June 2, 2006

  • 100hdsh1 


    Internet Island Topic Post #12.00


    Money Money Money: Questions for the topic can be found by clicking the above link.


    These are my responses to Topic Post #12 for the Internet Island: Money Money Money
    12.01: The first thing that comes to mind is a commandment. “Thou Shalt Not Steal”. Obviously, money falling out of the back of an armored car doesn’t belong to me, and taking it would constitute theft. Even if I were inclined to think about taking the bundle, the scenario is a city street, and no matter how deserted, somebody could be watching and taking down my lisence plate number. I don’t think I’d leave the bundle in the middle of the street, as that could be tempting to somebody else. I would immediately take note of the armored car service, and call them on a cell phone or pay phone. There could be a reward.
    12.02: Another commandment comes to mind. “Thou Shalt Not Kill”. No matter who the stranger is, I don’t want a hand in his death. Since the conclusion of the Twilight Zone Episode on which I based this scenario ended with the last person to have won the money being the “stranger” that of course means I wouldn’t even have any time to enjoy their winnings since the next person who pushed the button would be ending my life, as I would be their “stranger”.
    12.03: I’ve actually seen this scenario quite a few times, and although I believe in the instances I encountered no ill events were happening, they easily could. I would never submit to a paypal “donation” without really knowing the person, and then I could mail them a donation. I don’t even renew internet subscriptions through email anymore. I go to the site to which I first visited, and go to the payment screen on the site. Too many hucksters use cyberspace for their ill begotten gains.
    12.04: Very often in life, things happen that are not expected, and sometimes these involve tragedy. Look at the many victims of Hurricane Katrina. Liz and I had a conversation just the other day about what would happen if a major earthquake hit L.A. As with all these exercises, using good common sense usually will help rather than hurt the situation. In the event that I would lose my job, I would make it “job #1″ to find another, even if it weren’t what I wanted, in order to at least gain some income. I do have a lot of credit card debt, and I call the financial institutions all the time trying to get better ‘deals’ so that I can pay more of the principal. There are “insurance policies” and “debt management” programs that these providers offer. Prime consideration, when having a family, is feeding the brood. Enlisting everyone in the family to help and try to gain some income in whatever way possible would be first on my mind.
    12.05: I’m about ready to pay off my car in a few months, and if the gas prices aren’t lower by then, I’m seriously thinking of considering a motorcycle again. I used to ride one, and only gave it up because of the girl with whom I lived at the time. This isn’t a solution for everyone, however.  Motorcycles can be dangerous if you aren’t carful riding them.
    12.06: I’ve never stolen anything in my life. I have “found” money lying on the pavement, and I’ve looked around  before picking it up, but we’re talking a 20 dollar bill at the most. In fact, when that incident happened, I was enlisting a friend’s help to move, and I gave the money to him because he was helping me. Once I was buying beer with a supposed “buddy” in our group when I was in my 20s, and both of us went to the market in my car. I had just met the guy a couple of weeks earlier, and he wasn’t the most honest individual I ever knew. I bought my beer, while he was still “shopping”. I got out to the car, and waited. He came running up to the car a bit hastily. After we got back to the “party”, I found out he had stolen the liquor in his bag. Later on, I once left my jacket at his house. Inside the pocket was a credit card I rarely used. This guy “used” the credit card to ring up over $1000.00 worth of “free beer” and concert tickets before somebody yanked the card. I didn’t find out about it until I got the bill the next month. Putting two and two together, I confronted him, and then when he denied stealing my card, I turned him in to the police.


    We all need money in order to survive. We should work for those wages , and never try to get “easy money”. I used to go to Las Vegas every year. These “excursions” were not primarily for gambling. I am a home theater buff and would go to visit the Consumer Electronics Show for three days every year in January. I did a fair amount of gambling, but I’m not addicted to the practice. Some people will sit at a slot machine for hours waiting for it to “hit” and get a jackpot. I’ve heard people who like to say “I won $500.00 in Vegas”. The never tell you that they spent over a grand trying to “win” that 500. My way of playing slots is to drop quarters in a number of machines. Sometimes I would drop a few bucks in one machine (usually those with Betty Boop as the featured figure) but if I play for a couple of minutes and don’t get anything, then I move on. I would “budget” the amount of money I wanted to “spend” gambling, and when it disappeared, so would I. I’ve won $250.00 in quarters on a “Wheel of Fortune” machine after only dropping a dollar in quarters in the machine. This filled two of those plastic tubs, and helped pay for some of my stay.


