About Alexandra Heep

About Alexandra Heep: The internet has allowed allowed Alexandra to maintain a semblance of life when encountering an unexpected, lingering health crisis. The Internet is a lifeline which not only allows her to remain connected to friends, but also survive, via writing.While Alexandra Heep is her pen name, she does not hide behind it. Instead, she used it to brand herself on the Internet and to create opportunities.

Alexandra published her first book, a collection of her best poems, on July 11, 2012. You can buy it at Lulu.com

Support independent publishing: Buy this book on Lulu.


Thursday, August 4, 2011

The Gulf Widens


August 4 sure was an interesting day. It saw the biggest stock market decline since the financial fiasco in 2008, despite the USA maintaining its AAA credit rating with a last-ditch effort in raising the debt ceiling and spending cuts. This was followed by world-wide reports of sinking economies in reaction to the US stock market. Today also marked President Obama’s and NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon’s birthdays, number 50 and 40 respectively.

Also in NASCAR, it was announced that Roush Fenway Racing, after months of speculation and much tweeted hooplah, re-signed their driver Carl Edwards to a sweet new racing deal. How sweet of course is not being divulged, but it was let on that it had quite a few zeroes.

This follows on the heels of the end of the NFL lockout where “lowered” salaries still equal hundreds of thousands of dollars paid for each second of play, and rapper SoulJa Boy forking over 55 Million Dollars for a private jet this week.

All the while I was following CNN and listened to the argument whether the unemployment rate is 9.4 percent or 9.5 percent. No one ever mentions that it is actually higher than that – once you no longer draw unemployment or do not qualify to begin with you are no longer counted as unemployed.

Of course this is nothing new; there will always be those with a whole lot more than those with a whole lot less. Nor is it good for the soul to envy those who worked for what they have.

However, as an armchair observer of humanity, such as it is, I wonder if the monetary awards of those mentioned above (and many others) justify the effort they put in and if they ever think of where they came from.

For example, at one time I was a Carl Edwards fan because of his humble beginnings and the stories he used to tell about sleeping in his car because he had no money for hotel rooms. He also gave his trophies away at one time and seemed a down-to-earth guy. But eventually even he graduated to his own jet airplane. Today, after he announced his deal (people are speculating that he dragged it out to get more money) I watched his eyes to find that person from long ago but I did not see it.

2 comments:

Diane said...

A very well written journalistic level article, Alex. Your perspective is detached, yet observant. I hope you can pursue more of this type of writing and get paid for it. :-)

Conny said...

What a juice bit of news Alex.

I especially liked "once you no longer draw unemployment or do not qualify to begin with you are no longer counted as unemployed".

It's the same here in Canada and it makes me want to scream "LIARS!!!" at those who claim that the unemployment rate went down.