Angus & Julia Stone - Just A Boy

I don't vocalize my feelings to women too well anymore, but deep down this is still how I feel. (Sorry about any ads before the song)

Yeah, We aren't all Bad

I saw this posted on Facebook; it's pretty neat...


We guys don't care if you talk to other guys.
We don't care if you're friends with other guys.

But when you're sitting next to us, and some random guy walks into the room and you jump up and tackle him, without even introducing us, yeah, it pisses us off ......

It doesn't help if you sit there and talk to him for ten minutes without even acknowledging the fact that we're still there
We don't care if a guy calls or texts you
but at 2 in the morning we do get a ... little ... ... concerned.

Nothing is that important at 2 am
That it can't wait till the morning.

Also, when we tell you you're pretty/beautiful/gorgeous/
cute/stunning, we freaking mean it.

Don't tell us we're wrong.

We'll stop trying to convince you
The sexiest thing about a girl is confidence.

Yeah, you can quote me.

Don't be mad when we hold the door open
Take Advantage of the mood im in.

Let us pay for you!
don’t "feel bad"
We enjoy doing it.

It's expected.

Smile and say "thank you”.

Kiss us when no one's watching.

If you kiss us when you know somebody's
looking, we'll be more impressed.

You don't have to get dressed up for us

If we're going out with you in the first place, you don't have to feel the need to
wear the shortest skirt you have or put on every kind of makeup you own. We like you for who you are and not what you are.

It seems that we make mistakes...
I guess that was an attempt at not looking shallow.

Haha... yeah we make mistakes.

Honestly think a girl looks more beautiful when she's just in her pj's.

or my t-shirt and boxers, not all dolled up.

Don't take everything we say seriously.

Sarcasm is a beautiful thing. See the beauty in it.

Don't get angry easily.

Stop using magazines/media as your bible.

Don't talk about how hot Chris Brown,
Brad Pitt,or Jesse McCartney is in front of us or any other guy is
It's boring, and we don't care.You have girlfriends for that.

and it pisses us off

Whatever happened to the word "handsome"/"beautiful"
i'd be utterly stunned by a girl who greeted me
with "Hey handsome!"instead of "Hey baby/stud/cutie/sexy"or whatever else you can think of.

On the other hand im not sayin i woulndnt like it ether ; )

Girls, I cannot stress this enough:if you aren't being treated right by a guy, dont wait for him to change!!!!!
Ditch his sorry ass, disgrace to the male population
and find someone who will treat you with utter respect
Someone who will honor your morals

Someone who will make you smile when you're at your lowest.

Someone who will care for you even when you make mistakes.

Someone who will love you, no matter how bad you make them feel.

Someone who will stop what they're doing just to look you in the eyes.... and say "i love you", and actually mean it.

Life Metaphors

As we age, the "helmet" is a metaphor for maturity.

Anything is Possible

:-0

Twitter

Is it wierd that I create completely random hash tags on purpose at times just to go to the tag dialogue page to see if anybody is having similar random thoughts?

Work E-Mail 11/10/2011

Occasionally I feel it necessary to share real e-mails of mine...

"Do you know if there is anything we can do about the load time for the filters in the inventory facility? Specifically the “school name” filter. I spend half (ok that’s an exaggeration, it’s more like 1,200 seconds) of my day waiting for it to load. You know what it’s like waiting that long for something that doesn’t turn out to be Christmas, losing your V-card, or a lifetime supply of gobstoppers? It’s awful."

Rat Race

I'm currently balls deep in a real life rat race...

Rat race 

noun Informal.

any exhausting, unremitting, and usually competitive activity or routine, especially a pressured urban working life spent trying to get ahead with little time left for leisure, contemplation, etc.

 

Whatever. This is how I'm looking at it currently...

 

 

Girl, Lately So Many Things Have Been Changing

A Child's Tale Adapted for a Grown-Up (or something like that)

Everybody knows the children's story about "The Ugly Duckling" (and if you don't you should probably check it out. There's a major plot twist that this entry might spoil if you read ahead of time), but upon laying in bed last night I realized one of (I can only assume people have thought up all sorts of explanations) the hidden teachings that can come from this wonderful child's tale.

Life's not always pretty and sometimes people do crazy things and say crazy things (and not the good crazy) that do nothing but harm and detract from positivity. That's where you get the ugly duckling:

Okay that's not an ugly duckling, but seriously after google searching "ugly duckling" this little guy is what pops up and it was just too adorable to pass up posting. This is more along what I'm talking about:

It's not pretty, and face it or not, neither is being crazy. It happens though often for reasons outside of explanation. I recently had a crazy spell that was brought on by moving to a completely new place and being terrified of the fact that I didn't know anyone or even what to do with myself. Now that it has all passed it's clear just how ugly it must have looked from the perspective of my peers. Hence the ugly duckling. The teaching, or revelation if you will, comes in realizing after the fact that you learn from these occurrances and become this:

Oops, sorry. I meant this:

A beautiful soaring Swan.

