About Face…about Facebook

I always thought these social networking sites were a bunch of crap.  It would be just one more thing in my life where I get it started, quickly lose interest and eventually leave behind a pile of idle bytes serving no purpose.  Recently, a company was giving out a free sample on the condition you signed up to be there friend on Facebook.  I took the bait and signed up for Facebook account.

 I am still a rookie and have not resolved whether this tool has any true value or if it too will become a pile of discarded bytes collecting vitural dust on some computer server somewhere.  However, I have noticed it suits my personality well.  There are people who I’ve exchanged messages with that I haven’t talked in 25 years.  I am ‘friends’ with people I really don’t know.

 There are others who I may have seen one or twice in the last three years but have never spoken with and now we are officially friends.  I am left wondering if this virtual friendship will spill over into the real world.  Now that our friendship is officially recorded on the Facebook database will we converse the next time we are face to face or do virtual friendships remain just that.

 

I even went out on the limb yesterday and created a Holy Name of Jesus group on Facebook.  I am not altogether certain how to leverage the group yet, but there are already three members (YIPEE).  In theory, I suppose it could be used as yet another way to keep everyone informed and to build social relationships between members (which is largely what we need to do anyway from my perspective). 

 So I am throwing it out to my posse out there – join up.  Throw your hat in the social networking ring and be a happening dude or dudette.  If you do, make sure you add me as a friend as they are altogether too scarce virtually and otherwise in my quarters.

How to sell a truck

I have never really been too interested in buying a truck.  I don’t haul stuff other than my family and I am secure with my sexual identity.  I have however, started watching truck commercials more closely because I have noticed nearly all of them set up some sort of elaborate stunt to highlight the trucks attributes. 

 

I saw one where they were driving a truck with a trailer up a spiraling trail wrapped around a gigantic cone.  It must have taken forever to construct the apparatus all to sell people on the hauling capabilities of a truck. 

 

Watch the commercials, they all have some goofy scenario that truck drivers would never encounter by exemplify a particular attribute whether it’s the torque, pulling power or braking.  They’ll set up something to show it off.

 

I suppose car commercials are similar in that they like to show them cruising around corners and dodging obstacles but they are different in that they are far less contrived.  Based on this observation, I am left wondering what is it about truck buyers that require the peculiar demonstrations to win their allegiance?

 

I was thinking about buying a Dodge but I saw this commercial where the Chevy was pulling an airplane down the runway and decided that’s got to be a better truck.  I’ve always been a Ford guy, but when I saw that Toyota stop before hitting the dropping crane arm despite pulling a thirty foot boat – hey, how could you not buy the Toyota.

 

 

Tax talk is taxing

It seems recently the change in presidency has caused an overabundance of unsolicited opinion offerings from all corners.  Round these parts, the predominant opinion is that the people (i.e. mostly upper middle class) are mad because they believe they are going to have to pay more taxes.  This prospect has them lamenting the seating of Obama as president as well as the collection of ‘tax and spend’ democrats in the legislature.

 

I tend to avoid engaging the opinion givers as to why people shouldn’t pay more taxes.  In general if your country has to take loans in record amounts to keep the doors open while the economy is growing, I’d say not enough taxes are being paid.  So then the real discussion should become one of either what aspects of government do you want to decrease/eliminate or who should pay the extra taxes to balance the budget.

 

 Historically, I have engaged some of those who say, “I pay way too much tax.”  The responses have included: if you give people more money (have them pay less taxes) they will invest it and put others to work, the taxes paid and benefits received are so disproportionate it’s not fair to me, taxing higher earners is a disincentive for people to take risks and succeed, and taxing more allows the government to grow and we need a smaller government that doesn’t try to solve everyone’s problems and shortcomings.

