Another New Year to feel younger.
Regards,
Arthur
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Sunday, December 7, 2008
The Futures Market On Christmas & New Years
Please feel free to use this article as long as credit is given to the resource box.
© Copyright, Arthur Levine 2008
Words: 372
Keywords: Christmas, New Years, Future, Happiness, Faith, Miracles
All three major indexes are up the sky’s the limit on the coming Holidays. They are very bullish on the coming of Christmas and New Years.
Smart investors full of faith and hope are convinced that the Holidays are coming once again this year bringing with them people of good cheer and an abundant faith in the future.
So what if the economy is in rocky shape we have survived recessions before.
So what if people are a little depressed over the loss of jobs, things are definitely going to get better, aren’t they?
So what if we can’t spend as much money on presents as the year before, that is not what the Holiday is all about, is it?
It’s getting to be that time of year when we should take a few moments out of our busy lives to count our blessings. You are blessed, aren’t you? You must if you and your family are still around to read this.
Let’s no waste time worrying about what could have been. Let’s spend our time planning on what we are going to do differently in the future.
Let’s spend our time promising to polish up our faith.
Let’s spend our time being thankful for the blessings that we do have.
Now is the season of unlimited potential. Isn’t it wonderful that so much good can come of us developing the promise that each one of us possesses to do good deeds and care about each other.
Now is the season to throw off the inhibitions that have kept us from being all that we can be.
Now is the time to make the most of our talents and knowledge.
Now is the time for all of us to use our imaginations to create a vision of how we want our lives to be and then make the effort to see that our dreams come true.
We can do it. We can make the Holidays the happiest time we have ever had. We can come together in the spirit of the Holiday and make miracles happen.
Are you ready to have some fun?
May your dreams come true.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
*****
Please join us on this Holiday season at http://johnnyoops.blogspot.com. We can have a lot of fun. Johnny is still recovering from Thanksgiving.
© Copyright, Arthur Levine 2008
Words: 372
Keywords: Christmas, New Years, Future, Happiness, Faith, Miracles
All three major indexes are up the sky’s the limit on the coming Holidays. They are very bullish on the coming of Christmas and New Years.
Smart investors full of faith and hope are convinced that the Holidays are coming once again this year bringing with them people of good cheer and an abundant faith in the future.
So what if the economy is in rocky shape we have survived recessions before.
So what if people are a little depressed over the loss of jobs, things are definitely going to get better, aren’t they?
So what if we can’t spend as much money on presents as the year before, that is not what the Holiday is all about, is it?
It’s getting to be that time of year when we should take a few moments out of our busy lives to count our blessings. You are blessed, aren’t you? You must if you and your family are still around to read this.
Let’s no waste time worrying about what could have been. Let’s spend our time planning on what we are going to do differently in the future.
Let’s spend our time promising to polish up our faith.
Let’s spend our time being thankful for the blessings that we do have.
Now is the season of unlimited potential. Isn’t it wonderful that so much good can come of us developing the promise that each one of us possesses to do good deeds and care about each other.
Now is the season to throw off the inhibitions that have kept us from being all that we can be.
Now is the time to make the most of our talents and knowledge.
Now is the time for all of us to use our imaginations to create a vision of how we want our lives to be and then make the effort to see that our dreams come true.
We can do it. We can make the Holidays the happiest time we have ever had. We can come together in the spirit of the Holiday and make miracles happen.
Are you ready to have some fun?
May your dreams come true.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
*****
Please join us on this Holiday season at http://johnnyoops.blogspot.com. We can have a lot of fun. Johnny is still recovering from Thanksgiving.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
A Non Human Response Computer Program
We all know the frustration of dealing with a computerized response to a customer service question when the telephone program won’t allow you to speak to a real live person and the canned response doesn’t answer your question or solve your problem by referring you to option 1 or 2 or 4, but now we have to deal with the vileness of virtual email responses.
That’s right folks, some computer programming genius convinced that he has all the answers is now responding to our plaintive pleas for help via email with a programmed response. Don’t think I am telling you the truth – try asking for a manager in an email reply when your question isn’t answered or your problem solved.
These geniuses are convinced they can give us canned answers that are no responsive to our questions and that we will have no choice, but to accept them.
