Thinking out loud about the state of things

Lots of thoughts about lots of subjects, all mingled together and running through my mind; that's the reason this blog is named Randomblings from Rich. When I first started this blog, I looked up the word Randomblings on the web, and Google assured me that the word was not in use. Since then, others have used or re-invented the word, and it shows up in other web writings, at least as far as Google is concerned. I'll never know if the others who use the word came up with it themselves or if they were exposed to my blog at some point. It's just interesting to see that the word get used.

For Christmas, my wife got me a Border's gift card. With it, I bought The Feynman Lectures on Physics. Even with the 20% off coupon that I used, it looks like I overpaid. I saved $20, but apparently I could have saved 37% (see link) ordering it from Amazon. Of course, I'd have had to wait for it in the mail, or paid to have it rapidly shipped (and still wouldn't have it this morning). This train of thought leads me to the discussion of 'gotta-have-it-now' consumerism that has been discussed again here recently. Tabling that, I've already starting reading Volume I. Before buying it, even, I picked up Six Easy Pieces at the local library, which contains at least the first few chapters of the lectures. After reading the first 2 chapters, I knew I wanted the whole lecture series. Part of my resolutions for next year is to finish a few whole books, and I think I'm going to try to get all the way through Volume I at a minimum.

Was thinking about computing this morning (and I actually wanted to pick up Feynman's Lectures on Computation as well.) It seems to me that we have vast amounts of computational resources in this country that are seriously underutilized. We have huge amounts of computational power at our fingertips, and what are the most oft used applications: entertainment? Whatever happened to the hard sciences? Whatever happened to America's lead in the space race, and our technology lead in the 1960s? I'm just thinking out loud, and I can't even get to the point of what I wanted to say, other than I think we're spinning our wheels a great deal. We could develop so much more than we do. We could solve many problems with the amount of resources that we have, but we don't seem to be very efficient at it.

Plastic. I just threw away two plastic cup lids because they didn't fit my cup, but can't be reused by the next customer in line at McDonalds (my normal breakfast place seems to be closed today - excuse the fast food). What a waste. I've actually been making an effort to reuse the plastic forks/knives I get from my usual restaurant. (The fork is right here, did I throw away the knife?) Yesterday I read in an article that humans have created an island of garbage in the Pacific that has a larger surface area than Great Britain. How horrendous is that? Couldn't we collect this mess of plastic and press it into Trex or some other building material and give it to the homeless to build shelter? We haven't completely run out of land in the United States. There's thousands of acres of unbuilt land out there, and it's reasonably inexpensive. As a society, we're terribly wasteful. Of course, our capitalist ways of life further propagate our inability to do anything about it. I, for one, am not willing to give up my day job and my security to go build homes for the homeless. It would be nice if I could land a job like that, though.

As a society, though, we don't fund the things that we need to fund. We spend an awful lot of money on war, public policy. Individually, we spend increasing amounts of money on entertainment, but we don't spend much money on social issues and 'the good of the many'.

Ok, brain's empty. I've dumped enough for now.

Early New Years Resolutions

Here are some early New Years Resolutions:

1. Lose some weight. I weighed in at 210 pounds two days ago. I would like to be under 200 and even moreso below 180. Losing weight is a difficult process because I find comfort in food, and in the eating process. I feel entitled to chocolates and other junk foods, which actually do not satiate my need, but instead destroy any upward progress that I make.

2. Almost inexorably linked to the weight issue, I need to get in better shape. I am easily winded, and my heart races at simple tasks. Swimming alone isn't going to get me in the shape I should be in, and I really need to start some cardio exercise, and then set some goals for myself. I need to do this to grow some more blood vessels in and around the heart to strengthen it for my oncoming age.

3. Read 4 books cover to cover. I buy a lot of books, but I almost never read them all the way through. Something is always distracting me. I want to finish 3 non-fiction and one fiction book this year, at a minimum. It's not like I don't have candidate books; I have a library full of them in my bookshelves.

4. Write more often. I should write daily on my blog, but I don't. I need to make it more of a habit, even if it's nonsense and not fully expounded ideas. Only with more writing will I exercise that part of my mind. I think my aphasia is probably related to not having to communicate ideas as often as when I was younger. By forcing myself to communicate more, perhaps I can exercise the language areas of my mind more.

5. Submit at least one short story to a publication. I need to write and submit at least one short story. This is a personal goal that I will never realize if I don't set limits for when to accomplish it. This needs to be my year.

More to come, but 5 is enough for now.

