Gift Cards

Never give gift cards as gifts. Let me repeat, "Never, never give gift cards as gifts!" I know I was told never to say never, but I simply can't help myself. No one should buy a gift card in lieu of a real gift or cash. Why do I make such a definitive and absolute statement? The Toyota Way has taught me that the primary goal of an efficient company is to decrease the time from when the company buys the raw materials/products to when they collect the money for the products they sell. Now companies sell you the opportunity(gift card) to purchase something more expensive(inflation) in the future, whoohoo! The marketing department and the city government invented gift cards as a way to increase the company and city profits, they claim the money as quarterly profits and they still have the products (the value of their company has increased). Most people spend more money than the gift card includes because they don't want to leave any money left on the card again increasing money made by the company. Finally there is a statistic that a quarter of all gift cards aren't redeemed. Sorry grandma. What is the benefit? Gift cards make the giver feel the gift is more "personal." But they make the gift less valuable. They decrease the value of cash by reducing the receivers' options while the time value of money is decreasing the value due to inflation and lost opportunity costs. The giver has to pay sales tax on the gift card, and the receivers must again pay sales tax on the products purchased with the card. Where is the value?

Great new website!

I have discovered what so many people already knew. www.junkscience.com
Although I have yet to explore the many facets of this site, I know that my search for logically thinking people has not been in vain. I have finally found a website where good science can be published without a lot of hype. The basic text of the website lends itself to the importance of the articles published on its pages. It doesn't draw a lot of attention to itself with flashing banners and out of control graphics. It is simply...science.

I have many times ranted about the ridiculous display put on by the media. I can't seem to make it any more clear than put it in simple economic terms. In the US, all major networks and news agencies are commerciallized, therefore they must sell something, make a profit and reinvest just like any company. So what does media sell? Well, back in the day, news was sold at the cost of obtaining, writing and publishing the news. But companies found that they could advertise their goods and services within the news media. Which may I ask is more profitable/easier for a company, to gather a bunch of dimes from a million people or a million dimes from one company. The answer is obvious when your read the Sunday ads...I mean paper. It has become difficult to find where news ends and media begins. (Actuall on that front, we found an ad that was written like news, with articles picture etc....very good ad from the point of view of the company) But what makes a company want to place an ad with one news agency over another? It must be that the news agency reaches more people or a target market or something. All news agencies have the same news to work from, so in order to sell more/reach more people, it must create something more interesting than the other news agency and thus, hysteria. Hysteria sells, when you as a consumer don't know what is going, you turn on the news, they produce hysteria, they sell more. This is no longer news but entertainment. I am fine with entertainment, but the media should never touch science, they shouldn't interview scientists (because their expert is usually no more informed than the next Joe) they should not report scientific findings. Just let the scientific journal publish science. Please, media agencies, stick to entertainment!

Playing in the dirt

As all kids don't grow without a little bit of dirt, I took Hannah outside to enjoy a few moments of fresh air. I really just needed to cut a few leaves off our basil plant for dinner, but I got carried away. As I looked up from my aggressive weeding program, I notice our dear sweet Hannah playing gleefully in the dirt. She happily sat on a potato mound. She dusted off the top of the mound with her sweeping arm moment that she is quite famour for at dinnertime. She put her hand to her mouth several times, which I know will just make DW cringe. Never boring with the mounds of dirt in the garden.

Fargone

I have so many questions I would love to ask US (speaking to our society and not individually)! Have we become so communist that we want to 'extra tax' a group of companies because they are profitable(big oil)? When did the political left sway so far as to desire universal heathcare(all democratic presidential candidates)? Have we forgotten what it really means to be an American; to believe that anything is possible with enough work and desire(unions and lottery)? Are we so lazy, are we so hooked on easy money that we vote to give it to ourselves(income tax rebate)? Has Texas' Robin Hood made communists(Texas' Robin Hood public school reform)? Have we not read Ayn Rand in all her capitalist, individualist glory(Atlas shrugged/The Fountainhead)? Why do we strike for money(many union examples)? Is it because we lack the drive to earn something more because we deserve it? Can we truly be so easily influenced by unscientific, unrealistic media campaigns(global warming whose name has subtly changed to climate change)? Does the person in the editing booth really make the story?

I am so tired of whiners! And that statement makes me a whiner, which annoys me even more!

