.: bistan.net :.

Today was a historical day in America.  The stock market dropped over 777 points — the largest drop in history.  Because Congress couldn’t pass a $700 billion rescue package, Americans like me lost more than twice that.  I’m sure that over the next 24 hours, the markets around the globe will follow suit.  Of course, all of my retirement savings are in the stock market along with a little bit of savings.

I’m not sure that Congress should tackle another rescue package at this point.  I would like to see the market stay low for a while so that I can accumulate more shares at this nice discount before a rally occurs.

The way I see it, we have two choices. We can let the markets correct themselves and probably ruin the retirement for the baby boomer generations.  Or we can patch the problem with a rescue bill, and let my generation pay for it later.

I’m just happy to have 35 more years before I turn 65.

I haven’t had much to say in the last week or so.  Life is moving on.  I’ve been working on getting things done around the house.  I’ve also done a little running. Although I did pass my monthly mileage record in September, I haven’t really done much since setting that record.  I do have 2 more days to correct that.

We are staying busy.  We are doing a yard sale on Saturday to get rid of some of the kids old clothes and toys and a few other things.  At some point soon we will go to the Georgia National Fair.  I will also post the photos that I entered into their photography contest and let you know how I did.

Work is busy as well.  For the past 2 weeks, it seems like every day has been another Monday.  I had to interview job candidates on four of the five days last week.  There are a lot of things going on.

We joined a small group at church, probably better described as a book club. I also applied for acceptance into the Master of Science in Software Systems program.  We’ll see what happens.

Have a good week!

I did hit the road again last night — and added an additional 4 miles at a very good pace.  I am now 6/10 of a mile short of having a record month (as far as cummulative distance in a month).  I’ll knock that out tonight!

Now these are the kind of numbers I like to see in Microsoft Money . . .

A few more days like that and I’ll be able to retire early!

I should have known this week was going to be like this when I saw the full moon outside . . .

At work, it was like five Mondays in a row!  Maybe this is because I only worked 4 days for the last 3 weeks in a row.

Gas prices were outrageous.  The majority is because of panic anyway.  It looks like the oil companies have some more record quarterly profits ahead.

The stock market went on a nice roller coaster ride.  My retirement portfolio lost quite a bit of money early in the week, only to gain some back a few days later.

Let’s hope better days are ahead.

I’ve worked at Mercer for well over 3 years now, but I’ve only taken advantage of the tuition waiver benefit by taking two classes.  I thoroughly enjoyed the two photography courses, but I’m wondering if I’m wasting my time by not pursuing another degree while I’m here.  It is hard to pass up a free degree.

If I go back to school, I want something that would complement my current education and experience.  I’ve narrowed it down to three options:

• A second bachelors degree, this time in some aspect of engineering.
• A second master’s degree.  The particular one I’m considering is a Master of Science in Software Systems (basically a lot of open source Java and C++).
• A Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration.

The bachelor’s degree is at the bottom of my list.  It would take the longest, and I’m not sure I want to start all over.  Having a Ph.D. would be nice, but I would probably never be able to get a job outside of higher education again with a Ph.D. in that field.  I know first hand that seeing a Ph.D. on an applicant’s resume makes you cringe.  Going for the Ph.D. would also require taking the GRE, which is not on my list of things I would like to do.  The program is also not covered by tuition waiver, so I would have to get one of the two Mercer staff scholarships offered annually.  For now, the master’s degree seems like the best fit.  The open source stuff would complement my current skill-set and according to the website, physical attendance is somewhat optional.  That would take the least amount of time from my family and other obligations.

This weekend, I plan to apply for the master’s program.  I guess if the Ph.D. thing started falling into place, I could always drop the master’s program and jump over to the Ph.D.  I’m still not 100% sure about going back, but classes wouldn’t start until January anyway.

Here are a few butterfly shots I got this past weekend at Callaway Gardens:

Callaway Gardens is a great place to work on your photography skills and butterflies make some of the coolest photos.  My best shots consist of a colorful butterfly sitting on a flower of a contrasting color.

This morning, we visited the Wild Animal Safari in Pine Mountain, Georgia.  It was lot’s of fun.  Where else can you go and feed a giraffe who has his long neck sticking through the window of your car?  Mackenzie had a blast.  Tristan, on the other hand, was a little anxious about the whole thing.  Here are lots of photos for your amusement:

Once again, tonight I ran a record (for me) distance at a record pace (for the distance).  Exactly 4 miles at a 9:39 pace.  This is what I looked like when I walked in the door:

On an ironic note, the water next to me is in a cup from Snow’s Memorial Chapel, a local funeral home.  That’s where I felt like I needed to be after a 4 mile run!  There is a 5K here in town tomorrow morning, but we are hitting the road early (at $5.00 per gallon) to check something off of my to-do list.