How to Lose $1000 in Sales

Dear Best Buy (and readers). On Friday evening, the hard drive on my laptop went bad. Bad Sectors, unreadable clusters, a repair that took 20 hours to get 20% through the repair process, a failed recovery, a dead laptop... Too bad for me, but is this an opportunity for someone else? I practically sleep with my laptop by my side. When given the opportunity to buy new or repair old, I am the consumate American; I buy new.
The advantage of a brick and mortar store is not lost in the online world. The one thing that Amazon.Com, TigerDirect.com, Dell.Com and the myriad of other online stores cannot deliver is the ability to take my hard earned cash from my hand and deliver the goods to me today, now, immediately.... So, until they can do this, my impulse purchases are pretty much relegated to going to Best Buy, CompUSA (so long, I hardly new ye!), Circuit City (should they ever decide to sell useful products instead of the cheap selection they carry instead), and other brick-and-mortar stores. So, off I went to Best Buy. There are two near where I live. I visited one and looked through their laptop selection. They had the perfect model for the perfect price...$999 for a latop with a 17" widescreen, 250GB HD space, Blu-Ray reader, 8400M GS graphics card, Intel Core 2 Duo (5450, but still...the price!). It was an Acer, a manufacturer that I have been happy with to date.
Unfortunately, the brick-and-mortar failed to deliver. They didn't have any in stock, and would not sell the display model. However, they claimed the other store had 2 of them in stock, and that I could go there. Hrmmm, I didn't appreciate the trip, but the other store was reasonably on the way home....off I went, cash literally in hand.
As I am not writing to you from a new laptop, you should have already guessed that I was failed by two separate Best Buys on that day. In fact, their computer showed that they had two of the model in stock, but they could not find them. The manager recalled having just sold one of the three he had, but had absolutely no idea where to find the other two. They told me that I could buy another model, but to meet my needs (mostly the graphics card selection), the closest model would be $1499, $500 more than I had expected to spend buying the one I wanted. They told me that I could order it, and they would have it delivered, but the magic of the moment was gone. If I'm going to order something, I might as well just order the parts needed to repair my old laptop; and that is exactly what I did when I got home. I ordered a faster and larger hard drive for my old laptop.
If brick and mortar stores are willing to give up their competitive advantage of landing a sale and delivering the product IMMEDIATELY to their customers, they don't deserve to stay in business. Perhaps I'm too discerning a customer for them. Perhaps my demands for a laptop whose graphics core didn't suck was too much for their expectations, with what's good enough for 80% of their audience being enough to pay the rent on their stores.
One of these days online retailers will figure out a way to meet the needs of the impulse buyer, and shoppers like me will flock to them instead of driving to the local stores. I can't wait, myself, and I'm still sitting on $1000 that I didn't spend at Best Buy that day.

I passed! I passed! I passed!

I passed my CISSP exam that I took back in October. I've already got someone who will be verifying my experience to ISC^2, so I should have my CISSP certification by next week (provided they're caught up with processing). It feels really good to have passed the exam!!! Like many other candidates, I walked out of the exam room with a feeling between "maybe" and "no way". The test was not like I expected it to be at all, and just knowing the material was only part of the battle to get through all 250 questions. When I walked in, I thought I'd be able to quickly knock it out, and I ended up taking twice as long as I expected.
I'm still not happy about having had to wait, but I'm extremely glad the wait is over and that I don't have to go through that again!

The Second Ammendment Does Not Give The Right to Bear Arms

I just voted at USA Today on their second amendment poll, and I'm pissed off. Why? Because The Second Ammendment Does Not Give Individuals The Right to Bear Arms. No, it does not. The Second Amendment PRESERVES A NATURAL, *God -given right for individuals to bear arms.
<Rant>
If you want, you can stop reading this post now. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, please read on. The Declaration of Independence that created the entity known as the United States begins with this preamble:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights. . .

Our Creator endowed us with certain inalienable rights. The law of the Constitution does not grant rights to individuals. In fact, the wording of the second amendment includes the phrase "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.". Therefore, this amendment to the law of the land was to prevent the creation of a law that would infringe upon a right that is already possessed. The law of our Creator is the law that grants us our rights, and it was against the taking away of those rights which our forefathers were concerned. It was that very issue that brought us to war with England, and it was that very issue with which James Madison, Thomas Jefferson and others penned the second amendment.
</Rant>

Lowes and the Freezer

We're tired of manually defrosting our freezer. We had a small 9 cu ft. freezer, an Absocold (look for it on Craigslist soon) manual defrost (meaning do it yourself) in our kitchen. We shop at Costco, so having an extra freezer is handy. What's not handy is the way it builds up ice over time and then needs to be defrosted, and having to move some of the food out and figuring out the best time so that we don't melt everything.
So, off we go to Lowes, where they have a frost-free freezer for $398. As we walk past the freezer, we notice a sign advertising Free (next-day) Delivery and 6 months same as cash(should we desire). Sounds great, we'll take the freezer. The sales guy checks the back, and yes, he has one in stock, and he gets all of the information from us. I tell him that I'd like the free delivery, to which he nods and takes my delivery information.
Now, remember how I said it was $398? The bill comes to $451, we're told. Hrmmm, of that, taxes is $17.xx, so where did the extra $30+ charge come from? Delivery charge is normally $75, so you're not charging us for that, are you?
Well, yes, in fact, that's what we're being charged for. You see, Lowes is giving 10% off appliances until December something or other, and with that discount, our freezer is no longer more than $397, the cut-off point for free delivery. While we've gained a 10% discount of $39.80, we've now got a delivery fee of $75.00.
I tried to tell the sales guy that I didn't want the 10% off, because I intended to get the rebate on the free delivery. Tough luck, Rich, you see, this is a big box store with powerless employees who have absolutely no control over how they sell items. All they can do is scan it into the computer, which automatically does the discounting. Sales Guy is not empowered to allow me to pay full price.
So, it wasn't free delivery because I bought the cheap freezer. But it was 10% off. I'm keeping the freezer....here comes the delivery truck now.

