11.25.2007

The Words In My Brain Go Round and Round

You gotta know the childhood bus song to understand and thus appreciate the title.. Either that or have watched Seinfeld and the 'master of my domain' episode...

I've been in the market for a full-size digital keyboard for awhile now and I have it narrowed down to one model that seems to have everything I'm looking for. Best part is, the local music store has the model. Most important to me is sound quality and recording capability. Being I've never recorded myself (on my own on a good quality system that is), I'm learning a lot of new words and their corresponding definitions. I've never been very good at that sort of thing. I'm the type of person who truly learns by doing, not by being told or by reading. I'm also not a technically-oriented person, so reading through the massive list of features on these digital keyboards is like reading a foreign language. I'm the type who plays primarily by ear (I can read music when I want--I just prefer to play by ear is all). You can tell me to play a certain song and if I don't know how to play it but know the melody, give me a few minutes and I'll start playing it. Give me time to master the song and I'll add my own style. However, plunk down a bunch of recording equipment in my lap and give me a manual and say "record yourself" and well, I'll give you a dazed and confused look.

But obviously I'm going to have to overcome my techno/read the manual phobia this time because I'm done with waiting to get myself recorded in the way I want. And deserve. And besides, this will suit my control needs. After my recent experience with What If, I decided enough is enough. I'm just gonna do this my way and record myself. No More Waiting.

***
Got investment on the mind. I hesitate to invest in gold. While it will likely continue to climb in the interim, how long will it sustain itself? Is it best to invest in coins? Stocks? From what I've read, the mines are starting to come up empty which will limit the supply. Demand is already on the increase and these two put together obviously only drives up the value. What do you do when you have gold coins sitting in a safety deposit box? If the dollar crashes as some are saying, how do you buy a $4 gallon of milk with an ounce of gold? And what will retailers do? What retailer is set up to receive gold and silver coins, or anything other than paper money, coins and credit/debit cards and checks? How will employers pay their employees? It just seems ridiculously outrageously silly to me to think the dollar will suddenly come tumbling down and have no value whatsoever and we're left with nothing. What then? I have yet to see anyone make any sort of analysis on this other than to "be prepared" (and as I have noticed, some of these sites advertise books on The End Times and Armageddon, so I take those things into consideration when reading their predictions. Such things annoy the crap out of me. Who would put such stock in a book? Who would hand over their choices and will to some plan that is set in place already? Doesn't that smack in the face of free will and choice? And frankly, I'm fed up with hearing about how we need to be grateful to "God" for giving us free will, as though there would be any other option. Grateful, my ass. If some entity has the ability to control me or behave in some overlord way, that is not something I wish to be a part of. At all. Love is equality and nothing less. Bowing down before anyone or any being is to submit yourself to a position of master and slave.) Ok, enough of the religious rant......There's talk of it (dollar) crashing, there's talk of this slow continual devaluation process (which is what I believe will happen instead of a sudden crash) and the switching over to a new currency (between Mexico and America--something Vicente Fox has mentioned), which makes more sense. And at that, what then? Do we swap our old greenback paper money with a new paper money? If that happens, will we receive dollar for dollar? Fifty cents on the dollar?? (Kinda like that shrew of a scrooge Mr. Potter in It's A Wonderful Life).

Lots of opinions, everyone thinking theirs is right. Who really knows? Is it all a farce to divert our attention, scare us? Shit. Of course I know the dollar has been declining for well over a decade and that trend shows no signs of slowing. Something will eventually give.

My hope is that if such a situation occurs, people will unite together where they are and participate in a barter system until the monetary system is worked out. If a crash is coming, whether it be slow or rather sudden, we will need to unite to survive, period. And that may not be such a bad thing after all.

(opinions and thoughs on investments are appreciated, btw!)

1 comment:

tkn said...

If you have money to invest in gold, I'd buy jewelry. The price of commodities will only continue to climb in the long run. That's what it should be, a long term investment. In the short term, your guess is as good as mine. If you want to invest in a mine, I'd research it thoroughly and check out their labor and environmental practices and whatnot.

Otherwise, just invest in yourself. Take classes, buy tools that you know how to use and can use them to provide goods and or services. That's what I've been doing.

If I had money to invest in stocks I'd be looking at things like green energy, sustainability funds, things like that.