 

While there is most definitely some merit in these points of view, I think many of them fly in the face of economic and psychological fundamentals.  I can respect a person who has thought through their stance and investigated the validity of their opinion and could site some objective source who adds to the plausibility of their point of view.  However what I think has happened in many cases is the people lamenting their possible tax burden are almost completely motivated by self-interest.  Everyone is entitled to want to keep more of the money they make but at least be forthright in your motives.  The conservative entertainment business (Limbaugh, Hannity, O’Rielly, etc) is very effective at producing half-baked theories and semi-lies as to why paying fewer taxes is better for everything and there are far too many that use their fodder to mask their own greed.

 

If someone thinks paying more taxes (in normal economic times) will adversely impact the long-term well-being of our country, then I think the person needs to suggest ways of decreasing government expenses.  So I get that people don’t want to pay more taxes, but what is it our government is doing we need to stop?

 

Typically, the people who believe they pay too many taxes will site the amount of money spent on welfare and/or in general on people who are too lazy to work.  I get the impression it really, really bothers some people that they work hard and pay a lot of taxes and some of those taxes are going to people who could work but would rather live a subsistence existence off of government income.

 

I really have no idea of how much total money is being spent on welfare nor do I know how realistic it is that people can survive off of government handouts.  If I decided to stop working what sort of life could I have living off the government?  I have no idea.   As a percentage of the total population, I guess I can’t imagine there are too many people that are conscientiously choosing to live a meager existence off of government handouts.  While there are no doubt millions out there and making these people work would decrease government spending, I can’t imagine you are going to solve trillion dollar deficits by making some people who are ill-equipped and unmotivated either to work or starve.

 

So let’s assume you could solve 10% of the deficit problem by making people work who can work, what do we cut to get the other 90% we need?  I am not sure many in the ‘I’m paying too much in taxes crowd’ get past this point.  Many, I would guess, probably support the Iraq effort and probably wouldn’t start by going after corporate breaks because if the corporations get breaks, they will hire more people.  So here’s a little FYI – if you want to tell me you aren’t paying enough taxes, let me know what you want to specifically cut, how much the cut will save, and what long-term impact the cut will have.  The other option is you can identify who other than you should pay more taxes and what impact that will have.

 

Let’s be clear, I don’t want to give the government any more of my money than I have to. I think they waste for too much of it.  However, I am not afraid to pay more taxes if it will mean the country is a better place for my children.  Leaving them with a huge debt, a huge liability with medical care for the larger older population and an environment destroyed by deregulation (done to increase commerce so as to hire more people and expand the tax base) isn’t just.  I sacrifice all the time for my children and think many would and so maybe we need to think longer term and take some lumps now.

 

I do think there are ways the government should/could decrease spending to improve the long-term prospects for the country.  The Iraq war was not a good idea. I am against throwing money at the Halliburtons and their ilk.  I think corporate friendly policies can tend to consolidate wealth which is bad in the long-term.  I think our legislative process is far too strongly influenced by the self-interest of those who pay campaign contributions and lobbyists and too little by what’s in the best interest of our country in the long run.  I think if you iron out of few of these things and we collectively pay more taxes and sacrifice our current standard of living it should benefit the country our children inherit.

Spending too much time at the bar (space)

Spending too much time at the bar (space).

 

Periodically, I look down at my keyboard to see if my collective use has changed the wear on the keys.  In a way, a used keyboard is probably a little like a seashore.  The people that type their fingers off day after day have the beach with the sand accumulated from millions of waves.  Others who don’t use theirs much and have one that looks a lot like it did when they got it would be like the rocky cliff shoreline.  Mine, it’s in between probably in the rough stone category of shoreline.  Some of the keys are a little shinier than the others but it’s not as if I any of the letters are in danger of disappearing.  

 

The spot where my thumb hits the space bar is by far the most worn spot.  I see there is even some wear on the space bar where my left thumb touches it.  I don’t recall ever hitting the space bar with my left thumb but I let it hang out there (it doesn’t do much else but hang out when it comes to typing).  

 

I wonder how many times you would have to hit the space bar to wear through the plastic.  I am sure someone has use the space bar enough times to wear through it.  Some data entry person in a third world country that has to work six days a week, twelve hours a day and never gets a replacement keyboard.  That’s probably the sort that would wear clean through.

