SWB: Alan B. Rowley II - Success Coach - ECoaching - Email Coaching

Sword Point Saturday - Totem

  I was only able to get a couple of hours of sleep last night so instead of doing any real thinking, I did a bit of surfing and came across this quiz on totems.

No surprise to people that know me but I think my totem is the Wolf - loyalty, family, intuition, and adaptability.

Tia's, without taking this quiz, is the Bear - industrious, instinctive, guardian of the world, and will power.  She has dreams about bears all the time.

I took this quiz to see what it had to say about me and it said that my totem is the Lion.  I don't know who gets to choose these things and if you took a bunch of these quizzes, you would probably get all kinds of different answers.

Anyway, this particular quiz put me as a Lion.

What was your result from taking the quiz?

Does this totem represent you or is there one that you think fits you better?

5 Sword Points.

Screw up, move up

The Federal Reserve helped create this huge financial mess that we have by lending money too cheaply and allowing the whole house-flipping game to be played.

How does our government plan on punishing them?

By giving them more control over financial regulation.

I am not kidding.

Paulson plans on giving the Fed more control over other banks and regulations.

At a time when we should be reducing the power of the Federal Reserve, King George is going to sell out.  People who see a recession coming will gladly jump on the bandwagon because they think *someone* should fix this mess.  Maybe Uncle Bernanke will promise that Santa will bring a big screen TV to everyone this Christmas.

This will bring about all kinds of changes to common sayings.  For instance, the dollar will now have the saying, "In Fed we trust."

Someone sneezes.  "Fed bless you."

Swearing in to testify in court.  ". . . and nothing but the truth, so help you Fed."

When King George signs this thing into law.  "Fed damn it!"

It was pointed out that I have missed 2 Sword Point Saturdays in a row now.  I'll make up one of them tomorrow.  I lose track of the days.

Oil vs. Gas

It is possible that oil prices will drop well below $100 a barrel.  It's not good news though.  For that to happen, the entire stock market would have to crash.

My guess is that gas prices won't go down proportional with oil prices. 

Oil companies take in record profits and I think they're going to continue to take in as much as possible.

Part of this is the declining value of the dollar.  Of course, revenues are going to go up when the dollar goes down.  It takes more of these less valuable dollars to buy the same amount of gas. 

In addition, the oil companies know that oil is on the decline.  Time to milk it for what it's worth before people make the change to some other energy source.

Sunday Start - March 23rd - Hey, it's Easter.

It's Easter.  You know what that means.  It's the day that Jesus rolls back the stone and comes out and if he sees his shadow we have 6 more weeks of Ben Bernanke's lies.

I saw an interesting Easter egg this morning.  A guy stopped in front of my house and sat there in his truck for a while.  I recognized him so I took my finger off the trigger but kept checking in on one he was doing.  I saw him walking in circles in the middle of the street with a GPS and it still didn't dawn on me what was going on. 

I had completely forgotten that it was Easter.  I'm not much of a holiday kind of guy.  So, for me, I have the day off from work and have a bunch of housework, email, and blogging to catch up on.  My mind is in other places.  Most holidays have lost any meaning they once had and many Christian holidays are actually Pagan celebrations that have had their story changed so that Christians are allowed to join in the fun without worshiping a different religion.  Anyone who does a bit of research will find that the Son of God was resurrected on December 25th.  On top of that, every holiday has been commercialized so that even the stolen holiday doesn't have it's recreated meaning. 

Not that I'm a total humbug.  We had Trey color eggs Wednesday with a couple of friends and did a little plastic Easter egg gathering yesterday with Tia's friends and their young kids.  Tia and a friend bought kites for all the kids and we flew kites after gathering up the eggs.  See, flying a kite symbolizes elevating your spirit into heaven, even if it's in the shape of a space shuttle.  Trey is going to be saved in the last days because of this ritual. 

Anyway, back to the story. 

We'll have a good Christmas

"Scott Brown, chief economist with Raymond James & Associates in St. Petersburg, Fla., predicts that U.S. economic growth could be "close to zero, maybe negative" in the first half of the year but likely improve in the second half."

