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| Timestamp:In two days I will be:
3 1/2 semesters
570 days
46 credit hours
away from Lord willing graduating in May 2010.
Start the countdown. :)
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| More interesting stuff: Road trip and BirthdaySo after that slightly heavy post I thought I would toss something up here a little more interesting. Hope everyone's week is going well. Last weekend Amanda and I went up north to see my family and visit Excelsior Springs. Had a really good time. Mom, Sara, Neal, and Grandma put together a big birthday dinner for me Saturday night. It was amazing. Neal smoked ribs and a whole turkey that were both magnificent. The ribs were especially good however. I don't exactly know why, but the flavor was just incredible. Mom made one of her signature salads, Sara did rolls and dessert, and Grandma brought potato casserole, which is a personal favorite of mine. It was awesome. We talked to my brother's recently engaged fience over the internet. First time I'd had a chance to speak with her. Congrats to you bro! (though I don't think he reads this) Sunday we went to Excelsior Springs coC and heard Dad speak. I always like listening to Dad speak. Probably because we think so alike I relate to it a lot. I dunno, it was really good though. So anyways, I had a great weekend, hope everyone else did as well. Thanks to all those who sent me cards and gifts and stuff. Your kindness is greatly appriciated. Here's to another good year Lord willing!
Godbless
Tim
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| Trying to find something to put here...So I was trying to think of something interesting to write about for a few spare minutes but little comes to mind. So I think I'm going to go all stream-of-consiousness about the banking situation for a while. Please leave now while you still can.
Today the Federal reserve bank decided to bail out yet another investment company AIG. Which I find ironic because the KC star around here had just been talking today that the government had closed it's pocket book. Don't get me wrong, I don't think not helping AIG is a good idea. Though either option seems fraught with problems. What we saw monday,(500+ drop in the DOW ) in my oppinion, is the market showing the kind of trepidation to outright fear that is simmering right under the surface. Most of the market indexes have been on a steady decline now since the big drop back in January. But those drops have not been a smooth slope. The fall has been more like a ride down a rough cliff face, with many jagged jumps in the market when certian pieces of news come out that bring forward some glimmer of hope. The company I work for, Citigroup, is part of the DOW average. Its stock is down just shy of 65% from this time last year. So why do people keep buying on those glimmers of hope? Speculation, margining, gambling, hope, anyone's guess is as good as anyone elses at this point. (though 3000 points down from around this same time last year shows that not to many people ar left...) It's a 'buyers market' people keep hoping to make money off of a bad time for most everyone from a financial perspective. Where am I going with this? I don't really know, like I said, stream of conciousness. But the one thing I know about all of this is that the fear that we see in the markets today is nothing more then a result of our nations greed for money and its unfortunate lack of ability to create it in any manner that would satiate it these last 10 or so years. For example, the money traded on the stock exchange does nothing for our Gross Domestic Product. It's like going to a local market early in the morning and buying an orange for a $1 and then selling it for a $1.25 at lunch time. Theres nothing really wrong with that on a small scale, but what do we do when you get 300 million people who didn't have the forsight to buy the orange that morning and so pay the extra .25 cents? First, a very rich orange salesman. Second, if the people who bought the orange only brought a dollar to pay for it. You get 25 cents in debt for each person that couldn't afford the going price. Lastly, tomorrow, when all those people who couldn't afford to buy the orange yesterday took out a loan to pay for it, they then need 1.60 to pay for tomorrows orange when the debt is called in. The person has two options: 1) delay the loss till later and loan yet agian to get the food they need or 2) eat less today, pay the loan, and work out a new budget. The problem that we have is that we have been following the later and then the former course in this previous decision tree. We delay the debt as long as we can. Where do we get the funds that as of today we haven't earned? From other people, what if every single source in America is tapped, where do we get the money from then? Think of America now as the man in the market that wants the orange. Our nation is so indebted that it can't afford to pay, so now it must go to some other nation to pick up the tab, this nation knows that soon they can call in that bill with interest. China isn't the only one by the way. We, as a nation, have got to get back on our own economic feet. This, in my oppinion, deserves just as much attention as weither we spend another few years defending Iraq and Afganistan. If other nations have our debt, they have the power to tell us what to do with our money.
Pr 22:7 ΒΆ" The rich rules over the poor, And the borrower is servant to the lender."
We've gotta stop leaning on these banking giants to pay our bills when we don't want to. lets have some financial dicipline! Otherwise the fall of Bear, Freddie, Fannie, and AIG is going to be the least of our worries when those people we owe come to call on there loans. Get ready everyone, and get conservative with your funds, We're all gonna need them in the next 20 years.
Godbless
Tim
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| Today I learned a very important lesson:That whenever I think "wow, I don't think this semester is going to be that hard" I should immediately go find a text book to read.
On a better note, These last couple of weeks have got me pretty well thinking that I want to do electrical power and, if I'm feeling ambitious, radio systems for my senior emphasis. (My signals class is right now talking about 3-phase power grids and I'm totally fascinated by it). So that's been a pretty cool experience. 12 weeks left. bring on the math. :)
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| Zechariah 1:12-14"Then the Angel of the LORD answered and said, "O LORD of hosts, how long will You not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which You were angry these seventy years?"
13 And the LORD answered the angel who talked to me, with good and comforting words.
14 So the angel who spoke with me said to me, "Proclaim, saying, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts: "I am zealous for Jerusalem And for Zion with great zeal. 15 I am exceedingly angry with the nations at ease; For I was a little angry, And they helped-but with evil intent." 16 'Therefore thus says the LORD: "I am returning to Jerusalem with mercy; My house shall be built in it," says the LORD of hosts, "And a surveyor's line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem."'
I was reading this passage this evening and it got me thinking. You know, God doesn't want us to suffer through all the things that we put ourselves through, even after we are baptized and brought into Christ's body God strives for us to leave our old ways and become more like his son. Not so that he can have people who are nothing more then rough copies of his son (though that would be a wonderful thing) but so that we can find the peace and joy that comes with finding rest and place for our soul. I so often go off looking for something that I have no need of. Only to find that the exact same thing that I desired was nothing more than sin with consequences and problems that I must now deal with. When the children of Israel were given the promised land God told them time and time again to just trust him. He would give them everything they needed. They needed go look any further then their spiritual King. But they left as we all know and God was required to leave them to the life of idolatry that they desired. Nations over took them and the eastern coast of the Mediterranean has never been the same. Even though they had to experience this punishment, God sent them home with the same promise and this note above. ' I never wanted to do this to you, but you wouldn't listen to me, and you got what you wanted.' (If you don't quite understand where I'm getting that from go through and read the chapter a couple of times, I think that will make it a little easier to understand) When we sin we suffer the consequences of our sin, wither it's self-imposed isolation from the Spirit or something of a material or even emotional kind. God doesn't want us to suffer the consequences, but must let us see how unpleasant sin is really is. Hoping that we will look to him and realize, all along, he was all we ever wanted or needed.
Godbless
Tim.
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