get it from CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/24/economic.stimulus/index.html

Now, don't get me wrong...I really like the idea of paying $1200-$1500 less in taxes.  Unfortunately, our government really needs that money, and I'm pretty sure that by this time next year...all the recently unemployed people are going to wish that their government benefits could last just a little bit longer.

The idea of forestalling a recession via an economic stimulus package is curious, at best.  If we examine how long our interest rates have been at rock bottom, we might get the impression that perhaps this problem has been brewing for quite a while.  In fact, I seem to remember a movement toward "patriotic spending" just after 9/11. 

The problem is that we've been living on funny money.  People cashed out the "equity" in their homes, and spent it.  In the post 9/11 days, housing seemed like a safe investment, so people dumped money into it.  That inflated prices, thus creating phantom equity that people cashed in for real money that they wasted (for the most part).  The major problem is that those same people expected to sell their homes for a profit later on and "upgrade", but of course that can't happen now that prices have adjusted.

So, please explain to me how a one time payment of $1200 per couple is supposed to fix the last 7 years of rampant spending?  That wont even make a single mortgage payment for most of our overextended home owners.  I'm quite certain that I would appreciate that money much more if it were financing my soup kitchen in say, 11 months.

Know What You Want.

Last evening when I arrived home, I fairly oozed into my seat at the dinner table.  Completely exhausted for no seeming reason.  Winters in Michigan can be trying.  Due to the ever present cloud cover, the days seem even shorter than they really are, and it's quite cold.

After dinner, my 16 month old daughter waddled up to me and tugged on my pant leg.  When I looked down, she raised her arms and said "Up".  Never one to disobey a direct order, I complied.  Once she was sitting securely on my hip, she had another demand.  She turned to the room and said "Bye Bye".  It was perfectly clear what she wanted.  She wanted to go for a walk.  It was cold and dark, and I was feeling sorry for myself...so I distracted her in hopes that she would forget this walk business.

My plan seemed to be working, until we stopped actively playing.  She disappeared for a few moments, then reappeared with her boots.  She dropped them at my feet and declared "Bye Bye"!  So we took our very cold, dark walk.  About halfway through, she stopped walking, and stared up at the sky.  It was the first time she had really taken notice of the moon, so it turns out that the cold and dark walk was well worth the trouble.

Knowing what you want is the first step to getting what you want.  As luck would have it, I had an opportunity to apply the lesson learned last night.  After interviewing with a potential employer, the employer declined to offer me the position.  There was another opening, though, about which the employer inquired if I had any interest.  In light of my recent lesson, I opted to steer clear of the diversion and remain focused on my goals instead.

A Box of Our Own

I've been working on a lot of electronics projects lately.  The new programmer I bought recently is called a Dragon.  It comes in a really cool box, but it's a cardboard box.  I wanted a better case for it, but something that would still convey "Dragon".  To make the box, I bought a wood box such as this one. 

Using white glue (Modge Podge glue), a paintbrush, and some really cool, textured red cardstock I covered the box with the paper.  The results are really great, although it's difficult to tell in the picture.  My wife suggested using the ribbon trim.  The inside lip around the box is finished in gold metalic paint, which accentuates the dragon theme.

The dragon box was cool, but there was a new challenge.  What to get a 16 year old young man for Christmas.  Something positive, cool, and unique.  A trip through the Hip-Hop section at Barnes and Noble presented a great opportunity.  A book of poems by Tupac Shakur called Rose That Grew from Concrete.  Next time you're at the book store, find the book and thumb through it.  You may be surprised.

Anyway, what to do about adding a unique twist to this gift?  As my wife and I strolled through Michael's, it came to me.  What about a custom wooden box to book the book in?  Something unique, yet thematically aligned with the book?  The result is the box below.  It was made just like the one above, but instead of using paper, it is covered with a bandana.  There are a couple layers of paper over the wood, then the bandana.  Each time the glue dried, a carefully applied utility knife opened it back up.  This created very smooth, tight seams between halves of the box.

 In this picture, looking down on the box at an angle, you can see how the pattern wraps around the top of the box, and runs down the sides.

On the inside cover of the box, some words of wisdom from Tupac.

The Criers

It isn't often that we sit down and watch TV, however tonight turned out to be one of the rare occasions we turned on the tube.  Since we cannot justify paying for real cable, we have only the cheapest version of analog.  In other words, WKAR was the only station worth watching...that we can actually see.

The show was detailing some hearings in congress.  The footage from the hearings really shocked me.  It was like big time wrestling.  The guy asking the questions was loud and belligerent, the guy who was not answering any questions was loud and belligerent, and also, the fans in the bleachers were loud and belligerent.

The people watching these public hearings were holding up signs they made with markers and heckling the person being interviewed.  This would be inappropriate at a high school basketball game.  Why would it be happening in our capital?

As usually happens, the answer came to me a while later.  The signs were too imperfect, the heckling a bit too practiced.  I remembered that back in "the day" people had this custom (actually, they probably still do) where a family would hire professional criers to attend the funerals of loved ones.  Can't have people thinking that Uncle Louie was unpopular, now can we?  Then my "Aha!" light went on.  The hecklers in the audience were pros, and they were trying to look like amateurs.  No doubt, they worked for lobbyists.

Now I have to question this indictment of our "democratic government".  Literally everyone in the hearing was posturing for someone, and each was insincere.  They were just giving people such as myself a good show, so as to convince us that everyone is doing their job in Washington.

Yeah, they were all doing a great job.  Too bad they were doing the wrong thing, really well.  I wonder if they ever got around to finding the truth they were so desperately pretending to search for.

Too many homes?

A while ago I was lamenting the number of subdivisions that are cropping up.  They are everywhere.  It seemed as though anyone with a few acres was building a subdivision.  At one point I mentioned to someone that it seemed as though the housing market might become saturated with new homes.  The person smirked a bit and asked "Do you think people are going to stop having children?"

Well, no, but that doesn't mean the market can support an infinite number of new homes.  It appears that the National Association of Home Builders may share my opinion.  After the fact.  Now if only they would clean up some of the myriad of half finished subdivisions littered about.

Marketing Snafu

Yahoo! made the mistake of sending me this cute button that says "Yahhooooo" when you press it.  It wasn't really a marketing snafu until I noticed the programming header on the bottom of the button...

 

Eulogy

Friends, fellow mourners, today we bid a final adieu to Lawnmower.  Lawnmower was proud of the work that it did, performing for the past 12 years with only a single oil change.  Last season was nearly Lawnmower's last, however it was able to faithfully groom our estate this Summer as well...despite the grass protruding from the cracks around the top of the deck.  The final undoing of Lawnmower was not complete deck failure, as we thought it might be.  It was not an engine seizure.  The final failure was in the mounts for the fuel tank.  While we considered repairing it, there still remains the worrisome threat of complete deck failure.

Lawnmower, we wish you well, trimming the gated community in the sky.