min-myinnersoul

Its time to change Andrew Lloyd Webber's famous song in Evita . There's no option, but to cry for Argentina. How else can you react to the awful move by Cristina Fernandez, Argentina's President, to nationalise YPF, two weeks ago ? YPF, Argentina's largest oil and gas company is 57% owned by Repsol, the Spanish oil giant. Ms Fernandez's grouse against Repsol is that it is not investing in increasing production in YPF. This is partly true, but the real reason why YPF is not expanding production is that her government has artificially kept petroleum product prices low . No company is going to invest for very little profit. So the good lady has decided to nationalise the company. No doubt, a pittance would be paid to Repsol, well below the market value of its shares in YPF. This is daylight robbery, of the kind Ramamritham (of Vodafone fame) would feel proud. Is this any way to treat your largest foreign investor ? Spain and the EU are up in arms and threatening a figh

The Delhi government apparently feels that women are rather thick in the head. Considering that it is headed by a lady, we must now take this as a conclusive fact. I am reacting to the continued insistence of the government in making helmets for two wheeler riders compulsory for men , but optional for women.  This piece of news was too good to resist. Regular readers are familiar with this blogger's tendency to rib the fairer sex once in a while. Realisation has dawned that there has been some tardiness in this matter over the past many months. Time to rectify the situation. Sunday posts are an excuse for unbridled frivolity rather unbecoming of a "serious" business blog. So here goes. Why else must the government make the differentiation ? There is no evidence to suggest that Romeos are more likely to fall from two wheelers than Juliets. Yes, Romeo's concentration on the bike can easily, and often, be distracted by a passing Juliet, but that's equally true of Jul

We have had a busy week this week..hence the lack of posting. Mr. E learned to ride his bike on Monday. He was so proud of himself:o) He came running in the house yelling, "Mommy! I did it. I can ride my bike without training wheels because I believed in myself!" He's so sweet!  This is what he learned on..it's called a Joey. It's small, wooden and doesn't have pedals.   It took 2 days on the Joey for him to get the whole balancing act down.  We also had a field trip at the Botanical Gardens.  They have a butterfly house at the gardens. E almost got one on his finger:o)  Last night we went to the circus. This was the line into the door. There were people everywhere.  Some strange and very dangerous looking sculpture outside of the arena.  National Anthem Elephant  This part scared me to death. Some of the females were a little temperamental. I said a little prayer for the lion tamer...I just knew he was going to be an evening snack. We didn't stay for the

"Company X crushes estimates; Shares Soar" screams the headlines in Forbes ,  a respected business magazine. "Company X profits slip 35% as spending continues"  proclaims the equally loud headlines of The Wall Street Journal , a respectable business newspaper. Both refer to the same company - Amazon - and the same piece of news, the first quarter results of the company. Flummoxed ?? Read on. Can both headlines be right ?? Surely they can't.  Only in the rarified world of finance , especially the even more ionospheric world of stock markets can both statements be true. Yes. You see, company performance and movement of share prices is based on "expectations" and not on reality. Expectations of whom, you may ask ?  Of a unique sub species of the human race called homo sapiens analystensis (hereinafter referred to as HSA). Cut to business school. Some of the best brains in the land want to "go into finance" after they graduate. Their ambition is

Alas, George Orwell's prophecy has come true. Its 30 years late, but its now a reality. His book, 1984, I mean. For those unfamiliar with the aforesaid gentleman and book [having been born subsequently :) ], here's a helpful link as to what it is all about. The sudden realisation dawned on me through the innocuous act of installing the Ghostery plugin to my Firefox browser. I had innocently thought that something that would enhance my internet privacy would not be a bad thing. Little did I realise what a disaster it would lead to. You see, I had not realised how much the powers that be were interested in my colourless life. Within one second of installing the damn thing it showed me that Facebook and Twitter were monitoring my every click on the Net. Never mind that I don't use either of those.  I expected to see the usual culprits like Google Analytics and Double Click. But, pray, what on earth are Chitika, Open X, Crazy Egg, Tealium doing spying on me ..... . Now every

This is what happens when... these come in the mail:o)

Good morning to you all! I am so happy to be able to sit upright in front of a computer right now:o) What a week we have had around here. E has a double ear infection and I have fluid on both of my ears..I tell ya, I feel a little more sympathy for my poor children when they end up with ear pain. Today is the first day that I have felt like being up and moving around without needing to sit back down immediately for fear of passing out.  So since I had a little bit of energy, I was able to finish these end tables I found at a yard sale last weekend.  I didn't take any before pictures. But they were a cherry finish and in very good condition...just a few scrapes and bumps in a few areas..but REAL wood! I got a fantastic price on them. I had the paint on hand and all the other materials, so I didn't have to put too much money into them, thankfully.  A little sanding, a little painting, a little more sanding, and some wax, and I'll have to say I am very pleased with the results

In the last post, I asked a rhetorical question - What would you do with a billion dollars ? Well, I read in the Economic Times today, that it was all too real a question to two people. They were faced with precisely this problem. Read here , what they actually did. I found this a moving piece and would strongly commend reading it.

