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Fireworks Safety

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009

Happy Fourth of July from your friends at Five Point Capital! We hope that your holiday weekend is spent with family and friends, hot dogs or clam bakes (depending on your location), and lots of ice cream. Also, we know that a major part of everyone’s Independence Day celebrations is viewing fireworks. Fireworks are timeless, fun, and extremely festive, especially for July 4th and summertime.

However, our 5 Point Capital staff members would like to take this opportunity to remind you fireworks can be dangerous and are meant to be lit by professionals and professionals only. This particular Fourth of July has left local fire departments and police stations concerned for two reasons. First, with the economy in its current state, many Americans are opting to stay home this holiday season instead of heading out for an Independence Day vacation. With a make-your-own-fun holiday comes a lot of do-it-yourself fireworks amateurs, trying to entertain their families. This means more people who are not trained to shoot fireworks will be lighting them, and that the fireworks may be lit in places that are not suitable for a fireworks displays, such as in backyards near trees, phone lines, or roads. Second, this Independence Day happens to fall on a Saturday, which firework sales companies claim causes a 50 percent increase in firework sales as compared to those for a weekday holiday.

These two factors mean a potential increase in the already staggering numbers of fires, injuries, and deaths that result from typical Fourth of July fireworks. The Seattle Intelligencer recently reported that last year’s July 4th celebrations resulted in 518 Washington state fires, and the Boston Globe reported National Fire Protection Association statistics which claim that close to 10,000 people each year visit the emergency room due to July 4th fireworks-related injuries. Newsweek is even claiming that sparklers caused up to eleven percent of 2008’s firework injuries.

If you want fireworks on the Fourth of July, your first option should be to check your local newspaper for professional fireworks that might be lit in your area. Lots of big cities, as well as smaller towns, set off town celebrations for Independence Day. If there is nothing in your area, or you are determined to set some fireworks off yourself, first check your state and local laws to make sure it’s legal! If your state does not allow fireworks (Massachusetts, for one, does not allow any non-authorized personnel to bring fireworks over state lines), forget it—you will have to search out the nearest city with a fireworks celebration, or resort to watching the blasts on TV. If your state does allow fireworks, call your local fire station and ask for their fire safety tips. Make sure you follow all guidelines for use and for finding a place to set them off. If at all possible, find an experienced professional to assist you with set-up and the lighting.

We here at Five Point Capital wish you all a happy holiday. Stay safe and have fun!

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Stay-Cation

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009

With the economy at a standstill at best, many of us here at Five Point Capital have been hearing the term “stay-cation” floating around. A stay-cation is a vacation at home, and we think it’s a great idea. You can save money, sleep in your own bed, and still have a great time if you follow a few simple ideas.

First, take some time off of work just as you would with a vacation. If you’re going to pamper yourself, do it right! Then spend a day cleaning the house, making sure you have clean laundry, towels, and sheets, and stock up on your favorite foods.

Then, begin your vacation! Fill your home with relaxing scents such as lavender, vanilla, eucalyptus, and cucumber. Oils are a great way to fill a room with a light scent. Read a book in bed or have a glass of wine out on the porch. Don’t worry about doing dishes or making the bed, just let yourself relax.

Spend the days trying out new places. Go out for coffee at a new place each morning until you find a new favorite. Have lunch with old friends to catch up. Explore the tourist attractions of your hometown or nearby towns that you may have never taken advantage of before. Essentially, spend a week in your town as if you’ve never been there before. Try new places, meet new people, and take advantage of everything your town has to offer. Bring a camera and keep a journal in order to keep track of what you do and make some great memories.

Another great way to enjoy a stay-cation is to spend time with an older relative or friend. You may even volunteer at an old-age home! Ask your grandma about her old favorite recipes. Have your grandpa tell you about what your hometown was like when he was kid. Ask your elderly aunt to see pictures from her wedding. Not only will you make his or her day, but you will have a great time learning about a different time and place.

