Let's Refuel America - Chrysler Incentive Program

When I first read about this on The_Confounding_Variable's (www.xanga.com/The_Confounding_Variable) xanga, I thought that it was super amazing. It really makes me think about buying one of them cars since gas is so expensive nowadays.

But then again I quickly slap myself silly and go back to the Japanese brand ones. I started to question this program: "What if their limit of gas per month is a ridiculously low amount of gallons?" was my first thought. 

I went to their website and they allocate enough to cover for 1,000 miles ran every month. I do at least 1,200 miles. Thinking that any help is better than no help at all, this program would definetly help me out, but again, their vehicles are not as mpg efficient as the Japanese ones, which makes sense when you realize that their calculation also take into consideration the MPG of each car. My car was supposed to get 30 mpg on the highway but no matter how I drive it, it never comes to 30 - I can only imagine what the discrepancy is for Chrysler vehicles.

Besides people who would buy a Jeep would probably go for the bigger ones since there's this gas incentive: yes they would save some money, but on the other hand, with the gas prices this high and the limitation of 1,000 miles a month calculated by the MPG, they might find themselves covered with a short blanket.

Buying a fuel efficient car might still be a better idea in their case - Nissan Altima Hybrid and the Saturn VUE Hybrid carries a federal tax incentive of over $1,000 bucks (I think the Altima actually goes for around $1,200) - which on the bottom line might even be cheaper than having this program offered by Chrysler.

These hybrids have now warranties out of their wazoo. Their most expensive part, the battery, has a factory warranty of 8 years I believe, or something big like that, so no longer people need to worry about the costly battery replacement (at least in 5 or 6 years, but again, most people will only keep their cars for so long).

I think this is a legitimate effort by Chrysler to do something about these gas prices, that is without question. But I'm afraid that some people will take this program and use it to more than it was designed for and will probably yield some very angry, uninformed, car owners.

*I'll post about Cirque du Soleil later today!!!!*

Quick update

My stimulus payment will not be in until May 30th becuase of my 1040Z Ammendment form. Boohoo.

Going to Cirque du Soleil (or something like that) tonight in Philly, should be fun.

Leaving work 2 hours earlier for that, awesomeness.

XBOX 360 now has been successfully flashed. Nice new firmware update, can't wait to play with Tchicum on LIVE!! I've been playing Rainbow Six Vegas 2 and it's awesome!

See ya!

My Thoughts On Multi Level Marketing

I like it and think it's a great opportunity for those wanting to build their own businesses.

Ok, hold on to the rocks, I shall explain myself.

To start, I am really not sure I understand why people see it as a fake, unscrupulous way to make money. The idea takes a bit to get used to, but once you open your mind and see for what it is, it is the easiest, safest and most of the times, cheapest way you can ever expect to own your own business. Now there are MLM's out there that are scams, and there some out there that are legit. You have to do your own research to find ones that are legit and that you believe in their products to begin with.

Let's first talk about the "pyramid" scheme that people talk about. They say that on a MLM only those at the top make the big bucks.

Well that certainly is true, those at the top have more people to override and they get the sweetest commissions. But in your company, do you make more or less money than your manager or CEO? Probably less right? So why is it OK to earn less money than your manager workplace, but it's suddenly unethical to have the same thing happen in a MLM system? If you don't have a business, then you're also working in a pyramid "scheme" and you probably didn't even realize it.

Think of it then as a triangle:

This is your job.  I got this from "Why We Want You To Be Rich" from Robert Kyosaki and Donald Trump. They both think MLM is a great thing and are both big authors and agents in the "rich land".

So here's what they say, sort of. Only one CEO at the top, making a lot of money, and a lot of people working under that one big CEO. Is this not the "pyramid" everyone's been freaking out about? But it gets better: your CEO will make less money if you also become a CEO for the same company, so chances are that he likes it just the way it is right now and does not really like to change it.

If you have been working for a while then you know that in about 10 out of 10 cases in traditional corporations, the CEO wants to remain the CEO and he wants you to NOT become the CEO. There are very few chances for you to actually reach the top of the company from within the same company.

We like to think MLM as an inverted pyramid. Why? In a true MLM business model, the ones at the top will only make more money if the ones below them make more money because of overrides. So if I'm on top, I want a lot of people working under me, but if no one makes a dime, I'm also not making anything. But, if they are all making 100,000 a year, then I'm in paradise. So I want to grab every single one of them and drag them to the top where the big bucks are, so while in a ordinary corporation there's very little incentive to help you grow, in MLM, "growth" is the only keyword that matters.

Now some people say that in order for MLM to work, then that group of people at the bottom always needs to be there. That is as true for MLM as it is true for any other business model. The only difference is that in the traditional business model they want you to REMAIN at the bottom, while in a true MLM business model they do NOT want you to be there at the bottom for long. They make more money if you are stacked up higher.

