Silently Stunned

Here is a conversation I had with Stevie last night while teasing her to see if she had a boyfriend.

Me: Hey Stevie, is Justice your boyfriend?

Stevie: Ooooh, that’s gross dad.

Me: Do you have a boyfriend at school?

Stevie: No.

Me: Come on Stevie, you can tell me if you have a boyfriend. What’s his name?

Stevie: Dad, I don’t have a boyfriend. I am too young; besides, I am footloose and fancy free.

Me: [Silence]

It's not very often I am stunned into silence, but there ya have it: “Footloose and fancy free.”

La La

For those that haven't check out lala.com I suggest you do it! It is the greatest thing since the ipod! Plus you can download mp3's and it stick them right into your itunes library. However, if you don't feel like busting out .89 for a song you only pay .10 for the web version.  Lala even uploads all the songs from your itunes library so "wherever you go, there they are." 

Often Over Looked

Here are 2 delicious items that are often overlooked

The Silver Lining

Despite losing trillions of dollars in the market over the last few months, I feel that I must point out a silver lining in this cloud of darkness.

Check out the price of oil from last year.



Now, unfortunately it seems that gas doesn't move down as quick versus when oil is on the rise... but sometimes you just gotta take what you can get.

My Dearest Android,

I freakin love cell phones. Some of my internet time is dedicated to looking at cell phones. I guess I have a fetish. Hence, my excitement was at an all time high today with the release of the G1. I can't wait for this to come to Sprint which is rumored later this year! 

Living History: It's a Long Article But Worth The Read

Here is my commentary and then you can read the article. What our nation, regulators, and the Fed learned from the crash of 29 and into the Great Depression is being used today to help stave round 2...almost 79 years to the day. 

Worst Crisis Since '30s, With No End Yet in Sight

The financial crisis that began 13 months ago has entered a new, far more serious phase.

Lingering hopes that the damage could be contained to a handful of financial institutions that made bad bets on mortgages have evaporated. New fault lines are emerging beyond the original problem -- troubled subprime mortgages -- in areas like credit-default swaps, the credit insurance contracts sold by American International Group Inc. and others. There's also a growing sense of wariness about the health of trading partners.

Getty Images

Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday. Expectations for a quick end to the crisis are fading fast.

The consequences for companies and chief executives who tarry -- hoping for better times in which to raise capital, sell assets or acknowledge losses -- are now clear and brutal, as falling share prices and fearful lenders send troubled companies into ever-deeper holes. This weekend, such a realization led John Thain to sell the century-old Merrill Lynch & Co. to Bank of America Corp. Each episode seems to bring government intervention that is more extensive and expensive than the previous one, and carries greater risk of unintended consequences.

Expectations for a quick end to the crisis are fading fast. "I think it's going to last a lot longer than perhaps we would have anticipated," Anne Mulcahy, chief executive of Xerox Corp., said Wednesday.

"This has been the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. There is no question about it," said Mark Gertler, a New York University economist who worked with fellow academic Ben Bernanke, now the Federal Reserve chairman, to explain how financial turmoil can infect the overall economy. "But at the same time we have the policy mechanisms in place fighting it, which is something we didn't have during the Great Depression."

Spreading Disease

The U.S. financial system resembles a patient in intensive care. The body is trying to fight off a disease that is spreading, and as it does so, the body convulses, settles for a time and then convulses again. The illness seems to be overwhelming the self-healing tendencies of markets. The doctors in charge are resorting to ever-more invasive treatment, and are now experimenting with remedies that have never before been applied. Fed Chairman Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, walking into a hastily arranged meeting with congressional leaders Tuesday night to brief them on the government's unprecedented rescue of AIG, looked like exhausted surgeons delivering grim news to the family.

mess.

Fed and Treasury officials have identified the disease. It's called deleveraging, or the unwinding of debt. During the credit boom, financial institutions and American households took on too much debt. Between 2002 and 2006, household borrowing grew at an average annual rate of 11%, far outpacing overall economic growth. Borrowing by financial institutions grew by a 10% annualized rate. Now many of those borrowers can't pay back the loans, a problem that is exacerbated by the collapse in housing prices. They need to reduce their dependence on borrowed money, a painful and drawn-out process that can choke off credit and economic growth.

At least three things need to happen to bring the deleveraging process to an end, and they're hard to do at once. Financial institutions and others need to fess up to their mistakes by selling or writing down the value of distressed assets they bought with borrowed money. They need to pay off debt. Finally, they need to rebuild their capital cushions, which have been eroded by losses on those distressed assets.