The most important part to consider when transitioning from ugly duckling to swan though is this: don't allow your ugly duckling sadness to affect those around you on your way to swandom. Especially people you truly care about and enjoy the company of. There's no going back when you ruin something like that.

Serenity

Thursday

Why are Thursday mornings when I feel like saying things on here? This morning I found out that the red line only has 3 passing trains between 3 and 4 am and the only people on those trains are sleeping homeless people and well, me. Besides the adventure that got me to that point it was a pleasant ride with a valuable lesson learned. Sometimes it takes being surrounded by people but being all alone to realize how surreal life can really be.

No Worries, Be Happy

Thursday's Thoughts

Some people in this world really are actually just shitty shitty people who lack the capacity to truly care for other people. When you fall into the trap of truly caring for a person like this it magnifies the learning lesson that arrives post-facto of realizing these people exist. Lesson learned life, lesson learned. -Brian

This is an Economic Review I Wrote

Capital Control: Is it necessary?

            Like most economic topics out there the one that has been ongoing about capital control necessity is a very intriguing and important one to consider. Capital control is important to consider because the capital account makes up half of a country’s balance of payments (current account + capital account) so it is vital to know exactly what is happening with a country’s capital at any given moment. This information shows where and how a country’s assets are being allocated which in turn can tell the story of why other economic activities may or may not be happening. The question then is “Should capital be a controlled item or should it just be left alone to act and react naturally to everyday global economic conditions?”

           

A Capital Idea? Reconsidering a Financial Quick Fix

Sebastian Edwards

           

            In 1999 Sebastian Edwards published a paper titled “A Capital Idea? Reconsidering a Financial Quick Fix”  that sought to answer that question by looking at how recently observed financial crises in certain countries may have had underlying causal roots stemming from capital control policy. In particular Edwards looks at events that took place in Russia, Chile, South Korea, Brazil, Peru, and several Latin American countries in response to capital controls.

            The first argument he makes against capital control comes from observations seen from the crises in Mexico in 1994, Thailand in 1997, Russia in 1998 and Brazil in 1999, Each country experienced high domestic interest rates, pseudo stability coming from steady exchange rates, and appealing market conditions that attracted foreign inflows of funds that lifted stock prices thus expanding current account deficits. Eventually these inflows of funds slowed and even reversed in some of the countries leading to a situation where macroeconomic policies were necessary to balance out the situations at hand.

            The only problem was that these governments put into place reform/policies that were either inefficient or too delayed to actually address the problem when it needed to be. As a result of these poor reactions global investors became concerned about the risk in each country and began withdrawing the capital from these areas causing rapid capital outflow and alarmingly swift depletions of foreign exchange reserves. The argument goes that it was the fault of capital control policies put into place in these instances that eventually lead to the governments having no other choice but to allow their currencies to float in accordance to market conditions.

            After these crises occurred, and the opportunity to look back on the events that transpired, academics simply said there needs to be a new international financial architecture put in to place. The new system would focus mainly on the control of short term capital inflows and controls on capital outflows with the idea being that these controls will reduce the sporadic and unpredictable movements of capital flows and promote more long-term investments. Edwards argues, and claims empirical evidence backs his argument, that as good intentioned as those ideas may be they simply do not work. Not only are they ineffective but they can also lead to corruption and higher costs associated with managing investments.

            From 1978-1982 and again from 1991-1998 Chile decided to utilize short-term capital controls that required inflows of short-term funds to first be deposited in Chile’s central bank for an agreed upon amount of time garnering no interest in the meantime. The idea was that this would stabilize the volatility of capital, prevent the currency value from rising too quickly in response to accelerated capital inflows, and increase the central bank’s ability to conduct domestic monetary policy. Although the immediate response to these policies appeared to be positive Edwards argues that the results do not fully show what happened because of these capital controls.

            In response to these capital controls the largely unregulated banking sector utilized many international loans since the inflow would have a frozen interest rate thus giving incentive to use the international loans in the first place. This caused an asset-price bubble that would eventually pop leading to the Chilean borrowers being unable to pay off their loans. This then lead to a government bailout and a complete reformation of the Chilean banking sector, thus feeding fuel to the idea that this problem arose from the initial short-term capital controls put in place that tempted domestic borrowers to utilize international loans in the first place. This situation brings forth what Edwards considers to be the main factor necessary for a country to have if capital controls are to be effective; which is that the country needs to have an effective and properly regulated banking industry if capital controls even want to stand a chance at being successful.