If you can’t afford a luxury vacation, hotel, flight, or cruise, don’t fret. A great, relaxing, fun vacation is right around the corner. You may even be surprised with how much there is to do in your very own town!

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Reinforcing Bad Behavior

Thursday, June 25th, 2009

In the past few weeks there has been a great deal of head-shaking. We shook our heads when Jon and Kate Gosselin announced their upcoming divorce on Monday’s episode of Jon & Kate Plus 8. Some of us shook our heads at the thought of another statistic being made before our eyes, some at the thought of eight kids being shuffled back and forth between two parents, some because we thought the split was inevitable after watching Jon and Kate bicker before our eyes for the past four seasons, and some at the horror that this was all playing out on national television.

We were already shaking our heads before the Jon and Kate bombshell, as Sarah Palin and David Letterman also duked it out in public. When Letterman made a sexual joke on his late-night show about Palin’s underage daughter, Palin attacked him for his joke, saying that “laughter incited by sexually perverted comments made by a 62-year-old male celebrity aimed at a 14-year-old girl is…disgusting.” Letterman later both apologized and admitted he had confused the younger Palin girl with Bristol Palin, Sarah Palin’s 18-year-old daughter who recently gave birth. Some shook their heads at Letterman’s crass joke, while others shook heads for Palin’s attack on a comic.

Though you may think it impossible, Jon, Kate, the eight, Sarah Palin, and David Letterman have one more thing in common despite being the instigators of head-shaking world wide. The Jon and Kate divorce announcement and the Letterman/Palin battle both caused a sky-high jump in ratings for both shows. Letterman had usually trailed Leno by over a million viewers, though he jumped ahead of the Tonight show when Conan O’Brien took over. However, the show following his debate with Palin brought Letterman his highest ratings over O’Brien as of yet.

As for Jon and Kate, the numbers are a bit frightening. Though ratings for the show had been regularly slipping this season, the divorce-announcement episode brought in record-high ratings. Apparently watching a happy family bake cakes and build tree houses is boring, but watching a family of ten implode before our very eyes is fascinating. Teasers for the episode made it clear that something was about to happen, and that something was going to be bad. Commercial previews showed slow-motion clips of Jon and Kate glancing sadly at one another at various family events and showed a teary Kate mentioning ominous tidbits. Theories were that the couple was divorcing, separating, or canceling the show. Either way, 10.6 million people tuned in excitedly to hear the bad news.

The question remains: what is wrong with us? Why do we get so much enjoyment out of other people’s pain and mistakes? Someone makes an offensive joke and it is rewarded with higher ratings. We get wind that a couple with eight young children is bitterly divorcing and we break out the popcorn? What is it about other people’s failures and suffering that has us so intrigued? Maybe after the reality-TV craze started we began to realize that we truly do crave drama, and that everyday life is boring. Maybe we are just looking for other’s mistakes in order to make our own mistakes feel acceptable. Maybe TV is really like a car accident on the side of the road. We don’t want to look, but we feel compelled to. Whatever the reason, one fact remains true: America loves public failure.

This theory may not hold true for all celebrities and their TV shows, though. When Miley Cyrus posed for controversial photos in a 2008 Vanity Fair photo shoot, her Disney Channel television sensation Hannah Montana experienced a huge slide in ratings, as parents pulled their children away from the usually squeaky-clean show. Apparently we know that we shouldn’t encourage bad behavior and watch train wrecks unfold before our eyes, and we are happy to tell our children as much, but when it comes to turning our own eyes, we find it a little more difficult.

This is certainly a case of “do as I say, not as I do.”

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Internet Scams and Censorship

Friday, June 19th, 2009

Lately the news has been filled with reports about internet privacy, internet scams, illegal downloading, internet censorship, and just about anything else as it relates to the internet and how we use it as a people.

