From $70K to food bank, one family's struggle - CNN.com
After reading this story, I am feeling remarkably unsympathetic. I am glad that this family has been able to eat with the help of the food back - I would not want the kids to go hungry because of the grossly irresponsible behavior of their mother. However, I don't think that it is right for the resources of the food bank to be used up just because this woman does not plan well. I mean...at the food bank in less than 2 months after losing her job? Where was her emergency fund - we should all have a minimum of 3 months in savings and her $70,000 salary would seem to provide enough for her to do that if she was living within those means (even in California). But, that family was not living within their means. Instead, she was living paycheck to paycheck with an interest-only mortgage. That is simply not a responsible way to parent two small children. I find it unacceptable that she is taking advantage of charity that was designed for people who do not have the ability to provide for themselves so that she can keep the house she couldn't afford in the first place. As a former loan processor, she does not have any argument to make that she didn't understand the mortgage or that she was taken in by predatory lenders. I expect that there are a lot of people in the same position. And, quite frankly, I am not inclined for taxpayers to bail out people who had the ability and the means to make responsible choices and chose not to. It isn't fair to those people who have limited themselves - bought smaller houses that they could afford, budgeted so that they could build up savings for a rainy day - because those people are now the ones who have to pay for the people who were living it up. It is the Ant and the Grasshopper all over again!
In case you were wondering what has been going on this past month, here are some highlights...
Obama Rally
Relaxing in the yard
Cooking on the grill
Watching the plants grow
Steve stuck in the ditch (a great way to meet the neighbors)
More February pictures in the WebAlbum!
This Sunday, Wes and I had a few friends over to watch the Superbowl and make use of our fun kitchen and the new grill. Most of the first half was spent gathered around the smallest TV in the house while the food was being prepared. Here are some pics:
Delicious football cake (chocolate cream cheese icing!)
Guess who made the cake!
Putting everyone to work
Making ribs and burgers
And finally...eating ribs at halftime
Well...not much blogging has been going on here because it has been a bit hectic wrapping things up in Hong Kong. Just to prove my computer still works, here are a few fun pics from karaoke night with some coworkers last Friday.
(What is that song Kwan is singing?)
Wow - a mere 6 weeks from today is my last day in the Hong Kong office. How did it get so close? We have a lot to take care of in the next few weeks, but the biggest is planning our vacation. We will leave ourselves a week to settle into Houston a bit before starting work, so we have 7 official weeks of time off to plan.
Keep checking on wesandannette.com to see what we are planning (if you are interested). For now, the only set thing is that we will be joining a Habitat for Humanity Global Village trip to Malaysia (see here for all the cool details). We are very excited!!
I do not understand why there is not more of an outcry from the American citizens when our government is authorizing torture. I don't get it. I realize that the headlines indicated that the new order ended the torture regime. But doesn't anyone bother to read more about it? Have the historical activities not taught us that our current regime seems to be heavily in favor of torture? We have abandoned the moral high ground to search for legal loopholes and gray areas. As a whole, we do not seem to care as much as we should.
See here for an article that looks into the new order in more detail and, unsurprisingly, finds that it does not, in fact, ban torture.
I just wish there were some way to talk sense into them!
Unlike many of the reviews that you will read in the media, I will keep this one short and completely spoiler-free.
I finished the final Harry Potter book this weekend. The book was very good, although I did not find the story quite as compelling as some of the earlier ones. In that past, I have had a hard time putting it down and stayed up until the wee hours reading. On Saturday, I was asleep by 11 and finished the book on Sunday. Overall, it was a good way to finish the story. The books just could not go on as they had before so everything needed to be wrapped up. Because it is wrapping things up, the book spends a lot of time explaining things so that there are no loose ends left. The explanations are mixed among a lot of action/fight scenes. As Harry decided at the end of the last book that he would not be returning for his last year at school, the overall vibe of the book is completely different because you do not have the normal activities of daily Hogwart's life as a backdrop.
So...I give Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 4.5 out of 5.
Happy reading if you haven't finished it yet!
I was not feeling particularly inspired to write about the news of the day today, so I started thinking of what might make an interesting topic as my dear sister has been urging me to write more. After a little websurfing to do some research on charities I have come across lately, I for some sad top ten lists that remind us all that we should be careful in how we donate our charity dollars. These lists are from CharityNavigator.org.
Remember to check out any group on Charity Navigator or Give.org before giving their money to make sure that you are comfortable with what they are doing with it. Unfortunately, many smaller charities are not listed so you will have to do your own research to make your decision.
10 Charities Overpaying their For-Profit Fundraisers
These 10 charities are not living up to their missions. Each spends more than 50% of its budget paying for-profit fundraising professionals to solicit your hard-earned money. They are ranked by the percentage of their total functional expenses spent on professional fundraising fees. As a result, very little of the charity's spending is directed towards its programs and services.
