Thursday, March 29, 2007

Eat more buffalo

My vegetarian friends, feel free to skip this post. As for us meat eaters, we need to eat more buffalo. I'll tell you why.

Soil erosion is a serious environmental issue. I know it's not sexy to talk about. You start talking about soil erosion in a bar and that person makes up an excuse to go home. You animal lovers out there can probably explain this better than I could, but buffalo have a type of hoof that is great for the soil, encouraging native grass growth that helps prevent soil erosion.

Not only that, corn-fed cattle requires pesticides and fertilizer. Buffalo don't. Buffalo are wild, and will help cut down on the crap that goes into our rivers considerably.

Buffalo is also much better for you. I love beef, don't get me wrong, but the Zombieslayer family only eats beef once a week, for we realize it's bad for you. Buffalo on the other hand is leaner than anything except fish. It's no accident that the Native American peoples who ate buffalo were some of the toughest people ever.

So why eat buffalo? As much as some people deny it, this is a capitalistic nation. Good thoughts aren't bringing the buffalo back to the plains. The dollar signs that buffalo meat bring are. Americans now consume 50,000 buffalo a year (source Time, March 27, 2007 issue). The more we eat, the more ranchers will be interested in buffalo.

So you might be wondering, how does buffalo taste? My personal opinion, better than cow. I piss off my fellow hunters when I say I think venison is just okay and cattle tastes much better. However, I'll put buffalo above cattle any day. You don't feel tired after eating a buffalo steak either.

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Issues in the 2008 election

It's almost that time, when politicians will start duking it out. We'll see a lot of vague promises, like "If I get elected, I'll improve the American education system." WTF does that supposed to mean? Or "looking out for the average American." Yeah, whatever.

What I'd like to see is someone who considers serious issues. We'll have an energy problem in the future. We're already seeing the beginning of it. What kind of plans do these politicians have? Any real solutions?

Also, what will be done about exporting the middle-class to India and China? I'll tell you right away, I'm hoping Wesley Clark doesn't get nominated. I'd like to give that guy a good right hook to the jaw. When my job got outsourced, he said "we'll let them have those jobs. We'll do other jobs here." So, you want to pay off my student loans for me, asshole? Because apparently, my degree's worth nothing now to you. I hate Wesley Clark.

What about illegal immigration? Will we have a free for all like our current President likes? Apparently, he has no regard for immigration law.

And how about America's future goals? Are we more interested in fixing other countries' problems or will we finally get around to fixing New Orleans? How about a joint manned mission to Mars? JFK promised a manned mission to the moon. Let's go further. Where does the human race go from here?

Energy. I know it's not sexy, but something needs to be done. Our dependence on foreign oil is not a good thing. How about tax incentives for biodiesel? More geothermal? Something. This is not my strong point, but I'd like some ideas thrown around.

We'll also have to do something about the deficit. I'm uncomfortable with a huge deficit. It's kind of like if you're sitting there with a $50,000 credit card bill. Sooner or later, you have to pay it off. Or should we just leave it for our grandchildren to deal with?

Or will we just see bullshit smokescreen issues like gay marriage, and flag burning? Frankly, I'm tired of hearing about those issues.

Three things to watch out for with politicians:
1) vagueness. Vague people cannot lead a nation. I want solutions, not mumbo jumbo crap that could be interpreted a thousand ways.
2) appeals to patriotism. You all know I'm patriotic. The thing is, when politicians talk endlessly about patriotism, it's usually to cover up flaws in other areas.
3) when politicians talk endlessly about how religious they are. That's usually a sign that soon we'll hear from the media that politician cheated on his wife, or has something else to hide.

So, what issues should we be looking for? What should be our big concerns going into 2008?

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Rich Dad didn't work for me

My dear readers, I'm glad you're still around. You can tell the difference between when I'm writing cheese and when I'm writing fact. This story is real.

