A New Direction

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Current GOP fiscal policy?

Pondering: Continually cut taxes since 2001, start expensive war (both economic and social costs), massive outlays for homeland security (and just about everything else), excessive corruption pork, natural disasters on top of that (which couldn't be helped, ofcourse), massive subsidies to big business and the list just goes on. These policies have both short term and long term consequences. When the democrats regain the executive and legislative majority, the present GOP has created quite an economic challenge for them. It will provide plenty of ammo for the big guns wanting to attack in-power Dems.

Also, the market is approaching record highs, possibly because of dividends and capital gains tax breaks maybe... other positive legislation for the wealthy; less taxes = invest more. Trickle-up economics anyone?

Sunday, November 27, 2005

Aprilia RSV450

Why should I not own this bike? I just learned this bike is going into production (!!!) for Europe only so far. I would sign a contract this second saying if brought to market in the U.S. I would buy one, no doubt about it. A 450cc V-Twin putting out somewhere between 60 and 70 horsies fitting into the RS250 frame. Weight estimated at just over 300 lbs, modern swingarm technology, inverted fork, fender hugger, underseat exhaust and big dual disk brakes up front, modern frame design and a bike that is most likely finally suspended properly for someone my weight. Grey market, here I come!

Friday, November 25, 2005

I have PMS

Parked Motorcycle Syndrome

In my case its more of a no motorcycle syndrome. Well I have a frame and an engine so I am halfway there. When I return from Europe, a new bike will most likely be one of the first things I buy. Here is my list of dream bikes, some of these exist, some are not real (yet) and some are not available in the U.S.

  • Aprilia RS 450
  • Kawasaki zx-4r
  • Ducati Monster (dark)
  • Suzuki SV-650 circa 2001/2002
  • Suzuki SV-1000s (full skin)
  • Ducati 749s
  • Triumph Speed Triple
As for the cookie cutters, in the I-4 600ccs class I'd take the Honda 2005 Euro CBR-rr and for the I-4 1000ccs it is a tie between the 2004 Yamaha YZF-R1 and 2005 Kawasaki ZX-10r. If someone comes out with a biodiesel-electric hybrid bike by the end of '06, that would trump all others on this list.

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Physics is a bitch

Ever since I have taken peak oil and energy sustainability problems on as a sort of pet project, I never really found another side of the debate. I guess that I always thought that critics of the peak oil idea did not believe in it because they had dreams of basking in a cheap oil era for at least the remainder of their life. I thought these people were dillusional to a point where they did not want to face reality, after all it is far easier to procrastinate and say, "let's deal with not having enough oil when the time comes" than it is to actively engage in a dilemma that has the potential to be humanity's greatest problem ever. But no! While there are certainly many of the aforementioned people about, I discovered a new, contrary notion to the idea of oil as a finite resource.

Whilst perusing the interweb the other night, I discovered a transcript from CNBC's squakbox. The show had Matt Simmons and two others whose names I forget at the moment as guests (it may have been Craig Smith?). We all know where Simmons stands so I will move onto his opponent. Smith put forth the theory that oil is not decayed dinosaurs and plants and other organic material, cooked for millions of years and brought closer to the surface through geologic shifts but rather that it exists in unlimited quantities - that the earth is manufacturing oil as I type this. This process occurs deep inside the planet. "So how do we get this earth so deep inside the plane?" one might ask. Apparently "centrifugal force" from the earth's rotation acts upon the oil and pushes it toward the surface to a point where we can reach it. Oh dear. Someone forgot their physics lessons learned as early as high school. Centrifugal force is NOT REAL, a MYTH, NONEXISTENT. It simply does not occur on this world. Well I suppose it is OK to make up things as you go along, creating a perfect situation that would allow world crude demand to increase forever unchecked by price and supply. But as I said earlier, these people must dream of cheap and unlimited fossil fuels for eternity. Also, if this "centrifugal" force is moving oil from deep in the earth, to less deep in the earth, then why have a I not been flung out to space yet? Gravity still acts on all objects, even when they lie below the crust of the earth. By this logic, centrifugal force acts on oil, pushing it away from the core, to the surface, while at the same time escaping the effects gravity; however we humans remain unaffected by centrifugal force but cannot escape gravity, thus keeping us from being thrown off the ground from this wildly spinning planet.

