Collect Experiences. Not Things. :')

October 23, 2010

Any Good Sign Suggestions?

Trying to think of a good sign for the "Restore Sanity" Rally next weekend in DC.

Ithaca is Gorgeous



Two of the jump sites are about 100 yards from where I lived. Bebe Lake Stone Bridge and the "Lovers Leap" near The Byway. Oh the memories. Yes, I'm getting old.

The Future

A Communist Government that promotes market forces takes over the World. Is this the model of future governments? USA looses to the Communist? Do they really have a better political and economic model?

October 22, 2010

President Obama: It Gets Better

I Struggled

I wanted a way to make a cup of coffee in my room at 5 am before running. I didn't want to tramp downstairs into the kitchen, start the coffeemaker, and then wait for the coffee to brew, before heading back upstairs to prepare for running. This machine was the obvious answer, it can easily fit in my room, on my desk. And the coffee can be purchased in pre-measured, cup-size, plastic containers that pollute the environment. No need to measure the coffee every morning. No filters. No mess.
Ideally, I'd prefer to purchase bulk coffee, grind it and slowly percolate it in a Italian coffeemaker, so not to pollute the environment daily, but time and connivence are factors, as well as consistence. It's that why fast food has become so popular - quick, easy, cheap and always the same, just as you remembered. No mess in the kitchen.

Well, I struggled, and ultimately, I purchased one of these machines. Now every morning I conveniently drink the perfect cup of coffee and add plastic coffee containers to the earth's landfills. Hey there are 7 billion other humans also polluting the planet, what's one more!

October 21, 2010

Obama's Approval Rating at New Low in Most Recent Quarter

Obama'a approval rating has reached a new low, but it's still above Clinton, Reagan and Carter's ratings at the same point in their presidency. Two of them got re-elected by landslides, one did not. It will all depend on the economy. But as for this election, the Democrats will loose the House and keep the Senate, but only by a slim margin.

Obama's seventh-quarter average ranks on the low end of comparable averages among the nine presidents since Eisenhower, although it above that of several of the more recently elected presidents, including Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton.

Thank God I'm A Buddhist

Buddhist wins Google's search and if you can't believe in Google, who can you believe? Today, Google is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent (with the help of cell phones, of course). Praise be to Google.

October 18, 2010

October 30, 2010

I got my sign planned. Psyched!

October 17, 2010

One Third of America's Poor lives in Suburbia, and Rising...

Reversal of Fortune: in the 70's and early 80's, poverty and crime lived in the inner cities. People moved to the suburbs. In the late 90's folks started moving back to the inner-cities. The suburbs were deemed boring, culture-less and long drive to the employment centers. Real estate in the inner-cities boomed in the late-90's and early 00's, then like the rest of the country it felt like the mortgage crisis ripples. But for the most part real estate values in inner-cities held or experienced minor setbacks at most. Who's remaining in the suburbs?
A pair of analyses by the nonprofit Brookings Institution paints a bleak economic picture for the 100 largest metropolitan areas over the past decade and in coming years, and finds that suburbs now are home to one-third of the nation's poor, and rising.

After the recession began in 2007, the suburbs continued to post larger increases in the number of poor – adding 1.8 million, compared with 1.4 million in the cities.

Cities still have higher poverty rates – about 19.5 percent, compared with 10.4 percent in the suburbs. But the gap has been steadily narrowing. In a reversal from 2000, the number of poor people living in the suburbs now exceeds those in cities by roughly 1.6 million.

"Millions of Americans at all income levels moved to the suburbs looking for better schools, better jobs, affordable housing, and a sense of security, but in recent years, as incomes have fallen, people had a harder and harder time making ends meet," said Scott Allard, a University of Chicago professor who co-wrote one of the reports.

"As a result, Americans who never imagined becoming poor are now asking for assistance, and many are not getting the help they need."
Via the Link site that wants to be a News site: The Huffington Post.

Elizabeth Warren - Obama's Consumer Finance Czar

“It breaks my heart to say this, but I think the word ‘disclosure’ has become a dirty word,” she said. “What it’s come to mean is layers and layers of fine print that nobody reads and nobody understands. Indeed, it’s worse than useless because it is shrubbery to hide muggers,” Warren said in a reference to lenders who use complex disclosure forms to hide fees.
Paraphrase: "the small print on financial forms is like shrubbery to hide muggers".

