What Recession?

From What the Duck #677

Fortunately, I'm actually doing better than I was in 2001.

Shame on ESPN

This story is just plain wrong and so is the Dallas Police force. You see, Texan RB, Ryan Moats was rushing to the hospital to see his mother-in-law who was dying. While I completely sympathize with the family, I don't believe his actions in this moment of grief warrant an apology from the police or ESPN sensationalizing the story.

As Moats and his wife raced to the hospital, they made a choice to run a red light. An officer, observed it, turned on his lights and gave chase. Moats continued to the hospital, ignoring the police officer. I'm pretty sure that under any circumstances fleeing the police is a crime.



I really don't understand why the police are apologizing. Sure the officer could have used discretion, but how often does shouting at a police officer earn you that? If the officer had let them go inside first, and then ticketed the driver, after the mother-in-law died, would people be any less outraged?

Shame on ESPN for making this a national story and pointing blame at the officer. They have just told everyone that it is ok to disobey the police if you think you have a good excuse.

Sometimes opportunity knocks...

just so it can slam the door in your face, breaking your nose, blackening your eyes and knocking out a few teeth. I will get back up, but right now I just want to take the standing 8 count.

Egg on my Facebook 2

On Friday, I finally signed up for Facebook. I had been hesitant because I thought it was a gimmick and time waster. Does the world really care about what I'm getting ready to do?

Well I have to say, that so far anyway, I'm glad I was wrong. I have reconnected with some friends that I had completely lost touch with and probably never would have been able to track down otherwise. It's been very cool getting to see what everyone's kids look like. For some reason, I never thought about that most of them would have kids - I still pictured them as the 17 and 18 year olds I graduated with.

The most surprising thing has been the number of photography leads I've generated in three days - crazy! I've had a web page and blog for sometime, but never been able to get my photos in front of many people. Since Friday, I've generated three leads just from the 10 photos I put in my family album. Awesome.

So, I'm going to do my best to keep up with it and see if I can continue to generate more business.

Dangerous Profession

From What the Duck #668

Worth the read

Two weeks ago I mentioned that while I was a regular reader of Get Rich Slowly, I wasn't finding the posts to be what I was expecting, at least until the 25 Rules of Thumb post that I reviewed on March 9th.  Since then, I've been enjoying a delicious helping of crow (tastes just like chicken).  Just two days later, JD shared a great article he found on 50 Tips for DIY Savings Around the House.

Today, there was a guest post from Ramit Sethi, the founder of iwillteachyoutoberich.com. The post is a great article on human nature - how even though we know what we should do (exercise more, eat better, save more, etc) we don't do it. It is definitely worth the read, not because it will fix our tendency to act this way, but because it helps identify the passive barriers that prevent us from doing them.  It will definitely get you thinking about the real reasons behind not taking action. Check it out when you get a chance.

When traveling abroad

It pays to learn the customs of your host country.

Yes He CAN!!!

...continue to nominate people with criminal connections.  It won't be long and the FBI will have to set up a sattelite office on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Thank goodness Obama brought change to Washington - can you imagine how many of his people would get arrested if he was politics as usual?

At least Nancy Pelosi gets it...

Can you believe this nut job is second in line to be President?  Why on God's green earth should we as tax payers be paying for her, or any other congressman to be flying private military jets anyway?  Can you imagine the travesty of her not having a personal jet provided by the military she doesn't support?

8+% unemployment and she's complaining she isn't getting a private freaking jet.

Read about it in the NYPOST.

I just don't understand how these people in Congress get to the point of believeing they are entightled to all of this.  Have they completely forgot about the Constitution they were sworn in under?  It is time for term limits in Congress.  We fought a revolution against a monarchy but now we keep our congressman and senators until they break get caught breaking the law or die.  We need fresh blood in Washington.  I'd propose a limit of four terms for the House and two terms for Senators.  Imaigne what Congress might look like without the Kennedy's, Pelosi's, Frank's, McCain's, Snow's, and whole host of other names that sound more like Franchise tagged players than representatives of the people.

