I’d like to wish everyone a happy new year. Let’s be optimistic that 2009 is going to smother 2008’s embers.

I’m working on a client’s machine, replacing a SATA drive. I go to plug the new one in, and the machine powers up in a failure mode. Back to the drawing board. Just venting.

So this morning, I told Ben that he was growing up to be a good little boy. He looked at me and said: “I’m growing up to be YOU, daddy.”

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope everyone has a happy and safe Christmas and New Year.

Wow, I logged into WordPress this morning and had the WPAU (WordPress Automatic Upgrader) run and the administration side of things is much more streamlined and easier to use!

“I want to be YOU when I grow up, Daddy!”

I almost cried…

I recently switched from Virtual PC 2007 from Microsoft, which is free, to VMWare Workstation 6.5. I thought Virtual PC was nice, but it wasn’t fast enough and gave me problems when trying to copy files from the guest OS to the host OS.

I used the VMWare Converter to convert the VPC machine but it wouldn’t recognize my mouse. I found this excellent post about a fix and wanted to share it.

http://www.desertblizzard.com/?p=165

Yesterday, I was finally able to find a Barack Obama T-Shirt that I promised my coworkers I’d wear if he won the election. There was a guy off of Mound Road and six mile. It’s a cool looking shirt, like a postage stamp with Nov 4, 2008 on it and 44th President on the bottom. It’s the silhouette of Barack that is in those “HOPE” posters. Anyway, I was talking to the guy, telling him that I am only buying the shirt because I’m patriotic and I support the new president elect. He then went on to say how Bush fucked things up the past 8 years and said: “Did you hear? Obama’s gonna create 5 million jobs with this “‘solar energy’ shit!”

Wow, “solar energy shit”. I wonder what that means exactly? Does it mean all alternative energy? I doubt it. Does it mean, specifically, that 5M people are going to be working in the desert, putting up solar panels? Man, that’s a LOT of people!

One of my favorite authors passed away the other day of cancer. I saw this on a coworker’s monitor yesterday up at TMZ but was hoping it was false. I heard on Fox News this morning the news, and felt sad that I won’t get to read any more books by Crichton. :(

I hope there is a God out there and McCain wins. I don’t thin that’s going to happen, but… I pray…to baby DeJesus.

Thanks to Sean for sending this along!

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this: The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing. The fifth would pay $1. The sixth would pay $3. The seventh would pay $7. The eighth would pay $12. The ninth would pay $18. The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59. So, that’s what they decided to do.

The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until on day, the owner threw them a curve. “Since you are all such good customers,” he said, “I’m going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20.“Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his ‘fair share?’ They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody’s share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man’s bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay. And so:

The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings). The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings). The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings). The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings). The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings). The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.

“I only got a dollar out of the $20,“declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man,” but he got $10!”

“Yeah, that’s right,” exclaimed the fifth man. “I only saved a dollar, too. It’s unfair that he got ten times more than I!”

“That’s true!!” shouted the seventh man. “Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!”

“Wait a minute,” yelled the first four men in unison. “We didn’t get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!”

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn’t show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn’t have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D. Professor of Economics University of Georgia

Thanks for sending this, Dave!

A young woman was about to finish her first year of college. Like so many others her age, she considered herself to be a very liberal Democrat, and among other liberal ideals, was very much in favor of higher taxes to support more government programs, in other words redistribution of wealth. She was deeply ashamed that her father was a rather staunch Republican, a feeling she openly expressed. Based on the lectures that she had participated in, and an occasional chat with various professors, she felt that her father had for years harbored an evil, selfish desire to keep what he thought should be his. One day she was challenging her father on his opposition to higher taxes on the rich and the need for more government programs. The self-professed objectivity proclaimed by her professors had to be the truth and she indicated so to her father. He responded by asking how she was doing in school. Taken aback, she answered rather haughtily that she had a 4.0 GPA, and let him know that it was tough to maintain, insisting that she was taking a very difficult course load and was constantly studying, which left her no time to go out and party like other people she knew. She didn’t even have time for a boyfriend, and didn’t really have many college friends because she spent all her time studying. Her father listened and then asked, ‘How is your friend Audrey doing?’ She replied, ‘Audrey is barely getting by. All she takes are easy classes, she never studies, and she barely has a 2.0 GPA. She is so popular on campus; college for her is a blast. She’s always invited to all the parties and lots of times she doesn’t even show up for classes the next day because she’s too hung over.’ Her wise father asked his daughter, ‘Why don’t you go to the Dean’s office and ask him to deduct 1.0 off your GPA and give it to your friend who only has a 2.0. That way you will both have a 3.0 GPA and certainly that would be a fair and equal distribution of GPA.’ The daughter, visibly shocked by her father’s suggestion, angrily fired back, ‘That’s a crazy idea. That would not be fair! I’ve worked really hard for my grades! I’ve invested a lot of time, and a lot of hard work! Audrey has done next to nothing toward her degree. She played while I worked my tail off!’ The father slowly smiled, winked and said gently, ‘Welcome to the Republican party.’

I can’t think of a more appropriate explanation than this.

Well, Michelle and I did a 5-man relay in today’s Detroit Free Press/Flagstar Bank Marathon. I had leg 2, which started in Windsor, ON, CA. Michelle had leg 5, which started just after the runners are done with the Belle Isle portion. We decided at the last minute that I’d drop Michelle off at our friend’s place rather than her drop me off at the buses for relay teams. This last-minute change caused me to miss the relay bus! I had to jog over to the tunnel, quickly, as the tunnel was closing at 7am or 715am (I wasn’t sure). I was lucky and found a group of 8 people who were also trying to get across. A van pulls up with a gal in the passenger seat who was getting a ride over. It was perfect. We all hopped in, had a teeny bit ‘o trouble at the Canadian side, but finally got let in!

The picture of us, the marathon hitchhikers!

Anyway, here is the path I ran! Thanks to PathTracker for the data and logging on my iPhone.

Michelle had a great time with her leg of the relay! Considering we didn’t make much time for training, we’re very pleased with our runs today. We’re also feeling that “itch” and want to do it again! We’ll probably train more and do the Turkey Trot! Oh, and the weather was AMAZING! Of the 5 marathon events we’ve been involved in, today, as far as I can recall, had the BEST WEATHER POSSIBLE!

Our official results:

194 DTOWNBALLERS
Leg 1 (7.1 miles) (1:12:52) (10:16/mi) 1:12:52 Johnathan Kime
Leg 2 (5.6 miles) (1:01:03) (10:54/mi) 2:13:55 Peter Filias
Leg 3 (4.6 miles) (0:39:40) (08:37/mi) 2:53:35 George Law
Leg 4 (3.0 miles) (0:43:02) (14:21/mi) 3:26:37 Ramsey Shurafa
Leg 5 (5.9 miles) (1:00:59) (10:20/mi) 4:27:36 Michelle Filias

You can see some photos here:

Pretty cool poll 7-Eleven is conducting with coffee cups!

7-Election 2008

I was reminiscing old times with Joe at work and ran into this video! I remember actually watching wrestling on CBS, after Dungeons and Dragons, and watching this episode.

Dino Bravo VS U.Warrior (debut Earthquake)