No matter how long and hard...

Despite my rough start in Spider Solitaire (I went 1 for 39), I've persevered and brought my average up to 15% as my record now is 19 for 123. There was a frustrating point at which I thought this game didn't require any sort of aptitude, but I've since found that I can in fact succeed depending on HOW I play the cards, rather than just simply depending on the ones that are dealt. You need to set yourself up for something down the line, rather than attempt to make your combinations perfect right away. However, I've also noticed that at the beginning of each game, if you don't get quality cards, where you can start getting rid of the piles underneath the cards facing you, the game will be very difficult down the line. The piles need to be taken care of first, so that you can use the empty slots later on to your advantage. So, basically, Spider Solitaire comes down to a combination of the cards you're given and the skill you have.

That's so smooth...

I was on my way to the subway station the other day, walking along at a normal pace, when another guy just walked out of his building. He started behind me but was walking much faster. He passed me, and for some reason it frustrated me. So, my reaction to this was to speed up, and pass him. As I did, I looked at him. And he slowed down. I think I made my point.

Put the rubber on...

Last night, I was walking home from the subway station, and I noticed something. While I was walking down the street, I saw that the curb, where a car was not parked, was covered in rubber. I immediately assumed this was from cars attempting to parallel park and consequently bumping the curb with their tires. Often times you'll see people's rims and hubcaps all scratched up, and this is from being bad at parallel parking, they'll scrape the curb. So I thought, why not make the curb out of rubber? And, while we're at it, make the road out of rubber as well? Aren't you tired of running around the street, and tripping, falling and scraping your knees and elbows? Well, I think it's about time we move on from this scummy, hard, abrasive asphalt that we've so apathetically used. The rubber streets would be much easier to clean, safer for kids, and tires could be engineered to have much better traction.

If a politician were to propose this idea, he would tell you, you deserve to move on from the norm, that this is a better technology, and you won't have to pay a dime in tax money for it, as he or she is desperate to gain votes and be elected just to serve their own vanity. Well, rubber in this quantity is not cheap, I'm sure of that, so I hope this politician can pay for it on their own. So, let's say this politician gets elected, proposes this bill mandating that all roads shall be made out of rubber, and it passes. Soon, this politician will realize, "oh, this DOES cost tax payer's money, sorry folks, I lied." But, the bill has already been passed, and the mandate must be followed. So, people get their rubber streets in the summer, when most road construction is done. And, they love it, because everything the politician promised about the quality of the roads was true, so they don't care if it cost them money.

Then comes the fall season, increasing the potential for rain. When the rain hits, this smooth, rubber surface becomes slick, and accidents happen. Accidents involving people of all socioeconomic classes, also including business transports, and even federal transportation. So now, the citizens demand that something be done, and politicians agree. The politicians, that can't figure out why this happened in the first place, as the rubber was working so well, decide not to repeal the rubber mandate, but decide to keep the rubber roads, and come up with a solution to save their roads. Now, remember this problem is country-wide, affecting all people, so a solution is imminent, and politicians feel the pressure to act fast. Many of the citizens may be clammoring for taking up all the rubber, because they knew it was a bad idea in the first place, but politicians, attempting to save their own ass and not to admit they wasted the taxpayers' money before, call those people shortsighted and uneducated about the situation.

The politicians, of all parties, now group together and form one party, at least for the time being. The solution they come to is that they need to enact a government project to create a ceiling over all roads, to prevent precipitation from falling and potentially causing accidents. Also in this proposed bill, shop owners and other people won't be able to clean off their sidewalks by spraying it down with the hose, because water is not allowed to touch the rubber, ever. Now, the citizens know that this idea is really bad, and is going to cost them tons of money, so the majority do not want this to happen. But the politicians argue that it is essential for their safety, and all band together to pass this bill, as they're "putting aside their political differences" in the name of public safety and prosperity. So, they pass this bill, ironically against the voters' (by whom they were elected) wishes, and cost the taxpayers' even more money to support a government program that was created "just because" something had to be done.

