Weird Suggestion

So I finally get around to getting a Blogger account setup and start building a profile. It seems that I had a partial profile built already, it shows that I'm already following a blog. It may be a suggestion by Blogger, based on the keyword contents of the Ethereal Madness blog over the last few years. This blog is for Vote Earth, which is the official blog of Earth Hour, arranged by World Wildlife Fund. Neither I, nor any other members of this blog, support WWF or any other similar "green" organization that seeks to destroy our standard of living to carry out their political agenda. I guess that's about it for my post.

Weird Ads

I open a new browser, which takes me to this page, as it is my homepage. I have this as my homepage for a few reasons. Primarily, if I see the same update over and over again I might be inspired to write something new. Second, I see if anyone posted a new comment since I don’t regularly check the email where the notifications are sent. And I sometimes just like to see what sort of ads Google decides to put on the page. Tonight’s surprise came when I see that there are 4 separate ads, but only one of them was in English, and the other three Hebrew.

I’m not 100% certain, but I’m pretty sure that of the very small percentage of people who this blog would appeal to, and the other small percentage of people who actually take time to look here from time to time, pretty much all of them are comfortable with the English language. I don’t recall anything that I’ve posted that would appeal particularly to the people who understand Hebrew, but not English.

I guess I could take the time to browse through translated, local newspapers from around the world and write random entries about them. I’m sure I could come up with a semi-informed opinion about the inner workings of Taipei’s city council, or what the latest Parisian, mafia member uses as fashion accessories to compliment their various firearms.

That all seems like a lot of work though, and I neglect things like this enough as it is. I did get a check in the mail this afternoon for $100.57 from Google as payment for my Adsense impressions. That alone might be enough to inspire me to write more and try to attract readers. We’ll have to see.

Your Pets Hate the Earth

This is a few weeks old, but still a great read. Apparently you can help save the planet by buying a Humvee and then using it to run over your neighbor’s dog. Dogs have huge carbon footprints primarily due to the amount of meat and meat by-products they require to live a healthy life. If anyone cares about junk science like this they should take the moral highroad and shoot all of those obnoxious, barking dogs in their neighborhood. You can read the full Yahoo news here.

Windows 7

So it’s just my luck that the week I get my computer completely functional, I get the opportunity to buy a copy of Windows 7 for $30. This was a student rate that only requires you to have a .edu email address to register through Microsoft’s “Ultimate Steal” program.

Windows 7 is what Windows Vista should have been. I hope that it lives up to its hype. But either way, I would like to have an OS that will allow me to fully utilize more than 3.25GB of RAM and DirectX 10/11.

The copy I have is only an upgrade license rather than the full license, however, as long as you have a legit copy of Windows XP or Vista it should work without issue. I just reformatted my hard drive to have a clean instillation of Windows 7, and I will know later today if it actually works or if I’ll have to reinstall Windows XP so that I can install 7 on top of it.

Happy Thanksgiving

Title sums it all up.

It's that time again...

...for a new computer! My desktop has been causing me grief for a while now and I finally decided that enough is enough and that I was going to build a new computer. The final key that helped me decided that now was the time was a donation from Aaron of the wreckage of his last computer. After playing with it for a while I realized that the CPU was good, as well as the RAM. The motherboard is dead, as well as the 400GB hard drive that I tried using. I few days of research led me to the DFI Blood Iron P45 T2RS motherboard, actually I liked the X48 better as it had full speed Crossfire and Firewire, but the extra $75 wasn't worth it to me.

My computer was almost top of the line when I built it in 2005, which makes it a dinosaur in computer years. Four video cards, a burnt out motherboard, and three CPUs later, I've finally decided that its days as my primary machine are over. I'm currently in the process of taking the hard drive and copying it onto a virtual computer, so that I can use that particular setup whenever I need something off of it, rather than just keeping the machine around anymore; it's time for it to go to that great recycling center in China.

So the new computer is clock-for-clock 63% faster than my Athlon 64 4000+ that I've been using for the last 2 years. It is also a quad core Q6600, which means that it can multitask much better than a single core, which is great if anyone has ever seen the 75 processes that I'm usually running. Throw in 4 gigs of DDR2-1066 RAM that I cannibalized from my server, my Radeon 4850 that I'm recycling from the desktop, my Audigy X-Fi Platinum sound card also from the desktop, my Thermalright Ultra-120 extreme cooler, and a random hard drive and I'm good to go. I'm still waiting for the proper mounting bracket to arrive so I can attach the cooler to the new motherboard, and then I'll be good to go, Yes I am recycling my Quantum case, I like it too much to let 30KG of steel elegance just go to waste. I might replace some of the fans with colored, glowing ones, but I haven't got that far yet.

