Welcome back for another installment of my EPIC vacation post! For this post, I’m going to conduct the first part of an experiment: I want to compare the quality of my writing after drinking a monster with the quality of my writing after drinking Jack Daniels. This will be the post written after drinking monster, which means that I have enough caffeine in me that I may end up writing likethisandmakingnosensetoanyonebutmeWHHHHEEEEEE!!!!!

OK, now that I got that out, on to the writing:

Sunday, May 17th
The day of Matt and Stephanie’s wedding finally came, and it came complete with a rainstorm. If the same storm happened in LA, news directors all over the place would be rushing to develop the most ominous “Storm Watch 2009” logo and theme music. Of course, that whole production would be to make sure that people would stay glued to their TVs so that they didn’t take the time to step outside and realize that rain is… water. The people of Georgia prepared for this ominous storm by getting out their umbrellas. Shocking, I know.

The rain outside meant that the wedding ceremony had to be moved to the reception hall. Matt and Stephanie made sure to pick a place that had the ability to do an indoor ceremony (good idea for a spring wedding in Georgia). The hall was very nice and beautifully decorated:





Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of pictures from the wedding ceremony. I figured that there would be plenty of pictures from the photographer, so I didn’t worry about that too much. Of course, I’m not going to post any pictures of the reception either, but that was because I don’t want pictures of me dancing in the reception posted on Facebook (don’t even think about it Diane).

Some highlights of the reception:
- The DJ leading people in this dance. Yes, I was up there for that one. It was fun too. And it will remain fun as long as no pictures are posted. Note- we did not do the costumes or throwing partners in our version...
- The playing of the Big Butt song- especially with the father of the groom requesting it, and his family joining him in dancing to it at the front of the hall. This part was made even more interesting by the fact that their family is very tall. And mine is… not. I think the average height of the people on the groom’s side of the hall was six inches greater than the height on the bride’s side. I felt like I was a part of munchkin land.
- Being dragged by Diane to participate in a Soul Train. This was particularly humorous when someone checked with me to see if I was old enough to know what a Soul Train was.

The rest of us went back to apartments and hotels to change and relax for a little while. The non-honeymooning cousins went out to get some pizza for dinner (pizza counter: 3… my poor colon).

Monday, May 18th
This is the day where the assault on my digestive system moved from “police action” to “shock and awe”. The day started off with lunch at a Waffle House. Erika gave me one tip about eating at Waffle House; “Make sure you go before they clean the grill, the food just doesn’t taste as good after they clean it.” That tip doesn’t fill me with confidence. With that said, the food actually was good. Of course, I’m still digesting it a month later. There’s your lesson kids- everything in life is a tradeoff.

After lunch, we went to the World of Coke in downtown Atlanta. There is one important fact about the World of Coke that was posted on the following sign:



Just to clear up confusion: the World of Coke is not meant to endorse.. Coke. The rest of the display signs in the place did not have the word Coke without an adjective ahead of it. Some of these adjectives were: “refreshing”, “crispy”, “delicious”, and “popular”. These signs were not meant to endorse Coke in any way, they are simply statements of fact. Ask the Most Interesting Man In the World- he knows.

Part of the World of Coke is a place where you can sample different Coke products from around the world. Adding samples of liquids that vary greatly in their carbonation and syrup content to the mass of grease in the stomach that remains from the meal at Waffle House is a very comfortable combination.

After we left World of Coke, we dropped Diane off at the airport for her flight home. The group was dropping like flies at this point. The five of us that were left (Erika, Taylor, Aaron, and Tiffany, and I) went to the Braves game that night.

The park had a nice view at night (and we got some really nice seats):


The advertising also featured local companies:

The Coke canons are not meant to imply endorsement of Coke at all… Squirrel! (that was an Up reference to show how delayed this post is)

We had dinner at the park, which means I added a chili dog and fries to the already toxic mix in my stomach. The good news is that the unfortunate details that came from this did not come about until I got back to the hotel. The better news is that I won’t share those unfortunate details here. The best news (for Diane, at least) is that I wasn’t sharing the hotel room with anyone that night.

Tuesday, May 19th
My last day in Atlanta was spent sleeping in, having lunch with Erika (the rest had to go back to work) and then going to Stone Mountain again for a lot more picture taking. Most of the mountain’s attractions were closed due to windy weather, but that meant that I got to go into the museums (which I didn’t see on my first trip) for free, so I was entertained. The flight home was uneventful, and I crashed soon after dumping the contents of my suitcase in the hamper.

Speaking of crashing, the caffeine is wearing off, so it’s time for me to end this portion of the writing experiment. It would probably be very appropriate if I use the next couple posts to conduct the Jack Daniels portion of the experiment, but that will wait for another day.

Since my last post only covered the first few days of my vacation, I know several of you have been consumed by questions: “what happened on the rest of the vacation?”, “Did Erika survive her head burning experience?”, and most important: “how many times did he eat pizza?”. It would be mean of me to keep you waiting without hearing anything, so I decided to build the suspense by writing about two more days… I told you these posts would be epic.

Friday, May 15th
Dad and I decided to continue our touristy activities in Atlanta. We started off by going to the Martin Luther King Jr. museum in downtown. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to take the tour, but it was a good time, and a very well done museum


Don't you feel like you're part of the march?


