Each night when he goes to bed, Steve Simonetti has no idea whether his Acura TL will be in the driveway the next day.

The Dublin resident is stuck in the middle of a legal tug of war between National Automobile Leasing Group, from which he bought the car, and the dealership that provided the car to National Automobile.

The Grove City leasing company won't give him the car's title, nor will it pay the dealership for the car. And the dealership wants its car back.

The dispute and others like it have attracted the attention of the Ohio attorney general's office, which filed suit yesterday against National Automobile, accusing it of consumer fraud for not turning over the titles when selling at least 40 cars.

National Automobile serves as an intermediary between car buyers and dealerships. The attorney general's office said the company accepted cars from dealerships, pocketed the loan money from consumers and returned the title to the dealership. Consumers were left with cars but no title, and dealerships were left with titles but no car.

"This company was buying new cars and selling them as new cars to consumers," said Rosemary E. Rupert, assistant attorney general in the consumer protection section. "They never paid (the dealers), in effect putting out the business they got the car from and the consumer as well."

The lawsuit is aimed at stopping National Automobile from the practice and getting consumers titles to their cars.

National Automobile officials did not return calls seeking comment.

But the attorney general's legal action isn't stopping with the Grove City company. It also is suing two of the car dealerships and one financing company, Rupert said. The suit accuses Hugh White Honda and Lindsey Acura of accepting the titles from National Automobile after the cars were sold to consumers.

In addition, the Franklin County School Employees Federal Credit Union is being sued for financing the cars without checking whether a lien existed on the vehicles, she said.

"Here we have consumers with cars they can't drive because they can't get plates for that car because of the title issues, leaving consumers making loan payments for cars they can't drive," Rupert said. "It's unconscionable."

Meanwhile, Steve Lindsey, of Lindsey Acura, questions why his dealership is being sued when it "did nothing wrong."

"NAL took a car from us and several other dealerships and never paid us for the car," Lindsey said. "We still have title to the car because we never got paid. It just doesn't make sense. All we wanted was our car back."

Don Smith, general manager of Hugh White Honda, agrees. He said his company is facing a loss of $160,000 for six cars National Automobile took from it without paying. Smith said his dealership sought help from the attorney general but instead is being sued.

"They said they'd help us put NAL in jail, but instead, they are dragging their feet," Smith said. He blamed the recent change of leadership in the attorney general's office for the situation.

"With the mess they have going on over there, they want me to give up six car titles with no payment."

The credit union's leader, Jodi Henricks, is likewise upset that her organization has been sued. She disputes the allegations and said the credit union will vigorously defend itself.

Until all this is settled, Simonetti has to jump through hoops every 30 days to get the attorney general's office to call the motor-vehicle department to authorize new temporary tags so he can drive his car.

It's been stressful, he said.

"I got a call from Lindsey saying they want their car back, so I'm left wondering, do I need to hide my car even though I pay for it every month?" Simonetti said. "It's been a big problem, a major inconvenience and nerve-racking not knowing what will happen.

"For the last eight months, I've paid $10.50 each month for the temporary tags to keep driving my car. What am I supposed to do?"

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Leasing isn't new, but it probably began soaring for regular car buyers in the early 1990s when new cars carried a monthly loan payment that became too uncomfortable to handle.

Leasing carries a lower monthly payment because, in effect, you are merely renting the vehicle long-term instead of buying it outright. It has always been attractive to companies because it is deductible as a recurring business expense without getting into the hassles of depreciation.

And, as long as individual buyers avoid the pitfalls of too long a lease (three years is ideal when it matches the car warranty period) or difficulty in getting out of leases unscathed, leasing remains popular.

Even now with the U.S. economy challenged, about one-fifth of all vehicles are leased.

"From the statistics we're seeing, leasing is pretty steady. It went up as high as 20 percent in March, but April and May, it dropped to the mid to low 18 percent range," said Chintan Talati, senior public relations manager at Santa Monica-based Edmunds Inc., which runs the automotive website Edmunds.com, a source of car leasing tips and other auto information.

