February 2009, Gone For Ever

My Mom has, for as long as I can remember, pointed out that the older you get the faster time goes. I used to be sceptical of that. Being young, I didn't believe her. I still don't really. I think that time being relative and all is just dependant on your state of mind (plus, she was saying that when she was like 35 or so and not that old at all). Somewhere around my mid 30's I kind of stopped tracking my age. I know how old I am but I don't consciously follow that data and I try my best to not celebrate my birthday. Of course this task is made more difficult if not impossible by the fact that my wife loves birthdays.

I don't ignore birthdays as a matter of vanity, I don't care how old I am. It's more an active pursuit of the adage "Your as old as you feel". I figure if I act like an irresponsible 20 year old and ignore the consequences of growing old I won't grow old. Of course this sometimes makes me look like an ass.

My fear is of growing old and the older I get the more acutely I become aware of the fact that time is getting short for any goals I ever had. The ship has sailed on being the next Eddie Van Halen. I joked when I turned 35 that I was old enough to be president, it's not really that funny anymore. It will really stop being funny when in a few years I'm old enough to be the president's father. Not that I ever wanted to be president, but I would like to have more money saved toward retirement. I would like to be able to retire before age 62 but with the ole 401K in a spiral I'll be glad to be able to retire at all.

Before you start thinking that this post is turning melancholy I should point out that I consider myself the luckiest bastard in the world. I've got great motorcycles, a spectacular dog and a loving, fun wife that's also my best friend. For some reason I just started this line of thought when I innocently made the title of this entry "February 2009, Gone For Ever". It just brought home the passage of time more than I normally dare think about it. We are having Lisa's brother Chris and his fiance, Alicia, over for dinner tonight and I'm making a new slow cooker dish so I'm actually really happy today.

So in conclusion, invest in a 401K (the market will turn around some day), learn to play guitar and appreciate everyday because as corny as that sounds, we only get so many of them.

My Favorite Band

As promised...

A Quick Clarification

I know I sounded like an ass in the last post. Let me explain that I understand that people are loosing their jobs, which makes it difficult to pay for food, let alone a mortgage. I hope I sound like less of an ass now. Probably not though.

More Kvetching

I try to stay away from the bitching as much as possible lately but what's the point of having a blog if you can't vent once in awhile? My beef today? Pretty much the same as it was in the last entry. It boils down to "minding your own plate" as my Mom used to say. Everyone is so focused on what executives make and how badly the American car companies didn't focus on fuel efficient cars. We were the ones borrowing against the equity of places that weren't worth a damn to begin with and we were the ones demanding V-8 engines in our 6000 lbs Cadillac Escalades (I'm still a fan of V-8s by the way). The unions are going to cut off their nose to spite their members jobs. They were giving us what we wanted. Did they run our credit cards up? Granted they didn't make it hard but it's not their job to save us from ourselves.

Every day now I see the Prez threatening the wealthy and the corporations with accountability. Where's our accountability? Like I've said before, I'm sure this whole fiasco is more complicated than I understand but whatever happened to saving for a rainy day? It seems to me that people that make $200,000 a year (Obama's wealthy) have something going on and probably deserve what they make. I mean assembly line workers in some GM plants make $80,000. That's a pretty decent living in my opinion. Maybe our elected officials should quit worrying about his or her voter base and give everyone a tax cut. I would love it if all of Obama's plans work out but if you ask me he sounds as naive as I am when it comes to this stuff. He's playing the stalling game. The economy will eventually turn itself around, he's just hoping that it will be while he's in power so he gets he credit, that's how power and history work.

I'm starting to get worked up now. I guess the venting didn't help the frustration. Next time I'll write about my favorite bands.

The Three Magic Words

This video from ABC News demonstrates the extent of the mess the housing market is in. Everyone is suffering but to a certain degree everyone has brought it on themselves. From loose credit standards to people living outside their means to predatory real estate agents inflating house prices. As much as I hope government fixes the problem I wonder if it's not just a self correcting mechanism built into the system. I obviously have no economic background but like everyone else I have my opinions and one of those is people need to take accountability and quit living outside your means. I have a great deal of sympathy for the first woman that lost her job and has no electricity. I have to wonder though how she could afford that house on a $40,000 dollar a year salary. Granted, it's hard to tell just how nice and big the place was in the dark. I know from looking for houses the past six months that we can't afford much more than a shotgun shack on what we make.

Then there's the case of the woman that bought a house for $39,000 and refinanced and borrowed against it until she owed over $130,000. How did that happen? Why did people let her do it and more importantly why did she let herself do it?

I normally don't like to kick someone when they're down but this is one time when I can feel sanctimonious. I've resisted taking advantage of the "equity value" of my house and the rental properties we own and I think that's what's helping. I've also been fortunate enough to keep my job while so many people I know are losing theirs. I won't pretend that I'm some financial genius, we don't have nearly enough money saved for an emergency and we have more debt then I would like. Lisa and I are always marvelling at how people that make less than we do can afford the things they have and I guess I know the answer. I would love to have a new motorcycle and Lisa would love to have a new truck but we're just thankful to have an income right now.