What is wrong with us? What is so bad about our lives? Why can't we be happy? I will answer for you: What is wrong with you? You are impatient and unsatisfied. You are prideful and unjustified. You have lost your moral compass. And you don't know which way to go and thus you go nowhere. What is so bad about your life? Nothing. You have just forgotten to appreciate what you have received because you are constantly looking too far ahead to notice what is all around you. You don't appreciate your daily breath and thus you pollute. You don't appreciate any cover over your head and thus you go in debt or envy for something better. You don't appreciate your meal and thus you waste. Your lack of appreciation makes your life bad. Why can't you be happy? You only think about yourself. You aren't happy because you mis-take your roles in life. All of us fit in society like an individual piece of a puzzle. When you don't know your bounds and limitations, when you misrepresent the bounds and limitations of others, when you try to fit into someplace that is wrong for you, you are unhappy. Please, be happy and realize I am talking about everyone except you.

Sleep

This morning you might have eaten breakfast, you might have exercised, you might even have gone to a full service spa. This afternoon you may have eaten lunch, maybe you had to work, or even gone to the zoo. This evening you maybe had dinner with your family, pulled weeds in your lawn or worked on your hobby. All of these things may or may not have been important, but the thing that you did without realizing it that is the most important thing you did today was to wake up. I could write about the deep-rooted philosophical nature of the fact that you woke up, but I am not feeling very deep today.

Instead, I want to write about the importance of sleep mostly from observation. The first distinction I will make is quality sleep versus quantity sleep. I have heard that some people have sleep apnea sleep or fall asleep all the time and never feel rested. I can't really comment on these medical cases. So leaving aside any medically related sleep problems, I will comment on my observation of normal people sleep. Sleep increases your ability to remember, I don't care what you've read about ginseng, sleep will help you remember everything clearly as long as you get it in your head in the first place (but that is a different topic.) Sleep increases your energy, instead of relying on caffeine or other harmful drugs, try using the natural chemicals created in your body for providing that extra boost. Sleep increases your awareness/ your ability to focus. I have seen hundreds of people that are sleep deprived that just make mistakes, simple mistakes like walking, like talking, like calculus. (Despite what you may think, real world calculus cannot be done by anyone in their sleep.) The same thing goes for people that are overtired. Construction worker are the worst on this, they work all day and they are "almost done" with a job for six hours. They fall asleep in their truck late and wake up to find a crappy job that they have to redo. Sleep reduces irritability. When you have had a good night's rest, you will find that you are far more patient, more understanding and appreciative. You are also less aggressive, less annoyed, and less condescending. Sleep increases coordination, as evidenced by my daughter. I have observed on many occasions that as she gets more tired, she tends to fall down more, this typically ends in injury, Motrin, and sleep.

I am sure that there are other benefits to sleep, however, I am far too lazy to list them all. I am unmotivated to think critically because I am lacking sleep. Probably you also lack the ability to think clearly, otherwise you wouldn't be reading this blog. So do me a favor and get some sleep.

Kids

Children are ____.!? Well, children can be many things to a parent at many different times of the day. Previous to my wife being pregnant, I hadn't really planned on kids very early in my life. But I have learned and changed so much in the last three years it may have been worth it. I still feel like the same person I was long ago (so it seems) but I no longer have a free, unbound spirit. That sense of freedom that I once enjoy is no longer there. That is not a bad thing, my daughter (age <2) now seems to evoke within me the greatest happiness. Mostly because she is someone with whom I play. We enjoy rolling around on the floor, walking around the neighborhood, pulling weeds, and rolling balls. She has filled a role in my life, she is my friend, she has made me responsible, she relies on me for basic needs, she relies on me for bounds and rules, she has fun with me, and she looks forward to seeing me when I get home each day. I love her. The feelings I feel are like none that I have ever felt before. I know I am going to get some reaction from long-time parents, but up to this point, we get out of our daughter what we put into our daughter (with a little twist called personality.)
On the other side of the fence, what have I exchanged for the "joy of parenting"? ...A few other things I never really loved (like hours of shopping with my wife), some of the things I thought were ok (like going to parties and meeting new people) and pretty much everything I thought was fun.
It is a fact of life, you need to have kids. Kids keep you sharp and intuitive, they keep you young and fresh, they provide a lifetime of laughs and most of all a never-ending abyss into which you can throw money and watch it disappear.

