Friday, October 10, 2008
Nazakashi!
Today I went to my favorite Japanese restaurant in the area Tachibana. For the first time on the menu, I saw gyuudon, which was my favorite food while in Japan. I had never seen this before in America and I was so happy. I've tried to make it myself a few times with complete failure. Don't get me wrong, my versions didn't taste bad, they just tasted nothing like this Japanese fast food. Just a bit of goodness in my week.
Thursday, October 09, 2008
What about me?
Wall Street, Main Street, families of America ect ect. I wish the news would shut up. Stop trying to yank my heart out to get at my wallet. People are worried about the common American household. Their government is worried about their millions as well as the millions of their friends on Wall Street. What about me? What about the people who work hard and save their money?
I'm only 26 years old. When my father was 25, he bought his first house. He never went to college and wasn't born into a wealthy family. He was just a hard worker. He got a loan for a house and within a few years paid it off. To give you some background, I'm from a small town in the mid-west. At the time, he paid 24,000 for the house. Granted its not some big city or anything, but for my father it was a lot of money. But within 2 years he paid it off. He lived frugally. He didn't make a lot of money, and he used what he made to pay off his debts. This is one of his lessons to me is to live without debt. Pay your credit card at the end of the month, get rid of any loans as soon as you can. This is how my family lived. My father is now 55 and he has done pretty well for not having a 100,000 dollar education. To me, he lived the American dream.
Fast forward 30 years to his son. I benefited from my father's savings. He never spent a lot of money on us kids, but he raised us to be responsible. He made sure I went to college so I would be better off than him. He helped me pay for it along with the loans and scholarships I received. I worked almost all throughout school at part time jobs on the campus. I double majored in Computer Science and Economics because I liked them and thought they would be good for my future. When I graduated I moved to DC to get a job. The cost of living was high. The first year or so I was just getting by, but now in my 5th year I am doing pretty well. I'm finally able to save money. I've been slowly paying off my debts. Now at 26, I begin to think of owning a house. In the middle of a housing bubble, what am I suppose to do? The minimum price for a house out here is around 350,000. If I owned a house already, maybe it would be easy to sell and upgrade. But with nothing what am I to do? I save my money. I have a decent size chunk of money in the bank. But could I, like my father buy a house and pay it off in less than 5 years? Not a chance. Not if I lived in the dark and ate ramen noodles every night.
Now that the right wing is suggesting giving the money to billionaires, and the left wing wants to give the money to people who bought houses they couldn't afford, what about me? I was willing to put in the work to own property. I do the research when I purchase things. Now I'm forced to subsidize those who live beyond their means. The money I have stored in the bank should be gaining value....it is quickly losing value. I am losing money by not being in debt. What sense does this make? I believe our forefathers would be sick if they saw us today. They might load up and go back to Europe.
I don't wear fancy clothes, I don't drive fancy cars, I don't spend more money than I could ever earn. I want to be able to build up my assets, not owe on them the rest of my life. I want to be able to leave something behind for my children. I want to teach them to be responsible with their money. How can I ever do this if the system rewards irresponsibility? I truly believe these are the feelings the founders of this nation felt when they decided to declare their independence. Now that all these people are so indebted to the banks, what are they to do when they cannot pay? Why should I pay for them? I wasn't living it up when things were good, why should I have to lower myself when things aren't so good?
I'm only 26 years old. When my father was 25, he bought his first house. He never went to college and wasn't born into a wealthy family. He was just a hard worker. He got a loan for a house and within a few years paid it off. To give you some background, I'm from a small town in the mid-west. At the time, he paid 24,000 for the house. Granted its not some big city or anything, but for my father it was a lot of money. But within 2 years he paid it off. He lived frugally. He didn't make a lot of money, and he used what he made to pay off his debts. This is one of his lessons to me is to live without debt. Pay your credit card at the end of the month, get rid of any loans as soon as you can. This is how my family lived. My father is now 55 and he has done pretty well for not having a 100,000 dollar education. To me, he lived the American dream.
