In the face of such news it’s incredibly difficult to remain optimistic about the future, and many investors are pulling out completely and waiting for the dust to settle before returning to the markets.  I can’t say I’m immune to the fear, though I can say I’ve not acted on it. This is in part because I have a financial advisor who I trust managing things for me – which certainly helps – but also as a result of some discussion and article sharing with my Dad which has taught me to be patient.

When I first met with my financial advisor several years ago, he explained to me the importance of investing long term.   He explained then that the market , while up at the time, would not remain so.   There would be periodic dips – recessions and in some rare instances depressions – that reflect a marked reduction in value of investment assets.  Overall, however, the market has continued to trend upwards and generate value.  The key to prosperity there is to stay the course through the down times and reap the rewards when the markets recover.   Hence – invest long term.   

Obviously I am leaving out some aspects of this – I am not a financial mastermind, I don’t have any degrees dealing with economics and certainly don’t have a wealth of experience to draw on.  I do have common sense, though.

It’s really difficult to look at an investments value and watch it decline day after day.   It’s difficult when you see half of your net worth disappear in the course of a month and you didn’t do anything to cause it and couldn’t do anything to prevent it.  It’s incredibly tempting to say “ENOUGH! PULL MY MONEY OUT NOW AND PROTECT IT!” which is something I’ve been incredibly tempted to say many times in the past few weeks. 

Common sense, however, has prevailed in my case.  I’ve declined to utter those words.  In fact, I am almost tempted to pump more money INTO my investments.  Sure they may decline in value some in the coming weeks (and by “may” I mean “WILL”), but they’ll recover and I’ll end up better off for it.

If we look at past evidence of how markets perform after turmoil such as what we’re experiencing now we see that not only do the markets recover,  in some cases they recover incredibly fast and generally lead to significant prosperity for those who stayed in the game.   

I’m certainly looking forward to the recovery of the markets – once investors and brokers realize it’s not the end of the world and start investing again – and the prosperity that will follow.  

Keep in mind, though, this is stuff I’m in no way, shape or form qualified to talk about - but I’m willing to bet that time will show that I was right.

As the old saying goes, when it rains – it pours.  We all have “those days”, where you just can’t seem to catch a break and, before the day even really starts you want to go back to bed and not wake up until the next day.  Today is one of those days for me.

As some of you MAY know, either from having experienced it or having read about it on my tech blog YWGAV, I have a home automation system that automates a lot of functions around the home.  One of those functions is waking me up in the morning, then streaming music from my media server to my bedroom after reading me the weather report for the day.  On most days this all works without a glitch, but not today.   While the house DID wake me up on time, and my lights DID turn on appropriately, the music and weather report did not work.  I tried turning everything off and restarting it all, but that too didn’t work as planned.   And subsequent attempts also didn’t work.  Too late I realized what was happening.   My home’s brain has to establish a remote connection with my media server and for whatever reason could not, so it waited for the attempt to time out before executing any further commands.  Consider that each of the next 6 commands required the timeout, and each command subsequently turned lights on and off.    Specifically, they turned my bathroom lights on and off.  Multiple times.   While I was showering.  I most certainly need to modify the system to eliminate this particular issue.

Figuring that was the worst of the day, glad to have gotten it out of the way early on, I dressed and went downstairs to eat breakfast and feed Poppi.   Before leaving for work I moved some boards that were behind my car drying (after having been painted yesterday),  got in the car and backed out of the garage… only to hear *ChrunchGRINDDDDDDDDD*.   I pulled forward again and got out to look…. To find the PAINT CAN with a giant dent in it and paint in a nice big puddle on my driveway.  Ugh.  I went   inside and got some paper towel to try to clean up the puddle, in the process getting it on my pants and coat (and hand).  I got it mostly cleaned up and the paint can thankfully was still structurally worthy of holding paint, albeit with a GIANT dent in it.  I also thankfully did NOT get paint on my car.

I was, however, about 20 minutes later getting into work than I would have liked.

