Being too lazy to actually attack this by *reading* it, I picked up the audio version. I have listened to Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” at least a half dozen times over the past couple of decades. If you know me you’ll know that I don’t give up the time to do this lightly. “The Fountainhead” I found to be somewhat more preachy (yeah, yeah I know. Is that even possible?). Ayn’s never really been known for multifaceted and realistic characters, instead they all rather assume aspects of her ideology and remain focused in that manner throughout the book.
About halfway through “The Fountainhead” I had considered not bothering to finish it (it *is* just under 31 hours long after all) because the characters really are not at all accessible to me. The motivations the characters espouse for their apparently sociopathic behavior toward each other (protagonists and antagonists alike – although which are which is sometimes not really obvious) are absurd to a rational human. They make sense only in Ms. Rand’s relatively black and white conception of the world and the values that one needs to hold to be true to themselves within it.
But I persevered and was gratified by the way the story wound up finally.
I would say that it’s worth experiencing this book at least once just to get a sense of Ayn Rand’s philosophies. But I am unlikely to listen to the book again.
For someone interested in a more entertaining and mildly grayer (IMHO) view of the world I would suggest “Atlas Shrugged”.
Will Terrorism end our civil liberties?
A friend of mine (not sure if he wants to be named in this blog) and I were exchanging some email on the topic of terrorism. He had this to say:
I think that as terrorism gets more and more sophisticated that we will eventually have to give up some of our cherished rights just to survive. It’s even possible that one day in the future all sports events, political rallies, concerts, etc., may be too risky to attend and they all become strictly televised events. This is simply because it may be too dangerous to have a large gathering of people in one spot, especially when it’s pre-announced.
To which I respond:
I suspect the basic human need to gather in large crowds will not be thwarted by terrorism.
We waste an awful lot of time with idiotic measures that I’m hopeful will be abandoned soon in favor of more practical approaches that don’t simply pay lip service to the protections we are demanding.
But the reality of terrorism is that it’s simply not that big a player / risk even in places where it is common. It is sensational but it is not terribly effective from a damage POV. The 9/11 attacks killed only about 3,000 people – deliberately to be sure. Where 30,000 – 40,000 folks died that year on roadways throughout America. Really, where do we think further dollars spent could yield the greatest citizen safety boost?
I think, worst case, we’ll just consider it another part of the risk of going about our business. Best case, we’ll have more effective means of preventing it or ameliorating it’s impacts that won’t reduce our civil liberties. Frankly I’d rather risk getting killed going to the store than to ask a government bureaucrat for permission to do so.
I’m an optimist in that I think that people are clever enough to apply our genius to resolving the issues of our day through a combination of sophisticated social engineering and technological tools.
I’m a pessimist in that I feel that any of the solutions that we come up with need to be safeguarded from our government’s unconditional use. Already our congress is rife with foolish bills and notions, many promulgated by special interest groups which serve as our representatives’ sole source of information on many topics. It is against these narrowly educated/experienced people that we need to safeguard our government and our most basic liberties.
So, dear reader, what do *you* think?
Risk vs Reward – why are we so bad at it?
The recent cold conditions in Georgia have highlighted to me the terrible lack of discrimination folks seem to apply to what should obviously be considered a “high risk” situation.
The topic of “Risk vs Reward” has been relatively prominent in the news lately with the terrible judgment shown by our financial and other corporate institutions in evaluating what risks should be deemed acceptable for what could only ever have been very tentative rewards down the line.
I have the luxury of working for a company that is commonsensical about inclement weather and they allow me the option of telecommuting should the weather make driving conditions too risky – BY MY OWN EVALUATION. I recognize that there are plenty of folks out there who do not work for such enlightened companies. But I also recognize that there are plenty of other folks who have a similar freedom to choose, be it telecommuting, sick days, comp time or some other alternative to actually risking their health and safety over their commute and yet they do not exercise that option.
Driving is a terribly risky activity relative to most other things we do on a daily basis. It requires focus, awareness, a sound vehicle and not a small amount of luck that others driving around you are similarly serious about the endeavor. But the benefits are generally so great that the risk / reward ratio is an acceptable one. Your livelihood often depends upon it, many leisure activities – shows, meeting with friends, kid’s play dates – simply couldn’t happen without it. So we accept the risk. After all, what’s the point in living if you don’t enjoy it and that always comes with a risk / reward evaluation.
But we become so used to driving that we seem to mentally ascribe to the activity essentially a zero risk when evaluating additional circumstances. Never mind that you are already hurtling down the road in about a ton of metal, liquids, glass and composites at speeds that will pulp your body in under a second of inattention or misfortune. Now your are facing icy roads on top of that.
