The Majestic Beagle

Lately I have come to appreciate the majestic beauty, skill, and excellence that is the beagle. Captain of the scent hounds, the beagle has one of the best noses on planet earth, and when trained accordingly makes for a great hunting dog. My dog, Daisy, pictured in the large pictures above, is a retired hunting dog abandoned in 2005 in upstate New York. (The smallest pic is of an unknown beagle, what I imagine Daisy looked like in her youth.) Daisy had at least one litter of puppies, never saw the inside of a vet, and by all likelihood had a great life hunting rabbits in some rural setting as a hunting dog prior to 2005. Why anyone would not want her is beyond my ability to comprehend. She is such a good girl, wanting only to please and be with the pack. I am in awe of her handsome form, soft coat, and cute moves that she does looking for food. A champion beggar and curb shopper, Daisy attacks trash with reckless ambition determined to find a snack. She has been my dog full time for a year and a half now.
What I love about her is her quiet confidence, how she has "plans" when we go out for her walk on the yards that she wants to hit and grills she wants to patrol. I love it how she cheats death, both via overcoming illnesses (a tumor in her chest, liver problems, pancreas problems, a neck injury, accidental overdose of breathing medication, collapsing trachea, irregular heart issue, ear infections, and those are only the things I can think of now) as well as refusing to give up when she was chained to a pole in a grocery store parking lot awaiting a dog catcher. I love it that she can and will use deception on other dogs to get what she wants. I love her little quirks like being afraid of thunder and lying in laundry strewn on the floor. She is a great dog and it breaks my heart to think of all of the shelter dogs that are put down everyday. I encourage everyone: please do not buy a puppy without at least visiting a shelter once. Given the economic downturn, many pets are being surrendered that deserve a second chance. Daisy got a second chance and her loyalty, company, and love have changed my life forever.

Book "The Secret" and the net haters

For some reason people love to hate Rhonda Byrnes' book, "The Secret." My own opinion on the book is complicated. The short version is that I do think there are some truths in the book, universal truths if you will, but I think that they are told through the lens of the author and make little sense to a lot of readers. The author was in a tough spot of trying to back up the principals with examples, so of course the examples were isolated situations with the reader lacking facts. (Like the part about visualizing checks coming in the mail. That really only makes sense for people who don't have direct deposit, you know?)

The net is full of blogs of people ranting about how infantile the book is and how it doesn't work. I don't need to post any of those excerpts. I did find a poem that I liked from an author that passed away in 1933 that summarized some of what was enclosed in the principals without getting too specific:
http://lvcsb.com/blog/2008/11/03/the-secret-controversy/

“THOUGHTS ARE THINGS and wings: And that we send them forth to fill the world with good results, or ill. That which we call our secret thought speeds forth to earth’s remotest spot, Leaving its blessings or its woes. Like tracks behind it as it goes. We build our future, thought by thought, For good or ill, yet know it not. Yet so the universe was wrought. Thought is another name for fate; Choose then thy destiny and wait, For love brings love and hate brings hate.” Henry Van Dyke

I think a lot of people read the book and take it literally. Or, find it childish. One author that I really like and respect, James Kunstler, has suggested a la "The Secret" that wishing for things is a child's pastime and adults shouldn't be thinking anything besides productive activity is what creates wealth. http://www.kunstler.com/
That is the link to his site, although I forget in which posting he mentions his view. I don't disagree with JHK entirely, however, there are aspects of it where what is now wealth creating, a company like google, was once someone's idea, and only an idea. The person had to do the work of creating the company, but it did start out as one idea. In short, there is a lot of wiggle room on the topic of whether "The Secret" works. My investigation into it all has been mixed. I am looking forward to hearing the experiences of others.

Season Finale of "Real Chance of Love"

Season Finale of "Real Chance of Love" on VH1

I knew that Real never had romantic feelings for Bay Bay Bay. That was obvious. She doesn't have a soft side that would be appealing to most guys. I thought Real genuinely cared for MILF, and so that's why I was surprised that he eliminated her and kept Bay Bay Bay in the previous episode. Chance eliminating both Risky and Cali at the end was a surprise, but only a small one since this opens the door for a season 2. I didn't get a read on either of those 2, since Risky didn't open up much and Cali seemed sort of average, which is funny since that is what she called Risky.
All in all, the best parts of the season were the funny clips of Real and Chance, their baby pictures slide show on the drive in date, their jokes, etc. In the episode where the girls pimp out 2 BMWs as a challenge for dates with the brothers, Chance is repulsed by the sight of a decal of his brother's "big ass head" on the driver's side door of the car. That was awesome.
I wish Risky and Cali the best of luck moving forward. I had hoped at some point in the season someone would call out Bay Bay Bay for being judgmental, two-faced, and aggressive, however it didn't happen. Since I hear that Bay Bay Bay will be returning for "I Love Money 2" my hopes for her being called out continue. I wonder who will be the one to tell her how annoying she is and how rude she speaks to people and about people. As far as "break out stars" from the series, I can only guess that Bubbles, MILF, and Bay Bay Bay will be invited back to do more "VH1 Celeb Reality" shows with Chris Abrego and Mark Cronin producing. Also, what ever happened to "My Fair Brady"?
(pics were hard to organize: from the top going down: MILF, Bay Bay Bay, and Cornfed. The last 3 girls Real had. Cornfed, short blond hair, was the only winner of the show and picked by Real.)

