Good Bye Capitalism

Geithner on "Meet the Press" just said:

"I think the adjustment to a period of excess is necessary. We never want to have a crisis to remind people of the importance of living within their means, of not borrowing too much. Or why regulation is important. You never wanna have a crisis that is damaging to make that point. But we're gonna emerge stronger from this. When we get through this, people are gonna care less about what they make, more about what they do. What they achieve and what they do, and that will make the country stronger."

His remarks came from David Gregory asking him to comment on the latest Time magazine cover, depicting a red "reset" button and the words "The End of Excess, why this crisis is good for America".

I don't even know where to begin. The numbers being thrown around from all this stimulus/loans/bailouts are now so absurd, the numbers are just made up at this point. What the money is being spent on is another post worth ranting.

But while I'm not surprised it didn't happen - but I got mad at Gregroy for not taking Geithner to task on his comments. "People are gonna care less about WHAT THEY MAKE".

Lets repeat that. Our Treasury Secretary thinks that people are not going to care as much about how much money they make at their jobs. What fantasy world does he live in? (Maybe the same fantasy world where you don't have to pay taxes)

Obama was right. It's gonna get worse before it gets better. But with attitudes like that in his administration.... it may never get better. The more I learn about what's going on here, the more frightened I become.

This is a little scary. We might not even recognize the country as we know it in a very short time.

Rock the 'Hawk

Apparently it's been a popular theme lately.

Balls In Hand

Sometimes you just feel like you have the world by the balls. You know the feeling. Like you've become more acutely aware of your surroundings. You're ready for anything. You can almost sense what's going to happen next, and you know your next move... and that it's going to be successful. You're almost invincible. Your mind is sharp, and almost anxious waiting for the next moment.

It can happen anywhere, and at anytime. You can kick ass at work, and impress the suits that get paid to judge your performance. You can be "in the zone" in sports. It feels like everyone else is playing at three-quarters speed, and you're moving faster than you ever have before in your life.

I think to some extent, it's a conscious decision to grab the world by the balls. Corny as it sounds, I think there's something to be said for the positive affirmations you can give yourself. If you tell yourself you're going to knock that project out of the park at work, you can. Especially if you say it enough. It's a little like 'fake it till you make it' dogma...

But as much as it is a conscious thought to grab the world by the balls, it's funny how sometimes the planets align and show you that no matter how much positive reinforcements you go to battle with....... the universe is a much more powerful force than you EVER imagined. The "God has a sense of humor" initiative takes over, and the fates conspire to throw every freakin possible roadblock in front of you. And it can turn on a dime... and with no logical explanation.

To a point, that's what makes life fun. Like the salmon swimming upstream, we have no control over if the river turns right or left... we just keep spending energy swimming in the water. Today, I had one of those days where it just seemed like no matter how hard I swam, I didn't move upstream any. The day started with me thinking I had the world by the proverbial balls, but the universe did JUST enough to remind me that I wasn't totally in control.

So we battled back and forth all day. And in the end, I think I won. ( Did I really win against the universe? Most would say probably not - but I'm going to tell myself I did ). Why do I think I won? Because I have to get up tomorrow and do it all over again. And for the first time in a long time in my life, I'm looking forward to trying to defeat the universe. I like the feeling of thinking I can take on the world and win. ( Am I really gonna win tomorrow? Again, most would say probably not. ). But you know, if I say it enough... it might just come true.

Baileys and Basketball

College football is my favorite sport, with the NFL a close second. I can't even lie and say that I'm a fan of the NBA, but I do really like college basketball. But it's still taking a backseat to football - so while I really like college bb, I don't follow it enough to call myself an expert.

But so far through the first round ( and half the second round ), I've watched more NCAA tourney than I ever have through this point already. I'm in two pools at work ( a cheap one, and a not as cheap one ). I don't have any grand illusions that I'll win either one, but it's fun to enter one with a shiat-ton of people for a change.