Fast forward 30 years to his son. I benefited from my father's savings. He never spent a lot of money on us kids, but he raised us to be responsible. He made sure I went to college so I would be better off than him. He helped me pay for it along with the loans and scholarships I received. I worked almost all throughout school at part time jobs on the campus. I double majored in Computer Science and Economics because I liked them and thought they would be good for my future. When I graduated I moved to DC to get a job. The cost of living was high. The first year or so I was just getting by, but now in my 5th year I am doing pretty well. I'm finally able to save money. I've been slowly paying off my debts. Now at 26, I begin to think of owning a house. In the middle of a housing bubble, what am I suppose to do? The minimum price for a house out here is around 350,000. If I owned a house already, maybe it would be easy to sell and upgrade. But with nothing what am I to do? I save my money. I have a decent size chunk of money in the bank. But could I, like my father buy a house and pay it off in less than 5 years? Not a chance. Not if I lived in the dark and ate ramen noodles every night.
Now that the right wing is suggesting giving the money to billionaires, and the left wing wants to give the money to people who bought houses they couldn't afford, what about me? I was willing to put in the work to own property. I do the research when I purchase things. Now I'm forced to subsidize those who live beyond their means. The money I have stored in the bank should be gaining value....it is quickly losing value. I am losing money by not being in debt. What sense does this make? I believe our forefathers would be sick if they saw us today. They might load up and go back to Europe.
I don't wear fancy clothes, I don't drive fancy cars, I don't spend more money than I could ever earn. I want to be able to build up my assets, not owe on them the rest of my life. I want to be able to leave something behind for my children. I want to teach them to be responsible with their money. How can I ever do this if the system rewards irresponsibility? I truly believe these are the feelings the founders of this nation felt when they decided to declare their independence. Now that all these people are so indebted to the banks, what are they to do when they cannot pay? Why should I pay for them? I wasn't living it up when things were good, why should I have to lower myself when things aren't so good?
Politicization
Yes, I know its been a long long time since I've written anything in my blog. Life is pretty good, job's going well, my girlfriend Taylor is doing well, dance is going well, Urban Artistry is doing well.
Now on to what inspired me to write. When I was in highschool I was very political. Not left or right or whatever, I was always kind of anti-all major political parties. Growing up, I voted democrat because I always felt that candidate was the lesser of two evils. I really didn't like George Bush and thought he was very under-qualified to be the president....look where he got us. So my whole life, I have been voting to keep someone out of office. This notion of democracy sickens me.
How can I always be against someone and not for someone? In my opinion, 95% of democrats and republicans are corrupt. Do you think the will of the people determines the course in Washington? Or in any government for that matter? I believe that corporations have taken this country over. They have the most money, they have more rights than citizens, and they've been raping us for the last century at least.
6 months ago I had a revelation. I was looking through articles on one of the sites I visit and came across an article about this Congressman Dr. Ron Paul. People really seemed to like him, so I took a look at what he had to say. I really liked his message. I looked into his record, I saw his supporters, and I felt like politics had a purpose for me again. For the first time in my life, I contributed money to a political campaign. But I felt the mainstream was ignoring his message. Everyone in his party and even in the mainstream media treated him like a joke. People's support for him was so fervent. To me this was what America was about. Someone was going to protect my freedoms. My freedom of privacy, my freedom of speech, and my freedom to succeed OR FAIL.
Of course, he did not win. It was hard to get his message out because he wasn't being blasted on Faux News 24/7. There were so many videos of the primaries and the poles where people were voting for him (1 vote per person), and in the line you saw McCain and other candidates people voting hundreds of time. All this because they paid more money. Which is what really runs Washington anyway.
