Today’s focus is on a car that is found at the top of my “worst” list, and I am sure I’m not alone

Ford Focus

The Focus continues to get worse.  Ford’s partnership with Microsoft for SYNC only further exemplifies my opinion.  The newly designed focus boasts of modern design and lots of features at a low price.  If by features they mean the faux engine exhaust on high end models, then Ford speaks the truth, and as the old adage goes- you get what you pay for.

Furthermore, the Focus comes in awful colors, and is trimmed with not-so-contemporary black door handles.  I think body-colored and chrome are an option, but it seems like the majority of Focus buyers choose black.  It’s 2008, people.  2009 in the automotive world.  How much money do automakers really save by putting black door handles and mirrors on their cars?  The only car higher up than the focus on the “bad use of trim” list is the Kia Rio, which sports a black door guard panel spanning the length of the car, no matter what color the rest of the car, as well as a black trimmed bumper.  

Reliability: A friend of mine that has a Focus has had more reliability issues than most car owners.  The quality of materials Ford uses is not the best.  I always feel like I need to throw dice to see if her car will start.  After all, Ford is just an acronym for fix or repair daily!

Suggestions: save up for another month and invest in a Mazda3 or Chevy Aveo.  The Aveo has been tastefully redesign and while sparse on features, is cute and modern for the price.  The Mazda3 is another popular alternative, and is a sibling of the Focus, but Mazda does a fabulous job trimming their cars to look more expensive than they are (except for the media console which I will address in another blog).

Check out the website at www.sliceofred.com/wreaths

Pics are up on the website, I will add to blog soon!

My client was approached a few years ago by a man from Lehman Brothers who wanted him to invest in a deal.  Houses were being built for low income families in two cities around Dallas.  Lehman Brothers was looking for individuals to buy the houses in quantities of ten.  The deal was that for the first year, tenants would pay back the investors through rent and that the difference would be made up through someone else.  After the year was up, the government would buy the houses.  Here was the sticky part.  The builders and appraisers were working together and so the houses were appraised at $125,000.  Lehman Brothers would lend the tenants $90,000 for the house.  The other $35,000 was “air money,” money the builders claimed to have received but never did.  Of the $90,000, $15,000 went straight to Lehman Brothers and their cohorts.  However, when the government came to buy the houses, they were being sold at the initial appraisal price of $125,000.  Thus, Lehman made off with undeserved profit and cheated the government.

What do you think of the bailout?

Unfortunately, however, all the repairs are at my own expense, on my insurance policy.  I’m sure there was a good reason the man that hit me was on the road, he has to make a living just like I do.  The question is, why was he on the road in Frisco, Texas and not in Reynosa, Mexico.  This question isn’t easy to answer, but it’s a lose-lose situation for all of us.

I’ve spent a good deal of time in Mexico, and I’m always the first person to defend the Mexicans when people around me make derogatory generalizations about them.  They are very nice people, and their culture does not cease to amaze me.  Sadly, their country is rabid with corruption and poverty.  The economy has all but dried up and the middle class is dwindling.  So, with little regard for American law, but with an unyielding hope for a better life, the Mexican people flock to our country.  They come anonymously, with no formal identification since the Mexican government issues birth certificates that are meaningless or lost.  Once here, they are tasked with starting a new life without any of the benefits they saw glistening before them on the other side of the river.  Since you can’t get a job without identification and you can’t survive without a job, identification must be created.  Social Security cards are faked, or used en masse.  Now you can get a job, but how are you going to get to your job? So, your boss gives you a work truck, and asks you if you know how to drive.  The subject of the driver’s license is never broached, but you remember how to drive from when you lived in Mexico.  Now you have a means of transportation and a job, but you don’t have any car insurance.  You can’t get car insurance without a driver’s license, at least not from a reputable company, so you just go without.  You’ve never been in an accident before, anyway.  For the first six months, you manage to drive under the radar, but one day you’re pulled over for a slightly out of date inspection sticker.  You’re issued a citation for not having insurance, so you get the same guy that gave you a Social Security card to make you up some car insurance.  The City of Dallas Municipal Courts have too much on the books to worry about a traffic tickets, and dismiss your citation.  

