The 'Rents Came to Visit

My parents have been visiting us for the past few days. The extra sets of hands were a blessing as my dad and I built a gate in the front part of our fence, and realigned the bumper on our truck. It had suffered an adjustment in a Wal-Mart parking lot when someone backed into it. Mom and Dad bought a new set of vertical blinds for our house since the old set was acting and looking its age. While I was at work, dad installed them. COOL! The extended family also did a bit of yard work and planted a bunch of bulbs. Many of these things could have been done without them here, but again, the extra sets of hands made it much cooler. Mom also spent some time in the kitchen and we have at least two nights of leftovers.

I Thought It Was A Slot Machine

Gambling: It's not just for casinos (and airports, and grocery stores) anymore!

The first wheel stopped at "7" as did the second and third. This would have been fantastic if it had been a slot machine, and was missing the negative sign in front. Before panic sets in, we need to realize that this wasn't even a 7% drop in the DJIA. Folks, this doesn't even make the top 10 list for big percentage drops in "the market." So lets all have a drink, get a geed night's sleep and tackle tomorrow with a level head.
Frankly, I think congress is acting appropriately by not rushing into some quick fix loan, and instead creating a bill that addresses the needs of most of the players. This does not cover the wants of us all, nor should it. I think the Paulson-Bush Bailout bill reeks of socialized banking. If we had been paying attention we would have realized that we have had socialized banking anytime the feds loan banks money. This bill, however takes it to a whole new level. If we loan financial institutions the funds they say they need at what I expect to be no or low interest, they will gladly use it to loan funds to regular folks at a MUCH HIGHER interest rate. At some time in the future when these institutions are profitable, we will be paid back, probably without interest nor adjustments for inflation. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Mix it up

One of the things I like most about Flag is the philosophical balance. There is a mix of liberal and conservative views that I have not found other places I have lived. Growing up in Boulder, I was easily (over)exposed to the liberal end of the spectrum, although some of my friends were staunch conservative republicans. When I lived in the Black Hills in a SMALL (650) logging town the cattle ranching, tree sawing, land is here to make a profit from philosophy reigned. Flagstaff takes the leftish ideals a college town and mixes it with the town's history of ranching, logging and the railroad. The university itself maintains this mix. The department I work in has close to a 50/50 mix of liberal to conservative. Or maybe the conservatives are just more vocal? A fellow blogger and NAU staff member frequently seems surprised to find other conservatives on campus, but I would expect if she were to hang out in engineering or business she would find many like minded souls. I am still searching for the jaded cynic department where my brethren might gather.

Nothing of substance here.

Looking over my past few blogs, I conclude that I have been rant prone lately. I will try to avoid senseless ranting tonight and supplant it with senseless rambling. As I write this a rerun of Two and a Half Men is on the idiot box. Since I have seen this one only four times, I will watch it again. Besides my wife has the remote. I conclude that the writers of the program have kids of their own and use the opportunity to vent through writing with the sole purpose of avoiding murdering their kids. It seems much funnier when it is a T.V. kid and not a real one belonging to my wife and I.
Things got a little interesting at work today. Most days, I can push pencils without interruption, but today I had no less than 6 phone calls, 4 deliveries of chemistry supplies, and 3 appointments - all between 8:30-11:30. I was hoping that the afternoon would slow down, and was just thinking that that was the case when one of the instructional lab teaching assistants came into my office and asked if I knew where the laboratory manager/safety officer was. I did not, but was overjoyed to be told that there was an accident in one of the labs and the student involved was already in the shower room. It was a VERY small volume (~10 ml) but it involved the face and heated DMSO BAPNA concoction. YUM! Things turned out okay, mostly due to the small volume and low hazard of the chemicals involved. Kudos to the T.A. and the other students. At least I don't have to do the paperwork for the incident reports. I just changed channels to arrive at Good Eats to hear Mr. Brown exclaim "Know your fish monger!"

700 billion points of light

Things to/not to do with 700 billion dollars.

1) Give $100 plus some change to every person on earth. Not
2) Reward global corporations for poor bets - no questions asked. Not
3) Reward global corporations for poor bets - some questions asked. Probably
4) Reward individual families for poor housing decisions. Not
5) Push for a new regulatory bureaucracy while campaigning as an anti-bureaucracy,
anti regulation maverick. Yep
6) Give it to me. Not
7) Use it for leverage to get votes away from the party of a former beauty queen.
Yep.
8) Use it to explain why the opposite political party is to blame for everything
instead of working to solve the problem. Yep
9) Empower international banking and investing executives - give them whatever they
ask for whenever they ask for it. Absolutely!
10) Piss off the American taxpayers. DUH!!!

