Election Coverage
Wow, this has been the most interesting primary season I can remember. I’m pretty excited about how things are going to be honest. As I’ve mentioned before, I consider myself to be a pretty moderate person. So seeing Obama, Clinton, and McCain as the final 3 is awesome. It was probably over a year ago that I wrote that I was hoping this year would be a McCain vs. Clinton election followed by Obama running in 2012 or 2016. Ok, so Obama is way ahead of where I expected him to be but I was pretty close. Of the three, I’m actually leaning toward Obama. I’m convinced all 3 will do a good job, and will bring back some respectability to the country. But Obama brings something special, he actually seems like a guy the entire country could rally around. Reagan & Kennedy are the two I think had similar traits, even if their agendas were entirely different. A couple things about Obama strike me as optimal. First, he’s extremely positive in his message. He’s not nearly as polarizing as say someone like Bush. Second, he’s not telling each state a different story just to get votes (which was the problem with Romney). Obama was the only one who went into Detroit and said, “we need to put restrictions on cars so that they get, at minimum, 40 miles per gallon”. The autoworkers hated hearing this. But he at least was honest with them. His argument is reasonable, he points out that if all of our cars got 40 mpg then we wouldn’t need to import oil from the middle east. So we wouldn’t need to be fighting wars there. How nice would that be? One thing I’ve always wondered is – since when did not fighting wars with other countries become a bad thing? He also argued that getting 40 mpg from our cars would actually make them competitive with foreign competitors. And getting to that number would require new technology that would create new jobs. ….I’m buying it. Finally, I think Obama is energizing younger people. His program to give college scholarships to students but in return require them to put in a year of social service (i.e. – peace corps, food shelters, etc.) is awesome. College educated kids that feel tied to the country and feel a desire to help others is a good thing.
So all in all I’m pretty excited about how things are going. Too bad it couldn’t be Obama as president and McCain as vice president. Some day maybe we won’t have these silly political parties but I realize that is way, way too much to ask. For now I’ll just settle for one of these three to set us back on the right track.
Funny Article
Ok, to show that I can take it as well as dish it out – - there’s a great article on the last page of Time Magazine this week that talks about how buying food that was produced locally is really dumb. It’s definitely tongue and cheek but the main point is that it pokes fun at people like me…and actually the writer too. The guy is so funny, he basically goes out to Whole Foods and tries to make a meal out of ingredients that come from as far away as possible. Cheese from France, wine from Italy, nuts from Spain, etc. While a little loose with the facts (the claim that packaged goods from other countries weren’t as bad for the environment as the gas used to drive to the local farmer’s market was a little far fetched) it was definitely entertaining. My favorite quote from the guy was something like, “buying food from foreign countries is the only way I really learn about any other countries…except when we bomb them”. Obviously this guy could poke fun at himself as well as others. Ok, maybe I should stop reading so much and start making some beads! I’ve got two sets on Ebay that are ending Thursday morning if you are interested in taking a look.
A Good Sign
How great is this – - the Toyota Prius sales just passed the Ford Explorer…which has been the top selling SUV for more than 10 years. It’s awesome to see people starting to downscale away from the monster trucks that were so popular. The article listed some of the possible reasons as rising gas prices and increased regulation. While I really don’t care what the specific reason is, I can’t help but hope that some of it is just people caring more about the environment. One of the most ironic placement of a bumper sticker ever is the “Support Our Troops” stickers plastered across the Enormous Monster Trucks. I always think, “hello, we wouldn’t be in that war if Americans would drive more fuel efficient cars”. I actually think that it’s better to support our troops by trying to do everything possible to consume as little oil as possible, including driving a car with good gas mileage, taking public transportation whenever possible, and buying locally grown food that isn’t shipped across the country or continent.
So while Prius sales aren’t going to single handily change the world, it’s a step in the right direction. Kind of like the first time I heard that McDonalds was now selling salads. ….baby steps! The other thing I really believe is that companies that don’t figure out how to keep up with the the world’s new focus on caring for the planet, don’t deserve to stay in business. That’s one of the main reasons that Toyota is dangerously close to completely bankrupting Ford and GM. I’ve been following these companies for some time now and it’s just hard to imagine Ford and GM really competing with Honda and Toyota since both of those companies have been making smaller, more fuel efficient cars for so long now.
Here’s the article if you are interested in taking a read: http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Extra/ToyotaPriusSalesPassFordExplorer.aspx
Christmas Day
Hope you are enjoying the holidays!
I took a couple weeks off from beadmaking to just enjoy the Holidays. That’s the good side to not making beads full-time, since I’m not dependant on the income from lampworking I can take some much needed breaks. The flip side is that sometimes I’m really motivated to make beads and I might have to wait a few days to make them.
Here are some pictures from our Christmas Day:
Craigslist Post
One of the fun parts about being a lampworker is collecting different types of glass. Sometimes you really connect with a specific glass type and can become one of the main people working with it (for me, Bullseye’s Luster Glass is that glass). On the other hand, sometimes you spend a ton of money on a specific glass type and you can’t get a single good looking bead out of it (for me, Double Helix is that glass). At any rate, I’ve been trying to get me to build a couple more of these glass storage cabinets for me. So I posted on craigslist that I was looking for someone to help me build these and would like to know how much someone would charge me to build them. Surprisingly I haven’t gotten a single person to respond. Surprising because when I had the first cabinets built I had several people respond with different pricing that would do it. Anyway, I hope I can find someone to build these for me. Now I’m starting to wonder if maybe you can’t find everything on Craigslist.
