Big Jay Reviews Everything

Breaking Down Breaking Bad

2010-06-13T12:51:00.000-07:00

Breaking Bad is a great show. It is about Walter White, a highly overqualified high school chemistry teacher who has to work afternoons at a car wash to make ends meet. All his colleagues from grad school have gone on to do great things with their careers, and Walter feels boxed in by life. His teenage son has a disability. His wife is pregnant with an unplanned child. He is stressed out. He drives a Pontiac Aztec.

Then one day he collapses at the car wash and is rushed to the hospital where he is told that he has terminal lung cancer, he will die in a year and a half or less.

Walter White decides to turn to the dark side. He breaks bad. He decides to manufacture methamphetamine to make a huge pile of cash before he dies, so he can take care of his family financially after he's gone. He partners up with a junkie named Jesse Pinkman who flunked out of Walter's chemistry class a few years earlier.

Within a short time Walter is rolling in money, and wondering why he didn't make this decision a long time ago.
Just kidding.

This isn't a great show because things go right. Its a great show because of the things that fall apart. Walter White is a sympathetic character. You can see why he wants to use his chemistry knowledge in a way that will take care of his family financially. But the decisions he makes don't go so well, and you know its going to end badly, yet time after time he scrapes through and lives to see another day.
You'll probably recognize Bryan Cranston as the dad from Malcolm in the Middle. You may recognize Aaron Paul from a minor role in the series Big Love. Both actors are brilliant.

I don't know if you're in the natural audience for this show. You'll know if its a show you'll like by watching the pilot.

Mad Men Season 3 - This Sunday August 16th

2009-08-11T17:21:00.000-07:00

I am excited about the upcoming season premier of Mad Men.

This Sunday August 16th. AMC

10:00 Central, 9:00 Eastern

Join the sensation.

Kentucky Grilled Chicken

2009-07-21T19:43:00.000-07:00

The scientists at KFC Labs have been working overtime. They've recently developed a new technique for making fried chicken... with a grill.

It's delicious. Next time you go to KFC, get the grilled stuff instead of the fried stuff. You'll be glad you did.

Stop Spending Our Future

2009-04-09T07:46:00.001-07:00

Antibiotics Without Prescription

2009-04-01T20:00:00.000-07:00

About two months ago I came down with the flu. Then caught a secondary sinus infection and an awful cough. I was too busy with work to take the time off to recover and I just tried to power through it. Every time I suggested that I should see a doctor everyone around me told me that they had the same thing, went to the doctor and they were told it was viral and it would go away in 5 days or so. Of course what I had didn't go away.

Finally I saw somebody who caught what I had, and got better before me, and I decided to go see the doctor. And stop being retarded from now on. I went to one of those 24 hour clinics. I sat in the waiting room for 3 hours. Finally when I saw the doctor it was lightning quick. If you would have started a stopwatch when the doctor entered the room it would have taken less than 60 seconds. He gave me a prescription for amoxicillin and I was on my way. And of course, once I started taking the antibiotics, I recovered within a couple of days and finally got relief.

The frustrating thing is that I already knew what he was going to prescribe when I showed up. I knew I needed antibiotics. I knew he was going to prescribe amoxicillin, the dosage, how many pills I was going to get. Everything. That's how it usually is with me. When I go to the doctors office I usually know what I'm going to get out of the transaction. Every time I've been to the doctor since 1995 that has been the case. There might as well be an MD vending machine in the mall like the ones you get your picture taken in. The vending machine takes your vitals, you breathe into it. A little robotic voice says 'You have a sinus infection and bronchitis', then you insert two $20 bills and it dispenses you some antibiotics and an inhaler. --- I saw that doctor for less than 60 seconds. What a JOKE!!!

A lot of people find themselves in the same situation. Some people get urinary tract infections on a fairly frequent basis. They know what the doctor prescribes for a urinary tract infection. Some people get sinus infections. They know the drill. Some people constantly get re-infected with STD's. I understand that there are good reasons that medical doctors should act as gatekeepers for certain medications. People can be morons. But sometimes you just know whats up.

It kind of bugged me so I started asking around. It turns out that one of my acquaintances has figured out a couple of ways to get around the red tape of doctors visits and pharmacies for antibiotics.

This acquaintance who shall not be named has a system. And I'm going to pass the system on to you, my loyal readers. Actually there are two systems, and this first one I'm going to warn you might be kind of lame, but in a pinch it will be helpful. Please press on, the second suggestion is pretty cool.

The first way around the gatekeepers is to buy your antibiotics at the pet store. Fish antibiotics work on humans too, and they're cheap. You can go pick them up at the local pet store. But Big Jay, I don't want to use fish antibiotics, I need human antibiotics. Well, the antibiotic used for fish is tetracycline. I've never been prescribed tetracycline but I have several friends who have taken it for years. It's perfectly fine for human consumption. Check the dosage, side effects, and all the other info at rxlist.com. My acquaintance has taken fish-tetracycline for bacterial infections and reported that it works fine.

I can hear you. You're kind of uncomfortable going to a pet store for antibiotics. Truth be told... I'm kind of uncomfortable about it too. But hey, if you're in a pinch, and don't have access to medical care...

Okay. Second suggestion. My acquaintance also gets his antibiotics online, in advance, so he has them on hand when he needs them. There are several online pharmacies that do business outside the United States. You can order pharmaceutical drugs from them, and they get sent in the mail. Let's say that you know that for your sinus infection you usually get prescribed zithromax, or a z-pack. Three 500mg pills of azithromycin taken once per day for 3 days. My acquaintance orders several courses of azithromycin through 4rx.com (an online pharmacy based in Mumbai). It takes about a month to get the drugs in the mail but once you've got them, you can just order more when you get low. The price is significantly less than paying the doctor and the pharmacy. 30 pills worth of zithromax (10 courses worth) costs about $60 with shipping included.

My acquaintance showed me his little mini-pharmacy. It was pretty sweet. Now he only has to go to the doctor when he actually needs the doc, rather than going to beg for antibiotics.

You might want to check this place (4rx.com) out. You can order a lot of different items. Cialis. Propecia. Zithromax. Levaquin. They've got a lot of choices and the prices are quite low. And, let me repeat. The drugs are not fake. They're the same stuff you get here, just without having to go through the doctors office, and the pharmacy. No screwing around with your insurance company. No sitting in a waiting room with other sick people catching who knows what. No 'wasting' one of your 6/year office visits on your lame-ox insurance for something you already know how to fix.

Now just a few words of caution. Don't be stupid. Don't just try stuff out to try it out. There is a reason why you have to get prescription drugs from a doctor. But if you've been down that road several times and you know what you need... there are alternatives to the old guard.

The Glenn and Helen Show

2009-03-08T20:21:00.000-07:00

The first time I listened to the Glenn and Helen show I was at work in Boston. I saw a link at hatrack.com where they had interviewed Orson Scott Card about his new book 'Empire'.

It was a great interview.

All of their interviews are great. Glenn Reynolds, and Helen Smith read books, and then invite the authors to call in for an interview. The conversations are great. I download the mp3 files to my ipod, then listen to them on my morning commute.

If you're the kind of person that gets into good, informative, conservative books - The Glenn and Helen Show is a good source for books to read.

Mad Men - My favorite TV show right now

2009-02-20T19:05:00.000-08:00

My favorite show right now is Mad Men. It plays on AMC, and just finished up season 2.

You really have to check it out. I quickly watched all the episodes of season 1 already by renting them from Blockbuster. The main character of Mad Men - Don Draper is a handsome chiseled genius who is in charge of creative services, and also an account executive at a Madison avenue advertising firm in 1960. Don is good at what he does but he also has some secrets. For example he routinely commits adultery. (There are other secrets as well.) All the characters are flawed but the show really comes together in an honest way.

While watching the show I found myself reminded of Ayn Rand. Partly because one of the characters in the show is always encouraging other people to read 'Atlas Shrugged', but also because Don Draper reminds me of Hank Reardon, and Howard Roark. Why does Don Draper cheat on his wife? Because he wants to, and because he can. There is a scene in one of the later episodes where Don Draper is smoking marijuana with one of his girlfriends, and her hippie buddies. One of the hippies jeeringly says (I'm going to mangle this quote) to Don Draper "Your job is part of the system that gives corporations all the power." Don replies "I hate to break it to you, but there is no... system. And the universe is... indifferent." Mad Men sometimes reminds me of Ayn Rand because it seems to respond to her. Don Draper's wife is real, unlike how she would be in Ayn Rand's universe. There are real consequences in people's lives for Don's betrayals, including psychic consequences for Don.

Here are two clips. One is a Simpsons parody of the intro. The second is a collection of 10 politically incorrect clips from the show. If those 10 clips don't make you want to give the show a try then you are likely not in the target audience. Here are the clips:

You'll notice that Big Jay's roundup is about TV as well. If you've got something to say about it, drop me a line either by email, or in the comment section and I will do a future post linking to your blog post about your favorite show on TV right now.

Some Links On Obama - Changes We Think We'll See

2009-02-17T08:35:00.000-08:00

This is a post linking to other blogs. I wrote a post several weeks ago predicting the kinds of things I think we'll see from an Obama Presidency.

I wanted to link to a bunch of different blogs, where friends of mine predicted what we'd see from Obama. Didn't have many takers. I think that's partly due to the fact that a lot of people in my circle react to the Obama election similar to the Republicans featured in 'South Park'.

But here's a post by Andrew about changes he expects with an Obama presidency. Andrew and I pretty much see eye to eye. I'm a little more optimistic than he is. And I hope I'm right, but I can see how things could roll his way.

Here's a post by a guy named John T. Reed about what he expects from an Obama presidency. I LOVE this guy's books about Real Estate Investment. If you ever want to get into real estate investing, do yourself a favor and don't go to any of those high priced seminars. Spend $300 and buy all of John T. Reed's books. If you're hungry for more, subscribe to his newsletter. Anyway, John T. Reed has several articles up critiquing Obama (Reed seemed to support Romney a year ago, another reason why I like him, but not the first). He is very, very pessimistic about an Obama presidency. And he doesn't mince words. Here are some more links from John T Reed:
Here's a John T Reed review about Colin Powell and Obama
Here's one about Obama's rush to stimulate the economy
Here's one about Obama's plan to wipe out opposition to the democrats
Here's one about Obama and affirmative action
Here's one about the stimulus package's 'buy American' clause
Here's one about pro-Obama media bias
John T Reed on the opposite of Martin Luther King's 'I have a dream' speech
Obama doesn't need experience he has advisers
How Obama is like Ron Dellums

Hostess Products

2009-02-14T07:13:00.000-08:00

You may have noticed a new poll on the sidebar. The old one asked why hostess products don't taste as good as they used to.

The poll was split around 50/50, with a slight edge going to the people who said that I'm 31 years old now, and my taste buds are more mature. Slightly less than half of the poll participants voted that Hostess has altered the secret recipe.

Well I know you're curious, so the results are that everyone is right. I do have different tastes as a 31 year old, and hostess has also changed their twinkie formula over the years.

Here are some of the changes

Use of high fructose corn syrup instead of sugar
Use of whey protien instead of dairy (which has a more rounded out flavor but doesn't last 100 years on the shelf)
Use of cellulose gum as a thickening / moisture holder in both the cake and filling.

This is more of an FYI post. I had a conversation several months ago with a food scientist who clued me in. This particular person had worked for Hostess, as well as for Ralston-Purina. He said that every company is always looking for the next tweak in the recipe that will allow them to produce their product for less money, but still retain a taste similar enough that consumers won't notice, and demand stays the same.

A lot of people think the whole 'New Coke' thing back in the 80's was a publicity stunt designed as a distraction so people didn't notice that Coke changed their original formula from using sugar, and instead using high fructose corn syrup.

I don't really know for sure, but I still like my coke, twinkies, honey buns, and all that other unhealthy refined processed junk food. In my heart I know its not good for me, but once in a while....

All Your Worth

2009-02-12T12:20:00.000-08:00

This post is the second in a series of books about money. Read the first post here.

Elizabeth Warren teaches contract law at Harvard University. She is well known for being highly critical of the banking sector, specifically their credit card operations. I've heard her on NPR a couple of times in the last few months being critical of the way the bailout is being handled. If you decide that you love Elizabeth Warren as much as I love her (and I do love this lady she is mucho fantastico) you can listen to her on NPR here here here here here or here.

But I've loved Elizabeth Warren since I encountered her books.

In 'All Your Worth' Elizabeth Warren, and her daughter Amelia Warren Tyagi lay down their common sense approach to budgeting. It has been a highly productive and useful approach for me, and I know that it will be for you as well.

Talking about budgeting money, and actually doing it within the dynamics of a marriage are very different. Talking about what 'should' be done with money is much easier, and actually dealing with the inevitable limited resources that come up in a marriage with children is much harder. I can remember hearing adults talk among themselves about money when I was younger. I remember imagining myself effortlessly navigating the financial currents in the context of a marriage. Looking back on my younger self I can see that I was terribly naive, pretty stupid, and highly judgmental of others, in a bad way.

The 'All Your Worth' budget can be simplified to this pie chart:

There are 3 categories your money goes into, and if you want to have a good relationship with money, as well as the rest of the people in your life, you need to keep your dollars within these categories at this ratio. Must haves should be 50% or less of your budget. Must haves are things like rent, utilities, contractual payments, food (necessity food, not eating out at the chinese buffet, or buying fudgesicles), insurance, and gasoline. If you have a cell phone plan with a contract, it goes into the 'must have' pile. If your cell phone plan is month to month and you can cancel it at any time, then your cell phone expense goes into the 'wants' pile.

Savings is savings. This includes savings accounts, any 'buffer' money you have in your checking account, 401K contributions or whatever.

Wants are the discretionary money you spend on twinkies, ipod's, CD's, movies, and other things you want or like.

'All Your Worth' says that if you keep your spending within these categories, you won't be stressed out about money. And they're right. If your 'needs' category is 50% or less and the main breadwinner gets injured, or loses his/her job, the family can tighten their belts and survive while they receive unemployment benefits. If the needs category is 50% or lower a wife or some of the older kids can get a job and fill in the financial gaps. If the needs category is 50% or lower the family can be much more flexible during lean times and the family savings won't get decimated.

Most families completely blow it on the needs category. Elizabeth Warren wrote another book called 'The Two Income Trap' (another must-read book) where she talks about the results of her research into families that declare bankruptcy. She looked at family budgets going back to the 1950's by category. Most people assume that we spend more on things that we want, because in our mass consumer culture there is more stuff to buy than there was back in the 1950's. It turns out that we do have more shoes, appliances, and other gadgets. But those 'optional' gadgets are also a lot less expensive in real dollar terms than they were back in the day. The number one thing that has changed on an aggregate level the last 50 years has been the price of homes in good school districts. Housing costs have ballooned to consume a disproportionate slice of the pie. Health care has also become much more expensive.

Tally up your own expenditures. I can almost guarantee that your 'needs' category is at least 60%, and probably higher.

This is a different approach to budgeting. When you categorize your expenditures in terms of needs, wants, or savings, and hack them down so they are closer to 50%, 30% and 20% you realize that it isn't always the usual culprits causing financial pain in your life. At least that has been my personal experience, and whenever I sit down with another person to work on a budget this ratio becomes clearer and clearer.

One of my employees was always asking for overtime, and complaining that he didn't make enough money. One day I sat down with him and (with his permission) we listed out his 'needs' expenses. I put together a little spreadsheet that graphically represented his needs, and assumed that whatever was left over would be split proportionally between wants and savings. After his car payment, rent, car payment, car insurance, he didn't participate in the health insurance plan at work, his gas, food, utilities, and cell phone he didn't have much left. He was feeling like all his money was spent before he earned it. No wonder. He was (is) spending 91% of his income each paycheck on 'needs'. It is extremely difficult to go through life with an abundance mentality with that kind of budget.