            Edwards also goes on to implement the idea that capital controls can promote “complacent and careless” behavior from both investors and policy makers. South Korea experienced this in 1997 when Goldman Sachs incorrectly assessed the risk associated with South Korean investments due to complacency caused by the “security” provided by their capital controls. Along with that instance is the short-term capital inflow restrictions Brazil implemented in 1997 and 1998 which caused lawmakers to slip into a lulled state of inactivity with the thought that their capital controls would allow them to react before any possible currency issues got out of hand. However when the Brazilian real collapsed in late 1998 both domestic and foreign investors rushed to withdrawal from Brazil even with the capital controls in place.

            During Chile’s second attempt at utilizing capital controls in the 90’s a few more side-effects were seen from the implemented controls. Even with the capital controls in place Chile’s foreign-denominated debt was nearly 50 percent of all debt from 1996-1998. Along with that the capital controls failed to slow the strengthening of Chile’s currency, which can be seen from a 30-plus percent increase in Chile’s real exchange rate over that period. This second utilization of capital controls by Chile failed to show whether or not it actually strengthened the central bank’s control of domestic monetary policy. Perhaps the most interesting effect of capital control to arise from this time period is the idea that capital controls actually inflated the cost of capital for domestic firms. This does not affect big businesses like it does small or medium sized businesses due to the concept of economies of scale and scope. In essence, the idea here is that capital controls may discriminate against small to medium-sized businesses by inflating their costs of capitals while allowing larger firms to remain normally operational.

            Edwards’ idea of what capital controls should be is that they are put into place so as to allow implementing policies such as lowering interest rates to promote growth without fear of losing investors who fear the ensuing devaluation in currency. The capital controls should be there to reassure the investors that things will return to normal (and the controls removed) after the policy runs its course and accomplishes its goal. However, two studies done of 31 major currency crises in Latin America concluded that the countries that tightened controls in response to major devaluations did not post better performances in economic growth, job creation, or inflation than those that did not implement controls.

            In fact, it is most important to look at the Latin debt crisis of the 1980s to see reinforcement of all the things that can go wrong when capital controls are utilized and/or the wrong kinds are implemented. The main countries that implemented controls (Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Peru) all experienced rising inflation, worsening unemployment, and an arduous decline in growth. The problem arose because these countries implemented stricter controls that encouraged neither macroeconomic restructuring (the necessary financial architecture Edwards mentioned was needed for useful capital controls) nor orderly reforms aimed at increasing efficiency and competitiveness. Rather than go that route policy makers in these countries chose to experiment with populist policies that only made the crisis worsen.

            Specifically, Mexico decided to nationalize the banking sector and confiscate dollar-denominated deposits. Argentina and Brazil launched new currencies and set price controls while expanding public spending. In Peru strict controls were placed on outflows which led to a withering of their once healthy and productive economy, wasting international reserves and pursuing a hyperinflationary policy. Another commonality that all these countries shared through this period was that even with controls on capital outflows in place it did not keep capital investment from fleeing the country.

            Edwards then points out the contrasting view of what can happen without capital control on outflows with the events that transpired in Chile and Colombia during the same time period. Instead of focusing on capital control both of these countries worked toward restructuring their economies. Chile even went a step further and put into place a modern bank supervisory system, which in turn reduced domestic financial fragility. Edwards says it is because of these restructuring efforts, rather than capital controls, that both Chile and Colombia were able to emerge from the debt crisis in a much better position than the rest of the region. 

            After considering all of these world crises and events Edwards puts it best in his own words on the necessity for, and the effectiveness of, capital controls; “…despite their new popularity, controls on capital outflows and inflows are ineffective. The best prescriptions to combat financial turmoil, now as then, are sound macroeconomic policies, sufficiently flexible exchange rates, and banking reforms that introduce effective prudential regulations and reduce moral hazard and corruption. Without a solid financial groundwork, emerging markets will remain as fragile as a house of cards, easily blown down by the first breezes of turbulence.”

           

The Unholy Trinity

            In 1999 Paul Krugman Published a paper titled “The Return of Depression Economics” and in it explains a concept called “The Unholy Trinity”. The concept stemmed from Robert Mundell who inferred that common economic logic states that countries can not attain all it is they want and that every exchange rate system requires people to give up one important objective in order to achieve another. Based on fundamental international financial logic the unholy trinity is unattainable as a whole. At most two conditions can be met at any given time. The “trillemma” explained by the unholy trinity is extremely helpful when assessing the true difficulties that are associated with utilizing capital controls.

