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Today's City Hall Meeting: My Topic 2 of 3--Credit Reports

Molly G — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 20:02:17 +0000

By Molly Greaves

Hopefully you read and liked topic #1. Topic number 2 was on Credit Reports.

Here's a summary:

It's no doubt that most people, even some of us in Central Texas, are feeling the effects of the economy. Some blame the financial institutes, some blame Ben Bernanke, and some blame Bush. Regardless of who it is, everyone's got someone to blame but themselves.

I see what's going on as a huge problem, but one that can be solved at the ROOT CAUSE, which can get started right here in Austin, by making sure our residents are as prepared and educated about their credit scores as they are for hurricanes and fire evacuations. I'm being dead serious.

I truly believe that it is IMPERATIVE for people (everyone) to know their score. It's the single bit of advice that can have the BIGGEST impact on turning around someone's financial situation. You have to know your FICO score. Every decision you make for the rest of your life revolves around and is linked to your score. It's like a siamese-twin you can't escape.

We are all entiteld to a free credit REPORT annually from freecreditreport.com but what good is a report without a score? That's where big business comes in and starts charging the consumer for things we sort of should already be entitled to. I believe that's where the city can step in.

I truly believe that the city is capable of negotiating very reduced rates for it's citizens and should launch a "Know Your Score" campaign or something just to get people charged up. Nationally, we've got January, which is National Braille Literacy Month, National Hobby Month and Hot Tea Month. Then February, which has Black History Month, followed by March with Women's History Month History, so why not have a "Know Your Score" month in April, even just in Austin?

History is said to repeat itself and if people get their scores today, hopefully they change the way things happen tomorrow.

I also added how the city has all sorts of programs and classes that they already offer the public, and stressed the value-add for something like this. I'm talking about digging deep and tracking progress, running comparative numbers, etc. I want to make that number as tangible as possible. I would volunteer if they needed help, hell yea. People would leave the class standing a little taller, probably seeing more light at the end of the tunnel, but also leave having the power and the tools to improve their score, ultimately having the power to change their own lives and their purchasing power. All of which is good news for them and the City of Austin.

Competitive Lumberjacking and Family Tree Shaking

pandemonic — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:55:01 +0000

On some days when I have nothing better to do, I will use Google to shake up the family tree and see what falls out of it.

Yesterday, I happened upon some medical articles about my first cousin. Thirty-one years ago, she had stillborn conjoined twins. They were formed rather strangely (one head inside of another, with two bodies opposite each other) so at the time she delivered, the twins were whisked away and she didn't even have a chance to say goodbye or bury them. They went right into the county morgue, where they were autopsied.

This cousin didn't like me very much. We were born the same year, and she always felt my grandma liked me best. My grandma had scores of grandchildren, and I don't think she thought better of any of them. Well, I should amend that. Maybe my one boy cousin, also my age. He looked like Jesus back in the 1970s. I don't know what he looks like now. He pissed me off about 30 years ago and I haven't spoken to him since.

Back to my female cousin and her twins: I vividly remember the entire episode and the hushed tones when we were all talking about her experience. My aunt thought of them as monsters, which is how they appeared. Reading about it online solidified this for me. I felt sorry for her then, and I still do. I was never very close to her, but am still very close to her younger sister.

The other leaves that fell out of my family tree were some other distant relations. I have third and fourth cousins who have always competed in logging competitions. If you lived as far north as they do, you'd know why. These days, everyone has a satellite dish, but back in those days, you had to entertain yourself somehow. Some people drank heavily, some had sex with anything that would lay down. These cousins competed in log rolling and tree cutting competitions. I suppose it kept them out of trouble. I don't know. The last time we visited that far branch of the family tree was in 1975. My father, grandma and I drove two hundred miles from civilization to see them. The husband was my grandma's brother. The wife was not amused. She didn't give us anything to drink, and after our long trip, only offered us smoked whitefish to eat. Smoked whitefish makes a fine appetizer but a horrible dinner. They were so far into the wilderness, we had to drive back almost the entire two hundred miles before we could find a diner with food.

Needless to say, it was a long time before I could eat smoked fish. (I love it now, so I've obviously gotten over it.)

I also located some other cousins with MySpace accounts. I'm not sure I want to ask them to be my friends there. Remaining incognito is a splendid feeling. Spying from afar is just fine by me.

It's nice to shake the tree from a distance and not have to rake up any of the leaves.

