#HappyThanksgiving

 

[VIDEO] I'm a fan of Dave Ramsey and while I haven't gone full in on his baby steps I do follow him on ig and definitely enjoy watching his clips on YouTube. And on this Thanksgiving morning I see him talk with Ben Shapiro discussing personal finance, current state of the US economy, and steps to take to become a millionaire.

My own personal message, I hope you're thankful today. Don't let the thieves of joy who reside on the left take away your blessings. As long as you're still alive and healthy you can change your own life for the better.

Yes in life there are things you can't control, however, in life you can control you. As long as you can control you if there is something you're not happy about then you can do something about it. As of late, that's what I'm trying to do.

As Ramsey advocates if you take control of your finances then you can have money in the bank. Which is what I hope for you in the future.

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Casey Neistat's next chapter

[VIDEO] If you've been following Neistat's vlogs on his YouTube channel he already stated that he was planning to end his long chapter in NYC and moving to the golden state. In this latest one he finally packs up and leaves starting off with one of his boosted boards crashing through his glass door.

It's cool to see Neistat sharing his story about how he arrived in NYC at 20 years old with no education or money and having promises for himself when he was young. He also was a single dad and wished to be a wonderful father for his son. That's admirable and now he's married with  another child and in some of his recent vlogs we see him with wife and child.

I'm excited to see his new chapter on the pacific coast. His past vids in NYC were a great setting for his once daily vlog, but what new vlogs will come from his new digs.

He makes me want to try living in NYC to see if I can make it, however, I get the idea that this ship has sailed. Although it's time for me to visit as I've never been, could I possibly make it as a tourist in the city that never sleeps?

Sometimes when you hear a song...

[VIDEO] I worked at a place for a brief time where it seemed this song was playing almost every second. Yes that is something of an exaggeration as surely it didn't play that often. Still it played often enough where after I left it stayed in my ear until my next opportunity.

At the same time, it never reached the level of irritation that Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" had gotten as it seems to be overplayed in my opinion. I blame the film Bodyguard in addition to Houston's untimely death (that song was played even more when she died).

As stated now that I left that other place and found my next opportunity I heard it recently. Not a bad song quite catchy, but the downside is that it still reminds me of that other place...

Time for some more inventory...

Late last year after seemingly taking to this blog to whine and complain about going on interviews with no new job in site I finally found not just one but two new jobs. Even better I finally got a full-time job which was a long-time in coming and happened at least two months into my new job. It's definitely something I'm very stoked about!

Regardless sometimes I tend to over analyze things and now it's time to consider what my future goals are. Me I've often noted my future goals during some of my interviews and one of those goals are breaking into a leadership role in whatever organizations I work. Then another goal that may or may not happen more than being a manager may be going back to school.

And at that go back to school for what. I've had a long desire to do graduate studies in political science but a friend asked if I had any experience. Aside from doing blogs that often deal with politics I have no real world experience. This blog and The Sixth Ward are just one of many blogs that talks politics whether locally or federally. So it's time to figure that out.

I've thought about law or business school. There are quite a few cases of interested such as one out of Chicago that I got tuned into recently that requires the touch of a lawyer. And of course business granted you don't need to go to school to become an entrepreneur but I've often lamented the fact that in all the years in school I never took any classes in business skills. Meaning no marketing, book keeping or accounting courses. There is this one lone business law class at Morehouse.

Regardless another issue is to figure out how to pay for it. Loans at least until I pay my current students loans off are out of the question for the moment. Hopefully in the future I can make good money and afford tuition.

Other than that time to start thinking about these goals and plan to make them.

I've started to wonder something lately...

I've often found myself very concerned about my job hunting streak which ended last month. While I'm still learning my new position it something hits me.

No matter what you think you want to do there are always risks and trade-offs. Some have found another job found it not to be the right fit or otherwise it doesn't seem to work out. Then they quit and find something else.

You start a new job and you find out it wasn't the right fit for whatever skills you might have or even your personality. That does happen sometimes and what also happens is that eventually if you stay with a job long enough it will change on you inspite of your time and it's no longer a good fit.

Then what do you do?

Well they say the time to fit in at a job is at least 90 days. That's fine, but it's not often that someone may find a job a bad fit within the first week or first month or so. In fact, I honestly felt that way about another job I had once it was badly organized and the fit of ego in me is convinced that I could've organized that place better.

Either way if you feel this way after 90 days or you feel this way after a week it's always necessary to keep looking. When I finally got a job offer after so much time of looking to be honest I didn't really respond to anyone else. Sometimes that's a mistake because who knows where else the opportunity comes in.

BTW, this sets up another post but that will wait for another time.

Inventory

You know now that I've finally found a new job it's just time to take stock of some things. This is an issue that has come up recently and while you're new it's perfectly natural to feel out a new position.

Now my inventory will be different from anyone else's but hopefully there are some constants.

For example, if you're changing jobs why? Is it because you wanted to make a change? What needed to change? Is it management or environment?