            The first objective of the trinity is that countries would like to have a solid grasp and control on their interest rates.  Achieving this objective allows a country the ability to raise interest rates in order to counter inflation or lower those rates to fight recession. The second objective countries seek is to try and attain stable exchange rates. By having stable exchange rates it protects against volatile movements in the value of that country’s currency. This in turn creates stable business conditions and prevents extreme disruptions in the financial system. The third objective of the trinity states that countries would like to assure businesses that money can be freely moved in or out of the country without any obstacle caused by bureaucracy, paperwork, and opportunities for corruption that can typically be associated with a country’s attempt to limit capital movements.

            Countries face a tough decision when trying to implement these objectives because time has shown that regardless of what attempts are made only two, at most, will be attained. This trillemma forces countries to choose their path amongst three basic exchange rates. Firstly is the route of a floating exchange regime, which allows freedom of international transactions and government use of monetary policy but it is done at the cost of volatile changes in market conditions. The second of the choices would be a fixed rate, which establishes stability but at the cost of monetary independence. The last of the choices is to utilize capital controls. Capital controls can have positive effects toward stabilizing the exchange rate all the while maintaining some monetary independence but at the cost of other sporadic problems.

           

Capital Control Thoughts

I incorporated the unholy trinity into this paper because it seems like every example that was given throughout Edwards’ paper can be broken down into how that country was trying to achieve all three objectives and what went wrong. By walking through some of the crises examples he gives and relating what that country was doing in regards to the objectives of the unholy trinity perhaps better information can be inferred about what truly caused those crises, whether capital controls were to blame or not.

In Edwards’ first example with the crises in Mexico, Thailand, Russia and Brazil there was said to be high domestic interest rates, pseudo stability coming from steady exchange rates, and appealing market conditions that attracted foreign inflows of funds that lifted stock prices thus expanding current account deficits. Eventually these inflows of funds slowed and even reversed in some of the countries leading to a situation where macroeconomic policies were necessary to balance out the situations at hand. Before the crises began each of these countries had a fixed exchange rate policy which accounted for the pseudo stability from the fixed exchange rates. This is important because when the inflows began to slow and even reverse each country went about trying to make policies/implement capital controls so as to bring markets back to equilibrium. In this case however the controls were ineffective and with a fixed exchange rate monetary independence was limited so these countries relied heavily on those inflows to maintain equilibrium.

My perception here is that the original problem stemmed from the fixed exchange rate. It created pseudo stability in their business markets in the first place that attracted the inflows. When those inflows began to diminish regardless of the attempted capital controls there was going to be a currency value problem eventually since a fixed exchange rate would have restricted their monetary independence in the first place. This is not to say that capital controls did not play a part in these crises but it doesn’t appear to be the instigating factor, merely a catalyst that made it happen quicker.

In the case with Chile the attempt to fulfill the unholy trinity leads to the use of capital controls, which in theory should have positive effects toward stabilizing the exchange rate all the while maintaining some monetary independence but at the cost of other sporadic problems. It seems here like the problem Chile faced was that they indeed were trying too hard to attain the unholy trinity that one of the desired objectives ended up being its downfall. Chile was in control of their interest rates (or at least imposed interest rate controls on short-term inflows) and was trying to stabilize their currency and promote the strengthening of fiscal policy-making by using capital controls that sent inflows to the central bank. The third objective states that countries would like to assure businesses that money can be freely moved in or out of the country without any obstacles. By forcing businesses to put their money into the Chilean central bank it caused an obstacle in the flow of business.

This however does not seem to be the main cause of what brought about the Chilean crisis though. It was not only the fact that inflows were being held by the central bank but also the fact that those inflows were interest-free for the Chileans (at least for a certain time). This led to what seems to be fault by human error. Chilean banks made the mistake of rushing out to get international loans at a rate that caused a price-asset bubble to occur and eventually pop. The capital controls Chile imposed may have allowed for this situation to arise but in the end it seems to be the banking industry’s fault for being unwise in their international borrowing and lending.

With all this back and forth data that suggests capital controls are or are not necessarily to blame for crises I think it is important to focus on the possibility of HOW capital controls could be necessary, not just if they are as a whole. I think Edwards is right on the mark when he says that if capital controls were to work the country needs to have an effective and properly regulated banking industry. This could have been the factor that stopped the lending and borrowing problem Chile faced and the driving factor of a successful capital control implementation.