But many of the distressed assets are hard to value and there are few if any buyers. Deleveraging also feeds on itself in a way that can create a downward spiral: Trying to sell assets pushes down the assets' prices, which makes them harder to sell and leads firms to try to sell more assets. That, in turn, suppresses these firms' share prices and makes it harder for them to sell new shares to raise capital. Mr. Bernanke, as an academic, dubbed this self-feeding loop a "financial accelerator."

"Many of the CEO types weren't willing...to take these losses, and say, 'I accept the fact that I'm selling these way below fundamental value,'" said Anil Kashyap, a University of Chicago Business School economics professor. "The ones that had the biggest exposure, they've all died."

Deleveraging started with securities tied to subprime mortgages, where defaults started rising rapidly in 2006. But the deleveraging process has now spread well beyond, to commercial real estate and auto loans to the short-term commitments on which investment banks rely to fund themselves. In the first quarter, financial-sector borrowing slowed to a 5.1% growth rate, about half of the average from 2002 to 2007. Household borrowing has slowed even more, to a 3.5% pace.

Not Enough

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. economist Jan Hatzius estimates that in the past year, financial institutions around the world have already written down $408 billion worth of assets and raised $367 billion worth of capital.

But that doesn't appear to be enough. Every time financial firms and investors suggest that they've written assets down enough and raised enough new capital, a new wave of selling triggers a reevaluation, propelling the crisis into new territory. Residential mortgage losses alone could hit $636 billion by 2012, Goldman estimates, triggering widespread retrenchment in bank lending. That could shave 1.8 percentage points a year off economic growth in 2008 and 2009 -- the equivalent of $250 billion in lost goods and services each year.

"This is a deleveraging like nothing we've ever seen before," said Robert Glauber, now a professor of Harvard's government and law schools who came to Washington in 1989 to help organize the savings and loan cleanup of the early 1990s. "The S&L losses to the government were small compared to this."

Hedge funds could be among the next problem areas. Many rely on borrowed money to amplify their returns. With banks under pressure, many hedge funds are less able to borrow this money now, pressuring returns. Meanwhile, there are growing indications that fewer investors are shifting into hedge funds while others are pulling out. Fund investors are dealing with their own problems: Many have taken out loans to make their investments and are finding it more difficult now to borrow.

That all makes it likely that more hedge funds will shutter in the months ahead, forcing them to sell their investments, further weighing on the market.

Debt-driven financial traumas have a long history, from the Great Depression to the S&L crisis to the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s. Neither economists nor policymakers have easy solutions. Cutting interest rates and writing stimulus checks to families can help -- and may have prevented or delayed a deep recession. But, at least in this instance, they don't suffice.

In such circumstances, governments almost invariably experiment with solutions with varying degrees of success. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt unleashed an alphabet soup of new agencies and a host of new regulations in the aftermath of the market crash of 1929. In the 1990s, Japan embarked on a decade of often-wasteful government spending to counter the aftereffects of a bursting bubble. President George H.W. Bush and Congress created the Resolution Trust Corp. to take and sell the assets of failed thrifts. Hong Kong's free-market government went on a massive stock-buying spree in 1998, buying up shares of every company listed in the benchmark Hang Seng index. It ended up packaging them into an exchange-traded fund and making money.

Taking Out the Playbook

Today, Mr. Bernanke is taking out his playbook, said NYU economist Mr. Gertler, "and rewriting it as we go."

Merrill Lynch & Co.'s emergency sale to Bank of America Corp. last weekend was an example of the perniciousness and unpredictability of deleveraging. In the past year, Merrill had hired a new chief executive, written off $41.4 billion in assets and raised $21 billion in equity capital.

But Merrill couldn't keep up. The more it raised, the more it was forced to write off. When Merrill CEO John Thain attended a meeting with the New York Fed and other Wall Street executives last week, he saw that Merrill was the next most vulnerable brokerage firm. "We watched Bear and Lehman. We knew we could be next," said one Merrill executive. Fearful that its lenders would shut the firm off, he sold to Bank of America.

This crisis is complicated by innovative financial instruments that Wall Street created and distributed. They're making it harder for officials and Wall Street executives to know where the next set of risks is hiding and also contributing to the crisis's spreading impact.

