December 1st, 2008
At some point in the last two weeks I was reading a story on CNN.com which focused on how much space people need to live. Specifically, this story zeroed in on information sent in from what CNN.com calls “iReporters” (people like you and I who act as citizen reporters) and how much space they need to live. From the article:
Kate Meinhardt felt like a clown jammed into a Volkswagen bug when she lived in a 21-square-foot room aboard a circus train.
Bungee cords crisscrossed her walls once a week to prevent an avalanche of items from raining down. A microwave, mini refrigerator, her laptop and baskets of personal items lined the dorm-like room.
Showering, going to the bathroom and even doing laundry became racing contests on the train, Meinhardt said. The 13 people on board shared one shower, two toilets and one washer and dryer.
Wow. Could you imagine living in a 21-square foot room? That’s about 4 feet by 5 feet - something like a prison cell if you ask me.
The trend towards smaller homes continues. I read an article a few months ago that talked about how people are increasingly downsizing their living spaces to save on utility bills, upkeep, and maintenance costs. Some of these people were moving into 80-square foot homes - entire homes that are only 80 square feet! It sounds crazy, but these people are doing it and doing it successfully.
I’m not looking for an 80 square foot home. I’m looking for your average home size with at least two bedrooms and at least two baths. I’d prefer a home with a yard and a finished basement, but those are what I consider to be somewhat luxury items. Of course I could just move to the Poconos and get a gigantic home for a ridiculously low price, but there are no jobs up in the Poconos…
Is there a day coming when we all live in 80 square foot homes? Doubtful, though there is definitely a day coming when we live in more energy efficient homes which are designed to take advantage of the sun’s heat and the shade provided by trees.
Posted in Sustainable Living | No Comments »
November 30th, 2008
Long-time readers of my blog will remember some of my previous Black Friday reviews (clicking here will take you back to 2006 - I can’t seem to find the one from last year). This year I ventured only to a few stores on Black Friday, but I did make some observations that I’d like to share…
First, while the stores were filled with shoppers there was still room to move around (except Wal-Mart - more on that later). In previous years I remember going to some stores and being jammed into the shopping areas literally standing shoulder to shoulder with other shoppers. With that memory in mind, I was somewhat relieved that I had room to move around the stores and do some shopping without having to worry about bumping into people or tripping over product.
Second, the roads were less congested for the entire extended weekend starting on Wednesday. I drove everyday from Wednesday through today and I was never caught in anything other than normal traffic. That’s not bad!
Third, retailers did put out some significant deals. A few weeks ago I wrote about how I was gearing up for Black Friday and using a certain website to find out what the big deals would be for the day. That website combined with the various flyers which came in the Thanksgiving Day newspaper showed a retail industry that wanted to attract buyers into their stores this year. The big item this year seemed to be bargain basement prices on high definition LCD and plasma screen televisions. In terms of comparison to previous years…well some four years ago I had a comment or two about the lack of deals at retailers.
Fourth, Circuit City employees tried to overcompensate for the company’s current financial position - to their detriment. I went into Circuit City yesterday and I was amazed at how bad of a shopping experience I had at the store. In almost every aisle that I walked down, an associate asked me if I needed any help. The first two times that someone asks you this, it’s very respectable. The second two times, it becomes a bother. By the fifth and sixth time a different employee asks you if you need any help you wonder what’s going on and why these people won’t let you shop. Frankly, I felt like I was being tracked by one of the employees as though I was going to steal something - it makes for a very unpleasant shopping experience. I was going to buy something at Circuit City, but thanks to the overzealous sales staff I got out of there as quickly as possible.
