"I feel bad for Arab-Americans who truly want to get into crop dusting." --Brian Regan

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October 2005 News Archives

October 03    October 04    October 05    October 06    October 07    October 10    October 11    October 12    October 14    October 18    October 24    October 26    October 27    October 28    October 31

What I am listening to as I type this:  Candlebox - Far Behind
What I am currently addicted to: bitching about things

October 31, 2005

Happy Halloween!  I'm Wolverine today.

Crystal Mills arrives today!!!! WOO HOO!!! I haven't laid eyes on her for 7 1/2 years!! As you can tell, I'm excited.  I pick her up at the airport at 6:45 tonight, yes - very excited!!

That's all for now, adios todos.  Oh - new MP3 is up, enjoy.

What I am listening to as I type this:  Led Zeppelin - Black Dog
What I am currently addicted to: bitching about things

October 28, 2005

Lately things haven't been upsetting me, and I really attribute that to a large change I made in my attitude about 2 1/2 years ago, however, this week things have just been irking me ... and I don't think that's because of my attitude, I think it's strictly because these things are just ridiculous.  The sex offender thing I ranted about the other day (which I actually archived to the "My Mind" page as well as the news archives), the Angelina Jolie blurb yesterday, and you can probably tell from the picture above what's about to hit you ...

3rd quarter results were released this week from the oil companies.  Some people are bitching about the revenues not realizing there's a difference between revenue and profit.  Of course the revenues are higher as we're paying twice as much for gas, that's understandable.   But wouldn't you think that since (according to the reasons they tell us the prices are going up) the oil companies are only passing on their new expenses to me, that their percentage of profits-to-revenue would stay roughly the same?   They couldn't possibly be taking more ~profit~ exponentially, could they?  I took the liberty of using the above data (taken from the Denver Post today, Friday October 28, 2005) to check the percentage of profits these companies are making this year as opposed to last year.

These are quite simple calculations.  You simply take their Net Income (Profit) and divide it by their revenue.  You will see that in the case of every major petroleum company, the only one not making a higher percentage of profit is BP, I smell Anderson Consulting and some rich CEOs and CFOs over in England.  For now I'm going to deal with ConocoPhillips, Marathon, Shell, and ExxonMobil.   Specifically, I'm going to drill down (pun intended) to ExxonMobil for our example.

ExxonMobil, the third quarter, just three months, racked up 100 billion dollars. (I only typed that figure that way because I wanted to sound like Dr. Evil). 9.83% of $100 billion is $9.92 billion.  I understand that a business can and should grow & prosper, but in one year to increase their percentage 2 1/2% is absurd.  Had they made the same percentage (7.46%) of profit-to-revenue this quarter of 2005 as they did last year, they would have had net profits of $7.51 billion.  If we take the actual 2005 net profit and subtract from it the net profit with last year's net income percentage, we see that this quarter, they took ($.9.92billion - $7.51 billion) an extra $2.4 billioin from us.   $2,400,000,000!!!!!!  In 3 months!!

It should be noted (and obvious) that I've avoided using all aggregate numbers and dumbed the numbers down to one number.  Additional Profit this quarter.  This is the number that after all their expenses, (salaries, fees, tarriffs, equipment, etc.) they took home in addition to what they took last year.  These numbers are also nominal, and I understand that I should take inflation and expansion into account, but I'm not spending any more than 5 minutes writing this dribble so don't want to waste my time.   When numbers such as "$2.4 billion increase in quarterly profit" are thrown out there, does the 3% inflation rate (3% of $2.4 billion = $72 million) really matter?  No, so don't even email me about that.

I realize I'm repeating myself over and over here, but I need you to see this.   I'm not saying they made $2.4 billion dollars.  They took home $9.9 Billion.   The $2.4 billion is EXTRA money they took - THIS QUARTER - and at the same time, gas has shot up to $3/gallon.  Now understand that one year ago, gas was $1.50/gallon while their profits rose roughly 42% (2.4/5.68).   So my question to you, why was gas 50% less a year ago, and their profits were 42% less?