Swaps Game

The latest trouble spot is an area called credit-default swaps, which are private contracts that let firms trade bets on whether a borrower is going to default. When a default occurs, one party pays off the other. The value of the swaps rise and fall as the market reassesses the risk that a company won't be able to honor its obligations. Firms use these instruments both as insurance -- to hedge their exposures to risk -- and to wager on the health of other companies. There are now credit-default swaps on more than $62 trillion in debt, up from about $144 billion a decade ago.

One of the big new players in the swaps game was AIG, the world's largest insurer and a major seller of credit-default swaps to financial institutions and companies. When the credit markets were booming, many firms bought these instruments from AIG, believing the insurance giant's strong credit ratings and large balance sheet could provide a shield against bond and loan defaults. AIG believed the risk of default was low on many securities it insured.

As of June 30, an AIG unit had written credit-default swaps on more than $446 billion in credit assets, including mortgage securities, corporate loans and complex structured products. Last year, when rising subprime-mortgage delinquencies damaged the value of many securities AIG had insured, the firm was forced to book large write-downs on its derivative positions. That spooked investors, who reacted by dumping its shares, making it harder for AIG to raise the capital it increasingly needed.

More on the Crisis

• Mounting Fears Shake World Markets
• Morgan Stanley in Talks With Wachovia
• Unheard Pleas, Lost Chances for AIG
• Complete Coverage: Wall Street in Crisis

Credit default swaps "didn't cause the problem, but they certainly exacerbated the financial crisis," said Leslie Rahl, president of Capital Market Risk Advisors, a consulting firm in New York. The sheer volume of CDS contracts outstanding -- and the fact that they trade directly between institutions, without centralized clearing -- intertwined the fates of many large banks and brokerages.

Few financial crises have been sorted out in modern times without massive government intervention. Increasingly, officials are coming to the conclusion that even more might be needed. A big problem: The Fed can and has provided short-term money to sound, but struggling, institutions that are out of favor. It can, and has, reduced the interest rates it influences to attempt to reduce borrowing costs through the economy and encourage investment and spending.

But it is ill-equipped to provide the capital that financial institutions now desperately need to shore up their finances and expand lending.

Resolution Trust Scenario

In normal times, capital-starved companies usually can raise money on their own. In the current crisis, a number of big Wall Street firms, including Citigroup Inc., have turned to sovereign-wealth funds, the government-controlled pools of money.

But both on Wall Street and in Washington, there is increasing expectation that U.S. taxpayers will either take the bad assets off the hands of financial institutions so they can raise capital, or put taxpayer capital into the companies, as the Treasury has agreed to do with mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

One proposal was raised by Barney Frank, the Massachusetts Democrat who is chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. Rep. Frank is looking at whether to create an analog to the Resolution Trust Corp., which took assets from failed banks and thrifts and found buyers over several years.

"When you have a big loss in the marketplace, there are only three people that can take the loss -- the bondholders, the shareholders and the government," said William Seidman, who led the RTC from 1989 to 1991. "That's the dance we're seeing right now. Are we going to shove this loss into the hands of the taxpayers?"

The RTC seemed controversial and ambitious at the time. Any version today would be even more complex. The RTC dispensed mostly of commercial real estate. Today's troubled assets are complex debt securities -- many of which include pieces of other instruments, which in turn include pieces of others, many steps removed from the actual mortgages or consumer loans on which they are based. Unraveling these strands will be tedious and getting at the underlying collateral, difficult.

In the early stages of this crisis, regulators saw that their rules didn't fit the rapidly changing financial system they were asked to oversee. Investment banks, at the core of the crisis, weren't as closely monitored by the Securities and Exchange Commission as commercial banks were by their regulators.

The government has a system to close failed banks, created after the Great Depression in part to avoid sudden runs by depositors. Now, runs happen in spheres regulators may not fully understand, such as the repurchase agreement, or repo, market, in which investment banks fund their day-to-day operations. And regulators have no process for handling the failure of an investment bank like Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Insurers like AIG aren't even federally regulated.

Regulators have all but promised that more banks will fail in the coming months. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is drawing up a plan to raise the premiums it charges banks so that it can rebuild the fund it uses to back deposits. Examiners are tightening their leash on banks across the country.

Pleasant Mystery

One pleasant mystery is why the crisis hasn't hit the economy harder -- at least so far. "This financial crisis hasn't yet translated into fewer...companies starting up, less research and development, less marketing," Ivan Seidenberg, chief executive of Verizon Communications, said Wednesday. "We haven't seen that yet. I'm sure every company is keeping their eyes on it."

