The Great Depression

So, at the end at the end of another good monday, we'll all sit down for family night and try not to think about the NASDAQ dropping over 9% today. Just think of it like tithing that you handed to the neighborhood drug dealer instead of your bishop, on accident. Really I don't think its such a big deal; historically the stock market has always rebounded from these "corrections". Like back in '29 when we had a correction and it only took until late 1954 to once again reach 1929 DOW prices. (25 years)

Worst case senario you were 65 and were planning on retiring that year. Even still you only had to wait a those few years until '54 when you could retire at the nice age of 90. The really bad news is that 60 year olds only averaged living for 14.7 more years meaning you'd probably die before you could retire. (did starvation or exposure of the old hoovervillites affect that?)

But comparing today to Black Thursday/Tuesday/etc is a slightly paranoid. There are a lot of misconceptions about the Great Depression that should be cleared up.
Here are the facts of the Great Depression. Clearly today is very different.

1. The stock market crash didn't happen in one day. It started with 3 days over the course of a week, with drops of 10% to 20%, and didn't reach its low point until mid 1932.
Here we only have drops of 5% to 10% happening 5 times over the course of 2 weeks. Totally different. I think we're on the up-trend now.

2. The stock market crash didn't cause the Great Depression. The Great Depression was caused by a degredation of values i.e. women began wearing short skirts, smoking, and drinking(but i wear leggings underneath the skirt). The emphasis was on getting rich and enjoying new fads(i-phones are neccesities, not fads). People carried this lifestyle beyond their means(matter of opinion). Keeping up with current lifestyles meant having to spend more money than you had so "credit" was introduced(extra credit, score!). People soon found that they were having to spend their income on past purchases(but i always make my minimum payment at least), and they couldn't make new purchases, so production fell and jobs were cut(but people will always need fast food servers). People were in debt so deep they defaulted on their home loans (is that bill due again this month?). Banks were over-leveraged and had to close (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Wamu, Wachovia, Lehman Brothers, Bears Stearns, AIG, et al.) ...

Clearly we have nothing to worry about.

dang, I was about to go ebay shopping but this blog distracted me...I guess it'll have to wait until after our traditional Monday night Olive Garden and Malt Shoppe dinner/dessert.





http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761584403_2 Great_Depression_in_the_United_States.html#howtocite
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_Street_Crash_of_1929
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0005140.html

WHO DONE IT?

Last weekend, we had the Shurtliff family come to stay. One thing we were excited to do while they were in town was to host a Murder Mystery Night, complete with a three course meal. The theme of the game was set on a train leaving Paris as the Nazi troops were arriving. It was fabulous, and everybody had a great time. We were glad that everybody came in character, and we got to point our accusing finger at our friends. We'll try to figure out how to post some pictures of all the smiling "before" pictures. All secrets were revealed..."On the Last Train from Paris!"

My Dream House

In my spare time:) I decided i should become an architect. Heres a rough draft of my dream house.
I'm not great with SketchUp yet, but i'm working on it.

What you'll see first is the storage room (2 levels below ground)
next the family level (underground) with bedrooms, library, office, etc.
I haven't yet added the ground floor level which will be a very small modest house, for having guests, entertaining, a music room, a guest bedroom, a main kitchen, etc.

let me know what you think about it.







ok now we've added the top floor.
still kinda rough, but i think it hits most of the main points.

Is water essential???? I don't think so.

One of the great joys that comes with renting is getting to work with landlords/maintenance people.
For some reason our apartment has developed a plumbing problem, not a big deal if you can get it fixed reasonably quickly... yeah... lets get that one fixed.
Aside from the drama of trying to convince management that we do need to have running water, I have learned a lot about water this week.
People say that water is essential for life... I don't believe that any more. Water isn't essential, it's quintessential.
Don't know what that means? Neither did I until this water fiasco. Quintessential mean essential*essential*essential*essential*essential or essential^5, and that definitely describes water.

Did you know that without water you can't wash your dishes, then your kitchen stinks, then you don't want to eat, then you starve to death and die. water is essential^1.
Did you know that without water you can't brush your teeth, then your wife doesn't want to kiss you, then you don't care about living, then you die. water is essential^2.
Did you know that without water your houseplants dry up, then you have no oxygen in your house (because oxygen comes from plants), then you suffocate and die. water is essential^3.
Did you know that without water you can't shower...follow the same logic as number 2...then you die. water is essential^4.
Did you know that without water you can't flush your toliet. Then your apartment reaks, then you want to die, then you die. Water is essential^5.

Obviously water is not essential but quintessential. I also have noticed that without water you can't drink water. Assuming that never drinking water would lead to death would make water a sexessential, but that sounds weird so we'll forget about that and keep water my number one quintessential element.