Two interviews down. Not to sound over-optimistic, but I think I grabbed them by the balls. Strangely, the consulting income is rolling in faster than I expected it would, wwhich means I can confidently be pickier than I expected to be able to be with whichever job I choose… It feels good, and I think that extra confidence reflected in my intervies today.

Tonight I test out my new recipe for a 10-cheeze pizza. If it turns out good I’ll post the recipe here. Tomorrow I try being social in Charlotte for the first time…

Next week is David’s birthday. Please buy him (and by association, me) something!

MurderingMouth got a temp-to-hire job. It’s a stop-gap measure so that I can keep up the mad pace of my expensive cheese-intensive lifestyle. It pays better than I expected I’d start out with. It’s at a trucking ccompany, which may or may not mean I’ll be coming home to hubby very horney every evening (I find the trucker fantasy is always more interesting than the trucker reality)…

Happy Birthday to David. Next year I hope to get you something which you can use to decorate or accent the house I hope to have for you by then.

Also birthday wishes out to Amber, and a belated HBD to Dan.

I’ve worked for a week now, but I’m still adjusting (badly) to the new schedule. Insomnia is the norm rather than the exception. Needless to say my enthusiasm for going out tonight waned and I stayed home hoping to get to sleep early. It didn’t work.

It’s nice having some routine time. I’ve said before that the most enjoyable thing in my life is boredom. I like having a nice routine, with no drama or excitement. Even when I go out seeking social interaction and stimulation, it’s usually to a very quiet setting where I’m in little danger of encountering anything I can’t anticipate, control or easily digest.

The only time I resent routine is when it is something like routine denial or routine repression of what I really want to do. When I have a boring, enjoyable routine worked out, I can do it forever and not get sick of it.

A few hiccups are still in there - I’ve yet to find a convenient routine coffeehouse stop for my daily homeward commute, or a routine coffee night with friends, or a routine 7pm goth night somewhere, or a routine naked bear pool party, but I’m sure in time…

Just thought I’d mention, though, that there’s one routine I enjoy above all others, and I’ll “keep” him as long as he needs… I hope you find work, too, baby, but that’s just coz I hope to see you cheer up. You know you can be my kept boy forever, seeing as I love you more than anything else in the world and all…

The pictures from ground zero so far are very depressing. It truly makes me wish we’d spent more time in the sinking city when we visited in June. Hopefully something will be left should we return…

• The raw (pre-tax, pre-regulation) price of a commodity is determined by Supply and Demand
• Gasoline reserves, oil mining, and refining capacity for the US market have been reduced by between 10-12% over the next 3-6 months (though relatively unchanged for the past 3-5 days, since nearly all of the gasoline at stations was produced and refined months ago)
• If all other factors stay static (including foreign production and global consumption), gas prices should therefore rise between 10-15% (allowing some wiggle room for labor and consumer inflation if the economy continues to expand)
• The American motorist on Saturday had an average of 6/10 tank of gasoline (assuming 1990s studies on the average daily tank status collected by the USDE still apply)
• On Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and today, just about all Americans have “filled up” due to being scared pussies about OMG!!1one!11 4-dollar gas!111!one!!11
• The American motorist this evening has an average of 9/10 tank of galoline now (I speculate)
• This means that within a period of 3 days, demand had spiked by 30% (if my assumptions are correct)
• During that same 3 days, production has been relatively unchanged (over the next few weeks, of course, production will decline by between 10-12%, as noted earlier)
• Hedge funds can only cash in when we’ve done our job of panicing and gassing up (thus satisfying the demand they’ve hedged on)

  Conclusion: It is not Madame Katrina’s fault our gas is so expensive, it is ours. If we would just have some balls and not play the panic game every time someone exclaims “OMG Gas Going Up!1!1one1!1!!!”, we might actually be able to cope with some more mild price swings in the commodity markets. It’s not the oil companies, it’s not His Duncelency the President, and it’s not OPEC (in this case)… It’s YOU!!!
  

   

  The only chaps who make out when we panic like this are the stooges who sell this junk to us. You’ve lined their pockets with another layer of gold. Better enjoy that smelly liquid you exchanged for it. It happens every few years - we’ve shown we don’t learn, so I’m sure it will happen again. That’s why hedge funds are getting filthy rich by playing the commodity markets these days. They bet that we’ll keep buying our Hummers and keep panicking every time the news talks about <firm-alarmist>The Price At The Pump</firm-alarmist>, and we never let them down.
  

   

  So, when you are fretting about the strange fact that the grubby capitalists and opportunists are benefiting from the quirks in the economy and cashing in on every “human tragedy”, maybe the problem isn’t some disaster or “the system”… Maybe the problem is you.