Can't we be over our collective Phelps-gasm already?  Let's just take a cold shower and clean up the wet spot.

*grumble*

Riccardo Ricco has tested positive for a new generation of EPO.  Damnit.  Consequently, his team, Saunier Duval-Scott has withdrawn from the Tour.  

I love cycling.  I love watching racing and the Tour in particular.  I used to watch the tour with my dad back when I was in elementary school.  These dopers are continuing to hurt cycling's battered reputation.  It is an elegant, romantic, and exciting sport, but the teams just aren't doing what they need to do to put an end to the doping culture.  Surely, they must realize that any small gains that individuals can make put much larger things into jeopardy  - public support, sponsorship, team existence, etc.

It just pisses me off.

A week or two ago, Sarah said to me, "We should put the new license plate on the car soon."  "By we, you mean me, right?"  She blushed a little and then I suggested that she try to change the plates herself and that if she had any problems that I would help her out.  It is just the matter of turning a few screws, right?

Wrong.

The screws holding the rear plate on were really rusty and refused to turn.  WD40?  No help.  I got some Liquid Wrench.  That didn't loosen things up.  I finally went to a auto parts store,and they gave me something a little more heavy duty.  After generously spraying that can of stuff that would make Mother Earth cry, letting it sit for a while, banging on it with my vice grips, and then tightening down the grips as much as I could I finally got the screws to turn... on about the 6th try.  Great.  Almost done now, right?

Wrong.

I put the new plate on with the bolts that came with the plates.  I tightened them up with my ratchet and as I gave the second bolt one more turn the head of the bolt broke off leaving the shaft of the bolt stuck in the trunk door.  I looked at the first bolt and saw that it was very nearly broken off.  After several minutes of grunting and swearing I got one of the two bolt shafts out, but that meant I only had one hole that I could attach the new plate to the car with.

This is a riveting story, no?

One more trip to the hardware store and I had a new drill bit for drilling metal and four sheet metal screws.  The car now has four new holes in it, but that license plate is finally on.

That took far more work than it should have.

My blog is the most exciting blog ever.  Ooooh-yeah!

Simple pleasure - a new curry recipe
Peace

I ordered a few bike things from Performance Bike and while what I didn't order is critical to have right now I would really like to have them before too long.  I've been checking the tracking  every couple days and was a little surprised to see the following:

Date	Time	Description	Location
March 11, 2008	6:55 AM	Sortation Center Departure	DALLAS, TX
March 7, 2008	12:54 PM	Sortation Center Arrival	BROOKLYN PARK, MN
March 7, 2008	6:54 AM	Sortation Center Departure	NEW BERLIN, WI
March 6, 2008	6:03 PM	Sortation Center Arrival	NEW BERLIN, WI
March 6, 2008	6:49 AM	Sortation Center Departure	MARTINSBURG, WV
March 5, 2008	3:31 AM	Sortation Center Arrival	MARTINSBURG, WV

My stuff was only a few miles away... and now it's in Dallas.  Hooray efficiency!

Simple pleasure - a good day of teaching in a class that was difficult in the past
Peace

I couldn't believe it when Sarah pointed it out to me in the grocery store last night.  Behold!


Wow.  Let's take a look at the ingredients according to the Kellogg's web site.  I will highlight the things that are actually food.

WHEAT FLOUR, SUGAR, VEGETABLE OIL (PALM, SHEANUT, AND COTTONSEED OILS), MALTODEXTRIN, FRUCTOSE, NONFAT MILK, CONTAINS TWO PERCENT OR LESS OF GLUCOSE SYRUP, EGGS, SOY LECITHIN, SALT, ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, PGPR (POLYGLYCEROL POLYRICINOLEIC ACID), NATURAL ORANGE, LEMON, LIME AND OTHER NATURAL FLAVORS, YELLOW #6, RED #40, YELLOW #5, NIACINAMIDE, BLUE #1, VITAMIN A PALMITATE, PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B6), TOCOPHEROLS FOR FRESHNESS, RIBOFLAVIN (VITAMIN B2), THIAMIN HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B1), SESAME FLOUR, VITAMIN B12, VITAMIN D.