Eternal flame outside the museum. I refused to include the corporate sponsor's plaque in the picture. I'm a rebel.

After the King museum, we went to see the Jimmy Carter Library, but that was closed for renovations. However, they did give us a free book (Carter’s memoirs) for our troubles. They books were given to us by a sweet old lady that spends her days just waiting to see if someone will come to the closed library… I guess hiring a social security recipient was easier than putting out a sign. The real disconcerting part of it all was that the lady looked like she was turning to dust right in front of our eyes.

The funniest part of this was when I offered to carry my Dad’s book in my backpack and he declined by saying that he didn’t want to weigh me down. I stared at him for a few seconds, and then politely let him know that I can carry two books in a backpack fairly easily.

On the plus side, I did get a nice picture of a bird:


I think he liked my camera.

And a picture of a statue on the Library grounds that I really don’t get:

Look out! The statue might... charge...

On our way back to the hotels, the assault on my stomach continued- we stopped by a Japanese restaurant for lunch. Note to self: don’t try sushi at a random roadside sushi restaurant in Georgia. I won’t share any more details.

After taking a nap, I went to the airport to pick up Diane. We then met up with the cousins (minus Stephanie) for dinner and a hang out night. Good times were had all around, even as Aaron destroyed us all at Balderdash. I guess when you fly planes for a living, you get pretty good at thinking of random stuff. I have no idea how those two go together, but it seems like a good fit to me.

I do need to take a minute to share with you the following streets that I had to take to get to Aaron and Tiffani’s apartment from my hotel:

Peachtree Parkway
Peachtree Industrial
Peachtree Street
West Peachtree Street

The goal of all this is to make sure that there are more streets named Peachtree in Atlanta than actual peach trees in the state of Georgia. No other logic makes sense to me

If you couldn’t tell from the introductions in my previous post, the most interesting part was the pictures. I’ve already shared Erika’s all time favorite picture, but there’s another one that I think needs to be plastered all over the internet:


The aliens have landed!

There are three things I like about this picture; 1) Aaron is transparent 2) Taylor’s head is 2D 3) Erika actually saw me getting ready to take this picture, and went into this bizarre jedi/ninja/drunk tai chi routine that resulted in that picture. Yes, she deliberately did that. I have a fun family.

I’m very glad I got a hotel room that had a couch with a pullout bed in it. Diane stayed there, which meant I wouldn’t have to do a lot of extra driving to chauffer her around. She also offered to split the cost of the room with me, which saved a bunch of money- woot! Of course, Diane also gave me the following labels at various times during this trip:

Family clown
Family geek
Family drunk

And I can’t even argue with any of them. I think what she was really trying to say is that I’m a really smart guy with a great sense of humor who knows how to have a good time. But she probably won’t admit to that.

Saturday, May 16th
This was the day for the wedding rehearsal. Prior to going out to the site, we met at Erika and Taylor’s apartment to eat breakfast. They insisted on getting Diane and I chicken biscuits from Chick-Fil-A. I guess that counts as a “Southern” breakfast. Now I know. The wedding rehearsal meant that we would take our first trek out to the wedding site. To be honest, trek probably isn’t even the right word. Quest, journey, or odyssey fit quite a bit better. But I’m too lazy to type them all out (even though I just did), so I’ll stick with trek. You know this was a real wedding site because of the bear statue/carving they had outside:


Get a room! Or… a shed!

The rehearsal went well, nothing too major to write about there. The real experience came with the post-rehearsal banquet, which was catered BBQ. I had mentioned to Stephanie that I’ve had very limited exposure to Southern BBQ, so I was looking forward to it. She mentioned that fact to her now mother-in-law, which made sure to check on me multiple times to ensure that I was enjoying the meal. And yes, it was very good.


A picture of the cousins. Yes, we all are looking at different cameras- there were a lot to choose from.

That evening, our side of the family went to my Uncle’s place to have pizza and hang out (vacation pizza counter: 2). Good times all around, but no pictures (we took enough at the rehearsal). After that, back to the hotel (after getting lost) and went to bed.

Speaking of bed, it's about time for me to get to sleep. I expect all of you to wait in breathless anticipation for Part 3, when I will describe eating pizza again, waiting for a flight in the airport, and oh yeah, the wedding. I'll be a good one.

Since I finally graduated school, I went on a great graduation trip. This trip was so awesome, it can only be described as… EPIC. Another fun benefit of finishing school is that I will now have more time to do fun writing (such as blogging) rather than waste my writing time on homework. Combining these two benefits of graduation leads to this post, which can also most accurately be described as… EPIC. This post got long enough that I will split it into several parts.

Another note- I recently spent the money to drastically upgrade my camera, so I will also include photos of the trip. The first posts will be about the first half of the trip, which saw me head to the exotic vacation destination of Atlanta. The Atlanta portion of my trip can best be described as a full out assault on my stomach (and other areas of the digestive system that I don’t like to talk about).

Before I get fully into writing about the trip, I figured it would be good to take time to introduce everyone to my long-lost Atlanta based cousins and their significant others. These characters (and yes, they are characters) will play important roles throughout these posts, so take notes!

