I frequently read The Simple Dollar (opens in a new window).  Trent Hamm has a number of arguments for watching your spending, and very clear ideas on ways to save money and pay off debt.  He uses some of the tips from Dave Ramsey, but also pulls from other sources and tells what works for him.  One of my favorite of his weekly features is ’10 Pieces of Inspiration.’

This week, he linked to a speech given by historian Niall Ferguson at The TED Conference, called ‘6 Killer Apps of Prosperity.’ (link is to the official YouTube version of the speech).

One of his comments got me to thinking.  At about minute 17, he says something about the West collapsing on itself because many civilizations operate on the edge of chaos.  I look at our political system and see the chaos he’s talking about, but I wonder how close the chaos we see now is anything like the chaos that we would have seen 200 years ago, soon after the American Revolution and the founding of our country.  One question I’ve been thinking about since I heard the speech is to wonder whether we’ve fallen further into chaos over the last 100 years.  Prohibition, & gun running might come to mind initially, but what about the ‘Mountain Men’? What about people like Ted Kaczinski? The ones who don’t trust the government because it’s gotten too big? (too big to fail?? is there such a thing?).

I know my view might not be popular, but I foresee a revolution coming.  The second American Revolution will be as bloody as the first, with the heads of some of the bigger corporations like insurance and pharmaceutical companies being the ones that have the most problems or are the first targets.

I only hope I’m wrong.  I’d love to see this country right itself.  But, when the economy starts showing some improvement, the politicians need to keep their hands off.  When you start a fire, you don’t pile the logs on the glowing embers, you wait for the flames, for the fire to be ready for the logs.  I’m not taking aim at any one side, both sides are causing the problems and neither side is acting as part of the solution.

When I first read about the phase out of Flash games, I started to wonder.  Many games on Facebook use Flash.  What would they do about casual gamers like those who play on Facebook?

Then I started reading this article (opens in a new window) where MMObility interviews the developers from Illyriad, who have a game out that doesn’t use Flash.

It seems when they first started developing their game, they realized that many people don’t have Flash.  Those that do, only have a certain version.  I know that it can be difficult to remain backward compatible with many Flash applications.  I haven’t done serious designing in a few years, but I remember my (then) supervisor creating a Flash intro to a website we were working on.  It worked great on his computer.  Not so much on mine since I had an earlier version of Flash.

Now, you can use HTML5 to do much of what you would have used Flash to do.  Most of the newer browsers will support HTML5 without a problem.

That’ll leave many more options for the casual gaming sites, and hopefully get rid of some of the bugs in the games.

Though much of my interest in MMO’s was limited to MUDding (or Multi User Dungeons for those who didn’t play the old school text based games), I did play Everquest and Asheron’s Call.    About 8 years ago, I decided I wasn’t going to spend my money to play games.  I could either 1) start MUDding again or 2) stick to playing games like Diablo II and Dungeon Siege.   Eventually, the choice was to start MUDding again.  My current laptop won’t even load Diablo.  But I digress.

On Monday, Sony announced that they would be offering DC Universe Online as free to play starting in October.  They’ll still offer a pay to play option for those who want the extra benefits.  After reading a synopsis of the story on /.  I thought that it’d be free because like Everquest or Asheron’s Call, you’d have to buy the game.  Turns out, I was wrong.

According to DC Universe Online news (opens in a new window), there will be levels of the game that are free to download to a computer or PS3.  It sounds like you can either play for free, purchase items and equipment within the game, or pay a monthly membership fee.

Sounds like one company finally understands that people can only afford so many monthly fees for MMO’s.  Or maybe Sony is just feeling the pinch with the competition out there.  Either way, gamers win and the company still makes money.  Sounds like a decent compromise to me.  What do you think?

Interesting article on /. (aka Slashdot) the other day.  It wasn’t long, but the discussion got me thinking about the tech sector and how poorly some companies are doing.  This segued into how many big companies are handling things.

The article is http://tech.slashdot.org/firehose.pl?op=view&type=story&sid=11/09/17/2237256 (Opens in a new window)

How much oversight is there for big companies.  According to NewsWorks.org, Merck reported high profits last year.  Yet now they’re planning on laying off 13,000 jobs by 2015.  From what I’ve read, the CEO makes wonderful money though.  If you want to consider a mere $24mil in 2010 wonderful money (pay rate from FiercePharma.com).  Maybe it’s just scraping by for those high paid CEO’s.

Yet from the looks of things, some of these high paid CEOs couldn’t find their butt with both hands and a map.  Sorry, but someone needs to regulate what’s being done (and no, I’m not talking more government regulation, let’s try for some self discipline by the companies).  If the company is making enough profits to pay their CEO that much money per YEAR, why are they laying off employees 2 years later?  Does anyone on the Board of Directors stop to think about who makes the high pay possible? I know some people serve on multiple Boards.  Others serve on a Board of Directors in addition to their own full time jobs.  Do they have the time to sit down and figure out the budget and look over work load reports??  Do they even bother gathering work load reports? Are they concerned about just the bottom line?