At 6.1%, the unemployment rate remains well below the peak of 7.8% in 1992, amid the S&L crisis.

In part, that's because government has reacted aggressively. The Fed's classic mistake that led to the Great Depression was that it tightened monetary policy when it should have eased. Mr. Bernanke didn't repeat that error. And Congress moved more swiftly to approve fiscal stimulus than most Washington veterans thought possible.

In part, the broader economy has held mostly steady because exports have been so strong at just the right moment, a reminder of the global economy's importance to the U.S. And in part, it's because the U.S. economy is demonstrating impressive resilience, as information technology allows executives to react more quickly to emerging problems and -- to the discomfort of workers -- companies are quicker to adjust wages, hiring and work hours when the economy softens.

But the risk remains that Wall Street's woes will spread to Main Street, as credit tightens for consumers and business. Already, U.S. auto makers have been forced to tighten the terms on their leasing programs, or abandon writing leases themselves altogether, because of problems in their finance units. Goldman Sachs economists' optimistic scenario is a couple years of mild recession or painfully slow economy growth.

Another One Bites the Dust

Lehman Bros, a 158 year old firm, will not receive help from the Federal Reserve and possibly file for bankrupcy; while another power-house is saved by a bank...The 2008 Credit Crisis is rapidly changing the face of Wall Steet.

The Top BYU-UCLA Highlight!

Me and the Geico Gecko!

Magical Leopluradon! It Makes Me Giggle

Take That OBAMA!

Hilary Rodham Clinton has revealed her true feelings for Barrack Obama during his Democratic nominee acceptance speech.

4 Wheeling

Yesterday Stevie and I went 4-wheeling. We went up American Fork canyon on one of the greatest trails ever! This particular trail goes up so far that you eventually hit the back side of Snow Bird! On our way back we followed a small side trail that took us to a small pool of water that had 2 small waterfalls. Right after I took these pictures with my cell phone camera Stevie slid down the rocks and plopped into the water. Afterwards she took her pants off and went "swimming."

Bees Game

The girls and I went to a Bees game last night. It was a lot of fun and miraculously Gettie was good through the whole thing! Unfortunately the Bees lost but we got to see a few great home runs and of course sang "Take me Out to the Ball Game."

Top Gun...Recut

This makes me laugh everytime I watch it so I thought I would share!

Good Times At the Black Hawk

WEEZER

I am a long time Weezer fan! I adore "almost" every song on every album. I even stuck with them after the release of Maladroit. Now that shows faith because--ouch--what a terrible album. The latest release, Weezer Red, is a fabulous collection. Most songs sound like "old Weezer" and yet offer a touch of what I can only describe as maturity.
Well done River! Well done!

Below is the video to the single that was released with this album. It is called Pork and Beans. While I absolutely love this song I don't think it is the best one on the album. However, the video is to die for, especially if you are familiar with a lot of the "famous" YouTube clips. They really have done a brilliant job compiling this little number!
Enjoy!
Edit: Unfortunately You Tube will no longer allow this video to be embedded.
Click Here to watch the pure sweetness of this rockin video

First Shot

When I was little my new shoes helped me run faster. Now that I am older my new golf clubs help me hit better! Life is a strange cycle!
This is my very first shot with my new Callaway X18's. I pulled out my 7 iron; I was about 160 yards out hitting up hill. I mean, this was a serious uphill shot. From my view point all I could see was the top of the flag. The ball exploded off the face of my club. It was a straight shot towards the pin so I figured I would be on the green but I didn't know where. To my delight this is what I saw when I reached the top of the hill!

The Sounds of Summer

Hooray for warm-sunny weather! I absolutely love spring! Thus far, this spring has been somewhat dreadful with bouts of rain and unusually cold temperatures. However, I think its safe to say that is safely behind us. We can all enjoy the outdoors: birds singing, bees buzzing and a "weird" creaking sound on our deck. The other day it "creaked" right where Kristen was standing. It was quite peculiar. In fact, this post is coming to you live from a play day at the park via my treasured BB. Welcome back sunshine; we hope you stay for awhile.

Bike Ride

Stevie and I took our bikes and rode up the Provo canyon trail. About a half mile up we ran into this little guy.