I have about 60 relatively low wage employees. Whenever one of them talks about buying a new car, or moving into a bigger apartment its almost like clockwork. Three months later they hate their job, don't get paid enough, and aren't getting enough overtime. They're mad at me for needing to keep within my operating budget and not being able to give them a raise or have them work more hours.

When my wife and I approached our budget in an effort to bring it into better balance we came up with different solutions that we had not come up with before. We changed our health insurance during open enrollment. We shopped around for car insurance. (My wife did most of the work here. Don't be fooled by how I'm describing it.) We decided not to move, although the thought crossed our minds.

It's easy to argue about money. But if you're going to direct any animosity toward your budget, the animosity should be directed toward the 'needs' category if it is over the 50% mark. Do we really need a new car or would a less expensive used car be sufficient? Do we really need unlimited minutes on our cell phone? The approach of being hostile toward your 'needs' category frees up some oxygen in your budget for the 'wants' category, which is why we like to make more money in the first place. Paying car insurance premiums does not make me any happier. Listening to my ipod on the way to work makes me happier. Playing raquetball, and soaking in the hot tub at the YMCA makes me happier. Going out on dates with my wife makes me happier, especially if I'm not worried about adding to a credit card balance. A lot of the significant savings in your budget can be found in the 'needs' category simply by admitting that you don't 'need' that particular item, and eliminating it.

Reducing expenses to fit into certain categories has more punch. But sometimes increasing the size of the pie is the best way to get things into balance. That's just the reality sometimes. More money is pretty much always easier than less money.

One sticky point with me is where to put church contributions. Does tithing go in the needs category or the wants category? My logic is that tithing goes in the wants category because we should 'want' to pay tithing but it isn't a contractual thing. My wife says it should go in the 'needs' category because it's a commandment to pay tithing (Will a man rob God etc...)

Everyone knows that the savings category is important. Elizabeth Warren reccomends a sequence to use when diverting savings funds into different uses. First you should divert all savings, (and much of your 'wants' budget) into a $1000 cushion. Second you should divert all your savings dollars into paying off high interest credit. Third you should use it to build up a 3-6 month (needs category) cushion. Fourth you should accelerate your mortgage payments. Fifth you should invest it in something you're comfortable with. Step four and five can be split up or done at the same time if you want.

Elizabeth Warren is one of the few voices out there that talks sense about money. I really really like her. Check out her book.

Your Money Or Your Life

2009-02-10T10:23:00.001-08:00

This is the first of several posts reviewing books about money.

I've been obsessed with money going back to when I was very little, and I compulsively read books about management, business, economics, and personal finance. Whenever I go to Borders, or Barnes and Noble, I always make a pass through the money section.

Over the years, a few books stick out in my mind, while most others have faded into oblivion. One of those books is "Your Money Or Your Life" by Vicki Robin, Joe Dominguez, and Monique Tilford. This is the first book I want to review.

Joe Dominguez worked on Wall Street and became disillusioned with the obsession people have with making more and more money. He saved up a chunk, bought treasury bonds, and lived off the interest. But we're not talking about tons of money. He hadn't saved up $3,000,000 and bough treasury bonds with it. It was more like $100,000, which throws off only a few thousand dollars of tax free income each year. He merely lived simply, and donated his time to projects he cared about. For example I don't think he owned a car, and either rode a bicycle, or bummed rides off of people.

Can a person genuinely be happy as an adult without owning a car? Without owning a 2500 square foot home? Without having an iphone? Without the latest AC/DC album? The marketing propagandists want you to think that the answer is no. I know from several personal experiences, as well as people I know from different places in the world, that the answer is yes. We can live, and be happy with much much less than corporate America would have us believe.

Your Money Or Your Life is an effort to explain Joe Dominguez's philosophy to everyone else.

People say that happiness is more important than money, but their actions speak louder than words. We end up trading our time for money, and end up with no time left to spend on family, and projects we care about because we are too busy working. This is a real frustration for most people, including me.

The most helpful thing I learned from this book (and there are lots of helpful ideas here) is that it is important to keep track of the money we spend. Then aside from keeping track, it is important to figure out how much we actually earn per hour. How you do this is you take the amount of money you actually earned last year, subtract taxes, and all expenses associated with going to work. Expenses associated with work include work clothes, gasoline, car payment if you bought the car specifically to drive to work. Get to the number of dollars you actually earn per day. Then divide that number by the number of hours you work per day, including putting on makeup or whatever to go to work, and commute time. What you'll get is your actual hourly earnings.

When you've figured out your actual hourly wage, and you also are keeping track of what you spend, you'll be in a position to figure out how much each purchase costs in terms of your life energy. So if I spend $30 on dinner for my family, and my actual hourly wage is $13 per hour, then that $30 dinner actually cost me 2.3 hours of life energy.

By keeping track of expenditures (which can be easy with several of the new budget software programs like mint.com, or ynab.com) it is a simple matter of dividing each of the various purchases, or categories of purchases by the life energy factor. Then I know that rent actually cost me 55 hours of life energy, and so on. On a regular basis you can sit down with your spouse and go down your budget line by line and ask this one question:

Is this expenditure of my life energy in line with my values?

And thats it.

But you've got to be careful. Your values are very likely not the same as your spouse's values, or your children's values. My oldest son would gladly trade 1.5 hours of my life energy for a moderate sized stack of pokemon cards, and I would rather spend that same life energy on a night out at the movies. The key here is no shame, and no blame. When you're talking about this kind of thing, the idea is to eventually build consensus within an environment of mutual respect. The idea is to spend money (or life energy) on things in line with your values. The idea is not to use this as a weapon against your spouse. I personally have had a very difficult time with this occasionally in the past. A future review of different books will illuminate a solution I've found for this problem.

Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin go two steps further. The first is to graph your earnings, expenditures, and savings on a big graph, prominently displayed where the decision makers can see it often. The graph can be updated at an interval that is convenient, but over time you should be able to predict how much money you actually need, to live within your values. At some point (hopefully fairly quickly) you'll be saving a significant chunk of your income each month. You'll be able to start investing in treasuries on your way to escaping the daily grind altogether.

This is where I part ways with the authors. I don't really like the idea of investing in treasuries. But that's just a quibble.

In my mind, equating money with life energy, and quickly being able to do the math in my head as to how much life energy a given purchase is costing me has been very helpful both in terms of making good decisions for myself, as well as coming to consensus with other people in my life who at various times have made decisions with my money. I don't want to act like I'm the big genius about money here. Joe Dominguez, Vicki Robin, and Monique Tilford are the geniuses. I'm just reviewing their book.

If you're like me you sometimes can have conflicted emotions about money. A co-worker once mentioned to me that he paid off his house last year. He is about 7 years older than me, with the same number of children as I have. I had two thoughts almost simultaneously. "You are a mensch! Good for you." and "Oh screw you and your stupid paid off house. Who do you think you are anyway?" This is hostility I immediately felt toward somebody I genuinely like, and enjoy working with. I honestly think that the hostility I felt came from the part of my history where I've failed, or been out of control with my money. If you read 'Your Money Or Your Life' it will be worth your time, and you'll feel more hope about being in control of your money. Being in control of your relationship with money can help avoid envious interactions with people. Check it out today.

More 'Magic' from the US Treasury

2009-02-06T13:47:00.000-08:00

From CNBC: Treasury's Geithner To Unveil Financial Plan Monday

From the article:
The Treasury Department Friday said Secretary Timothy Geithner Monday would announce a "comprehensive plan" to stabilize the financial system.
In a noon news conference, Geithner will lay out a "strategy to strengthen our economy by getting credit flowing again to families and businesses," the statement said. The plan will include an aid package for the banking industry, according to a well-informed source.
CNBC.com first reported Thursday that the plan was essentially complete and would be announced Monday.

I'll be honest here. I have zero confidence. Zero. I keep having an image of Gob Bluth making a thousand pennies fall from the ceiling. 'If we can't stimulate this economy, then I can't make 1000 pennies fall from the sky!'

They need to just let the market mechanisms work in an orderly way. All those homes that used to be 'worth' $600,000 in California, that can only be sold for $360,000 - somebody is going to have to pay for that. It's going to be extremely painful. To the degree that we shove off the liability onto the American taxpayer, I oppose the plan. Somebody needs to have the cojones to stare down the banks and do what needs to be done.

What needs to be done?

Here's a plan - preprivatize the banks. Read about it here.

The Rocker

2009-01-30T22:12:00.000-08:00

How much I enjoy a movie really depends on how good I expect the movie to be, who I'm with when I watch it, and how much I paid to see the movie. I have a lower threshold for movies if I get them on netflix than I do if I hire a babysitter, eat out with my wife, and pay $10 for each ticket to see the show.

I watched 'The Rocker' for free at www.watch-movies.net

It's a throwaway movie. I had low expectations going in.

But I love Rainn Wilson. I had to at least give it somewhat of a shot. And for what it is, I liked it. Rainn Wilson plays a guy who was an original member in the most popular band in the world 'Vesuvius'. But he got dropped before they got big, and now he does tech support and lives in his sister's attic. In other words he's a loser. It's a friendly movie. It doesn't have anything inappropriate for young teenagers. I liked how a lot of the adults were secretly jealous that he was once a rocker, but none of the adults were female.

If you need to watch a throwaway movie. This is a decent one.

I was just browsing through blockbuster video the other day. Man there are a lot of crappy movies out there. The Rocker isn't one of them. It's a mediocre movie. It has Rainn Wilson. You'll probably like it a little.

Treason and Propaganda

2009-01-27T23:56:00.000-08:00

This is a combo-review of two books. One has been a favorite of mine for a long time, the other I have read recently. I recommend both. And let me warn you up front - there are possible spoilers ahead.

The first book is called 'Treason' by Orson Scott Card.

Treason is set in the future in a distant galaxy. Treason is a planet where the galactic empire banished criminals 70 generations prior to the beginning of the story. These criminals tried to take over the galaxy and have the elites rule, and for this crime they were banished to a planet without iron. Without hard metals the criminals couldn't go offworld. Each family was given a machine that could transport things of value back to the galactic government in exchange for iron. The group that got enough iron first could theoretically build a spaceship and re-join the galaxy. The main character is Lanik Mueller, heir to the Mueller empire. The treasonous Mueller 70 generations ago was a geneticist, and his descendants figured out how to re-grow limbs. This helps in battle, and the Mueller empire on the planet Treason has expanded over the years. The other families who were banished to Treason also have evolved specialties. But the plot begins with Lanik Mueller. Lanik is the heir to the king, but he also is an unfortunate genetic anomaly known as a radical regenerative, meaning he grows extra body parts in an uncontrolled way. The Mueller family trades extra parts harvested from the radical regeneratives back to the galactic empire for iron. The fact that Lanik is a radical regenerative means he can't be king, so his father sends him on a secret mission as a spy to another part of the planet where a different kingdom is expanding rapidly - the Nkumai. It turns out that the Nkumai have discovered faster than light travel, which fetched a lot of iron from the galactic empire, which has allowed the Nkumai to expand rapidly.

After bringing you this far into the story, I want to get into some of the major spoilers. But I can't. I know you're probably not going to read this book. But in the off chance that you are, I just don't want to ruin it for you.

Each family that originally settled on Treason went on to develop their specialty. One of the families specialized in politics. This ability evolved into the ability to convince people to believe things that were not true, or were against their own interests. That's all I'm going to say about this story. I highly recommend you pick up a copy of 'Treason' by Orson Scott Card.

One book my wife gave me for Christmas is 'Propaganda' by Edward Bernays.

I first heard about Edward Bernays while watching the documentary called 'The Century of The Self'. I've always had more than a passing interest in conspiracy theories. The idea that there is some secret committee somewhere pulling the strings. They're very entertaining to me, and I like to get seduced by them long enough to get the main points of the conspiracy, then go in and pop the absurdity in my mind. Most recently I watched a video at my brother-in-law's house that talked about a conspiracy of the 'Bilderburg Group' whose intent is to take over the world and take away our freedoms and destroy the constitution etc...

But Edward Bernays is the real deal. He really did pull strings behind the scenes. His first big job was working with Walter Lippman for Woodrow Wilson (who ran for president on an anti-war platform) to drum up popular support for World War I. Bernays was so surprised at how well the propaganda efforts worked that he decided to do propaganda for corporations after the war. Propaganda still had a negative connotation due to its Catholic roots, and the word was linked to several big lies told about the Germans in WWI, so he opened a 'Public Relations' office instead of a propaganda office.

The book 'Propaganda' is an effort to give the word a good name again.

Bernays uses several positive examples of the uses of propaganda in a modern market economy, a lot of which will be familiar to you although you probably never knew that they were the result of propaganda.

The first example is my favorite. American Tobacco wasn't selling enough cigarettes. There was a taboo against women smoking cigarettes in public. Bernays enlisted a psychoanalyst who said that women considered cigarettes a phallic symbol and that smoking cigarettes showed that they were subservient to men. (Edward Bernays was Sigmund Freud's nephew - so this didn't sound strange at all) Bernays decided to use this latent subconscious belief and twist it for the benefit of American Tobacco and Lucky Strike cigarettes.

This is so brilliant. (Jay geeks out a little) Bernays convinced a bunch of suffragettes who were marching in a parade to light up cigarettes right in front of the New York Times' cameras. Then Bernays spread rumors with some reporters that he had heard that the suffragettes were going to light up 'Torches of Liberty' as a show of female independence from the male dominated society. The suffragettes did their job, the cameramen took the pictures, the reporters wrote up the story, which was picked up by several other papers around the country.

Overnight the taboo against women smoking cigarettes in public - gone. American tobacco's potential market doubled overnight.

Bernays used propaganda to link up our subconscious desires with commodities and products that corporations sell. It works. The intention Bernays, and an endless line of marketing professionals that followed after, is to make us feel that we can't be happy unless we use a particular product or service. Then shortly after purchasing said product, to become dissatisfied with it and want the new updated model. Bernays was a freudian remember. Underneath the surface of all humanity is an animal instinct that we need to supress to maintain order and civilization. Bernays' solution was to channel those desires into consumerism. Take a look around.

You may be aware of some other accopmlishments of Edward Bernays.
- Bacon and Eggs as a breakfast food (his work with the beech-nut company)
- The idea that every cultured family should own a piano (my parents have had a piano as long as I can remember and none of us know how to play)
-Velvet as a 'nice' 'rich' fabric.

- Increasing the clock speed of fashion cycles for and segmenting different population segments so people buy more clothes

Bernays had a phrase he used. 'Engineering Consent' which was picked up and made even more famous by Noam Chomsky in his great book 'Manufacturing Consent' (Full disclosure - I've only read the cliff notes).

Joseph Goebbels'(Hitler's propaganda minister) personal 'bible' was another book by Edward Bernays called 'Crystallizing Public Opinion'. Goebbels and Hitler used the techniques to eventually build public support for the Holocaust. (Unsurprisingly - 'Crystallizing Public Opinion' is out of print)

You've heard about the CIA overthrowing the democratically elected leader of Guatemala in the 1950's right? One of many shameful foreign policy blunders the CIA had its fingerprints on. The CIA incorrectly thought that the leader of Guatemala was a Communist. Guess who was the public relations guy for the United Fruit Company? You guessed right! Edward Bernays.

'Propaganda' is a very short book. Less than 150 pages, and a lot of that is the introduction to the new edition of the book. But it has been a very enlightening journey so far. There is a whole new list of fascinating books I now intend to read.