Notice how I keep say "true MLM business model". There are, as there are in businesses, some who will use this system to just cheat their way up the system. Because MLM grows so fast, it's a lot easier for these people to be successful. You have to trust the system you're looking at and most important of all, trust the people who are working in that system so that you can be successful. It's your own responsibility to make sure that you are signing the contrat with a good MLM company, offering a product that you honestly believe in and feel passionate about. If you don't, then you should rethink about joining that MLM company.

Another great advantage of going into a MLM business is that you get to learn the core basics of selling and social skills, which you would probably not learn at your job. Ask anyone who is a successful business owner: they know how to sell.

Sales. Why does everyone hate sales? Do you honestly think that you don't sell?

You sell your skills to a company on interviews, hoping for a job.
You sell your idea to friends if you want them to go somewhere with you.
You sell yourself as a good person to live with when out on your first date.
You sell new ideas at your work place if you want it to change.

So you are constantly selling. The only thing that changes is what you're selling and what you're going to get from it. If you have a business, you must sell that business to the public in order for it to be successful.

I remember reading Rich Dad Poor Dad from Robert Kyosaki and he was meeting this newspaper reporter and she had told him that she wanted to have her own business as well. He advised her to take a class in sales. She became furious! She started saying how she was above sales because she had a masters degree, this and that publication, this and that certification... He then got one of his books and pointed at that silver sticker and said "see here? It says 'best selling author' and not 'best writing author'".

So being able to sell is very important for a business and if you really want to become rich. Another thing that is important is to be able to surround yourself by people who want to be successful and who want you to be successful. At my job I know a lot of people who do just the enough to "get by" and they will "get by" their entire lives. They work very hard at what they do, but they will often not do anything other than that. Everyone is surprised whenever I tell them that I'm studying for this and have plans for that. In their heads, why would anyone go home after working for the entire day and work on something else that is not paying a hourly wage?

If everyone you know thinks like that, then you'll also think like that. There's nothing wrong with it, but understand that it is not the mindset that will take you to riches. It is the mindset that will make you want to save money and play it safe. Whether or not it is a good way to think about the future is beyond this post (and I shall post about it later on) but as long as you are truly satisfied with what you want, I say go for it.

Of course, it is your ultimate responsibility to be involved with a true MLM business model which offers a good product and a terrific sales program training. If you find yourself being "ripped off" then I'm sorry to say, but you should have known it better. With todays disclosing requirements, it is very improbable that they hid a material fact: maybe it was written in that contract you signed; maybe it was written in that manual you took home but never bothered to really read it and just took everyone's word for it. Either case, you're the one at fault, not the MLM business model.

They are not for everyone, far from it. But if you want to have a business and time to grow it without spending a lot of money, it really does not get much better than this.

Workaholic... moi?

Of course not! I'm working right now just because... well, things need to get done and I'm the one in charge of making sure that it gets done.

Ok I lie, so it didn't really need to be done before Monday, but  you know me... the process is easy, it's just time consuming... I'm not doing anything right now... so might as well do something constructive, right? I knew you'd get my point... hehe

In any case, I've been thinking about something for quite some time now. I really want to take my writing to another level. Thing is, I hate the actual writing action. I just wouldn't be able to get a blank piece of paper and "write" a story. I'd much rather "type" a story, in fact, I've written 2 books already, but I'm sure no one knows! HA! I actually wrote them as a hobby, the second one actually being in an independent website I've designed so every week I'd go and write a "chapter". It was very simple since I didn't understand much about HTML (not that I do now) but the interesting thing was.... it was my first "book" written in English. It was during my first year in college, even before the LC (I know, how??).

Those were all half assed attempts at making something that I'd really be proud about at the end. It was just something for me to do in order to improve my writing abilities. I thought to myself, what is the best way for me to improve my writing? Well, there are few things that demand more writing than actually... writing something heh.

So I'm here just thinking to myself: (1), how the heck am I going to find free time for this and (2), instead of writing somethign in my free time, I should really focus on my test that is creeping up.

So maybe I'll take that test and pass it first. But it'd be really cool to be able to write something. What would I write about though? And actually - if I take a very critical look at my own writing - is it really good enough for me to start thinking about writing something more serious?

Well I had my shares of merits. It all began with my mom telling me not to follow psychology (that was actually the thing I wanted to do) since it'd require a lot of writing and, according to her, my writing skills would never be as good as of a native English speaker. Well I'm not too sure about that. At least while I was in college, my technical writing had always been hailed by my professors and I never did bad in my English composition classes either. Of course, I make some blatant grammar mistakes but who cares! What's really important is how clear you can convey your message: is the reader understanding your words or is he going "I'm sure the author is talking about a very important point - maybe the point of this whole book actually - but I just can't put my finger on it" ?

