When we moved into our house the previous owners left one book in the bookcase…… Black House by Stephen King. We weren’t quite sure what to make of that.

So I often overbuy something I think will alleviate the stress. When we got a new puppy and I was anxious about training him I bought too many toys and treats as well as a training course. When we had mice, I overbought traps. So nothing fun, I just try to throw money at a problem in hopes of fixing it.

Thanks for all the music suggestions. I'm moving from one YouTube video to another to expose myself to new music.

Thank you! We'll hold off and wait to see if there are any symptoms.

We found a tick embedded in my daughter today. We think she got it hiking Sunday or Monday in the woods (it’s now Tuesday). We also saw one on her shirt that day but she didn’t see this one until today. We haven’t seen any rash yet. I’m thinking of calling her doctor tomorrow and asking for antibiotics to be safe. Any specific ones I should ask for? Thanks.

I'm an owner of a small digital agency. Some of the marketing tech roles that we have in-house or have hired in the past include: SEO specialist. This role helps our clients rank higher in Google and other search marketing engines. You need to be familiar with how websites work, what goes into website ranking, and how to help content rank better. PPC specialist. This role manages our paid ads including Google, Facebook, etc. This role is a lot about numbers, testing copy and bids, understanding how landing pages work with ads, etc. Google Analytics and reporting specialist. In this role, you help set up analytics to track clients' websites and then create dashboards and other reporting as needed. Designer. Helps design websites and other creative assets as needed. Developer. Helps develop websites or looks into why things aren't working Project Manager. Helps manage projects. Needs to understand the technical aspects of the project but also be great at juggling timelines, budgets, and managing personnel. Agencies also have more creative roles (writing, social media, etc) that use some technology skills but are more on the creative side. While there is now more training on some of these types of careers (including Google), a lot of times if you start in an entry-level role or beginning developer, you can gain experience and transition to certain departments. The industry changes so fast that self-education is really important. If you want to go more in-depth about any of these fields, I'm happy to help more or can answer questions in a PM.

We're currently in a wait-and-see with our banking. We own a small business, so the weekend bank run hit a little close to home. It would be a nightmare to not be able to run payroll because your assets are frozen due to no fault of your own and when you thought you were being prudent and responsible with your cash management. My most important job as a business owner is making payroll and taking care of our employees so they can care for our clients. In the next few weeks, we'll likely open up business accounts with a second bank to diversify where our assets are. I'm hesitant to do it this week when things seem so fragile. For our household accounts, they are already spread between two banks and so I feel a little more secure that way.

So while I know that SVC was on shaky ground and regulations had been rolled back, I have to wonder how much a handful of VCs are responsible for causing the panic and bank run. And then those same VCs were the ones to take it to twitter and social media about how this could become a contagion and affect other banks. It seemed the more they talked about it - the more likely a domino effect would happen. So not only were they playing with their own industry, but the whole economy as a whole. Low-interest rates benefit their industry a lot, so this almost felt like a lever they could pull to influence the feds on interest rates. It ties into game theory - is it better to do what you think is best for your own personal gain (or their portfolio companies), even if that makes it more likely to bring down the whole system collectively? Also, with the changes in social media and the speed at which you can move assets that have happened in the past decade, it adds a new level of social risk with little responsibility tied to it.

Yikes. I updated the link. Does that one work better? If not, I'll remove.

