Monthly Archives: September 2008
Sold Out
Just a quick update from the last post…The Beach Boys concert was sold out by the time I got there, so it was a no-go.
The Beach Boys and F-15′s!
A couple of neat things…first of all, I’m going to be leaving here shortly to see The Beach Boys at Hostfest in downtown Minot at the state fairgrounds! This is gonna be so cool!
And, I got some really neat pictures of an F-15 fighter jet at work today. They retired the jet not too long ago, and they are in the process of stripping it down to make it a display on base. We got tapped to help move it to another location on the airfield, and while we were out there we were able to snap some photos of it. It used to fly for the Florida Air National Guard. The pics are below, check them out! I’ll also post about the concert later on when I get home!
So, how’s your money doing these days?
The $700 Billion financial bailout bill failed miserably in the House of Representatives yesterday. What does this mean for you? If you have money tucked away under your mattress, it’s probably a lot safer than in any bank account at the moment. Unless your money is insured by the bank, it might be a safe bet to pull out for a little while and let this problem (more like a crisis) be solved…which could take several months at the least. I’ve recently pulled every dime I had out of the stock market, and cashed in my 401K from Walmart. Also, I’ve reduced the amount of money being invested in my Thrift Savings Plan account with the Air Force from 6% down to just 2 -3 %. The TSP is just the military version of a 401K retirement account. Several of the largest banks in the nation have recently collapsed and made a huge mess behind for the rest of us.
I think the bill was important for us to pass. No, it wasn’t popular with taxpayers, however, it was necessary. Breaking it down, the $700 Billion dollars equals out to about $5,400 per taxpayer. Why do I support this? Because in the long term, the costs would be much greater after factoring in possible tax hikes due to this. A one-time pay in from our government on our behalf for this amount is much less harsh than a permanent tax increase for the rest of us to stabilize the financial situation. Also, it wasn’t even guaranteed that the entire $700 Billion would be used. The initial payout would be in the ballpark of $150 – $250 Billion, as a start. The rest of the payout was to be decided after several stages of analysis on how much the first payout had affected the situation in a positive way. Therefore, if only this amount had to be used, the $5,400 per taxpayer would significantly decrease even more.
Nothing in this world is guaranteed…not relationships, not peace, and most of all…not the security of our money.
My only word of advice? A recession will soon be here, so prepare. We’re due for one, it’s just the financial cycle and how it works. It’s inevitable, even if everything goes as planned. Pay attention to where your money is, how safe it is, and make sure you are able at all times to pull it out of the bank at any given moment. Yesterday, the stock market plunged almost 800 points – the largest one day drop in the history of trading in the Unites States. Investors aren’t stupid…they know what’s coming.
This is my title and I’m sticking to it…
I know I’m posting kinda late tonight, but I was just so tired I had to take a nap after work. But no need to fear, Kyle is now here! I must have fallen asleep with the TV on MTV, because when I woke up, “The Hills” was on…yeah…not much to say about that.
I had a dental appointment today for a filling…so for half the day my mouth was all numbed up. Pleasant.
My latest lyric “Pray for You” looks like it’s made a pretty good impression. For the first time in about a month and a half I’ve had some good reviews. A step in the right direction I guess.
I’m getting the feeling I was going to write something else, but it’s not coming to me at the moment. Oh well. I’m watching ‘Boston Legal’ right now…’The Hills’ just wasn’t quite doing it for me. Bye!
Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, It’s Off to Guam We Go
This coming week is going to be an interesting one indeed. We have several B-52′s that are scheduled to leave for a five month deployment to Guam. Two bombers will take off per day, everyday this week. After the last one departs out of Minot at the end of the week, we’ll only have a handful left. What does this mean? It means a really long, quiet fall/early Winter season. It’s ok for me though, because the slower it is, the more free time I’ll have to work on my training requirements. Quite a few members of the church are leaving for Guam as well to help support the bomber mission. Guam is simply a connection point to Asia from the U.S. It’s an extremely large base, occupied by both the Air Force as well as the Marine Corps. Guam’s role for us has been huge in conducting exercises to prepare us for any conflict with anyone in the surrounding regions. Guam is a paradise, and one of the most sought-after deployment locations…which can make it tough to go there. Germany, Italy, Guam and South Korea seem to be the most requested overseas deployments among Air Force personnel…and I think you can guess why.
