The Honey Badger's Guide to Personal Finance

We decided to get our daughter a Puppy Bank for her birthday.

As a bank it kind of sucks; the cap on the bottom doesn't stay in place very well.  We had to resort to a strip of packing tape.  We thought it would be nice to have.  She might throw some change in it and shake it around for a little bit, maybe?  I had no idea we would create a little savings monster.

In a little over a month, our two year old has somehow managed to accrue a just over $3.00 in change from parents who almost exclusively use credit cards.  I think the only time I use cash is to by soda at work.  She pushes a chair over to the counter in order to inspect the counter tops, searching for coins.  She has even been known to rifle through the drawers in my parent's kitchen in search for a spare nickle or dime. 

When she finds some loot, we must first drop it into the puppy bank and then dump her entire hoard out onto the floor so that she can play in it. (think Ebenezer Scrooge counting his coins)

Today, while I was attempting to count her little stockpile, she verbally reprimanded me.

NO DADA! NO TOUCHY MY MONEY!
MY PUPPY BANK, MY MONEY!

Ahhh, the joy of saving.

Growing Up - The [symbolic] end of an era

After years of dedication and hard work, I am finally letting go of my beer bottle collection.  Let's face it the "era" ended in the 2006-2007 time frame.  This coincided with being solidly closer to 30 than 20, getting married twice (to the same woman), and having more responsibility in work and life in general. 

I held onto my beer bottle collection.  It was in boxes, hogging 50% of our storage space, and collecting dust.  It was time to let go.

VoteOther2012: It's not throwing away your vote if it wasn't going to count anyway.

I'll start by saying that this post is not meant to change anyone's mind.  Let's face it, most people knew how they were voting a lot time ago.  This is for people who aren't voting because it's a waste of time, it won't count, or  I don't like either candidate.  It's also for people like me who live in a state that doesn't count. 

There is the fact that every election more people don't vote than vote for any candidate

And what Romney should have said ...

Last night President Obama was auditioning for his own late night talk show on Current TV by delivering one-liners with the best of them:

When talking about who is the biggest foreign policy bad ass Obama delivered this memorable jab:

Watch More News Videos at ABC
|
2012 Presidential Election
|
Entertainment & Celebrity News

Obama: We also have fewer horses and bayonets. We have these things called aircraft carriers, where planes land on them.  We have these ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines.

Romney: Duh, err good one.

Romney (The better answer):  Make sure you thank the Daily Show writing staff for that one.  Thanks for pointing out that we no longer have steam frigates and ironclads.  Do we still use muskets or do we have something better?  I knew about the horses, but I think Marine Corpse [sic] men still use bayonets. 

Vote Other 2012

 *EDIT* 
The pie charts on the right should read VEP for Voting Eligible Population not VAP for Voting Age Population

Since 1980 (and probably before that) the percentage of eligible voters not voting has been higher than percentage of votes received by the winner in each presidential election.  This is very different than what's reported.

I got the numbers from George Mason University's United States Elections Project and Wikipedia's Presidential Election pages (which are well sourced)

It is just assumed that the No Vote people would vote exactly the same as the voting population.  If just 10% of the non-voters got off their asses and voted for any 3rd party candidate neither of the major party candidates would EVER get to claim "I have a mandate to do _______!"

VOTE OTHER 2012

Masterdebaters

I tried to keep a runny tab of the debate:  I should have caught up on my DVR shows.  I am dumber and less informed for watching this.  I tried to get people's names, most of them are probably wrong.

Romney
Obama
Questioner
My Comments

Here it is:

Jeremy:  What's going to happen when I graduate.

Romney: Free stuff for young people.   I was the shit in Massachusetts.
Obama: Go work in a factory.  Make the rich pay more.

What is you degree?  That would have been a good start to either answer.

It's Always Quarter-Slot Tuesday - Things that actual swimmers HATE to hear at the pool.

Things actual swimmers hate to hear at the pool:

1. [In response to the question “Can we share this lane?” ] "NO, but I’m almost finished."  - It  wasn’t meant to be a question.  Translation: “We can circle or split; either way get the F#ck out of the middle of the lane.
2. "The water is too cold" - This is almost never true, and even when it is chilly, a little effort goes a long way.  You want to sit in an 85 degree vat of pee?  Go in the therapy pool or hot tub.
3. “How many miles/laps did you swim?”  - Actual swimmers count in meters or yards.  The short answer is many more than you will do [EVER].
4. “You have to shower before entering the pool” – Um no.  That’s not going to happen.  
5. “How do you take so few strokes?  It doesn’t look like you are working very hard” - OK no one hates to hear that. The ego loves it, but it’s still a stupid question.

These are the things I think of during practice.  Slacker.