Kick the Habit

Are you a smoker? Do you find yourself scrapping through your couch cushions for some extra change just to pay for your 4 minute fix?

Consider this: More than half of all smokers smoke 3.5 packs a week. At an average price of $1.96 a pack, that’s $5.88 a week, $305.76 a year. If your my age (33) and you live another 43 years to a ripe old age of 76, you’d spend $13,147.68 on cigarettes. And this doesn’t factor in the extra money you pay for health and medical insurance. Now, if you quit, and put that same amount of money in a Roth IRA ($25.50 a month), and invested it in an stock index fund which, historically, have averaged 10% per year, you’d have $218,000 bucks! That’s a few weeks in the Caymans, a new Porsche, a few hundred trips to the movie theater to see whatever Matrix sequels is out at the time, and all the Twizzlers you want to eat while your there.

A nice reward for giving up a nasty habit. Puff on that one for a while…

Next Vid on Deck

Almost done with System Shock 2 and I’m wondering what comes next? Some of the same guys who worked on this game also did Deus Ex. The sequel, Deus Ex: Invisible War is in development and won’t be ready for some time… what to do, what to do. Guess I could buy Operation Flashpoint: GotY Edition? Any recommendations?

Solar Power is Hot

Solar power is a no-brainer. So why haven’t we seen consumer solutions? I don’t know. But here’s one of them straight from the man himself, Bob Vila.

Macromedia.com Redesign

Macromedia redesigned their site. Stylish, clean, fresh with a slight hint of basil…. I like it!

Like France, We Surrender

Saddam wants us to think his country is united in their nationalistic efforts. But ask the average man on the street and they’ll tell you they want somebody to get rid of Hussein. Even his troops are already trying to surrender.

Pollution is Natural

Trees, not cars, cause more pollution. Well? No duh.

ABC Promotes Military

Guess when I slam the networks for bad programming, I’ve got to compliment them on the good, right?

ABC aired Profiles last evening and it was an honest look at some of the kids (man, I’m getting old) serving our country in the military. I expected the show to only display the horrors of war but it covered the many facets (good and bad) of military life, one soldier at a time. Real reality TV. Good job ABC, keep it up!

Abortion Clinics Don’t Care About Women

90% of 800 abortion clinics questioned would not report sexual exploitation of minors in exchange for the opportunity to abort the callers baby. The report by Life Dynamics tells the whole story, but don’t you think this would be worth a mention on the nightly news? Ahh, I see. ABC and the rest only report stories that further their agenda. Now it’s clear. Lime 5 is the book no abortionist wants you to read.

Isn’t There Too Much Porn Already?

Leave it to the ACLU to make it easier for porn peddlers to target children. I still don’t know what’s wrong with the suggestion made back in the late 90s for cash-for-porn people to use the .sex extension? The first time COPA came before the Supreme Court, only liberal John Paul Stevens dissented with an obviously extreme to state his case. Boy, President Ford really screwed up that appointment.

NCAA Tournament Brackets

The NCAA Tournament brackets were announced yesterday. And I’ve already got my top-secret, boyseniffic spreadsheet in full effect. Want to take a look at it? It’s more highly sought after than Colonel Sanders chicken recipe so I can only give you a small peek.

Privacy and Google

Can we trust Google? I didn’t have a problem with their site until I learned about all the ways they’re saving your personal information and mine. But wait… we’re talking cookies here, don’t accept them, delete them, no big deal. Paranoia is rampant on the Web today. Reminds me of this and this. [thanks MeFi]

Hurry Up and Wait

Search your 20GB hard drive for a file and it takes minutes. Search literally millions of pages on Google and it takes a couple of seconds. Why is that?

Serbian Premier Assassinated

Serbian premier assassinated. He was a democratic reformer who’s voice was silenced by the status quo of communism most recently championed by Slobodan Milosevic. It’s truly a sad day for Serbia.

All Your Favorite Comic Heroes

Today I came across The Comic Characters Database. Flash had always been one of my favorite characters. But I always wondered why he was ever defeated? I mean really, as fast as he is, he should be able to sidestep most attacks. Am I crazy here or what?

Screaming Monkeys

Someone asked me the other day what video game I was playing. I told them Unreal II. Finished it up, and it was pretty fun, but by no means innovative, just more of the same.

Which reminded me… remember how cool System Shock was? Well, I didn’t want to go back that far, so I loaded up Irrational’s System Shock 2 and have been playing it for the last week. It’s incredible. I have to say it’s the best video game I’ve ever played in terms of how much thought and attention to detail went into this game. Do yourself a favor and buy it. As a bonus, since it’s quite old (1998) your current machine should be able to run it with all the graphics maxed. Beware the screaming monkeys!