Thursday, November 13, 2008

Welcome to Natastica!

Ah welcome friends. It's been awhile since I got into the blogosphere. I'm sure you've all missed me as much as I missed you. Let's start with a little update to wet your whistle. First and foremost; I am well on my way to not being a royal moocher due to my recent change in employment status. After my extended vacation from doing anything I have now returned to the ranks of the eight to fivers. My new workplace at Texas Tech will give me the opportunity to mentor and manage Tech students. While the actual job duties are far less technical than I initially expected I am eager to gain management experience. I will bring a reign of oversight that has not been seen in years. I will fire students at a whim and instill a righteous fear that will inspire my underlings to follow me into the darkest realms of user incompetence and executive entitlement. As far as my personal life goes I am afraid that there is very little to report. My recent acquisition of another year in addition to the 24 I previously owned has weighed me down to a greater degree than I expected. I find myself on the fence of those two backyards known as twenty and thirty. Unfortunately there appears to be some sort of drought as all the grass in these lawns is brown. However I think there may be some rain on the horizon. The latest big news actually includes two other individuals. Ethan, Rob, and I will be moving into a house soon! Soon being the beginning of December and house being my residence for the first 18 year's of my life. Congrats to all involved and wish us luck in attempting to sift through the vast treasure trove of miscellanea (word? yes! the spellchecker corrected my spelling) that is stored there. As we gear up for the upcoming holiday I find myself frequently looking forward to the various family members that will be passing through and/or staying in Lubbock. Not to mention a certain someone we all know gettin himself hitched. So basically we all engorge ourselves over thanksgiving to the point where we deform our wedding outfits in celebration of Dad and Janet's commitment to each other.
At this point I have exhausted my updates section. The good news for you is that I have other thoughts on my mind today. Prepare to be completely and utterly mindnumbed by my paragraph of politically oriented boredom. With the recent election and widespread renewed interest in politics. I found myself likewise swept up in the frenzy of sudden fascination. I have noticed that now that it's popular in the news it appears that the majority of people I know have come to the conclusion that they either A. have the expertise to be a professional political analyst or B. are incapable of understanding what's going on but enjoy regurgitating what they have heard on TV just to be social. I find that it is not particularly difficult to raise a few pointed questions and move people from group A to group B. I have been slightly dismayed but more depressed by the rampant ignorance that appears to motivate the voters of this nation. As I previously indicated a very short interrogation of many people will lead them to saying something similar to "Obama is gonna get me a bigger tax cut" or "NOBama! What kind of American would vote for a Muslim!". Frankly I fear for our nation. There is a very real urge to blame the representatives currently leading our nation for the problems we face. After seeing the rampant chosen ignorance of American voters I must conclude that the real issue is our own complacent idiocy. I ask those who say that our government does not represent our people to reconsider their position. As a majority do we really care that much about who governs us? Honestly I see a hoard of people who simply want their everyday routine to continue. They have little knowledge or concern for the processes that make the life they live possible. They are the sheep in the back of the herd. They see their fellow sheep near them moving and they follow ignorant as to who the shepherd is and what agenda he maintains. Speaking of leaders. We have a new president-elect. I was not surprised or particularly disappointed when Obama was announced the campaign champion. I had no desire to express my support for either candidate therefore I abstained from voting. Surprisingly my vote would have made absolutely no change in the presidential race as Texas was won by McCain by a significant margin. Back to Obama. I disagree with his entire perception of the purpose of government. I heartily rebuke his appeals to creating a fair America that will meet the wants of our ignorant entitlement syndrome. Life is not fair. People who don't have much in life realize this tragic truth and do their best to get by. "But America is the land of the free and here anyone can become anything they want to be, Right?" People say this and what they mean is. "We give money to the poor so they don't have a disadvantage." Sadly government programs do not appear to be giving all these families on welfare a "fair shake". But by all means let's see if Obama can fix it by throwing more money at them. I hope Obama has a more detailed and properly researched plan but I retain a large measure of incredulity. I could expound further but I will restrain myself. While I take the easy road in this matter by ridiculing the issues I must remind myself to practice constructive criticism. We know our current government is filled with inefficiencies and errors. If this is the case we should provide alternative solutions based on our knowledge, experience, or in my case fairly biased and unresearched opinion. To begin the discussion I have several ideas that I believe would be beneficial. Renovate our economic system. Our current system of fiat currency (currency backed by the nation printing it) is largely based on the perception of the stability, power, and production of our nation. This leads to a vicious cycle of inflation during recession and lacks sustainability. Based on my extensive wikiresearch, which makes me an expert, I believe that representative currency (currency backed by an actual tangible resource) would allow for an economic system that can regulate itself more effectively through supply and demand. This is merely one of my many brilliant solutions I have come up with. I know there are many others who read this blog that have far more experience and knowledge financially and politically. I would love to hear some ideas on how to create a better government. Let's begin the comment stampede.