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Having never been one for laying horses & always convincing myself I was winning some personal battle against the formbook by picking winners. I've moved over to the darkside of laying - prompted by a post on the Betfair forum about turning £100 into £137k.

I'll go into further detail about the mechanics behind the staking and the selections at a leter date, when I can work out how to create pages & upload spreadsheets etc...

 The nuts & bolts behind it is to make selections to increase your bank by 2% each selection - so with a £100 bank the maximum odds you can lay are 50/1 for £2 there by generating a £2 profit should the horse lose (an increase of 2%) - Betfair commission has to be factored in & i'll take care of that on spreadsheet.

This blog is mainly a method of keeping record & discipline and also an outlet for any thoughts & frustrations.

I've already completed 8 successful lays & resultsare as per below.

Stand in line. Talk to nerdy customer service rep. Pay too much for a "rechargeable" card. Give said card to small person standing to my left. Head off into the caves of electronics and toys, diligently following the small person..

It's the Gameworks trek. And it's a tradition.

Tonight was our fourth annual evening at Gameworks. This year, it took less then thirty minutes for the small person's focus to turn away from driving and hunting simulators and toward the ticket room. 

A select number of games spit tickets as a reward for a lucky break: dropped coins landing on the color green...on a button marked "cut the cheese"...into an open toilet bowl...onto a miniature mining cart.

They're simple games - almost too simple. Sized specifically for kids, utilizing primary colors. Small people never know how many tickets those machines will spit out - if any. Sometimes one ticket; sometimes fifty. But what they do know is the more tickets they collect, the better the prizes they can trade them for.

My small person relished having full control over the rechargeable card. After a few cursory attempts to get me to play Dance Dance Revolution or Waterski Challenge (both of which I was NOT exceptional at), he decided to focus on the real fun: running the card through the slot that spits out coins, then hustling from the coin machine to a ticket-spitting game.

He went back. And forth. Back. And forth. I watched him racing around, trying new games of chance. Attempting to figure out which one dispensed the most tickets the most often.

I stuffed my pockets with his tickets and tried to look interested as he rode the highs and lows of "how much will I win?" I asked him if he was thirsty. Perhaps he needed a snack. Should I hold his jacket?

Then I realized: the boy was clearly in training for Vegas. 

The excitement, the furor, the "one last try" mentality. Even me waiting on him so he wouldn't get distracted or lose momentum.

Gameworks and I may very well have sown the seeds of a gambling problem tonight.

At least he got some prizes for his trouble. And he bought me a box of candy with some of his proceeds, which I found both generous and in keeping with a blooming high-roller.

(Small person was also one ticket short of the prize he really wanted. But thankfully good judgment prevailed: he didn't ask for a card recharge. This time.)

Every day another story - 

Sofie

I was looking at what was hot on the front page of wordpress today and noticed a post on entertainment in which a pastor got a lottery ticket and won 4 dollars, then posted it on his blog for his church members to see. Here is the site if you want to see.

Now I got to thinking a little bit, and thought why would a guy like this who is supposed to be an example to his flock put something up like this? Isn't the love of money the root of evil? Well I am not saying the man loves money. But because there are people that have gambling problems, and maybe very well some of the people that go to his church, wouldn't it make sense that he would be wise to abstain from doing something like this in order not to stumble someone?

I guess this just goes to show what this world has come to. Instead of being an example and maybe even not putting that up on a blog which is supposed to be about God, he is talking about gambling. But then again I just remembered that a lot of churches use gambling as a way to bring in revenue with bingo. They have to try to make it fun and playful at church because the lack of respect and love for wanting to be there is gone from people now.

The California Gold Rush was one of the largest mass migrations of humanity the world has ever seen, nearly all of it driven by optimism and hope, with a good measure of greed thrown into the mix. For better or worse, pursuing and achieving the "golden dream" often proved more difficult than many thought.

By 1850 most of the rich and easier-to-work placer ground in the Motherlode Region was already claimed up and being picked clean. Yet newcomers continued to arrive in California by the thousands and tens of thousands, hoping for their share of the riches to be found in the gold-bearing streams, gullies, and washes of the Sierra Nevadas. But newcomers and goldfield veterans alike shared one thing in common: backbreaking work, often 10 hours or more a day, knee deep in icy water, digging, moving rock, sifting and panning, or shoveling gravel into a long tom. It was hard labor of the worst sort, and each day it yielded less and less of the yellow metal.