Ranma ½ Chapter Guide

I was looking for a chart comparing the English version of Ranma 1/2 manga volumes verses the Japanese volumes. Not finding one anywhere, I started making my own. The reason for this is because the 407 chapters are spread across 38 volumes in Japan, and only 36 here in the US. This Ranma ½ chapter list is made possible by the King County library system and random scanlation sites. Thanks to some help, the table is now formatted correctly for easy viewing.

Chapter	Title	Japanese Volume	American Volume
01	Here's Ranma	1	1
02	Ranma's Secret	1	1
03	I Hate Man!	1	1
04	Never, Never, Never	1	1
05	To The Tree-Borne Kettle-Girl	1	1
06	Body and Soul	1	1
07	You'll Understand Soon Enough	1	1
08	Because There's a Girl He Likes	1	1
09	You're Cute When You Smile	2	2
10	The Hunter	2	2
11	Bread Feud	2	2
12	Showdown	2	2
13	A Bad Cut	2	2
14	Who Says You're Cute	2	2
15	The Transformation of Ryoga	2	2
16	He's Got a Beef	2	2
17	Kodachi, The Black Rose	2	2
18	The Love of the Black Rose	3	2
19	Take Care of My Sister	3	2
20	I'll See You Lose	3	2
21	Hot Competition	3	2
22	I Give Up	3	2
23	Darling Charlotte	3	2
24	A Kiss in the Rink	3	2
25	Lips at a Loss	3	2
26	Lips at War	3	3
27	I'll Never Let Go	4	3
28	Burning the Bridges	4	3
29	Ryoga Explodes!	4	3
30	The Waters of Love	4	3
31	Kiss of Death	4	3
32	You I Love	4	3
33	Akane Gets Shampooed	4	3
34	Shampoo Cleans Up	4	3
35	Formula #911	4	3
36	Bie Liao (Goodbye)	4	3
37	Looking for a Weak Spot	5	4
38	Weak Spot-Found	5	4
39	Cat Hell	5	4
40	Cat-Fu	5	4
41	You'd Have Kissed Anybody?	5	4
42	Shampoo Rides Again	5	4
43	Attack of the Wild Mousse	5	4
44	The Martial Arts Magic Show	5	4
45	Cat Tongue Got You?	5	4
46	The Phoenix Pill	5	4
47	All's Fair at the Fair	5	4
48	War of the Melons	6	4
49	Naval Engagement	6	4
50	Kitten of the Sea	6	5
51	Care to Join Me?	6	5
52	Training Meals	6	5
53	The Breaking Point	6	5
54	The Immortal Man	6	5
55	Fast Break	6	5
56	The Way of Tea	6	5
57	Meet Miss Satsuki	6	5
58	Proposal Accepted	6	5
59	It's Fast or It's Free	7	5
60	Eyes on the Prize	7	5
61	Noodles, Anyone?	7	5
62	I Won't Eat It!	7	5
63	The Evil Wakes	7	6
64	He's Something Else	7	6
65	Bathhouse Battle	7	6
66	Moonlight Serenade	7	6
67	The Wrath of Happosai	7	6
68	The Scent of a Woman	7	6
69	Fathers Know Best	7	6
70	Instant Spring	8	6
71	No Need For Ranma	8	6
72	The Destroyer Strikes	8	6
73	Just One More Kiss	8	6
74	Wherefore Art Thou, Romeo?	8	7
75	Romeo? Romeo? Romeo?	8	7
76	Not Your Typical Juliet	8	7
77	A Kiss to the Victor	8	7
78	Quest for the Hidden Spring	8	7
79	The Touble with Girls' Locker Rooms	8	7
80	From the Spring, Springs a Message	8	7
81	The Way the Cookie Crumbles	9	7
82	Negative Feelings	9	7
83	Take Me Out to the Bathtub	9	7
84	…I Ate the Whole Thing	9	7
85	"Okonomiyaki" Means "I Love You"	9	8
86	Saucy Reply	9	8
87	Ukyo's Secret	9	8
88	Ryoga vs. Ukyo	9	8
89	Lover Letters in the Sauce	9	8
90	Ryoga's What?!	9	8
91	At Long Last…the Date!	9	8
92	Happosai Days Are Here Again	10	8
93	One Moment to Love	10	8
94	I Won't Fall in Love!	10	8
95	The Abduction of…Akane?	10	8
96	Duck, Ranma, Duck!	10	8
97	Akane Becomes a Duck	10	9
98	Fowl Play	10	9
99	The Happiest Mousse	10	9
100	Tsubasa Kurenai Busts Loose!	10	9
101	Lunchtime Lunacy	10	9
102	The Perfect Match	10	9
103	Ryoga, Come Home	11	9
104	Oh, Brother!	11	9
105	Get Lost, Yoiko!	11	9
106	The Ultimate Technique	11	9
