what's wrong with this picture?

Patriotic Cow

No cheating (I have a comment at the end of there).

random post of the day

Proof that George W Bush wasn't always a total idiot, plus an explanation of why he is today?

Originally I was going to go into something about the unique problems of really tall people, but I'll save that for a later day.

cents per mile

Looking back over the years (since May of 2001, to be exact), I've spent $18,752.42 on driving. In return, I've got a car worth about $3,000, plus 57167.3 miles on my odometer. What does this mean? It means that my car over time costs 27.6 cents per mile.

I remember the last time I did this calculation I was under 25 cents a mile. Why did it go up? A few reasons:

1. I calculated it differently this time
   Last time I excluded things like parking, tolls, and traffic tickets. This time I didn't bother with sorting through that. I'm guessing that would add another $500 or 1 cent/mile. Whew! Feel even better now!
   
   
2. Gas costs more
   Last time I calculated this, gas was something like $1.20 a gallon. It's over twice that now. You'd think this would make my costs skyrocket. Thankfully there's things like cheaper insurance and more highway miles that offset this. Imagine if gas was still that cheap!

Bottom line? My car is still reliable enough that I'm not spending too much on repairs. Granted, I can't really see when that would be the case, considering that labor is essentially free. It'll be time to stop when the cost to fix the car exceeds the replacement cost of the car. In other words, when the engine completely dies or something else terrible happens to the car. Eeek!

Now... for all you people who make car payments, here's a rough comparison. Let's get your run of the mill cheap-ass car with a car payment of $199 a month. Assuming that you drive 12,000 miles a year (typical), that would be 1,000 miles per month. Match that with the $199 monthly payment and you already have 20 cents per mile. Working backwards, if you want this car to be as cost efficient as mine, you'd only have 6.7 cents per mile for things like gas, tires, repairs, insurance, and depreciation. Sheesh! Even if it was just gas, good luck on finding a car that costs 6.7 cents per mile for gas. With gas costing $2.87 per gallon as it does today, you'd need a car that gets 43 mpg. Good luck with that one!

Now with the jerk example. Let's say I have a gas guzzling car that gets 15 mpg (think any big truck). With gas at $2.87 a gallon, gasoline alone would cost 19 cents a mile. Sweet!

first post in a while

So um.... I've been busy. Since the last time, I've went to a few baseball games, gone to Toronto, gone to Connecticut, gone to Las Vegas, and now I'm going back to CT. Something to do with my scheme of getting a new driver license to avoid having a ticket show up on my record. (-: Might as well give it a shot, right?

dumb link

What the hell???

house stuff

Similar to the other list for cars, but this time for house stuff... This is probably not a comprehensive list since I don't keep track of it like I do with stuff I do for my car. Here goes...

• Telephone wiring and jacks
• Replacing outlets, light switches, etc.
• Laying tile (including backer boards)
• Completely tearing apart a kitchen - cabinets, flooring
• Putting in kitchen cabinets
• Snaking drains
• Installing faucets
• Installing a tub/shower
• Removing a cast iron tub
• Adding another bar in a closet to hang clothes
• Constructed frames for putting up paneling
• Putting up drywall
• Changing light bulbs
• Sealing driveways
• Patching holes in driveways
• Changing the wheels on the garage door
• Installing thresholds for exterior doors
• Put up a fence for a compost
• Carpet removal
• Building shelves
• Installing a new sink
• Changing locks
• Removal and installation of interior doors
• Removal and installation of an exterior door
• Installing a gas range
• Installing a dishwasher
• Making a door disappear
• Painting
• Putting in trim
• Planting trees
• Pruning trees
• Cutting down trees
• Running cable
• Change fuses
  

car stuff

So what have I done with cars?