First off, since I didn’t get a whole lot of pictures of her with the family (she was pretty busy over the weekend, it’s almost like she was getting married or something), here’s my cousin Stephanie:



The definition of a radiant bride

On the Friday night that I was there, we young(er) people got to hang out for an evening. Here is the resulting photo:


On the left is my sister Diane, my cousin Erika is the one who looks like she wants to eat the camera. Erika’s husband Taylor is behind her. Continuing to the right is Tiffani and her husband (my oldest cousin) Aaron, and on the far right is some guy I really don’t recognize… oh yeah, that’s me.

Using this picture may not have totally been fair to Erika (it was posted on Facebook 10 minutes after it was taken though), so I decided to utilize all of my incredible Photoshop skills to show exactly why Erika had that very flattering expression:


Aaron! Stop it!

With introductions out of the way, on to the actual trip:

Tuesday, May 12th
Last day of work and official start of vacation! It started with an awesome night; I got to go to the Ducks playoff game with my Dad. It was my first time ever going to an NHL playoff game (if the Kings would only make it…), and it was also nice to be able to go to a game with my Dad. Growing up, hockey was something that my Dad and I shared- a lot of our father-son times were watching games on TV or going to games. Since he got remarried, he’s been going to a lot of games with his wife, but the only game I went to with him was when I took him to a Kings game earlier this year. No matter how old I get, I’ll always treasure these kinds of father-son times.

We also got to see a great game, the Ducks held on the beat the Red Wings (my most hated hockey team) to send the series to a Game 7. Of course, I could go to a hockey game without initiating the assault on my stomach. I had a hot dog at the game that I’m probably still digesting. It was this Italian Sausage thing that was pretty good, except the dog was surrounded by a skin that was some space-age plastic compound. I think the same compound could b used to coat the space shuttle, and the shuttle would be impregnable. Of course, the landing gear wouldn’t be able to be lowered through the skin, but that’s what water landings are for.

I took a lot of pictures at the game, but unfortunately, my desktop was annihilated by a virus attack right after I got home, and fixing it meant I had to delete the pictures from the game.

Wednesday, May 13th
We got a ride from my roommate to LAX for our flight to Atlanta. When my Dad and I booked our seats, we signed up for adjoining seats. Unfortunately, Delta saw fit to make it so that I was sitting at the window, and my Dad was sitting on the aisle of the plane. Fortunately, people are usually very happy when you offer them the window seat and take the middle seat. Unfortunately, that meant I was stuck in the middle seat, but such is life. I’d love to end this paragraph on a “fortunate” note, but when you get stuck in the middle, there’s nothing more to say.

On the flight, my Dad and I played a couple games of chess. I haven’t played chess since high school, and my Dad has something like four separate internet games going on at once. Yeah, I lost. I didn’t do too badly though, I lost the first game before drawing the second. Of course, it probably still counts as a loss because I was white for the second game, and you don’t want to draw the game when you’re white. I have to say thank you to Delta though- they showed an episode of Big Bang Theory on the flight, which gave me a chance to laugh while getting slaughtered in a transcontinental chess tournament.

When we got to Atlanta, we got lost on the way to the hotel (great start). My GPS said my hotel was about 100 feet closer than it really was, which led to us being unable to find it. For some reason, they decided to put the hotel back from the road and cover it with trees so you can’t see it at all. Wonderful for privacy, but not so good if you want… guests. Erika told me she passes the hotel on the way to church every week, and never realized it was there, I’m sure that helps keep the rooms booked. On the plus side, finding the hotel gave me a chance to tour the lovely commercial park area of Atlanta, which was a treat.

My Dad and I met up with family for dinner that night- Erika and Stephanie picked us up from our hotels and drove to dinner. The fun part about that trip- I’d been in Atlanta for an hour and was giving directions to the two people that live there. Irony is beautiful. This whole drive taught me one lesson that stuck with me- don’t plan a city’s roads on the back of a bar napkin.

Thursday, May 14th
Since Dad and I got to Atlanta earlier than most of the family, we spent a couple days doing touristy things. We went to Stone Mountain, which is basically a really huge block on granite with a huge carving in it. The carving is pretty amazing:


The carving, up close and personal

To give a better perspective on the size of the carving, here’s a shot of the whole mountain:



Yeah, it’s big.

This was my first chance to really play with my camera too, and I took full advantage. Here’s a shot from the top of the mountain (my Dad enjoyed going up there, his wife wouldn’t go last time):


Pretty.

There are a lot of trails around the mountain that I would’ve liked to see, but didn’t get a chance to. I would have taken them if I was there with friends or other family, but my Dad walks with a cane now, so taking a walk up the mountain was probably not a good idea.

We had lunch at a restaurant at the base of the mountain, and I learned one new thing: southern cooking will give you a whole new definition of “food coma”. I would have a picture of this, but, well, I was asleep.

The signs for the restaurant advertised “hand-tossed rolls”, which I assumed referred to how the rolls were cooked... I didn’t expect the waitress to really toss us the rolls from 15 feet away.



I'll know to duck next time


Since this day was also a pay day back at work, it was the busiest and most complicated day for the guy who was filling in for me while I was gone. The end result was that I got several calls throughout the day. I think my Dad was surprised by this, I actually am pretty important to work now!
After we got back from Stone Mountain, we met at my Dad's hotel to watch Game 7 of the Ducks series. I agreed to pick up a pizza and some beer for dinner. I stopped at a Walgreens nearby to find some beer and came to the startling realization that the Walgreens didn't sell beer. Even more surprising, I ran into Erika and Stephanie when I walked out- pretty much the only two people in the time zone that I would recognize. It turned out that drug stores in Georgia don't sell alcohol... they both game me weird looks when I told them that I was looking for beer in a drug store... now I know.

