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This weekend this guy rings the doorbell. He is from Estonia and will be working here this summer selling “educational children’s books”. He named the company (Southwestern Company, I think) and the way they work is they take college students and send them off to the middle of nowhere to sell these books door-to-door six days a week. They work constantly and have no time for anything else (which is why they always send them away from home: no distractions).

Apparently now they are using Estonians (northern Europe). It sounds like indentured servitude. The guy seemed sharp, nice, and honest. He wasn’t selling books, just looking to see if I knew anyone with a room available to rent for the summer. I told him I had a room. He said two other guys would be living in the same room and they could give me $400 a month. I said maybe.

Anyway, later in the day he brings the other two guys around (equally honest looking). I said it would be at least $600 for the three of them (really I didn’t want any roommates, let alone 3) which they said was too much. I told them to call me back today and I’d tell them if I was interested. When they called I said I wasn’t interested even for $600 but they seemed pretty desperate and said they’d like to stay even if it was just for a week or a month. They said they won’t be around much, will be very quiet, and aren’t interested in parties or even TV. They just need a place to shower and sleep. I said I usually stay up late watching TV and they will be going to bed early to get up early. He said they are very good sleepers and wouldn’t mind the TV.

I felt bad for them so I agreed to let them stay. I figure for 3 months how bad can it be? Susan says I’m crazy to let someone off the street stay in my house but they seemed pretty legitimate.

Now I have to get that room ready and maybe clear out some space in my junk room for the third one. I can’t imagine all three actually living in the same room.

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I got back from Mexico very early Sunday morning. I’ve sorted through a lot of the pictures Susan and I took while we were down there and am starting a web page for the trip. Right now I only have one day, but I hope to add the rest of the days by the end of the week even if I have to call in sick every day this week (I did call in sick today but won’t go into details; let’s just say I went to Mexico and leave it at that).

Anyway, the link:

http://igirder.com/baja/index.html

I was poking around looking for information about smog-reducing gasoline (which Atlanta has to start using in 2005) and found this staggering statistic from the govment about why gas prices have risen:

>>Fuel demand continues to increase. The fuel economy of US fleet is the lowest in 20 years and Americans continue to travel more. Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) is up. Over the past twenty years onroad VMT has increased by 114% while population has only grown by 27%.<<

Once again, look no further than the end of your finger when blaming those who have made the gas prices rise. Not only are americans driving many more miles than they used to, they are using less efficient vehicles to do it in. While it seems fair that we are getting the higher prices we deserve, we're also raising prices for the rest of the world because of our waste and selfishness.

On one episode of The Flintstones Fred changes places with a millionaire who wants a taste of the normal life. Fred says he couldn’t possibly run a corporation but J. L. Gotrocks says it’s easy: You just go to the meeting and when they bring something up you say “Whose baby is that?” then “What’s your angle?” then “I’ll buy that.”

Continue reading “Flintstones U”

The other day I was walking to lunch past Atlanta City Hall. There was a lady on the corner talking on a cell phone. But she was talking very, very loud and was pretty perturbed about something but mostly just loud. It was odd enough to notice, but not really think much about. After we ate lunch we came back the same way. This was at least 30 minutes later. The lady was still on the cell phone and yelling. At no time was she apparently ever listening. As we walked by she got louder and it sounded like she was sort of addressing us. I think what she was doing was staging some kind of protest (there have been a lot lately with the Georgia legislature in session; one day the gay rights group faced off against the family groups that are against gay marriage) but she didn’t have a permit to do the protest. So she brought a cell phone and was just yelling to everyone. Then if anyone questioned her she could say she was just talking to someone on the phone, there are no laws against that.