The final conclusion from this genius is that we just have to dig really really deep using the latest and greatest technology coupled with human ingenuity and current resources. Thus we will find an everlasting supply of oil. Sorry dude, real life doesn't work that way.

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Why Me?

Location: McCarthy Gym, South Campus, University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota
Time: 17:30
Date: Friday, November 18, 2005

This time around, I converse with the cute desk clerk without making an idiot of myself, or so I thought. Little did I know how that would change. I see my friends in the pool, give a wave and head to the locker room to change. Immediately upon entering, a naked old guy runs up to me from behind the lockers, stands less than a foot away from me and starts talking to me. How did I know he was naked? Because he asked me to do this favor: "Hey buddy I think someone took my towl on accident, can you go out and get me another one?" First question that comes into my mind - why are old people so comfortable with nudity? Second - do I really have to? OK.... Third - where are the towls anyways?

I go outside to tell cutedeskgirl what just happened and what I need. She gives odd/awkward look and points to my left. The towls are bundled and wrapped in plastic. I pull a bundle of about 30 or so towls and set it on the table as thoughts of exasperation already go through my head. Now let me tell you, this is some tricky plastic. I struggle withit for a minute or two before I get one side ripped open. I try pulling out one individual towl, but even pulling on just one towl brings another 7 or so with it. Cutedeskgirl asks if I am having any problems (it obviously appears that way and is probably true) but I say "nope, think I got 'em" and pull out about 6 towls, walk by in almost complete awkwardness and go back into the locker rooms. I hand them to the old guy noting that I may have taken more than one. He said he would give the others back to the clerk. -Please do- After this strange task I change, join my friends, swim, sauna it up and go home.

Turns out towls are a dollar a piece to use.

Now I am on my way back for my swim tonight rather than Friday because of the Holiday. I'm going for the Hat Trick.

Thursday, November 17, 2005

This Just In:

So I wasn't planning on blogging for a while as I am working on a couple of lengthy articles and reviews but I just read this and wanted to share it with anyone who reads here, it's quite brief.

From the Kuwait Times

It begins. My quick reactions to this are as follows: Energy policy analysts have relied on Burgan for X number of barrels output for the next 40 years. When these forecasts fail, the forecasters turn to the Saudi's to make up for supply side loss. Aramco now has even more pressure to maintain high production much like the Kuwait fields and producers have had to deal with. But Aramco is presently dealing with declining production issues in its mature fields, not in finding and developing new capacity. Burgan is the second largest field known in the world, when will the rest show signs of the inevitable?

I'll probably still make random posts about how my volvo is awesome, the objects in interoffice mail I continue to receive from SanFrancisco or how I dressed up as the statue of liberty at work so fear not dear readers! Ill be back soon enough. I leave with a question. Is there a term or word to describe someone or a person who is...ignorantly dependent on technology? Sort of the antonym for luddite, but not quite...know what I mean? Cheers!

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

General Motors

This company must surely long for the "good ol' days" of the mid 40's through early 70's. Oil was inexpensive at a price of one to a few dollars/barrel, the gasoline supply was well endowed, the federal highway project in full swing, no direct foreign competition from other parts of the world (read: Japan and Europe) as most every nation was rebuilding from World War 2, and the growing American infatuation with the automobile were all factors that put General Motors in the right place at the right time and allowed for profitable operations. Circumstances at the time permitted the company to not have to pursue ideas of grand innovation. Sure, it came out with newly designed cars each year, but nothing revolutionary, even though it marketed its products as such. It simply pumped out car after car, believing there was sustainable growth for what are now gas guzzling road hogs.