I am part owner of several global corporations!

Well, the last half of the week has been much less hostile to the stock market than the first half, and my portfolio seems to have grown, at least in number of things owned. It seems I am now part owner of AIG and a whole bunch of mortgages of a whole bunch of banks. I will keep telling myself this, and ignore that what I own is a sack of manure wrapped in pretty foil paper. Some economists believe that is things go well, this may be good for the taxpayer/investors. I will continue to tell myself that I own things I didn't before. It also seems that the maverick that is for small government and deregulation is also for another bureaucracy to regulate the private sector. Ain't election years great.

This isn't funny

Let me see if I understand this: Oodles of people and businesses have paid AIG insurance premiums, and now we must have some of our tax dollars go to rescue the MAJOR CORPORATION. Just think of the folks who have/had AIG who are actually winding up paying twice. If AIG manages to nurse itself back to health, will we get our tax money back with interest?

Any bets on how bad this week will end up being for the DJIA? How many shoes are there, and who keeps dropping them.

Political Question and comments.

If it is appropriate for a politician to boast about the activities of one of their children in the armed services, is it also appropriate to discuss the less savory activities of another one of their children?

Also, at the very least, it was STUPID to use any cliche involving farm animals and lipstick. I know this is old news, but...

My mom was a "hockey mom", drove herself to work, and cooked meals for the family, so where is her nomination?

Why are the Republicans getting major kudos for doing what the Democrats did TWENTY FOUR years ago, and why are the Democrats too chicken to point this out?

Dog dishes and what goes down...

It felt a touch cool in the house this morning and even cooler when I went to fetch the morning paper. There appeared to be some frost on our roof so I made a point of checking the thermometer. It read 34 degrees. Since the sun was up, and the air was warming quickly, I wondered if it froze overnight. I went outside to feed the dogs, and there it was...a very thin layer of ice on the water dish. It was too thin to support the weight of a housefly, but it was there. Freezing in the middle of September? This usually doesn't happen till the END of the month. There seems to be a feeling of folks in Flag that we are going to have another longer, colder, wetter winter. COOL!! In other news... For our daily family bike ride today, our daughter wanted to ride to the convenience mart in our neighborhood. The ride is only a little more than a mile each way, with about 30+ meters difference in elevation between our house and the store. I kept warning her that the ride down is great, but the return trip can be a doozy because the elevation difference is spread over only half a mile.(Don't you love mixing imperial and SI units?) She wanted to do it anyway. I again warned her that after we ride down, we need to ride UP. On the return trip, our daughter wound up walking her bike half the way up the hills. Suprisingly, she is willing to do it again. Yes, the steepness of the hill makes for great fun when the roads are icy.

ODe to Automobiles

Oh, driver of the cherokee
Why did you turn in front of me?
I left a pretty skid,
I did.
Skipped a beat, did my heart.
And now I can not fart
Because puckered is my ass
And my language is crass.
It must be a strange sight
To see a bike
In the BIKE LANE of a college town
Even one that almost laid down
You, dear driver, owe me a whiskey
To keep my nerves from being frisky


(In your defense, a city bus had just passed me.)
(In my defense, there was PLENTY of time for you to see me.)

(note the most commonly accepted spelling of the beverage)

The Power of Thought

Yesterday while we were treating our daughter to the high quality nutrition that only McDonald's can provide, a McCain-Palin rally came on the television. Another patron asked if we were Republicans, and was quite pleased at my wife's response, but dissapointed to find me to be an independant. He said "That's too bad, you should be a Republican." Although I said "Oh, well.," I thought why should I be a Republican when I can be something else and think for myself. In reality, I also have problems with the Democrats - stay tuned for my jabs on them.

The weekend

Ahhhh, Saturday. Relaxation, fun and sleeping in until 6:00, or even 6:30. Life is good.

When Dyslexia Strikes

Okay, so I haven't blogged in a few days, but the wife and daughter have been using the laptop and I have been watching the DEM and REP convention speeches and all. I am speeched out! I am more jaded than ever, and am sick of the misinformation, lies, and nonsense told by all speakers at both conventions. I think as punishment that McCain should be forced to run with Biden, and Obama should be forced to run with Palin. For added effect, they should shift positions on the ticket. As an observation, the font/graphics on the McCain/Palin comes across as either McCain - Pain or McCain - Plain when the posters are waved around. Am I the only one to have noticed this?