Ok, so I'm a little behind, but it's been a while since I updated.  

Things have been going well at work.  Reviews were recently and I did very well.  My supervisor(s) are happy with the work I'm doing and I may be working on getting my CFP license, with the help of work....which would be excellent.  And if I'm really lucky, some of the credits I earn for my CFP can go towards my CPA requirement, and then I can have a regular alphabet soup after my name!  ^_^

In other news, Joe & my visit with frostfire_17  and her family was wonderful.  Books were purchased and discussed, and we finally saw the movie Grosse Pointe Blank (first for Joe & I) and it was awesome!

Also, we had Ian here for the week over the 4th and much fun was had by all.  We visited Mt Rainier, and walked around on snow in July.  I got sunburned (big surprise!).  And on the 4th itself we watched the fireworks over the Sound, which was spectacular.  Boston's fireworks still beat 'em, but Boston's show is pretty unbeatable.   I got a KitchenAid stand mixer from my in-laws as a birthday present and I finally put it to good use.  I made homemade bread and cinnamon rolls, and they were delicious.  ^_^

That's all for now.  Hopefully I can work on updating a little more regularly.  Maybe....

To all those who have paid the ultimate price to give me the freedom to live the life I choose,

You are remembered.  Your sacrifice is remembered.  Thank you.

So today Joe went shopping and happened to find a Wii Fit in stock.  I'm so excited.  I set it up as soon as I got home from work and have already tried it out.  It's so much fun.   I really think this could work for me.  Here's to exercise that's fun.  ^_^

Also, good news.  My cousin Travis was in a nasty car accident just before new years eve (the 28th I think) and suffered severe hear trauma.  (That's no the good news).  The good news is that he is moving from the hospital to rehab today!  The doctors are all amazed at the speed of his recovery.  He may even be at home by the end of the month.  So, any healing thoughts and prayers sent his way would be much appreciated.  They've done wonders so far.  ^_^   And he has his sense of humor still.

In other news, I'm absolutely swamped at work.  I've been working long days trying to get everything done in a timely fashion, but it's been hard.  Of course this is the time of year for it.  I will probably be busy through tax day, but it's so much better than last year when I felt like I was twiddling my thumbs.  I told my supervisor that I felt I could take on more work, and they followed up.  I will never every say I'm bored again....  ^_^  But I'm loving my job.  I feel like I'm learning so much and getting so much accomplished.

That's all for now!  ^_^

So it's apparently that time of year again.  I'm back in MN for more training at work on some new accounts/responsibilities I'll be picking up come January (and sooner).  Unfortunately, this time I had to come by myself.  I brought Joe with me last time, but with our finances as they are (and with the kitties at the apartment), it just didn't make sense for him to come with me.  I just got in tonight and I'll be heading out on Friday afternoon.  I miss him already.  Other than the flood, this is the first time Joe & I have spent the night apart since we got married.  This is the first time I've flown by myself since we got married.  I don't like being apart.  It's not fun, but at least it's only for a few days, and then I'll be back home.  In the mean time, I'm going to enjoy myself.  Maybe I'll even hit the fitness center here in the hotel one of the days (I'd hit the pool, but I forgot my suit and it's closed for renovations anyway.)  I've also been working wicked overtime at work this year (figures, now that I'm salary I work the overtime).  Everything just sort of hit at once, but I'd rather be busy than slow.  I should have most everything under control now, but it's been a few crazy weeks.  Well, time to get some rest.  I know that I think it's only 8:30, but it's really 10:30.  Ah, the joys of traveling time zones....I used to be good at this, but I guess I'm just out of practice.

So I came across an article in the October 27th issue of Fortune entitled "Why Talent is Overrated."  It's a book excerpt from Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin.  It talked about how some of the greatest people in business, sports, etc (insert field of choice here) aren't the best at what they do because of any innate ability (thought innate talent doesn't hurt) but due to an action called "deliberate practice", which is kind of like what everyone normally considers practice, but taken to the next level.  It's practice that's designed to stretch your boundries and make you better.  It makes you look at the parts you're not good at and work on them until you get them right (in specific detail often, such as a particular shot).  It's hard and not particularly fun, but that's the beauty of it.  If it were easy, then everyone would do it, right?

It got me thinking about my own experiences, and the fact that I feel scatterbrained and pulled in several directions often.  I want to do so many different things that I feel more a jack of all trades and a master of none.  I have often been frustrated with myself that I didn't feel like there was anything that I could consider myself the best at.  I always knew someone better than me at any one thing, but through conversation with others, I'm beginning to find that dabbling might be what I am the best at.  I have a huge hunger to learn and experience new things, for their own sake.  I think it's part of the reason I read as much as I do.  I want to learn, and feel stunted when I'm not learning in some way.  (The history channel has become one of my favorite channels of late.)  When I looked at my list of goals in life, it stuck out that most of them involve learning in some way.  I want to travel and learn new languages and read so many books a year.  I want to learn to knit new things and teach myself to crochet.  I'm going to start teaching myself sewing for cosplay & reenactment clothing, plus perhaps making some of my own clothes.

