Nick's Blog

So ready for the season to start tomorrow!

Yesterday was Mochi’s 3rd birthday.

The commonly accepted people-years-to-dog-years factor is 7.

So he turned 21!

I thought we ought to pour him a drink to celebrate, but apparently alcohol is bad for dogs.  Man no beer and no chocolate.  I guess you have to make some sacrifices in return for never having to work and getting to sleep 20 hrs a day.

I believe a person’s car says a lot about them.  Which is exactly what car marketers want me to think.

Unfortunately in the case of Mercedes Benz, the association is 100% negative.  For whatever reason, no other luxury make carries the same stigma in my mind.  When someone pulls up in a Benz, here’s what I think, right or wrong:

• The driver is amazingly self-centered
• The driver thinks they’re better than everyone else
• The driver’s husband makes more than your husband

Basically driving a Benz is a shiny, expensive way to tell the world you’re a jerk.  Maybe I’m the only person who thinks of Mercedes drivers in this way.  But I’m right way too often to be the only one.  And it’s no fault of the car company*, I’m sure they build a fantastic automobile.  It’s their customers that are giving them a bad name.

My most recent example of my stereotype being proved in real life was this week at the grocery store.  Ms. Real Housewives of Dublin CA unloads her groceries and then leaves her cart in between parking spaces, and drives off in her Mercedes.  The cart return was literally 10 feet away.

But again, why should she burden herself pushing an empty cart a few extra steps?  They only put that out there for the non-Mercedes-driving customers.

Do you drive a Benz?  You’ve got to work extra hard to reverse the terrible image the public has of you.  It shouldn’t be too much trouble; you can start by returning your shopping carts.

*Actually the company has a bit of a chip on their shoulder too.  Rather than comply with federal fuel efficiency guidelines, they opted to just pay the fine.  $30 million!  Perfect example of rich, self-centered, better-than-everyone-else thinking.

The one good thing about the bursting of the real estate bubble is that our property taxes are way down.  Our tax assessed value this year is less than half of what it was 3 years ago.

I think it’s best to stay positive.  We may be six figures underwater, but at least we’re saving a couple hundred bucks a month in property taxes!

Stacey’s in town.  Mochi was pretty happy to see his friend again.

This year, British Airways awarded 100 Business Opportunity Grants to small and medium sized businesses.  The grants included free business class airfare to London and connecting cities, and $1000 to spend on a hotel stay.

Those Brits are pretty smart.

The grants were awarded to companies looking to meet face-to-face with clients and partners overseas.  The airline is banking on those connections to turn into long-term relationships and for the grant recipients to turn into long-term paying customers.  They even commissioned a Harvard Business Review study to prove the value of face-to-face communications.

It was a smart move by British Airways because their potential upside is far greater than the costs of the program.  They had to build an online system to accept grant applications, hire someone to review them, and find an empty seat on a plane.  And since the plane was already making the flight, and fewer people are flying business class because of the economy, the seat was probably empty anyway.  And the cost to the hotel was negligible assuming they had empty rooms as well, and they’ll get first consideration for any return trips.  If even a small percentage of the winners create long-term business relationships, British will reap the rewards for many years to come.

I’ve been paying sort of loose attention to the “ground-zero-Islamic-center” debate that’s been in the news lately.  It’s a great example of a manufactured controversy.

The opponents to the mosque seem to have some poorly constructed arguments.

Argument #1:  Islam is the violent religion of terrorists and has no place in America.

Fact #1:  Yes, there are Muslim extremists who want to kill Americans.  Similarly, there are Christian extremists who want to kill Americans.  Everyone who’s ever thought about blowing up an abortion clinic or stem cell research facility was motivated by faith.  Does that mean we should stop building churches?

Fact #2:  There are already over 100 mosques in New York City.  One more does not, in any way, symbolize a terrorist victory or diminish anyone’s right to practice the religion of their choice.

Argument #2:  I support freedom of religion, just not there.

Fact #3:  You can’t have it both ways.  A similarly silly argument would be, “I support freedom of speech, just not when it expresses an opinion contradictory to mine.”  Our freedoms are an essential part of what makes us American, and the Bill of Rights contains no “exclusions may apply, see reverse for full details” fine print.

Fact #4:  In many Muslim countries, it would be illegal to even hold your peaceful little protest.  Is that the kind of intolerance we want here?

Fact #5:  The proposed site is 2 blocks away from the former WTC towers.  Yes, it’s very close, but no one is erecting minarets over Ground Zero.

Argument #3:  President Obama is a Muslim and hates America.

Fact #6:  While we may disagree with his policy decisions, there is no credible evidence to support this claim.

Argument #4:  Supporting the mosque is the same as supporting a “Clubhouse for Terrorists.”  (This phrase was actually one protester’s sign.)

Fact #7:  Islam did not attack us.  A small but well-organized group of extremists did.

Fact #8:   There are more than 1.5 billion Muslims in the world.  Wikipedia estimates Al-Qaeda has perhaps 300 active commanders, which means you’d be likely to meet 5,000,000 Muslims before finding one of these terrorists.  Since there are only 600,000 Muslims in New York, the numbers aren’t very conducive to building a terrorist clubhouse.  Although the geography may be attractive, the odds of one or more of these jihadists infiltrating this new mosque is infinitesimally small.  And if it does get built, don’t you think the CIA will find some way to wiretap the shit out of it?

So what’s it going to be America, Freedom or Fear?

After skipping Pinecrest last summer, we were fortunate enough to gather a hardy crew of campers for a trip this past weekend.

It was car-camping at it’s best.  Big campfires, big air-mattress, and big gourmet meals.  And no bugs.  It rained for about 15 minutes, which was not in the forecast, but thankfully it stopped pretty quickly.  I’ve done my share of camping in the rain and it’s just not that fun.

We rented a party-barge and took to the high seas.  Mochi was co-captain.

Good times.

I would classify myself as a fairly active library patron.  I guess you could say it runs in the family.  I figure I’m already paying for these books with my taxes so I might as well use them.  But I can’t remember ever having a fine on my account before, so what happened last week was semi-traumatizing.

I was in New York on Sunday when I got an email letting me know that Crush It! was due Tuesday.  What?  I’d just checked it out!  Apparently it was on 7-day loan instead of 28-day loan.  And sure enough there was a tiny sticker on the front that said “7-day”.  And I wasn’t getting home until late Tuesday night, too late to return it on time.

So I finished the book on the way home and I returned it on Wednesday.  And now I have a blemish on my permanent record: a $0.10 fine on my account.  Curious to find out if I’m able to check anything out now or if I’ll have to give them a dime first.  What’s even more interesting is that there’s an option to pay the late fee online using a credit card, which would almost certainly be a money-losing transaction for the library after the processing fees.

Either way, $0.10 over 3 years is pretty cheap for all the free education and entertainment.

Late comedian George Carlin shares his thoughts on religion in the video below.  Ignore the Portuguese subtitles and animation.