Logitech Likes Me

A year and a half ago I bought a pair of wireless Logitech headphones for my mp3 player. After a few weeks the band managed to snap on them, which was a sad day as I had come to love these headphones. I tried to fix them but the fix didn’t last and they broke permanently with the wires snapping inside. I started shopping for a new pair and found the ipod version on eBay for around $35. These were the same except that they were white and grey instead of black, and they had a weird plug so that you could control the ipod through the buttons on the earpiece. Thankfully I have an adapter so that I can plug the little wireless transmitter into my Zen, making them even better than my previous pair since the colors better matched my player, plus the battery lasted a little bit longer.

This pair also broke on me shortly after buying them, but I successfully fixed them and they have lasted for quite a while now. Sadly, this pair too met a tragic end when I moved them out of harm’s way while I was arranging stuff by the downstairs TVs, only to have my sister sit on them and snap the band in a new place where I couldn’t fix them. Looking online I found that these models of headphones were notorious for having fragile headbands that would snap soon after they were opened. I emailed Logitech about them and they have decided to send me a new pair. Since the versions I had had too many band problems they were discontinued and replaced with a newer model that should be more comfortable to wear and much stronger with a spring-steel band instead of the brittle, plastic one. This version also sells for more than I paid for my first couple of pairs combined.

If these new headphones are as good as the reviews I’ve read I’ll be very happy. Here’s the link on them.

Something new

I'm currently in the process of building my first computer powered by an Intel processor. The goal was a sub-$200 machine good enough for Word and web surfing. The final cost will be about $214 after buying copies of Windows Vista Business and Office 2007. This computer is definately overpowered for this purpose with a 2ghz dual core Pentium, but underpowered in every other area. We went to Fry's and literally bought the cheapest components they had. I was shocked that the most expensive part was the $65 320GB hard drive. I was hoping for an 80 or 120GB drive like they sell in most of their computers, but they didn't have any for sale individually.

Still Won't Vote for Him

A news report today claims that Huckabee is trying to get votes from conservatives:

Mr. Huckabee, who won last week's Republican Iowa caucuses, promised Minuteman Project founder James Gilchrist that he would force a test case to the Supreme Court to challenge birthright citizenship, and would push Congress to pass a 28th Amendment to the Constitution to remove any doubt.

A: Thousands of constitutional amendments have been proposed for every one that actually gets ratified.

B: I don’t think a President has the power to tell the Supreme Court what cases it will hear.

C: A President doesn’t have the power to force the ratification of an amendment.

D: I don’t want a President that thinks he has that kind of power.

E: I don’t want a President as liberal as Huckabee, even if some of his campaign stuff is pretty funny.

Congratulations!

If you can read this I should probably congratulate you on surviving 2007. Since my last post of substance we’ve had quite a lot of news:

A report by the United States Senate Committee on Environment & Public (a mouthful isn’t it?) about “global warming” gave a list of over 400 well respected climatologists and other scientists who decry the so-called consensus on the issue of “man-made global warming”. Many of these scientists were or are on the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and disagreed with the findings. If you have a ton of free time and interest here’s a link to the report itself. It is over 160 pages long. Anyone who claims consensus on ANYTHING in science is obviously ignorant or lying. There’s never consensus on anything. Everything is constantly questioned and retested in new ways to create new theories. Scientists who disagree with the current models of gravity can present their hypotheses and receive funding to test their models with the latest tools to try to prove or disprove their original claims; this is how real science works. Scientists who disagree with the popular claims on “global warming” are shouted down and called puppets of the oil companies;
this is dogma.