I just saw this on Facebook, and I died laughing... ...sorry if this isn't you type of humor;o)

You have a billion dollars burning a hole in your pocket ( Gils , Zeno , and a few others have that problem !). Take your pick. What would you buy ? 800 patents, dating back to the early days of the Internet. Or a red hot new internet rage that everybody is talking about but which has no revenues. Or boring old Yellow Pages. What would you take ? These are three transactions that actually happened in the last couple of weeks for about $1 bn.  Microsoft bought the 800 patents from AOL for $1.1 bn. The patent world has become completely crazy for tech companies in the last few years. Everybody is suing everybody else for patent infringement. Some 800 plus patents are given simply for what goes into a mobile phone. Its impossible these days to launch anything without infringing on somebody's patent.The US patent office has gone crazy as I wrote about here - Patents have now become innovation stifling rather than innovation building. Anyway Microsoft believes its better to pay $1.1 bn

Yesterday I picked up a pair of lamps from our local Facebook yard sale page for $5. They were brass, and not all that attractive, but they had a good shape, and were still in good working condition. Since I am not a huge fan of brass, I knew that spray painting would be the best treatment for this pair. I had been looking for matching lamps to go on either side of my couch since I had done some furniture rearranging recently. So this is what they started out as. Basic brass lamps.  I used my Cricut to cut out a vinyl design that I thought would work well with the decor of the living room, and attached it to the lamp base. I applied 3 coats of Krylon satin Ivory.    Brass doesn't accept spray paint all that well, so I distressed a few areas on the lamps to  camouflage  any thin spots.  And in case you are wondering, the lamp shades were purchased at Walmart. They were just under $10 a piece. I am so happy with how these lamps turned out, and I got 100% approval from the hubs:o) Yar

I have been completely clueless as to what to do with our bonus room for 2 and 1/2 years now. I think I am finally pulling some ideas together, and I wanted to show you some DIY built-ins out in blog-land that I am really digging. Source: centsationalgirl.com via Crystal on Pinterest Source: bit.ly via Crystal on Pinterest Source: apartmenttherapy.com via Crystal on Pinterest I also really like this little sofa table... Source: takethesidestreet.com via Crystal on Pinterest The hubs is sure to be excited when he hears what I want to do(comment dripping with sarcasm) Who knows, maybe I can put something together like this by myself;o)

Last year, I shared with you all these wonderful screens that the hubs put together. They were put there because we had absolutely no privacy in our backyard. We have really enjoyed having them. We knew that after those were put in, we would want to do something with all of that grass.  Back in the fall, the hubs and a few other guys helped strip out all the grass in this area to get it ready to turn into flower beds. And after a ton of work during the winter, this is what became of it.  He designed everything back here.  Eventually the arborvitae will grow together, and there will be complete privacy.  This is our little fire pit area. I need some new cushions for these chairs. Waiting for them to go on sale:o) And we are still trying to figure out what to do with all of that brick that is stacked up against the house...any ideas? And no, we are not doing a fireplace...too expensive:o)  The kids love running across this little path. It's their "track" to run "super

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter. Ours was a bit uneventful. Both of the kids had kind of a down weekend. E had a fever all day Saturday..have no idea why. And S.R. has had a bad cough and runny nose. We just hung out at the house all day while they tried to feel better.  So while they were recovering, I needed something to do with my hands.  I grabbed a pair of socks that were too big for S.R. and transformed them into a little bunny.  An arm-less bunny, but he's still a bunny. E saw his little tail and said, "aw look, he's got a powder puff." Too cute;o) I'm hoping to make a few more of these as soon as I find some more socks;o)...and they will have arms!!! Happy Monday to you all!!

John 20:29 Jesus said to him, " Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. "  I hope you all have a wonderful Easter!

Not for nothing is Archbishop Desmond Tutu widely known as "South Africa's moral conscience". The Nobel Peace Prize Winner in 1984, Archbishop Tutu was one of the leaders of the anti apartheid struggle in South Africa. He headed the Truth and Reconciliation Commission after the fall of apartheid which so enabled South Africa to move on from the past and not start a war of vengeance. He speaks often in defence of moral positions.  So when he wrote a piece in the Financial Times , I sat up and read. He argues in his piece that you don't have to lead a life of austerity to be moral or spiritual. Being wealthy is not a crime (its often made out to be by those who claim to speak for the poor). "It is fine to make a living; we are meant to enjoy abundant lives. The conflict comes when we separate ethics and economic progress and when we equate the latter with happiness", he says. There's a beautiful statement in his piece.  "Shareholder responsibility is

Last year, I made these printables so that E could pass out favors to his class mates. Each little favor had two Peeps inside of a sandwich bag with this tag attached. Both kids will be making these and taking them to their friends at school. To print these out, go HERE I'll share the finished bags with you all tomorrow. Have a great Wednesday!

This past weekend, we celebrated my mother's 50th birthday. It was supposed to be a surprise, but you really can't pull the wool over my mother's eyes...she knows all:o) Anyway, we put on a party to honor her. I was in charge of the decorations, and as most of you know, that is one of my favorite parts of a party:o) We had a "memory table" with pictures of her when she was younger. Here is the birthday banner I made that was supposed to be hanging. Unfortunately, the twine I was going to use to hang the banner was left at home..2 and a half hours away....doh!   This was a dress my mother wore when she was a little girl. You can see her in it in the picture frame. **Back Story of the Dress**My grandmother made this dress for her. My great-grandmother used to work in a dress factory and she would bring the scrap fabric home. My grandmother pieced this dress together, and everywhere you see the black lace, that is where a seam was, joining the scrap pieces together.