Soon, frustration, loneliness, depression, and despair seeped into the mining camps, replacing the once friendly camaraderie and supreme optimism that marked the early days of mining in the Gold Rush. Bickering and arguments over the slightest causes became commonplace. Friends turned on strangers, then on each other. Theft, robbery, and other "property" crimes became ever more commonplace and the impetus for vigilante justice. Ever increasing levels of violence became the norm for settling even the slightest disputes among miners, while murder or hanging became common punishments for thieves, claim jumpers, or those innocent unfortunates who found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. 49er John Bucroft, who found himself on the wrong end of mining camp justice, wrote this short note home:

"I take this opportunity of writing these few lines to you hoping to find you in good health. Me and Charley is sentenced to be hung at five o'clock for a robbery. Give my best to Frank and Sam."

Alcohol abuse and compulsive gambling also increased in those areas of the Motherlode where the larger camps or communities could provide saloons and gambling halls. Not surprisingly, prostitution also flourished in these locales. Near Hangtown (modern day Placerville) a lucky miner who had hit a rich pocket of placer gold totaling nearly $17,000 threw it all away on strong drink, the tables, and women of ill repute in a classic "bender" lasting but a few days. Afterwards, he returned to the backbreaking work at the diggings as if nothing untoward had happened. With this sort of nochalance toward potential wealth it's little wonder why many miners couldn't make a success of things in rich diggings. What they failed to see was that the placer gold surrounding them was not inexhaustible.

Whatever the cause, many would-be argonauts gave up on their golden dreams and headed eastward, back home to the friends and families they had not-so-long-ago left behind. Others hung on in the diggings, certain that the next shovelful of dirt would uncover the big lead or pocket, making them wealthy beyond their wildest imagination. Others, broken, exhausted, and dejected became sick at heart or ill in body, dying by their own hands or from poor diet, disease, and sickness.

And so it went in the mines...and as it went, so went the golden dream.

(c)  J.R.  2008

Your comments and donations (safely and securely made through PayPal) are appreciated. 

(You can e-mail me your questions at jr872vt90@yahoo.com)

An exciting opportunity for A-Level art students who wish to increase their knowledge of contemporary art is available at Derry's Void Gallery.
Damien Duffy, from Void, explained: “We are opening up the studio to A-Level students who want to learn about contemporary art. At school, pupils’ learning can be limited by time and by the curriculum. Here, however, they have an opportunity to meet the artists and learn about the workings of the gallery. We want them to challenge the idea of what art is.”

The initiative is supported by the Arts Council for Northern Ireland and enables the gallery to provide resources for free. Damien will be attending local schools in September to give pupils the chance to learn more about the initiative.

He added: “It’s a chance for art students to further their understanding of contemporary art, to do things on a bigger scale, and to work on digital installations. They can get away from just using pencils, paints and pads.

“Students can see an exhibition or show at Void and use the ideas from that show as a kicking-off point for their own work. Once artists start researching, they develop their own interests.”

An exhibition by current students was launched on Saturday and will be open to the public for four weeks from today.

Damien added: “The work that will be on display at the exhibition is of a very high standard. These current students are old hands at this stuff by now. Some have sold work already and pieces on display from Saturday have been earmarked for purchase.

“It’s great for the artists that they have the opportunity to put a value on their work.”

All current students who have applied to do a foundation or degree course have been accepted.

Rosaleen O’Callaghan, 72, will begin a degree course in Fine and Applied Art in September and says that Damien is well placed to help artists progress.

Expert advice

She said: “Damien and everyone at Void have been a great help in building my portfolio. Damien was in London for fifteen years and is a contemporary of Damien Hirst from their time together at Goldsmiths College. He has a great understanding and knowledge of art and artists, so he can point us in the right direction.”

Current students Patrick McDaid and Trudie Kee, whose work will be on display at the exhibition, said they have both evolved as artists over the two years they spent at Void.

