Domestic Geek

When are we in the United States going to wake up? First we're held hostage by the Middle East because of our dependence on oil and now we put our health at risk buying cheap goods from China.

First we had the pet deaths and subsequent pet food recalls because of tainted grain purchased from China. Then we have umpteen recalls of children's toys due to lead in the paint. I heard a story this morning that pets are getting sick due to lead poisoning from toys made in China. Now, beads are being recalled because a chemical reaction caused when a child chews on them releases the date-rape drug GHB. This is insanity.

In other news, the dollar has lost even more value.

Wake up, people.

I haven't been very current events savvy lately. I only just read that Owen Wilson may have attempted suicide last week. How tragically sad. I hope he gets help. I love him as an actor.

I'm really getting tired of groups in this country trying to have it both ways. First they curtail the oil industry to the point that no new refineries can be built and over-regulate those that do exist all in the name of environmentalism, then they scream about the high cost of oil and wars for oil and moan about the outrageous amount of company profits. Then they keep operating their fossil fuel driven vehicles while blocking any measure the oil companies do try to take to get and refine oil from non-Middle East sources. It drives me mad.

The latest episode of such tactics is surrounding a BP refinery in Whiting, Indiana. A Chicago Tribune article (registration required) is claiming that Indiana regulators exempted BP from environmental laws so that the company could dump more ammonia and industrial sludge into Lake Michigan as a result of the facility expanding its production to refine crude oil from Canada. They're also claiming that the process will increase greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming (don't even let me get started on my feelings about that issue).

In a the BP Whiting Refinery Fact Sheet, the company lays out the specifics of the facility's modernization plan and the steps it is taking to minimize the impact of the refinery process on the environment. First and foremost, the company is not exempt from any laws. The company is also not going to be dumping sludge and toxic waste into the water. Sludge is processed separately and is not dumped into the lake. The water they will release back into the lake is 99.9% pure after having been treated in its own water treatment facility (which has a proposed $150 investment to enhance the wastewater treatment capacity) They will be producing higher levels of ammonia in the process of refining the heavier Canadian crude, but even at the increased rate, it's still half of what Federal guidelines allow.

The ability to refine the crude from Canada will produce 80 full-time jobs for the area. It also means more fuel for the Midwest from a non-Mideast source.

Read the facts on BOTH sides and make up your own mind. Meanwhile, if environmentalists really want to help clean up the earth, how about the old adage of actions speaking louder than words? Stop driving a car, stop heating and cooling your home, stop consuming anything that's been refined or mass-produced in any way, etc. Since I'm not willing to give up my car and will continue to use gasoline until a reliable, more economical fuel is produced, I'm all for any steps we can take to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and lower the retail price at the pump.

When blogging, once in a while, you need to quote a source or have an accompanying video to really tell your story. There is a great new service out there offering licensed content for use in blog postings provided by Network affiliates such as the Associated Press, Reuters, McClatchy-Tribune Information, Agence France-Press, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Denver Post, HowStuffWorks and many more. The best part? You get paid for people viewing your content!

The process is pretty simple:

1. You go to The News Room site and join. It's totally free to do so.
2. You browse around the hundreds of thousands of videos and articles available on the site in categories such as U.S. News, Entertainment, Health, etc. and find one relevant to your post.
3. "Mash" that content to your site by clicking the Mash button and copying the code provided and pasting it on your site.
4. Publish your post.

That's it! Super easy and simple!

Here's an interesting piece on their site I found that I thought I'd share. How cool would it be to have one of these driving simulators made by Subaru (my personal favorite car in the entire world):



You get a share of the advertising that accompanies the videos and stories. Payments range from $1 to $4 per thousand impressions (CPM) depending on the type of content you embed and you can also get a paid when others "Mash" the content off of your site. Certainly not a get-rich quick deal, but if you're writing about cool things anyway, you might as well earn a little, too. They also have a loyalty program for registrants of their program to earn prizes ranging from electronics to cars. I can't wait to see what other cool news items I can find to share.

