Author: thorens

According to some economic analysts we’ll likely see another recession. I’m more of a ‘supply-sider’ myself so I wasn’t too thrilled when the $814 billion Stimulus Package was passed last year. It gave government the right to intentionally add to our deficit in order to create jobs. Now the unemployment rate is nearing 10% and, despite recent rallies, it still looks like a bear market. It may have sounded like a good idea but I think many forget that the money has to come from somewhere. “Robbing Peter to pay Paul” by either borrowing money or raising taxes doesn’t add up in my mind. We’ll all be paying the price for years to come. How does this get us ahead? With the threat of deflation on the horizon it scares me to see the President picking at this economic scab.

Fads come and go with every generation. When I was a kid bracelets were a hit mostly with the girls. Intricately woven friendship bracelets and thick colorful rubber bands were common.

The latest and greatest with this generation, both girls and boys, are the shape bracelets. Just about any object that has an identifiable profile can be found as an extruded colorful rubber bracelet. For about 3 bills you can buy a pack of two dozen shape bracelets (or silly bandz). What I find puzzling is how anyone, when wearing them, is able to tell the difference between one of these bracelets and a simple rubber band. Apparently that’s all the fun; taking them off, looking at them and then trading them with your friends (I heard that this trend has been banned from some schools in the south because it’s become too much of a distraction).

Once again someone has managed to ‘tap into’ the psyche of the kid and make a mint. In an industry that’s very hit and miss, it’s always interesting to see what makes it.

If Joe claims to be a good carpenter, then wouldn’t you assume that he would be proficient with more than just a box-end wrench? Come on, Joe. Who are you fooling? We all know that a carpenter is handy with a number of tools, not just the wrench. Saws. Hammers. Drills. I mean, really.

I know you’re really proud of that shelf unit you built, but the cuts look… well… like you used a wrench to make them. If you want anyone to believe you’re a carpenter then your work better be more representative of what a carpenter does.

A proficient carpenter uses the right tool for the job. Until you add some other tools to your box and learn how to use them (and use them well), don’t call yourself a carpenter. I’m sorry, but nobody will jump to hire a carpenter that insists on doing everything with a wrench.

Everyone has an opinion and some get paid to share it with others. Sometimes an honest appraisal is appreciated and other times, not so much. In many ways the critique’s severity needs to be tempered with the recipient’s own skin thickness. That being said, I think there’s great value in constructive criticism provided that the goal is to offer pointers from an experienced point-of-view with the best interests of those being judged in mind. I’ve always found the role of critic to be a difficult one because I always fear hurting one’s feelings in the process of offering my opinion.

I marvel at the confidence of Food Critic Jeffrey Steingarten, frequent judge of Food Network’s Iron Chef America. In the spirit of Simon Cowell he is quick to offer his opinion in a sort of blunt eloquence that borders on bourgeois snobbery. His assessments come off sounding harsh at times, but his praise is equally poetic. Mr. Steingarten’s finesse certainly elevates the well-delivered critique to its own art form, though largely diplomatic and almost all political.

I realize banking is a business and like most businesses they’d like to grow. Advertising plays a huge role in that and I’m quite sure all my bank’s efforts to use me for referrals has failed miserably. It’s not that I don’t like my bank but putting a business card size flyer into the drive-thru canister asking me to tell a friend so I can get a can cooler is very little incentive. The worst part is I think even the tellers know that it is a complete waste of their time. Part of me wants to tell them not to bother giving me one and maybe save the bank (and its customers) a few dollars. Nine times out of ten I simply leave it in the canister for the next customer to refuse.

There’s nothing quite as refreshing as a good night’s sleep. One thing I always seem to struggle with is that transitional period between slumber and awake. During this time it’s not advisable for me to attempt any tedious tactile tasks like opening the plastic bag liner of a new box of cereal. For some reason my hands and fingers are drained of all the strength and dexterity necessary to begin this simple breakfast routine. I usually opt for the scissors simply because I’d rather not take the chance of destroying the bag. Cereal doesn’t taste quite as good when you have to scoop it off the floor.

