Gas Prices

I've been seeing stories about $4 gas this summer.  It doesn't seem that far off. I'm already paying 3.40 for premium, which is something like 3.19 for regular. (I think the most I ever saw near my house was 4.25 for regular when it peaked a couple years ago.)

I found this interactive chart on gasbuddy.com. It only goes back 6 years, but that's far enough to see when prices first crossed 2 bucks a gallon: a mere 6 years ago. (Granted, I'm assuming it didn't do so earlier, followed by a big drop to get down to where this chart starts.)



(Note that this chart is live, so it's 6 years back from whenever you're reading this.)

Is this worth kvetching about?  That was a rhetorical question.  Here's something that bugs me.  Let's say we get $4 gas by May.  Doubled in 6 years.  But I'm not earning twice what I made at the beginning of 2005.  Heck, looking at today's $3.18 average for Illinois, I'm also not making anywhere close to 1.6 times more. If I really want to disgust myself -- you can decide which part of this equation disgusts me more -- I'll look at what gas prices would be if they increased as much as my salary did since hitting $2 a gallon.  You know, I don't think I could complain if gas had risen all the way to $2.33/gallon.

Reading in the 21st Century

I finally have my "books read" list into a mysql database. I haven't come up with any good report output, but I'm imagining I'll have to write some kind of program to generate it; something automated and better than the old manually created lists I used to make. Obviously, I'm not setting the bar very high, I know.

Given that, here's a simple list of the books I've read in the last decade.  Frankly, I'm surprised I was able to do this without relying on stored procedures or what not.

I realize this looks sloppy in Internet Explorer. But it looks just as intended in Firefox!  The perfectionist in me wants to waste the rest of the night trying to get it to look good in "all" browsers -- but the realist in me says, meh.

mysql> SELECT distinct b.title,
    -> (select group_concat(aa.firstname,' ',if(aa.midname is null,'',concat(aa.midname,' ')),aa.lastname)
    ->    from authors aa,books_has_authors bb where bb.authors=aa.oid and bb.books=b.oid ) "Authors",
    -> concat(b.monthread,'/',b.yearread) "Finished"
    -> FROM books b
    -> WHERE b.yearread>=2001 order by b.yearread,b.monthread;
+--------------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+----------+
| title                                                        | Authors                               | Finished |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+----------+
| Ways That Are Dark: The Truth About China                    | Ralph Townsend                        | 7/2001   |
| Check Your Local TV Listings                                 | Omar Williams                         | 9/2001   |
| Lord Of The Rings, The: The Fellowship Of The Ring           | J.R.R. Tolkien                        | 12/2001  |
| Lord Of The Rings, The: The Two Towers                       | J.R.R. Tolkien                        | 5/2002   |
| Death Of The West, The                                       | Patrick J. Buchanan                   | 7/2002   |
| Final Judgment                                               | Michael Collins Piper                 | 1/2003   |
| Jennifer Government                                          | Max Barry                             | 1/2003   |
| Planet Of The Apes Revisited                                 | Joe Russo,Larry Landsman,Edward Gross | 8/2003   |
| Franchising For Dummies                                      | Dave Thomas,Michael Seide             | 10/2003  |
| Lord Of The Rings, The: The Return Of The King               | J.R.R. Tolkien                        | 11/2003  |
| Sellout: The Inside Story Of President Clinton's Impeachment | David P. Schippers,Alan P. Henry      | 1/2004   |
| New Gambler's Bible, The                                     | Arthur S. Reber                       | 3/2004   |
| Basic Blackjack                                              | Stanford Wong                         | 4/2004   |
| Blackjack: The Real Deal                                     | Phillip J. Vogel                      | 4/2004   |
| Snow Crash                                                   | Neal Stephenson                       | 4/2004   |
| Losing Bin Laden                                             | Richard Miniter                       | 6/2004   |
| Madame Hillary: The Dark Road To The White House             | R. Emmett Tyrrell,Mark W. Davis       | 9/2004   |
| Diamond Age, The                                             | Neal Stephenson                       | 10/2004  |
| Cryptonomicon                                                | Neal Stephenson                       | 11/2004  |
| Acting                                                       | Richard Boleslavsky                   | 12/2005  |
| Moslems: Their Beliefs, Practices, And Politics              | Gabriel Oussani,Hilaire Belloc        | 1/2007   |
| Quicksilver                                                  | Neal Stephenson                       | 8/2008   |
| Confusion, The                                               | Neal Stephenson                       | 10/2008  |
| Mystery                                                      | Peter Straub                          | 8/2009   |
| System Of The World, The                                     | Neal Stephenson                       | 10/2010  |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+----------+
25 rows in set (0.11 sec)

Christmas Movie

I'm not a big fan of movies with subtitles, but "Rare Exports" looks pretty cool.  I saw this on io9.com.  Someone remind me when this is available at home.

