I thought at one point, it was a bad hard drive. Now, after new hard drive and trying to install Windows six times last night, I reazlied that it has to be something else.  I think it’s either the motherboard or something else that is causing the entire system to malfunction.  And it’s coming at one of the worst times ever.  We are slammed with work, both my side business and my full time job, and a lot of paperwork and accounting stuff to catch back up on.

I have to get this fixed soon. Oh and did I mention that I don’t really have the fundage to get a new one right now!  Sweet!

Forbes would have us believe that $100 a barrel oil is a good thing, because it will encourage the development of synthetic oil from coal via a process that was too expensive to commercially develop in a time when crude oil was both abundant and much cheaper. $100 a barrel oil makes synthetic oil produced from coal (such as by Sasol) a profitable alternative and a cleaner way to harness America’s vast and dirty carbon-rich resource. Cheers!

A rising oil price lifts all rigs. In the late 1990s when, partly due to an economic downturn in Asia, demand for oil was less than supply, oil traded for $12-$15 dollars a barrel. During this time you could drive across West Texas (for less than $1.50 a gallon) and see hundreds of idle oil rigs dotting the Permian Basin, seemingly dinosaurs of a bygone oil boom. But they were not the skeletons of a dead industry, merely dormant machines. The oil remained beneath the ground because the cost of operating the rigs for the small amount of oil produced by many of these drilling rigs was prohibitive. But with oil prices moving past $50 and $60 dollars a barrel in the past few months and now heading to $100 a barrel, many of those skeletons have shaken to life and are again producing oil at a profit. Hooray!

$100 a barrel oil encourages not only the small or mature fields with marginal amounts of oil and gas to start pumping again, it also spurs on the producers of unconventional and often difficult oil plays, such as the miners of the vast oil sand deposits of the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin (such as Syncrude and Suncor Energy), the oil firms that focus on shales and tight sands (such as Aurora Oil & Gas and Vermilion Energy Trust), and the coalbed methane players (such as Quest Resource and Windsor Energy Resources). Splendid!

What else can we toast?

• Higher gas prices might push US automakers to make more efficient engines, to match the CAFE standards of Europe and China. Great!
• $100 oil might have consumers banish gas guzzling SUVs to the luxury market and see the resurgence of smart cars, bicycles, and public transportation. Spiffy!
• $100 oil might push governments and private businesses to invest more heavily in alternative energy development such as wind, solar, and biomass. Happy Days!

The potential hangover?

Lest we get too carried away with our toasts, a sober assessment is needed.

• $100 oil might mean US car drivers paying more than $5 a gallon at the gas pump. Ouch!
• $100 oil could mean US home owners paying really, really expensive heating oil prices during the winter. Brrrr!
• $100 oil will mean that cruel and despotic regimes the world over that sit on vast oil and gas reserves (such Saudi Arabia, Myanmar, Iran, Russia, and Venezuela) have plenty of money flowing into their coffers, propping up their governments, and making their leaders wealthy. Bummer!

Conclusion:

I’m going to stick with the (drinking) upside. I live in warm Austin, and I walk in my neighborhood. (I’ll leave the tyrants to the State Department). Maybe, just maybe, a sustained period of $100 a barrel oil prices will push us all to be less oil dependent, and more creative and environmentally thoughtful energy consumers. Cheers!

I will say that Hoover’s online (Dunn and Bradstreet) have some excellent collection services that I have started looking into to get the money that we are due.  Anyone else have difficult clients they have worked with?

What I find interesting though, is the huge difference between Lowe’s and Home Depot. The customer service is drastically different between the two and so the cleanliness of the entire place. I’m sure those of you that are home owners can attest to the huge difference between the two as well. But the big question is, do they know you by name?

I’ll post pictures soon!

Granted, there are a lot of people that use a check card, like myself, to make many of their purchases. All of which come right out of my checking account. I, like most of the people I know personally, don’t really carry much cash in their wallets. The article in the LA Times does address the fact that people don’t carry cash or checks when they come to church, and seeing that 15% of their current operating budget comes from these kiosks, it has been an added benefit.

The church that I attended hosts and leades classes on financial freedom and ways to get out debt. The Bible talks about being debt free and these classes, the Dave Ramsey seminars, help many people learn to use and deal with their finances correctly. Granted, the church is not responsible for making sure everyone handles all of their finances correctly, but are we to encourge those to go into debt or simply provide a means for that to continue? And doesn’t this cross the line of the money changers in the temple when Jesus overturned the tables?

They say that instant messaging is the new thing. Well I’ll be if I found myself wasting almost three hours the other night perusing the vaults of iTunes and their trickery. Marketing at it’s best – at least one of the best click-thrus I have seen in quite awhile. Plus when that little invoice shows up in your gmail box you wonder, “Did I really spend all that time and money on these songs” – and it’s not like you can call iTunes and tell them you didn’t buy that one. I had the thought of doing that myself until I in fact realized I had purchased the dance remix of Can’t get enough of Your Love! Which is soon to be playing through the speakers of this power box I call my computer. That is if I am able to break the sound bearer that my roommates seem to hit when we’re watching movies or listening to music.

Really I love it though it reminds me that I don’t live alone.