I'm not superhuman. I cannot jump over tall buildings or dodge bullets. I'm just a normal guy working a normal job, although a job I actually enjoy doing at a company that treats me great and has good benefits. I do have a brother who was a tenth of a second from making the Olympics and I myself am a pretty good athlete, although not good enough to go pro. That's it. That's me. A guy sitting at a desk with a strong work ethic who likes telling jokes and loves sports.

Several years ago, when I first started blogging, I told you I've been following Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad advice. Some of you warned me against it, but I failed to listen. I do thank you for telling me the truth, it's my fault I had my ears closed.

So now looking back, everything I did was wrong. Before doing it his way, I worked hard at the job I went to college for, invested conservatively for the long-term, and made a lot of money. I took a lot of that money and re-invested it into other things after reading the Rich Dad books, namely real estate.

Rich Dad talked about assets vs liabilities. So I ran the numbers, bought three properties, and everything looked good. Right? Wrong. It's not easy like it is in the books.

Bad tenants destroying your properties take a positive cash flow and turn it into a negative cash flow. He didn't say that. Or that tenants skip out without telling you, or don't pay you period until you have to forcibly evict them.

Meanwhile, my buddy didn't read the books and did the opposite of what he was supposed to do by the books. He bought houses with huge negative cash flows and worried profusely how he would pay for them. This is exactly what Kiyosaki tells you NOT to do. Well, he timed the market right and turned out to be wealthy. Now, he's living in a million dollar house and I'm renting from him (and renting out our final house to people who have a long history of paying rent and not destroying homes).

Luckily for us, I didn't entirely listen to Kiyosaki. He says that 401k's and mutual funds are bad investments and the stock market will crash in 2010 when the Baby Boomers start to retire. We'll see. If he's right, I'll ride it out. The S&P 500 over the past 90 years went up around 10% a year or more. Sometimes it drops 20%, sometimes it goes up 30%. It's all good because over any given long period of time, it averages over 10%. So I simply have my 401k mostly invested in the S&P 500 index.

I did some research and found out that you were right. Kiyosaki is a fraud. There never was a Rich Dad, and the whole series started making money as a marketing tool for Amway (which changed its name to something like Quick something). Not only that, he's not super rich and in fact has a net worth a dozen times less than he's claimed. He is a millionaire though, but that's because of the books. He's never been a successful businessman nor investor.

So, don't be stupid like me kids. Stay in school, finish it. Buy a home and live in it. Invest wisely. Don't get divorced (divorce is one of the top killers of wealth) and don't spend your money on stupid shit. Follow that advice, the advice my retired father gave me, and you'll be rich.

Unfortunately for me, I listened to the wrong Dad when I was making a boatload of money. My father's retired. Kiyosaki's still working. They're about the same age. Sure Kiyosaki has more money (all from his book sales) but my Dad is happy. I sincerely doubt Kiyosaki is.

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As for 300, I told you all I'd do a review, but I sold it and no longer have exclusive rights to it. I gave it a 9 dead zombies out of 10. It's Frank Miller at his best, better than Sin City. Zack Snyder did a great directing job. Of course with Miller, don't expect historical accuracy and definitely don't take the kids. Very violent.

Monday, March 05, 2007

Back from vacation

It's been a nice few weeks off, and at the end of this month, taking more time off to go to Vegas.

I'm not a Vegas guy. Not my thing. All the lights, traffic, noises, neon, that's neat for about a day, but it gets old fast. I don't want civilization. I want anarchy.

Give me the outdoors where I don't see another person for days besides the people I'm with. I don't want to see a computer, a car, a road, a building, and airplane, a piece of litter, anything that reminds me of civilization. That's my ideal vacation.

Well, the middle of the week, things should slow down. Got some catching up to do, catch up on bills, do taxes, etc., so I'll be swamped. After I get that crap done, I'll go visit your blogs. In the meantime, hope all is well with you.

Oh, going to see 300 this weekend. I'll have a review up afterwards.