Up Coming Elections

Come election day next month, the GOP will easily take the House and win significant gains in the Senate and Governor's Mansions (and by the way, I'm a Republican now. My goal is to always vote with the winning side.).

Currently, everybody's top issue is the ECONOMY. And the domestic economy sucks (invest internationally). The developing world embodies the economic engine that will pull the world out of the Great Recession (caused by the U.S.) over the next couple of years.

And yup, the white, racist, knuckle dragging teabaggers will undoubtably proclaim a mandate come election day. But this is expected of mid-term elections. Even Reagan in his first term in the White House in November 1982 lost 27 seats in the House of Representatives to the Democrats. The Democrats took over the House with 269-166 advantage over the Republicans. Mid-term elections are always hard on the party in power. But a longer term question still remains: can Obama keep the Presidency in 2012? It will depend on three things: 1) Economy, 2) Economy, and 3) Economy.

What’s in a Name?

In close to 20 years, the rankings of the most popular student surnames have changed, reflecting the growing diversity of Rutgers.

1990

1. Smith
2. Patel
3. Lee
4. Johnson
5. Brown
6. Jones
7. Miller
8. Kim
9. Chen
10. Davis

2009

1. Patel
2. Lee
3. Kim
4. Shah
5. Smith
6. Chen
7. Wang
8. Rodriguez
9. Brown
10. Johnson

Office of the University Registrar

The Patels are overtaking the corner offices and boardrooms of the top engineering, finance and technology firms. Lacking the gumption and education, the Smiths are being relegated to McDonald's managers, car salesmen and landscapers. But the Smiths are going away without fury. The Smiths, like the teabaggers, rage over their promised large slice of the pie that was never delivered, and hope that myspace.com will someday become the dominate social networking again, as it once was, as the Patels, Lees, Kims, Shahs, Chens silently assume their jobs.

The U.S. of A. is changing fast. It's becoming more ethnically integrated, international and diverse everyday. Ignore it or invest in it.

President Pryor

1977. Wide lapels. Only Richard Prior could have pulled this off. In our post racist society, a lot of this would be consider racist, or not.

October 14, 2010

Time to Buy A House?

Freddie Mac: 30 year Mortgage Rates fall to 4.19 percent, lowest since 1951
Freddie Mac today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), which found that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate fell again to break the survey’s all-time low; the 30-year FRM has been under 5 percent for 23 weeks in a row. The last time 30-year FRM rates were this low was April 1951 (based on a data series of FHA rates going back to 1948). The 5-year ARM tied the all-time survey low set last week.
However, with the international equities cranking it's hard to justify purchasing a house.

Joel Burns tells gay teens "it gets better"

FUCKING POWERFUL!! The church bigots need to stop their hate. Church sheeple are the KKK of our times. Sad but true.

October 10, 2010

No Tough Love Anymore?

So many lower class American parents seem to focus their kid's interests on sports, TV, junk food and religion, without regards to reading, learning, and exploring, in an effort that their children have the same values as they do. My eyes were opened this summer observing to my co-workers (mostly Asian immigrants and about 80%+ with a Masters Degree or higher) focus their children's interest on math, creative writing, technology and science, whether is be summer camps or classes.

Yes, it important for children to be physically active, but it's probably more important for them to be mentally active in todays world. Sports, TV, junk food and religion are all repetitive activities with low levels of metal stimulation, not necessarily the skills children need to be productive, creative professionals, entrepreneurs and leaders of tomorrow. Clearly, my co-workers are preparing their kids differently for the 21 century, while teabagger families become outraged that the U.S. is loosing jobs and China is taking over the world. I no longer wonder why.

The U.S. has been built on the back of immigrants for generations, or more precisely 234 years. I've come to believe its the people who are born on U.S. soil that are the lazy complainers that are holding the country back. They generally tend to be focused on professional sports, TV, junk food and religion. Maybe we should be exporting U.S. citizens and importing immigrants. Immigrants who want to educate themselves and to become intelligent, productive, hard working, creative citizens. Not leaches who sit home for five years doing nothing, like myself.

October 01, 2010

36 Hours in Moscow


POST-PERESTROIKA, Moscow evoked a giant college dormitory gone wild. Free from oppressive and overbearing Soviet leaders, Muscovites set upon their city with freshman-like zeal, indulging in the fruits of capitalism, hangovers be damned.

Also Arts Sprouts in Russia