The 900 Pound Gorilla In The Room

Posted by wcrowlandksr on June 8, 2012
Posted in: Gov't, Life in the Pacific Northwest, Randomness. Leave a comment

Seems most people have one.  A situation that if left unchecked could eventually become a real problem.  Not that Gorillas are a problem, but I wouldn’t turn my back on one…in fact I don’t know what I’d do around one but that’s kind of the point isn’t it?  It’s a potential threat to the way you are acting and it could truly hurt you.  But…once you acknowledge the beast, you can at least try to plan on how you will interact with it.  At least that’s what I think about that.

So, what the 900 Pound Gorilla in my room?…Right now?….life after the desert.  How am I going to live on a lesser paycheck and will I be able to land that sweet job that might not require a significant change in my elected standard of living?  Can I plan a way to maintain what I find a comfortable living standard without sinking into debt.  Can I happily adjust to living with less?  Did I truly live with more before I realized the need to get debt free or did I just let credit get the best of me without realizing it until it was almost too late?  I’m not sure but I have some thoughts on this.

When I lived in the Pacific Northwest, I commuted…a lot…to get to my job and it sucked…a lot.  It took almost 2 hours to get to my desk from my front door.  This route was thwarted by the State Trolls under the toll bridge or it was an even bigger ticket charge to “Get to the Other Side” of the water where the jobs are nearer Seattle that enable my standard of living financially.  These costs are not carefully engineered into the routes of commuters for the purpose of easing ones commute but rather they were almost punishment by the state for not living closer to where I worked.  I did the math a few times and it would cost about $600.00 a month to get to and from work using the state Ferry system and Toll bridges and a commute that covers about 25 miles each way.  There’s something really troubling about that.  These days, people change jobs often and the idea of buying a house closer to work just isn’t feasible.  I left before that cost became a reality.

For far too long there have been too many people electing “officials” into office to do their bidding.  That bidding has been to tax and spend the public money on programs for some who need it but also to help deadbeats collect a free check when they didn’t earn it.  Once there was a backlash and enough of the voters said this sort of thing must stop, and they voted to stop paying taxes every year on cars they already owned.  Instead they decided to pay for car tabs but not to keep getting dinged for some artificial tax that was clearly not being used for the roads anyway.  It became a financial war on the middle class because the rich didn’t feel the sting of new taxes in places they had never seen before to make up for lost revenue and the poor were too poor to feel it because they had nothing to begin with.  This is a common scenario and it’s not likely to change unless the voters continue to take voting matters into their own hands when to government refuses to do so.  Most recently, the state was forced out of the liquor business and it really needed to happen a long time ago.  The people spoke and the government was forced to comply.  We can be the force that causes Government compliance.

Back to the Gorilla.  I have been looking at what I can do to come out of the desert with no debt and lowered monthly expenses but I realize that I must continue to work in some fashion.  This means a commute is probably in my future should I dare to return to the great Pacific Northwest.  Some of the monthly expenses I have eliminated by paying off bills would now be diverted to the cost of commuting and I start really thinking hard about returning to a place that is home to a government that exists to take my hard earned cash and give it away to people who don’t do anything to earn it.  After all, I didn’t come to the desert to become debt free only so I could move back home and pay a ridiculous fee to get to work only to do it all over again!

Our economic system is complex but it doesn’t have to be.  If people would wake up and realize that the government’s job isn’t to take care of us we would be in slightly better shape.  If we continue taking more initiatives as we have recently and forcibly vote the direction we really want the state government to take, we might have a fighting chance.

As for me, I’m not sure how I’m going to make things work when I return but at least I am aware that I must think about how to make it work.

