Memorial Day

If you have followed my Facebook posts or Twitter account for any length of time you probably have figured out I am a stickler when it comes to holidays.

I am often dismayed by how disconnected Americans are from the reasons and origins of the holidays we set aside. Because of this every holiday has turned into just another day off work.

So what is Memorial Day?

Memorial Day is a day that has been set aside to remember those who died while protecting our country. It is a day that we stop and remember that the freedom and liberty we enjoy came at a price; and that some paid the ultimate price in giving their life that we might live free.

Traditional observance of Memorial Day would include a visit to the graves of fallen soldiers or a memorial, flying the U.S. Flag at half staff until noon (adding a POW/MIA flag is appropriate as well), pausing at 3pm for a National Moment or Remembrance, and making or renewing a commitment to care for the widows, widowers, and orphans of our nations dead and disabled veterans.

Does this mean I think we should all cancel out trips to the beach and put out the fire on grill? No way!

It was exactly these kinds of things that our brave veterans fought and died for. But, in between the beach, the bbq, and the beer please take a moment to remember the reason we can celebrate Memorial Day in the "land of the free" is because of the brave.

Take care of the pennies, and the dollars will take care of themselves.

Do you know why one side is longer?

When I was young I had the benefit of knowing and spending time with Bernard Paul Schweich, or as I called him, Grandpa.

He was on old school farmer who had a quite wisdom about him that I hope to someday attain. He was fond of jokes. To this day I will never forget why one side is longer when geese fly in a "V" formation. And woven in and among all the jokes and anecdotes were little nuggets of wisdom that have stuck with me all these years.

One bit of advice that he gave me that recently took on a new meaning for me was the phrase, "Take care of the pennies, and the dollars will take care of themselves."

When I was 15 years old, all that this meant to me was keep track of your money; but I have come to learn that it reaches far deeper than may bank account.

Essentially, when you break it all down, what he was really telling me was that if I mind the details then I won't have to worry as much about the big stuff.

Take my marriage, as an example.

Marriages end all the time. Statistically, a marriage is now more likely to end in divorce than to survive 25 years. But how does that happen?

Do people get married thinking that it is only a short term deal? Probably not, or they would at least change the vows from 'till death do us part to something more like 'till something better comes along. And if the problem is not on the wedding day, when does it happen?

Does someone just wake up one day and say, "I am not in love. I was in love yesterday, but today I feel nothing." No, more likely than not it was a gradual slide from devotion to apathy.

Our wedding day.

With that in mind, how can I increase my chances of one day celebrating 50 years of marriage to Heather?

Details.

Instead of letting the two of us grow apart I need to take the time on a regular basis to catch up with my wife. Ask her how she is doing and really mean it. I need to do little things like vacuum the carpet when it's not my turn or bring home flowers or rent a movie she wanted to see just so I can sit on the couch and watch it with her.

These are all small things; details. But what is the likelihood that two people grow apart when so much effort is put into making sure even the little things are taken care of?

Google Wallet: Technological Advance or Scary Proposition?

There has been a lot of talk the past few days about the new Google Wallet.

For those who are not up to speed, Google has launched a new service that makes payments from your debit or credit card through your smart phone. When making a purchase, instead of pulling out your wallet and swiping your card, you simply wave your smartphone.

There is a concern that the process is not entirely secure, and of course there is the question as to what happens if you loose your phone.

My take?

I remember when banks first started issuing debit cards to all checking account holders. Instead of a card that was only good for withdrawing cash from an ATM, now everyone had access to instant credit that was tied to their checking or savings account.

People worried about the lack of security and I knew many who guarded their card like it was their child, some would not even take it out of their house unless they knew they were going to have a specific use for the card.

As time went on and the cards became more and more prevalent and debit card use became common place many people stopped worrying about the card.

As a waiter, I still see cards that have "SEE ID" written in the signature line on the back of the card, but I have yet to have anyone question me when I ran the card without asking for proper identification. This is despite the fact that restaurants are probably the single worst place to let your credit card leave your sight.

My prediction is that there will be many who will start to use the new Google Wallet right away.

It is futuristic and convenient and will give everyone another reason to brag about their smartphone.

As time passes, paying by smartphone will become more common and adoption will become more widespread.

Does that mean there will be no risk involved? Probably not.

But honestly, do you think your debit card is 100% secure?

Chivalry is not dead, but it needs a little help.

Chris Hemsworth as "Thor"

Gov. Chris Christie

Recently I was able to take in a movie with my lovely bride, Heather.

We went and saw Thor, and what struck me most about the movie (aside from the fact that I wish my body looked more like Chris Hemsworth and less like Chris Christie) was how chivalrous the Thor character was.

At one point in the movie, Thor (Hemsworth) is telling Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) that he will return for her. As they stand face to face you naturally expect him to go in for a lip-lock, but instead he kisses her hand. Despite the fact that Foster ends up planting one on Thor anyway, I thought it was great to see such gentlemanly behavior displayed by a character that men will no doubt want to emulate.

Perhaps we will get lucky and young men who go to see the comic book hero action movie will walk away with a lesson in chivalry.

Is it too much to hope for?

Education Bubble?

Lately I have been seeing articles pop up asking whether we are headed for an Education Bubble.

For those unfamiliar with the term; a bubble is a situation where market for a certain asset is grossly inflated. An example is the housing bubble from a few years ago.

Money flooded the real estate market causing a higher demand on the same supply. This drove house prices up, sometimes doubling the price of one property in a short time. Investors flocked to real estate to get in on the action but when housing prices leveled off and started to adjust back to actual value many were left holding the proverbial bag.