One day, you rear-end someone like me.  Depending on the city you are in, you’ll be deported.  Federal law requires that your immigration papers be checked, and lo and behold, you don’t have any.  Fortunately, you hit me in a city like Frisco, where no one cares enough to deport you because you’re not tarnishing their city, you live in a less “pretty” part of the metroplex.  So you aren’t deported, but you’ve totaled your boss’s truck.  When the insurance company you supposedly hold a policy with starts calling, you turn your phone off.  You can’t tell your boss you totaled his truck because you don’t have the money or the insurance to pay for it.  But it doesn’t matter- you have no identity, no traceable history.  So you go get a new pre-paid phone with a new number, and you go get a new job.  You say you just moved here and are looking to start a new life in America.  

And that girl you hit? She seemed to be okay, and her car was so nice, you’re sure she or her parents have the means to get it repaired or have the insurance to cover it.

About that girl you hit- her mom’s a teacher and her dad manages a hotel for a living.  Both of her parents work very hard for their money, and buy only what they can afford.  They value their property and they value their health and respect their country, so they follow the law and buy insurance for their cars.  For their family of four, they spend thousands of dollars a year making sure their cars are covered in the event that there is damage they cannot afford.  It’s hard for them to come up with the cash to pay a premium that high every six months, but they can’t afford to buy a new car if one is totaled, so they have to.  Why is their insurance so high? Because they have to pay to protect themselves from uninsured “motorists” like you.  They have to pay the price ahead of time for damaged caused by someone who is an illegal alien.  

You know that you are an illegal alien.  You’ve heard the term before, but it holds no real meaning.  When your wife went into labor with your daughter, you went to Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas where no one asked you any questions about your immigrant status.  Who paid for Parkland? The taxpayers of the city of Dallas.  Odd, considering, you didn’t see anyone but illegal immigrants while you were there.  That’s because the taxpayers of the city of Dallas go to one of the other area hospitals because they have healthcare.  The girl you hit has health coverage- she pays for it out of her very own pocket twice a year and it’s a pretty penny.  Why is it so much? So that hospitals like Parkland can provide free care to illegal immigrants like you.

The story goes on and on.  You live here illegally, reap the benefits this great country offers to its citizens, and think that you have a right to be here.  You think that the people that pay for you to live here are rich and can afford it.

The girl you hit is an American citizen and she would love to have a new car.  But she can’t, because she’s too busy paying for the one you damaged.

And just for the record- she’s not rich.

Welcome to my Criminal Law class.

I thought at the beginning of the semester that of my course load, this would be my favorite.  The books required for the class made it look like a challenge, and I was way excited about it.  On the first day of class, we were supposed to go around the room and say what our major was and what we wanted to do as a career after graduation. Everyone in the class said “cop” or “paralegal” or “court reporter.”  It was like a bad daytime television ad for a “college” that doesn’t require a high school diploma.  This was foreshadowing for the rest of the semester.  This might be the stupidest group of people I have ever met.

Let’s start with the guy we’ll call ball cap.

He must live with his parents (not that that’s a bad thing- I live with mine) because he keeps talking about his garage and how big his house is.  Now he’s sitting at the front of the room discussing how his father almost “shot (President) Bush through the TV last night.”  Classy.  He’s barely old enough to vote, but boy does he have his opinions.  Now he’s discussing how he can’t get a roof rack on his new truck (by the way, Ford Rangers don’t count) because it won’t fit in the garage.  There’s more but I won’t subject anyone to it.

Then there’s Luby’s girl.

I haven’t quite figured out how old she is yet, but today she didn’t wear any makeup and she looks about 50, but I’d guess 40s.  I’m not sure what kind of glasses she wears but they make her eyes look HUGE.  And this just adds to my fun.  She had the gall to argue with our professor about how she thinks raising your hand to speak is stupid (which it is, but I wouldn’t argue that point with a seasoned lawyer).  She also made it known to the class that her stepmother left her in a Luby’s once and she felt like she was raised as an orphan.  Now she’s making “suggestions” about our test review and everyone is laughing at her.  It’s pretty great because she makes the other stupid people look smart.

I’ll be back.

I think it’s noble to stay home with your kids- my mom stayed home with my brother and I for the first years of my life, but I didn’t turn out any differently because she worked and I think it actually worked out better because I can’t imagine my mom having stayed home with us.  The women are totally Frisco, they’re doing the whole look how big my ring is and how good my makeup looks even though it’s 1200 degrees outside and I wear dresses that cost more than my kid’s tuition because I can but OH LOOK AT ME I sell Avon.  Seriously.