Things might go backwards for a couple of months.  Might.  It might just flat line for a bit but then everything is going to be okay.  Ben Bernanke is going to wave his wand and everyone's house value will return to its over-inflated price and people will be able to refinance to get out the equity and start spending gobs of money on poisonous crap from China again.

Okay, the article doesn't say that Bernanke will wave his magic wand.  It doesn't even say good ole Ben has a magic wand, to be honest.

The article also doesn't mention that the economy was being artificially fueled by skyrocketing illusionary home values and that many experts believe it will be at least 5 years before home prices return to those values.

I suppose the $600 checks we'll be getting are as good as 5% per year equity on a $417,000 home.  That and the ever lowering of the Feds interest rates. 

So, for those people who haven't lost their jobs, their houses, their health, their spouses, the value of their dollar, or their sanity - it's going to be great Christmas.

Glory and Hallelujah.

Good News from Kinplinger's - if you don't mind being lied to

I was reading April's Kinplinger's magazine yesterday and the first article was about the recession.  They assert that if the Federal Reserve continues to aggressively print and lend out fiat money and if Congress gets the fake money that it has requested out to the people in the form of rebate checks quick enough, a recession might be avoided or, at worst, be minor in severity and duration.

I've kind of skimmed the rest of the magazine because it's hard to take it serious after reading crap like that as the lead off article.

If you want to devalue the currency by 10% so that stocks continue to rise at .1%, just say so but don't say that losing 9.9% in purchasing power isn't a recession just because you managed to keep stocks from going down.

I didn't pay for the magazine and yet I still feel like I was gypped.

Yay! The Stock Market Rebounded

How high and how long can we prop up the illusionary system before the whole thing collapses in on itself?

Sunday Start - March 16th

Do you look at your week and decide what you're going to accomplish for the week?  A daily to-do list is nice but sometimes it's too small of a picture.  I plan out my week in blocks of time.  I leave lots of empty spaces so that I can chase shiny stuff because that's my nature. 

This week, topping my weekly list is creating a meal plan that will support my exercise level but help me lose weight at the same time.  A balancing act, to be sure.  There are less than 3 months left before the cruise and I'm not seeing the results that I want and I know that it has to be the diet. 

I'm going to finish the Kunstler book this week so that I can turn all my reading time over to Eckhart Tolle's New Earth.  World Made by Hand is an easy read so even with the limited time I devote to reading, I should be able to finish it. 

Finally, I need to update my index pages for my blogs.  I've neglected them for quite some time.

What do you have planned?

Sword Point Saturday - The One In/One Rule

Have you heard of using One In and One Out to avoid clutter.  I thinks it's something that's is done a lot with kid's toys.  If you get a new toy, you have to get rid of an old toy.  My wife and I do with it with clothing too.

If you could expand the concept beyond your personal realm, what would you apply the One In/One Out Rule on?

For me it would be laws.  Every time a governing body created a new law, they would have to get rid of an old law.  This would clear up a lot of confusion and contradiction and also maybe giving enforcement agencies a chance of knowing what the laws were. 

We have so many laws on the books now that agencies have to pick and choose which ones they decide to enforce.  This is handy if they decide to target someone because they can look back through a hundred years of laws and find something to charge their victim with.

Where would you apply the rule?

5 Sword Points.

Churches in Vegas

                   

THIS MAY COME AS A SURPRISE TO THOSE OF YOU NOT LIVING IN LAS VEGAS , BUT THERE ARE MORE CATHOLIC CHURCHES THAN CASINOS.


NOT SURPRISINGLY, SOME WORSHIPPERS AT SUNDAY SERVICES WILL GIVE CASINO CHIPS RATHER THAN CASH WHEN THE BASKET IS PASSED.


SINCE THEY GET CHIPS FROM MANY DIFFERENT CASINOS, THE CHURCHES HAVE DEVISED A METHOD TO COLLECT THE OFFERINGS.