Example:
If I can be of assistance to you in the future, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
But they didn’t answer my question or solve my problem. I will spare you the details. All they did was give me excuses as to why they couldn’t help me and then end by offering to help me in the future. I will not be pacified by such nonsense. I want real answers from a real person; someone who can think on his feet without referring to a data bank for the wrong answer once he thinks he has profiled me. We can’t be stereotyped so easily, can we?
What does some computer program really know about me, or you for that matter: our passions, our wants, our desire to overcome the obstacles that constrain us.
I ended my reply email by asking to speak to a manager before I print this article. If you are reading this now I have not spoken to or heard from a manager by email or any other means of communication known to man such as by mail or telephone, but then what would some virtually vile software program know about a response from me that they could not possibly have anticipated or stored in their knowledge bank.
They don’t have human managers, only programs.
My question to you my friends is are we going to sacrifice out individuality to the machinations of some computer program designed to save the institution money and drive us crazy in frustration, and if not what are we going to do about it?
Would only real people please respond to my question?
Hi, this is Arthur Levine asking that if you share my frustration with programmed responses that you answer my question at the comment section of: http://answerthequestion123.blogspot.com.
That’s right folks, some computer programming genius convinced that he has all the answers is now responding to our plaintive pleas for help via email with a programmed response. Don’t think I am telling you the truth – try asking for a manager in an email reply when your question isn’t answered or your problem solved.
These geniuses are convinced they can give us canned answers that are no responsive to our questions and that we will have no choice, but to accept them.
Example:
If I can be of assistance to you in the future, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
But they didn’t answer my question or solve my problem. I will spare you the details. All they did was give me excuses as to why they couldn’t help me and then end by offering to help me in the future. I will not be pacified by such nonsense. I want real answers from a real person; someone who can think on his feet without referring to a data bank for the wrong answer once he thinks he has profiled me. We can’t be stereotyped so easily, can we?
What does some computer program really know about me, or you for that matter: our passions, our wants, our desire to overcome the obstacles that constrain us.
I ended my reply email by asking to speak to a manager before I print this article. If you are reading this now I have not spoken to or heard from a manager by email or any other means of communication known to man such as by mail or telephone, but then what would some virtually vile software program know about a response from me that they could not possibly have anticipated or stored in their knowledge bank.
They don’t have human managers, only programs.
My question to you my friends is are we going to sacrifice out individuality to the machinations of some computer program designed to save the institution money and drive us crazy in frustration, and if not what are we going to do about it?
Would only real people please respond to my question?
Hi, this is Arthur Levine asking that if you share my frustration with programmed responses that you answer my question at the comment section of: http://answerthequestion123.blogspot.com.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Thanksgiving Without All The Fancy Trimmings
This is shaping up as the Thanksgiving when people return to old fashion values and go sparingly on all the exotic side dishes that have come to signify the opulence of the Holiday and our own sense of excess.
In a lot of respects this Thanksgiving promises to be something special – something we can really be thankful for. In spite of a recession families will once more gather to rejoice in their freedom and the bounty of their table, but this time most if not all of the trimmings will be homemade and not store bought. Is that so terrible? I rather like it, and the smells coming from the kitchen make my mouth water in anticipation.
You do remember the aroma of a home made apple pie wafting from the oven through the kitchen and out into the living room of a home you can afford to live in where a happy group of family and friends are gathered before a roaring wood burning fire, don’t you? Life can be good.
Is eggnog any better when laced with twenty-five-year-old brandy than with cheap dark rum? Does a Ford compact car get you where you want to go as well as a Mercedes Limousine?
What store bought barbequed bird can compete with a twenty-pound turkey basting in its own juices as its skin crisps and the smell of sausage and cornbread stuffing sends the dog whining in anticipation and dancing in circles?
Do the children playing games in the hallway know the difference between Oysters Rockefeller and chestnuts wrapped in bacon?
Is pumpkin and squash soup any less delectable and tasty then lobster bisque from the gourmet store? Are eating fish egg caviar what the pilgrims had in mind for their day of Thanksgiving?
