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Exxon Mobil earned $10.36 billion in the second quarter, the second largest quarterly profit ever recorded by a publicly traded U.S. company.

The earnings figure was 36 percent above the profit it reported a year ago. High oil prices helped boost the company’s revenue by 12 percent to a level just short of a quarterly record. Exxon Mobil’s report comes as many drivers in the U.S. are paying $3 for a gallon of gas.” increasing the likelihood of further political backlash in Washington.

via Energy Crisis Now!

Greg Kadel was my favorite photographer when I was pursuing fashion photography. His Films section was one of my favorites.

Some muffins were cooking in the oven. One muffin said to the next: “Wow, it’s hot in here.” The second said “Gack! A talking muffin!”

UPS creates new routes to save fuel. (Thanks Dean!)

It takes more energy to make ethanol from grain than the combustion of ethanol produces.

It was something in the air. Perhaps it was the arrogance, the stank of commercialism, or just the smell that is New York. After spending a few months short of two years in New York, I was tired of it. Two years of New York starts with excitement and ends in disgust; intermingled with small ridiculously expensive apartments.

It took a while to realize I had made a decision to end my plans in New York; for those of you who don’t know, I was going to The School of Visual Arts for Photography, retouching photographs professionally, and building my portfolio shooting model tests. I schleped a great deal of web design talent and plans to go to the big city. After all of this, I can’t tell you how much I miss the web, design, and code.

When the time came to really commit to altering my plans, it felt better than anything ever had before. You don’t realize how easy you can lie to yourself until you decide to stop.

I decided to move back to Detroit and continue with school. I planned on getting my MBA after art school, but I’m not going to be pursuing that more proactively, by getting my bachelor’s in business as well.

Everyone is surprised. Why would you leave such a great place? Hugh Macleod explains it best. Twice.

The answer is, there are so many answers. But again Hugh Macleod explains it best:

Nobody moves to New York just in order to survive…

…of course that’s what most of them end up doing…

In the midst of all these thoughts, I awoke one night to a heart that was beating somewhere around 200 bpm. It was jumping out of my chest. I was scared… I went to the ER. They kept me for not one or two, but four nights. Four nights in the hospital is four nights too long. It pretty much sealed the deal. Hospitals have a real way of knocking a little sense of reality in to you.

I think more than anything I learned what I really want in life. I realized that when you can have anything you want, anything, you figure out pretty fast what really matters: family, friends, and love.

After purchasing a 2006 New Beetle TDI (turbo diesel injection). I was happy to find that Biodiesel works in my car and is available all over the place!

PackRat lets you use your Backpack data when you can’t be on the ‘net. I use it all the time, it’s great.

I went to buy white paint today. I never realized I would be faced with so many choices. There are over 26 shades of white to choose from. Seriously disturbing.

I was one of those that scoffed at the idea. Web-based email. Why? I have my own server with IMAP! IMAP! IMAP! IMAP is awesome. Web-based email means I’m stuck using either plain-old POP or using their web-interface.

This scoffing stopped the minute my daily SPAM intake went from 10 (which were caught very well by the TXD SpamAssassin install) to 100+. I didn’t know what to do. I tried it all.

My last resort was to use gmail. I began forwarding my mail there and realized that the Gmail spam filter kicks some serious booty. Serious bootay.

I didn’t want to be stuck using gmail for life. Cause it didn’t allow me to access its service via IMAP, which irritated the hell out of me. What did I end up doing?

Original Mail Address -> Gmail Account -> Hidden/New Email Account.

I now check my mail from a hidden login and send out with my old login, letting gmail filter my SPAM away in the process. It works wonderfully and now I can finally rest at night, knowing that I won’t awake to hundreds of SPAM messages to deal with.