 

Getting out and staying out of debt

Posted by wcrowlandksr on May 11, 2012
Posted in: Corporations, General Ramblings, Randomness. Leave a comment

Let’s face it, being debt free is awesome!  You don’t have an obligation to hand your hard earned money over to someone else every month only to be charged a fee for doing so.  You don’t have to purchase the things you really do need on additional credit because you can save enough to buy them outright.
It’s freedom from what is often called the financial hamster-wheel that you can’t just step off of.  It’s having the ability to go to sleep at night and not worry about what you will do if the furnace fails or the hot water heater dies or your car has a major repair requirement.  It’s a step closer to living with less stress in your life.
I have read many web bits of information on such things with a pitch to tell you how to get out of debt and so often I couldn’t help feeling like what I was reading was a scam….just another way to separate me from what money I had managed to save.  For me, this was because the very idea of freedom from debt sounded like a fairy tale and the persons pitching the idea just didn’t seem trustworthy for no other reason than my lifelong experience of being in debt as a way of life and feeling like it was natural.

Using credit aside from buying a house to purchase goods and services unless you pay off the purchase at the end of each month, really says, I have no means of buying said goods and services with my current savings because I really don’t have enough cash saved for the purchase.  It also says I didn’t plan to buy what I now want to purchase with credit.  It speaks volumes about a person’s focus.  It is an indicator of someone who insists on a standard of living that is more than they can afford without planning.  On a side note….Being a Gold Digger by the way, isn’t a plan and supporting one isn’t much better.

It’s easy to step onto the financial hamster-wheel of borrowing money but it’s very hard to step off and the very best advice I can give to anyone considering hopping on and going for a run better think twice before making the leap.

Some people will tell you that one way to step off the hamster-wheel is to go the bankruptcy route and if you have nothing to loose and everything to gain, I could see the logic in that choice if you never intend to buy a house or take on a job that requires good credit.  It’s fine line that one must carefully consider before crossing.  I also think that once you have crossed that line, it could become habit forming and a bad habit at that.  I don’t recommend it even if you never intend to use credit again.

To all my friends, I say this, if you aren’t on the wheel but you have been, congrats for getting off and to those considering borrowing, please think long and hard before you do and realize you can’t just “quit” when it starts sucking.  For those who are on the wheel going for a run and you want off, I am sure you know the way out.  Just stay focused, pay more than the minimums if you can and reduce your standard of living to a level that you can afford and get the bills paid.  Once you are done then you can move back up a bit.  You will be happier I can assure you.

To those who are criticized for scaling back on their expenses, know this…you have a plan and a goal that you are sticking to to become free of financial burdens.  The criticism just means you are doing something about it to a degree that even your friends will notice even if it’s not for them.

I have been criticized for saying I cannot afford something or another but had actually saved enough cash to make the purchase.  Some call this “poor mouthing”.  It’s anything but “poor mouthing”!  It’s saying I don’t see the value in spending money on the goods or services without seeing it as wasteful spending, therefore, I cannot afford to waste my money on the goods or services that I have been suggested to buy.  Or simply put, I cannot afford that item.  It’s a waste of money and I am saving what I can for a more useful purchase.

Looking forward to being able to come home, debt free and less stressed.

-CR

 

 

Pacific Northwest Rude – The Social Retard

Posted by wcrowlandksr on May 1, 2012
Posted in: Life in the Pacific Northwest. 7 Comments

Social Awkwardness (Retarded):
Many Northwesterners are socially awkward (Retarded) and don’t seem to know how to interact cordially with one another and this blog looks into some of that behavior.

I have posted a little something on this subject before and there are countless other write-ups on the subject but few come from within from people that have spent as long as I have there.  I have been in the Pacific Northwest for just over 20 years so I think I know what I am talking about and the typical excuses of why I “just haven’t been here long enough to understand how it is here kind of excuses” won’t work on me.  Sorry.

Many write-ups are from people who moved here and couldn’t wait to, as they put it, “Get the hell out of that place”.  I couldn’t quite see what the fuss was about for the longest time but I always thought it was quite strange that people from a place that prides itself on being so educated “better” has such a lowbrow way of interacting with each other and newcomers.

I expect that what I post here will not apply to all people reading it but I hope it hits a nerve or two of those living in the northwest that call themselves natives and it causes you to think about how you treat others.

