Dichotomy...

With all this rain today, there must be a rainbow somewhere.

Posted by Rev. Adam at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments

I've discovered my new favorite YouTube channel - FPE-TV. They interviewed Rex from Pantera a while ago and have had Shadows Fall on to give shredding lessons and Brian Beller (plays the part of William Murderface when Dethklok is on tour) to give bass lessons. Thrashtastic! Unfortunately, if Guitar Hero has taught me nothing else, it's that my fingers are utterly incapable of moving that fast.

Posted by Rev. Adam at 7:36 PM | Permalink | Comments

Bank of America has this thing they call a Portfolio which allows you to import your various other accounts and they track your usage, and can auto-login to the other accounts and all that good stuff. They also handle rewards clubs and credit cards. So anyway, I've been using it for a long time to get a quick glance at all my finances all in one place. One of the features they offer is a "net worth" calculation that adds up all your liquid assets and then subtracts all your debts. This number is obviously not a true worth as it only considers liquid assets and not the material colatteral used to secure things like auto loans or mortgages. But if it steadily goes up, you're building wealth, and if it steadily goes down, you're leaking money like a sieve. So, after closing on our house, I went online one day to see how poor I was, and this is what greeted me. Very very depressing. But hey, I have a house to live in and a car to drive and a job to go to, so really, as depressing as that huge red bar is, I'm pretty fortunate.

Posted by Rev. Adam at 4:49 PM | Permalink | Comments

Remember the Lexus commercial I railed about a couple years back? The one where they drop a car from 4000 feet while another car on the ground moving at top speed tried to out run it? The one that didn't seem right and I tried (miserably) to prove it wouldn't work that way? Well, fortunately for me, Mythbusters is the greatest show on TV, and proved this past week on their Demolition Derby super-episode that this commercial is impossible. The dropped car fell more-or-less wheels down most of the way (highest possible drag) and still hit the ground a full 2 seconds before the car on the ground reached the same point. Simulations are no match for real-world experimentation and the Discovery Channel just made Lexus look like chumps.

Posted by Rev. Adam at 10:22 AM | Permalink | Comments

I've been meaning to post this for a while now. This picture was from my cousin's wedding a couple weeks ago. It had been rainy most of the day, but when the time came for the couple to leave the reception, we all walked out front to see them off and there was a huge double rainbow across the sky. Not a bad way to end your wedding, or, if you're me, your anniversary. Just so happens that my cousin, also Emily and also a Bever, got married one year to the day after Emily and I did. Suffice it to say that having two Emily Bevers in the family for the last 365 days has produced its fair share of confusion. At any rate, that is all in the past, and we're back down to one Emily Bever again, as we sent the original off with her new husband, over the rainbow. Somewhat serendipitously, the father-daughter dance at the wedding was Rainbow Connection (not sung by Kermit the Frog, or MFATGG).

Posted by Rev. Adam at 2:48 PM | Permalink | Comments

Anderson Cooper 360: Blog Archive - Student Loan Nightmare: Help Wanted « - Blogs from CNN.com

Well boo hoo for you. If your lifelong dream was in a career field where you knew you wouldn't be able to pay off your loans, I have zero sympathy for you. Should you be able to attend the college of your choice? Sure. If you can pay for it. If it costs too much, work your way through school, go part time, get someone else to help pay for it (parent, employer, scholarship, etc), knock out core classes at a community college, or find some other way to not take on such massive amount of debt.

"I chose to go to a private school and I chose to work in a field where the starting salaries are low. Does that mean that I chose to live a life of struggle, wondering how I am going to pay my rent, afford the basics of living and still stay in my chosen career field…all while putting up with high interest rates and an amount of debt that brings me to tears?"

Yes. Yes it does. You had choices. You made them. Own up to it and quit crying for everyone else to bail you out because you made bad decisions. You signed up for loans you didn't understand? How is that my problem? Read the entire ream of paper before you sign it. I just bought a house. I spent hours doing research online before I even started looking for a mortgage or talking seriously about looking for a house. Then, I spent even more hours actually reading all the loan paperwork and closing documentation. It gave me a headache. But I read it all and asked questions about what I didn't understand.

Furthermore, "credit crisis" aside, lenders have no obligation to you to consolidate your loans. You agreed to pay the loan at the stated amount under the stated terms. A consolidation is a nice perk if you can get it, but you can't ever count on anything besides what the original terms of your loan were. And don't even get me started on Mr.(sic) Jackson's 1% brrowing plan... What bank would loan a student money at those rates?! The bank has no incentive!

I think this "article" finally pushed me over the edge to stop reading CNN. Looks like I'm back to the WSJ and Washington Post. Also, this kind of thing always reminds me of one of my favorite comics. Preach it brother Dilbert!

Posted by Rev. Adam at 6:11 PM | Permalink | Comments