The government has once again decided to get into my bedroom saying what I can and can’t use to illuminate it.  Incandescent light-bulbs with light outputs between 310 and 2600 lumens (so generally 40-150W) will be illegal to buy or sell starting 2014.  It doesn’t matter that there are incandescent bulbs that are 4x more efficient than standard bulbs; research funding is going to completely dry up for these new bulbs since they now have a very limited time before they’re made illegal too.  They want us to use the TOXIC compact fluorescent bulbs instead.  I refuse to use those because the color temperature is ugly, they rarely last more than a few months in my house before burning out, and they contain mercury vapor.  They claim you don’t have to worry though, since small quantities of mercury are only dangerous if inhaled.  Since this mercury is in vapor form is just scatters into the air…where it can be inhaled…
I think I should try calling the ACLU to ask them to fight to keep the government out of my bedroom when it comes to my illumination choices. They didn't do anything to protect my right to privacy in the bathroom when the government decided it could regulate how much water got flushed down the toilet so I really don't expect the ACLU to do anything to protect my liberties.

Merry Christmas

Stolen from Fark

Running Out of Food

Today the UN reported that the world’s food supply is shrinking. This will lead to higher prices for most foods which will adversely affect the poorest people in the world who struggle to buy enough food to ward off starvation. The author points to governmental programs setup by wealthy countries to pay farmers not to fully utilize their land in order to keep prices artificially high. Subsidies also contribute to this. This biggest cause for this food shortage problem is that farmers are growing crops to turn into “biofuels” instead of food.

Apparently the best solution they can come up with is for rich countries to give coupons to poor countries that they can trade for discounts on seeds and stuff from the rich countries. I vote we just ban ethanol fuels, eliminate all governmental involvement in agriculture, and let the markets work things out. Forest land can be cleared for more farms, dams can be built to better irrigate farmland, and farmers can use all their available land to grow crops when the government isn’t there to bribe them no to.

We're Getting Nukes

Well by we I mean Texas and by nukes I mean a pair of new nuclear reactors. NRG applied to build two new plants next to two other plants they operate near Bay City, Texas. I also wrote an 8 page paper on the topic for my Political Ideas and Ideologies class. I like the topic, but going out of my way to integrate it into our class materials was a serious pain in the butt. Our professor didn’t care if we used Wikipedia for our paper, as long as it wasn’t our primary information source. I used one page of it as one of 34 sources for this 8 page paper. If you don’t want to read it I wouldn’t recommend it. If you do want something really boring to read here it is:

On March 28, 1979, Reactor 2 at Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station breached, releasing radioactive gasses into the atmosphere. Although no one was killed or injured in the accident, the fear of a nuclear catastrophe was now on people’s minds. Since that incident no applications to build new nuclear plants had been filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) until this year. In June of 2006, NRG Energy Incorporated filed a letter of formal intent to the NRC to build two new reactors at the South Texas Nuclear Generating Station near Bay City, Texas to accompany the two existing reactors at the same site. On September 24, 2007 NRG filed the first formal application for the construction of a new nuclear power plant since 1979. This is believed to be the first of dozens of new applications to be filed in the U.S. by the end of the decade.
These two new nuclear reactors have reopened the national debate over nuclear power, historically considered by many to be impractical and overly expensive. Classic questions of nuclear safety have been largely overshadowed by questions about carbon emissions. Costs of construction have been overshadowed by talk of the historically high oil prices. Talk of radioactive materials is overshadowed by talk of nuclear proliferation. What isn’t being talked about as much are the ramifications of having two new fission reactors being built in Bay City, Texas.
The people with the most at stake in this debate are the citizens of Southern Texas. The residents are the ones who will be living in proximity to the new reactors. The vast majority of the power generated from these reactors will be sold within the region to the local residences and businesses. In the event of a nuclear disaster the local citizens may suffer the possible chance of adverse affects caused by the nightmarish scenario. These are the people who are funding the construction by paying their utility bills. These are the people who will live in the shadow of the new reactors. These are the people whose voices should carry the most weight in any debate on the matter.
The question is whether the decision to build new nuclear reactors should rest primarily with those who are directly affected by building new base-load power plants, either nuclear or coal. John Borland (2007) wrote an article in Wired Magazine about author Gwyneth Cravens, a former nuclear protester, who has become a strong proponent of nuclear energy. Borland quotes her as saying:
I used to think we surely could do better. We could have more wind farms and solar. But I then learned about base-load energy, and that there are three forms of it: fossil fuels, hydro and nuclear. In the United States, we're maxed out on hydro. That leaves fossil fuels and nuclear power, and most of the fossil fuel burned is coal.
In the U.S., 24,000 people a year die from coal pollution. Hundreds of thousands more people suffer from lung and heart disease directly attributable to coal pollution.
Given the need for reliable, base-load power, people such as Cravens argue that nuclear power is the best we can do at this point in time. The heavy pollution from burning coal and other fossil fuels perpetuates the fears of acid rain and heavy carbon emissions, both of which environmentalists want to immensely reduce.
Even though the most catastrophic nuclear disaster in U.S. history (Three Mile Island) didn’t harm or kill a single person, many people are still fearful of nuclear power plants. John Dryzek comments in The Politics of the Earth: Environmental Discourses, “[People] tend to have a low tolerance for low-probability catastrophic events (such as the meltdown of a nuclear reactor), and so overestimate the risks from them.”(2005) These fears must be addressed because the citizens need to be able to feel safe and secure in their daily lives. This ties into Andrew Heywood’s discourse of Conservative ideology on security. Heywood’s claim is that Conservatives “believe that human beings are…security-seeking creatures, drawn to the known, the familiar, the tried and tested.”(2007) Thus employing a relatively new technology, which harnesses the power of matter itself, will definitely make most people uneasy until they are able to learn the facts about what is being proposed in their backyard.
For the citizens of the Bay City area, the proposal of building a pair of new nuclear reactors is not a terrifying prospect. They have the information and knowledge they need in order to know that their lives suffer little risk of being contaminated by a nuclear disaster. According to Wikipedia, the residents already have two of the world’s largest nuclear reactors located at the same site where the new reactors are being proposed. Even residents of neighboring Victoria County are petitioning energy company Exelon Nuclear to build a new nuclear plant in their county (Triplett, 2007). As the population grows the need for an increase of base-power generation also increases. The fear of adding another pair of nuclear power plants doesn’t appear to exist in the Bay City area.
A huge factor in the construction of new reactors is the costs involved. According to Wikipedia, the two existing nuclear plants currently operating in the South Texas Project cost roughly $5.5 billion to build and bring online. Thus the immense capital costs involved in the construction of nuclear plants make them among the most expensive of all power generating stations. Unlike the costs of traditional power plants fueled by coal, gas, or oil; nuclear fuel is an insignificant cost of operating the plant. CNN Money writer, Steve Hargreaves (2007), indicates the cost of enriched uranium to fuel a nuclear reactor is only 28% of the total operating cost of the plant. The two main costs of running a nuclear plant are the amortization of the huge capital investment made during its construction and the salaries of those who operate the facility. By having relatively stable operating costs, consumers are assured that their utility bills will not fluctuate wildly with the whims of the fuel markets. The rising and uncertain costs of oil and other fossil fuels only make nuclear power more attractive to those concerned about unstable prices of electricity.
When analyzing the costs of building new power plants we must also look beyond the financial costs. We need to look at the human costs and the environmental costs as well. The financial costs of building a coal power plant pale in comparison to the costs involved in constructing a nuclear plant. But the costs of operating a coal plant are much higher both economically and environmentally. Whereas nuclear plants are relatively cheap to fuel, almost all of a coal plant’s operating expenses come from buying and burning coal by the trainload. Unfortunately most of the coal that is burned ends up in the atmosphere. Coal smoke contains ash, soot, greenhouse gases, and heavy metals such as lead, mercury, uranium, and thorium. A typical coal power plant releases more radioactive material into the atmosphere than all of the world’s nuclear plants combined. With such heavy pollution coming from our coal power plants, most environmentalists are screaming for alternatives.