We're all susceptible to propaganda. Education is pretty much the only way to build up somewhat of an immunity to it. That and a constant striving to yield to the the truth.

In the book 'Treason' - the main character Lanik Mueller doesn't respond to the propagandists in a way that would be acceptable or even possible in our modern society.

For a lot of people I know, their response to my reccomending Treason and Propaganda would be the following:

For 'Treason' - Too Gruesome
For 'Propaganda' - Too Boring

Thats just the way it is. But for those of my readers who are in the right audience, pick yourself up a copy of each of these books. You'll be glad you did. You will be taking your first steps into a larger world.

Here is another review of Propaganda

Bad News Banks

2009-01-16T12:23:00.000-08:00

Today, I pulled up Drudge Report and saw this headline:

Bank of America to receive additional $20 billion

The federal government is now the biggest shareholder of Bank of America. I'm sure that I'm not the only person who gets pissed off reading headlines like this.

Here's a way of looking at things to help make sense of corporate behavior.

If you hear a fire alarm going off, it's probably a drill right? No big deal. Everything is probably going to turn out okay. But what if you see smoke pouring out of the windows and people running at top speed away from the building? Chances are that something serious is going down, and things are really bad.

When looking at a company's stock price... What happens if you're walking down a flight of stairs, and you trip and tumble down four or five stairs? You get up, dust yourself off, and you're on your way. What happens if somebody throws you out the window and you fall down four stories and hit the ground. You're not getting up anytime soon, if ever.

Most of us can think of companies where the stock price has taken a four story plunge. Most of us have seen companies where the employees are running for the exits as if from a burning building. When you've got both going on... Trouble is brewed.

That's what is going on with the financial sector. This is a huge problem. It's spilling out into the greater economy.

Hitler

2008-12-12T18:13:00.000-08:00

For some reason, I've lately been reading articles, and watching documentaries about WWII, and Germany. I've been interested in the corporations that had their roots in Germany, like Bayer, and BASF. Minister of propaganda Goebbels also interests me.

Somewhere along the line I ran across these videos on youtube. These clips are hilarious, and actually they're the same clip. The dialogue is in german but the subtitles are english, on varying themes. They're really funny.

Hitler tries financial blogging:

Hitler and the housing bubble:

Hitler banned from Wikipedia:

Hitler tries Windows Vista

Hitler's car was stolen:

Hitler scammed on ebay

Hitler banned from world of warcraft

Bernake, Paulsen and Company

2008-12-04T10:30:00.000-08:00

It's cold in Iowa. Brrrr. I miss Texas.

As I was walking into work this morning. In the cold. In the dark. Through the slushy parking lot. A thought occured to me.

Our bedrock financial institutions these past few months have been sort of in a panic. Everyone knows that all bank customers are operating on the fiction that their bank is solvent, meaning that if we all went out to withdraw our money today, the bank would not be able to give us the money.

For the last few montht it seems like the Federal Reserve, and the US Treasury Department have been brainstorming ways of getting everyone to calm down. They forced a hostile takeover of Bear Stearns. Then Lehman went bankrupt. Then we saw all these moves where someone in a suit tells us that everything will be okay with X-billion dollars.

Question: How are you going to fix the problem Mr. Bernake?

Answer: Magic

Question: How are YOU going to fix the problem Mr. Paulsen?

Answer: Magic

Everyone who is trying to 'fix the problem' reminds me of the character Gob Bluth in Arrested Development.

For those of you unfamiliar with this character - here are a couple of video clips. You'll recognize the similarities between Gob, and our fiscal leaders.

The clip I was trying to find is right around 1:20 on this first clip.

Excellent Move Mr. Obama!

2008-11-26T05:29:00.000-08:00

According to this article:

Official: Obama asks Gates to stay at Pentagon

Obama has asked Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to stay on as Secretary of Defense.

Two thumbs up. That's one of the things I hoped would happen.

Expelled The Movie - By Ben Stein

2008-11-21T09:41:00.000-08:00

I just saw this movie:

I love Ben Stein. He's not always right about everything, but who is? I like his point of view, he's funny, and ever since Ferris Bueller's Day Off, he's been cool in my opinion.

Expelled was about the professional retribution taken against professionals in academia who leave open the possibility that life originated from an intelligent source. Apparently that point of view makes people vulnerable to losing tenure, being fired from their non-tenured university positions, and losing federal grant money. Intelligent design has become a term of art, or code word for teaching creatonism in the public schools, and that isn't going to fly in the fascist nation state of academia.

Stein is offended, and rightly so, that political pressure is used to snuff out anything that doesn't tow the athiest party line. Rather than have an open tent of academic conversation, a wall has been erected, and anyone who says the wrong thing, or holds the wrong opinions is moved into the ghetto.

Here's the thing. When it comes right down to it, I mostly agree with the athiests in the conversation about whether creationism should be taught in the schools. I don't think it should. Arguments in favor of creatonism being taught in the schools are pretty lame. I think we should agree to spend more time making sure our students are good at math, know the sciences, civics, literature, and history.

The arguments I've heard in favor of evolution creating all the various forms of life are not very convincing either, but all the same, the theory of evolution has proven to be a very useful way of looking at the world.

The question about the origin of life is not a very useful one.

If God created the first cellular oragnism, or if the first cellular organism grew on the backs of crystals, or if aliens came down from another planet and bestowed on earth the first forms of life, or if lightning spontaneously mixed up amino acids into the first cellular organism millions of times in a row allowing for natural selection... its not that important. I'm sure there are academics studying microbiology, and all of the rest of the sciences that hold the entire spectrum of opinions on life's origins. I'm also sure that they all believe that the theory of evolution has allowed us to learn a lot more about our world. Those scientists whether they believe life originated from aliens, crystals, or whatever - can still help us figure out how to clone body parts from our own cells to transplant into ourselves, or find treatments for skin cancer, or many other civilization advances.

We also know what happens in societies where God is expelled altogether, in favor of Darwin. In the last hundred years we have several civilizations that have tried such an experiment. The consequences were horrifying.

In my view, on the one side of the discussion are the people who want to propagandize our children for their view of what God is, and on the other side of the discussion are the people who want to propagandize our children to not believe in God. Both sides of the discussion are trying to exert control on our basic freedoms.

Let's instead focus on the results. Let's have less arguing about whether life's origins came from God, or a primordial soup and lightning, and more trying to figure out some more civilization advances.

Changes I think we'll see...

2008-11-06T19:25:00.000-08:00

I was a McCain voter.

I voted for McCain because of two issues, maybe three.

First was the supreme court. Republicans appoint better judges. This election was the chance of a lifetime to get some sane judges appointed to the bench on the appellate courts, and also the supreme court. Chance of a lifetime, and the republicans threw it away.

Second was the fact that McCain openly campaigned in favor of nuclear power. There is one hope that we can get our country weaned off of foreign oil, stop exporting dollars to terrorist supporting countries, and create good jobs in our country at the same time. It's nuclear power. The world is also approaching peak production capacity, if we haven't arrived there already. It's a big issue, and McCain was talking straight.

Third is guns. I'm just not that interested in owning a gun. But I think law abiding citizens should have the right to carry. Gang bangers would probably be less powerful if they knew that any schmuck walking down the street might have a concealed piece of steel in his jacket. In fact, I sometimes wonder if we should do it like Switzerland. Everyone has to serve in the military for a year or two, let the military weed out the crazies, so the crazies don't get guns, and everyone else knows how to use one, and can own a gun if they want. I honestly think there would be fewer criminals. I also think that the military would have more talent in its ranks if it were mandatory like Switzerland. No offense to current enlisted men and officers.

And those are the issues. In general I feel that Obama is much more competent. I was impressed with the way he ran his campaign. It makes me so happy as an American, that we finally got to the point where an African American can be elected president. I've thought all along that Obama was much smarter than McCain. No offense to McCain.

Read this post by Emily. That kid she talks about. DSBW. That kid has a frustrating life. I'm pretty sure that that kid NEVER came up on John McCain's political radar. What should the role of government be so that kid has the most opportunities in life? I would be absolutely shocked out of my gourd if any McCain staffers, or McCain himself gave that question much thought. But I know for a fact that Barack Obama does think about Americans like DSBW. And it makes me happy to see that he will have some measure of power to do something about it.

My preferred candidate was Mitt Romney. I know that Mitt puts thought into what is best for kids like DSBW. It's easy to think that Mitt Romney is rich, and never puts any thought into making the lives better for those less fortunate. But Mitt has a track record of doing just that, in a way that doesn't make lives worse for other more fortunate people in the process. But Mitt Romney didn't get the votes. I'm still kind of sad about it. I remember one evening in a hotel in Boston, I was watching C-SPAN listening to Barack Obama giving speech. I remember thinking that if Mitt Romney got the GOP nomination, and Barack the Dems, the GOP theme would be 'Anything You Can Do, We Can Do Better'. "You want to change the healthcare system. We got health insurance for everyone, without raising taxes!"

Barack Obama ran on a platform of change. It was impossible to know what exactly he was going to change, but it all sounded so inspirational. It wasn't a theme that McCain could really run against.

When Barack was giving his victory speech, his words reassured me, and I wanted to write about some changes I expect / hope to see with an Obama presidency. I hope the reassuring rhetoric I heard in his victory speech, and have been hearing all along translates into real actions that bring Americans together.

Changes I Think Will Happen

The tax structure will change. I will pay more taxes under Obama than I did under Dubya. I'm not 100% opposed to this, because I'm extremely uncomfortable with the budget deficits we've been running, and I long for the balanced budgets of the late 1990's. (I don't think Obama will try really hard to balance the budget, however.) I liked Ron Paul's way best, but Obama's approach is probably better than George W. Bush's budgetary policy of cutting taxes, opening the spending floodgates and damn the torpedoes.

Oil companies will find doing business in America harder.

I think that we will see marijuana become legalized, and regulated similar to how alcohol, and tobacco are regulated.

We will march toward getting our troops out of Iraq. There will be an increase in troops in Afghanistan.

By 2012, the Dow will have plummeted to the 5500 range. (Note: I think this would happen anyway. Not Obama's fault.)

Obama will do something about the fact that our healthcare system is kind of dysfunctional.

Something will happen in regards to gay marriage.

The balance of power in the Supreme Court will shift toward the left as justices retire or die, and Obama appoints new ones.

Changes I HOPE we will see

I hope we'll see that most of the campaign rhetoric against Obama was just gas

I hope to see action from Obama to back up his hope filled rhetoric.

I hope to see a few changes to the structure of the bailout. Changes like making the workings of all companies within the financial sector, banks, hedge funds, pensions, etc... totally transparent so we can quickly see what companies have hidden toxic debt on their books, and which ones don't. Changes like freezing the bonuses of bailed out companies. Hey banks, taxpayer dollars are bailing you out right now. Times are tough. Tell you what... we'll take the 70 billion dollars you had set aside to pay bonuses, and instead we'll use that money to help bail out your own company. I think Obama is smart enough, with smart enough advisers that we'll see some of the obvious cronyism we've seen the past 30 days, come to an end.

I hope Obama will take on the crazies in the Democratic party. I wanted Hillary to win rather than Obama in the primary, specifically because Bill Clinton had a track record of going against crazy Democrats now and then. Hopefully at least some of that talk about change was directed at Democrats.

I hope Obama brokers a deal on civil unions or domestic partnerships. One that allows civil unions, or some other legally recognized framework for same sex couples, but one that disallows the vicious legal payback the gay lobby has been planning for 10 years at least. I don't have a problem with two consenting adults of the same gender living together, visiting each other in the hospital, receiving social security benefits for the survivor etc... I do have a problem with them forcing the Catholic Charities to place adopted children with same sex couples or stop placing adopted children altogether. I think the confusing exchange in the vice presidential debate -where Biden told everyone that rights of gay couples would be identical to married couples, then said he did not support gay marriage - hints at something like this. I personally would welcome it, and I think Obama could pull it off easily.

I hope Obama supports nuclear power. It is the only technology we have available to us that really has a chance of solving some pretty big problems. In the primary debates Obama said he would support expansion of nuclear if some concerns about storage etc... were resolved. His list of concerns was a typical list that nuclear opponents usually give, and it usually means that they don't support nuclear power on environmentally religious grounds, but don't want to appear closed minded. I hope he has a change of heart. I think he will, because there aren't a lot of other options.

I hope the green revolution of energy efficiency, solar, wind, biodiesel, insulation, weatherizing, green buildings etc... really starts to take off under an Obama administration, in addition to expansion of nuclear.

I hope that some of the seemingly intractable problems we see in our inner cities see some progress. Problems with gangs, drugs, crime, poverty, etc... I know that Obama has thought a lot about these problems. I hope to see some change for the better on said problems.

I hope the divisive politics we've seen for my entire life will change, and that politicans can act like grownups for once.

I hope Obama keeps Robert Gates as Secretary of Defense.

I hope that Obama will enlist Mitt Romney's help with health care reform.
Ihope Mitt says yes if asked.

Things I hope stay the same

I hope Obama's cool head, that we've all seen during this marathon campaign season stays.

My Favorite Holiday - Labor Day

2008-11-01T15:35:00.000-07:00

I've gone through several favorite holidays over the years.

For about 4 years there my favorite holiday was memorial day because my Dad's side of the family would gather at the cemetery to see my Grandparent's grave, after which we would go to a big giant party at my Uncle Laird's house. I'm pretty comfortable saying that everyone on my Dad's side of the family is cool, but Laird and family are especially so. All my cousins would agree with that. Anyway, after my family moved away, we didn't go to the yearly parties anymore, and memorial day faded into one of those minor holidays.

Like most kids I had a love affair with Christmas. But sometime in junior high the feeling lodged in my brain, and has remained since that Christmas has become one of those holidays with way too many songs, and way too many obligations attached to it. This has only gotten stronger for me as I've grown older. It seems like there is always some other appointment to go to to either be nice to somebody, or for somebody to be nice to me. I appreciate all the niceness, I really do, but honestly I'd rather spread all the goodness out around the rest of the year. That goes for everything. Presents, banquets, parties, presents, bonuses, everything. There are all these cards I feel somewhat obligated to send out, and I never have understood what compels people to cut down a tree and bring it into their house to drip sap all over the carpet. I'm not calling it evil. I just have never understood WHY. (Those of you sharpening your emails to explain to me the symbolism of the Christmas Tree, or the Candy Cane, or whatever. Save it. Please. I like Christmas. It just isn't my favorite.)

For most years Halloween was my favorite holiday. People who know me from college might remember a certain giraffe costume that I always wore. I have always been confused by the people who don't like halloween. When I've come across people who don't like halloween and I've asked them why, usually I hear that it's a holiday that celebrates evil, and the macabre. Who wants to celebrate that? But do you know what halloween means to me? What is the 'true meaning of halloween'? It is the celebration of candy. In 2000 years, fundamentalist religious sects will decry ancient halloween rituals as worship of the gods of masterfoods and hersheys corporations. In my opinion the mass production of M&M's is something worth celebrating. And when it was just me, halloween always fell pretty high on the list. But now that I have kids, it's become, like a lot of other holidays, a list of chores I have to accomplish. Buy the candy, get the costumes, get everybody dressed, schlepp all over the neighborhood. As an adult, going up to somebody's house and getting a piece of candy just isn't the hug-equivalent that it used to be.

UCMama reviewed Easter. I like Easter. It's like a hybrid holiday in my opinion, crossing Christmas and Halloween, but with more focus on Christ, better candy, and without the ritual begging.

But my favorite holiday is Labor Day. It's the only holiday that doesn't come with a bunch of obligations attached to it. It's a holiday for the working man. I get to sit around and do nothing except barbecue. Nobody expects a labor day present, or a labor day card. There are no bizarre traditions that have sprung up around the holiday. It's just exactly what it advertises - a holiday, with no strings attached. I take my day off, get a nap, eat a steak. Maybe go to someone's house, or someone come over to mine. Awesome.

