NorthTX

Golf can best be defined as an endless series of tragedies obscured by the occasional miracle, followed by a good bottle of beer.

Golfers who try to make everything perfect before taking the shot rarely make a perfect shot.

The term 'mulligan' is really a contraction of the phrase 'maul it again.'

A 'gimme' can best be defined as an agreement between two golfers ..neither of whom can putt very well.

An interesting thing about golf is that no matter how badly you play; it is always possible to get worse.

Golf's a hard game to figure. One day you'll go out and slice it and shank it, hit into all the traps and miss every green. The next day you go out and for no reason at all you really stink.

If your best shots are the practice swing and the 'gimme putt', you might wish to reconsider this game.

Golf is the only sport where the most feared opponent is you.

Golf is like marriage: If you take yourself too seriously it won't work, and both are expensive.

Per an email from a friend. She plays tennis.

In the past and as in this election, I have seen many celebrities sing the praises of a candidate. I read an article (I didn't check to see if was true, but People.com wouldn't print a fib, would they?) where Carrie Underwood stated she didn't think celebs should be telling the common man how to vote. She also stated it reduced her opinion of the celebs who do this.

Now, I am asking the common man/woman if you think different about a celeb once you see them endorse a candidate. I have found myself muting the TV or changing the channel even Access or Extra has a commerical about who will be on regarding the election.

I don't watch football (unless my nephew is playing and that is jr high). But, I will switch the channel to see the score from time to time when the Cowboys are playing.

I have tuned in to a game long enough to notice when Troy Aiken is commentating he is almost screaming when he is just offering an opinion. Yesterday, Moose Johnson was commentating and he was speaking at a normal tone.

Why is Troy so much louder? Is he sitting in an open booth and trying to talk over the noise? I found I watched a little longer yesterday because I wasn't being yelled at.

From a weekly commentery from my financial advisor, Burk Rosenthal

The Markets

While the politicians fiddled, Wall Street and Main Street burned.

The financial markets eagerly awaited confirmation of a government bailout last week, but all they got by last Friday was partisan bickering and finger pointing. With no deal, traders pulled in their horns and the markets fell for the week.

It also didn’t help that last week’s economic news was mostly bleak. Here are a few of the highlights:

• The four-week average of first-time claims for unemployment insurance rose to 462,500 last week. That’s the highest since November 2001, according to MarketWatch. On the positive side, some of the spike was caused by Hurricanes Gustav and Ike as opposed to economic weakness.

• Second quarter GDP was revised down to 2.8% growth from a preliminary 3.3% rate, according to the Commerce Department. Over the past 12 months, GDP grew 2.1%, which is below the 2.75% growth rate most economists say is the economy’s long-run potential, according to MarketWatch.

• New home sales fell to a 17-year low in August, according to data from the Commerce Department. The August rate was also 34.5% below the sales number a year ago. These weak numbers are not too surprising since weakness in housing is at the root of our current financial problem.

• Orders for durable goods in August dropped a larger than expected 4.5% as demand declined in most major categories, according to data from the Commerce Department.

 Now, for what we hope is some good news. Over the weekend, Washington lawmakers got serious and announced they had reached a bipartisan $700 billion agreement to bailout the financial sector. The agreement may prevent a “worst-case scenario” from unfolding in our financial markets, but it probably won’t forestall further economic weakness. As we’ve said before, it took us years to get into this mess and it could take us years to get out of it. In the meantime, we continue to work hard at preserving capital and searching for new opportunities.

THE CURRENT GLOBAL FINANCIAL MESS is a good reminder that it may pay to follow a few basic principles of good living. As a society, we’re inundated with messages that encourage us to spend, spend, spend, and buy stuff that might make us feel good in the short term, but in the long term could leave us with a migraine. For some people, the lure of easy credit and living the high life was hard to resist and they ended up getting in over their heads. By forgetting basic personal finance and life principles, some of these folks are unfortunately paying a heavy price.

As we survey the landscape, there are plenty of people and organizations who can share the blame for the situation our country finds itself in. Greedy financial institutions, hedge funds, investment banks, mortgage brokers, politicians protecting their jobs, ratings agencies, and regulators are just a few in a long list of culprits. But, at the end of the day, laying blame on other people won’t solve the problem or prevent the next one. Ultimately, we each have to be responsible for our own actions and do the best we can to make prudent decisions designed to protect our hard-earned assets. Here are a few basic principles that can help benefit all of us:

• Live below your means. Consider saving at least 10% of your annual income. Before long, you’ll have a nice cushion that will help soften the blow if the unexpected happens.

• Buy adequate insurance. There’s no need to expose yourself to a major loss if you can insure the potential loss for a relatively small amount.

• Consider your ability to invest regularly. No one can predict whether the market will go up or down tomorrow, let alone next year. By investing regularly, you establish a discipline during some of the fluctuations.

• Don’t stress out over things you can’t control. We can’t control if there will be a thunderstorm tomorrow any more than we can control whether or not the $700 billion bailout package will be successful. What we can do though, is be proactive in preparing ourselves for whatever outcome may occur.

• Focus on what’s most important in life. We’re all given a certain amount of time on this earth and it’s in our best interest to use that time wisely. Spending time with your family, your friends, and helping others may help you stay sane in a sometimes crazy world.  

There has been so much on the news lately about 'lipstick on a pig', I have decided I would like to see one with some lipstick on it. So I am looking for some volunteers to slap some lipstick on a pig.