107	Get the Secret Scroll!	11	9
108	The Fire-Burst of Terror!	11	9
109	Embraceable You	11	10
110	Hold Me Close	11	10
111	Akane's Power-Up!	11	10
112	Super Badminton	11	10
113	Serious Side Effects	11	10
114	The Return of the Principal	12	10
115	Journey Into the Principal's Office	12	10
116	The Principal of the Thing	12	10
117	One Hairy Day	12	10
118	Shear Folly	12	10
119	Gonna Make You Tardy!	12	10
120	The Soap of Happiness	12	11
121	Cupids, Draw Back Your Bow	12	11
122	Don't Follow Me	12	11
123	Who Do You Love?	12	11
124	Give Me a Little Hug	12	11
125	The Legendary Moxibustion of Evil	13	11
126	The World's Weakest Man	13	11
127	Weak for Life?!	13	11
128	The Valley of Moxibustion	13	11
129	Training in the Spiral of Hell	13	11
130	The Inflammable Man	13	11
131	The Roar of Heavan	13	12
132	The Great Rematch	13	12
133	St. Happosai	13	12
134	Burn, Happy, Burn	13	12
135	The Paper Chase	13	12
136	Ranma Reborn	14	12
137	Who Will Bell the Cat?	14	12
138	Kitty Takes a Bride	14	12
139	Swim Like a Hammer	14	12
140	Courage Under Water	14	12
141	Step Outside	14	12
142	The Mark of the Gods	14	13
143	Face Off!	14	13
144	The Mark of the Pig	14	13
145	Akane Guesses the Secret	14	13
146	Santa's Little Disciples	14	13
147	When You Wish upon a Sword	15	13
148	May I Cut In?	15	13
149	The Final Wish	15	13
150	The King Is Wild	15	13
151	Never Bet Your Live	15	13
152	Put on a Poker Face	15	13
153	The Virtues of Training	15	13
154	Target: Pigtail	15	14
155	Let Your Hair Down	15	14
156	The Whisker's Secret	15	14
157	Hair Raising	15	14
158	Let's Go to the Hot	16	14
159	Screamin' at the Hot Springs!	16	14
160	Three-Leg Scramble	16	14
161	Hot Bath!	16	14
162	Ranma Give Up?!	16	14
163	The Final Choice	16	14
164	A Goal Too Far	16	14
165	Kung Fu Stew	16	15
166	Bad Manors	16	15
167	La Miserable	16	15
168	Le Karate De Foie Gras	16	15
169	Bathroom Training	17	15
170	Who Masters What?	17	15
171	Dinner Wars: The Final Course!	17	15
172	Do Not Dessert Me	17	15
173	Hand-Me-Down Ranma (US) / I Don't Want Ranma! (J)	17	15
174	The Terrible Truth! (US) / The Truth Is Confessed! (J)	17	15
175	Nabiki's Feelings	17	15
176	I'm the Victim Here! (US) / I'm Sorry Ranma (J)	17	15
177	I'm Sorry, Akane	17	15
178	Maze of Love (US) / The Maze of Love and Revenge (J)	17	15
179	The Curse of the Scroll (US) / It's Scary When You Turn Cursed Pages (J)	17	16
180	Spring Demon (US) / The Demon That Came From Jusenkyo (J)	18	16
181	The Demon's Tale (US) / The Demon's True Identity (J)	18	16
182	Find Akane (US) / Where is Akane? (J)	18	16
183	S.W.A.T. (Save Widdle Akane Team) (US) / Rescue Team for Akane (J)	18	16
184	The Watery Grave (US) / Rock Above Water (J)	18	16
185	The Geyser Traps (US) / Beyond the Valley of the Eruptions Traps (J)	18	16
186	Boiling Retailiation (US) / Strike Back with Hot Water (J)	18	16
187	The Snap of Elastic (US) / Sure Fire! Pantyhose Meteor Kick (J)	18	16
188	What's in a Name? (US) / Your Name is... (J)	18	16
189	Back to the Freak-ture (US) / The Time Traveling Old Freak (Part 1) (J)	18	16
190	And Back and Back and Back (US) / The Time Traveling Old Freak (Part 2) (J)	18	16
191	Melonhead (US) / The Beachside Amnesiac (J)	19	17
192	The Honor of Party Beach (US) / The Beachside Pur-Suitor (J)	19	17
193	Catcher in the Rind (US) / The Beachside Island (J)	19	17
194	The Sauce of Ten Years (US) / That's What Friends are for! (J)	19	17
