Grand Canyon

Yes, Kris and I are planing a vacation to the Grand Canyon this coming fall. Originally, we were hoping to visit Lake Tahoe once again, but decided it would be a little too much money to spend at this point. Anyway, we are looking forward to visiting the Grand Canyon in the fall. I hope to buy tickets from Austin to Flagstaff then rent a car and vacation at the South Rim for a week or so. In that time we also hope to visit the Painted Desert, Petrified Forest as well as that giant Meteor Crater between the two, oh and that big canyon thing too.

If you haven't realized by now, Kris and I really enjoy nature oriented trips and outings. In fact, this time last year we were living in Manchester and decided to visit the Central Texas area (where we ended up relocating to) and fell in love with the rugged terrain and all the different geological features of the Balcones Fault Line as well as the Edwards Aquifer. 

Anyway, I hope to get the trip squared away in the next couple of weeks and hopefully bring some pictures as well as updates to this blog in the near future, but only time will tell Thanks for checking in and "buying the perfume" to keep my travels afloat!

Keeping The Queue

Over the last couple of months, I've been spending quite a bit of time traveling and have had many crazy experiences. Without going into too much detail, I would have to say that one of my most interesting experiences was in Manchester this past Valentines Day. Having spent most of my spare time that week looking for a special gift for my wife, I must have queued up nearly a dozen times at shop counters only to change my mind after a couple of minutes waiting. At first I was going to purchase the standard cliche items (Teddy Bear, Chocolates etc.), but decided it might be nice to go the extra mile and find some nice perfume. 

After exhausting nearly every shop in Manchester, I decided to see what wares I could find on the web. Returning to my hotel room after a long days search, I typed in a generic search via google and stumbled across Fragrance Online. Apparently Fragrance Online is the UK's premier online perfume retailer. After perusing the site for a few minutes, I found that not only would I be saving some decent cash, but I had a gigantic selection of perfume from which to choose. I mean, Calvin Klein, Prada and Lacoste were just some of the premium designers from which to choose. In the end I wound up purchasing Rock and Rose Couture by Valentino for the lovely wife. 

I have to say that the process (well, other than my queue experience) went really well. In fact, I was even able to breeze through the airport and customs on the way back home. As for the perfume, well, I think Kris was pleasantly surprised from her fragrant gift from "across the pond". I did want to find something with a more "British" flare, but I couldn't find a proper Manchester United jersey. 

Hey Folks

This blog has been all over creation over the last few months and I will be tidying it up a bit the next few days. I hope for this blog to be my personal blog as opposed to anything terribly specialized (which was the original intent). Despite the randomness of the blog, somehow it managed to crawl its way to a Google Page Rank of 1. Honestly, that surprises the hell out of me.

Anyway, if you enjoy my writing style feel free to hang around here or check out my more frequently updated blogs by visiting my profile in the top left corner of this page. Anyway, things will be changing over here, so keep an eye out in the coming days. In the meantime, keep warm!

Venus, Jupiter and the Crescent Moon

Hey everyone, I was reading an article over at Yahoo News about a pretty cool celestial event that will be occurring for the first time in like 50 years that I think you should check out (if you're into that sort of thing).

Apparently, if you look into the Southwestern sky at twilight on Sat, Sun and Mon you will be able to see both Jupiter and Venus as well as the Crescent Moon. What makes this really cool is that you will be able to see them clearly instead of just tiny dots amongst the stars. In addition, they will be separated by about 2 degrees (which means that if you outstretch your arm and hold up a finger that would be the distance in between them, you fingers width).

I usually don't get too excited about these things, but I figure it will be pretty cool to check out, especially since you can see this clearly with the naked eye.

The event will be visible all weekend long at dusk in the Southwestern sky. I don't know how clearly you will be able to see it in New York or Los Angeles, but it should be easy to see back home in NH and down here outside the big cities. If you get a chance, check it out!

Tanking Economy

The Dow Jones Industrials just dropped another 400+ points and is hovering around 7,500. For a reference point, consider a 401k you may have had this time last year that was heavily divested in different risk levels or a PIMCO retirement account equally valued and divested. The Dow was hovering around 12,500 to 13,000 points, it doesn't take a rocket scientist or mathematician to realize that your 401k has likely lost half of its total value. Granted, these things tend to bottom out and recover so if you are investing for the long run you will likely be alright, but if you were considering retirement in the near future you are f@ked. Now think about family and friends who are in the age bracket of say 55-65, how do you suppose this is affecting them?

