ê¿êspi20.com — watching and writing

The House voted this week on an “economic stimulus package” to bolster a sagging US economy and the Senate is in the process of following suit.

No one, however, wants to answer the question of where is the money coming from to fund this package.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m just as happy to have the government give me $500 or $600 back from the taxes I’ve paid in, but can’t help but worry that this is going to cost my mother, who is on Social Security, some kind of reduction of benefits that she currently receives and relies upon or reduce some help my grandchildren get from school systems such as breakfast or art class.

And there’s the simple fact that $500 or $600 isn’t going to do a whole lot for me personally when you get right down to it.

If I were one of those unfortunates who bought into the sub-prime mortgage song and dance and had one of those mortgages, that little bit of money would not go very far to keep the wolf from my door, or if on the other side of the fence, I had invested in those banks that dumped all kinds of money into sub-prime, my stocks would be just as tanked as they are right now.  So, other than making me “feel good”, how exactly is this package supposed to be of any real benefit?

Coupled with the fact that our government is in debt to the tune of TRILLIONS of dollars (mostly to China which is plenty scary!), WHERE is this money coming from? It’s got to come from somewhere as money doesn’t grow on trees. Either we borrow from “someone” or we take away from some project the government has already committed to spend these dollars on. Those are the only two options I can see and neither one is palatable.

Interest rate cuts that have been pushed out by the “Fed” are also not having the expected boost on the market which seems to be impervious to them. And understandably so. Interest rate cuts, while making it cheaper to borrow money (thereby encouraging more debt), don’t help the US economy from an overseas perspective since those cash-flush investors will look elsewhere to invest their dollars because they’ll get a better return on their investment elsewhere than in the US. Since no one in the US has cash available to invest in business, the only way a business can now operate is to borrow yet more money. Aren’t we all in debt enough? Economists all agree that carrying too much debt is tantamount to failure and leads to bankruptcy.

This package is nothing more than a sugar pill aimed at making Mr. Bush’s last days in office “look better and feel better” to the citizens of this country. Well, Mr. Bush, this is one citizen who still doesn’t think you look good and certainly doesn’t feel any better at all about the financial state of the union.

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As you can tell, I’m a WordPress user. And if you’ve been reading this blog for very long, you’ll know that I have switched themes a LOT especially lately.

The theme I’m using now, Glorious Future created by Sadish Bala and released by WordPress Theme Shop has become a favorite of mine for several reasons.

• It’s easy to customize the header
• Is Widget Ready
• Has other easily customizable features (such as changing font color, setting picture margins, etc)
• Works well with many plugins

I’m still on a search for great plugins, so if you don’t see your favorite listed here, do please tell me about it!

• Adhesive — I have found this to not work perfectly i.e. I keep having to set the post I want “stickied” with every new post I write which I find a bit inconvenient.
• Advanced Tiny MCE Editor — I’m enjoying having word processor type editing ability at my fingertips for each post. I think it makes for a more visually appealing post and when coupled by the judicious use of images really makes my posts pop.
• Askimet — well, I would be totally innundated with spam comments without this one!
• All In One SEO Pack — don’t know if it’s helping with my SEO, but we live in hope :p
• Angsuman’s Feed Copyrighter — tags my feeds as MINE, which, depending upon how astute my post is could be good or bad
• Category Overload — can’t see this one doing anything at all, but perhaps I don’t have it set up correctly.
• Comment Email Responder — I hope this is working! Let me know if it isn’t, please!!
• Featured Posts — Again, I don’t think I have this set up properly - any instructions are appreciated.
• Google Sitemaps — why does it always show california?
• Link to me Textbox — don’t see this one working either.
• Next Gen Gallery — other than making the photos look a bit weird, I’m enjoying bringing you some of my photographs
• One Click Installer — I would not be without this one! It’s my top pick of plugins!
• Similar Posts — not working exactly like I envision — I’m sure I need to tweak it a lot!
• Site Info - worked as advertised
• Stumbled — not sure what this one is supposed to show up as — need more instructions on setting it up properly.
• This Date in History — Disappointed in this one.
• Twitter Tools — another wonderful plugin that keeps me out in front of my audience
• Weather Icon — just an interesting add-on that doesn’t appear to slow down my page loading.
• Wordpress Stats — umm since I lost the login name and password, I can’t access them, so they’re of no use.
• Wordpress Automatic Update — you take your blog into your own hands with this one! It worked great on one blog, and bombed on the other. Carefully read all the documentation and FOLLOW IT.
• Wordpress Database Backup — backing up databases is one of the most important things you can do to protect your blog and it’s content. Backup weekly if you post daily, monthly if you post less than that. You won’t be sorry and it doesn’t take long to do.
• WP Grins — just some added smilie icons — nothing to get excited over — they’re not even the cutest ones out there.