Yesterday, I was watching ‘House Hunters’ on HGTV. It featured an Air Force member and his wife searching for a house near Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama. I just thought it was neat.
There’s nothing else to report at the moment. Have a great evening!
Ssgt. Prince – Thank You
I ended up going to Rockers at about 4:30 to get supper. Chicken fingers and BBQ boneless wings…it was really good and I’m about to have some leftovers here shortly.
I’ve been thinking about some things that have gone on with me so far this year. I was thinking about who has helped me out the most this year and who I owe the most thanks too. In the end, I really think I owe my thanks this year to Ssgt. Prince, my Basic Taining Instructor. Yes, it’s her job to take 55 ordinary people and turn them into warriors, but without people like her, this couldn’t have been possible for me. To them, they might be doing just a “job” – but to me, that job is one of the most rewarding you can have in my opinion. Even though it was “boot camp,” she took a different approach to it. She wasn’t about the yelling, she wasn’t about the insults, and she wasn’t about the humiliation you typically would find in that environment. She was about being helpful, she was about making you the best you can be, and she was about being your “parent figure” away from home. It’s this approach that made me the best I can be. Up until March 25,2008, I really believed I was the best I could be. Six and a half weeks later, it was actually true.
Baby, you can rock my dorm
I just came across “Dirty Harry” on TV…so that’s what I’m watching right now. The base is hosting a “Rock the Dorms” event just around the corner from me, and I can hear all the music and commotion over there from that. It’s just an event where you can go eat and listen to music in the parking lot of JR Rockers (our sports bar/restaurant)…like a mini-base carnival for dorm residents. They do it every couple months or so. I’m gonna head to Rockers here soon for some food.
Around 1am last night, some really good ideas popped into my head for a new lyric, so I’m in the process of writing a new one as we speak. “A Journey Without You” has failed miserably. This new one is called “Pray for You”…and no, it’s not what you think it is.
So, now I’m lounging around and enjoying the day. It’s nice and sunny, but really breezy so it cools it off a bit. It’s manageable, however.
Later everyone!
Like totally, yeah, I mean…dude, totally, like yeah
I managed to take a short hour and a half nap this evening from about 5:30 until 7:00. From then on it’s been nothing but loud music and surfing the net for me. Tonight’s been one of those out of the ordinary nights as far as friends go. My hands have been going a hundred miles an hour trying to keep up with all the messages on my computer and my phone…eek.
I’ve been summonsed to Pogo…And you never argue with that. Hasta!
On wearing her brother’s pants…
All aboard! Let the sight-seeing begin!
Now that I’m a bloated bubble from eating Taco Bell, it’s time to share the day’s events! We had no flights departing from the base today, but there was a KC-135 practicing some touch-and-goes for about an hour and a half. All that means, is that they take off….land….take off…land….yeah, over and over again - you get the point. We hosted what’s called a ‘joint inspection’ of the airfield today. It’s when members of each squadron come out and do a bus tour of the airfield and help us identify hazards, problem areas, etc…I was given the task of communicating with the control tower so that we could work around the plane doing his exercises. So, every time he came around for an approach, I had to talk to the tower on the radio and coordinate with them so that the plane and the bus didn’t have a….bad situation. It was kind of fun and it made me look good in front of the Airfield Manager and the Captain of our shop.
I gave serious consideration to going to the Minot H.S. homecoming game tonight, but the weather is weird as all hell. It rained earlier, then there was…*cough* sleet *cough* mixed in with it for about 2-3 minutes. Talk about weird. Now it’s kind of sunny, but the temperature has dropped about 15 degrees since early this morning.
I now have the weekend off! I’m on call again though. Oh well, nothing usually happens on the weekends to require us to be recalled.
I’m all out of things to say finally…so I’ll leave it here!
Aerosmith – Calling it Quits?
It looks like my favorite band, Aerosmith, is at the end of the road. Drug use apparently has started again between Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, which has brought tension within the band, which leads to…you guessed it – a break up. The new album will most likely still be recorded and released, and they will do a tour next year, but after that, I’m not expecting much. Unless Steven and Joe can quickly set aside or get over the current issues, there won’t be many more Aerosmith stories for me to talk about. It’s sad…