Now, let's look at the industries that would benefit, and those that would be hurt. The beneficiaries are clear; the rubber industry, as a spike in demand rises, they could demand a premium price and turn their greatest profit ever (though your politician may argue that because you're buying this rubber in bulk, at a higher volume than ever before, this "pooled" demand will actually cause a decrease in price- this just serves as proof he or she doesn't understand economics), and also the politicians because they think they saved their asses by "fixing" a problem that they'd created. Industries that would be hurt though, are not so evident. The bandage industry would take a hit, because kids would no longer be scraping their knees and elbows. Car parts shops would also take a hit, because they wouldn't be selling as many rims or hubcaps, or even as many tires, because the wear and tear wouldn't be as vigorous on the slick new roads. Also, as a result of the increase in the price of rubber, sports such as hockey, tennis, raquetball, lacrosse, basketball, and many others that use rubber products would become much more expensive. Hockey pucks, could jump from $2 per, to $15-20 per, given the ridiculous demand. Not to mention even the other consumer products that use rubber, the prices would also spike if they continued to use rubber instead of finding a replacement.


Basically what this story comes down to, is that no matter how well intentioned a government program may be, there are terrible, unintended consequences. And, the pride of politicians makes it "hard" to repeal programs such as these, even though everyone knows it's a terrible idea after it happens. The way that the government chooses to resolve these problems is by creating more programs, which cause more problems, and the "need" for more government programs. The government should just let the market be, and allow it to make decisions for itself, as any sort of restriction or government mandate can create an enormous mess, even though in the short term they may work fantastically.

Wow, that's so long!

Does anyone else get tired of going to bed EVERY night? Why is it so completely out of the question to totally get rid of "the week" as a measure of time?


I feel it would be a fantastic time to try a system of non-week months.


In this new system, there would be four days in a month, and each day would last 168 hours. People would need to train themselves to sleep for 56 hours straight, and then further train themselves to be awake for 112 hours straight. There would have to be a few rules and regulations put forth to make this system a success.


First and foremost, an extremely strict curfew would need to be set in place for the designated 56 hours of sleeping time. Robots would patrol the streets and kill anyone who was not inside at least attempting to sleep. These robots would be similar to the Sentinels found in The Matrix movie series. Along the lines of Sentinels, streets could also be patrolled by the Sentinels from the X-Men video games... though I think the Matrix Sentinels would be more effective. On a related note; all electromagnetic pulses would be banned.




Second, the Marines and the Air Force would be completely dropped from our military. Marines are huge douchebags and Air Force people are scared to kill people. The Coast Guard and the Army National Guard aren't even worth mentioning. We would only need the Army and the Navy -- that's it. Both of these branches of the military would be on completely different sleep schedules than the rest of the country; one branch would sleep for the first 84 hours of each day, while the other guards us as us civilians sleep, since during our irrationally long sleep hours, our country will be very susceptible to attacks -- by terrorist jerks. These two military branches would patrol land, sea, and air. Also, surplus soldiers cannot be used to enforce the curfew, that's just how things are.


On an unrelated note, all of our soldiers currently stationed overseas would be brought back to the US. Additionally, all of our nation's prisons would be emptied and all prisoners would serve the rest of their sentences in Iraq, fighting our war. Anyone serving a sentence for a property crime would be forced to make elaborate fireworks. All states would legalize fireworks. Furthermore, fireworks would be used as an "alarm" to wake everyone up after their 56 hours of deep sleep.




Now I can see how some people may not agree with this new system of life, but I assure you; it would be an overwhelming success.


PROS:
- Athletic contests could quadruple in time -- extended sleep hours would give athletes super-human endurance, and time would not be a factor.
- The Sun would eventually adapt to our new way of life. We control the sun. Science wins.
- People would acquire an abnormally large tolerance for alcohol, for unrelated reasons.


CONS:
- It's a terrible idea.
- It would never work.
- Sentinels aren't real.


What a waste of time this was.

Inaugural Address

Well, this is Ye Olde Mill, it is a blog by Aaron, and Andy. And, it shall be a dandy one at that. We have a lot of thoughts, from baseball to bigfoots, from Wii jokes to Office trivia. We're thinkers, and this will be the best blog on the web.

So like, do you have a myspace or something?