The older I get the less..... the more..... cars

This is part 2 of ? more to come on other topics

The older I get the more my priorities seem to change. I don't know if its caring less or if it takes more to get my attention.... or impress me..... or matter to me. Before you roll your eyes too far, don't take this post as being filled with some deep, long sought-for concept. I'm just saying..... Let's talk about cars.

There has been a lot of guff being given and a lot of grief dished out on the subject of cars lately.  Everyone has their own opinion about what people should drive, I have mine, you have yours, and it's ok if they are different. And my opinions...... have changed quite a bit since I started driving.  Cars and getting a drivers license used to seem like a right of passage or this incredible freedom.  You can go anywhere, see anything, adventure, explore the backroads.  And that's all true but, what you drive doesn't change the destination, or the things you see out the window.  To be honest I really don't care that much about cars anymore.

The only things I want my car to do are...... be comfortable, get better than average fuel economy, and not break down that often.  Oh, and have heated seats for Linz.  So just about anything that meets those wants is a viable option for me.  If we are really getting down to it, I wish I didn't even need a car.  It would be so great if I could just walk, ride a bike, or take public transportation on a daily bases.  Maybe just have 1 car for the wife and I to use on weekend trips.

What are they really???? Just huge liabilities.  With the exception of a few classics, they aren't assets.  If I buy a new 20k car its worth only 16k the moment I sign the title. Then it dwindles to 10k over the next 3 years.

I'm willing to be honest, the muscle cars and a few others will always turn my head.  But, for the most part 95% of the cars on the road look just like all the others.  So maybe think about how much its going to cost you on a monthly basis.  Or don't...... its only money.

Thanks for the read.

What do you have on draft? day 2

Okay, rounds 2 and 3 have not been super exciting, a little surprised that Colt fell to the late 3rd, but overall its been kind of eh.  The thing that sticks out the most is Chris Berman.  Man, he is struggling to get through today.  After the guy got drafted from UMass Berman goes off on some rabbit trail. You know he is eh Haitian or eh he was born..... eh he is of Haitian descent and um..... from UMass and USC has only had one draft pick and Ohio St hasn't had one.... and um they say there are 8 million stories in the naked city...... What????? or how about this one I am going to tell a story, can I tell a story? about Reid in one of those Pro Bowl years... at the Pro Bowl um eh you know Tom we work so hard...... and about the 3rd we were on the North Shore and in the ocean and we were um well.... we were body surfing and the ocean rose 5 ft when we got in and the waves... the waves... the second wave pounded us and we were out... out of there... out of there! We cleared the beach.  I don't know if he is going to make it tomorrow.  We will see.  Much love out to all the horns that got drafted today, best of luck guys.

What do you have on draft?

I had 5 small posts during round 1 of the draft yesterday that I am merging together into one.

5.30 pm
Ok, just want to get some thoughts out there before the draft starts today.  First, the Steelers are crazy to want to trade Rothlisberger.  Second, the Rams are even more crazy if they don't trade their number 1 pic for Big Ben.  More to come from the bar while we watch.

6.30 pm
St Louis take Suh, seriously, you are passing on 10 yrs of quality play on your d-line.  Instead you took Bradford.  A nice kid but, take the sure thing.  Oh, well if it doesn't work out just fire your coaches.

8.30 pm
Finally, Houston is on the clock..... What!?! why not take Dez Bryant? Can you imagine, Bryant on one side with Andre Johnson on the other.  Oh well, take another defensive guy and finish 8-8 or 9-7 or 7-9.  We'll see what Dallas does.  Maybe something exciting for a Texas team.

9.00 pm
Dallas just traded up...... Oh please..... Thank goodness.  Dez!!!! Nice job Jerah.  He is going to look so good on the world's largest tv.   Romo has to have that big goofy grin on his face.

9.10 pm
Broncos have lost their minds...... Tim Tebow?????  How does this make sense?  No offense I like Tim as a person.... but you traded Marshal, who is he going to throw it to???  Here is the deal, put him on special teams, put him in short yardage to run the ball, put him all over the field..... but don't put him at QB, unless you want to spend a few years teaching him how to throw.  They traded up for this pick.  You could have got him in the 2nd.  Crazy.

prison work to help close the gap?

I keep hearing in the news that many states are letting people out of jail early in order to close massive budget deficits. Usually its an interview of an inmate excited to be out followed by a disgruntled middle age woman saying she doesn't feel safe in her community anymore. Then it cuts to the reporter explaining the state's fiscal shortfall and the story ends with a very concerned looking politician assuring the public that they are doing all they can to get the state's financial house in order.

Texas spent about $3 billion in 2009 on its criminal-justice system, which included about $42 per day to house the 172,000 prisoners in state custody (according to a report in the AZ Central)

Let me first say that if someone can spend more of their life out of prison I think that is a good thing. I just think maybe we should find a way to help offset that $42 a day. Why not give those who are incarcerated the opportunity to work? I'm going to just throw out a "what if" type example.

You give inmates the option to work. You "pay" them a set amount for their work. You sell the products they make to offset some of their prison costs. You give them the ability to use some of their "wages."

