Black Silver Lining

I love a good chart:

Oil is literally half the price it was just 3 months ago. This is great news for a couple of reasons.

First, of course, is that our gas is already costing us less. And we like that.

Second, and far more importantly, it shows a dramatic shift in pricing power out of the hands of oil producers (i.e. OPEC) and into the hands of oil consumers (i.e. you and me). We have shown (albeit unintentionally) that conservation measures that reduce demand for oil can have a huge impact on the market price. And pricing power is real power.

So, what do we do with that kind of power? Beats me, but the only man with a plan who I see out there beating the drum is T. Boone. So I'm with him.

Go Rotary!

But whatever we do we should do it soon. Circumstances will continue to change with time.

Presidential "What If" Scenarios

Section 3 of the 20th Amendment:

Section 3. If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall become President. If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified.

Electoral College members meet in each of their respective states to cast their votes on December 15, 2008.

The votes of the Electors are then officially tallied and certified before Congress on January 9, 2009. Members of Congress may object to this certification.

Why I Don't Like Mondays

NPR - I remember when NPR had their pledge drives and we would buy the stupid apron or whatever because they played classical music and read books on the radio and didn't have commercials. Now they have lots of commercials, but the pledge drives continue, and they seem to get more obnoxious every year. So on my way to work I switch to Don Imus, who is obnoxious and has lots of commercials but doesn't insult my intelligence the way NPR does. BTW, the I-Man is on 106.7 here in ATL, which bills itself, without a trace of irony, as "Atlanta's True Oldies channel."

Yuck

Microsoft - I was forced to be the only one in my office to "upgrade" to MS Office 2007 a few months ago, after foolishly "updating" my PC with Servicepack 3 for Windows XP. Are you asleep yet? So, Servicepack 3 blows up my computer, a Hewlett Packard. Schlepping it down to Geek Squad, I'm told that this is the 4th Servicepack 3 blow up they've received that day. (I'll skip the part where I do the exact same thing again the following week.) So anyway, I can't get MS Office 2003 put back onto the PC because we can't find the correct disk (even though my office has several) with the right serial number or something, so I have to buy MS Office 2007. What a piece of crap. Basically they moved all of the buttons and controls around so they are hard to find and simple tasks require several more "clicks" than they used to. So, right now I'm taking this mental health break to blog (and vent) because I've just spent about 15 minutes failing to figure out how to add a worksheet to a spreadsheet I'm working on that was due last week.

Waste of money

Major League Baseball - An umpire calls a third strike on a checked swing with the bases loaded and 2 outs in the 8th inning of ALCS game 7? Are you kidding me?

Hear, Hear!

Milk - I get to the office and pour a cup of coffee, get the milk out of my fridge with an expiration date four days from now, and you guessed it . . . sour. WTF?

And it's not even nine o'clock yet.