I named him Jeff.

In all likelihood you won't get any posts this weekend till later in the evening. So I'm going to give you this post as filler. It's a ridiculous post - but hey, at least it won't be about the economy and how the world is coming to an end.

A few years back Mr S. and I got one of those preying mantis pods from the local garden store. We had intended to place it in the garden. At some some we arrived at the idea we'd hatch the sack inside.

I can't remember if I thought they'd have a better chance if they were a little bigger before we put them out. Or I just wanted to see the whole hatching thing. At any rate - we bought an old cheap fish tank and put the sack in. The pod eventually hatched and we were presented with all these manti. At some point we realized we needed to feed them, and even wound up driving to Concord to buy crickets because none were sold locally. I know.. entering crazy town. I swear to you - I'm sane. Curious. But sane.

Anyway. The end result was complete amazement and how the species could continue to exist at all. Most of them died because they couldn't even escape from their own skin. The molting process doesn't seem to suit them well. In the end we had one mantis. Frankly I don't remember what we did with him. I think we might have released him.

Fast forward to about a month ago. The Mr. and I were coming home and discovered a mantis at the front door. So I scooped him up. I told Mr S. that he wouldn't survive his first molt. And anyway - I didn't think these things were native here. Like that gave me complete license to keep him captive. The only reason he was here was probably the result of people like me who had bought pods from the local garden store. The Mr. was so not happy, because I'd already named him. He started out in a small Styrofoam cup. Because, he was allegedly "temporary".

Jeff did survive his first molt. And second. And third.

I told Mr S. that I would release him as soon as he molted his wings. That way he could fly to where ever a mate was. Besides - he probably wouldn't have survived this long outdoors anyway.

So, it's been hanging out in a big Styrofoam takeaway soup bowl.

The thing is - he seems to be oddly happy with his environment. And why wouldn't he be? Food comes to him.

For a couple of weeks now we've been leaving the lid off, and he pretty much just hangs out around his soup cup. It knows he has wings (if he is a "he"), because he freaked out at his shadow last night and made a huge display. But, he seems quite acclimated to us. Which sounds weird to say. I know insects really don't have any capacity for that. I've even had him at the computer a few times while I was working, and he doesn't attempt to get away at all. He just hangs out. He could fly anywhere he wanted.

A couple of days ago we found a couple of other matis's - so maybe they are native, but Jeff is like a thoroughbred compared to them. He's all giant and and green. And I've named him. So... there's that.

Did you know these things can live 18 months?

This is what the bad economy has done to me. Reduced to playing with insects. But, hey - everyone else is playing with yo-yos again. I saw a guy just tonight hanging out in a parking lot by himself yo-yo'ing. Pretty soon it will just be playing with sticks and rocks.

Buyers regrets.

More later.

Bad ass.

Aston Martin.

Gripes R' us.

I have to admit - I'm in a bad mood today. The day didn't start well.

It's hot. I'm bored. I don't want to spend money because every time things look like they are improving, the plane hits the tarmac again. And even if that weren't the case - there isn't anything interesting to buy anyway. There are no good events. Because, everyone is broke. The parks suck, because it's hot and bone dry.

So unless your into dating, or yoga, or mind body wellness - there isn't shit going on. And - I'm so hating people.

I never ever thought there would be a case when so many people are out of jobs and people become so freaking lazy. It used to bug the crap out of me that people didn't want to take my money. Now it's even freaking worse. If you can believe it. It's like they've all become lobotomized. I know - business is way down. So lets give people worse service.

I've come to the conclusion I expected too much of the world.

Then, I attempted to try a new breakfast place this morning. It was one of those places that gives you a menu at the door, and you have to stand in line to order. Which drives me nuts. So, we scratched that one. We went to one of our old standbys and PG&E had shut their power off for the morning. I'm sure they don't make that much money on Sunday morning service. Right?

We then chose the next closet place. Which was a disaster. To show you, I present you with this picture.



Now, it isn't unusual for restaurants to bring things out in a skillet. However - this was at least a 12 inch skillet. With the handle, it was two feet wide. Who does that? My old timey newspaper could have completely fit inside it. And yes. I do still read the old timey paper on Sundays. I have to check the rental market, and see what the housing market is doing.

