Love

I Love My Wife Dayna and Two Children, Morgan and Parker !!!

Kat Von D

Kat Von D is an amazing portrait tattoo artist.  We've really been enjoying her new LAInk reality show on TLC.  Hannah Aitchison is a fantastic pinup girl artist as well.  The most fascinating part of the show is to watch the artist free-hand a tattoo right on their clients.  There are so many tattoo artists that can only trace existing art.  The real pros can develop their own designs and also free-hand with ease.

Alternative Minimum Tax

The Alternative Minimum Tax ( ATM ) was created in 1969 to ensure all Americans, particularly those wit higher incomes who benefit from tax shelters, will pay at least some federal income tax.  Unfortunately, the income level of a wealthy person in 1969 is now the income of an average household.  According to Vanguard, there is a good chance that a household that makes $75,000 a year could be subject to the AMT.  Congress really needs to act to correct this policy of a past era.

Alternative Minimum Tax
Wikipedia

Exotic Mortgages

As you've seen from the news, the Financial Markets are in turmoil at the moment as a result of the mortgage lending crisis.  Personally, however, I'm not taking any action with my investments.  I'm diversified adequately, yet, I will take some losses over the near term.  I'm in this, however, for the long haul and I'm not going to make the mistake of trying to move money around and incurring transactions costs when the best thing to do is to continue to dollar-cost-average and remain diversified.

Over the course of my lifetime, I will ( and have already ) experience many market down turns.  This is the nature of a capitalist economy.  A couple examples of poor economic times I've managed through...

1990 - I graduated from college during a very poor job market.  I interviewed with 26 companies during my last semester at Texas A&M and received 2 job offers.  Most of the companies that interviewed on campus simply made their obligatory visit to campus without any intention of hiring anyone during those years.

2000 - I saw the dot com company I was working for run out of money and close their doors during the tech bust of 2000.  Within two weeks, I was fortunate to land a solid job in the Healthcare industry here in Tulsa.

2007 - I'm now observing the economy teeter on the edge of another economic slowdown as a result of the mortgage crisis and housing speculation.  Fortunately, I'm not the type of person who thrives on impressing others with how much I have, therefore, I have not put myself in a situation with my current mortgage that would jeapordize my financial life.

Below are a couple sobering articles...

Money and Markets
Soaring Foreclosure Rates
American Dream ?!?!? ( not for everyone )

I also read a small blip in Kiplingers today that stated "homes lose about 1% of their value for each foreclosed property within an eighth of a mile".

In my view, the following list of ridiculous mortgage types are to blame for the current mortgage crisis.  How is it that the US Government could not regulate the mortgage industry a bit closer so as to prevent such ludicrous instruments from entering our economy?

I really like the "Good For" section of the article.  Notice how many of the "Good For" options state something like..."for sophisticated borrowers" or "young lawyers or doctors" or "have large cash reserves" or "young professionals", etc.

I don't see any notes in the "Good For" section that read...

For people that want their mortgage to consume over 50% or more of their gross income

For illegal aliens who feel entitled to the American Dream that should be living in a $500,000 home in Southern California

For young people mowing lawns who think the world owes them the right to live in a home

For people who cannot prove they have an income

Exotic Mortgages

Morgan Update

Today was the last day of Morgan's Little Gym Summer Session.  She and I had a great time and we're investigating activity options for the fall.  She is 16 months old today and is just shy of the next class level at the Little Gym which begins at 19 months.  I would like to get her in the older class so she can learn from the the older kids, but it looks like that will not work.  I will have to enroll her in the same class if we're going to continue there in the fall.

Morgan is really growing in her language skills.  We were in the car this week and she recited her ABCs without any prompting from mom and dad.  I think that is very impressive considering she is only 16 months.  I also read that a 2 year old typically has a vocabulary of 200 words.  Morgan is 8 months away from being two and probably has a 50+ word vocabulary.  Things are very exciting with her right now.  It's very important to me that we continue to keep her challenged so she does not get bored.  We purchased some flash cards last week to continue to help build her vocabulary, letters and numbers.  She routinely spreads out her flashcards, picks one up at a time and says the word.  She knows the following words...

Dog, Zebra, Turtle, Cat, Kite, Apple, Bee, Car, Watch, Ball, Mouse, Monkey

Oh, and one more piece of big news, Morgan pee'd in her potty chair for the first time this week !!!  We've been trying to give her time on the chair when she wakes from naps.

