Black September: The Early Autumn Economic Crisis of 2008

This content was not entirely written by me; part of it is from a newsletter entitled "Market Perspective" by Russell Investments. It's not available to the public as far as I know, but here's the most important part of the content.

• Lehman Brothers, one of Wall Street’s most
  storied investment banks, went bankrupt;
• Bank of America purchased Merrill Lynch, another long-time Wall Street
  stalwart;
•  the U.S. government acquired approximately an 80% stake in AIG, the world’s
  largest insurer
• the yield on the three-month Treasury fell to nearly zero
• money market and
  fixed income securities nearly stopped trading;
• Russian markets were closed for two full days.

To which I add:

• Hurricanes cause Fuel shortages
  
• Wachovia's Banking is bought by Citi
• Mitsubishi to Pay $9B for 21% Stake in Morgan Stanley

If you can think of any more, go ahead and add them below.

General Update

I'm:

• married
• teaching En100 at Bob Jones
• earning an MBA degree
• participating in two choirs
• marketing web services
  
• landscaping

And somehow have a meaning walk with God at the same time.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Reflecting after a Wedding

My cousin-in-law got married yesterday. It's rather interesting now to look back on that side of the fence. All the hustle and bustle that you've spent the last 6 mos planning ends in about 90 minutes. The speed of all that going by so quickly makes me reflective of my engagement period.

First, to those who are engaged right now, savor it. You'll never be engaged again, Lord willing. So make the most of it. God taught me through my engagement time to never wish away any time or season.

Second, don't just plan the ceremony, which last only a portion of the wedding day itself. Don't just plan your honeymoon either; it lasts maybe a week or two. Make a plan for what you want your marriage to be about. If you plan nothing, you'll accomplish just that.

Third, for the writers like me, write out beforehand what you expect the wedding to be like. Write out your expectations for the honeymoon. By expectations, I mean what you think it's going to be like. Then after a few months of marriage, you'll find those several lines of expectations buried in a file on the computer or, if you're like me, in a pile on your desk. After reading over a few to your spouse, you'll laugh together with your spouse. Or at least, your spouse will laugh.

Work the System

Today I took advantage of the tax-free weekend. I really took advantage. I purchased  about $550 worth of merchandise from Staples for $299.34. How did I do this? Tax free on select items (of course), large sales, four coupons (from different office supply stores, not just Staples), and price matching.

Here's the main purchases (all prices before taxes):

1. HP Laserjet 1006 $75
   
2. Quickbooks Pro $120
3. Neatgear Wireless G Router $30
   
4. Neatgear Wireless G PCI Card $27
5. Neatgear Wireless G USB $30

If you're in South Carolina, take advantage of tax free day and really work the system like me. You have until Aug 3rd to do so.

Sheet Rock Etc

Today I hung sheet rock. I feel somewhat inspired to write a poem or something about it, but I don't think I will. It would probably be weirder than my weird taste will allow.

On a different note, my first impression of the work freaked me out because when I drove past the front of the site, I saw a bunch of guys, maybe twelve, who looked like construction workers. The chain-smoking, cussing, got-a-hangover kind you don't want your kids around. Ever. So I parked, took off my glasses to make myself look a bit tougher, locked the vehicle, and got out. So I walked over to the work site, and the radio was playing WMUU, a local classical channel. I was thoroughly confused by this point. I see someone cleaning up stuff, who actually looks decent, and ask him if my work contact was there, Ben. He says no, but he should be soon.

I then asked this cleaning up guy, Jake as I found out, how many people are on this crew? He says four usually. So this wasn't adding up in my brain. A dozen construction worker-ish men are meandering outside, but four people work on this site. And one person is here, and another is coming, and a third I already know. Which one of those people outside is the fourth? Or is any of them?

So I asked who those people are. I found out that the work site is right next to a drug rehab center, and of course, those are the patients. Exciting. So if you discover that I'm attacked this week, you've got a pretty good guess as to why it happened.