We couldn't get our check when we wanted to leave. Our waiter disappeared. Which resulted in the owner asking us if we remembered what we ordered. Which I'm probably just being bitchy about. But, seriously?

What's in your parking lot?

Update - Mr S. points out to me that BMW's and Mercedes are not Asian made. Point well made. However - still not American made.

I was over in Cupertino today walking through a parking garage at the mall. I will say right away - the place has a very high Asian population.

Still, it took me by surprise just how few American cars there were in the garage. I turned to Mr S. and said "OMG Mr. S - look at this.

Every single car is Asian made. Look! Honda,BMW,Toyota,Nissan,Lexus. The population isn't 100% Asian, so it was pretty fascinating. And yes, I'm racist - so I think Asians only buy Asian made cars. Well, mostly I think random chance would have made it so there was at least one American made car in these rows.



Not a single one of these cars was an American brand.



Same exact thing on the opposite row.



Now, I'm going to have to start paying more attention to parking lots in general to see if this is more widespread.

OH! Hold the boat.

"We don't give up. We don't surrender our fates to chance... this country wasn't built just by griping and complaining. It was built by hard work and taking risks."

When I read this quote from Obama today - I couldn't believe my lying eyes. I mean, seriously. That's what he is going with? Because, I'm pretty sure he has spent every waking moment for the past 6 months telling us we weren't allowed to take risks.

Honestly - just stick the fing words "Obama limit risk taking" into google.

And really - is it such a good idea to call the many millions of people out of work, and the now 34 million people on food stamps - whiney little babies?

Last I remember, that would be the entire population of California on food stamps. Of course, I"m sure that number has gone down recently.

It doesn't seem like such a popular thing to do. Just sayin.

You can't save everyone.

A cat, trying to be a splat.



I don't know what was up with these guys. As I was driving down the three story parking garage - I didn't see any bodies falling.

While I'm at it.

Farmers are assholes. Yeah. I said it.

Okay - you remember a few weeks ago when the "administration" was buying mozzarella cheese for the food banks? Every since then, this cheese conversation has cropped up in my house about a million times. Why you ask? What a ridiculous thing to irritate you. People are hungry ya'll.

Well, you see the reason is this. My family was the beneficiary of good old fashion government cheese. And, we would have died to have Mozzarella cheese. DIED. Here is a picture of what it used look like. It came in foot long blocks. However, this wasn't from the 1950's. It was from the Reagan Era.

Today while I was trying to find pictures of old timey government cheese - I ran across the reasons why Regan gave cheese aid to poor folk. It was because the farmers had overproduced, and couldn't sell their products at a profit of course. The government artificially keeps the prices of cheese high, so the farmers don't go out of business. Instead of you know.. them producing less. Also making it so everyone else in the free world pays more.

Later Reagan figured out he should buy the farms and sell them rather than keep subsidizing dairy prices.

So why is Obama buying Mozzarella cheese? Same reason!

It's funny how they bury this stuff. They had a report on my news about it - only they phrased it in a way that it didn't even register at first. I turned to Mr S. and in a confused tone said "did they just tell us the administration is keeping the price of cheese high so farmers don't go out of business?" We actually had to run the tivo back. And sure enough.

TIMES WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT
TUESDAY, JUNE 30, 2009

WASHINGTON — An organization representing dairy farmers around the country called on the Obama administration to boost prices the government pays for excess cheese and powdered milk, saying the move would help ease the strain that low milk prices have caused farmers this year.

The National Milk Producers Federation asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture to raise support prices by several cents per pound for cheese and nonfat dry milk, two products that heavily affect milk prices paid to farmers.


Oh - and President Money Bags - couldn't buy the cheep cheese. He has to buy premium cheese. So if you happen to be struggling, and don't understand why milk prices are so high? Well....now you know.

Same story - different day.

I have to tell you - these road construction guys make a vein in my neck throb. These pictures were taken around 2-2:30. Since I was by myself - I had to take random shots while trying to not run over cones, or hit anyone. So, the pictures aren't the best.

To tell you the truth, I circled the block for 30 minutes trying to get a clear shot. Yes, it pisses me off that much. They are taking money from productive working members of society and giving it fuckheads that sit on their asses.