The Small Town Secrets Suite

This song from "Behind The Mask" was also on "Pondering The Imponderable" -- one of the two mp3.com CDs I slapped together back when mp3.com was about the bands, man -- but with most of the introductory dialog cut out. That slightly shorter version is the one used here in this almost-video. It's just the lyrics, but it's a way to get it online. Facebook doesn't have the 10 minute restriction that youtube does, which means you have to have a facebook account to see it. But I'm pretty sure I made it so it's visible to "everyone".

This gives away a lot of the bigger plot points from the first 17 episodes of "Twin Peaks". But if you're like me you've seen them all a dozen times, so no biggee.



Part II was subtitled, "Ghostwood". And I never got around to making part III, which would have been Windom Earle related somehow.

Dungeons & Dragons

More nostalgia. Check out this ad I saw on Retrospace:

So I held up my copy of the Monster Manual next to my computer screen. The picture's identical, but it must be a different edition, since the words are in different places. I remember when I bought it (circa 1980), it seemed so expensive. I don't know how the edges of the book got worn and cracked. I haven't kept these things in a sealed vault, but I'm not using them to kill roaches, either. Must be the passage of time.

In addition to fantasy monsters like dragons and orcs and gelatinous cubes, the Monster Manual had more mundane creatures, too, such as this entry for "Owl, Giant":

Giant owls are rarely encountered as they inhabit only very wild areas. They are nocturnal predators and effective hunters. Giant owls speak their own language.

A giant owl strikes with its two sets of sharp talons and its strong beak. Its feathers allow it to fly with nearly absolute silence, thus it surprises on 1-5 (on a 6-sided die).

These creatures are intelligent and will sometimes befriend other creatures. If encountered in their lair there is a 20% chance that there will be 1-3 eggs (25%) or 1-3 hatchling owls, 20% to 70% grown. The parents will always attack any creature threatening the eggs/owlettes. Eggs sell for 1000 gold pieces, young for 2000 on the open market.

Stretch Armstrong

I never had a Stretch Armstrong -- or the many derivative members of the Stretch family. I may have been too old. I knew kids who had them. This guy at Stretch Armstrong World claims there are only about a hundred left in good condition. And that Kenner was the top purchaser of corn syrup in the years they were in production. How about that.

Rock Band Songs

Have I mentioned I like the Rock Band? And now there's a handy online way to browse through or look for songs.  Groovy.

Drinking

Bottoms up!  IO9 made this clip of drinking in sci-fi movies.  How is it that 90% of what's on youtube is other people's copyrighted material (or, "intellectual property"), and yet when my buddy PJ posts one thing with Carly Simon clips in it, he gets a copyright complaint and the video is taken down.

Learning Guitar

I find these short Guitar World videos with Testament's rhythm guitarist, Eric Peterson, interesting.  But calling them "lessons" is a real stretch.  Unless I'm just such a beginning guitarist that it's just way above me.  I do like what he's doing, though. I'd like to just be able to get that tone.  Or even the simplest progression example that he's doing. Or even the basic do-do-do (below) that you hear so often.  I guess that's where having an actual instructor comes in handy.

We're All Salesman

You know how they say the worst thing in an interview is when they ask if you have any questions, and you don't?  It wasn't really an interview, just a face to face meeting with a headhunter, but I didn't.  Actually, this is the first time a headhunter ever wanted to meet in person.  And since he wasn't representing an employer/job, I didn't think it appropriate to go with the standard-questions-to-ask-in-an-interview-even-though-I-really-don't-care-what-the-answers-are.

And speaking of selling yourself, I just started rehearsals for "Death Of A Salesman" at the Bowen Park Theatre Company.  (Opening night is Rocktober 8th.)  Last night I read the play for the first time. You know, at the read-through.  Wow, that's some depressing tale.  And so relate-able.  Probably more so today than 60 years ago when it was first produced.  But I'm sure I don't have to tell you.

(And now those bits on "Seinfeld" when Jerry would refer to George as Biff start to make a little sense.  But, um, don't ask me to explain how.)