black gold

Why is oil so expensive? I wanted to know myself and I did the smallest amount of research possible to try to find out.
Its aparently pretty easy... Supply and Demand. The supply has not gone up, but due to china and india begining to use gas and oil, the demand does go up. High demand, low supply and bam! High prices. "But" you will say " Big oil has posted record profits across the board." Indeed they have. however, Profits and profit margins are not the same thing and yet, one is perhaps a more fair way to judge a buisness than the other.
For simplicity, we'll say profit = total revenue - total expense. In the case of the oil company conoco phillips they made $3.3 billion dollars in profit. However, their profit margins are only around 3.5%.
Profit margins, as the link will tell you, = revenue/cost. So lets do the math shall we? If conoco phillips made $3.3 billion in profit, and that represents 3.5% of their investment, then they invested...
$94 billion dollars.
Now, I don't really sympathize with them or anything, but I will say that I can make more than 3.5% on an investment... its called a SAVINGS ACCOUNT. (Which, by the way, if you want an ING account, just ask me and we can both make a few bucks) So if you are mad about oil companies, I suppose you are really only mad about them being so rich in the first place.
Now, I have been told that Oil Refineries which may or may not be controlled by Big Oil (so lets call the refineries "little oil") might be the culprits. Their profit margins might be closer to 20 or 25%.
anyway, im too tired to research anymore. You do it.

just sharing...

My facebook picture with you...
I worked so not hard on it.

posting on something real, soon.

Not "real soon" that is, but something meaningful, shortly. I've been trying to collect my thoughts for such a post, but my brain tis a jumble recently. Work has been work, and sleep has been unsatisfying. My thoughts will center on blogs I have read, books, things of that nature. Probably a theory of everything.

More on Silent Hill

minoriteam

WT Heck? I just caught Minoriteam on Adult Swim. Its basically a radio drama from the shifty shellshock Vador free form power hour of power with pictures. I mean seriously. Watch an episode and listen to the pyramid head guy and tell me that that is not Darth W. Vador. Im really pissed about missing out. That could be my show but it would be funnier... or at least funny.

Silent Hill

I didn't know what to expect when I saw the movie Silent Hill. There were a lot of things that impressed me about the movie. I thought the essence of the game was captured very well. Maybe too well. Watching the movie felt a litle like watching someone play a video game. I liked that they incorporated sounds from the game into the music of the movie. This was not some sexed up version of the game. It was very much like the game and had similar suspense and creepiness. Overall, I suppose I would not reccomend this movie to most people i know. Most people I know don't like horror movies and haven't played Silent Hill. I suspect that even fans of the game might find themselves like me laughing at certain parts of the movie that are not intended for laughter. I didn't laugh as much as the crowd I saw it with. Its up to you.
UPDATE: Then again, I've been wrong at least once or twice before.

egad.

Right now I am SO very tired and hungary. Why am I even blogging? Thats it. im not. Im going to make some food.

so wierd?

UPDATE: so now the photo is a link to the story. Sorry.

The Apple Juice Upgrade (not recommended)

So on tuesday morning, I decided to go ahead and give my new laptop the apple juice upgrade. That consists of dumping 8 oz of apple juice on the keyboard. Make sure it is enough juice so that if you were to turn your upside down, it would drip apple juice for a few seconds. There is a slight (and by slight, i mean "100% ") chance that you will ruin your keyboard. You might also ruin your motherboard, however, I did not (thankfully!!!) decide to go with that version of the upgrade.

The lovely people at Dell insited on me downgrading back to a standard keyboard which has arrived and been installed today.
The moral of the story is to get at least a year of accidental coverage for a new computer. I'm sure glad i did.

This is kinda old....

But its so funny....

passing milestones.

Today is Chuck's birthday. Happy birthday chuck. Today for chuck's birthday I traveled out to see him via motorcycle. Chuck lives over 50 miles away from my house and I have to use I-40 and 540 to get to his place. Now, 540 aint so bad on a bike, but 40 is no fun at all. Compound to this that I went to chucks durring the day and came home at night. I had not planned on riding at night, so I only brought my tinted visor for my helmet. I had to ride the whole way home with the visor open and 70 mph wind blowing in my eyes. It wasn't too bad though. The worst was just outside of chuck's place. I got nailed by about 100 bugs. I also got to test my highway gas mileage. Aparently, I get a little less than 50 mpg on the highway. I find this the be a wonderful upgrade from 14 mpg in my old car.
anyway, i am tired and need to sleep. Hopefully I can clean my room sometime soon. its a disaster.
Peace.

Dark Matter: Now posting TOO often!