According to his editorial in the Austin American-Statesman, Bruce Hight points out that environmentalist groups have protested and successfully lobbied to stop eight of eleven proposed coal power plants from being built in Texas in recent years (2007). He goes on to point out that environmental groups such as Environmental Defense and Ralph Nader’s Public Citizen are vehemently opposed to the production of coal power plants due to their toxic emissions which are harmful to both humans and the environment. Public Citizen is also equally opposed to nuclear power and is horrified that NRG is planning two new reactors anywhere, much less in Southern Texas. Hight also quotes a different opinion from Jim Marston, spokesman for Environmental Defense, as saying “‘Environmental Defense might – reluctantly – consider nuclear power. But not coal plants’” for adding needed base-power to the electrical grid. Environmental groups are in consensus that current coal technology is too dirty and inefficient for a 21st century world. The debate is whether nuclear is an acceptable alternative to higher polluting power plants.
Nuclear power, together with wind and solar power, are generally considered to be pollutionless sources of energy. The only harmful byproduct of nuclear power generation is its spent fuel. On the NEI Nuclear Notes blog, Eric McErlain (2007) quotes a statistic from Gwyneth Cravens concerning spent nuclear fuel:
A family in four in France, where they reprocess nuclear fuel, would produce only enough waste to fit in a coffee cup over a whole lifetime. A lifetime of getting all your electricity from coal-fired plants would make a single person's share of solid waste (in the United States) 68 tons, which would require six 12-ton railroad cars to haul away. Your share of CO2 would be 77 tons.
The spent fuel still needs to be disposed of in a safe manner. The consensus on how to dispose of this spent fuel is to simply bury it. Large disposal sites such as Yucca Mountain in Nevada are being built to store thousands of tons of nuclear waste a thousand feet underground in steel casks where they will remain safely for thousands of years. These sites are funded by taxes imposed on the sale of electricity from all current nuclear plants in the country.
Most editorials and blog posts we found relating to the two new NRG reactors were overwhelmingly in favor of reviving the nuclear industry. Deliberative democracy is intended to give everyone a voice in matters concerning their own lives and the digital age now gives everyone an ability to express their opinions to the world. We fully expected to find strong opposition for these new reactors like there was in the past from environmentalist and “not in my backyard” groups who did not want the nuclear reactors where they were built. Without any way to deliberate in an open forum such as the internet and letters to the editor, the individuals opposing the nuclear reactors would be relegated from “citizen” status to “subject” status by Barbara Cruikshank (2007) because they would not have any meaningful voice in what affects their lives. Unlike citizens, who have both a voice and a role to play in their government, subjects have neither, being subject to those who have the power, with no voice in matters concerning them.
Other forums, such as town hall meetings, would also give people an opportunity to become more informed about the issue at hand, as well as voice any concerns and objections they may feel toward having two new reactors built. Iris Young (1996) describes these meetings in her writings as a place where “Greeting, rhetoric, and storytelling are forms of communication that in addition to argument contribute to political discussion.” There must be places where people can discuss more than just hard facts and statistics when discussing large issues. People must feel connected to their communities and involved with what takes place around them. It’s apparent from reading local news articles that the vast majority of people are welcoming to the prospect of a second pair of nuclear reactors in their region. The people who are not as open to the idea are largely ignored when the press are covering this issue. The forums of deliberation proposed by Young would be a way for those whose voices are largely unheard to be recognized and listened to as individuals in need of expressing their views.
NRG’s plans to build these nuclear plants have sparked a debate, not merely in Southern Texas, but throughout the country. The U.S. government is currently involved only by the actions of the NRC; however, other agencies are sure to become involved. The Environmental Protection Agency is also likely to step into the picture once the NRC has approved the construction. The U.S. Department of Energy also has a stake in this matter as they issue guidelines for all power generation within the country.
NRG’s applications for the first new reactors in decades will determine the future of power generation in the U.S. If the applications are approved, the precedent will pave the way for as many as thirty-two new reactor applications to be completed by the end of 2009 (NRC, 2007). If the applications are rejected, the future of nuclear power in the U.S. may be finished. Groups from all over the country are scrambling to lobby Congress with their positions on the issue. Many people and groups are relieved that nuclear power will get another chance in the 21st century. These people will quickly point out that France, Japan, and China are scrambling to build new nuclear reactors in order to increase their power generating capacity without increasing their CO2 emissions. Other groups quickly point to the Chernobyl accident in 1986 and fear that a similar event will happen on U.S. soil. They will oppose all prospects of building a new nuclear reactor anywhere in the country.
The only certainty in the debate over building new nuclear reactors is that the country will need more base-load capacity soon. The U.S. population will soon reach one-third of a billion residents and those residents will require reliable, cost-effective, and clean sources of electricity. Wind, solar, and tidal generation stations can alleviate much of the anticipated power demand, but they cannot provide the constant output of electricity needed twenty-four hours per day. The nuclear power industry is promising that their technology is the best solution to the anticipated needs of the country. This debate will continue long after NRG’s two proposed reactors are either rejected or constructed.

