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[Insert something clever here.]

Entry for June 10, 2009: Alas, poor 360! is closing down.

It's been a good run.
[Oh, I've learned this over the years - you want your content kept (and you don't have the patience to transfer it to your new profile) then make sure to print it out.]

At any rate, hope everybody's having a good one out there!

(Yeah, I know. Another short one.)

Wednesday June 10, 2009 - 08:53pm (PDT) Permanent Link | 0 Comments
Part 7, Continued.: As taken from "When [the] Economy Bottoms Out...?"

HOW BAD IS IT?: The U.S. unemployment rate hit 8.1 percent in February, a 25-year peak. The nation has lost 4.4 million jobs since the recession began in late 2007.

The job cuts began early last year, as the housing and construction industries slowed down. The collapse of the financial industry in the fall battered white-collar workers. Soon, layoffs spread across industries and income levels.

HOW MUCH WORSE COULD IT GET? The darkest days for the job market are almost certainly still ahead. With spending weak and credit markets stalled, experts think the economy will probably shed a total of 2.4 million jobs this year. That would mean an unemployment rate above 9 percent.

That would easily surpass the 2001 and 1990-91 recessions but trail the 10.8 percent rate of December 1982. Those expectations could be optimistic: The government's "stress tests" to check the strength of banks' balance sheets assume a 10.3 percent rate.

The job market will probably be weak for years, even if the economy starts to turn around next year. The unemployment rate may not fall back to its pre-recession level of 5 percent until 2013, according to Moody's Economy.com.

Are we seeing a red flag yet? I hate to be a bearer of bad tidings but if we don't change soon, the situation won't either.
The highest rate of unemployment in the last 25 years?
We're being shown something big. Maybe it's time we should listen.

Tags: change, system, part7

Saturday March 7, 2009 - 03:41pm (PST) Permanent Link | 3 Comments
More Guitars...: Oh yeah, we got Rock Band 2 for Christmas!

Over the course of the last 8-or-so months, we got another guitar for #1 but, unfortunately, it was a defective one - didn't have the ability to do the Overdrive when you tilted it (luckily, that's what the Select button is for! - tip to other gamers not in the know...) - so we have 2 guitars again.

On #1, I had a character with which I'd gotten through all the songs on Easy and Medium and all but "Green Grass and High Tides" on Hard. Not that it didn't take a lot of practice but I think I've gotten to the point where Medium is just too easy for a good challenge.

We bought a $20 card for the Music Store and used every bit of it that we could for some new songs, although we didn't do that until after Christmas.
We got 2 No Doubt songs (Spiderwebs and Simple Kind of Life), The Perfect Drug by Nine Inch Nails - and Ho-ly Shit, you cannot fully appreciate that song unless you play it on Rock Band - and several others I can't think of offhand.

At the moment my favorites (off of their original list) have to be Lazy Eye by the Silversun Pickups and PDA by Interpol...of course, Hungry Like the Wolf is always a good one, and Everlong by Foo Fighters (but then again they're pretty much always solid).
Someone had mentioned the 20 Downloadable songs they had sucked; I dunno, I kinda like about 2/3 of them.

If you haven't gotten it yet (or had the opportunity to play), get it. If you have any interest in music what-so-ever, get it.
It's like crack, baby.

Tags: rockband, guitar

Tuesday February 10, 2009 - 05:19pm (PST) Permanent Link | 0 Comments
One Person's Insight; Part 7: Time For Change.: The system is screwed.

Sometimes we have to put ourselves into the position of the things that are not-so-pleasant coming to pass. This is something that needs to be done at times while at others, it's most necessary to keep going, regardless.

This is not one of those times.

We're in a recession, by this point it's been made adamantly clear. People are losing their jobs and homes at alarming rate, banks are looking to get their money from those that are unable to pay, for whatever reason. We are in a rare circumstance - if we act now, this could all be changed for the best outcome, maybe better than what it was before.

Okay, so you take out the bottom steps of the pyramid and what happens? It, for the most part, falls away and the next has to take up for the ones below it. Okay, now what if the pyramid keeps collapsing?

This is at the very least the second time that the stock market has gotten this dangerously close to collapse in the past 30 years and from what I'm aware of, has gotten worse-off this time around than any other, save the depression.

So what do we do about it? Put it back together as much as we can and hope it stays together?
I think we're far past this point.

We have to make an active change in the way we live our lives day-to-day.
We need to get the greatest minds of our day together and put into action a plan that will actually work. And then we need to put it to use, or else we've earned what comes to us.

If we keep going in the direction we're headed it will spell disaster. I'm not saying I have all the answers of how to get things turned around but the point is that we have to start trying to change things or we'll be made to change, drastically and forcefully if necessary.
(Granted, this is an extreme case but - really, do we want to find out the hard way?)

...or, we could just not think about it (because it makes us uncomfortable, after all) and keep on doing what we're doing with no concern for what's to come...

Personally, I'd much rather the alternative.

Tags: change, system, part7

Tuesday February 10, 2009 - 04:50pm (PST) Permanent Link | 0 Comments
What color is *your* rainbow?: Because I'm easily amused...

Your rainbow is strongly shaded violet and red.

What it says about you: You are a passionate person. You appreciate beauty and craftsmanship. You get bored easily and want friends who will keep up with you. You are patient and will keep trying to understand something until you've mastered it.

Find the colors of your rainbow at spacefem.com

Tags: rainbow, colors

Sunday January 25, 2009 - 06:17pm (PST) Permanent Link | 0 Comments