Other than this video dragging on a lot this looks like so much fun. Wish I had one of these as a kid. Note to dad... get him some rubber wheels!
p.s. Vid ends with a sweet spill.
28.7.07
17.7.07
The true cost of television...
I just read an article about the 'real' costs of watching television. They broke down the 'start-up' costs, added in all of the reoccurring monthly charges, accounted for the increased consumerism, and factored in the opportunity costs of all that 'wasted' time. The figures are pretty astounding... from the article:
"So what does this all add up to? Say you're 25 years old and you initially spend $2,000 for your TV, DVD player, entertainment cabinet and gaming system after getting your first job. Add in monthly costs of $100 for cable, $10 for electricity use, $20 for renting movies, $25 for buying games and $20 for an occasional pay-per-view event, and you're looking at $175 a month. Add in another $525 a month extra you spend due to the influence of commercials if you are the average person, and you are costing yourself $700 a month watching TV."
Using an 8% growth rate, only compounded annually, that $700/month would grow to more than $3.7M by the time you're 70 years old if you ceased watching TV at age 25.
Of course what's not considered here is that from time to time you may learn something from television that actually saves or makes you money and one may also derive some stress relief or relaxation from their time in front of the screen.
Article Link.
"So what does this all add up to? Say you're 25 years old and you initially spend $2,000 for your TV, DVD player, entertainment cabinet and gaming system after getting your first job. Add in monthly costs of $100 for cable, $10 for electricity use, $20 for renting movies, $25 for buying games and $20 for an occasional pay-per-view event, and you're looking at $175 a month. Add in another $525 a month extra you spend due to the influence of commercials if you are the average person, and you are costing yourself $700 a month watching TV."
Using an 8% growth rate, only compounded annually, that $700/month would grow to more than $3.7M by the time you're 70 years old if you ceased watching TV at age 25.
Of course what's not considered here is that from time to time you may learn something from television that actually saves or makes you money and one may also derive some stress relief or relaxation from their time in front of the screen.
Article Link.
16.7.07
Mosquitoes... narrowly avoided.
So Trish & I decided to get away for a night this weekend and decided that would be by camping in Whistler for Saturday night. We booked a tenting site at the Riverside RV Campground & Resort.
We checked in around 1:30pm and decided to set up our tent before hitting the town. Now at this point in the story you may be wondering why we were setting up a tent since we have the Disco Camper v. 1.5 at our disposal. Well, it turns out that the sites in question are not drive-in and are in fact walk-in and thus the Disco Camper would not suffice. So, we set up our tent at the spot they designated for us and due to the extreme amount of mosquitoes and a campfire ban in effect we decided to enjoy the rest of Whistler until bedtime.
Later that evening as we drove back towards the parking lot near our campsite Trish noticed some people 'in our site', or so she thought. We parked, put some pants on, and then strolled toward our site where sure enough there WERE people in our site and they had already set up their tent and staff from the campground had taken down our tent and removed all of our stuff from the site. We were a little shocked, but tried to find out what was going on. Apparently we had set up in the 'wrong' site, according to the managements quick research. We reviewed our info and had actually set up in the spot we were told to, however, in the computer we were supposed to be 5 sites down. In the hurried take down of our tent by the campground staff they also inadvertently broke one of our tent poles rendering our tent somewhat useless.
The campground has some log cabins in addition to their tent and RV sites, and fortunately there was ONE log cabin remaining which they decided to put us into.
All and all it worked out pretty well and they handled things fairly well, other than the broken tent pole, which they will be replacing. But the cabins were clean, dry, mosquito free, and had showers, etc. so it was somewhat of a nice surprise.
We checked in around 1:30pm and decided to set up our tent before hitting the town. Now at this point in the story you may be wondering why we were setting up a tent since we have the Disco Camper v. 1.5 at our disposal. Well, it turns out that the sites in question are not drive-in and are in fact walk-in and thus the Disco Camper would not suffice. So, we set up our tent at the spot they designated for us and due to the extreme amount of mosquitoes and a campfire ban in effect we decided to enjoy the rest of Whistler until bedtime.
Later that evening as we drove back towards the parking lot near our campsite Trish noticed some people 'in our site', or so she thought. We parked, put some pants on, and then strolled toward our site where sure enough there WERE people in our site and they had already set up their tent and staff from the campground had taken down our tent and removed all of our stuff from the site. We were a little shocked, but tried to find out what was going on. Apparently we had set up in the 'wrong' site, according to the managements quick research. We reviewed our info and had actually set up in the spot we were told to, however, in the computer we were supposed to be 5 sites down. In the hurried take down of our tent by the campground staff they also inadvertently broke one of our tent poles rendering our tent somewhat useless.