Anyway, these guys had cleverly positioned themselves by the pole (ironically that says "no stopping any time"), so you couldn't get a long range shot. Their truck was blocking a shot from the other side. Surely they didn't plan it that way. They must have been doing hard work right? (shrug) They were filling squares of concrete in the sidewalks. Not whole segments mind you. Just a square here and there. Very important necessary work. Unlike building a reservoir or something.

I would have kept trying to get a good shot. But after their 30 minute break, they got up, got in their trucks and left. Huh. I guess that rules out a lunch break then.





10% of people don't have jobs, and this guy is on his ass.

Five minutes of shock and awe.

It's been a while since I've seen anything that made my jaw drop. But this video made me want to move to Japan right this minute. Honestly.

Move....to.. Japan.

I can't take my eyes off this thing. You have to watch the whole thing. And really - if I need to urge you to do this, I have to rethink our relationship.

It's gotta make fake indians cry.

The subject line is obviously a reference to the commercial many of us grew up with in the 70's. (here) The guy in the commercial apparently wasn't even Native American. Whatever.

Listen Readers, you call know I'm not an environmentalist. Right? However.. there has been something that has been bothering me lately. It's the ridiculous embarrassment of the cities who have stopped picking up trash on the freeways. San Jose being especially bad. I know, I know - we are out of cash. But really? All these photos were taken today, and I could have run a whole picture card out taking pictures of it. Honestly, so much trash I don't know how they will get rid of it all. The even more peculiar thing is for the larger trash items. They send out a city employee who puts a red cone by it. I'm not even joking.

It's one thing that I pay taxes for this kind of crap. But oh yeah! Where are the "mother earth hippies"? I guess it doesn't feel as good picking up trash on a freeway as it does picking trash up on a beach. They... love... mother earth. Don't they? Because from the freeways in California - it doesn't look like it.

At any rate. I'll give the hippies a break. What I really think they should be doing is letting low risk prisoners work off their sentences. A form of early release. Based on performance of course. You don't get to come and just show up. We get people to pick up trash. I'm sure a ton of people would actually work to get out of prison early. We save money from warehousing them all.

Honestly - the whole thing is embarrassing. What do tourists think when they come here and our freeways have an insane amount of trash littered on the medians? Look at the pictures.

Bad ass - mall edition.

Normally I'm not so hot on the Lotus's. But, I liked this one. I think it's the carbon fiber looking back window. Plus, there aren't too many cars that could really pull off this shade of orange.

Sunshine and lollipops.

Listen - I know you don't come here to be bummed out. I will have have some interesting stuff for you soon.

Yet, I was wondering... is the stock market making you feel all fine and rosy? Is the administration soothing your nerves that everything is going to be okay? Companies are reporting better then expected profits? Well, cut it the hell out. I don't say this to shit on your parade. However, I've been watching in a highly perplexed fashion companies report a decrease in profits from 25% all the way to 91%.

Sure, you say, these people are still making a profit. Not so fast optimist one. These kind of hits in profit only spell one thing. More layoffs. Don't believe me?

It was either yesterday or today that I heard a small blip that oil companies are laying off staff. Despite the high oil price right now, these companies have taken a big hit in profits. It turns out there are actually a lot of layoffs in the queue, but companies are doing it in a fashion that doesn't draw attention. Smaller, with gag orders and the like.

The other peculiar item is - a lot of the companies that make green jobs are also laying off. Siemens, GE. Which is odd. As a solid moderate - I'm left to decide if the administration doesn't see whats happening, or is purposely running us into a ditch. Because, you know, if I'm the president my top priority is to make sure that people get back to work. They sort of start getting hostile after a while. When you stray from that purpose, it makes people a little paranoid. Especially when jobs are being cut from both sides of the energy equation. People who work in energy make a pretty good living after all. And not all those evil corporate CEO's. All the union guys.

If all that doesn't make you feel like jumping off a bridge (don't by the way), I flashed on growing up in the 70's. A time of plentiful layoffs. They always used to layoff right before Christmas. Always. Even though I was super young, it has always stuck with me. Poor people are always laid off first, and the kids would always not get any toys.

It stuck with me enough that every time there has been a recession and people got laid off around Christmas I would flash back and think "man it just sucks - they always do this right before Christmas". It is as consistent as the day is long.