Yet the only consideration is that the roads may be “a little slippery”. But you’ve got front-wheel drive, or all-wheel drive. Our education system has failed miserably if people are unable to recognize that no tire on a vehicle that you are driving around town, without studs or chains, can gain ANY traction on ice. Snow, sure. Mud and dirt, you bet. But ice is non-tractionable and delivering even power to 4 wheels that are not gripping the road surface has only one result: No control.
In a situation like this past Friday, we do not have enough salt or sand trucks to effectively manage a “small amount of ice” (by Northern standards) in anything like the time required to allow for us to proceed as if it were a normal day.
If you’re lucky nobody ahead of you is slowing down. No kids or wildlife are crossing the street. There is no curve in the road.
I am flabbergasted by the folks who seem so focused on maintaining “life as normal” that they ignore valid common sense warnings and hurl themselves and sometimes their most precious valuables – their kids, their spouse, their parents – into the melee so that they can make it to a gym class or to do some shopping. Really, in a day or so all WILL be back to normal.
I take risk and reward very seriously. I fly light aircraft which carries with it about the same risk of driving a motorcycle (although probably safer than driving a motorcycle in Atlanta). I enjoy shooting handguns at my local range. I will, when I can get some folks together, go bungee jumping. These are all activities that have greater than normal risk associated with them, yet with the right mindset, training and equipment the risk is for me acceptable and worth it for the pleasure that I derive from these activities.
Folks need to ask themselves. You need to ask yourself – do I understand what I am risking here? Is the pleasure, service, promise kept worth this risk or do I need to do something else, to renegotiate that promise so that it is more reasonable (reschedule that play date, have lunch with your friend tomorrow). If it is not, then please treat the one ton box of metal and the nearly tractionless roadway that you are traveling upon with the respect and attention that it deserves.
Air Fare Taxes – you think YOU have it bad?
My mother lives in Canada and recently purchased a plane ticket to fly from Toronto to Orlando, Florida.
Check out the price of the ticket and then how she gets positively hosed on the taxes and additional junk fees.
Airfare Price (Canadian Dollars): $119.00
Taxes and surcharges: $233.54
Total(Canadian Dollars): $352.54
By contrast, a single fare ticket from Atlanta, Georgia to Orlando costs this much.
1 adult: $178.00
Taxes & fees: $28.39
_______________________________________________________________
Total: $206.39
1 adult: $178.00
Taxes & fees: $28.39
______________________________
_________________________________
Total: $206.39
Total: $206.39
I don’t know if the airlines build extra charges into the fees but those Canucks are getting screwed every which way from Sunday on them.
Have I mentioned lately how much I *love* living in America? If only we can solve the horror that is our medical system.
Verizon Pushes BING to Certain BlackBerry Devices
In a shady deal that alters settings on end user devices without their permission or knowledge, Microsoft and Verizon have agreed to make BING the default search engine on certain BlackBerry devices. Those I know of for certain are the 8830, the Tour and the Storm 2.
I am told that you can select other search engines but only BING can be the default.
Also, apparently a new BING icon also appears on the devices after a hard reset (pull the battery).
This may be OK for new devices where end users expect a lot of extra stuff that they do not require and will clean up. What is NOT expected is for new stuff to show up suddenly unannounced. It is confusing and it is invasive.
I expected better of Verizon.
Insulating my house with Wilson Insulation Pt 2
Following up on my original post regarding Wilson Insulation, I spoke with Jack – the fellow responsible for the work crew – and he arranged to have them come out with instructions to “do whatever is needed to make the customer happy”.
That’s pretty damn impressive.
They came over on the scheduled day (last Tuesday – January 5) and spent a couple of hours addressing the lighting fixture (turns out an obsolete pipe left over from my hot water heater relocation was resting against the newly installed protector around one of my recessed lighting cans), installed the missing baffles that protect the soffit vents and evened out the blown insulation. The only omission was that the need for the attic hatch access dam was not communicated so they did not have it with them to install.
Yesterday – January 7 – I received a message from the installers, they were actually at my house to do that dam install (I was working in the office that day) so we had to reschedule. It’s too bad but I didn’t know they were coming.
Next Tuesday should see the installation of that final piece.
Based on the weather these past few days (especially today with the frozen roads!) I’m really happy to have that insulation up there.
Final chapter to be written shortly! 🙂
Mad Guitar skillz (Canon)
Apparently I’m about the only one on the planet who hasn’t seen this video, but I’m putting it up here so I don’t lose it and for anybody else who shares my tastes to appreciate. I found it on this page along with several others that I was surprised to see I had never heard of.
