Things aren't always as they seem...

This week I decided to reward myself with a present. Why? Just because.

So I bought Apple TV. This is a cool little device that allows you to download HD movies, stream music wirelessly from your Itunes library to your stereo, view your photos on the tv, etc, etc.
I know, I'm such a tech nerd. I love it.

Getting it set up was a pain. I had to run another HDMI cable behind the wall.
This got me thinking, that things in life are not always as they seem. For instance, take a look at
the picture of our TV (nicely installed on the wall), and then the picture of whats behind the TV.

What a mess.

Oh well!

S.

Voter Burnout

Have you heard of this?

Its a useful phrase, coined conveniently by political organizers. This way they can put a definition on those folks like me who are sick and tired of hearing about this election.

It's much easier to handle something when you have a name for it. Its much easier to not offend anyone. We are great at that in America. This all happened when we started calling the janitor a "custodial technician." Or a secretary an "executive assistant."

So, if there are people out there who are suffering from "voter burnout" you can now form a special focus group designed specifically to win back those precious lost votes. You can create new positions, for instance: you can have an "administrative assistant to the public relations liason" for the "special voter burnout task force"

Thats great! Who's going to pay for this? Oh never mind, were going to use money from a government grant. How much you ask? Oh, a couple hundred million, that should do it.

Good - aren't you glad that votes come cheap?

Speaking of cheap - if the credit markets are so screwed up, and there's no money to borrow, why did I get an application in the mail today from Chase bank for a $50,000 home equity loan with "payments as low as $198 per month!!!"

Here's where I am with all of this.

1. I'm tired of getting forwarded emails telling me that Obama is a complete terrorist, and we will all die if he is elected.

2. I'm tired of John McCain calling me his friend, and telling me that he will veto any pork barrel bill - and I will "know their names"

3. I'm really tired of hearing about "change" when I see nothing but more of the same from both sides.

Wow - I must have a really bad case of voter burnout.......

Fall is here

I love the fall.

The cool crisp air in the morning, the leaves changing on the trees, the days of sweltering heat finally behind us.

Soon it will be time to put the mower away, and watch the grass go back to sleep.

This is the best time of the year to be out on the road, visiting customers. I can drive with the windows down, I don' have to get back into a steaming hot car, and for some reason people just seem more relaxed. I like to take my camera out with me, the air is nice and clear and I never know when I can quickly snap a picture of the leaves turning.

I drove past this little tree a few days ago, and it looked like it was on fire, so I pulled over, grabbed my SLR and took a few shots. (Click Here)

What is your favorite part about the fall? Carving pumpkins? Pulling on your favorite sweater?

Warm cookies from the oven, with a nice cup of hot chocolate on standby?

Sean.

Bomb

Real quick blog...
Image the sound of a World War 2 bomb falling out of the sky....
Now imagine that is the stock market.

BOOM. :(

Oh, well, see you later 401k. It was nice to watch you do quite well the past 5 years.
Now, its just sad to watch you vaporize away....bye bye.

TIME TO BUY BABY!!! STOCKS ON SALE!! :)

S.

Update on the war...

It's official.
The war I have waged against my cholesterol is over.
Result? The war is lost.
I had my levels checked again last week. After 6 months of a new diet, and almost 8 pounds lost the total deduction was 8 points. Down from 288 to 280.
Pathetic.
Give me the drugs, I am done.
It seems that my DNA is wired a certain way and there is nothing I can do about this other than resort to medication.
Oh well, thanks to Costco Pharmacy for supplying my medicine at $6.34 for a 30 day supply.
So for about the cost of 1 cheeseburger I can be much healthier, and seriously reduce my risk of heart attack later in life.
That's not too bad I guess.

Now, where are the bacon and eggs?

Sveedish fish

I have recently rediscovered my love for Swedish Fish. I'm not really the kind of person that eats a lot of candy, I cant tell you the last time that I actually ate a whole chocolate bar. Usually, if there is a bag of salty chips, or hershey's kisses in front of me, by default I'm "goin' for the chips."

But last week we were grocery shopping and Marci and I walked past the swedish fish in the candy aisle. I started drooling, and walked away with a 7.9lb bag.

I just love something about this food!! Best of all its fat free, and Marci hates them. More for me!

What is your favorite candy?

Sean.

Mad

Ok, I need a quick rant to get this out of my system before I head out today.

I am furious over the $800 billion dollars it is going to take to bail Wall Street out of the hole THEY have put themselves in. FURIOUS!!

These are the same people that drove the price of oil up to $147.00 a barrel, raking in huge profits while we were paying $4 bucks at the pump. The same people, who had CEO's making in some cases, over 1 billion dollars a years in annual bonus. The same people that made completely irresponsible, unsound financial decisions based purely on nothing but greed and frankly a lust for money.

