Mishmash Musings

I read an interesting article last week about how the current mortgage crisis shows that families simply don’t feel the same way about their homes as they used to. The author wrote that in the past, people would fight tooth and nail to preserve their homes, doing anything to avoid bankruptcy or foreclosure.

But these days, it seems that people don’t form that sort of attachment to their residences anymore, which is one of the main reasons that they’re letting their mortgage payments lapse and don’t care when the banks move in to repossess the property.

I completely agree with what the writer’s viewpoint in that article. A few of my friends are actually like that, and one of them knows foreclosure is imminent. I can’t imagine living that way (especially when kids are involved), but thee you go.

I would love nothing more than to have a home that my family could settle into for a couple of decades. Right now we’re just in a townhouse, but are saving up for a nice single-family home somewhere. Once we get that, we’re going to stay put (at least until we retire) and we’ll do what we can to make sure the home remains in our family. For instance, we’ll purchase mortgage life insurance in the event that one of us dies early and we’ll make sure that we always have at least six months worth of salary saved up for emergency payments.

I’m not saying these things are a guarantee against foreclosure, but they’re certainly better than going down without a fight!

We had to go away unexpectedly this weekend, so that really got me off track as far as my writing and blogging projects go. I’m way behind now and will have to work at least 5-6 hours per day this week in order to meet all of my obligations.

That probably doesn’t sound like a lot to those of you who have regular jobs, but that’s double the time that I usually put in.

Oh, well, enough complaining. Time to get some work done!

I have a stats program installed on this blog, and one of the things it does is tell me which keywords people used to get here through search engines. I love checking out what people are searching for, especially when it comes to my blog.

As you might expect, there have been some really outlandish searches (which I should really start jotting down so I can reprint them here). For some strange reason, a lot of the funny ones involve the term colon cleanse, with people apparently wanting to know what ordinary household products you can and can’t use to cleanse your colon.

You know, if I were going to do something as sensitive as that, I’d just as soon stick to products that are made for that purpose!

I know this is going to seem strange to a lot of people, but I’ve never seen a single episode of The Daily Show. A lot of my friends love the show (and host Jon Stewart), but I’ve never really been into that sort of thing.

But that might change now that The Daily Show has gone online. I just read today that the show has its own website, which is completely separate from the Comedy Central website. The best part of the new Daily Show site is that if features clips from all the shows that have aired since 1999 when Stewart took over as host.

That sounds pretty cool, so I’m going to head over there right now to start watching. Maybe getting a taste of the show through these clips will turn me into a regular viewer!

Even though I’ve been a big sports fan my whole life, I’ve never been fortunate enough to attend a major sporting event. I’m talking about the World Series, Super Bowl, Stanley Cup Finals, or NBA Finals. Heck, I’d even settle for the NCAA Final Four or a BCS game. But the closest I’ve ever come thus far has been a first-round NHL playoff matchup between the Blackhawks and Maple Leafs, which should give you an idea of how long ago that was!

Anyway, if I had to choose just one of these events, I’d go with the Super Bowl all the way. I know that Superbowl tickets are traditionally very expensive, but I think the experience would be worth almost any price — especially if the Bears were involved. They’re probably not going to make it to the postseason this year, but he next time they make it all the way to the Super Bowl, I’m going to do my best to be there!

I just read an article on Slate called The Facebook commandments. Apparently, there are certain rules of etiquette you should follow regarding friending and or de-friending someone. At first, I thought the article was meant to be something of a joke, but after reading through it, I guess the author was serious. Who knew that this kind of thing is such a big concern to people?

Meh. I use Facebook only occasionally, so I guess I’m not really “qualified” to speak about this sort of etiquette. But give me a break. If you don’t want someone on your friends list, don’t add them. If they’re already there, delete them. What’s the big deal? Did we really need a whole article about this???

I’m not a big music fan, so I hardly ever go to concerts. I think I’ve only been to about 5 concerts in my entire life, with the most recent one being Coldplay at the United Center in 2005. Before that, my last concert was Bush at the Rosemont Horizon (back when it was still called the Rosemont Horizon) in 1997, and while I almost went to Projekt Revolution last month, I haven’t really been interested in any other tours since then.

So when a friend of mine recently gushed about scoring Elton John tickets for one of his Vegas shows next month, I couldn’t really share her excitement.

I like music and all, but I can’t really justify spending a couple hundred bucks on a two-hour (or whatever) concert. I’m sure I’m in the minority, however, as these musicians keep setting new records with astronomical ticket sales year after year.

Wow, I can’t believe it’s already been 20 years (two decades!) since Jessica McClure was rescued from a backyard well after accidentally falling in. Rescuers worked around the clock for 2 1/2 days to get to Jessica, who was lodged 22 feet below.

The event received worldwide media attention, and the McClure family was showered with gifts for Jessica after the successful rescue. In fact, the cash donations Jessica received were put into a trust fund that she will be eligible for in 3 years. From AP reports I’ve read, the fund will be worth close to $1 million dollars at that time. Wow!

I remember the rescue, of course, but since I was just 13 at the time, I wasn’t riveted by it or anything like that. I was aware of what was going on; I just didn’t spend my time glued to the TV wondering if Jessica would survive.

Now that I’m a parent, however, I’m sure I would watch differently if a similar event unfolded today. Obviously being a parent changes your perspective in cases like this!

Anyway, Jessica is a mother herself now and seems to be doing just fine. She avoids the media spotlight for the most part, but has given a couple of interviews in the past few years.

Good to see she’s making it through!