195	For the Love of the Sauce (US) / For Love of the Sauce (J)	19	17
196	The Truth About the Truth (US) / The Terrible Truth (J)	19	17
197	The Honeymoon Period (US) / Here Comes Mr. and Mrs. Ranma Saotome (J)	19	17
198	Please Hate Me (US) / Ten Things I Hate About Ukyo (J)	19	17
199	Nightmare on Hot Springs Street (US) / Curse of the Hot Spring Town (J)	19	17
200	Paper Dolls of Love (US) / Paper People Love (J)	19	17
201	The Pill of Obedience (US) / Master-Student Secret Pill (J)	19	17
202	The Lion's Roar (US) / The Shishihokodan (J)	20	18
203	Prelude to Defeat (US) / Prelude to Failure (J)	20	18
204	Unlucky Blow (US) / Bad Things Happen (J)	20	18
205	Emotional Impact (US) / Defeating Depression (J)	20	18
206	Lion Versus Tiger! (US) / Fight! Lion vs Tiger (J)	20	18
207	The Weight of Victory (US) / A Gravitating Victory (J)	20	18
208	New Year's Curse (US) / The Curse on New Year's Eve (J)	20	18
209	Ring Proposal (US) / Do Not Ask for Whom the Bell Tolls (J)	20	18
210	The Plum and the Prune (US) / The Old Man and the Plum Blossoms (J)	20	18
211	Sibling Warfare (US) / Sibling Rivalry (J)	20	18
212	The Scandal Breaks! (US) / Waves of Rumors (J)	20	18
213	When Daddy Was Strong (US) / Daddy, You're the Strongest Man in the World (J)	21	19
214	Time to Leave the Nest (US) / When the Chick Leaves the Nest (J)	21	19
215	The Cradle From Hell (US) / Hell's Cradle (J)	21	19
216	Mark of the Cherry Blossom (US) / The Cherry-Blossom Marked Man! (J)	21	19
217	Akane's Feelings	21	19
218	Storm of Petals (US) / A Storm of Flowers (J)	21	19
219	L! O! V! E! (US) / Cheerleader's First Love (J)	21	19
220	Cheerleading for Love (US) / Cheerleading by Love (J)	21	19
221	Win One for the Lover (US) / Victory of Love?! (J)	21	19
222	Equals in Love (US) / Evenly Matched Love (J)	21	19
223	Love vs. Love (US) / Seriously Intense Love (J)	21	19
224	Love Always Wins (US) / True Love Prevails... in the End (J)	22	20
225	Ranma Meets His Mother!? (US) / Genma's Mysterious Secret (J)	22	20
226	A Man's Vow (US) / The Promise of a Man (J)	22	20
227	Risky Reunion (US) / Walking the Katana's Edge (J)	22	20
228	Even If It's Just a Glance (US) / Sunday in the Park with Ranma (J)	22	20
229	Mother and Son…Together (US) / A Dream Deferred (J)	22	20
230	Sudden Hate!! (US) / A Turn of Emotion (J)	22	20
231	Say You Love Me!! (US) / Say "I Love You!" (J)	22	20
232	Love's Counterstrike (US) / Love Reverberation (J)	22	20
233	Who Loves Who? (US) / True Confession (J)	22	20
234	The Phantom Lingerie (US) / The Incredible Tale of the Unstealable Panties (J)	22	20
235	Pantyhose Taro Returns! (US) / The Attack of Pantyhose Taro (J)	23	21
236	The Black Secret (US) / The Secret Black Weapon (J)	23	21
237	Hot Water Fortress (US) / Out the Frying Pan and Into Hot Water (J)	23	21
238	Tentacular Spectacular! (US) / Fight! Defeat the Tentacles (J)	23	21
239	Stomperella (US) / Steps by the Seashore (J)	23	21
240	The Fairy Tale Ending (US) / Cinderella's Favor (J)	23	21
241	The Violence of Cooking (US) / Creative Cooking (J)	23	21
242	The Carp of Misery (US) / New Relationship (J)	23	21
243	Carpy Deum (US) / A Terrible Relationship (J)	23	21
244	Quit Carping (US) / An Uncontrollable Relationship (J)	23	21
245	One Punch (US) / The Warsuit (J)	23	21
246	The Guest at the Cat Café (US) / Guests at the Cat Café (J)	24	22
247	The Animal Kingdom (US) / The Wild Animal Dynasty (J)	24	22