Marcus and I are seriously concerned about the security of our possessions. We don't live in the safest of areas in the first place. Couple that with the the fact that we have a lot more higher value possessions that would normally be in this neighborhood and we're at a pretty high risk of being robbed. We don't even call for pizza delivery anymore because we don't want strangers getting a glimpse of what we own.

We really got a wake up call about how vulnerable we are when we saw a video on our local news similar to this video about how most locks can be opened with a bump key. Available on the Internet for as little as $5 including videos how to use them, many thieves are getting these and easily getting into people's homes. It's frightening, especially since it was widely shown on major news stations and even criminals that didn't know about it now do. I was a little angry at first that these news stations aired these stores, but I'd be a fool to think that a lot of unsavory characters out there didn't already have this knowledge. I guess it's better in the long run that all parties have this information. It's now up to us to take action.

So, in addition to getting a camera surveillance system and doing a complete home inventory that we will keep at a friend's house for the insurance company should be get robbed, we have been looking into getting bump key proof lock for each of our exterior doors. BrickHouseSecurity.com has several bump proof/biometric locks starting at $195. The locks are a little pricey, but a good investment considering the amount of valuable possessions we've accumulated. The good news about all of this is these biometric locks are activated by fingerprints, so no more locking myself out of the house when I don't have a key. I really like this one. --->

So, after watching the video, are you concerned that your home locks are basically worthless? I'm curious what you guys feel about this.

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Now I've heard everything. Bank of America is offering credit cards to illegals. Oooo, but they have to pay a higher interest rate. Yeah. that makes it right. Are these people high? What is the point of citizenship anymore? I'm so pissed about this kind of crap that my head is going to explode.

While surfing around this morning, I came across an article that a former Zoom actor, Jared Nathan, had died. I used to watch the original Zoom from the 70s all the time. This particular actor did one season when they revived the show in the late 90s. He was only only 21 and a student at Juliard in New York. How sad. When I went to his site to read a little about him, he mentioned the Ubbi Dubbi Translator. I loved the Ubbi Dubbi segments, but I could never speak it.

Yay, it's New Year's Eve. The last day of the 2nd worst year of my life. I can't wait to kick this one out the door and welcome 2007 in with wide open arms. I have big plans for the upcoming year. I'll share as they come closer to fruition, but as I wrote before, the only resolution proper this year is dealing with my weight issues. When I do my look back at 2007, I will be doing it at least 75 lbs lighter. That's my goal and I expect everyone reading this to hold me accountable! I'm in the process of designing my weight loss blog and I'll post a link just as soon as it's ready for primetime.

There's been a lot of stuff going on in the world lately. I usually try to make some mention of them on this blog, but I've totally let some major ones slip lately:

• "The Godfather of Soul" James Brown passed away on Christmas Day.
• The iPod is Not Dead: a lot of people were speculating that the Zune was going to topple Apple. Not so. I got an iPod for Christmas and so did at least 3 other people that work my shift in the prepress department at work. I gave and received iTunes gift certificates and there were so many people trying to access the iTunes Music Store on Christmas Day that the servers couldn't handle it.
• Former President Gerald R. Ford passed away 12/26 at 93. I was still in grade school when he became president, so I don't really remember a lot about his presidency. I do remember voting for him in a mock election at school when Carter ran against him. Just goes to show you how poor our hisotry education in this country is: I had no idea he wasn't elected Vice President, either.
• Saddam Hussein was hanged for his crimes on 12/29.
• FDA to OK cloned animal meat to get into the food supply: We humans are really dumb. It's bad enough that we've destroyed our bodies with chemicals and altered foods, let start eating cloned meat. What makes me angry is that it doesn't have to be labeled as such. I don't want to eat clones and I'm not the only one. I can't wait for the big "whoops" in the future when they realize this is a bad thing.