Reality is

             I didn’t major in economics I majored in accounting. I don’t really understand exactly how the economy works but I do know this, if you don’t work you don’t eat. I know that there’s no such thing as a free lunch. It’s as simple as that- unless it’s complicated. Complicated is when governments give handouts and people begin to feel as though they are entitled them. Complicated is when people begin to think that they should still eat even if they don’t work.  


I don’t think that welfare in general is very beneficial to society as a whole- it usually turns into a mooching system. And when you’re getting something for nothing, why would you want to work or want to better yourself? I won’t deny that people genuinely need help at times but I don’t think free government handouts without restrictions are the answer. I don’t even think free government handouts with restrictions are the answer.


Let’s talk about where the money is coming from- there’s nothing free so someone must be paying for it. Right? Let’s try a multiple choice for this one.


A.   It grows on trees behind the White House
B.   The government has their own private Genie that grants all money requests  
C.   um…. Money? It’s just there!
D.   It comes from the people out there working jobs.

If you answered A, B, or C you’re living in an alternate reality and I want in! If you answered D you might actually be doing alright.


Yes, the money that the government hands out is our money. In my last post I mentioned how the government funded the ghost billboard. I concluded that I liked beauty and if it weren’t for the governments in our world funding art projects, we would sadly be lacking in some beautiful landmarks. However, perhaps the government should work on the trillion dollar debt we have first???? Here’s a link to a the National Debt Counter


Let’s turn our attention to fixing a bit of the welfare problem. Let’s look at what the British Government is doing.

Cameron: "We're doing more than any other Government to help people get back to work. That's our part of the deal. Now those on benefit need to do their bit. The message is clear. If you can work, then a life of benefits will no longer be an option."

Should it ever have been an option?


Why would one ever let a system of handing out money get to the point where one is blindly handing out money to people who really don’t need it? If your sister asked you for money once you might oblige. Twice, well let’s see… what is she spending her money on? More than once or twice- depends on how much you like handing your money out. It might come to a point where it is uneconomical to keep handing out your money. Well governments are handing out your money. And they aren’t worried about economics. Perhaps they are becoming worried. The British Government is now implementing a new unemployment benefits system.


If you are unemployed and you refuse to apply for appropriate jobs or neglect to go to mandatory community work, you lose your job seekers allowance for

• Three months for a first offense
• Six months for a second offense
• Three Years for a third offense

Hello! And welcome to my world. If you don’t work you don’t eat. And if you’re sitting at home when you are perfectly capable of applying for a job somewhere- perhaps you need to wake up to choice D and stop living in your own alternate reality.


Cause at some point- someone’s going to ask where the money is and you won’t know. Truth: it’s not there.

Lord of the Flies

Dear Readers,

There is a new development in my life at the moment- it appears I am headed to Europe in November. Details  to follow! Let's just say, I'm super psyched and excited. If you all have any travel tips, please let me know! This will be my first time in Europe.

Because of the *above said trip* I am having to work overtime to finish my school. I have two classes that really just take time. Think- Advanced Accounting and Auditing. Auditing is easy but time consuming! Sadly, this means my time spent on blogger will be limited. However, I will post as often as possible! And, I will have a  *real* post up here as soon as I have a chance! 

I've also decided it's time to write myself a bucket list. There are two blogs I've found that I enjoy and that seems to be their focus. Definitely inspiring! Speaking of finding blogs, I want to give a shout out to this amazing blog that I recently stumbled upon. http://www.danoah.com/ . If you have a chance to check it out, do so! He's an incredibly honest blogger and what he says usually holds a lot of truth. And, my google reader is filling up! I've been finding lots of cool blogs lately. I think it has everything to do with 20sb. haha 

I realize what I'm about to say is *old news*  considering I read it 2 days ago. Apparently there was this 12 year old kid who spent time around a particular neighborhood harassing it. One woman, 68 years old had enough- after the police left, the kids came back. According to cbs2chicago.com, harassing =  "McCoy said the boy had been breaking windows, breaking items on Matthews' shed house, and setting her garbage on fire. "

Well, she pulled out a gun and shot after the kids. One of them did get it in the arm. I think she was perfectly well justified. You're never too young to be a bully. I know 3 year olds who have to be taught that being -sweet- is a good thing. And to not 'hit your brother' because at that age they need someone to teach them manners! How would they know what's acceptable or not? That reminds me of Lord of the Flies. That's a chilling and disturbing book. It does paint an interesting picture about children and what can happen if left unattended. 