Seinfeld Got It Right 10 Years Ago

Do you remember the "man-zier" or "the bro" from the creative mind of Jerry Seinfeld?

Anywho, this is possibly the best story of 2008!

Obesity fuels growing ‘boy-boob’ problem

Obesity has been blamed for the growing problem of “boy-boobs” – cases of teenage boys with breasts so well developed that surgery is needed to reduce them.

Doctors at Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool say that they are seeing dozens of teenagers every year with gynaecomastia, the condition in which males develop breasts.

Christian Duncan, a plastic surgeon specialising in obesity-related surgery, said that in the past 12 months he had performed at least 20 breast-reduction operations on young boys who had developed the condition.

Mr Duncan is treating others who do not yet qualify for surgery by encouraging them to make changes to their lifestyle, such as starting a healthy diet or beginning an exercise programme.

He believes that the condition is becoming more common among teenage boys in Liverpool, and that it can cause “terrible damage” to their lives and their self-esteem.

While some boys are simply fat, giving the appearance that they have breasts, those who develop gynaecomastia face a greater problem: the growth of firm female breast tissue under the nipples, Mr Duncan said. This condition is caused by a hormone imbalance during adolescence and in many cases resolves itself naturally. There is some evidence that the imbalance can be triggered by obesity.

Mr Duncan said: “This is different to someone just being overweight. These are firm female breasts, something that any woman would be proud of. There isn’t one month that has passed in the past 12 months where I have not seen a new patient with this condition. It used to be much less common and I am afraid it is a sign of the growing problem of childhood obesity.

“We try to teach these boys about making lifestyle adjustments, like getting them to go to the gym, but they just won’t go. They become very self-conscious and it can start to affect their ability to socialise and concentrate at school. Often they are bullied. To rectify the problem for them we basically use liposuction to remove the glandular and breast tissue and fat from around the chest to give a flatter appearance.”

Mr Duncan said he believed that the boys’ poor diet was causing an imbalance in their hormones, resulting in their developing breasts.

He said: “Both men and women have breast tissue but there is something about obesity that triggers hormone imbalances and causes an unnatural growth in these boys.

“If nothing is done to stop the growing tide of childhood obesity in the city I expect to see more cases year-on-year.”

More than one cause

— Breast reduction operations in men have increased sharply in recent years. Whether this increase is because of a greater incidence of gynaecomastia or a greater availability of cosmetic surgery is unclear

— In men the condition can have a number of causes, including body-building drugs, recreational drugs, cancer, diseases of the liver or kidney, and obesity. It may affect one breast, or both

— Some doctors have blamed increased levels of female hormones, or chemicals that mimic their effect, that are in the environment. In boys, the condition is very common but usually resolves itself without treatment as the hormone balance in the body stabilises at the end of adolescence

Look Left Then Right

"Tax Season" has just ended. With it comes a company thank you where we arrange our employees to see a movie during their shift. Yours truly was in charge of organizing this spectacular event! I must admit, while it was kind of a pain it was also very fun and a good learning experience. We decided to hand out $10 gift cards to 1400 employees. For you math wizards out there that's $14000 in gift cards. I picked up the cards at the corporate offices of the Megaplex Theatres. Afterward I drove to work chuckling to myself and wondered if anyone else in the world was also driving to work with $14000 worth of gift cards on their front seat.

The Madness Has Ended

Tonight’s NCAA finals were nothing short of fantastic! Both teams played a stellar game. I was hoping Memphis would win for the sole reason of having them win the championship in one of my ESPN brackets. Other than that I really didn’t care. I just enjoy watching the competition/athleticism. As much as I love to watch the game, I generally think the TV commentators do a terrible job. Tonight’s game was no exception. Here was my favorite comment of the night. This particular comment was made during overtime play.

Kansas knows what it’s like to be in overtime during a championship game. This happened back in 1957.

HELLO! 1957? That is for-frickin’ ever ago. If anyone out there can tell me how that particular event in time when the players were not even a “twinkle in their daddy’s eye…” helped the 2008 Kansas Jayhawks win this specific championship I would love to hear the reasoning. Kansas’ head coach, Bill Self, wasn’t even born yet. He was born in 1962. Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous. Great game though!