Look! Up in the Sky! It's an update on The Wonder Twins!

troublewithroy — Mon, 26 May 2008 13:43:42 +0000

Babies! Babies! Pets! Pets! publishes photos of people's Babies! and Pets!, including The Wonder Twins, Mateo and McHale Shaw. Send in your own photos to have them posted and be entered for a free t-shirt!
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As you enjoy your Memorial Day day off, take some time to help out Mateo and McHale Shaw, the two brave and wonderful boys above, who were given a 5% chance of survival at birth. Two years later, they are going strong. Here's what they were up to most recently, as they went to Washington, D.C., for an annual checkup:

The boys did great on the flight there. We stayed at an apartment through the hospital. When we arrived they had the apartment decorated with birthday cards,Elmo balloons,cupcakes and a gift for both boys. WOW! Talk about a hospital going the extra mile! The boys loved the gift they each got and it kept them very occupied in the apt. We got to the apt around 9 pm so we basically unpacked, Ryan ran to the grocery store and picked up some food, we ate and went to bed.

Tuesday we had appts with general surgery, plastic surgery and then went to spina bifida clinic where we sit in a room and the doctors rotate in for the check up. There we saw orthopaedics,urology,neurosurgery, physical medicine and rehab. We were there from about 10 am to 5:30 pm and since the boys didn't get a nap we went back to the apt, fed and bathed them and then put them down for bed around 7 ish. That night 2 of our close friends stopped by and we were able to spend some time with them. Which was great since we don't get to see them that often and they both are great people. Wednesday we had 2 appts, cardiology - the boys check up went great and no longer need to see a cardiologist! We then went to orthopedics and saw the orthopedic surgeon who separated the boys. It ended up being a long day in orthopedics since we needed to have some stuff done while we were there that unfortunately our doc here has let go......needless to say we were in clinics that day from 9 to about 4:30 and didn't get to go visit anyone since the boys were tired and it was a long tough day on Mateo. So we went to the apt and gave the boys a nap. They napped until about 7, then woke up played and went back to bed around 9:30.

....

That is a brief summary of the trip to D.C. the doctors were very pleased with the boys and their progress. The boys did great on the flight home. Here is something funny.When we landed and got our luggage I waited in the airport with the boys as Ryan went to get our car. While we were waiting for him to pick us up, I took the boys over to the luggage carousel, it was empty and they were watching it spin. Then they started unloading suitcases on it. Well that was HILARIOUS to them. As every suitcase fell off the ramp on to the carousel the boys laughed, McHale was laughing hysterically to the point he was turning blue....both boys thought it was just the funniest thing ever! It made the waiting go fast for us!

Help Mateo and McHale! The Wonder Twins are medical miracles, but they can't do everything. Find out more about them, and how to help them with their medical bills, by clicking this link.

Dans la série Siams-Art (16)

siams — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 18:16:33 +0000

Siamois encartonnés et prêts à être livrés :

Précisons qu'il s'agit originellement d'un tableau peint par un certain Braldt Bralds en 1998 et intitué "Siamese Twins", mis en vente au prix de USD 150.-- sur la galerie Altons.com.

One of the great joys of collecting is the "art of discovering" a great new talent and subject--a pleasure which many have enjoyed since we published Bralds' first print two years ago. He, and this new image of two Blue Points, Seal Points, and Red Points, truly represent the "'art of discovery."

Musica- The Cure en Madrid 6/03/08, 30 años de musica!! (1)

rosarusa — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 13:36:34 +0000

The Cure arrasó el jueves en Madrid, un concierto con "entradas agotadas" en el Palacio de los Deportes. Mas de tres horas de concierto... mas de tres bises...es decir mas de tres veces que salieron a los bises... mas de 30 exitos (The Cure saca disco este año pero mientras tanto sus conciertos se basan en una gran trayectoria)...

La banda ofreció un gran concierto, hace algunos años se rumoreba que serían sus ultimos conciertos porque se separaban, no daban mas de sí y parecian esas viejas glorias que ya no tiene nada que ofrecer salvo tocar por la pasta y porque en otros tiempos fueron una gran banda. Ahora resurgen de las cenizas, porque ahora lo gotico vuelve con fuerza (aunque para algunos nunca se fué).

Concierto con lleno absoluto y publico entusiasmado, hacia siete años que no tocaban en Madrid, la ultima vez fué bastante desastrosa a parte de no llenar no estaban en su mejor momento. El concierto de ayer fué muy oscuro, bastante guitarrero y poco pop, creo que será quizas de lo mejor del año en Madrid.