Today's circumstances do not come close to reflecting those of the baby boom generation, yet the cultural worldview at GM remains stuck there, in the mud, dragging the company down, sinking like its junk grade bond rating. GMC may claim to manufacture all vehicles to a professional grade but financial performance trumps marketing slogans. The Goldie Locks and the Three Bears commercial marketing the new H3 was probably developed before the product itself was even conceived of. The marketers and designers meeting probably went something like this: We need 3 similar cars but of different sizes. Why don't we just rescale the hummer, again, because we can't seem to come up with anything else? That way we will have three different sizes of Hummers for each of the three Bears. It's perfect!!!

This is the myopic or even regressive thinking entrenched in too many corporations, not just American. The Global Circumstance is changing: global oil supply is set to outpace global production (a point we can only determine with hindsight) energy prices are increasing, traffic congestionbasic higway infrastructure problems. For the first time this month I heard Iraq referred to as the beginning of a long period of energy wars (I think this is different than the idea of a war for oil). Consumers realise that things are changing but the corporate supply of vehicles is slow to change to their tastes. As evidence of this just look at the long waiting lines for hybrid cars, the ever decreasing demand for SUV's and the increased use of public transportation in spite of fare increases and route cuts (at least here in the Twin Cities). Yet the idea that comes out of the big auto makers is "Let's release another Hummer!"

Welp... end rant. P.S. My spell check function isn't working.

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Headline from the future

"PRESIDENT DECLARES WAR AGAINST CHINA"
U.S. Forces Move into Caspian Region to Defend Pipelines

Friday, November 11, 2005

A tale of two games

Last Sunday, 11/6 marked what will probably the last ultimate I will play for quite some time, depending on whether or not I play in London. I play with a group of people (mostly) from St Thomas, probably half of which play on purple reign or G'nP, so we are at least used to competitive ultimate and not just throwing around with friends. Today was an unbelievably mild day for the beginning of November with almost no wind and a warm temperature thus making for a perfect day to chase after discs.

I got the call from Mike around 13:00 telling me to get to Nokomis as soon as possible. Fortunately I live about 10 blocks away so soon meant 10 minutes. I limped onto the field, limped because I had ran nearly 7 miles the previous day, put my cleats on while taking the field because we were playing savage 6 with an extra guy from the opposing team. I took his spot to make the 7th. We were facing off against Eden Prairie and again I got to play against Rachel's little brother. I felt as though I was just a body running around on the field, my head was not in the game. I also had to handle, which is not my position of choice but is something I have been getting better at. I think I had the disk pass through my hand maybe one or two times per point for maybe 7 or 8 of our 16 or 17 total points. My throws were inaccurate, my handling moves were slow and clumsy, my defense was far from stellar, I was out of breath and slow moving, I was affraid to make the quick transition throws after a turn, overall I felt uninvolved in the production of the offence (mostly because of the lack of opportunity to make cuts) and seemed to be more of a road block in any downfield flow that we had. We won 11 or 12 to probably 5 or 6 after the hardcap.