Frozen?

Bush wants to freeze the mortgage rates for “troubled borrowers.” These are the people who borrowed more money than they could actually afford to with an adjustable rate mortgage. As many of the introductory rates are starting to expire, many of their interest rates are going to go up substantially. I disapprove of this rate freeze.

The Republican party used to be the party of free enterprise and individual responsibility. If people were dumb enough to borrow more money than they could afford and a future interest rate that they couldn’t afford it really sucks to be them. When signing all the paperwork for a loan all of that information is written there. If they couldn’t be bothered to read it all or understand it all, they really shouldn’t have signed any of it. Now Nanny Government is there to save people from their own stupidity. These people need to get out of their current mortgages by selling their unaffordable homes and move into a place they can actually afford.

We're All Going to Die (Again)

With just enough snow to cause everyone in the area to go into a panicked frenzy (about an inch in my neighborhood) we set out for our third Bible Quiz meet of the year on Saturday. My team did relatively well but still not as great as they should have been. Oh well. Afterward we had a party up in the hills, where there was a pleasant 3-4 inches of snow. It was enough to sled for a while, and more than enough to make going up and down the 20% grade driveway much more interesting than normal. Then it rained that night and melted all the snow.

It kept raining to the point where a few cities have now broken the record for most rain ever in December; Bremerton got 12.5 inches of rain in the last 48 hours. School went into emergency closure this afternoon after we got there because the roads in the area were deemed too dangerous due to flooding; therefore they told everyone to leave campus by 3:30.

Movie List (update)

Here's the ranked list of the movies I've seen released this year. I've seen a handful more since my last ranking and I still tweak it once in a while depending on my mood.

20. Epic Movie
It had its moments but otherwise a pretty crappy movie.

19. Nancy Drew
It was ok, very predictable though.

18. The Last Mimzy
This movie was pretty good overall, but the end was just plain weird. And little kids flying is kinda creepy.

17. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
The fist movie I've seen at the theater that I thought was way too long. This movie could have been better if it was 30 minutes shorter. It looked cool but wasn't that exciting to me. Definitely not as good as the first one.

16. TMNT
Decent cartoon. Would have preferred it to be a live action movie like the first 3 turtles movies.

15. Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas in 3-D
A good movie to watch every once in a while. Even better in 3-D. I still liked Corpse Bride better though.

14. Shrek the Third
Very funny movie, haven't decided if I liked it better than the other ones though.

13. Ratatouille
One of the better Disney movies in recent years.

12. Bridge to Terebithia
One of the better movie plots all year. Lost most of its cool points by being depressing near the end.

11. Beowulf in 3-D
The most stunning animation ever. Didn't follow the peom very well. Movie would have been much cooler without Grendel in it, but he was kinda central to the story. Definately a very cool movie to see in 3D on the IMAX screen.

10. Mr. Bean's Holiday
This Bean was even better than the first movie. Very funny throughout.

9. Spiderman 3
Very cool movie, almost as cool as the second one. Animation was great. But it was also too short and too emo.

8. Happily N'Ever After
I heard almost nothing about this movie before it came out; very sad. This movie was just plain cool to watch.

7. Arthur and the Invisibles
Saw it about the same time as Happily N'Ever After and is slightly cooler with better animation, but not quite as funny as HNA.

