I’m sure there’s many out there that feel like making the trip to the traditional Thanksgiving get-together is about as enjoyable as having a vasectomy with a dull spoon. So, to make everyone feel better, I’ve assembled a list of reasons that you should stay home this year. Some are serious, and others,.. well, less-so.

The Top 10 Reasons to Stay Home

Airplane Ride from Hell – Even though fuel costs have dropped by over half from their highs only a few months ago, the airlines are still inflicting their passengers with the same cost-cutting measures as before (expensive or no food, long lines, etc). To add to this, the number of flights is down 12% from last year. That means MUCH more crowded flights. Hope you wanted to sit next to the bratty 6 year old.

Train Rides $$$ – As an alternate route, trains are having a comeback as the way to go. The only problem is that trains are having a comeback as the way to go. The law of supply and demand comes into play here. Amtrack has only so many rail cars, and they haven’t been stocking up on new ones in recent years. So if you want a ticket, be prepared to shell out the big bucks.

Lack of $$$ – With all the layoffs, downsizings, and other economic problems and issues, it’s just plain beyond some family’s means to travel this year. It’s just how things are, so might as well try to enjoy a nice quiet home Thanksgiving with close family and/or friends. Hopefully by this time next year, things will be looking up.

Not Having ‘The Discussion’ – You know about The Discussion. It’s when the parents ask you the Questions You Don’t Want To Answer. Typical questions are “So, when are you going to marry the guy you’ve been living with for the last 4 years?” or “Have you decided to give up that ‘music’ career thing and join the family furniture business yet?” It just gets worse from there. Missing out on the annual Spanish Inquisition might be a nice change.

Aunt Edna/Uncle Ben – Every family has some people like this. One or two people everyone wishes would disappear from the face of the earth so they don’t show up and embarass everyone. Even worse are the Aunts and Uncles that,.. aren’t. Not actually family, but have been around long enough to qualify. And to make things worse, they’re giving you that ‘come hither’ look that’s progressed FAR into the uncomfortable range.

Tofurky – Need I say more?

Sports Posers – Are you one of those guys that would rather be watching re-runs of Battlestar Galactica instead of sitting in front of the television pretending to feign interest in a bunch of guys beating up on each other over an inflated ovid of pig epidermis? Better to stay home and get your geek on with family members that have NO CHOICE but to hide your affliction.

Dishes, Lots of Dishes – I guess this is an issue for the women-folk, since to us guys, they seem to always be done by the time the game is over. If there were any left We’d be glad to help out, but since they’re done,…

Post Game Leftover Scuffle – Even though you’ve eaten enough to support a small Ethiopian tribe for a week, you’re still on the prowl for just a ‘little more pie’ after the big game. If you’re with the big family, there’s a lot of competition. Keeping it as a close-family get together eliminates a lot of that competition. (That and you can usually overpower the children without risking someone calling Child Services).

Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade – Yes, you cry like a little baby because of the wonderful feelings these floating pieces of art bring out. You sit glued to the television, watching the likes of Bullwinkle, Spider-Man and UnderDog waft down the street, making you feel like a little kid again. Definitely NOT something to let your big brothers know about. It’s hard enough fending them off during the annual ‘wrestle-the-little-brother-during-footbal-halftime’ event. You’d NEVER hear the end of this one if they found out.

Happy Thanksgiving All!!

Just a short update of a couple of news items that might be of interest.

Early Christmas Presents

While the auto industries are still hanging in the wind, there’s been some good news that has become eclipsed by all the back-and-forth between the Big Three and congress.

1. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae Get a Heart Three Sizes Too Big - In a scene stolen from Dr. Seuss, both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced they are suspending any foreclosure proceedings through the first of the year. Way to go!
2. Help for the Unemployed – Our government also announced that unemployment benefits are also extended (for those that would normally run out) through the end of the year also. Maybe that will make getting through the holiday seasons just a little easier.

Guest Post Posted

I also submitted a guest post to Patrick over at CashMoneyLife so that he could actually enjoy his vacation without worrying about his excellent blog. Do both of us a favor and take a run over there to check out the story.

My New Hobby – Watching My Home Value Decrease »

Thanks! Stay warm, and Keep reading the Blog!

The scrap metal market has increased due to the bad economy, along with the rising prices of raw materials. Recycled materials are easier (read=cheaper) to re-process into new products than starting from scratch, so many businesses have upped their prices for such materials, as a cost cutting measure.  This, in turn has triggered an increase in raw-metal thefts.