According to the article, the woman has her neighbors siding with her and she's not charged with anything. I think it's sad that it ever had to come to that point, however, what would YOU DO? Obviously she called the cops and of course, the kids just ran. Now, the parents to the arm shot kid are saying their boy is a nice boy! And he would never do something like that.... blah blah blah. I'm assuming if he was running wild, they probably didn't spend much time with him, nor did they know what he was up too. 

It's an unfortunate event, however, I'm sure that boy will take that lesson with him. If I was shot at, it would be like the cold slap of reality- even if I wasn't hit. I'm just thankful that nothing worse happened- and that the boy can walk away thinking twice next time he decides to go burn another lady's garbage. Or throw bricks into her house. She was ALONE! And 68 years old! 

And that's Emily reporting to you live from SK- Washington

*Just wanted to take a moment and thank everyone who has commented, is following, or is reading- You all are the best!!* 

Love Triangles

      We all like a good love triangle. (or not) Take Edward, Bella, and Jacob. Jacob has quite the following, sans me. I read the books before I even watched the movies and my heart went to Edward. Period. I’m not a Twilight fanatic but there was something about the books.  Jacob didn’t like Edward but he didn’t kill him.

When I was in my teens I took a trip to Mexico with a group of boys and girls on a mission's trip. We built 3 houses in a period of 10 days. There’s a saying- what happens in _______ stays in ______.  For real for true. My sister and I ended up liking the same boy - I still think we’re psychologically recovering from that. I remember how excited I was when I realized he liked me too- I couldn’t bring myself to tell my sister though. How do you say, “I’m sorry girl, I just really really like him?” She liked him first. Sister was mad at me but she didn’t kill me. 

Let’s turn our attention away from fiction and Mexico towards Belgium four years ago. Two friends each had separate relationships with their skydiving instructor.  Els Clottemans is now on trial for the sabotaging of her friend’s parachute, which ended in her death.  That’s cold. Apparently she didn’t like her friend and decided- enough of the competition! I don’t know if I can understand that. Why not change skydiving instructors? Grow up? Move on? I suppose when you think you’re in love, logic comes second.

So, next time you decide to go skydiving with your friend… evaluate how good your relationship is.

I spent a good portion of this morning finishing up my final project for my Federal Income Taxation class.  This girl is happy!! I celebrated by heading to Barnes and Noble, buying some GMAT flashcards, and catching up with the girlfriends.

And that’s Emily, reporting to you live from Sk- Washington

Be Safe. Be Sexy.

        I still have no idea if today is the first day of Fall or if yesterday was. I’m hearing conflicting reports! It did start me thinking though. We live in an information age where everything you could ever want to know is right at your fingertips. Theoretically, suppose someone decided to change something on us such as when the first day of Fall is. (all scientific principles aside). How would you really know? Nowadays,  you don’t need to  memorize. You just need to pull out your nifty iphone. 


When I was studying managerial accounting I recall finding a picture on Wikipedia and sharing it “with the class.” Big no no and I should have known better. Embarrassed, yes. Lesson learned, yes. I suppose that was a win win for my teacher. They do say, don’t rely on one source for your information. (and don‘t rely on a sketchy source like Wiki).


One scenario which happens all the time: Someone decides to write an article and does his or her research completely online. They then proceed to blast their writings all over the world wide web. Fast forward 5 years; next person uses the article that was written by that someone + other information found online. Surprise! Surprise! For the average person doing a quick bit of research, what is written will appear to be fact.


Let’s look at the example of Shane Fitzgerald. The student from Ireland who decided to have a bit o’ fun and wrote a fake quote on his Wikipedia article. Newspapers were using his quote and they would have gotten away with it if Shane hadn’t cleared the issue up. Newspapers! *gulp* All that to say, my goodness… we could be totally brainwashed and have no idea of it. Let's not forget, information is power.


