Category: Uncategorized

I’m starting to lose track of the days. I thought that today was thursday and was shocked to learn that I had not been paid. I guess it’s good to have an extra day, right? Ah, the joys of not working:-)

Isaac

OK, I cannot believe that people are seriously thinking that gasoline prices have been manipulated by W. and his party. There are so many problems with this I don’t know where to start….

OK, how about George W’s enemies controlling most of the oil in the world? I doubt that Chavez, Putin, Iran, etc. really want to help him out. This supposed manipulation also assumes that the companies can simply change the price of their product without any consequences at all. If they did collude and price oil below what it should be, there should be widespread shortages, people would line up at the pumps for the great price. Incidentally, this would be a far greater problem than what the oil companies were dragged before the senate for. If they artificially raised prices, it would suck, but there sould at least be gas to buy. If they conspired to lower prices below what they should be, we would quickly run out if gas, and that’s not good…

People that actually believe this have a rather twisted view of how prices are determined and how the economy works in general. Sure, companies are always looking to charge as much as they can, but no one can control what that is going to be. That’s right, not dubya, not exxon/Mobil, not a single person or entity can pick a price that gas should sell for. If they set it too high, no one will buy it, if they set it too low, everyone will buy it and they will run out. The price is constantly adjusted by looking at what people are willing to pay vs. how much supply there is. Pretty simple, and completely out of the hands of any group or politician. Isn’t the free market great?

Isaac

The new laptop came today, I’m liking it so far. I do need to get the rest of my memory, I am seeing some slowdowns with multiple programs running. I really like the screen, some people told me that the reflections made it useless but that just isn’t the case. It’s also running nice and cool, there have been many reports of the early versions running really hot and causing problems. So far so good, I’ll keep everyone posted on how it goes.

Isaac

A lot of my recent reading has revolved around how to learn things well. I figure that pretty soon it will be nonstop learning, it’s best that I do it as well as I can. Self hypnosis, NLP, brain hemisphere integration, etc. A book that I bought years ago but have just started to read has a section on reading faster. Just like all fast reading techniques, you need to do it visually instead of saying the words to yourself. I almost always say every word in my head when I read, I even say the words as I type them or write them. So I gave the visual method a try. Turns out I can do it pretty well, I can blaze through pages at an impressive rate. The problem is that if I’m not paying attention I drift right back to my old ways of doing things. It’s fascinating how our brain works and terrifying how much habit controls how we think. Establishing new habits is really all learning a lot of stuff is, especially new languages. It’s one thing to notice how you think, it;s quite another to do something about it… Wish me luck!!

Isaac

My laptop was supposed to be delivered today. I got up around 10ish only to find out that they had tried to deliver it at 8:45 this morning. I never heard the bell or knocking or anything… So I called them up and asked if they could come around again, the operator asked if I would be around all day and I said yes. So she says she’ll ask the guy to come around again and would call me if he couldn’t do it. Well, no delivery, no phone call…

I’ve had nothing but bad experiences with FedEx, both shipping and receiving. No problems to speak of from UPS or DHL, I don’t know why Fedex hates me, but they apparently do…

Isaac

Last day of work went well, got off at 6:30 and went out to dinner with some friends. I half jokingly talked about “hitting the hard stuff”, which for me means having a coke with dinner. Well, it took a while to get a table, so between sitting at the bar and dinner I had three or four cokes. SO hear it is 8:50 in the morning and I’m still wide awake. That’s right, my first all nighter since college. I’m wondering when I’ll feel sleepy… Good thing I’m no longer tied to a work schedule…

Isaac

I only have to make it through tomorrow and I’m free! I will be happily unemployed starting Oct. 1! I plan on doing the rest of my packing, cleaning, and visiting people over the next week. Things will be a little complicated because I’ve lost my wallet and I have all of 35 bucks in my checking account… There’s a fat paycheck coming on thursday so I’m not worried but I am currently trying to remember what was in my wallet and canceling them. I need a new driver’s license so I’m going to try to keep driving to a minimum until I get the new one…

In happier news I have ordered my new laptop! It should be here on thursday. A 2GHZ white MacBook if you’re curious. Now all I gotta do is get some more RAM and my dream laptop will be ready to go. Yipee!!! No more work and a new computer, should be fun…

Isaac

… that’s how many applied for the 400 jobs available with the new Wal Mart that opened in Chicago. 15 thousand people! Anyone that voted to require higher wages paid by employers (and therefore reduce the number of people hired) should be shot. Luckily for the people of Chicago, the Aldermen couldn’t override Daley’s veto on the big box store payment bill. There’s going to be a lot of people saving a lot of money in Chicago, you can be sure that this won’t be the only store in Chicago either. It seems to me that if 15000 people are applying, there needs to be more low skill job opportunities in Chicago, something that the Unions and politicians are dead set against. Jobs are much more important there than “protections” from those awful capitalists. Things are going to work out just fine there, and Wal mart will do very, very well…

Isaac

The last week of work, I can hardly believe it… My motivation is at an all time low, only one week to go, I’ve made my goal of $500 in spiffs for the month, and I am only showing up physically, I am already gone mentally. It’s hard to believe, but I was at the company longer for my second tour than I was for the first. 5 years since I came back up here, I’m still not where I’d have liked to be, but i think that this trip will go a long ways towards getting me there. The important thing is that I am in much better shape mentally now than I was 5 years ago and I really believe that things will continue to get better and better, but then again, everything is looking pretty damn sweet right now with only 1 week to go at work:-)

Isaac

I have a google alert system that sends me an email whenever Yemen is mentioned in the news. There were several in my inbox this morning. The first one had the headline “Suicide bomber foiled in Yemen”, it was written by an Arab news source (can’t remember if it was from Yemen or a neighboring country). The second headline I read was from the AP, “5 killed in suicide bomb attacks in Yemen.” Huh, I wonder which one was right. Well, it turns out that they both had the same facts but decided to spin them differently. The 5 that died were one security guard and the 4 bombers. Usually the bombers are not included in the death count, so I wonder why the AP chose the headline it did. The tone of the two reports is quite a bit different as well, the Arab one is quite upbeat, pointing out that the bombers failed because of the actions of the security personnel while the AP trots out the old “ancestoral home of Osama Bin Laden and site of the Cole attack” descriptions. It’s as if they are looking for excuses to paint the country in a negative light…

Isaac