Another example, what were you looking for? Better pay, benefits, a different business/industry?

These are certainly questions I need to answer in my own inventory. Perhaps those are what you might have in yours. Hopefully we'll figure some things out as time goes on.

Not being college material...

I've been wanting to share this blog post I found at Instapundit. A man recognizes that he wasn't college material and glad he wasn't. Here's a main point from him of course this is after saying "don't send your kids to college":

If they aren’t actively pursuing a career that fundamentally requires a college degree, don’t encourage them to go.

We set up an artificial construct whereby degrees were suddenly “needed” for things like business, sales, and even writing. This house of cards is beginning to tumble, as employers are realizing that, shockingly, they need people who can actually DO the job. They need talent — not paperwork. New college graduates are left unemployed because they often expect too much and offer too little.

And, all along, whatever society says, and whatever direction the schools push our kids, one fact has always remained: if you want to be successful at something, you must do it and do it well. That’s what I’ll tell my kids when they’re old enough. That’s what I’d like to tell all of my fellow young people. It’s not enough anymore, and I’m not sure it ever was enough, to simply follow the well-traveled roads, accumulate your grades and your degrees and then emerge into the world, waiting for wealth and prosperity to rain down upon you from heaven.

You have to put some skin in the game. You have to find your niche and master it. You have to be the best. Conquer it, whatever it is that you want to do. Be better than everyone. Be a visionary while everybody else is checking the handbook. Take risks while everybody else stays cozy and comfortable. Be good at something. Then, once you’re good, become great.

Hmmmm, the top part is a great idea and perhaps of importance to those who seek a career in some technical or scientific field. We really need those right now. There's always time for someone to study a subject in the humanities or social sciences.

Skin the in game, well that probably means something but unsure what he's trying to say. My explanation is what I've stated earlier, if my child wants to go to college s/he has my support. However, they have to put some money up themselves and it's got to be something they want. Like I said, I would support them but this has to be what they want. I would easily support them if they wanted to do something else other than go to a university.

It's something I wish I had done before taking the plunge, but hey if only I knew then. ;)

Check out these wallets

This first wallet is from the Chicago Transit Authority's (CTA) Gift Shop:

The Mighty Wallet is printed with the licensed graphics of the CTA and is not only functional for quick transfer info on the go but it also adds a level of stealth that safeguards your valuables from theft. Mighty Wallets have actually evaded theft in real life situations through their uncommon stealthy design.

Made from Tyvek (think express mail envelopes), the Mighty Wallet resists tearing because of thousands of interlocking plastic fibers spun in random patterns giving the wallet incredible strength.

This might be very cool. Such a wallet can foil theft attempts, especially if a potential pickpocket thinks that this is merely a CTA Map.

Also check out this second wallet:

A dot-matrix wallet from ThinkGeek. The description doesn't mention foiling thieves, but it does mention that it's made of a similar material to the CTA Mighty Wallet. The fact that it's a dot-matrix wallet should ring a bell to old-time computer geeks.

Some of the other wallets you might find at ThinkGeek may have some added features that may foil criminals. Although the hazard isn't necessarily to think of actual pickpockets or theft as opposed to a theft of a different type.

The future

I don't remember where I watched this, but there was a segment on visions of the future. It might have been Andy Rooney giving his commentary at the end of one episode of 60 Minutes.

The visions of the future involved bathrooms turning into lounges. What's on my mind at current is the vision of the future where it was expected that workers may have less hours at work and more leisure time. I'm sure there are those of us who really would like that type of future.

I'm not sure if that's the future we're living. In fact there are a lot of us who wishes that was the future we're living in. Surely there are reasons why workers spend a lot of time at work and less time at leisure.

I have been watching C-Span on weekday mornings and there have been callers to Washington Journal who say that they work two or three jobs to make ends meet. A lot of them do this by necessity because they have bills to pay or they need health insurance and the job doesn't provide it or they have children to provide for. One caller in particular said that she wasn't doing well at all with the arrangement of two jobs where the only thing that suffered was her sleep. She didn't even have enough time to sleep.

Surely she would like to see that vision of the future.

In any event, I used to have the view that no one really likes to work. Eventually that view has changed. Why do people work at jobs they may not really care for?

That would be exactly my point. A lot of people do it by necessity and some do it to start their working careers. Not all of us are able to get the dream jobs we wanted after college.

Well my view has gone from people don't like to work to people want to find something satisfying. As far as the world of work goes, I haven't found that yet. I may have missed those opportunity if they were presented to me. At the same time I would like to have less work and more leisure in my future.

Sadly that leisure can only result in less income. Of course another train of thought on this is all about whether or not determining income is more satisfying than enjoying what one does in life.

Hopefully we can all strike that nice balance. I hope we all have the leisure and that we all enjoy what we do for a living in our lives.

Should we have universal pre-k?

