The big whigs on Wall Street must be partying their asses off this weekend. I know that the executives at AIG all went to a 5 star resort to celebrate their Government bail out gift. This whole thing makes me so disgusted I can’t even speak.

The housing market has been in trouble for almost a year now and now insurance companies and banks are in trouble.

The talking heads on the news channels have been declaring this an economic emergency and insisting that Congress needs to take taxpayer money to bail out Wall Street. Well, I don’t think that is the best solution to this situation and it is nothing more than the consequences of Bush’s faulty and failed economic policies these past 8 years. To come from an economic surplus that was left by the Clinton administration to the dire situation we are in now is more than just egg on the face of the President.

Sure enough the expected vote in Congress did not happen today. The bailout was voted down in the House of Representatives. And the Dow closed down almost 800 points today. Should not have been a surprise to these people.

The same thing goes for other public records, like marriage licenses, divorce records and other Court Records. You have to know where to look. Some sites are free and other charge a nominal fee. In my opinion, I don’t mind paying a fee if the information is fast and reliable.

Alex spent the day with his parent on Saturday and then they all went to brunch this morning before his parents had to leave for the airport. Alex is doing OK now and his parents really helped out this past week by getting him food and other things to make him more comfortable and settled in with the leg cast causing him so much inconvenience.

Of course, I worked last night and have to go in tonight. But I was outside for the better part of both days and enjoying every minute of it. I think the only thing that would have made the days any better at all is if I had a big black labrador with me.

I didn’t get to watch the movie with them since I was in class, but they invited me to watch it later tonight if I want to. But I have to run off and do a shift at the hospital tonight. By the time I get home I’m sure Alex will be sound asleep and won’t want the TV on. Maybe tomorrow.

His dad has decided that Alex needs a laptop computer since he won’t be able to sit at the rickety little student desk that has our desktop pc and printer on it. I was telling his dad that they can save some serious bucks if they order it online from the Office Deals.info website. That’s what we’ve been using for all our school supplies.

All you have to do is got to their homepage and click on the store name or the brand of what you’re looking for and you’ll get a list of discount offers, coupons and bargain prices. The discount promotions for computer supplies are all for brand names and store chains that everyone knows and likes, like Best Buy, Circuit City and Office Max. I think we’ve saved at least 20% on everything that we;ve bought online and most of the places give us free shipping, too.

His parents flew in from California yesterday and I stayed with them in the surgery waiting room till the doctor finished putting four pins into his leg and stitched him up. His parents are going to stay over the weekend and spend some time with him. He’s lucky they could drop everything and rush out here. I’m sure my folks would do the same, but they are just a 2 hour drive away - not a 7 hour flight away.

Anyway - he looks great and the worst problem he has right now is an upset stomache from the antibitoics and pain meds that he’s taking.

Of course, these crutches and the cast are going to put a big crimp in his Halloween costume plans. We’ll have to figure out something real creative to work around that cast.

Found a video on Youtube that you might like if you have an interest in the music business. I think it is always good to hear about the inside track from people who are in the middle of it. John Esposito is the CEO of WEA (Warner, Elektra, Atlantic), so here’s his opinion and advice.

It doesn’t look as bad as I was afraid it would look, but I know it hurts.

I’ll be checking on him in a few.

We play softball in a recreational league and as much as I love to lay, if they have games that conflict with my work schedule, then I can’t play that game. So I missed tonight’s game and Alex went without me. He was running to third base toward the end of a close game, and slid into the base to avoid being tagged out. Well, something went terribly wrong in that slide and he ended up breaking a his leg. So they hauled him here.

Alex is in the back getting x-rays and I’m waiting to see what’s next. I get off work in a few minutes, but I can’t leave Alex here by himself.

There were a bunch of new movies out, with a special display of horror movies because of Halloween being just a few weeks away. I have a nice collection of DVDs at home but I only brought a handful with me to the dorm because sometimes things have a way of walking themselves out the door, if you know what I mean.

I was going to rent the new but since it was on sale at Wal-Mart I decided to just go ahead and buy it. I don’t have time tonight to watch it because I have to go in for a shift at the hospital, but I might have some time tomorrow afternoon. The movie is “Leatherheads,” starring George Clooney and Rene Zellweger, about the early days of pro football. The helmets they were back then were made of leather - it’s all they had to protect their melons.

They got in touch with a real estate broker at Bardell Real Estate who helped them buy a condo near Disney World in Orlando, and every summer her dad would take the family to Orlando for a 2 week vacation. They stayed in their own condo, basically for free, and the rest of the year he rented out the condo to other people who were coming to Orlando to visit Disney World or Universal Studios. Because of Florida’s nice weather, the Orlando area has lots of tourists, pretty much year round. The Bardell Real Estate brokers specialize in helping investors buy villas and other properties in the Orlando area.

