Posts Tagged ‘random’

Nine dollars and seventy nine cents

// March 16th, 2009 // 3 Comments » // My Life, My Thoughts

My paycheck is pretty much always the same.. and because of that I have one very dependable source of personal happiness every two weeks… I always deposit my paycheck and round it to the nearest ten dollars and keep the change. That change comes to exactly $9.79

recently my wife was with me when this transaction was made… apparently I was as happy as a five year old getting a ten dollar bill because she cracked up laughing as I opened the bank envelope and pulled out the nine dollars and seventy nine cents and happily folded it into my wallet and stashed the change.

I looked up at her to see what she thought was so funny … she said. “I can’t remember the last time I saw someone that was that happy to get nine dollars and seventy nine cents!”

see the thing is .. that $9.79 is mine to do what I choose… it is my “allowance” I can get barbecue instead of bringing lunch, buy a soft drink, get guitar strings. as far as our budget is concerned … it doesn’t exist!

you may think that I am silly… well I am ! but on the day that I cash my check I have a veritable goldmine of possibilities before me that I painstakingly choose from. So I choose carefully and thoughtfully… because it will be two whole weeks before I get another nine dollars and seventy nine cents.

Jason Carroll

Jason the bald guy
jasonthebaldguy.com

Tags: Fun, pain, random

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25 Things about me that you may not know….

// February 1st, 2009 // 2 Comments » // My Confessions

  1. I shave my head because its easier than brushing
  2. I shave my face as rarely as possible
  3. I like playing lead guitar better than anything else… problem is I can’t play lead guitar!
  4. I keep forgetting to be “in the world” not “of the world”
  5. I go to work 15 minutes after I wake up
  6. I set my alarm clock 30 minutes ahead so when I wake up I think I am late for work.
  7. It takes me 20 minutes to figure out I am not going to be late for work.
  8. I call my mom almost every day.
  9. I can never remember my anniversary, kids birthdays, my birthday, my wife’s birthday or your birthday!
  10. I am an inventor
  11. I hate the status quo.
  12. I would rather admit that I am flawed than pretend that I am perfect
  13. I once jumped off of a bridge because my friend told me too
  14. I would rather eat and exercise than diet… however I hate exercising
  15. I want to retire at 40
  16. It is easier for me to keep 2 dollars in my wallet for a hundred days than 100 dollars for 2 days
  17. I am capable of astounding someone with breadth of my knowledge and amazing them with my stupidity at the exact same time.
  18. I love experiencing the tangible feeling of the presence of God but I rarely experience it when I am surrounded by others that are… this is more than a little perplexing..
  19. I love simplicity, but often choose to complicate things.
  20. I sometimes get the feeling that people are a little weirded out by me
  21. Sometimes circular logic make perfect sense to me… at least for a few revolutions…until I realize where things are going.
  22. My son Aidan is autistic
  23. I like to cook – I have an apron that my mom made me.
  24. I just found out that you are not supposed to always wear your wallet in the same back pocket… unfortunately now I have a “Butt dimple” as Kimberly calls it
  25. after 18 years of working on Windows PCs I converted to Mac… My wife’s comment was… “as smart as you are about computers… and you are just figuring out that Mac is better than PC?” I just hung my head… the truth is I just always hated the Mac because the people around me did… I never tried it for myself. I Learned a valuable lesson about making decisions based on truth
Tags: Art, decisions, exercise, God, Kids, Love, Mac, random, simplicity, sin, truth

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The Icy Embrace of Chaos – A rant on the current financial crisis

// January 16th, 2009 // No Comments » // My Life, My Thoughts

I don’t know how many of you are familiar with the theories of Entropy, Order, and Chaos so indulge me while I enlighten you.

First of all some definitions

System: a collection of objects that are related and/or interact with each other based on a specific set of rules (Examples: home heating/cooling system, plumbing, the solar system etc. etc…)

Order: the organized symmetry that is observed when objects interact with each other in a balanced manner

Chaos: the lack of balance and symmetry that is observed when objects interact with each other in a random and unpredictable way.

