Financial Kauai Sis

Oops I did it again, I let over a week pass without blogging. Omigod, how will I keep my loyal readers this way? Those three will desert me!!

I shouldn't be blogging this week because I'm supposed to be WORKING. I have a craft fair on Saturday: Matsuri Festival at the Kauai Convention Hall. I've also been given some work online after a dry spell. As they say, "When it rains it pours!"

I'm perverted, I really am. Whenever I have a ton of work to do I tend to get right down to business playing Tetris...and now writing on my blog.

I've been debating whether or not to mention last night's debate. You know what they say about not discussing religion and politics. [Have you noticed how much I cite what THEY say? I'LL just say it shows that I'm a good listener!]. Anyway, I did watch the debate even though I didn't care to. At one point I turned to Leonard and said, "Aw, I'm starting to feel sorry for John McCain!" But no, I won't give him the pity vote like some people give Cloris Leachman. I won't go into anymore details, but I do suggest you visit factcheck.org to cut through any bull that was dished out. This is important enough to mention, however, because many people might actually believe Mr. McCain when he took credit for the idea of bailing out homeowners. This idea is already part of the bailout plan and Obama had mentioned a similar plan two weeks ago. Gomer Pyle would say, "Shame, shame, SHAME, John McCain!"

So how are you all faring in this financial crisis? It's supposed to get worse. If nothing else, it may finally force people to realize what's truly important in life, rather than buying 700-count bedsheets (that puka in 3 months! see blog below) or $300 handbags that are COPIES of $3000 handbags. Of course the more we consume, the better for the economy...right? But it just seems fundamentally wrong to spend beyond your means and even if you HAVE the means, it seems fundamentally wrong to be feeding your dog caviar while homeless children are eating out of dumpsters. Did you hear about the AIG employees having a WEEK of partying at the five-star St. Regis Hotel (total cost to AIG almost a half million dollars) just after Congress voted to bail them out of bankruptcy? Nice, really nice. I say let's send the paparazzi over there and let them do something productive for a change. I'd also like someone to track down those finance CEO's who got away with billions. Let's stop harrassing Britney, we know what she looks like already and she isn't costing America 700 billion.

Ok, back to work while I watch "Dog the Bounty Hunter". I'm waiting to see the episode they filmed on Kauai. He's not as funny as Stephanie Plum, but that's because he's more competent. Of course Beth looks like she is on the same diet Stephanie is on. I'm talking about the Trenton New Jersey diet (Tasty Kakes, pizza, cheeseburgers, doughnuts). I say that in an affectionate way. I like that the Chapmans have such big hearts.

P.S. Tonight I watched the Travel Channel and saw a $1000 ice cream concoction served at a New York restaurant. Gucci bags? Waste of money! Gold-coated ice cream sundae (rare chocolate, Madagascar vanilla, etc.)? I'll have to sample first.

Midlife on Kauai Watching TV

Wow I can't believe how quickly a week goes by! Since I have nothing pressing to address, do you know why time flies by faster the older you get? The explanation I remember (and I forgot the source, sorry!) was that as you get older, each day/week/month/year represents a smaller and smaller percentage of your life so it seems shorter and shorter. For example, to two-year olds, one year is half (50%)of their lives! To 50 year olds, it's just 2%, a very small fraction in comparison to what they've experienced. That makes good sense to me. Have you noticed that when you go on vacation, if you go to a place you've visited often the days pass by faster? If you go to a new place, however, time there is more memorable and seems to pass a bit slower. So it makes sense to me that time passes more slowly for kids since for them, almost everything is "new".

What I thought I'd write about today has to do with television. Big surprise. Who watched David Blaine last night? Not me..well I watched a total of maybe ten minutes off and on. I don't like to see anything that makes me uncomfortable or sad or mad. That leaves a lot of programming out, but my blood pressure is healthy. I enjoy David's street magic, though. I'm also a curious person who has to know how things end, so I got online to google David to see what happened. Everyone seems annoyed at him. Maybe because he didn't die? I think it's shameful the way people were insulting him online, and I hope those comment posters were stupid kids and not stupid adults. Kids, to me, are not necessarily under 18...many 20somethings are still kids (as I was until perhaps age 25). I had to leave a comment that although I don't care for his strange feats, I did admire him earlier in his career and that was enough for me. After all, how many people impress me? Relatively few, so if you impress me once that's pretty good. I wouldn't scorn him for putting on a two-hour program that ends in what apparently was a screwed-up trick (his "death fall").

I do scorn, however, the network and sponsors that produced the program. They only did it, however, because they know that viewers would watch. Online, people were grumbling about wasting two hours watching, about David taking 5 minute upright breaks, about him falling 40 feet but being attached to a wire (uh, duh!), etc. Oh my god, they confuse human being David with cartoon character BatMan, it seems. How sad is that? Why do people criticize people that they are not obligated to watch and who do extraordinary things (albeit not necessarily valuable)?

Do you hear me publicly criticizing Cloris Leachman for still being on "Dancing With the Stars"?? I just switch the channel in annoyance instead and silently berate the viewers that voted for her. I don't really blame her for her mediocre dancing and hamming it up with the judges, I blame people who vote for her because now I'll have to channel surf when she appears again. Her antics got old for us the second night. Upon seeing her voted through last night, I promptly protested by watching the Travel Channel's Hotdog show and Dog the Bounty Hunter. Haha, I always said I'm a dog person.

My hub and I enjoyed watching people scarf hotdogs all over the U.S. It reminded me of my current favorite fictional heroine, Stephanie Plum, the bounty hunter. Steph is a notorious junk food junky from New Junky..I mean Jersey. She exists on take-out food, Tasty Kakes, and doughnuts. Yummm!

Steph is fictional,so she can eat all the chili dogs and Tasty Kakes she wants, but don't do it! Take this Chinese milk situation. It's a particularly tragic example of what technology and greed can do. The same thing is happening to us in the U.S., only less noticeably. I know of too many people under 60 who have passed away or have serious health issues. My mom's generation seems healthier than ours because they haven't been eating junk food all their lives. The majority of us are existing on pesticide-sprayed, genetically altered, overprocessed food with unpronounceable food additives.

America is so proud of democracy, capitalism, and free enterprise, but there may come a day when some historian says "guess it wasn't such a great system after all!" The idea is great, it's the human element that I worry about.

To end on a lighter note, my mom's friend claims she lowered her blood pressure by eating dark chocolate every day. Time to experiment!