As many of you know, we are very passionate and opinionated about various things (especially Misty... heehee). We thought it would be fun to have an *open* forum where we can post various ramblings about whatever topic that is on our mind. Whether it is about the plague of liberalism, Pezzy venting, or about a favorite pet peeve of ours... you can be guaranteed that our comments will be either thought provoking, insightful, infuriating, or entertaining.

We encourage anyone who would like to voice what's on their mind to send us your own
*rambling* to... Misty & Todd
Keep in mind that we have exclusive control over what topics are posted on this *Ramblings* Page. If your rant hits a chord with us, we will add it below!

If You Don't Care... Why Should I?
5/19/01

Todd

I am always amazed and peeved at the writing *styles* I see when reading emails posted for public use. Why is it that a growing number of people find it acceptable to send messages to a group of people that are so poorly written, it appears that they were possessed by the spirit of their long dead goldfish when they were writing them. By this I mean posts with no punctuation or any capitalization... "i am Timy i have some stuff to say so here this... blah, blah, blah". Don't they realize how difficult this is to read? If you (them) are not willing to take the time to use proper punctuation and capitalization, then why should I spend my time reading your (their) drivel?

Spelling and correct grammar are also things that seem to be a *lost art* nowadays. I am not implying that we all should write using the Queens English... but come on, making sure that you spell everyday, single syllable words correctly cannot be that hard.

I also hate seeing messages WRITTEN IN ALL UPPER CASE LETTERS. These are from the idiots who are related to Mr./Ms. i-only-write-in-lower-case-letters-because-i-am-too-lazy-to-use-my-shift-key ... the only difference being is that these people are arrogant and feel like their *message* is so important that it needs to have attention drawn to it.

Another writing *style* that I abhor is people who use cutesy shortcut words like "c" for see and "u" for you. Let me respond in kind...G, can u c that u r not being clever, b more courteous, k?

I know the current mindset is that emails should have a "personal" and "casual" feel to them. But, let's get real... there is no reason to be *that* "casual" or "personal" in your writing, especially for writing that is intended to be read by many people. Use your shift key! If it wasn't important, there wouldn't be two of these keys on your keyboard. Use your spelling and grammar checker! Just about every word processor and email composer has these two tools available for your use.

My message here is that everyone should be courteous and mindful that if you want your thoughts to be read, you should take time to compose your message with correct spelling, punctuation, grammar, and proper use of capital letters. I will only invest as much time reading your thoughts as what you spent in writing them.

T~

Subsidized
Daycare
5/22/01

Misty

You know, subsidized daycares is a concept that really gets to me. The Government gives these in-home daycares a monthly stipend for them to use in their business. My understanding is that the stipend includes money and vouchers for daycare-related items like formula, diapers, and animal crackers.

The purpose is that the Government funding allows them to charge lower prices for the care they provide. Granted, I'm not complaining about the quality of the care they're providing. I've heard nothing but great things about Subsidized daycares. My problem lies in this detail: I'm paying for some one else's kids to be in cheaper daycare. How about this? Stop charging every taxpayer for social programs such as these, give them a tax rate that's not suffocating, say 15% flat for all tax-brackets, then as a parent (assuming you actually collect a paycheck), you have more money in your pocket at the paycheck level to pick any daycare of your choosing. They'll all be charging roughly the same rates since none will be government subsidized..... and you can pick among the best based on quality not cost. And the no-longer subsidized daycares can go about their lives without the beaurecratic bean counters scrutinizing their every dollar spent.

M~

PEZ Dealer Influences
5/25/01

Todd

Am I the only one who has noticed lately that a lot of the higher end PEZ dispensers are being bid on by well-established dealers... but, only to the point of driving up the price and not enough to actually *win* the auction?

I'm wondering out loud why this may be. There have been many auctions that I have watched... hoping to get good deal.. but then end up seeing a dealer bid up to 80% to 90% of the *book* price. I know that these particular people do not *need* these items, for neither their own personal collection or for resale. By this I mean, why would they pay 80% to 90% of the listed *book* price for... let's say a Knight PEZpal or a Psychedelic Eye... because if they do *win*, they can't possibly make enough money off of a resale to make it worth their while? And these aren't for gaps in their collection because I have seen several of these items in their sales cases and lists. In my humble opinion, I think they do this to help keep prices on these high end PEZ inflated, and higher than what the market is driving.

What would happen if collectors would stop buying Psychedelic Eyes that are priced over $250.00? Common sense would dictate that the market has placed a lower *value* to these items. But, what if you were a dealer with a dozen of these for sale? If the market did *crash* on these items, it would be very likely that they would have to drop their prices as well... if they truly wanted to move these items. And, if this happens.. it is also very possible that they would take a *paper* loss on these dispensers. I suspect that some of these dealers are bidding up auctions to help protect the market value of their stock. Really, this is a win-win scenario for them. If they bid up the price on a dispenser, and someone outbids them... then the market value is preserved. If they win the auction, then this item is taken out of circulation, and they price it at the higher amount. Because there is only a *fixed* quantity of this particular dispenser available, then the price will hold or possibly go higher due to its *scarcity*.

Another case in point where a dealer has *influenced* the price of a dispenser is on the Fat Eared Bunnies. Prices were steady at around a $20 to $30 price for these dispensers. Then a dealer *suggested* that these dispensers were undervalued, and hinted to a few people that a smart collector would buy as many of these as they can. This ended up creating a buying frenzy on FEB's, and their price doubled and tripled.

