the up-swing

so, i was watching this show last night called "iconoclasts" it was on starz or one of the movie channels. it was rad actually, the premise is for every episode (i think) they take 2 different big timers, follow them around, and they both talk about their lives and the other dude.

last night's episode featured tony hawk, and jon favreau. jon favreau talked about how his mom died when he was 11, and how it fucked him up, and how everything we do is motivated by some sort of damage that has been done to us, and we are trying to fix it. tony hawk talked about.........skateboarding. jon favreau was epic, and tony hawks experience lacked inspiration. i may be the only one, but i like stories of struggle, and overcoming adversity.

the one thing that tony hawk offered was his story on the ups and downs of skateboarding, and at the lowest point he was "skating the parking lot of magic mountain for $100 a day". wow man rough life.....you made more than ample money 10, 15, or 20 years ago, to survive today......wow. when i first heard this i didn't know what to think, then when i realized that he made more than me, many years ago when the price of living was lower, i thought to myself "what an ass hole". he then proceeded to mention that story many more times in the duration of the show.

now i think that if the lowest point of my career, or life was skating a parking, and getting paid a hundred bucks a day to do that, my life would have turned out pretty damn well, much like mr. tony hawk.

i don't know how to transition this, but i also wanted to say a few words on the current state of the economy. i slept through the inauguration this morning, but i from what people's status on their facebook profiles are telling me it was quite inspirational.

i am more than slightly concerned about the current state of our economy right now. i have been keeping tabs on a few different stocks for the past while, and the stock price for the company that i work for (bank of america) has dropped from $50 a share to just above $5, and will probably continue to drop before the close of the day.

what does this all mean? fuck.....i don't know. wachovia, washington mutual, indymac, and downey savings have all failed, but they continue to operate, and employ a considerable workforce.

to me its confusing, and scary to think about what is happening, banks failing, but still operating? the government shelling out trillions of dollars, that we don't have. how long can this last? will our economy be able to continue to operate on debt? how long?