Replaced:

• Alternator
• Alternator belt
• Serpentine belt
• Front and rear disc brake pads
• Brake calipers
• Brake caliper braket
• Master cylinder
• McPherson struts
• Rotors
• Sway bar
• Sway bar bushings
• Front and rear upper suspension arms/ball joint
• Anti-lock brake sensors
• Radiator
• Oxygen sensors
• Car batteries
• Assorted lights (headlights, rear lights, turn lights, gear selector light)
• Fuel filter
• Air filter
• Oil and filter
• Radiator coolant
• Radiator cap
• Spark plugs
• Tie rod ends
• Drive shafts
• Wipers
• Side mirror
• PCV valve
• Ignition coil
• Distributor cap
• Distributor rotor
• Ignition module
• Radiator hoses
• Transmission fluid
• Brake fluid
• Gasoline... yes, I pump my own gas (screw NJ!)
  

Repaired, adjusted, or reconditioned:

• Brake caliper boots and bolts
• Distributor rotor
• Idle speed
• Exhaust
• Electrical connections
• Your mom

What I don't do:

• Timing belt (needs an engine hoist!)
  
• Water pump (needs an engine hoist!)

oil oil oil!

We rock. In case you didn't know, our domestic oil production is only 66% of what it was in the early 1990's. Don't believe me? See for yourself.

Another interesting fact. We're the third biggest oil producer in the world, yet we're still largely dependent on foreign oil. Granted, we have a huge population, and we're definitely not as screwed as China from an energy standpoint. Not troubling, until you consider the scenario of major powers fighting (literally) over energy. Good times. (sarcasm).

So who should we attack next? Probably Brazil or Norway. They seem to be increasing production. Oh... and annex Alberta from Canada since oil sands are now profitable.

Lesson learned (or not learned)? Attacking countries and making them politically unstable doesn't help oil production. Iraq is running at only better than 50% capacity compared to the days of Saddam Hussein. Next time do a coup instead of a frontal assault.

Random related links:
Link 1: Oil output forecasts
Link 2: Report and outlook

realization

So I got 20 free songs on iTunes from getting plane tickets on continental.com. Yay me. So that led to to the iTunes store... to Green Day... to see if I should repurchase Dookie, my third CD ever.

And on the Dookie page, there were the customer reviews. One of which asked Green Day fans if they could name any songs that are not on American Idiot. Good question, eh? I can do it easily (Basketcase, Longview, Minority), but that's because I was in high school when Dookie came out. Am I really that old? (no, because I still hang out with college kids at times)

But this got me thinking back to the Green Day concert that I went to. We were some of the oldest people there. Most of the audience was probably in high school or college (more likely high school). So if they're 16-18 now, that means that they were 5-7 years old when Dookie was released. A good chunk of them probably never heard Dookie. And if they did, they listened to it the same way I would listen to an early Aerosmith album -- a piece of the past. Strange when you think about it that way.

find the skank!

It's like "Where's Waldo?," but very very different...

Link

a touch of class

Those of you who know me know that I'm a classy guy. (-; Here's a rundown of places I'll be staying for my next two trips.

• The Comfort Inn in Belleville, Ontario
• The Econo Lodge in Montreal, Quebec
• The Rondo Motel in Golden, British Columbia

Yes, clearly the international traveler. But hey, I've never been to Alberta before. It's my chance to hit all the provinces? Probably a silly goal since I'll never go to the Northwest Territories, but not a bad start for a Yankee.

um....

er... I've been up for 20 hours straight. Maybe I should be feeling more tired. Maybe I'm excited about my upcoming trips!

Yep, I'm doing another Canadian whirlwind tour. Kind of like last year when I hit Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver, but nothing like it!

For this year:
Toronto, Montreal?, Vancouver, Mt. Revelstoke NP, Glacier NP (the one in Canada, NOT the one in the U.S.), Yoho NP ("Yo, ho!"), Banff NP and Jasper NP? Yeah! Good thing I have plenty of memory cards for my camera!

random link of the day

Churchgoers longer, studies say.

http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/060403_church_good.html

It also says that it's not as cost effective, or as effective overall, as regular exercise. It also makes it pretty clear that this is a correlation and no causality has been established.

This brings me to a more important point. Causality is ignored so often it's amazing. This is a good topic to get me on a rant about work. Not as good as abstraction though. We really need more abstract thinkers who can apply learnings less directly.

random site of the day

http://www.improveverywhere.com/missions.php

And yes, I should be sleeping...

people who drive fast

OK. I drive faster than most other people. However, I've noticed something about people who drive really really fast (the ones that happen to fly by me on the freeway) -- they don't know where they're going.

