Steve

Yay, Steve Jobs is back in commission. It was a big deal to Memphis that he chose to have his liver transplant performed here. I'm just trying to stay awake as to force my sleep cycle into a better gear. Analysts and journalists are saying that Apple is up 67% without Steve Jobs even in the picture, which I find silly. He left when the economy as a whole was in shambles, mid-February 2009. March 1, 2009, need I remind you, was the worst day for trading in decades. Almost every decent stock has rebounded by around 67% since then, so their argument is flawed. They need Steve Jobs and they know they do. Analysts and journalists keep instigating. It's like middle school or something.

Let's see... about to get another raise, woo hoo! Not a promotion, but hey, I'll take it. I feel kind of spoiled at my new job actually. I'll sit through some of my co-workers getting yelled at for how they talk on the phone, then a minute later ask if I can take an early lunch and they're all smiles and saying "of course!" I know it's because I do a good job and stuff, but still makes me feel a bit awkward.

It's official: Rico is my favorite thing in the whole world. I mean, he'll lay around with me all day if I want to; he'll play all day if I want to. It's just great, and he's got that doggie goatee and those big eyes that make him look so much like a little person. He my favorite puppy doodooheads, yes he is. Well, I think I've exhausted my blogging faculties for the morning at least.

Spring break just started, but I'm feeling kind of down. I've got this lung thing going on and every time I seem to feel better, I'll eat something and then I can't get a deep breathe in. Very frustrating. Also, it's supposed to rain in Memphis through the entirety of spring break. Yeah. Well, if this lung thing is still bothering me, I'll just have to go to the doc (and pay out the ass for it). I don't know, I thought I was ready for a break, but I guess not from school. I need to get back with my friends, man. They really can make the world go 'round.

Carzzz

So I am looking for a new-to-me used car. My car has been great until I got T-boned by that ass with my liability-only car insurance. Apparently, he hit me so hard that the entire frame that holds the front part of the engine is cracked all the way through, the suspension shafts are disconnected, the CV axle on the driver's side needed to be replaced, and now the tires just wobble a lot.

Oh, I did feel proud today when I took it in to get the front realigned (free because I bought lifetime alignment when I got new tires) because I noticed on the receipt that he only added lifetime TIRE ROTATION instead of alignment. I called over a mechanic and he fixed the work order and saved me another trip to Firestone. So, hopefully they don't complain about the frame being f-ed up and decline working on it, but if they do realign it, it should give me a couple more weeks (maybe months) of driving time with my good ol' '94 Mazda Protege.

Change

Damn Jeremy, quit being a lazy asshole and get to studying.

Stocks

Oi! So, since I've invested $400 into my Ameritrade.com account, I've lost $52.19 mostly because of investing in Whole Foods (WFMI) too early. They hit a record low of 9.91 earlier in the week that I bought some stock in it, so I felt it would do nothing but go up. Nope. Today it closed at a new low of 8.78! I bought it at 10.65! That's about a 17.5% loss! It's upsetting of course, but what I hate most is that I could have waited and bought it at this 8.78 price. I guess it could still go down, and who am I to say that it won't but hey, at least I wouldn't be losing as much money. Luckily, I invested a little in Ford (F) which has only lost me 4.6%. The stocks will go up, this is a time of crisis. I don't care about them hurrying about going up in price, I just down want them to sink much lower so all this "coulda woulda shoulda" would stop!

I'm thinking about finding a very detailed book that gives a good view of the global elite.  In times like these, it is obvious how economically inter-connected the world is, America being the epicenter, because of how much our mortgage crisis domino effect of fear has sent the world on one wild ride.  What are the motivations and the spending habits of the super-wealthy?  I don't mean Snoop Dogg; we know his money's going to Patron, the best marie-jane, and rottweiler training instructional videos.

Really, though, by looking at the facts, the richest people in the world live in America, many are 1st or 2nd-generation Americans, so obviously there is going to be much interest vested into their other home (physically, familial, spiritual even).  America, always touted as the superpower yada yada, naturally has more money than everyone else (GDP).  Funny though, we're also the poorest nation if you want to be a spoiler and mention the national debt of $10+ trillion.  Yeah, 10,000 billion dollars.  Let's see, that increases our national debt to about $11 trillion (or 11,000 billion dollars) with this corporate bailout crap going on.  

Think about this bailout and the precedent that it is setting or example that it is making.  CEO's are the guys that always win when you're competing in some way.  They were the kids that had the paper route at 10 years old, a savings account by 11, and mowed the neighborhood lawns.  Ah yes and you hate when someone compares you to them (damn you parents for trying to encourage hard work to generation x and y!).  Yes, it's a different world nowadays, I'm not really sure if kids can do paper routes and your parents risk being sued if you run into one of your neighbor's lawn gnomes, so the same type of mentality does not work the same anymore though being gung-ho does.  

Anyways, this bailout favored a select group of people (stockholders in mortgage companies) to a large extent with money from the general population.  That is earmarking, which does not make it bad, but earmarking is supposed to microscopically redistribute the wealth so that the public museum doesn't shut down, the parks are still parks, and so communities can feel a little better and not have to get mad at so and so about such things.  The bailout gave $250 billion for Paulson to use, $100 billion more if the president agrees, and $350 billion reserved for if Congress can agree on how to use it.  It's not that I disagree completely with the bailout as it does have terms for reductions in CEO pay and some other good points.  Yes, mortgage companies need to be stable for most other companies (especially small businesses) to grow or stay open, so the bailout was needed, but it still is likely to have some terrible consequences.  Ford and other big companies need major help because of the mortgage companies' mistakes, but it is going to be a lot harder for Congress to agree upon how to divide their $350 billion stake since everyone's freaking out and talking about how we never should have had a bailout in the first place.  This will likely make Congress more hesitant to give a company money because they won't get that majority vote without each one of the Congressman's favorite company to get a slice of the pie.  As the media was quick to point out, the bailout did not mandate that Congress give money to help with this foreclosure mess a.k.a. "redistribution of the land."  The bill (made BY Congress mind you) assumes that Congress knows it will do what is right with its $350 billion expense account.  

Though it was set up poorly, it SEEMS like it might play out better than we would expect.  Obama has indicated that he will use what funds he has available to stabilize the foreclosures to buy time for the market to stabilize and people to get jobs.

Well, I'm gonna go take a nap with my lady.

Bill Maher

I realize he does it for attention, but it really works.  Bill Maher is really getting on my nerves with his pieces on religion.  He should focus on the fundamentalists.  They are the irrationalists.  He states "Either you're a rationalist or you're not a rationalist."  Sitting so smug, priding himself and his fellow "atheists" and agnostics on how "rational" they are.  The truth is that there is no answer to the questions of religion, so it is rational to have faith and it is rational to not have faith.  There is no clear winner to this argument, and I hate that this man acts like he innocently just wants to know more about why people act the way they do concerning religion.  He's not just a curious little boy, he's simply putting down religious people all the time and it is not a good thing.  He always tells of how destructive religion is while his show and its influence are pretty destructive in their delivery.  He is hypocritical, and I just don't think it's cute anymore.