Thanksgiving makes a play for favorite holiday too. It's about equivalent. Thanksgiving has family, food, and football - the trifecta. But there are more strings than labor day, so for now I'm sticking to my guns.

Big Jay's Roundup

2008-10-29T16:15:00.000-07:00

When I first thought of doing this blog, the blog title came from a weekly column I read called 'Uncle Orson Reviews Everything' found at The Rhino Times Greensboro. In that column Orson Scott Card talks about everything from the latest books to restaurants, to albums, to whatever.

I think all of us can relate to that. I like sharing my opinions about all sorts of things, and you probably do too. That's one of the great things about the blogosphere. One of my favorite things in life is getting in on something that a friend of mine gets a major kick out of. Sometimes I end up having a whole new world opened up to me, (Example: Johnny Cash) and other times I learn about new categories of things I'm not particularly interested in. (Guns)

After writing on this blog for a while, I've decided that I don't necessarily like the one way conversation that has been my blog since its birth. I like hearing about other people's random opinions almost as much as I like giving my random opinions.

So here's what I'd like to do. Every week I'm going to write a review about something that falls within a certain broad category. If you do a post that falls within the class of "_____ Reviews Everything" I will link to your blog.

Here's what you do to get a link from me:
1. Email me the title of your post, the url, and the text of your post. My email address is the name of this blog (all lumped into one word) at gmail dot com.
2. Put the 'Big Jay's Big Roundup' picture somewhere on your post.
3. Make the 'Big Jay's Big Roundup' picture a link to Big Jay Reviews Everything

I'll do a post every Friday, and link to everyone's posts on Friday as well, so if you email me by Thursday night, then I'll be sure to link to you. Otherwise you'll go in next week's roundup.

Obsessively Following Bailout Developments #1

2008-10-24T21:37:00.000-07:00

I'm seriously thinking about putting together a website that functions only to gather up a political constituency of people who are pissed off at the bailout. Here's the idea: Anyone who voted yes on the bailout gets voted out of office next time they come up for re-election, regardless of their party affiliation, or their opponent. That goes for everyone. That means if Obama is elected, and John McCain loses in November, the next time John McCain's senate seat is up for re-election he gets voted out. Then when Obama is up for re-election we vote him out too. Your state senator who voted for the bailout - he's out. Your representative that voted for the bailout... out.

Here is a link to another blog post that discusses some of the consequences of the bailout. The money quote:

The Fed has marked down the Bear Stearns assets from $29,526 million to $26,802 million this week. This is a mark down of $2.7 billion or 9.2%. The Fed is now underwater by a little over $2 billion plus lost interest.

And look... I'm not an expert on this stuff. I'm some schmo who reads 'The Economist'. I don't do this professionally. But I called it. The government is going to pay too much for these crap assets.

Household Disinfectants - And other cleaning products

2008-10-17T09:03:00.000-07:00

I had a conversation with my wife the other day. It was one of those dumb conversations where I acted like the big expert, and didn't give any background info for why I was acting like the expert, and then it got on her nerves, and she got on my nerves in response. I realized that this particular issue affects a lot of people in a very very minor way so I'm going to talk about it in this post.

For some reason... I don't even know why... it bugs me to see the marketing tactics used to sell cleaning supplies. Specifically the overuse of household disinfectants, and the subtle tactics used by the chemical companies to nudge people into buying higher priced disinfectants, versus just regular cleaning products that are not labeled disinfectant.

"But, if you have children in the house, why wouldn't you want a disinfectant product?"

First some background

Sanitize vs. Disinfect
Sanitizers kill 99.999 percent of bacteria within 30 seconds.
Disinfectants kill even more bacteria than sanitizers do, but not necessarily within 30 seconds

A chemical company has to spend about $1,000,000 to get their product certified to use the word 'disinfectant' on the label. A lot of them do, and then use the identical product with a different label and sell it as an environmentally friendly cleaner. Example - All the hydrogen peroxide based cleaners out there. Everyone knows that hydrogen peroxide kills bacteria. But they typically market the hydrogen peroxide based cleaners as 'green cleaning' because it fits that market niche. Germs are getting killed without using a 'disinfectant' - and chemical companies don't mind, because they charge more to market cleaning supplies as 'green cleaning' than they do to market them as a 'disinfectant'.

How about hand soaps. Look on the supermarket shelf and see the price difference between a hand soap that is labeled as a disinfectant, and one that is just a hand soap. It's a significant price difference. You're usually paying at least a 30% price premium just to be 'disinfecting' your hands. But here's the deal. When you wash your hands with regular soap, the bacteria, dirt, dead skin cells and everything else get washed off your hands and go down the drain. So what if the soap didn't kill the bacteria. The bacteria is not on your hands anymore. The dirt and bacteria are down the drain.

Its the same thing with cleaning everything else. Your kitchen sink and table, your bathtub, your windows. If you get the dirt off there isn't anything for the bacteria to grow on, and most of the bacteria that was there is now down the drain. Plain regular old air will kill 99% of what is left over now that there isn't grease or dirt to cover up the bacteria.

I was in charge of houeskeeping at a hospital in Boston for about 2 months over a year ago. At hospitals, there are special considerations at play. Every year in America over 50,000 people check into a hospital for something, and while they're there they become infected with a staph infection and die. Thats like the whole vietnam war every year. There are other diseases we just do not have a cure for, so it is extra important to have good housekeeping at hospitals. Each hospital has an infection control committee that decides what things they will do to prevent the spread of bacteria. Typically at a hospital you will see alcohol based sanitizer dispensers practically everywhere. There are a lot of places to wash your hands, and the soap is a disinfecting soap. And it typically costs at least double what a regular soap costs. The infection control committee decides what kind of disinfectant you can use to clean the building. All other cleaning chemicals are banned. This is important stuff after all. At the hospital I worked at we used a disinfectant called LpH, a phenolic disinfectant. If LpH got on the floor wax it would deteriorate the wax. You have to use gloves with LpH because it would mess with your skin.

The disinfecting process goes like this. You're supposed to spray the disinfectant onto the surface you want cleaned. Then you let the disinfectant dwell on the surface for several minutes. This dwell time is when the disinfectant does its grim duty of killing all the bacteria it comes in contact with. If you spray on the disinfectant and wipe if off right away... it's not going to do its job right. After you let the chemical dwell for several minutes you wipe it off. But there is still live bacteria on the surface you just cleaned. What?!!? Thats right. You didn't get all the microscopic substances off the surface. You've got a bunch of dead bacteria on the surface, and underneath the dead bacteria is some live bacteria. This small layer of dead bacteria is called bio burden. What you've got to do is clean the surface with a neutral, or general purpose cleaner. Then you've got to let the disinfectant dwell on the surface AGAIN for several minutes. Then you're done.

Some readers of this blog actually work in hospitals. Ask yourself. Is this typically how you see the janitors clean your work area?

I can already tell you the answer. No way. First of all very few places pay the wages required to get someone in there with sufficient IQ to actually follow the process. Second - the environmental services department at the hospital you go to is not funded to have nearly enough staff to thoroughly disinfect the space in the hospital you are inhabiting. (except the operating room - they do a pretty good job there). Your hospital environmental services department would probably need double, maybe triple its budget to have enough staff to thoroughly disinfect the hospital.

But you know what? You don't need to kill every last bacterium. You're probably going to be OK with just regular good housekeeping practices. If you don't kill 100% of the bacteria there, but instead, you only kill 99%, you'll be fine. The experts already know this, otherwise you'd see hospitals out there tripping over themselves to double the budget for the janitors. That hasn't been happening, and isn't going to happen.

I used to go to these infection control committee meetings at the hospital I worked at and they were an absolute joke. The nurses would talk to us and tell us that the janitors were putting everyone in the hospital at risk, then an hour later the facilities people would talk about how everyone has to tighten their belts and cut costs. Ridiculous.

I talked about the disinfectant the committee approved for us to use - LpH - the stuff we had to mop the floors in patient rooms with, that would deteriorate the floor wax. - Guess what the hospital down the road used to mop floors with? Neutral floor cleaner. Why? Because clean is clean, after which you run into the law of diminishing returns. You can get rid of 99.9% of bacteria pretty easily. The remaining .1% costs a lot more to deal with.

You run into the law of diminishing returns with household disinfectants too. Just use a general purpose cleaner and try to get everything clean. Do you know what spreads disease most in your house?
1.- Your pets
2.- Dust (so vacuum more)
3.- Doorknobs

So don't fall for this garbage pressed on you by the marketing departments in the chemical industry. You could put 1/4 cup of tide laundry detergent into a gallon of water and use that solution to clean EVERYTHING in your house, and you'd be just fine. Tide solution would get grease, dust, food, urine... everything.

But I already know that you're not going to be comfortable using tide solution to clean everything in your house. There are so many different surfaces! Different kinds of dirt in different places. In the marketing world this done all the time. It's perfectly natural for us to want to clean a bathtub with a different kind of chemical than we use to clean the kitchen table with. I'm not judging you. In fact, I'm going to show you how to use a reasonable spectrum of different chemicals to clean your house, at a much lower cost.

And for the record... I'm not going to really care if you do, or don't follow my advice here. This isn't really advice. This is just... information.

Something for General Cleaning (32 oz Fantastik - 3.99 - approximately .12 cents per ounce)

Something for the Windows (32 oz Windex - $3.99 - Approximately .12 cents per oz)

Something for the Bathroom (16 oz Scrubbing Bubbles - 3.00 - approx .18 cents per ounce)

These chemicals work well, and they're pretty well known. But comparatively speaking, they're pretty expensive. To put it in perspective, you wouldn't spend $40 per gallon of gas would you? That's the ratio I'm talking about when I say that the above chemicals are over priced. You could just go down to your local janitorial supply store, or buy the following stuff online.

Anyway here it is:

Glass Cleaner / General Purpose Cleaner (like glass plus) - This stuff will dilute to about 100 gallons of glass cleaner. Price - $35, or less than .01 cent per ounce. Buy this, and it will basically last until your last child is born, grows up and you send him/her off to college.
Here is a disinfectant / general purpose cleaner. It will dilute to about 100 gallons of disinfectant cleaner. Price - $35, or less than .01 cents per ounce.

Here is a commercial concentrate of the name brand scrubbing bubbles that clean your bathtub so great. It will dilute down to about 25 gallons of product, for $25 - or a bit over .01 cents per ounce.

VW Routan Commercial

2008-10-13T08:00:00.000-07:00

You've probably seen these brilliant commercials with Brooke Shields. I think they're awesome.

A few years back if you would have asked me what kind of car I would drive if I won the lottery, I would have answered that I would drive the VW Passat. We actually drove a VW Jetta for a few years. And we liked almost everything about it. It felt like you were driving a solid, responsive, peppy car. Driving around in it you could feel the awesome German engineering.

But one thing just drove me batty, and semi-permanently turned me off to VW.

Here's the deal. On our Jetta, the power windows kept breaking. We'd roll the windows down, then when we went to put the windows back up, one of the windows would stop working. I replaced every single window regulator, and one of the windows twice. Sorry VW, that's just unacceptable. We've bought two cars since we wrecked our Jetta in an unfortunate Christmas Eve car accident in Texas, and we haven't even taken a single look at VW.

Now That The Bailout Passed

2008-10-05T06:40:00.000-07:00

Grrr.

I was hoping that would not happen. I don't know what I expected. Oh, I know-- I expected our representatives to represent we the people, and not special interests. Is it too much to ask our elected officials to gird their loins and do what is right once in a while? But no. They blinked and swallowed the bad medicine.

So what will the bailout accomplish? It will prolong the inevitable market readjustment, give time for well connected finance professionals to head for the hills, give more time for people who have a lot of capital to re-allocate their portfolios to safety before things really crash and burn.

Will it stabilize markets? No. The markets will stabilize when buyers and sellers can agree on a price. Right now there are few buyers because prices are too high for these 'toxic' securities. If prices were lower, there would be more buyers. Ordinary people trying to sell their home have been experiencing this for a couple of years now.

Bringing in 700 billion dollars to buy up toxic securities at more than market value will not stabilize prices. It will allow well connected people to sell their junk at higher than market prices. When the 700 Billion dollars is exhausted we will be right back to where we were last week.

An inconvenient, unfortunate problem with credit default swaps, mortgage backed securities etc... is it is bigger than 700 billion dollars can solve. I sort of wished we would have just taken the bad medicine of a market correction and gotten it behind us. Market corrections are painful whether they are slow or fast.

I guess we'll see how this plays out.

Those of us with 401K's, or IRA's have some deciding to do. In my view, the market is going to decline. The right thing to do is to keep making 401K contributions, but re-allocate the portfolio to bonds. If you've got a self directed retirement account, buy some securities that go up as the market goes down. As the Dow goes from 10,500 down to 8000 or lower, your portfolio doesn't go down with it. In a bond fund a dollar is still a dollar when the stock market tanks. When the market hits a bottom, re-allocate your retirement accounts back into the stock market. If you're in your thirties and have no intention of cashing out your 401k until retirement you may just decide to dollar cost average, keep making contributions and get more shares for your dollar as the price goes down.

Nobody knows the future. I know I don't. I'm just pretty sure the market is going at least down to 8000.

Much more important than what the market is doing, is how we as individuals are doing. This is true when the economy is doing great, as well as when the economy is doing poorly. It's far more important to be spending less than we earn, paying down long term debt, and saving a significant percentage of our income than guessing what the market is going to do. (Guessing the market is a hobby of mine) Everyone feels like a freaking genius when they're making correct, money making investments. The truth is you just got things right this time. When you make money losing investments it's easy to start pointing fingers. Better to manage risk up front so groceries and the roof over your head are not dependent on what the market does.

That video in my last post. Did you watch it? Remember the couple who lived on the street where everyone else was getting foreclosed on? The guy had a smash mouth style goatee, they paid $400K for their home, and had a small child together? A home down the street recently had sold for $180K. "I feel like I made a really bad decision." Right. Okay, just as a thought experiment cast your imagination back a couple of years. Think of the conversations they were having with each other. "When we rent, we're just throwing our money away. I think we should buy." Maybe they wanted to start a family and wanted to live in a house. Maybe they saw all their friends magically getting approved for home loans. Maybe they just decided to get on the home ownership train as early as possible. My spouse and I have had conversations like this. Sometimes I have been the voice of reason in the conversation, sometimes I have been the voice of crazy.

Remember. The people in your life are far more important than current events. Don't make a horrible life decison because you're ticked off about money. If your spouse bought a 'great investment' at the very top of the market, and it's worth half of what you paid for it now... take a deep breath and remember that your spouse is more important than whatever else you're thinking about. Figure it out together. $100,000 is 5 years as a McDonalds night manager. A big deal, but you've got 50 years to go. It can be done. It's so easy to look back and get angry at each other.

To all you financial masters of the universe. Those of you who ignored warnings and helped create the market conditions for this recent housing bubble... enriching yourself in the process... you have my contempt. You focused on yourself instead of focusing on the results you were supposed to focus on. You are Gordon Gecko. You are Babbit. You are the jerks at Sports Management International that fired Jerry Maguire. I'm 20% more willing to entertain those awful one world government whacko conspiracy theories because of you, and that makes me more upset than all the rest.

Some Thoughts on the Bailout

2008-10-01T18:13:00.000-07:00

I saw this video earlier today - and it made me want to spit nails. I emailed a few people about it, including my wife, who said that she wasn't sure what I was getting upset about. I've decided to write down why I'm upset.

This video as well -

Here's what makes me mad...