On top of that, Circuit City had rows and rows of videos games out in buckets (buckets are the traditional sign of “sale on these items”). As I was browsing through the buckets some kid who works at hte store was trailing me and putting the items back as soon as I picked them up (at one point taking the items out of my hands). Then I asked him if any of these games were on sale. He said they were not, but were selling for regular retail prices between $50 and $60. Yeah…that will get people to purchase the product. Dummies…
Finally, the level of common courtesy towards fellow shoppers was somewhat high in all stores except for Wal-Mart (on Black Friday - Wal-Mart was okay on Saturday). I have a million pet peeves about bad shoppers and they were all on display at Wal-Mart on Friday: people standing at the end of the aisles talking to a friend and blocking passage out of the aisle, children running wild through the store with no parental supervision, shoppers putting their cart on one side of the aisle and standing in the other side of the aisle creating a roadblock, and consumers stopping short in the flow of traffic and turning around thus creating the “trout jumping upstream” effect. It was enough for me to get the hell out of Wal-Mart almost as soon as I got in there. But hey - at least I didn’t get trampled by a mad mob (more about that coming up in a future post).
All in all, it was a decent Black Friday and most of the retailers stepped up to the plate in an attempt to get their balance sheets in the black as well as shoppers through their doors. If you have any crazy Black Friday stories, I’d love to hear them in the comments section below.
Posted in Money, Jobs, & Finances, Winter & Christmas Time | 2 Comments »
November 30th, 2008
Did you hear the latest about the New York Giants’ Plaxico Burress? Apparently this dope shot himself in the leg. This idiot brings an unregistered gun to a nightclub and shoots himself in the thigh with it. What the hell type of moron is this? Some commentary from the opinion article linked above:
Burress now finds himself on the same side of the line that Jeremy Shockey ultimately found himself last year without ever pulling the trigger of a gun. Ultimately, your presence will be tolerated until your insolence is greater than your usefulness.
Maybe the Giants should have learned from other teams’ lessons. Latrell Sprewell was a soul worth saving for the Knicks until he ultimately became a cancer in his own clubhouse. There are similarities aplenty between Sprewell and Burress, right down to this: ultimately, keeping Sprewell would have meant losing something much deeper, much greater. It was one of the last smart things the Knicks did until recently.
Given the recent history of the Cowboys, why not let Plaxico out to pasture so they can snatch him up in Dallas? I’m sure the combination of an egomaniac like Terrell Owens, a punk like Plaxico Burress, an overrated quarterback like Tony Romo, and a troubled wide receiver like Pacman Jones is all that the Cowboys need to return to their former prominence! Ha ha ha!!!
Posted in Idiots, Morons, & Fools, Sports | 1 Comment »
November 29th, 2008
Yes, I understand that recycling programs are huge all over the nation. And I would be the first to argue that Americans and some American companies are on the leading edge of recycling, reusing, and repurposing garbage. You can see it all over the place from your local recycling program to upstart companies like TerraCycle. Still, David over at The Good Human writes a good article talking about how recycling is not what it used to be. From the article:
We replace perfectly fine household electronics because ours is not the “new” kind, we buy new cell phones every few months, we only keep cars for a few years (which I have certainly been guilty of!), and we are sold so many single-use items that I don’t even know if anyone knows how to use a washable mop/sponge/diaper anymore. We buy cheap clothing by the bundle and it only lasts a few months before it is either out of style or torn to shreds. Products are bought, used for a short time, and thrown away.
David is right on point. Think about how many times you’ve throw away or gotten rid of a pair of jeans or a t-shirt because it wasn’t considered in style any more. Or how many times have you purchased a new item when you had a similar item at home that worked perfectly fine? Believe it or not, I think that the current economic downturn is helping to lessen this phenomenon. Not many people have the disposable cash any more to go out and purchase another pair of jeans or another can opener or another set of tupperware containers, etc. You get the picture.
The Good Human also talks about how we buy new cell phones and other electronic consumer goods every few years. This is where a good group like TerraCycle comes in and actually recycles this waste into usable products. They’ve created a trash can that is made of broken up consumer electronics. They’ve even mashed together old newspapers to create pencils. Very impressive. A better solution, though, might be to reduce the fickleness of the American consumer so that they aren’t going crazy to buy the latest and greatest cell phones every few years…
One of the small ways that I’ve dramatically reduced my inclination to be the typical American consumer and buy, buy, buy is to look around my “stuff” for items that can still be used. The two examples that pop into my mind are with writing implements and notebook paper. A few years ago I took a small pitcher and began putting my writing implements in it. Every time I found a pen or pencil in a drawer or in a box, I’d throw it in the pitcher. Now the thing is full and I haven’t purchased any new pens or pencils in years. I use my writing implements until they run dry and then I recycle them (if possible - pencil stubs I usually throw in the fire). When I began as an adjunct professor a few years ago, I went through my old college files and found literally reams of notebook paper just sitting there, unused in old notebooks. Instead of letting this paper sit there and rot, I began collecting it and having students use it to write out their essays on their midterm and final exams. Why use up blue books or new paper if there is perfectly good paper just sitting in the closet?
