Retirement Heist

When I saw the author of this book, Ellen E. Schultz, interviewed on The Daily Show I knew I had to try and get my hands on a copy. It didn't have anything to do with the amount of charisma she showed (very little). I'm just getting to the age that I'm thinking more and more about how to finance our retirement. I was also kind of curious why pensions are no longer very common. It seems like you used to be able to put in 20 years with a company, and be pretty certain that your pension would keep you comfortable. That no longer seems to be the case.

So I checked it out of my local library. (Do you have a library card? You should!)

It's a slow read, and I'm going to confess that some of the math that companies use to turn employees retirement accounts into a revenue stream, goes right over my head. That statement alone, should give you a pretty good idea how companies have exploited loopholes in our benefits system, for their own gain.

I had my original question, "why are pensions no longer common", answered early on in the book. Corporate leaders, mostly in the late 80's and early 90's, misled their shareholders/employees into thinking that the retirement plans could not continue to survive, because they were underfunded based on how many retirees there were expected to be. This was what caused retirement plans to switch from being pensions, which are secure and safe; to 401(k)s, which are tied to the stock market. Anyone with a 401(k) knows how poorly they have been doing.

There is a lot more in this book that will kick your outrage in to high gear. Like the way that retirement plans are used to finance lavish executive exit bonuses. That's one of the worst parts. Corporate execs said that pension plans were under funded, the reason they were saying that is because they couldn't pay top execs huge payouts when THEY retired, while continuing to pay regular retiree pensions.

This book is well written, and has lots of references backing up the claims it contains. It's pretty dry reading, but the author does a great job at the daunting task of addressing the layman. It prompted me to make sure that I keep a closer eye on my 401(k). My employer automatically invests part of my retirement in company stock. In the past year that stock lost 23% of it's value. Since I'm 40 years old, it's time for me to start monitoring that, and making sure that it's not money I'm just pissing away.

It's Official, My Son No Longer Thinks I'm Cool

The Parent Teacher Organization was having a fund raiser at my son's school today. It was a walkathon, they got pledges from people to walk for an hour. There was no minimum number of laps. As parents we were invited to come out and either walk with the kids, or just stand along the path and cheer them on. I decided to head out to try and be supportive. My father-in-law and my mother-in-law drove from an hour away to join in the festivities.

My 6, soon to be 7, year-old son completely ignored all three of us! We tried to walk along with him, but he completely blew us off to walk with his friends. I told my father-in-law that I couldn't believe he wasn't excited to see us. His response, "You get used to it".

On the ride back to work, I realized I was the same way when I was that age. I guess I should be glad that he has friends that he would rather spend time with than me. Let's face it, I'm "Dad". As much fun as he and I can have together when it's just family, I'm no substitute for someone in his own age group. Having friends outside of your family is a sign of maturity, I should have been more concerned if he wanted to walk around the circle with us the whole time.

Still, the truth hurts.

Lucky Me!

I was buckling Piper into her car seat yesterday, just like I do every weekday morning, and I set my travel mug filled with delicious piping hot coffee on the roof of my car. Once I got her all buckled in, I jumped in the car and drove off. I made it to the intersection of Landis Valley Road and Oregon Pike when I tried to take my first sip of the coffee I had so carefully prepared, when I realized it wasn't in my cup holder.

After cursing my stupidity quietly, since my innocent baby girl was in the back seat, I decided to jump out of my car just to see how it spilled. To my surprise, it was still sitting on the roof of my car!

So I had traveled almost a mile with it on my roof, and it didn't spill a drop! The early morning frost had frozen it securely to the roof of my car, and that's the luckiest I've ever been.

RAGE Review

Let me just start out by saying that RAGE is not a great game. It's a good game, that could have been great.

The setting is similar to lots of other games out there. You are trapped in a post apocalyptic wasteland. Yada, yada, yada. If you've played Bioshock, Fallout, Borderlands, Resident Evil, Half-Life 2, Portal 2 etc. You know the score. Lots of decrepit buildings, roads, and machinery. Of course you have good guys, that look like humans, and bad guys that look like horribly deformed mutants/armored thugs.

Various inhabitants of the towns that you visit give you tasks to do. They usually require you to visit an area, make your way through it to a particular item (maybe defeat a boss), fight your way out of the area, and then take the item back to whoever asked you to retrieve it. The story progresses in mostly a linear fashion. There are some side quests that are pretty entertaining. The first few I did were sniper missions, which is always a nice change of pace after killing things in close quarters.

There's a racing component that is a nice addition. Winning races allows you to earn certificates to upgrade your vehicle. The racing is not great, this is no substitute for a good racing game, but it's a nice change of pace from the first person shooter part of the game. It's also a nice way to let you upgrade your vehicle besides dropping a lot of your hard earned cash.

There are also some mini games thrown in. The one I like the best is a game show. Set in a series of treacherous arenas, you have to fight wave after wave of bad guys managing your ammo along the way. If you make it to the end, you are awarded a very nice prize.

While working your way through all of these quests, you can visit Outfitters. These stores allow you to purchase ammo, armor upgrades, and schematics to build things with items that you have found along the way. I won't go into too much detail here, but one of these build-able items is REALLY cool.

It's a Pipe Bender...and it hurts.

A lot of reviews that I read before I bought the game said that it was not a very original concept, and I can see why people would say that. Luckily I hadn't been playing alot of this type of game, so that didn't really effect me.

Most importantly the Game LOOKS amazing.

ID Software has created a new engine, id Tech 5 that allows developers to really utilize the horsepower blah blah blah. It looks awesome!!! Just like the 4 versions before it, this is going to be the best in class gaming engine going forward, and RAGE is the first showcase for it. I can't wait to see what developers do with it going forward!

This is a good game, that looks amazing.