We had a long break before the second game of the day so I went home and cooled down and had to get warmed back up upon my return to Nokomis. At the start of our game we had a total of 6 people to their 12 or 13. We were forced to play savage 6 against a team with abundant subs. We were NOT going to forfeit our way to the bottom of the B bracket. In reality, we should have been playing for 3rd or 4th to last, not for last place. We had to forfeit earlier games due to lack of people. 6 on the line frantically trying to figure out a defence and offence. We go with a 3 man cup, two wings and a deepdeep. We get the first point, they roll three. Michelle, Erica and I are still tryig to get our cub defense down: all-time mark, top of the cup, dump cutoff, etc. We score again so its 3-2 and I am really tired from being all-time mark (this means I have get to run the most to catch up with the disc). We start rotating cup positions and it naturally works out extemely well. We start forcing them to make more difficult throws, wide swings that move them further backward than forward and get frustratingly close to tipping the dump out of the air. We score again, tie game. This is where our intensity soared. Our individual talents came together at this perfect moment, the last game of the season. My own performance also peaked. Our offense was two handlers with a four person sidestack. I was not a handler which allowed me to cut, something I am much better at. We rolled a quick two points and took it to half. Half time allowed us to take a break to crystalise our D and O and rest a bit. The second half was fantastic. We outscored them 6-1 winning 11-4. Our cup tightened up extremely well, the wings did a great job of cutting off any up field throws with all three of the non-cup defenders making some nice stops. With me able to cut, I was usually the one who started and finished any upfield movement. One thing our team lacked all season was the hard first cut with another hard second cut in either direction. We looked for the deep throw or punt way too much and as I was normally handling I couldn't give any direction on that end of the field. Not only was I able to cut, but my performance was out of this world. Wide open on any of my cuts, perfect passes, perfect outside ins to the endzone and no hesitation in making quick strikes off a turn. I had never thrown so many scores in my life. I think there was a point where I threw to Michelle at least 3 times in a row and hit other a couple times. This game I actually felt as though I was impacting and really driving our offense, and even our defence was offending: pull, quick turn with our sweet cup and quick strike.

I am in no way trying to be egotistical but I truly had the feeling that I, and the rest of the team, were all playing with full intensity. Sometimes I was at the disc setting the mark before the defence even got to it. And no, it wasn't due to a short pull :)

It really was the best and worst ultimate I played over the fall season.

Thursday, November 10, 2005

Top Restaurants

My list of best and favorite restaurants that can be found in the Twin Cities and metro area. There are basically three areas of jugdement. In order of importance: Taste. Atmosphere. Service.

  • Best Sushi: Fujiya
  • Best Asian: Same as above? Too many Americanised-Asian restaurants. So Chang Mai-Tai will fill the slot
  • Best Pizza: Fat Lorenzo's
  • Best Caribbean: Harry Singh's
  • Best Cheap Italian: Pizza LucĂ©
  • Best Expensive Italian: Luci Ancora and the sister restaurant
  • Best Spanish/Latin: El Meson
  • Best Greek: Christos
  • Best Indian: A Passage to India
  • Best Mexican: Pepitos (I don't really eat a lot of Mexican so this is all I really got, but it truly is a good restaurant)
  • Best Deli/Sandwiches: The Chicago Deli
  • Best Middle Eastern: The Holy Land Deli
  • Best Coffee Shop: Bob's Java

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

On a truly serious note

My friend Paul is in the hospital. If you pray, please keep him in your prayers. If you think, please keep him in your thoughts. If you live in Minneapolis, I know he would love to see you. I wish I did not have to write this or break the news to my other friends. I do not know what his status or prognosis is, but I believe he is OK for the time being.

Eating - (edit)

For the month of November:
Harry Singh's - 2
Eric - 0
Mike - 0

We got destroyed!

Overall record:
Harry Singh's - 8
Eric - 1
Mike - 0
Bru - 0
LJ - 0
Jake - 0

The Twins Stadium

Since my real computer has pretty much pooped out on me, I probably won't ever get my anti-stadium article out. Sorry. I suppose I could yank my HDD and install into another computer, but I'm pretty lazy about stuff like that.

Now I have to figure out who I am going to vote for tomorrow. Probably Rybak (sp?)

Friday, November 04, 2005

I define cool

Location: McCarthy Gym, South Campus, University of St Thomas, St Paul, Minnesota
Time: 16:30 Friday, 4 November 2005

Cute desk clerk: Hi can I see your ID
me: sure hang on
her: what are you going to be doing tonight?
me: swimming
her: (writes down name, other info) cool, have a nice swim
me: thanks you too
me: (damnit!! shakes head and goes into locker room)