I realize that the alternative of a completely collapsed financial market would not have been a good path to take - but while the fat cats at wall street now look to the government with that guilty child look on their faces, let us not forget who put them there, and how this all happened.

My opinon? The CEO's of Bear Stearns, the now broke Lehman Bros, Merril Lynch, and Goldman Sachs need to appear on national TV and explain to the American people how they allowed this to happen - since we are now the ones who now have to pay for their sins.

Every dime of their annual bonuses from the past 4 years needs to be returned and placed in a fund for inner city schools. Could you imagine what we could do for a few poor communities with 1 Billion dollars?

Ridiculous.

Please feel free to post your comments. I am anxious to know how you feel about this!

Sean.

Fixing Things

About 10 minutes ago I heard some noises coming from the garage. I opened the back door to find Sean, just having returned from the car wash with my car, putting on the finishing touches. Then I noticed that our year old, smooth driveway now has a gouge taken out of it. Hmm? So I ask, "Sean, why is there a hole in our driveway?" Sheepishly he looks at me and says, "Oh, I tried to jack up the car in the driveway. It's not bad, is it?" I remarked on Sean's tendency to not think things through before acting, shook my head in wonderment and came back inside. About 5 minutes ago, I went outside to see this . . .


This would be Sean fixing the hole. A hammer, aim 'n flame, and a little bit of stone and tar should do the trick, don't you think?

There's no such thing as a free lunch

My Dad told me that one day, "There's no such thing as a free lunch."
In essence, what he was trying to teach me is that every action in life has its consequences.
No action is performed without a re-action. This theory came home to roost today, as one of Wall Street's oldest and most respected financial firms collapsed under a cloud of bad debt.
In a matter of months, the value of Lehman Brother's stock crashed over 95 percent.
To put that in perspective, in January 2008 a single share was valued at a little over $60. Today, it was valued at 21 cents. Yes, you read that correctly.
Why did this happen? Billions of dollars invested in mortgage debt. As the value of assets owned through debt by Lehman plummeted, all their invested fortunes simply vanished into thin air. Gone. Money on paper simply erased. The years of lending gobs of cheap money to people who could not afford it in the first place had finally caught up. As the whole mortgage industry, stitched up with yards of ARM's and bad debt has tumbled, Lehman Brothers was dragged along into the pit.
Its total outstanding debts are a total of $786 Billion, and the value of its assets are: $639 billion.
That is a gap of $147 Billion.
The math is quite simple. They now owe a lot more money than they are worth. Usually when one finds yourself in this situation, you get a loan to make up the difference until you can put yourself into positive territory. Herein lies the problem. No one is willing to fork out $147 billion dollars in loans. Not any banks, and this time not the government.

So do I feel sorry for them? No.
Wall Street has been treated like a casino the past few years. You can only engage in risky, unsound, business practice for so long until it catches up to you. When may I ask did someone in upper managment raise the red flag? This is a company that has been in existence for over 100 years. Would the founders Emanuel and Mayer Lehman have approved of this? Thankfully, the american taxpayer will not have to pay in to bail them out. Enough is enough. Enough of the greed. Enough of the credit card mentality.

As I read online today from one financial advisor - "goodbye Lehman, it was nice knowing you"

Looks like lunch time is over.

Sean.

Dust and Diesel

My face is very sunburned right now...

Why?

I spent the day with some folks from work at the Diesel National's in Englishtown, NJ.

They have a 1/4 mile drag strip there, and the basic idea is that if it runs on diesel you can race it.

This is one of the things I love about this country. Americans have a need to race each other. It could be a lawnmower, a wheelchair or a golf cart, no matter. If it has wheels on it, someone is getting challenged to a duel. This was evidence by the fact that I witnessed 2 dump trucks race each other today. One of the highlights was the "R.V" class race - there was only one participant and yes he did proceed to race his very large pink motorhome down the track. The garbage truck race event regretfully had no participants this year.

We had a tent set up with all sorts of parts, filters a few display engines and I spent most of the morning answering questions, shaking hands and giving out free stuff. (People love free stuff)

One thing I learned about truckers today is that they are a proud group. They love their trucks.

I spent some time walking though the parking lot (which was a sea of all kinds of beautiful trucks) It didn't take long for them to recognize the "Cummins" logo on my shirt.

"You work with Cummins?"

"Sure"

"You gotta see my truck...."

I had a great time talking with these guys. If you think waxing a car is tough - try a whole truck.

Anyway, I took some pics

Here is the link

Trucks