everything’s under control

I almost always read the news. I’m pretty well aware of the slipping economy, the falling value of the dollar and the less-than-stellar housing crisis. I’m also acutely aware of the rising cost of gas and food. I sometimes wonder if the thought of a recession scares the average American. Part of me tends to think that the ignorance that pervades American culture blinds many people to the fact that we are currently experiencing a rather weak economy. I know that there are at least a few people that are worried: I see headlines like “Coping with $4 Gas” and “Worst June for S&P 500 Since the Great Depression” and I know that some people are really worried about their personal wealth in the future.

I’m not.

I don’t need to have the biggest or the best of anything; I generally don’t need “things” to be happy. Granted, I like getting new things just as much as the next person, but I view that sort of happiness as a bonus, an extra, an add-on. It’s not critical to my overall well being. I don’t need to buy the next newest greatest thing, so I don’t. I’ve adopted a mindset that I’ll only buy things that I need, and only if I currently have enough money to pay for the item in full. I’ve heard a great number of people who suggest simply “putting it on plastic” and worrying about it later. In my mind, credit card interest is one of the most avoidable expenses that people regularly accrue.

I know I’ll have to eventually take out a loan to pay for my future house and my first car, but that’s life. I’m not planning on digging myself a credit hole by reckless spending on luxuries that I simply don’t need. I don’t need (or want, for that matter) a 3,000 square foot house, an SUV, a Rolex or any other status symbol. I’ve got no desire to “keep up with the Joneses”.

I’m somewhat responsible.

Barring any unforseen disasters *crosses fingers*, I’m confident that I’ll be able to get by just fine.

Turns out, they really are serious about fraud protection. This weekend, I drove up to Troy, NY to relax and get a break from the hellhole that is Hartford. On Friday, I put gas in my tank in CT, just enough to make it back to Troy. Sunday evening, I stopped at the Hess station in Troy to make sure I’d have enough gas to get to Massachusetts, where the cost of refueling my car was least - and still on my route. Once I got to the Lee Plaza off the Mass Pike, I filled up my car the rest of the way. Read: Friday - Hartford, CT; Sunday - Troy, NY & Lee, MA.

My old camera was broken beyond RMA and repair, so today I bought a camera from newegg.com, which is based in California. For the past three months, I’ve not spent more than fifty dollars at one place, simply because I haven’t been able to afford to. This comparatively large purchase, combined with seemingly random uses in three states over three days raised some red flags at Bank of America.

I got an email about thirty seconds after I’d placed the order with newegg saying that a fraudulent charge could have possibly been made using my checking account, that my account had been frozen and I had to call Bank of America as soon as possible in order to unlock my account. After speaking to four different service reps, the hold was removed and I’m free to buy groceries tonight. I found the whole process rather interesting more than anything; each service rep asked me different questions in order to prove that I was indeed who I said I was. I’m sure when I called they tried to track where I was, in case I was the suspect trying to unfreeze a stolen card.

It was a minor inconvienience, but I’d rather that than some criminal have unlimited access to my checking account.

Both Rick Shenkman and Jon Stewart make some pretty valid points about the state of the media, politics and ignorance of the United States of America. It’s a clip that’s worth watching.

I’m confused.

I read articles from digg.com and reddit.com on a regular basis. I find interesting tech articles, sometimes they have relevant news stories, most always they have one or two oddball way-out-in-center-field goofy links. Yesterday night, the top three links on reddit.com involved a C-Span reference. What? Each of those three links involved Rep. Dennis Kucinich introducing 35 articles of impeachment against President Bush. What? I know that this motion is purely symbolic; leaders from both parties are opposed to any sort of action against the President. Still, the introduction of articles of impeachement against the President of the United States is sort of a big deal. I clicked one of the links and watched as Rep. Kuchinich stood at the podium and read off his list. Was this really happening? I checked cnn.com for verification: surely something like this would cause them to put up one of their “Live Breaking News” banners on their main page. “Americans fear gas shortages”. Yeah? Maybe it was on the list of articles next to the feature… “Two toddlers shot in baby pool” “iReporters end splurges to pay for food” “Consumer Reports: are my tomatos safe?” “Barack Obama: Black or Biracial?”. No mention of Rep. Kucinich’s ramblings in the House of Representatives.