The campground has some log cabins in addition to their tent and RV sites, and fortunately there was ONE log cabin remaining which they decided to put us into.
All and all it worked out pretty well and they handled things fairly well, other than the broken tent pole, which they will be replacing. But the cabins were clean, dry, mosquito free, and had showers, etc. so it was somewhat of a nice surprise.
29.6.07
Kill Bill: Volume III
I know, most of you thought there were only two volumes to Kill Bill. Well, I have news for you, there's three! Volume three, the lesser known of the series is about the killer prairie dog, view if you dare:
19.6.07
Pup Room? Good Food? Poodle Dog? So confused. Thumbs up Tacoma!!!!1!!!one!!!!29.5.07
the Nacho King
At first glance of that title one might think that Trish & I have moved to Guadalajara, Mexico and opened a Nacho hut at the side of the road, fortunately we haven't yet embarked on this type of entrepreneurial activity.
What we have gone and done is found a Keeshond named King from the Lewis County Shelter in Chehalis, Washington and gone and adopted him. But King just wasn't a fun enough name so since we always wanted to name our dog 'nacho' and he's already got the name 'king' we have deemed him the Nacho King.
Nacho King has only been in the shelter a few days but at this point we figure he was a farm dog that didn't quite get the love and attention he needs. With a little bit of time, a lot of shampoo, an extreme amount of brushing and potentially some temporarily short hair he'll be up to cosmetic snuff in no time.
Now we just have a whole night and most of tomorrow to kill until we can pick up Mr. Nacho King from the veterinary as he has to get his manly bits removed as a part of the adoption. Poor fella.
Here's Nacho King...
17.5.07
FREE Education?! Nahhhh.
Yeah, that's what I first thought. I mean sure most nations on earth offer at least basic primary education free of charge, that's old news! No, what I'm talking about here is university-level, first-rate, higher education... FREE OF CHARGE!
Okay, what's the catch?! Well, apparently there isn't one... yet. Canada, although democratic and certainly quite capitalistic, is quite far down the Capitalism-Socialism scale. Some of the benefits of this include 'free' health care for all, many social programs, cheap education (especially when compared with higher-level education available in the United States), and of course a some sweet taxes. Further down the scale toward socialism are many Scandinavian countries. Some of the benefits of these countries' social values are in line with Canada's but instead of inexpensive education their higher education is free, that's right, FREE.
There are current discussions with the European Union to alter the current free education for all stance to have it only applicable to EU member countries. Presently, Denmark is the only country that charges non-EU students tuition fees and they have done so since September 2006.
So if I were to study in Scandinavia would my English-only skills pose a problem? Normally not. Most Scandinavians speak some English and many courses are taught solely in English. Also, depending on the school, some offer introductory language classes as a part of an international student program.
Accommodation and living expenses are not covered, but student housing is often available at a less-than-market-value level.
Countries that make up Scandinavia include: Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Iceland, and Greenland. I'll have to do more research to verify if all Scandinavian countries, save Denmark as earlier mentioned, offer this sweet deal.
Okay, what's the catch?! Well, apparently there isn't one... yet. Canada, although democratic and certainly quite capitalistic, is quite far down the Capitalism-Socialism scale. Some of the benefits of this include 'free' health care for all, many social programs, cheap education (especially when compared with higher-level education available in the United States), and of course a some sweet taxes. Further down the scale toward socialism are many Scandinavian countries. Some of the benefits of these countries' social values are in line with Canada's but instead of inexpensive education their higher education is free, that's right, FREE.
There are current discussions with the European Union to alter the current free education for all stance to have it only applicable to EU member countries. Presently, Denmark is the only country that charges non-EU students tuition fees and they have done so since September 2006.So if I were to study in Scandinavia would my English-only skills pose a problem? Normally not. Most Scandinavians speak some English and many courses are taught solely in English. Also, depending on the school, some offer introductory language classes as a part of an international student program.
Accommodation and living expenses are not covered, but student housing is often available at a less-than-market-value level.
Countries that make up Scandinavia include: Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Iceland, and Greenland. I'll have to do more research to verify if all Scandinavian countries, save Denmark as earlier mentioned, offer this sweet deal.
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