6. Meet the Robinsons in 3-D
Definitely the best of the Disney Movies released in recent years. Even better in 3D.

5. 300
It's cool in the same way as Braveheart, but much more so.

4. Hot Fuzz
British police comedy at its finest.

3. Ghost Rider
One of the best comic book movies of all time. (I think the theatrical version is slightly better than the director's cut)

2. Stardust
Very solid fantasy movie. Good story, likable characters, and funny.

1. Transformers
Visually stunning. Very funny in parts. Good epic storyline. Slightly better than Ghost Rider.

:-( followup

Here's the official response from KVI about Bryan:

"Dear KVI Listeners:

We certainly understand that some of you are not happy about the recent changes that have been made on KVI. As we continue to evaluate our programming on KVI, please know this was a difficult decision for us.

"Ultimately, we needed to look at the strongest programs on KVI from a ratings and revenue standpoint and make some hard but necessary business decisions.

"Bryan Suits is one of the most brilliant, quick-witted people we know. But unfortunately his wisdom, experience and sidesplitting humor failed to gain ratings traction against his competitors. We believe the local, political talk show The Commentators will have a better chance competing during the important afternoon drive time period (it will be the only show of its kind on the radio in that timeslot).

"We wish Bryan all the best and thank him for his service to the station, and more importantly, his service to our country."

I know tons of people who love listening to Bryan, yet I don't know anyone who regularly listens to the Commentators. Are the people I know that different from the KVI listening audience?

:-(

As far as I can tell, Bryan Suits is no longer on the radio. I heard a promo commercial on KVI on the way to church yesterday morning that mentioned the wrong shows in the wrong time slots. Going to the web site we saw that virtually all refrences to Bryan were gone and Dr Laura was now in the lineup. I can find no word whatsoever relating to where Bryan went, when he’ll be back, or why this is so. Bryan’s was the only radio show I’d go out of my way to listen to, and now there’s very little on KVI that I really like. I even liked Bryan’s show better than Rusty’s. But at least I can hear Rusty on the radio when the weather is right.

Guy Fawkes Day Again

Remember, remember, the 5th of November
Gunpowder Treason and plot ;
I know of no reason why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.

Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes,
'Twas his intent.
To blow up the King and the Parliament.
Three score barrels of powder below.
Poor old England to overthrow.
By God's providence he was catch'd,
With a dark lantern and burning match

Holloa boys, Holloa boys, let the bells ring
Holloa boys, Holloa boys, God save the King!

Hip hip Hoorah !
Hip hip Hoorah !

A penny loaf to feed ol'Pope,
A farthing cheese to choke him.
A pint of beer to rinse it down,
A faggot of sticks to burn him.
Burn him in a tub of tar,'
Burn him like a blazing star.
Burn his body from his head,
Then we'll say: ol'Pope is dead.


Four-hundred two years ago Guy Fawkes was caught attempting to rig the Parliament building to explode during the opening session, attempting to kill the entire body and King James I. James was a Protestant and did not answer to the Pope which enraged the Catholics in the country. A group of them believed that killing the king would return the religious rule of the Roman Church to Britain. Naturally they failed and were executed.

Been busy with work, not as busy as I should be with school, and generally slacking off just enough to maintain a shred of sanity. I haven’t been able to run everyday, but still trying to keep it up regularly. Way behind in TBQ memorization already, I’m considering throwing in the towel for the year and getting a head start on next year’s material. Guess that’s all that new now, hopefully more regular updates this week.

Two weeks since my last post? Wow, I've been busier than I though. Maybe I'll make something more substantial than this later this evening.

Same Old Thing

I've decided that I like work a lot more than school. However, I also know that I don’t want to work there forever, hence going to school. Today I drilled holes into a ton of catalogs, cleaned up the 3-hole drilling machine, and moved around heavy boxes while throwing others out. It wasn’t bad, I got to listen to the radio (mostly Bryan Suits) and talk to interesting people.