Fab Idea Larry

*Click the pic to enlarge image*
As I was perusing the Megaplex Theatre website this caption jumped out at me. At first glance (21+) I thought it was a screening for an “adult” movie. “Schwing!” While I was slightly disappointed of perhaps monopolizing on an opportunity to see a naughty movie on the IMAX screen--can you imagine--I thought to myself, "this is a fabulouso idea!" Since most teenagers display similar behaviors to that of a baby I can see how Larry has conjoined as well as segregated both parties from attending certain films. Quite brilliantly oxymornonic if you ask me. Kudos Mr. Miller, Kudos.

T9 Word

Over the last year and a half I have interviewed hundreds of people. I have interviewed humans from all aspects of life; Cornell grads—go Andy Bernard!—miners, criers, laughers, bankers, lawyers, software engineers, you name it and I have probably interviewed it...wait, no doctors or porn stars. I have combed through some of the craziest resumes that include being printed on currency paper to giving a bio that included a picture, marital status, health, age and a hobby. Out of the criers, the men are out-crying the women on a 3 to 1 ratio. This is something I would have never expected. Come on guys, toughen up. “Would you like a tissue?”
Our interview process includes a lot more than the standard interview. We take the candidates (generally a group of 5 or 6) through a detailed presentation about the company as well as a day in the life of an employee. We view the candidates are interviewing us just as much as we are interviewing them. The job isn’t easy so we want to set those expectations up-front. Most recently I was giving one of these presentations. Lo and behold someone started texting during my presentation. He was trying to be all sneaky about it too but it was completely obvious. I was one millisecond away from calling him on it but decided not to. I did however, tell the managers that were scheduled to interview him. They decided to ask him about it. Maybe there was a family emergency or something so it was only fair that we ask. It turns out that there was no emergency. At least he was honest. This person ended up not getting an offer. It wasn’t only the text though. There were other factors that played some key roles with him not getting the job. However, it really tells you a lot about the person’s professionalism to be texting during an interview presentation. While I wasn’t literally interviewing him, his interview started the moment he walked in the door and his first impression went right down the toilet. Speaking of toilets, when his Hillary Clinton going to pull out of the Democratic race? Speaking of race…never mind.

God Bless The Women

I made this video in approximately 10 minutes! This is the song I love so much by Lucky Dube! *See post: "I Bought a CD" for further clarification.

I Bought a CD

I honestly don’t remember the last time I purchased a CD; it is at least 4 or 5 years. But tonight, the purchase of my CD was an end to an 8 year quest! When I was in Africa, I wasn’t a “good” missionary per se when it came to some of the rules. I loved listening to “unapproved” music, which was against the rules. While in Uganda I became acquainted with the sweet melodies of Lucky Dube. God Bless the Women was one of those songs I could listen over and over and over again. Since coming back from Africa I have had a hard time finding the song. It is not on itunes, I couldn’t find it on Napster, etc…However, tonight I had a revelation to go to FYE. And it came to pass that this glorious store did hold the album of which I had prayed and sought after for many years. I was exceedingly glad of my findings and sang glorious praises while I traveled home. Seriously, this song is the bomb!

Almost Better Than Christmas

Truly this is one of the greatest times of the year: March Madness! Buzzer-beaters, upsets, dark-horses, Cinderella teams, and the 6^th man! These are just a few of my favorite things! Sing your heart out Julie Andrews! I started the celebration with a trip to Wendover to play a few parlays. I mostly played 3 game parlays where to win you have to win all 3 games. The tricky part in choosing the winning team is the point spread. For example, the UCONN—a 4 seed and San Diego—a 13^th seed had a 13 point spread that favored UCONN. I chose UCONN thinking they would easily beat SDU by 13 points or more. Oh no, it was a big upset and the only game I lost on that particular ticket; stupid UCONN!#@%*. However, I did win on a few tickets! Thanks to the rebounding power of Miss State!

Another great thing about Wendover is the scenic drive. It is so beautiful. That is, if you like salty barren wastelands. Blah, what a crappy drive. Really though, at a casino you can be thoroughly entertained by spectating other people. You don’t even have to spend money! It’s always a fun time to spectate other people in their emotional gambling distress, especially on the roulette table. People are married to certain numbers or behaviors; there is absolutely no logic but only a guess. In a matter of 20 minutes I saw one guy lose $100 betting on the same numbers, more specifically, “Red 5.” That was HIS number and by damn, he knew it was going to hit! I even asked him why he bet so heavily on red 5. His reply, “One time I won on it really big.” Which is code for, “One time I was 3-sheets to the wind and accidentally put half of my chips on red 5 and the great-white-ball happened to land on red 5 on that spinny-thingy.”[belch]

