Where Did It All Go?

I'm with Brendan, this is a great article about the downfall of Wall Street, the financial services industry and the economy in general. It especially emphasizes how the reporters, the financial experts and the public in general were seeing all the signs for years and simply refused to believe what was happening before their very eyes. Anyway, here is the link: http://www.portfolio.com/news-markets/national-news/portfolio/2008/11/11/
The-End-of-Wall-Streets-Boom?print=true

I have to believe the economy will rebuild or I will be totally disheartened. However, I'm not going to think very hard about how long it's going to take or I still may go there. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Obama more than has his hands full and he is going to have an uphill battle, no matter what he tries to do. There are too many people in public life who make it their business to be in the public eye in whatever way they can. Dissension is a great way to get press coverage.

If nothing else, he'll make Portuguese Water Dogs gain popularity. I'll admit I didn't know what they looked like so thought I would educate myself and the rest of you with this Google image. So the black and white version is cute, probably lovable and cuddly and hopefully what they have in mind but I've also run across this poodle wannabe version that is disturbing at best. We'll see what route the Obama family takes; if they choose the wrong one, this may be my first serious disagreement with their choices.

We just got back from a few days in Las Vegas yesterday. There is no place like it even for those of us who are down there technically visiting family. You can never escape the slot machines, the booze, the smoke, the glitziness, the flaunting of money, the high end cars, the seemingly endless availability of pretty much whatever you want. I have to say, it's good to have family there because it's a place where you need to keep yourself grounded. You need to stay focused on real life people and stuff, not all the shams you see. It's all about convincing everyone who flies in they will be rich when they leave then making it extremely easy for them to invest much more than they can afford to prove it...wrong.

The good news was, I found a machine with an "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" theme that was really fun where a video clip of the movie popped up whenever you were awarded a bonus spin. It took pennies so perhaps not quite so painful but an overall loser, regardless. Still, it provided an instance where you had a lot of fun losing.

We witnessed three, important birthdays while we were there, definitely a first for us so I felt it was a rewarding trip, minus any winnings of course.