Anniversary from Hell-Gate...

Since they moved up to Oregon, my Mom and Pop have gotten most of us together for the Hellgate Jetboat on their anniversary. Unfortunatly, my family has had a difficulty in timming and have only gone on this outting one time.

That one time was exhausting, as Connor's curiousity took most of our attention which meant little or no time for visiting and eating. The boat leaves from Grants pass takes you to a lodge for food, then takes you back. It is a fun, wet ride.

This year, Tina and I are going to go sans kids, which will give us a bit more social time to visit.

Rocking the M word

On the 20th of August My wife (Tina) and I will celebrate 22 years of marital bliss. In other words our marriage can now drink adult beverages or something like that. I am told that 20+ is a noteworthy when it comes to nuptials. Coming from a family that has had a majority of 50+ being in the twenties feels diminished. If you add our dating years 5+ to that 20+ I have been hanging around with her for over half my life. Which I think is really cool. You could say we are a good match\team\duo\coupling\subset or whatever. Often have I marveled at how the lines of peoples life journeys cross in the ebb and flow, how a series of unrelated events can, in hindsight form a pattern of fate. Serendipity, is one of my favorite words. I can easily define my life in two, before I met Tina and after. When you get that "if you could go back and do over" question, I have to leave my life before I met Tina totally in tact for fear of not meeting her. I love you hon.

Please read and act.

This is a must-read, must act upon essay.

The Wiz in stark terms lays out the burning of Rome while the media fiddles.

Borrow and Spend has to stop, we the people have to stop this!

Contact your Representative.

Contact your Senator.

Gnomes of DOOOOOOM!!!!!

What is funnier then a Gnome Death Knight in WoW? Four...

Shoo, Rob, Tina and myself play the popular MMO and while we have a static group that does really well. Periodically, we need some comic relief.

So we made Gnome Death Knights, and we group together and have the same last syllable on our names, same pink hair color and we do some odd things to other players for fun.

It is a tad surprising the in game comments you get from this kind of group. There is a large raid guild called "The Time Gnomes" that had quite the fame for awhile.

eliminating undesirable members of the populace.

Wow, I never considered the roe .vs. wade decision was about eliminating undesirable members of the populace.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says "Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of."

Hmmmmmm...

Discounted, discounts.

I came across this website. It is a blog site where people find those insane deals you hear about and post how to get them.

There seems to be quite a few things I am not interested in (bulk insulated stainless steel bottles). However, this might just be the bee's knees for someone out there. As per usual you can sign up for spam e-mails, which may not be your cup-o-Jo.

On a side note.

Our main money saving method is the meal planner. This is a pain in the rump but pays dividends quickly. Get fourteen days worth of meals and recipes. Write the days and foods on a refrigerator list, you will cross the meals off as you go. List the ingredient's for each recipe on a shopping list. mentally go over each meal and what condiments you want so you have a comprehensive list.

I like to do this on a spread sheet then sort the items and consolidate. Next I will group according to where in the store to find them. If your familiar with spread sheets this goes quick.

|Item | Quantity | Location in store | Coupon | meal used with | Best price |

If your really into the work a little save a lot you plug the best prices into the spreadsheet and over time you will know the buy in bulk price. So you take your shopping list, go through the cuppboard and check off what you have plenty of, hit the store. Now you have two weeks worth of meals, a reference guide to know what you can make and a database for long term savings. This cuts down on trips to the store and trying to figure out, whats for dinner. We have the big trip then the next weekend a fresh fruit and veg.

Two weeks is enough variety that you do not get the "Oh no not this again" comments going. Also, you can add new recepies to the list and take out tired ones. Or make it seasonal, so your not using the oven when its freeking hot outside.

Space Junk

There are lots of stuff flying around the planet. Space debris. Most things will fall to earth and burn up. Some stuff will not totally burn up and hit the ground. As a planet we really do not consider stuff falling from space to be all that dangerous.

I was thinking the other day about what to do with all this junk, how to clean it up. Then it occured to me that maybe it has a defensive purpose to halt those pesky aliens from invading.

ebrious intent

One of the more unusual aspects of my person has been my relationship with Adult Beverages. It is indirectly related to my stubbornness. Way back in time, I would guess I was on my 13th orbit (give or take) of Earth, I had an encounter with a person of note about consumption of alcohol. Said person informed me that imbibing was something kids do at some point as an experiment and further that after you start you will want to continue. I denied that I would succumb and was laughed at and informed that I had no choice.

My mental state at that time was more "I'll show them" and that little decision was cemented into my grey matter. Other then the sacramental sip, I became a tea-totaller. While I have no idea if this impacted the people I hung around with, I do not recall much, if any, underage drinking around me. Oh sure there was the occasional party in which I found myself the caretaker and car key retrieval. Maybe it is more accurate to say it influenced who I hung around with.

As I became drinking age, I had already lost any interest. It was expensive and exponentially bad. That is to say, it dulls your judgement to not drink more, so it is some kind of spiral for the less then careful.

I did finally break out of the self imposed restriction, but not to any degree other then a Mikes hard lemonade or Bacardi raz. Still, I was met with some surprise that I consumed when I met up with friends last year.

My thinking is I did not miss much in the hangover and puking area. So there you go Person of note. Nyahhh!

Once upon a time in the Prussia Province of the Lower Rhine

Marxism, at the basic level, says that there is a struggle between the capitalist as he exploits the worker as he underpays him and adds charges to items in order to drive up profit to pocket.

Socialists have long thought that profits are overcharging. as Karl Marx called it: " Surplus Value". The idea being that if you eliminate all profit the cost of goods drops. This idea does not work. Under socialism there is no incentive to be efficient or to keep up with changing conditions and respond to them quickly." So the prices of goods might well be higher.

In "Basic Economics," Thomas Sowell says "The hope for profits and the threat of losses is what forces a business owner in a capitalist economy to produce at the lowest cost and sell what the customers are most willing to pay for" and "most of the great fortunes in American history were amassed when entrepreneurs were able to reduce costs and charge lower prices and to increase their volume sales to mass markets."

Capitalists do not view profits as evil or greed based. Their opponents (Marxists, fascists, socialists, radical liberals) do!

So lets say you want to raise capital gains tax rates, even if it reduced revenues, as a matter of fairness. It's only fair to make everyone poorer if you believe profits are inherently evil?

debit

With the huge and growing unemployment numbers, cash flows are squeezed. In our case we have cut back and looked carefully at any expenditures. Shop good-will and slow down for yard sales. We are still trying to find a first bike for Connor that avoids purchase.

We purchased a new dryer. Our old one was not heating correctly, consistently. This was making an average load take four times as long. Our new dryer is much more efficient. Already I am seeing a couple of lower bills.

When money gets tight during part of a month, you really have to cut back and start clearing out the pantry, eat lots of pasta and sauce, rice and beans etc. The next step is finding some additional income, selling stuff on eBay, doing part-time or temp work. Of course being where there is 19% unemployment makes that difficult.

When your low on money you stop spending money. Pretty simple concept really.