April Update

April Snowfall Brings May Floods? It doesn’t rhyme but that’s life. After having the coldest end of March in Seattle’s recorded history, we’re probably having the coldest April too, and most places around here have had snowfall in the last 24 hours, as well as several times during the past three weeks. How is it that when we have unusually cold weather in spring they weather people say it’s just a freak weather pattern? Yet when we have an unusually hot period in the summer it can only be global warming! I’m contemplating building a fire in the wood stove tonight so I don’t freeze, since it gets cold at night (33F at the moment and falling).

I never got to my Sakura-Con update so I guess I’ll give a brief summary now. It was AWSOME! We went all three days and managed to go to the opening and closing ceremonies. They were very cool, but too loud for comfort, which is why I was very thankful for earplugs.
Brenda and I spent most of the time watching AMVs in the AMV theater and a few anime episodes in one of the anime theaters. There were also thousands of cosplayers dressed as their favorite characters from dozens of different series. The whole experience was very fun, equally exhausting, and I’m going to preorder tickets for next year as soon as they’re available. Also, I’m designing my Syaoran costume for next year as well.

In the political news, I really dislike the presidential candidates, but hate McCain the least so he’ll probably get my vote. Not sure if there’s a point in voting for a Republican candidate in Washington since we’re probably the largest Socialist stronghold in the country. Unlike the rest of the country, candidates don’t even have to pretend to me remotely conservative here to get elected. “Elect me and I’ll raise the taxes of everyone who makes more than you to pay for social programs that benefit you” is all a candidate needs to say to get elected around here.

In more important news, our Bible Quiz team got a wildcard invitation to the Regional finals in Spokane. This is the first time we’ve sent a team since I got involved in 1997. They have a long was to go if they hope to go to Nationals but now they at least have a shot.

I still like my classes this quarter and they’re not very hard. The hardest part is the leaving at 07:30 to make it to the first one.

That’s it, nothing else is really going on that I can think of at the moment. I should have my ads fixed soon so that they show up instead of the public service announcements. Then I’ll get my three cents every time someone visits my blog, which adds up over time.

Great Videos

I've been really busy the past few weeks and obviously have not had time to post. Here's a link my dad showed me a few minutes ago for what Hot Air calls the greatest sport in history. It looks entertaining and might be fun to play sometime assuming I had the right disposable equipment.

Soon to come: report on Sakura-Con 2008, school in spring quarter, more humorous stories found online, showing the absurdity of other people's opinions, and possibly some completely random stuff too.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow...

It snowed last Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and we got an inch of a snow/hail/slush mix this afternoon. This is probably going to be one of the coldest last weeks of March on record. State law forbids the use of studded tires starting April 1, but they've announced that they will not be enforcing this law until it stops snowing. The passes have tons of fresh snow and I hear skiing is good.

School starts tomorrow but I'll probably skip the first day since all we typically do is receive our syllabuses and go over them. Since Trebonte is still out west in Hawaii I have little desire to drive the 60 mile trip to school without using the carpool lanes.

I did my taxes early this year and finished them about 45 minutes ago. I realized that if I don't count sales tax (8.8% at the moment) I paid 19.3% of my income to the government in some form of fees or taxes. As over half of my income pays for college, tax is my second largest expense, slightly beating out gasoline in third place. I'm not holding my breath that whatever loser wins the presidential election will do anything to reduce my taxes since they seem to think that they can spend my money better than me. Lies!

Let it Snow?

It's snowing outside right now, with some areas within 20 miles of here expecting 5-6 inches.  It's been snowing for the past few hours and sticking in many places.  Sadly I have no snow at my house (like usual).  Good thing we have 'global warming' or we would have frozen to death long ago.  I wish I had 6 inches of snow right now, I haven't seen that much snow in my yard since I was little.

Closed

The Seattle Library was closed on Easter.  Here's the official posting from their web site:

Library Closed due to historic low usage (Easter)
12 - 6pm
Summary:
All locations of The Seattle Public Library will be closed Sunday, March 23 (Easter), due to historic low usage.

