The Adjustable Rate Mortgage

My 3/1 ARM adjusted for the first time.  Yes, I am still going to try and get a loan mod so I can get this monster fixed, but the news for this year is very good.

My rate adjusted down 1.75%.  It will stay at it’s new lower rate for the next year, and it will save me $375 per month.  I’m thrilled!

Bottom 3: Infomercial Personalities

These are the three most annoying infomercial pitch men.

#3. Billy Mays – Mays has pitched many products but is most famous for Orange Glow, Oxiclean, and now Mighty Putty. He’s probably a nice guy, but why does he have to yell all the time?

#2. Vince Offer – This was a close call. He was so close to being number one because of his incredibly annoying Shamwow and Slap Chop commercials. Half the time, I don’t know what the heck he’s talking about. You Tube has tons of parodies for Vince Offer and some of them are vulgar. It’s his fault though for throwing in phrases off the wall that are borderline vulgar. He’s a weird looking guy anyway.

#1. Kevin Trudeau – This is the knucklehead who got rich off people’s health and financial misery/ignorance. He wrote the much hyped Natural Cures, Weight Loss Cures, and Debt Cures “They” Don’t Want You to Know About. It looked like a sham to me, but a friend who actually purchased them said it was a complete waste. His mannerisms and insistence that the FDA is try to shut him up are also two contributing factors to his place at #1 on this list. I don’t want the government to shut him up, but I would like to shut him up.

Taxing Thoughts

-Yesterday, Marcela and I filed our taxes.
-After dropping about $200 on tax preparation, I believe we will go ahead and purchase Turbo Tax.
-Tax time is stressful, especially when you have not completely prepared everything.
-It’s also stressful when you owe money. We owed.
-I enjoyed reading Ritz’s review of TSP’s Anthems for a Broken World.
-One week and three days from now, Marcela and I will be sailing across the Caribbean, making stops in Cozumel, Grand Caymen, and Ocho Rios Jamaica.
-Dunns River Falls will be one of our excursions.
-We will also do some snorkeling with stingrays in Grand Caymen, and maybe some snorkeling on the reefs in Cozumel.
-The NCAA Tournament is about to start up the round of 16 and then 8, and as of now I am sitting nicely at 40-8 in my picks.
-This is my best start ever, but I know things can change fast.
-D Wade barely missed a 3 at the buzzer that would have won the game for Miami. In the last couple minutes, Miami out scored Indiana 8-0 and ended up losing by 2.
-Jeopardy is fun to watch. This week was their annual Tournament of Champions where first prize is $250,000.
-This was the youngest group of contestants ever on the JTOC.
-Yes, I also watched some Dancing With the Stars this week. I want David Allen Greer to win it all. He’s one of my favorite all time comedians.
-The outage is in full swing. After two weeks, the work schedule is almost 60 hours behind.
-That means a possible extended outage and overtime.
-I am working OT today, and I’m loving it.
-I don’t love missing Sunday morning at Life Pointe Church.
-President Obama seems to be completely lost, and just throwing money at everything that moves while claiming to be for fiscal responsibility. Excuse me? Fiscal responsibility is not paying off large corporations and calling for regulation. Who’s regulating him?
-I think my crock pot is wearing out on me. I made a pot roast with potatoes and carrots that took over an hour longer than normal.
-I’m interested in seeing Slumdog Millionaire, but I haven’t decided whether to wait for the DVD or go see it at the theater.

Friday Bottom 3: Annoying Advertisement

Don’t you hate intrusive sales pitches and advertisements? 30 or more years ago, I am sure the #1 on this list would have been door-to-door, but those days appear to be done. I know these methods work because they are so widely used, even by the church. 🙂

#3. Spam – Endless useless emails flood everyone’s inbox on a daily, scratch that, hourly basis these days. Most of the time they are selling a financial scheme or some sexual aid/medical product.

#2. Junk Mail – I have noticed a serious reduction in credit card offers and pre-approved home loan offers over the last 6 months, but a massive increase in loan modification and real estate attorney letters. All that junk gets confusing, especially when they try to make it look like an official letter from my mortgage bank.

#1. The Telemarketer – I put my name on the no call list, but somehow I still get unsolicited business calls and faxes. The faxes are most annoying because they are wasting my ink and I can’t block them. Unknown Callers do not get answered at my house.

My Own Thoughts

-For 5 months, overtime has been virtually non existent for me. I have worked 2 days of OT since September.