248	The Lost Treasure (US) / Ranma's Lost Manhood (J)	24	22
249	Battle of the Hot Springs Women! (US) / Ranma vs Herb - A Woman's Fight in the Open-Air Bath (J)	24	22
250	Race to Treasure Mountain (US) / The Pursuit to Horaison (J)	24	22
251	Death on Treasure Mountain (US) / Death on Horaison (J)	24	22
252	The Tragedy of the Pail (US) / The Tragedy of the Ladle (J)	24	22
253	The Waterfall of Secret Treasure Revealed! (US) / Behold! The Open-Water Waterfall (J)	24	22
254	An Ever-Elusive Treasure (US) / Distant Manhood (J)	24	22
255	The Confession of Rage! (US) / Herb's Angry Confession (J)	24	22
256	Rise Up, Ranma! (US) / Stand Up, Ranma! (J)	24	22
257	A Man Again! (US) / Ranma! Return to Manhood! (J)	25	23
258	Welcome Home, Ranma!	25	23
259	The Ultimate Teacher! (US) / The New Teacher is Certain Death (J)	25	23
260	The Eight Mysterious Treasures (US) / The Mysterious Happo Five-Yen Satsu (J)	25	23
261	The World's Most Powerful Woman (US) / The Most Dangerous Woman in History (J)	25	23
262	Go for the Pressure Points! (US) / Push Those Pressure Points! Now! (J)	25	23
263	The Formation from Hell!	25	23
264	The Eight Treasures Change Return (US) / Happo No-Yen Coin Return (J)	25	23
265	The Ultimate Health Regimen (US) / Ultimate Health Technique (J)	25	23
266	Akane's Journey	25	23
267	Recovered Memories (US) / Reawakened Memories (J)	25	23
268	The Secret of the Forest (US) / Secret of the Strange Forest (J)	26	24
269	The Water of Life (US) / Water of Life (J)	26	24
270	In the Shade of the Forest (US) / In the Tree-Shade of the Forest (J)	26	24
271	See Ya, Akane (US) / Bye-Bye, Akane (J)	26	24
272	The King of Beasts Emerges! (US) / The King of Rare Beasts Appears! (J)	26	24
273	The Fury of the Orochi! (US) / The Serpent is Angry (J)	26	24
274	The Eighth Head	26	24
275	Take Care of Her (US) / Take Care of Akane (J)	26	24
276	Blow Your Horn! (US) / Blow the Horn-Whistle! (J)	26	24
277	Let's Go Home (US) / Let's Go Home Together! (J)	26	24
278	These Words I Send to You (US) / Gift Words (J)	26	24
279	Danger: Home Visit Ahead! (US) / Fatal Home Visit! (J)	27	25
280	Target: Soun! (US) / I've Got a Yen for Soun (J)	27	25
281	Danger: Flight Path of Love! (US) / Deadly Lover's Escape (J)	27	25
282	The Unbeatable Lens (US) / Invincible Glasses (J)	27	25
283	Tearful Apology! (US) / A Tearful Apology (J)	27	25
284	The Lowliest Jerk (US) / The Unmanliest (J)	27	25
285	Demon Dog of the Sea (US) / Killer Swimwear (J)	27	25
286	Compliment Me! (US) / Flatter Me! (J)	27	25
287	Curséd Cave of Broken Loves (US) / The Cursed Tunnel of Lost Love (J)	27	25
288	Exit of Misery (US) / The Break-up Exit (J)	27	25
289	Give Back the Tests! (US) / Give My Test Back! (J)	27	25
290	Mother, I am Ranma	28	26
291	Thousand-Mountain vs. Thousand-Sea (US) / Umisen-ken and Yamasen-ken (J)	28	26
292	Ranma vs. Ranma!	28	26
293	Intensive Training! (US) / Special Study!! Umisen-ken (J)	28	26
294	A Letter From Mother (US) / A Letter from Mother (J)	28	26
295	Quick as Lighting―The Thousand Seas! (US) / Lightning Fast Umisen-ken (J)	28	26
296	House of the Sea, House of the Mountain (US) / House of Ocean, House of Mountain (J)	28	26
297	Thousand-Mountain Tragedy (US) / The Tragedy of Yamasen-ken (J)	28	26
298	The Invisible Strike (US) / Invisible Secret Fist!! (J)	28	26
299	The Truth of the Secret Scrolls (US) / The Truth of the Secret Message (J)	28	26