Entropy: The tendency of ordered systems to decay into Chaos

Ok, now that the definitions are out of the way, (they are simplified for all of our sakes)

My head has been really exploding listening to all of the recent opinions about the recession (dare I say depression?) that is beginning to sweep across the nation and even the world! The one thing that I find most unbelievable is that no one is really accepting responsibility for their actions! Everyone seems to be pointing at someone else wanting to shift the blame. At this point we get to see what is really going on in our country.

  • An average US citizen, wants to buy a house
  • An Appraiser wants to increase the value of a house to improve his business
  • A Realtor wants to sell a house and make a big commission
  • A local Bank wants to close on a loan and make a fat load of interest.
  • An investment bank wants to buy high risk mortgages and repackage them as lower risk mortgage backed securities, selling them at a profit
  • A hedge fund is set up to protect the high risk mortgage backed securities in-case a few of them fail.

soooo

  • The average US citizen lies about their income so they can afford a nicer house.. overextending themselves.
  • The Realtor works out a deal with the appraiser and the seller to reduce the down payment by increasing the amount of the loan to the maximum appraisal value and pretending the seller is paying the down payment.
  • The Appraiser gladly raises the value of the house so that the Realtor can make a better commission.. guaranteeing more work and possible kickbacks.
  • The Local Bank looks the other way and closes on an Adjustable Rate Mortgage (ARM) that is doomed for failure
  • The Investment Bank buys up thousands of ARM loans, slices and dices them to reduce risk and resells them as mortgage backed securities
  • The hedge fund artificially inflates the demand for oil by making enormous futures purchases – driving the price of oil ridiculously high assuring plenty of money to protect the mortgage backed securities .

the result is

  • The average US Citizen cannot afford Gas for their SUV because of high gas prices and bad spending habits.
  • The ARM loan adjusts to the current finance rate increasing monthly payments by hundreds of dollars and the average US Citizen cannot afford their home.
  • Thousands of ARM loans go into default
  • The hedge fund fails because they only bet that 20% of the loans would go into default and they already paid the investors their dividends
  • the investment bank fails because huge chunks of their mortgage backed securities are failing and investors are dumping them at bargain basement prices
  • the local bank fails because the average US citizen pull their money out because they have no idea what is going on with the banks!
  • the housing bubble pops, Realtor’s and appraisers run out of work.
  • Construction dwindles down and contractors run out of work.
  • Unemployment skyrockets
  • General consumer confidence begins to fail
  • Retail begins to fail
  • Unemployment skyrockets
  • The Stockmarket plummets
  • Consumer confidence fails
  • The oil bubble pops
  • Gas prices fall
  • The world economy stumbles.

Ok ok my rant is almost done…

So much of this is caused by greed, It is all about turning a quick buck! and when all the finger pointing is done thousands of families are without homes that they probably could have afforded if they would have done things right.- If the people that should have been there to help them buy a house, would have been honest with them- and told them to buy less and be satisfied. Ultimately the only ones that pay for the entire scam is the homeowners, the folks who bought gas at near 5 bucks a gallon and the taxpayer that foots the bill for a multibillion dollar bailout of the companies that bought the oil and drove the prices up, and sold the mortgage backed securities at a profit.

The cracks are beginning to show in the idealism of capitolism and they are not very pretty. what shows is greed, dishonesty, and irresponsibility. Every little choice to be dishonest for the sake of personal gain added to the enourmous cost that we will pay in the coming years. Entropy is the decay of order into chaos and we have welcomed it with open arms.

So buckle up and prepare to take responsibility for your actions, responsibility can only be avoided for so long before it demands its dues.

Hopefully America will wake up to realize that truth and honesty and responsibility are worth more than a dollar bill. Hopefully… before we must endure the icy embrace of chaos.

Tags: Art, capitolism, choice, depression, economy, failure, financial problems, Fun, greed, one thing, random, ranting, recession, responsibility, rock, sin, truth, unemployment

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