-New graduating classes, rough job market (people are hanging on to the job they have), and projects closing out combined to turn 5-10 overtime slots into 3 or more extra personnel every day, more or less.

-The only way to get overtime was to wake up on your off day at 4 AM and call in to see if the shift was running short from call outs or new projects that popped up.

-Today will is the third day of OT for me in the past 3 weeks. It’s very helpful considering that I am going on vacation.

-Today also marks a raise for me, which is going to be amplified by my OT.

-I interviewed on Monday for operations. I have been told that 40 people are fighting for 15 job openings. In all, I feel my chances are pretty slim this go around, but if this door is shut then I trust God.

-Hind sight is 20/20. I have learned so much from all my mistakes and even successes. God is so good even when (especially when) I don’t deserve it.

-This year is about 18% over. It seems like we just celebrated New Year’s Day. Wow!

-I can’t wait to get my $13 extra each week in my paycheck. This is what Democrats call a substantive tax cut.

-What’s up with Pelosi dancing around like a giddy school girl during Obama’s address to the congress? How did she get where she is?

–What is the website number to track porkulus spending?

Bottom 3: Economic Recovery Strategies

We are in an official recession, the GDP is projected to shrink for the next calendar year, unemployment is sky rocketing, more people have filed for unemployment claims than in history, there are record foreclosures, home prices are still dropping, the stock market is having a difficult time finding the bottom, and to top it all off, inflation has surged higher than was expected. How are we going to recover and get back on solid financial ground? Let me give you the bottom 3 ways to accomplish economic recovery.

#3. Reward Bad Behavior – Our government led by Pelosi and Reid and back benched by our supposed leader, President Obama has written into this stimulus package (and they are already discussing stimulus part 2) that if you are behind in your mortgage then you can be eligible for the banks to reduce your principle and interest and write the amount due to the back end of your mortgage so you will no longer be behind. That’s great, if you are behind. What about those who are not behind? Should we quit paying our mortgages so we can get a better interest rate and reduce the amount we owe also lowering our monthly payment? Sounds like a brilliant plan to me… NOT.

#2. Spend More – I seem to recall all the Bush haters saying the reason the economy stinks was due to the $10 Billion monthly we were spending in Iraq combined with the ridiculous amounts of pork barrel spending by members of congress. Now those same Bush bashers are saying the only way we can get out of the financial mess we are in is by spending more to the tune of $3.2 trillion over the next 5 years on various pork projects and government programs as long as we call it a stimulus plan. This stimulus plan was no plan at all, and it definitely is not stimulative. If spending recklessly got us in this mess, how will multiplying the amount of spending all the while being even more reckless help? Are they trying to fight fire with fire? I didn’t like the out-of-control spending when Bush was president, but it seems like there is so much hypocrisy here. With a Republican president, spending is called reckless, pork projects, and “out-of-control”, but with Democrat Obama, it’s called stimulus. Inflation is coming fast and hard.

#1. Raise Taxes – We haven’t done it yet, but you can be sure that it is coming. The key words those on the right are listening for are phrases like “pay your fair share”, economic and social justice, targeted tax cuts, tax credits, and “investment”. Politicians who use those words really mean TAX INCREASE for those who actually pay taxes to foot the bill for those who do not pay taxes (but they receive loads of services). Yes, we have heard those words used over the past few months, so we know that the tax increases are coming. After all, it’s only fair. Right?

In my humble opinion, it seems as if President PelosiReidObama is doing everything they can to make sure the economy does not recover. In fact, this outrageous generational theft (McCain’s term for this “Stimulus Plan”) is going to lengthen and deepen the recession into a possible depression.

Nancy Pelosi, Please Shut Up

How did she get elected?  Further, how did she get selected by her peers as the Speaker of the House?  The population of the USA is about 300 million, yet we could lose 500 million jobs?

Wednesday Quotable

America is a land of taxation that was founded to avoid taxation.  ~Laurence J. Peter

Obviously Peter knew what he was talking about. Originally, we revolted from England because of taxation without representation, but taxation with representation ain’t so hot either.

As a political conservative, it burns me to see big pro-tax liberals like the former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle who pushes for higher taxes for the rich yet he tries to avoid paying the taxes he is legally required (to the tune of $150,000). President Barack Obama said that he fully supported Daschle, that he is a good man who made a simple honest mistake and corrected it. One issue is that Daschle did not pay the back taxes and penalties until he was nominated for Obama’s cabinet yet he knew about it since July of 2008. Another issue is that any other normal citizen would have been prosecuted for tax evasion for an “honest mistake” of this size. The truth of it all is that the federal government owes an apology to Al Capone for being mistreated.