First and foremost, this isn’t a post based on some personal interaction with someone(s) and it’s not a sideways approach to slamming someone indirectly as many North-westerners are known for.  If I don’t like you or what you are doing, I will tell you to your face or if I cannot do that, I will do it in an alternate yet direct and hopefully, tactful manner.  When it’s over, I will consider it resolved and hope to maintain the friendship if possible, if not, I will not keep you around so I can have someone to ridicule behind your back for my own personal satisfaction.  While some just don’t have the stomach for it, I think that the straightforward approach is best when having to deal with an issue.    It doesn’t mean that I run around spouting off to everyone that I see doing things I don’t agree with but if we are close or perceived as close friends I think would think that a little more than simply ignoring me would be appropriate.  Again, this isn’t a personal situation but hypothetical speak.

Let’s look at a few things and see if it makes sense.

TWO FACED:
If you have been friends with someone for any length of time and you no longer wish to be be friends with them that’s too bad but OK.  It’s not a crime to end a friendship by stopping communication with someone and maybe even telling them you don’t want to continue the friendship but it’s not going to be the end of world if you do.  Don’t be afraid to have the courtesy to just let them know.  If it’s too hard to do that, just cease ALL acts of friendship with them and don’t act as if nothing is wrong when you happen to be in their presence.  This is where Pacific North-westerners fail.  They decide that a friendship isn’t worth continuing for some reason but they don’t let the other party know this and they continue to act if nothing is wrong and they string the other person along and say things like “call me” or “we should get “together sometime”…but then when the other party makes an attempt to get together…the person reaching out is simply ignored.  Texts go unanswered, phone messages and emails never get returned, etc.  In the rest of the free world we  have a phrase for this…it’s called “Being Two Faced” and it’s not polite and it’s a typical Northwest Rude behavior number one.

The “Good luck with that” passive aggressive weenie:
This trait is one that comes from the smug, “I’m better than you” Northwesterner.  This kind of phrase is often uttered when a person expresses an opinion that is in direct conflict with the “Good luck with that” person and the Good luck Weenie “just doesn’t have time” to argue their point with such a dolt.  Never mind the fact that there might be something of value learned by both parties…it’s just easier to wish the other person well and say “good luck with that”.  Such a passive aggressive wuss move.  If I don’t like what you are saying I certainly won’t wish you well with your idea when I don’t agree with it.

The “Yes” man or woman that doesn’t follow through:
This is about as limp wristed and weak as you can get when it comes to being passive.  These people will tell you whatever you want to hear and say yes to most anything you ask or invite them to just so they don’t have to truly interact with you and actually make any sort of real commitment.  This is a close relative of the Two-Faced Northwesterner.  Sure, they sound sincere but when the time has come to do whatever the Yes man or woman said they would do, they always find some external excuse they can’t possibly have any control over that somehow has enough control over them or is a lame excuse they fabricate to prevent them from actually following through….and they often don’t bother to even call you to let you now they are not coming.  They just don’t show up, but when questioned, they then will give you some stupid reason for not following through.   Example, oh yes! I really wanted to play Russian Roulette with you last week and I had planned on coming over because it truly sounds fun but I heard that bullets were a little too expensive and I didn’t want to be a burden.  You might even get the cou-de-gra if they add to that statement something like the following…we went to the fair that day, you should have come…but they never invited you.  Sometimes you just find out by chance they did something else instead. Very passive aggressiveness.

I know you are thinking, if someone is doing these things could a perceptive person “get a clue” and “take a hint”…Sure, but these kinds of actions are coupled with the “Hey, we should get together sometime” speeches.
It’s like being told….’Come join us but we really don’t want you here but we are two passive and weak to tell you to your face or we know it’s not right to not want you here so we will just pretend and make you miserable until you leave”.

Again, these are some observations of the typical Pacific Northwesterner’s social skill set that could use some updating and repair.  If you really don’t want to be interacting with someone, make the cut and stop interacting with them and don’t keep asking them to interact only to shun them every chance you get. I’ve even seen this in organized social groups. …Come one come all…get involved….well, not you, you aren’t what we really want…same socially retarded behavior.