What is the dealio guys? I guess that I get so bored looking at un-updated blogs that I need to update mine more often. So I have had a few firsts with the new bike. I had my first "running out of gas" experience. I mistook it for something worse and it was in fact quite an ordeal. At the end of the day however, I learned somethings about my bike in a rather benign way and for that I am grateful. To make a long story short, I could not restart my bike when it ran out of gas, was picked up about one minute later by another motorcyclist and taken to a bike shop that was closing, went with an employee to tow my bike back to the shop, just to have him start it up imediately and explain that i had run low on gas, but still had my reserve. Had, I the patience, I would tell you the full story, but that might be best left for personal communication. May it suffice to say, I'm not that dumb.
Today I experienced something interesting on two seperate occasions. It was the awareness that I was riding my motorcycle while i was riding it. You kinda get into driving mode and don't think about much while riding except being careful. Its perhaps simmilar but more dull in a car. Anyway, I started thinking about how I will be listening to music less often becase I will be riding the bike more often, which made me think about the fact that I was thinking about something other than riding. Then I thought about riding, but not from the' i need to be safe' point of view- that has started to go into automatic. I was just thinking about the fact that there I am riding on a huge bike at the mercy of the drivers around me, and this made me smile. Its that kind of smile that is somewhat terrifying, and fun at the same time. Perhaps similar to being on a rollercoaster.
Well, I am yawning like i want to go to bed, so I will give in.

Want to feel good/ bad about yourself?

Sure, we all do/don't. Go ahead and calculate your BMI here. It turns out that despite all my friends' protests, I am actually borderline obese. So I'm gonna go kill myself now... that is, if I can wrap my fat fingers around a weapon without eating it.

Actually Im going on the "bowling diet". Its one I invented, so you know its good. Basically, I am allowed to be the weight equivilent in pounds of my best bowling score. Right now that means I have to shoot at a weight of 176. According to this awful BMI thing, I can be healthy and only borderline over-weight if I just get my weight down to 195 lbs. So... I will probably try to improve my bowling score so I can afford to weigh a little more.

Aparently, I would not be underweight unless I dropped to 145 lbs.

1st motocycle related injury!

Its just a slight burn to my calf, courtesy of the smoking hot exhaust system. Nothing to be alarmed about. Just good to be aware to warn others.

Bwah?

The above title is a link to a soda that I am currently drinking. Its kinda "meh".

I made it safely to school today.

Although, I took it out on some roads last night, this was my first real "taking it to work" kinda deal. I stalled out once at a light, which was embarassing and frustrating, but the rest was smooth sailing. By "smooth sailing" I mean, intense. Driving one of these things takes so much concentration. Its mentaly exhausting. Im sure it will get easier, but I hope not to become too casual about it. If I survive this first 6 months, I am sure I will be fine.

Its Here...

Its insured. Its licensed. Its kicking unquantifiable amounts of buttox.

I'll be out riding it for the next year or so non-stop, so this update will have to suffice for a while.

UPDATE:
I have begun to get the feel for the shifting and such. It requires a whole lotta lotta concentration to ride this sucker. So far, I have nothing but memory and feel to indicate what gear I am in, and nothing that I can see to indicate how much gas I use. The shifting is normal; the gas... I don't know. Maybe I'm just supposed to guess by the odometer? who knows? When I get it inspected soon, I will find out. Notes to self: Wear gloves. It gets cold with all that wind. Also, use your viser for the same reason.
PS. I now understand what exhilaration means.

If everyone wouldn't mind holding your breath...

Just until monday. Today, this saturday morning, I made an offer to a guy about a bike, and he says that if I can get the money by monday then the bike is mine. The Bike is a 1998 Honda Shadow Aero, shaft driven 1100 cc engine with lots of special modifications. Wish me well in getting all the finacing squared away.

Here is the best pic online I could find of the bike I am getting. Just erase the frilly tassals with your mind. Once the real bike is in my clutches, Oh there will be pictures.

Almost there.

I have been approved for a loan by the bank today and so the quest for a motocycle advances.

A few new pics.

On my flikr.

Blah.

blah blah blah ablh blah blha blah blah. Blah? Blah balh blha blha blah blah blah blah blbah. (blah.)

Movie Idea!

So, there are these two cowboys. One is quadruplegic and the other paraplegic after a diving accident. They grow up together in a valley and share each other struggles finding strength in each other's friendship. I call it "Homosexual Mountain". Which is the mountain where the diving accident occurs. The men are persecuted for being crippled by the town folk. But they defiantly stay crippled. The town folk remove all the handicaped horse parking, and replace ramps with stairs. Also, all the town's people are gay.