Biggest Blooper in Bear Sterns Fiasco

2 Truths and a Lie

A few months ago, I was conducting a new hire orientation class. The class had about 20 new hires and a few other managers. As an ice-breaker we played a game called 2 truths and a lie. Hopefully the title serves as a sufficient enough explanation on how to play :) Here is how mine went:

1. I have run a handful of marathons and half-marathons
2. I have daughters named after rock stars
3. I used to be an underwear model for JC Penny
   

I called on people to try and guess my lie. To my surprise, only 4 of 10 people guessed my lie, which by the way, is daughters named after rock stars! Ok, I jest. I was never an underwear model but if 60% of the people thought I was I might have missed my calling. I guess they could have been thrown off by the shear fact that I tossed in JC Penny. It is not a high caliber place to model underwear. I would have never gotten away with Calvin Klein.

Code of Ethics

As previously hinted in a recent post, I work very close to Wall Street. Not physically but metaphorically. I thoroughly enjoy my job. Currently I have 17 people that report directly to me and I am heading up all sorts of projects. The stock market is a wildly fascinating thing. It is always changing and never the same. Because of this I am usually apprised with what’s happening in our economy. Not in the nerdy sense. I don’t sit down at dinner and talk about the beige book report and state of the union. I don’t roll like that; maybe secretly, but never outwardly. My particular industry in the most heavily regulated industry in the milky-way galaxy. I know it’s funny but in the words of the Hotness, “I am as serious as a heart-attack.”

For this reason, I will never, EVER mention where I work. I may mention generalities but never specifics. Especially with those I closely associate with. I wish I could. I have outrageous stories from HR incidents, to background checks, to hiring and firing people. But alas, it will all remain secret. More importantly, it is actually against my company’s “Code of Ethics” to mention my work on a public/personal site like this. That being said, for those that know me and know where I work, please do not mention it; especially in the comments. I thank you in advance.

The 99 Cent Thing

If a dollar falls below a “dollar” is it still a dollar? Honestly, this scares the hell out of me.

NEW YORK, March 14 - The dollar fell below parity with the Swiss franc for the first time on Friday as fears about more credit turmoil and a U.S. recession sparked broad selling of the U.S. currency. The dollar fell to an all-time low of 0.9987 Swiss francs , according to electronic trading platform EBS. It last traded at 1.0026 francs.

Hulu

Hulu, a new rival to Youtube, was born on March 12, 2008. It seems to offer more in terms of full-length movies and TV shows.

It's Fun to Say

Hooker is actually a fun word to say: HOOKER. Especially if you really annunciate the "rrrr" at the end.
I think it is a nice change to see the term used so loosely by journalists and BIG media corporations. Nothing says fun like hearing Katie Couric utter the word Hooker.

Sure the recent acts surrounding Eliot Spitzer are disgusting and disgraceful. More so in the fact that he really propelled into the Governorship of NY by putting the beat-down on white collar-crime in the early 2000's. Then, Spitzer, the AG of NY, was nothing less than integrity and values. He went on a rampage exposing the shady accounting practices of company's like Enron and AIG. He also exploited half of Wall Street for manipulative trading practices. Tisk-tisk.
Spitzer's actions were both good and bad. Good in the sense that it showed a high profile lawyer who cared. One with motivation accelerated by honest morales. Bad in the sense that it damaged the market. It put a small dent in the economy. Many jobs were lost with some of the companies he exposed. I was there. I was young in the markets but still felt its affects.

This post, however, is not supposed to be about Spitzer. It's about hookers. You know, I bet there are a lot of hookers saying, "Daaammmn I am really going about this the wrong way. I usually settle for Motel 6 and a hundred bucks."

Spitzer's lady-friend got a $2000 hotel suite and 4 Grand for one night. What's the going rate for male hookers?

My First Post?

I am a tenured blogger. It may not look it but I am. "The proof is in the pudding." [Bill Cosby] There is an obvious trend in first posts among the “new” bloggers about “trying it out” or it “seems fun so here I go.” Pish-posh: Let me just tell you, I was a blogger way back in 2002-2005. I used it more as a journal though; confiding my secrets only to the unknown readers who happened across my blog. Blogging all of a sudden became cool and I wanted no part of it. I was bucking the trend. In a state of rebellion I deleted my blog. But here I am again. I am trying it out because it seems fun—so here I go!