I have to admit, I have been quite skeptical of the market the last few years as I have felt that the "market" had been artificially inflated and was due to come back down to reality. I really believe we are beginning to see the real scope of the problem, and unfortunately the problem is a lot more widespread than initially reported during the summer of this year. Having said that, if you are feeding a 401k continue to do so as you will likely do well in the long-run. I would recommend solid divestment strategies or perhaps investment in a PIMCO retirement account. I would also suggest solid "second tier" investment in high interest savings accounts (ING Direct, HSBC) as well as CD's and whole life insurance policies set to a stable rate as opposed to tied to an index. Honestly, if you divest well you will see that your investments will continue to work for you even in these hostile markets.

In addition to the aforementioned financial tips (be sure to consult an advisor before making any decisions with your retirement accounts or other finances) I'd definitely suggest taking a few measures to ensure that you are not hemorrhaging money. For instance, are there monthly expenses you can whittle down such as cell phone contracts, cable bills and dining expenses? You would be surprised at how many people I talk with who have excessive cable plans who never even utilize the service. Don't even get me started on excessive cell phone plans. I know of people who are paying over $100 on a cell plan that includes data and text and everything else you could imagine. While it might be a "great deal", it is important to prioritize.

Anyway, this blog is beginning to turn into a lecture and that isn't cool. I hope that you have been able to do your best in these trying times and that you are aware of the world around you, because ignorance really isn't a viable excuse when it is for your own livelihood.

GOP Candidates 2012

Like you, I've been assaulted by all of the GOP 2012 talk so I decided to research for myself who the top selections might be for the primaries. Granted, we are only a couple weeks beyond the 08' election, but since it is constantly in the news I figured I'd cover it here. After running a few searches on "GOP Candidates 2012", I found the site Rate It All where they give a 0-5 star rating to the potential GOP 2012 top runners. Basically, anyone can give them a star rating and it rates in real time. I think it is pretty interesting, but it is disturbing that we are talking about the next election cycle already.

Personally, I think the GOP is taking the "Dartboard Approach" to selecting their candidates for 2012.

Rebuilding The GOP

Having lost the Presidential Election as well as those of the Senate and House, the GOP has their work cut out for them to rebuild the party. After watching quite a bit of the major news networks programming the last week or so, I feel like the party is spending a bit too much time "looking" and less time "searching". 

When I say "looking"I am referring to the Sarah Palin factor. I believe that the GOP keeps looking at her due to the appeal to the base of the party. Honestly, the base of the party hates "liberals" so much they would go to the polls for any Republican, so playing to the base might not be such a sexy idea. As for "searching", I feel like there are some good Republican leaders out there other than Romney, but they need to be found. 

I don't know about you, but I'm getting a little tired of Sarah Palin on every channel every day. Maybe if she was allowed to come out during the election the results might have been different. Regardless, I just don't see her as a representative of the Republican Party. She is just way too far right. I realize Obama is pretty far left, but Democrats aren't afraid of the far left in the same was as Republicans are weary of the far right. I don't know, I like the Republican party, but just not the high profile folks. We'll see what happens after the fall.

American's Marrying Later In Life

I was checking out Yahoo News and saw this story about American's waiting longer to get married due to varying stimuli and thought it was pretty interesting. My wife and I got married in Sept. of 07 when I was 26 and she was 24. We seem to fall in line with the projections in the chart below.

I thought this was pretty cool. How do you fit into the graph when you were married. Are you planning to get married, sooner rather than later? 

Obama Image

I was surfing the Blogosphere via BlogExplosion yesterday and found this great image on a political blog and had to borrow it and post it here for my readers. 

Personally, I like Obama and think he might be able to do some decent things for our country. I also think he will be interesting fodder for a comedy community who is running out of great political material due to the waning Palin moments. I mean, she was the gift that keeps giving. I really hope she doesn't fade away into oblivion, but I digress.

Anyway, I really liked this image and thought it would be fun to post here. By the way, if you aren't a member of BlogExplosion, you should join up and increase your traffic big time! When I entered this blog over there I picked up an extra 50-60 views a day almost immediately. Not to mention extra comments and followers. Check out the above link or the banner!