Unethical Corporate Behavior

The extent of unethical Corporate behavior really has no limits.  I've seen a lot of dishonesty and wasteful actions in the Corporate world.  Last week I had the privilege of witnessing another occurrence.

One of my fellow managers who reports to someone other than my manager had their boss and their boss's boss decide to randomly show up in Tulsa.  Not sure where these two guys live ( probably Atlanta ), but they popped in on my co-worker without any legitimate business reason.  They showed up in the office for less than 1 hour on Thursday and were never heard from again nor a reason identified why they decided to show up.

Well, it turns out the PGA Championship was in town and these two corporate executives decided to use company funds to pay for their airfare, hotel, vehicle and meals so they could see Tiger Woods play at Southern Hills ( along with the nights at the local stripclub as well ).

I seriously considered dropping an anonymous voice mail to our Corporate Code of Conduct hotline, but I simply don't know what the point would be in doing that and it would probably jeopardize my job of which I prefer to have at the moment with two small kids.

Oh well, I guess I've always been a bit of a literalist when it comes to following rules and adhering to a professional code of conduct.  If I got upset everytime I heard about activities like this, then I would probably drive myself insane.

Mission Money

I heard about this website on NPR's Sound Money program.  Missing Money is a reputable source managed by the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators.  I actually found a few dollars under my name that I'll be collecting on.  It wasn't much, but was nice to stumble across this.

PGA Championship In Tulsa

The big news this week here in Tulsa is the PGA Championship at Southern Hills Country Club.  The word for the week is "excessive heat warning".  The temperatures will hover around 100 degrees for the entire week.  Tiger Woods has his game face on and is ready to hit the course.  When asked which hole he was most ready to tackle, he responded with "all 18".  He is such a great competitor and was the first to hit the course on the Monday and Tuesday practice days.  He was spotted on the course at 6:20am on Monday.

Corn! Corn! Corn!

Ah, the joys of parenthood.  Dayna and I had an interesting adventure with Morgan today.  Upon returning home from running errands, I put Morgan down for a nap.  While doing this, I realized she had spilled some water on her shorts while in the car.  I went ahead and removed her shorts and put her down for her nap in a t-shirt and a diaper only.  After some time went by, we heard her rustling around in her crib.  Dayna peeked in on her and saw that Morgan had removed her diaper and had a nice surprise wrapped up in her blankets.  Morgan was covered with poop along with all the blankets!!!  Dayna quickly ordered me to get Morgan in a bath while she cleaned the crib and blankets.  As I was bathing Morgan, she kept laughing and yelling out "corn, corn, corn !!!".  Suddenly, Dayna and I realized Morgan was recycling the corn found in her dirty crib !!!  Gross !!!  We freaked out and made sure we brushed her teeth thoroughly.

Self-proclaimed Experts

I find it comical how so many people in Software Development think they are the first one to ever have a unique idea.  Fact is, arrogant boneheads everywhere in this business just keep recycling the same old shit.  It appears that some folks seem to think the Agile Software Development Methodology is NEW and is now all the rage!!!  LOL !!!  What a f*$cking joke.  You know how many times now I've heard the same ol crap repackaged ?  The worse part is not that these ideas keep getting recycled, but the fact that these idiots doing the recycling truly think they are the first ones to come up with these concepts.

Since the dawn of time, the same old bs keeps coming to the forefront because someone along the way wants to resurrect an idea and attempt to claim it as their own.  There are an incredible number of people who try to pull this off within all aspects of our society - professional, religious, cultural, etc.

There are so few ( if any ) truly unique ideas by a very select few thinkers.  99.9% of the rest of the population are like sheep that just follow and try to capitalize on other's creative thoughts.  It can all be so frustrating for someone like myself who constantly sees morons in this business who have the gift of BS and simply talk their way through anything and make it sound good.  Worst part is, they proclaim themselves experts and make everyone else out to be idiots.

Weekend

Tulsa Gatesway Balloon Festival and Oklahoma Aquarium Photos

Pre-Season NIT

Because of the success of the A&M basketball program last year, the team was a awarded a slot in the prestigious pre-season NIT tournament.  Not only are we in the tournament, but the school will be hosting the first and second rounds of the South Region in College Station.  We'll get the opportunity to play a team from Tulsa - Oral Roberts.  Good luck to coach Turgeon and the Aggies.