HIGH SCHOOL — 1957 vs. 2009

From an email forward

Scenario 1:
Jack goes quail hunting before school and then pulls into the school parking lot with his shotgun in his truck’s gun rack.
1957 – Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack’s shotgun, goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack.
2007 – School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers.

Scenario 2:
Johnny and Mark get into a fist fight after school.
1957 – Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up buddies.
2007 – Police called and SWAT team arrives — they arrest both Johnny and Mark. They are both charged them with assault and both expelled even though Johnny started it. Read the rest of this entry »

2008 Wrap-up and 2009 Goals

2008 is over. What happened? The year began in a deep freeze with the most snow Iowa had seen in a long time. Spring brought an end to the low temps and heavy snows only to bring one of the worst floods in history to Iowa. In June I picked up and moved myself all the way to Seattle, Washington and started a new job focusing on Microsoft Exchange server systems.

Throughout 2008 I aquired a few cool new toys. I finished building a new AR-15 rifle, built a few new computers/servers, bought a Playstation 3, a 42″ HDTV, and a new 2008 Ford Escape Ltd.

I’ve been reviewing a list of goals for 2009 in my head and I’ll record them here for reference:

1) Get healthier. Need to quit smoking and I need to eat better. In the last six months I’ve packed on some extra pounds and I’m not really cool with that. I guess this means its time to break that out still brand new Cannondale mountain bike.

2) Get smart. I’ve wanted to read more for a while now and I just havent ever done it. I would like to set a goal of reading ten books this year. Ten might not seem like a big number to some people but its a hell of a lot more than I read normally.

3) Blog it. I should try to blog more this year but I swear I will only blog if it seems somewhat interesting. I may use my blog as a book journal as I have been told that can help keep one interested in the books he/she is reading.

4) Political action. The last year and a half was full of campaigning and was busy and annoying and everything in between. Now that the election cycle is over and my “side” lost its time to help the team get back to power and in the GOP’s case… back to principles. I’m going to try to get involved in a few different organizations and projects mainly focusing on bringing tech to the RNC.

5) Great outdoors. I’m in the great Nortwest and am surrounded by lots of great wilderness. I plan to go hiking at least three times this year. These hiking trips should consist mainly of day hikes but it could be interesting to do an overnight. I also want to go camping at least three times and would like to go snow camping sometime so that might be the first trip.

6) Auditory excellence. I need to make sure to get to at least six live music events this year. I thought it might be interesting to add the stipulation that one of the concerts should be country music and one should be some sort of mainstream Top 40 show. The rest can be metal!

7) Revive the e53 Shootout and BBQ Supafest.

Go on a vacation.

These are all things that I would like to do. They are goals not resolutions. If they dont all get done its not a failure its just a goal that wasnt reached and I will try next year.

That is all.

Perspective on Gas Prices

Gas took a flying leap today here in Cedar Rapids with prices ending up between $3.41-$3.55 per gallon. An article I was reading regarding one gas station having an influx of customers right before the spike had an interesting little chart generator for gas/oil price data. I created a chart that shows 60-months with of gas (per gallon) and oil (per bbl) in relation to each other.

In the statistical world the chart above shows a that the price of gas has been almost directly linked the price of crude oil. I have added combined the above chart with a straight line chart below which should help emphasize the relationship and point out an interesting variance.

Notice that in April of 2007 the price of crude and the price of gasoline went off on two different paths. The price of gasoline has remained relatively flat from April 2007 to now while the price of crude oil has continued on an upward path. Another interesting item that is shown in these graphs is that there has been a growing separation in the price of gas compared to the price of oil. Back in 2003 the price of each product was very nearly 1 to 1 and you can see that over the last 60 months there has been a growing gap between the cost of the two products.

Bottom line: Yes, it hurts to pay $50 to fill up your tank but the answers to the problems aren’t as easy as some may think. You can’t attack a problem like this with your feelings you have to attack it with your mind and common sense. Also keep in mind how much of the price of a gallon of gas is made up of taxes. There’s Federal, State, and Local taxes to add to the mix. John McCain is suggesting a Federal Gas Tax Holiday this summer. That one thing could do more for the economy in the long run that any other idea being floated. Then again you could opt for the redistribution of wealth mentality and tax the hell out of the oil companies but you wouldn’t want to steal Barack Obama/Hillary Clinton’s ides now would you?