Maybe I'm crying about the sky falling, and it really won't. Stroll through layoff tracker and see if you still feel the same. From what I see, manufacturing is going to take a pretty bad hit. All of a sudden you'll hear stock market guys talking about a "sudden and severe correction".

Just sayin. Besides - if you squirrel away a little cash and it doesn't happen, what harm is done?

Wow. Just wow.

These people are seriously fing joking me. Right? I can't even believe how much these people have lost their minds. I swear things have been good for so long, people starting getting bitrot in their brains, and have actually turned mentally ill. Because honestly, I can not believe the insanity of the world right now.


From the AP.
MEXICO CITY – Surprised tourists found their little piece of Cancun beach paradise ringed by crime-scene tape and gun-toting sailors on Thursday.

Environmental enforcement officers backed by Mexican navy personnel closed off hundreds of feet (dozens of meters) of powder-white coastline in front of a hotel accused of illegally accumulating sand on its beach.

Mexico spent $19 million to replace Cancun beaches washed away by Hurricane Wilma in 2005. But much of the sand pumped from the sea floor has since washed away, leading some property owners to build breakwaters in a bid to retain sand. The practice often merely shifts sand loss to beaches below the breakwaters.

"Today we made the decision to close this stretch of ill-gotten, illegally accumulated sand," said Patricio Patron, Mexico's attorney general for environmental protection. "This hotel was telling its tourists: 'Come here, I have sand ... the other hotels don't, because I stole it.'"

Unintentionally Funny

Keep in mind, this is not a parody. The Interviewer here is real true greenie.

Does she thinks this helps her cause? Doesn't she realize that this just shows the Green movement to be the latest version of the Emperor's New Clothes?

This totally reminds me of a video from the Howard Stern show from before the election. A Stern staffer went to Harlem to interview people about how they felt about Obama, except the interviewer purposefully switched all of Obama's positions with McCain's.

Do you see me now?

Someone needs to start getting a hold on unemployment. People are losing their shit.

"Fresno, CA (KFSN) -- Long lines, short tempers and hot temperatures turned into a recipe for an ugly scene that started as a job opportunity and ended with five arrests. Police say people started lining up before 5 a.m., hoping for a job at WinCo. The grocery store is still under construction at Kings Canyon and Peach but the hiring process is already underway.

Screams and fighting women interrupted the wait for a job Monday. It happened when hundreds of people showed up to apply for work. Instead, they ended up witnessing this brawl. "Out of nowhere they just start hitting each other, and the next thing you know more people start fighting," said Eduardo Oceguera.

Fresno police officers arrived on the scene within minutes. They say the fight was the result of a longtime family feud. Five people are now facing charges of fighting in public. "One officer arrived, tried to separate the fighters and had to resort to using pepper spray on three or four people," said Sgt. Richard de Jong.

The people who lined up for jobs say tempers started to get short as people waited in the hot sun for hours. Many left disappointed, leaving with only an application. "I thought we were going to be interviewed on the spot. But we got in there, and they gave us this paper, and it says to come back to Piccadilly "

Watch the video here.

Good for the soul.

Normally I'm not hanging out in Oakland - unless the court is forcing me. Yet, getting out of town always means finding a good breakfast place. My city completely disowns breakfast. They act as if it doesn't exist. We have 3 breakfast places, and only one of them is good. Since I only eat breakfast on the weekends, it's fun to hunt down good places elsewhere.

Since I was going to be up in Berkeley - we thought we'd find a place up there. The yelp search turned up a place called Lois the Pie Queen. Normally I would have dismissed this place altogether because it was in Oakland (not Berkeley), but it was the most highly rated restaurant. And - you see the name right? How does that not intrigue you?

After google mapping the place to see if the area was ghetto, we decided to try it. I'm glad we did. They make everything from scratch. Even the English muffins. The biscuits make you want to cry they are so freakin' good. The owner came out to thank you when you left. It was just a really nice place.

It's like a dark cloud that follows you everywhere.

I have to admit - the unending stream of bad news is a constant strain. So when the stock market went up, it seemed people were starting to feel a little better. There were way more cars on the road. Even I started to feel a little relieved. I thought the whole thing was a head fake. Yet, maybe I was wrong. Everyone was saying the worst was behind us.

One thing that was especially troubling me was the amount of people who were saying retail was going to explode. I'd only been into zombie malls in the last couple of months. The ones that have been struggling for years. Surely all the malls weren't as bad off. I didn't think they were doing great either.

