student Loan Blues

I got the Student Loan Blues
That Ol' Department of Education
they did me wrong, now it's got me singing dis song
they "randomly" selected me so they could give my debt
to my old lender who lied to me and...
I got the blues.

Ah, Hell, the short of it is apparently the government is so overloaded with managing student loan debt that they are "randomly" selecting loans and farming them out to other vendors to manage the repayment for them.
Reasons why I don't buy that is was random:
1. The reason I was with Direct Loans is because EdFinanacial lied to me about being able to consolidate through them and then wouldn't do it.
2. would even discuss a repayment plan with me 3 years ago when I was wanting to start paying my loans back. They wanted more than I was making as a "income sensitive" repayment plan as they stated
3. they are local to Tennessee
4. the DOE is famous for passing the buck and un-assuming responsibility  for just about everything. Don't believe me? ask them about no child left behind some time.

it's no wonder that student loan forgiveness is a mostly magical and thus mythical being that is often hunted for, seldom discovered and never tastes as good as it looked on the spit.

That's it.
Lucky for me that EdFinancial appears to be more reasonable 3 years since the last time I talked to them.

Sunday and a Funeral

Talk about opposites. Today is Sunday services with the  promises of Hope and the Memories of the departed to follow. Working for a church can change a person. So much  of what we regularly take for granted happens  here in stark contrast day to day. There are always calls for food, shelter, safety. There is almost without fail someone here looking for something he or she is  claiming to be without. We  have to  take them  at their word if we are to be what we say we are.
At the  same time we must also be a paragon of virtue, honesty. kindness and compassion.  A church is more than a building and more than a beacon in a world that  is constantly filled with darkness and  hopelessness. Even  if  you are an  Atheist or one in  doubt, a church must continue to be all  this even if you cannot accept  it as anything but a lie. A church is  the best bet. It should always be a person's best hope  for safety, mercy, compassion and peace.
The mission of a church  is to be a geologic center in an otherwise unsure  world and a rock that provides  stability to the community.
Many churches fail to do this, only  because they forget why they are  there in  the first place. Like most of  life, the rule of thumb is: It is almost always the few that stand out from the many.  The very nature of our collective humanity is to look to the few or the one rather than the many or the masses to determine our collective fates.
We hand  off inevitably to the singular entities of Government led usually by an individual or small group  of people that we have laid our trust with- undeserved  or not. Whether  it is a democracy or monarchy- the  rule of the  few or one continues  to be the way the  collective masses prefer.
It is thus up to  the few or one to be responsible to the many that becomes Paramount.  As a  church this is equally  important. As a Christian Church, my church, it is crucial to remember that it was the one who sacrificed himself  so  the masses may find forgiveness  and new life in  this world and the  next (should there be  one).
So here  I am on  Sunday with birth and  death  around me reminding myself that even if it is  just my job, it is my responsibility and duty to remember where  I am and what I am doing as the day progresses towards evening.

It helps  that I believe in what I do.
It helps that I believe even if you do not.
It helps me to  help you.

Saturday and a Wedding

I plan to have Sushi for Lunch and then shoot a Wedding and then go buy a Pizza from Fresh Market (three meat and buy Summer Squash, Zucchini and Cheese to top it, maybe some sausage as well. Life in the not so fast lane for old Mike.
Worked on blogs today instead of mowing the lawn or cleaning out the barn.
got to get back on track with Inklings and the Write a book or two blog. Will have to see what I can come up with after I prep for the wedding and wait for it to start.
Tonight I will be watching the Doc Martin Movie and Midnight in Paris.

It is strange, not really having "days off," when you are mostly self-employed there is seldom time to take off especially when you job primarily starts on Sunday Mornings. Saturdays are usually my only day off, but not for the next few months since we have a pretty hectic wedding schedule. I don't mind, I got bills to pay. Money to save.
It does seem like a distant memory when I had my last real day off or my last vacation. It isn't but the time seldom comes around and when it does I seldom do anything useful with the time anyway- probably why I take so few days off or vacations for that matter. My few vacations have been mostly to visit my dad which in of itself is another how kind of work. In short, I have to grab relaxation in between everything and everyone.

Then its back to work, like I am about to do now.

I seem to hear that beautiful food calling out to me. Sushi has to be one of the most beautiful foods (visually) that I have ever seen.

Quote of the Day: "If all my friends were to jump off a bridge, I wouldn't jump with them, I'd be at the bottom to catch them."
                                                                       (I don't know who said it.)
only in the figurative sense since literally that could be painful given the current state of physics