If we are not alone, if we can share the holiday together, what difference does it make if we can’t spend a lot of money on some fancy trimmings? We have more than most people can hope for. We have a bounteous table of our own making, and the family and friends to share it with. We have a lot to be thankful for. We are together. We are free.
Too much emphasis on having all the exotic trimmings we can conger up may be why we got into this recession to begin with. Thank God the American public has enough sense to know when to stop spending on fancy luxuries they can do without, and start saving for their own and their children’s future.
When we all remember the lessons of the past that our parents and grandparents tried to teach us, we will truly have something to be thankful for. Then this recession will be gone, and the real trimmings of a wonderful life will come racing back to us with our heartfelt thanks. They will always be ours to cherish and remember.
May the trimmings of your heart and mind make your cup full of love to the brim and your sense of joy running over.
Have a Happy, Healthy Thanksgiving.
*****
Hi this is Arthur Levine and Johnny Oops the principal character in my new novel wishing you and yours a very happy Thanksgiving. To read about Johnny’s escapades please join us at http://johnnyoops.blogspot.com.
In a lot of respects this Thanksgiving promises to be something special – something we can really be thankful for. In spite of a recession families will once more gather to rejoice in their freedom and the bounty of their table, but this time most if not all of the trimmings will be homemade and not store bought. Is that so terrible? I rather like it, and the smells coming from the kitchen make my mouth water in anticipation.
You do remember the aroma of a home made apple pie wafting from the oven through the kitchen and out into the living room of a home you can afford to live in where a happy group of family and friends are gathered before a roaring wood burning fire, don’t you? Life can be good.
Is eggnog any better when laced with twenty-five-year-old brandy than with cheap dark rum? Does a Ford compact car get you where you want to go as well as a Mercedes Limousine?
What store bought barbequed bird can compete with a twenty-pound turkey basting in its own juices as its skin crisps and the smell of sausage and cornbread stuffing sends the dog whining in anticipation and dancing in circles?
Do the children playing games in the hallway know the difference between Oysters Rockefeller and chestnuts wrapped in bacon?
Is pumpkin and squash soup any less delectable and tasty then lobster bisque from the gourmet store? Are eating fish egg caviar what the pilgrims had in mind for their day of Thanksgiving?
If we are not alone, if we can share the holiday together, what difference does it make if we can’t spend a lot of money on some fancy trimmings? We have more than most people can hope for. We have a bounteous table of our own making, and the family and friends to share it with. We have a lot to be thankful for. We are together. We are free.
Too much emphasis on having all the exotic trimmings we can conger up may be why we got into this recession to begin with. Thank God the American public has enough sense to know when to stop spending on fancy luxuries they can do without, and start saving for their own and their children’s future.
When we all remember the lessons of the past that our parents and grandparents tried to teach us, we will truly have something to be thankful for. Then this recession will be gone, and the real trimmings of a wonderful life will come racing back to us with our heartfelt thanks. They will always be ours to cherish and remember.
May the trimmings of your heart and mind make your cup full of love to the brim and your sense of joy running over.
Have a Happy, Healthy Thanksgiving.
*****
Hi this is Arthur Levine and Johnny Oops the principal character in my new novel wishing you and yours a very happy Thanksgiving. To read about Johnny’s escapades please join us at http://johnnyoops.blogspot.com.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Ten Ways To Survive The Coming Recession
We can’t prevent a recession from happening, but there are a number of things to do so that we survive it with a minimum of pain.
1. Have the proper attitude – you have to have faith that you can do something positive if you are going to survive the coming recession.
2. Have faith in yourself – you have to believe in your own abilities if you want to be successful at surviving a recession.
3. Don’t panic – this is not the time to start selling the investments in your 401K. We are probably closer to the bottom than the top and you don’t want to create a tax liability for yourself.
4. Think long term – You are probably going to recover most of what you have lost if not all when the recession is over. Historically things get better over time.
5. Reduce Your Expenses – Sit down and make a budget. Try and decide what expenses you can reduce if you lose your job and you need to make limited resources do.
6. Decide what’s Important – Do you know what is really important to you? Is it your home, your car, your medicines, or your life style? Something is going to have to be cut.
7. Alternate Income source – If you want to survive this recession you may need an extra source of income. Examine your talents. What kind of part time work are you good at? A second income is better than none.