Here are what I see as the benefits. First, the obvious, you can reduce the effective cost for housing an inmate. If you reduce the cost to $26 per day you just saved the state a billion dollars a year. Second, you give the inmates the ability to earn some money. Most people in prison have bills to pay; fines from the wrong-doing, medical bills, credit cards, student loans, child support...... I'm not saying you have to pay them a lot, but if they made $20 bucks a day after their "rent" payment that could add up. Third, if they don't have bills to pay then let them either save that money for when they come out or let them spend it at the prison shop. Fourth, if they make things that usually get made in other countries in a small way it would help the trade deficit. Lastly, it gives the inmates work experience, hopefully, skills they can use when they get out.

There would have to be some guidelines set in place. We wouldn't want the state to actually make money off them. We wouldn't want corrupt warden's going shawshank and taking advantage of cheap labor. So it would cause some work upfront. But it's a thought.

With a 2010 budget shortfall nearing 11 billion for the state of Texas, everything should be on the table. Or we could all just pay more taxes....... Let me know what you think.

Thanks for the read.

catching up with last week

So the last week and a half has flown by and once again I have 6-7 topics written in notes around the office / house / car.  Sometimes I don't blog them out cause I feel a little guilty in the moment and assume that whenever I am writing it has to be fresh, on the spot words.  Which leads to procrastination and longer writing times, which lead to fewer posts, which leads to me feeling each post has to be better, and..... repeat.

So quick tour of life this morning and more blogs later this week.  Brian and I have been running after work and I rode my bike to work once last week(25 miles round trip) in preparation for upcoming triathlons.  Mounted a toilet and both sinks in the master bath.  Went estate / garage saling both weekends.  Went two-stepping at Rebels.  Bought a really awesome late 60's table saw that weighs about 150 lbs, shout out to Tyler for helping with the move.  Shrimp has moved up a few notches in my what-foods-I-like scale, from about a 3 to a 6 thanks to Bri and Linz.  Went to Zushi-Sushi in the Domainia with Ty and Linz.  Lastly, I got Ebbo's cell phone bill fixed.  The guy had 10200 text messages in a single month and T-mob goofed and had him w/o unlimited texting.  Was more than a little shocked, disturbed at a $2300 cell bill.  So I sat on the phone for 45 mins and got it straightened out, his new bill $44 dollars.  Probably the best thing is how the customer service lady freaked out and could not believe one guy texts that much, she said she had never seen that many in a single month..... and she works for the cell phone company :)  So, Ebbo if you are reading this I am going to have to give you some grief.

Thanks for the read, look out for not "in the moment", not over-thought, and more frequent posts.

My big fat Greek Debting

Greece is in a world of trouble.... And it's only about to get worse. Why? Cause they are in debt, bad debt, big fat debt for a country with an economy based on tourism and agriculture. The popular description is that Greece is a slow moving train wreck.

There are several big obstacles that make it nearly impossible for them to come out of this.
One, because they are on the euro they don't have the luxury of getting free financing from themselves. 20 years ago they would have just printed more money to pay off their obligations, now the euro zone would have to approve that. Which would be political suicide for the German or French govt as the euro becomes devalued against the dollar with US investment banks shorting them the whole way.  Their credit rating is shot. Estimates on the Greek coupon rate are in the low 7's. So even if they could sell bonds it would only delay their fate. They won't make their interest payments and the notes will come due and that will be that. We are back to square one with Greece needing a euro zone bail out. Euro falls against the dollar and the US banks will either kill off the spread or will come in to bonds at a steep discount.  German probably wants to just let Greece fail, but that could lead to trouble for the rest of the PIGS. Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain. If one defaults, would the rest?  Well if you want to know just look at what has been happening to the sub-prime mortgages.  It becomes a domino effect.  Investor confidence is shaken and the cost for all troubled European debt servicing goes up if one country defaults.  Which, leads to more failure and...... you should know this already...... everybody loses.

My thought.  Seems like they are toast.  Maybe not.  I think their only chance is to have the IMF step in and have the Greeks agree to tighter fiscal regulation.  I don't think the US is buying those bonds.  Why would American's want to bail out Europe?  Didn't they add fuel to the currency fight with all this "the world's new reserve currency" talk over the last decade?  I don't know this may make me sound like an arrogant American but, Greece figure this out.  You may have to do some unpopular things.  People may have to work a little longer, you may have to cut some pensions, you may have to sell some islands, I don't know all the ends and outs but figure it out.  Don't come running to us with your hands out. The big US banks are not going to miss an opportunity to make profits on you and if you default.... it won't be pretty.  Maybe you should get ready to start seeing the following signs around town: the B of A Acropolis, the J P Morgan Parthenon, or the Goldman International Airport.

If all else fails you could always spray Windex on the debt

(you'd have to see the movie)

Thanks for the read

The Dukies!!!!