I hadn’t realized I got paint on my pants until I got to the office and noticed it.  I had known about the coat, and got it out while still at the house. 

A few other minor things have happened too:  Forgot my keys at my desk when I was going to the gas station to get some caffeine with Mike, necessitating having to go back to get them.  Then, while attempting to fill up at the pump it timed out reading my credit card, making me have to do the whole swipe and enter zip code a second time.    Minor things to be sure, and by themselves they’d be nothing but a minor annoyance,   but on a day like today it’s just another piece of evidence that I need to watch my back.

I propose that companies should have a “bad day” policy that lets employees take the day off every once in a while when they’re having days like I am today. The policy should state that the employee should go home, go back to bed and not get up until tomorrow. 

The government passed a $700 BILLION bailout bill that gave the treasury the ability to spend our taxpayer dollars on a whim.  So far there’s been very little oversight on the process, and the treasury secretary decided not so long ago that his initial plan won’t work, so he’s changing the game.

Now we have other large companies wanting to stick their hands in the honey pot.  The most notable being the “Big Three” automakers (GM, Ford and Chrysler)  who this very week are out in Washington asking our legislators for some $25 Billion dollars.   The reason? They were irresponsible and are going to run out of money.   Their chosen method of travel? PRIVATE FREAKING JETS!

Now, let me explain something to those of you who may not know exactly how expensive it is to fly a private jet someplace.    Many of us are used to thinking about air travel in terms of a $200-400 ticket on an airline, depending on how nice of a seat you get (if the airline has first class), etc.      Compare THAT to flying a private jet,  which would cost approx. $18,000-20,000 for the same trip.   Yes, that’s 18 to 20 THOUSAND DOLLARS. (For my more lascivious readers, that’s enough money to pay for a subscription to three porn websites for 18.5 YEARS.  Yes, YEARS.)

So, these assholes have the balls to fly out to our capital on private jets, a flight that costs them at least 18 thousand dollars,   to beg for money.  Company representatives for each company gave nothing but lame excuses about travel policies that cite safety reasons for why they have to fly private jet.   I think it’s more “I don’t want to give up my personal jet and fly with the normal folk”.    

What’s even more impressive is that, despite years of poor (and slowly growing worse) performance,  a track record that shows a complete inability to adapt and adjust, and a complete and utter lack of inspiration in the design and features of their vehicles – they have the gall to call their current plight a result of the financial crisis.  While yes, that did probably accelerate their decline, it was already well on it’s way to happening.   

Regardless, if we take their argument at face value, they’re essentially coming to the government saying “we can’t sell our products,   because of that we need you to just GIVE us money”.   That, my friends, is not how business is supposed to work.   At Proxito | Bouncepad | DeftMobile,   when we couldn’t get enough people to purchase our products….. we went out of business.   It sucks, but we recognized that we made mistakes, owned up to them and shut down.   It was painful.   It sucked.    But we did it anyways, recognizing that – in the end – it was nobody’s fault but our own.    There was no government bailout,    no $1,000,000 in free money to keep us in operation.   Why, then, should the government, and ultimately the taxpayers, have to bailout the Big Three?  What are we getting in exchange?

Some would argue that what we get in return is a stronger economy,   people keeping their jobs, etc.   I disagree.     Sure, we’ll get those for a short term,   but there’s nothing to force the Big Three to change, and without changes we’re just delaying the inevitable. I am finding the whole thing really difficult to swallow… we should not be rewarding their failures!

I suggest an alternative to just giving them the cash.  We give them the money, they give us a car.   And not one of their crappy cars either.   That way the taxpayers are at least getting something out of the deal.  

GM and Ford both refuse to even consider Bankruptcy as an option.   Both stubbornly refuse to even have a contingency plan in place for if that were to come to pass.  Their reasoning:  If we talk about bankruptcy then nobody is going to buy our cars.   I have news for the CEO’s of those companies:   If you run out of money nobody is going to buy your cars either,   and you’d be much better off having some pre-planning done before you get to that point.  

Oh, and guys, if you’re concerned about running out of money….. maybe you should put the keys to your jet away and fly coach…. Like the rest of us.

