oh man...

Hunter S. Thompson shot himself yesterday.

What drives the creative types to wanting to die, I can fully understand. What drives them to actually do the deed themselves, I will never understand.

Though I haven't read much of Thompson's work, I can still sense his indelible mark on the literary and journalism worlds.

a post

that says nothing...
merely a statement of abstraction
and waste of time.

a bloody brilliant idea

Right now I am contemplating how much to spend on a car. I need one because I need to take two classes in Lansing this summer, but that's really the only reason that I need one. Twenty-four sixty mile round trips and that's it...3000 miles in total...and that's only if I can't find someone to commute with. I could easily end up only having to drive 8 times if I had two people to go with for both classes (though one of them I'm probably stuck with). To do so, I'm going to need to buy something that's semi-reliable, something that can run at highway speeds for an hour or so without overheating or blowing up. I'm going to have to spend $1000 almost, just to get something that runs but looks like crap. It seems like bullshit.

But then I was watching ABC News last night and they had a story about car sharing. In Seattle, the company profiled was Flex Car -- they have a bunch of cars, placed in convenient places all over town, and if you need to take a car someplace you just register and reserve your ride. The cost for my purposes is kind of steep though, you basically rent by the hour -- for $9 -- but that includes gas, maintainence, and insurance. They also have a plan that costs $200 a month that includes 25 hours and 750 included miles of driving for $200 a month...with extra costs to go longer. Basically, it would cost me $325 a month for each of the three months of school...or $975, but that cover the $100+ a month or so it would cost me to gas it, oil it, tire it, and keep insurance. I'd save a few hundred...a few hundred I could use to drop down to a lower plan that costs $85 and includes 10 hours and 300 miles a month. Considering PLPD insurance costs me $35 a month and $2/gallon gas can easily add on another $20 on top of that it seems like a cool thing indeed.

But alas, no such program seems to exist here in Grand Rapids. It'd be nice. For sure, I am plenty okay with taking the bus or biking where I need or want to go, but there are just those times where having a car would be a really nice thing, you know?

Then again, maybe there are some people out there in Grand Rapids that only need to have one-sixth of a car or something. Maybe I just need to find them, pool resources together, and come up with a schedule. I know my brother has flirted with the idea of buying a car...but can't justify the cost for what he needs it for.

this is progress

I am in a computer lab doing research for my intergovernmental policy class paper and I am finding everything I need online...no libraires, no searching through floors of shelves, flipping through yearly-bound periodicals to find page 37 of issue 7 of volume 17. None of that running around that added to my hair loss in my undergrad years. Nope, just fill in the blanks of the computer and push enter...an abstract and the full text if the abstract looks good.

Yes, sometimes technology is grand. (I'm sure I'll change my mind about that when our robot overlords -- whose wise and fair leadership I will surely embrace -- come to power)

the many, the not so proud

Today I joined one of the fastest growing interest groups in America -- the uninsured. Mark me down as number 45 million and one.

I just couldn't afford to pay the premium anymore. When I signed up for individual health insurance three or four years ago, I had a $2000 yearly deductible with a monthly payment of something like $35. In December that premium had gone up to $58 a month and that was only so low because I had the deductible raised to $5000.

But I had a epiphany...besides the fact that I have paid a hundred times into the system as I have gotten out (it did afford me a 10-20% discount on services the last two times I had gone in), it occurred to me that at this stage of my life, there is absolutely no difference in racking up $5000 in medical bills and $50,000. In both cases it'll be forever before I'll be able to pay them off and in both cases it'd probably be enough to throw me into bankruptcy anyway...so why bother?

Besides, there are lower cost options out there. One local doctor charges $250 per year for unlimited visits and on-site procedures. I guess that includes x-rays, less-complex labs, and all that sort of stuff. There are other options in my area like Cherry Street Health -- a health provider that works on a sliding pay scale and offers all sorts of services, including dental (I hate to think how long long it's been since I've had my teeth cleaned...).

It's ridiculous to me that our priorities in this country are such that tax cuts and foreign invasions are high and health care for the poor, working, and studying 45 million are low...but until that changes, I guess these are my choices.

i :heart: google

Type matt drudge is a wanker into the google search engine and guess who's page is number one?

Yes, sometimes being a stat whore is so incredibly satisfying.

the things you come across

One of the more interesting aspects of using public computers for your internet access is coming across information left behind the screen saver from the previous user. Today I sat down and found several windows open referring to PREA -- the Prison Rape Enforcement Act.

I had no idea that such a bill had been passed. But I guess that if I or a loved one were going to prison, I'd be looking it up too (hell, I'd have it memorized)...

any readers out there with legal backgrounds?

One of the advantages of a reasonably well-read blog is the opportunity to solicate free advice. I don't take advantage of it much, but this one may just be a doozy so here it goes...

I am the guardian of my little brother's inheritence (or part of it -- his portion of my mom's house) and have kept it in a mutual fund since I got it (just easier to file my yearly reports with the Probate Court if it's in one place). Yesterday I got my mail from my dad's house which included my quarterly statement from the fund company, opened it, and learned that there was *no* money in his account.