This housing bubble that is causing so much havoc right now should have never happened. Regulators knew how to put a stop to it. Banks and politicians knew they were enabling bad actors in the system.

Here is a disturbing graph...

Do you wonder what happened in 2005 so that bankruptcies went down? We passed a law making it harder to file bankruptcy. A Harvard Law professor named Elizabeth Warren did a study to determine what the cause of this aggregate increase in bankruptcies. They determined that it was families buying too much house, and having easy access to credit cards.
How to reverse the trend? Elizabeth Warren has two suggestions. Bring back the usury laws, and get rid of the universal default clause in credit card contracts.

What is the universal default clause? It is the clause in your credit card contract that says the bank has the authority to change the interest rate on your credit card at any time for any reason. Where else, anywhere, is there a contract with a clause that the company can raise the price at any time for any reason? Would you buy a cell phone contract where they can charge you $50 one month, then the next month send you a bill for $100? No. But thats what credit card companies do every day.

Usury laws? Back in the 1970's and before, banks were only allowed to charge up to a certain interest rate depending on the state. Since they could only charge up to a certain rate, they only loaned money to people they were confident would pay them back.

Guess what? Banks don't want to bring back the usury laws. Banks don't want to eliminate the universal default clause. ---- They'd rather deal with rising bankruptcy. ---- Because the majority of their profits come from interest and fees to financially troubled consumers.

Elizabeth Warren is one of the few voices of reason out there. I highly recommend her books -'The Two Income Trap', and 'All Your Worth'.

-------------

Okay... so here's what makes me want to spit nails. Our elected officials have failed. For decades. I don't want a bailout now. I want my elected officials to fix this problem 30 years ago when they repealed the usury laws. I want my elected officials to fix this problem in 2004 when it comes out that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are using bogus accounting.

It makes me angry that due to poor regulation a warp in the market was created where it makes sense for banks to hire crews to go into people's homes and throw their computers into a dumpster. That's crazy.

I look back now at the last 10 years or so when all these people have been getting into homes and real estate prices have been going sky high. How can they afford it? That's been trouble brewing for a long time.

Banks and other lending institutions have been grinding the faces of the poor for a long time in the name of the free market. Its easy to be a believer in the free market when it's someone else suffering. But when it's you... it's not so easy. That's what the financial services sector is going through right now. Just remember how much sympathy these banks have had over the last 30 years for the consumers who have made poor choices.

So with the bailout...

a) - I don't think it will really help long term... the market will readjust to where it is going to readjust to whether the government intervenes or not.

b) - I don't think the taxpayers should have to pay for the bailout

I'm totally against it. Let the market readjust.

Here are some more articles I like:

http://reason.com/news/show/129158.html

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/29/miron.bailout/index.html

Oh, and for the record - My 'virtual' portfolio has done AWESOME these last couple of weeks. I'm not that smart and I saw it coming. Warren Buffet has been warning about complex derivatives as weapons of financial mass destruction for years now. The financial services sector definitely saw this one coming. Now they're acting like it's this big emergency. Don't fall for it. They just want the US Taxpayers to buy their crap assets for more than they're worth.

UPDATE: - One of the people I first emailed this video to (the one with the foreclosures) emailed me back. She said that she doesn't buy it that the guy has trouble getting together with charities. - I agree. That's bogus.

I've heard some politicians say that voters shouldn't bring politics of envy into the bailout decision. I think its more likely that the contractor who is hired to trash out all the houses has been encouraged by the banks to just get the job done, in a way that doesn't flood the market with a bunch of basically free stuff for people. It would be a piece of cake for a church group, or a charity to clean out people's homes and prep them for foreclosure, and then dispose of the useful items at a Salvation Army Thrift store or something. I don't think I'm verbalizing it very well - but I think the phrase 'corporate policies of envy' describes the situation pretty well. As if the banks were saying - if you are going to let your home go into foreclosure, and leave your junk in the house - then nobody is going to get it. - Envy

Dawn Direct Foam versus Palmolive Scrub Buster

2008-09-21T20:33:00.000-07:00

Since we moved to Iowa, we no longer have a dishwasher. All the dishes that get washed in our house get done by hand. I'm not a big fan of washing dishes by hand, and the situation is made worse by the fact that our sink is really shallow and we have no counter space.

Either all the dishes get washed after every meal, or our kitchen looks terrible.

We bought some Dawn Direct Foam to help us out.
And it works out really well. One or three squirts of foam on a sponge will clean a sink full of dishes, and the bottle lasts us longer than a bottle of liquid dish detergent.

Next time you're in the market for some dishwashing liquid maybe you can pick yourself up some Dawn Direct Foam.

On a related note -

Palmolive Scrub Buster is a scam.

Yeah, you heard me. A couple of years ago I found myself in Piscataway New Jersey. Never mind the circumstances, but I was talking to one of the people responsible for bringing this new product to market.

Scrub buster has micro-beads which supposedly aid in scrubbing (busting) off dirt from dirty dishes. But what they are is a gelatin that contains a pleasant aroma.

Big Jay - "So... do the micro-beads actually do anything?"

Unidentified CP employee - "No the micro-beads don't do anything. But it's just one more reason for the consumer to think that they've got a superior product."

Big Jay - "Right."

I've known about the phony Palmolive Scrub Buster product for a couple of years and one conclusion I've come to is that by and large consumers don't really care. Anytime the opportunity has presented itself for me to tell someone about the Scrub Buster scam I've brought it up. And you know what? I don't think it's made one bit of difference. It's not that I mind or anything. Honestly I don't know what kind of thought processes go through people's minds when they decide on what kind of dishwashing liquid to buy.

Quicktrip - Guaranteed Gasoline

2008-09-05T18:41:00.001-07:00

I just got back from a quick trip over to Kansas City to go to my friend Kenny's wedding. It was awesome. All I can say is that you could feel the love. At the wedding Kenny told me that he checks my blog periodically and I haven't posted in a while.

That's true. And I'm sorry to my loyal 9 fans out there.

While I was in Kansas City I stopped to get gas. I've posted before about how I don't really like ambiguous guarantees.

It just makes me uncomfortable you know?

So while I was there, I was reminded of one of the most ambiguous guarantees I've ever come across. Quicktrip advertises that they have guaranteed gasoline. I mean guaranteed gasoline? What is that? Guaranteed for what? Has ANYONE EVER TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF THIS GUARANTEE? Maybe, maybe not. Just out of curiosity I looked up what the terms are for the guarantee.
It turns out that it's actually a pretty good guarantee. It still makes me suspicious that it's just corporate whitewash. But maybe it isn't. It smacks of sincerity and corporate fair dealing. Here's the copy/paste from the website linked above:

QuikTrip gasoline is unconditionally guaranteed.

That means if you ever have a gasoline-related problem, QuikTrip will solve the problem. That doesn't mean we'll give you your money back and wish you luck. It means we will solve the problem ... to your satisfaction. We could only offer this type of guarantee if we were sure our gasoline is of the highest quality.

If you do experience a problem, follow these simple steps:

1.	Call our toll-free number: 1-800-848-1966.
2.	We'll send you a simple form that takes less than five minutes to fill out. No receipt is required. Your word is your proof of purchase.
3.	Have your mechanic complete the form, stating that the repair was fuel related.
4.	Send us the completed form along with a copy of your repair bill. We'll reimburse you for any legitimate fuel related repairs and the gasoline.

It's that simple. You can buy your gasoline from QuikTrip with complete confidence. Or you can take your chances somewhere else.

It sounds like marketing to me.... But you know... Quicktrip also has some things going for it unrelated to their feel good guarantee. They've got the best selection of drinks, chips, candy, and hot chocolate anywhere. They've got sandwiches, and other usual convenience store stuff.... And the incentivize their employees to keep the store clean and get people checked out FAST. Whatever they do it works. I filled up my gas tank in Independence at the Quicktrip at Noland and 23rd St. The place was packed with people buying gas, and drinks, and other snack foods.

To the people at Quicktrip -- one thing that would make me feel better about your lame sounding guarantee would be to see a commercial where someone actually used the guarantee, and you helped them out. Meanwhile, I'm just going to your gas stations for the great selection of drinks.

Freaks and Geeks - Get the DVD's

2008-09-05T18:00:00.000-07:00

Want to see a great show that has an awesome sound track?

A cool show that is funny, shows real world characters with real world consequences?

Would you like to see a show that induces 80's nostalgia within seconds?

Would you like to see a show that has Biff from 'Back to The Future' --- cast as the gym teacher?!!

I've got just the show for you....

Freaks and Geeks

Just trust me here.

I like this show so much. It was cancelled after the first season. It has Seth Rogen before he was cool. It has James Franco before he was Harry Osborne. It's just a fantastic show.

Update - I added the picture of Billy Mays up top because I'm getting back into the swing of things on this blog. And the first comment hit the nail on the head. I did sound like an infomercial.

I like honest art okay. And this show feels honest to me. There's the show at the beginning of the season where the dorks are trying to deal with a bully. It turns out that later in the season that the bully is also a dork deep down inside, but never felt like he fit in with this particular group of dorks.

There's the group of 'freaks' - pot smoking, homework copying, test stealing, class skipping burnouts who, later in life will work 5 days a week closing up shop 4 nights a week at Burger King. They are slowly closing doors of opportunity on their own futures. They backstab each other, and make life difficult. But there is one thing they don't have to deal with from each other - harsh judgment. Once you're in the circle of freaks, you don't have to live up to some reputation, they're going to support you. How do you get into the circle of freaks? Accept the other freaks as they are.

There's Lindsay Weir, who used to be in the 'geek' crowd, but after the death of her Grandmother, she's kind of turning into a troubled teen. 'Grandma did everything right, her entire life. And then she died.' She's kind of the character bridge between the freaks and the geeks.

In one episode Lindsay Weir's parents decide to leave for a week, leaving the two kids home alone - they're both in high school. Lindsay gets talked into throwing a kegger. Her geek brother and his friends try to figure out a way to keep the evening from ending in disaster --- what happens? I won't ruin it for you.

It makes me kind of sad that this show was cancelled. Oh well. It seems like that's how it goes. Anytime I run across a show that speaks to me, it gets cancelled. In this case it got cancelled like 5 years before I even heard of it.

The Video Games I Like The Most

2007-02-13T18:29:00.000-08:00

The last couple of weekends I've been home, I have been quite entertained that my almost 4 year old is addicted to Super Mario 64. He's not really addicted to it. He just likes playing. I am amazed that this kid can actually play that game.
It got me thinking. First of all, I don't really have a problem with people spending time with video games. I think it is fun, and normal. Kids need exercise and everything. But in my humble opinion it is good for people's brains to play some kinds of video games. I have no problem with games like Mario 64 where your job is to explore the miniature universe and figure out how to win. It's good for your brain. In the real world we have to explore, figure things out and learn how to win too.

But I don't need the latest and greatest. Too expensive. As much as I would love to have a nintendo wii right now, I'm going to wait a minimum of 2 years before I get one. I want the price to come down. Those games will still be fun after some time passes.

So I know what you're wondering. What games does big jay like? Well I'm here to tell you.

I like Civilization because it requires skillful management of limited resources and multiple systems, over time, and against an opponent(s) who is simultaneously doing the same. All players have the intent of winning the game. The game is turn based so you can easily stop and come back later. Each game takes several hours so it usually takes several days to get through a match. - SO FUN - perfect for junior high school kids who don't have anything better to do with their time.

I especially like Command and Conquer Generals - Zero Hour. It is a realtime strategy game. And I downloaded a mod-file called zero-hour retarded. The mod file changes several rules to the game. I like to download other mod files and play them just to see what gameplay is like with different rules. Very very fun.

ABUELITA - SWEET CHOCOLATY GOODNESS

2007-02-13T18:05:00.000-08:00

I've had a goal for quite some time to find the ultimate hot chocolate. It all started back in my college days when I first tried Stephen's Hot Cocoa. On the back of the Stephen's container is a personal guarantee from Stephen himself that you will find the hot chocolate to be of the highest quality.

Seriously. It can't be that good. Ever since then I've been on a quest to find hot chocolate that I like better. Because I have to admit that Stephen's is good hot chocolate. But I just can't get past the implicit challenge in the guarantee. I mean, what exactly is he guaranteeing anyway? If I don't like the hot chocolate is Stephen going to give me a massage? Or a refund? It doesn't say anything about a refund on the guarantee. It's just a soft, lame, ambiguous gurarantee.

I don't know why the question haunted me so.

It only got worse when my wife got me this for Christmas one year.

The cocoa latte machine. The machine guaranteed to mix your cocoa perfectly, and bring it right up to the perfect marshmallow melting, non tongue burning temperature - every time. Oh baby. Who can resist?

Usually I'm the sort of person who is against buying additional appliances. I mean, we have a blender right? We have a microwave? Why buy one additional appliance to clutter things up? Well, my wife was wise. We have used the cocoa latte many, many times. The waffle iron we received as a wedding present? The one we registered for? -Zero. We've never made waffles. (although I do quote the line from Shrek quite often and SAY that tomorrow I'm making waffles)

You can probably guess by the title what is coming up. I have found a hot chocolate that suits me just fine. And I found it at the local wal mart superstore. Where I do most of my shopping. (Just stand back you anti-globalization folks. I LIKE Wal-Mart. Okay?)

The greatest hot chocolate mix is Nestle's Abuelita.

The way you make it is you heat up a quart of milk (not water) and dissolve this choco-tablet into the milk. The cocoa latte makes it very easy. The chocolate has a rich dark chocolate, cinaminny taste to it.

Delicious.

UPDATE ON WHITTAKER CARPET SYSTEM

2007-02-13T17:59:00.000-08:00

To all my loyal readers out there in the blogosphere. I actually bought a case of the crystal dry product. Here's the scoop. It works. But there are a couple things you ought to know. Greasy red stains like spaghetti sauce (I have two children) don't come out easily. This can be solved by a generic detergent based carpet spotter you can buy at home depot like the Zep brand aerosol spotter.

And crystal dry does not get out permanent marker. (I have two children)

But on everything else it works like a charm. If you brush it into old looking carpet it will make it look new.

I don't know why I have such an interest in this. I live in an apartment. They're going to take my deposit away because of the above mentioned permanent marker stains, and I can get a professional cleaning done for $15. I guess it's just more convenient to spray something on to get the chocolate milk stain out of your carpet than to call in the professionals.

Well, I guess I am a professional too.

I'm thinking that next year I'll get my acquaintances a bottle of crystal dry concentrate for Christmas. That combined with a card and a form letter detailing my schemes to meet David Hasselhoff in person. So far I've only met someone with the same birthday as David Hasselhoff.

WHITTAKER CRYSTAL DRY - THE BEST CARPET CLEANER EVER!

2006-11-03T19:54:00.000-08:00

Anyone who knows me knows that I am in facilities management outsourcing, in a consultative role. And today I had one of the best days of my career so far. And I literally owe it to Whittaker Smartcare Carpet System.
You see, I've been doing a lot of work lately at a certain snack food company that enjoys full spectrum dominance in the potato chip, tortilla chip, pita chip, cheese puff, and all things chip market. And they have been breaking our cojones lately. That is the problem with outsourcing... you're everybody's red headed step child. Anyway, one of the arenas we've been getting hammered has been keeping their corporate headquarters' carpet free from spots. That can be hard to do when you're perpetually understaffed.

I ran into Whittaker Carpet last year at World Workplace, in Philadelphia. I was a speaker there, and talked to Jon Whittaker who was manning one of the booths. He described a system of removing carpet spots that encapsulates the dirt into crystals, which you vacuum out at the next scheduled vacuum time. I watched him remove some carpet spots right in front of my eyes. I don't trust it when salespeople do their thing. For some reason the results are never as good when they aren't around.