300	Ranma's Tears	28	26
301	The Terror of the Phoenix Sword! (US) / The Phoenix Sword (J)	29	27
302	The Immortal Phoenix Sword (US) / Attack of the Phoenix (J)	29	27
303	The Seeds of Tragedy (US) / The Seeds of Doom (J)	29	27
304	Motherhood Flower, Please (US) / Two Peas in a Pod (J)	29	27
305	Shampoo―Captive! (US) / Flower Power! (J)	29	27
306	The Forest of Poisonous Plants (US) / The Garden of Poisonous Beauty (J)	29	27
307	The Ultimate Medicine (US) / Attack of the Killer Secret Herb (J)	29	27
308	Evil and the Bean (US) / I Oni Have Eyes for You (J)	29	27
309	The King of Poverty's Challenge (US) / The Clash of the Kings of Cash (J)	29	27
310	The King of Debt vs. the Queen of Debt	29	27
311	For the Love of Ten Yen (US) / The 10-Yen Battle from Hell! (J)	29	27
312	Spring Comes to Ryoga (US) / Ryoga's Spring (J)	30	28
313	LOVE the Pig! (US) / I Love Pigs! (J)	30	28
314	The Perfect Couple (US) / The Ideal Couple (J)	30	28
315	Experimental Herb • Towering Hair (US) / Angry Hair Heaven (J)	30	28
316	Infinate Battle "Ki" (US) / The Endless Fighting Spirit (J)	30	28
317	Let's Study!	30	28
318	The Tragic Legend of the Black Cherry Tree (US) / The Curse of the Man-Cherry Tree (J)	30	28
319	Ranma Catches a Cold (US) / Ranma and His Hot Cold (J)	30	28
320	A Hot Reunion?! (US) / Hot Reunion?! (J)	30	28
321	Ranma Till Morning (US) / All Through the Night (J)	30	28
322	The Cursed Spatula	30	28
323	Happosai's New Disciple (US) / Happosai's New Pupil (J)	31	29
324	Secret Treasure • Brocade Butterfly (US) / Butterfly Brocade (J)	31	29
325	Special Move • Wild Butterfly Dance! (US) / Dance of the Butterflies (J)	31	29
326	Lucky Day…My Family's Away! (US) / What a Lucky Day! My Family is Away! (J)	31	29
327	Alone With Them Both (US) / Both Akane and Akari (J)	31	29
328	The Umbrella of Love (US) / It's Raining Love (J)	31	29
329	Get Ready for Swim Class! (US) / Clash in the Swimming Class (J)	31	29
330	Cold Summer Noodles (US) / It's Summer! Jumbo Order of Chilled Ramen Anyone? (J)	31	29
331	The Doll of Vengeance (US) / The Vengeful Spirit Doll (J)	31	29
332	The Doll's Trap (US) / The Doll's Trap (J)	31	29
333	Aloha School (US) / Ranma Goes Hawaiian! (J)	31	29
334	The Glowing Girl	32	30
335	The Other Rogue! (US) / Rounge Shape-Changes! (J)	32	30
336	Source of Power: Owner's Manual (US) / How to Use the "Source of Power" (J)	32	30
337	A Beautiful Friendship (US) / Two Platonic Flames (J)	32	30
338	Beware! The Blows of Strength (US) / Secret Fist! Empty-Handed Filial Piety Random Strike! (J)	32	30
339	The White Lily (US) / Asuka of the White Lily (J)	32	30
340	Battle of the Boyfriends! (US) / Black vs. White! A Boyfriend Duel?! (J)	32	30
341	The Chosen One	32	30
342	Ranma's Plot (US) / Ranma's Master Plan (J)	32	30
343	The First Time Said What I Felt (US) / My Feelings for Akane (J)	32	30
344	The Great Divide (US) / The Distance Between the Two (J)	32	30
345	Love Medicine (US) / The Healing Power of Lust (J)	33	31
346	Kasumi Gets Mad (US) / Kasumi is Angry (J)	33	31
347	The Mushroom of Time (US) / The Mushroom of Ages (J)	33	31
348	To the Mushroom Forest! (US) / Return to the Mushroom Forest (J)	33	31
349	16cm Short (US) / Quest for 16 Cm (J)	33	31
350	The Two Shampoos (US) / Two Shampoos (J)	33	31
351	Payback's a Saint (US) / I'll Repay You Back Tonight (J)	33	31
352	Drawn and Quartered Horse (US) / Trouble with "Ema's" (J)	33	31