I don't really have anywhere I'm specifically going with this, just more of a way to put my thoughts down on paper (or the computer in this case) to see if perhaps others have thoughts on the subject, but mostly to have them for reference later, in case I end up on this train of thought again.  ^_^ 

The results are in, and I am not happy, nor am I sad.  I am curious. 

Barack Obama has been elected our next President.  He was not the candidate I voted for, but on inauguration day he will be my President and I hope and pray that wisdom will guide him in the next four years as he leads this great country through one of the toughest times in our recent history.  May he be the President all who voted for him hoped he would be and may he lead us well.

God bless the USA.

The fundamental problem of mainstream free-market economics (including those taught to me in my college economics classes) is the belief that consumers and investors are 1) completely rational and 2) entirely driven by self-interest.

The first is easy to dismiss, because who hasn't made a rash decision and later regretted it?  Investors and consumers are not rational.  The market panic happening right now is evidence of that.  People make decisions based on emotions, which are not taken into account in the economic calculations, mostly, I believe, because emotions are difficult to quantify.

The second is harder to disprove in today's crisis.  It's easy to look at the CEOs with ridiculous pay packages and golden parachutes and agree that it's motivated by self interest, but that is not necessarily true.  I think the investor's short-term profits focus is a cause of many of the risk taking problems.  That need to hit quarterly profit numbers to satisfy investors or the stock will take a hit.  Also, there are the people who "take one for the team", the CEOs who are paid $1 a year and the rest of their compensation is in stock, so that they are only rewarded if they create value for their shareholders.  This aligns the interests of the executives with the shareholders,  which is the goal.

Another aspect of economics, especially free-market economics, which has resonated recently with me is the work of Joseph Schumpter, who coined the term  "creative destruction" to describe the innovative, entrepreneurial type of person that he felt was the critical factor in economic progress.  The concept of cannibalizing other products through constant innovation and invention.  To be in a truly free-market capitalist economy, meant to live in a world of constant change, where the traditional ways of doing business are constantly being disrupted and shaken up.  The most obvious example of this in current times is the way the Internet has completely changed the face of business and news and commerce.

The hallmark of this type of economy is the "boom and bust cycle."  The economy does not just go up and up forever.  Everyone compares this current crisis to the Great  Depression, but we're not even close.   Humanity has a very short memory.  We had a crash in the 1970s with the Arab Oil Embargo.   The stock market dropped 42%,  but we came out of it.  In the 1980s we had another drop of 33% because of the larger than expected trade deficit.   In 1998 we had collapse of Long Term Capital Management and the government stepped in to keep banks from failing.  The stock market lost 17% but regained it's lost  ground in 6 months and went on to then record highs in the Internet Bubble,  which burst, causing the stock market to dip 34% amid the 9/11 attacks and the scandals at Enron and WorldCom and Tyco and all the others.

Despite all this relatively recent history, all the papers and all the media talk as if we've never seen a financial crisis like this one.  Naturally, each crisis is individual, and each one has it's own peculiarities, but I have faith in a system that has proven itself in the past.  I worry that in our currently panicked state, we will make mistakes that will cost us down the road.   That's what happened in the Great Depression.   Hoover and FDR tried to fix the system and fiddled with it too much instead of letting the market take care of it.  They passed protectionist legislation and put weak institutions on financial life support instead of letting them succumb to the realities of the market.  As a result, the Depression was longer and deeper than it needed to be.  It  is a cruel fact of free-market economics that the strong company will thrive and the weak will be bought or liquidated,  but the harsher reality was 89% declines in the stock marker and 25% unemployment.  Market corrections due to investor  overexuberance can be harsh and painful,  but the I prefer the sharp quick pain the long drawn out kind.

This kind of rambled around a bit,  but I've been tossing the information around in my head for a while now and it feels good to get it all down on paper...   ^_^

I would like to take a moment to put forth my opinion on the upcoming election....

Confirmation bias reigns supreme on all sides and no one wants to listen to any sort of facts, and I don't care anymore.  Please let it be a week from now, so I can already have voted and we can have the results and everyone can carry-on with bitching about foul play or the idiocy of the nation or their complaint of choice, but the decision has been made and I can ignore all the complaints and get on with planning the rest of my life.

Thank you.

Hopefully I'll be over this cold too...

So yesterday was Joe & my one year anniversary.  We relaxed and went to the Point Defiance Zoo.  (Pictures of that excursion will be up later.)

Today we went to visit Joe's parents and met a woman his mom works with who was giving away free kittens.....how could we resist.   We are now the proud owners of two tiny sisters.

Persephone


Artemis


They are so cute and adorable.  They are in the process of exploring their new home.  We promise more pictures as they get more settled and we get more time.    ^_^