So Mr S. and I set off for a mall in one of the wealthier districts. What I found there honestly flipped my shit. 90% of the stores had a billboard sign right at the front door touting their markdowns. I know this is a seasonally slow time of the year, but I've never seen anything like this in my life. Most were doing an odd "buy one, get the second at 50% off". Many were just up to 60% off, and some all the way to 70% off.

The furniture store was just closing it's doors all together and having a fire sale. Even so - no one was in the store.

The rare exceptions? Abercrombie who was wafting fragrance out the door with abandon. And the Apple store. The corresponding AT&T store which was huge, was completely empty. All the baby clothes stores seemed to be going completely out of business. This was a high end mall.

I honestly don't know how those guys are going to make it. It also confirmed what I was feeling before - all the supposed good news is a head fake. As much as I hate to say it.

The other troubling thing I saw was this:



EBT is food stamps. Honestly, the use of food stamps had been so low - I didn't even know they'd changed the name to something less stigmatizing. The use has apparently gone up enough that even 7-11 is taking it now. Which is very troubling. This doesn't sound like the use of food stamps is going to be a temporary thing.

Octopi in the sky.

Berkeley kite fest. More to follow.

When the price goes up, people buy less

I'm constantly amazed at the economic illiteracy of our government, news media, and the general public.

Ok class, say it with me:

"When the price of something goes up, people will buy less of it"

It's something we all deal with on a daily basis.

• When gasoline prices spike, people drive less.
• When airline prices go up, people fly less.
• When beef prices go up, people eat less beef.
• When home prices go up, people buy less houses.
• When the cost of a movie ticket goes up, people go to the movies less

It doesn't matter what the object or service is, when the price goes up, people tend to buy less of it. Common sense, right? People intuitively get this. No argument, no excuses, no "well, that's just one theory" -- people pretty much accept this as a true.

"When the price of something goes up, people will buy less of it"

So what do they think is going to happen when the cost of minimum wage labor goes up?

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

It's a great gig.

There is something that has been bothering me for quite a while now. I've spent lots of time trying to figure out how to explain it so I didn't seem un-thankful for the dangerous jobs they do. Generally I'm extremely supportive of people who serve our country. However, this one issue keeps poking me and poking me.

It's the firefighters.

Remember a while back when I mentioned I felt firefighters were padding the payrolls? I only became aware of this issue because all the firefighters in my town were sporting really expensive cars. New Volvo's and Audi's and the like.

At the time I wished I taken pictures, because it seemed pretty unbelievable that I was claiming most of them were driving so many expensive new cars. Sure, maybe the chief was sporting an expensive car here and there, but surely not most of them.

Except for the last 10 years, I never remember firefighters driving in such luxury. They all sport these licence plates, so it's easy to tell they are firefighters.

Well, this month I got an opportunity to show just the kind of cars our firefighters are diving. Lexus, and BMW 5 series. These pictures were taken a couple of weeks ago, and I thought I could still squash the feeling to blog about it.






Then last night, I read this story where they sent 35 firefighters to a house fire.

"By Roman Gokhman
Contra Costa Times
Posted: 07/22/2009 09:20:05 PM PDT


MORAGA — A kitchen fire caused $250,000 worth of damage to a Moraga house Wednesday morning.

The fire was reported at 10:15 a.m. in the 1100 block of Larch Avenue by the resident, who returned home from running errands to find his kitchen on fire, Moraga-Orinda Fire Department investigators said.

The department and Contra Costa Fire District sent 35 firefighters to the home. By the time they arrived the house was empty. They were able to contain the blaze to the kitchen and attic, though the rest of the house had extensive smoke damage.

The fire was controlled at 10:40 a.m. The cause remained under investigation Wednesday evening."

Maybe it was a ginormous mansion right? Not so much. I plugged the block into google maps, and the houses are somewhat average. 35 guys are a huge amount of people.

I noticed this trend on my own block one day. I heard all these sirens. I thought it was a huge house fire. It turned out to be a small fire. Flames and smoke never even erupted from the house at all, and there were about 10 guys. I have pictures. I was shocked the house wasn't more fully engulfed for the amount of people they sent.

