Everyone seems to be going a little crazy concerning the recent collapse of stock market and the continued collapse of the housing market. In the past couple days I have read all kinds of theories:

1. The crazy 700 billion dollar bailout – I am sure glad that our nation’s government decided to wait and think it over a little more closely when spending $700 billion on a drop of a hat
2. Instead of spending the 700 billion to bail out the “fat cats”, spend it on each citizen so they will each get $200k. I heard this from multiple sources but the math doesn’t work out. Each citizen of the US would get $2000 if that was divided correctly. It would be more like $3100 if you only counted tax paying citizens. I would personally leave the country if our government gave out any more money. Nothing like poor people still not able to afford housing but at least they have a shiny new car with big rims.
3. Reduce the interest rate to 0%. This would definitely help the people in the housing crunch but it would hurt everyone that was close to retirement, retired, or doesn’t have any debt since they would not earn any interest on their savings. Supposedly Japan tried this after the tech collapse a while back and it failed miserably.

Personally, I do not think we should do anything except maybe go after the idiots (who are government is bailing out) that lent the money to people who could not afford it in the first place. I witnessed this first hand when my sibling kept getting approved for housing loans that I knew he couldn’t afford but the banks convinced him he could.

I also think it is a great time to invest for a person my age; for both my 401k and personal stocks. Yeah it really sucks that I lost a boat load the past couple weeks on the stock market but it should go back. I am not even going to start worrying about my 401k since I have another 35+ years before I retire.

Another weekend has passed so its off to the daily grind, but this past weekend was definitely not the ordinary weekend. I had a great time this weekend; one of the best weekends so far this year.

The weekend started as planned with a little Rock Band 2 action. I got the new wireless Rock Band 2 guitar. It is nice not having wires. The main event of the night was the last Friday night Cards game. We had B of A tickets plus we “snuck” about everyone else we knew into the section to enjoy our amenities. Smith made his famous nachos and he even added some Mac-n-Cheese to spruce it up a little. The Cards won plus we got a bobble head doll.

After the game, we went to the free Everclear show at Soldier’s Memorial. It was nice seeing a band back from my days in high school. Everclear played all their classics plus they played the cover song 8-6-7-5-3-0-9 which was predicted by Chris since he saw them play in New York a couple weeks earlier.  We ended the night with the never disappointing Rue 13 for 80′s night. 80′s night was pretty awesome. I also enjoyed Dave getting slapped in the face by a random drunk guy while we were standing in front of Lucas Park Grille. He handled it quite well. I am not sure if I would of been so cool.

Saturday involved a lot of college football. It was sure a crazy week with 3 out of top 5 teams losing. MU had a week off before they played Nebraska. Virgina Tech easily beat Nebraska this week which eased my tension of playing Nebraska since we have not beat them in Nebraska in like 3000 years. The Big 12 is really looking strong with 3 teams in the top 5 plus another team ranked at 7. And who says the Big 12 isn’t a powerhouse? Saturday night was a lot of fun too. I had some of the boys over for more Rock Band 2. It got a little crazy at times … my neighbors probably were not too happy with the loud music but sometime you have to crank it up. We concluded the night at Al’s. I had to get my fix of my so called “man crush” since there won’t be baseball in town for a while. It was awesome like normal but there wasn’t very many people there like normal.

I also went to the baseball game on Sunday to round out my 3 games of the week. We put up a lot of runs early to cruise to an easy win. We were in the sun for the majority of the game so it felt like we were at a game in August. I really enjoyed it. For a minute, it looked like the Rams had a chance to win but of course they fell apart. At least they were winning at one point; that had to be the first time this season.

To conclude the weekend, I watched the season premiers of all my favorite shows. My new hard drive for my DVR was in overdrive. I ended up watching the new Simpson, Family Guy, Dexter, Entourage, and Californication. I also recorded American Dad, True Blood, and HBO’s two new shows (Little Britain USA and the Life and Times of Tim). All the shows were good but Family Guy raised the bar. I think I laughed the entire episode … it was truly hilarious.

Update #1 – I forgot to mention that Saturday night ended with a crazy incident with a parking meter outside of Maurizo’s. You can asked Jim Hedges about that one.

