At my age most people would say, “what already saving?” To some degree I would agree with them, but retirement savings at my age are opportunistic. In other words, if given the chance to save a bit on the side.. I should.
So now I should be setup to contribute 20% of my paycheck a month (10% bi-monthly) to my retirement. Do I expect to hit it big? No, but who knows.
From one perspective I could say that I have about 40 years of working in front of me. That’s 40 years of potential growth & gain. If anything it’s fun to play with.
Quite a change from the last post, but yesterday just spelled doom in many ways. My sailing class that I had looked forward to since spring was cancelled. On my way home… my car overheated and the work load at work has doubled.
This morning wasn’t too much better. My car overheated again, but it was b/c my radiator was dry and my oil was low. I fixed all that and hope everything just get’s mo~ bettah!
Two new additions to the car… A second hand CB from my Dad and a New Steering knob for my wheel. Wow! What a difference it makes.
So this morning I tried the knob out.. turning left then right then left again. The steering stayed the same, but I had way more control to steer with my left and shift with my right. Ole’ German town road felt way easier when I could make those quick 3rd to 4th shifts while steering around the curves (safely I might add).
The CB was a groovy addition too. Cruising for the 10-15 min on I-5 I got hardly nothing over the CB. I realized that it was the fact that the antenna that I bought was inside the car sitting in the back. I guess I felt self-conscious with a big ole antennastick’n up on top of my roof, but w/o that thing I wasn’t gett’n the s&*t talk from the truckers.. I decided on Interstate Dr. to pull over and put that thing up top. Like an instant change, that radio lit up and truckers from all around piped in. I was hot and rar’n to go. I actually can’t wait to get out on the 5′s today just to hear the truckers.
Speaking on which, I start my sailing classes at LC today so from work I head over to learn all about sailing! Woot! I’m excited. Hopefully I’ll learn something worth sharing on the blog….
I’ll stop there! Looks like a good start to a great day!
I know that I’ve been on cruise control since May (at least from school) but somehow the first day of Summer really makes things feel… summery. Today just happens to be my Mom’s b-day and my half-birthday.. My un-birthday you could say
Also today happens to be natl. flip-flop day (I think) so all you flip-floppers (Kerry) I hope you wore your flip-flops today!
As the United States rumbles on into the next century I can’t help but wonder on the future of long standing traditional laws that will be targeted for reversal. One long standing debate that continues to be beaten up is the legalization of intoxicating substances.. In layman’s terms: The legalization of Pot, drugs, and home-distillation. The last one may or may not shock you, but indeed the home-distillation of alcohol is illegal to do in the United States. I won’t comment on the other two, but on the third I think soon this piece of law will come under serious fire. Lets consider it..
Under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (Section 5176 I think) it prohibits the production of distilled spirits on certain premises (i.e. your home or garage). After looking around the Internet on why such a law exists I found basically two reasons or explanations.
The production of distilled spirits can and may produce methanol which is poisonous to humans if consumed.
Licensed Producers of distilled spirits pay a tax to produce alcohol and that money goes fund certain programs in congress (likely the general fund).
Basically that’s the two primary reasons. So to produce hard liquor you need a license which the government issues on the promise that you will pay a tax on your selling of that substance (mind you this is different then the tax we pay to buy alcohol). Now these reasons for prohibiting home-brewers from distilling seems somewhat valid, but that’s only if a home brewer is distilling and drinking his product or selling his product to other people. What if that home brewer wasn’t doing either? What if that home brewer was distilling high proof alcohol into Ethanol to run in his E85 flex-fuel car? He wouldn’t be consuming the potentially dangerous substance and he wouldn’t be selling it either (because it was for personal use).
With gas prices fluctuating so often between $2.90 a gal & $3.50 (maybe $4) a gal people are looking for alternatives. One alternative is home brewing alcohol into ethanol, but that’s illegal right now.. So perhaps it wouldn’t take much to rephrase the law to allow for personal fuel refinement… Sounds good for us right? Not so easy.
Like all money/tax schemes. this law (if kept as is) gives ethanol producers a monopoly on the market. Makers of ethanol need a license that is issued by the government who could refuse to issue one to competitors (like us citizens). So if lawmakers (in this case) got campaign contributions from ethanol producers and then got elected, then had access to money from ethanol taxes, why on earth would they legalize home brewing? It would hurt their campaign sponsors and it would reduce the money in the general fund for stuff…
Now this law doesn’t apply to bio-diesel which is why the alternative fuel campaign isn’t pushing for that. I hope you smell a rat like I do. E85 products (cars) lines the pockets of auto-makers, ethanol makers, and congressmen… The government makes money from taxes which likely goes into the general fund which is what we fund the war in Iraq with. It is no doubt why they’re pushing for E85!
