Digital Wilderness

Oh, boy, good stuff to talk about. Hold on just a second…let me get out…*grunt*…the soapbox. *plop* Alright, here we go! *step* Hmm, there’s so much…where do I start? How about some of the headlines from the day:

• Bailout bill defeated
• Rejected: Rescue Fails 228-205
• House Rejects Bailout Bill; Wall Street Shudders
• Dow suffers worst point drop ever

Coming into today, MANY people were convinced that the bailout plan, which had been reworked from the initial 3 pages from Treasury Secretary Paulson to approx. 106 pages by congressional leaders, would pass. The leaders of both parties had spent much of the weekend re-working the bill and recruiting members to vote for the bill, so as Monday rolled around, this was the prevailing opinion.

Before a vote was taken on the bailout bill, there was about four hours of debate in the House. And this is where we got to see, sadly, the character of our elected politicians. Nancy Pelosi, Democratic Speaker of the House, the next in line for President after the VP, decided that the vote in favor of the package was so solid and wrapped up she would take the opportunity, while the spot light was on her, to do some politicking. In her speech before the House, she made sure to point out her opinion that this whole mess is Bush’s fault. Among other statements, Pelosi blamed “the Bush administration’s failed economic policies”* for the current economic mess. Hold up, Pelosi…even us non-politicians know that in a time like this, it does no good to start blaming people. Focus on the problem! Playing the blame game leads to dissension and animosity, and sure enough, though there was a majority of Republicans and Democrats willing to back the plan leading up to the debate, the bill was rejected because many Republicans were put-off by her words. What kind of leader do we have in charge of the House? Wow, I’m very disappointed in her choice of ill-timed words today. Even if this is what you are thinking, use some discretion! People need to be united, not divided by politics. Bring them together, Speaker! Now that the bill has failed, the Democrats are attacking the Republican leadership for not being able to get a majority of their members to vote Yes. Good! I’m not going to elect an official who votes how they’re told – I want people representing me who will vote their own mind!

Now on to the Republicans who let these remarks affect their vote. This is not the time to let petty squabbles get in the way of making very important decisions and key votes. Regardless of Pelosi’s horrible leadership, our elected politicians need to be able to stand strong and vote what they believe, even if it plays in their evil nemesis’ hands. Beyond that, I’m most concerned with how many Republicans (and Democrats for that matter) said they would vote for the bill under pressure from their party leadership, even though they didn’t want to, then used Pelosi’s remarks as an easy out. Talk about a lack of character! Kick them out of Congress!

Next on the chopping block is corporate America. Seriously, they still expect average Joe to bail them out, after all the ill-advised decisions they have made for the sake of more profit, after walking over us, upping interest rates and fees so they can line their pockets with more money? Do they really think we can afford to help them out? Think about it – if people had extra money, they’d be paying their mortgage rather than losing their house to foreclosure! And they wouldn’t have massive debt! And those of us that have been wise enough to avoid debt and stay current on our bills are smart enough to know better than to help you out! Corporate America – you reap what you sow, and this is what you’ve sown. Tighter your own belts, get on a rice and beans diet, and get your life in order like so many of us are doing! You deal with your problems, the ones you created, and let us take care of our own families!

Wall Street – what are you thinking? Talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy! That’s what happened to today. Things don’t look good, so let’s make them worse. What a plan! 700+ point drop, 7% (which isn’t even in the top 10 largest percentage drops, by the way) – are you kidding? Are stockholders so blind they think going so far into debt with this bailout (remember, debt is a large part of the problem now) is the only solution to the problem? And if it doesn’t get passed today, Right Now, HURRY UP, the world as we know it will come to an end? AHHH….abandon ship! Take a deep breathe, people. Today is no different from Friday. There’s still no bailout package, the financial industry is still a mess. So, the market was up over 1% then, but down 7% today? Makes sense to me…morons. Do people think panicking and selling is going to help matters? They’re just making it worse! Correction – they’re making it better for some of us, those who have learned to BUY low and sell high. BUY, BUY, BUY!!! If you have a diversified portfolio and some extra cash to throw in the market right now, life is GOLDEN! It’s going to go up, and probably pretty soon, whenever a bill is passed.

Kudos to those politicians who stuck to their guns, listened to their constituents and voted NO on this moronic bailout plan from the start, who didn’t cave when pressured by their peers, fancy speakers or the President. Four of the 6 Kentucky House members (including Geoff Davis from the 4th district, which covers Northern KY) voted against the bill, so a big thanks to them.

Now, Senators and House members – put aside your differences, work together with all those involved, take the hint we don’t want a tax-payer funded bailout and FIND US ANOTHER SOLUTION!

Some quotes to ponder by Soren Kierkegaard.

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”

“The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.”

“Once you label me you negate me.”