Music and videos are downloaded illegally every day and yet no one still seems to be sure about the rules of doing just this. We know stealing a CD from a store would be illegal, and no one would question the suspect’s guilt, nor would the story of someone being charged with CD-stealing be newsworthy. However, when it comes to downloading music and videos online, we still do it. And we still get caught and get in trouble. This Minnesota woman was found guilty of disobeying copyright laws for illegally making music available online. However, a British survey found that at least eight percent of people openly admit to downloading videos illegally over the internet. If we know that it’s wrong, and we know we can get caught, and we know we will have to contend with the consequences, why can’t we seem to stop ourselves from stealing when it comes to internet property?

Maybe it’s this lack of shamelessness when it comes to stealing from the internet that has led to the sudden outpouring of internet censorship that has popped up in recent weeks. It seems The Powers That Be are desperate to get some control over that World Wide Web. A Montana city has even asked all job applicants to relinquish the passwords to all of their social networking sites! And of course at the forefront of everyone’s mind is Iran and Twitter—how a country silenced by censorship managed to break through the barriers using a simple social media site. Iran’s internet usage has grown by 50% every year for the past several years, according to techno-guru Alan Boyle, making it the fastest-growing internet nation in the Middle East. This MSNBC.com article even likens the Iran/Twitter situation to the 2001 Second People Power Revolution, where text messages helped the people of the Philippines to share information and organize protests, which led to the eventual overthrow of President Joseph Estrada.

It seems that the more the government tries to take control, the more outrage the public has against internet censorship, and the more powerful websites like Facebook and Twitter become. So what should we do?

Obviously the internet has amazing power, so we here at Five Point Capital suggest you use its powers for good. In other words, stealing music or accessing illegal pornography, bad; fighting censorship and combating oppression, good. With this approach, you’ll even be joining the winning side—as Red Tape writer Bob Sullivan pointed out, it’s Twitter 1, Censors: 0.

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TiVo – Our New Exercise Scheme

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

Everyone knows that exercise is important. In addition to being one-half of the dieting process, exercise keeps your body strong and healthy, builds your immune system, strengths muscles and your heart and lungs, and improves mental health as well.

So why don’t more of us exercise more often?

The answer is usually simple. After a long day at work, the last thing many people want to do is grab the old jogging suit and head right back out the door, to spend an hour working out after nine of hours of working at a desk. More often, we feel that a long day at work should be rewarded with coming home, changing into sweats or pajamas, having a nice dinner, and crashing on the couch for our favorite television show du jour.

Many would argue that technological advancements such as TiVo only contribute to our couch-potato attitude; after all, now we’re not stuck watching just whatever happens to be on at seven o’clock. We can watch whatever we want, no matter when it aired. However, we here at 5 Point Capital have come up with a scheme that just may help you get your butt off the couch and into the gym.

One trend of dieting that seems to be going over fairly well is the idea of having a “cheat day.” You force yourself to stick to healthy, low-calorie foods during the week, making sure to get your daily serving of fruits and vegetables, and laying off of the sweets and fatty things. However, the best way to curb a craving, some say, is to allow yourself to cheat on your own diet one day a week. Having a cookie or piece of pizza one day a week won’t throw off your whole diet, and it is often easier to refuse that milkshake on Thursday if you know you can have it on Saturday instead.

Five Point Capital proposes to treat exercise and TV the same way. Think of exercise as your salad and TV as your Pop Tart. When the urge to plop in front of the television strikes, hit the TiVo button and head to the gym. Then when Saturday (or whenever your cheat day is) hits, you’ll have a week’s worth of your favorite shows recorded for an all-day marathon of couch-potato heaven. That way you didn’t miss any of your shows, and you have a total day of fatty foods, sweat pants, and reality-TV waiting for you each week. If you have other plans for your weekend, keep saving up those shows for a rainy day!

We know this approach might not work for everyone, but it is definitely worth trying it out. After all, who says TV and burning calories doesn’t mix?

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“The Catcher in the Rye” Rip-Off?

