The best $35 I've ever spent!

Due to my recent surgery, I have been unable to mow my lawn. As a result of my laziness of not mowing before the surgery, my backyard resembled a jungle! I had weeds over 2 feet tall. Other people I've talked to indicated they've already moved their lawns 3 times already.

Because I wanted to make things look nice, I hired a lawn mowing service and it's definitely the best money I've spent! It was well worth it to not have to mow. I'll probably continue using the service until after I've recovered which could be another month to 6 weeks.

My shoulder

I had surgery on my shoulder two weeks ago and had my stitches removed today. Everything is good except that I've lost all my range of motion on my arm. For example, I can't lift my arm high enough to reach the turn signal while driving. Doctor says it'll take about 6 weeks of physical therapy before I regain most of my range of motion.

The doctor did say that he made my shoulder extra tight (due to the type of damage that was present) so it shouldn't dislocate anymore. I'll be glad once everything is healed up and I'm back to normal!

In 1999:The most significant achievements this year by the White House and the Republicans leading the 106th Congress

Please Read: http://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/05/business/congress-passes-wide-ranging-bill-easing-bank-laws.html

Choice quotes from the article:
Today Congress voted to update the rules that have governed financial services since the Great Depression and replace them with a system for the 21st century

The decision to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 provoked dire warnings from a handful of dissenters that the deregulation of Wall Street would someday wreak havoc on the nation's financial system. The original idea behind Glass-Steagall was that separation between bankers and brokers would reduce the potential conflicts of interest that were thought to have contributed to the speculative stock frenzy before the Depression.

This is a historic day.

the new law could lead to an economic crisis down the road

"I think we will look back in 10 years' time and say we should not have done this but we did because we forgot the lessons of the past, and that that which is true in the 1930's is true in 2010," said Senator Byron L. Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota. "I wasn't around during the 1930's or the debate over Glass-Steagall. But I was here in the early 1980's when it was decided to allow the expansion of savings and loans. We have now decided in the name of modernization to forget the lessons of the past, of safety and of soundness."

Senator Paul Wellstone, Democrat of Minnesota, said that Congress had "seemed determined to unlearn the lessons from our past mistakes."

"The concerns that we will have a meltdown like 1929 are dramatically overblown," said Senator Bob Kerrey, Democrat of Nebraska.

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I'll let you draw your own conclusions from the article.

Let the banks (and AIG) fail!

I agree with everything in this article:
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200905/imf-advice

Essentially, the rich is getting the government to prop up the banks cuz they have the most to lose if it fails. I think we need to bite the bullet and take drastic measures to remedy the situation. Of course, this won't happen because Henry Paulson is a Wall Street Insider...

6172

That's the number of photo's that I have on my computer. In the past few weeks, I've been organizing and editing my photos with Google's Picasa software. I've decided to switch to Google's web album (instead of using my own server) to host my photos. This is mainly due to the ease with which I can synchronize my local content with my online content.

Currently, I've posted only a few albums online. Instead of just blindly posting all my pics, I'm actually going through them and filtering out the junk. I'm hoping to get through all my albums by the end of this year (2009).

Here's the link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ray.yeung/

Redbox DVD rentals

On my way home lastnight, I saw one of those Redbox DVD rental kiosks sitting outside a walgreens, located less than a minute from my house. For no particular reason, I figured I would check it out. To my surprise, the machine actually worked quite well and had a good selection of the latest DVDs. The cost of the rental is $1/day up to a maximum of $25 for 25 days or more. After 25 days, you can keep the DVD.
I ended up renting 1 dvd (Incredible Hulk) just to see how things worked. Based on my experience, I think I'll rent most of my DVDs from these machines. The locations are convenient and the price is unbeatable without having to get a monthly membership such as netflix.

I think innovations like these will put blockbuster out of business. Here's why
1) Low overhead for Redbox Kiosk owner
2) Low prices for consumer
3) Numerous locations

Just as I was about to post this, I saw some coupon codes where you can get a free rental from redbox's at Walmart. So go out and try this for free! Below is the info you need (from slickdeals.com):

FREE RedBox rental every Sunday from now through January 4th (at Wal-mart RedBox only)
Beginning this Sunday (12/7) and through the 4th of January, you’ll be able to get a free Redbox rental at any Walmart Redbox* using one of the exclusive Elevenmoms codes below:

Week 1 – 11moms4uS (good Sunday 12/7 only)
Week 2 – 11moms4uA (good Sunday 12/14 only)
Week 3 – 11moms4uN (good Sunday 12/21 only)
Week 4 – 11moms4uT (good Sunday 12/28 only)
Week 5 – 11moms4uA (good Sunday 1/4 only)


*Use the Redbox kiosk search to find the nearest Redbox Walmart location. The codes can be used once per debit/credit card, so you can rent more than one for free by using different cards!

INSTRUCTIONS:

Select “Rent with a Promo Code”. You’ll find this option on the opening touch screen in the lower left corner. Now enter your code, of course.

Select your movie. Redbox always has a great variety of choices. You’re sure to find something appropriate for your family, and new releases are added every Tuesday. You can check out the current releases here.

Complete your transaction. You’ll need to enter a credit card to check out, but you will not be charged unless you do not return your movie by 9:00 p.m. the following evening.

Misuse of $700 Billion

I'm predicting that in less than a year we will start hearing about the fraudulent activity surrounding the (mis)appropriation of money from the newly passed bill.
Of course, the rebuttal will be that action had to be swift in order to save our economy from dire straights.

History always repeats itself. There have always been fraud when any large amounts of money is involved. This time will be the worst due to the amount involved and the nebulousness of the bill.