All posts by wabaz

About wabaz

While you may rich, wise or beautiful there will always be someone richer, wiser or more beautiful. Be happy with yourself and have high standards.

What do you do when you have 150 Enron’s?

Culture, Politics

Wow, what fun we’ve had these last couple weeks. Watching the little Wall Street graph go up and down. Though yesterday was the largest single day loss on wall street, it was only #17 from a percentage perspective. It was the fourth largest percentage in ‘modern times’ – meaning the drops in recent memory (the rest were around the great depression, except 1987’s October 19 – which holds the record). But when George Bush came on the box speak to us over a week ago, I couldn’t help but picture GW turning to all his Wall Street buddies, and in his best Rodney Dangerfield – “Hey everybody, we’re all gonna get laid!” And Wallstreet loved it – but Liberty wept.

Make no mistake, this is a serious issue. Estimates range from half to 1.2 TRILLION dollars for actual bailout. The Bailout will be limited to $700 Billion Dollars (did you remember to use your pinky?) Remember that email about all Michael Jordan’s money and in the end Bill Gates farts and makes more then Michael? George Bush just farted but instead of making a thousand time more money, we’re that much in debt.

How did we get here? The housing market was the tool but the real issue is the financial institutes backing these and other investments. Or read Michel Chossudovsky’s ‘Global Financial Meltdown‘ (this reads like an economic spy briefing, interesting but a little technical). But we’re still the ones footing the bill – again.

And those bastards on Wall Street, and their friends in DC won’t feel a thing. So, finally to my title – what do you do when you have 150 Enrons? When you have 1250’s mismanaged companies and the exec’s and the chair people that are approving the abuse of the system in the name of competition, there should  be  a price they pay when it all comes down.

Honestly, I’m not sure how to feel about The Bailout. On one hand, we may be on the verge of an economic meltdown and we need to start sandbagging or everything going under. On the other, we didn’t create this mess – why should we clean it up? Shouldn’t Wallstreet pickup after themselves?

Tell you what – I’ll agree to The Bailout if part of it includes prosecution of those who broke the law and a 50% Bailout Tax on the profit of those people or institutions that gained financially in the last 10 years from the housing market boom – losses are deductible. The only exception would if you own one house, or two houses for less then 12 months. All profit gains over the last ten years from this housing bubble will taxed at 50%.

Holes are beginning to appear on Main Street. This is definitely affecting the presidential campaigin. This will definitely be felt by you and I. Regardless of where you stand on Global Warming, you don’t facts want to cross the line of ‘historic events’. Regardless of where you stand on The Bailout, we don’t want our economic numbers to cross into ‘historic events’ – and we are.

People react very strongly when when their role changes from observer to participant. Unless you are already involved in the financial industry, our perspective is changing. It did if you lost your job. It did if you were rejected for a loan. It will when The Bailout passes, and it will for our children.

“Are you better off than you were four years ago?” Ronald Reagan

Culture, Politics

Normally, I’m fairly sensitive to people’s views on Politics but this one has me stumped. First, know I don’t like Republicans and I don’t like Democrats. I have voted independent for 5 of the last 7 presidential elections. It started with John Anderson in 1980 and continued with the Libertarians in the 90’s. If they had a Chaos party I would vote for them – the bottom line is both Republicans and Democrats are large cumbersome machines that have never represented my views. After all, you’re not electing a person, you’re electing a political machine.

Some say I’m throwing my vote away. Its my vote, I can do that. I’d rather write in ‘Mickey Mouse’ then endorse one of these shadowy imperialistic machines. I did vote Republican and Democrat once each. Republican for Ronald Reagan ’88 – a euphoric moment after I was married and didn’t want to ‘throw my vote away.’ Democratic for John Kerry in ’04 – and I was ashamed when I did it, your vote should not be used as a weapon but I couldn’t see four more years of our current ‘buddy’; hmm, I guess I did throw my vote away.

What I don’t understand is why this race is so close? To quote Ronald Reagan, “are you better off then you were four years ago?” Some seem genuinely surprised to hear that G.W. had the highest approval rating of any president. Of course, none are surprised when you say he has the lowest approval rating. I find it very interesting that dispite the fact we are ‘almost’ in a recession, the housing marketing is hitting 40 year lows, we’re in a generally unpopular war and the federal government has taken the historic move to take over Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae yet McCain actually leads Obama in the polls.

Keep in mind, my perspective is that both parties are political machines and not to be trusted. Currently the Democrats are the lesser of the two evils. How does someone rationalize that the crew that took the boat into uncharted territories is the crew that can bring you back? Better the devil you know? Man, that’s been one helluva devil – these last 8 years. And things are ending on a low note.