“People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.”

“There is nothing with which every man is so afraid as getting to know how enormously much he is capable of doing and becoming.”

“I see it all perfectly; there are two possible situations – one can either do this or that. My honest opinion and my friendly advice is this: do it or do not do it – you will regret both.”

I’m a fan of Dave Ramsey. I respect him for the advice and commentary he gives, being straight-forward with his opinions, simple in his direction.

Dave really blew it on Tuesday, though.

On the way home from work yesterday, I caught the middle part of his show. He was on his soapbox, going on one of his rants against the government and stupid politicians. His rant was specifically about the $700 billion bailout of financial institutions proposed by the White House that Congress is currently debating. This proposal basically involves the government using tax payer money and debt instruments to buy what are essentially junk bonds full of sub-prime mortgages (some in foreclosure, some not). He railed against this bailout package, saying that putting us so much farther debt was not the solution. I would agree – this is not the solution.

However, while it is a bad idea, it’s probably not as disastrous as some may think. The markets will turn around and the government will make money on these bonds down the road. Still, I do not feel this should be one of the steps the government should be take to get us out of this latest financial situation. Honestly, I think they should keep their hands out of things. Let me keep my own money and I’ll take care of myself, thank-you-very-much.

Dave went on to discuss other solutions, and it was at this point that I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. One of the solutions he presented was proposed by the economist Brian Wesbury and basically boils down to temporarily changing a law to unfreeze the markets. This law he is referencing involves the mark-to-market accounting practice. I won’t go into much detail about this practice (you can read more about it here, here, here, here, here or search Google) but it boils down to how a company values it’s assets, either at the purchase (book) value or the present (market) value. On several occasions, Dave said that mark-to-market accounting was a result of Sarbanes-Oxley, which was enacted after the Enron collapse in an effort to make companies be more ethical and accountable. (Leave it to politicians to enact laws to make people be ethical…)

I am not an expert on this, but I have read Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron and watched the documentary of the same name. My accounting professor last semester worked at Enron for a short time and talked about the company often in class. From these, I know that mark-to-market accounting was not a result of Sarbanes-Oxley, but rather the other way around! Mark-to-market was actually used in practice well before Sarbanes-Oxley and in fact is what led to fraud and the eventual downfall of Enron!

“Under [CEO Jeffrey] Skilling, Enron adopted mark to market accounting, in which anticipated future profits from any deal were tabulated as if real today.” *

This caused the company to look like it was worth more than it really was, that it had more cash and other assets that it really did, which led to a steadily increasing stock price, which forced them to keep up the inflated numbers year after year. But, I’m digressing. Back to Dave…

One caller tried to point out that Dave’s historical information regarding mark-to-market accounting was wrong, but Dave quickly dismissed him. Unfortunately, the caller mentioned Wikipedia as a source of information, to which Dave flat out said it had bad information (nope, it’s right). Seriously, it would have taken Dave and his producers seconds to verify this information (which should have been verified before being mentioned).

Still digressing…putting this mistake aside…

The idea behind the proposal is to suspend this mark-to-market rule. Currently, the rule makes these financial institutions put these sub-prime junk bonds on their books at their current market value, which is very low right now because of a small percentage of sub-primes ARM mortgages being in foreclosure causing all, even those that are current, to be lumped together as bad; think one rotten apple in a basket of mostly goods ones. Suspending this rule will allow the institutions to keep the bonds on their books at their “true” value, which in turn will make their books be in better shape, raising stock price, investments, etc. Consider – the bonds have lost value, not the houses behind them.

Dave has much more detail about this proposal on his website.

Fundamentally, this make sense. It wouldn’t cost anything to change a rule, it would help thaw the markets and allow it to move back to stabilization on it’s own accord. Exactly what we want!

But wait a second here…changing a rule temporarily just because it’s stopping something from working right? That doesn’t sound good. In fact, it sounds downright…I can’t think of the word, but it’s not something for which I would want to have a precedent set, especially by our government! Isn’t this the type of thinking and action that has led to so much trouble in the past, not only in the US but around the world? There are tons of rules I would like to temporarily suspend! When do I get to pick which ones to put aside?

The idea is novel and outside-the-box and I like that kind of thinking. It certainly beats massive debt that will be handed down to our great-grandchildren. But at what cost do we start bending rules?

Well, there’s my rant…yeah, I should have been doing homework instead…yay, procrastination!

Blah, no time to blog lately, but I hate the site being stale, so I’ll throw up a song.

Pray by Stellar Kart (emphasis mine).

