Is the big house in the suburbs really worth it?

Commuting Is a Drag (on the Economy): Money & Happiness – Yahoo! Finance

. . . classic studies of lottery winners and paralyzed accident victims found only small differences in life satisfaction between these groups and control subjects. But certain experiences — living near a noisy highway, for example — become more aggravating over time, something scientists call “sensitization.” Commuting falls into this category.

A friend at work recently bought a big house pretty far away from where we work.  We don’t really have the option of telecommuting, so he drives an hour and a half or so each way (on a normal day.  Bad days can be much worse).  Is he happier that way?  I don’t know. But it’s interesting to think about what really brings us satisfaction.  I don’t think a big house in the suburbs would bring me much satisfaction.  I mean, I don’t have kids now, so I don’t need a yard for them to play in, or good schools, or anything like that, so it gives me some more freedom to choose where I live.  But I live with my fiancee in a two bedroom condo, about 1100 square feet, in a safe but uninteresting community that’s just a bus ride from the Metro.  Would we like a bigger kitchen and some more storage space?  Sure.  Do I need two more bedrooms and a den?  No, not really. I don’t mean to bash those who live far from work.  Although I do give my friend a hard time about it sometimes.  People have different priorities, and one of mine is a short commute.  I had a two hour or more round trip commute for about a year, and I hated it.  My commute is maybe 25 minutes now, and that includes dropping the fiancee at the Metro.  And I’d still telecommute if I had the opportunity.

American Airlines update

Just opened my email box this morning to an email from American Airlines!  After all, it’s only been a week, why wouldn’t they have emailed me by now?

But it was just spam about their AAdvantage program.  Alas.  They had better get back to me soon.  My mouse moves ever closer to the “Click here to file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau” button.

And why doesnt the Prius get 72 MPG?

Go Blue! Volkswagen’s Diesel-Sipping Polo Gets 72 mpg – Jalopnik

I don’t know.  But I know I want my next car to run on biodiesel and need refueling once ever 4-6 weeks.  It’s too bad the Polo has gotten away from the 1989 GTI “17 year old guys think this is cool” look and moved towards the “17 year old girls think this is cute” look.  Maybe if I get one in black and put flames on the side . . .

An intelligent statement from a politician

Techdirt: House Rushes Through Bill To Make The Web More Dangerous For Kids

I know, it’s amazing.

Rep. John Dingell’s statement is worth repeating: “So now we are on the floor with a piece of legislation poorly thought out, with an abundance of surprises, which carries with it that curious smell of partisanship and panic, but which is not going to address the problems. This is a piece of legislation which is going to be notorious for its ineffectiveness and, of course, for its political benefits to some of the members hereabout.”

Well said.  He was speaking of the “Deleting Online Predators Act”, which doesn’t actually seem to delete any predators (Isn’t it nice that they use delete, because that’s an internet word!  They’re so clever and hip!), but actually blocks a lot of websites at any school that takes federal money.  Because that makes kids safer.

Unless you take away internet access completely, it is possible that online predators will get at kids.  You see, the internet is a dynamic, ever-changing thing.  This may seem obvious to many of you.  To to 410 of the 425 members of the House who voted for this bill, it apparently isn’t.  Blocking things on the internet will never work.  There will always be something new you have to block, and the people trying to beat the blocks are at least as good as those trying to block them.  As Techdirt says, why don’t we try educating people on the potential dangers?  Oh, right, that costs money.  Stupid bills like this just allow politicians to pretend they care about children.

Never, ever go out in the sun

CNN.com – Sun kills 60,000 a year, WHO says – Jul 26, 2006

“The application of sunscreens should not be used to prolong sun exposure but rather to protect the skin when exposure is unavoidable,” the report advises.

When the World Health Organization tells me to only go outside when absolutely necessary, I stop paying attention.  Sure, we should do more to protect the ozone layer.  But staying inside with the A/C blasting isn’t really the way to go.

