Politics and Finances

In the financial world there has been another stunning scandal; Bernie Madoff, scamming people and institutions to the tune of $50 billion. It boggles my mind that he could get away with that much and that he would try it at all, given his background. I wonder, was he desperate, crazy, or stupid?

There has also been a lot of talk about the government bailouts; mainly that we're not allowing the market to take care of itself, also known as free-market capitalism. A lot of conservatives like the idea almost to the point of religion. The other side, mostly liberals think that the government should have more involvement in the running of the country. Be bigger and more controlling, aka socialism. Though they haven't come out and called it that formally.

Anyways, I was thinking that one would seem to prevent the abuse from the other, but then it could be abused itself. What I meant by that is that the capitalism model is prone to the type of abuse we've seen, people abusing the system to try and get more money out of it than they should at the expense of other investors. And usually the other investors loose, as in with Enron and the accounting scandals and Mr. Madoff most recently. On the other side, if the market were regulated and the economy as with a central government model, then you might get abuse by the government. like excessive regulation or outright oppression. Unfortunately, corruption can occur anywhere.

So will people ever treat each other better? With or without religion people are going to get greedy in some fashion, for money or power, or both and sometimes other will suffer. It seems to be the human condition and probably will go on till the end of time. Right now I think all we can do is hope for the best and be careful.

One a month

Well, I'm going to try and post once a month. Hopefully it will keep me in the mindset and I"ll remember to post more often.

I think blogging is hard to do if you're ADD. Some many thoughts, so little time. Thoughts come in a flash, and go in a flash. One minute you get an idea and by the time you sit down to write about it, you can't remember it. Damn frustrating. Anyway, I try.

In the future I might try blogging about various topics; politics, consipacy theories, UFOs and the paranormal. I hope it will be as fun for you as for me. Of course it could become just a bit more stressful for me than you, but fun nonetheless.

Well, of my a fore mentioned topics, to ad-lib about something off the top of my head, it will be...politics.

Much has been made of President-Elect Barack Obama's success in the election. How he'll take the country in a new direction and do wonderful things. I think that will be a challenge given the situation he has inherited. What will he be able to do and who will he do it for? A lot people felt that President Bush was for big corporations, particularly big oil. And Vice-President Cheney was in a similar field of interest. Now who is President-Elect Obama aligned with? Some feel it is the unions. The worker verses the corporate elite. A classic democrat-republican tug-of-war. That is why Speaker-of-the-House Nancy Pelocy is promising that the big 3 won't fail. She owes them something.

Listening to talk-radio, much has been said about how they are afraid of Barack Obama's liberal-leanings, if not socialistic tendencies. We shall see how things pan out.

I have sometimes wondered about the value of capitalism verses socialism. Recently it seems that capitalism is a real good idea until it all falls apart big time, like now. Then the government steps in and props everything up so it won't fail, and it looks more like socialism than capitalism. That does seem a bit odd. So I guess we're not really truley capitalists? Maybe fair-weather capitalists? Hmmm.

It seems any ideology cannot be enacted and carried out because it will be corrupted by the people that are enacting it. Capitalism is corrupted by greed, (notice Wall Street of late) and socialism is also corrupted by greed and selfishness, (see N. Korea, China and Russia).

On the surface, socialism is interesting because nobody seems to get left out, all the wealth gets 'spread around'. So you don't have grinding poverty, but you also may not have extreme wealth.

Capitalism on the other hand doesn't have the boundaries, if you will, of socialism so you do have grinding poverty and extreme wealth. Which one's better? Does it depend on if you're wealthy or poor? I'm not sure, but I'd like to explore it further at a later time.

Gaining momentum

More time has passed, too much time between posts.

I decided to take a look at my blog and see what was going on. Not much as usual lately to my regret. I started scrolling down the list of posts from the favorite blogs list and came across one titled "why do we blog?" I read through the responses and realized what I'd been missing. At the very least its would be for the joy of writing and self expression. And if I'm lucky, there will be more benefits, like better command of words, thoughts, etc., I might even make some friends and extra income. What's not to like?

