Music Monday-Jaron and the Long Road to Love "I Pray for You"

I have been to several church services in my life time. I have also read the gospels multiple times. I don't believe that when Jesus or a minister said to pray for your enemies or those that have done you wrong that this is what they had in mind. Happy Music Monday.

Jaron and the Long Road to Love   More CMT Music   More CMT Music Videos

Come join Music Monday and share your songs with us. Rules are simple. Leave ONLY the actual post link here and grab the code below and place it at your blog entry. You can grab this code at LadyJava's Lounge Please note these links are STRICTLY for Music Monday participants only. All others will be deleted without prejudice.


PS: Because of spamming purposes, the linky will be closed on Thursday of each week at midnight, Malaysian Time. Thank you!

Clean Your Plate

Image by wonderyort via Flickr

Remember when you were a kid and your mother told you to clean your plate because there were starving kids in Africa who would love to have it?  If you were like me, you were willing to send it to them.  Well now there is a restaurant in Australia that takes the "clean your plate" mantra to another level.

Yukako Ichikawa is chef and owner of the Wafu restaurant located in the suburbs of Sydney.  They state as their goal, "to contribute towards creating a sustainable future we request a little more of our guests than most other restaurants."  They ask their patrons to not waste food or containers.

They actually state in their "Eat In" policy that if you agree to their terms to "not waste food" then you are welcome to eat at their restaurant.  To not waste food is to eat everything on your plate, with the exception of lemon slices, wasabi, and sushi ginger.  If you don't finish your meal, they will suggest you find another place to dine.

If you want to get carry out, they have rules for that too.  You have to bring your own containers, otherwise they will charge you $3 to use their containers.  Oh, and don't bring an aluminum container.  They aren't reusable, so you obviously don't care about waste prevention.  They also don't want you to bring in a new container that you just bought.

Now I am not a proponent of wasting food and throwing it out.  There have been times when I have been trying to lose weight, and my wife has brought home a box of donuts.  Rather than let them get stale and end up getting thrown out, I would eat them.  However, this is one business that I can't see ever getting getting any of my hard earned dollars.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Chef to diners: Clean plate or be banned! (msnbc.msn.com)
• Finish your plate -- or pay a fine at Sydney restaurant (calgaryherald.com)
• Restaurant Charges Extra for Not Finishing Meal (newser.com)

Big Assawoman Bay

As I mentioned last week, we spent a couple of days in Ocean City, MD over the Memorial Day weekend.  While browsing through some tourist magazines and maps looking for some coupons for activities for the family, I came across a map that showed two bodies of water that caught my attention; Little Assawoman Bay and Big Assawoman Bay.  I am sorry, but when I saw Big Assawoman Bay, the only thing I could think of was the video below.

American Oppose "Fat Tax"

Image via Wikipedia

I mentioned in a post last month about the DC Soda Tax Proposal how more and more jurisdictions are considering taxes on sodas, candies, and other foods that could contribute to obesity.  These proposed taxes are offered as proposals to help fight the obesity epidemic in this country.  There is no doubt that too many people in this country are too heavy.  I know I could stand to lose a few pounds myself. 

However, usually these taxes are simply a way to try to raise revenues, not really to help curb problems.  I am not a smoker, and am no fan of the tobacco companies, however, between the states and federal excise taxes on cigarettes, the government makes more money on the sale of a carton of Marlboro than the Philip Morris company does.  If you ever get the chance to visit a duty free store, compare the price of cigarettes there to the price at your local convenience stores.

Today I was reviewing some stories in one of my industry news emails that I get at work.  The folks at the Harris Poll released the results of a survey that revealed that the majority of Americans are opposed to so called "fat taxes" on sugary drinks, fast foods, and candy.  What a shocker.  NOT!  Only 31% of those surveyed were in favor of implementing these taxes

All of the demographic groups that they broke the survey results into were opposed to the taxes.  However, there were definitely some groups that were more inclined to favor the taxes.  Those in the eastern part of the country were the most likely to support while those in the south and midwest were most opposed. Similarly, younger people, higher educated, and higher income people had a higher percentage of respondents that supported the measures.