50-42 = 8.   8%.  Our decrease - their decrease.  8% is the difference. Assuming gas was $1.50 last year, and gas is $3.00 right now - this means that gas should be $1.62 this very second.  Is it?  Just drive down to your local ExxonMobil station and look for yourself.  I use $3 as that what it was during the July-September, although it's actually $2.50 right now.  $2.50-$1.60 = $.90.    My car takes 15 gallons of gas, $15 x .$90 = 13.50.  Each time I'm filling up gas (I do twice a month) I'm throwing away $13.50.   13.50x2 = $27.   $27x12 = $324/year.  I'm GIVING them $324 a year ... with gas at $2.50.   Just throwing it away on top of the extra profit they should be getting, which is ridiculous to begin with.  It's like cutting off a cripple's dick.  They took my legs, I'm in a wheelchair, now they demand an extra $324 from me.  The LEAST they could do is let me keep that $324, but they're greedy fucks, there's no chance in hell they'll do this.

Of course I'm an idiot, so I could be completely wrong about all this and it could make sense another way.  I mean, sure, these high revenues could be from luck, not becuase they're overcharging us at the pump.  There could be a reason that while they're "passing on the higher energy costs" to us and setting all-time corporate net-profit records while raising these prices becuase they "Have" to.  The President of the United States could be telling the truth.  Halliburton may not have lowballed and won the "rebuild Iraq" contract bid (after we blew it up for no reason) and made billions for our oil companies for an understandable reason, for all I know.  There could be a reason I'm unaware of that the president doesn't see a problem with the oil companies taking home an additional $2.4 billion each quarter while middle-class individuals such as myself pay an extra $324/year (minimum) on gas.

Luckily the rich folks get that tax break, I'd hate for them to have to give away part of that $2.4 billion.  Maybe it's not Bush's fault that it happened, I can give him that.  But it certainly is his fault that he *refuses* to relgate it.  I just typed about 2 more paragraphs but deleted them as I don't want to attack anyone, so I'll summarize them by saying this: The oil companies are not at fault.  When kids (oil companies) do something wrong, people always say it's the parents' (President's) fault.   Kids will stay out as late as their parents let them and they'll spend whatever allowance their parents give them.  But when the rules are layed down, children either obey or get punished.  The oil companies are children with no parents.   We let this happen to ourselves, and I'm proud that I supported & preached to vote for the Democrats in the last election.

Thoughts and/or comments should be directed here.

What I am listening to as I type this:  Metallica - Master of Puppets
What I am currently addicted to: eating anything within reach

October 27, 2005

I'm slowly beginning to think I'm the only male on Earth who isn't attracted to Angelina Jolie, and I see nothing wrong with that.  The weird thing is, she has long dark hair, which is my kryptonite.  If a woman has long and very dark brown/black hair, 99% of the time it immediately makes me fall in love with her every time.  Yes, that made sense.  Maybe I just can't get past the fact that I watched her make out with her brother at the Academy Awards ... or it could be the fact that her body is perfect, and most guys want that, but her face looks like it was involved in a sulphuric acid accident, and I'm the only one who has the power to look past the body.  Or maybe I'm just too picky ... who knows.

What I am listening to as I type this:  Slipknot - Before I Forget
What I am currently addicted to: asking people for prayers

October 26, 2005

There's 2 crimes I will never understand, and they're quite similar.  I   understand there's a time to kill, a time to steal, a time to cheat, and a time to lie.  Most every crime, I can see reason behind.  Kill all the animals you want, rob a few banks, drive 120 MPH in a school zone, frankly, I don't care.  However, when it comes to....
A) Rape
B) Anything involving children and sexual acts
.... I just don't get it.  Why would anyone, ever have a desire to do this?   People who do either of these things are plain fucked up.

That being said, I am strongly opposed to all these damn sex offender regestries and "where sex offenders can live" laws.  This is getting quite out of control and is not fair at all to the people who committed those crimes.  It has gone so far that a man in Des Moines now flat out cannot find a place to live.  Iowa, as ridiculous as this is, is basically trying to disallow past sex offenders from living in the state.

