So I guess I’m a superstar! Yeah, right … it’s funny what one will do when a whole lot of boredom gets mixed with just the right amount of alcohol… Last night was the last time that I would be able to hang out with Chris until after the holidays so we decided to go a bit crazy and take part in the awe-inspiring excitement that is Camarillo on a Tuesday night.
In Chris’ defense, he was all for heading up to Ventura to check out some live music. I, unfortunately, was feeling a bit under the weather (still am … but the Zicam should take care of that – I hope…) and didn’t feel too much like attempting to tackle the Ventura Main Street scene when not firing on all cylinders. So we ended up hitting jj Brewsky’s and Outlaws Grill & Saloon in Camarillo (had a short stop at the Lamplighter in-between for some foosball and pinball, but didn’t stay long – not enough “scenery”…).
There weren’t too many women out last night (neither kittens nor cougars) but, seeing as it was a Tuesday, that was kind of expected. Probably a good thing in hind-sight – my karaoke recitals of Pink Floyd’s Time and Metallica’s (well, it’s actually Queen’s; but the version I butchered last night was Metallica’s) Stone Cold Crazy may have actually lowered my already damn near non-existent chance at ever getting any action. I did, however, have the balls to get up on stage (in front of quite a few strangers) and make a spectacle of myself – that’s got to be worth something, right? Chris opted out…
Hence the satirical “superstar” remark at the beginning of this post. A complete stranger (just some dude) complimented me on my performance of Time and Chris was nice enough to say that I did well; but I “know” the truth – although I do appreciate the kindness. There’s no better way to prolong a hysterical drunken display than to praise it and I’m positive that what I did last night was little more than a hysterical drunken display…
Exciting, huh? Just one more karaoke story (nothing new there – who hasn’t done that…?). I guess it exemplifies the boredom that my life has become of late – although boredom ain’t so bad – sure beats the hell out of many other possible scenarios… I guess this means that I’m finally coming to terms with my latest “living away from home” situation. Things are currently proceeding smoothly enough that I can afford to get bored. I wonder how long this’ll last…?
I’m thinking “not very” from the way the Pussy Wagon (oh yeah, I finally decided on a name for the Corolla…) started this morning. I was quickly reminded of the Thanksgiving Day disaster when I turned the ignition only to hear the engine “attempt” to start – several times... After hopping out, opening the hood and pretending that I might be able to do something useful (disconnecting and re-connecting a few wires here and there…) she finally decided to start with a coughing, whining sound approximating the lungs of a life-long, multiple-pack-a-day smoker. I was able to get to work this morning; however the difficulty that this vehicle often displays whilst shifting through the lower gears appears to be getting worse and I’m a bit worried about my ability to return home this evening. Something tells me that little more than the 161,000+ miles already achieved will soon need to be engraved into this classic Toyota’s headstone – “She retires from service leaving behind fond memories of adventure and one rather pissed and somewhat screwed dude … rest in peace, Pussy Wagon…” I do so hope that I’m mistaken here…
And the worst part about all this is that Chris – my highest probability for a ride home should the Pussy Wagon not start – took off to spend Christmas with his family today. He won’t be returning until early January. I’m actually scheduled to be flying out of LAX in a few days to spend Christmas back in Colorado myself – assuming I can get to the airport… If the Pussy Wagon does start (and continues to run for the next few days…) I’m going to be getting a little preview of what life will be like after poor Chris ships out to Afghanistan. You see, things are now a bit different than I reported earlier. Chris has decided to keep his house. Not only that but he is going to let me continue living there whilst he is away on duty. This means that I should now have a place to stay for the entire duration of my job out here – although this length of time is still unknown…
My initial contract (the one that started on October 15th and was scheduled to go for three months or 520 hours – whichever came last) should be finishing sometime in mid-January. I say “should” here because the whole “whichever comes last” aspect of the contract throws a bit of a monkey-wrench into the figuring. Add to that the time of year as well as the fact that I do not get paid anything for hours not worked (and this includes any time that this office is closed for any holiday vacations) then it quickly becomes apparent that the 520 hours will be “coming last”. It is now looking like I’m going to have approximately 137 hours left when I return from the Christmas break on the 2nd of January. That’s actually about three and a half weeks (assuming little to no overtime) which works out pretty well with my initially scheduled flight to return home of February 1st. So my guess at a return date was pretty good – except…
The contract has been extended. They’ve added another “3 month / 520 hour” (whichever comes last) term to my job. I guess I need to purchase another round-trip flight to head back out – perhaps on the 3rd or 4th of February. The flight home seems a bit silly now; however the final tournament for the Denver Poker Tour (the tournament that I won four certificates to play in) is scheduled to run on the 1st of February. If all goes well, I’ll be flying home on the 1st, participating in the tournament and then flying back out to California a few days later.