Total Money Makeover

I made the mistake of mentioning to a supervisor that I was reading Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kyosaki. He immediately pounced with the high and mighty aspirations of Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover which he promptly gave to me. I downed the children's book in about three sittings. It was full of stories about people who were very in debt but through the Total Money Makeover, they were now debt-free or almost there. It is quite an accomplishment to have so many people thank him for helping them see that there is a way out of debt and out of credit. The book explains the simple steps that follow, but if you want to save yourself a few hours, just call me and I can explain that whole process in about ten minutes (It is simple, but he had to make the book hefty enough for people to take it seriously.) Before you begin with step one, you have to be committed to getting out of debt. That means creating and sticking to a budget at all costs. Easy enough to say when there isn't a buy one get one half-off sale going on...anyway.
Step one: Save one thousand dollars as fast as possible (for emergencies)
Step two: Start the debt snowball, pay only the minimum payments on everything except the smallest debt and pay every extra penny you have toward getting rid of that debt. Pay off your debt, one creditor at a time.
Step three: Build a real emergency fund (3 to 6 months of survival money)
Step four: Fund your retirement with fifteen percent of your income
Step five: Save for your child's education
Step six: Pay off your mortgage
Step seven: Build wealth and enjoy it
In my opinion, this is a very simple, very good plan. I started calculating how long it would take to pay off our debt, and it looks like we can be debt free (besides the house) in only 11 months. Once we are out of debt, we will have more money to save and invest, and we won't be seriously scared by a downturn in the economy. That sounds pretty good to me. My family will have a total money makeover.

Assets and Liabilities

I have been reading the book Rich Dad Poor Dad. It is an interesting story of a person being trained from a very early age to simply understand money. The book was written to the financially inept with a lack of actual information. It seems that the author tries to tell his story in a way to exonerate him from actually giving advice. With that said, I am glued to this book. It explained the one concept that I needed to understand. Assets make you more wealthy; they provide you with money. Liabilities make you less wealthy; they provide you with expenses. Therefore, in order to be wealthy, you must acquire assets rather than liabilities. I did not come from a wealthy family, I do not expect to receive an inheritance other than momentos. In order for me to be wealthy, I have to work for money, I can then use that money to acquire assets which will then put my money to work. The author symbolically describes your dollars as employees, you can give away your employees, or you can put them to work.

Anyway, I have put myself in a situation that makes acquiring assets more slow. But eventually, I will have it figured out. I really hope I don't have to work for the next 40 year just to die on the street because I couldn't afford a nursing home...

Reduced options

Well, you can't count on people in general to make the right choice. I remember the phrase, "a person is smart, but people are dumb." That phrase has never rung more true than with public elections. I think it is funny how Republicans look back to President Reagan as a truly great President, and the Democrats look back at President Kennedy. When you compare the individual achievements of these two presidents, you realize what matters most to each of the groups. To the Republicans, they want someone who does what they say they will do. To the Democrats, they want someone who looks good (hence the failure of John Kerry.) But anyway, getting back to my point. Why do people as a collective make poor choices? The simple excitement of being accepted, (if only for a moment.) If you notice, in groups, there is always someone that is so likable, you'd follow him to the ends of the earth. These individuals are the decision-makers. They aren't not usually the leader, they are not the do-er, these individual are the fires that motivate the whole. Unfortunately, they aren't the sharpest knives in the drawer, and thus we have the "dumb group".

Cyclops?!

These people are not "four-eyes" or your everyday "two-eyes," these cyclops are the lucky 'ones.' Their lives are always filled with questions. "How tall is that building?" "How long do I have to walk to get to that mountain?" "How will I ever know who my real friends are and who is just being nice because I am different?" But don't feel sorry for those regular cyclops too soon, giant cyclops have it even worse. They have an adjective decribing their body type. In the world we live, it is harassment to give someone an adjective. Whether it accurately and properly describes or not, adjectives are to be removed from all descriptions of people. No more are we allowed to have hair color, eye color, body size, personality traits, race, or belief descriptors.
I once met a giant cyclops who lived in a lonely cave, all he wanted was to have a friend over for dinner. Would you belive this, that person put out his only eye and snuck out before dinner. What is the world coming to?