Now you'll ask me, I'm sure, "Bryan, would you want to live by a sex offender?"  or   "Bryan, if you had kids wouldn't you want to know that a sex offender lived next door?"   You probably know the answers to those questions, "no way" and "yes"   Regardless, these laws are bullshit and unfair to the recently un-incarcerated.  Based on the crime, we're judging someone after we've agreed to give them a second chance by letting them out of jail! How does this give them a second chance?  Apparently we're worried they'll commit the crime again.  If they're still that dangerous - leave them in jail.  It's as simple as that.  If you're going to let them out of jail, treat them like any murderer or thief.  Do murderers or thieves have to go door-to-door to tell their new neighbors of their past crime?  Do we say they can't live within 2000 feet of any park, school, church, or Starbucks?  Do we build new parks just so it eliminates more square footage in which theives can live?  Nope, this is only for sex offenders.

If we're trying to make their lives miserable by embarassing them by placing them in public and forcing them to live in certain areas and tell everyone and their dog that they're a sex offender, that's quite selfish.  We're doing this to try to ruin their life via embarassment - and in the meantime - we're not looking out for society.   Mind you that sitting in solitary confinement is more safe for society and a lot less dangerous to society.  You mean to tell me that because a man lives 2000 feet from a school that he can't drive there?  How fucking nieve is this idea?  If a guy's going to do a crime, he'll find a way.

Let me sum this up quickly.... once someone is out of jail, they have their probation, and then they're free to live their life.  If you don't wish for them to live their life out of jail, keep them incarcerated.  Instead of wasting our $$ passing ridiculous laws like this, why can't we spend it on more psychological evaluations of these criminals to see wether they should be released or not.   Repeat offenders are high - so we have 2 choices:
1) Leave them in jail
2) Ensure they're rehabilitated before we release them.

Everything else is a waste of money and a slap in the face to those whom we've given a "second chance" to.  If a sex offender, murderer, thief, rapist, animal killer, politician, or drug dealer is let out of jail - he has the right to live wherever the hell he or she wants.  Period.

What I am listening to as I type this:  some shitty Linkin Park song .... "they point the finger at me again"... blah.
What I am currently addicted to: asking people for prayers

October 24, 2005

Seahawks Win!!!! That's some serious revenge for you for doing this to us last year (See Dec. 7).  Ahh, poetic justice.

Congrats to Cori on completing her San Francisco marathon yesterday, and for raising a ton of money in the process!

No more crutches for me, no more boot for me, but -- unfortunately -- no snowboarding or running for me for 6 weeks-ish.  My ankle is still very much broken, but the doc (and Dad) say that I now need weight on it for it to heal properly, so I'm limping around in 2 shoes and an ankle brace.  Spiral fractures apparently take a long time to heal.  Here's a scan of my x-ray taken on Thursday, October 20th.  My next doctor's appointment is the day before Thanksgiving so I can see if I get cleared to ride that weekend.   It's been 9 1/2 weeks since it's been broken, time flies!

Hung out with Hornick and my Dad this weekend as they were both in town, but didn't have a camera, so we'll just leave it at that.  It was great to see both of them.

My throat is very sore.

Seahawks won, Cyclones won, I did well in my Old C's pick-em league, and -- assuming Atlanta's D doesn't score roughly 15 points tonight, I'll win fantasy football (trophy league).

Went to the Avs/Kings game last week, going to the Avs/Cancuks game this week.   Still having a very hard time keeping interest in hockey this season, it's just weird.  Maybe the Canucks game will change on Thursday when Suzy Bertuzzi makes his return to CO ... that dipshit.  I hope Brad May hits him so hard that it ends both of their seasons.

My friend Crystal is coming here next week!  I haven't see Crystal since a week after the fishtank incident back in late March, 1998 -- 7 1/2 years ago.  I'm excited!

I need a Halloween costume, I haven't even thought about it, so maybe you will for me.

The comic's were very funny today, so I'm going to post 2 of the 5 daily comics I read:

What I am listening to as I type this:  Metallica - Seek & Destroy
What I am currently addicted to: asking people for prayers

October 18, 2005

Please pray for Ken Hamlin, who is in serious but stable condition in ICU with a skull fracture, blood clot in his brain, and bruised brain after he was the victim of an assault Sunday night.  After saying "excuse me" to a guy to allow Ken and his girlfriend through, the man shoved him, and then Ken was repetedly hit on the head with a street sign by a man who (we believe) was later murdered in Seattle.  The man whose jersey I choose to wear, and the man who won status as "Mack's Favorite Player" with the best hit I've ever seen in my life (see Sept. 8, 2003's news in my archives) is in dire need of prayers.  Also continue to pray for Mrs. Knudsen, Mr. Sexton, and both of their families and friends.  Thanks.

