Connect 4

Yes I re-discovered connect 4 last night and I must say it's a fun game, especially when crown royal is involved. I remember summer camps when I was in my early teens where we'd have connect 4 tournaments. Believe it! Alongside checkers and chess... I think I did fairly well back then. Yup, before video games made board games "obsolete". But who doesn't love spending money wildly at monopoly or drawing stick figures during pictionary? Really.

On another note, this morning I ran my yearly credit check and got really annoyed with the process. Federal law allows everyone to get a free annual credit report, yet the consumer reporting companies require you to enter a credit card number in order to obtain it. You get your free credit report, but if you don't cancel your new membership within a few days they charge your card. Sounds familiar doesn't it... I'm so sick and tired of this crap; companies out to screw people however they can. We're in an awfully rough economic situation where the government, media and all other supposed responsible entities tell us to show solidarity for struggling corporations (banks, auto makers, etc). Why is it always the people who are supposed to make up for mismanaged catastrophes? How about the higher political or corporate worlds act as role models for once?! We have to suffer the consequences and pick up the pieces every time. Remember a few months after the war in Iraq started when Bush told the American people to go spend their money to support the fragile economy? Wow, that sure did a lot of good in the long run, didn't it... And after Katrina rolled in, FEMA was completely incompetent dealing with the problems while Bush took forever to even react. Who ended up paying dearly? The thousands of people who to this day don't have the aid that was promised to them and have had to figure out alternate ways to survive, sometimes relying on others' help and generosity. Gotta give it to the American people for their resilience, courage and solidarity.
Isn't "a government of the people, by the people, and for the people" a common definition of democracy? So based on that, is this country really a democracy? There's way too much hypocrisy in our society. If ideas were actually carried out the way they're sold to us, then consumer reporting companies would be the first ones to encourage people to use their free annual credit report and not try to sneak people's money into their pockets. Times are tough and businesses need to make money to stay afloat and keep offering jobs. I'm fully aware of that. However it does not justify unethical behavior. We're all in it together. There are always those using times like these to make money off of others' miseries. I believe Obama will bring much good to this country but until something is done to tame the overly capitalist nature of this society people will always end up suffering the consequences of big business mismanagement.

But to end on a positive note, my credit report came back real good and I kicked ass at connect 4 last night!