I ran into Jon Whittaker again this last year at World Workplace in San Diego. I kind of stalked his booth, poured coffee on his carpet, and told him I was coming back the following day to see how his stuff worked. He didn't mind, and the next day he got the stain out with no trouble. Whats more, he walked around with me to a couple of other places in the convention hall and got out random stains here and there - always with no trouble whatsoever. I was sold, but hadn't gotten any pricing.

A couple of weeks later I was sitting through a lame sales presentation from a higher priced competitor, and I noticed that not only did the competing product not work particularly well, but it would take 10 times longer than traditional carpet extraction. Labor is the major cost component in a carpet cleaning program. I contacted Whittaker carpet, and they agreed to send us a machine of theirs on a trial basis.

Today that trial took place. I filled up the machine with 2 gallons of chemical, and walked around the building for hours (during work time - this machine is QUIET!) pulling spots out of the carpet.

It is so weird - you just spray the chemical on, brush it into the carpet, and the stain vanishes. - You vacuum out the chemical and the dirt (which is encapsulated in a crystal polymer) the next time you vacuum. There was no salesperson there trying to convince me this machine was great. It is simply the best carpet cleaning system I have ever come across. I'm wondering if they're interested in hiring any salespeople. But they probably don't really need salespeople... this product is that good. I seriously walked around the building for half the day, looking for spots. Each time I found a spot I had an internal dialogue within that went something like this:

"Here's a spot, looks like coffee, and they've obviously been over it with a bonnet machine a time or two. It has had time to age, lets see how this Whittaker Crystal Dry deals... Well I'll be jiggered. It worked, in less than a minute!"

"Okay, looks like we've got a soda spill. Sugary goodness spilled all over the carpet and has been attracting dust for days or weeks. Lets see how this machine handles sugary goodness... Well I'll be jiggered. It worked in less than a minute!"

"Okay. Big puddle of dirt embedded in. Looks like somebody broke a big flower pot and the dirt spilled out everywhere. Wow it worked here too!"

Picture that, but for several hours. I'm sold. - The product I'm going to buy is called "Whittaker Smart Care 15" Professional System" - Here is a picture of what this system comes with -

For home users, you just want to buy a case of Crystal Dry, for roughly $65. You mix it up, one bottle is mixed in with 1 gallon of water. You spray a couple squeezes out of the spray bottle, brush it into the stain and viola! The stain is gone. In a couple of hours you hit it with a vacuum and you're done.

This product is the best carpet product on the market.

BOTTLED WATER - BS

2006-10-15T16:03:00.000-07:00

It has always gotten on my nerves to see people buying bottled water. Even in places like Phoenix, and Dallas where the water definitely has a certain obvious taste to it. It doesn't taste that bad.

It all has to be marketing doesn't it?

It turns out that the answer the question that has been bugging me all these years is a resounding yes. YES - Bottled water is all about marketing.

See the video. - warning adult language - he says B***SH**, and the F-word a couple of times. No matter. I feel like saying those words whenever one of my family members buys bottled water.

LAGUNA BEACH -THE SHOW I LOVE TO HATE

2006-09-17T20:12:00.000-07:00

I have a new idea for the Bush administration... standby for the idea.

When I was roommates in college with my friend Kenny I made significant progress on one life skill I will use until I die. The skill? -The ability to watch TV.

It's easy to watch TV when you like the show. But when the show is horribly bad...that takes skill. It all started when we went to see "Ethan Frome" at the International Cinema. For those of you unfamiliar with the story of Ethan Frome, it can be described as one man's descent from one miserable state, into more and more misery. The movie culminates with Ethan and his would be lover going to the top of a hill to sled down and commit suicide by slamming the sled into a tree. But they're unsuccessful. And Ethan's hypochondriac wife who had previously been henpecking him to death and bleeding his finances dry by going to doctors when she wasn't sick and demanding that he nurse her to health ..... She ends up having to nurse both of them for the rest of their lives because they both become crippled in the sled accident.

Ethan Frome is one depressing scene after another.

Kenny taught me to enjoy such misery. You learn to just be curious about what terribly bad scene is coming up next. Then make fun of the show in your mind. That has allowed me to watch re-runs of the Dukes of Hazzard, Wonder Woman, and WWF. I can watch Chick Flicks, and lame comedies.

So generally I'm much more happy to be a couch potato ever since I lived with Kenny. He is, indeed, the man.

But lately I've come across a show that defies my TV masochism. -You guessed it: Laguna Beach - The 2nd Season DVD set. Don't concern yourself with the circumstances surrounding my viewing of 3 whole episodes. My internal brain wiring that decides when to flip to the next channel is in hyperdrive when I watch this show. The lives portrayed on this show are familiar, uninteresting, and predictable.

My idea for the Bush administration is to show Laguna Beach re-runs to terror detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Seriously, think about it. You're waterboarding an Iranian suicide bomber (or something). You want to push them to the breaking point. Just run a constant loop of Laguna Beach re-runs over and over with the promise that if they give actionable intelligence you'll stop the DVD's!

Somebody should pay me for ideas like this.

BOSTON MARKET

2006-09-06T18:16:00.000-07:00

Have you ever been to Boston Market? The last time I went to Boston Market was when I was visiting Traci & David in Virginia. We went to a free Beatles tribute concert. David and Traci, being generous hosts provided the meal. We ate a Boston Market picnic.

Keep in mind this was before I had actually been to Boston and before I had fallen in love with it. I didn't realize that basically everything coming out of Boston was good. Like the Red Sox!

So fast forward to my trip to Connecticut. For the first time in months there is a happy coincidence that my hotel is right up the street from a Hibachi place. I went two nights in a row. I never thought I'd say this, but I've had my fill of Hibachi. The third night I ate at an Outback steak house, and had to wait in line for 45 minutes. And it was the first time Outback let me down on a steak. The fourth night I went to Boston Market. And I was impressed.

Remember in a previous post when I talked about how my satisfaction at a eating establishment is a combination of service, taste, and price? Boston Market nails it on all 3. It's like eating a really good meal at home, without the clean up. In fact the food is better than a lot of restaraunts I've been to. And the price is like eating a big meal at Arby's.

That's where I went tonight. The guy in front of me ordered the roast beef. I'm usually not a roast beef ordering kind of guy. I asked him how he liked it. "Just get it. You won't regret it." So I ordered the roast beef, with a side of sweet potatoes, and macaroni and cheese. The manager was filling my order and he made me two plates. Hey man! What do I look like? But what the heck, go ahead and give me both plates. He was embarassed.

No regrets, even with two plates.

GREAT RESTARAUNT IN DALLAS!

2006-08-27T18:00:00.000-07:00

Since I eat out so often, a lot of these reviews are restaraunt reviews and frankly, I usually find reviews like the following quite boring. So I will keep it short.

Since I eat out so much I'm also rarely impressed by any restaraunt. I'm kind of a snob, which is such an irony considering that hte happiest job I ever had I had to eat lentils every other day and hike over mountains.

Last week I ate a Maine lobster. Not impressed.

So it sort of suprises me how much I liked the restaraunt called: "Cheddars" - it really took me off guard to be quite honest.

I first heard about it when our neighbors went there for a family dinner. Cheddars competes in the same market segment as restaraunts like TGI Fridays, Bennigans, or Chilis.

Until I went to Cheddars I was a Chili's guy. Bennigans has great marketing materials, and great advertising. Their locations are better run than Chilis. But I'm just not an Irish pub grub type of consumer. Last time I went, I specifically went because of the clever commercial about how they're taking american cuisine and putting beer on it. And the food was good. The service was great. The restaraunt was superior in every way to Chilis, except the menu. I'm just more into southwest type foods, and lettuce wraps. And Chili's has the perfect nachos with beans, cheese, and jalapeno on every chip - which is just what the doctor ordered.

For some reason I just never really liked TGI Fridays. Don't ask me why because I don't know.

Here is why Cheddars is better than Bennigans, Chilis, and TGI Fridays.

First - It costs less. The prices are markedly lower than any of the other chains.
Second - The service was better.
Third - The bueno nachos were even better than the Chili's nachos. Picture everything on the nachos at Chili's - plus chicken. Every chip was an absolute delight.
Fourth - 'Cookie Monster' - better dessert than I've had at the other places.
Fifth - Steak, ribs, potato, mashed potatoes, vegetables, soup etc... All of it was high quality. Unlike restaraunts like Sticky Fingers where everything is mediocre except the specialty. Everything I tried at Cheddars was better than I could have done myself. And I'm a good cook.

Trust me on this one. Cheddars is superior in every way to those places you usually go. If you want a great family eatery - Cheddars is the place for you.

2006-08-24T05:04:00.000-07:00

NOTE TO AMERICAN AIRLINES: GET THIS GUY OFF YOUR PAYROLL -

I've always been somewhat confused as to why I like flying Southwest airlines better than I like flying other airlines. I mean, what does Southwest have that is better than say a huge airline like American? Or Delta?

American has nicer planes. With more little amenities, and more leg room. American has first class, where Southwest just corrals you onto the plane. American lets you choose your seat when you order your ticket, but with Southwest it's first come first serve. American has more direct flights, but Southwest bounces you around with multiple layovers.

One thing Southwest has on American is the frequent flyer program. Southwest's is easier to understand, and more flexible. It's just a better program plain and simple. Southwest also is more user friendly if you need to make an adjustment to your flight plans. They just give you southwest credit and you can use it later. None of these 100 fees and other nonsense.

But I'll tell you what Southwest really has that is superior to American Airlines. It's their people. Somehow Southwest airlines has instilled a culture of gratitude for the customer that is absent in other airlines. (I've heard Jet Blue has it but I haven't experienced it one way or the other) For the most part my flights on American have been positive. Or at least neutral. The fact that American has the most direct flights to various destinations out of Dallas will ensure that I fly American many more times in the future.

But last friday 8/18/2006 on the afternoon flight from Newark New Jersey to Dallas Fort Worth I encountered a string of bad service. It started when I checked my luggage. The lady behind the counter seemed to say that I wasn't going quickly enough for her. I had printed out my boarding pass, and put it in one of those sleeves. I could see that she was putting the checked baggage stickers on my bags and that she was going to put the bag claim stickers onto the sleeve you put the boarding pass in. I was holding out my boarding pass with the sleeve as if to say, here just put those on this sleeve. She didn't look at me, put the stickers onto a new sleeve and handed it to me and said she needed to see my ID. I pulled out my boarding pass and gave it to her to put into the sleeve. She looked at me as though I was wasting her time and said she didn't need to see my boarding pass, she needed to see my ID. Thanks lady. Great job of paying attention to the customer. She hadn't even looked at me.

When I got on the plane the guy next to me was talking on his cell phone. The flight attendant came up to him and told him to turn off the cell phone. "Oh, ok I'm sorry I didn't hear the announcement." (I didn't hear the announcement either, and people were still boarding the plane.) "Yes there was an announcement, you weren't listening apparently." Okay pal, he wasn't trying to cause a disturbance, he was talking on the phone. What's your hurry? They're still loading the luggage!

I had a window seat. I looked out the window and saw that they were still loading luggage onto the plane. We weren't going to leave the gate anytime soon. What was their hurry to get people off the cell phone? Just then I heard an announcement - same flight attendant. "This is another announcement to turn off all cell phones and portable electronic devices. This goes for everyone, you need to turn off your cell phones. Everyone needs to turn off their cell phones."

The luggage guys are still loading the luggage. The same flight attendant goes up to another passenger 3 rows up and says: "Sir, turn off your cell phone." The guy starts to tell the person he's talking to that he has to go when he is interrupted 14 times by the flight attendant repeating over and over "Turn off your cell phone. Turn off your cell phone. Turn off your cell phone." Repeated 14 times. The luggage guys are still loading the luggage onto the plane. I looked out the window as they took 4 more minutes to load luggage onto the plane.

We left the gate and sat on the runway for something like 15 minutes. Then took off. When we were ready to land in Dallas they made the announcement to put away our laptop computers, and put our trays up, and our seats up. I did the laptop, and the tray, but got distracted looking out the window. Thirty seconds later the flight attendant told me to put up my chair. No problem. But it was a problem. There was a problem in the way he told me to tilt my chair up. He said it like I was some kind of trouble maker, like I was an enemy of American airlines. I then watched him totally chew out another guest who wasn't fast enough getting ready to land.

If I would have asked this guy what his problem was, he probably would have given me some trite answer about how it is his job to ensure the safety of all passengers and during landing I need my seat back tilted up. After all, its my safety he's worried about. I've heard similar explanations by rude flight attendants on Northwest Airlines, Continental Airlines, and Delta Airlines (with Continental being the worst offender).

Note to flight attendant: I paid over $500 to fly on this flight. If indeed you are concerned with our safety as passengers then act concerned. Don't be rude. Your behavior explains exactly why people like me are loyal to Southwest airlines. Southwest employees (I don't know how they do it) are grateful that I chose to fly Southwest. If you want me to have any loyalty to American airlines whatsoever then you need to realize that I could have chosen 3 other airlines to spend my $500 to buy a ticket. American Airlines got my money today, but your company might not get it tomorrow.

I've never encountered in all my flights in the last 12 years one single rude Southwest flight attendant. During that time I've encountered dozens of outstanding Southwest flight attendants. My track record with American Airlines was 0 outstanding flight attendants (unless I fly first class) and 0 rude flight attendants. Until New Jersey to Dallas.

If American Airlines wants to stop losing market share to Southwest Airlines it needs to get rid of flight attendants like the one I flew with last friday. Here's an idea: Make that guy help the baggage guys for awhile.

2006-08-24T04:56:00.000-07:00

NEW HAMPSHIRE

I just flew into New Hampshire last night. It is totally beautiful. I liked Massachusets each time I was there. but New Hampshire has all the great things Massachusets has, but with less traffic.

You know how with different states there is a different state slogan on the license plate? In Missouri it is something about "Show Me State", in New Jersey it's "The Garden State". Texas previously had the coolest state slogan I've heard: "Don't mess with Texas" (And I definitely do not mess with Texas).

New Hampshire has my new favorite state slogan: "Live Free Or Die" - Yep that slogan is on every license plate in New Hampshire.

The entire community is totally well put together. There are green trees, and beautiful parkways. There is appropriate signage so it is easy to get where you want to go (as opposed to say...New Jersey where there is too much signage and none of it is helpful) When I rented the car - Kia Optima - nice car - the guy behind the counter asked me if I needed directions. I told him I was going to the Marriott Courtyard in Nashua. He scribbled a few lines of directions on a piece of paper for me and gave me a map. Nashua is 25 minutes away from the airport. The directions were perfect. I don't think I've ever been taken in as quickly and as completely as I have been taken in by New Hampshire. It's unbelievable.

2006-07-12T15:41:00.000-07:00

WHAT WOULD RONALD DO?

On the 4th of July my family and I went to the Plano Independence Day parade. Lesson: If you want candy, don't set up shop in the last 1/4 mile. Set up and watch the first 1/3 mile of the parade, because all the floats have candy at that point.

After the parade there was a lot of traffic and it was hot so we decided to go to McDonalds which was conveniently located right across the street from where we were sitting. When we walked in I was totally shocked to see Ronald McDonald!

I worked at McDonalds as a teenager. I had the inside scoop. I know the inner workings of McDonalds. I have never met Ronald McDonald. He spent a few minutes taking pictures with us. You don't know this probably, but under all that makeup Ronald is brown! He has a hispanic accent. Who knew? He sure is friendly though!

Ronald actually wanted to eat some food. After all, it probably doesn't even need to be said, but obviously Ronald McDonald only eats at one restaraunt. What does Ronald McDonald order for lunch?