So come now to 2 to 3 months ago, both candidates had been chosen, Obama for the dems and McCain for the reps. What I had seen about Obama I liked and he was pretty charismatic. McCain seemed like same shit different pot as the current regime. A military brat fuck up who's claim as a war hero is a joke. The election was going ok, and for the most part I had decided to vote Obama as he would do the least harms to America.
Come around to a week or two ago and you hear in the news there's a huge financial crisis on wallstreet as well as the financial sector of the economy. The plan to save America? 700 Billion dollars. To who? Former CEO of Goldman Sachs Henry Paulson. Stipulations for the bailout? No oversight, no chance of repercussions. In other words, give me the money, no questions asked. If you're against us then you obviously want America to fail and the sky will fall down. By the way we needed this money last week. OR WE WILL ALL DIE! There will be a depression to make the "great depression" seem like happy days.
So congress goes to session to push this bill through. And who are the experts they consult? Oh, just the same fools who created the problem in the first place, paid themselves multi-millions of dollars, and have the greatest amount to lose from the meltdown in the financial sector. Brilliant! I was so mad at this bill, for the first time in my life I wrote my congressman. Round 1, the House rejects the bill. I was so happy. I felt for the first time in my life, the will of the people was listened to.
Round 2: The senate decided to write the bill over again, added an extra 150 billion to the amount and approved it in a landslide. I was so angry. I had written to both presidential candidates telling them that I was against this, as did many other concerned Americans. Did the candidates listen? Did the senate listen? No, all those banks that BOUGHT their votes got their way. Who gets the money from the bailout? Those rich mother fuckers! Those people who own 7 houses like McCain! Not that the government should be giving ANYONE money, but they gave it all to the causes of the problems. I listened to all the hearings, and those in the support of the bill were so full of shit and had no clue what they were talking about. They just repeat how dire it is and how the American people need this. BS, the American people rejected it, our government didn't listen.
Did the bailout work? No. Wallstreet is going down like any plain McCain has ever jumped into the cockpit of. No one can stop it. Do you know why? People are tired of funny money. The assets of this country are so overvalued its ridiculous. There has been a huge assortment of bubbles for the last 30 years at least. Well henny penny, its time to let some air out. Do I suggest we do nothing? No. I think first we need to find out those fraudulent people who benefited the most from this, arrest them, and throw them in jail with the rest of the robbers. Because white collar crime still has victims, and its cost is much greater. Inventing money out of thin air doesn't work. It just taxes the rest of us who actually work for our money rather than selling imaginary pieces of money written on paper. Its time to get rid of the fed, they are a leech on the American people.
So now since I wrote letters to Obama and McCain, they both think I am a supporter. Even though I was sending them an ultimatum regarding my support. They never read my message. They did what the people who bought them told them to. Now they want me to believe its for the best of America. I'm not stupid, I won't drink the kool-aid.
For once in my life, even if everyone tells me I'm throwing my vote away, I'm voting for a third party. I'm tired of the way this country is run and I want change. Real change. Not Obama's fake change. All the democrats and republicans do is sell out America to different special interests. That's their only difference, they have the same core beliefs save a few that they make seem like such big deals. This rant is over for now.
Move along.
Now on to what inspired me to write. When I was in highschool I was very political. Not left or right or whatever, I was always kind of anti-all major political parties. Growing up, I voted democrat because I always felt that candidate was the lesser of two evils. I really didn't like George Bush and thought he was very under-qualified to be the president....look where he got us. So my whole life, I have been voting to keep someone out of office. This notion of democracy sickens me.
How can I always be against someone and not for someone? In my opinion, 95% of democrats and republicans are corrupt. Do you think the will of the people determines the course in Washington? Or in any government for that matter? I believe that corporations have taken this country over. They have the most money, they have more rights than citizens, and they've been raping us for the last century at least.
