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Theories attempting to explain the current oil market are quite varied. Wired has compiled a list of the top eight reasons and delves into each one. Its worth a read if you’ve got a few minutes to spare.

The media loves to sensationalize every single thing that might cut your life short at a moments notice. Over the past few years they’ve run the entire gamut. Off the top of my head there is MSRA (staph infection), bird flu, West Nile virus, terrorism, (normal) flu, Africanized bees, pit bulls, overgrown snakes, and SARS.

So lets take a look at the list -

MSRA - MSNBC ran a piece of schlock detailing how your pets could pass the a staph infection to you. This is exactly what we need, millions of geriatrics living in fear of their lap dogs and armies of cats. I can see it now, millions of old people across America are screaming at Fluffy to get away from them. Blue haired and bald people will grab their walkers and canes and rush out the door without remembering to put their teeth in. Old and unable to see over the wheel they take out 3 cars on the way to the pharmacy. Once inside they yell at the top of their lungs for all of the disinfectant, breathing masks, and latex gloves they can find. They aren’t yelling because they need help - they’re yelling because their hearing aids have long since working. The other alternative is that they are yelling because the volume is cranked so high the unit is causing feedback on itself - the poor attendant can only try to understand them as he grits his teeth from the high pitch squelch.

Bird flu - Despite the days spent covering this story only a handful of people have actually contracted this illness. The only one that sticks to the top of my mind is that of a young girl who contracted the disease IN 2006 and later died. It later came out that she was so sad about the death of her favorite chicken that she drug the dead body around and would kiss it. Its no wonder she got the disease - she had no concept of how diseases travel - she couldn’t have known. Her parents should have but not all of us live in a 1st world country - well, we can’t call all of the US a first world country. Trailer parks exist in the southern US (think Florida) where inbreeding and stupidity have risen to epic levels. Three legged troglodyte children run around and eat whatever vermin they can find while yelling that the south will rise again - this rhetoric has been pounded into their heads by the overweight, heavily tattooed, parents who live solely on welfare because the “mexicans” are stealing their jobs.

West Nile virus Human infection is quite rare - in fact the odds of you even catching this disease in 2005 was 1/72,000. The mortality rate was far less - 1/1,724,000. I really done think we have anything to worry about here.

Terrorism - we could go on for DAYS about this one. As Bush says - something something something “or the terrorists will win”. It really doesn’t matter what comes first - it could be something as mundane as “you need to brush your teeth twice a day or the terrorists will win.” It really doesn’t matter - unless you are on patrols in Iraq the odds of the average American dying from a terrorist attack is infinitesimally small. Well, its not really that small but there hasn’t been a major terrorist attack in the US since 9/11 - the odds get smaller with each passing year.

The Flu - Every year millions of young and old are warned about the shortage of the flu vaccine. Every year people flip the hell out. You will probably be fine unless you have an abnormally weak immune system. If the medical system in your country would be ill equipped for an outbreak - say like China - they may shut down your schools if a few children become ill. Yes, the flu is bad this year but its BAD EVERY YEAR!

Africanized bees - this one is seldom talked about because there are very few cases. There was a case in the past week where a mans dog was stung to death. I have a feeling the dog got too close to the bee hive and caused them to react defensively. People shouldn’t go running around in abject terror whenever they see a bee. I’m sure there is someone that put plastic tape over all of their doors and windows when they heard about this threat. I also have a feeling that this person defecates into glass jars and keeps them in their house cuz, ya know, you just might need that jar of urine.

Pit bulls - People train dogs to be aggressive - this breed, in particular, has an extremely strong bite, large size, and is owned by idiots that treat their dogs like hell (Michael Vick?). Any dog can be aggressive - the most aggressive dog also happens to be one of the smallest. Yes, its yo quiero time - the chihuahua.