It’s a little like dating.  I once dated a girl that I haven’t spoken to since the relationship ended and she dropped me from facebook before I had taken the time to do the same.  I respected her for that.  There isn’t a moth to a flame relationship there and I know where I stand with her.  Our friendships should be the same.

Gas Prices

Posted by wcrowlandksr on April 26, 2012
Posted in: Corporations. 1 Comment

I know, you probably are thinking this is another rant but I don’t plan on it being one.  This is more of a “think about” thing.
What I am about to post here is based solely on freely available information that can be found on the web.  You must decide if it’s true or not.

The world is seeing the highest gasoline prices ever and it just doesn’t seem that there will be any relief anytime soon and what I’m finding is for you to look at in one place and consider a few things.

From a general knowledge site:
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/02/08/421061/big-oil-higher-prices-record-profits-less-oil/?mobile=nc

  the five largest oil companies—BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, and Royal Dutch Shell—yielded lower oil production than in 2010. But these five oil companies combined made a record-high $137 billion in profits in 2011—up 75 percent from 2010

BP’s own website shows that they are closely tied to the middle east:
BP has a 100 year association with the Middle East that goes back to the foundation of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company in 1909.
http://www.bp.com/sectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=9018421&contentId=7034199

ConocoPhillips website has posted:
http://www.conocophillips.com/EN/about/worldwide_ops/country/middle_east/Pages/index.aspx
ConocoPhillips has assets and operations in the following parts of the Middle East. Select the below to learn about the company’s activities.

ExxonMobile Website:
http://www.exxonmobil.com/MENA-English/PA/about_who_history.aspx
For more than 100 years, ExxonMobil has proudly worked with countries in the Middle East and North Africa to unlock new energy sources, develop new technologies, and add value along the entire energy chain.

Shell Website:
http://www.shell.com/home/content/are/aboutshell/who_we_are/history/corporate_history/
Becoming Royal Dutch Shell
Shell Transport’s activities in the East, combined with a search for new sources of oil to reduce dependence on Russia, brought it into contact with Royal Dutch Petrolem. The two companies  joined forces in 1903 to protect themselves against the dominance of Standard Oil. They fully merged into the Royal Dutch Shell Group in 1907.

Shell changed its logo to the scallop shell, or pecten, which is used today. By the end of the 1920s Shell was the world’s leading oil company, producing 11% of the world’s crude and owning 10% of its tanker tonnage. The 1930s were difficult: the group’s assets in Mexico were seized and it was forced to concede generous terms to the Venezuelan government when it nationalised its oil fields.

Thoughts on the above information:
The five big oil companies are posting record profits and in some cases have produced less oil during these high profit years.  Of the 5 companies, I didn’t see anything that showed deep ties to the Middle East with Shell.  The rest of them do show close ties with in the Oil Rich Middle East.  Curiously, the Shell company website indicates something to the effect of the Venezuelan government nationalizing it’s oil fields and causing shell to need to expand into other countries for oil.  I also have found that Venezuela has the world’s cheapest gasoline.  A Google search should give you similar results.

This simple bit of information tells me a some things.

1.  A country that has its own oil fields nationalized, can enjoy low cost gasoline.  They can also export it like any other product.

2.  We the U.S. are a food producing nation,  we can farm in high volumes for export.

3.  We have oil but I don’t know to what degree.

4.  Any business is successful at the foundational level because there is a demand for its product.

5.  We can eat our product of food but I don’t think oil producing countries can eat oil.

6.  The right to food is viewed as a human right and getting food to hungry nations is a humanitarian effort.

7.  The oil producing nations see oil as a controlling tool used to extract money from it’s customers because of our dependency on Oil.  We have created our own monster of dependency.

8.  Everyone must have food in order to survive….even the oil tycoons.

9.  Oil is a commodity, Food is not.

10.  We have the bigger stick in this fight of oil for our mechanical needs vs food to stay alive.

11.  How long until we consider starving out oil producing nations that allow oil companies to drill in their country and destroy our economy and way of life when all we have to do is shut down the food supply?