I know this is a more complicated then my simple mind can appreciate or maybe it's as simple as it seems and people are making it complicated, whatever the case, I wish it wasn't necessary for people to lose their homes to correct whatever is the problem.

Living The Dream

I've got a friend from the old days with Shaw who has just self published his own graphic novel. It's very exciting and interesting to see. I was there for, not exactly the beginning, more like the middle somewhere. While we were working in Virginia he would let me read his rough drafts, I even caught a few typos.

He's a good guy and one of the few people I know that's had (what some people would call) a crazy dream and seen it through. He called me a few days ago to fill me in on his trip to some comic convention in New York City and all the adventures that ensued. He's footing the costs for publishing and paying the artist out of his own pocket so far but he's hoping to find some one to distribute it for him. He's only half-assed looking really. He 's having so much fun he plan's on publishing one issue a year whether he finds a distributor or not. I think that's pretty cool.

As for the book, it's a pretty funny book about science gone mad. There are some things going on at a deeper level that I'm only aware of because he explained it to me as he was writing it. I never grasp the deeper stuff generally speaking. All in all it's a pretty good read, the art doesn't match what my tastes usually are (Neal Adams, Michael Golden and John Byrne) but it fits the book well and it's growing on me. The book is definitely better with the art as opposed to the manuscript.

I got my copy today and I have to admit I was a little giddy and a little envious. I'm glad Josh got it done and is living the dream. And he gets to reap the rewards of success, he's had his first copywrite infringement as I just downloaded the cover from his Myspace page without his permission - suck it Mr. Bigshot

Grand Torino

I used to like doing little reviews but I realized that my opinion doesn't matter to anyone but me so I prefer to think of this as a discussion of one of the best movies of the past year, Gran Torino. I realized, while hanging out in my favorite thinking room (otherwise known as the can), I was still contemplating the meaning and implications of the movie. So I wanted to get it out of my head (the voices were driving me crazy). Since this is a discussion and not a review, there will be spoilers. I'll make note of them when they come up.

Let's start off by assuming you've heard of Clint effing Eastwood. I defy someone to claim they haven't at least seen one of his gruff, cranky white man roles. So the main conceit of the movie is the viewer's knowledge of Clint the actor. With very few exceptions I hate it when I am consciously aware of the actor and not the role. Tom Hanks is one of those big actors that I usually never think of as "Tom Hanks in...". Clint Eastwood is usually Clint Eastwood, or at least what our expectations tell us he is. I'm okay with that, no one else can pull it off, for me anyway. This movie is about Gunny Hightower if he had gotten out of the Marines after Korea and went to work for Ford. The suspense and tension of the end of the movie almost relies on your foreknowledge of Clint's vast catalog of performances, his history of ass-kickery if you will.

The anti-PC name calling seems inflammatory at first but turns into a more complex and honest depiction of the real racism in the US than anything I've ever seen, including the over-hyped Crash (which was still decent). As the movie progresses you realize that the name calling and sterotyping are taken for granted with no thought of the consequences. It's at once very movie like but something else is going on underneath.

The relationship between Walt Kowalski and the young H'mong boy next door Thao Vang Lor is akin to the one between Clint and Hillary Swank in Million Dollar Baby. Clint is the ultimate life coach. The relationship and it's outcome are gratifying.

I know this is coming a few months late but I've noticed Gran Torino still playing in a lot of theaters. I would recommend seeing it, especially since rumor has it that this is Clint's last starring role. Plus it's got a big bad-ass Ford in it.

Where To Begin

The new place is okay. We have been crazy busy with moving and new jobs. We had been staying with my mother-in-law, whom I love dearly but as anyone who has done it knows, an extended stay in a home other than yours just flat out sucks.

The last month and a half have been pretty busy and the move hasn’t been as smooth as our move to St Louis. We got lucky there, knew we wanted to rent for the first year and searched like crazy. The rental market in the St Charles area was a dream compared to Colorado Springs. It seems that the Springs, being home to Ft Carson, Peterson AFB and the Air Force Academy (among other’s) has a huge rental business. Finding a place wasn’t the issue, finding one we liked, in an area we liked was a different story. Colorado Springs is odd in that the condition of a given area swings wildly from block to block. We wanted a place like the one in St Charles originally. We were hoping for a nice older house with some modest restoration. The problem was the older historic areas hadn’t been taken over by the upwardly mobile young professionals I tend to despise. I despise them but I’m not too proud to reap the benefits of their obnoxious propensity for moving into an area, commercializing it, driving up property taxes and introducing freedom strangling covenants. We ended up in one of the cookie cutter neighborhoods on the north eastside that is rapidly developing into it’s own city. They do have an Old Chicago Pizza though so I guess cookie cutter is okay for now.

It's Been Too Long And I'm Glad To Be Back

There's been quite a lot of activity in the last month. We're in Colorado and finally got moved in to a place in the Springs a few weekends ago. It's okay. Not as charming as the place in St Charles but it'll do until we get our own place.

Lisa's sister and her friend from California came down yesterday and we cooked out (first barbeque in the new place). That was fun. We also went to see the Denver Avalanche play on Friday night. I've never been a fan of sports (although I like to go see baseball games) but for some reason I've always loved hockey, I don't know what it is.

This can't be too long but I just wanted to make sure I had something for February.