Unfortunately the DPT is the DPT. I just went to their website to check on the current status of this tournament and was a bit shocked (okay, I wasn’t the least bit shocked; but I’ll say that for its pure sarcastic nature…) to see that all mention of this tournament has been removed. Oh well, screw it… I’ll jump off that bridge when I come to it, I guess…
Once again, I’m rambling. I doubt that anybody’s read this far although I must give props to those that have. I’m going to head out now and see if the Pussy Wagon’s going to start. Wish me luck, I guess…
bis später,
Coriolis
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Bah-Humbug!
Once again, it’s the Christmas (oh wait, I’m sorry … “Holiday”) Season and this, of course, means it’s time to shop! At least that’s the messages that all these commercials are shoving down our throats; and I’ve noticed something a bit interesting this year – apparently the perfect gift to purchase your loved ones is a brand new automobile. I mean, come on, a fucking car – for Christmas!? Are there really that many people that can afford to actually purchase a car these days? I think not…
No … what these salesmen are trying to sell you is a brand new 5-year (often as long as 6-year these days) loan. Yeah, that adheres to the whole idea behind the gift-giving premise – “Here honey, I bought us a new $500 per month payment for the next 5 years – Merry Christmas!!” I mean do these car companies think we’re stupid enough to fall for that? So, perhaps you’re losing your house to one of those nasty little foreclosures this year; hell, why not buy a car for Christmas? That’ll fix everything…
Am I the only one that’s noticed this apparent large increase in “buy a brand new vehicle for Christmas” commercials this year? Perhaps this is just a southern California thing and it happens like this every year; however I swear that 1 out of 4 commercials (both TV and radio) are inevitably telling you that you really should purchase a new car (as a gift, mind you…) this year for Christmas. I can tell you this much – I won’t be doing that…
And another thing that’s been bugging me lately is this stupid iPhone craze. So far, I do not believe that I know anybody that’s purchased this “Tickle Me Elmo” for 2007; however the marketing campaign for this product is making it appear that it’s only a matter of time before not owning one will get you shunned from civilized society. The question I have for Apple is why do we “need” this over-priced cell phone (because that’s what it is – a cell phone…)? So, you can watch movies on it, play MP3s, and even surf the net – whipty-freekin-do! I can already do these tasks (with much higher bandwidth and clarity) using my home computer and home theater. It is most definitely my opinion that the only useful feature of this iPhone gadget is the phone – and I already have a cell phone that works just fine, thank you…
But I guess that’s just the way the American consumer appears to big business this time of year – lemmings that can easily be suckered into disposing of their hard-earned money on a bunch of crap that they don’t need. Yeah, go ahead and buy your wife that BMW; make sure all of your children receive their shiny new iPhones – it’s the best gift that these corporations can get.
Merry Christmas to all; and to all that buy an iPhone – get bent!
bis später,
Coriolis
No … what these salesmen are trying to sell you is a brand new 5-year (often as long as 6-year these days) loan. Yeah, that adheres to the whole idea behind the gift-giving premise – “Here honey, I bought us a new $500 per month payment for the next 5 years – Merry Christmas!!” I mean do these car companies think we’re stupid enough to fall for that? So, perhaps you’re losing your house to one of those nasty little foreclosures this year; hell, why not buy a car for Christmas? That’ll fix everything…
Am I the only one that’s noticed this apparent large increase in “buy a brand new vehicle for Christmas” commercials this year? Perhaps this is just a southern California thing and it happens like this every year; however I swear that 1 out of 4 commercials (both TV and radio) are inevitably telling you that you really should purchase a new car (as a gift, mind you…) this year for Christmas. I can tell you this much – I won’t be doing that…
And another thing that’s been bugging me lately is this stupid iPhone craze. So far, I do not believe that I know anybody that’s purchased this “Tickle Me Elmo” for 2007; however the marketing campaign for this product is making it appear that it’s only a matter of time before not owning one will get you shunned from civilized society. The question I have for Apple is why do we “need” this over-priced cell phone (because that’s what it is – a cell phone…)? So, you can watch movies on it, play MP3s, and even surf the net – whipty-freekin-do! I can already do these tasks (with much higher bandwidth and clarity) using my home computer and home theater. It is most definitely my opinion that the only useful feature of this iPhone gadget is the phone – and I already have a cell phone that works just fine, thank you…
But I guess that’s just the way the American consumer appears to big business this time of year – lemmings that can easily be suckered into disposing of their hard-earned money on a bunch of crap that they don’t need. Yeah, go ahead and buy your wife that BMW; make sure all of your children receive their shiny new iPhones – it’s the best gift that these corporations can get.