En la pagina oficial del grupo hay algunas descargas interesantes: aqui

(la mejor , para mi gusto la de "Never Enough" en directo; la mas rockera con diferencia)

Discografia:

Three Imaginary Boys(1979)
Seventeen Seconds (1980)
Boys Don't Cry (1980), edición para EE.UU. de Three Imaginary Boys
Faith (1981)
Pornography (1982)
Japanese Whispers (1983)
The Top (1984)
The Head on the Door (1985)
Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me(1987)
Disintegration (1989)
Mixed Up (1990)
Wish (1992)
Wild Mood Swings (1996)
Bloodflowers (2000)
The Cure (2004)

Aqui unas cuantas canciones de distintos discos, distintas epocas, The Cure:

(No son las mejores, ni las mas famosas, ni todas son mis preferidas pero son las que he podido colgar "sin gastar espacio" )

Three Imaginary Boys (1979).
Grupo formado por: Michael Dempsey, Robert Smith, Lol Tolhurst, Porl Thompson.

10:15 Saturday night (la canción que abre el album de 1979)[audio=http://www.goear.com/files/sst4/aa5283aea2c82b7a7ef97cd9415a308a.mp3]Three Imaginary boys (la canción que lo cierra, en el disco original de 1979 hay otra despues que no aparece listada y es una sorpresa)

[audio=http://www.goear.com/files/sst4/6d97f2bc7cb6cc2af418ff7114f173bd.mp3]

Seeventeen Seconds (1980)

Grupo formado por: Robert Smith, Matthieu Hartley,Laurence Tolhurst, Simon Gallup.

A Forest (uno de los temas de mas exito de este disco, ya un clasico de The Cure)
[audio=http://www.goear.com/files/sst/a707d7a085290fb0f98e46b61ff6c442.mp3]

Boys Don't Cry (1980)

Boys Don't Cry (1980, esta canción de las mas conocidas fué single del disco). El disco Boys Don´t Cry es muy similar a Seeventeen seconds se cambian 4 canciones por otras, en este esta la polemica "Killing an Arab" que como a veces es mal interpretada en algunos conciertos The Cure ha cambiado la letra.

[audio=http://www.goear.com/files/sst4/bd3e894df5f41904fc030c3c43f2eaf8.mp3]

Faith (1981)
Grabado por Simon Gallup,Robert Smith, Laurence Tolhurst.

All cats are grey (1981)[audio=http://www.goear.com/files/sst4/a46cd427fbcc11365613910100c7a73c.mp3]The Funeral Party(1981)[audio=http://www.goear.com/files/sst4/b65730ec560c79af5e1f133c81c8a342.mp3]Faith (1981) la canción que cierra el disco, aunque en el casette lo cierra Carnage Visors.[audio=http://www.goear.com/files/sst3/ee87b3f205ff59584759b95dc977f4ec.mp3]

Pornography (1982) desde mi punto de vista el mejor disco junto con The head on the door.
Grabado por Robert Smith, Simon Gallup, Laurence Tolhurst.

One hundred Years

[audio=http://www.goear.com/files/sst4/94260aa0306f19ac3dca6e1d288dc57b.mp3]

Siamese Twins

[audio=http://www.goear.com/files/sst4/f5a4b9d1c46a5e8cbab6a348628d271c.mp3]

The Figurehead

[audio=http://www.goear.com/files/sst3/abd1ce5fc41cb590dc3391069a4850e7.mp3]

A Strange Day (este es uno de mis temas preferidos de toda la discografia)

[audio=http://www.goear.com/files/sst4/dcb58978057edb943007494213f18cec.mp3]

Cold

[audio=http://www.goear.com/files/sst4/090278be9a485ddfe7375c7c75b13e51.mp3]

Pornography

[audio=http://www.goear.com/files/sst3/e6b04a60a2422106c6fdceeabf663c9c.mp3]

Mas canciones de los demas discos en otro post....

Creative

zozer319 — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 06:52:17 +0000

New Work

neurasthenia — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 22:07:04 +0000

A number of new small portraits are in the works. Here is the first three:

Also, the latest in the Morphology series:

PJ Harvey on Later! with Jools Holland

graveyardshiftshane — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 15:06:10 +0000

Last week, I posted PJ doing 'The Piano' on guitar. This week, it's PJ Harvey doing 'Silence' on piano. Obviously, the titles are there just to confuse you. This was taken from her performance the other night on Jools Holland. Thankfully, Jools doesn't try to lend a hand with some boogie-woogie keyboarding.

This, obviously, is fantastic.

And nice dress, Polly.