I’m too lazy to look up numbers, but I imagine that 60,000 people a year makes the sun about as dangerous as a pair of toenail clippers.  How many people are there in the world?  Four billion?  What percentage of four billion is 60,000?  Well, I’ll tell you.  It’s 0.0015%.  You’re more likely to be struck by lightning while being mauled by a bear and holding a winning lottery ticket.  Actually, I made that up.  But seriously.  More people die from heart disease because they stayed inside worrying about skin cancer than die from actually getting skin cancer.  I made that up, too, but I guarantee it’s true or your money back.

Does this void my warranty?

Treehugger: Convert Your Car To Run On Ethanol With New Kit

I love the idea of this.  $500-700 and, with a flip of a switch, I can choose to fill my car with gasonline or ethanol.  I’m not sure I’d risk this on my car (It’s not even a year old) without doing some research, but it’s a great step forward.  Why be forced to buy a poor quality GM product just to use ethanol?  Now, I’m still waiting for the Back to the Future banana peel and stale beer fuel, but I guess I can wait a few more years.  Now all we need is an alternative to ethanol that’s a little more sustainable than growing corn.

I am unauthorized

I got this yesterday, but just got around to reading it.

Thank you for contacting us. We consider feedback from our customers to be very important. We are currently experiencing higher than normal email communications from our customers and our response to you may be delayed. We’ll reply as soon as possible and we appreciate your patience in the meantime.

That’s not the best part. This is:

This email message and its contents are copyrighted and are proprietary products of American Airlines, Inc. Any unauthorized use, reproduction, or transfer of this message or its contents, in any medium, is strictly prohibited.

The email message is copyrighted. Um, okay. I guess this is an unauthorized reproduction. What are they going to do, steal 16 hours of my bachelor party? Oh, wait . . .

I also like how they attach a name to the autoreply, as if some CSR actually read my submission and responded personally. How touching.

Gun control – a sensible approach

Bring it On! » Blog Archive » Let’s Complicate Some Issues!

I saw this on Fark this morning. This guy presents a pretty good argument for coming to a compromise on gun control (and rewriting the ambiguous Second Amendment). He compares a gun to a car. Both are capable of killing people if used incorrectly (Or even by accident when used properly), but both become much safer as people learn to use them responsibly.

A big part of his point is that the utter refusal to compromise by the Democrats and Republicans (Beyond “I’ll vote for your bill if you vote for mine” because my constituents don’t really care about your bill) means that, too often, we’re stuck with one extreme or the other, even if most people who understand the issue agree that both extremes are wrong.

Unfortunately, there’s no chance anything this sensible would ever happen in Washington. Oh, well.

Maybe this will help get rid of spam

I’ve just activated Akismet, which is supposed to help prevent comment spam.  If you enter a comment that doesn’t show up for a few days (I moderate all comments until you’ve had one approved, so it won’t show up right away), email me and let me know.  If your comment actually is spam, then please go play in traffic on the highway.

Is it wrong to enjoy Husseins trial?

CNN.com – Hussein: Shoot me if found guilty – Jul 26, 2006

I can’t wait for the movie version of his capture and trial.  It will be like Saving Private Ryan plus A Few Good Men, except ten times awesomer.  The media coverage of this makes it sound like Hussein is playing the charismatic lunatic really well, ranting and raving and refusing to give up on his principles.  Sometimes it gets easy to forget that the guy slaughtered his own people when it suited him, and that he doesn’t like us Americans very much.

But when I read that he said he should be shot like a military man, not hung like a criminal, I envision the end of _Lionheart _that I just saw on TNT the other day where Van Damme is standing over the big bad guy he just beat and the blond woman who runs things is standing next to him looking like she’s trying to inhale herself out of her dress because it’s so tense, and Van Damme is about to kill the guy, but then he doesn’t.  If that guy was Saddam Hussein, and Van Damme was George Bush, and the blond woman was maybe Condi or someone . . . Hussein looks Bush in the eye and says, “Shoot me”.  And for a second you think Bush is going to do it, but then he relaxes and turns around and walks away.

Or maybe you like the Lethal Weapon/Bad Boys/Die Hard ending, where they think the guy is toast, but then he has another gun and as Bush is walking away, Hussein pulls the gun out in slow motion, and then Dick Cheney shoots him in the face.  Bush could smile and say, “Thanks, Dick”, and the audience would laugh. I should be a screenwriter.  This would be the best movie ever.