So, Now What?: June 2012

This would be nice

Helmets

When I was growing up, we didn't wear helmets for anything. Now we know so much more about concussions and brain injuries that people are pushing for them more and more. Frankly I don't worry about it as much as I should with our kids, but they only ride in the driveway but I guess that that is still dangerous.

Now I don't ride a motorcycle but if I did there is no way I wouldn't have a helmet on my noggin. So why don't I insist on bike helmets? I guess it's just because I' m not used to them being necessary yet.

Diablo 3

Ok, so Diablo 3 is a really great game. I haven't played this much in a very long time on any game, but I have been completely obsessed with this just like I was with Diablo 2 when it came out.

They designed this series so well to appeal to your need to acquire better stuff, and it's so much fun chopping through hordes of enemies as you go along.

I've definitely got my money's worth out of it already.

Drummin

My son really loves the drums. He has completely worn out the drum set that we bought him when he was two and needs another one. I can see him eventually having cases all over his room and getting really good at it. Hopefully he will stick with it.

We have a couple of really good drummers at our church that could give him lessons so I hope to work that out for him as he gets older. That would be a really cool thing, and I love seeing my kids do things that they enjoy.

The Stooges

One of my favorite Three Stooges episodes is the one in which they are working as firemen. As usual they screw up everything and even get the fire hoses run over by street cars.

I really love watching them and so when the new movie came out I was really worried that they wouldn't do it justice. I was very thankfully wrong. The movie was great.

I laughed very hard and left feeling like the movie makers truly appreciated the stooges as much as I did and set out to really honor them with the movie.

Country

Despite growing up in a country area, I have never been much of a country person. I don't like country music, and don't wear Cowboy Hats or boots. I do like some things that could be considered country but not a lot.

But, I'm also not really a city person. I grew up in a small village so I wasn't in the country or the city.

It's been interesting as I have lived in cities and country areas in my life and enjoyed both. I seem to have the ability to appreciate both and can see pluses and minuses either way.

Rain!

Finally getting some rain today. Thankfully I won't have to water our garden for a few days. The sprinkler was all that was keeping our plants alive for the last few weeks during which we had extremely high temps and almost no precipitation.

The garden is doing really well this year but I always think that when the plants are small and easily corralled. We'll see how I feel in a few months when things are vining everywhere.

The New Third World

I'm reading a book right now about how the next major financial crisis is not defaulting banks but defaulting countries. If you are paying attention to the news at all you will see that this is more or less what is happening. Again it's not a key stock issue but a bad loan issue.

In the case of many of these countries they artificially inflated their own worth and borrowed against it creating a trap that was self sustaining until a point at which it blew up and created a crater for them to fall into.

I wonder how many years it will be before the world feels that our collective economies are growing again? It seems like it might take us quite a while.

Summer Jobs

I wonder if unemployment has a false improvement during the summer when all the college kids come home and get summer jobs. I could see the government trumping up all the job creation that happens in June and it being totally artificial. They will spend that money and that will help but it's an inflated stat because they won't stay in those jobs long term.

So if you see a big article touting the huge increase in jobs for June, take it with a grain of salt.

So, Now What?

Tuesday, June 05, 2012