As with a lot of questions that get asked on economic topics the one concerning the necessity for capital control seems to be inconclusive to this point. Arguments are made on both sides of capital control but just looking at case studies from countries it appears that an overall assumption should be that capital controls are not necessary and all we really need, as Edwards would say, is “sound macroeconomic policies, sufficiently flexible exchange rates, and banking reforms that introduce effective prudential regulations and reduce moral hazard and corruption.” Having said that, do I think capital controls can be helpful? I think so, but only if implemented correctly. The only problem with that statement is that to date, it does not appear that anyone knows just how to properly do it.

June 6th, 2011

When you have so much on your mind and no one to talk to

My Sara Bareilles Crush in its Entirety

Here It Is

5/2/11

Musica Nueva

     I've been at the library for a few hours now and nothing has really come of it (well until now that is, with this blog entry haha). As I have been "working" on this paper I decided to explore my itunes a little further and noticed a playlist I downloaded a while back simply called "Indie/Rock" that needed a listening to. Is it just me or is some indie music really really weird? I dunno, I don't consider myself a narrow-minded individual but sometimes it's strange. Like hipster strange... Anywho I stumbled across a song that I kinda liked and felt I should share it. It's actually kind of cheesy but catchy (Also, the drummer loves his cowbell. I have a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell!). So enjoy...

They also cover Journey, which is always rad...

Barbra Streisand

Napping Words

Woke up from a nap today, this was part of one of the dreams I had...

Let's talk about bein' real

Let's talk about not givin' the usual spiel

Who are you

What do you really like to do

Come on come on it won't be anythin' new

I hear that you're speakin' but it isn't comin' through,

Instead all I hear is, "I'm just not that into you"

I suggest rethinkin' what you're speakin'

If not then the good times are peakin'

Let's turn this boat around

Let's make a brand new sound

Let's allow our thoughts to go southbound and around

Here, Here, Here we go to find our newfound sound that will astound

B.B. King is in fact, The Man

Shields to Maximum Strength

     The other day an old friend of mine tweeted this: "it always sucks to be the person who cares more". I don't know why but her tweet really brings up an interesting underlying idea which is yes, it does in fact suck to be the person who cares more (Yeah, I realize I copied that word for word but it's pretty self explanatory folks). Think of any situation in life where you care about someone and  find out they don't care the same about you. Isn't that typically when "shit hiteths the faneth", if you will?
     There is no feeling worse than thinking about someone only to find out they are thinking about many other people and maybe you as a side thought along the way. It's just turrible, unpleasant, and saddening. Is it human nature that the one side continues caring in hopes of the other side finally caring back? If so, human nature is dumb. If one side doesn't care the only logical response should be to focus your care and interest elsewhere. I would very much like to tell the friend who tweeted the earlier comment this but something tells me it would not bode well. So until then I write about it here, and learn from it. 
     The hardest thing in the world for me is to let my guard down to someone and be genuine and sincere in hopes of the same in return. My friend's tweet has made me realize that perhaps I have been foolish in doing so recently. So today begins a new initiative, not necessarily to care less, but perhaps to be a little more careless. To think less, perceive more and have fun with it. Starting today, the personal shield I've recently let down is going back to maximum strength. Just in case.

A Mid-Evening Night's Dream

     Last night I awoke out of nowhere from a rather excellent dream. I was singing this in the dream so I decided to jot down what I could remember...

Oh it's for you that I'm yearnin'

But the world keeps on turnin'

And my desire keeps on burnin'

So lets dance dance dance

And get down tonight

There's not a cloud in the sky

So why wonder why;

Baby let's get together and fly

Cause there's no one better

Whom i'd like to write a letter

Just to say hello and hi.

Single days, single ways

They all sound the same

In this silly life game

Baby let's get down tonight...

     To the dreams we wake up from wishing for them to be real.