Asian Chicken Salad
Medium Diet Coke

Two days ago I was driving from Detroit to Kalamazoo Michigan. I stopped at a newly remodeled McDonalds because of an advertisement saying they had remodeled. I had read that all McDonalds are required to remodel their stores in the next year or so and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. It looks good inside the new McDonalds. I am a lot more likely to actually eat there because of the new space design. Good job McDonalds. I decided to order the same meal as Ronald did. The asian chicken salad tastes pretty good. No complaints. I'll probably order it again sometime.

2006-06-29T08:03:00.000-07:00

THATS THE LAST GET RICH BOOK FOR AWHILE

I've recently read a handful of books.

By the Hand of Mormon - Great book
DaVinci Code- Great book
Deception Point - Great book
Digital Fortress - Great book
Instant Persuasion - Great book
Find it, Fix it, Flip it! - Great book

Everybody knows that Dan Brown writes good books. If you're a fan of self improvement books you'll like 'Instant Persuasion'. But its that last book that I should have liked but didn't.

I've read more than my fair share of 'get rich and then relax' type of books. This one was in that category. It had all kinds of good info. I already know HOW to do what is in that book. I have to say I agree completely with everything in there.

But I don't have the capital to start doing any of those kinds of projects and it really bums me out. I'm not going to read any books in that category for awhile because I am going to focus on getting my family into a position where we can take advantage of compound interest, and margin, rather than being on the wrong side of the table. Until then its radio silence for me about how to get rich.

Except I'll still be periodically updating my blog titled stock market musings.

2006-06-29T07:51:00.000-07:00

EATING MORE THAN GOD INTENDED MAN TO EAT

Yesterday I had a bid walkthrough in Huntsville Alabama. I was a little nervous and skipped breakfast so I could have the extra time to make it just in case I got lost on the drive over. I made it early enough and spent the extra time in the lobby reading 'Digital Fortress' by Dan Brown. Good book.

By lunchtime I was famished. I drove far out of my way to go to my favorite fast food restraunt - Chick Fil A. Here is what I consumed in 45 minutes.

12 piece nugget
Grilled chicken club
Chick Fil A
Large Waffle Fries
Medium Dr Pepper
Strawberry Shake

That is what I call eating like a fat guy.

2006-06-21T17:09:00.000-07:00

WALK LIKE A MEXICAN -

A few quotes from the recent edition of 'The Economist' a story titled: 'Of meat, Mexicans and social mobility'

"Consider Alberto Queiroz, who crept across the border 12 years ago. After a stuffy ride in the boot of a car, he found his first job in a Chinese-owned clothes factory in Los Angeles. Workers with papers were paid the minimum wage, he recalls. Having none, eh had to make do with $2.50 per hour. Though unlawfully stingy, this was much better than he could have earned back home in Mexico. After two years he moved to North Carolina, a state that was just then starting to become a magnet for Mexicans. He picked blueberries for $5 a box, earning nearly $100 tax free for a 12 hour day. But this job lasted only two months, until the harvest ended. So he soughgt more stable employment, which he eventually found at America's largest hog slaughterhouse..... Mr Queiroz does not think Smithfield was a bad employer. Wages of more than $10 an hour enabled him to buy a house back in Mexico. Cutting up pigs was easier than picking blueberries, he says, because he did not have to toil under the sun all day. And when he had had enough, he quit and set up a taco stand with his brother. That was five years ago. Now he owns a Mexican restaraunt. America, he says, is the land of opportunity."

"For many first-generation immigrants, getting their children into an American university is the final proof that they have made it. Marco Roldan for example, has been in America for 22 years, but still has a Guatemalan accent and odd syntax. He started his career selling tortillas door to door. After many 75 hour weeks, he now owns a supermarket in Raleigh, where a mostly-immigrant clientele pays cash for Latin pop music, live tilapia and a wide variety of chillies. Mr Roldan is proud of his hard-earned wealth, but not as proud as he is of his daughter's MBA from Stanford."

"Miguel Lopez, who arrived from Mexico when he was 17, says his children will have a double advantage over him. Not only are they native-born Americans, but they are 'native born' to the information age. Mr Lopez is not doing badly himself: he owns a small window-cleaning firm. He woos customers by giving them instant estimates, which he can do because he looks at satellite photos of their houses online. His firm grossed $150,000 last year. With only a high-school education, he says, there is no other country where he could live so well. But his children will go to college, he says, and do something better than washing windows."

I read stories like the ones quoted above and I am filled with hope. Yes, this is America. My country. The land of opportunity. What is my problem? Hey, I've had my fair share of opportunity knocking at my door. I've graduated from college. Within the last year I've doubled the amount of income I make. I should be able to double it again in the next 5-10 years. But then I look at the sorry state of my financial affairs and I shake my head. It is time to make a course correction.

A guy I know recently took a semester off of college to open up a hot dog stand. He had lived in Ontario for a couple of years and had gotten to know a hot dog vendor or two, he decided to take a chance, and opened up a stand near his university. He was out of school for 6 months, then went back in to finish up. But he made $50,000 the first year he was open for business. So I say to myself that maybe I should open up a taco stand, or a hot dog stand myself. Nope, can't do it. I don't have the time because my job takes up so much of my time. It isn't feasible in my life right now.

Another acquaintance of mine opened up a mortgage business back when interest rates were cranking down to all time lows. If only I had known then what I know now.... and had the capital. This acquaintance of mine rode the wave of 50 year all time low interest rates to refinance a boat load of mortgages. In 4 years he made enough money to never have to work again. During this same time another friend of mine had noticed that the fed was cranking interest rates back like crazy and knew that the dollar would slide against the euro & other currencies. This friend also made enough money from fairly predictable currency pair trends to reap a huge windfall that also gave him a boatload of money.

It's not that I'm unhappy with my life. I guess I just see a lot of opportunity out there and don't feel like I'm taking advantage of it like I could or maybe should. I spend so much of my money on consumption that doesn't move me forward, or make me happy. I don't know what else to say about that.

Why can't my family make great leaps forward too? Are we making leaps forward and I just can't see it yet? Here is another story, this one from the Wall Street Journal.

"Hindustan Petroleum. Sexy! yelled Vinod Mishra, 38 years old, as he pumped his fist in the air, grinning at the flickering stock price of India's second largest refining company. 'My screen is like my wife. When it tells me to sell, I sell: when it tells me to buy, I buy.' While the former sailor sounds like day traders the world over, Mr. Mishra is a distinctively Indian type of investor. His office is this cramped internet cafe, strewn with discarded paper teacups. At home, he doesn't have his own computer, Internet connection or even reliable electricity. His portfolio is tiny. His profit target is $10 a day. 'I'm not greedy. I just need enough to look after my family.'

Here's another quote from the Wall Street Journal:

"The US savings rate his fallen sharply since the mid-1980's. In fact, last year, it was negative for the first time since 1933. At first blush, this collapse in the savings rate seems puzzling. Our incomes have climbed at a healthy clip over the yaers, easily outstripping the growth in spending on key items like food and clothing. So why do we find it so tough to save? We can't, it seems, blame it all on morning lattes and evenings out. Instead, the big culprits are our two largest expenses: The roof over our head and the car in our driveway."

That makes sense to me. I know I overconsume on a lot of things, but the big ticket items in my budget are rent and car expenses. I wish it was feasible for me to have a car for occasional use, and just go to work on a bicycle. Not gonna happen anytime in the near future.

When I worked on the trail, I worked one week with a guy named Luke who built a house with his brother Enoch before Enoch got married. I was suprised to learn that they could do that. 'You guys must be totally talented!' They are. But they built the house using some old school, low tech methods. Enoch's family already owned a bunch of land. He sidestepped the whole permit process (which caused him hassle later on) and just started building.

How much did Enoch's house cost to build? $20,000. You read that correctly. He paid $20,000, worked hard for a few months, and was done with it. How did he do it? He built a Straw-Bale house. Here are a few pictures of straw bale houses.

When I mentioned this to my friend Emily, she said: "You crazy Anasazi people." You know it sounds crazy to me too. But I just can't stop fantasizing about getting the roof over my head situation out of the way and be done with it. Even if I could flat out buy a house for $70,000 that is comfortable to live in it would be awesome. I, for one am going to look into it. If it turns out I'm living in fantasy world, I'll admit it eventually.

2006-06-10T18:19:00.000-07:00

EAT MORE CHICKIN

I've decided on a new favorite fast food joint. It used to be Arbys. I worked there in high school and I never got tired of the food. I still like going there, but it seems a little pricey, and they never put enough meat on the sandwiches. I remember when I first worked there I had to weigh out the roast beef for each sandwich. My last manager was trying to cut costs and he instructed me to put on 1/2 ounce less roast beef per sandwich. He also only let us put one sauce packet per sandwich into the bag when someone was driving through. You know, to cut costs and whatnot.

It seems like the cost cutting has continued throughout the Arbys empire. Everytime I go there I get a little less roast beef than I expect. I know the difference you Arbys drones!!! I used to be one of you! Don't you be skimping on my beef 'n cheddar.

Arbys has had a very sorry pitiful decade or so of advertisements. Only recently have they started running good commercials. I have actually found myself 'thinking Arbys' a few times over the last year or so. But to no avail.

Because I had already moved on. My favorite fast food restaraunt was no longer Arbys. It was Wendys. Is there anything they make that doesn't taste good? Yep. Chicken nuggets. But everything else they've got the competition beat.

As an aside. Remember those commercials all the fast food places ran where they were trashing McDonalds and the Chicken McNugget? Remember those? 'What part of the chicken does the nugget come from?' Who cares? Chicken McNuggets are delicious. My first payroll job ever was at McDonalds when I was in 10th grade. This was back before they McNuggets had all white meat. This was back when they were just nuggets. I mentioned before that I never got tired of the food at Arbys. When I worked at McDonalds I got sick of all the food except shakes and McNuggets. My love affair with the McNugget continues to this day. Oh, I order other stuff at McDonalds, but at least 50% of the time I order McNuggets.

But that is neither here nor there. Up until fairly recently, Wendys was my cholesterol fix. I like basically everything at Wendys. But recently they've fallen from grace with me. Some of it has to do with their corporate restructuring. They're trying to stay ahead of the game and innovate their menu. They just changed their taco salad. It was perfect the way it was. Why did they change it? All the other salads.... they just don't do it for me. Those new sandwiches they have, the frescata. They're pretty good, but I like their traditional menu.

I guess saying that Wendys has fallen from grace is putting it too strongly. Wendys #1 seat has been usurped by a hot shot upstart. Chick-Fil-A. The chick-fil-a in Charleston has apparently had a very hard time attracting cashier talent because each and every time I've been there I've ordered one thing, and gotten something completely different from off the menu. I've started anticipating it with major curiosity. What will they give me this time? And the thing I've noticed is that everything is totally delicious. Whoever is fixing the food back in the kitchen is doing it right. Chick-fil-a has the best chicken anywhere. I just wrote a review of Sticky Fingers. Their chicken doesn't even come remotely close to stacking up against chick-fil-a. Chick-fil-a has better tasting nuggets than McDonalds. Their chicken sandwich is superior to Wendys. Their chicken tastes better than popeyes, church's, or kentucky fried chicken. Their shakes? Perfect.

Do yourself a favor and go out and eat some more chickin.

2006-06-10T17:53:00.000-07:00

YES YOU HAVE EXCELLENT RIBS

Tonight for dinner I went to eat at Sticky Fingers. I've been told by coworkers (specifically Trevor Fox) to eat at Sticky Fingers multiple times. "If you're ever down in the Carolinas you'll have to stop and check them out." It was just a coincidence I saw the restaraunt last week, so I decided to go there to eat.

I was by myself. And I must say, going out to eat at a restaraunt sucks when you're alone. I'm not the lonely type, but I was missing my family today, and at the restaraunt I was sitting between three families having quality time together. After having spent the day doing totally mundane work tasks (including training someone to take over the tasks ASAP) I just felt like a lame-o.

One thing about me and restaraunts, I am hard to impress. I don't know how to explain it. It's a combination of how delicious the food tastes, and who I'm with, how good the employees are at the restaraunt, and how much it all costs. About a month ago in Boston I ate the best filet mignon of my life, with the best lobster I've ever tasted. I even tasted oysters for the first time. But my plate cost something like $85. If I could get that kind of food for $35 per plate, and the restaraunt were in Dallas, I probably would eat there once a month, it was that good. But $85... it was good, but it wasn't that good. Do you understand what I'm saying?

I'm quite picky when it comes to ribs. I used to work at Fiorellas Jack Stack Freighthouse. THE place to go for BBQ when you're in Kansas City. Man... Everything at that place was delicious. And it was reasonably priced. Great place to go eat. I've only had BBQ as good as Jack Stacks a couple of other places.

Texas Roadhouse - The first time I went I was blown away at how good their ribs were. But unfortunately when I went back two more times, the ribs weren't as good as they were the first time.

Famous Daves BBQ. I haven't tried the ribs at Famous Daves. But the brisket sandwiches on texas toast are muy bueno.

So tonight I went to Sticky Fingers. Are you wondering how it was? I will give you a blow by blow.

I walked in and immediately saw a picture of George W. Bush at Sticky Fingers. There was even a thank you note from the White House thanking them for the delicious ribs. I also saw pictures of Jay Leno, a whole bunch of 'famous' blues musicians, Pauly Shore, and a story printed in Playboy magazine (no ladies covered in BBQ sauce, just naked bottles of BBQ sauce) reviewing good places to go eat ribs. Fiorellas Jack Stack was front and center. Sticky fingers was off to the side.

I was seated, and ordered water to drink, spinach dip, the three way bbq plate, and key lime pie for dessert.

Spinach dip: - Mimis has basically ruined me on spinach/artichoke dip. They've got the best I've ever tasted, and I have a recipe that tastes close enough so I can make it at home. So the spinach dip didn't impress me.

The BBQ plate had rice, ribs, coleslaw, beans, chicken, and bbq pulled pork.

Pulled pork - okay
Chicken - okay
Beans - okay
Coleslaw - nasty (But I hate coleslaw anyway except from Kentucky Fried Chicken. Don't ask me I can't explain it either.)
Rice - mediocre
Ribs - AWESOME - Seriously. These were the best pork ribs I've ever tasted. Better than Jack Stacks, and better than Texas Roadhouse. (At Jack Stacks you don't want the pork ribs anyway, you want the crown prime beef ribs.)
Sauces - Great selection of different kinds of bbq sauce. They tasted delicious, including the habanero. Except the whiskey bbq sauce tasted like fermented something. But everything else was bueno.

Only one reason to go to Sticky Fingers in my opinion. Their ribs are the best I've tried.

The key lime pie was good, but I don't know what makes key lime pie great, and this wasn't great key lime pie, but I was full and the pie was good.

So, next time you're down in the Carolinas, I echo Trevor. You'll have to give Sticky Fingers a try.

2006-06-07T22:31:00.000-07:00

MITT ROMNEY IS THE COOLEST

Here is a link to see a 25 minute video interview on the Charlie Rose show.

2006-05-30T17:48:00.000-07:00

RED LOBSTER

Just a quick post. I just finished eating dinner at Red Lobster. I ordered the steak, shrimp scampi, vegetables, salad, and a sprite. Great waitress, great hostess, great employees, quick service and an otherwise pleasant dining experience except for two things.

1. The lettuces composing the salad had obviously been in the refrigerator for too long and had become slimy. You can't do that. That's just plain nasty.

2. The entire restaraunt smelled like urine. I am not kidding. Reeked. When I first went in to be seated I almost turned around and walked out. I almost asked the hostess if some kid had peed in the reception area. I know some parents have trouble with their kids peeing anywhere they please.

