When I saw an article stating that Metra isn’t renewing their contract for their bar vendor on their trains my first thought was, “Metra has a bar vendor?” But don’t worry apparently you will still be able to drink on the train. Who knew? Now I want to start commuting.
IANAL, IJLS: “Once again probability proves itself willing to sneak into the back alley and service Drama as would a copper piece harlot.”
I have GOT to remember that for the next time something breaks the odds in real life. Something with a 10% chance of happening is really unlikely something with a one in a million chance is a sure thing. Just awesome.
Let me start by saying that I love our new car. We were on this waiting list that was supposed to go until November, but apparently since we wanted the less expensive version, and were more open to all the different choices (color etc) we got pushed way up front in the line and ended up getting our car in July. Pretty awesome.
(… picture here forthcoming …)
Having gotten that out of the way, allow me to expound on the problem with car dealers[1]. The problem is that they spend so much time screwing with you, that when they actually do make a real mistake (as opposed to just messing with your head) you immediately look for the way in which they are trying to squeeze more money out of you. Like a lemon. A money lemon.
The thing about it is, it has to make their job more miserable as well. I mean I am a pretty even keeled person who is pretty easy to roll (personally, not professionally) but when I get a call from them claiming that I didn’t pay enough money FOR THE CAR I ALREADY BOUGHT, I immediately am yelling at the guy “DUDE NOT COOL!”. Idiots.
Turns out the slip they gave the service department had a different number than the actual receipt we had. I suppose this is better than them not installing the correct feature. I really do think it was a clerical error on their part. But still. Maybe look into it a little before calling the customer.
[1] This is a long, but extremely well written account of life as a car salesman. I really enjoyed reading it, and it actually made me feel a bit better towards car salesmen. (And yes it is men. If there was ever a more testosterone induced job, I don’t know what it is. Arms dealers maybe?) The article also armed me to deal a bit better with this most recent purchase experience. (Heh, hunting down the dealer while he was killing time to make us sweat was pretty fun. In retrospect.)
You can go back, but you can’t go back home. I don’t know how many Infolabbers still read this blog, but it looks like they are tearing down the old 1890 Maple, and putting up a Trader Joe’s. Not quite swapping paradise for a parking lot, but it still does kind of make me sad.
Another in a long list. My wife got me an iPhone for my birthday. It was very well done, she got me a case, stuck a picture of the phone in the case, and said that we could go get it when the new model comes out. True love. Well, we all know that the new model is coming out on July 11th so I was getting excited and started looking into what I need to do to have my cell phone number follow me. (Being self employed and being that business cards are the only way that I advertise, keeping my cell number is critical.) It looks like it won’t be too hard, but just to be sure I called Sprint (my current carrier).
I knew that my contract was up, because I have had my old phone for almost 4 years, and they keep asking me to extend by getting a new phone. We tried to use that to get my wife a new phone last year, but they wouldn’t let me switch the phone over to her number. (Again with the phone number.) In any case, her contract was up in March, but it turns out mine isn’t up until November!! After much cussing and moaning, it appears that when my contract was up last time, they sweet talked me into another two years by giving me $10 off my monthly bill (along with smaller charges if I went over on minutes.) I totally didn’t remember that, I mean it was a year and a half ago! ($10 x 24 = $240, how they talked me into that I don’t know or remember, but I definitely have the contract that spells it out rather clearly. I guess I didn’t think that I would ever want to get rid of my Treo.)
Grr.
So I asked how much it would be to break the contract given that there are (will be) only 4 months left on the contract. They said $200. I asked how much it would be if there was only 1 month? $200. 1 day? $200. Given my last few interactions with Sprint (see getting wife new phone from above) I was actually planning on leaving them anyway. This is the final nail in the coffin.
Now I just have to figure out the least expensive way to leave them without lying or losing my current phone number. I suppose I could just shell out the $200, but that makes the (admittedly much cheaper) iPhone that much more expensive. I could just wait the four months but I don’t really want to give Sprint another 4 months of business. (And aiiiieee! Waiting 4 months for the shiny!) I could try to find a taker for my cell plan, but I have a hard time believing that someone looking for a short term plan would want mine. Also I don’t know if that interferes with keeping my old phone number.