Sunday's Homily

     To say there's been a bit on my mind lately would be an understatement. This weekend was dedicated to a lot of thinking (and a lot of drinking) along with some good thought cruises (I drive around southern Illinois listening to music and thinking. Strange? Maybe. Oh well, there's no better way to think then to be surrounded by nothing but nature, tunes, and the open road. Southern Illinois is perfect for such an activity). Normally I don't feel the need to share what I think about on my cruises but this really really helped set my mind right and I think carries a universal message that everyone can relate to at some level...
     Life. As individuals we are constantly striving to figure our lives out or just the meaning of life in general. That's where I'm currently finding flaw in our design as individuals. Why should we sit around and waste time trying to figure life out or what it "should" be in conjunction to what we actually have. Life is happening on a second-by-second basis all around us and as such should be lived on a second-by-second basis. Yeah, it's good to have an idea of where you want to go with it but that's the important thing to remember. It's where YOU want to go with it. It's not where your parents want it to go, where your friends think it should go, or hell even where some cracked-out fortune teller tells you it should go. There is no correct way of doing things, there are just methods that others have already done which we look at and decide whether or not it is the way/direction we would like to take as well. If we don't like them then we create our own paths. That alone is a subtle beauty of this thing we call life.
     People are always using the analogy of life being a glass of water either half full or half empty. I've thought about this analogy countless times and I've honestly never been able to decide which way to see it. It's not because I'm torn between the half completed/half wasted aspect of the matter it's just that I think the whole analogy is stupid in the first place. It is a perfect example of overthinking. Why are we trying to equate life to a glass of water? Let's overthink this a little more. Hell let's just turn our brains into never-ceasing thought traps of worries, concerns, and misintentioned beliefs while we're at it. No. This is where I'm putting my foot down and saying it's stupid. Life is not a glass of water. We are not meant to sit around and think like this. We have the ability to laugh, love, play, create and in general ENJOY LIFE.
     So what I'm getting at is do just that, because from here on out I intend to. Be happy, laugh and smile everyday, find that person you care most about and kiss them everyday just to let them know you care. We live in a beautiful world that often gets overshadowed by tragedy, worry, past regret, and concern. If you stop and think about anything today let it be, "I think I want to smile right now." Then do it. It's great, and naturally everything else seems to fall into place around you. Figure out who it is you truly care about and let them know it. Say the awkward things that are on your mind, who cares. If life is truly a glass of water then I'm going to stick a straw in it and blow air bubbles. Life is life, it's that simple. Now let's start enjoying it a bit shall we?


Also, 10 Ways to promote happiness
  

Requiem For A Tower - Escala

I took care of something very important tonight. Need motivation? Here you go people. Oh and they are pretty easy on the eyes

Oh the Places We'll Go

     Here I am at work sitting in a rinky dink, run down gynmasium watching a group of twenty-something year old men hit each other with wooden sticks (Kendo) and I stumble across a site with some places I would like to go before I die...

    
     Here's the full site and descriptions of these places and more (I want to visit all of them): 10 destinations I would like to visit

     Here's to life and the journeys in store

Cheers! Misunderstood by all and trapped alone with only my thoughts and worries as company.

Walter Meego - Forever

Pandora has let me down a lot in the past but generally I've been pretty happy with the "Animal- Miike Snow" station. Here's the song of the day, enjoy!

My Mind as a Chatroom

     I decided instead of trying to think of something to write about I would just jot down a few minutes worth of the inner thoughts that are going through my head. If the chatroom format gets confusing just try to picture it like That 70's Show where the camera is in the middle of a circle moving around as the conversation goes....

Brian(1): Hey look the Daily Show is on
Brian(2): Yeah? That's cool with me
Brian(3): Fuck yeah! They're talking about the Irish Republic Army
Brian(4): Wait, why are we watching t.v. right now?
#2: Don't you know what tomorrow is?
#1: The holiday of our forefathers?
#2: Exactly.
#3: Hell yeah, St. Patty's day bitches.
#1: Siiiiggggh, the ole' liver is going to take quite a beating
#3: Haha yeah, especially since we should be starting early assuming Kristin doesn't die tonight
#4: I get it, so we're chillin' in preperation. So who wants to smoke a bowl?
#2: ...
#1: ...
#3: Go back to sleep #4.
#1: I feel like death is going to occur for us during the half marathon next month.
#3: Yeeeaaah. We've been really bad about that whole "running" thing.
#2: It's cool, if NPH can just up and run a marathon in How I Met Your Mother then we can call upon his awesome power in our time of need and everything will be alright.
#4: Whoa what's going on guys?
#1: Why do you even ask that question? You know perfectly well what's going on because you've been sitting there the whole time. Oh and because we share thoughts.
#3: #4 you're an idiot.
#2: Come on now guys leave him alone. He does bring up a good question though, what is going on? We're all thinking about her right?
#1: Haha of course we are #2. It's kind of hard not to.
#3: He's asbsofuckinlutely right chap.
#4: So why don't we do something about it?
#1: We've been over this. What is there to do right now? And frankly, do you ever think there'll ever be the right chance/time to do anything?
#2: You're a booger face.
#3: Yeah well you're a towel.
#4: A beaner towel.
#1: ...You guys are the worst. Some day I'll make you have a serious conversation with me.
#3: Good luck assclown.
#1: Really? No...really?
#3: ....I'm sorry.
#4:  Let's run in the morning before drinking commences?
#1,2,3: I'm in.
#3: I'm boreeeeeeeed
#1: I know #3, but the alternative activities of the moment are trifling.
#2: I just wish there was a solid internet connection in this house
#4: fasdkfhalisdgflaijsdkhfakjshdflajhdljva
#3: ...? Feel like you needed a little attention there big guy?
#4: Maybe...
#6: SHIT!COCK!FUCK!TIT!UNICORN!ASS!BOOB!SHIT!
#3: Hey hey! #6 you tourette havin' bastard. Good to see ya! Now it's a party...