Now I don't begrudge these guys for working hard and buying beemers. But, padding the staff kind of pisses me off. Considering our state is in so much trouble.

People have lost their minds.

Some days - I don't know what is becoming of this country. People have lost all touch with reality, and honestly - it freaks me out.

I ran across the video before the actual AP story. Which really bordered on histrionics.

From the AP.

"MIAMI – The body of a shark was left lying in the middle of a downtown Miami street after two men tried to sell it to several fish markets. The men apparently carried the five or six-foot-long fish around on the city's Metromover downtown train, prompting calls to police.

News footage Tuesday night showed the dead animal in the street with police officers and cruisers nearby. Two stations reported that a pair of men had tried to sell the animal to at least three fish markets for around $10."

Oh, thank heavens - I thought. Crime must be really down in Miami, because here there are shootings on the news every single day now. Lots of them.

Ooooh. Wait.

The story goes onto say:

"It was a relief that it was a shark," said Keith Smith. "When I first saw it, I thought it was a body because of all the shootings that have been going on."

The more irritating part is - the amount of resources they deployed for this issue.

"Wildlife officials later determined the animal was a nurse shark. The case could result in misdemeanor charges of improper killing and disposal of an animal and selling a shark without a license."

Really, people? Can you really blame a couple of guys for trying to make some money anyway they can these days? It's a shame they didn't succeed. Shark is delicious. Yet, they closed off the street and went all CSI and made this thing a crime scene. Un,fing,believable.

Well, at least when the police tell you they are overworked, you will know why. Video follows. You seriously have to watch it.

Still ruining the earth.

I haven't had one of these post in a really long time. Companies have been pretty good.

The thing is - I don't even give a shit about the earth. I care that these companies make profits and give people jobs. Which is why, when they send me non breakable items all fluffed up in bubble wrap - it sort of annoys me. What I really want is for them to just shove this shit in a padded envelope so we can all be happy. If you have to run over it with a car to break it - it doesn't need to be in a box. Okay?

This is how amazon.com sent me hedge trimmer line. I bet I could drop a brick on this stuff and it wouldn't break. Sending it in a reinforced envelope seems like a no brainer. And no - I couldn't buy it locally. The stores were out. What do you care anyway. I probably gave five people jobs to get this to my house.



This is the funnier one though. Camera sensor cleaner swabs. For the love of gawd I can't believe I spend 3-4 bucks a pop on these, and still have dust in my pictures. I often find myself chanting "must make clean. MUST MAKE CLEAN". The hazards of changing lenses all the time I guess.



These are super non breakable. The are practically q-tips for shits sake. Envelope please Adorama.

Bad ass cars - geek edition.

You know a viper is enough to catch my attention. You do know that. Right? I saw this car several blocks away. So, I whipped around to take pictures. When I got there I was confused by the CB radio looking antenna. Not so cool. It seemed really odd on an expensive sports car. And, some can argue the older vipers are not as expensive - but, they are much better looking than the new vipers which sort of just look like tiny corvettes.

When I got home I plugged in the vanity plate zoom.com, and found out this guy was from a broadband company.

He couldn't be sporting a wireless broadband connection could he? Because that would be so totally bad ass.

Where did all the flies go?

Mrs S. and I have lived in the same East Bay small town for over ten years now. The town has cattle pastures on all sides. Every previous summer, the town is overrun by flies, especially when it gets hot. They're just everywhere.

But not this year. There's almost no flies at all. Don't get me wrong, it's really nice. But at the same time, a little spooky. What happenned? The cattle are still there. Where did all the flies go?

It's a new world.

Pretty much every day now, there are cars broken down on the side of the road. It's such an dramatic difference from last year - where every now and then you'd see someone broken down. You'd always see the drivers on a cell phone, so there was never any need to stop.

Plus, this is California. We don't really do that around here. Stop, that is.

I was always amazed when I lived in Texas, just how many people would stop to help you. If your boat or car broke down, people would almost fall all over themselves trying to make sure you were okay. Not here though. It's been that way as long as I can remember.

So today when I was out, I heard that familiar sound of someone trying to turn their engine over. I hoped they'd get it running before I got done with what I was doing. It was an older woman and her two kids. Which irritatingly made me feel bad for her and forced me to stop. I tried to remember if I had my jumper cables in the car.