Just another case of slippery backwards profiteering by those sworn to protect the rights of it’s citizens which is why true supporters of alternative fuel should back bio-diesel (before that gets outlawed next!
You’ve heard of it before… No Child left behind (NCLB). Just in its name you think that maybe there was a time when a child *was* left behind. I, myself, wonder if I was left behind during my k-12. Clearly NCLB should spark alarm across the board.
In conjunction to NCLB is what to do to make sure no child gets left behind. The solution thus far is to test, test, test. Somehow… through the work of psychiatrists, early development specialists, and expert education specialists we can create a test that would test every boy and girl… universally and fairly… and then based on that information we could literally grade schools. A passing school is rewarded with more education opportunities… a failing school is punished with the black “Program Improvement” or “PI” mark. A PI mark is not with a ton of benchmarks and guidelines that a failing school needs to do pronto or else.
You see if a school fails for too long then it’s the X for that school. Now… for me failing is somewhat subjective. I would venture to say that kids are different. A child in New Mexico is going to face challenges that a child in Maine or Up-state New York is going to face.. Yet.. We grade them all the same using a universal standard.
Teachers (according to a NPR interview with teachers this morning) call this charade a game which (no doubt) is taking away from real education. Tests do show results.. that much is certain, but they are not the end-all/tell-all that solves everything. Kids are as unique as the teachers who teach them and no where in a test is that going to be revealed. Tests also change the dynamic of an education. I lived in a country where tests were the end-all/tell all and what I saw wasn’t my host brother learning English as much as he was learning the right answers to a test.
What does this all really mean? Tests are a tool, but lack the ability to teach. Like everything else in this country (immigration) there is no silver bullet that the federal government can implement… So stop trying to use fear tactics and benchmark programs when the real solution would be leaving it up to the states! Hmmm?
I was sitting at home watching the premere of NBC’s Last Comic Standing. Between some hallarious acts was a commercial break. One commercial which I’m sure everybody has seen at least once is the Geico Caveman in the airport commercial where he walks past that notorious sign “Even a caveman can do it.” So the commercial has some really good elevator music that I found myself humming to as I made myself some tea. At that point my curiosity grew… Who did that song? Was it commissioned by Geico? A little research revealed that the song was made by a Norwegian Electronic Band known as Royksopp (Smoking Mushroom in Norsk).
Tagged as Chillout, Ambient, Dance, Electronic, Electronica, Indie, Norwegian, and Trip-hop(?)… Last.fm has this to say about them…
Röyksopp (sometimes misspelled as ‘Royksopp’ or ‘Røyksopp’ even “Royskopp”) is an electronic and chill-out music duo based in Bergen, Norway, but the members are originally from Tromsø, Norway. The band consists of Torbjørn Brundtland and Svein Berge. The group formed officially in 1998 and released their debut album Melody A.M. in 2001. In Norwegian, “The word “Röyksopp”, which literally means “(a) smoke mushroom”, refers to a type of mushroom that will make a smoky cloud when touched. (The English term is fuzz ball or puffball).
Röyksopp have won many prizes for their music, one of them in MTV Europe Music Awards 2002 for the best music video (Remind Me). Remind Me was also used in the popular Geico insurance “Caveman” TV commercials while their first single “So Easy” became popular in the UK after it was used in an T-Mobile advert.
The song “Eple” was licensed by Apple for use as the welcome music to Mac OS X Panther operating system, playing the first time a user booted a new Mac.
July 12th, 2005 the band released their second album The Understanding, which was preceded by the hit single “Only This Moment” on June 27th. The album’s second single, “49 Percent” was released September 26th same year, followed by their third single, “What Else Is There?”, December 5th, 2005, which is a collaboration with Karin Dreijer from the Swedish electronic band, The Knife. The fourth single, “Beautiful Day Without You”, was released on June 26, 2006.
Their song Remind me (the one on the Geico Commercial) is what really got me going. I found their song on iTunes and decided to get the album as well. I’ve grown to really like their laid-back tempo and solid beat. I can’t help but wonder if the bit of Norwegian-ness in me is what fueled my curiosity to know more about them.
Regardless… this is good music. So for your listening pleasure I’ve posted below a music video with their song in full. Enjoy!
It’s likely that everybody knows that there’s two religious groups that dominate politics, society, wealth, etc. They are the Evangelical Christians and the Jews. Christians are outspoken on the issue of supporting Israel, almost to the point of ignoring blatant human rights violations. One question we should ponder deeply about is why Christians are so adamant to protect Israel. In the here and now, it looks like Christians are just blindly following the herd by saying Israel needs our support, but more deeply, what does a successful Israel mean for Christian nation?