I just recently went on a mini buying spree for some gadgets at the local Best Buy and Circuit City in Brentwood. I am really disappointed in the sad state that Circuit City is in compared to Best Buy. I guess their stock price reflects this. I am a little impartial to Circuit City since I worked there for 3 years and I couldn’t even get a seasonal job at Best Buy even though I had a college degree but that is not where my “love” for Circuit City started. It actually goes back to when I was in high school. I was like most young men and I wanted the best stereo on the block so I always went to Circuit City because they offered the Kenwood brand, my favorite head unit at the time, where Best Buy did not. Circuit City also easily allowed you to return a unit as “defective” and upgrade to the latest model when they were released if you had the extended warranty. Because of this, I had always shopped at Circuit City. Columbia, at the time I was a student, did not have a Best Buy so I continued to be a Circuit City fanboy. Once I was employed at CC, I found myself shopping more and more at Best Buy which is weird since I got an employee discount. For example, I was able to buy my first mp3 player, (a RIO Nitrus that had a 1.5GB flash drive; it was ahead of its time) at Best Buy for cheaper than CC.

It seems like CC employs a lean way of helping customers since you see about 3 times more employees at a Best Buy. This does help because I think the majority of the people who are going to stores like these instead of online retailers are the inexperienced customers who do need help. Just on my recent visit I noticed several problems at CC. For one, two of the three products I was looking at did not have a price tag on them. This is inexcusable since there are no people to help you there and tags are normal put out on Saturday since prices change every Sunday based on ads. Secondly, CC did not have the Rock Band 2 new guitar where Best Buy did. CC’s website still has the option to preorder it where BB had it since Monday. Did BB get an exclusive on this? I did not read this on any gadget sites.

Last but not least, Best Buy has a rewards program. It is always good to get money back plus random coupons. The only thing CC has going for them is that their website has been pretty good for several years. I always like the review option (they have been doing this forever) which is now standard on all sites, even Best Buy.

In the end, I do most of my shopping online but I am starting to sway more and more since I don’t have a secure way to get a package delivered. We will have to wait and see who wins when I buy a larger TV in the upcoming months.

I am so glad that it is almost the weekend. I am really looking forward to hanging out with my friends, enjoying the last couple Cardinals games of the year, the free music downtown for Taste of St Louis, and of course 80′s night.

I am currently watching one of the craziest videos in my Business Law class. It is suposed to be a spoof but it is pushing the point way to much. The Wash U campus is really crazy today and is only going to get worst. The campus is on total lockdown next weekend with major roads like Forsyth, Big Bend, and Skinker closed. My Thursday class was canceled but no luck for my Wednesday class. I think all the parking lots are closed so I am not sure where we are supposed to park.

I just read a post on Mayor Slay’s blog about a proposal for a large ferris wheel on the Landing.This would be quite interesting to see if this goes through since a majority of the big projects downtown have all gone under. I know the Navy Pier in Chicago also recently got a proposal to add a larger ferris wheel. The new ferris wheel in the STL could also be linked to the Worlds Fair in 1904.

On a side note, this would be the 2nd largest ferris wheel in North America. It would take over the 2nd spot from the Collusus at Six Flags.

The Fall TV shows are upon us. There are a ton of new shows out there this year due to the lull of shows during the writers strike.

I caught up on my DVR watching last night since I finished my business law final early. I watched the season premiere of How I Met Your Mother, Big Bang Theory, and Two and a Half Men. I didn’t have my DVR set to record Worst Week so I will need to check that online. I am still disappointed that I have to watch these shows in standard definition since Charter won’t buck up and pay for HD service with CBS. You would think Charter would do something to win back customers. But back to the tv shows, all 3 shows were pretty good. How I Met Your Mother is one of my favorites. I just started watching it last year and I can not get enough of Neil Patrick Harris.

I also watched Fringe last night. I really wish I could find a good blog about Fringe but I have not found one yet. The couple Lost blogs that I read indicated they might blog about Fringe but they have not yet. So leave a comment with a good blog if you know of one. Overall, the episode was pretty good. This is the only one so far in where I sorta new what was going to happen in parts. The main character had to be the only person that didn’t realize that the FBI agent was cutting something out of her hand. I am confused with the last scene. Does Phillip Broyles (Abaddon from Lost) still work for Massive Dynamics?  Why did he give that item to the lady at the end? Or even more, does the whole agency work for Massive Dynamics? You would think people would wonder where that item went … unless they new where it went. Also, why are they so interested in Olivia. She really hasn’t done anything too exciting. The two Bishops seems to be doing all the work and then she takes the credit so you would think Massive Dynamics would be interested in them.

My DVR is going to be working in overdrive this Sunday and the following week. I am going to pick up a new 500 gig harddrive to add some extra room for my old Moxi box since it doesn’t hold very much HD content. This Sunday, there will be new episodes of the Simpsons, Family Guy, Dexter, Californication, Entourage, and True Blood. Dirty Sexy Money also makes it season premiere next Wednesday.

