Financial Oversight Reform

Pres. Obama just announced some reformative measures to change the way financial organizations are regulated by the federal government.

For a succinct, excellent explanation of the current economic problem, with particular emphasis on the banking industry, here’s a link to a story done by “This American Life,” by Chicago Public Radio (I heart Ira Glass, btw.) You can listen to the episode (I think that you can maybe download a copy to iTunes) or download the transcript. It’s very entertaining.

My opinion for the masses (or the relative few who read my blog):

Americans are greedy and self-entitled. This is the root of all our current evils. The more self-entitled, greedy, fat, and credit-spendy we become, the more power we relinquish to make decisions for ourselves and society. This is natural consequence of these behaviors. We turn all of our attention to ourselves as our society becomes more individualistic and less socially responsible.

Who’s forced to pickup the ball to make sure we don’t kill ourselves and our future generations?

The Federal and State Governments.

So, if you’re like me and don’t think the government should be extending its powers on a yearly basis, stop being greedy and self-entitled and start thinking about being more fiscally and socially responsible in your own home. In the meantime, thank you, Mr. President, for having to make these hard decisions that I’m sure no one – from the government, to the banks and citizens – is thrilled about.

Why I am Growing to Dislike Facebook

I don’t spend a lot of time on Facebook, but I do have an account and sometimes I do check it. I have the mobile app for my Ipod touch, but I hardly ever use it.

But for the relatively low time spent on Facebook, I’m really learning to hate it. Here’s why:

I don’t care what your status is. In other words, I tire of reading things like:

• “Ethel is soo excited that she’s gonna have a hot dog tonight!”
• “Nancy Sue is saving the world by digging ginormous wells for thirsty children in all of the third world countries in the universe.”
• “Bruce is currently forcing his retarded political views on all his Facebook ‘friends’ by making a statement in his status that actually has nothing to do with his current status! Woot!”

And some people are worse than others. There’s this one guy who added me as a ‘friend’ on Facebook because he lived in my neighborhood when I was a kid. We were never really friends, in fact, I kinda always thought he was a d-bag. Anyway, he’s notorious for changing his frikkin’ status every 20 min with wonderful message like:

• My daughter just made a poo-poo!
• My daughter just made a pee-pee!
• My dog just made a poo-poo!
• I just made a poo-poo!

No, he’s not joking around. I’m being a little hyperbolic of course, but really, this guy updates wayyyy too much and really needs something more interesting going on in his life. Like a book or something. Even a movie, or at least a box with flashing lights in it or something.

In conclusion, I feel I must remove some of said people from my ‘friends’ list in Facebook to save me the angst and despair on behalf of humanity every time I log into it. Does anyone know how to do that?

Cheeler's Top TV Shows: Part 2

Installment Two, BEGIN!

I watched a lot of this one, mainly because I thought the youngest son's shenanigans were pretty funny. He was like a real life Bart Simpson in a way, but for some reason this show didn't carry the "bad tv show" stigmata that the Simpson's did for my parents. I watched the Simpson's anyway, but . . . I digress.

What was the story with this guy anyway? I mean, if you're a fat guy that shows up on my door and insists that you wanna work for me and take care of my children, I'm calling the police and pulling out my Sai's.



Awesomeness. And speaking of awesomeness, the combination mullet, techno-genius, and stoned-washed jeans on the protagonist of this next fav' can't be beat (shout out to Teeke here, who probably knows all these episodes by heart).



And now for a recent favorite.

I've always been a bit of a Sci-Fi nerd, but I'm also skeptical of "made-for-TV" Sci-Fi movies with series spinoffs. The following series was something I tried to ignore for a long time, but was finally convinced by a few fellow nerds to just embrace my geekiness and give this show a try. And man, was I impressed. How do you summarize a series with deep treatise on human nature, the problem of advancing technology with stale ethics, philosophy and sophistry v. religion and spirituality, monotheism versus polytheism, political science and intrigue, family dysfunction, dynamic, and resolution, true love, individualism v. social responsibility . . . and SPACESHIP AND ROBOTS???

Two Words: Battlestar Galactica. Check it out. You won't be disappointed, I promise.



And lastely, possibly one of the best shows ever to grace television.

Cheeler's Top TV Shows: Part 1

Television was a common choice of entertainment in my household as a kid. But who didn't watch a lot of TV as a kid?

Anyway, I have a lot of good memories surrounding some of those TV shows. We used to sit around as a family on Sunday nights, eat popcorn, and watch a serial TV show. I know, how dare we watch TV on Sunday!!! (gasps). But honestly, we had nothing else to do. There were eight of us, and television may have been the only thing keeping us from tearing each other to pieces or disassembling our house bit by bit.

This one was a favorite for a long time on Sundays:



Ahhh, that makes me want to buy the seasons on DVD and rewatch them. I'm not kidding. Now when I say we watched these shows as a family, I don't mean we kinda watched it and some people came and went and the old man fell asleep, etc. This was SERIOUS BUSINESS TV TIME.

Here's another that we didn't watch regularly, but by virtue of our mom being an avid fan, I still probably ended up seeing almost every episode:



And from my early childhood, a classic favorite (sorry the quality is kinda poor):



The final TV Show for this installation is something a little more manly. I found this show primeiring on CBS at like 2AM one night when I couldn't (wouldn't) go to sleep as a teenager. It was probably Sunday . . . those Sunday naps ruined me Sunday Night.



Highlander was cool. BOOSH!

More to come soon. Post up comments about some of your nostalgic favorites, if you have any! bwahahahaha.

Cherub Indeed

Fine, so as you can see from my wife's post, I was indeed called a "duplicitous german red-bearded cherub of a man-boy" by a patient last week. Fair enough. All I have to say is:

1) I don't know what duplicitous even means. Sounds buttery, though.
2) German: yes.
3) Red-beared: Only a little. I prefer the description "barbeque flavored."
4) Man-Boy: Sure, long-live adolescence. I still laugh at very common anatomical words on a daily basis, despite knowing better.

And finally: 5) Cherub?

AWESOME.