What I am listening to as I type this:  Depeche Mode - Personal Jesus
What I am currently addicted to: watching my 403(b) and Roth IRA drop like a bad habit

October 14, 2005

I learned last night that my 6th grade teacher from St. Lawrence, Mrs. Sandy Knudsen, passed away in August.  She was a wonderful teacher, she lost a battle with cancer that I didn't know she was having.  Please keep your prayers with her friends and family.

What I am listening to as I type this:  nothing
What I am currently addicted to: reading (currently a Walter Payton book and the Bible again)

October 12, 2005

Time to go on hiatus again, sorry, it's going to be a short bit before I update this site.  I've got a lot of things going on right now and just decided that fleetmack doesn't need to occupy my time until things get a bit less hectic and such.  Stay safe, go Seahawks, and please pray for your everything and everyone you love, and as a favor to me - pray for my high school teacher, Mr. Sexton.  Thanks and I'll be back before you can say "Blueberry Pancakes" .... ok, maybe not that fast, pretty fast though.

Oh ... the Discovery Channel thing is airing in October sometime I think, when they call me and give me the exact date I'll post it in the forums (if I'm still on hiatus) so you can watch my 15 minutes.

What I am listening to as I type this:  nothing
What I am currently addicted to: Watching My Teams Lose In OT

October 11, 2005

no update today, sorry.

What I am listening to as I type this:  Geto Boys - I'm Not A Gentleman
What I am currently addicted to: Watching My Teams Lose In OT

October 10, 2005

It's just another manic Monday, I wish it was Sunday, cuz that's my fun day.

Iowa State lost to Baylor.  I don't really care, just so we beat the Hawks every year, that's all I want.  Seahawks beat the Rams (and took sole possession of 1st place in the division) yesterday, I didn't see that coming.  2 top receivers out, half of the secondary was out, Hasselbeck is partially injured, we're on the road against a top offense in a tough home-field advantage stadium, and we pulled it off.  As I said before, I didn't see that coming.  For the first time (I think) ever I even picked against the Seahawks in my pick-em leagues, I gave us about a 3% chance of winning.  We pulled an OJ court case yesterday, against all odds.

Went and saw Jerry Seinfeld downtown this weekend, that was cool.  Watched football all day yesterday, that was cool.  Finished one book and read half of another book this weekend, that was cool.  Scanned more than 150 pictures this weekend, that was cool.  This weekend in general was very cool.  Going to the Avs/Flames game tonight, that should be cool.  Find out in 10 days if I need crutches any more, that'll be cool.  My fantasy team hasn't officially went 0-5 yet, so that's cool I guess.  It's supposed to snow up to 3-6" in Denver today, so that's cool.   Giggidy giggidy goo!

Oh - got the emails, sorry about the MP3, i forgot the change the name on my server.   The MP3 of the day will work now, I'll leave it up another day.

What I am listening to as I type this:  Rollins Band - Almost Real
What I am currently addicted to: Watching My Teams Lose In OT

October 07, 2005

What a fast week, when you stay this busy at work - the week really just flies.  I absolutely cannot believe it's Friday, it feels like Tuesday.  This weekend will be chill.... very very chill ... we're hoping ISU beats Baylor, and we're hoping I don't cry too much when the Rams somehow pull a last-second victory out of their ass to come back and beat the Seahawks late in the 4th quarter on Sunday (trust me, it'll happen)

Waste some time reading this if you'd like ... more thoughts, I forgot I put them up like 2 weeks ago and never announced it.

What I am listening to as I type this:  Sublime - KRS-One
What I am currently addicted to: Watching My Teams Lose In OT

October 06, 2005

Ok I think this Oracle situation is getting somewhat under control ....