I've been helping Fiona write all of her essays, including a final paper observation and in all of them, without exception, she was able to get a perfect score in, and actually the professor kept several of them (including the final observation). I remember in my senior year, I'd always get straight A's in my English classes, and those were NOT ESL classes. So maybe Mom is wrong, and according to my GRE composition score of 5.5, maybe I actually MADE it and my writing is actually not THAT bad.

I've noticed that a best selling book is not necessarily (actually, it seldom is) the best written book. Isn't it funny how they say "best seller" and not "best written"? I mean, you look at some of the huge sellers and the books are usually written in normal English. No need to bulk up my vocabulary and throw words that use 80% of all consonants at once!

I would actually love to write a book. I've been thinking for a long time now and I might even had talked about this on Xanga before, but what I really want to do is to write books that will help people grow in their lives. I would love to go there and make presentations on how to improve a determined aspect of their lives. But then again, how am I going to tell them "you should do this to be successful" if I'm not sure I'm successful?

Maybe I should write about something that I'm already fairly good at. English. There are a lot of people out there who are struggling in how to learn English and I think I got (at least) that part right. So how did I do it? How did I learn to speak and write English? I naturally need to improve upon my phonetics but aside from that... I think the whole answer lies on your perspective. Once you got that part nailed, then it's just a matter of time.

Maybe I should go back to Brazil and teach people the workings of learning English.

"Why should you come to me to learn English? I have a college degree there!"

LOL

Maybe the book can be called:

"English. What no other school will ever teach you" --> Of course, this title would be in Portuguese hehe

HA! Best selling Brazilian book in history!

Damn it I should really do something about this. Lots of people pay a lot of money to learn English.

Come on Ferny, think!

Let's Recap...

So, aside from missing Bum's birthday, I have been up to no good again. I've shot my diet to hell, convinced my g/f to buy a very expensive toy (I sure hope she enjoys it though) and am not studying for my test that is happening in less than a month. Time out Ferny, time to refocus.

I have some pictures to share with you all today. Everybody knows that when the Brazilian dude is throwing a BBQ, come ready to eat meat. Not hamburgers or hot dogs, but real, $20 a pound, BEEF. We had such gathering in my family recently and Dad sported his precious top sirloin beef.

No fancy sauces or herbs or spices. No marinating. No crazy trick or secret trade going when it comes to preparing the meat for a Brazilian BBQ. All you need are thick slabs of good beef, charcoal and some good loving rock salt. The closest thing I've seen selling here is kosher salt, but that's not thick enough to really make it heavenly, but it will do in the absence of rock salt. Just to give you an idea, they are as big as the salt you put down on your driveway during winter. Enough said.

Here it is, as promised, no fancy spices nor sauces. Just a thick slab of meat covered and massaged with rock salt and ready for prime time. Yum. Is it just me or this looks really good? Hey, stop making that yucky face! You will like the end result! lol So we go from huge piece of raw meat....

To huge piece of BBQ'ed meat. Thick meat over low fire, slowly cooked, medium rare. Nice... and from huge piece of BBQ'ed meat to...

Smaller pieces of meat. Notice how it's almost over LOL yeah we know how to eat! Maybe we can throw one just like this for Bum's bday? I'm sure he'd enjoy the meat lol after that we do Wii Party? That sounds like fun.

In any case, everyone knows that I now have a PSP. What not everybody knows (until they read the beginning of this post) is that...

I have found my PSP mate. Mine's the silver one, she gets the "fancier" piano black one. The black PSP looks real good, I hope she enjoys it!

I may have, in my PSP induced fever, overstated the memory capacity of it. I have told her that it would be able to hold 200 videos. For some stupid reason I was under the impression that a video would take 4 MB. Stupid, I know. A normal youtube clip, if you just use the normal setitngs and don't jack off the quality to the highest possible point, will actually take about 15 MB. Since she has a 1 GB card with about 950 MB of usable space, that is about er... 60 videos, so I was a bit off from my calculations. Sorry!! Well, but if she purchases the 4gb card, THEN we might be closer to 200 videos :)

In any case, I might just prove my point buy purchasing a lot of UMD videos (some are pretty cheap).

The US Government will be depositing (if you elected direct deposit at the time of your tax rebate thing) the $600 a pop for people who made over a determined amount of money the last year. If you are, you should be washed by kindness soon.

In my case however, that $600 will cover some of my car insurance. I'm afraid my premium is actually on the $800's so I'll still have to fork over a considerable amount of money when that day comes. So no BluRay disk player for me yet.

Toodles!

Ferny