Any takers? I can provide the pig and the lipstick.

Step and be counted.

On the news, people are going to the site where the two young men died on their motorcycles this week. They have setup a make shift memorial to the two. On one of the main city streets going to my house there is a cross with some flowers in the median where I was told another person died on a motorcycle.   

I know when M.A.D.D. was first started; they would place a cross where someone was killed by a drunk driver. From that, memorials or crosses started popping up wherever someone was killed. One memorial I have seen when I go visit my mom is a huge heart made from bouquets of fake roses, the widest part being about 8 – 10 feet across. Someone told me the basis was these memorial is where the soul left the body. 

I have often wondered though what the grave site if these people look like. Do the families and loved ones visit the gravesite and take flowers there. Has anyone else know or wonder about this? I had also heard there was a law that was going to limit the time a memorial could be left up. 

I was watching “I Love Lucy” last Saturday morning and Ricky said he was going to spank Lucy. I didn’t turn the TV off, but I did mute it. I can’t explain why but I will watch it again, but it does tick me off when he spanks her. No one ever spanks him for the mistakes he made. But that is not the point of this blog.

Later in the day, I was flipping through channels and I saw some other shows that I had watched every week when they were first aired. But now, I won’t watch them. It is not just that I have seen them before, but it is the way the world has changed or maybe even the actor or maybe me.

 An example:”Roseanne”. If her show was the only thing on TV, I would have to sell or give my TV away. Another, ‘Fresh Prince”.

 I was wondering if there are any old shows that you fellow bloggers won’t watch now that you loved when it first aired.

I have seen the story on the cows aligning themselves when eating based on the earth’s pull or something. Just heard the story again and they point north when they eat. They are also saying if you get lost you can follow the cows home because they have their own GPS.

 I lived on a ranch/farm when I was between the ages of 4 and 7. As I recall, only the cows that were feed at the barn would come to the barn. If you feed them in the pasture, they stayed in the pasture. They would all come to the spot where they were feed everyday at about the same time everyday. I remember having to honk the horn to get some those with smaller appetites (or the dumb ones) to come and eat as we put out the feed and hay.

 The one thing I do remember is the cows would walk single file forming a trail (thus the term cow trail) which we could use if needed. Now, you could follow that trail and get home if it led back to the barn but if you waited to follow the cows, you could have a long wait.

 The point to my blog, who is paying for those satellite pictures and why are they using them to study cows when they could have just asked a few ranchers and learned the same thing? Did our tax dollars put those satellites in space for this?

What am I missing in the story of the high school students kicked out of the college courses (a new program)? They were kicked out because they missed orientation. They are not saying they didn’t get the letter with the date, they are saying they got it a FEW days before. I wonder if they would have been there is they had been given months notice.

One of the mother’s interviewed wants someone to take responsibility for the (her) kid getting kicked out. What responsibility did she think she and her daughter had to get to the orientation?  The story didn't say if it was every kid or just a few.

 It is has been said over and over on these blogs that people do not want to take responsibility for anything they mess up on. Blame it on someone else seems to the mantra these days.

Shopping for school clothes is not on my calendar, but if it were, I don't think I could bring myself to buy clothes in a resale shop. I grew up wearing hand me downs and I don't want to wear clothes used by anyone but me now. Same with antiques, they are just someone else's used furniture.

As for the $150 jeans!!!! Are you freaking kidding me? No one in their right mind should be paying that for a pair of jeans for a kid who can out grow them in a few months. No wonder our nation's population is having so many financial problems. Besides, most schools now won't let kids wear jeans to school. Are these jeans for after school wear?

Also, the story about parents taking home equity loans to put their kids through college? My parents couldn't afford to send me to college so what college I do have, I got through night courses while working a full time job. I see nothing wrong with a kid putting themselves through college. If the parents default on the home equity loan, I am thinking they could still loose the home. Am I right?

There are some things on the Good Day News that are bothering me today

1) The Paris Hilton Ad(?), Isn't replaying that over and over giving free air time to the Obama campaign?

2) Too fat to die? The guy on death row who says he is too fat for them to find a vein for the lethal injection. Please!!!! Overweight people have surgery every day and the medical staff can find their veins. Another waste of tax payers money I think. Can't do the time, don't do the crime.

3) Id Theft Ring. When did all this happen? If I bought something at one of these stores yesterday, should I be worried? They used the numbers to drain bank accounts. I don't use a bank card, should I be worried? Seems there should be more content to ease the minds of the viewers.

4) Execution of Mexican National - Protesters were there against the death penalty. Why? How can someone believe that their life should be spared when they torture other people before killing them? Why should the killers life be spared when they didn't care about the life of the other person?

 5)  Wendy Williams  - When will the promos stop? Wasn't that show only supposed to be on for 12 weeks? Seems like those promos have already been on for 12 MONTHS.

6) Chip? - Why is he in the news room this week? Did someone take away the chopper to save money/fuel?

I just read two articles about what patriotism is. One by John McCain the other by Barack Obama.

McCain believes it is "Putting The Country First". Obama believes it is "Faith In One Another As Americans".

What do you as a Fox4 Blogger think it is?

$223.00 for a pair of tennis shoes should be against the law.

Those folks who are waiting in line sure could use that tax refund coming June for those shoes.

Did anyone happen to notice if that blonde chick who was wanting to buy all the iPhones was in that line?