What’s that?  A cruel solution?  Is anything else working?  Is it any better that oil companies are controlling oil prices and “Starving” our way of life?

Couch Surfing in “Time Out” and the Poision Pill

Posted by wcrowlandksr on April 20, 2012
Posted in: General Ramblings, Life In The Sandbox. Leave a comment

Ok, I had a busy week.  A couple days in Dubai for some work related stuff and I am back home resting on the couch whilst surfing the net for home flavored Internet info and reminders that this is temporary and that I haven’t lost my friends but I have just taken a long term business trip away.  Been on nights and I am waaay outta whack.  Can you actually be “In Whack”?  Anyway, I was kinda feeling a bit displaced this week and it caught up with me a few days ago.  I’m good now as I have beaten the feelings of what am I doing here down with a quick look at my bottom line.  There’s more to my makeup than that but I see a goal of being able to couch surf or do cool stuff when I get free of my bills.

Today is a day in limbo.  Kind of like a time out for being “bad”.  What’s that you ask?  What did I do…well….I bought things.  Mostly things I don’t need but really wanted and some stuff I did need.  I was a victim of my own desires and the costs of living.  I watched the TV ads for the cars and other cool gadgets and thought I could use a cool car and a new fridge….actually I love cool cars and that hasn’t changed but the fridge…it was dying anyway.  So here I am paying for the cost of the purchases of those things and a few more and a chance to regain my handle on the American dream.  I know the economy is rough right now and the thought of the “American dream” sounds a bit hokey to most but I do think that while we have a lot to learn and repair in our collective thinking, I might be able to manage with no bills and a fair paying job.  I will just have to shift my house payment money to buying gasoline and compensating for the additional cost of products because the oil industry is out of control.  I mean come on, we are not stupid and when oil companies post record profits and people are out of jobs in record numbers because of the cost of commuting, it’s kinda obvious.  We are getting screwed by the free oil market and have no real choice but to drive to the fuel station and buy more of the liquid gold so we can keep working to pay for our house and other needed items like….food and heat.  Collectively as a nation we are too stupid to actually find a true common ground and unite and take a stand against much of anything because we just fight each other.  We are truly a disorganized Army that is still a cash rich resource to the oil industry and until they distill every dollar from us that they can it will not stop because to them, we are a Folgers nation…good to the last drop.  The fighting has caused the demise of so much of what we once were as a great nation.  We don’t produce much of anything of any value that doesn’t get regulated to death by our own peers.  They would rather stop successful product production. We are buying so much of what we have by countries that actually realize that you must do certain things that may not be in harmony with the green movement in order to get things done.

That being said, I have confirmed for myself in my time out on the couch (and then some) that since I cannot convince the right people to do things that would actually bring back jobs to this country and put a lid on oil costs, I must adapt.  So I am here working in a place where I can earn enough to pay my bills off and become free of the banking industry that is master to so many.  Did you ever wonder why that little plastic card is labeled “Master Card”?    Once that part of my plan is complete, I can then use the money I save to pay for the fuel related expenses that are part of the cost of living.  It’s not going to change and we can cry about it forever but it is not going to change.  There is no magic bean or oil reserve in existence that will save us all.  The Strategic Oil reserve is for the Military in time of war anyway.  It’s not to be the “Poison pill” to the oil companies.  “Poison Pill”?  We could have one but we are too earth friendly/human-unkind and the Oil nations to rich to feel the much of the effects anyway.   If we did it might not be too hard to do.  We stock up on our own oil by working against the market.  When it gets to expensive, we release our own oil into the U.S. Market ONLY.  None of this giving it to other countries crap…no!  we dug it up it’s ours.  Period.  But alas…I am but just a working class peasant, what do I know?