My problem is that I'm easily distracted and discouraged. Afflicted with a degree of ADD. The discouragement part could be looking for a certain result and not getting it as soon as hoped and thinking it's not working and giving up. Or becoming overwhelmed by all the blogs and posts and information, and not having a method of handling it all. So it becomes on big mass of stuff and I get overwhelmed and discouraged.

Having realized this I want to try and manage it better. Try and keep better focus and follow a written list of priorities so I don't get so easily overwhelmed.

Does anyone else have issues with ADD? If so, how do you handle blogging or trying to blog with all the information that can come at you? Thanks for your response.

FYI I'm not doing the vampire thing in SL anymore.

Back to Blogging

I started out blogging because I thought i might have something to say about parenting. But I ran out of material pretty quickly, it seemed. I didn't have the patience for it.

But I want to try and keep blogging for you, whoever you are. Thank you for your patience and readership.

One of the things that has distracted me in recent months is Second Life. Yes, Second Life.

I had tried a virtual life kind of thing called "There". I was pretty good but it seemed awkward in some ways and I never quite got used to it. Second Life, by comparison, was easy to get into and do things with. Much more comprehensive and engulfing. There is so much to see and do and its a wonderful experience.

I got caught up in it and became rather obsessed with it, logging on every day that i possibly could. Eagerly anticipating who and what I would see that day. As time went by, I met people and made friends. Some of those friends now are very special to me. Second Life has shown me a lot. And I'm not done yet.

The latest thing in SL that I have gotten into is vampires. There is a role-playing game in SL about vampires called: Bloodlines. You become a vampire by being bitten and you accumulate 'wealth' by gathering blood and souls of others. The one with the most of each is king of the clan, so to speak.

I've also been interested in vampires in general for a while now. At one point I thought I could read through the Ann Rice vampire chronicles. I have yet to finish Lestat. Well, I needed a break.

I shall elaborate on these ideas more later on. Right now I'm pretty tired and easily loosing my thoughts. So good night for now.

A quick post to let you know im still here. My apologies for the lag in posting. I know nobody's reading this anymore, but I will press on.

Latley I've been sidetracked by Second Life. It has quite gotten my attention. Fun little sim.

Work has been good. Sometimes busy, sometimes not. Thats ok. The people are nice and the work is rewarding.

I might come up with a more structured theme in the days to come for this blog, i will try.

Until then, I will see you later.

What's New

More of the new year. A new routine and possibly a new house to live in.

January and February have been more promising than originally thought. A new job. Actually it's a very familiar job with a new compnay. The job is driving passengers, the compnay is Company Car in Cleveland, Ohio. I do enjoy it. The hours are a bit long sometimes, but that comes with the territory. Last Tuesday we had the Democratic debates and I think most of the livery companies were kept busy running people around. One of my co-workers had an 18 hour day.

We might be moving in the near future. We want to stay in the same school system so our youngest can graduate high school with her friends. After that we can move anywhere. After that the majority of our childrearing will be done.

It has gone so fast. Yesterday I was standing in a line and nearby was a mom and a newborn. The baby was crying that said I want some activity here! Mom gently rolled the shopping cart back and forth and baby seemed placated for the most part.

I can remember those days like yesterday. You just live your life for your children. It seems like you'll be there forever. But it does pass, they get bigger, different issues to think about. Suddenly they're in high school and graduating! No more Daddy! Daddy! Daddy! I made you a picture! or Mommy! I got you some flowers! Now it's all memories. *sigh*

More adventures lay ahead.

New Year...New...?

New Year's resolutions. Eveybody makes 'em. Nobody keeps 'em. Self-improvement tapes and CD's, exercise equipment, etc. Why do so many resolutions seemingly fail? Maybe the goals are too high as well as the expectations. People have the end result in mind, not the journey. The end result is the new improved you, the ripped abs or whatever. The journey is days and weeks of possibly painful self-discovery or push-ups, sit-ups, sweat, aching muscles. The hard stuff. The hundreds of steps that make up a mile.

Maybe a resolution should be to do something different that will make me a better person. Just one thing. Then keep doing that, every day or every other day. Focus on small measurable stuff.

I got a push-up device advertised on TV. I've been at it for about 21 days according to the schedule that came with the equipment. I don't look like the guy on the box, yet. But I look better than I did before I started. One day at a time, one small step after another. That's how I'll get there. How about you?