Well shoot, maybe he would have qualified under the Obama administration as a Secretary of Health and Human Services, or maybe the Secretary of the Treasury, or possibly the Performance Czar.

Various Thoughts

-I enjoy this blog entry because the topics are whatever pops in my head while I write.

-There is a lot of junk in my head sometimes; it’s nice to get it out.

-I am working overtime for only the second day since September. The only other time I worked OT, it was on a call in. This time I actually signed up and got notice Tuesday that I would get the OT. This comes in very timely since I lost almost 4 hours of work last week due to training and qualification.

-Also, I’ll be working this weekend so I will not be able to join you at the theater for our weekly Life Pointe Sunday party.

-I requested two more vacation days and it was ultimately approved. I now have all of Spring Break off.

-I will be looking for a 7 day cruise to fit my scheduled time. Right now I am leaning towards MSC Cruises (The Orchestra) to Key West, Cozumel, Grand Cayman, and Dominican Republic.

-There are some serious deals right now, even on Spring Break. I assume that it is due to the economy. Check out Vacations To Go to see what I am talking about.

-Speaking of the economy… My stand by for my first political rant since the new prez took office.

-ACORN was accused of voter fraud in the presidential election this year and years past. In this new so-called economic stimulus package ($890 billion), $5.2 billion has been set aside for neighborhood foreclosure relief. $4.19 billion of that is supposed to go to ACORN.

-How does this pass the smell test? ACORN helps perpetrate fraud, then gets a $4.19 billion cash kickback. Like they say, “Dance with the one who brung ya.”. It makes me sick.

-Max really hates being brushed. Marcela normally does it, but I figured I would help her with that duty. I don’t want the little mop to despise her because she wants to keep his hair looking handsome.

-The little runt growled at me and then snapped when I was trying to take out a knot.

-I work Super Bowl Sunday, but I should get home before the end of the first quarter. Anybody hosting a party? Naw, you guys should be down in Plantation Key, right?

-My heart wants the Arizona Hurricanes (Cardinals) to win, but my head tells me that the Steelers are going to win this with their dominating D.

-I want Edgerrin James, Calais Campbell, and especially Antrel Rolle to win their first Super Bowl rings.

-The Edge left Indy the year before they won their Super Bowl title. I’d love to see him not only win a ring, but to be a major part of the victory.

-Last night I watched a show called “I Shouldn’t Be Alive” on Animal Planet. I am sure they embellished a little, but the show was riveting. They told a story with reenactment of a couple who were hiking a trail in the Amazon Basin when they got lost. Using a compass, they actually went in the opposite direction because the map was flipped with North at the bottom and South at the top. They were stranded 6 days before finding their way to a river where they were rescued by a boatman. I highly recommend the show, but be warned that it contains some disturbing and mature content due to the nature of the material.

-I’ll see you at LPC a week from Sunday if not sooner!

Thoughtsgiving

• I love Thanksgiving so much.  I am so grateful to have the time available.
• I was planning on having to work today, and I looked forward to the money that comes from double time for two days (tomorrow is also a holiday).  But I decided that a little extra money is not as nice as having the time to spend with my wife and family.
• There is Christmas music playing in my living room, two freshly made pumpkin pies in the fridge, a ham in the oven, a broccoli casserole being prepared by Marcela, and a orange/cranberry relish being chilled.  My mom is making the turkey and dressing, Kelly is preparing the rolls, mashed taters, and sweet potato casserole.  We are going to have a grand feast!
• Marcela and I will go out tomorrow and buy a couple of things, and I am sure it will be a madhouse.  But unfortunately, we do not have a plan except that we will look for a few DVD’s.
• Today we will eat, watch some football, play a few board games and Wii, and hopefully get a chance to watch some Christmas specials.
• Max just got finished running around like a mad dog.  It was funny seeing him try to keep up with the neighbor’s Belgian Malanois.  The neighbor’s dog’s name is Phoenix, and she loves Max.  But Max is so low to the ground that he has to jump up to play with Phoenix.  Phoenix is an expert fetcher, but Max is just learning.

Have a happy and blessed Thanksgiving!