Watching the game was fun, even though the Ducks lost (aw...). The fun part about watching a hockey game with my Dad is that he or I will make a comment about the game, and the commentators will make the same comment soon thereafter. This means one of two things; either my Dad and I are incredibly smart and know a lot about hockey, or commentating on the game is pretty easy. I'd like to go with the first, but I know the second option is much more likely.

OK, that's enough writing (and struggling with pictures) for tonight, more to come later, stay tuned!

Dear Mom,

You’ve been on my mind a lot recently. I really started thinking about you about a month ago, when Nick Adenhart, an Angels pitcher, was senselessly and randomly killed by a drunk driver. Those were the kind of moments that you shined in. You had a strong, wise, gentle way of making sense of life- even when where there is no sense in it at all. I remember those talks we had late into the night, while everyone else was sleeping. I remember how your voice could soothe my worst fears, convincing me that, no matter what happened, life would be ok. I think everyone needed that when we watched a young man just as he was reaching his goal, only to see his life journey permanently ended through no fault of his own. I wish I could’ve talked to you at that moment, to hear your thoughts. Somehow, your thoughts would’ve made everything a little bit easier to understand.

The past couple of weeks have made me think about you even more. My graduation, your birthday, and Mother’s day- all in consecutive weekends, all events that make me wish that I could see you smile again, hear your voice again, see your eyes shine with happiness and pride again. I know that you’re with me, watching me from up above, but that knowledge doesn’t come close to filling the emptiness I feel without you here. Days like these make me feel that emptiness more than ever. I can’t help but feel anger, at God, at life, at the world, because you’re not here. It’s not fair that I can’t share my graduation with you. It’s not fair that I can’t buy you a Mother’s Day present. It’s not fair that you’re not here for me to share a song with, or take to a birthday dinner. It’s not fair that you won’t be here whenever I get married or have kids. It’s not fair that this emptiness feels like it will swallow me whole.

But even while the emptiness threatens to swallow me, I’m comforted by the fact that I see you in myself and others. You probably would’ve laughed at me over the past few months when I was loading myself up by working full time, going to school full time and even getting involved at church. You might’ve even given me a talk about needing to say no to people (and yes, I have a problem saying no to people). But if you had given me that talk, I would’ve had a hard time not laughing at you. You and I both know where I get that from: you. I don’t know if you ever were able to say no when someone asked you for help, and I know you would’ve have said no if I needed something from you. Still, despite the situations I get into because of the genetic inability to say no, I thank you for passing it to me. My drive to help others comes directly from you, and it’s allowed me to do things and assist people in ways that I never would’ve thought possible.

I think you were the one person that was always able to show that you loved me. No matter where I was or what I was doing, I knew that you were thinking about me and cared for me. In these busy lives, we often forget that the simplest and best thing we can do is to reach out to people. I think that is the way that I feel love the most- when someone shows that they are thinking of me, even when they’re busy with 500 other things. You always did that, and I just wish I knew how you were able to do it. I don’t know if that is just something that a mother can do naturally, or if you were just really good at it, but you were the best at it. I just hope that I am able to show a fraction of that love to the people I care about.

Even though I can’t wait to wait to see you and talk to you again, I know that I have a lot of things left to do before I can join you in heaven. You see, I believe that our affect on this world doesn’t end when our time here does. Every person that we touch- family members, friends, coworkers, all of these people are impacted by us in some way. My goal in life is to do what you did; make a positive impact on as many people as I can. Those people that I impact may use the lessons learned from me to impact another person, and that forms a wave that can continue forever. Each person that I am able to positively impact means that your affect on the world will keep growing, and that is all the motivation that I need to keep going in this world.

One day I will be married and have kids, and I look forward to telling my wife and kids about you, about your wisdom, your compassion, your kindness, your life. When I do, I know you’ll be right there by my side, as you always are. And if I’m really lucky, I can share those lessons you taught me with those that I love, and all of us will be better off for it.

So Mom, until that day when I do see you again, I will do all that I can to spread your affect on the world. I don’t know how or when those opportunities will come, but I know that God has some in store for me. I just pray that I have the strength and wisdom to take hold of those opportunities like you did.

I love you and I miss you.

My boss: "Brian, do you scratch your head when you're thinking?"
Me: "Usually, I scratch my head when it itches."

My boss (while showing me a website): "Do you remember this (random fashion trend)? It was popular from these dates (points to dates on the website)."
Me: "umm... I was between one and three years old in that time."

Coworker: "Your head is so big you have a chaise lounge for a neck. Your head is just sitting up there chillin"

I swear that I saw my boss do a google search in the internet (google) toolbar for... Google. She won't admit it though.

Quote: "Tradition: just because we've always done it that way doesn't mean that way isn't incredibly stupid"

Me: "The cure for ignorance is education. The cure for stupidity is death."

On a final note, I bought a Zune, so I'm going to hell.