8. Marshall your assets – Are you sitting around holding onto antiques or jewelry or other unused assets that you don’t like or need? Sell them and build a nest egg to give you more security in these trying times.
9. Your family – If you are really experiencing trying times it is okay to ask relatives for a loan to help get you through them as long as you intend to pay it back. Worst case you can move in with your relatives or if you are doing okay have them move in with you.
10. Debt Control – Talk to your lenders, your mortgage holders, your credit card company. They can help you spread out or defer your payments so that you both recover from these trying times.
It’s really up to you. You can survive this recession if you believe that you can. This is not the end of the world. It is only a stage in your life that you are going through. So are the rest of us. We all have to learn to cope.
To discover how to cope with and survive a recession please visit http://newmiddleagedgroup.blogspot.com or http://johnnyoops.blogspot.com.
1. Have the proper attitude – you have to have faith that you can do something positive if you are going to survive the coming recession.
2. Have faith in yourself – you have to believe in your own abilities if you want to be successful at surviving a recession.
3. Don’t panic – this is not the time to start selling the investments in your 401K. We are probably closer to the bottom than the top and you don’t want to create a tax liability for yourself.
4. Think long term – You are probably going to recover most of what you have lost if not all when the recession is over. Historically things get better over time.
5. Reduce Your Expenses – Sit down and make a budget. Try and decide what expenses you can reduce if you lose your job and you need to make limited resources do.
6. Decide what’s Important – Do you know what is really important to you? Is it your home, your car, your medicines, or your life style? Something is going to have to be cut.
7. Alternate Income source – If you want to survive this recession you may need an extra source of income. Examine your talents. What kind of part time work are you good at? A second income is better than none.
8. Marshall your assets – Are you sitting around holding onto antiques or jewelry or other unused assets that you don’t like or need? Sell them and build a nest egg to give you more security in these trying times.
9. Your family – If you are really experiencing trying times it is okay to ask relatives for a loan to help get you through them as long as you intend to pay it back. Worst case you can move in with your relatives or if you are doing okay have them move in with you.
10. Debt Control – Talk to your lenders, your mortgage holders, your credit card company. They can help you spread out or defer your payments so that you both recover from these trying times.
It’s really up to you. You can survive this recession if you believe that you can. This is not the end of the world. It is only a stage in your life that you are going through. So are the rest of us. We all have to learn to cope.
To discover how to cope with and survive a recession please visit http://newmiddleagedgroup.blogspot.com or http://johnnyoops.blogspot.com.
Monday, October 20, 2008
The Economy – Did We Get In This Mess Because We Don’t Read?
I was thinking about the mess our economy is in and my thoughts drifted back to some things that happened to me when I was a young man, and the similarities some of these events have to what is happening to us now.
By way of background I think it is pertinent to mention that in high school I took a remedial reading course and learned to speed read with 95% comprehension. I wish it were so for everybody.
My first job, gained by lying on my application to the effect that I was looking to make the Domestics Department of a major Department Store my life’s work, was taking inventory of the sheets we stocked. After taking inventory for 2 days I summoned all my courage and asked the manger of the department what the difference was between Pepperell and Lady Pepperell sheets. He looked at me with a straight face and told me that one had a daisy and the other an orchid on the wrapper and this accounted for the $5 per sheet price difference.
That’s how I learned that a large part of consumer buying patterns were dictated by perception. I compare that experience to buying Credit Default Swaps, which are backed by nothing to guarantee us against losing money on a stock or bond purchase. It isn’t so, but it makes us feel better until we discover that it is really a mirage and we aren’t protected.
Then I think back to my following job as a trainee in a Wall Street brokerage firm. I ran errands for one of the big producers who had big movie stars for customers and a cigar constantly dangling from his mouth. He was buying his people as he liked to call them a ton of RCA stock years ago when I worked for him. One day opening the mail I saw a big thick report on RCA. I ran over to this big producer and excitedly showed him the report on RCA. His mouth dropped open and I was afraid his cigar was going to fall out as he said to me, “Sonny do you want me to buy it or read it.”