A simpler time

Posted by wcrowlandksr on March 30, 2012
Posted in: General Ramblings, Randomness. Leave a comment

I just watched the movie “Convoy”.  It was rather campy but it was fun.  There were the classic elements of good guy being pursued by bad cop and the audience is drawn into cheering on the good guy.  Some jokes are tossed out there that today would be taboo but they are still funny if you realize that life doesn’t always have to be politically correct.  Once such line comes to mind when “Black Widow”, a black lady trucker takes a sharp turn too fast and dumps her truck on its side.  She is helped out of the truck and she yells at the truck and says, “Stupid White Truck, I knew I shoulda bought a black truck!”.  There is trucking manufacturing company by the name of “White” and they were the makers of her truck.  Her truck was also painted white.  That was funny in the 70’s and it’s funny now.

We have become so obsessed with being careful not to offend others and we creep around on eggshells because we wouldn’t want to offend anyone and we might end up with a lawsuit slapped on us for saying or doing something offensive.  I was flipping through some pictures on the web and a coworker saw that one of the pictures had nothing on it and it was black.  He looks that and starts laughing and says “That looks like it’s a picture of a room full of black people and they have their eyes closed!”.  I started laughing…that was funny!  I know you are reading this and are probably thinking Oh no, that’s not funny, that’s offensive because what if a black person were to have heard it and it made them uncomfortable?  He went on to say that the only way you could see anybody would be if they smiled or opened their eyes.  More hilarity.  Truly funny material right there.  If I had been drinking a soda it would have come flying out of my nose.   Are you still with me?  Think I am a bad person for laughing at a joke like that?  Well he was black.  See?  Most people are conditioned to respond to certain things and many people have been conditioned to respond rather than think for themselves.  Another incident that once happened is that I bought a very nice cowhide that had been tanned and it was designated to be hung on a wall for decoration or used as a floor covering.  It is beautiful.  A young person I know saw it and said that’s a terrible thing and should not be sold as this hide had been..as decoration.  She went on to say it’s horrible to kill animals for their skins and fur…this is a programmed response from someone who had not learned to think for herself.  There are a lot of people out there who don’t believe in killing or eating animals but these same people don’t think it through when it comes to quipping off about how cruel it is to use a cow hide for decoration or how bad using a sheepskin to make a blanket.  I always ask what would you rather see when killing the animal?  Throw the pelt away or keep it and use it because the animal is going to be slaughtered either way.   That question usually is one that causes them to stop and think for a moment and they usually say “I guess if you can’t stop people from eating the animals, maybe using the pelt is a good thing”.  This is especially true when they think about the hamburger they like so much.

Our society has become programmed in a manner of speaking to the degree that we often don’t get anything done because we are afraid of making some people unhappy or we are afraid of being sued.  I once bumped my head on an equipment rack at work and I went home (Using sick leave) because I wasn’t feeling so good after that.  My employer had a fit over that after they found that I had injured myself at work.  The real issue wasn’t that they had a concern for my well-being and in fact they didn’t care about me personally but rather that if I had gone home and died they would have been sued.  I just needed to rest and I felt fine the next day.  I would have found it more obnoxious to be prodded and tested to make sure I wouldn’t have a possibility of bringing legal action.

Yesterday, I asked the caretaker of the Apartments I live in to see if he could fix my window latch.  It wasn’t staying closed and sometimes the wind blows enough to force it open.  I live 15 stories up and the only higher floor is the building owner’s flat…it’s up there.  My window has a ledge outside the window that can support a person standing on it.  This guy comes to the apartment, climbs up on the ledge and proceeds to attempt an adjustment of the window.  I am standing there ready to grab the guy if he starts to fall but there was no need.  He was just fine and it appeared that the heights didn’t bother him at all.  In the U.S. he would have probably been fired for not using safety gear.  Truthfully, I don’t think he has any and he keeps his job.

The place where I live is different but I think I have the beginnings of an idea of where they are.  They have modern technology available to them, they have money to buy it, they have a natural resource to sell to continue to bring in revenue and the cycle continues.  I think the key differences in the successes they enjoy here is that they are where the U.S. was in about the 1970’s when it comes to environmental impact and litigious behavior.  I’m not suggesting that we throw out the true progress we have made but let’s start applying some common sense to what we are doing.