I went grocery shopping last night! (Thanks Jess!).  So I'm all stocked up now, my gimpy self has some eats, and I'm very excited about it.  Basically I did that last night, watched Lost, and then fell asleep while watching the Avs.  I don't know, I just can't get into hockey yet.  Maybe it's early ... but man, it's just so different.  New TV channel (Altitude), no more John Kelly announcing (he went to the Blues), no more Forsberg or Foote, a bunch of players I don't know, new rules, no HD quality picture, too much scoring ... it's going to be tricky and I'm not confident I'll be as big a fan as I used to be.  Only time will tell, I'm going to the home opener on Monday vs. Calgary so I guess that'll be a good test of time for me. Until then - Go Seahawks!!

The Seachickens play the Rams this week.  Unfortunately for me, that means around 2:30pm on Sunday I'm going to be fuming mad.  We never beat those bastards.  At least Trufant should get an interception or two as Martz had Bulger throw 62 passes last week, absurd in my opinion, but whatever.  We can't seem to ever beat that team, so we'll see what happens at the Worst Show on Turf.

What the hell am I talking about, I'm predicting the Seahawks to win by 24 points, seriously.  Those Rams won't know what hit 'em.

New Wil$on picture is up, and MP3 too -- that's your reward for coming back here after the shitty updates this week.  Hope your week is going fine and dandy like cotton candy.

What I am listening to as I type this:  Disturbed - Stupify
What I am currently addicted to: Watching My Teams Lose In OT

October 05, 2005

mutherfucking oracle.... &*(&*(#$ &#*($&@*(#$ &%*(#$&%*(#& *%&*#(%&)_!@*)_**(%&#*(%&#()*(& &%*#(&%(*@&!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What I am listening to as I type this:  Breaking Benjamin - Sooner and Later
What I am currently addicted to: Watching My Teams Lose In OT

October 04, 2005

busy, sorry.  please contine to pray for Mr. Sexton, thanks.  (no, I have no new info on him, just thought I'd throw that out there today)

What I am listening to as I type this:  Ozzy Osbourne - I Don't Know
What I am currently addicted to: Watching My Teams Lose In OT

October 03, 2005

I hate Nebraska ... first they beat ISU in double-OT, then their old kicker misses a last-second field goal for the Seahawks, forcing overtime, which (as usual) we lost.   I don't think the Seahawks have ever won an overtime game.  I'm getting damn sick of hearing a Seahawks game is going to OT, becuase you can basically immediately chalk it up in the loss column.

My left pinkie has been going to sleep for about 2 days off and on VERY regularly, I think the crutches are starting to give me poor circulation, this probably isn't normal.

I'm listening to a Mushroomhead version of a Seal song (Crazy) ... this is downright horrible.

I can't get this damn Oracle9i shit fixed, bugging the piss out of me.  The trace file has me stumped:

Dump file d:\oracle\admin\adv0210\bdump\adv0210_qmn0_3548.trc
Mon Oct 03 12:02:11 2005
ORACLE V9.2.0.6.0 - Production vsnsta=0
vsnsql=12 vsnxtr=3
Windows 2000 Version 5.2 Service Pack 1, CPU type 586
Oracle9i Enterprise Edition Release 9.2.0.6.0 - Production
With the Partitioning, OLAP and Oracle Data Mining options
JServer Release 9.2.0.6.0 - Production
Windows 2000 Version 5.2 Service Pack 1, CPU type 586
Instance name: adv0210

Redo thread mounted by this instance: 0 <none>

Oracle process number: 9

Windows thread id: 3548, image: ORACLE.EXE


*** 2005-10-03 12:02:11.360
*** SESSION ID:(8.3) 2005-10-03 12:02:11.344
SGA initialization / DB open not complete even after 5 minutes, QMN0exiting
error 604 detected in background process
OPIRIP: Uncaught error 447. Error stack:
ORA-00447: fatal error in background process
ORA-00604: error occurred at recursive SQL level 1
ORA-01219: database not open: queries allowed on fixed tables/views only

Oracle's answer to me:

Ignore these traces or for the case of the QMN0 trace start instance with init parameter aq_tm_processes=0 so that QMN0 process does not start and you don't see these messages and the tracefiles and then do an "alter system set aq_tm_processes=n" when the database is completely open to start the queue monitor process if needed.

WELL HOW THE FUCK CAN I IGNORE IT WHEN I CAN'T START THE INSTANCE?!

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