Ya Piss Poor Morally

No one can deny that we are in the hardest economic times of recent history; unemployment is high and increasing, household wealth is down for the first time in decades, major corporations are throwing in the towel, banks are failing on a weekly basis.

It’s a solemn day here at my office. Our long time neighbors in the building, a nation engineering firm, is facing 10% staffing cuts today. I have never been fired or laid off from a job; knock on wood. I can’t imagine what that must be like. My family relies upon me to provide for them. It’s one of my personal duties that I take very seriously. To one day have that taken away from me would be devastating.

Over the past 10 years, we as Americans have enjoyed huge success and growth. The standard of living in our country is above the line of luxury in many other places in the world. Unfortunately, most of that growth and success was built on leverage. And as any college finance student can tell you, there is a limit to the advantages of debt structuring. There comes a point when too much is just too much and you will not be able to get out. Of course, it doesn’t help when we are waging a 6-year war that was advertised as a 6-12 month in and out mission.

I could go on and on about all that is bad and how they fit together, but that is not my intention. I heard the song Live Your Life by T.I. featuring Rihanna from my wife. I like this song. It has a catchy beat and the lyrics have deep meaning. One of my favorite lines in the song is ‘Seems as though you lost sight of what's important when depositing them checks into your bank account and you up out of poverty. Your values is in disarray, prioritizing horribly; unhappy with the riches 'cause you piss poor morally.’

It’s time for a reset; time to assess the motivations behind our actions.

Brilliant Video to a Great Song

I have to thank my wife for introducing me to this one. Another good recommendation.

Up, Up,...and Away?

Just got back from the movie ‘UP’. As the latest installment from the award winning group at Pixar, I had big hopes. This is the first movie at a theater that my wife and I took our two kids aged 5 and 4 to. And always, the animation was great and the storyline very complex for a cartoon. Oh and the opening short that has become a signature for Pixar films was cute. This is about where my adoration ends.

Let me add right now that the remainder of this post may spoil certain aspects of the film. Read on at your own risk. So the storyline contains some deep and controversial sub-plots for a children’s animated film. Pick your poison: miscarriage and sterility, death, depression, disappointment, loneliness, senility, child obesity, abandonment, absentee parenting, and murderous plotting. Not to mention that there is a part in the film where the main character gets a chance to meet his childhood idol. Only to find out that he has gone mad, killed many people that have ‘tried’ to outdo him, and then find himself under attack from the same man by trained killer dogs, sword, and finally a hunting rifle.

During the film, I was contemplating what I would say or how I would explain what happened as each of the above issues presented themselves. Thankfully, only a few questions came up. That is probably because the movie house had the soundtrack up as if we were there to watch the latest action packed blockbuster film rather than a family friendly movie that was geared towards young kids.

I was disappointed. I still love Pixar, but will not be checking out this one when it hits the Redbox.

A bit of this, a bit of that, and a whole lot of fat!

I wanted to write briefly about three separate things that occurred recently that I feel deserve attention, even if only by me.

First, an update on Ms. J, yes the babysitter. She came and ‘sat’ for us again. I know bad idea but it was arranged when we had her the first time. So, we were out later this time; probably pushing midnight. Not a big deal for a college student on summer break. I have to report that she didn’t allow the kids to watch TV. Of course, we all but pulled the plug on the thing and hid it in the other room. BUT…she was sleeping when we got home. Okay, I can deal with that. Well, soon after she leaves I find that she allowed our youngest (then age 3; he just turned 4, I am so proud) to use an ink stamp on the walls in three places! There are now three little zebra heads looking at me when I’m watching TV, eating breakfast, or in the playroom. Need I say more? We will never, ever have her again. We have only ever said that about one other sitter, and she was like 10. Ms. J gets an F in my book for f-ing stupid and generally irresponsible.

On Memorial Day weekend, we decided to make a day of going to a local recreational lake for lunch and a BBQ. I have to preface this critique with the statement that my previous experience with lakes has been either natural ‘hike-in’ lakes in the mountains or large recreational lakes like Lake Powell on the Utah Arizona border. I know that it was a holiday weekend, but I was surprised at how the park service administered the site. There was many, many picnic and RV sites…all right next to each other; imagine town home campsites and you get the idea. Looking back, since we do not have a boat or jet skis, we would not have done it again. All those sites I mentioned were full with people missing teeth, blaring Spanish music out of tiny radios, or wearing bathing suits that they had no business even looking at in a store. It was an experience; we didn’t last past lunch.

