homeless

It’s been busy at work and at home with the holidays and all, but overall it’s been a good time. At work we’re moving to another office on another floor and there have been lots of holiday photographs to shoot and things to write.

Thanksgiving was awesome. The Scotland crew came into town and my brother visited with his wife and new daughter. We had almost a week to spend together and I honestly enjoyed every moment of it. Thanks all.

Broadening the focus a bit, the Sacramento Bee ran an article last Wednesday about the area’s homeless and the ridiculous dance they do with local police. It seems that every few weeks the police rouse the homeless from illegal Homeless Camp A. The unwashed masses pack their things and move a few miles away to Homeless Camp B. Fast forward a few weeks: local police rouse the homeless from illegal Homeless Camp B. The unwashed masses pack their things and move a few miles back to Homeless Camp A…and repeat ad nauseam.

The Bee estimates that about 2,500 homeless call Sacramento their home, with 700 hundred of these having been on the streets for a year or more. There’s no estimate on how much money or time city services, to include police and health, spend on them or the cost of the blight that trails them.

I understand that many of the homeless are there by choice and that the vast majority have drug and alcohol problems and are afflicted by any number of mental illnesses. In the Bee article they focused on one homeless lady, an admitted bipolar meth-head, who said she would like to get clean and live in an apartment. However, she also expressed an appreciation for the freedom being homeless offered. Another homeless person interviewed was downright hostile to the idea of living a “normal” life.

I can’t say that living the homeless lifestyle is right or wrong, but I really lean to it being wrong and here is why, it has a negative effect on other people. I’m not talking just about how uncomfortable homeless people make others feel, but the crime, blight, pollution and resources they destroy.

In Sacramento, the homeless have taken over large swaths of land that run along one of our nearby rivers. The human waste and pollution have devastated the area, stripped it of its recreational properties and left it in shambles. The area of the town near our homeless shelter is nothing but warehouses, recycling yards and a porn shop. It really can’t be improved or made habitable.

The Obama administration has expressed interest in pumping money into rebuilding our country’s failing infrastructure. Keeping in mind that some of these homeless want to get clean, straight and live a more “regular” life, I’d like to suggest that part of this budget stimulus being considered focus on building a humanitarian infrastructure. Let’s get many more drug counselors, mental health and social service specialists out to schools, police stations and homeless shelters. Let’s offer scholarships to students studying in these areas or pay for their educations outright for which they’ll be required to serve the public good for four or five years. This will help pump money into the economy by creating more consumers, in this case former homeless and students who now have degrees/certificates and greater income. Hopefully, with more of these specialists in schools and the community in general we can lower future crime rates, move many of the homeless of the streets and create, in general, a better world for all people.

Click: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2008/12/twilight.html

The trailer for X-Men Origins: Wolverine!!!

I’ve been feeling out of sorts lately, a bit depressed, a bit afraid, restless and a bit worried about just about everything under the sun.

These feelings run through every aspect of my life: low pay, no roommate, lack of money, no prospect for a relationship, blah, blah, blah. I guess it could be identified as the classic-lower-middle-class-malaise that so many single people in their late twenties and early thirties find themselves in from time to time. Still, that doesn’t make me feel any better.

A few days ago when I joked with a friend about this feeling she told me that life wasn’t a race. After thinking about it for a bit, I have to say, no it is. Although I’m no longer measuring myself against others I am measuring myself against the passage of time.

For example, next year I’ll officially be on the downside of my thirties, which puts me at approximately halfway through the average man’s life span of 72. With my military stint and my struggle though college I began saving and investing late. Now my retirement and my investments are hemorrhaging funds, finances are so tight my savings has nearly vanished and I don’t want to attempt (I stress that in this economy) to leave a job I am still using for experience for a job that pays better. Because of this, I worry this financial instability will keep me in economic limbo and the stresses that accompany it for the rest of my life.

Damn, sometimes life is a bitch.

Here is some giggity: http://www.keyetv.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoid=21056@keye.dayport.com&navCatId=24

Giant Balls!!!

$700 billion!!!!!

Been awhile since I updated, so here goes:

Went to a big beer festival last weekend , just gave my roommate a 30 day notice, shampooed by carpet and almost have a 70 Draenei Warrior in World of Warcraft.

More important than me though, if you can believe it, is the state of the country’s economy. I won’t pretend that I understand all that’s going on, actually I’m not sure anyone does, but I do know that it involves a $700 billion plan to bail out a few private banks and investment companies. Let me repeat that, $700 billion! Oh, and let me add, the money is yours and mine. Yes, it’s taxpayer dollars.

Some are saying that without the bail out plan the US is doomed, but is it really. The $700 billion will pretty much be used to buy up bad mortgages and loans that no one will buy. Will that change? Will they buy them when they are held by the government, a government that is already $9.7 trillion, yes trillion, in debt? This totally reminds me of the lipstick on a pig thing! It’s still junk, people!

What happens if we let these troubled banks and investment companies fail? I really don’t know. All that I can find when I ask this question is doom and gloom, but there must be someone out there who thinks differently, but I’ll be damned if I can find them. Both Republicans and Democrats are saying the bailout is necessary, with certain caveats, but they are still saying it’s necessary.

Is it?

Now I’m depressed but here is some clicky to make us happy: http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/36d31abcf2

Poor Will