 

One other fine pearl of wisdom I will leave with your today – your typing speed and accuracy decreases by at least half when you think about typing while you are typing.  Maybe there is a lesson there than can be extended to other facets of my existence.  Don’t over think things; just let them flow from your brain unconsciously and you will be more productive.

 

Belt tightening

Contributions at the parish have nose-dived.  Many expected there would be an eventual decline but the severity and suddenness of the drop caught us a little off guard.  The situation does force a rethinking of what is essential to a parish and what isn’t.  It also forces a discussion on what the needs of parish are at this point in time.

 

So we have been asked to put our ministry activity on a grid.  On one axis of the grid is the need of the ministry for the parish and on the other is the quality of that ministry.  A final element to the evaluation is to assign how much each ministry costs.  The goal is to fund or provide resources to the activities with the highest need and eliminate those that are costly and are needed as much.

 

It seems easy enough but the process largely depends on perceptions and there is an element of turf protection as well.  Ideally, we will have a constructive dialogue and assess how we can become an even more efficient parish.

 

In addition to this exercise, we are also doing what most other companies are doing, freezing pay, looking at potential staff reductions, decreasing benefits, and freezing expenses as much as possible.  The problem we may face is that we will come to realize that what we are providing is needed more now than it has been for a few years, and by cutting, we won’t be able to help those who need it.

 

There has been some discussion on how we might approach both assessing and maximizing our potential income but realize in doing to we may come across as being oblivious or unsympathetic to the difficult financial realities confronting our donors.  

 

Of dire concern to me is what is down the road.  If our giving decreases by 8% this year from last year, will it take four years to get back to where we were last year?  Typically income has increased by a little less than 2% per year and so assuming economic things get righted, will people start giving dramatically more (back to their ’07 amounts) or will they start the 2%?

 

In the end I think we are going to have to fundamentally rethink the way we do business around here.  I’ll keep you updated if I’m still employed.

Dollar God

It’s all the more apparent to me that our true religion is money.  What we are selling here at the church isn’t being bought as much because more and more people worship money.

I guess I thought maybe there would be a realization after the investment crash that worshipping money isn’t ‘all that.’  I guess I would think that when people started to see there investment house of cards start to fall that maybe it would get them to consider investing on a more lasting and even eternal basis.  I think we are going the opposite direction quickly.  We are all spending more time worshipping money to rebuild the house.

In the midst of all this, I start thinking about the priests and prophets of our money religion and can’t help but conclude they are decidedly ineffective.
 
If these money priests and prophets are honest, they would say they really have no idea where the markets are going.  I’m not talking about saying whether a stock or the market will be up or down tomorrow or next month, they should just use all those fancy computers with six or seven flat screen monitors to figure out whether the market is over valued or under valued on six or twelve month basis. 

They take people’s money and tell them they have the knowledge and information to outperform the market (they don’t tell people to buy a risk appropriate collection of index funds do they?).  The real irritating thing about these priests and profits of the real religion in America is that there’s at least five different layers and none of them is adding any value as far as I can tell. 

You got your local investment advisor guy who gets his investment recommendations from some local/regional/section manager who gets his advise from some national guy who recommends products who are management by investment strategists overseen by corporate investment managers and they are all getting a little slice of the pie under the premise they are going to do better than the index funds. 

Is your collection of known and unknown advisors treating you well?  With all those layers of people making their livelihoods off the premise that they know where, when and how to invest you sure would have to believe that someone along the line would maybe have a sense for when the market might be overvalued.  What value do they add if they can’t predict on 12 month basis the probability that the market is under or over valued?  Anyone get the advice to move money to cash?  “Buy and hold quality investments, invest in the long-term, you’ll lose if you try to time the market, blah, blah, blah.”

The good news for all you, my many readers, is that you will probably get to enjoy this blog until 2038 when I can finally afford to retire although given the growth of money worship, I bet if I set up shop as money priest, maybe it would be sooner.