    Easy money never comes easy.

Comments (15)

  • Easy money surely doesn’t come easy.  I love to gamble, it’s in my blood, my dad, my grandma, they all loved to gamble. When I go to a Casino I budget how much I will spend and if I win, that’s great, if I lose it all, I do not go to the ATM to get more.
    It’s the thrill of winning……

    Very good post Mike.

  • I’m not sure there truly is something called ‘easy’ money.

  • remember when that guy from philly kept the bag of money that fell off the armored truck and they arrested him? they made a tv movie about it. there is no easy $$$ there are always strings attached. the ? is can you live with the strings?:eek:

  • RYC: Thanks for stopping by. Actually I do try to get by your site almost daily, if I can, because I like to see what’s going on with you. I don’t always comment, ’cause I don’t always have something to say. But rest assured, I’ll be here, and when I do have something to say, you’ll know it. :)

    Missed you this week on the SC

  • RYC: Yes, that story about the old ladies in L.A. is not just local news anymore, it’s gone national! And, yes… no telling how many people they have killed. I rest my case!!

    I like  your money questions, and I like the answers that butshebites gave on your May 24 post… They were very “up”. And thanks for the idea about what could go wrong with the money that falls off the armored truck… I’ll be sure to take my digital camera along in the car so I can take lots of photographs of the bag of money in the street before I pick it up!!

    As far as giving money to online comrades whose house burned down… it depends. I’d do a risk/benefit analysis. If it’s a small amount of money that wouldn’t mean much to lose, I’d go ahead and risk giving it for the potential benefit of knowing I helped a friend. If it was a large amount of money, then it would be worth an investigation before taking such a risk.

    Thanks for the comment …feed the dlog. You made me LOL!! Now I’ve got to go shlog the president’s latest ckups.

  • Hello Mike

    I hope that things are going well for you.  I shut down the other site and opened this one.  The people where I used to work found the site and made copies and distrubuted them to everyone.  It made me mad and I shut it down before I realized that I really didn’t care.  LOL  I am still working on the pc so my time on here is limited but I was hoping that you would allow my site back onto the island after I get the pc.  I enjoyed the topics and wanted to get back to posting on them.  I would appreciate a pass for the island if you don’t mind one more member. 

    How are you and Joel doing?  Well I hope.  Things are going fantastic for me.  I am happier than I have been in a long time. 

    Big hugs
    Kat

  • No Michael there is no easy money – and those of us who get ourselves into money issues just made poor choices, it’s my punishment.

  • Nothing very exiciting..but here it is:

    http://www.xanga.com/writergoddess

  • Sorry I haven’t been around (well, somewhat – glad I went on vacation, sorry I’m too drained to blog properly now that I’m back) lately, but I wanted to drop by and say Hi. I don’t know that I’ll blog about money, but I thought about it a lot today and how fortunate I am that my husband is working. There was a good year and a half there when he wasn’t, and it was worrying and frustrating. Our recent vacation was pretty inexpensive given the circumstances, and I find myself buying good stuff on sale, but pinching pennies is something I’m slowly weaning myself off of. I try to put money into savings and only do things I love, but if I do those things, I’m gonna do them right. Happy June!

  • Money is only important to me when I don’t have it! Hokey, but true!

  • Money’s not everything, but it’s way ahead of whatever’s in second place.  I’ve written the same sentence at other blogs:lol:, using sex and love in place of money, so feel free to tell me I’m full of it.

  • I am practical but not at the cost of my ethics or morality. Nice post!

  • Hi,
    I’m one of the Board Members of the Socrates Cafe Xanga Blogring.
    We are trying to determine who’s still interested in participating.
    If you haven’t participated in the past few weeks, please access:
    http://xanga.com/simone_de_beauvoir
    and let us know if you still wish to be a member.
    We hope you will take part in some of the really interesting discussions.

  • I always enjoy and often learn from your way of looking at the world.

  • Very cool post Mike!  I’m working on the same topic, but I’ll doubt if i’ll do as well as you did!! :D

Post a Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Categories