Month: January 2013

The Fiscal Cliff – An Explanation


In case you are not clear about what’s behind all the talk about The Fiscal Cliff , here is an explanation (which I received this morning) which helped me at least understand why it is called a cliff

The Figures

* U.S. Annual Tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000
* Annual Federal budget: $3,820,000,000,000
* New debt next year: $ 1,650,000,000,000
* National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
* Recent budget cuts: $ 38,500,000,000

Let’s now remove 8 zeros and pretend it’s a household budget:

* Annual family income: $21,700
* Money the family spent: $38,200
* New debt on the credit card: $16,500
* Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710
* Total budget cuts so far: $38.50

Got It ??…….OK now,

Here’s another way to look at the Debt Ceiling:

Let’s say, You come home from work and find
there has been a sewer backup in your neighbourhood
and your home has sewage all the way up to your ceilings.

Now what do you think you should do ……

Raise the ceilings, or remove the shit?

Adrian von Ziegler – Instrumental Music


Stumbled across this while noodling around in You Tube. It was, for me, a pleasant surprise.

About Adrian von Ziegler – Instrumental Music

I’m an independent composer from Switzerland who creates various styles of mostly Celtic, Gothic, Metal and Film Music.

Everybody who likes and spreads my music is very highly appreciated since making independent music more known is incredibly hard these days.

Younger Brother – Train


This is Younger Brother and I like this, a lot.

It needs to be listened to LOUD. If this doesn’t get you moving then you are clinically dead.

Scammers ??? – PPI Claims Company


Luckily I don’t get many unsolicited messages on my mobile. To be honest I can only think of two occasions in the last 5 to 7 years.

A few days ago I received the following text …..

Hi, your PPi claim still owes you £1702.43 from when it was mis-sold to you, it’s in your name waiting to be sent out to you. To get it sent out today reply PPi

The number from which it appears to have been sent is +447780642096

As I hadn’t submitted a claim I immediately smelled a rat.

This didn’t come across as a fishing exercise i.e. The message didn’t say “I could be owed …”. The figure they quoted was specific so they had sown the seeds of doubt in my mind.   If it had been a bit more neutral I would have written it off as text spam. After studying it a bit more I decided that if this was truly aimed at me it would have been a bit more formal. Something along the lines of “Dear Mr…..” or “Dear Robert …”.

OK so I decided to ignore this, treat it with the contempt it so obviously deserved.

My real concern about this type of message was raised last night while I was down at my daughters. I just happened to mention this text and without batting an eyelid she trumped my text with three of her own. She had received them over a fairly short period and they all came from different numbers.

Two of hers quoted the same sum of money owed but adding hers to mine we are “owed” something in the region of £7k – £8k.

Whoohoo !!! We are in the money. NOT !!!

I have tried calling the number  but I just get the “number has not been recognised” message.

Surely this blanket unsolicited messaging has to be illegal.  The actual message is a lie so this has to be defined as some sort of mis-representation.

I can see that some people, older folks perhaps, may be suckered into following up on this type of message.

Has anyone else out there received similar messages ?

Has anyone ever followed up and text back to them ?