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It’s loud and clear, your silence has been breaking your heart, like no one hears,
You feel you may have fallen too far,
but even if you don’t know the right words to say

Pray
Sit back and watch the scenery change
Hold on to the promise that help is on the way
Pray

If you think you’re not good enough to receive what you need,
have a little faith and believe
God is not a stranger to the things you might say

Pray
Sit back and watch the scenery change
Hold on to the promise that help is on the way
Pray

Something beautiful
You’re a miracle
Is waiting on you

Thanks to everyone who donated to the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure! The Komen organization and myself very much appreciate the support!

The race was this morning. Though it was a bit humid, there was a nice breeze and overall it was a fine morning for a run. I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting, but it was a huge event. TONS of people were there. I think the difference between this and the other 5Ks is that so many more people came to walk this one, whereas the focus for most of the others is running.

I finished in just over 34 minutes. I was disappointed in my time; I was shooting for under 30. I was really excited at the 1 mile marker when the clock showed 8.5 minutes. I thought at that point I could probably finish in 28 minutes and the adrenaline started pumping, but the end of mile 2 kicked my butt. I stopped to walk for a minute and picked it back up again until what I thought was close to the end. I saw the starting line and thought the finish was close by. It wasn’t. I was gassed at that point and had to walk some more. I did stop to talk to some friends going the other way during mile 3 for a minute or two, so I guess I could adjust my time to account for that, but the time still wasn’t what I was hoping for. It’s what I deserved, though, based on my lack of running over the past month and a half.

No matter what I did in the Race for the Cure, it’s not about me, but all about the cause and supporting the survivors. Thanks again to all who donated!

I sat down this afternoon with the intent to buckle down and finally look into transferring my old company’s 401k into a Roth IRA. I had been putting it off because based on what I’ve heard about other people’s experiences in general, I thought the process would be frustrating, time-consuming and paper-work intense.

My impressions were wrong.

It took me about 30 minutes to both setup a new Roth IRA account and request a distribution of my old company’s vested 401k balance to put into that Roth IRA. Piece of cake!

I mentioned in my 2008 goals that I would be investing through Vanguard, so the work of researching who to invest through and what to invest in was already done. I set up an account via Vanguard’s website in a matter of minutes in a very straight-forward, easy process.

I thought the harder part of the process would be getting my money from my current 401k provider. It took a while to navigate through the site to find where to get a distribution, but after I did, it was very easy to submit a request.

My new company’s 401k matching doesn’t start until I’ve been there for a year and I did not want to lose a year’s worth of compounding. Now I’ll be able to set up automatic monthly transfers from my bank account and won’t lose a step. An added bonus is that when my new company’s 401k matching does begins, they also use Vanguard as a provider, so I’ll be familiar with the company and the website. This will also make it easy to contribute a full 15% towards retirement – 8% through the company matching plan and the remaining 7% into the Roth IRA.

Now I can mark this off my to-do list! If you have 401ks from past employment hanging out there, look into rolling them into a Roth IRA. It’s probably easier than you think!

One of my friends posted this on Facebook and I got a chuckle out of it, so I thought I’d post it here:

A guy named Ron is attracted to a woman named Elaine. He asks her out to a
movie; she accepts and they have a pretty good time. A few nights later he
asks her out to dinner, and again they enjoy themselves. They continue to
see each other regularly, and after a while neither of them is seeing anyone
else.

And then, one evening when they’re driving home, a thought occurs to Elaine.
Without really thinking, she says it aloud, “Do you realize that, as of
tonight, we’ve been seeing each other for exactly six months?”

And then there is silence in the car.

To Elaine it seemed like a very loud silence. She thinks to herself,”Geez, I
wonder if it bothers him that I said that. Maybe he’s been feeling confined
by our relationship; maybe he thinks I’m trying to push him into some kind
of obligation that he doesn’t want, or isn’t sure of.

And Ron is thinking, “Gosh. Six months.”

Then Elaine is thinking, “But, hey, I’m not so sure I want this kind of
relationship either. Sometimes I wish I had a little more space so I’d have
time to think about whether I really want us to keep going the way we are,
moving steadily toward. I mean, where are we going? Are we just going to
keep seeing each other at this level of intimacy? Are we heading toward
marriage? Toward children? Toward a lifetime together? Am I ready for that
level of commitment? Do I really even know this person?”

And Ron is thinking, “So that means it was…let’s see…February when we
started going out, which was right after I had the car at the dealer, which
means…lemme check the odometer. Whoa! I am way overdue for an oil change
here.”

Elaine is thinking, “He’s upset. I can see it on his face. Maybe I’m reading
this completely wrong. Maybe he wants more from our relationship, more
intimacy, more commitment — maybe he has sensed – even before I sensed it -
that I was feeling some reservations. Yes, I bet that’s it. That’s why he’s
so reluctant to say anything about his own feelings. He’s afraid of being
rejected.”