What the fuck?

I checked FOX News, but I didn’t hold my breath. FOX’s headlines were even more shallow than CNN’s. MSNBC? BBC? ABC? NBC? Nope. What’s going on here?

Maybe “Kucinich” is too hard to spell.

I spent the entirety of this past long weekend in New Hampshire. It was most definitely a needed get-away; I can’t stand to be in Hartford on weekends. I began my excursion at UNH, to celebrate my friend’s 21’s birthday with a night on the town. Saturday I went with my best friend to a few of her friend’s parties, which were great fun. Sunday was bittersweet as I helped her move out of her apartment and move in back home. I spent my final day of vacation hiking up a mountain and spending time with my friend who I see all too rarely. The view from the top of bald knob is simply breathtaking. From the rocky outcropping, a seemingly endless forest is visable, with a lake splashed in and out of similarly forested islands. In the distance the white mountians meet the sky. I felt incredible up there. I departed New Hampshire around 11:30 at night and ended up asleep on my air mattress in Hartford at 3 in the morning.

This is starting to look like it’s going to be a really long summer. I laid out my budget for the summer and next year, based on what I made last summer. After living and working for a week, I decided to make some adjustments, and it’s going to be tight. I’m running up against financial walls everywhere I turn. With gas in the Northeast rising well above four dollars a gallon and no end to the increases in sight, travel is looking like less and less of a possibility. Since I can’t get out of the shithole that is Hartford CT, I have to turn to things locally, like cooking. Unfortunately for me, the price of food is rising right along with the cost of gasoline, and I don’t have room in my budget to afford good eats. If I can’t eat well, I feel worse, which simply adds to the problem.

I need a raise.

I’m not afraid to say it: most modern music is crap. Nearly everything I hear on the radio makes me cringe. “People actually listen to this garbage?” It’s one of the reasons I don’t subject myself to mainstream music anymore; which means I have to go about discovering music in other ways.

Two of my favorites are little projects called the Music Genome Project and gnod. I’ve been using both these little gems for a couple of years now, and my library has expanded to include some music I’d never have experienced otherwise.

Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. is one of those bands that falls under that category. It’s not so much a band as the brainchild of one Sam Duckworth, a 22-year old musician from Essex, England. Wikipedia describes his Get Cape’s genres as Alternative Rock, Indie and Folktronica. That’s right, Folktronica. Get Cape is a cross between Conor Oberst and Moby, with the intelligence and songwriting ability of Elliot Smith.

Naturally, I was excited to learn that Get Cape put out new material, as I loved his first full legnth album: The Chronicles of a Bohemian Teenager. Duckworth’s second album, Searching for the Hows and Whys, is just as good as the first. He delivers tracks with messages about media sensationalism and excessive consumerism in such a way as make a point, but to not be overwhelming. Standout tracks include “Moving Forward”, an acoustic guitar driven song about a relationship gone south, “Could’ve Seen It All”, a haunting track about a life wasted, and “Waiting for The Monster to Drown” - but I’ll leave this one up for interpretation.

http://www.getcapewearcapefly.com/

5 of 5 thumbs up.

I encourage voters to listen to each of the three remaining presidential candidates. Listen to speeches on candidate’s websites, listen to interviews, listen to debates. Find out as much as you possibly can by interpreting words that come out of the candidate’s mouths.

Don’t use the mainstream media.

I’ve been following the campaigns this year pretty actively, mostly because I’m somewhat of a news junkie. I’ve listened to speeches from Clinton and Obama, but not as much from McCain since he more or less secured the Republican nomination. I tend to avoid radical news sources such as the huffington post, crooks and liars and FOX News. I’ve found one common thread shared between each of my media sources, and unfortunately for Americans, it is not truth, honesty or journalistic integrity. It’s spin.

It’s human nature to try to influence other people to believe in the same things that you do. Give a person a time slot on a 24-hour news network to let them talk about the news, and eventually you’ll get a propaganda machine. We don’t watch the news anymore, we watch people interpreting news and, using very carefully considered language, trying to convince us that their views are correct.