Rank Charity Program Expenses Professional Fundraising Fees
1 The Committee for Missing Children 11.2% 86.1%
2 American Foundation for Disabled Children 10.5% 84.2%
3 Wishing Well Foundation USA 9.3% 81.0%
4 Disabled Police Officers of America 13.6% 78.9%
5 National Children's Leukemia Foundation 10.2% 73.8%
6 Foundation for Children with Cancer 24.5% 70.6%
7 National Police Defense Foundation 27.4% 67.8%
8 Police Athletic League of New Jersey 22.6% 67.1%
9 American Association of the Deaf-Blind 23.8% 65.4%
10 Wisconsin Paralyzed Veterans of America 28.1% 61.7%
10 Highly Paid CEO's at Low-Rated Charities
For charities to be successful, they need talented, experienced leaders. Those leaders command significant salaries. But CEO's who command high salaries should also get the most out of the organizations they lead. The leaders of these 10 organizations are taking high salaries at the expense of spending dollars on the charity's programs. Despite receiving more than $250,000 in annual pay, these CEO's run organizations that devote less than 60% of their budgets to their programs and services. That means that at least 40% of your dollars are going to such costs as fundraising and administration, including the salary of the CEO.
Rank Charity Salary
1 Center for Living and Learning $430,092
2 Baylor School $400,135
3 Youth Development Fund $363,100
4 Hoag Hospital Foundation $325,710
5 National Association for the Advancement of Colored People $320,975
6 WTVS Detroit Public Television $310,631
7 Council of Independent Colleges $310,000
8 St. Bernard's School $307,500
9 The Phillips Collection $301,118
10 The Lovett School $279,200
1. Because in June, I was in Perth for 5 days, then Shanghai for two days, and then on a 10 day vacation to Scotland and Germany.
2. Because my computer got upgraded and I no logger have the Google toolbar so no "Blog This" feature. And I cannot install it without administrator privileges.
3. Because we are moving countries again in 7.5 weeks so there are things to plan and organize.
4. Because I am genetically predisposed to being a slacker/procrastinator...must have been both parents as carriers of a recessive gene that somehow hit all 3 children*. What are the odds?
I will try to get back on track this week!
* No offense intended to my siblings or the wonderful parents who raised us. We can get going like gangbusters once we get going, which is often "tomorrow". It must be that we have just so much going on in our brains that we have trouble focusing on one thing. :)
I did not know that Germany was so vehemently opposed to Scientology. This is an interesting article.
Why Germany Hates Tom Cruise - TIME
I had a little extra free time lately, so I taught myself to knit. I started a hat when I was in Perth and finished it today.
I also crocheted an organizer for my crochet supplied recently. Aren't I just the crafty one?
This article reports a study that shows that giving to charity makes you feel good. So, get out there and find a charity to support!
Because she does not have her own blog :).
I have tried to avoid talking about that guy from Atlanta who decided to take a trip to Europe for his wedding and honeymoon despite being diagnosed with TB. Finally, I have decided to comment based on this article: Government e-mails show little help from TB patient's family - CNN.com
From everything I have read, which admittedly may not be the whole story, the whole bunch of them seem to be selfish and have a total disregard for anyone or anything else outside of what they want. His excuse for sneaking back into the country was because he feared for his life if he went to the hospital in Italy. If that is the case, what was he doing there in the first place? And if he was afraid for his life from the illness that he has, why would he expose (or potentially expose) so many people to it? It is just a total disregard. He is not a doctor. He had no way of knowing how contagious he might be and it didn't matter to him. All that mattered to him was taking his 3 week European vacation and then getting back to the US when he wanted. It is infuriating. I don't think he has done anything illegal and I hope that he did not actually infect anyone, but the simple fact that one family could be so collectively selfish is disgusting. I hope they are all feeling publicly shamed. I also hope he is flagged by every airline and never allowed to travel again.
This series' (season's) Doctor-lite episode of Doctor Who turned out to be great. Not only was it better than Love and Monsters (the Doctor-lite episode from series 2), but it was a good episode in its own right. The actors and the story carried the episode well. There was enough of the Doctor that you did not miss him too much and still knew you were watching Doctor Who. Here is a clip for those of you with no BBC1 access:
In case you did not see Love and Monsters, here is the trailer so you can get a feel for it:
Yet another third installment of a fun series. Ocean's Thirteen does not disappoint. I recommend switching your brain off and sitting back to enjoy the ride. If you think too hard, it will all unravel...the "twists" aren't exactly a surprise. The fun of these movies, like the first in the series, is just the experience, the impact of the visual look combined with the music and the smooth dialogue. It is very light hearted and fun, as long as you don't expect it to me more than it really is (i.e. don't expect a bullet proof plot line).
As in the earlier movies, the Chinese lines are not translated. Judging by audience reaction around here, those lines are actually pretty good. One of them was hilarious...no idea what they said.