Thursday, June 11th, 2009

Copyright laws are confusing; they can be downright impossible to comprehend or follow, and more often than not, copyright infringement laws involve more than one expert pouring over legal books to determine whether or not a new novel or story is indeed a rip-off of an existing novel or story. One thing is for certain though—J.D. Salinger, author of the great The Catcher in the Rye and creator of the legendary Holden Caulfield, has no tolerance when it comes to rip-offs of the book and Holden. The ninety-year old recluse even turned down an offer from Steven Spielberg to turn the book into a movie. According to Salinger, everything anyone needs to know about Holden Caulfield can be found in the morning. There is nothing more to add.

You can imagine Salinger’s surprise and irritation then, upon discovering that an author known as JD California had published a “sequel” to his book, set 60 years after the events in The Catcher in the Rye, entitled 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye. The book finds Holden trying to escape from him retirement home at age 76. Salinger is suing both the author and the publishing company for the rights to his character, and to any future “derivative works,” that is, works of fiction that are derived from the original novel. The only way around this rule is if the new novel were a parody of The Catcher in the Rye, or a commentary on the novel. Salinger claims that this is not so, and that the author and publishing company are benefiting from his personal ideas and creative efforts in a pure rip-off.

There seems to be some speculation on the identity of this would-be rip-off author. Most sources claim that “JD California” is a pseudonym, and that the work is actually published by an anonymous author, while Examiner.com claims the true identity of JD California to be Frederik Colting. Either JD California is extremely naïve about Salinger’s protectiveness about his book, or just enjoys being sued. There has never been a Holden Caulfield-, The Catcher in the Rye-, or JD Salinger-related book, magazine article, or story that has gone un-sued by Salinger. In Salinger’s eyes, Holden is his and his alone—anything creative is a rip-off of Salinger’s idea.

It will be interesting to see how this rip-off lawsuit plays out. While Salinger usually gets his way (after all—Holden Caulfield would not exist without him), it seems that the “rip-off” novel might just be ridiculous enough to count as a parody. Keep an eye out for updates on the rip-off lawsuit to see how this all ends.

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Tourist Rip-Offs

Thursday, June 4th, 2009

In this day and age, traveling it something that many people simply cannot afford. Things like maintaining a steady job, keeping up a house, and saving for retirement or a child’s college tuition has taken precedence in most people’s minds, with luxurious like traveling taking a back seat.

Traveling, however, is a wonderful way to spend money if you are going to spend it at all. Fancy dinners or nights out on the town may be enjoyable, but nothing is more relaxing than getting away completely, and no dinner is fancier than one spent in Italy, France, or on the Greek Isles.

The key to traveling is not saving up for years and sacrificing getting your kids braces. The key is avoiding tourist rip-offs. While we might feel guilty for visiting Florence without ever seeing The David, or for visiting Paris and not climbing the Eiffel Tower, there are so many things to enjoy outside the regular tourist rip-offs. The Uffizi Gallery in Florence, for example, is larger and more historic Galleria dell’Accademia, where The David is housed (and there are replicas of The David scattered all over town). It may be tradition to climb the Eiffel Tower, but it is cheaper and more relaxing to pack a picnic and spend the afternoon in the gardens behind the tower.

Italy is especially known for ripping off its tourists, so be careful to research where are you going and what you plan to do when you get there. Guidebooks may not exactly mesh with the free-spirited, wherever-the-wind-may-take-me traveler, but can be a lifesaver when it comes to saving money. While “Europe on Five Dollars a Day” is not exactly still feasible, the suggestions and guidelines in Frommer’s 1957 book are still applicable. The newer versions of Frommer’s Books, known a “Rome Day by Day” or “Venice Day by Day” give you exact suggestions for day trips and places to eat and stay for a visit to any city for one, two, or three days.

As for Germany, Jaunted has taken to traveling the beautiful country and making a detailed list of all its tourist traps. Checkpoint Charlie is just one of them. Europe, however, is not the only place you may fall victim to a tourist rip-off! Even Houston boasts the Congress Avenue Bridge Bats. The key to traveling to any place in this world is research. If the place is packed with Americas and back-packers, stay away. If the place is filled only with two elderly locals, sharing a sandwich, you’ve found your spot.