After a few years her dad decided to get something bigger and they bought a nice villa in Orlando. He decided that buying property in Florida was lucrative, so then they bought another villa. Now he owns 4 rentals in Orlando and also the condo in Chattanooga. The money he gets from renting them out more than pays for the mortgages.

I really like that idea of buying real estate as you can afford it and building a portfolio. It sounds like the perfect way to build a solid future and also have someplace to go and stay for free when you want to take the family on vacation.

Chattanooga’s garden district is much smaller than the New Orleans one, but is similar in that the homes are large Victorian style houses and other upscale buildings, with large lots and beautiful landscaping. Ours has a nice collection of bed and breakfasts, little cafes, and boutiques. But just a few. Although small in scale, it is a nice feature of our city and one of the prettiest areas along the river.

Today we went over to Kelly’s place for lunch and to work on our group presentation for Economics. Kelly and I have already done the grunt work and just need to get the presentation organized. Pretty sure we’ll be ready in plenty of time.

Kelly has a nice condo over in the Garden District that her dad bought as an investment and he lets her live there for school. After she graduates he’ll probably rent it out to more students. It’s really nice - large rooms, quiet neighborhood, plenty of parking.

She has a nice living room with a sleeper sofa and a really nice entertainment center along one wall. It’s real furniture - nice wood and lots of shelves and cabinet doors. Beats the heck out of my little TV Stand in my dorm room!

She wasn’t shy about showing me around. I even got a peek into her bedroom, which was fixed up really nice with a four poster bed and a large dresser-like piece that had a spot for a small TV in the bedroom. I don’t know much about armoires so I asked her what to call that, because it really is nice. She didn’t even make me feel stupid for asking.

There are people killed by lightning all the time. It’s a real threat that people must take seriously. Even if a storm has passed, there is a chance of lightning strikes for up to 20 minutes after it stopped raining.

My Auntie Ann lost her husband to a lighting strike about 5 years ago. He was just standing outside on the deck to have a smoke during halftime of a football game. It wasn’t even raining but a bolt came out of nowhere and struck him dead instantly and caught the deck on fire. It was a terrible thing to happen and my aunt has never totally gotten over it - she never goes out on her deck anymore, not even for a minute.

So if we have to postpone our ballgame it is OK with me. I can catch up on some homework and do a little surfing on the internet before I have to go into work.

This company is right up there in the big leagues of antivirus protection but they let you download it for free. This company has taken computer security to the next level, with real time security updates and there’s no conflict with other previously installed antivirus or security programs. If you are online a lot and get involved with a lot of high risk surfing, you should probably have more than one antivirus program anyway - just to be safe.

If you need extra features, the same company has more products available for purchase. It is worth checking out - because safe surfing is a must these days. This is true for large companies, small businesses and home computer users.

Hackers have gotten much smarter and more devious in how they design and spread the new viruses. I think most people are already aware that they shouldn’t open attachments to emails that they weren’t expecting or don’t know the sender. But now you can have a problem with just clicking on the wrong web page or link. Its scarey to think that you could lose everything on your computer to a virus, so everyone should take steps to protect themselves.

They also changed the way they handle the free themes that change the look of your blog. It used to be that people could upload anything that they designed and if you liked the looks of it you could download it for free. But there were a lot of problems with the free themes. Some of them contained malicious code that allowed hackers to back door your server. Others had a lot of links that you had to leave in but did you harm with the Google page rank bots. Others failed to load or were missing critical functions.

So WordPress revamped the whole thing and deleted all the themes. Now they have a review process and they are slowly uploading the new approved themes that are proven compatible with the latest version of WordPress. This is a great advancement and I can’t tell you how much we appreciate all the work done by the volunteers.

So he told me about a web site called “LA Police Gear” and that’s where he gets most of his gear. They have all the sizes and styles, different colors and shorts as well as long pants, with the best brands, like 5.11 Tactical. So that’s where I’m doing my shopping tonight after the softball game.

There is a new web site for people dealing with Fibromyalgia called FibroCenter.com I’m pretty sure it is sponsored or underwritten by the Pfizer company.

The site has useful facts and practical tips for managing this disease. They also have an action plan you can download. Their support group lets you read other peoples stories about how they cope and you can participate in that by writing your own story to share with others.

I’m still learning about how the pharmaceutical companies participate in the non profits and support groups for different diseases and conditions. I’m not sure it is always a good thing, but as long as they have a disclosure on their sites and their advertising or marketing efforts, I guess it is good to have some help - from whatever the source.