Note that three of those things comprise 2% or less of the total amount of ingredients.

Fruity crunchy tubes for milk-sippin' fun indeed!

*retch*

Note:  I wrote this at school this morning between about 8 and 9am during my prep periods.  I don't particularly feel like reading it over right now, so there's a good chance it's a bit rambling, but it is also genuine.

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I am worried.  This is not something that I say lightly because I generally don’t think worrying serves much of a purpose.  If you can do something about what you are worrying about, then do it.  If you can’t, then don’t worry about it.  Simplistic, maybe, but it is generally how I operate.

 That being said, I am worried about the economy and the greater state of global economic affairs and there isn’t one darn thing I can do about it.   

 Locally, I am worried about how an economic downturn will affect Sarah and I.  We are doing better than many, but that doesn’t mean that we are necessarily all that far from money trouble.  Mortgage, a big-assed pile of student loans, paying off a new (to us) car, driving another car that is definitely showing its age, plenty of other monthly bills… it is quite a lot of money that is leaving our pockets.  I/we have been looking forward to the day that I get my own teaching job.  When that happens, I will easily be making more than I ever have and will more than double what I am bringing in now.  But if we suffer a serious economic downturn, could that reduce my chances for a job?  It probably wouldn’t, since kids will still need to be taught, but it is something of a concern.  Could it jeopardize Sarah’s job?  I don’t know.  I will leave it to Sarah to talk about her company should she choose to do so.  But should something happen to her job or mine, that could spell trouble.

 All signs right now are pointing to recession.  This morning, the Fed announced a .75% reduction in interest rates when no meeting for the Fed was scheduled.  This follows a weekend where the international markets have tanked.  It sounds like the U.S. markets are going to probably follow their example despite the interest rate cut.  So it looks as though the economy is going to slow even more.  Combine that with a huge rate cut and it appears we have a recession combined with a good chance for inflation.  Splendid.  Just what we need, higher prices for our consumables. 

 I am listening to NPR right now and they’ve got it right in analyzing what the Fed is thinking.  They have two worries, inflation and growth.  With this rate cut they are saying that they’ll worry about inflation later ‘cause growth is more important in getting the economy on track.  This is where my quieter, yet more ominous worry lays. 

 Our economy is based on consumption and growth.  Says the market news, “GigantoCorp’s stock went down fifteen percent today because their quarterly earnings didn’t meet projections.”  The U.S. was built on the foundation of the marketplace and growth.  Our prosperity is based on buying cars, and MP3 players, non-stick fry pans, Go-gurt, designer clothing, McMansions and Levitra.  If we don’t continue to buy, the economy suffers.  So we buy more and more and more, often times crap we really don’t need.  But we buy it ‘cause we are told to buy it and because we feel it will make our lives better.  The problem is that an economy based on growth is an awful lot like a pyramid scheme, it can only grow so much before it collapses.  It is remarkable that our economy has grown as much as it has in the last 500 years, but it just can not continue.  We are approaching a point where more Best Buys can not be built, more oil can not be pumped, and more bauxite can not be mined ‘cause there just aren’t any more consumers and there is a finite amount of raw resources.

 One of my concerns is that we have reached too far, economically.  One of these days I believe there will have to be some serious pruning of our recent growth, or it may die back in ways we like even less.  I believe that despite our amazing economic history and growth we wrongly went down the path of capitalist and growth economics long ago.  Not that it probably seemed like there was any other option at the time, but those smart choices in the past have lead to the unsustainable economy of today.  In the last ten years or so as I learned more and more about economics, resources, and the state of affairs I have believed that this capitalist system needed to change. 

