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!