Today I called them to ask what was up and they told me that the fund had been liquidated at the end of August and that they had sent me a check to the address on file. Well, the address they had was not my current address (as my investment guy hadn't updated that in the system I guess -- he knew) and so the check came back to them. Given this, they sent the check to their "best guess" (!!!) which happened to be some guy in Texas with the same name as me, aside from his middle initial. Thank God the guy was honest and returned it, whereupon the fund company placed the money in a money market account where it now sits.

This seems a bit "irresponsible" to me, to be understated, and I just have this strong desire to have the fund company punished. Had the other Kyle not been so honest I would be SCREWED and there may have been no way for me to get my brother's money back.

The conversation on the phone was very to the chase, with the every seven-second beep to let me know that it was being recorded. They know they were very bad. Should I be suing? Should I be calling the SEC or other regulatory agency and letting them know about this?

I am definitely getting my bro's money out of there as soon as I get the probate court's permission to do so and finding a company that actually has some security checks in place. But I'm wondering what else I should be doing. Any advice?

hold the ketchup. please.

And hold on to yourself.

the end of cheap oil

For my intergovernmental relations class I am working on a paper about public transportation (and the intergovernmental workings, political influences, etc) and part of that is the future need of a more intensive system in this country.

There is a finite amount of oil on this earth and it will only be "cheap" for so long...once we hit the peak of production, prices (due to supply) will continue up and up and up until they are so expensive that oil is too expensive to make it's existence even practical to think about. At some point, the stuff will only be practical to makers of plastics and other synthetics (albeit, suddenly much more expensive plastics and synthetics).

We are far behind on the development of alternative energy sources, especially those that will fuel transportation in this country...the transportation that brings food to market in the cities...and then disperses out to the boondocks where people now live, driving their SUVs each day while burning another 5 gallons of petrol each way. Suddenly, or at least over the matter of a couple years, people are going to find themselves very detached from all the things they need in life.

Hence the need for public transporation in the short term...something that can be increased in the space of a few years and that could (if people were willing to shed their individual automotive shells - which they just might when oil hits three, or five, or ten dollars a gallon) save on gas and maybe, maybe buy us another year or two or three before the bubble bursts.

But I came across a site via teh soapbox: The end is neigh.

sleep tight.

let me get this straight...

If you are a liberal in this country or otherwise oppose the president's plans in one of many arenas you may be subject to FBI profiling, visits, and the like (or just have a state trooper attend your group's meetings under cover). If you want to protest the president's policies at an event to which he is attending, you must stand way out of the way in designated free speach zones. If you want to drive around this nation's capital, you can't drive in front of the White Houe because 100 yards is just a little too close for comfort. If you want to board a plane in this country, you need to be willing to consent to possible probing and prodding (and possibly strip searched) because we just don't know who the terrorists are...

...but if you are a writer for a fake news agency run by a GOP activist in the president's home state, you can get a White House news conference seat without the fact that you're not who you say you are getting in your way. Something's fucked up about that.

grand connections

If you're in my area, check out the GRWiFi project site - aimed at finding the free WiFi sites in Grand Rapids, MI. I will more than likely have a laptop a month from now, and will be using the network extensively in my efforts to avoid paying for internet access (since I don't have a landline and cable is just too damned expensive)...and drinking lots of tea.

Excitedly, I may not have to travel far to get online though. Mayor Heartwell is really pushing for a full network for the city, bringing it up in this article from November, as well as his State of the City address last month. Given that I live a block from downtown now, I figure my hood'll be one of the first to get in on the plan. sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet

the fed's new powers

I am really worried about the president's plan to privatize social security...or at least to allow the public to put it into funds to then be invested in the stock market. he question comes to this -- who's going to be there to hold the fund managers accountable?

It seems to me that the proposal has plenty of possibilities to be abused. Say, for instance, that the government were to use the investment into a company's stock as leverage in a bidding process. Imagine that firm A currenty is being invested in by the SS fund at an amount that equals, say, 5% of it's total stock ownership...now imagine that the government opens bids on some large project that firm A can do...what's stopping the government from strong-arming firm A into a lower than low bid lest the SS fund pull out of it's 5% stake in the company thus destroying it and all other investors? Furthermore, what's stopping the government from promising to invest heavily in firm B if they offer the lowest bid on a contract? What's stopping a Republican President from calling for the removal of SS investment in a Dem-lead company (i.e. CostCo.) or a Democratic President doing the same to a Rep-lead company (say, Sinclair broadcasting)?

The questions as to the implications of a market crash (or adjustment) have been asked all over the place, but it seems to me that the ethics of the situation are open to even more dire consequences.

And then there is the bigger question that I only have a cyncial answer to...why are Republicans, fiscal conservatives as they say they are, have so much desire to pour trillions of government-controlled dollars into the stock market where they will be used to, by the stock market's nature, buy into privately run companies -- thereby leading to partial government ownership of the largest of American corporations? Besides the potential windfall in the pockets of those Americans who are already well off enough to have a large portfolio that will explode with the trillions of dollars being dumped into the market if this thing goes through, I have no answer.

home depot

Don't have much time to write, but I saw a movie yesterday that I thought was really good -- The Station Agent -- about a dwarf who inherits a station depot, moves there to become a recluse (having grown to hate people, it seems, for how they always make fun of him) but finds friends in a woman artist with marital problems and a hyperactive hot dog vendor. Lots of little laughs and just an all around feel-good sort of movie.

Okay, I gotta get to class...