My wife and I went to the No Doubt concert this last week. Let me say, the band was great and the music, as always, awesome. We had lawn seats above an outdoor amphitheater. The weather was great. There were lots of people there. We were discussing that the last time we saw No Doubt was 12 years ago. The crowd at the concert was very ‘diverse’ to put it nicely. There were the young kids, the closet ska dancers, and of course lots of girls. But in our section, there were mostly big people. I don’t mean bigger people, but BIG people. The average weight in our section was probably in the 250s! Not a big deal but kind of odd. But looking more closely at those people around us and it appeared that the concert promoters must have been giving away tickets; probably at the local Walmart and on the nearby reservation. I don’t want to get into sketchy territory here, so let’s just say that it was peculiar. Oh and did I mention that one of those large people around us collapsed for some reason during the first part of the show and had to be escorted/lifted out by three big security guards? Yeah, it was an interesting night.

The Babysitter

We've used babysitters from time to time to watch our kids. Generally, the sitters we get are good and we would use them again. But that was until recently.

This last week, we had a couple of concerts planned; meaning that we would be out later than if we just went to dinner and a movie. So, we decided to use a sitter that we hadn't before. This girl, we'll call her J, was home for the summer from her freshman year at college. She was looking to make a little money in the summer and we needed someone more mature who could be out later.

To be short, I was disappointed. Sure she was nice enough to the kids, but that was the extent of it. First, she thought that she should be paid nearly double what we pay our 'regular' sitters. I have a hard time paying our sitters what they ask anyway as our kids go to sleep between 7 and 7:30, so most of the time they are asleep while we are gone. So, J wanted a lot more than we pay our sitters. Then we come to find that she just had them watch television until bed time and then read a book. Oh, and did I mention that we had already fed them dinner by the time J got here and laid out all their bed clothes? We paid J to put our kids in front of the TV, and then sit on her butt and eat our food for a couple of hours until we got home.

I have been pleased with most of our sitters. Usually they will play with the kids and some even clean up a little once the kids are down. But this time around I was not impressed. Older and more 'mature' does not equal better.

Just good writing and good acting

I recently watched the Bourne Ultimatum again on TV. I have to admit that this series is one of my favorites. It is just a great premise with excellent directing and memorable acting. If it's been a while, check them out again. Even the theme song playing below is enough to get me wanting another installment to the trilogy.

Is this the future?

I drove a Toyota Prius today. A coworker of mine has one as a rental and he let me drive it to/from lunch. My initial impression was excitement mixed with a little confusion. I’m all about alternative energy and the opportunities/challenges that come with it. I have been intrigued by hybrid vehicles for a couple of reasons; first, they are some of the most technologically advanced cars on the road and second because they may be the vehicles of the future.

So let me talk about the ‘wow’ first. We hop in the car and there is a power button just like you would find on your television or game system. Once you hit it, all the screens come to life and the engine starts. Of course, I couldn’t hear it and wasn’t sure that it was. The shifter is a little knob that projects from the dash. You move it to reverse and the information screen automatically converts into the viewer for the back-up camera. I still had to turn around and look; bad habits die hard. Actually, I was just too nervous trusting a little screen to tell me that there was nothing behind me and how far away from things I was. Moving the shifter to drive, the car slowly pulled away. The information screen can toggle between many display types. We particularly enjoyed the one that tells you where the power is coming from/going to and in what proportions, e.g., battery, gas. We even managed to screech the tires from a dead stop (not your typical hippie driving activity).

Next was the confusion. The steering wheel and dash are similar to what I would imagine that of a fighter cockpit. I found many of the buttons to be unnecessary. Do you really need to adjust the heating/air conditioning on the fly? And the screens for the radio and information system were not bright enough. The windshield is so large and extends so high onto the roofline that any overhead sun puts a horrible glare on the screens making it impossible to read them.

All in all, I was impressed. I thought that it was a cool little car and was impressed by how smoothly the hybrid drive functioned. Would I buy one? I think so, if I could get my wife to buy off on it. I just might not recommend it as a rental car as the technical features have a learning curve. To fully enjoy the car and all that it has to offer may take a few minutes of reading the owner’s manual. I look forward to trying out the Chevy Volt if it ever makes it to production.