Wednesday, February 27, 2008

The Mystery of Foreclosures

In talking with my family and friends lately I have heard much talk about the possibility of going into another depression. With every conversation foreclosures and loss of houses were brought up and I found much interest in this. I wanted to know why our economy is getting so bad and why families are losing their houses.

I started researching on the internet and found a lot of good information about mortgages and also discovered that it isn’t just A.R.M. mortgages that are the problems but also scams involving mortgages. I hope to interview some people from the bank who provide mortgages and refinancing as well as people in my community. I hope to collect a lot of information and facts about today’s foreclosure growth.

It is difficult to focus on one point in my research because there is so much information that I never realized. It is difficult to sit and think about how I will one day not only own a house but be at risk for foreclosure on that home. I would like to do this article not only for myself but to provide my family and friends with knowledge that could benefit them in their own life.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Super Freakin' Tuesday

When I first read the blog assignment I was excited, I didn't even know what a caucus was and I, for once, am some-what interested in this year elections. I spent the three days before the caucus trying to figuring out what one was, asking everyone I know and trying to look it up. I didn't realize there were so many vague and different definitions of what a caucus was, all of which were wrong. I looked up where my local caucus was, Big Lake High School, and made plans to go with my boyfriend and my little sister.

Tuesday came around, 6:45 rolled around... no one told me about anything going on at 6:30.... we got in the car and drove to the high school. When we arrived all there was outside were signs for the Republican party and we are anything but republicans, in fact there's no way I would've even walked into a caucus if it was for republicans. Huffing and puffing we walked into the school and saw these little computer paper signs with marker written on them, "DFL PARTY", we finally breathe and follow the signs. Making our way into a lunchroom with maybe thirty people we were already disappointed. I am a person who needs to know absolutely everything right then and there and I was walking into this room with no idea what I was doing or where I was suppose to go, I'm frustrated and annoyed. It was very unorganized with people looking around and at each other saying nothing at all. We take a seat.

An older gentlemen with a beard and glasses starts talking loudly reading off of a piece of paper, we assumed he was speaking to the crowd of lost people. When the three of us realized it was time to listen up and figure stuff out a middle aged lady walks in front our table, blocking our view of the room (we were in the back), she wants to take a picture of us for the newspaper and she spent nearly ten minutes interviewing us. When we got a chance to listen to the speaker again the first thing we heard was "no campaign can win without money to back them and the only way we are going to win is if you all open up your checkbooks tonight", this angered us immediately. Don't get me wrong, I'm not here to offend any one (everyone put their guards up now), but we aren't religious people and the reason why my entire family stopped going in the first place is because the church we went to when I was little (and every church any of my family currently attends) passes around a little dish and asks for money and treats you like crap if you don't put some in it. We felt like we came there to give money and they didn't talk about any issues or mention anything about the presidential election. When they asked the people who had never been to a caucus to raise their hands nearly everyone in the room did and yet nothing was explained about why we were there and what we needed to be doing.

I'll admit it, I lasted twenty minutes and I learned absolutely nothing. I'm a very opinionated person and I don't believe in listening to nonsense or something I am completely against. I will continue to follow the campaigning process and I will vote at this years election but the caucus was all to much for me, I'm sorry. Maybe I need to broaden my horizon.