Two cases (which clearly makes this scientific):

Case 1: The person in the black Nissan Altima driving down I-271
I noticed this car one morning when I was driving over to my parents' place. I was in the local lanes going my typical 70-75mph. I noticed somewhere around the Mayfield exit that the black Nissan Altima in the express lane that was flying down the road. I also noticed the nice dent on the right side of the car - much like the dent I have.

Another 3 or 4 miles down the road I get off at Chagrin Blvd. As I stop at the light at Richmond, I notice a black Nissan Altima with a dent on the passenger side. Exact same car. Apparently the jackass got off at the wrong exit and came back north an exit. Good work, jackass.

Case 2: Annoyed girl in a Honda CR-V in the OH turnpike
This girl clearly was unhappy with my speed on the turnpike as she tailgated me. I think I was going 75mph, and she wasn't really going too much faster than I was, but she was annoyed, impatient, pissed off. Anyway, I was happy when she turned off at the I-680 exit by Youngstown. I thought that was the end of it. Apparently not.

Half an hour later (about 30 miles down the road), I see this girl again. She didn't look any happier. Clearly she was even more pissed off because she really meant to get off at I-480 (Cleveland) instead of I-680 (Youngstown). Brilliant.

the imperial palace

This June I'll be going to Las Vegas to join Seth at his bachelor party. However, the one thing that I didn't know when I signed up for the fun was where we'd be staying.

I really didn't give it much thought at first. After all, we're probably not going to be spending much time in our rooms anyway. However, when I was informed that we would be staying at the Imperial Palace, I was left speechless.

Was this a good thing? Was it a bad thing?

Last time I went to Vegas, I had the fine luck of passing through the Imperial Palace. It's tucked neatly away behind another casino, and I remember that I struck my attention because of it's fantastic logo spells out my last name. I also remember from stepping into the casino that it was overwhelmingly Asian. In other words, FOBish.

So you can understand how I was torn about this. Sure, it's funny as hell that I'll be at the Asian FOBish casino that's also known as the IP, but then I realize that I'll actually be staying at the Asian FOBish casino called the IP. We'll see. Worst case is that it results in more humor.

dilemma

If I have lots to write about, I have no time to post. If I have time to post, I don't have much to write. Various topics to harrass me about:

• Yale welcome weekend - awesome
• The drive back - lots of rain, flooding, Hudson River
• People who drive fast - don't know where they're going (I-680, Harvard exit)
• Vegas
• I'm sure I'm missing something. Just ask!
  

art supplies

Yeah, I just made my first purchase from an art supply store. Why? Because I needed to.

The one thing that did really bother me though was how crappy those web sites are. Poor product descriptions, poor layouts, and a most buggy purchase flow I've seen in years. Really, it got so bad that in Firefox it thought that the continue button was the same as the button that toggled between US address entry and International address entry. For whatever reason I actually switched to IE, redid my shopping cart, and then checked out. Bleh...

And no, I'm not going to art school. Going to business school.

which brings me to my next point

If people are so pissed off about the price of oil (which is a commodity that is priced the same regardless of which station you buy from), think about this outrage:

Today, millions of consumers are buying food at artificially high prices. How high? About 70% more than they should be paying. You would think that people would be outraged at this anal rapage of sorts. But no, they're actually wearing broad smiles when they are being ripped a new one. Chances are, you're one of them.

So where's your Bonus Card when your grocery store charges over $3 for a gallon of skim milk when it's sold at Sam's Club every day for $1.75? And what's the advantage of the Giant Eagle Advantage card when you have to buy apples at $1.69 a pound when they're sold at the discount store at the other side of the strip mall for $0.99 a pound? If these stores can "save" you $30 each time you make a grocery run, imagine how much you'd save if you were buying your chicken breast at $2.59 a pound instead of a ridiculous $4.59 a pound?

