ladykatza

Yes, I’m cross-posting this everywhere. Why? I think its important to look at it from every angle.

So one of the things that has been pointed out to me by some arm-chair economists: Its not the actual debt, but the debt to gross domestic product we need to worry about. I found this chart that is of great interest to me.

Ok, so I found it on the internet. I’m often skeptical of information found on the internet so I went digging. The site the graph came from listed their sources, so I went to them myself. I found the 357 page PDF file posted for the 2009 Fiscal Year Budget on www.whitehouse.gov . The table in section 7.1 is the one that is where this data comes from.

Right, so now I’ve gotten myself worked up a bit more. Yay.

Link to full article here.

The quoted paragraph in the article:

I am now even more firmly convinced that there really is a predator class. The people responsible for creating and bingeing on the mortgage junk bonds, derivatives and financial insurance scams that are now being bailed out are our society’s most educated, highly trained and wealthiest professionals. The Meltdown of ‘08 was not caused by con men, crazed moguls and panicked masses. It was caused by financial bureaucrats of the baby boom generation who were paid megabucks for office jobs, who wear Patagonia fleece, $12,000 Brioni suits and read books about “reinventing the Self.”

And probably my favorite paragraph, as yes, this is EXACTLY how I feel:

Already Americans broadly believe politics is low-rent at best, corrupt at worst. Confidence in the news media is a relic of the Cronkite era, even among practicing journalists. Americans are suspicious of lawyers, doctors and the clergy.

Its been beautiful out lately. Barely into the 80’s (farennheit, for you foreign folk) and sunny with light breezes. I hadn’t felt up to going out and enjoying the weather lately. But today just felt like a good day to do so. There’s a new place still being built a few miles away. They have the most amazing playground, lots of walking paths, HUGE fields and they are even building a skate park and a doggy park. And something for frisbee golf. But having two small ones, its the playground we were after. Also, I’ve been experimenting with my photography. I’m working with a lower end digital but I still manage to come up with some cute photos.

Here are a few.

Bouncy Bridge

Spiderwebbing monkey ropes. Why didn’t we have anything this cool as kids?

The pseudo rock wall.

Felicity LOVES to pose.

And of course, brother and sister together. I had to snap it quick, they could barely sit still.

It was a lot of fun, though the other parents were looking at me funny as I climbed up, over, and under everything to try and get the good shots. The other kids kept jumping in front wanting me to take their picture too. I find a lot of kids are natural hams. There were a few that I snapped, some of a little boy that were just so awesome I asked the mom for her email instead of deleting them. Told her to email me and I’d send them along. We left right as things were getting really crowded and went to pick up costuming materials for Felicity. Simon wants to be a werewolf so I’m going to work with a friend who does full body suits for a living. Nothing like what he charges several thousand dollars for, though! No, just something easy and simple for one Halloween night. (Its www.lionofthesun.com if you want to look him up)

So I have had many a conversation with Mythos and other “northerners” in recent months. Mythos pointed out to me that “the other day” seems to be a phrase more commonly used in the SouthEast. Apparently confusing since “the other day” could be any time between yesterday and months ago (or in the case of some old folks, years).

Right. So, I have this conversation and Mythos says “You know that conversation we had earlier about ____?”

I’m thinking and thinking and I realize. Oh. Wait.

Me: “Oh, you mean the other day?”
Mythos: “Well yes, I’m trying to get into the Southern idea of time.”
Me: “That’s awesome, but ‘earlier’ implies the same day. You meant “the other day” since its not really the same day.”
Mythos: “Why does it have to be so confusing?”

Ok, so this is somewhat paraphrased, but you get it, right? So I’m relaying this conversation to my husband because I thought he, being raised in the South, would appreciate it. He laughed and then said. “Well, its not as confusing as Next Friday on a Thursday afternoon”.

My mother-in-law just called to tell me that she had to sit in line for three house to get gas after searching for an hour just to find a station that has some. Then the pump ran out in the middle of filling up. The Circle K near my house has been out of gas since the day after Ike made landfall in Texas.

