Month: October 2005

ExxonMobil Has Record Proftits 3rd Quarter

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This came as no shocker to me. ExxonMobil had its best EVER quarter in terms of both profits and sales. This past quarter their PROFITS were $9.92 BILLION!!! Let me write that out: $9,920,000,000. That’s a lot of zeros. In the 3rd quarter of 2004 their profits were $6.23 billion.

Hmm . . . where did they make all the money??? This year, gas prices averaged between $2.50 – $3.00 for most of the 3rd quarter compared to $1.80 – $2.00 last year. That’s 50-75% higher than last year’s prices. Pretty simple math in my head.

My point is this. I really believe that ExxonMobil profited by using the Hurricanes as an excuse to raise prices. They said that production costs would be higher, so they had to raise the price. If they were simply trying to maintain profits, that would be one thing. But when the post RECORD PROFITS & SALES, that’s a whole ‘nother story. They used a national tragedy to pad their wallets and they should pay.

I propose that we all write a letter to express our disgust with the company and our intention to NEVER buy gas from any of their gas stations again unless they do something MAJOR to apologize for what they did. To me, this is a textbook example of price gouging at its worst.

Here is their contact info:
Exxon Mobil Corp.
5959 Las Colinas Boulevard
Irving, TX 75039-2298
Phone: 972-444-1000
Fax: 972-444-1348
Web Site: http://www.exxonmobil.com

Once I’ve sent my letter, I’ll post a copy of it as well as any replies that I receive from them.

Tech Tip – Keyboard Shortcuts in Firefox

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If you haven’t started to use it yet, you need to make the switch to Firefox. In almost every way it is far superior to Internet Explorer. And it’s Free!!! The tabbed browsing is great and makes browsing multiple pages much easier.

I’ve recently discovered some of the keyboard shortcuts that make browsing even more easy. Here’s a few that I use almost every day (Sorry Mac people, I only know PC stuff):
New Tab – Ctrl + T
Toggle Through Tabs – Ctrl + Tab
Find in This Page – Ctrl + F
Select Search Bar – Ctrl + K
Select Location Bar – Ctrl + L
.com in location – Ctrl + Enter (example: type yahoo then press Ctrl + Enter and it automatically fills in http://www.yahoo.com for you)
.net in location – Shift + Enter
.org in location – Ctrl + Shift + Enter

There are many more keyboard shortcuts that might be more useful for you. You can see the list by pressing F1 in Firefox and then clicking “Keyboard Shortcuts” in the contents section. If you know of any other really useful shortcuts, please share them by commenting.

Appearances and the NBA Dress Code

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This past week, the NBA officially released their new dress code for players. The general policy is business casual when they are “engaged in team or league business.” In addition, when a player is at a game but not in uniform they are required to wear a sports coat and dress shoes.

There’s been quite a bit of initial reaction written to the policy. Much of the discussion has centered on whether or not it’s racially biased. Clarence Green wrote to the USA Today saying, “I cannot help but also wonder about the NBA’s reasons for banning items more commonly worn by the African-American players, such as flashy neck jewelry. The new rules seem racist . . . and to threaten a guy’s career with a dress code rule is just over the top.”

Charles Barkley of all people had a really great response on the Jay Leno show. He supports the new policy. He said, “If a well-dressed white kid and a black kid wearing a do-rag and throwback jersey came to me in a job interview, I’d hire the white kid. That’s reality. That’s the No. 1 reason I support the dress code.” That’s not racism. That’s business.

Every business in the country has a dress policy. If you don’t follow it, you don’t work there. The business wants to portray a certain image, and they have every right to choose what that image is. The reality is that people form opinions on others based on what they wear. If you’re in shorts and a t-shirt, you’re not going to thought of as a professional. Also, if you’re wearing a suit people notice.

I’ve had personal experience with this at my church. Whenever I wear a suit, which is not very often, I get a number of comments from people along the lines of “Looking sharp,” “Whoa, what’s the occasion,” or “Thanks for dressing up today!” I find it funny, but it’s reality. In 1 Samuel 16:7, God told Samuel, “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” It’d be great if we could see each other for what we really are, but we can’t see another person’s heart. If we could, it wouldn’t matter what we wore. But since we can only see the outward appearance, we need to realize that others will make assumptions on us based on what we wear.

Welcome to Texas World Series

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The curse of Big Tex is finally over. For the first time in the State’s history, Texas will play host to the World Series. In their 40 years+ existences, neither the Rangers nor the Astros had made it to the World Series. That had been the longest dry spell for any state with a MLB team. Last night in St. Louis, MO that curse was lifted . . . at least halfway.