I pull over and ask her if her battery is dead. No - she replies. I then ask her if her car is an automatic or a manual. Which I already pretty much knew the answer to. It was some 80's Taurus kind of car.

In the day, you could pretty much get any car to start by jumping the clutch. As long as your battery wasn't dead. No such luck. It was an automatic. She thanked me for stopping and said she'd handle it.

Later though, it made me realize that all those skills I used to have are now sort of dead. I used to have mad skills working on beaters. The cars have too much crap in the motors now for the average person to fix. And anyway, the Internet tells me how to fix cars now.

That probably sucks for all the people who have had to downgrade into 25 year old cars. Prosperity made it so average people didn't really need to know how to work on them. It's not so great now, when people obviously can't afford to take their cars in for service. It's just weird how times change.

No end of dumbasses in sight.

I thought when unemployment got a certain level, people would get better at their jobs. It turns out I was oh so wrong.

This morning Mr S. and I went to an event which required you to go through metal detectors to enter the event. Which is no big deal. It's pretty much expected with any gathering of thousands of people.

This of course made the line wait pretty long. Additionally, going through metal detectors makes my anxiety tick up a little. I'm usually carrying my camera bag with a couple lenses. I'm not comfortable handing off that kind of money to anyone. Especially not your average security worker.

Most of the time though, they just make you open your bag and all is well. This is what I expected at this event. They'd just want to look in the bag.

So, the girl in front of me walks up and hands her purse to the security guard on the outside of the metal detector. Then walks through the machine. He then hands her back the purse without having her open the bag or even checking inside.

Self I say - that is really odd! Maybe they don't want to deal with privacy issues with women's bags. Still I think, "crap, now this security guard is going to be in full possession of my camera gear". I prepare myself up to tell the guard to be careful with my bag.

I walk up. Hand him my bag, walk through the metal detector. He hands me my bag back. It never goes through the detector, and he never searches it. My eyes become like saucers. If there is any bag that should be searched, mine should fit the criteria. It could never be mistaken for a woman's purse. It also doesn't look like camera bag. It weights probably five or six pounds. It's all hard and bumpy. Sort of like smuggling a six pack of beer or soda in something the size of a womans purse. Only heavier. Since I usually carry it around for hours, the smaller bag I have to carry the better. I shove a lot of stuff into a very small area.

Granted, I don't fit the profile of someone they would expect is going to cause trouble. But, we go there all the time for car shows and they don't have the metal detectors there. So, why go through all the trouble of trucking in the machines, if you aren't even going to search bags? It was just the oddest thing. They were even wanding some people. Yet, if you wanted to get in a gun - I guess you could just hand it to a chick with a purse.

The funny thing is - that when I handed him the bag, I could see it register on his face that that bag seemed oddly heavy for a woman's purse. He still didn't ask to search it.

Typoon summer.

It's pretty unusual to see this stuff in the summer. Hell,these days it's pretty unusual to see it in the winter. I think the state is in 50% severe drought. So it was a real surprise. Though we didn't even get enough to wet the ground at all, all day long you'd feel a drop or two. It was really nice.

You hear that sound?

It's the sound of another bubble popping. NO - seriously.

This post is a little dry, but it gives you a great look into how the clean energy push is going to blow up in the worlds face. These are the same people who are forcing car companies to make green cars and cramming through legislation to force us to use green energy. When the sector right at this moment is dying. It's in serious, serious trouble.

Let me ask you. If you thought you'd make a bunch of money selling a product - wouldn't you jump for joy if you got an 18% discount on buying the machine that made the product? Me too!

Apparently, companies who put up wind farms don't think so. Bloomberg reports that Wind Turbine orders fell 50% the first half of this year. On top of that - turbine prices have fallen 18%. It makes you wonder, how are those companies going to stay in business?

The easy answer is - they aren't. I'm not sure at this point there is any way to salvage this sector.

See, I always thought the "small guys" would be put out of business, and all the work would be funneled to "the big guys". Not so fast eco warrior!

There are a few really large players in the wind turbine field. One of them is Suzelon. It's the 5th largest turbine maker by sales. It seems their turbines weren't built so well, and they had a mishap where a blade fell off of one of their turbines. Which tanked the stock. Here. They had to replace or reinforce almost every blade they shipped. That cuts into profit.