Looking back on that moment I think I get the bigger picture. Do we really expect people to read complicated 90 page sub prime mortgage bond papers or 400 page Congressional relief legislation, or do we expect them to buy the bonds and the Congressional remedies on faith? It’s a no brainer. Who has the time to read? We have to take action or make profits, or in our ignorance generate a fiscal crisis. That’s what is happening to us now.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
I think the solution to all of this is to pass a law that no one can buy anything, invest in anything, and or vote for any one or thing until they have taken and passed a remedial speed reading course with 95% comprehension and swear that they will read everything on the subject at hand before they buy or vote for it.
The devil is in the fine print my friends. Let’s not let the devil have his way with our economy and our future. We have to read and make informed decisions if we want to pass on to our grandchildren something more than debt and financial crisis and a loss of the democracy we cherish.
By way of background I think it is pertinent to mention that in high school I took a remedial reading course and learned to speed read with 95% comprehension. I wish it were so for everybody.
My first job, gained by lying on my application to the effect that I was looking to make the Domestics Department of a major Department Store my life’s work, was taking inventory of the sheets we stocked. After taking inventory for 2 days I summoned all my courage and asked the manger of the department what the difference was between Pepperell and Lady Pepperell sheets. He looked at me with a straight face and told me that one had a daisy and the other an orchid on the wrapper and this accounted for the $5 per sheet price difference.
That’s how I learned that a large part of consumer buying patterns were dictated by perception. I compare that experience to buying Credit Default Swaps, which are backed by nothing to guarantee us against losing money on a stock or bond purchase. It isn’t so, but it makes us feel better until we discover that it is really a mirage and we aren’t protected.
Then I think back to my following job as a trainee in a Wall Street brokerage firm. I ran errands for one of the big producers who had big movie stars for customers and a cigar constantly dangling from his mouth. He was buying his people as he liked to call them a ton of RCA stock years ago when I worked for him. One day opening the mail I saw a big thick report on RCA. I ran over to this big producer and excitedly showed him the report on RCA. His mouth dropped open and I was afraid his cigar was going to fall out as he said to me, “Sonny do you want me to buy it or read it.”
Looking back on that moment I think I get the bigger picture. Do we really expect people to read complicated 90 page sub prime mortgage bond papers or 400 page Congressional relief legislation, or do we expect them to buy the bonds and the Congressional remedies on faith? It’s a no brainer. Who has the time to read? We have to take action or make profits, or in our ignorance generate a fiscal crisis. That’s what is happening to us now.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
I think the solution to all of this is to pass a law that no one can buy anything, invest in anything, and or vote for any one or thing until they have taken and passed a remedial speed reading course with 95% comprehension and swear that they will read everything on the subject at hand before they buy or vote for it.
The devil is in the fine print my friends. Let’s not let the devil have his way with our economy and our future. We have to read and make informed decisions if we want to pass on to our grandchildren something more than debt and financial crisis and a loss of the democracy we cherish.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
The Credit Monster Just Ate My Mortgage
I was sitting there minding my own business when this Credit Monster came running into the room and told me that the government was buying my mortgage from my bank and I had three days to get out of Dodge City, USA or they would be forced to confiscate the future of my children through excessive and unwarranted taxation.
How did things get this bad? I wasn’t doing anything to get myself into trouble. All I wanted was a big mansion of my own. So what if I couldn’t afford it. The bank told me that didn’t matter. So what if I didn’t have enough income to pay the interest on the mortgage. The real estate agent told me he would make up the numbers so no one would know, and no one cared anyway.
You can’t blame that on me, can you? You can’t say that I’m responsible. I have never been responsible for anything in my whole life. Now I have to live in my taxi because the Credit Monster is going to foreclose on my home. I wish I was dealing with a cookie monster. I am getting lonely, and at least that way I would have someone following me around
It’s their fault. I mean the Credit Monsters. I need help. How could anyone expect me to know what that long contract I signed said? I can’t even read. I had to get a friend of mine to take my taxi and limousine test so I could get my chauffeurs license. How could they let a poor snook like me buy a big five-bedroom mansion with an Olympic size pool? I don’t even swim. Where I grew up there were no bodies of water, only dead bodies encased in concrete.
Now they tell me it is up to me to fund hundreds of billions in debt to save the Nation. They say it’s my patriotic duty. I can’t even fund my ex wife’s alimony payments for child support. I don’t think they are my kids anyway; at least not the two younger ones. Why don’t you tax them?