This weekend has all kinds of events going on downtown. It is the last weekend of baseball in St Louis so it should be a fun time watching the Cincy game and maybe going down to Paddyo’s for one last time. This weekend also has the Taste of St. Louis going on. Hoff and I discussed the possible plan of attack for Friday. It goes like this: Rock Band 2 -> Cards Game -> Everclear free show -> 80′s night at Rue 13. I don’t know if you could top that night. Then on Saturday, Soul Asylum is playing downtown for free then probably going down to the ballpark bars.

On one other note, Rue 13 has a 1985 to 1995 night on Wednesday. It is advertised “retro rock and hip hop tunes.” They also have $1 PBR, $1 sake shots, and $3 wells. Hoff and I are thinking about checking it out.

Let me know if anyone is interested.

I just read a post on STLtoday about Movin 101.1 going from a music program to a sports talk program. I am utterly disgusted with this announcement for a couple reasons. (1) I hate sports talk radio (2) we have enough sports talk radio (3) I really enjoyed their music offerings and I feel like no one really competed with them. This station is definitely rated in my top 5 … probably number 2 or 3.

What does everyone else think?

And BTW, they have the worst web site ever. Can they not even get their own URL?

Another weekend has passed. This weekend went by way too fast. I had class all day Friday and Saturday so it sorta sucked but I did fit in some good times.

I went to the Balloon Glow in Forest Park on Friday night. It was the first time I was ever there. It was packed. I had a lot of fun.

I met up with Jenny Moffat for her birthday at Bar Louie on Saturday night. There was a ton of amazing girls in attendance, like always. Mike Hoff and I wanted to mix it up a little so we decided to go to our old hangout, Cusumanos. I was maybe hoping that it would have improved since Maplewood seems to be a growing hot spot. I was wrong. They were not playing the normal Cusumano’s music, instead they were playing a lot of rap. Needless to say, it was a different crowd. The one good point of the night was that we went to Tiffany’s Diner is Maplewood. The B&G was great.

In sporting news, the Cards at least won a game against the Cubs so we didn’t look like total losers. Mizzou won again, but not in very good fashion. They had several turnovers and the first team offense actually had to make a punt. Chase was better than ever throwing for a career high and having 20 consecutive passed. But of course, since MU is not getting any respect, they fell one spot in the AP poll. And to round it out, the Rams lost badly again. Bulger has protection at time this game and still couldn’t hit open guys so it is time to stop blaming the o-line. The US won the Ryder Cup this weekend too. It was close match. A lot of the “no name” US players really stepped up. On a HD note, why was the Colts game on CBS not in HD, are we going backwards?

I am not looking forward to this upcoming week since I have to write two papers, complete my Business Law final, plus do all my regular homework for my two weekly classes. I am at least going to 3 Cardinals game this week although I guess that is not that good since they suck and I do have a ton of work to do.

I also played a ton of Rock Band 2. It is really easy to play with a friend so I like the improvements. I wasn’t a big fan that they always used the video shoot theme when you were playing online. It is too distracting.

• Mizzou still doesn’t seem to be getting any respect. They have beat two bowl teams from last year … one being in a BSC bowl game that we should have been in.
• I saw the craziest thing yesterday at one of the houses along Lindell at Forest Park. They were laying sod down but were using rolls that had to at least be 10ft wide. I have never seen anything like that so I was little amazed. I am not sure what kind of machine is used to cut it and also lay it down so I find it pretty interesting.
• I witnessed my first experience of seeing a couple giving a homeless person multiple bags of food to distribute to other homeless people. This was at about 10PM on the corner of 16th and Olive. I thought it was a little crazy. I actually stopped and listened to them for a while. They kept preaching to the guy and telling him that how much God loved him. The 3 things going through my head were (1) he is probably not going to share that (2) its illegal what they were doing (3) he was probably wanting them to shut up and leave so he could eat the food. I could be totally off base but that is what I thought.
• I can’t believe the Apple fanboys are talking so much trash about the Seinfeld and Gates commercial. It was to the point this morning where there was a rumor that the commercials were canceled. I have indicated before, love these commercials. Everyone knows Microsoft so its not like they need to show their users how cool their product is or what product they have. All they need to do is grab peoples attention and show off their brand. In fact, I despise the Apple commercials. I think they are doing a dirty advertising campaign to smear their competitor … so not classy. I can’t wait to see the rumored Microsoft commercials with the PC guy look alike from the Mac commericals.