Ok, I'm going to go do something else now. As always, stay classy.

The Egypt Story

     Congratulations America. We have officially found our exit strategy for our war in the middle east. How you ask? We are starting a different war. A new cold war. With everyone. Recent pro-democratic movements succeeding in Egypt have erupted into what seems to be a new worldwide craving for democracy. It's not even a slight craving either, it went from backburner ideal to now fullblown crack craving. Seriously check these out: China, Ukraine, Tunisia, Morocco, Libya aaaaand Wisconsin? Haha.
     So now you see what I'm talking about right? There's actually more to support this idea. Looking back in history how did we, as America, get out of previous depression and recessions? Wars. We start wars and then the industrial machine that America is gets all of its wheels moving and it booms economically. That's just what we do. So here we are, waging a new war. Yes, we had a part in igniting the middle eastern powder keg. "And then the evil non-democracy monsters said, 'You shall have no more facebook or twitter!!'" Seriously, that's what happened in Egypt. These people utilized facebook and twitter to organize and promote the entire revolution! Both are American companies/products/whatever you want to call them in this case. It just happened on their servers. Lol let's face it. We might be starting a cold war. If we are, let's hope it works and it fixes our economy for a while and makes our lives better just so that we can leave a pile of crap for the generation that must eventually try to bring it to an end...(sarcasm). Oh well. That's what's up in Egypt and what I consider the Egypt story.

On a side-note: I guess it's time to get some new underpants...

In Memoriam

      Ah Monday, here we meet again. And if here we meet then it must mean a weekend has passed. What is happening to time and why won't it just slow down a little? Just yesterday I was maybe 5 years old running around a garage sale that my Great-Grandma was having at her house. It was a canary yellow house if I do recall. I dunno, it's hard to remember sometimes because it was sold to Illinois Wesleyan when I was pretty young and then demolished for a library before being able to form absolute memories of it. Regardless, there is one that I recall, and what do ya know? It's because I get wounded. Life story really.
    That brings us back to the garage sale and a game of tag amongst myself and some kinship. Typically people have some sort of filler to compliment the area under an exterior windowsill whether it be bushes, gardens, gnomes, lawn flamingos etc. etc...you get the idea. My great grandmother had cacti. They weren't huge cacti either. I'm talking 4-5 inches tall and maybe 6 inches wide. Reeeeeaal intimidating, I promise. But there they are, right there in a neat line around the side of the house. During this game of tag though I just happened to step upon one of those little buggers while barefoot. I remember thinking that if the devil had appeared right then and offered to trade my right nut in order to avoid that cactus I would have...ok. That was a lie. I was only like 5. I just remember crying like a little girl and then walking it off like a man. Haha but cacti? Who does that? I can sit around and wonder where my oddity comes from but I think this walk down memory lane has taught me a very important lesson: it's been passed down from generation to generation from the family. Years in the making, like a fine wine if you will.... It's only getting better with time.
     I found out early Sunday morning that my Great-Grandmother had passed away. Her last remaining sibling had passed away 2 weeks ago making the timing almost seem like it was meant to be. As I mentioned earlier there are only so many ways to explain where someone gets alot of their behaviors and virtues before you realize family is one of, if not the, main contributors. For that I would like to forever remember my Great-Grandma Kohler and the legacy she has left behind in myself and all of my family and its growth forever to come.

A Backwards Approach

     It's been a busy past couple days and I have an important test tomorrow I should be studying for. So naturally that's why I'm here putting in a blog entry. I spent a good portion of this past weekend looking to the future (post-graduation) plans as far as jobs/graduate school options go. I also drank a little bit, but not in conjunction with the planning haha. I'm going to roll through this from the end to the beginning starting with me at work this evening....   

     

      Well here I am at work. I was supposed to be supervising lacrosse and no one showed up. What did I do instead? Studied like a champ and did cartwheels around the gym to keep the motion activated light system on until another sport club came. Stop hating. But yeah, I also decided it was a good time to think about a blog entry. And thus, this idea was born that I will materialize my plans from the weekend in order to see them in words and graphics instead of just as an idea. Motivation mother fu$%ers. So here's what I'm thinking...