Since I haven't put together an actual post in a while, I figured I'd post the traditional glimpse at my life via a series of numbers. Actually, I've only done one of these posts before, so they're not traditional at all. However, I thought calling it a traditional post would sound a lot better than stating that I'm doing this post because I wanted to contribute something to my sadly neglected LJ without making the extraordinary effort of stringing sentences together. With that said, here we go...

From work:
Length of time at my new job- 1 year
Number of people that I'm presenting training to this week: 20 (or so)
Number of people that I will present the same training to in February- 140 (the entire credit union).
Supervisors/Manager who have asked me (directly or indirectly) what I'm planning on doing when I graduate from school: 4
Number of business trips prior to '08- 0
Business trips in '08- 2

From life:
Number of churches I visited/attended in '08- 11
Number of churches that I've played guitar for- 4
Times visiting Disneyland- 10
Amount of money spent at Disneyland- too much
Length of time until I'm able to get my soul back- It won't happen. It's kind of disappointing. I miss my soul.
Number of states visited from '01-'07- 2 (including CA)
Number of states visited in '08- 4 (also including CA)
Length of vacation that I will take in May '09- 2 weeks
Amount of time that I will be sober on said vacation- a lot less than 2 weeks.

From the world of sports:
Number of times I'd been to Staples Center through 12/31/08- 2
Number of times I've been in Staples Center since 1/1/09- 2
Number of times I'll go to Staples Center between now and 1/31/09- 4
Number of jokes that could be made about this ad- 2.38 trillion
Number of appropriate jokes that could be made about said ad- 0
Number of people who were in their seats at Staples Center last night before me and William- Zero. And I have proof

I actually am a little nervous about posting this last number, because it's still unofficial, but...

Number of days until I (finally) graduate: 106

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good ni... zzz...

7:00 - 11:30 AM: Work
11:30 AM - 1:00 PM: Get gas, go to grocery store, refrain from going postal in parking lot, eat lunch
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM: Nap
2:30 PM - 3:00 PM: Shower, shave, get dressed for church
3:00 PM - 3:05 PM: Take cold medicine
3:05 PM - 3:15 PM: Clean out car
3:15 PM - 3:40 PM: Drive to church
3:40 PM - 4:00 PM: Set up guitar
4:00 PM - 4:30 PM: Rehearse music
4:30 PM - 5:00 PM: Attempt to avoid expelling lungs through nostrils
5:00 PM - 8:30 PM: Two church services, nine songs each service
8:30 PM - 10:00 PM: Eat dinner, take more cold medicine
10:00 PM - 10:30 PM: Rehearse choir music
10:30 PM - 11:00 PM: Avoid passing out
11:00 PM - 12:30 AM: One church service, sing in choir
12:30 AM - 12:45 AM: Go home
Soon thereafter: Die

Merry Christmas everyone!

Here's a video of Chris and Melissa's wedding. The song is a song that I wrote and recorded for her.



I still have plenty of stories from the wedding, I promise that one day, I will post them.

I've been writing/updating the desk procedures for my duties at work, and thought I'd share some details about the procedures as they now stand.

The procedures contain:
17,960 word
104 pages
5 appendices covering a variety of areas.
A two page table of contents
A large number of screenshots, pictures, etc.

Wow.

I'm eating lunch at a restaurant near my work. The door to the kitchen has a sign that says "pls stay away from this door. Avoid get hurt"

The funniest part is that the first half is perfectly correct outside of an abbreviated word. Then it follows with the second part, which is definitely not correct.

I’ve discovered that this is a very frightening time to be studying finance. In fact, I’ve seen several news stories that have referred to the current economic crises as the worst since the Great Depression. Recently, the CEO of my credit union sent an email out to the staff in order to assure staff and members that our institution is not in any danger of failing. I replied to his email with some thoughts that I had about the crises, and ended up getting complimented on my thoughts by a few people (CEO, CFO, VP of Operations, and my supervisor). The weirdest moment for me came when the CFO of the credit union emailed me to ask for my take on the economy. I guess that means I’m learning in school. Since my ego has been sufficiently raised by the higher-ups at my credit union, I decided to expand upon and share my thoughts with others.

The cause of this crisis is actually rather simple; for years, money was too easily available. Companies or investors that have money want to lend this money out in order to earn a return from it. Most investors or lenders don’t have experience in lending, so they invest their money in loans made by institutions that lend. In other words, lenders will make loans, but will then package loans together and sell them to these investors. The end result is that money is moved from people who have it (investors) to people who need it (borrowers). This process is vital to the growth of the economy because it ensures returns to investors and access to fund for borrowers.

Another piece of background has to do with the subprime loan market. Subprime loans are loans that are made to people who are considered credit risks. Think of the number of commercials that you’ve heard that have referred to “bad credit or no credit welcome.” That statement is a direct appeal to the subprime credit market. In some cases, loans that are made to the subprime market carry amazingly high interest rates, which is the price the company charges for taking high risks.