I don't think any of these are real shockers.  I think lower income folks are more inclined to go towards higher calorie products because it is more affordable.  It would have been interesting to see the breakdown of responses based on the political leanings of those surveyed.  My guess is that more liberal people would be in favor of the fat tax, where conservatives would not.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Kids Drinking Soda Pop: Like Smoking Camels or Riding Without Seat Belts? (newsbusters.org)
• Soda tax still bubbling up (dontmesswithtaxes.typepad.com)
• The soda tax tells us what we can't do. That's not a good way to change bad behavior. (slate.com)

Time to Find a New Bank

Image via Wikipedia

If you stop by here and actually read some of my commentaries and rants, then you probably have already ascertained that generally speaking I am a pro business kind of guy.  I am all for a company making as much money as they can, so long as it is done in a lawful and, dare I say it, ethical manner.  You also have probably figured out that I am not generally a fan of more government regulation. 

Having said all that, I would like to relate an incident that occurred with my bank yesterday and today in regards to some fees we were charged.  Even after spending an hour on the phone with two different people, I am still left scratching my head at their logic.  After my experiences today, I can understand why the Democrats want to pass legislation to protect consumers from unfair bank fees.  The situation for me today that has provoked my wrath concerns overdraft fees.

For the sake of simplicity, I will use some simple numbers to illustrate my case.  Let us say that my wife and I had $100 available yesterday in our checking account.  My wife went out and made three purchases with our check card, each for $30 dollars.  When those purchases were made, they put a hold on the account for the amounts of those purchases, even though the money was still technically in the account.  I have no problem with them doing that and fully understand the concept of "available balance."

Getting back to my simple example of having a $100 in the account and my wife making purchases totaling $90.  Simple math tells me that we should now have an available balance of $10.  Unfortunately, there was a $12 gasoline purchase that we had failed to account for.  Subtracting that $12 from the $10 put us in an overdraft situation of $2.  Mea culpa, mea culpa.  Totally our fault and we deserve to be charged an overdraft fee.  Our bank charges a $29 overdraft fee.

But the story does not end there.  Had the bank charged us the $29 overdraft fee, I would not have been happy, but I would have fully understood.  As is often the case, the story does not end there.  Even though my bank had already put a hold on the $90 in purchases, the $12 gasoline charge was presented for payment before the charges.  Even though there was $100 in the account, the $12 was taken from the "available balance" of $10 resulting in the overdraft.

Each of the three purchases were then "presented for payment."  According to the bank, even though they had already put a hold on the $90, we now had a negative available balance on the account. Consequently, each of those three purchases were subject to the the overdraft charge.  So, in the end, for a $2 overdraft, I was charged a total of $116.  To use a word that the Democrats like to use, is it "fair" to charge $116 for a $2 overdraft because of the bank's funny math?  Again, I understand being charged one overdraft fee, but four? 

Related articles by Zemanta

• Calculating How Much That Overdraft Will Cost (bucks.blogs.nytimes.com)
• How to Beat Bank Fees (online.wsj.com)

Nissan Cube

I first saw the Nissan Cube about a month or so ago.  I saw a second one this evening driving home from work.  They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, however I think it may just about be the ugliest car I have ever seen.  Since I have seen a couple of these out on the highway in the past two months, there must be some folks out there that like the looks of the Cube. Tell me what you think.  Am I being too harsh?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Nissan Cube: Simmetry Sucks (ibelieveinadv.com)
• Nissan Cube review (telegraph.co.uk)
• Ice Cube: Everyone's favorite boxy Nissan chills in London with famed tattoo artist (autoblog.com)

Looking for a Home? Check Rent to Own Opportunities

To say that the economic environment of the past couple years has had an impact on the housing market would be a huge understatement at best.  It has become tougher for buyers to qualify for mortgages, and consequently, housing sales have stagnated.  With the stagnant market, many buyers are now offering Lease To Own opportunities for their properties.

Renting a property and having a portion of that rent go towards equity in the home is not a new concept.  Prior to easy credit, it was one of the best ways for a new buyer to purchase a home.  With the economy the way it has been, it is growing in popularity once more.  Irenttoown.com is a terrific website to use if you are looking for a lease to own property.

At their website, they have thousands of rent to own properties you can search in their database.  I did a quick search in my zip code and found over 6000 properties available.  You can search by a number of factors, such as price, and number of bedrooms and bathrooms.  They also have a lot of great tips of things to look for or avoid for the person looking for a rent to own property.

If you are looking for a home, and want more information on lease to own, you should really check out irenttoown.com.  You should also check out this Overview for Buying a Home at US Department of Housing and Urban Development.

This post is a sponsored post through Payperpost.com.  For more information you can read the disclosure statement at the bottom of this webpage.