A good friend of mine worked for the last lead manufacturing company in the U.S.  They were being heavily regulated over the impact they had on the environment to a degree that they had to cut back on production.  The lead they produced was some of the highest quality in the world.  From a non-thinking person’s viewpoint the immediate response might be that’s great, they were producing enough pollution to be regulated and they have been stopped from damaging the environment.  Some questions if you don’t mind.  1.  Did they stop producing lead and stop damaging the environment?  2.  Does the demand for lead get curbed along with production being curbed?  3.  Does the production simply get moved to China where the same damaging effects are still present but jut not visible to the regulators in the U.S. ?  4.  Does this regulation displace more workers?  5.  Will we now get an inferior lead product from China at an inflated rate because we don’t produce yet another product because of over regulation? The last question, How does this help our economy?  How is it OK to let someone else do what we ourselves won’t do?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Green Grass

Posted by wcrowlandksr on March 28, 2012
Posted in: General Ramblings, Life In The Sandbox. Leave a comment

In life, the saying “The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence” has just been a metaphor that we used to say, we want what we cannot have because it somehow is made better by its exclusivity.  Cuban Cigars somehow might be one of those forbidden pleasures if you care for such things.  I had not considered the Middle East as a place of greener grass and to tell the truth about the actual green grass here…..there isn’t any.  Or if there is, it dies in the very hot sun, quickly.  As for the greener grass of life, I am sad to report that when I was living in the U.S. it started out as the land of opportunity.  However, In the last 10 years I had really come to a place where I started thinking that maybe I should go to some other country where they will give me free or cheap health care and free education and allow me to become a citizen that can get preferential treatment because I am at a disadvantage because I don’t speak the language very well if at all.  Maybe i should go work for people that will pay me far better than I can earn in my homeland.  This would enable me to pay off my bills and help my family.  Maybe I would be able to build a better life where I can one day retire without dying in debt.  This would be the life of an Expat with a few differences.  Expats generally have a skill that they bring to the table and can provide services that cannot be found locally.  Being an American Expat doesn’t mean that we aren’t sympathetic to the American cause it just means we live abroad as U.S. citizens.  Expats can be from any country that they are not currently not living in but typically are American.  I think this is because we have skilled workers but there are so many of them that companies can pay less for their knowledge.

It is a shame that America is the only country that imposes a Tax on it’s citizens EVEN WHEN they DON’T LIVE in the U.S… unless you stay out of the country for all but 35 days out of the year.  If you are fortunate enough to work in a country that has no tax, and you stay out of the US for almost a full year you can reap the benefit of no federal tax.  Would you believe they still impose a Social Security Tax?  I just hope it’s there when I can draw it.

As I continue to write my blog and share my views and experiences I hope you might somehow be encouraged to see that there are excellent opportunities out there but sometimes you really have to stretch to make it happen.  In my case, I traveled literally halfway around the world and while I do miss family and friends dearly, I know that to go back too soon would be to throw away my golden ticket.

OKAY!….who turned the flying dirt switch on?..not cool!

Posted by wcrowlandksr on March 20, 2012
Posted in: Uncategorized. Leave a comment

Imagine a thick fog…but it’s dirt.  (OKAY!….who turned the flying dirt switch on?..not cool!)  It’s kinda baby powder like but not so nice and soft and it gets into everything.  I have heard stories of friends with waterproof watches that end up with the desert dust inside their waterproof watches and a trip to the jewelers is needed to clean them out.  That’s fine dust for sure.

Cars are sold with most everything wrapped in plastic.  The floor mats and floors, the headliners and even the seats can be specially wrapped in a thick clear plastic sheets. I have had my share of flying mud and dirt on the race track but it comes in obvious large muddy chunks and sticks to you.  But this?….Such a different world.
When the dirt isn’t flying the sun can be enjoyed but it does get cold here just like back home…just not freezing and wet….well it did rain one day….for a while.
More to come…..

Kraft Foods, what are you doing by not giving us more flavors of Tang?

Posted by wcrowlandksr on March 15, 2012
Posted in: Corporations, General Ramblings, Life In The Sandbox.

