I’ll take LOLercopters for $200, Alex

I stand corrected. Nowadays I’m content if I can fill up at $4.09/gallon.

In other news, I blame China.

nevar look a gift stimulus package in the mouth *$600 update*

By the looks of it, it seems like “the holidays” are coming early this year and you, everyone else, their mother, and I will be getting an $800 check from the government sometime around May. For the sake of keeping things simple/stupid, I will actually follow-through with my post title and completely disregard the myriad of questions this free money brings up -such as where is it all coming from? Where is it all meant to go? Am I not supposed to use it for that trip to Peru I’ve been postponing for years? And more importantly, if the prez said $800 now, yet most likely not seeing any of that till at least May, and Bernanke going Edward Scissorhands on interest rates, wouldn’t that be more like around 400 bucks after it’s all said and done. But like I said… Yup, in the spirit of getting money from thin air, I decided to put some thought into what I could do with it. After about a minute I decided that I’m going to stash it in my roth IRA account, although I wouldn’t say stash is the proper term since it will all go to the S&P 500 index fund I have there and inadvertently make Dubya’s plan a complete success. (How I wish I could have that money yesterday).

In any case, I figured I could do a little more thinking, just for fun, and come up with other ways to spend my government check and quite possibly ruin Gdub’s expectations:

• Book a flight to Lima on LAN.
• An unspecified and very much needed wide angle lens for my Xti.
• $800 worth of freegums gear!!!
• Put a down payment on a Toshiba flatscreen.
• Buy a new laptop.
• Take a cruise.
• Stash it in a savings account (<~~something to be done just to spite “the establishment”).
• Two pair of really expensive jeans made in Italy.
• Go clubbing in South Beach.
• One word, Habanos.

Honestly, the only other options I would seriously consider are the first three (and Lima is not the only destination of which I’ve thought- *knudge*knudge*wink*wink*). If you find yourself reading this and have any suggestions (and/or can recommend a great wide angle lens for my camera) feel free to add your $o.o2.

***UPDATE***

As it turns out, the final tally will be $600.

My mother plans to use it on a trip to Peru to help prop up the economy down there. I will just do as I planned and max out my roth -the rest will most likely go to some other country.

something to think about…

While doing my blog run today, I ran into this:

The other night I was in my son’s class at church (I volunteer there once a week) and the youth pastor was giving an example in his sermon when he mentioned the lottery. Then he said that he never played the lottery and gave this as the reason:

“The lottery is a tax on people who are bad at math.”

(via Free Money Finance)

Incidentally, earlier this week SOTP asked a related question.

twoninetynine

Filling up my tank is one of those banal routines that sort of fade into my memory. I know I do it about once a week. There’s no escaping it, so I hit the closest gas station and pump 10 or so gallons worth of regular unleaded into my car. I don’t think twice about it. It’s not like I have a choice.

Today, it finally hit me: $2.99 a gallon?!!?

I’ve been hearing some folks spreading horrible rumors of paying $4 at the pump, but I figured they were talking about somewhere in California. WTF is going on here?!! I really thought you had to be out west to go find the cheap gas station and drop three bills for a gallon of gas.

Who is responsible for this?

Our oil stockpiles are up. The price of crude remains well below last year’s high of $78 (at $66) and the most *I* ever paid for gas last year was a couple of cents short of $3. Didn’t these fuckers make record profits in 2006?

WTF? Hook a brother up.

Shouldn’t the price gasoline, being a necessary commodity, be subject to more stringent regulations? Regulations that cut down on rampant profiteering?

I understand that a lot some of this money goes to R&D, but I also understand these motherfuckers get PAID. Maybe they could pump some of that surplus $$$ toward improving the country’s transportation infrastructure and public transportation systems. Lord knows a city like Miami needs something like this. Badly. You can’t get anywhere without a load of gas.

I wish I had the choice to jump on a subway to get to work. To get anywhere. The Metro doesn’t take me anywhere I need to be M-F/9-5ish. I’m not even going to mention the bus system here.

All I know is that I am relegated to driving. The stop & go. And now, the $2.99+ per gallon at the pump.