I also got to use Rich’s scanner to scan the first 200 pages of my organizational management book. Having all of my textbooks on my USB drive and reading them on the computer is much more desirable than lugging them around all day. This is the last of my books to scan and I’m 1/3 done already. As long as I get the chapters scanned before we need them for class Trebone will be happy since we’re sharing books; so I have to send him the scans.

Ran 5K on the treadmill at varying speeds going a few seconds over 30 minutes. That was spread between running and walking. Run fast for a few minutes, then walk to keep my average speed just over 6 miles per hour. Now I’m off to start my reading for organizational management as we have our first midterm tomorrow. Wish me luck.

Quote of the Moment:
“If a pretty poster and a cute saying are all it takes to motivate you, you probably have a very easy job. The kind robots will be doing soon.”
-Despair.com

String Theory

No, this doesn’t have much to do with quantum physics. Rather, there is a string strung across my neighborhood. We noticed it on Saturday and saw that it went over my house and behind it as far as we could see. We walked around the block, to the other side of the ravine behind my house and found it high above the trees and the power lines. A few blocks farther north we found its end. It’s a greenish string, probably nylon, and it was fairly tight. The end we found was tangled in some bushes along the road, in front of someone’s house.

We decided to search for the other end so we started hiking up the street again. Nearly ten blocks from the end we lost track of the string as it was getting dark. Thus we gave up the search. Yesterday my dad and I set out to find the rest of the string so we went south to the last place I had seen it, and found it again easily. We went another few blocks south before we lost it again due to lack of light.

Today after work my dad set out to find the other end of this string. He plotted its position on a map and set out to find the rest of it. He finally found the other end nearly a mile from our house near an old school. The weird part was that it was pulled tight, was strung above everything, and was so thin. I wouldn’t have expected a string that thin to be able to be that long. Our best theory is that it was once attached to a small kite that broke, but I don’t know who would attach more than a mile of string to a kite, considering it isn’t usually windy enough around here for kite flying.

School was the same old thing. I had my Managerial Economics midterm today, which wasn’t too bad. It might have been even easier if I’d actually read the textbook, but that’s usually a waste of time. The rest of the day was pretty boring and I could not stay focused in class. I think there’s only 6 weeks left and I’m thankful for that. I have two more midterms this week though, and I’m probably going to have to study for at least one of them.

Saturday was the World Bible Quiz Evergreen tournament. There were 12 teams form several different denominations competing. Our team by far had the biggest disadvantage as our rules are the most dissimilar from the WBQA rules. And we use hand-pad buzzers in our quizzing while every other league uses seat pads, another disadvantage for us. So naturally getting anything above last place would be an accomplishment. We quizzed 7 rounds before lunch which put us in 9th place. After lunch was a single elimination tournament. We competed against the 10th and 11th place teams and beat them without much problem. Somehow we managed to win the next two rounds which put us into the semi-finals. We were losing most of that round as well, but managed to tie for first place, which we took in overtime to win by 20 points. That put us into the final round. We lost that round pretty horribly like 10 to 200 to 120 or something like that. Oh well, I was going to be happy with anything better than last place. But my teammates abandoned me right after that last round was over since they wanted to go to a concert. Therefore Brenda and I were the only ones left from our team to go up and receive our trophy and medals. It was pretty funny.

I got no running in on Saturday, and on Sunday my legs were still sore from the seatpad quizzing. And I was pretty exhausted so I didn’t run then either. I guess two days in a row is my worst so far and I have no intention of making it three in a row so I’m going to go for a jog in a little while. Wow, that’s about a full page of text, so I’m quitting now.

Why Not Prision?

I saw this video on Andrews-Dad's blog a few days ago. It chronicles only a few reasons as to why Hillary Clinton should be in jail right now instead of touring the country to run for President. Some of the details I had heard before, but others were new information to me. But thanks to having family friends appointed to the justice department she didn't get convicted of anything criminal. Instead she was elected to the Senate.

I didn't get in a run on Tuesday because I was too busy studying. Wednesday I got in a 20 minute run at 6.7 miles per hour. Yesterday I got in a 21 minute run at 6.8 miles per hour. Today I plan on walking 2-4 miles as I need my legs well rested for WBQA tomorrow.