Normally I’m not a super fan of electric guitar – often solos remind me of so much masturbation on stage that appeal mostly to the performer rather than the audience.
This South Korean Guitarist, Jeong-Hyun Lim, has taken a wonderful classic and put a modern and positive twist on it IMHO.
Insulating my house with Wilson Insulation
A few months ago I solicited some estimates to get my attic insulated. My house was built in the early ’70’s and I doubt if anything has ever been added to the original fiberglass that was up there when the place was built.
I chose Wilson Insulation because the Better Business Bureau offered an A+ rating for them and because the estimate they provided was in line with what I felt the job should cost given the options that I had decided upon.
My expectation was that the job involved placing caps over all of my recessed lighting fixtures (about 24 in total), that there would be baffles extended along the soffit edges of the roof, there would be dams around the attic access hatch and that the insulation in the attic would be brought to R49. Which, at an R-value of around 2.7 – 4 for blown fiberglass insulation should result in a total of about 12 – 18 inches total including the existing fiberglass.
The workers showed up a week ago last Tuesday (December 22) at around 9:30 or so to do the work and were finished a little before 1 pm. When they were done the access hatch had not been attended to. So they added some batts to the hatch cover and put some weatherstripping around it but told me that they did not have a dam that would be small enough for the hatch.
Dan (the rep from Wilson Insulation) came over later that day to inspect the hatch and the work generally and indicated that he was surprised that they did not have the dam but that he was waiting for a call back from their boss to figure out what could be done.
He also indicated that they were pretty skeletonized due to the season. I’m not a particularly impatient person so I allowed that this could be deferred until Monday (December 28) and we can finally sort it out.
Interestingly one of my recessed fixtures in the living room is now pushing out of the ceiling on one side by about an inch. I can’t push it back from inside the house so it will have to be addressed from within the attic.
I did popped up into the attic check to see if the baffles had been installed – and found that there were exactly none present. I also see that there appears to be between about 11 and 15 total inches of insulation up there. It’s kind of rolling so it’s hard to determine a good average. Does anybody know what a reasonable R-value is to use for blown fiberglass? The range above is a bit broad.
I spoke with Dan on Monday. He told me they’d be calling later to set up an appointment to come by and correct anything that was not done correctly.
When I hadn’t heard from Wilson Insulation by Wednesday, I gave them a call and spoke with Jack. He seemed congenial and we set up an appointment for Tuesday at 10 am. I’ll let you know how it goes.
What’s with the “Delivery Fee”?
All the pizza delivery companies are now charging a “delivery” fee. Pizza Hut charges $2.50 in my area. I typically give a minimum $3.00 tip or 20% whichever is greater for delivery. But now I find myself trying to figure out how much the delivery guy makes. I asked a co-worker who is close to the industry and he *thinks* the driver gets the lion’s share of that but he really can’t be sure. I know I’d feel kind of chintzy giving only 50 cents on top of the bill so I end up giving a couple of bucks on top as I think the drivers have a hard job.
Does anybody know what the situation is? Is this just a cash grab by the pizza companies or is this how the drivers are being compensated these days?
I know I prefer to be in charge of the tip as that guarantees that poor service can be tipped poorly. Maybe too many people tip poorly?
Given up on Pizza Hut
We have 3 major pizza players around here. I prefer to use the internet to order my pizza because it seems to eliminate a LOT of confusion.
Basically I use one pizza provider until they tick me off and then I move to another one. A while ago, probably a few years now I switched away from Pizza Hut because they seemed to have forgotten how to actually cook the pizza, the dough would be all gooey and, while modestly edible it really wasn’t a treat. The second time it happened I called and had them replace the pizza and the replacement was the same, undercooked. So I switched away.
Anyway, the time came to try Pizza Hut again – I really like their pan pizza when it’s, you know, cooked. On Monday I sent in an order and they indicated it should take about an hour to arrive. I’m still surprised that the 30 minutes timeline they all used to strive for has gone by the wayside but no matter, an hour I would wait.
After about 90+ minutes I gave the store a call and they didn’t know where the pizza was as it had left over 20 minutes ago. The guy on the phone apologized for the inconvenience but didn’t have much to add to the conversation. I told him to just cancel the pizza and we’d figure out something else for dinner.
Another 20 minutes later, the pizza guy shows up and I told him to forget it. He was unaware of my calling the store to cancel.
I should note that my house is *maybe* 10 minutes from the pizza hut location from which the pizzas need to be delivered.
So I’ve just removed Pizza Hut from my list of pizza providers and I won’t be using them any more. Am I being unreasonable?