The practice of subprime lending has been applied to the mortgage market through negative amortization loans. These loans work in the following way: the borrower’s payment and interest rate for the first few years (five is a widely used number, so I’ll use that) is locked to a lower number than they really should get. A traditional home loan requires that the borrower pay back the interest that accrues on the loan plus some principal with each payment. The result is that the loan balance will decrease with each payment. In a negative amortization loan, the borrower pays some of the accrued interest with each payment, and the rest is added to the loan. The result is that the loan balance will increase with each payment. At the end of the initial 5 year period, the loan interest rate and payment adjust to higher numbers. In some cases, this resulted in a loan rate moving from 5% to 8% and the payment skyrocketing. In many cases, there was no cap on how high the interest rate could increase. In addition, borrowers that had a loan with a skyrocketing payment may have been forced to pay a pre-payment penalty if they refinanced their loan to an affordable rate. The result of this is that borrowers could not afford to make their payments any longer, and couldn’t afford to refinance, so they defaulted and went into foreclosure. The flood of foreclosures resulted in a huge supply of homes, which drove down home prices. The drop in prices combined with the losses from foreclosures resulted in financial losses to borrowers, financial institutions, and investors who owned the loans.

Another practice that added to the crises is predatory lending. Predatory lending is defined by the National Credit Union Association (NCUA) as:

• Making loans based predominantly on the foreclosure or liquidation value of a borrower’s collateral rather than on the borrower’s ability to repay the mortgage according to its terms;
• Inducing a borrower to repeatedly refinance a loan in order to charge high points and fees each time the loan is refinanced (“loan flipping”); or
• Engaging in fraud or deception to conceal the true nature of the mortgage loan obligation, or ancillary products, from an unsuspecting or unsophisticated borrower.

In other words, lenders made loans to people without caring if the person could actually pay the loan and locked them into the loan. In some cases, companies determined that if the borrower went into foreclosure, they could sell the home and make a profit. All of this was done with the mistaken assumption that home prices would continue to increase. The end result is that bad loans led to decreasing home prices, which led to more bad loans, and the cycle has continued.

The problem with the financial institutions that have failed or are failing is the assumption of risk beyond what was sustainable (or reasonable). This process of making and then selling loans (along with easily available capital) allowed fluidity and success in the mortgage market, but also reduced incentives for lenders to practice safe lending. Lenders were able to make risky loans, make a profit, and pass the risk for these loans on to other companies or investors while showing big profits.. This process meant that more and more companies were willing to make riskier loans. When the housing market began to crash, companies purchasing loans began to take losses on these loans, they stopped buying them, which forced lenders to assume the risk. In some cases (IndyMac, Countrywide), the lenders ended up with more risk than they could afford, and failed. Now, the companies that have investments based on risky loans are failing due to the losses they are suffering from these investments and the risky loans that they themselves have made. These losses have forced companies to begin looking for new capital, but those who have money are either unwilling or unable to risk it to prop up failing markets. The result is that, while interest rates are low, anyone who has money is not willing or not able to get it into the hands of borrowers.

All of this brings us to the current bailout proposal. What this proposal would do is provide funds to the Treasury Department to purchase bad loans from the investors who currently hold them. This would give these investors liquid funds that they can use to (safely) lend the funds to those who need it. This would stimulate the economy by allowing borrowers to borrow funds and spend them.

There are several problems with the bailout that I see. First, the plan calls for the Treasury Department to use funds without oversight. Second, the plan calls for putting billions of new dollars into the economy, which could lead to inflation and the weakening of the dollar, which will hurt the economy.

While these problems are important, the worst problem is the moral hazard that the bailout creates. Moral hazard is defined by investorwords.com as “The risk that the presence of a contract will affect on the behavior of one or more parties. The classic example is in the insurance industry, where coverage against a loss might increase the risk-taking behavior of the insured.” In other words, the government bailing out companies that took too much risk will mean that they have no reason to take less risk in the future. The thought process may become ‘well, they helped us last time, so we’ll chance it again and let them come to our aid if we fail.’ Since the diffusion of risk is at the core of this crisis, the moral hazard created by the bailout is very troubling to me.
OK, 1300+ words is more than I really meant to write. I have some ideas for changes that need to be made, but I’ll save my fingers to type another day…

I found this as Disneyland yesterday:



Two notes:
A) My sister is about to get married
B) My soon to be brother in law has an extreme case of arachnophobia.

You do the math.

Over the past couple of months, I've been thinking a lot about the nature of healing. I'm playing at church with my sister a week from Sunday (Labor Day weekend), and one part of the service has a specific time set to pray for healing. It took us a while to find a song that would work well for this (my first thought was the Mission Impossible Theme, but that idea got shot down).

Since the time where we worked to find a song, I've been trying to find a song that fit with some of my experiences. There have been many times in my life that have challenged my beliefs in God and His will in the world, and these have been the most challenging times for me as a Christian. I've been seeing a lot of people that I know and love go through painful times as well; emotional pain, physical pain, any kind of pain. With all these things in mind, I decided to write a song, and here it is (please note that this is, at this point, still a first draft):

Verse 1
All the nights I've cried
so afraid and so alone
Were you ever by my side?
Were you holding me When I cried?
Will my life ever be ok?
Will I ever find my way?

Chorus
Let Your healing waters pour down
upon this rocky ground I'm standing on
Let it flow and fill my empty chest
so I can find some rest

Verse 2
When I'm breaking down
when I'm in way too much pain
when I can't find an answer
Will you show yourself to me?
Do I need a miracle?
Is there one in store for me?