ANYWAY,   I couldn’t help but notice yesterday the inclusion of a new word in the Collins English Dictionary.  That word is “meh”. 

Now, while I am 100% guilty of using meh in my every day life, I did so knowing full well it wasn’t a real word.  I basked in the glory of using a non-word to express a particular feeling.   Adding it to the DICTIONARY just seems ridiculous to me.  

If you think about this for a second,  ”meh” sounds an awful lot like a dismissive grunt (which is kinda what it was supposed to be anyways).  If we accept the notion that “meh” is nothing more than a dismissive grunt, then we’re now adding grunting to the dictionary, instead of real words.  I posit that our written and spoken languages are devolving!

This is now the second time I’ve been shocked at a words inclusion in the dictionary.    The first would be when “ginormous” was added. (don’t believe me: Websters Dictionary) and let’s not forget the recent addition to the Mirriam-Webster dictionary - Woot.

This could well be the beginning of the death of the English Language.   

Meh.

But I don’t want to talk about Scientology today.  Instead I’d like to talk about another group of batshit crazy people,  PETA. 

PETA, or People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals,  are a group of psychotics who for whatever reason believe that animals are sacred and should be treated with respect normally reserved for the divine.

They’re also a endless source of amusement (depending on your point of view, I suppose), as they propose some truly batshit insane ideas.

Two of my favorites:

PETA wants higher insurance premiums for meat eaters.   They are arguing that since meat eaters are susceptible to sickness from E. coli, since some meat can (sometimes) become contaminated with it, they should have higher insurance premiums than vegetarians.   They also argue that vegetarians should have their premiums reduced.    

So, why is this batshit crazy?    Well, let’s start by examining their argument:   Meat is bad, it causes obesity, heart problems, and can make you sick because of E. Coli.      Vegetables, and vegetarianism is safer and healthier and few vegetarians are obese.  

Well,   what she’s NOT saying is that vegetarians, unless they supplement their diet with Iron and other nutrients that they’re missing out on from not eating meat,    will likely become anemic (Iron-Deficiency Anemia).  Going further, some breast-fed infants of women who are strict vegetarians show signs of a vitamin B12 deficiency, leading to Macrocytic anemia.   Some studies have also shown that excessive leanness and slow growth have been observed in vegan and vegetarian infants and young children.

That said – yes, there are ways to remain vegetarian and eat a healthy diet – just like it’s possible to NOT be vegetarian and likewise maintain a healthy diet. 

The other part of their argument is that E. Coli is a danger that should make meat eaters have a higher premium.  I guess they’re completely ignoring the recalls of all sorts of vegetables in the not so recent past…. (here are three:Link, Link, and Link) Gotta love double standards.    The fact is:  no matter what you eat, there’s a chance it COULD make you sick.   Deal with it and move on.

The second thing that they proposed, which I deem to be equally Batshit Crazy,  is request that Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream  stop using cow milk and start using human breast milk in their ice cream products.

They make the claim that it’ll be healthier for everybody,   especially for the cows.   While I can’t seem to find any statistics one way or another that suggests human breast milk is better for you than milk from a cow, I also can’t find anything that says it’s bad for you.  It DOES, however, have a pretty nasty stigma associated with it, is unlikely to even be possible to sustain a great enough supply, and there are significantly better alternatives they could have suggested (like, I don’t know, SOY milk?).

I love the part of the article that quotes PETA’s Tracy Reiman:   

“The fact that human adults consume huge quantities of dairy products made from milk that was meant for a baby cow just doesn’t make sense,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “Everyone knows that ‘the breast is best,’ so Ben & Jerry’s could do consumers and cows a big favor by making the switch to breast milk.”

 So, their proposed alternative – to save the cow milk for the baby cows – is to use human milk instead, depriving many a infant of their mother’s breast milk so that adults, who don’t need it, can have it instead.

Good to know PETA has its priorities straight….  

So, PETA,  you’re officially on my list of “Batshit Crazy” groups.  Congratulations.