 

Flat screens project a new reality

I read the news this week from Best Buy about their decreased profits and their CEO saying that it’s a changed reality.  From what I read I concluded that Best Buy has determined that people aren’t going to be able or willing to buy the big flat screen for quite awhile.

I got the sense that he maybe was saying that the economic growth and apparent propersity over the last several years was fueled in part by people spending a lot of money they didn’t have and those days are gone forever (or at least a long time).   Many have lost the means to buy a flat screen and others with the means are maybe looking at their retirement, nest egg, college savings plan statements and concluding that they will have to put more money in these places because it’s 35% less than it was a few months back.

I wonder too if there aren’t a few people that have started to rethink what’s truly important and what isn’t.  There’s quite a few out there, I suspect that maybe thought a flat screen wasn’t such a bad idea and but then saw the all the turmoil caused by greed and modified their perspective.  Maybe they now thinking – I really don’t want to be grouped with this large group of people who were blinded by the belief that they can have it all now.  

The banks went for high returns because the bankers were going for big bonuses and the people were going for big houses and big toys and the government overseers were too busy playing solitaire and didn’t want to do anything to dampen the pre-election economy especially when we got a war on.  

Maybe Brad Anderson, the Best Buy CEO, has realized some people have seen what has transpired and the overwhelming greed and self-interest that fabricated the house of cards economy we had and have concluded there is a lot to be said for a simpler lifestyle.  He knows maybe quite a few people out there aren’t going to be as tempted as they once were with his adult toy store.  Many have concluded that a flat screen might add some minor value to their life but it isn’t important to them.

Seems the Pope has also concluded that times are a changing.   He was hoping that this economic downturn will be an opportunity to get reacquinted with the fundament joy that Christmas offers that has nothing to do with the material.   I think he’s right.  I think people are modifying there perspectives.  It’s a probably going to be a bummer for the flat screen and electronic retailors, but realizing Christ is the reason for Christmas and every other day, is worth the cost.

 

Diagnosis: broken tailbone (pending)

 

I have found myself increasingly looking toward special events in my life and am concerned about it.  In addition to looking forward to things I perceive as pleasant, I also seem to view other things as things to get through with.  I map out my week between things I will likely enjoy and things that I’ve deemed to be some flavor of burden and along I plod through my existence.

 

Is this the way everyone goes (gets?) through the week?  Do you map out your week by assessing the events as easy/pleasant hard/less pleasant?  Surely there must be more to our existence than this?

 

I think it’s unrealistic to expect that we can make a pleasant experience of everything but I guess deep down there’s got to be more potential to enjoy things more than I seem to be able to do.  On the other hand, I have encountered people who have twisted the sense for what is enjoyable and not enjoyable to the extent to where they seek to create some sore of unpleasant situation.  They like to argue or be confrontational or make a scene because they derive some sort of pleasure from it.  And I don’t want to go there.

 

I really have so much I should be grateful for including the fact that things I perceive as unpleasant would be openly welcomed by many because their unpleasant realities are so much worse than mine.  I heard a guy on the radio talking about GM bailout and he said something like, “We economists tend to think the autoworkers are inefficient at our two hour lunches.” I am not wishing ill on anyone (including/especially myself) but that’s the sort of thing that would certainly change my perspective in a hurry.  

 

If I think attending ____________is a drag, wait until I slip on the ice and break my tailbone.  After the tailbone breakage attending ____________will seem like a damned picnic what with the constant pain in my butt.  

 

Okay – I don’t want to break my tailbone or have any other bad experience to put things into a healthier perspective (although I secretly feel as though I’ve imposed a curse on myself by blogging this blog – it’s a lot like dropping comprehensive coverage on your car; it’s a sure way to get into a accident that’s totally your fault).  So maybe I need to pretend I broke my tailbone or create some other misfortune so I can begin to see all things as good things – they are opportunities to be a better person.

 

Let’s see – what sort of misfortune can I pretend has befallen me?  It’s an exercise that reminds me of how many coaches try to convince their teams that no one gives them a chance.  “No one thought we would win one game, let alone make it to the state championship game…” Coach X from the six time state champions Y.  