THE CHURCHES SEND ALL THEIR COLLECTED CHIPS TO A NEARBY FRANCISCAN MONASTERY FOR SORTING AND THEN THE CHIPS ARE TAKEN TO THE CASINOS OF ORIGIN AND CASHED IN. 

  THIS IS DONE BY THE CHIP MONKS!

-Thanks to Rhiia for this little gem.-

The Subprime Fiasco Explained Very Nicely

They also explain the war in Iraq beautifully.  Check it out if you have the time.

Speaking of time, for those of you waiting for a Chronicles post or email from me, I'll get to them today and explain the delay in today's Chronicle post.

5 Sword Points for PTE Rick for sending me the clip above.  Excellent stuff.

First she flies in a Hill-o-copter, next could be this

Props to my brother for sending this to me.

I don't think it will happen, I have my money on our country becoming an Obama-nation.

The way things are going, I don't think it's going to make much of a difference who the next president is.  The poor bastard is going to get stuck with the train wreck.

A Drug Free America?

Did you see the report that shows that in larger cities (and probably every where that tap water is "treated" and reused) the water contains all the prescription drugs that 'Merkins take?

All the anti-depressants, anti-anxiety, antibiotics, cholesterol reducing, blood pressure reducing, penis hardening drugs that people take are being spread out to everyone that drinks water from a tap or uses it for cooking.

People in Philadelphia are drinking a pharmaceutical cocktail with 56 different kinds of drugs in it. 

That just can't be good for the body but it does explain why the  morning wood has been more severe and yet I haven't been anxious about it and it doesn't raise my blood pressure.

Stocks are tumbling but Paulson says dollar has strong fundamentals

What the hell does that mean?  The dollar has strong fundamentals? 

We are still pumping hundreds of billions of dollars of fiat money into the economy.  Iran is working on unhooking their market from the dollar.  Chavez wants to do that same thing.  February was the highest job loss in the US in 5 years.  Gas prices are crippling families that live paycheck to paycheck are going to continue to go up.  Food prices will go up right with gas prices.  The stock market is starting a plummet that even the plunge protection team will have a hard time stopping.  Housing still hasn't hit rock bottom yet and probably won't for quite some time.

The article I read doesn't point to anything specific that is good about the dollar.  Do you think he leaves the press room saying, "I hope they bought that crock of shit."?

Sword Point Saturday - Which Marvel Hero Are You?

I thought this would be interesting and I suppose in a way it will be when I have more time. 

It turns out that my closest match for a Marvel super hero is Iron fist.

I have absolutely no idea who he is.  I might have to research that sometime later to see why that was my match.

Your turn: 5 Sword Points.

Fed to Auction Off $100 Billion

The Federal Reserve is going to auction off $100 Billion to "help" the economy.  Yeah, we all know that this just damages the economy more but my question is this: how much would you pay for a 100 billion dollars?

102 Billion?

103 Billion?

Maybe the banks will get a deal and only have to pay $101 billion in order to get $100 billion.

Not only does injecting another 100 billion bucks devalue the dollar more (inflation) but we're talking about putting banks another 100 billion in debt (plus interest).  It's a double whammy for this terrible decision.

Oil Almost $106 a Barrel

The dollar hit a new low this week.  Why should this week be any different than the last few dozen.  OPEC won't increase output.  Chavez is threatening to go to war with Colombia and the US will undoubtedly be pulled in on Colombia's side.  Old Media is still pushing the Iranian nukeler threat.  Iran finally got their oil bourse up and running.  The stock market is crashing but oil is going up so investors will continue to drive up the cost of oil, gold, and silver.

Tia and I were talking a couple of days ago about what life would be like when gas is $4.00 a gallon.  Grocery prices are going to go up obviously and that won't be fun.

As far as driving goes though, we probably won't feel too much.  I figured it up the other day and if I didn't do much driving outside of commuting (a lifestyle I already live), I could probably drive to work and back for two months on a tank of gas.  At $4.00 a gallon, it will take me about $40.00 to fill the tank.  I haven't figured up how long Tia could drive on a tank of gas but it would probably be more than me even though my car gets better gas mileage because her workplace is much closer.