Chorus

Verse 3
In my darkest times
You shine with the brightest light
Angels surround me with love
They carry me through my life
Now I can stand tall through strife
But still, I will always pray

Chorus

So it’s my last night here in the Lone Star State, and it’s humid as hell. I don’t mean just kind of humid, I mean the kind where breathing the air will quench your thirst. At least, breathing through your mouth would do that, getting the same effect while breathing through your nose would be rather disgusting. The first few days were really nice, but starting yesterday, it started to get really humid. When I left the office after work today, my glasses fogged up about 3.4 nanoseconds after I stepped outside. One of the senior guys in the office has a plane that he built himself. He was going to take me flying today, but crazy thunderstorms with high winds said no. The weather from the past two days has been from the edges of hurricane Dolly.

I got to know a couple regulars at the bar at Joe’s Crab Shack (ate there for dinner again last night). Somehow, the discussion turned to marriage counseling. One guy was giving constant advice to the married couple that was there. Then Mr. Marriage Counselor got a call from his wife. He let it go to voicemail. That led to all-out laughter and a whole lot of making fun of the guy. After a while, the conversation went to college football, which led to a great time for all. It was good to get a taste of what football mania is in Texas. An hour long conversation about the injury potential of Colt McCoy (University of Texas quarterback) was hilarious. I also got a lecture about the difference between a Midwest thunderstorm and a Texas thunderstorm. To me, once you get thunder and lightning, the rest is pretty academic.

Overall, the trip has been very good. It’s been nice to meet new people that I’ve actually been working with for a while. One interesting note; the branch here in Austin has a large percentage of church musicians… at least three others are involved with choirs in churches. I’ve been able to go to dinner or lunch with almost everyone in the branch (the rest come tomorrow). I’m going to lunch with the rest of them tomorrow.

I’m going to leave work at about 3 to head to the airport. I’ve been told to be careful of downtown Austin traffic, and I have to hold back laughter every time someone warns me about that. Once I’ve driven from downtown LA to Orange County at rush hour, I don’t that there is much traffic than can really faze me. Another three hours of delays for my flight tomorrow, on the other hand…

Ok, time to go take a shower and head to bed. I’ll be home somewhere around 8 pm tomorrow (if all goes to schedule).

I finally got to my hotel at 7 pm central time last night. For those who care about this kind of thing, that means I spent a total of nine hours for my 2.5 hour flight. The flight departure was delayed by 2.5 hours, and then we spent 45 minutes waiting for out gate in Austin. I gave myself a few hours of leeway in the schedule, planning to get into Austin at 3 pm. I was hoping to use that time to do some sightseeing (Austin is very pretty), but unfortunately, I spent it in the Long Beach airport (it’s really a stretch to call that place an airport), and on a plane. Fortunately, the plane was really nice, and the TV at the seat is VERY nice. Unfortunately (and perhaps due to the delay), I wasn’t impressed by the service on the flight or in the airport. And that’s coming from a guy who’s used to flying Southwest.

I rented a car for my stay here. I originally rented an economy car (which was going to be an Aveo), but when I went to pick up my car, the guy helping me said “We don’t have one of those cleaned, so we gave you a free upgrade to a G6.” Great, like I wasn’t already really tempted to get myself a new car…

After I got into the hotel, I walked next door to Joe’s Crab Shack for dinner. Ended up drinking with some guys from Microsoft who were in town after a conference to meet with clients (There’s a Dell headquarters about 3 feet from my hotel). It was cool to be able to eat, drink some pretty good beer, and hang out with some other people travelling on business. I still feel weird about including myself in the “business traveler” category. Believe me, it’s not glamorous.

On a very positive note, my hotel is VERY nice. Plenty of room, very comfortable bed, a desk, sofa, room to do work or homework, and a mini-fridge so that I can buy some bottled water and soda for the week. It’s almost 6 AM here (why am I awake?) and it’s time for me to take a shower and get some breakfast before I head to work at 7. I love working in this industry.

I’m sitting in Long Beach airport waiting for my flight to leave for Texas. Unfortunately, my flight was delayed by 2.5 hours, so I get to just sit here and do nothing. I decided to take a walk around the airport, and that took roughly 49.3 seconds, according to my watch. I’ve never been in a smaller airport, and I don’t think I ever will. There are a total of three gates in the ‘terminal,’ which is more like a large trailer (think temporary classroom type building). I’m really glad now that I bought a laptop so that I have some entertainment while I’m waiting. I’ll give the airport some credit though; at least they have wireless internet. LAX doesn’t. This delay in LAX would have been horrible; at least I have some stuff to do here.

I’m really looking forward to this trip. It’s a chance to meet people that work at a different branch of my Credit Union (who I’ve only met through e-mail), as well as a chance to show off my knowledge. It’s fun to be able to talk about something and truly know what you’re talking about, to truly be an expert in something. It feeds my ego, which is probably not something I really need, but whatever. The supervisor of the branch that I will be visiting emailed me last Thursday and let me know that their branch’s monthly staff meeting is happening on Tuesday morning, and I ‘get’ to host it… meaning I had to come up with an hour’s worth of training in two days. Again, it’s good to be an expert in something. I’m trying to convince myself now, don’t mind me.

The weather report for Austin while I’m there is 100+ until Wednesday, and then the rain is supposed to cool it down into the 90s. Think about that one for a minute and have pity on me.

I’ll randomly check in throughout the week. Have a great one everyone!