So I ranted a few weeks ago about how the teams in the NCAA tourney were better in the past than the present.  Just in case you doubted, check out Dan Patrick's interview with Grant Hill on April the 1st.  Here is the important part.
GH: Exactly. I was down there this summer at Coach K's fantasy camp. True story. Me, Laettner, Jay Williams, who played at Duke and had the motorcycle accident, and a couple other guys played against the current guys in pick-up ball. And we kind of had our way with them. This is in June when none of us are really in shape. Laettner is 40 years old. These guys are half our age, and we're actually beating them. In all honesty, I was a little worried about this year's team. But they've certainly come together. They play well together.
DP: Wait a minute, give me the lineup. It's [Bobby] Hurley and Jay Williams, it's you, Laettner, and who else is in the starting five?GH: And David McClure.
DP: OK, so you've got your big guy in there with Laettner and you guys are roughing up this team that's in the Final Four.GH: Well, Jay Williams who, God bless him, can only play on one leg ... he's killing John Scheyer. Laettner's killing the Plumlee brothers. I'm to the point where I was like, you should still play [to Laettner.] He said the problem is I can't play 82 games. I can play once every two weeks.

As if that wasn't enough check out what Coach K said today.

You may have to listen to the podcast until they post the transcript.  

But Coach K said that Grant Hill's team mentioned above would walk away with this years NCAA title.  Not just compete but dominate.  Go back and read that team. A 40 year old Laettner and an injured Jay Williams would own this tourney.

So go ahead and add 32 more pathetic teams that don't have a prayer of winning, and are even worse than the Duke team that was dominated by over-the-hill players.  If you think it will make this tournament better, then think again.  CBS is just thanking their lucky stars Duke made the Final.  And basketball fans should thank their lucky stars that Duke won.  If they hadn't ....... I don't even want to think about it.

Thanks for the read

Thoughts??? Was it my driving???

First let me give some really good excuses for why I haven't posted in 10 days. ............... Ok, glad I got that all out of the way. I have literally 5-6 posts written in notes and scraps of paper at my desk, so I have been writing just not online. Strangely enough this post isn't one of them. Its more something that has kept coming up lately in conversation. Just realized that it came up only in road trips while I was driving, so now I'm wondering if they were all hinting at how I drive???

So, it first came up on my trip to the airport (flew to NashVegas to move Ty home, that's another story for another time:). Tex was kind enough to ride along and take my car home. During the drive we got on the subject of how churches sometimes get so inward looking that they loose sight of their commission. Tex has some strong opinions on this, he went to baptist school from kindergarten through college and he also has worked for several churches. I had similar experiences at different times in my life. And, its not that we were even upset about it, it just gets kind of sad. Had a similar discussion with Log on the drive home from the big Nashty, and talked about it a bit with the wife on the way to Waco for Easter. The trouble is, it is very hard to look both in and out.

We should be looking at ourselves to make sure we are happy with what we are doing, but we should also be looking outside ourselves to make sure we haven't gone off the deep end.

Here is what I'm talking about, and yes I know this isn't something new, and yes I know I don't have the answer. Sometimes, people just get too obsessed staring at themselves. So a church starts off with a purpose to reach the lost and help those who are needy. But before long the focus is on poaching members from other churches and creating amenities for its members. Please realize I am not talking about all churches everywhere, I am just saying that this happens sometimes. So instead of building mission churches, they expand and build more buildings and gyms and other reasons why you should never leave. The first time this bothered me was about 8 years ago when I heard someone from the mission field say they could build the church building and provide a pastor in Guyana for $20,000. The next Sunday I heard about expanding the current church to provide amenities totaling $2 mil. Would it sound different if they said the cost to expand the gym would be 100 mission churches????

The same thing happens when leaders and politicians from the South chastise the rest of the country for their morals, or lack there of. I'm sorry, but the South is a very profitable area for the adult film industry and it still has large pockets where open racism is acceptable. I'm not saying every person and every town is this way, but I have lived in and around this part of the country and speak from first hand experience. The coasts have their problems too, but they are not more or less moral than the South or the Mid-West.

Same kind of thing on the political radio last week. A local station I listen to plays Rush during lunch. I'm not much of a fan, but it was on when I got in the car and I wondered what he was going to say.... When his beloved Republican party made a big mistake last week (the RNC sponsored a trip to a bondage club) I left him on for a few minutes and.....I don't know what I was expecting. Wasn't this a misuse of campaign contributions? Not only that, but it was spent on shady endeavors. Well, was there outrage??? Nope. Crickets. To be fair maybe I missed it. But if you can't see that your side is just as corrupt as the side you always attack, then how are you a credible person?

So what is it? I would throw the word hypocritical in.... But I'm not even sure I always know what that means. Plus I know that I am guilty of doing the same thing multiple times and well..... it just seems harsh. I always thought hypocrisy was something you kind of know when you are doing it. Maybe not. Maybe you just kind of slip into it over the years. Before you know it, you have overlooked all your own faults and start turning opportunities to learn into me vs you or us vs them. Its even worse if you have people around you that enable the myopia. And..... Ok, I'm cutting it off. Feel like I've waded a little to far out there. No offense meant to anyone.

Thanks for the read.