I can has break from homework?

So homework has had me pretty busy this last month. So I'm going to take a small break for some blogging

First and foremost. I encountered some missionaries on my way home yesterday, and you know what I realize? Missionaries are very young people. They mostly seems like they would be more comfortable talking about X-box than religion. I only even comment on it because I brought up the topic, like I usually do that there is a difference between faith and knowledge. Their response was that scientists know things without proof, specifically they told me that there are scientist who know that gravitons exist, a statement with which I am comfortably secure in saying is completely false. I politely ended the conversation.

Really though this leads into my next topic, that of the Large Hadron Collider. The 6 billion dollar proof that no scientist that matters knows whether gravitrons exist, more appropriately the Higgs Boson.

Seriously though, this thing is awesome! It is really going to answer some important question about the universe. You know make history and what not. I've included a video that's pretty awesome.



So to end with, isn't the economy going bonkers! I've always felt that most of the investment banks are pretty much illegal, so to see them go belly up pleases me. I just wish the government wasn't so bent on bailing this crap out. It was a terrible business model, it should go bankrupt and quickly. Sorry to be callous, at least it's happening fast. We want change, we want it know! Really though, these companies basically take out huge loans to put in risky investment vehicles to make a ton of cash, works great when the market it doing well, and then go bankrupt when the economy turns south. That is there business model in a nutshell. I'm just glad this is happening quickly and can move on from it. The stock market has been quite in free fall. I just wish we could attack the underlying problem of people wanting a better return on their money, but also don't want the risk. It just doesn't happen that way, they tried it tech stocks, nope! They tried it with house, nope! They tried it with oil, nope! The fact is, there is no such thing as a free lunch. It takes hard work and time. That is the only thing that will make you more money. If anybody says any different, there ideas will be found bankrupt. At least they televise these shenanigans.

Eeek!, I've spent much too long rambling.

New Kittah!!!!

So for some reason, I don't know why really, we decided to get a new Kitty.

I would like to introduce you to THE AMAZING RANDO!!!!

He seems to be doing well with our other Cat, Gimli. Check out the sized difference, Gimli is like 50 times bigger than Rando. Gimli is not intimidated to say the least.

Finally check out the new kittah in action

In a world full of video blogs...

I said me too me too!





In the future there may be less yapping and more dancing.

Fun places to drive

So Ogden is quite lucky when it comes to having fun places to drive your car(and I don't mean the 'vard).

Let's start it off with the North Ogden Divide. This road is terrifying and thus you must have a stout heart in order to tackle its curves.

The road quality varies greatly on this short ride, but traffic is light. Be careful on this stretch of road.

Next on this list is Ogden Canyon. This is a classic with plenty nice corners to play with. It can feel a little claustraphobic at times because of high cliff walls, but it all just adds to the adventure.

The road quality is generally pretty good, but traffic can often spoil your fun. Also great care should be taken as you could end up in a wall if your not careful.

Next on the list is snowbasin loop. This is by far the best road we have. It is glorious, you just want spend all day driving past snowbasin.

Taking the Old Snowbasin road up and meeting up with the New Snowbasin road is a fantastic stretch, but coming down on Trappers loop isn't such a bad road to loop around on either. However you look at it, during the summer the road is nearly deserted and is of quite good quality. You could just spend all day doing circles and be the better for it.

Finally to road out our showcase is South Weber Drive. I'll typically go out of my way to take this road when I drive out to my brothers house. This is also a popular ride for the car dealerships in Riverdale when they want to show off their cars.

The road quality is good, but there are a lot of houses and offshoots on this road. Traffic is typically light, but keep an eye out.

Katie went to Spain and all I got was photoshopped in

The following are a collection of photos in which I look as though I was photoshopped in. I swear I was there, I promise.

Me "at" the Plaza Mayor

Me "at" the Alhambra

Me "at" the fancy world fair building

Me "at" the Sevilla Cathedral

Me "outside" the Mezquita

A small interlude from Spain. Oil!

So I think we are in huge oil bubble. Oil is a good example of a boom-bust commodity. When it does well, it does really well. When it does bad, it does really bad. Example, the 70's boom was an 80's bust. Record highs in the late 70's resulted in record lows in 80's and 90's. So oil is booming now, but for how long? I'm not crazy, I think we're running out, but we're not running out tommorow. There have not been any steep decline in production, nor has there been any steep increases in consumption. The worst case scenario, I'm using the one provided by Matt Savinar, is that world production decreases by 2% and demand increases by 2%, so a 4% change year after year (this does have little to do with reality, as high prices have dropped demand). Bring on the chart.

So starting in 2000 at $35 a barrel, 4% would put us at around $50 a barrel today, not inflation adjusted. If you adjust for inflation, it's about $70 a barrel I think, well at least that's what the Saudi's would lead us to believe. Needless to say this looks like, oh, I don't know, the dot-com boom, the housing boom?

The current price of oil is totally dictated by speculation. It has nothing to do with supply or demand. It's just people driving up the price to drive up the price. Some day oil will be at that price, that day is not today. I can't say when the speculation will end. It will probably get worse before it gets better. Looking at the chart and using my brain makes me think probably in the next year there will be a fantastic correction in price that occurs when price is determined by speculation and not cold hard numbers.

Spain (Part III)

I kind of got the order messed up in the last entry, as we went to Cordoba after Sevilla, but we push forward anyway. The reason I even mention this is because the train stop at Cordoba is a short one, so we had to hurry like bunnies to catch the train. They guarantee the time these trains show up, and well some of the group we were traveling with think that this is like Hollywood and the train will wait for them, but it won't. This Train is capable of traveling at over 200mph. This is really the way to travel. I think we need a few of these around the country.

We got back to Madrid and we took the Metro to dinner and we had a run in with some pick pockets. The first was as I was walking into the restaurant, a man had his hand under an umbrella and through some shrubs and was trying to unzip my backpack. Luckily there was nothing to steal. The next attempt came while we headed back on the metro when a lady wedged herself between Katie and I. She proceeded to put a jacket over Katies purse. Katie was able to hand wrestle her so she couldn't get in her purse. At the same time another gentleman was going after Katie's mom's purse. Luckily nothing got stolen. I guess pick pockets in Spain just aren't that good. We were lucky I think too.

Finally on our last day we traveled to Segovia, which was the oldest city on our tour. Pictured here is an aqueduct that is about as old as jesus.

It was used for like 1800 years. They had some pretty cool romanesque churches, but that wasn't on the schedule.

Instead we went to the alcazar. Which is very impressive up on its rock, surrounded by a moat. This location was used by the Romans, Muslims, and the Catholics. It was always a favorite. I borrowed this picture as I have none other that show how verticle this baby is.

Inside there is this creepy mural of the coronation of queen Isabella. They have no eyes. I don't know why. I think it is to suck out your soul.

A picture of us out on the ledge. It is sheer cliff over the side. I can see why this place was a favorite of kings and queens. You'd feel pretty safe.

We then went to Escorial, which little known to me was a giant tomb. It was designed to be the ultimate monument to God, with all sorts of meaningful architectural designs. Mostly there were just a lot of dead bodies in very elaborate tombs.

Going home was the hardest part, poor Fernando ,our tour guide, looked so sad sending us off. Because of traveling west, I think we had a solid 24 hours of daylight. Everything was going according to plan until our stupid flight got cancelled in Denver. In reality we could have driven home faster than we could catch our flight. Ultimately though it is nice to be home. Only barely though.