You may or may not know about the Christian theory of the end times. During the first G.W. term we thought that Bush was working America with the ideology that the end times are coming so… if God is just going to rapture us, then why do we need to care about anything? You’ve heard of this yes? Well.. these people (dominion-ists as they’re called) have made a biblical check list…
One World Order
Anti-Christ
100% evangelizing of God’s Word to the world
An United Israel
That last one.. an united Israel is found in the checklist and is why most Christians support Israel. A united Israel is what will allow Jesus to come back and save us all, but did Jesus say that Jews get a free pass? I don’t think so. Oh! Wait a minute… I remember Jesus saying that to get to heaven or to get raptured you have to believe in him.. right?
we on track yet?
So… A united Israel doesn’t mean the complete salvation of Israel or Jews. The belief is that after the rapture of Jesus believers, those who didn’t believe in Jesus are going to perish (die) in Armageddon’s blood bath. However.. these end times can’t come without an United Israel so there we have it. Like a bad episode of Survivor.. the Evangelicals have made an alliance with Jews just so that Israel will unite and expedite the end times into happening sooner.
Before you think you’ve been played (and you have) realize that this is the big play. Perhaps the relationship between Evangelicals & Jews is a marriage of convenience which will abruptly end when either Israel is whole (i.e. has all of Jerusalem) or when Evangelicals believe the end times are upon us.
My job is not to pass judgement on this predicament, but perhaps (to use a biblical phrase) the writing is on the wall… on the wall for you, for me, for Israel and Jews, and for the world. Everything has a reason, and while most Evangelicals might not know why they support Israel, the leaders of the Evangelical movement do… and that’s enough.
a lot to ponder ain’t it?.. Of course I could be wrong too.
In the recent human embryo debacle, Nancy Peloci gave God a shout out when she said, “The ability to destroy human embryos to cure diseases is a ‘gift from God.’” Speaking from her mostly Catholic religious background, Peloci is using a new democratic strategy to sweep in ‘disenchanted republicans.’ While perhaps this is supposed to be progressive, what is it really doing to help democrats?
No one can doubt or discard the recent surge of power by this new group of Americans “the neo-cons,” they represent a huge voting bloc and are responsible for the president’s rise to power. Many of them are swayed by religious motives and like many, they want a stronger commentment to the morals emphasized in Christianity. All of this isn’t the problem… Where the line has recently been blur’d is where politicians are having to ‘shout out’ or ‘give reference’ to God to justify their view on a topic like actors, in the last Emmy Awards, giving Jack Nicholson a shout out when they’ve won something.
I’m not saying Jack Nicholson rivals with God (?) what I’m saying is that in (what I thought) a secular state where religion and government has been purposefully separated, our leaders feel like they have to pander to the religious base.
This is all because Christians, who feel they’re at the center of everything, think that choice needs to be legislated so that the options out there are ok with them first. What I mean is that… In our public schools, instead of parents teaching their kids that there’s also creationism, these people want teachers to teach both… While there’s a element of laziness here, the worst aspect is that Politicians think that they have to do it.
Listen…. A parent’s job since parenthood is to first find your morals and truth’s and then teach your kids to choose the right path (what ever that maybe). Making government (which is supposed to be fair and unreligious) teach your kids morals is wrong, because the Government will always fail. There is a myth that our founding fathers we’re raving Christians and that our republic was founded on God-only pricipals. If that were true then America would like that of a sharea-law state, instead of where there is Islam there would Christian law. In fact there is no such elements of that in our government, and the reality is that such a God-centric republic was what the early settlers were running from in England.
America origins come from the enlightenment period, where people with ideas and philosophies could work on them with an element of freedom. To say that if you want progress in science you need to find a God-spin on it is unnessary and a mockery of the real principals America *should* stand for. Religion (whatever it maybe) is a personal thing that should remain in the house, not in politics or law.
If we continue to endorse such behavior, I’m afraid that next Christians will be violently persecuting Athiests and Athiests persecuting Christians with some sort of endorsement by the government.
If you were out on Saturday and enjoyed yourself then you’ve offically earned the title of ”nor’westerner.”
Long standing traditions of a soggy, cold, and miserable rose parade repeated itself as if it was destiny. Tink and I were out in Pirate outfits trying to do the pirate thing, but the longer I waded into the storm the more I felt the misery of real pirating.
It was all good I suppose. Typically the rose festival does mark the end of the rainy season, but don’t put any stock in that. I wouldn’t be suprised if we see yet more days of rain.
Good think I got a newer set of wipers… Funny to think that when I bought them durring that week long sunny spell, I believed I was wasting my money b/c I would never use them till next fall… wishful thinking I suppose.