353	Saotome Family (Onsen) Vacation (US) / The Saotome Family Hot Springs Trip (J)	33	31
354	Stop that Octopus! (US) / An Octopus is Following Me (J)	33	31
355	Masked Death Match! (US) / Fierce Battle! Mask Death March (J)	33	31
356	Shotgun Beans!! (US) / Bean Throwing Night (J)	34	32
357	The Little Heart (US) / Little Heart (J)	34	32
358	Whack the Principal (US) / The Delinquent Teacher (J)	34	32
359	Bow Down! (US) / Ranma, Take a Bow! (J)	34	32
360	Busted! (US) / Bust Battle (J)	34	32
361	The Punishment of Perv-Boy! (US) / Punishment! The Perverted Juvenile (J)	34	32
362	Mama, Papa and Tata (US) / Father and Mother (J)	34	32
363	Looking His Best (US) / First Clear Meeting (J)	34	32
364	See Me for What I Am (US) / Please See the Real Me (J)	34	32
365	Incense of Spring Sleep (US) / The Smell of Nightmares (J)	34	32
366	The Three-Year Smile of Death (US) / The Smiling Three Year Death (J)	34	32
367	The Two Ranmas	35	33
368	An Isosceles Love Triangle (US) / Triangle Relationship (J)	35	33
369	Get That Compact! (US) / Get Rid of that Mirror! (J)	35	33
370	The Ultimate Couple (US) / The Final Goodbye (J)	35	33
371	Playing House (US) / Nabiki's Revenge (J)	35	33
372	The Sisters of Terror! (US) / Oh no! Sexy Kunoichi Sisters (J)	35	33
373	The Saddest Kunoichi (US) / The Wrath of Kunoichi (J)	35	33
374	Runaway Ninja! (US) / Konatsu, the Runaway (J)	35	33
375	Ranma vs. Konatsu	35	33
376	Konatsu's Happiness	35	33
377	Bamboo Leaves of Love (US) / The Leaves that Bind (J)	35	33
378	The Conspiracy of Jellyfish Beach	36	34
379	Coming Soon (US) / Ryoga and Akari's Date (J)	36	34
380	A Visit to the Family Grave (US) / Saotome's Visit the Grave (J)	36	34
381	The Saotome Family Reunion (US) / Mr. and Mrs. Saotome Reunite (J)	36	34
382	A Mother's Doubts (US) / A Mother's Suspicion (J)	36	34
383	Ranma's Seppuku (US) / Ranma and Seppuku (J)	36	34
384	Reunion and Farewell (US) / Meeting and Parting (J)	36	34
385	Goodbye Ranma?! (US) / Ranma Leaves the Tendo Home (J)	36	34
386	A Package from Mother (US) / A Gift from Mom (J)	36	34
387	Bet on the Ring!! (US) / Wear the Ring!! (J)	36	34
388	The Sales Force (US) / Trying to Prosper (Forcefully) (J)	36	34
389	The Messenger from Jusenkyo (US) / A Messenger from Jusenkyo (J)	37	35
390	Battle for the Map! (US) / Battle for the Map of Jusenkyo (J)	37	35
391	Egg Shampoo (US) / The Hatchling (J)	37	35
392	China Bound!! (US) / Ranma Returns to China (J)	37	35
393	The Prince of Ho'o Peak (US) / The Prince of Mount Phoenix (J)	37	35
394	The Labyrinth Beneath (US) / Journey into the Center of Mount Phoenix (J)	37	35
395	Dogfight above the Peak (US) / Aerial Battle at Mount Phoenix (J)	37	35
396	Akane in the Spring (US) / Akane... in Jusenkyo? (J)	37	35
397	Bad News at Jusenkyo (US) / Jusenkyo's Disaster (J)	37	35
398	Akane Breaks Out! (US) / Akane Escapes! (J)	37	35
399	The Phoenix and the Dragon (US) / Phoenix and Dragon (J)	38	36
400	The Saffron Egg (US) / Saffron Transforms! (J)	38	36
401	The Spout of the Dragon (US) / The Dragon Tap (J)	38	36
402	A Last, Sweet Memory (US) / The Final Memory (J)	38	36
403	Saffron Reborn (US) / Saffron is Reborn (J)	38	36
404	Ranma Battles Saffron!! (US) / Fight! Ranma vs. Saffron (J)	38	36
405	The Power of the Gekkaja (US) / The Gekkaja's Power (J)	38	36
406	Akane's Smile	38	36
407	The Final Chapter (US) / Finale: Ranma and Akane (J)	38	36