Friday and it's alright

Spent much of yesterday cleaning out the Red Shed- the hub of MV2 Enterprises. As I was stripping down computers to resell parts and hopefully recycle/sell of the cases and listening to the same 5 cassette tapes over and over again on the cassette deck I never managed to sell, I got to thinking about what is any of this stuff worth in the long run?
We accumulate all of this stuff in our lives, especially Americans, I suspect as you find less developed countries and I mean "developed"- I suppose the average person acquires less stuff/possessions. It's hard to imagine being able to pack up your entire life in a suitcase or cardboard box. But there are so many more people in the world who do just that. You would think that people in places like India, China and Japan where population density high and space a premium that they would have very few possessions, and while many do- I have seen that they also have a lot of stuff. But it is still nothing in comparison to the piles and piles of junk that many Americans have.
I know from my own accumulation of things that I still have too much stuff, and I live in a 16x16 foot 2 story house and only use a fraction of our barn for my own things (this is not including my stock in the Red Shed or the tools/power equipment in the Barn- my next major overhaul there). But in my house, if I were going to start listing all the stuff I have acquired in my 42 years- it would astound many many people.
I will summarize a few items to give you an idea.
1. 300 plus comic books
2. 25 plus video games for Xbox & Xbox 360
3. 4 computers (2 desktops, 1 laptop & 1 netbook)
4. 30 or so fiction books
5. 15 CDs (down from my last purge of 100CDs)
6. 40plus DVDs and Blu-rays
7. a lot of clothes by my standards (nothing compared to my relatives standards- I might as well be nude by their standards if you looked at what they have by comparison)
8. furniture for all that stuff.

It is not as much as I did have- thankfully for my enterprising nature, over the last 13 or so years I have sold off a lot of my stuff. (actually I started selling off my stuff when I sold off most of my stars wars toys via flea markets back in the early 90's).

The question of the day is: How much stuff does a person really need?


Quote of the day: "I'm tapped out, American Express has got a hitman looking for me."
                                                                                 Bud Fox (Wallstreet [movie])

Trying to Ping and why I hate passwords

I am trying to unify my twitter/facebook/other social media under a service called ping.fm and who has have a hissy bitch fit but twitter - first it won't accept the password I thought I had then it goes into this overly complex verification process including about the least legible captcha process- and I love this part instead of like every other one I have EVER USED- this one wants the words separated by a space- all the others you just put in the words and off you go, so I finally get that right and then it wants my cell phone number and then won't accept it and then just to add insult to injury it locks me out for at least an hour thereby killing my integration exercise.
How did this come about, you ask (which you didn't but I am pretending here) Frelling (not familiar with that word- go watch Farscape) Passwords. Frelling Passwords I repeat.
One day my life was fine, then everything went to hell, now I spend more time trying to remember all my usernames and passwords until I get that squint in my right eye and I want to strangle as many geeks and nerds I can find who are responsible for this mess.
Yes, I have too many passwords/password variations and usernames for all the sites that want them.
Twitter is just one of the many that drive me to distraction.

Now I am going to go kill something on my Xbox- hopefully a web security specialist nerd.

Mike

Quote on this parsec: "I need a whiskey, a shotglass, two bullets and a gun."
                                                                              Captain Sheridan.

One Day in the Life of.

Am writing this blog pretty late since everything just kept getting in the way today.

One thing I have resolved to do is read my horoscope (yes that Astrology stuff actually does provide some insight for my day) No I don't actually believe for a moment that Stars could get along with each other long enough to tell us mere mortals a thing or two. But, sometime the coincidences are surprising.

It's like this thing I have with street lights, not all of them but a few that tend to go out when I drive past them. Is it my imagination, not completely, the light does goes out and like a good reader, I always take note of them when they do.
Sometimes the stars don't lie
sometimes the women I knew didn't try
quite as hard as it was when I could have gone
for crying later.

Quote for the day (from the Black Book of Quotes:

"You are never given a wish without being given the power to make it come true:
                                          You may have to work for it, however."
                                                                                     Richard Bach.


Good Night Folks!

Shouting Out on Earth Day

Yes, if you blinked you missed it.
TODAY WAS EARTH DAY


In other news, I had to smile my big goofy smile. Mac Users (the smug ones who are the first to tell you with big stupid grins why Macs are so superior to PCs) are not smiling anymore since the Mac is now victim to one of the most Lethal, invasive and contagious virus/worms of the last few years. Say hello to my little friend the Flashback Virus. Finally, someone who has a grudge against Macs had time enough to figure out some code! No, probably wasn't that guy. Still the reason for the spread of the virus amongst Mac Users is due primarily to all of those who took the Mac salesman at his word that the computers were in fact virus proof and did not install any antivirus software on their Macs. I wonder if that Salesman has left the western hemisphere by now?

Here's a shout out to all my "Words with Friends" friends or like I choose to call it "the game that got Baldwin banned from the Plane Game" You Know who you are (Kelli Danger) I am surprised that they will play with little old awesome me. (yep ego trip on my scores so far- I am going to enjoy it while it lasts). Then I guess I will have to send chocolates and flowers again to get them to play another round with me otherwise I will have to see what Alec is doing this week.

Speaking of friends like Kelli Danger (that's my fave name for her) I would like to that Manufactured Ganesh for passing along some very useful tips about spreading the word of what I am doing through Twitter and hopefully getting some real feedback on my writing attempts.


Write on, Tru Believers.

Tonight I will crack open the Black book of Quotes and share it's wisdom with all of you:

"Advice to young writers who want to get ahead without annoying delays: don't write about Man- write about man."
                                              E. B. White.