I also find it curious that most of the *official* price guides are published by dealers who have a vested interest in keeping the value of their *stock* high. Are these prices inflated? Maybe. For me, the only *price guide* I follow is eBay.

I would like to end with this thought... as with everything in life, buy only what you want and at a price you feel is fair... and let the chips settle where they may.

T~

All of the recent hoopla over the $295 MILLION Dollar Powerball lottery has me damn well pissed. No, I'm not mad because I didn't win (the Powerball Lottery isn't even available in Texas...). I'm looking at this lottery through a completely different set of glasses.

Let me ask you a few of questions... and let's see who is sharp enough and can pick up on the source of my anger first. Who was the REAL winner in this Lottery? For that matter, who is the only *real* winner in every lottery? Who is the *luckiest* "individual" in the history of gambling? Who ALWAYS wins the lottery? This last question should give it away... Who won 35% of this particular lottery?

Who else... but the U.S. GOVERNMENT! Yep, the US Government was the *BIG* winner in this lottery. And this makes me see red. In fact, the Government is ALWAYS a winner in lotteries. I say this makes them the luckiest "individual" in the history of gambling. Face it... who else do you know that NEVER has to spend even a single buck, but yet *wins* in EVERY lottery that is played?

In the last Powerball lottery, there were four winners who opted for the one-lump sum payout... with each winner getting $41.4 Million dollars before taxes. After taxes, their net win each is only $27 Million dollars. I may not be a rocket scientist, but my abacus tells me that the US Government will collect $57.6 Million total dollars in taxes... double the amount of *winnings* that each person will get.

Look at the numbers this way... 57.6 Million people all donated $1 to the US Government last week. That equals to 21% of the US population all donating $1 to the *cause* (based on an estimated 2001 population projection of 275 million people in the US). Or in another way... to get almost the same amount of cash, the Government would have go to every city, town, farm, outhouse, etc. and demand $1 from every fourth person. That is a lot of *jack*, Jack.

We will never see this... but wouldn't it be great if every newspaper and news anchor would develop enough testicular fortitude that they would accurately report... "And the BIG Winner last night in the $295 Million Powerball Lottery was the US Government...". This won't happen. The liberal biased press would never report the real truth behind lotteries (or anything else for that matter) because it would undermine the last 50 years of socialized liberalism in the US. Thank you, FDR for the "New Deal" (insert extreme sarcasm)... but, this is a subject for another day.

Where does this money go? Is this money that is calculated into the annual budget. Or is this a *silent* windfall that quietly gets tucked into a *second* set of books.

We as Americans have gotten soooo "trained", mindless, and stupid that we don't even question who wins the bulk of the payout in every lottery. It has been so ingrained into our psyche that 30% to 35% of everything we get automatically goes to the Government to pay our *share* of keeping everything running around us. This is WRONG. I wonder what our Founding Fathers would say if they could see where we are now. Remember, these TRUE Patriots gave up everything... property and their lives... to make sure that a tyrannical government (in their case, Great Britain) got its hands out of their pocketbooks and lives. I'm pretty sure that they would be shocked and dismayed that for all that they did and sacrificed, that 200 years later their vision of a Great Republic (and yes, I said REPUBLIC... if you feel that our country is a Democracy then you should consider yourself a part of the problem...) would instead be filled with a population of mindless cattle waiting to be turned into the next Big Mac.

Okay.. I'm drifting off topic here a bit...

The $57.6 Million dollars that the US Government just collected last week is from JUST one lottery. It would be a real eye-opener if someone would add up how much money the Government collects annually from all of the lotteries combined. I still want to know where this money goes. This is what I would like to see. The US Government come out and *officially* declare that they were indeed the Big Lottery Winner. Then I would like to see the Government publicly announce how they will be spending their share of the winnings... say, apply this money to something like bailing out the Social Security fund... but that won't happen because it will take away from the Democrats being able to use this as a *talking* issue against the Republicans. In my opinion, the Government should use their winnings to supplement our National Defense budget to help ensure that we remain a free, strong, and Great country. Now this is something that our Founding Fathers would most surely agree with.

T~

Okay... this bugged me... and I just have to call your attention to this...

While I was getting the correct figures for my Lottery Ramble... I ran across this little *gem* in an *article* on MSNBC...

http://www.msnbc.com/news/617664.asp

And I quote... "Aug. 27 - A laid-off ex-convict from Kentucky who was on the verge of running out of unemployment when he struck it rich". WTF! I read another article in the Dallas paper that described this winner as being newly divorced and homeless.

What is this crap? Why in the world did these news *authorities* feel the need to describe this individual in this manner? Don't get me wrong... I do not know this person, nor do I condone any activities from his past. I'm just questioning why he needed to be described as an "ex-convict", "unemployed", "newly divorced", or "homeless".

Just imagine this possible description for a future Lottery winner... "Ted Lucky, a one-legged, homeless drug addict who masturbated too frequently when he was young just won the Bizzilion Dollar PowerCube Lottery..." The point that I am trying to make here is why. In my opinion none of these *details* really added anything to the *meat* of this story. Why all of the negative comments?

Oh Crap! I know! I should have guessed this before... Obviously this man is a registered Republican. If this person had been a Democrat, the story would have started off with... "Aug 27 - A job and marital challenged man from Kentucky, who has been an undeserved victim of poor upbringing and schooling due to the oppressive Republican policies of the past, just struck it rich..."

Boy, that was simple to see...

T~

 

The Government Surplus
8/28/01

Misty