Best Street Performer

This was taken in Victoria, BC. He was actually pretty good too.

Mt Rainier Pic

Taken last August on our trek to Mt. Rainier.

Bug-eyed Butterfly

Here's a butterfly from the Butterfly House at the Pacific Science Center.

Week in Review

Wow, the week is over. Once again, it went by too fast. What have I done in the last 7 days? Lets see…

I saw Glenn Beck with Bonnie, Tasha, and Brenda last Saturday. It was fun seeing all of the people there, and slightly disappointing that there weren’t more protesters outside. We almost didn’t get in since they ran out of tickets before we got to the window to buy them. After waiting around, and after many people had left, someone came out and told them to take our money and let us in. So we did get in after all. I also bought a Gadsden flag while standing in line for tickets. Thanks Bonnie for taking us.

Sunday was Amy and Shaun’s wedding. That was fun. The band really could have used more practice and the reception was really long. The food was good, the speeches were entertaining, and the slideshow was fun to watch as well.

Didn’t do much during the rest of the week except look for a real job, earn a few bucks, and run errands for grandparents. I really should have spent more time watching TV, reading, and relaxing but there isn’t enough time in the week for that.

Space Needle

Taken this summer when we all went down to the Science Center.

McDonald's Sandwiches

McDonald’s, my favorite source of fast-food based breakfasts, currently has their Sausage McMuffin on sale for $1. This would be very good for me, except for one problem, I really enjoy the Sausage McMuffin with Egg sandwich much more than its eggless cousin. The Sausage McMuffin with Egg sandwich is still priced at $2.49 (or $2.59 at some locations around here), that’s $1.49 simply for an egg fried into the shape of a patty. That’s roughly half the price of a dozen free-range, organic, large, AA grade eggs from Amazon Fresh.

Being my usual, frugal self I asked how much it cost for the egg patty by itself. Those are 65¢. So I ordered a few of the $1 Sausage McMuffins and an equal number of egg patties. I saved 84¢, plus tax, per sandwich just by adding the egg myself.

McDonald’s would be making 84¢ additional profit by paying an employee to put that egg on my sandwich. Assuming a very slow employee takes 15 seconds to get an egg from the warming box and place it on a sandwich, and that employee has no other job requirements during the breakfast rush, that egg placer would be generating $201.60 in value per hour, minus the cost of the eggs and the local minimum wage as their pay.

Me, with experience working in very high-volume, fast-food production could probably do that egg placement in 3-4 seconds, generating 4-5x the value per hour. If they were to offer me $100 per hour I could probably bring myself to inserting myself in the machine known as the McDonald’s kitchen. Sadly, I do not believe there are any fast-food restaurants in this area that receive the volume of business required to keep me completely busy during the breakfast hours.

This is not an endorsement of McDonald’s as either a healthy meal option, nor as a good value for your money. Their breakfast food merely tastes good to me, and therefore I am writing about my experience.

What does this country need?

If you said LESS agents patrolling the US/Mexican border, you are an idiot. You'd also be in agreement with the Obama administration, which has decided to cut almost 400 agents from patrols next year. Most of these agents are being redeployed to the US/Canadian border. Although I do live within 100 miles of the US/Canadian border I haven't seen a huge problem in this area with illegal Canadians swarming into this area and sapping all of our public services. Read the whole article here.

The Fair

Yesterday was time for the annual trek to the Puyallup Fair. We got in using our free student tickets, as usual; despite the fact that these tickets are for ages 6-18. As soon as we were inside the fair we were approached by someone offering a free vacation plus giftcards to places I like to go, for simply sitting through a 90 minute time-share presentation. So a few minutes ago we were thought to be under 18, and now we're assumed to be over 21? Good times. Anyway, I don't make enough money to qualify for the presentation, since they only want to make the offer to someone who can potentially afford a timeshare. Oh well, it was still an interesting experience. Time to go do something productive.

Classic Train

Taken last summer on our trek around Mt Rainier.

Eagle

Eagle at Point Defiance Zoo.

Hot Air Balloon

I'm going to post something at least once every other day, it may only be a random picture I've taken, but it will be something. Stay tuned.

Who Profits When You Buy Gas?

How much money does the oil company make per gallon of gas sold? Let’s find out.

For this calculation I am using ExxonMobil, since I have their 2008 annual report sitting on my desktop at the moment. In 2008, ExxonMobil had total revenues of $477.36 billion. Of that, they paid $36.53 billion in taxes (≈7.65%) and had net profits of $45.22 billion (≈9.47% margin). Using these figures, we’ll calculate the profit on the average gallon of gas sold in Washington State assuming the sale cost is $2.999 per gallon.

Assuming we buy one gallon of gas for $2.999 at an ExxonMobil gas station:

18.4¢ is paid to the Federal government in fuel taxes
37.5¢ is paid to the State of Washington in fuel taxes
I do not believe we pay sales tax on top of the fuel tax (I could be wrong), and I am assuming no additional, local taxes are added to the bill.

After these taxes are subtracted from the original $2.999 sale, ExxonMobil keeps $2.44 per gallon. They then pay an average of $0.187 in state and federal taxes on that revenue, the 7.65% calculated above. ExxonMobil will spend $2.253 per gallon in operating expenses; drilling or buying crude oil, refining the oil into gasoline, transporting to the gas station, operating the gas station, etc. That leaves the 9.47% margin calculated above, or $0.231 per gallon.

When the governments make more than three times as much per gallon of gas as the oil company does, I think we have a problem. The government isn’t doing the work, yet they are receiving the most financial benefit. I see a problem that must be corrected. And the inmates that are currently running the asylum think the "evil" oil companies aren't paying their fair share? What is "their fair share"?

9-9-9

Today is 09-09-09. If you would have seen the clock this morning at 09:09:09, there would have been a lot of 9's. Carry on.