Sunday, February 28, 2010

Magical Thinking, Monsters and Religion

Normally I do not share my thoughts publicly on religion in any detail, however heard something today that inspired me to share some of my thoughts on this and other things.

First I will stat this is not an attempt to convert anyone rather it is meant as a point of discussion regardless of your personal faith or beliefs albeit Christian, Islam, Judaism, Buddhist, agnostic, atheist, etc.

I could go into detail regarding my beliefs on and in God, yet this singular clip


I believe religion serves many purposes none of which dilute it though some many argue.
  • To provide us hope
  • To teach us humility
  • To form a sense of community and/or extended family
  • To provide inspiration
  • To develop one’s imagination
  • To provide ethical (moral) boundaries
  • To show that there consequence for our actions (positive and negative) by teaching us accountability and responsibility

Have you ever considered how many people believe in magical thinking?


I know people will say I do not think like that and yet how man times have you seem people who want something for nothing.
  • They want a life without challenge
  • They want income without labor
  • They want to life and do as they please without accountability
  • They want a relationship without commitment or work
  • They want to be the center of attention and must always be right on everything and never apologize
  • They want to be able to tell everyone else what they want or think and yet do not want to listen to or acknowledge anyone else’s views
Do you know any people like this?
Are there some things you wish to add?

This made me think about how we as a society deal with issues often and what our monsters say about us, our thoughts on society, how we deal with others and what their evolution says about us as a society:
  • Vampires – the embodiment of creed and sexuality – beings that live at the expense of others who exist to influence, control and exploit others for their own benefit – they expend their life and derive pleasure by taking it from you (though of late because of how much green and sexuality have become a part of our society we have recast them into good and bad)
  • Werewovles – the embodiment of abuse – being who go on a rampage when an event (full moon) triggers a transformation (again similar to vampires in their evolution)
  • Aliens – the embodiment of our fear of people and things that do not look or think like we do (until late and still mostly so aliens were viewed as threats to life and livelihood, of late this is slowly changing as evident by Star Trek, Star Wars, Battle Star Galactica, Star Gate
  • Mummies – the embodiment of confinement and restriction – so enamored in and with tradition that you are not able to live, talk or move freely

Lets for the sake of argument regardless of your belief system assume there is a Creator. Now lets say this being created the universe and all things in it. Here is where ego comes in – if such a being existed then how can you tell that being what you want them to do for you and then be angered when you do not get it and then you perform elaborate mental exercises to justify your decision to reject it because to embrace it would mean growth and change so you look for any possible excuse even if you have to manufacture them.
  • When did growth become synonymous to pain?
Is it not true in nature an object (albeit a blade of grass, a tree, a bush, etc grows and reaches for the light to survive and that when it stops growing it dies?

These questions are for “Christians” only
  • How many times have you prayed for wisdom ?
  • How many times have you prayed for a life partner?
  • How many times have you prayed for peace of mind?
  • How many times have you prayer for something and then gotten upset or rejected?

Have you even stopped to consider:
  • Situations were created to give you a to learn!
  • Situations were created to give you a chance to respect, trust, to lead, to follow, to talk and to listen to someone different from but complimentary to you!
  • Situation were created to help you grow and learn what is important to what to let go!
  • Have you ever stopped to think you got what you needed and asked for and yet you were upset because it was not done your way and yet if what you wanted worked so well and if your way of doing things was so great then why did you ask for help? In each case you were given a chance to grow and change and rejected it!
Why?

Friday, February 26, 2010

Short term contract job - MS Access programming

Looking for someone who is comfortable and familiar enough with MS Access to create a database. The actual form layout will be provided to the person who has shown an interest. All candidates will be given to the client for review and they will make determination of final selection.

Input forms will include:

Enter daily:
  • Revenue
  • Cash
  • Checks
  • Misc expenses
  • Leftover baskets
  • Day
  • Date
Produce received
  • 24 items - form detail will be shared with person interested
Locally grown produce
  • form detail will be shared with person interested
Store receipts
  • form detail will be shared with person interested
Personal accounts
  • form detail will be shared with person interested
Workers:
  • Name
  • time in (am/pm)
  • time out (am/pm)
Misc notes/comments:

Final basket count:

There is more that goes behind this build that will only be shared with the people who are interested in doing the work. Contact me at lionel@seonline.biz if you are interested with your background.