So, what’s your verdict on my choices? Good, barely adequate, great choices?

Help me make this blog one you want to come back to often!

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Whenever Ken and I are in Charleston, we’re always on the lookout for good seafood restaurants. This past weekend (1/26 & 27) we were there for the annual dog show held at the fair grounds in Ladson. So, true to our usual habits, we went looking for somewhere we could get fresh seafood.

We had eaten at Gilligan’s in Summerville a few years ago and found the food to be excellent, so decided to try it again this time. As before, it was crowded and there was a line waiting for tables. We asked how long the wait was and were told 20 minutes, so we took our little pager thingy and settled down to people watching.

I walked around to the bar to order a drink  - my one indulgence is getting one of Gilligan’s signature pina coladas — and I noticed several empty tables on the smoking side. I knew Ken would have asked for non-smoking since the smoke bothers both of us and didn’t think much more about it. I think they would have garnered a lot more goodwill among the waiting clientele if they had had someone walking around taking drink orders, but that’s just my take on the situation. This seems to be a busy restaurant and waiting lines were not greeted with any unusual fanfare by the “regulars”. Of course, since the dog show site was just a few miles away, there were quite a few newcomers (or, like us, once-a-year comers )

One party of about 6 people decided not to wait any longer (they had been there just a few minutes less than we had) and turned in their pager and left. Shortly afterwards, our pager went off and we were escorted back to be seated. Imagine my surprise at seeing about 4 empty tables! No doubt the party that left could see the empty tables just waiting and got frustrated with the wait. We couldn’t see into the non-smoking dining room from where we were seated on the benches in the lobby, so were unware of the empty tables.

They had been bussed and were apparently ready for clients, but remained empty quite a bit longer as our waitress took our drink order, then subsequently our food order. She brought our drinks and a tray of Captain Bookatee’s famous hush puppies. They were yummy!

Our food arrived quickly and we tucked into fried shrimp, flounder, oysters and scallops with french fries, fried okra and cole slaw for Ken (the Fried Seafood Platter) and fried shrimp with baked potato and salad for me. While she never brought the lemon I requested for my water, our waitress refilled our tea and water about halfway through our meal. When we were nearly finished with our meal, the manager came by and asked if everything was OK, then a bit later the waitress came to ask if we were ready for our check. No one was especially chatty or friendly - it was pretty much businesslike and efficient. That wasn’t off-putting, but it wasn’t particuarly inviting either. 

Gilligan’s of Summerville, you get a B-

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I just happened upon another outstanding EntreCard contest – one of those where you win oodles of entrecard credits so you can advertise your blog on someone else’s blog.

This one is for 3000 credits which is the most I’ve ever seen offered. To win, you have to (duh) write a 200 word post about the contest — well that part is easy for me since I can write about almost anything and write a lot! I suppose that means I have a fertile mind or diarrhea of the fingers at the very least :p Another way to get entered is to subscribe via email to the feed from this site. I’m not real big into email feeds as I have so much in my inbox as it is. Web feeds are more my thing — sorry!

The closing date for this contest is 1/31, so there’s not a lot of time left to enter it.

One thing I did enjoy reading on this post was something about the history of Entrecard, it’s creator and his vision. I didn’t know any of those things as I had just happened upon Entrecard in my web wanderings. Since I have one of those inquiring minds that collects all kinds of trivia, this bit of history appeals to me greatly. One thing that didn’t thrill me was the fact that HIS entrecard widget was below the fold. Tsk Tsk Tsk — shame!

So, if you’ve entered the contest, I wish you good luck (although hopefully not as good of luck as I have )

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