We already shop by internet when we can.  Shipping prices will be going up but it will still be cheaper than putting gas in a car.

We are going to be driving to San Diego the second week of June.  Yay!  The most expensive gas month of the year.  Don't get me started.  I didn't choose the time, place, or activity.  It's a long story.  Don't get me started.

Gambling on Health Care

Oregon is going to have a lottery to decide which few thousand of the state's 600,000 uninsured will get some insurance this year.

I really don't think I need to add anything else to the statement this plan already makes.

Article

Foreclosure: Here's Some Help

Foreclosures continue to rise and with oil prices going up and the dollar going down, the number of foreclosures will probably be higher than many "experts" believe.

Where there is a need, there is a dollar to be made.  People need to get out of their houses and don't want mortgage companies making life rough for them as they try to deal with the declining economy.

Enter YouWalkAway.com.

For about a thousand bucks, they will set you up with the legal information that you need to get out of your house and your contract.

They will even tell you how long you can live in your house without making payments and will keep track of the mortgage company's progress on the foreclosure so that you can stay there the longest amount of time possible.  You might be able to live in "your" house for 8 months without paying a dime to the mortgage company.

They will then help you get the foreclosure taken off your credit report.

Seems like quite a good deal for a grand.

Job Posting

WANTED-MONEY MOTIVATED PEOPLE WHO DRINK
ENERGY DRINKS! We are looking for
energetic and aggressive sales people
to assist us in the branding of the
world's first healthy energy drink in
your community. weekly commissions,
bonuses, car allowance. Respond

You would think that if you gave your sales people free energy drinks, they would naturally become "energetic and aggressive".  They could hire Bruce Banner and stock the fridge of the sales room with free samples.

The world's first healthy energy drink?  These people will be selling tea? 

Noticing the Difference Already

I was reading comments sent in to CNN.com about the rising gas prices.  I've been reading about the prices going up and I saw yesterday that they have gone way up here.  I haven't really felt it yet because my commute is 3 miles and the hummingbird (my car's nickname) gets 35 mpg.

Other's are feeling it and we aren't anywhere near Memorial Day yet.  These people are going to be in some serious trouble this summer.  This was my favorite comment:

Bob Johnson of Houston, Texas
We unloaded two of our three SUVs for a high mileage sedan. We are driving less overall and going out less. Any extra cash is being stashed or paying down CC debt.

That gets me right here, I have to tell you.  To have to give up 2 of your SUVs and downgrade to a car.  I'm not sure how they deal with the pain and humiliation.  Worse than that, they can't afford the gas to get to a therapist to help them deal with this unreasonable hardship.  I'm not sure how Bob is going to get by.  Maybe if we all pray for him.

It's not all Bob's fault but I'll get into that a week from Monday.

Although, I've never owned an SUV.  Reading Bob's dilemma, I have mixed feelings.  On one hand, I've never known the joy of owning 3 SUVs.  On the other hand, I haven't had to go through the pain of losing two of them.  With SUVs, is it better to have love and lost than to never have loved at all?

Sword Point Saturday - Visual Environment

Last week, we talked about sounds that you surround yourself with for different activities.  Today, let's hear about your visual surroundings.

What do you have in the way of sights around you that inspire or help you to achieve your goals?

Oddly enough, I have very little in this category. 

We do have our calendar which shows how many times each of us has worked out.  We have been keeping track since the first week of this month.  The calendar is in the kitchen area where we see it many times a day.

My new weight room is a visual reminder as is my P90X pull up bar that hangs out in the hallway when it's set up.  It's almost always set up.

The way that we have our furniture arranged in the living room is a visual reminder that it's an exercise area. 

I suppose that watching the exercise DVDs would have to count as visual inspiration.

I set my exercise clothes out the night before so that when I wake up, there they are.  Can't miss them.

Okay, so maybe there's more going on here than I had originally thought.

What about you?

5 Sword Points.