I think being a national holiday might also have something to do with being closed, but you can't mention Easter since it's a Christian holiday and therefore must be ignored by all government funded institutions.  Also I don't think the library would be much less busy than usual as dozens of bums pretty much live there. 

School is Done

School was done on Wednesday so for almost 2 weeks I don't have to go to Bothell during that time.  I also got an A on my marketing final, so I'm pretty happy about that.  I have no clue about my other classes but I'm not really worried about their grades either. 

This coming week will be spent recharging my body from the many abuses and neglect it received while trying to finish the quarter and trying to get back onto a semi-normal sleep cycle. 

I'm shooting to get back into a normal running regiment this week although the weather is still fairly lousy outside.  I did manage to fix my treadmill so that should inspire me to actually get up and do it. 

Until next time...

Almost there...

I just finished a group presentation with Trebonte, and the rest of our group, for our Marketing Management class. We presented a marketing plan for my instant clothes dryer concept that I’ve been playing with for a few years now. Overall the presentation went well and we got it over with. Now all I really have left this quarter is my Corporate Finance final at 15:30 this afternoon, then I’m basically on spring break. Time to start studying now. Wish me luck…

Live Writer Test

I just downloaded Windows Live Writer and thought I've give it a test.  Instead of typing up most posts in Word, running them through FrontPage for a quick format of any code in the post, and then posting to Blogger, this should allow me to do everything in a single window.

Today was the last day of class for the quarter.  Next week I've got a Business Finance final on Monday as well as a Marketing Management presentation to give on my instant clothes dryer.  On Wednesday we're supposed to be in class to see the other presentations and then the quarter is complete.  Spring quarter begins April 1st.

Good Quote

"October. This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks in. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August, and February."
- Mark Twain

Dumbest Thing I’ve Read Recently

A pair of hippy neighbors in Commiefornia have spent more than six years in court arguing over solar panels and trees. Mark Vargas sued his neighbors in 2001 because the trees in their back yard shaded his brand new, $70,000 solar panels. The judge recently ordered the neighbor, Richard Treanor and his wife, to cut down two of the redwood trees in their backyard to accommodate their neighbor’s new solar panels. Both families are the “ultra-hippy” type who planted their trees and installed solar panels because it made them feel morally superior to be “doing something” for the planet. However, Treanor planted his redwoods before Vargas bought his solar panels.

If I was going to blow $70K on anything I would probably do a bit of research. If my neighbors had either tall trees or trees that would get tall I probably wouldn’t put solar panels where they would potentially be shaded by the trees.

Read about it Here
And Here

Hi-Def Blues

Blu-ray has been in the news this past month with the announcement that Warner Brothers would begin full fledged support of Blu-ray and slowly phase out HD-DVD production throughout the year. Many critics have seen this as a definitive blow, giving Blu-ray the clear lead over HD-DVD in the High Definition format war. Both Universal Studios and Paramount, however, have also announced that they have no future plans to release movies on the Blu-ray format, sticking exclusively with HD-DVD. Unfortunately for the consumer who can either pick a format and hope it wins the format war, there still isn’t a clear choice of either side as to which player to buy.
On the HD-DVD side there is the issue of the new 51GB disc. This disc was designed to nullify the capacity advantage of Blu-ray’s 50GB disc. However, the 51GB disc has been delayed on multiple occasions as it is constantly being refined in order to work with all existing HD-DVD players sold since their debut in January 2006. No major studios have announced use of the new, larger disc until it is completely finalized and certified as fully compatible by the DVD association.
The Blu-ray Disc Association has also announced two significant changes to the Blu-ray format since its release mid-2006. The first Blu-ray players and discs are known as Profile 1.0 which did not require any of the additional hardware necessary for a player to take advantage of the many special features found on most movie discs. The second generation of Blu-ray discs and players, called Profile 1.1 or “Bonus View” profile, were introduced November 2007. The new players are required to have more powerful hardware to take full advantage of the advanced menus and features found in Profile 1.1 Blu-ray discs; there is no guarantee that any of the Profile 1.1 discs will work on original Profile 1.0 players. The Blu-ray Disc Association also announced Profile 2.0 or “BD-Live” format which will bring more features to the players and discs. None of the Profile 1.0 and few of the Profile 1.1 players will be capable of playing Profile 2.0 discs when they are released this coming October. When commenting on the thousands of people who eagerly bought the first Blu-ray players only to learn that they would not play the latest or future movie releases the BDA representatives merely said, “[These people] knew what they were getting into.”
With these facts I don’t see myself purchasing any stand-alone high-definition player in the coming year. With the chance that HD-DVD may lose the format war I don’t want to risk spending $150 on a player that may not have any new content being published in a few years. On the other hand there’s no way I’d spend $300 on a Blu-ray player today as I already know that I won’t be able to play new movies on it once “BD-Live” discs become the norm later this year.