Thanks


Thursday, February 25, 2010

Weekly Economic Update for the Week of February 22, 2010

C.W. Copeland & Associates presents


Weekly Economic Update for the Week of February 22, 2010

_______________________________________________________________________________



Quote of the week. “Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.”– Gen. Colin Powell


Fed bumps discount rate up to 0.75%. The exit strategy had to get rolling at some point, yet the Federal Reserve’s Thursday decision to raise the federal funds discount rate came sooner than many analysts expected. Yet the move did not prompt the big selloff some traders had predicted. Stocks posted tiny gains Friday after new CPI data was released.1


Inflation remains tame. Core CPI fell by 0.1% in January, in the first monthly decline since 1982. Overall CPI rose 0.2% for the fifth straight month. From January 2009 to January 2010, CPI rose 2.6% with core CPI up 1.6%.2


PPI soars. Producer prices, on the other hand, rose 1.4% for January, spiked by a double-digit increase in costs of gasoline and heating oil. Core PPI advanced by 0.3% last month.3


Good news on housing & factory output. The Commerce Department had housing starts up 2.8% in January. Industrial production rose by 1.0% last month, powered by a gain of almost 5% in the auto industry.4


Great days for oil, gold & copper. Oil futures jumped 7.66% last week, putting prices at $79.81 on the NYMEX at Friday’s close. Gold settled at $1,121.30 after a 2.92% weekly advance. Copper trumped that with a 9.03% weekly gain, its best week since last July; copper prices settled at $3.36 per pound Friday.5


More big gains on Wall Street. Across four market days, the S&P 500 rose 3.13% to 1,109.17, the NASDAQ gained 2.76% to 2,243.87, and the Dow rose 3.00% to close at 10,402.35 on Friday.1


% Change

Y-T-D

1-Yr Chg

5-Yr Avg

10-Yr Avg

DJIA

-0.25

+39.33

-0.71

+0.18

NASDAQ

-1.11

+55.52

+1.80

-4.91

S&P 500

-0.53

+42.39

-1.54

-1.76

Real Yield

2/19

1 Yr Ago

5 Yrs Ago

10 Yrs Ago

10YrTIPS

1.52%

1.73%

1.67%

4.34%


(Source: CNBC.com, CNNMoney.com, ustreas.gov, bls.gov, 2/19/10)1,6,7,8

Indices are unmanaged, do not incur fees or expenses, and cannot be

invested into directly. These returns do not include dividends.


Riddle of the week. In 15 minutes, a dress will dry on a clothes wire. How long would it take you to dry five dresses?

Contact my office or see next week’s Update for the answer.


Last week’s riddle: A supermarket sign says you can buy energy bars at $12 a dozen. At that price, how much would it cost you to buy 100 energy bars?


Last week’s riddle answer: $100. At $12 per dozen, the unit price comes to $1 per bar.



___________________________________________________________________

Please feel free to forward this article to family, friends or colleagues.

If you would like us to add them to our list, please reply with their address
and we will contact them and ask for their permission to be added.

___________________________________________________________________


Citations.

1 cnbc.com/id/35482890 [2/19/10]

2 marketwatch.com/story/core-inflation-drops-on-falling-housing-costs-2010-02-19 [2/19/10]

3 marketwatch.com/story/producer-prices-soar-14-on-energy-costs-2010-02-18 [2/18/10]

4 google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gNiyJ905Ho0Ur96V2TQhsBX19lGwD9DU53SG1 [2/17/10]

5 blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat/2010/02/19/data-points-energy-metals-226/ [2/19/10]

6 money.cnn.com/quote/historical/historical.html?pg=hi&close_date=2%2F19%2F09&mode=add&symb=DJIA [2/19/10]

6 money.cnn.com/quote/historical/historical.html?pg=hi&close_date=2%2F18%2F05&mode=add&symb=DJIA [2/19/10]

6 money.cnn.com/quote/historical/historical.html?pg=hi&close_date=2%2F18%2F00&mode=add&symb=DJIA [2/19/10]

6 money.cnn.com/quote/historical/historical.html?pg=hi&close_date=2%2F19%2F09&mode=add&symb=COMP [2/19/10]

6 money.cnn.com/quote/historical/historical.html?pg=hi&close_date=2%2F18%2F05&mode=add&symb=COMP [2/19/10]

6 money.cnn.com/quote/historical/historical.html?pg=hi&close_date=2%2F18%2F00&mode=add&symb=COMP [2/19/10]

6 money.cnn.com/quote/historical/historical.html?pg=hi&close_date=2%2F19%2F09&mode=add&symb=SPX [2/19/10]

6 money.cnn.com/quote/historical/historical.html?pg=hi&close_date=2%2F18%2F05&mode=add&symb=SPX [2/19/10]

6 money.cnn.com/quote/historical/historical.html?pg=hi&close_date=2%2F18%2F00&mode=add&symb=SPX [2/19/10]

7 ustreas.gov/offices/domestic-finance/debt-management/interest-rate/real_yield.shtml [2/19/10]

7 ustreas.gov/offices/domestic-finance/debt-management/interest-rate/real_yield_historical.shtml [2/19/10]

8 treasurydirect.gov/instit/annceresult/press/preanre/2000/ofm11200.pdf [1/12/00]



Regards,


C.W. Copeland
"Your Personal CFO"
C.W. Copeland & Associates
Lifestyle Management Advisors
3401 Norman Berry Drive

Suite 253
East Point, GA 30344
404.567.3275 (direct)
404.601.9534 (fax)

www.PhDinMoney.com

Securities offered through Resource Horizons Group, L.L.C.
Member FINRA, SIPC
Advisory services offered through Resource Horizons Investment Advisory
1350 Church St. Ext. Third Floor
Marietta, GA 30060
Office 770 319-1970
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