| Family | Friends | Opinions |
| Web Log | Blog 2005 | Blog 2006 |
| Interests | Health/Fitness | Links |
| Tech Stuff | Crazy Ideas | Theories and Observations |
This is where I'm going to put all my opinions, so you don't have to see them if you don't want or care to. Remember: the empty can rattles the most. I've found that people who talk and never listen don't learn very much because they are too busy talking. Speech on the other hand, is very inefficient, so I'm also saving my breath. If you don't like what you read, I make no apologies.
I was watching 20/20 on 2/18/2005. They supposedly were dispelling a whole bunch of myths. Lie #1: Moisturizer doesn't prevent wrinkles. I call bulloney... Try this- travel to Fairbanks in the winter and take a shower and wash your face with Ivory Soap. Don't use any moisturizer. Then go to the UAF library or someplace where they keep the heat at 90 degrees Farenheit, which makes the relative humidity about 2.5%. (anything less than 15% is a desert) Do this for about a week and tell me if 1. You don't have more wrinkles, 2. Your face doesn't break out in an acne-like rash and 3.You aren't scratching it every second. I use Oil Of Olay and I look like I'm 21!
Lie #2: Eye exercises don't help your eyesight. Some famous writer supposedly was able to give up his glasses after doing focus exercises. Hey, I'm almost 40 and I don't wear glasses. It's because I've been doing eye exercises for the last 35 years.
Another opinion I have is about graphic-intensive websites. I think every website should consider people that may not have a high-speed internet connection.. At least give them the option on the main page. Not everyone lives in a big city, or can afford DSL or Cable. Some people might be on a sailboat using a solar-power HF radio. True, a picture is worth a thousand words, but some photos USE 8 million words(actually characters), but still a Million words. Therefore pictures are 0.1% as efficient as text. Another opinion is the value of typing (or "keyboarding") class and how I feel about hunt'n peckers, especially hunt'n peckin programmers! I've always wanted to be able to program as fast as I type. A webpage is a good start. All these opinions deserve a place of their own...
What is life for? I don't think it should be about having the most toys. You should spend your time where you spend your money. Some people are always upgrading their snowmachines, trucks, big screen tv's, scuba gear, parasails, downhill skis, cross country skis, telemark skis, mountain bikes, race bikes, race cars, golf clubs, computers, wifes, husbands, paragliders, surfboards, sailboards, sailplanes, airplanes, motorcycles, houses, hotels, roller blades ad infintum. I think life is too short, and you should limit your activities to what you really enjoy. Save your money for something worthwhile, like a cabin where you can spend your retirement snowmachining with your family. Or perhaps a reasonably sized sailboat for your family etc. Don't try to do it all. This sort of activity falls into the category Adult Attention Deficit Disorder. This could be a result of a child being spoiled with too many toys. A great book regarding this is "Your Money or Your Life". It brings up some good points about trying to do everything yourself, which I am guilty of. You end up buying a bunch of stuff and having to pay for storage. There is a tradeoff between hiring someone or buying the tools.
Right after the Enron thing went down, I went to Yahoo's financial website. They have a feature called "insider trading". I punched in Enron, and could not believe my eyes. There were literally dozens of sales by Kenneth Lay totaling in the many millions of dollars. Other execs sold off too, such as Jeffrey Skilling who had one sale worth $500,000. I don't have a problem with capitalism, but I fear that corruption will be the fall of this great country. Afterwards, we will live in a society rife with poverty and crime, such as the Phillipines. Pray this doesn't happen. Apparently the system is working because some of these execs are now serving sentences on multiple counts.
Many people are "anti-union" and I can see why. It all started in medieval times when trade guilds were created. The public reason for trade guilds was to promote quality craftsmanship. The private reason was greed. This tradition continues today with lobbyists from organizations as the Plumbing Heating and Cooling Contractors of North America, or the IGCA. Their main objective is to keep do-it-yourselfers from stealing market share from highly-paid contractors. Labor unions, on the other hand, were created to protect workers from dangerous working conditions. I don't agree with unions jacking up wages to the point where they run the company into the ground.
If this is your first time to this site, I encourage you to explore all the links. I've offloaded much content to the sub-pages. Most pages are almost all text, so they load very fast. You will soon realize that this guy (me) knows how to touch-type. I want to credit my Typing instructor Mrs. Pfsiterer with teaching me how. That was the most important class that I ever took.
This editorial is dedicated to all those hard-working moms of the world. The other day, I was talking with my friend who is a proud father of 3 girls. He was expressing his frustration with societies stigma put on a stay-at-home mom. I explained to him that there was nothing wrong with a mom staying at home. There are artificial pressures created by the advertising industry and press to encourage mothers to leave the home for work. This helps the economy- day care, food service, laundry, maid service- they are all there to replace what a mom does. So mom ends up working to pay for all of these services and as a result ends up being away from her young children. Mom is exhausted when she gets home and snaps at her kids and sets them in front of the TV set. This gets the child hooked on advertising at a young age. Did you know that advertise products cost an average of 40% more than non-advertised products? Anyway, mom's wages are now taxed, as you cannot tax a stay-at-home wife with no income. America has basically traded family values for more 'stuff'. This isn't a problem as long as you realize what is happening.