ladykatza

Ok, I’m actually just re-posting an opinion piece from NY Times. However, he stated eloquently what I’ve been thinking as well. I’ve been struggling for some time. Part of the reason is I made mistakes with credit early. I had that moment of clarity as I went “This is a trap, and if I don’t get out now, its only going to get worse”. I’m right, and millions of Americans just don’t see it. The only thing we’ve bought on credit in the past five years is our car and our house. Both times they were willing to give us more than we asked for but we looked at the numbers and said “If something happens, we can’t afford this” so we went with what we could afford. We try to live slightly below our means. What I would be putting toward savings is instead going toward paying off credit card debt. It amounts to the same thing in the long run.

Article Here

The Borrowers
On Monday, in a vote that will go down in history, the House of Representatives said no to a $700 billion plan to bail out the teetering financial system. Members of Congress chalked the rejection up to populist rage over the idea of rescuing Wall Street while helpless homeowners flail, and some representatives who voted no say they’ll vote no again when the version of the bailout passed by the Senate on Wednesday comes up in the House.

I’ll say this upfront: I hope the titans of finance who expect us little people to save them are ashamed of themselves. But at the same time, in painting Main Street solely as a victim of a rapacious Wall Street, we are being hypocritical.

We are all to blame.

Step back. The securities that are poisoning the financial system are made up of mortgages and home equity lines that are going sour. They may soon consist of sick credit card and automobile debt as well. “Innovation” on Wall Street meant that the institution that made the loans could sell them off, and bankers could carve up those loans into new instruments, which they in turn sold to investors around the globe, with the result being that no one felt responsible for ensuring that the person who got the mortgage or the credit card or the home equity loan could actually pay for it.

But who made the decision to take on that mortgage she couldn’t really afford? Who lied about her income or assets in order to qualify for a mortgage? Who used the proceeds of a home equity line to pay for an elaborate vacation? Who used credit cards to live a lifestyle that was well beyond her means? Well, you and I did. (Or at least, our neighbors did.)

In other words, without the complicity of Main Street, Wall Street’s scheme never would have flowered. Some would argue that the modern sales machinery — remember those ads telling you to let your home take you on vacation? — is to blame. And it is.

But we’re supposed to be adults, not children who can’t keep our hands out of the cookie jar. (Those who were lied to by brokers about the reset rates on adjustable-rate mortgages and other elements of their loans are in a different category.)

Just as many of us deserve a share of the blame, many of us also got a share of the profits. No, not the kind of profits that Wall Streeters got, at least individually. But if you sold your house over, say, the last five years, you got an inflated price because of the proliferation of credit made possible by the Street’s practices.

If you bought a house, then you got a lower mortgage rate than you would have if it weren’t for Wall Street.

If you made money on the shares of Merrill Lynch or Lehman Brothers or another participant in this mess, then you shared in the profits. One could even argue that the overall stock market wouldn’t have achieved the heights it did were it not for our housing and debt-fueled economy. So if you cashed out at all, then you got some of the profits.

This isn’t an argument in favor of the bailout plan. There are big questions that need to be answered. When Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson argues that the plan can’t impose onerous requirements on financial institutions because otherwise they won’t participate, I think, “Well, if they are in good enough shape that they actually have a choice, then why are we offering them a costly lifeline?”

This also isn’t an argument that a bailout would be fair to ordinary Americans. We are to blame, but we don’t deserve all the blame. We profited, but we didn’t get anywhere near the lion’s share of the profits — and from the sound of things, a bailout would stick us with a disproportionate amount of the bill.

But it’s also true that if the experts are right, a failure to act will stick us with most of the pain as the economy seizes up. The Wall Streeters who pocketed million-dollar bonuses can handle a layoff. Most Americans can’t.

Didn’t your parents teach you that life isn’t fair?

Bethany McLean, a contributing editor for Vanity Fair, is the co-author of “The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and the Scandalous Fall of Enron.”

Simon has had a loose tooth for some time now and would not let anyone touch it. When we picked him up from school today his tooth was finally missing. The following conversation ensued.

Me: Simon! Where’s your tooth?
*he points to his belly*
Daecon: Its in your underwear?
Simon: NO! Its in my stomach!
Me: You swallowed your tooth!
Simon: Yes, but I survived!

You’ve all seen this one before. But its FUN.

* Grab the nearest book.

* Open the book to page 56.

* Find the fifth sentence.

* Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions if you want to.

* Don’t dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

There is no fifth sentence, so I’ll just go with the last one.

“I see that if my facts were sufficiently vital and significant -perhaps transmuted into the substance of the human mind — I should need but one book of poetry to contain them all.” - Thoreau quote in “The Little Book of Zen”

Yes, it stays on my computer desk almost always, if its not in my purse.

The quote on that page in its entirety:

“I have commonplace book for facts, and another for poetry, but I find it difficult always to preserve the vague distinction which I had in mind, for the most interesting and beautiful facts are so much the more poetry and that is their success. They are translated from earth to heaven. I see that if my facts were sufficiently vital and significant –perhaps transmuted into the substance of the human mind — I should need but one book of poetry to contain them all.” - Thoreau

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.”

Seven more hours until my husband picks me up from work and we head for Dragon*Con. WOO! I’m excited, are you?

By the way, costuming takes up a LOT of room. Holy Cow.

Yesterday I was a nervous wreck. I had two interviews, back to back. Literally 15 minutes apart. Both of them were panel type interviews. Before I even went to these I had to work. I could tell I was nervous by the overwhelming urge for junk food and caffeine. I missed some important tasks. It was just… arg.

I swear other people could hear my heart beat the way I could in my ears.

Finally the first interview, the one for the promotional job. I felt like I’d done awful. I really had to think about how to answer some of the questions. Body language told me they weren’t impressed at all. I kept feeling like I was floundering. I was not happy with how it went.

The second interview was for my current position, only permanent. I.. think it went OK. I do not know for certain, though.

When all was over, said, and done with, I was shaking and working to regulate my breathing. My knees were weak going out to the car. I had to concentrate on breathing all the way home. Finally I had a glass of wine, and some good food. Then I was much better. Still, I was exhausted and went to bed pretty early.

I should know by next week.

Under blue sky, in bright sunlight,
One need not search around.
Asking what Buddha is,
Is like hiding loot in one’s pocket and
declaring oneself innocent.
-Zen Koan

I took a walk to clear my head and,
came back with rain in my hair.
Sipping wine to warm my soul,
lightning illuminates the air.

The title, you may be wondering? Well, its what Simon’s teacher said about him. This is for several reasons. The one that I’m very proud of him for was what he did for a little girl on the playground. The way it was told to me, she had gone to kick a ball, missed and fell on her back. This knocked the breath out of her and Simon, upon seeing this, rushed to her side and held her hand to tell her she would be OK. He then stayed with her until she was able to get up and a teacher came to help.

I told him that I was very proud of him for being a wonderful human being.

Dragon Con in SIX DAY!

The following email subject just made me laugh.

ALERT: Network Incident - Hammer not working

I got a book the other day at the craft store of “copy write free images”. It came with a CD, so I can use them for making my own scrapbooking pages and that sort of thing. I am playing around with images. Here is my first one. Let me know what you think

For the second time this week, I find myself confronted with an extremely uncomfortable situation. The second one, BY FAR, trumps the first. Why? Because the second one may require I appear in court as a witness.

Fuck.