Dr. Pepper Info

I wonder what Axl thinks? Info for contacting Dr. Pepper:

Dr Pepper/Seven Up, Inc.
Attn: Consumer Relations
P.O. Box 869077
Plano , TX 75086

Chinese Democracy is Finally Here!

The album is good. I like it, and think its worth $12.99 to check it out. "Tunes" in Hoboken swore to me over the phone this week that Sunday at noon they would have it, but didn't. My copy came from Best Buy on 23rd Street. I like to go with the small retailer when possible, but in this situation they lied to me and I had to patronize corporate America.
Speaking of corporate America, Dr. Pepper is pissing me off. First, they promise a free 20 oz soda to everyone if "Chinese Democracy" is released in 2008. They set it up so that you have to register on their site today ONLY to get the coupon mailed to you. Of course, with so many people trying to get their free soda, the site has crashed. I am wondering what Dr. Pepper is going to do about all of the people who claimed they couldn't register because the site is down. I am going to write a letter to their "customer relations" dept. They knew they set up the promotion this way, so they shouldn't be surprised that their site has crashed. Where is the tech support? In addition, they are doing things like this:
In case you haven’t already found out about how Slash got snubbed by Dr. Pepper as part of the drink manufacturer’s recent “Chinese Democracy” promotion, I’m gonna give you a little heads up just so you know what I’m talking about.

Dr. Pepper has vowed to give everyone in the U.S. a free can of the drink if Guns N’ Roses’ long-awaited new album, “Chinese Democracy”, is released this year. Everyone, that is, apart from Slash and Buckethead [Guns N' Roses guitarist 2000-2004]. Oh well… here’s what Slash had to say:

“Yeah, someone sent me a text about that at 3:00 a.m. last night,” Slash replied. “I thought, ‘What kind of left-field shit is that?’ It’s pretty funny, actually. I guess Buckethead and I will just have to make do with Coca-Cola."

http://www.zmemusic.com/other/slash-comments-getting-snubbed-by-dr-pepper/

To me, that isn't cool of Dr. Pepper, to get involved in personal differences between various current and "ex" members of the band. Isn't their job to sell soda? I would think excluding Slash would offend many fans of the band, as it has surely offended me. Thoughts? Not that I bet Slash gives two shits about a free soda, but in principal, its a crappy move.

More carts in 3 days!

As of Tuesday, 3 days away, there will be 6 more carts showing up in the basement. I spoke with the super, who nicely asked me in the meantime to leave the cart I am using in the basement for the rest of the building to use to move clothes from the washer to the dryer, and I responded that I would comply. The cart shortage will soon be over. I will be returning my cart to the basement momentarily!! No more hoarding, guilt, or lack of supply!(I may have to remove my pic from my blog in case anyone in my building reads any of this. What are the odds of that?)