Overgrown snakes - Jessica can skip this paragraph - I’ve seen quite a few stories about how large snakes are eating household pets in the southern United States. Yippie dogs and cats are the prime targets - meh - let the snakes eat them. It could be that we are destroying their habitat and their food chain forcing them to move. Alternatively, pets could be a far easier prey that have few ingrained fight or flight characteristics and are far better targets. I don’t think we have anything to worry about - unless we get on a plane because there might just be snakes on that plane… yep… snakes on a plane.

SARS - SARS goes hand in hand with the flu - don’t spend your nights treading the carpet bare while worrying about contracting this version of the flu virus. The mortality rate is high - but - a flu epedemic is bound to happen once in a while. Further scientific research will allow us to counter each strain - of course - the SUPERBUG is still out there - we can’t stop that one.

*runs off to build a clean room*

Why would the media make such a big deal out of this stuff? They’ve got 24 hours of programming to fill - and you can only have so many public interest stories… wait… never mind.

You can split it 80/10/9/1
80% sensationalization
10% over analysis
9% public interest
1% real honest to god news

I’ve had extra time to scour the internet for interesting articles - here’s what I’ve found in the last few days

A college educated man experimented to see if he could rise from the ashes with only $25 in his pocket. His goal: to get a job, a car, an apartment, and put some money in the bank before the end of the year without using any of his connections. He succeeded - read his story

America may never become energy dependent unless we make a drastic change in the way we educate our young and the way we value everything in our society - read on

The author believes that we are accepting ignorance and that we are systematically dumbing ourselves down because - its just too hard. Its a fascinating read and ties into a book I am reading about globalization.

Stanford conducted a study on voting patterns based upon how people associate with a candidate - based upon the candidates appearance vs. their own. Great stuff - a summary is available here and you can read the full text at Stanford.edu

We’ve been fighting the war on terror since 2001 and we have still not captured or killed our number one target. Many believe that he is hiding in the mountains nearing the Afghanistan/Pakistan border. We have tried to make strikes in Pakistan in the past but have faced stiff opposition when seeking approval - this time we didn’t ask for permission and we found that there were no complaints made in the end. Hmmm… who would have thought - read on at MSNBC.

CNN fired a producer, Chez Pazienza, for writing on a personal blog - he was not writing about his life experiences while never mentioning his employer. Its a fascinating read about corporate politics - read on

Ok, so I still haven’t done what I set out to do on my day off but I’m getting closer to it with each passing week. I have extremely little free time on a daily basis as I have scheduled only enough time to plow through my routine. There is no extra time for anything else unless I want to cut into my sleep schedule. I do well on 6 hours of sleep but 7 is better. Unfortunately, I don’t move fast enough when I wake up and that extra hour is imperative. Jessica, on the other hand, wants 10 hours of sleep a night. I have no idea how she sleeps that much and still has enough time to do everything. Even when I am bored and have little to do sleep is always a last option for me - she is down for a nap at almost anytime of the day. Often she insists that I join her - (more…)

Its so hard to stay conveniently occupied and entertained and keep money in the bank account. As it stands now I’m on the edge of broke; but, I’m not completely broke so I still have a little bit of breathing room. The new job is going to help out a bunch and I may catch an extra couple of shifts much to the chagrin of Jessica. I need this money and I need to get ahead of things. If I work as little as 20 hours a week I’ll net a few hundred extra a month and it gets me out of hot water immediately. I’m not late on anything right now but if I went another month this way I’d be forced to start doing something drastic like selling plasma or becoming a male prostitute. I really don’t want to become a male prostitute for a few reasons (who else has time to think this out? ) - the clientèle I would draw would be much like the women that Rob Schneider attracted in Deuce Biggalo, the STD’s would be a huge drawback, the military would probably imprison me for trying (thus exacerbating the lack of income), and it would drive Jessica away (again, another bad thing). I could start selling my plasma to make a few bucks here and there but it freakin hurts. I had a friend in HS whose sole source of income was from the plasma he harvested from his body. I’m waiting to go to the desert because I can stop paying for a two giant money killers: rent and food. Both are paid for in the desert and I can take that cash and throw it on a bill. Hopefully, I’ll be down one credit card by the time I get back. If I’m good I’ll be able to get one partially gone before I leave.

