My bird and the economy like to nose dive. Nice picture of the bird anyway. Also, we're getting ready for Texas by studying the local dialect. (click here)

Come on y'all! Get yer vocals on and sing along!
... 1,2,,,1234
We'll be coming around the mountain when we come.
We'll be coming around the mountain when we come.
We'll be coming into Texas and we hope the weather won't vex us.
We'll be coming around the mountain when we come.

He'll be coming around the mountain when he comes.
He'll be coming around the mountain when he comes.
He teaches about Al Gore, but he dashes to the mega-store,
He'll be coming around the mountain when he comes.

She'll be coming around the mountain when she comes.
She'll be coming around the mountain when she comes.
She likes to sleep all day and get beat at chess by Creigh,
She'll be coming around the mountain when she comes.

Geez! And hope it is! You know darn well that a lot of emotion poured out around the whole planet when we realized it was really really real. For us in Japan it was Wednesday afternoon. I sat on the floor and blubbered like a fool. As a reborn American, I need to represent this to my students. It's even bigger than it feels like now. The mindset shift just went into overdrive all over the world. Fear mongers of the world, your game just got lame. Of course the gridlock has causes and causes of causes, but the tone is opening up.

Yours Truly,
born again american still preaching to the converted....

I Told You So...

Getting my crash course in U.S. finance, real estate games, and so on while dealing with my Dad's things, the thing that dawned on me was that the house prices didn't make sense. For example it would seem reasonable that a house would cost more or less depending on the average incomes in an area, which of course get higher closer to economic centers, and would work out to...... however many years of income. Similarly house prices would correlate to rents and turn out to equate to X years of rent, again a percentage of incomes. You would buy if you had the down payment, felt secure and the numbers made sense. However what I saw was that these sensibilities had been abandoned and the name of the game was to buy a ridiculously priced house knowing you could sell it 5 years later for a doubly ridiculous price. This curve seemed upwards at about 20 degrees. The houses never get fully paid for but rather 'flipped' and shuffled with all sorts of people whose job it is to make this easier for you. Who cares about interest rates cause it's all coming back next shuffle. Well anyway, I just saw the clearest explanation I've seen so far of the crises and was reflecting on that summer and my first contact with how it all works in the US. If you care to take a look the link is below.

Warren Buffet on Charlie Rose 10/2/2008

Everywhere like such as

I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, um, some people out there in our nation don’t have maps and, uh, I believe that our, uh, education like such as, uh, South Africa and, uh, the Iraq and everywhere like such as, and I believe that they should, uh, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., uh, should help South Africa and should help Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future

Bird Brains

There are 4 bird brains in this picture. Can you tell us where?

Meet 'Little Wing'

No sooner had we wondered off on bikes to look at more bird goods than did we get the call. The stork had brought our cockatiel. The pet shop gave us the crash course and we got some other necessary things. On the bike ride home with chick in cardboard box, we toyed with the names Alice or Kris before the real name came: Little Wing.