I find it funny that McCain is the candidate for change. (No, Obama is the candidate for change, no McCain, Obama – Hey, didn’t I see this in a Bug Bunny cartoon?) One man doesn’t run the country so to be fair, you can’t blame Bush for all our problems. Yes, he pushed the war in Iraq but honestly, I don’t think he smart enough to push all the buttons. Again, you’re not electing a person you’re electing a machine. Part of Bush’s machine was Cheney and Rove. Theses parts are being replaced. Is McCain really going to completely change things? How many times are we heard that from the Chicago Bears? You can change the head coach but still have the same controlling owner, are you really getting a new team?

If you actually buy into the two party system and you actually want a change, I can’t see any other choice but Obama. If you want change but you can’t bring yourself to vote Democrate you’re living in fear and denial. You can’t begin a change if don’t change owners. Change is scary and it should be, but its also liberating. And if you don’t want change, hats off to you, you have more balls then I. And may you are better off now then you were four years ago.

Me? I’m waiting for a righteous shiny independent candidate to pop up out of nowhere in these last few weeks, more maybe Bob Barr, the Liberarian candidate. Meanwhile, I’ll be waiting here – sharpening my vote…

Friday 13th at the Zilligen’s (updated with video)

Family

OK, I don’t really buy that bad luck stuff but its catchy. Around 1:00am we heard a crash that woke Desi and I up. Running around the house we didn’t see anything until I went downstairs a saw a large branch had fallen onto the patio. Luckily, the power lines were spared but I was still trying to see how close the branch had come to the power lines to the house.

When I went to the basement and looked out the windows on the south side I saw the southern oak tree was snapped about 10 feet up the trunk. Going out the front door to the south side of our lot I had a clear view – the oak tree had toppled on to the roof spilling over to the patio. I could see the power lines to the house were sagging up the branches.

Note to Lindenhurst residents, we don’t have 311, so I called the police because the foot wide branches poised over the power lines. They sent a car with a couple officers and who saw the same thing I did – “That’s a good size tree” and “probably should stay away from those wires”. Then a fire truck pulled up and a fireman came out and said, “that’s a good size tree” and “I’d stay away from those wires if I were you.” Joking aside, everyone was actually pretty cool. The fire department said they would contact ComEd explaining ComEd tends to respond better to their calls then a regular residential call. According to the news we aren’t the only ones with problems and our power is still on. I don’t see how the tree can be removed without cutting the power but I’ll wait for the experts to arrive.

Here are some pictures now that its gotten light enough to see!

\On The RoofTree Against Morning SkyThe Crash

So ComEd came took the branches away off the power line (and they did it without turning off the power, those guys are good). But we were left with the rest of the tree on the roof. So we called Angry Beavers Tree Services (Josh & Phil’s new tree service company. Most of the tree wasn’t a big deal but the main part was very tricky. Check the video I put together on it:

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A New Song

Family

OK, I’ve been looking for a transition from my video for Jack but its hard to ‘step on’ something about someone’s death. I don’t know about you but I’ve always been conscience of stepping on ‘people’ in a graveyard.

Anyway, Lenny Kravitz has a new album out “It’s Time for a Love Revolution”. A few weekends ago I was running around doing some errands and I had just switched to this disc. Heading to the Post Office on Grand this song comes on and brought me back to Jack. (Forgive the beginning lyrics that don’t quite go…)

To Papa….

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‘Man of The Hour’

Family

We lost Uncle Jack Sunday, January, 20th. In his honor, I put together a video. It is done to a song called ‘Man of The Hour‘ by Pearl Jam. It closes the movie ‘Big Fish‘ by Tim Burton. When I first heard this song it reminded me of Jack. I must have listened to it 20 times that night. I’ve listened to it over a hundred times now. I took this out of the original ending of the video but I will leave it as an introduction to it now.

The gift you gave me most can appreciate
but only a few can truly understand

When I thought my heart could not be broken like this again
my loss of you is yet another lesson

my heart, my heart, oh where is my heart?
it is trying to repay the gift of life
you once gave a scared little boy

Until we meet again,

John Mike

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Apple TV – This Won’t Work Either

Culture, Tech

No, this isn’t more Mac bashing (but that can be fun!). This week, Apple announced at Macworld their plans for Apple TV. So many companies have tried to make downloading movies work but it never does. Now, I will say if anyone outside ‘the system’ can, Apple can – but movies are very different from music. And that’s my point…

Face it, music is for young people. I can count on one hand the number of people that continue to go through music like I do – except for kids. What Apple did right with the iPod is the delivery system. In a minute more then downloading the song, anyone can be listening to their new favorite song. Without iTunes, iPods are just another MP3 player. The magic is in the delivery. This is why Microsoft latest Windows Media Player 11 (WMP11) is so good, they knew they had to improve it in order to compete with their new Zune player (despite my grumblings on both Microsoft and Mac’s, I’ve dumped iTunes and gone to WMP11. If you haven’t seen it, check it out!).