It sucks being broke but its nobody’s fault but my own. I’m stupid for doing it and I hope to hell I’ll figure out how dumb I’ve been and never repeat my mistake.

Boredom is synonymous with a lack of creativity and lack of cash flow. There are very few things I can do that take absolutely no money. Think about it - if you want to go somewhere you’ve got to drive and use gas - even if you spend nothing while there you’re out the gas. Unfortunately if you’re gone for long enough you’ll need to bring some food. Sure, you’ve got some stuff in your house that you can bring with you but thats the stuff you bought for lunches during the week. The other option is to eat on the road and spend cash that you didn’t want to spend in the first place.

So, if you’ve got some extremely low cost ideas on how to spend your off duty time let me know - you can only watch TV and goof around on the internet so much - both of which cost money - before you’ve run the gamut and need to find something else to do.

Gee - this was quite a long rambling post - it saved me from boredom for a few minutes but its a solo activity and left out somebody thats sitting on the couch begging for my attention

Yesterday I woke up to my boss knocking on my apartment door saying “SSgt King – Wake up!” Needless to say, I swore immediately for sleeping in and I looked incredulously at my alarm clock which was set. How in the hell could my alarms (yes, two alarms) be on and I somehow sleep through the whole thing? Needless to say, I felt like such an idiot. He had called me three times and I never woke (darn phone was on vibrate). So, I quickly showered and grabbed my gear and headed off to work. I got my ass chewed much like I though I would. I am in the military after all.

So, last night I was planning on purchasing another alarm clock but I was otherwise, and pleasantly, distracted. You’re not getting any more information than that. Since I was still amped up from my evening, I couldn’t sleep because my mind was racing and I was worried about not waking the next morning. So, instead of getting a great night of sleep I tossed and turned…. and I woke up three times during the night because I was afraid of being late. At 5AM my alarm went off but it was a moot point as I was already awake. I hit the snooze button but was unable to go back to sleep for fear of not waking again.

I don’t like to be late for anything and I really hate it when people have to work harder because I screwed something up…

Yes, fear and trying to keep your boss happy can make you loose a little sleep

Nutsack, err Vilsack has announced that he will no longer vie for the Presidency as he doesn’t have enough money to win. For once, I’m actually glad that winning the Presidency is all about the Benjamins. In a perfect society, it wouldn’t cost the voters or the candidates a dime to run for office. Each person would be allowed free travel on all forms of public transport, free advertising on television and radio, and free web server space. In essence, if they wanted to hand things out to other people, pay for their staff, or eat they would have to figure it out on their own. But, if they wanted to talk to the people about their campaign they would be given the same opportunity as everyone else. In today’s age printed media is on the outs and digital media is where it’s at. I’m sure that we could convince the RNC, DNC, and an independent organization to host their web servers. Yes, I don’t have all of the details necessary to make it all work but it’s a start.

So, in summary

Nutsack done = good
High campaign costs = bad
Socioeconomic disparity between poor candidates and rich candidates = bad

I got an internet connection hooked up in my place today so I can now finally escape the media and news black hole that I’ve been in the past few weeks. Somebody had to tell me that Hillary declared she was running for office and I didn’t even have a clue that she was *officially* I would have been on that like a chubby kid on a cupcake.

My car has a few minor quirks that I’m going to get fixed later today. One of them caused me to key my own car… yes, I accidentally keyed my own car while trying to close the trunk lid. The closers are worn and you have to throw a ton of weight on the lid… when you have your hands full and your keys in your hand it doesn’t work out well.

I’m prepared to be poor as I took a major pay cut to move to the states but I’ve got a plan and thats a second job. Its going to suck and kill most of my weekends but I want to get out of debt. It doesn’t help that it cost me a relative fortune to move over here and replace a bunch of crap that I got rid of or left behind. One way or another, I’ll make it work. If nothing else, I can always start donating plasma and make a couple hundred bucks extra on that deal. I hate needles but I guess thats why they pay people to do it.