From WizWow - and I love his quote, "Hey Bitch, buy your own friggin' plane."

Anyone need their toilet fixed?

From What the Duck #663

I wonder if he bills for the extra 5 seconds?

Who says city coucil meetings aren't a good time?

Only in Ohio - apparently the Medina City Council went out for Mexican before last night's meeting.



Thanks Scott for the link. You have to love a URL with "fart" in it.

I never thought I'd see the day....

That Scott Stadium would get a concert of this magnitude.

Check it out here, but here'e a teaser - October 1, 2009

My guess - tickets will start at $350/piece, but no official word yet.

UPDATE - Meg just let me know that U2 has pledged to keep ticket prices low in the current economy. I still think the market in Charlottesville will keep prices higher, but maybe they won't hit $300 until they are on EBay.

Maybe I won't cancel my subscription just yet

A few months ago I started following the blog - Get Rich Slowly by JD Roth. I was intrigued by the honest, common sense approach to getting out of debt and building wealth. As everyone knows, the world wide web is full of people trying to convince you that wealth is just a few clicks away - anyone been contacted by a lost Uncle from Nigeria who wants to deposit Millions in Euro lottery winnings into your bank account - so JD's slow, long term approach was a welcome relief.

I also figured that any blog worthy of praise in Money magazine and that has over 79,000 subscribers must not be all that bad (that's only 78,994 more than Never Mondays).

At first I was pretty excited and read every post as it came out, but I eventually started losing interest because, among other things I was too lazy to implement a lot of what he was doing, and I just wasn't finding a wealth of information or new ideas that would tell me what I don't already know - even if I don't do them.  Thinking about it now as I write, I guess that's the point :)

But anyway, today I logged on and there was a post that was exactly what I've been looking for.  A summary of some basic principles expressed as 25 Rules of Thumb for Financial Matters.  I knew a few of them like your mortgage should be no more than 28% of your total debt and when you get a raise, you should take the extra money and save/invest it and you'll never miss it.  But I had never heard that your emergency fund should be equal to X months of expenses where X is the current unemployment rate.  There are 22 more great ideas in that article and I encourage everyone to check them out.  Thanks JD for compiling the list - I know some of my readers love a good list!

10:00 am update

We're down to one girl remaining - this thing was a piece of cake - we should do it again next year - :)

7:10 am update

Ok - I guess DST is officially underway.

The 25 minutes of pretending are over - the gig is up - time to make the pancakes!

Everyone seems pretty happy but much more subdued than 12 hours ago. I think we may survive.

5:45 AM update

Daylight Savings Time does not officially start until we are up for good!!!

Dog somehow escapes confinement and decides to wake up sleeping girls by licking their sleeping faces.

5:46 AM - Dog buried in backyard never to be seen from again!

Somehow manage to get dog back in crate and girls (at least pretend) to go back to sleep.

10:45 pm Update

The remaining 8 are all asleep - AHHHHHHHHHHHH!

10 pm update

1 alseep (Sarah of all kids) and 2 have called their parents to come get them. I wonder how many are going to make it.

Psychology Question

If no parents are there to hear them, do thirteen 4-8 year old girls make any noise?

I couldn't possibly answer that because I was there and I am a parent. But what I can tell you is that they make jet engines sound like a whisper. I know they had fun, but I've had less ear ringing after an 80's hair band concert.

It's now 9:00 and they are sitting quietly in front of movie. We're down to 10 - three didn't want to spend the night. Hopefully we're down to about 2 hours before they are all asleep. HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The real question is - what possesses people to have children invite that many girls into their house?

Of course I'm just joking - it has been a blast - a very loud blast.

Why scientists should NEVER rap!

The Large Hadron Rap - via Strobist.

Snow photos from today's storm

Very cool Slideshow

Check out the slideshow below where UK photographer Mike Stimpson has recreated classic photos using Lego characters.



Found via Strobist