I could try dropping everything I don’t need, I can get it down to $70/mo. (tax & fees incl.) but that is still more than $200. Then of course there is just waiting until November.
Grr. I hate phone companies.
I don’t know why, but I just went to the energy star web site to try out their “save money with a new fridge” feature. I’m always interested in eeking the most dollar value for using less energy over time (e.g. CFLs and that sort of thing, high up front cost, but lower lifetime cost) and was wondering how my fridge did. Apparently by switching to an energy star fridge I will save up to $25 over five years.
Hmm. Looking back through the energy star records, my fridge missed the rating by a smidge and then was slightly upgraded in 07 to meet the new standard. That had to have been a good deal when they bought it. Much cheaper because it wasn’t energy star, but actually has the same efficiency as an actual energy star fridge. That is pretty awesome. Sort of maximizes two of my interests: long term and short term price management.
I’ve always thought gas was underpriced in this country (making it harder for public transportation projects to fight for funding, etc.). I’ve also found the “we’ll it’s cheaper than starbucks!” argument pretty lacking as well though. Value can’t be compared on a straight gallon by gallon basis. But as gas gets more and more expensive I suppose we will see more and more of those comparisons. I like this one a bit more I think because it really shows a range of consumer products, from the necessary (milk @ $3/gal) to the useful (paint @$25/gal) to the luxury (nail polish @ $5760/gal). I’m not sure what it says about how we value things in society, but it does give some perspective.
Well, that’s one way to prepare for the coming oil apocalypse. I would highly recommend getting your FOID card however, before stocking up on weapons.
Also, if you are going to go all road warrior, you might want to pick something a little more wieldy than the 80 pound M2HB. When the world is out of gas, you have to carry your own guns.
I’ve been a big fan of Obama for president for a while now. There are some pretty specific reasons for me. First he is local and I have seen him work across the aisle in Springfield, which is certainly a better example than anyone else in Washington right now. Of course given that poisonous atmosphere he might not be able to continue in that vein. Then there are the policies. Sure he has done his share of pandering (highway bill anyone?) but generally his votes are fairly well defended based on the effect on the country. More importantly he seems to actually think about the implications of his votes, beyond just who stands to make money off of it. His vocal stance against the gas tax holiday is a good example. Guess what people, supply and demand has set a price. That price will stay there even if we cut the taxes. Those funds will just go to the oil companies rather than the federal government.
Which brings me to another of his issues, energy policy. While he isn’t a peak oil doomer like me, he does have a cohesive energy policy that fits squarely with my belief structure. And the best thing about it is that he doesn’t lay claim to knowing the answer. That allows funding to go to alternative promising programs that we can’t even think of yet, instead of pumping all the development cash into turning corn into gas.
And while we are on the subject of gas, lets talk about being elitist. Clinton claims that he is being elitist by not backing the gas tax holiday. Is it elitist to assume that the average american can understand that basic economics says they aren’t going to get anything from a tax holiday, or is is being elitist to assume that the average American’s vote can be bought with a promise that will never come true, because they won’t realize it won’t help until it is too late? I know which one insults me.
And finally, lets talk personal connections and experience. Obama - Wright, worst case scenario? Embarrassment. Clinton - McDougals, McCain - Keating, worst cast scenario? Jail. Maybe a lack of experience is a good thing. I have a conservative neighbor with a lot of pro gun bumper-stickers, and possibly my favorite bumper sticker ever: “All politicians should serve two terms: one in office and one in jail.” I’m starting to believe that. Blago. Stroger.
Update: Apparently the ads in Indy are making me pissy.
Unfortunately do you know math has become popular enough that a few spammers are getting through. I don’t really understand why they would do this, since even if you get through, I vet first time posters before the post goes through. In any case, I just discovered reCAPTCHA, and am trying that out. It should be pretty straightforward, but just in case people are having trouble: there are two words, one should be clear and one fuzzy. You only need to get the clear one correct, don’t worry about the fuzzy one.