And I Thought the RIAA was Bad

  Apparently in Britain it is considered piracy to allow someone else to listen to your radio. Apparently a auto shop is being sued for £200,000 because the mechanics turned on their radios and had them loud enough that they “could be heard by colleagues and customers.” The Performing Rights Society is suing because they consider allowing others to listen to a personal radio to be the same as online music piracy. I might be able to accept this case if they were suing those jerks who blast the radios in their cars loud enough to drown mine out; those people should get their £200,000 fine and probably be shot as well.

 
If it’s illegal to allow other people to listen to a personal radio, shouldn’t the radio station be at fault for enabling people to share the music by broadcasting it over the airwaves? It seems that precedent is saying that enabling others to download music is enough to ding you for piracy. I’ve already heard the MPAA claim that you should have one copy of a movie for EVERY person who is watching it on your TV or you’re a movie pirate. Now the PRS is claiming that you need a radio for everyone who wants to listen. What’s next? Are publishers going to start suing libraries for lost sales since many of us check books out rather than buying them from the bookstore?
Here’s the story if you want to read it.

Random Quote:
“The reason elephants are endangered and cows are not is because cows are generally considered private property and thus are conserved. Whereas elephants are wild animals and considered public property; then are hunted for their ivory.” -Juan Gomez (my Managerial Economics professor)
I think it might have to do with cows being raised for food because they are slower and taste better than elephants, but I haven’t eaten elephant yet so I can’t confirm this.

Monday...

So yesterday I spent the entire afternoon partying with family. My sisters wanted Italian food so we had various flavors of spaghettis, raviolis, meatballs, and breads. For dessert we had apple pie and pumpkin-spice cheesecake.

Since my sisters are big fans of DDR I went to Game Stop to see which versions they had cheap. I found DDR Extreme 2 used for $40 and was tempted to get it, before I saw that they had it new for $30. The guy at the counter even asked me if I wanted to get the used one for a mere $10 more.

So near the end of the party we were playing DDR for a while, and my legs were really getting tired. I counted that as my workout for the day as playing it on harder modes is more physically demanding than running.

School today was more of the same old boring stuff. I fought to stay awake all day. My economics teacher made a big deal about Leonid Hurwicz winning the Nobel prize, as Hurwicz was his game theory professor in college. They also had an ice cream giveaway at school as a ploy to meet the UW Chancellor, who I think I met but didn’t know who he was.

Got in my jog for today: 19 minutes at 6.5 miles per hour.

Random Quote:
"When birds fly in the right formation, they need only exert half the effort. Even in nature, teamwork results in collective laziness."
-Despair

Happy Birthday

Today I got to sleep in for the second day in a row, it was a great start to the day. Then I went over to my Grandma’s to help do a bunch of yard work. Managed to kill the lawnmower less than 1/4 through her back yard, which required a trip to the store for a new sparkplug. The mower’s engine still sounds a little weird, so there was more wrong than just a gummed up plug but it runs again. So I just managed to do the front yard in its entirety as well as kill a bunch of blackberry bushes and ivy.

Once I got home I needed to do all three of our yards. I broke spider web that was connected to one of the dwarf apple trees in the front yard, which turned out to be connected to the power lines above it. So the spider had to climb up the house, crawl along dozens of feet of power line, then drop down and walk across the driveway to climb up the tree. I’m impressed.

I slacked off and didn’t manage to run either Thursday or Friday. I’ve more than made up for it today, spending more than 2 hours cutting grass. I also spent more than an hour on the treadmill while watching the latest Kaizoku fansubs of One Piece. So I got in 6.5 miles today as well.

After church the entire family is coming over for my sisters’ birthday since they’re turning 14. I might not get a chance to run then either, so we’ll have to see. I’ll make it up either way.

Quote of the Moment:
“Neither sense nor courtesy are common around here.”
Not sure if I’ve heard that somewhere before; it may be something I came up with but I doubt it.