This caused Suzelon to want to take over component companies so that crap didn't happen again. But, this made investors worried Suzlon might not have enough money and would need to sell assets to get it. Even green energy companies aren't able to get loans. And, why would investors be worried really? They only had to slash 50% of it's US workforce due to slack demand.

Apparently they couldn't raise the money, because all of a sudden a company called Vestas is trying to take over a stake in Hansen Transmission which is 61% owned by Suzelon. Except that Vestas doesn't seem to have any money either.

Vestas is the #1 manufacturer or turbines. They just announced they were closing a plant in Britain and the workers are pissed. But who cares really. They must have been giant assholes because the company wanted to move to the US to escape them. They must have crazy labor costs, because the US labor isn't cheap. They bitched and moaned that last year Vestas made record profit. Which they might have.

As usually is the case with these people, they don't understand that last year isn't this year. By the time a company starts letting you know they are in trouble, they've been in trouble a while. And BTW - turbine orders have dropped 50% this year. Do the math geniuses! Or read the news about Vestas market oversupply here.

But, hey - if the prices for these things have been falling, why aren't governments snapping them up at reduced prices? Why? If they were serious about "green energy" this should be a win for everyone. Right?

Apparently not, because prices for the turbines are expected to fall another 20% Which is not good.

Say it with me folks. Not good!

The #1 and #5 manufacturer have laid off 9% and 50+% of workers respectively. What is another 20% price drop in turbines going to do to them? Hmmmm? I haven't looked at the companies in between #1 and #5, but I'd bet money they are not doing any better.

I bet T. Boone Pickens is wishing he would have unloaded those turbines he has sitting around. It looks to me like he was trying to bail before things got really bad.

I always wanted the price of this stuff to come down so I could afford it. So everyone could afford it if they wanted to use it. Yet with a 50% order decrease and an estimated 48% price decrease - it looks like all the governments of the world are not going to be able to hide the fact that this technology was bullshit all along.

As a side note - I find it really dishonest that this Pew article came out a few days ago.


"The report finds that the emerging clean energy economy is creating well-paying jobs in every state for people of all skill levels and educational backgrounds. Included in Pew’s definition are jobs as diverse as engineers, plumbers, administrative assistants, construction workers, machine setters, marketing consultants, teachers and many others, with annual incomes ranging from $21,000 to $111,000."

They didn't use any data from this year, where it's obvious to anyone who looks that green jobs are being shed at an alarming rate. Not being created.

As we stood on the ledge - he said, jump you bastards.

July 8 (Bloomberg) -- " Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling today will set out measures to tighten regulation of the British banking industry, requiring institutions to plan for their own demise, a person familiar with the plan said.

The proposals from the Treasury will require banks to keep on file instructions on how to unwind their own businesses to assist regulators in a rescue. Darling will give details of the plans in a statement to Parliament at 12:30 p.m. in London.

The rules are aimed at preventing a repeat of turmoil in financial markets that forced Britain to rescue Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and Lloyds Banking Group Plc last year. Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s government is coordinating the overhaul with President Barack Obama’s administration in the U.S.

The Treasury is adopting all the recommendations made in March by Financial Services Authority Chairman Adair Turner, who called for a “revolution” in the way the industry is governed. He suggested banks hold more capital and hedge funds be more open with regulators. He wants mortgage loans not to exceed the value of the property they are secured against. "


While all well and good sounding - this is why you can't get a loan. As fewer people get loans, the more the government will require banks to hold more capital.

Now, I despise the banks with every cell in my being, but you only have to look past the immediate gratification contained in the sentiment, and you will realize this pattern will not end well. A plan that would make even the likes of Hugo Chavez proud.

Which to be quite honest - I can't even believe I'm saying. Yet, I can't figure out who is trying to injure us more. The banks or the administration(s).

I can't blame it all on the current administration after all. Way back here in March 2008, I couldn't figure out why banks were dragging their feet so much in the short sale segment of real estate. I still don't understand why honestly. If they would have started moving those houses then, maybe they could have manufactured a softer landing. Back when people still had money.

So, the banks have been trying to injure us for much longer than the current administration has.

Mr S. once said to me "we'll be lucky if we get out of this being as bad as the Carter era". I rolled my eyes and said "people will never let that happen". I'm guessing I will have never been so wrong.