Supply/Demand Imbalance and the Human Response

When the normal balance of supply and demand shifty, to either oversupply or under supply, there is a predictable human reaction. In the case of oversupply, the "it" is suddenly cheap, and wasteful tendencies kick in. In the case of under supply, the "it" becomes dear, and hoarding tendencies kick in. For those of us who are bearish on future supply of crude oil, (thus bullish on price) such human habits and behaviors in response to economic trends have the potential to cause all kinds of problems, civil unrest being one, and must be monitored closely.
Outside of such a precious and vital commodity to 21st century America like crude oil, the human reactions to under supply in other situations, albeit much less important, are the same. Case in point: laundry carts. (see pic) I live in a building of about 50 apartments, likely 100 people or so, possibly more. And up until a couple weeks ago, the tenants of the building amicably shared about 8 laundry carts, for use in moving laundry and groceries from the basement to the apts via the elevator. Unused carts lived in the laundry room, and on any given day, there were usually 2 or 3 sitting unused. I personally had no knowledge as to the issue of ownership: I assumed they were owned by the management company for general use.
At some point, the management company decided to change the company that provides the building with washing machines and dryers. When I left to go on vacation, it was business as usual in the laundry room with no mention of any changes. When I returned, there were no machines down there, and a letter posted in the elevator that the old company had come ahead of schedule to take their machines, and that the new ones should arrive over the next few days. I was pissed! I had dirty clothes from a vacation and no way to immediately wash them. I grabbed one of 2 laundry carts sitting in the empty laundry room, and headed upstairs to begin sorting.
Two days later, there were new machines, and I got the vacation laundry washed. I returned the cart, however, had to take it back the next night to do an emergency load as my dog made an unexpected mess. I am ashamed and embarrassed to admit that: I kept the cart in my apartment for over a week as I kept anticipating doing laundry, but never quite got around to it.
Tonight,I finally got around to it, at least a week later. As I was exiting the elevator in the basement with my laundry in the cart, another tenant from the building pointed at the cart and said to his 3 kids standing next to him, "She has one." As I finished loading my clothes into a machine, another tenant who was also doing laundry asked if she could use my cart just to move her clothes from the washer to the dryer. (Prior to the cart shortage, such a request was unheard of.) "Of course," I told her. She explained to me that the carts are mostly gone, taken by the company that had previously provided the building with laundry machines, as that company owned them. Under supply!
Could the cart that I was using be one or two that had escaped repossession, as they were in some one's apt at the time? I know it wasn't my apartment, since I had been on vacation. I had been lucky enough to grab one of the few remaining carts the moment they were of least use: when there were no laundry machines present on the premises.
Now, I am in a conundrum. Whoever has the other cart(s) in this building aren't sharing, at least not to my knowledge. I haven't seen anyone with another one in a while, and to my knowledge the laundry room has been void of them altogether over the past week. Tonight, I have been spotted twice with the one that I have. What should I do? I can't hoard it forever, (it isn't even mine to begin with!) but I know if I return it to the basement for others to use it, I will likely not see it again for a long time. Its such a pain to move wet clothes from the washer to the dryer without a cart! What am I to do? Anything other than just putting it back in the basement for others to use it is wrong: unfair, wrong, and wrong. Yet, I find myself totally unwilling to voluntarily give it up. Eventually, if enough people spot me with it, someone will ask me directly if they can use it, and I must say yes. But in the meantime, I have dirty clothes that require transportation to and from the basement, just like the rest of my building. Currently, as horrible as this is, I am trying not to get spotted with it, to at least postpone the inevitable. Will update when something happens.
In the meantime I have been thinking about what this would mean if the "it" in this case were not a laundry cart, but some amount of crude oil. People would be hoarding it, not caring as to who else needed it. What cut in supply would be needed to ignite said hoarding instinct? And what would that mean for the rest of us? Over the summer when oil was at $147 a barrel, the Saudi Oil Minister told CNBC, "There is plenty of oil for everyone" but it surely didn't feel that way. It felt like hoarding time. Imagine if there really wasn't "Enough oil for everyone" and hoarding behaviors did kick in? The world is so much more interconnected that anyone realizes, which raises the potential for disaster infinitesimally. I can only image the hoarding that will take place if and when there ever is a true shortage of crude oil, and the civil unrest and disasters that will go along with it. JHK has a name for said disasters: "The Long Emergency". And, he is likely correct. It will be a "long emergency" with many trends interwoven, dominated by the lack of reliable supplies of oil. To make matters worse, the general public has no idea any such challenge awaits us, and so lacks everything from coping mechanisms to backup plans. It has the potential to be an economic Armageddon: oil effects food production, shortage of food sparks hoarding, hoarding leads to violence, fiat currencies cease to represent "value", consumers lose their "wealth" and resort to vigilantism, the govt collapses, "business as usual" becomes a thing of the past, and society at large creases to exist as we currently know it. While all of this scares me, I insist on being realistic about the potential challenges we may or may not face. (Maybe an alt energy industry will explode over the next 5-10 years and less access to fossil fuels may turn out to be a good thing, increasing the competitiveness of our new economy, who knows what the future holds?) What surprises and scares me most is when I try to start a conversation about such challenges with someone who doesn't work in finance or energy; it frequently flops completely because the other person seems to be totally and completely unable to process what I am saying and converse about this in any meaningful way. Unfortunately, this includes many people that I care deeply about. Any suggestions on this one?
In writing this post, I have hopefully reduced the likelihood of being spotted with my laundry cart. Wish me luck safely going to and from the basement as a laundry emissary. I must return the cart eventually, and soon guilt will kick and I will give it up. For the meantime though, I am trying to move as stealthily as possible, avoid being spotted, and return with clean clothes. Are clean clothes moved easily worth such a selfish hoarding act? Not forever, they are not.