Why Would I?

As a Republican voter, why would I vote for Rudy Guiliani? Sure, some of you are going to say "Well, Rich, we know you're a Ron Paul shill, so whatever you say is tainted." But others may actually continue to read before hitting the comments section.

What does it mean to be a Republican. It should mean that you're against big government, and FOR limited taxation and fiscally responsible spending. It should mean that you're against nation building politics and federalized social programs. It should mean that you're for the capitalist society, the ability to earn money, keep it, protect it, and decide for yourself how it will be spent. In some circles, it may even mean that you're religiously conservative, and against abortion rights and gay marriage.

So here comes Rudy G - running for Republican nomination for President of the United States, a man who supports continuing our pointless war spending in Iraq, who has been shown to be for abortion rights, for gay rights, and is for limiting the freedom of the people to bear arms. Why is Rudy running on the Republican ticket again?

While I happen to take a non-federalized stance on abortion rights, and am for the rights of all Americans (gay or straight), I would have a hard time voting for what appears to me to be a G.W.Bush-lite without the advantage of a pro-gun stance. At least George W. has a pro-NRA bent, even if it is the only sensible thing he has going for him. Rudy has nothing that old-school Republicans want, except perhaps big defense spending, misguided though it may be.

Rudy G can't beat Hillary Clinton in an election. This is not the Republican you're looking for. If you want Republican values, vote Ron Paul in your state primary, and give the Republican party a chance to do it right.

To The CISSP Candidates Waiting Since October

I noticed a few of you have ended up on my blog looking for news about your CISSP exam score. The scores from exams taken after 6 October 2007 have not, as of this writing, been released. There is no published estimate as to when they will be graded and returned. Telephone calls to ISC2 have been met with claims that they have just finished a systems upgrade and are only now beginning to score these exams. I was personally told that I should have my results within the 6 week promised time on their website. As I took the exam on the 20th, I may be waiting a few more weeks. Postings on a CISSP BBS show that others are getting the same answer as I have received and that we are all upset and anxious. I'm sorry that I don't have an answer for you. Feel free to join us at that bulletin board at cccure.org, and you'll likely know when the first of us receives his or her results.

Spend Money to Safeguard Your Money

It's no secret that I support the Ron Paul campaign for the Republican nomination as President in 2008. I've twice given to his campaign, even though I've never given money to a political campaign before in my life. Now, I'm ready to donate again on Dec. 16, 2007 - the 234th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. Here's a neat countdown object with a link to the site that is taking pledges:
According to the National Priorities Project:

On October 22, the administration submitted a request for a further $45.9 billion in war-related spending for fiscal year 2008. This request is on top of $147 billion already requested for the Department of Defense and $3.6 billion for other agencies for the fiscal year. If appropriated by Congress, the vast majority would be spent on Iraq. Total spending for the Iraq War would rise to approximately $611 billion.

One of Dr. Paul's platforms is fiscal responsibility. This country spends money that it doesn't have every year. Under President Bush, $4.4 TRILLION will have been added to the Federal deficit, more than any other president in history, and close to the $5.6 TRILLION in debt that was there when he entered office. This country will be bankrupt to the tune of $10 TRILLION by the time his term of office is over. I see my donation to Dr. Paul's campaign as an investment in protecting the rest of my money, kind of like buying into a savings account that will pay me better interest. There is only one way that I will be able to protect my money from the oncoming inflation - support a Presidential candidate (and Congressmen and Senators) that will stand for balancing the budget of this country, eliminate needless spending on programs that the Federal government has no business in, and get to the task of bringing the inflated dollar back under control.

I want an electric car

I am looking at my budget for my car. I spend $36/week to fill up my vehicle with gas at $3/gallon. That's $144 and up/month on gasoline - $1872/year (52 weeks). I just finished watching "Who Killed the Electric Car?", and I am ready for one. For what I spend to fill up my car with gas, I could be buying a whole car.

Squidoo has a whole page on finding an electric car, and I like some of the stuff ZAP is coming out with. However, the entry cost point is still a little high for my personal needs. I would buy one of their $10,500 models if I could use it to get to work, but I'm highway-bound on getting to work.

I'm ready to sell my car (a $13,000 vehicle) and get an EV, should I find the right car...anyone got anything I can drive on the highway to work (20 miles max each way) and plug in when I get home?