6 months ago I had a revelation. I was looking through articles on one of the sites I visit and came across an article about this Congressman Dr. Ron Paul. People really seemed to like him, so I took a look at what he had to say. I really liked his message. I looked into his record, I saw his supporters, and I felt like politics had a purpose for me again. For the first time in my life, I contributed money to a political campaign. But I felt the mainstream was ignoring his message. Everyone in his party and even in the mainstream media treated him like a joke. People's support for him was so fervent. To me this was what America was about. Someone was going to protect my freedoms. My freedom of privacy, my freedom of speech, and my freedom to succeed OR FAIL.
Of course, he did not win. It was hard to get his message out because he wasn't being blasted on Faux News 24/7. There were so many videos of the primaries and the poles where people were voting for him (1 vote per person), and in the line you saw McCain and other candidates people voting hundreds of time. All this because they paid more money. Which is what really runs Washington anyway.
So come now to 2 to 3 months ago, both candidates had been chosen, Obama for the dems and McCain for the reps. What I had seen about Obama I liked and he was pretty charismatic. McCain seemed like same shit different pot as the current regime. A military brat fuck up who's claim as a war hero is a joke. The election was going ok, and for the most part I had decided to vote Obama as he would do the least harms to America.
Come around to a week or two ago and you hear in the news there's a huge financial crisis on wallstreet as well as the financial sector of the economy. The plan to save America? 700 Billion dollars. To who? Former CEO of Goldman Sachs Henry Paulson. Stipulations for the bailout? No oversight, no chance of repercussions. In other words, give me the money, no questions asked. If you're against us then you obviously want America to fail and the sky will fall down. By the way we needed this money last week. OR WE WILL ALL DIE! There will be a depression to make the "great depression" seem like happy days.
So congress goes to session to push this bill through. And who are the experts they consult? Oh, just the same fools who created the problem in the first place, paid themselves multi-millions of dollars, and have the greatest amount to lose from the meltdown in the financial sector. Brilliant! I was so mad at this bill, for the first time in my life I wrote my congressman. Round 1, the House rejects the bill. I was so happy. I felt for the first time in my life, the will of the people was listened to.
Round 2: The senate decided to write the bill over again, added an extra 150 billion to the amount and approved it in a landslide. I was so angry. I had written to both presidential candidates telling them that I was against this, as did many other concerned Americans. Did the candidates listen? Did the senate listen? No, all those banks that BOUGHT their votes got their way. Who gets the money from the bailout? Those rich mother fuckers! Those people who own 7 houses like McCain! Not that the government should be giving ANYONE money, but they gave it all to the causes of the problems. I listened to all the hearings, and those in the support of the bill were so full of shit and had no clue what they were talking about. They just repeat how dire it is and how the American people need this. BS, the American people rejected it, our government didn't listen.
Did the bailout work? No. Wallstreet is going down like any plain McCain has ever jumped into the cockpit of. No one can stop it. Do you know why? People are tired of funny money. The assets of this country are so overvalued its ridiculous. There has been a huge assortment of bubbles for the last 30 years at least. Well henny penny, its time to let some air out. Do I suggest we do nothing? No. I think first we need to find out those fraudulent people who benefited the most from this, arrest them, and throw them in jail with the rest of the robbers. Because white collar crime still has victims, and its cost is much greater. Inventing money out of thin air doesn't work. It just taxes the rest of us who actually work for our money rather than selling imaginary pieces of money written on paper. Its time to get rid of the fed, they are a leech on the American people.
So now since I wrote letters to Obama and McCain, they both think I am a supporter. Even though I was sending them an ultimatum regarding my support. They never read my message. They did what the people who bought them told them to. Now they want me to believe its for the best of America. I'm not stupid, I won't drink the kool-aid.
For once in my life, even if everyone tells me I'm throwing my vote away, I'm voting for a third party. I'm tired of the way this country is run and I want change. Real change. Not Obama's fake change. All the democrats and republicans do is sell out America to different special interests. That's their only difference, they have the same core beliefs save a few that they make seem like such big deals. This rant is over for now.
Move along.
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