Unfortunately, human nature also dictates that we tend to look favoribly at ideas that mesh with our own. We don’t like to be challanged. Turns out the media juggernaut doesn’t have much work to do, really; they tell us exactly what we want to hear. With the advent of the internet, our culture has become so saturated with media that we can find a source that agrees exactly with our own ideals.

It doesn’t end there. News networks have to pay for their airtime, buildings and staff, correct? How does a 24-hour news network turn a profit? Commercials. The only way companies will pay for commercials on a network is if the ratings of that network are high enough so that the advertisements will reach the maximum number of people possible. How does a news network distinguish itself, in order to boost ratings?

It tells it’s viewers what they want to hear.

We’re a media-crazy, attention-deficit-disorder, entertainment driven nation. Would American’s rather watch a thirty minute special on genocide in Africa (sort of a downer) or hear about the most popular celebrity gossip? Better yet - why not spin the news into something that falls in line with the way people think? It’s best not to challange their opinion’s too much, because they won’t want to get frustrated - they’ll just change the channel.

With all this in mind, a singular question comes to my mind with regard to this year’s democratic primary: Why is the media portraying Barack Obama in such a negative way? Some of the important issues that have been raised when talking about Obama include:

- His lack of a flag pin lapel makes him unpatriotic
- His good looks make it too hard to relate to him
- He’s an elitist
- His relationship with his former pastor makes him unpatriotic

Ok, great. What about Hillary? Her political past is tainted all the way back to when she was an intern dealing with the watergate scandal. She was born into more money and is currently more wealthy than Barack Obama. She doesn’t wear a flag pin either!

It’s pretty clear that the mainstream media doesn’t want Barack Obama to win the Democratic party’s nomination. Since Clinton won Pennsylvania, I’ve seen reports on the news that she’s now winning the race. How can anyone possibly say that? As of today, April 28th, Obama has 1,725 delegates and Clinton has 1,588 delegates. Both totals include superdelegates.

Since when is 1,588 > 1,725?

Obama has his work cut out for him if he’s going to be able to beat the machine that’s dead set against him.

But he’s got my vote.

what’s happening?

gas prices on the corner of the block were $3.50 on tuesday morning. now, wednesday night, they’ve reached $3.69. the russian oil fields have peaked, and the mideast has stated that they have ‘no reason to increase production’. when will i see $4.00 on the fuel sign? i’m looking forward to a summer limited to hartford because i won’t be able to afford to travel anywhere.

elsewhere in the world, there’s a food shortage that’s been very much ignored in the united states. prices for flour and rice are up 13% from last year. cheese, bananas, peanut butter, milk; all up over 10%. eggs are up 30%. the cost of food production has increased sharply over the past few years, meaning that the price increases are here to stay. hopefully, with my education, i’ll be able to join the ever-shrinking middle-class and be able to provide myself with a relatively comfortable life.

better still, the average income of the average american worker has not risen along with these price increases. if you factor in inflation, the american worker is working more hours and being paid less with less benefits than ever before. ‘perks’ such as pensions are relics of a bygone era. i started a mutual fund for retirement when i graduated from high school; but because of the current recession, that’s down 11% year to date. great.

we’re big and ignorant.

and we’re in for a rough ride.

End of semester rut, anyone? This past week, the weather in Troy has been unusually beautiful. After a winter of on and off sleet, snow and rain, the nice weather is a most welcome change. There’s only problem: it’s very difficult to justify being pent up in lectures all day when its 75 and sunny outside. This lack of drive, combined with financial stress and an ever-increasing to-do pile, have me in a funk. The end of the semester is so close, merely ten days away, but I’ll be busy for every waking hour from now until May 1st.

I’m starting to get fed up with academia. I’m beginning to think that the exercises that we’re put through as engineers are trivial. I’d love to get some hands on work. One of my classes utilizes an industry standard circuit layout and analysis program called Cadence, but we were not taught how to use it. We were put though one tutorial and then told to design circutry in ways that are far beyond the scope of any instruction that was ever given. I’d understand this approach if they also distributed the manual or some sort of reference text for the program, but alas, such was not the case. I’ve not been exposed to anything practical since I helped devlop a robot for a competition last spring.

I want to do something; I’m tired of what seem like endless excercises from textbooks. Engineering is all about application - so why haven’t I had the opportunity to apply what I’ve learned on something other than an exam?