Yes, you should be outraged. But unlike the stupid gasoline thing, there really is a solution. With the gas thing, you buy gas at some other station for the same price. You save nothing. Here, you can buy your groceries elsewhere and save money each time, while simultaneously pressure grocers into more consumer-friendly pricing schemes. Sure, it may not work, but you can at least know that you're not the one paying the extra 70% for your groceries.

Did I ever mention that I hate Giant Eagle? Yes, I do. But at the same time I'm not exactly impressed with any of the other grocery stores around here either.

do you seriously believe this will work

If it wasn't for the last pathetic attempt (not buying gas for a day), this would the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. It is kind of funny to see how desperately creative people can be. Definitely more interesting that the "don't buy gas for a day... that'll show them!" thing that was attempted previously, but flawed nonetheless. It's like saying that we don't like how cars are expensive so we'll stop buying Toyotas because they sell the most vehicles. Toyota may lower prices, but the other companies can artificially inflate prices to take advantage of this new "market force" of blatant retardation.

Ultimately it comes to this. As consumers, if we find it expensive, we'll find ways of using less of it so that we can save money. From a corporate standpoint, why not keep jacking up the price if people are dumb enough to keep buying? Right now, gas is still cheap enough for most people to tolerate, which is why people keep buying fuel inefficient cars and keep buying gas.

Besides, we're not the only consumers of gasoline (trucks, fleets, etc.), and gasoline is not the only product that's dependent on oil.

This might be worth a try and it certainly won't hurt to test out this
theory:
GAS WAR - an idea that WILL work

This was originally sent by a retired Coca Cola
executive It came from one of his engineer buddies
who retired from Halliburton. It's worth your
consideration.

Join the resistance!!!! I hear we are going to hit
close to $ 4.00 a gallon by next summer and it might
go higher!! Want gasoline prices to come down? We
need to take some intelligent, united action.

Phillip Hollsworth offered this good idea. This makes
MUCH MORE SENSE than the "don't buy gas on a certain
day" campaign that was going around last April or May!
The oil companies just laughed at that because they
knew we wouldn't continue to "hurt" ourselves by
refusing to buy gas. It was more of an inconvenience
to us than it was a problem for them. BUT, whoever
thought of this idea, has come up with a plan that can
really work. Please read on and join with us!

By now you're probably thinking gasoline priced at
about $1.50 is super cheap. Me too! It is currently
$2.79 for regular unleaded in my town. Now that the
oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us
to think that the cost of a gallon of gas is CHEAP at
$1.50 - $1.75, we need to take aggressive action to
teach them that BUYERS control the marketplace..not
sellers. With the price of gasoline going up more each
day, we consumers need to take action. The only way we
are going to see the price of gas come down is if we
hit someone in the pocketbook by not purchasing their
gas! And, we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves.
How?

Since we all rely on our cars, we can't just stop
buying gas. But we CAN have an impact on gas prices if
we all act together to force a price war.

Here's the idea: For the rest of this year, DON'T
purchase ANY gasoline from the two biggest companies
(which now are one), EXXON and MOBIL. If they are not
selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their
prices. If they reduce their prices, the other
companies will have to follow suit. But to have an
impact, we need to reach literally millions of Exxon
and Mobil gas buyers. It's really simple to do! Now,
don't wimp out on me at this point...keep reading and
I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of
people!!

I am sending this note to 30 people. If each of us
send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300) ... and
those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 =
3,000)...and so on, by the time the message reaches
the sixth group of people, we will have reached over
THREE MILLION consumers.

If those three million get excited and pass this on to
ten friends each, then 30 million people will have
been contacted! If it goes one level further, you
guessed it..... THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!!

Again, all you have to do is send this to 10 people.
That's all!
(If you don't understand how we can reach 300 million
and all you have to do is send this to 10 people....
Well, let's face it, you just aren't a mathematician.
But I am . so trust me on this one.)
How long would all that take? If each of us sends
this e-mail out to ten more people within one day of
receipt, all 300 MILLION people could conceivably be
contacted within the next 8 days!!! I'll bet you
didn't think you and I had that much potential, did
you! Acting together we can make a difference.