Now movies are different. They are much more an event. You don’t just see something about a movie and sit down and watch it. It’s a 90 minute investment of time. Most people don’t like starting a movie and picking it up later. I know my family, we decide that afternoon or even the day before if we can have a movie night. Even if its just Desi and I, we ask ourselves if we want to stay up that late. And this is for movies we own!

So will people buy hardware to watch movies. Sure, they did, its called a dvd player. But what about the convenience? You would have really watch a lot of movies and be horrible at your own time management to justify buying hardware so you can watch movies whenever you want. If you do watch a lot of movies and can improve your time management, I would recommend NetFlix. I can’t say that from personal experience, I don’t watch enough movies. But the people that do use it love it.

Hats off to Apple on their iPod, they changed how people get music. I think Apple’s best bet would be to sell their technology to the cable and dish companies and go for the Apple branding. That will keep them in the game for television shows. I can find a half hour a lot easier then an hour and a half – THAT I might download.

Music & Technology, Part 5

Culture, Tech

OK, there aren’t 4 other parts to this story but just an update to what’s been going on with Music. In our last episode, our arch enemies (Record Companies, RIAA, etc.) were suing college kids and grandmothers, digitally locking up their stolen goods (remember, the artist is the ones creating what you want!) to the point of using hacking tools to keep you from digitizing your CD’s (Sony story). Our hero’s (artists) continued to be gathered liked sheep at an ever quickening rate to compete against each other in – winners to be praised, the loser to disappear and be forgotten.

iTunes continues to reign over the digital music market, good for them. I’m not a Mac or Apple fan but I do respect them. Did you know the next largest digital music provider is eMusic? The main differences are eMusic works with smaller record distributors – so lessor known artists; BUT all their mp3’s are Digital Rights Management (DRM) free. And now iTunes is beginning to offer DRM-free digital songs (Here’s a brief iTunes lesson – iTunes uses the .acc format to protect their songs. This means not only can you not send them to your friends to play, they will only play on up to 5 pc’s. iPods (and Nano’s, Shuffles, etc) will also play .mp3’s. But they will not play .wma’s – which is Microsoft’s format).

So what has happened lately? First, Amazon is entered the digital music fray. It is predicted they will quickly become #3 in digital music and potentially #2. While this doesn’t really change anything for us (the consumer) it verifies the potential money involved with digital music.

But this may – Radiohead announced their new album ‘In Rainbows’ will be available directly from the artist. How much? what ever you want. OK, that’s not 100% correct – there is a transaction fee of 45 pence (92 cents) but that is deducted from how much you pay (no you can’t pay less then 92 cents and make money). You can also preorder their ‘DiscBox‘ for £40 (or $82). Their downloaded album is sold an average of $6 each. People DO pay for their music.

Similarly but even more amazing is a ‘no-name’ making it. Enter Jonathan Coulton featured in Wired.com article about giving music away. Jonathan is a ‘Pop Geek’ that is building a fanbase with the use of Slide Song. His song ‘Code Monkey’ was the theme song for G4’s cable show and he has an original song in the latest release of the gaming classic Half Life ‘Orange Box’. He has become professional musician all without the help of the radio or the record companies.

The industry continues to evolve and stagnate still. CD’s were down 15% from last year but digital download versions were up 55%. Studies have shown that sharing music doesn’t kill CD sales. Yet the industry still doesn’t quite get it. But in a recent Wired article, Universal Music redid it’s contract with iTunes to help introduce competition and release iTunes stranglehold on digital downloads by cutting a deal with Zune (Microsoft’s answer to the iPod). But they want an ‘all you can eat’ model so you can download as many Universal songs as you want – and Microsoft is eager enough to cover your costs to overthrow iTunes. But that still means DRM files and that still won’t work, especial when everyone is now beginning to offer DRM-free songs. What doesn’t Universal get?

I’m still like a kid in a candy store. There is just so much great music out there but most people can’t find it – heck, I can’t find it! Music ain’t dead (but it is in another way but that’s a different article). Technology has made music easy, fun and more consumable then ever. Enjoy it and as I always say, ‘If you like it, Buy it!”