In about 17 years my son will be getting ready to go to college. How much will college cost then???? $75,000 a year? $100,000 a year?? Reading stories like the one below is really disheartening.  Who benefits from these rising costs? Not the student or the family that has to go into decades of debt to pay for an education.

How did the system get so out of wack? How many students in the next 10-15 years will have to completely skip going to college because there is just no way they can afford it? And getting loans will be unrealistic because it will take over 50 years to repay them. Like I said - it sucks.

From campusgrotto.com - As expected, college tuition seems to go up just about every year now. Sure, part of the reason may be inflation, but still the increases in tuition seem to outpace inflation by two to three times its rate.

You would think the weak economy would have an effect on tuition prices, and maybe it does. Perhaps alumni donors are unable to give as much as they have in the past. (more…)

We probably grill out 3-5 days a week and just love the way food tastes when cooked on the grill. Want to see one of the coolest things I saw online today. Check out these outdoor kitchens. I WANT ONE BAD.

BUT our backyard does not look like the these in any way. Our grill is just sitting outside by our back door. I would love to have an amazing outdoor kitchen like one of these. The best thing in my opinion would be all of the cabinets and just having all the cooking tools right there. Right now I have to bring everything outside every time we grill. Since we grill so much that is a lot of walking back and forth from the house to the grill with all the utensils and grill tools. If we had an outdoor kitchen like this everything could be stored right by the grill. That would be heaven.

Finally, look at the COOL swim up bar found here. That would be taking my outdoor dream yard to a whole new level. A pool and an outdoor kitchen … a dream, oh what a dream!

In a strange twist one of Alaska’s largest papers - the Anchorage Daily News - posted a long opinion piece today endorsing Senator Obama for President. This would not be big news if Sarah Palin was from any other state. But as we all know - she is from the great state of Alaska.

Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee, brings far more promise to the office. In a time of grave economic crisis, he displays thoughtful analysis, enlists wise counsel and operates with a cool, steady hand. The same cannot be said of Sen. McCain

So what do we make of this? Is this really news, or just something we all really knew deep down inside from the first day her name was announced. (more…)

I love finding out stuff like this, especially at this time of the year and this close to the big elections. Apparently the domain sarapailin.com is available to rent. In addition there are all types of questions about who actually owns the McCain Domain.

How people would ever know in advance to register the domain name for Sarah Palin is beyond me. But I guess people are cyber-squatting on every name of anyone even remotely in the public eye. Luckily I have registered my family name, children’s name, and every different spelling even close to my name I could think of just in case any of us ever become stars!

I found these stories on an entertaining news blog called Single Pill. It is a good read and one I enjoyed when finding this information to post here. Check it out!

I love creativity that political campaigns bring it out every 4 years. There really is nothing like it, with the exception of the Super Bowl ads.

Remember the old Whassup Budweiser commercials that were popular a few years ago. This is the most famous of them -

Well someone VERY creative has updated the commercial as an Obama promotional video. This might be the best political video for either side I have seen yet. Very well done. Check this out -

I just LOVE the Internet. You can do virtually anything with technology today, including a bad ass dance off like this! Look at McCain’s face when dancing. Funny. Enjoy.

Many of you know that I lived in NYC for many years. Not Long Island or Hoboken, but Upper West Side in “THE City”. Since moving south 9 years ago for business I have missed the greatest city on Earth every single day. There just is nothing like it.

My wife has never been there so we made the decision today that we are going this December. We are going to try to see everything including: the big Christmas tree, skate in Central Park, go see the old Yankees stadium and the new one, do the Circle Line tour on the water if it is warm enough, and hopefully also do the New York Helicopter tour - which is a must if you can find time to do it. (more…)

In the past SIX MONTHS I have purchased 1 pair of jeans from Express, 1 pair of khaki pants for work from Walmart, a few shirts here and there and 1 pair of Nike sneakers that were on sale at Dick’s sporting goods. I MIGHT have spent $100-150 total and that was over a 6 month period.

Today the AP reported that “the Republican National Committee spent about $150,000 on clothing, hair styling, makeup and other “campaign accessories” in September for the McCain campaign after Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin joined the ticket as his running mate.” $150,000!!????????!! ON WHAT? (more…)

My Email has an incurable cancer. It seems that EVERY other email I get now is from someone trying to influence me with their views. Somehow people think that mass emails proclaiming why their candidate is better then the next will somehow influence others. Today I received the one below FOUR times within the span of 2 hours from different people. It never ceases to amaze me how fast negative propaganda and rhetoric spreads like an out of control cancer.

Here is today’s email of the moment. Interestingly to me is that the people who send these are always forwarding an email they received from “SOMEONE“. Makes me want to scream at how aggravating it is to have these emails fill up my Inbox day after day.

- - Today’s Email Cancer. Everything below is what was sent to me. - -

Someone sent this to me - interesting reading regardless (more…)

This past week I was in Atlantic City for the annual East Coast Nightclub and Bar show. While the show was OK, what stood out for me was the fact that NO MATTER how much AC tries to upgrade itself it will NEVER be close to Las Vegas. Never!

I don’t care how much building they do or multi billion dollar hotel/casinos they open, they just can not match the energy or excitement you feel when you walk into one of the Vegas hotels. We went from hotel to hotel and it just felt depressed in Atlantic City. In Vegas you can walk into any hotel on any day of the week and the place is JUMPING. (more…)