#1

openoranges — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 19:33:31 +0000

This is my first post! and it's comming from a hidden corner in a nearly abandoned business center in town. sneaking off and hanging about in fear once a week or so isn't so bad. the only people that come through here are construction managers and as i sit hunched up, stiff watching them walk into the room and scan the premises quickly, pencils shaking, lips opening in a fake out of words- they throw not even a sideglance towards me- yes i do believe no body cares that i'm here, except me of course.

and i'm a leo.

today is the day my best friend moves away (excuse the dr. suess). he's off to new york city and i'm sitting here waiting for the next time i pop an enzyme pill to rid myself of what is holding me hostage. i'm proud of him.

Total Randomness!

ericbrown07 — Tue, 17 Feb 2004 07:46:00 +0000

Well...I wasn't gonna post tonight...but now I have to so I don't forget what Ryan just said. I have been studying and he is asleep. He seems to like to talk in his sleep...one time he randomly sat up and exclaimed, "Why, yes, tis a pleasure," and then laid back down. Just now, he rolled over and said, "Are you gonna go to sleep dude?" So I thought maybe he was still awake...and then he was like "Yeah. What. That's what I thought. What did Gray say? Huh? Yeah, what did he think about that? Huh? Huh? What then?" It was messed up...and then a minute later the monster spoke yet again: "I'm just gonna keep saying random stuff until you laugh uncontrollably, and then I'm gonna kick you in the knee." I think that loft does things to people's minds. My old roommate hardly ever slept in the loft, but when he did, he said some weird stuff...one time he turned and looked me in the eye and said, "Let's get that bastard!" Whoa! That was pretty freaky. I hardly ever talk in my sleep, but I have always wanted to, just so people could tell me what I said and I'd remember more dreams...
Speaking of dreams...I have had my share of messed up dreams over the years. A couple years ago, I had probably the weirdest, random-est dream ever...I was working in a new giant grocery store - it was soo enormous, and there were all these extra rooms that there were doors to, like a whole bunch of janitor closets, and other rooms, too. So anyways, I'm working here, and one day, this guy comes in with some new machine he invented. It was supposed to turn lima beans into siamese twins...human siamese twins. But no one believed him, so he got the machine inside somehow (still not sure how that happened, cause it was about the size of a bulldozer) and demonstrated his invention's powers. He put a lima bean on a big chair on the machine and then pointed a laser beam at it...then poof - all of a sudden there were two girls sitting on the chair connected from shoulder to hip. 2 heads, 2 arms, and 4 legs...it was weird. So the guy kept making siamese twins with his new machine, and then he was like, "It has siamese triplet and quadruplet settings, too!" And then he turned a lima bean into a siamese quadruplet...it was the weirdest thing I ever saw...4 heads, 2 arms (one on the outside shoulder of each of the 2 outside people), 8 legs, and 1 really wide body - they were all connected to the person next to them from the shoulder to the hip. It was totally weird...and next thing I know, all these siamese twins and the quadruplets are working in the store - they had all gotten hired. And then later, the same guy came back in with another invention...one that would not only separate siamese twins, triplets, and quadruplets, but give them full bodies with all the parts. So the 4-person girl got up there on the big chair of this machine, which looked almost exactly like the other one, and then he shot the laser beam, and smoke went up and then 4 separate normal looking people walked off. They all had 2 arms - I had no idea where the arms came from since just before that they only had 2 arms between the 4 of them. That was almost as strange as them changing into people from lima beans...anyways, the dream goes on...
After all the siamese twins had been converted into separate people, we had tons more workers than usual...so I got assigned to the frozen food section. I was working over there, and some guy came up to me and asked me about the bears...so I took him over to the big ice chests, like the kind that hold bags of ice outside a gas station, and opened up the first one. I leaned over and reached way down in and pulled out a fully grown frozen brown bear...and I said to the customer, "This is one of our bigger bears," real casually like it was nothing. Then I dropped it back down into the chest, shut the lid, and went to the next one. I opened it up, reached in and pulled out a baby bear, a little bigger than a raccoon, and then, all of a sudden, the bear jumped out of my hands and started running away...apparently it had thawed out or something...so I started chasing after it all over the stores, but it was just a little too fast for me. Pretty soon, other people from all over the store were helping out, and all the former siamese twins were chasing after the bear with me. We chased it from one side of the store to other and back, over and over again. Eventually, it went into a side door that just happened to lead to a big auditorium, where it scurried frantically under all the seats and up and down rows. We thought we had it cornered near the back, but then, it somehow managed to make it into a janitor closet, and I chased it in there, but it escaped through a bear hole - it was like a mouse hole in the wall, except the perfect size for a baby bear. And then, I somehow squeezed through it. And we were right back in the main part of the store...and sitting right in front of me was the bear...it was frozen again...
And that was it...I woke up. Weird, eh? Well, its late, so I'm gonna go dream some more. Good night and sweet dreams...or weird ones...