A couple or so weeks ago John Stossel took over an entire hour of 20/20 to talk about issues where government intervention in the markets, traffic congestion, medicinal marihuana, illegal immigration, and even a segment on whether or not opportunity is to be had here in the states.

This video is about universal pre-k and arguments against it or arguments for it.

I remember Hillary Clinton, our secretary of state, cut a commercial in her presidential campaign with many policy goals including universal pre-k. I suppose it could be safe to say that before one jumps on something for "free" we should investigate the benefits of such a program. You will hear in this clip that kids who did pre-school are more aggressive than those who don't.

Sometimes a lot of these arguments are more emotional than anything else. Reason enter into it, but the idea might be to scare you in a course of action. I mean think about it don't you want the best for your children? Do you want your children to get the headstart they need for regular school?

A lot parents might hear this and think that perhaps pre-school is beneficial. Even if it's paid for by their own tax dollars. One will run into parents who will say that their children are worth a few dollars. Then the next issue becomes for getting one more program for the kids what might the return be?

Perhaps before we ask for these programs that might cost taxpayer money, we should ask these questions?

Birth control costly, a hassle? Kids not cheap, AIDS deadly

Mary Mitchell's column today. This is something that struck me...

Young people who are fortunate enough to get into universities like UIC are supposed to be smart.
But how ignorant is it for a young black woman to be photographed clutching a cell phone and a swollen belly complaining about not being able to afford the rising cost of birth control?

Did it ever occur to Elizabeth Harris, the young woman who appeared on page 8 in the Chicago Sun-Times, that maybe she should have gotten rid of her cell phone instead of stopping her birth control pills?

Black readers are likely to blame the newspaper for being "insensitive" for running the young woman's photo in the first place. Still, it's too easy to blame a reporter because a story leads to young black women being ridiculed on talk shows as "sexually irresponsible," because one of them was foolish enough to whine about making a bad decision.

Harris, a junior at UIC, is quoted in the story as saying the high cost of birth control "steered" her away from it.

"I don't blame them [UIC], but I might not be in the situation I am in now," she told the reporter.

The situation Harris is referring to is a situation that will last at least 18 years and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars before the situation gets a job and starts taking full responsibility for the decisions he or she makes.

Since the only time I read the Sun-Times is online, I couldn't give you an honest reaction to this. I didn't get to see this photograph.

Where's Mitchell going with this though...

The premise of Monday's story is that "pregnancies could rise" because the cost of some forms of birth control have more than doubled on college campuses. Instead of cutting corners elsewhere, senior Omotayo Asunmo said she stopped using the pill regularly.

Northeastern Illinois University no longer provides contraceptives such as Ortho Tri-Cyclen Lo and the NuvaRing or patch and now will only provide generic birth control pills for $12 a month. At UIC, the cost of the NuvaRing went from $15 to $35, generic pills went from $7 to $25 and Ortho Tri-Cyclen Lo went from $7 to $40. Contraceptives that once were dispensed free at the University of Illinois now cost $22 ($5 for generic pills).

Even more alarming is Harris' candid admission that, despite being able to get free condoms, she would only use them "once in a while," and that sex "just happened."

Her attitude is a stark reminder that young people do not have a sense of their own mortality.

According to the latest statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, African Americans are disproportionately affected by HIV infection and account for 55 percent of all HIV infections reported among people ages 13-24. And according to information from 33 states with long-term name-based HIV reporting, males made up 62 percent of the 17,824 people 13-24 years of age who were diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. Thirty-eight percent were females.

Those numbers should make black women on college campuses stockpile condoms, let alone use them.

Health officials like the one cited in the contraceptive story are also part of the problem.

Dr. Nandini Khatkhate, UIC medical director at Family Medicine Center, is quoted as fearing that condoms may not be as effective as birth control when it's not "planned sex."

"Something like a condom may not be used," Khatkhate said.

What's this doctor talking about? Drunken binges? Sexual assaults? Her assessment may be realistic, but how about changing the reality?

I know what this could be about. Making responsible choices, something that some people seem unable to do. I understand that things happen but there are things one can do to plan for contingencies when possible. Especially if we're not talking about sexual assaults.

Mitchell closes with this...

...Because there's a point in every woman's life when she looks back and sighs. If she only knew then what she knows now, her life would have turned out entirely different. We then try to pass on hard-learned lessons to our daughters and granddaughters. So I'm not trying to embarrass Harris, I'm reminding her that while it may be an unfair expectation, she represents a lot of black women when she speaks out in the media.

The consequence of irresponsible sexual behavior today is a lifetime sentence. And, as in the past, a baby changes a young woman's life forever.

College students are not immature teenagers. They certainly shouldn't want to be portrayed in media as being victims of pharmaceutical companies and government regulations. These young women should be protecting themselves against HIV/AIDS and unwanted pregnancies because they know better.

In some respects I can say that I have a rather harsh idea for those young women in college or high school who find themselves as teenage mothers. Mitchell is right however these young women or in some instances young men should do a better job of protecting themselves.