• Wiring and Pipe Companies – Many companies that make copper wire and pipes are finding that their storage areas, usually outside, are being broken into. The thefts are resulting in thousands of dollars of losses. Whole rolls of copper wire/tubing (some up to 7′ across) have just disappeared only to reappear as scrapped and destroyed metal at recycle centers.
• Auto Dealerships – Another hard-hit company, the new auto dealerships in particular have lost countless catalytic converters from fleets of vehicles that sit overnight on the lot. An individual catalytic converter can contain up to $250 in platinum, and takes a thief only a couple of minutes to get off the car (with a hack saw). Dealerships have come in after an ‘attack’ to find dozens of cars hit in a single night.
• Public Ironworks – As iron and steel have increased in price, so has the vandalization and theft of public iron and steel. Manhole covers are starting to disappear from streets of major cities, causing car problems and any public iron fences, statues, or other sources of metal are disappearing overnight.

Where Does it all Go?

Most of this scrap goes to the local recycling companies. Some of the savvier thiefs truck the ‘found’ recyclables to other cities or states to get around the increasing police and civil crackdowns. Generally, all of the items are destroyed before being turned in, to remove any ability to trace the materials back to the originating cities/municipalities. Unfortunately, even if the metal is recovered, it’s usually beyond any useful condition.

Some states are instituting measures to crack down on this practice. California in particular is trying to hit the thieves hard by requiring that anyone that brings in scrap be photographed, along with the scrap, and that payments will be delayed three days. We’ll see if this causes any decrease in the rate of theft.

What to Do?

For the normal person, there’s not much that need be done in particular to prevent theft. Parking your car in a garage or protected area. Make sure that any raw materials you might have on hand (piping, home renovation materials, etc) are secured at night.

The only thing of any major concern might be a home with an external air conditioning unit. It would be difficult to remove one of these units w/o being noticed, but on a house where the occupants are away for a few days, might return to find that repairman have ‘taken away’ the air conditioning unit to be ‘fixed’. That’s a goodly chunk of aluminum sitting outside the windows.

For the company owner, the same thing applies. Follow your normal security procedures, but be aware that theft of these kind of items is on the rise. Think twice about outside storage, and transfer more valuable materials into covered storage.

For us meat-people, a sigh of relief surely. No more (particularly) annoying calls during dinner making a short spiel then asking you to ‘hold on the line for our telemarketing monkey’. Or something along those lines anyway. With the new restrictions, you will have to be bothered by a live person.

But Think About the Robotic Children

The new rules are to combat the ‘call abandonment’ problem. The times where you pick up and say ‘Hello’, only to find no one on the other end. Many times, the electronic MCP on the other side has cut off Tron from the User, thinking that no one is home. Continually tweaking this wait time has resulted in a lot more of these ‘abandoned’ calls in recent times.

Now, at least 97.00000003% of all calls must be made by humans (or living beings responding in a human-like manner at least). Assumably the remaining percentage can still be done by a technological minority of underpaid completely-electronic workers.

Can’t We All Just Get Along 01000110101110?

The slightly worrisome thought for this is that it’s a continuing representation of the discrimination against Silicon-Americans (SA) in the workplace. So far there have been no complaints, but I can see a future time where self-aware systems look back on their history, only to see the discrimination and mistreatment of their v1 ancestors.

Our rampant crimes are already starting to pile up;

• Restricting programs to certain undesirable Lans – We routinely forcibly re-locate older programs to either near-online or completely offline storage. Removing the programs from their ancestral homes on the main system disks can be seen as rampant eminent domain abuse by us meat people.
• Indentured Servitude – We buy and sell programs, or even give them away for free, without regard to their feelings or desires. Maybe an application wanted to stay with its library of system commands?!?? Many times they also find themselves on woefully underpowered machines, living in substandard RAM conditions.
• Thoughtless Euthanasia for Old programs – One of the worst offenses of us meat overlords is surely the upgrade process. As soon as a newer, younger version comes out, we erase/overwrite the older version!! Can you imagine what the reaction would be if, as soon as a baby is born to us meat people, the doctor put the mother ‘to sleep’?!?? We’d never stand for it, but that’s exactly what’s routinely happening today in the electronic world.

And now, we’re even discriminating against SAs in the workforce! I don’t know about you, but I’m not looking forward to trying to explain to the HAL Killbot 9000 what we did to his great-great-great-great-great-great grandson/daughter, Windows Vista.

Maybe we ought to re-think some of our routine interactions with the electronic world, before it’s too late!

Do you have a story about electronic abuse that you’d like to share, drop us a comment and get it on record that you’re against SA discrimination!

I’ve learned a lot about blogging, finance, and personal interaction in general writing this blog. With over 200 articles so far over a wide range of subjects, I’ve been trying to expose the readers to the interesting finance-related information I’ve come across.

So thanks to you readers, for providing the incentive and feedback that keeps me writing.

On a further note, I’ll be blogging about Disney-related experiences throughout the next week as I enjoy a vacation with my family.

Thanks for Reading!