I read about the Emergency Bra awhile ago and now it appears it’s for sure and for sale! The idea is that it can be turned into a gas mask.  Dr. Elena really is ingenious and I think they might be coming out with something for the men. The quote on the website “be safe, be sexy.” I suppose you never know when you might need one. And ladies, it also means we are responsible for the person we are with when the time comes- don’t be afraid to put all differences aside.


Sadly, blockbuster filed for chapter 11 Bankruptcy. I bet nobody saw that coming. We’ll see what happens once they restructure. Truly though, after Netflix, walk in rental stores are kind of a thing of the past. I haven’t been inside a movie rental place since forever. You can‘t beat having a movie come right to your house. My trips to the movie store usually took an hour where I would go around the movie store 3 times before I finally settled on something. As luck would have it, usually the first movie I thought I might want to see was the one I walked out with.


On a different note, I would love to read any of your Fall Confessions!! If you want to use my logo, just let me know and I’ll get you the HTML code. Either way, if you decide to start it up TELL ME!!! I’ll be posting mine once a week until the next season. 


And that’s Emily reporting to you live from Sk- Washington

supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, US passports, Surfing

Mary Poppins is a classic you have to watch at least once. It is from that movie the famous saying “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” became just another in our casual repertoire. In afternoons you’ll find me handing out paint, sharpening pencils, and socializing with 15-20 kids who are attending “art camp.” Last week I was Super Awesome Ninja or Cherry while we had a “Molly” “Brown Eyes” “Watermelon” “Lucy” and then some. Yesterday as I was walking about helping as needed, I chanced to listen to two six year olds sitting next to each other. The girl was saying “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” and the boy was saying it next. I didn’t think much of it except when I walked by again 15 minutes later and they are stillllll doing it.  I asked him if he knew who Mary Poppins was and he didn’t. Apparently this was the first time he’d heard that wonderful and glorious 34 letter word.

I’m taking a Federal Income Taxation course and learning an amazing amount. Everything is taxable and if it’s not taxable now I’m sure someone will figure out how the gov can get their cut later. However, there is absolutely nothing wrong, according to my textbook, with tax planning to pay as little as possible. And of course we are talking about legal methods. Right now there are US citizens living in UK trying to give up their US passports/citizenship because of taxes. Can you imagine that? Changing next year is the inheritance tax. Currently it’s minimal and by next year it will be close to 50%. Ouch. Now is a good year for inheriting money, however, the keyword is legal.

The US Open of Surfing is happening right now. I have my t-shirt to prove it. Surfers from all over the world come and competitively surf. (didn‘t see that one coming) It’s pretty impressive to watch. I went into Starbucks and bought myself a tall mocha frap and as I was waiting for my drink they called out a Claudia, Danielle, and two more names I can not recall. It’s pretty neat when you start meeting people from Canada, France, Ireland, and so on. And I’ll be the millionth to say it, surfer dudes really do have it going on.

And that’s Emily reporting to you live from HB, California.

Tuesday night is In the Heights - should be good.

Cribbage, Tigers, and Accounting

I learned how to play Cribbage last night. Get a couple competitive people around one of those boards and you will have a show worth watching. Cribbage involves a bit of math though. Some people feel that because I’m an accountant, I must be good with numbers. That is not true. I USED to be good with numbers… but in textbook accounting it’s not all about addition. Oh yes, you have to add up huge columns of numbers and hope the equalize. But that’s what I have a trusty HP Financial Calculator for.

I have decided that it is in my best interest to become a good cribbage player. Therefore, I shall have to learn to add basic math again. Cribbage came around in the 1600s. There was a card game called “Noddy” beforehand that was tweaked/fixed up till it became Cribbage. If you haven’t ever played Cribbage, go buy a board, find a friend, and play. John Suckling (yes, that‘s really his name) is known for the “tweaking.”

My friends, I want to be the first to inform you… but I know that shall not be the case. We are losing our Wild Tigers. According to Reuters we  have less than 50 in China. You know when you leave your nice car in a bad place in the city, you come back only to find the wheels and rims gone, etc… and not much left? Well there’s a tiger trade in China that is alive and well. They use the poor things down to their whiskers. So it should not be a surprise that the tigers are near extinction.  If you want more information check out this website:

Oh and it looks like Mel Gibson is in for it. But that might have been the case for awhile. He was always one of my favorite actors too.

And that’s Emily reporting to you live from HB, California.