Some of my stuff is getting here today so I won’t be wearing the same clothes day after day… I am a bit of a clothes horse so its only a part of what I actually own.

Mission always takes precedence and as a military member we do whats best for the mission rather than what is best for the individual. This time I’m working the same job that I have for the past few years… against my wishes. My biggest dislike, besides the actual job, is that we are hidden away from the rest of the people in the bomb dump so we don’t get a whole lot of interaction with other people. Oh well…

I took a look at the FY07 retraining list and its not as good as last year but I’m going to apply for it regardless. The job I wanted to get into last year isn’t available this year so I’ll have to look at some alternative options. I’ll probably have to redo my flight physical but it shouldn’t take that long… I hope.

When I got to this country I would always go out at least once or twice a month on a quest of debauchery and alcohol fueled stupidity. I was always mad at myself or depressed by the situation that I was in. I would try to meet random women to get myself out of my funk but it never solved my problem. My problem was that I didn’t have any confidence and I was wearing the negative problems with my life on the outside. I expected the worst outcome in every situation.

We all went out last night to have a few drinks and we went to two different bars. In a departure from what I used to do, I wasn’t trying to drink to forget my middle name. I was out drinking to have fun with the people I know. It wasn’t about meeting girls or impressing anyone, it was about having a good evening. While at the first bar of the evening we all sat around and talked about well…. whatever. We moved on to the second bar that had a DJ that wasn’t playing the typical dance music and the vibe in the place was pretty good. We moved to a table that was by the DJ and right on the corner of the 10ft square dance floor. I was laughing and having a good time and my friends suggested that I get up and dance. At one time, I was so self conscious of my actions that I wouldn’t do it at all but now I realize I can have fun. I can dance like no one else is watching. So, I’m dancing with random girls out there that don’t seem to mind. I’m not drunk and not invasive; I’m trying to have a good evening.

A minute or two after I start dancing with a particular girl, a drink idiot decides that I am infringing on his manhood and territory and proceeds to hit me in the face a few times. In the past I would have attacked him with relentless fury and done so without remorse or regard for the consequences. I told him to calm down and be cool, I was out there to have a good evening. The people I was with wanted to beat the hell out of him. I wanted to break a few bones in his face but I decided it would be a poor choice. I am the zen master.

The bouncers immediately came over and I explained the situation and they immediately recognized I did nothing wrong and that I was in full control of the situation. They promised to remove the other guy from the bar if he caused any more trouble. The girl that el douche was with was annoyed with his actions. Women are capable of taking care of themselves and know how to say no when they don’t want to dance with a particular individual. As I was doing nothing inappropriate, he didn’t need to “protect” his territory.

Immediately after the incident I had more respect and admiration from almost everyone in the bar because I could keep my cool went it counted. I knew that even if I did beat the living hell out of that drunk fool that it wouldn’t really matter. I would be the one that would pay the consequences because I was out there as the ranking person in the group and I must lead by example. I knew that because I was sober and I’m well aware of how to break noses and eye sockets, the local constabulary would be less that impressed with my actions if I had started anything major. I was also aware that the major in my squadron would make sure that I didn’t PCS because he would probably try to give me an article 15 and make me an A1C again… I definitely wasn’t going down that path.

Later in the evening the girls that were out with us (all of whom were married). Were dancing and having a good evening when another guy did something that was completely inappropriate. Another one of my friends immediately moved to defend their honor. His actions were completely justified and he did nothing wrong. As typical, the other drunk bloke got his feelings hurt and wanted to defend his manhood. I got in the middle, found his sober friend, and patched things up. He knew I was fine when I wished him a Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah, a Merry Kwanzaa, and a Happy New Year. Again, when it got bad I proved myself to be the zen master.

The entire evening I went out with the mission to have fun and I found myself smiling most of the evening just because I was content with myself and where I was. In some ways, my hate with this country has had little to do with the actual country; my dislike for it was generated in part by my poor attitude. I did notice that I was smiling almost as much as I see my dad smile. I guess its not that bad of a thing.