     It all started here. I have decided to file my own taxes this year and do it on my own in its entirety. It may not seem crazy to some people but I'm nervous. The IRS can be real buttholes. This isn't about the IRS though. From taxes I started thinking about my FAFSA. Gotta do my taxes to do my FAFSA. Gotta do my FAFSA in case I want to go to grad school. Which brings us to the next part of the story...

           

      That's the webpage for Depaul's graduate school of business along with numerous other schools. Time to get my information super overload on. Ideally it would be cool to find a full-time job and do a weekend MBA program (especially in the Chicagoland area...) but I don't even know if that's possible. Hence all the reading I will be doing. Along with schools I started my resume and searching for positions that could be applicable for me. By the way, I'm really sorry if anyone's still reading at this point. I'm kinda just doing this to organize my thoughts. I am the walrus, goo goo g'joob. But this led immediately to the admission requirement of taking the GMAT. Thus the next chapter begins...

      The GMAT site. Interesting. Signing up for next month. Alright, I have that long to finish my resume, ask my bosses for letters of recommendations, write some personal statements, make job specific cover letters while finding jobs worth applying for. Alright, I shall add that to the pile. Chapter of the next...

     Basically this is a basic chart my friend gave me last year for my first half marathon and now it's up and on the wall. I'm supposed to be in week 5... Don't even worry about that. This is in April so I'm going to use it as my main distractor from nonsense distractions. Running, class, work, shenanigans when appropriate. It's the life of a boss. That's where I am though. That's what I need to do. Time to do it. Oh and now the finale that brings up back to the present...

Nice.

     That picture made me laugh, so It's there. But this isn't about Jesus. Or Colonel Sanders and his delightfully unhealthy chicken. I was sitting in my International Economics class today doing my crossword and minding my own business when to the right of my crossword the horoscope section caught my eye. I'm not usually one to read horoscopes, or even one to believe that they hold any merit (I mean come on, just this year it apparently changed? No thanks. It's just like Pluto. Once a planet, always a planet.) And because we all know chinese fortune cookies are where true fortune telling is at... But today had a "5" next to my symbol (on a scale of 1-10 how hard "1" or easy "10" it will be) so I was intrigued into reading it.

     In a basic summary it told me that my day wasn't going to be easy and the most important thing I could remember was to not "overthink" things. So naturally it got me to thinking about the concept of overthinking and it made me realize that it's something I do almost on a minute by minute basis in my life and I can't clearly define it as a good thing or a bad thing at this point. I say good because it helps me to analyze all my decisions very thoroughly and have tons of scenarios ready in my brain for possible outcomes to everyday activities. That's great. But now the downside. I think of even the worst case scenarios. Stuff that makes me worry and get really sad or depressed for no reason, just because I'm overthinking it. Or because I'm thinking about what COULD be happening at any time and not really sure. I guess that's also the same thing as making assumptions. I guess I just don't want to have to overthink these kind of things or make assumptions. I just like knowing, and not being in situations of uncertainty. 

     New goal: Think less. Do more. 

On a bright note: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-07-30-dementia-overthinking_N.htm

-Overthinking may offer protection from Dementia...haha

Random Thought 2/7

Well the Super Bowl was yesterday. I honestly don't remember much of it though because I was absolutely bacon wasted. Just shitfaced. But that's not what is on my mind right now. My dad just sent me a letter in the mail today in which I found this direct quote, "Drop me a line on facebook when you get a chance. Hope it doesn't embarrass you too much much when I leave an occasional remark!"...First off. Thanks dad.   Remember when technology started just getting out of hand in the 90's with the internet? Old people would bitch about it alllll the time. Now it's like their catnip. I mean, in a mainstream example we have the Brett Favre scandal. He's 41 and he's sexting his dong all over the place. Now I'm not saying 41 is old but it's definitely in that gray area that has to make you wonder. I guess it shouldn't be so weird to think that people can adapt and enjoy such things at any age. I 'm just intrigued by the way everyone does it.

Hello Blogging World

The topic of blogging has been brought up several times in the past few months amongst my friends and it got me to thinking it might be interesting to get one. I dunno if I'm supposed to expect people to read this but if there are people who do I warn you now: I am CONSTANTLY thinking, going through intricate crazy plans or just basically following a path of ridiculous thought. At times they may be interesting. At other times they may be pointless. I just hope this blog will help me catalogue some of my thoughts so maybe I can pinpoint the more important ones and focus on them. Regardless, let the journey begin...