my life, my thoughts, my world.

so long, tip of thumb, you will be missed

Originally uploaded by Anthony J. Martinez

*sigh*

that hurt.

a lot.

no fun.

Since the inception of the Federal Reserve the value and future of the dollar has been in great danger. Over their tenure as the charge of the central banking system we can count only one actual decline of inflation, and we call that decline “The Great Depression.” It would seem that we are headed down the same path once more. With congress poised to vote on the small matter of an initial economic bailout package to the tune of $700BIL, it is far past time to call your congressional representation and demand an end to the insanity.

Where is this $700BIL going to come from? We are already tremendously in debt, no sane person would argue against that claim. Anyone able to make sense of “bailing out” debt by creating more debt, feel free to comment at great length. The economy is in trouble, but the trouble is largely the result of poor consumer practices. Allowing the federal budget to fall to the same practices is entirely unacceptable, and appears to be the path down which the Fed seeks to travel.

As I convoy towards Houston to provide relief for those impacted by Hurricane Ike, I can not help but ponder the current economy. It would seem that we are poised to elect one of two sets of candidates with no grasp of basic economic principles. Two camps unable to balance an election bid, claiming they will be able to balance the federal budget. Two camps unwilling to raise the possibilty that the irresponsibilty of millions of Americans determined to live beyond their means is fundamentally bad for the economy. Two camps essentially devoted to making change the only thing in any of our pockets.

Well this hurricane business has messed a lot of things up for a lot of people. Right now I’m sitting, in uniform, at Camp Swift. Of course I’m still not “on the books” and that will cause the matter of pay to be rather interesting. Who knows how long I will be here, or what I’ll actually be doing when and if I end up in Houston. All I really know is that I will miss exams and important lectures this week, and that’s no good.

Lately my blog has been pretty sparse, to say the least. You might even think I just gave up on the whole thing, but really I’ve just been too busy to bother. To catch up, school has started, as has a new on-campus job. Every once in a while, I even manage to do a little photography here and there. All of that conspires to take up every ounce of free time I have.

Most of you know my policy on homework, or at least my past policy on homework. Things have changed, or at least I am consciously attempting to change them. For the first time in recorded history, I actually have intentions of doing at least most of my homework. I’m not going to sit here and write, as a matter of permanent internet history, that I am going to do each and every homework assignment I receive henceforth. That would just be silly. I will say that I actually intend to not only pay attention to assignments and when they are due, but I will even make an effort to complete them before they are due. Yes, yes, I know – I really shouldn’t try to make too many changes at once, but hey when have I ever done things the easy way? Just to prove I’m serious, I just finished writing a paper that isn’t due until Wednesday. That’s right, I did something two whole days early. Not just something, I wrote a paper, before the due date.

Just to touch my other usual areas briefly, here’s a lovey list.

• My truck’s third door is still broken, and the tailgate doesn’t care to open most of the time.
• The SV gets much better gas mileage now that it has a fresh air filter, and fresh spark plugs. It now also has over 20,000mi on the clock.
• Uncle Sam still owes me around $3000.
• I do not get to play guitar as often as I would like.
• I still love photography, but hate post-processing.
• Hitting a rock with your lower spine while floating down the Guadalupe River, is most unpleasant.
• Whoever invented Cicso Clean Access, deserves to be shot many times at close range with rock salt out of a 12ga shotgun.
• If you thought Windows Vista was terrible, try running it in conjunction with Cisco Clean Access. I take no responsibility for suicidal thoughts which may arise as a result of Vista + CCA.
• I may change my minor from photography, to something that does not require me to spend hundreds of dollars on perishable supplies.

That is all, for now.

ps. given the wonderful “choices” we have, namely Obama/Biden and McCain/Palin, for the upcoming election…. I’m just going to go ahead and continue weeping for America. poor constitution ;_;