The most recent book I’ve read as part of the book club that I’m in was Atonement by Ian McEwan. This was the book that was turned into the recent movie starring Keira Knightly and James McAvoy. I thought I’d take some time to write about it, mostly because I haven’t written about anything outside of school in forever, and my LiveJournal and Facebook pages have been neglected for a while.

First, the book; it’s great. McEwan does a beautiful job of using words to paint each scene in the book. Each scene is described in painstaking detail, but done in a way that still managed to keep me interested. The opening scenes in the
book are told from different points of view that illustrate how differently three people can view the same scene. Each character’s point of view is colored by his or her personality traits and defects, and each is convinced that their point of view is absolutely correct. The frightening part of the story is how easily each character jumps to conclusions, and how those erroneous conclusions lead to horrible consequences in other people’s lives. These consequences, and how the characters deal with them, are the focus of the book.

While the story is amazing, I think that the best part of the book is an extended war scene that follows one character’s time in World War II. It is, by far, the best war scene that I have ever seen in a movie or read in a book. It is simultaneously fast-paced, frightening, and dull, all at the same time. It is the dullness of the scene that really makes it stands out. Most war scenes in entertainment do a great job of capturing the action, the terror, and the heroism of war, but miss out on the dullness part. To be fair to every other war scene in media, people who describe a form of entertainment as “dull” do so to say they don’t like it. However, McEwan manages to make the war scene both entertaining and crushingly dull at the same time. It is an amazing dichotomy that shows McEwan’s amazing skill as a writer.

After reading the book, our book club watched the movie as well. While reading the book, I thought that it would be rather easy to adapt to a movie, as the details in each scene of the book would be simple to create on a movie set. The scenes in the movie (and the movie itself) are very faithful to the book, but there is just something lacking from the movie. I think that the part that is lacking is in the development of the characters. To be fair, development of a character is easier in a book than it is in a movie, but the movie did fall short in this area. McEwan does a phenomenal job of developing each character in the book, and it’s very easy to see how their personality affects their views of events. It is this application of personality traits that makes the story in the book shine. With all of that said, I recommend the movie, but I recommend the book much more. The one thing that the movie did much better than the book was to illustrate the twist at the end. In the book, the twist was so small that I missed it at first, and only realized its impact during our book club discussion (thanks Jathen). The book makes the discussion of the twist the centerpiece of the last part of the movie, which makes it stand out much better.

The thought provoking of the story (and the focus of the book) is the cost that others may pay for mistakes that we make. To be sure, we all make mistakes, and the best that we can do is make up for them. I have been fortunate in my life in that most mistakes I’ve made are ones that I’ve been able to make amends for in one way or another. However, there are a few things that I’ve done that have negatively affected people’s lives, and I either was too naïve or too ignorant to understand the impact of my actions at the time. Mostly, I’m thinking of my relationship with my ex and different mistakes that I’ve made in my relationship with her. Unfortunately, I was rather young (and so was she) and didn’t understand quite a few things about how my actions would affect her. I don’t think that I am a bad person because of the mistakes I made, but that does not absolve me from owning up to my mistakes. Unfortunately, I don’t have contact with her anymore, but I still hope and pray that she is happy with her life, wherever she is and whatever she is doing. I hope she knows that I never meant to hurt her, even though I did.

The unstated moral of the story in Atonement is that we do not always have an opportunity to atone for mistakes that we make, and we need to make sure to take advantage of the opportunities that we have to atone. In far too many cases, we are unable to make amends to the person that we’ve wronged. When the person dies or otherwise drops out of our lives, our desire to atone for our mistakes can affect decisions that we make for the rest of our lives.

Tonight, we had a party for my Dad's 60th birthday. We told him that my sisters and I were going to take him out to dinner. He just didn't know there would be a total of 30 people there. As part of the evening, I presented a toast for him. I made some on-the-fly changes when I gave it, but here is the prepared text of the remarks:

I want to point out first that I am learning; I do have my glass ready for the toast this time. At Kathleen and Dad’s wedding, I didn’t realize that the Best Man toast was actually a toast. By the way, if you want to see something impressive, watch Melissa try to make a covert rescue attempt while wearing a bridesmaid’s dress.

When I was in high school, I realized that, the more people got to know me, the more they started to wonder about me. Then they would meet my Dad, and they wouldn’t wonder about me anymore.

I once told a friend of mine “The great thing about my Dad is that I can look at him and know exactly what I’ll look like in 40 years.” My friend was pretty surprised and said “Your Dad is 40 years older than you?” “No,” I said, “I’m just hoping I age slower.”

Last year, I led a bible study for a college group. I did the study on the theme of God as Father due to a few things that I had experienced in the past few months. I was discussing the bible study with Patty Erickson, and she brought up the point that I would have to be careful because quite a few people did not have a good relationship with their father, and therefore, equating God to an earthly father would bring up bad memories.

This conversation surprised me greatly, because that thought had never occurred to me. As I thought about it, I realized that the thought of God as a father was comforting to me, because I have a great model to follow.

Dad, throughout my life, you’ve been a coach, a mentor, an advisor, a tutor, a source of encouragement (or entertainment), a cohort in the sacred mission of annoying any women who were in the house, a compatriot in criticizing bad sports commentators, and a friend. But most of all, you’ve been a Godly example of what a Father should be.

Dad, we thank you, and we love you. Happy birthday.