And Roger is thinking, And I’m gonna have them look at the transmission
again. I don’t care what those morons say, it’s still not shifting right.
And they’d better not try to blame it on the cold weather this time. What
cold weather? It’s 87 degrees out and this thing is shifting like a garbage
truck, and I paid those incompetent thieves six hundred dollars.”

And Elaine is thinking, “He’s angry. And I don’t blame him. I’d be angry,
too. I feel so guilty putting him through this, but I can’t help the way I
feel. I’m just not sure.”

And Ron is thinking, “They’ll probably say it’s only a ninety-day warranty.
Scumbags.”

And Elaine is thinking, “Maybe I’m just too idealistic, waiting for a knight
to come riding up on his white horse, when I’m sitting right here next to a
perfectly good person, a person I truly do care about, a person who seems to
truly care about me. A person who is in pain because of my self-centered,
schoolgirl romantic fantasy.”

And Ron is thinking, “Warranty? They want a warranty? I’ll give them a
warranty. I’ll take their warranty and …”

“Ron,” Elaine says aloud.

“What?” says Ron, startled.

“Please don’t torture yourself like this,” she says, her eyes beginning to
brim with tears. “Maybe I never should have. Oh God, I feel so…” (She breaks
down, sobbing.)

“What?” says Ron.

“I’m such a fool,” Elaine sobs. “I mean, I know there’s no knight. I really
know that. It’s silly. There’s no knight, and there’s no horse.”

“There’s no horse?” says Ron.

“You think I’m a fool, don’t you?” Elaine says.

“No!” says Ron, glad to finally know the correct answer.

“It’s just that…it’s that I – I need some time,” Elaine says.

(There is a fifteen-second pause while Ron, thinking as fast as he can,
tries to come up with a safe response. Finally he comes up with one that he
thinks might work.)

“Yes,” he says.

(Elaine, deeply moved, touches his hand.) “Oh, Ron, do you really feel that
way?” she says.

“What way?” says Ron.

“That way about time,” says Elaine.

“Oh,” says Ron. “Yes.”

(Elaine turns to face him and gazes deeply into his eyes, causing him to
become very nervous about what she might say next, especially if it involves
a horse. At last she speaks.)

“Thank you, Ron,” she says.

“Thank you,” says Ron.

Then he takes her home, and she lies on her bed — a conflicted, tortured
soul — and weeps until dawn.

Ron gets back to his place, opens a bag of Doritos, turns on the TV and
immediately becomes deeply involved in a rerun of a tennis match between two
Czechoslovakians he’s never heard of. A tiny voice in the far recesses of his
mind tells him that something major was going on back there in the car, but
he is pretty sure there is no way he would ever understand what, and so he
figures it’s better if he just doesn’t think about it.

The next day Elaine will call her closest friend, or perhaps two of them,
and they will talk about this situation for six straight hours. In
painstaking detail, they will analyze everything she said and everything he
said, going over it time and time again, exploring every word, every
expression, every gesture for nuances of meaning, considering every possible
ramification. They will continue to discuss this subject, off and on, for
weeks, maybe months, never reaching any definite conclusions, but never
getting bored with it either.

Meanwhile, Ron, while playing racquetball one day with a mutual friend of
his and Elaine’s, will pause just before serving, frown and say, “Norm, did
Elaine ever own a horse?”

And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is the difference between men and women.

My digital camera drowned during a recent canoe trip so I’ve been researching what’s out there in order to replace it. My main wish list items are small size (easily fit in pocket), good battery life and inexpensive.

I think I’ve found a winner: Canon PowerShot SD1100IS

Good reviews on Amazon.com and elsewhere, the feature set is nice and the price is right. It’s 8 megapixel with a 2.5 inch LDC screen. It’s not top of the line, doesn’t take outstanding pictures but that’s not what I’m looking for in a replacement. I think (hope) this will handle my needs just fine.

Any one had any experience, or know of someone how has, with this camera?

Well…it’s that time of year again – time to start thinking about and working on a costume! I’m sure I’ve expressed this many time before, but I simply love Fall. There’s just something about it, some overall vibe to the season, that just makes me feel so great. (OK, ok…so I know it’s still early September, hot and humid, but Fall will be here soon enough!) Then there’s the fantastic weather, corn mazes, haunted houses – and the parties.

Last year, my costume was Zombie Bob (happy little brains). I’ve also dressed as Indiana Jones (one of my faves), a punk rocker (that’s still a tough one to top on the shock value) and a scarecrow (last minute and lame) in recent years.

What’s on tap this year? You’ll have to wait and see. I’m excited about it and hope I can pull it off. It’s nothing too complicated, but could turn out really corny if I can’t figure out how to handle a certain aspect of it.

Want a clue? There’s a bow-tie involved.

Just wanted to post a reminder about the upcoming Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.

Please visit my Race for the Cure Page and consider donating to the cause. My goal is to raise $200.

Thanks!