Tag: cashmoney

IT WAS A MARTA ALL ALONG

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Conspiracy theory alert*: A crackhead was blamed, crooked bureaucrats’ public waste was the fuel, but MARTA lit the match

*this post is tongue-in-cheek (partially), as if I really have to explain myself

One of the snarky observations I made when I heard that the repair of I-85 was going to take until like Thanksgiving, was who stands to benefit the most from this?  And I don’t think I’m entirely wrong with thinking that, because as most Americans know, little is done in the United States for free, regardless of the circumstances behind them, and as accidental as the burning and collapse of I-85 was, someone(s) will undoubtedly walk away from the scenario richer than they started.

From the onset, I would’ve suspected that part of the delay of repairing I-85 would be the extensive time it took for bureaucrats and talking heads to debate, broker and spin deals with crony companies to contract out the labor work for the bridge repair, to see how many people could pad their pockets as much as possible, before any work was actually planned much less executed.  Naturally, these involved parties would the ones who would somehow take a disaster and turn it into a money-making endeavor, regardless of how miserable it’s making citizens and travelers with each passing day with a giant hole in I-85.

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lol Braves: Ryan Howard, really?

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

SMH: Braves sign Ryan Howard to minor league deal

I can only imagine the things the talking heads said to themselves/one another to justify thinking that this was a fantastic idea.

“This guy has killed us for years.  He’s hit 52 home runs against us.  We should get him!”

“This guy has killed the Nats/Mets/Marlins throughout his career.  We should get him!”

“This guy is a former rookie of the year, MVP and a World Series winner.  We should get him!”

None of those are wrong statements, but they’re mostly applicable to the first half of his career, before a torn ACL pretty much destroyed his career after 2011.  The reality of the situation is that since that injury, he’s been a shell of his former self, batting .226 and hitting an average of 19 home runs a season, which isn’t terrible, but this is also a guy that once clubbed 58 in 2006 and 284 in his first six full seasons, regularly putting the fear of god into opposing pitchers and fans of other teams.

In all honesty, this really isn’t a bad signing.  It’s a minor league deal, which basically means that Ryan Howard is basically getting a set minor league salary while he’s playing in the minor leagues trying to prove that he’s still capable of playing baseball, and if he gets called up to the majors, he’ll get a pro-rated major league minimum salary, minus any incentives worked into the contract.  It’s a very low risk, high reward deal for the Braves, and if they didn’t pull the trigger, undoubtedly someone else would have.

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The adaptation period, I suppose

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Last night, I couldn’t sleep.  Not because I took a nap earlier in the day or because I drank too much caffeine, my brain was simply too actively thinking to the point of where it was compromising my ability to fall asleep.  The selling of my house and the subsequent reconfiguration of life was undoubtedly a substantial change, but with the change has come some new lines of thinking as the result of the murky waters of what new paths lie ahead of me in the course of my life.

The one very particular thing that my brain was wrestling with throughout the evening was, something that I haven’t really given that much thought to in the past, other than cursory ideas that never were taken very seriously, resulting myself to fall back into my content little bubble of routine.  I’m talking about my career, as a graphic designer.  Lately, I feel like I’ve been tapping at the ceiling of my current career path, and unless I want to resign myself to staying dormant and padding years doing what I do, I can do that, but then the result of such a choice leads to a lot of fairly time-consuming and not necessarily very lofty end games, that I’d question if I’d be content with when I’m well into my 40s and 50s.

It’s not so much the career I’ve been feeling some discontent with, it’s also the money that comes along with what I do.  Honestly, I’ve never really been that driven by money; I know what I like to make in order to live comfortably within my means, but I’m also not blind to the working world around me, and that there are plenty of other designers with specializations more attuned to the current creative market, that make noticeably more money than I do, albeit with an equally proportionate higher risk of job security than I have.  But there are plenty of those in the creative marketplace that make more money than I do, and up until recently, I’ve been fine with that.

But I think I’ve been content over the last 13 years living in a household where the combined income was one that was pretty well into the upper-middle class echelon, and now that I’m basically on my own now, such numbers don’t look nearly as promising or conveying potential for loan repayment when it comes to planning for the future, like another house.  Suddenly, I’m feeling like my earning capabilities aren’t just inadequate, but not necessarily conducive to saving at a rate that would make the future not feel like too far away.