So im wandering around a local grocery store and exploring. Trust me, its different when you don’t speak the local language. There is something to be said for businesses that use specific colors and design. As a consumer we don’t realize just how programmed we are until the words and letters don’t have any meaning to us. I could recognize a bag of Cheeto’s because of the colors and of course “Chester the cheetah”. Chilli’s restaurant sign is written in both English and Arabic so I was sure it was a Chilli’s and let’s not forget McDonald’s…The Golden Arches…This is a common occurrence all over. This brings me to a new discovery on my grocery store adventure…Tang, yeah we’ve all seen the brightly colored orange container and are familiar with the basic design of the logoized writing. But imagine for a second…you’re walking along, you see something that looks like a Tang product but is the wrong color, yet has a bright color in the same color schema and has the right font but isn’t orange or orange flavored. I found about six different flavors of the stuff. Of course I didn’t even acknowledge the Orange as you can get it by the bucket in the states. But I found Mango, Pineapple, and Apple so I bought a couple different ones to try. This discovery led me do some digging around the net… I found we are being short changed by our very own Kraft company on flavors and while some sound nasty to me, I included a link listing more than just simple American orange.

http://tangtoday.com/list-of-tang-flavours/

A way to Fix the U.S.

Posted by wcrowlandksr on March 3, 2012
Posted in: General Ramblings. Leave a comment

How long will we tolerate giving the farm away?

I am living in a place that produces about 10 percent of the worlds oil exports and chances are, if you drive a car you have burned some of the oil from here.  This is a product that has a strong demand if only because the world is addicted to it.  At this point, it doesn’t really matter when it comes to the country’s financial well being.  What does matter is that there is a big demand for it and like it or not, that demand pays the bills, end of story.

America used to be a great nation that produced things that the world wanted.  We still could if it weren’t for the costs associated with the production.  In the place I live now, you can’t really outsource oil production so the income is almost a guarantee.  That is, unless, an alternative for oil is discovered and until then, it isn’t going to change.

In the middle east, I drive by the oil refineries every day as I go to work and the refining towers used to crack the oil generate waste vapors that are burned off and you can see the fires from the fifty or so stacks.  It’s an amazing site to see indeed.  The liberal tree huggers would have a heart attack if they saw this and sometimes I think it might not be a bad thing.  I truly believe that there are processes used to produce certain goods that are going to create a certain amount of pollution and there isn’t a way to stop it.  It’s the old saying, you gotta break a few eggs to make an omlet.  This thought brings me to my next thought.  We in America used to produce many goods that we and the rest of the world want.  But these days we are over regulated and we can’t break any eggs so to speak.  By that I mean, the ecology passionate people (Freaks) have turned the act of “saving the earth” into a religion and it makes it it near impossible to make some of the things we used to make.  Meanwhile, the rest of the world has the sense to realize this paradigm and thusly continues to make those goods we all need.

One way to stop some of the problems of job loss is to impute an import tax on goods that would make them cost the same as what they would cost to produce in the U.S.  Take that tax and use it to aid in education for U.S. residents ONLY.  Other countries tariff imported goods and it works.  We are too touchy feely and are afraid to offend anyone.  I say you do what you need to in an effort to protect your own country first.  If other countries don’t like it, too bad.  We cannot afford to keep giving ours away but the bleeding hearts want to do exactly that.  Problem is, there are less tax paying citizens every day as jobs dry up and go to other countries.  I am in a unique situation but I in fact have exited the country because of a lack of good paying jobs at home.  I reap the benefits of working in a place where they don’t give away the farm.  In some ways they can’t…they produce oil and it comes from the ground of the country.  Can you imagine the economic effects on the world oil market if the ecology freaks had their way and were able to stop oil production in the middle east?  In a way, they have had a bad influence on at least the U.S. market because they have slowed or blocked oil drilling in places like Alaska at the expense of the people.  How long will we be so tolerant of this kind of self defeating behavior?  How long until we find ways to make it too expensive to import cheaply made crappy goods so that the jobs will be brought back home?  How long will it be before America wakes up and collectively says ENOUGH is ENOUGH!?