At the company I used to work for, my former coworkers are working 10 and 12 hour days to keep up with the work load.  Some were doing it before I left, now everyone is.  Yet when I complained about the work load, the department manager kept saying there was a light at the end of the tunnel.  I sincerely hope for my friends’ sakes, the light isn’t an oncoming train.  Or a hyperactive kid with a glow stick.

In other news, the ice cream truck just passed by, yet it’s thundering and getting ready to pour.  I wonder how much business he’s going to get.  LOL

Last year, a dear friend of mine died of cancer.  Today would have been her birthday.

In honor of her memory, I want to share a quote:

“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, “I will try again tomorrow.” ~Mary Anne Radmacher

This was one of Judy’s favorite quotes/sayings, though I never learned who said it until tonight when I went looking for it.

Take care of your health while you’re young.  We don’t have to be perfectly on plan all the time, but we should do what we can to get healthy and enjoy life.  Life’s too short as it is.

Today on Facebook, my aunt posted a link to some pictures that someone else uploaded.  All of the pictures showed the aftermath of Irene in Vermont.  The aftermath is devastating.  The pictures are heartbreaking, though I’ll admit I have a soft spot for VT and most of New England.  None of the pictures were from the area I grew up in, but there were other cities I visited frequently while growing up.  One of the pictures made me wonder… I do have friends that I went to college with that still live in the area.  Heck, I have friends I went to high school with live in some of those other areas, but the ones that I know where they live, I also know how they’re doing because they’ve logged onto Facebook recently…

But what about the ones I’ve lost track of; the ones that I went to college with before I dropped out to get married?  I might be able to contact Kiff’s father who used to work at UVM (no, that’s not his real name, that’s his nickname), but what about some of the others whose names I barely remember?  What about the ones I worked with at Ames and Wendy’s and TJ Maxx that I don’t remember more than a first name if I remember any name at all?  There were also several MUDders who were from NH and VT, including the one who went by Erin (among other names, I seem to remember the name Caliban associated with that person as well), and ones from MA/RI/CT (Uhh Strider? and one other that was a fireman in RI), and ones from Canada who may or may not have been affected, though I’ve seen Humpty/Dumpty since then 🙂

I wonder in passing how they came through the storm, but I have no way of finding out about any other than possibly Kiff.  I do know that the area I grew up in has power, I see posts from friends and family that still live there.  I think everyone has power now, even if they’re working on cleanup.

My thoughts are with all of those who were affected by this storm.

Obviously I haven’t posted in awhile.  About 2 months (I haven’t actually looked at the date of my last post).  In that time, I’ve had a lot going on.  I quit my job, which was making me miserable.  I moved halfway across the country.  I’ve been working part time for my brother while I look for a full time job in an area that doesn’t seem to have a lot of open jobs.  Of course, Enid never really had a lot of open jobs either.  I could get a job in a call center or a meat processing plant unless I wanted to work on an Air Force base or for some sort of retail store.

Instead, I moved closer to family.  I’ve been missing them anyway.  I just never realized how political they are.  It seems like they’re always talking politics.  I’m so far from that it’s not funny.  Not to mention, if I disagree with my stepdad about some of his opinions, I start hearing that I’m for big government, etc etc.  Uhh no, I just don’t happen to like listening to Rush Limbaugh.  He’s a blowhard, IMO, and just tries to be controversial to get ratings.  Not to mention, he’s not fully correct on some of his facts.  Like when he went off on someone this last Friday saying the rich are paying all of the taxes, that the low and middle class don’t pay any taxes.  Uhh no, it’s the upper middle class that pays all the taxes.  Anyone making under ~$40k gets back earned income credit (which can mean they get back more than they take in), but from what I can tell, those who earn more than ~$500k or so don’t pay as high a percentage as those making between $45k and $250k, there are too many tax loopholes.

So I put on my MP3 player and ignore a lot of the conversations.  It’s not that I’m trying to be rude, it’s that I prefer not to argue.  I’m horrible at arguments, I can’t think of a response fast enough.  That doesn’t mean I’m not intelligent, or that I’m bad with words.  It just means that I can’t come up with a good retort until several minutes later.  I can think quickly when it’s a simple question like Jeopardy or a knowledge bowl, but otherwise… I take after my mother.

I’m learning a few things as I look for a job.  I’m learning that there are ways for me to earn a living that aren’t a 9-5 job, and that I enjoy.  Like writing.  Store resets (which is just a generic term for going into a store and rearranging a department/section).  Warehouse work for my brother (he does vending machines, so there’s lots of ‘fast’ food available).  I’m learning that I have a lot of talents that I had forgotten when I was stuck with that job for so long.

