thumbing around

Was working on getting some stuff done around the house, getting it ready to put on the market. Did this to my thumb. Not intentionally, obviously. :) wait, I shouldn't be smiling, I smashed my thumb!

state of today

So, here I am doing 81 on the interstate- being tailed, no less- and texting a new blog post on my phone. Anyway, this new song by Kid Rock comes on, you know, the one about singing sweet home alabama all summer long. I like the song, but that's not what this is about. Some stations play a version where the word "smokin'" is muted. Now, they also mention drinking (probably under-age, although that's not explicit) and sex out of wedlock, but only the smoking part, admittedly of "funny things," is censored. Why?

Need Cassettes?

I just looked at Musician's Friend's "Stupid Deal of the Day" - and for today it's a 10-pack of 30-minute cassette tapes! Weird. I didn't know you could still buy such things. (Ok, maybe somewhere in the back of my mind I did.) Anyway, if you're looking for cassettes, Musician's Friend has some. And they're on sale today!

A regular POST!

I noticed that I've not posted a "regular" blog since sometime in August. Since then it's been all mobile-phone posts, which are typically fairly short. Sorry about that - I've been kind of busy recently. Just started a new job on September 2 - in Mobile, AL. We've been looking for a place to stay (the family) - right now I'm staying at my parents' house in Pensacola, which is a 75 mile commute, one-way. The other day it took over two hours to get back after leaving work - the traffic was pretty much stopped for most of the way on the tunnel & bridge. Silly.

And what about Gasoline? That's, as far as I know, the only publicly-traded commodity that's also a normal retail consumer good. That is, investors drive the price (based on the price of a barrel of oil), and consumers pay the difference. I understand it (I think) - but it's silly. I mean, Wal-Mart's stock price tanks, I don't see any savings at their retail outlets; the stock in O'Charley's goes way up, the price of food doesn't change. Silly? What about the SiRF stock price, which has fluctuated wildly over the past few months (SiRF makes GPS receiver chips, used in GPS receivers by various manufacturers). The cost of GPS receivers based on the chips isn't changing daily in the retail outlets based on the cost of the underlying technology. So why is this the case with gasoline? Its cost is fluctuating wildly based on the underlying cost of the barrel of oil. And that barrel of oil cost is based on market fluctuations, speculation, etc. I think we need to find a way to decouple the retail here... the underlying "value" of the gasoline really shouldn't change in such a dramatic way. Yes, it should follow the base product (oil), but not necessarily in such a fluid (no pun intended) manner. For example, the GPS receivers: they will adjust based on the underlying technology, but they do not vary wildly on a daily (or sometimes hourly or quicker) basis at the retail outlet. It is unreasonable that a retail outlet should change its retail cost so quickly. Especially when this means that investors are raking in a lot at the expense of the poor guy trying to get to work in order to feed his family (hey, that's me!). Actually, I'm not that bad off... but some people are. This is, really, killing our ability (as a nation) to reasonably provide a living

At least, that's my opinion. Feel free to comment. I may add more later... my stomach is telling me it's time to put something in it.

what I'm doing right now

This is the un-fun part of my current 70+ mile - one-way - daily commute. The bridge and tunnel over and under Mobile bay. People just drive really slow and inconsiderately right here. Guess I should quit texting and drive, huh?