Under a Gibbous Moon

It has been nearly a year since I first wrote about using your arm as a strop. I can happily report that I am still using the same razor cartridge.

I just wet the blade and then give it a couple of strokes before I begin and then a few more after I have finished and the blade has remained in like new condition.

I admit that I was initially skeptical that this would be able to keep a blade fresh for years but as I near the one year mark I can say that I am willing to believe that the blade will last me another year.

The only thing I regret is that I had bought a new pack of blades before I found out about this.

Remember back during the Haiti earthquake when Wyclef Jean was accused of funneling money from his Haiti charity to himself. Then he cried and said that he wan’t very good with accounting for money.

Well, now he’s running for the president of Haiti.

So either he’s a crook or he’s no good with money, either way, I don’t see him doing much good for Haiti.

I was at the store today and I could not believe my eyes.

Yes, it’s a 1.1 ounce container of Cheerios for a buck and a half. That’s $21.60 a pound. It seems that putting it into a small container must turn it into gold. So my plan is this, I’m going to buy this.

And put it in this.

And see if it turns into diamonds by morning.

For anyone who has been following my personal Twitter feed knows, my wife was recently laid off of work. When this happens, one of the things that you recieve is your COBRA statement.

As I was reading through it, I was reminded of a frequent argument that I read during the big debate of the health care bill. In its various forms, it stated that anyone who did not have health insurance was just plain lazy, I only pay X dollars out of my check for health insurance and that’s not much.

True, my wife paid about $120 a month for family coverage. Sounds like a reasonable price that anyone could afford. Of course, what made this claim ridiculous is that anyone who has been self-employed (or just pays attention) knows that the employer typically bears the largest portion of the cost for their employees health insurance.

The full cost for my wife’s family coverage health insurance is $1,840.98. Per month. For scale federal minimum wage is $1,256.67 per month.

I’m pretty much on the fence with netbooks. On one hand, for the money that you pay, you get a tiny screen and fairly anemic performance. On the other hand you get a highly portable computer that has exceptional battery life. On certainty that I do have is that netbooks have increased the resale value of used notebooks.

It used to be that used computers were worth close to nothing. This is, of course, because technology advances so quickly that unless you plan on selling your computer within a few months after purchase, the cost of new one will net you a better cost to performance ratio than a used one.

Netbooks have upset that, though. Not everyone buys a netbooks simply because it is tiny or that they can use it in a Starbucks for ten hours straight. Some people look at them and see them simply as affordable computers. Enter used laptops.

Unless your laptop is so old that its battery has to be worn on your back, then it specs out better than all but the most top of the line netbook and all with much larger screen. So for all of you with two, three, or even four year old laptops collecting dust in a closet somewhere, you might actually be able to get some money out of it.