My goal for the next 3 weeks – (other than the store reset on Wed and working for my brother on Thur and Fri):

Make at least $15 a day writing.  It honestly needs to be more, I should be making enough to cover my kids’ daycare costs.  Then all of my income from my brother would go toward getting us a place.  Living with my parents is difficult at times. (My brother reads my blog occasionally, and I know he’d try to argue with me, but that’s because he’s contrary… hmm sometimes I’m just like him lol I can argue on things that aren’t important to me, but then I’m just saying the first thing that comes to mind).

My other goal is much more with regards to my health.  I need to take better care of myself and stop letting the little things get to me.  Focusing on the important things is the best way to get through life.

When I was in 2nd grade, I was going to play t-ball, but then I got a black eye.  That might not seem like such a big deal, but it was bad enough that they pulled me out of school for a couple of weeks.  I missed t-ball registration, so I never played.  I played softball with my brothers and the neighbors though, on days we weren’t haying.  I did live on a farm back then after all.

My hubby decided that we needed to sign our daughter up for t-ball this year.  She didn’t seem to care either way, but I figured team sports would be good for her.  Since the practices started, she’s loved it.  She loves the games just as much.

The main problem I see is that there are only about 3 girls on the team that have played t-ball before.  The rest of them are just learning, with various degrees of knowledge.  They haven’t won a game, but they have fun so it’s all good in my opinion.  At 4 to 6 years old, they really don’t need to be under pressure to win.

I think it’s probably good that I have this attitude.  My daughter is easily distracted.  It’s rather entertaining actually.  I have had to tell her that we don’t put the dirt from the field in our pockets, and insisting she had to empty the dirt chunks out of the pockets of her shorts.  I’ve had to remind her that when she plays catcher, she has to watch the game and not keep waving to me, blowing me kisses and telling me she loves me.  I’ve had to tell her to stop drawing in the dirt, stand up and pay attention to the game when she’s been in what would normally be a shortstop position.

I’ve watched her throw a fit because they stood her near the outfield and she decided she was afraid of the grass in the outfield.  Of course, I was the only one who realized she was throwing a fit.  I asked the coaches if she had gotten yelled at for doing something she wasn’t supposed to and they said no.  So I had to ask her what she was upset about when she came in from that ‘inning.’

Honestly, it’s been highly entertaining, and I wish I had been able to play t-ball when I was younger.  My sister plays softball in FL, and I can barely catch a ball in a mitt.  If we keep up with the t-ball, my sister is going to have to teach my daughter about the game.  In the meantime, maybe I can get her interested in Tae Kwon Do in the ‘off season.’

Monday, when I went for a walk at lunch, I had someone start talking to me.  I responded, but kept walking.  He asked if I was single, I said no, and he said something about ‘Lucky guy’ when he walked off.  I brushed it off as someone just trying to meet people.

Today, I received 2 separate emails about a guy around town that is striking up conversations with women.  Some report that he asks if they’re single and seems to lose interest when they walk off.  Others have said that he’s followed them home from work.  Attached to the email is a picture of the back of the guy taken when he showed up at the Farmer’s Market last Saturday.

The picture looks remarkably like the guy that started talking to me on Monday.

The emails came from 2 different sources, one of whom is the woman who runs the Farmer’s Market in town.  The other email is from the bank where our overflow parking lot is – the parking lot next to the building is too small to hold everyones’ cars.

The guy has been reported to the police.  However, since he hasn’t done anything, they can’t do anything.

I’m a bit creeped out this afternoon.  If it weren’t for the reports of him following people home, I’d think that he’s just trying to find a new way to pick-up women. 

We live in a scary world.

I started writing this before I realized that I knew who was driving the car on the front page of last Friday’s newspaper.

We’ve been under drought conditions, though we weren’t under a burn ban like the southern part of OK.  Thursday after my daughter’s t-ball game, we got rain.  Though the rain was very welcome, the ground was too hard to absorb much of the rain that fell during the thunderstorms.  So, many streets were covered in water.  There are several under-passes in town where you really have to be careful.  I know for sure that one of the streets has a sign in the middle where you can see how high the water is.

http://enidnews.com/localnews/x645566068/Heavy-rain-brings-localized-flooding (opens in a new window)

If you look at the bottom 2 pictures, these pictures were taken several hours after the SUV was stuck in the water.

At work today, I found out that the driver of the SUV was someone I used to work with.  She was driving to work at 5 a.m. and knew there was a problem when her Yukon when she felt it starting to float.  So she rolled down the windows, climbed out and sat on the roof until the cops showed up.  They told her to swim for it.  From what I heard, the water covered her roof.

Now, I understand it was dark, but she really should have paid a bit more attention or chosen another route to work.