Merry Christmas to all; and to all that buy an iPhone – get bent!
bis später,
Coriolis
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Breaking an ARM
So let me get this straight … Georgey and the American Securitization Forum are planning to implement a 5-year rate-freeze on millions of subprime loans taken out by citizens that, once the actual consequences of the loans they opted for were realized, are having trouble making their payments, right? Doesn’t this seem to be rather counter-capitalistic to anyone else? And since when did the government ever want to help out the layman at the expense of big business? Something seems fishy here…
For one thing – and at the risk of sounding a bit cynical – where’s my payola? I mean sure, I could have opted into one of those ARM loans when I purchased my mortgage (or when I refinanced it – on two occasions) but I understood the risk and chose the safer (and what I thought was much more intelligent) alternative – a fixed-rate mortgage. Hell, if I knew the government was going to step in and change the “rules” for the subprime option, maybe I would have chosen differently. But no … I thought I understood the risk and opted to select the higher fixed rate for the main reason that it was fixed. Now that it appears there’s a life-vest being thrown to those that chose incorrectly, it seems that my sound financial planning was in err…
And how, exactly, is this going to be a good thing for the nation’s economy? I think any somewhat reasonable person is aware of why the financial institutions were so quick to push the variable rate loans on pretty much everybody – they stood to make a lot of money if the economy took a downturn, right? Well, now that this downturn has occurred, the government is going to (at least temporarily) punish these financial institutions for bad choices made by borrowers? Yeah, I’m sure that’s going to please investors. I don’t think missing projected profits because the government decided to basically nullify the contract terms on millions of loans will sit too well with the people that were supposed to be making money with the original terms…
The main reason that this whole idea bothers me is because it’s just one more situation where ignorance is being rewarded in this country. It’s no wonder that other nations hate us when we keep getting away with such blatant stupidity. And since when was ignorance a viable candidate for charity? If they choose to “help” those that made the wrong loan choice, exactly when are they going to “help” those that chose correctly? Oh wait, those that chose correctly don’t need any help. For those that didn’t, I’m of the opinion that “you made your bed – lie in it”.
bis später,
Coriolis
For one thing – and at the risk of sounding a bit cynical – where’s my payola? I mean sure, I could have opted into one of those ARM loans when I purchased my mortgage (or when I refinanced it – on two occasions) but I understood the risk and chose the safer (and what I thought was much more intelligent) alternative – a fixed-rate mortgage. Hell, if I knew the government was going to step in and change the “rules” for the subprime option, maybe I would have chosen differently. But no … I thought I understood the risk and opted to select the higher fixed rate for the main reason that it was fixed. Now that it appears there’s a life-vest being thrown to those that chose incorrectly, it seems that my sound financial planning was in err…
And how, exactly, is this going to be a good thing for the nation’s economy? I think any somewhat reasonable person is aware of why the financial institutions were so quick to push the variable rate loans on pretty much everybody – they stood to make a lot of money if the economy took a downturn, right? Well, now that this downturn has occurred, the government is going to (at least temporarily) punish these financial institutions for bad choices made by borrowers? Yeah, I’m sure that’s going to please investors. I don’t think missing projected profits because the government decided to basically nullify the contract terms on millions of loans will sit too well with the people that were supposed to be making money with the original terms…
The main reason that this whole idea bothers me is because it’s just one more situation where ignorance is being rewarded in this country. It’s no wonder that other nations hate us when we keep getting away with such blatant stupidity. And since when was ignorance a viable candidate for charity? If they choose to “help” those that made the wrong loan choice, exactly when are they going to “help” those that chose correctly? Oh wait, those that chose correctly don’t need any help. For those that didn’t, I’m of the opinion that “you made your bed – lie in it”.
bis später,
Coriolis
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