Trudie said: “It’s definitely worthwhile and has improved me as an artist.”

Damien said: “Primarily this initiative is for A-Level students because space and funding is limited. Sometimes people look at contemporary art and think ‘I could do that’. So why don’t you? Come and give it a go!”

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The jury members of the Indonesian Art Award 2008, which runs until July 13, were asked on Sunday to select 100 finalists from 3,200 artists taking part in the competition held by the Indonesian Art Foundation.

It was supposed to be an easy task given the large number of participants, but in the end only 36 names were selected. The remaining 3,164 artists simply did not qualify as finalists, art critic Enin Supriyanto, who headed the board of jury, said.

The art world, according to author Nassim Nicholas Taleb, is part of a province called Extremistan, which has no place for mediocrities and epigones that belong to the other province called Mediocristan.

In Extremistan, recognition is saved only for prodigies and those who are exceptionally creative and capable of breaking the status quo.

The competition has shown that epigonism remains a problem within Indonesia's contemporary arts scene, and that despite the political and aesthetical freedom enjoyed by today's artists, which allow them to break conceptual and medium boundaries, creativity and novelty are still hard to find.

Of the paintings participating in the competition, Enin said the jury found a lot of self-portraits and portraits of famous people. They tend to follow the current trend in painting: the presentation of realist imageries combined with texts or objects that are meant to be seen as symbolic expressions.

There are also painters who tried to revive Raw Art, or Art Brut, in their works by applying chaotic sketches, scratches and colors that seem to have sprung from their wild and impulsive inner selves.

However, Enin said they sadly failed to go beyond the achievements of their predecessors in the 1980s and early 1990s.

"In the end, those works look more like bad imitations," said the jury members, who were surprised that they also received plenty of landscape paintings depicting the romantic images of the country's flora and fauna or the lives of its people in a clich‚d and anachronistic way, as if those works were thrown from the past centuries to the present.

The 36 finalists are exceptional in their approaches. The jury members chose five winners considered to have utilized distinctive qualities.

"We decided not to rank the winners. It is not an athletic competition where you can tell the first and second winners by a matter of seconds," Enin said.

Although many competing photographs and video installations did not escape certain criticism, including for being epigonistic, it is not surprising that only one acrylic on-canvas art piece made it to the final round in the competition, which ended up being dominated by young artists.

The rest, including the five winners, included video art, video installations, sculpture and photography.

It is ironic because the Indonesian Art Award, formerly named the Phillip Morris Art Award, was initially a competition for paintings only.

Starting in 2001, when it changed its name, the Indonesian Art Foundation decided to include non-canvas art works in the competition, but the change lasted only three years.

When the foundation revived the competition this year, after a four-year hiatus, it made another crucial change: It no longer categorizes art works according to certain disciplines. Paintings, photography or videos, among others, are treated equally.

Coagulation #1, an installation by Faisal Habibie, Seeing the Paradise, a video installation by Banung Grahita, Kirab Budaya (Cultural Parade) a photograph by Johan les Wahyudi, War for Fun, an installation by Gatot Indrajadi and Jalan Tak Ada Ujung (Endless Alley), a video by Maulana M. Pasha were announced the winners of the competition at the opening of the exhibition of the 36 finalists' art works at Galeri Nasional on Sunday. It ends on July 13.

Faisal, who studied sculpture at Bandung Institute of Technology, explores the technological relationship between human beings and nature.

Coagulation #1, which presents a rocking chair that moves right and left instead of back and forth, implies our neophilia will bring us to an unthinkable future where humans are frozen and objects take on life and make the decisions.

In Seeing the Paradise, Banung shows how the mass media has created new myths in a society exposed to visual culture. "What appears in television has now become something that we dream of, a purpose for many people," the 25-year-old artist said. The heaven in the installation is symbolized by surreal nature above the clouds that is seen through windows.

War of Fun, which mixed paintings and puppets, is a criticism of human beings' fondness of playing war games with puppets, while Kirab Budaya displays the way the people in Solo, Central Java, respect cultural diversities through an impressive collage photography technique.