Anyway, just something to consider the next time you’re out at the store and wondering whether or not you want to buy that extra mousepad when you have three old ones at home or another pack of pens when you probably have dozens of loose pens snuck away in different areas of your house.
Posted in Computers, Internet, & Technology, Sustainable Living | No Comments »
November 28th, 2008
We all have many reasons to be proud to be an American, but one of the top reasons why I’m proud is our proclivity to give to charitable causes even in the worst economic times. CBS News ran a story on their website the other day talking about how Americans are still donating money to nonprofit organizations even as their 401k accounts and discretionary income dollars are dwindling. From the article:
The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University says that historically, charitable giving has been recession-proof.
Contributions to American charities have increased during 39 of the past 40 years in today’s dollars, and a change in the tax laws - not the stock market crash - can be blamed for the drop in 1987, said Melissa Brown, associate director of research for the center. Between 69 and 72 percent of people give routinely, she said.
The article goes on to talk about how some nonprofit organizations are cautiously optimistic about the potential donations for this year’s Christmas season. Believe it or not - we may be hearing about all of the horrible things going on in the auto industry and the banking sector, but Americans are prepared to give to charitable causes nonetheless. This will be an interesting phenomenon to watch - will Americans continue to give their scarce dollars to charitable causes even as the biased media runs around talking about the “horrendous” market conditions? I guess we’ll see.
There are only a few places that I donate my scarce dollars. The first place is my national fraternity’s foundation, which is (of course) helped by the fact that I am a Board member for the foundation. I began donating to some other causes like child cancer research and feeding the homeless, but I felt like my meager dollars were lost in a mess of bigger donations from bigger donors.
I’d like to find a small, locally-based nonprofit organization which is really helping to make a change in society - even if the geographic boundary of that “society” is defined as a single township or a single county in New Jersey, etc. I really think that a small nonprofit like that would be the perfect “project” for a donor to take on in terms of giving away money to help a specific cause. Unfortunately, those types of organizations really don’t exist in Monmouth County or my hometown up in Morris County, so there isn’t any opportunity like that - for now.
As we go out and purchase gifts for our loved ones this year, please remember to give a few dollars to a charitable cause if you can.
Posted in Money, Jobs, & Finances, Winter & Christmas Time | No Comments »
November 27th, 2008
Unless you’ve been living under a rock you know that the current climate in the domestic automaker industry is horrendous. I’ve given some thoughts on how to fix the problem within our borders, but it appears to me that something bigger is going on here. It appears that the consuming public has finally begun to reign in its spending habits.
What does this mean for the automakers? Less inventory moving off of lots and less sales of new and used cars - both of which mean less revenue. As a consumer who is off-again, on-again in the market for a new or newly used car I can tell you that it’s just not worth buying a new car right now (so long as you have other means of conveyance). I spent last month looking around used car dealer lots and I didn’t find one deal. Not ONE decent deal! Sure, I understand that the people who work at these places need to pay the bills and eat, but you would think that in a tough economic time when an entire industry to collapsing there would be some ingenuity at the local or regional levels to cut prices and sell product.
I guess not.
In fact, the price disparities between the new and used cars weren’t even that far apart. In other words, I might as well have purchased a brand new car because I’d only be spending a few thousand more for it and I’d be getting a brand new machine with top of the line features. Oh, that reminds me - the feature packages are too expensive on new cars. Consumers know that you can get a great sound system installed in a car for a few hundred bucks (I said great sound system - not the type of system where you can take your car to a show a win awards). So when you see automakers adding $800 - $1,200 for such an upgrade, why would you purchase that upgrade? Add up a bunch of those large-scale “nickel and dime” pieces and you find yourself wondering why you’d buy a car from that dealer in the first place.