How could this be happening to me? I am drowning in a sea of debt that the government made me guarantee, or they said it would be my fault that the economy collapsed. I repeat I don’t swim. I don’t want to drown in a sea of anything. I have already physically and mentally collapsed. What more do they want?
It’s not my debt I tell you. Is anyone listening? Can anyone hear me? What am I to do? I bet there are millions of people out there that feel the same as me. Who is going to protect us? Who is going to look after out interests? We need a lobbyist. I just wish we could afford one. Then we would show this Credit Monster a thing or two.
Why should the rich Wall Street types have all the fun while we pay their debts when they screw up? I can mess things up just fine on my own like they have? Don’t tell me I don’t know how to screw up. Where is our government when we need it? Who is going to help us now and look after our interests? This isn’t fair. Who is going to take responsibility for all this bad mortgage debt?
This is not our fault, is it? Who can we turn to for help when our own government isn’t really on our side? I think it’s their fault. They created this Credit Monster, didn’t they? You can’t tax a government, can you? Some one is going to have to pay for this mess and it isn’t going to be us again, is it?
All these questions and no one appears to have the answers. What are we going to do? I’m talking about we the people. We are drowning in a sea of fiscal irresponsibility and emotional despair. And these are shark-infested waters. You know who the sharks are, don’t you?
*****
For more articles on life, literature, holidays, traditions and tricks and treats, please join us at http://johnnyoops.blogspot.com
How did things get this bad? I wasn’t doing anything to get myself into trouble. All I wanted was a big mansion of my own. So what if I couldn’t afford it. The bank told me that didn’t matter. So what if I didn’t have enough income to pay the interest on the mortgage. The real estate agent told me he would make up the numbers so no one would know, and no one cared anyway.
You can’t blame that on me, can you? You can’t say that I’m responsible. I have never been responsible for anything in my whole life. Now I have to live in my taxi because the Credit Monster is going to foreclose on my home. I wish I was dealing with a cookie monster. I am getting lonely, and at least that way I would have someone following me around
It’s their fault. I mean the Credit Monsters. I need help. How could anyone expect me to know what that long contract I signed said? I can’t even read. I had to get a friend of mine to take my taxi and limousine test so I could get my chauffeurs license. How could they let a poor snook like me buy a big five-bedroom mansion with an Olympic size pool? I don’t even swim. Where I grew up there were no bodies of water, only dead bodies encased in concrete.
Now they tell me it is up to me to fund hundreds of billions in debt to save the Nation. They say it’s my patriotic duty. I can’t even fund my ex wife’s alimony payments for child support. I don’t think they are my kids anyway; at least not the two younger ones. Why don’t you tax them?
How could this be happening to me? I am drowning in a sea of debt that the government made me guarantee, or they said it would be my fault that the economy collapsed. I repeat I don’t swim. I don’t want to drown in a sea of anything. I have already physically and mentally collapsed. What more do they want?
It’s not my debt I tell you. Is anyone listening? Can anyone hear me? What am I to do? I bet there are millions of people out there that feel the same as me. Who is going to protect us? Who is going to look after out interests? We need a lobbyist. I just wish we could afford one. Then we would show this Credit Monster a thing or two.
Why should the rich Wall Street types have all the fun while we pay their debts when they screw up? I can mess things up just fine on my own like they have? Don’t tell me I don’t know how to screw up. Where is our government when we need it? Who is going to help us now and look after our interests? This isn’t fair. Who is going to take responsibility for all this bad mortgage debt?
This is not our fault, is it? Who can we turn to for help when our own government isn’t really on our side? I think it’s their fault. They created this Credit Monster, didn’t they? You can’t tax a government, can you? Some one is going to have to pay for this mess and it isn’t going to be us again, is it?
All these questions and no one appears to have the answers. What are we going to do? I’m talking about we the people. We are drowning in a sea of fiscal irresponsibility and emotional despair. And these are shark-infested waters. You know who the sharks are, don’t you?
*****
For more articles on life, literature, holidays, traditions and tricks and treats, please join us at http://johnnyoops.blogspot.com
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