Pain is only temporary!!!

In light of the fact that I lost none of the weight that I planned on losing in time for neither an old high school friends wedding or my upcoming engagement pictures, I've decided to at least make a solid effort on slimming down in time for my wedding. That gives me about 7 or 8 months to stop being a fat ass. I don't think I'm huge but this body fat calculator tells me I'm obese. What a crock of shit. So here it goes. I've made several firm decisions to stop eating so much and exercise more but I almost always lose focus and help myself to some more cheese. You know why? Because cheese if fucking delicious. Anywho, I thought maybe if I put this in a blog it would help me focus better. Let's see how it goes.

We takes the money!!!

Working for a bank has given me some insight in to the current banking crisis that, unfortunately, is more bad news than good. On the bright side, I have the pleasure of being employed at an institution that has not required any TARP funds in order to stay afloat. We have suffered losses, obviously, but nothing to the extent where the business is suddenly in trouble.

It seems to me that the largest banks are the ones that have been hit the hardest and have needed bailouts the most. Now, if about 95 banks have failed as I read recently then a good chunk of them must have been small but most of this money has gone to financial institutions that have risen above the pack. Why is that? Why would the supposed "cream of the crop" be hurting the most? I suppose there are a number of reasons to account for that whether it's blatantly over-the-top executive pay, risky investments, poor accounting practices, or whatever. But these are the guys who have gobbled up most of the government money and, if this report is true, have not learned a thing from their recent struggles. Or perhaps they did learn. Maybe they learned that every time they fuck up the government will come and throw them another fist full of cash.

Where all banks are affected by this is by the FDIC insurance. This is the funding that makes sure we, the customers, don't lose our money when a bank goes under. Prior to the banking crisis the bank I work for had to pay something in the thousands for insurance. After the crisis we were hit with a special assessment fee that hit us up for a cool $2.5 million. Very soon they are getting together to find out about an additional assessment that could hit us up for about $10 million. I do a lot of peer analysis for the company and I've seen that these fees have knocked net income figures for a number of banks in to the red, taking what looked like a promising year in a time of trouble and change and wiping it out.

So here's the way I see it: we, the smaller banks are busy propping up all the failed banks and a good number of the big boys. The huge banks of the world get government cash injected which they are using to do everything but what they were told to do. These banks then go and buy out the little guys who are getting crippled by increased insurance costs. These banks then continue sketchy investment practices, albeit with less inclination to lend to their customers. They eventually fail again, people get laid off, government throws more money at them.

So who wins in all of this? The executives, obviously.

Why does it seem that everything is set up for the guys at the top? And when is somebody up there going to do something about it?

Ineptitude Defined

It's a sad state of affairs when you can consider your team dead with 81% of the season yet to be played, but I don't think there's any mistake that the 2009 Washington Redskins are finished. You take a team that looked ill-prepared in Week 1 against he Giants, looked pathetic in a 9-7 victory over the awful St Louis Rams, and then go on to allow the Detroit Lions to break their 19 game losing streak and you know that you are dealing with a far below mediocre team.

Michael Wilbon sums it up best here (keep in mind that this article came out before the game):

"We're talking about a franchise that undermined its starting quarterback over the summer, a franchise that sued financially strapped ticket holders during a recession while swearing to the longest waiting list for season tickets in professional sports, a franchise whose fans resorted to booing during and after the very first home game of the season, even though it was a victory."

The Redskins seem to allow themselves to be defined by non-football related things. For example, I heard all about how Dan Snyder's personal buddy, Tom Cruise, was chatting it up with the coaches and things like that. Who gives a fuck??!! Instead of celebrity appearances and throwing big wads of cash at every big name free agent, why not play some fucking football?

I know I've beaten up on Zorn and Campbell alot recently, but the problems with this team are deeeep. There's one solution to this: executive overhaul. Snyder obviously is not going anywhere. What he needs to do is get rid of his lackey, Vinny Cerrato, and find someone who actually knows how to assess talent. He needs to also stop this money thing he has going on. Selfish players on the downside of their career with big names come to Washington to get paid. They don't come here to win.

Until the guys in suits get a clue on how to assess players and put together a team, not a collection of individual talent, they are destined to spend their time in the basement of the NFC East.