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November 22, 2004 – March 15, 2017

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I’ve been keeping it quiet since it began snowballing, but me being me, I didn’t want to jinx anything and wanted to wait until it was basically a forgone conclusion before I did any sort of writing or talking about it in any sort of fashion.  It has been no secret that Jen and I worked our asses off a little while back in preparation for putting our house up on the market, and that less than two weeks ago, our house officially went up on the market.

However, just like that, the process has ended as frantically and as quickly as it started.  In the span of barely 13 days, my listed home was given numerous offers, one was selected, the buyer initiated inspections and the closing process, and today, I’m on the cusp of turning over the keys and signing over the title to the house to its new owners.

After 13 years, I will no longer be a homeowner.

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Turning down free money and making Georgia a less safe place

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TL;DR – Acworth lawmaker pens House Bill 390, which greatly reduces the severity of punishment for rolling stop penalties, with a maximum fine of $100 and zero points added to the violator’s driver’s license

I’m just going to assume that this dumb state rep either got a ticket for rolling through a stop sign himself, has a family member that got a ticket for rolling through a stop sign, or knows someone close who got a ticket for rolling through a stop sign. And one or more of the violators are suffering the slight financial belt-tightening that comes from the insurance hike on account of points on a license.  And although HB 390 won’t be able to retroactively go back and remove said transgressions from the violator(s)’s records, it’s still an action taken addressing the perceived unfairness and racial bias – of a fucking stop sign.

And that’s just it, a stop sign says “stop,” not “slow down to a crawl while simultaneously looking out for opposing traffic and proceed ahead unless there’s a cop in which you come to a complete stop.”  Absolutely anything other than a complete stop is a violation of the law, and should most certainly be punished as any other moving violation.  Reducing punishment not only implies a lack of concern for the potential hazards of rolling stops, it’s basically turning down free money for the state by reducing the fine associated with them.

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It’s funnier when it’s not applicable

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I make a lot of references to the Jessie Spano caffeine pill freakout from Saved by the Bell.  A lot of people make references to the Jessie Spano caffeine pill freakout from Saved by the Bell. It’s a great pop-cultural reference for when one is super excited about something, almost almost to the point of it being scary, or maybe it actually is scary.  Or maybe the part where she breaks down and talks about being scared is omitted, and it’s just a reference to the part where she sings I’m So Excited, all drugged out and addled that we all laugh at.

But how many people remember the context of the rest of the episode?  Why Jessie Spano was on “caffeine” pills in the first place?  I doubt nearly as many as the people who make references to the signing part actually do.

Jessie was taking speed because she felt that there weren’t enough hours in the day to study and cram for her lofty academic aspirations, and used the extra time not sleeping to hit the books.  Sure, it created a mild addiction and an eventual crash that led to the iconic exciting moment, but the context of it revolved around the perceived feeling that there is not enough time.

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I hope Sarasota looks forward to paying $140M for the Braves

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Because nobody seems to know any better: Sarasota County agrees to continue negotiations with the Atlanta Braves in regards to building a brand spanking new exclusive Spring Training facility estimated at $75-80 million dollars

Naturally the Braves are hoping to contribute nothing but $Free.99 towards this grandiose and unnecessary expenditure, while the (mostly) innocent public picks up the rest of the tab.  And as 100% of sporting venues have proven, the initial estimate is always incorrect, and the safe rule of thumb is to double the estimate, and that’s closer to the end result than originally intended.  It’s a whole lot less disappointing when they actually fail to exceed an estimate, albeit revised and deliberately inflated one.

Best part is?  If this stupid and pointless project actually takes off and the Braves get their new Spring Training complex, with public funds doing most (all) of the lifting, the Braves might not even have to make the financial records public.  This is often being called something along the lines of the “Pitbull clause,” since apparently rapper Pitbull found some loophole that allowed for him to privatize the financial records to a some tourism event or whatever, but the bottom line is that because Pitbull did it, it leans to believe that the Atlanta Braves might be able to do it as well.  And what’s more trustworthy than taking measures to eliminate transparency and hiding records that should be public, if being paid by the public?

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