Now add all of this to the fact that American automakers have a reputation for shoddy workmanship while comparatively priced foreign cars have a reputation for lasting forever and American consumers have an easy choice to make. In this case, consumers aren’t even making a proactive choice to buy one car or another - they’re just not going out to purchase new vehicles period. But when they do one has to wonder how long they will continue to buy an overpriced, inferior, and out of date product.
Posted in Money, Jobs, & Finances | 4 Comments »
November 27th, 2008
Whether you’re at home with your family or visiting family and/or friends out on the road, here’s wishing you a very happy and healthy Thanksgiving! Be sure to remember all of the things that you should be thankful for from the last twelve months and to enjoy the time that you have with family and friends this weekend.
And be careful of the tryptophan coma after eating all of that turkey later today - you don’t want to miss some quality football tonight! Ha ha ha! Enjoy!
Posted in Random Entries | 2 Comments »
November 26th, 2008
For those of you looking to do a good deed this Christmas season, I encourage you to be a part of Neptune Township’s Midtown Urban Renaissance Corporation 2008 Holiday Toy Drive. Click on the link to be taken to the main page of MURC’s website where you can download a flyer with all of the details about the toy drive. I usually purchase a few wrestling figures and board games each year and drop them off at MURC to distribute to families in the local area.
If you want to get involved, remember to download the flyer to read the details and drop off locations. Also, I suggest that you all remember that there are a wide variety of children looking for toys during Christmas - not just the young ones. Gifts of footballs, basketballs, sports jerseys, video games, and books are also greatly appreciated. Please give to the best of your budgeted ability - even in tough economic times we should all remember those who are less well off than we might be.
Plus, I know the people at MURC and I know that this is an excellent program. Give it a shot this Christmas season!
Posted in Local People & Politics, Winter & Christmas Time | No Comments »
November 25th, 2008
A few days ago I was polled by Quinnipiac University regarding the upcoming gubernatorial election in New Jersey. For those of you who are not familiar with the popular candidates in the lovely Garden State we are choosing between the incumbent Democratic Governor Jon Corzine and the prospective Republican candidate Christopher Christie. The poll lasted some twelve minutes and covered a variety of issues including who I voted for in the recent Presidential election and how I identified myself in terms of my politics.
Anyway, I bring this up because I saw the results of the poll on the Daily Record website a few days ago. Here are the results in their entirety as printed in the Daily Record:
TRENTON — U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie hasn’t said whether he’ll run for governor, but he’d start such a race slightly trailing Gov. Jon S. Corzine, according to results of a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday.
Corzine is favored 42 percent to 36 percent among 2,020 registered voters in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup against Christie. Much of the advantage results from the state’s overwhelming Democratic edge in voter registration, as Christie holds a 38 percent to 32 percent edge among independents.
The two had been tied in polls conducted in August and September. The new poll was done from Nov. 12 to Nov. 17, culminating on the day Christie announced he will resign his post on Dec. 1 — news that sparked talk of a long-anticipated gubernatorial run.
The poll also showed New Jersey disapproves of Corzine’s job performance by a 46 percent to 43 margin and say he doesn’t deserve to be re-elected by a 51 percent to 37 percent margin.
Those numbers are poor but improving, Quinnipiac pollster Clay F. Richards said.
“The long coattails of Barack Obama have reached down into New Jersey and helped Gov. Jon Corzine’s re-election prospects, at least for now,” Richards said.
The poll showed few voters are aware of Christie, despite his nearly seven years as the state’s top federal prosecutor. Seventy percent of respondents said they have not heard enough about Christie to have an opinion about him, compared with 11 percent who aren’t aware enough of the state’s governor.
“That will change as we move along and we get a race,” Richards said.
The poll’s margin of error was 2.2 percent.