I got a bachelors degree in facilities management. But even an armchair facility manager knows that if you run a dining establishment, and it smells like an unwashed restroom....that is not a good sign for the future. (Jay shudders)

2006-05-28T08:20:00.000-07:00

HAPPINESS POLICE

A few days ago I was talking to a friend. He started talking along the same lines of something I’ve thought about often, namely, how possessions don’t bring happiness. I agree with that sentiment. Then my friend took it one step further than I have taken the subject in my thoughts. “I think we ought to tax things that don’t make people happy. Lexus’s for example. They’re a status symbol. They’re there only to make people feel better about themselves, but it doesn’t work. We should tax that. Boob jobs. We should tax them because it just makes every woman in the world hate her own body that much more.” I then described a billboard I’ve seen advertising for breast augmentation. It featured a picture of a woman in a bra, but it only showed the woman’s chest. The sign said “Two good reasons for plastic surgery.” When I saw the billboard with my brother in the car I laughed and said: “That pretty much sums it up eh?” When I later saw the same billboard with Angela in the car she hated the billboard. Why get every man who sees the billboard thinking that every woman needs perfect breasts, and every woman who sees the billboard thinking hers aren’t good enough?

Next I asked my friend: “What about Rogaine? Should it be taxed?” He replied that Rogaine fit his criteria, although he hadn’t thought of it at first. (This particular friend uses Rogaine himself.) In the past week I’ve been thinking about the sort of things I would tax heavily if I were king and could decide this sort of thing. I would tax the usual sin tax items. Alcohol, tobacco, and firearms would get taxed heavily. Luxury cars, jewelry, country music, porn, cruises, cheap plastic toys imported from Asia, custom homes, and the list could go on.

After a short while of pursuing this thought train a few things occurred to me. First of all, a lot of those items basically are already ‘taxed’ heavily, meaning that customers already pay a premium price for the symbolic nature of the luxury item. The rest may not make me happy, but a lot of people would claim that their favorite items on the list make them happy. And who would be the one to decide which items really truly do make others happy? I can hear it now. Well, Jay obviously doesn’t think that alcoholic beverages make people happy. How does he know? Who is he anyway the happiness police?

As a frequent traveler I have become a travel snob surprisingly quickly. I prefer the Marriott Residence Inn to the Holiday Inn, (and Marriott Hotels for that matter). I don’t like renting the Ford Taurus, and prefer the Pontiac Grand Am, or the Chevy Impala. When did I get so picky? My pickiness started fairly recently. Spending so much time in hotels makes me appreciate subtle differences that I hadn’t noticed before. Is that good taste or snobbery? I don’t know but I wouldn’t like the happiness police telling me that I have to sleep at Comfort Inn, instead of Residence Inn because the extra $70 per night isn’t making me any happier. People generally want the best if they can afford it.

And so I arrived back at my basically libertarian worldview that government ought to keep its nose out of our business as much as possible and take leave of social engineering.

All the same, I think that as we make our individual choices there should be bright articulate people making the case for simplicity.

I wish the friend of mine referenced above were the one making the case for simplicity as he is so much more articulate than I am. But this is my blog, and my case for simplicity will have to be made another day. You can expect another post about this from me at a future date.

2006-05-17T21:15:00.000-07:00

MEN WHO MAKE BLACK AMERICA BETTER

A few years back a friend of mine recommended I read "Making Black America Better". He said that most of the essays in the book were drivel, but it might be a good example of the kinds of conversations that take place between black people when they think white people aren't listening. Then he said "And seriously, the best essay, I kid you not was written by Shaq." Well eventually I got around to reading the book, and I was curious to hear what Shaq had to say. His essay was a short paragraph that basically said that America would get better for Black people when we (black Americans) start behaving better. That struck me as straight talk. I've respected Shaq a whole lot more since then. I don't care if he can't rap.

When I was in college I took a philosophy seminar where one of the good examples of human excellence given was that of George Washington Carver. George Washington Carver paved the way for a lot of the success of the civil rights movement by living unselfconsciously, living excellently, and living as a good example of true human goodness. Here is the story that I heard. "One day George Washington Carver, a celebrated researcher and highly respected individual in the northern United States was visiting some friends in the southern United States. They were all walking down the street together when an ignorant southern redneck hick yelled out menacingly: 'Hey Boy, get over here and chop this pile of wood.' So George Washington Carver cheerfully went over and chopped and stacked the man's wood. George's friends looked on in disbelief. When he was done, they said 'Hey why did you do that? He isn't your boss. You aren't his slave. He had no right to boss you around like that.' George Washington Carver replied. 'He wasn't bossing me around. I was happy to help him.'" George Washington Carver showed in that instance that he had risen above racism. He was free to be a happy person. He was free from hatred in his heart. The southern racist igorant hick was the one in chains. The ignorant southern racist hick would never have a chance at excellence, unless he could rise above his way of being, his heart was still bound tightly.

In a lot of countries when there is a repressed minority, the country winds up going through a bitter civil war, or internal uprising. In America we skipped the violence and the war, thanks to the persuasive power of Martin Luther King Jr, and those who he persuaded. The civil rights movement could have been much uglier if it hadn't been for the fact that it was only the white people who were acting like animals. Martin Luther King Jr, and the people who nonviolently asserted their rights persuaded white America (over generations) that their racist views were wrong. The civil rights movement, and Martin Luther King deserve our honor.

Two personalities that are doing wonderful things to persuade Black America to rise up and take their place in society deserve our honor as well. What brought my thoughts to this topic was today's copy of USA Today. In the Life section there is an article on Bill Cosby. Mr Cosby is touring the country, and has been for a couple of years trying to persuade middle, and lower income African Americans to behave better. Mr Cosby is saying things that can be hard to say, but need to be said sometimes. Bill Cosby has been a great role model from my earliest memories. Keep up the good work.

Another personality making America better is Tyler Perry. Who is the man? Tyler Perry. Mr Perry, I will go to all of your plays, TIVO all of your sitcoms (when I get a TIVO), and buy all of your movies. Tyler Perry, you are the man. Unless you're dressed up as a very funny woman, that is.

2006-05-16T20:46:00.000-07:00

ONE BAD REVIEW

This is a bad review. I know that the title of this blog is Big Jay Reviews Everything, but maybe it should have been titled Big Jay Tells You What He Likes. In principle, I am against publishing bad reviews. I ripped that principle off of Orson Scott Card. He writes a weekly column for the Rhino Times called Uncle Orson Reviews Everything. (Okay I ripped off the title, AND the principle.) He says that he doesn’t give bad reviews of books because the harshest criticism is silence. I agree. But today’s bad review is about something everyone has pretty much already heard of, so silence just won’t cut it. I give one thumb down to the TSA. You know, the security guards that help make airports safe.

Hey, I could give them two thumbs down. They’re pretty efficient. If they were terrible at what they do, I would make it two thumbs down. I just object to them being there in the first place. I think they’re mostly a waste of money.

After September 11^th nobody felt safe flying in airplanes. Who could blame them? Hijacking an airplane turned from something that was a major inconvenience to a lot of people, to a missile in the sky that would kill everyone in the plane, and a lot of people on the ground. The stakes had risen. To bolster public confidence we got air marshals, beefed up security in the airports, and more secure cockpit doors inside our airplanes.

I agree with the thicker cockpit doors. I agree with the air marshals. It’s the beefed up airport security that bothers me. They have all these silly little rules. For example, if you carry a laptop through security, you have to remove the laptop computer from its case and put it in a bin with nothing else. Your shoes, cell phone, car keys, wallet, and whatever else can’t go in there with the laptop, it has to be alone. But I have a dell laptop just like 800 million other people and one day I noticed that the person ahead of me, and behind me both had the same exact laptop. So I tossed my cell phone in with the laptop just so the three computers didn’t get mixed up with each other. What happened? They did an additional security check on me. It took about 3 times of this happening before I realized that I was doing it to myself by putting something else in with my laptop. So I got a magic marker and put a big dot on my laptop and stopped putting other stuff in with it.

If you go through and don’t take off your shoes you have the same problem. You get scrutinized a little more.

TSA takes tons of objects away from people. I’ve seen nail clippers, beard trimming scissors, lighters (this one is a conspiracy between Michael Moore, and the tobacco support products lobby) etc… Dominate, intimidate, control, that’s the motto. And for what? So we all feel safer? Let me tell you what I think. I think there is no possibility ever in the future of an airline getting successfully hijacked in the future. Passengers on the plane won’t tolerate it anymore. With the images of the world trade center in our heads we will tear any hijacker’s limbs from his body if he were to even try it. That’s the truth.

Do I think the TSA should go away? Well, I guess not. I just think they should lighten up a bit. However, I believe in obeying the law. So I’ll be patient while my luggage gets searched.

2006-05-15T17:15:00.000-07:00

GEORGE W. BUSH ON IMMIGRATION

I just finished watching Bush address the nation on immigration reform. I thought it was a good address. He sounded kind but firm. This is just an initial knee jerk response: Sounds good to me.

See, Duya can sound reasonable, and persuasive when he makes the effort. Why doesn't the Bush administration make the effort more? And why didn't he make this speech 4 years ago? Why do we have to have rallies all across the country just to force the issue? Why can't our politicians be proactive and come up with solutions to problems before they reach the crisis stage?

Good job dubya. Keep up the good work. Be more proactive in the future please?

Go Mitt Romney! And Go RED SOX!

2006-05-12T20:07:00.000-07:00

ANASAZI FOUNDATION - One of the best things going.

I mentioned in my last post that I used to work for Anasazi Foundation. I just wanted to say a little bit more about this place. Anasazi Foundation is really one of the best things going. I can't really do it justice. I was cruising around on their website and came across this video, and it brought back a flood of memories. What a great company, with great leadership.

2006-05-12T19:35:00.000-07:00

FROZEN CUSTARD - Try it now. Time is wasting.

As I write this blog entry, my wife is out shopping and will bring back a delectable concrete from Sheridans Frozen Custard. Every time I drive past that place I want to stop. Oh baby.

The first time I ever heard of frozen custard was in Arizona when I worked for the coolest outdoor behavior healthcare program in America - The Anasazi Foundation. Anasazi has a parents seminar that I would attend on my off weeks, and every time Mike Merchant broke the seminar for lunch, he would recommend some places people could go to eat. He always mentioned Nielsons Frozen Custard. "You've got to go and try a concrete." he would say, but I never EVER went. The funny thing about it is, when I worked at Anasazi I was more addicted to creamy treats than at any other time in my entire life. You see as a staff member at Anasazi, we would be on the trail for 8 days and be hiking around the desert, and in our food packs would be very very healthy food. It was delicious food, and there was lots of food in the food pack, but very little sugar. In fact, if I remember correctly each of us got something like one cup of tang, and 1/2 cup of brown sugar, and a bag of raisins that was all of the sweet sustenance we ate while on the trail. On the trail the closest thing to ice cream was something we called 'wet dog' which is made by mixing one part tang, one part water, and five parts (or something like that) milk powder and stirring it up into a frosting like consistency. If you were hungry, had been hiking around the desert, and you used your imagination, wet dog almost tasted like an orange creamsicle.

When I got off the trail, I would always purchase a pint of Ben & Jerry's ice cream and chow down. For some reason, ice cream was my favorite dessert after getting back from the trail. (Also oreos dipped in peanut butter tasted AMAZING) So it blows me away that I never once tried frozen custard despite the numerous suggestions.

After getting married, my wife and I lived in St. Louis. That was where I was introduced to a very cool place called Ted Drewes. If you're visiting St. Louis, and want to check out a local place for dessert, Ted Drewes is the place to go.
One of the coolest things about Ted Drewes is the way he hires his staff. They're all high school kids like you'd expect. But Ted has standards. You need to have something like a 3.5 GPA, and prove it, in order to work there. He only wants smart kids making change for customers. He also has some sort of scholarship program for his employees to help them pay for college when they move on after High School. Consequently every Ted Drewes location is staffed with the best kind of employees. Customer service is 100% top notch. There is always a line out front, but service is so fast it is totally amazing.

So do yourself a favor. Look up the closest frozen custard place nearby and go pick up a concrete. You'll be glad you did. And if there isn't a frozen custard place nearby, even better. Take advantage of the temporary gap in the market and open up your own place. Staff it with high school kids who have a minimum of 3.5 GPA.

2006-05-12T19:22:00.000-07:00

ONE OF MY FAVORITE PEOPLE - BEN STEIN

Ever since I saw him as the dull economics teacher in 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off', I have liked this guy. One of the nicknames we used to call our son Ben was 'Baby Benstein' (Because Ben was literally addicted to those evil 'Baby Einstein' videos. Those videos are like crack cocaine for babies).

But I like his point of view on pretty much everything. He writes a monthly column for 'The American Spectator'. He has written several books, like 'How to Ruin Your Life', and 'Yes! You Can Time The Market'. In my opinion, everyone should read everything published by this guy.

Ben Stein - Star!

2006-05-12T16:52:00.000-07:00

ONE GREAT MOVIE

My kids watch TV. I usually can't watch it with them because their TV interests usually don't have a lot of overlap with mine. They don't watch the History Channel either. But there is definitely one movie that I can watch with the kids anytime they want to watch it. It features a hero so likeable that I just can't help liking him, along with all the other characters in the movie.
That's right. I love "THE INCREDIBLES". I'm not ashamed to admit it. In my opinion, this movie is one white hot grease fire of pure entertainment.

It's funny, it's smart, it's good.

Parts I especially like:

The part when Dash is running all through the forest from the guys in the machine gun helicopter/planes, and he realizes that his superpower is just as cool as anyone else.

I liked the part when their plane got blown up, they're falling toward the ocean and Mrs. Incredible grabs the kids and stretches out to a parachute and glides safely down to the ocean. Then she stretches out into a boat and Dash motors them over to the island.

I like the part on the island when Mr. Incredible throws the rock at the guard's head and knocks him out.

I like that part where they're flying down to the city in the winnebago and land in the middle of traffic and get in an argument about which exit to take.

From beginning to end this movie is enjoyable for me. But am I the only one out there who noticed a resemblance (in theme only) to that old book Atlas Shrugged? Anyone else notice the similarities? The villains are the untalented people of the world. "Everyone's special Dash." "Which is like saying no one is."

Anyway, its been awhile since I heard what Brad Bird, creator of 'The Incredibles' is up to. I'd be interested in knowing what's next. Anyone out there know?

2006-05-11T19:23:00.000-07:00

SOUTHWEST AIRLINES - **** 4 STARS

I fly something like 15,000 miles per month. So I spend a lot of my life on airplanes, and in airports. Some airlines I like, and some I do not. But one of the airlines that definitely stands out is Southwest Airlines. I like Southwest Airlines' rapid rewards program. It is easily the best, most flexible frequent flyer program there is. Eight round trip flights gets you a free ticket. It's cut and dried. When I stay in numerous hotels I can get rapid rewards credit to speed up the free ticket process.

But the biggest thing that sets Southwest Airlines apart from other airlines is their committment to cusotmer service from the top of the organization all the way down to the bottom. At the top of the organization somebody decided that they were going to make it as easy as possible for customers to change flights. If it is an hour before my flight and I need to switch to tomorrow's flight, the person on the other end of the phone helps me. Customer service reps don't give the company away, but they're fair and consistent.

The committment to customer service is there as well for 'lower level' employees. It's like they like the company they work for, and are happy to see that we're flying with them. Its almost so thorough that there are too many examples to mention. At almost every encounter, the employees of Southwest Airlines give just a little more than I expected.

Of course I don't like the fact that I don't have a predetermined, set seat, but I don't mind it so much.

Keep up the great work Southwest. I give you 4 stars.