"I'm Sure I Used To Be So Free"

Lost of new music for me to check out, kind of happy about that. We have new Pearl Jam, Chevelle, Muse, Mute Math, Collective Soul, and Mos Def. I might be forgetting a couple. The only one I've really been able to give a good listen to is Pearl Jam which seems to get better each time I listen to it. I'm curious to see how Muse is, though. A buddy of mine turned me on to them a few years ago when he picked me up on the way to the bar. I heard this bad ass guitar riff and asked who it was and he explained that someone had told him to check them out after hearing he was in to Radiohead. The Muse-Radiohead comparison is a popular one but I think their similarities are getting fewer with each successive album.

It turns out that the riff that introduced me to Muse was from "Stockholm Syndrome" which continues to be one of my favorites. That prompted me to get my hands on the album, Absolution, and I definitely was not disappointed. Songs like "Hysteria", "Time is Running Out" and "Apocalypse Please" keep me listening to the album again and again and what's great is that they, as well as just about every song on the album, are all different styles. If there's one thing that Muse is not lacking, it's diversity.

If i thought that album was good then I was very surprised to find that the one that was released prior to it, Origin of Symmetry, was just as good.

"New Born", super awesome.

"Bliss", awesome.

"Hyper Music", also awesome.

"Plug In Baby", awesome again.

And "Citizen Erased", well, that's the whole reason I wrote this post. I needed an excuse to post one of the most intense songs ever written. Hopefully you enjoy it as much as I do:



...I'll get to their last two albums later.

Dos Aguila Por Favor!!!

At some point I want to put up a post detailing the best week of my life. In April 2009 I visited my then-girlfriend/now-fiance in the country of Colombia where she was teaching on a Fulbright scholarship at a university in the city of Medellin. It was my first real time out of the states (Canada and Cancun do not count) and it was amazing.

The country is gorgeous, the people are friendly, I turned 30, and we got engaged. It's a shame that the country suffers from such a bad reputation but, on the other hand, fear of drug lords and murder keep the number of wandering gringo at a minimum. My only wish is that I had taken more pictures. I guess that means I will just have to go back someday...

Hail to the Redsk.... who am I kidding

This is going to be a long long year for the Washington Redskins and me. I had the pleasure of being able to attend the first game of the season with a buddy of mine which has become something of a yearly tradition. He's a Giants fan and his family has season tickets and so every year for that one game in the Meadowlands we trek out to New Jersey so that I can witness my Redskins get their asses handed to them in person. Except this game. That one was a joke. It was late in the season and neither team was relevant. No one was in the stands. It was fucking cold. People were making snow men. But Bruce Smith did manage to break the sack record. That made it all worth it.

Anyway...

That first game of the season was awful. The 'Skins game plan was to make Eli Manning beat them while they dedicated themselves to containing the running game. Well, long story short, the Redskins played like shit and Eli took what we gave him. Sure, the margin was 6 points, but of our two touchdowns, one was on a fake field goal and the last was in garbage time on a glorious diving catch by the dashing Chris Cooley. Needless to say, things were not looking good for a Redskins team looking for some success.

Luckily, the hapless St Louis Rams were the next opponent and they were coming off of an embarrassment at the hands of the Seahawks. The end of the day did end up being a victory for the fightin' Redskins, but I am far from happy. This team is awful. Three different times in the red zone resulted in 3 field goals. They do not have a single legit touchdown 2 games in to the season. It is looking like the defense will be solid, but the offense has nothing.

I have been one of Jason Campbell's biggest supporters so far, but at this point I don't know how much longer I can stay in his corner. He seems to play just well enough to not cause the team to fall apart. Last week in New York, all he had to do was step up in the pocket to avoid the strip and TD scamper from Umeniyora. He's starting to look better suited for backup work, a guy that won't throw away the game in a pinch, than a lock and load starter. Maybe I am being too hard on him. Last year I kept making excuses that the play calling never allowed him to stretch the field but I was able to witness first hand him missing Moss on a deep pass where he seriously overthrew. Make that play and don't allow yourself to be stripped on the other big one and you have a completely different ballgame.

It's looking more and more like Portis is in the twilight of his career. He's a small package who plays like a much bigger back and it's now obvious that all the abuse has taken it's toll.

All I can say is thank god for Chris Cooley and the woman who loves him.






Edit: Almost forgot, it appears that they may have lost their starting RG Randy Thomas for the season. At one point the Redskins had one of the most dominant offensive lines in the league. Nowadays their lucky to have 5 guys in uniform just to make it through the game.

The Original Birther

This Orly Taitz bird is a riot. Why they even give her airtime is beyond me but it might be doing her opponents a favor by showing that he's unhinged.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

This whole birth certificate thing is really quite silly. It was debunked a long time ago and the people who still believe can't even agree on what story to go with. Obama's a US citizen. End of story.