So the only reason I care about all of this is that the last two times I stumbled upon one of these meetings is that I’ve been accosted.  I don’t wear makeup during the summer because as mentioned previously, it’s 1200 degrees outside and I’m not a big fan of letting things melt and run down my face.  In fact, I think it’s trashy.  But I guess if make up is a big investment for you, you can find something that won’t melt.  More power to you.  Anyway, I grabbed my headphones and shoved them in my ears as fast as I could hoping that I could deter the women from offering me a makeover.  Do I really need one that badly? I know there’s a zit the size of Alaska on my face but it’s a rental- I’m not planning on holding on to it.

Now they’re eyeing the two guys in here- if they offer them make up, I’m running to the bathroom and locking the door.  More later.

C

Since I believe in year-round education (not), most of my free time has been spent studying for the classes I’m taking in summer school- English and Algebra.

There are two boys (notice I am not referring to them as guys or men) in my Algebra class who stick out for a handful of reasons.  We’ll refer to them as Left and Right.  Left wears undershirts (but not under a shirt) and eats pop tarts with Red Bull and claims to be in “Algebra 1 with High School Review” because Calculus 5 was full (or not). Right thinks he’s hot but clearly missed the memo on how pubic hairs on the chin is so Fall 2006.  He spends the three hour class chatting with Left about how cool it is to fail a drug test and how his coworkers at Costco (big money right there) think it’s an actual exam and they study for it.  Seriously, look who’s talking.

So I’m sitting in class on our break (because I have nothing better to do) tweeting away when Fat Girl asks me how much I pay for my iPhone.  I want to say “by the way, I’m Caitlin and my blood type is O positive.  How much do you weigh?” But instead, I put the smart ass away and mutter something about how it’s like $100 month and that’s with the Apple employee discount.  See, I have yet to inform AT&T that I’m no longer an Apple employee.  It just hasn’t come up in conversation.  Maybe they’ll read this blog.  So, anyway, Fat Girl says $100 a month is “bull crap” and I thank her for her input on my finances.  And then, I give her my two cents on her back fat.

It’s around this time that Right perks up and says he, too, was an Apple employee, but that he was a Genius and he hated.  Left adds that he’s a Genius also (remember, he was supposed to be in Calculus).

Somehow, the fact that Right was also manning the fruit stand makes me hate him less, although since he said he hated it, chances are he was also canned, and in that event, the hypocrite in me hates him even more.

Actually, the reason my hatred grows is that he and Left proceed to leave this conversation to discuss how they built their Mac Pros by hand (referring either to the underpaid children in China who watch as the machines assemble the Mac Pros or to the configure to order options on Apple’s website- either way- not exactly “by hand”) and how the processors they put inside clocks speeds that, unless I’ve been living under a rock have yet to be seen by the world’s fastest computers, much less their (comparatively) puny Mac Pros.

But at least he knows what a Mac Pro is.  The kid in front of him, Chews on T-shirt, swears his iPod touch is an iPhone.  I’d love to ask him to call me on it.  I think he’s special, though, or at least I like to pretend there’s a good reason he chews on his shirt and bunches himself up into a ball in his desk and spends the entire class sending emails to himself on his “iPhone.”

Judgment passed.

C

I get “requests” to race all the time.  I had three or four today which is unusually high.  I don’t normally acknowledge the car that wants to race, but if I can, I try to cut them off before the next light.  I didn’t think the Celica would be the racing type of car but everyone who sees it asks me about it.

Anyway, that’s it.  Back to LSAT studying and prep for school tomorrow.

Blog later.

1. Full Bluetooth capabilities.  I’m not sure if this is software or hardware related, but it is my understanding that the Bluetooth modules in devices have no distinction other than distance. Thus, Apple should be able to release a firmware update that would allow users to take full advantage of its Bluetooth module.  I personally would like to use it for BluePhoneElite, a program that connects your Mac to your cell phone and allows you to send text messages and take calls through the computer.  Check it out at http://mirasoftware.com/BPE2.

2. Searchable email.  I use Gmail, which archives all your mail by default, and as a result, I have a lot of mail.  I frequently find myself searching through endless emails on my iPhone and very rarely do I find the message I want.  This should be as simple to implement as searchable contacts, but then, I do not know how to code so I really have no idea.

3. Picture messaging.  I love to take pictures with my iPhone because you can use the camera without anyone knowing what you’re doing.  I find myself attaching these pictures to emails and sending them off which is great on my end, but not all of my friends (sadly) have iPhones.  Also, when unknowing friends send pictures to my phone, I have to go to AT&T’s view my message website and enter in a randomly generated message ID and password which is impossible to memorize from the text message screen.  Pretty sure every iPhone user wants this.