Sources:
BetaNews.com
Wikipedia.org/HD-DVD
Wikipedia.org/Blu-ray

Affordable Healthcare in Rhode Island

A group of Rhode Island doctors have decided to combat the rising costs of primary healthcare with their HealthAccessRI plan. HealthAccessRI is a monthly subscription service to a primary care physician for “‘less than the cost of a cell phone, less than the cost of cable TV, less than the cost of high-speed Internet,’” according to founding doctor Michael Fine. Fine and a group of likeminded doctors have setup a system that allows for affordable doctor visits without insurance or government involvement.

HealthAccessRI solely covers access to primary care physicians and does not cover other things such as hospital stays, x-rays, or other more serious procedures. Arguing that these are the things that should be covered by the insurance companies Dr. James M. Schwartz contends:

Today’s health-care financing perverts the original concept of insurance, which was supposed to pay for catastrophes, he says. “No auto insurance sells you a plan that covers oil changes and tune-ups,” he says. The current system has also harmed primary care, Schwartz argues, by paying doctors per visit, making it financially difficult to give patients the attention they need. HealthAccessRI gives doctors a steady, predictable income to cover predictable costs.

I think that HealthAccessRI is an interesting experiment that requires further investigation. I would love to have the option to pay for such a service while holding a significantly cheaper health insurance policy which would be reserved primarily for catastrophes and things other than primary care.
You can read the full article here.
Also posted on Marketing College
& Living Large on Less

Inclement Weather Alert

The University of Washington Bothell has canceled all classes and suspended operations for Monday, January 28. Students, faculty, staff, and visitors should not be on campus until this suspension is lifted. This message will be updated as conditions change. Please check back for updates.




As you can clearly see from the picture of my front yard, there is so much snow on the ground that school officials have decided that it is too dangerous to risk our lives by attempting to travel to/from school. This is only annoying because I woke up early to finish a paper before my first class. Since there is no class (due to snow) I have an extra 3 hours to get it done and email it to the prof.

Today’s Idiot is Brought to You by the Letter “D”

Technically last Thursday’s idiot… a congresswoman in the US House of Representatives, Democrat Representative Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, was attending a hearing where the committee was interviewing Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. Unfortunately for her, she thought they were interviewing Treasury Secretary Paulson. This lead to some questions thought to be unusual until she started asking about his roll in a former job, where Bernanke pointed out that she was confusing him with the Treasury Secretary. Oops.

Read the whole story here if you wish.

Most Popular Vehicles of 2007

Despite the record gas prices, Americans still prefer their trucks with Ford’s F-series taking the #1 spot for the 26th straight year.

1. Ford F-series – 650,589

2. Chevy Silverado – 618,257

3. Toyota Camry – 473,108

4. Honda Accord – 388,826

5. Toyota Matrix – 371,390

6. Dodge Ram – 358,295

7. Chevrolet Impala – 311,128

8. Honda Civic – 298,520

9. Nissan Altima – 276,362

10. Honda CR-V – 219,160

With the exception of their trucks, Americans still prefer Asian-designed vehicles over domestic designs.

Source: The Detroit News

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