Personel Notes
First off, the spell checker function is not working on blogger for some reason, so bear with me!
For obvious reasons I try to keep my personal affairs out of the blog. I have to share the current situation as it will have an impact on my writing here. All this week the wife and I will be finishing packing for a move. We will be moving next weekend. What is our plan? Not too sure at this point. We are moving into the spacious home of my wife's mother for the time being. We may purchase her house in the coming months (complicated) or we may wait out the housing bust for a while, maybe 6 more months, before we buy a home. While I in no way think housing is even close to bottoming, life has the ability to force your hand.
This situation represents what is my major resentment for the housing bubble. For 4 years I have had to wait while the financial foolishness went from fever pitch to crash and burn. It is because of foolish people that had no business with access to capital that homes became a losing proposition. Add to that the silly lending criteria and leverage of the banks, and you get to a place where I had to wait to buy something. We are still waiting, but I simply do not have the upwards of 2 years to wait until this mess is resolved. Luckily, the bust seems to be moving very quick here in Massachusetts and we will be able to buy a home that should serve our needs for some time without breaking a sweat about the price.
What does this mean? Short term it may take a week or so to get additional broadband lines installed for my computer, so blogging will be light or nonexistent for a bit. I know somehow the readers will find the strength and courage to go on! Long term you can look forward to getting an up close and detailed look at what one market looks like as the wife and I trek out to lowball offer any home that fits our needs! That will be fun! I appreciate your understanding, and please do not forget this blog.
Friday Odds and Ends
Lots of info out there today, but I am somewhat pressed for time. Bullet points include:
- Microsoft paying up the wazoo for Yahoo: A 62% premium for Yahoo, which is an afterthought compared to Google? I dunno, but this seems a bit out of the realm of good ideas.
- BAC purchase of CFC facing Issues?: Lots of stuff coming out about a major shareholder of CFC wanting to see some action taken with respect to the BAC move to take over CFC. Back-door stock deals and price manipulation? Say it isnt so! I am sure the major fund does not want any real action taken, just a better payoff.
- Jobs Data Not so Hot: The final tally for 2007 was not as great as we were led to believe, well not the readers here anyway! Mish has great coverage of the funny numbers, so I refer to him.
- Simulacra and Simulations : Jean Baudrillard's work referenced yesterday is now on my coffee table and ready for reading. I think it will be an interesting endeavor!
- Stimulus Bill getting Ugly: As if the bill were not too big already, the democrats want to add on even more freebies. Why the republicans are all of a sudden opposed to more free money after the last 7 years escapes me, but some bickering may cause problems going forward for the free cash.
Thats a good list, I will try to get caught up tomorrow. Busy weekend planned!
Of course it is still friday night, and that means music! Rock blogging will now commence.
Journey with "Separate Ways". Steve Perry is a master vocalist:
I had this one on in one of my first few blogs, but I love Motorhead's "Ace of Spades". The BASS GUITAR riff at the start is nasty good:
Anthrax and Public Enemy collaborated on a song called "Bring the Noise" which is a weird tune but it is catchy:
before Ice-T was a TV regular, he was a rapper and he also had a heavy metal band. Body Count with "There Goes the Neighborhood ":
So it is not all heavy duty, here is some Queen with "Who Wants to Live Forever" from the Highlander films soundtrack:
Have a good night.
Welcome to the "Living with the parents crowd". Yet again I am also back home after the wifey lost job numero dos last year so back to the drawing board at moms... (joy!).
ReplyDeleteThe job search isn't going good but I can't give up. Spoke to a employment agency rep today. Was like talking to a home salesman on prozac!
Be happy you have a good career and steady paycheck. I now consider myself on the poverty line living on government food. Nice eh?
G
PS Good luck with your move and let us all know when your space folding is complete!
G
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear that. Mom's at least gives you time to find something and is definitely better then living under a bridge and the food is usually a little better. Mom's usually don't mind as long as they know your trying and you help out around the house a little. I've been there with my own kids several times. I think things will be tough economy wise for a 12-18 months or so but this isn't going to last forever. Health care is one place that will see a lot of growth as the boomer's get older, my son-in-law is taking classes to be a nurse. There are going to be opportunities in that area. Also as the boomer's get older they will be retiring or forced to because of age and there will be jobs that have to be replaced.
I always like to say that it could always be worse when faced with tough times, all you have to do is look around and it is usually fairly easy to find someone who is a lot worse off then you are.
It is hard when you are younger to even imagine what your life will be like in 10-20 years. I took classes to be an auto mechanic while working at a gas station (2.10 minimum wage then 70's stagflation) went to work for a dealership, worked as a civil servant for a small town as their mechanic, got hired by one of the major oil companies as a mechanic, went to being a field mechanic, then an electrician and a tech in cogeneration working on gas turbines when I finally had enough and retired early. None of this was even a dream back in the gas station days.
Kevin
Baudrillard? Christ, next they'll be channeling Guy Debord. Whatever happened to Laissez Faire?
ReplyDeleteG
ReplyDeleteAnother area you might want to consider are the railroads, they have a huge manpower shortage and are facing mass retierments, Here in Nebraska in the North Plate area they are highering a lot of people. I don't know if there are any in your area or not but it is one industry that is going to be in a hurt.
Kevin
Kevin,
ReplyDeleteAre there any company names you would recommend. I am most interested in a long term position with room to grow.This week I will be applying to Fluor and Bechtel.
Hope everyone enjoyed the ball game tonight. I was a little let down that a team with a perfect record season didn't win.....ah well :(
G
PS: I want to thank everyone for being supportive of me but the thanks really goes to the guy that run this blog. Night!
G
ReplyDeleteI can think of some that I have dealt with, I'll check out some and see if I can find any that have operations in Florida.
Kevin