It’s finally starting to feel like Christmas now….Thanksgiving is officially over and we even had a few snowflakes tonight. We had a nice Thanksgiving – - I think Devera just likes saying the word “feast.” We also watched Little Mermaid a few dozen times…or maybe it just felt like it.
I’m getting ready to put a new Ebay auction and special up but the camera is recharging so it might have to wait another day or two…we’ll see. Keep an eye out if you are interested.
For some reason it seems like Thanksgiving weekend should start tomorrow but we are still a week away. I can’t wait to have four days to spend with family.
I took Devera to the mall tonight. She likes going to get a piece of candy from See Candies after we eat dinner and also to walk around and look at all of the stuff – - basically playing with the dolls and fire engines at the Children’s Pottery Barn. I have to admit, it was such a bummer to go to the mall and see Christmas decorations out. Hello….it’s not even Thanksgiving yet. There was a great little write-up in Time this week about how the blurring of the holidays is ruining the whole season. I couldn’t agree more. When I was a kid it was so neat to look forward to Halloween and all the things that go along with it. Then Thanksgiving was always a time to have a big family feast and celebrate my Dad’s birthday. And when that was over, it was finally time to start thinking about Christmas. I was sad tonight when Devera was so focused on all the Christmas decorations that she didn’t even really think about Thanksgiving at all. One rule we stick with at our house is that we try to only focus on one holiday at a time.
So hopefully this weekend you are getting together that shopping list for the grocery store and not the list for presents – - Have a Great Weekend!
Ok, as promised, tomorrow at 10:30am PST I’ll have a new Ebay auction launched. Also, I just put up a new on-site auction so if you are interested just shoot me a quick email.
So what’s the phone carrier part about? So here it goes. Basically, I’m not really much of a complainer. First, I think life’s too short. Second, most people don’t enjoy hearing about it, and third, I’m generally a happy person. So as I tell this story keep in mind that it had me laughing almost all the way through. So awhile back I noticed something on my MCI bill that said “paper billing fee – $1″. Fair enough I thought, if they have to send a paper invoice each month that would cost about a dollar, and an email is basically free and helps save the environment. So I was on board. So I called MCI and said, “yes, please start sending my invoice via email so I can save the dollar each month”. There response was this – - “I can only remove the fee if you tie the payment to be automatically deducted from your bank or credit card each month.” I told them that I’ve had trouble with that in the past because my credit card company has changed my number numerous times and I dislike having to call all the companies to tell them the number has changed. So I repeated again that I would like to have the fee waived and that I just wanted an email sent. They said “no”. To be honest, I was a little surprised. So I made sure I had the story right. “So what you are telling me is that I have a paper billing fee, but an electronic email statement is not offered.” Their response, “yes, that’s correct”. I tried unsuccessfully to get them to realize how insane that is to no avail. Then I remembered all of the other times MCI has screwed me in the past – - like when I owned their stock and they declared bankruptcy….all my money was gone – about $1,500. Then they just re-issued new stock after bankruptcy court. Why society doesn’t pressure Congress to stop giving corporations welfare and direct that money towards our schools and infrastructure is beyond me but that is a different story. Then I remembered the time they just stopped offering internet service mid-stream. One day I just got this strange letter that said MCI was no longer offering internet service and that they would shut off my service on day X.
So how does the story end? I’ve got Comcast coming over next weekend to change my phone and at the same time save $50 a month over what MCI was providing. I’ve always believed that poor companies should be punished by consumers and good companies should be rewarded – - and the best way to do that is with my own purchasing. So I did promise MCI that I would make sure I blogged about my awful experience(s) with them and hopefully that would drive some customers away. Ultimately I would love to see the company go bankrupt…..again! God they are embarrassing. If anyone has anything to say about MCI, good or bad, feel free to post to the link. You get bonus points if it’s a funny (read: assinine) experience.
Coming soon, my Verizon story which is even sillier!
Princesses on Ice
Back at the hotel tonight. My head is spinning from all of the torch time I’ve had over the last 2 days. I hope I can remember it all. I spent some time looking through all of the glass at Frantz Art Glass – - the place is absolutely huge! Worth the trip if you happen to be around Shelton, Washington.
It’s been really interesting to be around other lampworkers all weekend. As anyone who reads this site knows, I don’t really know what’s going on in the lampworking scene or even what’s popular or not popular. Especially in the last year or so, I rarely look at beads besides the ones I make myself. I’m not saying that’s good or bad it’s just the way it is. Anyway, it was really interesting to see what everyone focuses on. It’s fun to sit by other lampworkers who have different strengths and weaknesses. For example, since I never make barrel-shaped beads it takes me forever to work on one, and even then it needs help. Some of the people I take the class with could make them in their sleep I bet. However, when it comes to the technical dot placement type work I can tell that I spend a lot more time focusing on that kind of stuff. So I’ve really enjoyed watching all the other students make their beads….super fun.
So tomorrow is my last day in the class. I can’t wait to get back home and start messing around with all these new techniques. I also miss Toby and Devera and can’t wait to see them. I think they took a ferry ride today while Daddy was at “Glass Camp”. ….funny huh?
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