But some of the beauty of college sports is it's unpredictability. Even if I was a huge college basketball nut, filling out a bracket this year would have made me pull out what's left of my hair. Once the regular season got into January, no team wanted to hold onto the #1 ranking. The Badgers started the season well, getting ranked as high as 12. Then February rolled around and they lost five in a row. Marquette got ranked as high as 8. Then James broke his foot, they lost five of their last six, and limped into the big dance.

I did pick UW as a upset over FSU. I thought FSU was over ranked as a 5 seed, and hoped that the Badgers could at least squeak out one game like it was December again. They did, and then they threw the game away against Xavier. I'm now watching Marquette have their hands COMPLETELY full against Mizzou. The Tigers are starting to put the throttle down on the Eagles, and it's gonna be a long second half if Marquette doesn't stop f*cking up.

Of course it would help if Mizzou would miss ONE GOD DAMN shot. But that hasn't happened.

So I'll sit here drinking my Baileys and enjoying a lazy Sunday. The only thing that would make this day better would be if I was in Vegas.

DALLLLLIIIIBOUUUURRRRRR!

Can't Wait To Say It To Nort...

Five HUNDY!

Five hundred posts.

I wish I had something much more appropriate for this post, but given this is only my second post in like a half a year.... we'll just make a bit of a small production here, then get back to the mindless drivel.

Okay, party over. A mini "Safety Tips" before bed tonight.

• I'm doing an NCAA pool at work this year. Well, two of them. For those 'Government Types' reading my blog - it's perfectly legal, don't worry. ( For everyone else, no, it's not ) I actually started paying attention to college basketball in January. That time coincides with my starting the new job. One of the things I was really excited about was the idea that I could lose 30 bucks in a gigantic office pool this year. I was even more excited when I started watching college basketball, and every team fell apart like Britney Spears after a weekend without cigarettes. So that made picking the bracket a helluva lotta fun this year. Glad I could make a donation to the pot.
• President Obama was on SportsCenter touting his picks for the tournament. He wrote out his picks on a giant dry erase board, that had the teams and the bracket lines all neatly press-screened on to the board - complete with the presidential seal. I'd like to think I don't live in a world with all these bailouts, that my government doesn't spent a couple of hundreds of dollars making that board for him. I also would like to think that he has more important things to do than to give 2 hours to ESPN for his picks. But he is all about change... I just didn't imagine it'd be like this.
• In a nice parting piece, the ESPN ombudsman wrote a great article about how mostly what she read from sports fans was that ESPN was way to self-indulgent. And while I like this person, I hope her successor can raise the profile of the position a lot more than she did.
• Keeping the sports theme, Friday Night Lights is the best show on television. Hands down. Well, non-animated at least. Family Guy still takes the cake in that genre.
• Props to Bob, who this past St Patty's day, had the opportunity to celebrate it in 3 cities, 3 countries, 2 continents - all on the same holiday. Impressive.
• Me, well I had 2 beers. Woot.
• I still love this laptop.
• But I love sleep more, so that means 'goodnight beyotches'.

I'm BAAAAAAAAACK!

It took me finally getting with the technology revolution, but I finally broke down and got a laptop. It's a monster, but I'm impressed so far. So what does this mean? Well, now I have no excuse for not getting on here more often. I am currently sitting on the couch, watching Sportscenter, and typing on here, while I wait for a friend to play me in Mario Kart over the Internet through the Wii. Ain't technology grand?

There's been SO much that's happened since I last posted. And that was quite some time ago, because without looking at the blog, I couldn't even tell you when that was. Sad, I know. But now that I have this new toy, there will be plenty of time to get everyone up to speed. I got one of the 'dream' jobs I wanted from before - football went really well last year - Lil' Man is walking around causing all kinds of havoc... so it's been quite pretty much a whirlwind around here. I have so many things I want to put on here, but we'll take it one step at a time. This was the first step, just logging back on... and I'll take that small moral victory for the moment.

So hold on world - I know I said it before - but this time I'm SERIOUS! More posts, more often! I'm stoked!