The new question is whether or not the same thing is happening with education, and specifically business education.

I will admit that I am not an impartial observer on this one. I am headed back to school in the fall to resume work on a B.S. in Management and Organization; so I have a HUGE stake in the game. However, I see this impending "bubble" from a different perspective.

I have always thought that Education is a difficult asset to value. The reason being that so many people approach higher education in such different ways.

There are those who see college as nothing more than a four year house party with a few classes thrown in for god measure. There are those who see college as a guarantee of a high paying job, or at least a guarantee of being placed on track for a high paying job. But I am not like either of these groups.

I am 32 years old, married, and father of two young boys. The last thing I am interested in is a kegger or a frat party. As a matter of fact, I would be just fine if I manage to find a way to avoid that side of college life all together.

I also understand exactly what I am getting for my money.

When I graduate with my degree I will be handed a piece of paper. That piece of paper will be similar, maybe even nearly identical, to other pieces of paper handed out that day. But that piece of paper is not what I am paying thousands of dollars to receive.

I see every minute of every class as an opportunity to gain knowledge that can never be taken from me. I see every peer and professor as a potential networking opportunity. I see every assignment in every class as a chance to receive feed-back on how well I grasp the skills that I will need to succeed. In short, I see that the money I will be paying out over the next 2 years as payment for an opportunity, nothing more.

I believe that this is where the "bubble" WILL come in for many.

At the end of four years (perhaps more) at a college or university many will gripe about the job market or complain about the student loan debt they have to pay off despite the fact that they can't land a high paying job. They will talk about the Education Bubble and how they were duped into paying thousands of dollars for a worthless degree. And to them I will say, "You get what you pay for."

I won't mean that they should have gone to a school with a higher tuition rate or taken more classes. What I will mean is that when they had the opportunity to choose between a night out partying vs. a night in the library pouring over text books they should have chosen the books.

I will mean that when they were sitting in class using their phone to text or catch up on Facebook they should have been listening and taking notes.

I will mean that when the teacher covers 15 of 17 chapters of the text book they should have read and learned the other two chapters.

I will mean that instead of playing Angry Birds or Play Station during their down time they should have been informing themselves about the field they want to enter; reading articles, journal publications, anything they can get their hands on that will help them to live, eat, and breathe the career they want to have.

I will mean that instead of taking the "easy A" class they should have stretched themselves by taking the hard class and buckling down to learn the material like their life depended on it, because... well... it does.

I guess I see things differently this time around.

When I took classes before it was for show.

But this time I have a family counting on me to do give the best I have every day.

Is there an Education Bubble? Will I be borrowing money for a worthless piece of paper?

Not the way I see it.

Pirates vs. Ninjas: A Discussion of Digital Piracy

Over the years I have had countless debates on the topic of intellectual property rights with countless people.

I, being a musician, come down firmly on the side of protecting the rights of the artist and their product. When I write a song it is a very personal experience to me; nearly on par with having children.

I understand that for many it is hard to understand a recorded song or video as property. Due to the technological advances of the modern world songs, books, and movies have been reduced to little more than 0s and 1s of binary code.

It is easy to justify violating copyright law because downloading a computer file from a P2P share site has very little in common with stealing physical property. It is easy to argue that you aren't even stealing.

When you steal physical property it is gone. The lawful owner can't drive the car that was stolen from them. But the argument is that when you pirate music and movies you are simply making a copy of the original and in no way diminishing the original.

My argument against this is simple supply and demand.

Let us suppose that a song is worth $X. This is the price that the writer can hope to earn by selling the song individually or selling the copyright wholesale to another party. This price is affected by the genre of music, the talent and skill of the writer, and the overall appeal of the song.

In the days before digital media, that price was guaranteed; not the individual price of the song but rather that the writer was guaranteed to receive compensation for the value of the song.

The problem is that now, as soon as the song is released there are thousands (likely more) of people who are willing to make copies of that song to be distributed for free. All of the sudden there is a HUGE supply for the same demand which means the price people are willing to pay drops.

This means that the song, instead of being worth $X, is now worth $X/1000, $X/100,000, or even less.

Some don't see this as a problem. After all, the only one hurt by digital piracy is the big, greedy record companies; right?

Maybe not. Maybe we all pay.

To shed light on this question I will use another industry.

Doctors garner a considerable salary. Most of the top 10 highest paying jobs in the US are types of doctors. And well they should be.

The training to be a doctor is expensive both in time and actual money and are granted a superior level of trust. Add to that the fact that medical school is highly competitive and the process highly selective (eliminating many who cannot stand the mental rigor) and the basic economic forces of wage compensation make the price paid for a doctor's time high.

However, as the cost of being a doctor increases through higher tuition costs and higher malpractice insurance rates and returns decrease because of insurance payment rates (insurance companies rarely pay full price for anything), the increase in federal price fixing through Medicare and Medicaid (and soon to be even worse through Obama-care) the incentive to be a doctor decreases. Who, in their right mind, decides to go into a career field where the return on their investment of training is on the decline?

Because of this there are many bright, gifted young would-be doctors who are choosing instead to enter an entirely different field.

In the same way, is it possible that after seeing a diminishing return on their investment, talented young artists are entering other fields than music?

Ask anyone older than 25 years old if the music as a whole is better today or years ago. Not to say that there isn't any good music today; just that the percentage of good music to mediocre/bad music is on the slide.

Is it possible that this reduction in quality is due to an exodus from the music industry? And if piracy is, even in some small part, a cause of this diminishing; who really pays for digital piracy?

What do you think?