I remember sitting in gas lines when I was very little, playing with toys in the backseat. We had two cars, one with even plate numbers, one with odd. The system was odd fill up on odd numbered days, even on even. So every day for six months Mom and I sat in gas lines in the scorching California sun listening to AM radio while she did embroidery. I hope we don’t have to go back to that any time soon.

This has not been the greatest of weeks emotionally. I finally got over being sick to be faced with some turmoil in my employment situation. I’m in a holding pattern at the moment. This good news is I’ll be able to pay my mortgage. This month.

Wednesday I had gone over to K&J’s house for game night. Ben was there, though J&A were not. This was probably not the best thing to do. Usually when I’m feeling that upset I hide, but that might have been a worse idea. Still, I ended up yelling at K and he was very confused since he wasn’t present for my bitch fest. Daecon grabbed my purse and led me out to the car. I was very upset with myself for being such a bitch, but it seems I’ve been forgiven. J&A took me out for dinner Thursday night. After talking to to them for a while, I did feel some better.

I have been meaning to post about Dragon Con and how much fun I had, how incredibly cool it was. I will still do so. Soon. I recently got a copy of Photoshop Elements after my photoshop CS3 trial expired. PS CS3 is not for me. There are too many widgets and I find it difficult to navigate. PS Elements though is just my thing. Its geared toward your average user who just wants to do some touch-ups and maybe a few fun things for scrapbooking. I’m loving it.

Its getting cooler finally. The leaves will start changing colors soon and I am suppose to be getting together with Emmanuel later next week to go searching for good places to take urban photos. I also have to start on my crafting projects for friends’ new babies and the holidays. I started playing with my sewing machine’s embroidery function. I’m loving the heck out of it.

The kids are doing wonderfully well. Felicity is really getting into school and is learning how to read and write. Simon still has trouble with focusing in class. He’s exceptionally bright and inquisitive, just a space case sometimes. Daecon and I knew that at least one of them would have this issue. We’ve been doing some research in how to help keep him on track and, so far, his teachers have been very responsive to him and feedback.

A lot of people I know really dislike the area we have chosen to live in. Mostly because of the “conservative rich snobs”. But there are a few reasons we chose the area. One: My husband’s family lives close and gives us a support network. Two: The schools are some of the best in the state. Simon and Felicity both have less than 20 kids in their class. The Kindergarten teacher has an assistant and they also have “room moms” who volunteer to help out for both of them. My mother-in-law will switch off working in either Simon or Felicity’s class.

If I do not get the permanent position at my current job, I will most likely start volunteering at the kids’ media center, plus go back to working with the homeless outreach program’s computer center as well. I miss doing that work a great deal.

Venezuela and Bolivia Ask U.S. Ambassadors to leave.

A few days later:

Russian Bombers land in Venezuela as part of training exercises being carried out in “neutral waters”. PROBABLY unrelated.

The world stage of politics has me very worried as of late. Developments here in the presidential race have me almost frothing at the mouth. There just seems to be a complete void of common sense coming from, well, anywhere.

A very interesting article outlining her time as Mayor and Governor in Alaska.

Among Some of my Favorites

Ms. Palin ordered city employees not to talk to the press. And she used city money to buy a white Suburban for the mayor’s use — employees sarcastically called it the mayor-mobile.

The new mayor also tended carefully to her evangelical base. She appointed a pastor to the town planning board. And she began to eye the library. For years, social conservatives had pressed the library director to remove books they considered immoral.

“People would bring books back censored,” recalled former Mayor John Stein, Ms. Palin’s predecessor. “Pages would get marked up or torn out.

Yet recent controversy has marred Ms. Palin’s reform credentials. In addition to the trooper investigation, lawmakers in April accused her of improperly culling thousands of e-mail addresses from a state database for a mass mailing to rally support for a policy initiative.

While Ms. Palin took office promising a more open government, her administration has battled to keep information secret. Her inner circle discussed the benefit of using private e-mail addresses. An assistant told her it appeared that such e-mail messages sent to a private address on a “personal device” like a Blackberry “would be confidential and not subject to subpoena.”