 My worry is that even though I want a revolution to come, I am comfortable where I am.  Changing our economy away from growth and profit to something more sustainable is impossible, in my view, without supremely painful changes that probably wouldn’t be resolved for years, if not decades.  I can’t even imagine what it would take to change our economic system away from capital and growth to something healthier.  That change would take a near reversal of attitudes by everyone.  I don’t want to give up my bike and outdoors gear any less than the folks in suburbia want to give up their Audis and Prada.  It’s going to happen one way or another though… whether it happens tomorrow, ten years from now, or whether it is somehow postponed for a hundred years.

 I’m not sure I want to see the likely anarchy that would result.  I suppose I will put on a mask of ignorance like everyone else.  I suppose I will buy into the stimulus package that the president, presidential candidates, and congress all support to stimulate more consumption and march blindly towards the precipice. 

I wish I knew how to grow and hunt for my own food and build my own shelter.

1.  I am angry at how our government so willingly bows to big business.  Here's the deal.  While driving Ford Rangers around for 11 hours each day, it's hard not to notice that the trucks bound for Canada get better gas mileage than the trucks staying here in the states.  The worst (gas mileage-wise) Ranger here in the States is a 4.0 L v6 and gets 14 m/g city and 18 m/g highway.  The same truck bound for Canada gets 18 m/g city and 24 m/g highway.  The best gas mileage a domestic Ranger gets is something like 22/28 miles per gallon.  That same truck bound for Canada gets 38 miles per gallon highway. 

What The Fuck!

Then when Sarah and I went to visit some of her former co-workers.  One of them told a story of a local radio call-in show.  One listener called in and said his Ranger got about 40 miles to the gallon.  It just so happened that someone from Ford was listening and then called in and said that his truck was programmed for Europe or something, and that if he didn't bring his truck in for reprogramming that his warranty would be void.

Wonderful!  Hooray capitalism!

2.  Our town house is in a building of roughly a dozen units in a U shape.  In the back is a small fenced-in common area with some grass and a few little shrubs.  As I came home after work today, I encountered one of our neighbor's dogs, a little cocker spaniel.  It promptly started barking at me and then ran at me like it was going to bite me.

Fucking ankle biter.

This is the second time this has happened.  C'mon people.  If your treasured little dog doesn't like other people, maybe it shouldn't be left alone in a common area where anyone can come and go.  At least put the damn thing on a leash.  Further, if you haven't trained and  can't control your fucking little flea bag, maybe you shouldn't have a dog!

If this happens again, there will be a conversation.

Damnit.

I'm on the job search again and am hitting up the old temp agencies.  I just got done with a short meeting at Randstad, the place I worked for  when I was at PwC.  *couch couch hack retch*  Sometimes a job is a job, and I will do what I need to do.

While I was at Randstad, I was asked to take, "well it's not an I.Q. test..."  There was simple math, pattern recognition, language, and logic questions.  I noted to my "agent" that though I didn't have any problems with the questions, as an educator I had a problem with the test itself.  It was clear to me why they give this test to their "talent,"  but it asked questions that people who were not educated in Western or U.S. educational systems may not know how to answer.  One question required a comparison of two sayings, one of which referred to "elbow grease."  Another question required correctly arranging the words to a quote from a Shakespearian play.  If colloquialisms and English literature are not Anglo-American (not to mention socio-economically) biased, I don't know what is.  This is really unfortunate in that presumably if this temp agency is using the results of this test to place people in jobs (some of which could potentially be well-paying temp-to-hire jobs), they are discriminating, intentionally or otherwise, against people who did not receive a modern American (or at least European) education.  I would have thought test developers would know that questions like those should be avoided at all costs.

Getting off my educational, socio-political soap box.

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Damn, it's oppressive outside.  It's only 88 degrees, but it is so humid.  I was a little embarassed to go into the chiropractor's office 'cause I was so sweaty.  Yuck.

More to come later.  Right now, I need to figure out how to get to Roseville to retrieve my dropped wallet and then to downtown St. Paul for a meeting without being a sweaty pig... I can be a sweaty pig later.

simple pleasure - cold iced sun-tea
Peace