Safe in savings??

I've read several of Robert Kiyosaki's books and have enjoyed them because of his "unique" perspective of finances. Today I read his article "Why savers are losers".

"In summary, investors shop for asset bargains, and consumers shop for consumer bargains and try hard to save money that is not really money. That is another reason why the rich are getting richer."

My basic understanding about saving dollars has been based around the concept of inflation. If the dollar is worth less in time why would you save large amounts of cash, especially in savings accounts that earn less than the rise in inflation. I think this article takes that idea even further. What is the dollar? Is it an asset or a liability?

Saving Money

I came a cross an article talking about ways of putting money away:

10 Easy ways to stash away thousands

They talk about how it's easy for our mind to follow gimicks. The article talks about several gimicks to make it easy to save.

I've been using a really easy gimick for a couple years now: Never give away your change. I always bring it home and throw it in my change jars. Last time I counted it I was able to collect $200 in about a year's worth of time.

A more recent move I've started is to save all the money I make from playing gigs. You wouldn't believe how fast that stash is adding up.

The trick is to not raid the stash...any time I borrow from it I have to pay it back.

If you know of any post it in the comments below.

She thinks my tractor's sexy...

Where I come from, the small town of Tulare, tractors are the workman's tool...for me it's got to be the Mac Book Pro!

With the new Intel chip having better O/S virtualization support I could run all three of my work enviroments (linux, WinXP, and Mac) together in near native speed!! See if you can do that with a John Deere!!

I've got my eye on one for this summer...

Fat Free TV

Ok...so anybody who knows me is familiar with my avoidance of TV. I've lived without TV (meaning cable, sat, or locals) for three years and haven't missed it. My reasons are simple...it's junk food for the mind.

So tonight I was purusing iTunes and checking out the discovery channel episodes they have for sale. Each show is avaiable for something like $1.99. I though that's reasonable and started checking out the previews. As I was switching between I noticed myself becoming very selective. "If I'm going to pay for this I want something good", is what I was thinking to myself.

It then dawned on me! We all have access to free TV via the local stations. It's very easy to waste ourselfs watching it mostly because it's free. We'll glue ourselfs to the screen just waiting for something to grab our attention...maybe a decent show, something funny, or and entertaining commercial.

BUT wait...it gets worse. We start to get fustrated because those 20 some channels aren't enough. So we end up buy DirectTV or the Dish! Ahh 150 channels to do the same mindless thing. Search for something to grab our attention. At this point a 12 pack *might* be better for us!

Here the point...if we had to buy every show we watched do you think we would watch such crap? Would there be 200 different reality shows? Would there be shows that maxed out our senses like MTV?

My guess is we would exercise our freedom to be individuals again. We wouldn't all flock to the same status quo...more choice through our dollar.

I can't help but wonder what's going to happen when more choices are available through this on-demand type of programming...very exicting stuff!

Mofo on KPFA

Our good friends, Mofo Party Band, was interviewed on KFPA's Blues by the Bay. Check out the archive to listen...they are introduced around 26 mins into the show!

Making peace with the Upright

It's 2:00AM and I just got home from a gig in Three Rivers. So beat but very excited at the same time...

... it's been about a year since I bought my upright bass. It's also been a year since I've been unable to play it live because of the feed back. I could not amplify it beyond the decible level of a clap!

Anyways, after several experiements and research I finnaly got it to where the tone is nice and warm and it's loud enough to carry over the drums and guitar. The instrument has quite the presence...it has the kind of BOOM I was looking for....

I'm really looking forward this summer of gigs...here's the schedule:

http://www.mercurybluesband.com/live.html

Now I need to go nurse my finger tips...they are raw from playing tonight!

It's all about airspeed

This is a pretty amazing piece of footage!

Hanford Blues Brews BBQ

Hanford Blues Brews BBQ, originally uploaded by riccaetano.

The Hanford Blues Brews and BBQ was quite a hoot...

This little boy was checking out the band the whole night...during one song I sat down next to him and let him pick the string duing the song...I think it made his day!

Yes, I Love My Mac

I just enjoyed watching the latest ad's for Mac...

http://www.apple.com/getamac/ads/

I bought my Mac Mini last year and use it daily...this summer I'm planing on buying a MacBook...they really are great products...

5-6-5-3-Romeo

5653R is the N number of my dad's Maule MX-7-180. Today was exciting because he let me fly the plane to FAT (Fresno Yosemite International) and was my commute today to work at Pelco.

I've been flying with and instructor who's helping me get my tail wheel endorsement. So far I've made 4 landings in the Maule with each one getting better. My senses are finally registering with the plane.

Aviation FYI: Some airplanes have a tri-cycle langing gear configuration while others have a tail wheel configuration. Most planes have the tri-cycle configuration. They are generally easier to land because most of the weight is in front of the main wheels. With a tail wheel plane the weight is behind the main wheels. If the pilot is not careful the weight could get ahead of the mains which result in a ground loop.

I learned to fly in a tri-cycle plane so this is a new experience for me.

I'll finish this post with a story involving a Maule and a couple of F16's:

NTSB Identification: MIA92LA147

THE PILOT OF N148DP FILED A VFR FLIGHT PLAN, BUT DID NOT OBTAIN NOTAM INFORMATION FOR HIS ROUTE OF FLIGHT. EN ROUTE HE REPORTED TO THE AIR FORCE AVON PARK OPERATIONS THAT HE INTENDED TO PASS TO THE SOUTH OF THE RESTRICTED AREA AT AVON PARK. WHILE IN CRUISE FLIGHT AT 1,400 FEET OVER INSTRUMENT ROUTE 34 (IR 34), N148DP ENCOUNTERED A FLIGHT OF FOUR F16 AIRCRAFT FLYING AT 1,500 FEET AT 500 KNOTS. THE F16 AIRCRAFT WERE IN WIDE FORMATION AND NONE OF THE AIRCRAFT HAD RADAR CONTACT WITH N148DP. THE LEAD AIRCRAFT PERFORMED A 6 'G' PULL UP TO AVOID COLLISION WITH N148DP. N148DP ENCOUNTERED WAKE TURBULENCE FROM THE F16 AND SUSTAINED SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGE TO THE STRUCTURE. THE PILOT OF N148DP CONTINUED TO THE DESTINATION AND LANDED UNEVENTFULLY. THE F16 FLIGHT CONTINUED THE MISSION AND RETURNED TO BASE UNEVENTFULLY. THE IR 34 ROUTE WAS ON A NOTICE TO AIRMAN (NOTAM) AS BEING ACTIVE AT THE TIME OF THE OCCURRENCE.