I've been following this all weekend. I feel that this is a pretty good article that sums it up what led to the collapse. A few key takeaways. I did my best to summarize this, but I may be missing some things. SVB is a unique bank in that it services mainly the tech and startup community. This leaves it vulnerable in a few ways. In 2020 and 2021 there was a lot of cash flowing into startups from VC companies. Banks have to make money and most traditional banks balance out the deposits they receive and loan them back out to other bank members. With all the money flooding into startups, startsup weren't taking out as many loans and so SBV had to find another way to generate profit. They did this by buying long-term treasury loans (many 10-year loans) that they would get interest off of. These are often seen as pretty secure. In 2022, interest rates kept rising. This made VC companies fund fewer companies and so the startup money started drying up. This also meant less deposits coming into the bank and more people pulling their money out to fund their companies. Even with less money coming into startups, VCs felt that they weren't as conservative with their spending and were burning too much cash. With the rapid rise of interest rates, the value of SVC's treasury bonds fell. At the end of 2022, there was an article that questioned how stable SVB was, but many people ignored it. Earlier last week, SVB sold some of their bonds to balance their sheets, but they lost money doing so. This spooked the venture capital community. The VC/startup community is pretty tight knit and known for a herd mentality. Led by Peter Thiel, VCs started talking to each other and felt that they needed to protect their companies and the best way to do that was to call all of the companies and tell them to pull out of SVC right away. So everyone started to pull out and did a run on the bank. The bank couldn't fulfill the quick demand of all the money being pulled out and on Friday it was shut down. Due to the quickness of the bank run, about 1/4 of the bank's assets were pulled out within a day - making it one of the largest bank failings. A large majority of money at SVB was above the FDIC limit of $250K per account. SVB required that companies that had loans with them keep all of their money in the bank. In addition, companies are different than households and need more than $250K to run their business, including payroll. If their payroll is $2.5 million, it's not efficient to spread that across 10 accounts to stay under the FDIC limit. When the funds froze on Friday, companies were worried about making payroll and paying their vendors. There was no messaging about how long the funds above $250K would be frozen - days, weeks months? The industry was worried about people not getting paid and companies shutting down fairly quickly. VCs started pressuring the FDIC to step in and at least make the depositors whole. They were very vocal and were concerned there could be contagion and people and businesses that bank with regional banks could be spooked and pull out of regional banks and put their money in the big 4 banks. This could lead to the collapse of regional banks. Last night, it was announced that anyone who had deposits at SVC would have access to all of their money. The FDIC would step in and guarantee the deposits by assessing all the banks a type of fee to help cover the costs. The feds would also offer loans to banks whose bonds have tumbled in value if needed. The hope is that eventually there will be a buyer for SVC, but that takes time and speed was of the essence to help depositors and businesses feel their money is safe. They will not be bailing out SVC - that company is gone and the shareholders and managers lost all of their value in it. I have my own thoughts to add, but have to jump off to a meeting.

I’ll chime in. I’m trying to get back into more cardio and maybe train for a half marathon. I ran one a few years ago but need to build my base. That means starting to run again and cross train with cycling. I am also trying to do yoga or stretch 3 times/week and do some light lifting 2x/week. The tricky part will be when school starts again. We have a puppy and I’m afraid if I get up at 6 I’ll wake him up for the day and lose my workout time. He usually gets up around 6:30 or 6:45. I can keep and eye on him when I lift or do yoga, but not when I’m running or cycling. I also want to play pickle ball. I got the equipment for Christmas and played it today with my husband at a local park. We had a great time and my heart rate was definitely up.

Another thing to be aware of besides hoarding is incontinence issues and if you’re willing to buy a house that would need to be cleaned up after they move out. I would physically go to their house to assess the situation before I bought a new house vs getting them an apartment.

I've had mine for about a year. I don't use it a lot, but it's handy to have when I need it. I've also loaned it out to a friend. Things I've created with it: Cut out fabric squares for a quilt. It didn't do a great job at this and still took quite a bit of time. Making t-shirts. All of my sisters came into town, and at the last minute decided we wanted matchings shirts. It was really easy to use the Cricut to cut the vinyl and then iron it on the shirts. I'm not sure how long the shirts will last, and I try not to wear mine often. Making bags. My friend borrowed it to make personalized gift bags for teachers and was happy with it. Making vinyl earrings. I tried this, but might have used the wrong vinyl or mat. It didn't turn out well, but I want to try it again. Cutting paper. I've made some cards with it, and my daughter used it to cut out letters for a school poster. I do like using it when I can, but I probably could have done without it and used the one at our library. I'm not interested in the cup press because I don't have room for lots of mugs. I'm also a minimalist and so won't create a ton of tshirts with it. But it's fun to use now and again.

Thanks!

Hi, I have a quick question. I'm not a frequent poster, but I read this forum a lot and know how diverse it is. Do people who live in Kingston, TN go by Central or Eastern Time Zone? Google says Eastern, but someone I know from Kingston is saying they live in Central timezone, and it's important for me to know if they're telling the truth or not. I know some areas of the country, even if they're assigned one timezone, will go by another close timezone. If anyone is familiar with the area I'd love to know. Thanks!