I find it interesting that there is no mention of how these votes breakout demographically or geographically. For example, I was asked about my ethnic background as well as what type of area I live in - suburban, rural, or urban. Having studied polling and the ways that pollsters can manipulate the results of such questions, I’m surprised that there is no breakdown of percentage of voters located in urban areas who are pro-Corzine or pro-Christie vs. percentage of voters in suburban or rural areas.
Hmmm…trying to hide the gigantic gap in the number of urban Republicans and suburban and rural Democrats maybe? Everyone in the state knows that Democrats win in New Jersey because the heavily urban areas are so highly populated and are so firmly in the Democratic column that it’s not worth the money to campaign in those areas. I just wish that a respected polling group like Quinnipiac University would sort of put that information out there in the public domain as part of the results of their survey. Why not add a line stating, “As has usually been the case in New Jersey, of the 2,020 registered voters who were polled, 85% of them were located in urban areas. Of these voters, 95% identified as Democratic voters.”
We all know it’s true - just looking for some more truth and full disclosure in the media.
Posted in The State of New Jersey | 2 Comments »
November 24th, 2008
My Chief Operating Officer (former - she’s moved on to greener pastures) called a meeting last year and during the meeting our Chief Executive Officer asked my coworkers and I about what we saw for our market in the coming year. Specifically he asked, “What keeps you up at night?” I remember the question because I remember both my response and my thoughts about the question itself.
First, I thought that this was a weird question because it is the rare employee that brings their work home with them. Then I immediately thought that this might have been the CEO’s way of asking us about ourselves so he could ascertain what we were like outside of the office. I figured that this was too awkward of a question for him to ask in a personal sense so it must be directly related to the job. I remember my response, given in a typical brash, young, over-confident tone, “Nothing keeps me up at night. Once the day is over I drive the hour back home and either teach at the college, do work for my website company, spend time with friends, or enjoy some down time.”
Dope.
Here we are a year later and I find myself bringing more work home with me, engaging my company in their proposed plan to get us Blackberries (which I supported from the beginning) so that we can be connected on the road, and looking at a calendar that is overstuffed with events. I also find myself not pleased with the potential for upward mobility in my current position and coming to the realization that working for my current company will not help me achieve any of my financial goals in a respectable time frame. Finally, I find myself in a job market where it would be unwise to up and leave one’s current employment to look for a better deal; especially when you really enjoy the job that you currently perform (and I do enjoy my job and the work that I do). In some respects, it’s a paradoxical time to be someone young in their career.
To get back to the point, though, the question was an odd one. What really DOES keep you up at night? What things weigh on your mind so much that you actually miss sleep to ponder the issues? I thought about these questions and came up with an answer or two…
The biggest thing that keeps me up at night is my student loan debt. And frankly, if that’s the biggest thing that keeps me up at night, then I’m in good shape! It’s the sheer size of the loans that keeps me awake. At the end of last year I owed a little more than $110,000; by the end of this year I should owe a little bit more or a little bit less than $105,000. I’m making significant progress, but I need to make much more progress and much quicker progress if I’m ever going to be in a position to be financially free. Related to the student loan debt is my ability to secure a mortgage when I finally buy a house in a few years. My credit rating is through the roof (somewhere between a 750 and an 800), but who knows how long the tightening credit markets will impact the housing industry?
That’s really about it in terms of what keeps me up at night. Sometimes I wish I had more of an ability to slowdown and relax or travel, but I work in the time to do an adequate amount of that stuff. One thing that I am well aware of is that you can’t live above your means and there is nothing more financially disturbing than when people live a credit card lifestyle. You know, the people who need to borrower from one source of capital to pay another source of capital or those who use money from non-permanent sources to pay semi-permanent expenses (constantly asking parents for money to the rent or for groceries, for example). But those people generally get what they have coming to them - you can’t live through a market fluctuation like we’re currently seeing and not expect that you need to personally change your financial habits.
What keeps me up at night? Student loan debt. But I’m working my plan to pay it down and I’m making good progress… I’m hoping that I can kick the repayments into high gear in the next few months!
Posted in Money, Jobs, & Finances, Random Entries, Student Loans | 2 Comments »