 

Okay think, Dan…I got it.  I went out and got a Christmas tree today and the needles scrapped the crap out of my wrists and legs – the needles were unfortunately poisonous and the poison is very slowly making me look older, slower and stupider each and every day; it’s probably fatal at some future point.  

 

What a huge misfortune this is, I had better approach every event from now on with a positive outlook and stop being a whining little baby that’s needs its diaper changed.

Conflict of Interest

I feel more conflicted this year about Christmas than ever before.  It used to be a high point in the year for me and I’d spend a lot of time and energy preparing for it.  Back in the day, I would dwell on some unique lighting scenario for my house.  I’d spend a day or two outside making whatever scheme I dreamt a reality.  I also used to make Christmas gifts.  Typically I would piece together some fantastic but practical wood sculpture.  Not this year though – I’ve been lying low, real low.

 

In part I attribute my celebration to time.  Time is moving faster now (yah, I know it’s impossible, but it is).  It used to take forever it seemed to get from Thanksgiving to Christmas but now it seems like a couple of weeks at most.  I think my kids activity and homework assistance has definitely cut into some of the time and energy I used to apply to Christmas preparation endeavors.  This makes time go faster.

 

I also think there is a societal/theological conflict within me.  On the one side you got society saying Christmas is a time of plenty – load up on gifts – buy other crap – put up decorations and copious amounts of cheap Chinese Christmas lights inside and outside of your home.  On the other side I guess I’d have to think on balance Christ would completely disagree with many things we do at Christmas.  Spending money we may have or not have on things we may on things we or others may or may not need all the while slowly heating up the earth by stringing up Christmas lights made by impoverished laborers somewhere.  

 

Well I’ll admit that last scenario does not exactly put me (or anyone else who happens to read it) into good cheer.  I am still looking forward to getting together with family and friends and being in good cheer.  I guess that should count for something.  But I think my Santa and the Reindeer figures will stay in hibernation this year.  Maybe I’ll see if I can put up a simple star at a high point in my tree and that will represent a compromise between with the conflict.  Not too much electricity and an appropriate symbol for why we should be celebrating.

 

Simian Primates

I am glad the election is over.  On the positive side, there is going to be someone different leading the country.  I think most of us from both political parties think this is a good thing.  I just hope the our current president can get that free trade agreement with Columbia ironed out before he leaves office so he can leave the White House with his head held high knowing he accomplished something realing important for our country during his second term.

The problem with elections is that it is really a litmus test of our own selfishness and stupidity.  The interactions between candidates are too often destructive and they frequently contain half truths.  Politicians can then come across as whores for power.  They will do whatever works to get elected.  The conclusion I have reached is that we are influenced by this demeaning and worthless behavrior or they wouldn’t do it.  Can we decide we are going to reward someone for talking about specific changes they will make that will improve our city/state/country instead of voting against someone because the other candidate or some supported said they were actually an alien or worse?

Their dialogue and ideas also tend to present largely unrealistic possibilities and too often they go unchallenged.  Tax breaks? How can we give tax breaks when we have record debts and deficits?  Where is the realism?  Shouldn’t the discussion really be on how much ALL our taxes should go up to pay for bailouts and wars so that we give our children a country not completely shackled to debt service. No one wants to hear that message and so no mainstream politician will ever say it.  We can do all things and there will be no pain.  Voters apparently don’t want realism.

The final problem is the number of voters who are completely guided by their self interest.  The may present a case for voting for a candidate based on one reason or another but the reality is they want someone who will make things better for them rather than whats best for our country in the long-run.  

What they say, “I really like candidate X, he’s got some great ideas that will move us forward.  I read that Candidate Y is an alien and will allow the colinazation of the world as soon as they take office.” The reality of their suppor though goes like, “Candidate Y is going to make things better for someone else, and candidate X will make things better for me – I don’t care what happens to our country so much as I want things that are best for me.”

It’s over – I am letter go – next time I am going to remind myself that election seasons are the best times to go on extended sabiticals to a third world country.