This also helps digitize old books which I find very exciting.
Believe it or not, my dad sent this to me. Being a mercenary programmer for hire, I feel like this sometimes. On the other hand, every day I bill out is an honest day’s work.
If you think that we can retrofit our society to exist without oil, the refinery shut down in Scotland provides an educational example. The refinery shutdown has reduced fuel availability, thus stopping work on the large wind farm that is being constructed in Scotland. If we haven’t made good progress to a oil free system before oil becomes truly constricted we might not be able to build that alternative system.
Rather, the cost of converting will be larger than we are really willing to pay in human terms.
Looks like we had some good weather this weekend. And one of them involved some idiot shooting an AK-47 at the police. I am amazed that they were able to bring that guy in, with no one injured.
Let’s hope this simmers down quickly.
Hey all, just catching up, so the next few posts will probably just be links. The North Coast has a post that pretty much sums it up: Republicans want to steal from everyone to give to the rich, while the Democrats want to steal from everyone to give to a slightly smaller group. The one group that just gets stolen from? Responsible members of society.
No disagreement here.
The New York Times did a very interesting article last month looking at the difference in standard of living of the quintiles of income in the US. The thing that makes this article particularly interesting is that rather than looking at income, which is a pretty standard measure of “standard of living” they look at how much is spent. It is very interesting in that is shows the difference in money spent between the quintiles is much lower than the difference between incomes. This implies that the effective standard of living is not as different as incomes would imply. The flip side of this of course is that those lower quartiles are much more susceptible to dips in the economy, since they rely more on readily available financing. Since the upper quartiles save more, they will be more able to withstand extended downturns in the economy, with the one exception that they do have a tendency to spend much more on their homes, and thus might be vulnerable in that regard.
While the article was interesting in and of itself from a financial perspective, I found the graphic to be of particular interest. The top half shows where the different quintiles spend their money, but the bottom half shows what major purchases are considered “essential” for modern life. I find that graph shockingly interesting. For one thing it gives me hope that we will make it through the coming oil apocalypse. Clothes washers didn’t pass 50% penetration until the mid 60s, dryers later and air conditioners didn’t even exist until the 60s. We did without some of the largest consumers of electricity through the 50s. Another item of interest is the dip below 50% of car penetration near 45. The real doozies will be the stove and the refrigerator. How did people cook in the 20s anyway? Only 20% penetration of the stove?
According to Crain’s (dead tree version, no link) Illinois landfill (unused) capacity is currently 1 billion cubic yards. My building generates 2 cubic yards a week, or about 100 a year. In 2006, Illinois landfills accepted 54.9 million cubic yards. That means my building generates .00002% of the waste in the state of Illinois. Interestingly Illinois recyclers report that they diverted 32.4 million cubic yards from the landfills. What does this all mean? Without recycling we have an excess of landfill of 11 years of garbage production, with recycling it is 19 years. It works!
Also, I recently discovered that “97.5% of structural steel beams and plates were recycled.[25] Other steel construction elements such as reinforcement bars are recycled at a rate of about 65%. (wiki)” Now if only we can make it so cost effective for other materials.
So, I’ve come down hard on Sequoia in the past, but now they are threatening to sue counties that want to verify their security?! Awesome. Because, you know, they are so secure to begin with.
Just a random fun story. Apparently, dolphins show massively altruistic behavior (unless you are a fish that is). Two whales were repeatedly stranding themselves in a channel in New Zealand. Some humans were trying to unbeach them, but I guess the channel was too narrow or something and they couldn’t find their way out. Then a dolphin who lives there comes along and shows them the way out. I don’t know why, but this story just made my morning.
Analysts appear to be surprised that rising gas prices result in reduction of discretionary spending. It is called the writing on the wall people. I am so a prophet of doom. I really need a new category for running around yelling that the sky is falling.
But seriously, given all of the uncertainties in what the oil reserves really are, we should be able to see this one coming (pdf). (That last link is a GAO report that I actually find heartening. It shows that someone in the government is listening.)
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