Maulana drew the attention of the exhibition goers with his work, Jalan Tak Ada Ujung, which tells the story of a man who is looking for his friend's house. It cleverly depicts the labyrinth of Jakarta's narrow alleys where directions and addresses are no longer certain and therefore we are drawn into perceiving spaces and locations as fantasy.

The other 31 finalists are also worth noting, but two of them deserve special attention. They are Djoni Basri, who uses styrofoam in his sculpture installation entitled Para Pecundang (The Losers), and Agung Suryanto with his space installation entitled The Blue Down.

"We hope that this competition serves as a place for artists to test the quality of their works and where standards of judgments for good visual arts can be made," Enin said.

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During coffee on the smoking patio of my local 'Blenz' last week, I eavesdropped on a conversation. Not tough to do, either, given the volume of what turned out to be a lecture along the lines of: "When I was a lad....". Among the butts, discarded cups and peeling steel tables, this guy began with the history of gasoline prices, and the exact and only reason why we have fuel prices that very soon will have to be mortgaged, to be afforded.

This caffeine-guru's answer isn't the point for this Post (But, in case you are interested, it was Oil Futures traders -Bastards!), but rather how odd that there has to be one answer. Ever since I have lived in North America, I have been disturbed by this logical way of looking at life. In sports, the MVP (Or Man of the Match, as we used to call it in the UK) in any sporting occasion, is simply the guy that throws the winning ball, or makes the winning score. I am used to unsung heroes being MOTM: The plucky midfielder whose runs into the other half of the field were undefendable, or the hard-as-rock defender that held up the opposing strikers enough to put the opposition out of position on every possession. Over here, though, there has to be one reason why your team won, and this is it.

Likewise, Elections are called way before the final ballot is cast, so that everyone can see the result in Prime Time, instead of waiting until tomorrow morning. It is instant gratification that, therefore, can be pegged to one reason, one moment, one state, that someone won and someone lost.

I miss my British all night, overnight parties that we held to see who was going to be called winner around breakfast next day. They were exciting to see the tides turn gradually, then sweep back again in a vast organic tide, like a pile of autumn leaves blowing over your driveway. Made up of thousands of individuals, it sweeps back and forth as one, fawn, wave.

I often have fun looking at the build up of soccer goals, to see where the 'killer touch' occurred in the move - the clever fake, the short pass, the misplaced defender, looking at the scorer as a part of a team effort, not an individual - still, that's the Socialist in me, I guess.

Oil prices are this high for many reasons and, while I blame the society that let Futures traders get so out of control, we aren't also counting in the rise of the middle-class in developing countries, the loss of the ozone layer, greenhouse gases, the inability to make and sell a car in the US that does all the right things, rather than one that sells only on gut reactions of shape, colour, and speed.

In fact, it's almost like rolling a hand of poker dice. You are only going to count three out of five, but it is the array of all five that you are looking at, and the decision process becomes way more complex very quickly.

I have thought for the longest time that coincidence is much more of a primary mover of human affairs than anyone thinks. When I look at the string of situations that led to me flying to Los Angeles 20 years ago, it makes my heart beat faster to think that one change somewhere along the way, and I wouldn't have got a look in. Recently, my wife and I were shown 'The Secret', and it says mostly the same thing: It's all going to hit the fan, no matter what you do - just get out of the way and keep your head down.

For an outlandish and entertaining look at this subject, Leonard Mlodinow's book on the illogical turning of our World and universe: "The Drunkard's Walk" . It is a revealing, and very entertaining look at how we cannot look at one answer for every single situation in out daily lives. Just as molecules fly through space with all the wayward grace of well-oiled drunk, so too, do we stagger through our uncertain world mistakenly believing in cause-and-effect, purpose and direction.

There are lots of reasons for every situation in life that we can now look back on and unravel like a troublesome knot in a skein of wool. The trick is to learn from these disparate strings of chaos to ensure that they don't happen again.

It's a pity that our own need for transportation highs over the last 150 years in Europe and North America have trumped the sensible voices for restraint that would have helped us get out of this knotty oil situation long before this.