Get to saving, get to researching, and get excited! A non-rip-off trip just may be in your future.

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Windows 7 - Coming Soon

Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009

Are you a Mac, or are you a PC? We have all heard this question before, and most of us put ourselves firmly into one category or the other, despite the bickering, the finger-pointing, and the name-calling. There is no middle ground; either you are a Mac or a PC. This computer operating system preference falls into a category of phenomena that we here at Five Point Capital like to call “The Jelly Doughnut Paradox:” either you love jelly doughnuts, or you hate them. There is no compromise. No one “sort of” likes a jelly doughnut.

This classification system that has come to define our very beings and personalities in the age of technology was threatened when Microsoft invented the dreaded operating system that made PC-lovers weep and Mac-lovers smirk: Windows Vista. In a futile attempt at establishing peace between the two warring tribes of Mac-lovers and PC-lovers, Microsoft tried to create an operating system that meshed the two together—the system is essentially a PC system, but is designed to look and operate more like a Mac.

This attempt at integration failed. Mac-lovers would never switch to PCs, no matter how familiar the operating system appeared. PC-lovers would never adjust to Windows Vista, no matter how forcefully Microsoft tried to put the system into place. It just wasn’t happening. Mac-lovers did not turn to PCs, and PC-lovers wailed and moped because they could no longer figure out how to print, save, or create new documents.

Microsoft, however, has finally come to terms with the fact that there will be no integration of the PC-lovers and the Mac-lovers. The two camps will remain as they are, just as separate and equal as the jelly-doughnut lovers and the chocolate-glazed doughnut lovers, as dog-lovers and cat-lovers, as men and women. In time for the holidays this coming fall, Microsoft’s brand new operating system, Windows 7, will be on sale. The system promises to more closely resemble the old Windows XP than Windows Vista, and PC-lovers everywhere wait with bated breath for the new system to appear.

It looks as though Mac-lovers and PC-lovers will remain forever separate. Maybe that’s how it was intended.

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Recent Money Scams

Thursday, May 28th, 2009

In this economy, people are searching for any way to get an extra buck. Those who have been laid off, or are facing mortgage delinquency or home foreclosure, may be the most desperate, ready for any solution to their financial issues that presents itself. Others, even if they have kept their jobs and homes, are still finding that they cannot afford to live quite they way they did before the recession. As a result of this widespread financial desperation, monetary scams are becoming more and more common.

One of the biggest scams out there today is the fake check. According to the Los Angeles Times, approximately one-third of Americans have been approached by this type of scam, usually through the mail. These scams usually appear extremely official and are easy to mistake for real checks. The checks or money orders look as real as possible, and the scam seems like a good idea at first.

The checks, which have taken in about 1.3 million Americans, are said to be the results of a lottery, sweep-stakes, stay-at-home work, or grants. Once you deposit the check, you are instructed to wire some money immediately, to pay for taxes, fees, middle-men, or other third parties. The check inevitably bounces, and you are left having to pay the failed wire transfers out of your own account.

The average check scam victim ends up losing between $3,000 and $4,000, as most people do not realize that just because a check clears does not mean the check has been deemed legitimate. Checks clear when the funds are available, not because the bank has confirmed the check is not a fake. Also, most people tend to think the money coming in and the money going out are connected—if the check bounces, they will not be responsible for paying the fees. Sadly, this is not true. Depositing the check and paying the fees are separate actions within your account, and you are still responsible for paying your debits. To your bank, it is the same as if your paycheck bounced, and thus you had to re-pay your car insurance.

Another scam that has become all too common in this economy is the mortgage scam. This type of scam preys upon those who have fallen victim to the mortgage crisis, and usually appears in the mail as an official-looking government form claiming to be able to save your mortgage. According to MSNBC, these scammers claim to be “foreclosure rescue” companies, but can actually end up costing victims a good deal of money, or even in the worst cases, their homes.

