Every Four Years

Presidential elections. And posts on the Council of Elders.

Waiting for it to start roling in

Well, now that I'm rich or at least I'm ready to be rich, I can start solving some of the world's problems. (margin is too small for complete proof here)

I started a new game today. Call old friends while commuting. I spend way too much time on the road. And I'm a terrible friend. I never write. I never call. I face(book) and tweet and blog and hope that my friends will somehow magically find me although I do nothing to get myself noticed in any of these areas. Anyhow, I called an old friend today and thouroughly enjoyed talking to him. I remembered why we were friends and was re-glad that we were. So, I'm going to do it more. And exercise. Eat right. Quit drinking. Quit smoking. Brush my teeth. And flush.

OK. I always flush and brush my teeth. I need to feel successful somehow.

I'm gonna be rich

I decided to click the "Monetize" tab on my blogger account. I don't blog much and just noticed it and was wondering what it was. Adsense. With all of the viewers of my blog, I'll be a millionaire in no time. Although, they won't tell me just how fast I'll be rich. I know I will be. I mean, I post at least once a year. I tweet on twitter. I vogue on Facebook. I'll link them altogether and be rich, rich, rich.

I really think the Monetize tab oughta work like that Easy button on those office supply ads. You just click it and money rains down. Really, I'd do more of this, but I don't. But now I can get rich, so I'll start writing all the time cause I just know the world is just waiting for me to be sufficiently monetized to actually start writing so that the world can enjoy the minutia of my life.

Letter to Letter from Joshua

I am mightily impressed with the volume of blogginess that you have been producing. Deep and thoughtful with just a dash of shallowness sprinkled about for flava. I'm afraid all I have is shallowness and a distinct lack of time management skills. And now I'm afraid I have another meeting.

Another Bush Legacy

I've been goofing with the motion charts in the google documents, which are very cool. For proof, beyond what I'm posting here check on Ted.com.

I'm wondering if this will display correctly. The interesting thing that I've seen with the gadget is in just about every state from 2000 to 2006, there was an increase in unemployment and poverty during the recession. The odd thing is that as unemployment returned to generally even lower levels than before the recession, the poverty tended to increase even more. So we end up with lower unemployment, but more poverty. That ain't easy.

Putting the poverty rate on the vertical y-axis, the unemployment rate on the horizontal x-axis. I like to set the colors to be unique and the size of the bubbles to the total number of completers. I originally started playing with this in the context of education, but education seems to lack interesting cycles in this data. Anyhow, add some trails for your favorite state and enjoy.

Prius Hybrid Data

So, this blog is well out of date, but I once again think of reviving it. First, though, I have some data that I really want to share with everyone. Really. Everyone.

Being me, I have been tracking the mileage and costs associated with my Prius pretty much since I bought it about three years ago. I don't have any data for the first 4000 miles, but I noticed that what I calculated to be the miles per gallon based on the odometer and gas pump was different than what the on board computer calculated. So, I created a spreadsheet (I wonder how many great ideas start with these words . . .).

In that spreadsheet I tracked each tank of gas, my mileage, my costs along with comparisons to my previous vehicle - a Kia Sedona. The Sedona was a fine minivan, but it got maybe 16 mpg and at the time of my purchase it was more like 12 mpg because it was right after Katrina, I live an Baton Rouge and commute to Lafayette. Gas prices were skyrocketing, I started commuting 130 miles per day, so goodbye minivan, hello hybrid.

Enjoy the charts. Note the drop-off in mileage in the summer of 2007. That is a new set of tires. I lost about 5 mpg with the new tires, but everyone denies that it is related. The data says so and no one offers an alternative explanation. So there. QED.

The Assualt on Reason

Al Gore wrote the book that gets at the politics of what I think of as the Era of Irresponsibility.