I’m amazed at the level of detail some artists put into their work. I know many times I end up overworking a piece in an effort to capture all the details I see. In fact, it’s more of a challenge for me to keep my drawings more simplistic and spontaneous. Overall I think most artists share this appreciation for the tiniest details, whether or not they actually incorporate them into their work. I think the biggest downside to the critical eye is it doesn’t go away when you’re not doing art. Suddenly the easiest, most superficial decisions become an exercise in neurotic obsession.

Last night our oldest son asked why we don’t have a nice big flat screen ‘like everyone else’. My wife simply told him that our television is perfectly fine and that buying a new HD flat screen would require more investments that we don’t want to make at this point. That being said, we can both certainly relate to where he’s coming from. We’re looking forward to that day, too, but my wife’s right. There is nothing wrong with our current television. It’s just not as wide and much bulkier than a sleek flat screen. It looks dated now, but fourteen years ago, this television was state-of-the-art. I couldn’t help but think about one of the televisions we had at home when I was growing up.

Not many kids can boast the fact that they owned a television that their dad built, but we did. It was a huge Heathkit console television that owned it’s space on the floor. For all intents and purposes it was furniture. Yes, back then, we liked our tv’s with rich, hardwood surrounds, tweed speaker covers and brass hardware and we didn’t need remotes because you had only four channels to surf (the one Dad built had a very futuristic four button channel switcher, but the channels were never in the same order). If you didn’t find something to watch you simply turned it off. Cartoons were on before and after school for a couple hours or Saturday morning, not 24/7 like today.

For better reception we dug out the “rabbit ears” and wrapped the antennae ends with aluminum foil (to this day, I’m not sure what this did to improve the reception). I never remembered a VCR being hooked up to that beast but we certainly watched it ’til it could be watched no more.

In the final days we were having to open the console door and tweak the V-HOLD dial to keep from losing the picture to static and lines. Viewing ceased to be entertaining when this process necessitated that you move no further than arm’s length away because you had to do it every couple minutes. Who knows, my nearsightedness may have been preventable.

I don’t think we’ll get to that point with our current television, but it’s always fun to share an ‘uphill both ways’ story of our ‘difficult’ childhoods to the kids to make them appreciate what they have. Did I mention our set has PIP?

My youngest had his first soccer game this weekend and his team won. And, so did the other team. In fact, they don’t even keep score. It would seem that eight-year-olds are much too young and sensitive to handle the stress of competitive sports. I realize it’s important to teach kids the skills of the game and the importance of playing fair, but when you eliminate competition by telling them the goals don’t count, what’s their motivation? I’m sorry but socialist sports are not exciting to watch. The last time I checked we live in a capitalist country, where competition is an economic reality and sports fans like victories. Even if little Johnny feels bad that he’s not as good as little Billy. I despise the fact that my kids are part of the ‘blue ribbon’ generation where everybody wins. Losing may stink but it also builds a winner.

Technology has certainly changed the way we communicate with one another (just ask the USPS), so it should come as no surprise that yesterday’s unsolicited junk mail is today’s spam email. Fortunately a lot of these emails never see the light of day thanks to my spam filter, but occasionally some messages slip through.

No matter how many times that poor soul from Nigeria sends the message regarding a large sum of money, I’m still not biting. Nor will I be giving my username and password to validate my corporate email address to a sender I’ve never heard of. I’m not interested in getting cheap pharmaceuticals even if you spell *v_I_a_G_r_a* in that oh-so-clever spam-filter-dodging way. Sorry, but I won’t be sending you my account number because my Bank of the West account is not overdrawn. How do I know this? Because I DON’T have a Bank of the West account. And, no, I won’t be forwarding the Bill Gates Microsoft chain email so I can get some money, even if your close friend is a lawyer and says it’s legit.

The amount of spam that fills our inboxes is proof of one thing: SOMEONE is actually responding to and forwarding these emails giving the spammers a return on their investment. Not only have innocent (but gullible) individuals lost their money, privacy or identity to greedy spammers, but they may even end up with a computer virus that attacks and destroys their computers. So, please don’t take it personally if I don’t read and push through that email forward that you found so interesting.