Electronics and Why?

I am about to offend a fair number of people; however, I could not care less. At lunch today I enter the men's restroom urinal. I proceeded to do my business. Another individual approached the urinal next to me and out of the corner of my eye; I saw that he was fooling with his Blackberry....really?!? Now obviously, many thoughts are running through my head: (1) no body is that damn important that they cannot go pee with checking mail, (2) the whole benefit of email is that people can give you a message when you are away (i.e. peeing), (3) he must not need two hands like me (how sad).

This has not been my first experience with electronics in places they shouldn't be. I first discovered my annoyance with the iPod while at college. Students were paying for an education; however, were sitting in class with the iPod in their ears. It gets better.... There were other students who at the close of class immediately put their ear phones in so that they could enjoy a minute and a half of some song while they walked to their next class. It gets better... a dumbass punk skater 18 yr. old at ASU was looking for something in a convenience store line, I had some trouble getting by him and politely said "excuse me" I received no response. Loader and a bit more firmly I said "excuse me", still no response. At this time I moved my position to get with in his sight at which time I mouthed "excuse me" he then pointed to his ears, with his iPod unremoved and said "I can't hear you". At this point I had lost it... I then informed the young man that we were having a miscommunication and proceeded to be on my way. He might have heard me say, "Dumbass that's because you have your ear phones in, (with a slight shove) shithead".

Worst of all some time ago while my wife and I were at dinner I saw a young man with his iPod in his ears and his PSP in his hands while his family was enjoying the evening. I pointed this maladjusted child to my wife and informed her that should one of our children try this I would destroy EVERY piece of electronic equipment our child owned and would well "blow my bloody lid".

So what? Well the so what is that these wonderful marvels are ruining communication abilities in our children. We are a generation away from people who are without feeling people they only know how to associate with those things without feeling. This is a sad sad situation.

So keep your phone in your damn pocket while you pee. Take your ear phones out when someone takes to you.

Paying Attention

For awhile now, work has been slow. I attempt to study more tax law; however, I find that every 10 minutes or so I am circling between Google Finance, ESPN, & the local paper. Is tax law that boring that it can only be consumed in 10 minute intervals? Not really...but I definitely have a problem.

On the radio this morning the talk show host said something very profound. I did not catch the context nor the aftermath because it hit me like a ton of bricks. He said (and I paraphrase) that "successful people are successful because they can focus". And here I am only able to focus in 10 minute intervals. Yes, I understand that "success" is a broad term...congratulations for the stating the obvious. But the fact remains that I no am aware that my success here at work is well nonexistent partly because I can't focus. I can't focus because I feel no urgency nor motivation. It's not because I was abused as a child, it's not because I have ADD, and its not because I smoked pot. It is simply because I don't want it bad enough. But I think I do now, why because I have recognized (or remembered) that there is a connection between focus and success.

Stimlus or Subsidy

Both words start with S and both smell like another word that smarts with an S. A stimulus should be an infrequent action to get something to get over a hump or an obstacle. For example, long distance runners will use "Gu" to stimulate their bodies with quick burst of calories. This quick burst has the ability to help the body maintain its level to complete its task. A subsidy would an I.V. in a hospital or the "Iron Lung" to help somebody breathe. Do we see the difference?

In one instance the action is injection to assist through an unusual or unseen instance to assist until normality returns (stimulus). The other is allowing something to operate in a sphere that is no sustainable.

While I recognize I think the need for some things to operate under subsidy, I do not feel that an entire government should. If we can not sustain our current "normality' then maybe just maybe we need to step away from the flat-screen TV's and the new cars. Maybe we should eat in a little more, play more board games, and heaven forbid spend more time with our families.

What is going to happen when ...... ?

Can someone explain to me like a 5th grader (e.g. Michael from "The Office' about budgeting) what is going to happen when all of the money that has been pumped into the economy is running after too few of goods?

Well I can kind of explain what is going to happen....its called inflation. The layman's definition of inflation is too much money chasing too few of goods. Inflation is what Jimmy Carter brought with his quick fix government programs (a la Pres. Obama). Inflation is also what brought Ronald Reagan into office (Republicans have nobody...although after voting for an African American, maybe a Mormon can also be acceptable???).

I guess my point is that these quick fixes are going to intially help some families financial but what happens when inflation creaps up to the high teens as seen with Carter? Who does inflation hurt more? While it is nearly impossible to argue the marginal benefit of a dollar, I would venture to say that the high cost of money hurts those without and it simply hinders those with it.