Mang's Random Insights Into the Interesting and Mundane

I am home tonight hanging out because the snow continues to fall here in the Midwest. It has not stopped for days, and it is going to continue until at least next Monday. Welcome to northern country! Given the choice between watching Jersey Shore and making fun of people on that show and writing an article on something interesting yet mundane, I suppose you have guessed what my choice was. Or you haven’t because you in fact are someone from the Jersey Shore that cannot seem to understand words written by someone not written in a brogue or a text message.

Sometimes I wonder why our society promotes such behavior, and then I sit back and realize why everyone acts the way they do. But I digress, I’ll probably have an observation on that fairly soon.

Onto the article.

Quote of Day

From Real World, as I was flicking through the channels. A girl on Real World got a new bedroom, and on the wall was one of her favorite presidents. A Republican no less. Who the president was escapes me, because I did not get to see who it was. Her friend had this to say.

“It bothers me that my roommate does not have a sense of her political philosophy. She does not seem to understand that the more to the left the better. Because to be left is to be right”.

After which she pranced around the room in her short shorts while her guy roommate (who made it known that he was trying to score with this chick and is why he wanted to room with her) took a picture of her chest.

Yeah, I think that about says everything. Barely legal teens given luxurious boarding in Washington D.C. that they aren’t paying for pretty much sums up that mentality. If you asked her what she meant by her quote, I would wager she would have no idea except peace, love, and the rich are evil. Damn neo-hippies.

Political Irony

In an article by the Washington Examiner, there was an interesting observation that is worth noting about how this current Obama presidency is going. “When George W. Bush returned, bloodied and bruised, to his Texas home after eight years in the White House, 43 percent of Americans surveyed by Scott Rasmussen ‘strongly disapproved’ of the job he had done. Today, after less than a year in office, 46 percent express the same intense level of opposition to Obama.”

If you think about that statement, it is very telling of how things have gone over the past year. There will be criticism that the Republicans purposely tried to sabotage things, or even that it was their doing that caused these problems in the first place. The reality, however, is this year was Obama’s to win or lose. When you have the executive and legislative branches in your control, the only one you can blame is yourself if things don’t go according to plan.

Big 10’s Time to Shine—SEC, ACC, and Pac-10 Stumble

The Big 10 rose to the occasion this past week, and as a conference they ought to be commended for pulling some major stops. Ohio State shut down a high powered Oregon team and Pryor lived up to the hype. Penn State edged out LSU in a fantastic game, though there was a questionable call at the end that will be remembered for years to come. Wisconsin beat Miami, which is always something that warms my heart to see a Florida team fall to a Midwestern team.

Michigan State could not seal the deal against their Big 12 opponent Texas Tech (who itself had issues with their recently fired coach), but the reality of that was they had 14 players out of the picture and were having some severe personnel problems. Northwestern tried a fake field goal of all things, and for their boldness I commend them on a hard fought battle.

Are we seeing a Big 10 resurgence? Not so fast my friend! The Big 10 had an excellent bowl series, with Iowa in the wings for a showdown January 5th at the Orange Bowl against another ACC opponent Georgia Tech. But the Big 10 needs to shape up and continue playing at a high level. The Big 10 may have turned a few heads this past week, but overall it is still considered the weaker of the conferences. If the Big 10 can field some contenders the following years, that may change a few opinions.

In the mind of this author, until Ohio State can beat a USC or an LSU or a Florida, this conference will continue to be viewed as the conference with the big guys that cannot run as fast as the other guys. Pryor showed some speed, our running backs looked good, and we need to keep it up.

CPA Examination

Today was the day for the Uniform CPA Examination, section BEC. I have to say even after studying for this thing, it still seems like the odds of passing are (in my mind anyway) 60-40. Granted the first time I took this exam without studying I pulled a 73, so you would think with more studying would put me over, right? Well, unfortunately, instead of feeling like a smashed one out of the park, it feels like a high fly ball that could go foul or fair and I will not know until a month or two down the road.

A friend of mine directed me to a site called Another71.com. It is actually an interesting site about the CPA examination, study materials, advice, and so forth. I spent a little time there checking it out, because the creator of the site took an enormously long amount of time trying to pass this thing. I offer my congratulations to him for sticking with it, because he more than most can probably attest to the fact this exam was made by the devil himself. Check out the site if you can.

Tomorrow or Wednesday I am going to start studying for Regulations. Maybe you have shared in this misery, maybe you haven’t. But rest assured it is the bane of the existence of most people until they can pass this thing.

Those were just a few things on my mind.

The Mang
Conservative Capo of Youngstown