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7 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

Yea! Nat's back on the blogs! :) I saw Tricia's picture of your birthday party on facebook and it looked great.

12:34 PM  
Blogger Brittany said...

you caved! Just couldn't handle 360 anymore, eh? Guess I am one of the only ones smart and strong enough to do so. Good luck in your new weakened state. Oh dear, politics. I am completely sick of it all. Too much ignorance.
brittany

8:49 AM  
Blogger Drs Meyer said...

you wanna stir up a beehive. however i deign to acquiesce to your request to debate certain issues in this blog. i will expound upon the birthday celebration however which took place at the infamous (now and forever to be NOTfamous) Fuddruckers. Nat had a birthday cake brought into the party AND Happy Birthday sung to him very loudly by all the family (Cooper taking the lead in that one). Embarassing you say...nah...just another Eckstein family get together!!! he loved it and so did the rest of us :D beyond amazement, he appeared to turn neither purple nor red -- his natural good skin coloring remained intact and his humor never failed. i salute, applaud and say hats off, cuz! furthermore, i have not been able to restrain my laughter aloud at the effusion of words pouring forth from the noble brain of you. welcome back

2:58 PM  
Blogger thegnat777 said...

Ah dear cuz. Thank you so much for making sure that everyone who reads my attempt at appearing intelligent will now picture me at Fuddruckers giddily clapping over my homemade cake while being seranaded by a happy birthday chorus. It was a great party and I am so very glad you were there to contribute to the celebration. Just another typical family memory to file away in the mental scrapbook. As for you Holly...Yes you have my permission revel in the glory that is my return to blogging. I assume you represent the collective sigh of relief that everyone gave upon seeing a new post from me. Brittany...Perhaps in time you will gain a level of insight fractional to mine that will lead you to the land of functional blog sites. Zing!

3:23 PM  
Blogger Chrissy Cross said...

Thank the Lord you have left the crumbling 360!! Yahoo is run by incompetent fools (I think I heard Dad say that one time). Well, your political commentary was hilarious and I needed a laugh. Next time I think that you should write a commentary about why and how Obama will provide us all with free healthcare and not raise our taxes.

9:18 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Okay, after a burger eaten too late last night and that has woken me up so early in the morning I have several thoughts about your political commentary. We have two rights in this country 1. To Vote 2. To be politically active. We don't always get things to go our way when we vote but we do get a "say" in how the country is managed. You admit that you didn't vote because "it didn't matter". Isn't this the apathy and attitude you are complaining about in all americans? You say that your vote wouldn't have mattered anyway because you are in Texas and it's going to McCain anyway, well probably true. BUT there are usually always bonds or tax hikes or something of that nature on ballots as well as candidates for office. I'm sure the city of Lubbock or Lubbock county probably had some bonds for you to vote on that you could either vote to give them more of your money or not give them more of your money. So your vote might have made a difference on that as well as the votes of all the other people who didn't vote because "it wouldn't have mattered". Not trying to be mean and send you on a guilt trip for not voting (well maybe a little :) but making a difference starts at a local level. You may not get things to go your way on the bond issues either but at least you tried and probably had much more say in what happened with that than with electing a president. There were two county bonds on our ballot and I voted against them both. Unfortunately they both passed...but at least I voiced my opinion about whether to spend more money or not. Local voting for city and county politicians who are going to spend or not spend your money depending on their policies is also a great way to influence the whole out of control spending situation that is facing our government right now. Small ways it is true, but you gotta start somewhere!

2:20 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Oh... I guess your actual quote was that "The real issue is our own complacent idiocy".. or something like that.

2:23 AM  

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