The bottom line is to not let your financial worries cloud your judgment. Be wary of any scam promising to end your worries or of offers that involve money at all. No actual sweepstakes or lottery will ask you to pay fees and taxes up front, and you should always be wary of anyone asking you to wire money through MoneyGram or WesternUnion. If you think you are being scammed, call the police. They will be happy to asses your situation and let you know if the offer is legitimate. You need to protect yourself from those looking for prey in need.

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Gambling

Thursday, May 21st, 2009

Most of us, at one time in our lives, have gambled a little bit of money. Whether you packed up your life savings and headed for the Las Vegas blackjack table, or whether you bet your best friend an dollar that he couldn’t beat you in a footrace, gambling can be a fun and harmless pastime.

However, we all know that gambling can be incredibly addictive and dangerous. An overwhelming number of people (recently estimated at 15 million) show signs of a gambling addiction, and those who are addicted tend to incur debt between $55,000 and $90,000. Gambling addicts experience higher rates of divorce, depression, and suicide.

So why gamble in the first place? There seems to be an oxymoron at work here. As anyone who studies “luck,” will tell you—you can’t be lucky unless you take chances and risks. There is an even an old joke that we here at Five Point Capital have heard many versions of. Many years ago there lived an old man who was having a hard time in life. He owed money on his house and land, had little money for food, and as he aged he found himself needing more and more money for medical expenses for himself and his wife. Every single day he went to his local church to pray. He called out to God each and every single day “God, please help me to win the lottery. I beg you.” Time goes on and his situation grows worse, and yet every day he still goes to church to ask God to help him win the lottery. One day, the old man was in the church, got down on his knees, bowed his head, and prayed in a weeping voice, “God, please, please help me to win the lottery,” and proceeded to weep. Hearing this, God couldn’t stand it any longer, and shouted down to the man from the Heavens, “Do me a favor my son…Buy a ticket!!!!!”

This joke demonstrates what many of us feel; we know that our chances of winning the lottery are slim (indeed, casinos usually profit about $30 billion annually), but we still feel that we should at least put our luck to the test, just in case.

In this economy, gambling can go either way. Those who gambled lightly as a simple pastime are now tabling the hobby to save money. The US Casino Report estimates that 60% of Americans have cut back on their gambling spending, which is about the same as the drop in people spending money on dining out. This has drastically impacted the gambling world, and some racetracks in Kentucky have been forced to close or cancel races now that betting is so low. And while in recent history, the amount of money spent each year on gambling has increased (and actually doubled every year since 1997 for internet gambling), this amount actually dropped dramatically in 2008. Casinos experienced their first-ever annual drop in profits since tracking began in 1999, with a drop of approximately $1.6 billion.

However, those who are worse off might be tempted to push their luck a little further, and this can be dangerous. With lay-offs abound and the economy slumping deeper into a recession, some people may turn to desperate measures to slough off some of their debt. And what’s worse, with this economy, getting out of any gambling debts will be even tougher.

Our suggestion here at 5 Point Capital is to treat gambling as you would any other leisure expense, such as dining out or buying new clothes. Look carefully at your budget and see exactly what you can afford to spend each month on gambling. Once you hit that limit, do not allow yourself to go over. And avoid the cardinal sin of budgeting gambling money—if you win money, this does not increase your pool of gambling money. This is your profit to keep. That way you only spend an affordable amount on gambling each month, and will never delve into debt. The worst case scenario is that you spend your gambling allowance, and the best case scenario is that you make a profit.

If you cannot afford to gamble, don’t start. That is the simple rule. If you cannot afford dining out, buying a new CD, or cable television, gambling should go as well. Consider it just as you would any other leisure activity. Budget a trip to the casino just as you would budget a trip to the beach or a cruise.

If you think you or someone you know has a gambling addiction, you can call the Gamblers Anonymous hotline at 888-GA-HELPS.

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