The Rangers have the longest-running, most pathetic history of any MLB franchise in existence. Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about the Rangers:

The Rangers (when combined with their predecessor the Senators) are the oldest franchise that has yet to appear in a World Series; in fact, they have yet to win any playoff series. In their entire history the team has a combined one playoff win (on the road at Yankee Stadium of all places; they have never won a home playoff game).

The media talked a lot about the Curse of the Bambino with the Red Sox last year. They made such a big deal about how the Red Sox hadn’t won the World Series since 1918. That drought, however, was not nearly as long the Curse of the Billy Goat that the Cubs are under. They have not won the World Series since 1908 and haven’t been in it since 1945!!! Up until this year, the White Sox had not appeared since 1959 and their last championship was in 1917. Sensing an east coast bias, maybe?

There is a small list of teams that have never appeared in a world series. That list of five teams includes the Rangers, Devil Rays, Expos, Mariners, and Rockies. Teams that have appeared in but not won it are the Astros (this year being their first appearance), Padres, and Brewers. This is the list of the mediocre and sometimes downright lame MLB teams.

I think the saying “It is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all” can apply to Rangers fans. We don’t know what it’s like to see our team win the World Series. In fact, we only know the joy that comes from ONE PLAYOFF WIN EVER!!!

Thanks for bailing us north Texans out Houston. I have a feeling that the Rangers won’t be appearing in the World Series in a long, long time.

Tomatoes, Drive-Thru, and Hot Sauce

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I must confess something. I hate drive-thrus. I know it might sound weird coming from someone spent two and a half years working at a place that has one, but I do. The main reason I hate them is because they’re so frustrating. Today, Brea and I went to Taco Bueno after church and of course went through the drive-thru. I wanted a combo and with no tomatoes. You would think that I asked for a Big Mac. As soon as the word “combo” comes out of your mouth, they immediately reply “What drink would you like?” Have we never been through a drive-thru before? We know the process. A combo comes with a drink. Don’t worry. We’ll let you know what kind of beverage we want. Heaven forbid we’d want to make a modification to our combo before we let you know what drink you want. Not only that, but how hard is it to figure out that when we say “Combo # 5 with no tomatoes” we mean we want no tomatoes ON THE ENTIRE COMBO!!! If we only wanted no tomatoes on one item, we’d say that. Every freakin’ time they have trouble unwrapping this mystery of the no tomatoes order.

With Taco Bueno in particular, I really don’t think they really listen to what you say. When you’re finished placing your order, they ask if you want hot sauce. It doesn’t really matter what you say here. You’re getting hot sauce. I can’t remember one time that they haven’t given me hot sauce, no matter what I say.

Ok, I feel a little better now. I’ll probably order from a drive-thru again.

Computers are Smarter Than Me

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I’ve been improving the countdown timer file that I have displayed on the left and I was getting frustrated. In Swish, I have to type in the date and time for the event I want the timer to countdown to. It was off by an hour when I had my computer’s clock set correctly. But if I advanced the timer to the day of or before the event (in this case, the Mavs opener) it would be right. Did I mention I was getting frustrated? Well, I thought about it for a minute. Why would it be wrong today, but right in a couple weeks? Then I realized. Daylight savings. The freaking computer knows that daylight savings is coming so it adjusts the timer accordingly. Amazing. I wish I would have thought of that a couple hours ago.

Updated Blog Look

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I spent a few hours yesterday tweaking the look of the site. Not a complete overhaul, but I think the overall look and feel of the site is much better. Here’s what I did:

  • Header (Removed the menu bar that was above the image, added kevinrossen.com to the image and made only that text clickable). I got the header from the Digital Westex Image Gallery and customized it in Photoshop.
  • Changed the picture that shows up in the address bar (it’s a Mountain Dew bottle). I figured out how to do it using Wikipedia.
  • Made a flash file for the countdown to the Mavericks season. I made it using SWiSHmax. It’s a great program for making basic flash files. I customized a sample countdown that comes with the program. I’ll write about the program sometime in the future.
  • Changed the Flickr Pics badge to the Flickr Daily Zeitgeist. It’s s simple script that Flickr create for you and you just copy and paste it into your site. I chose to only include my photos and my contacts’ photos.
  • Sidebar overhaul (took out “bullets” in the boxes, moved the subscribe links into the about section, fixed some of the spacing, and added an archives section)

Looks like a lot, but I’m really satisfied. The next thing I’m going to try to figure out is how to make the search function in WordPress work–it doesn’t now. If you have any suggestions or ideas please share them in by commenting on this post.

Vote For Shelby!

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KLTY, the contemporary Christian music station in Dallas/Fort Worth is having a Rising Star Talent Search. Shelby Pride, a student at Dallas Christian College, has been selected as one of the top 5 finalists in the competition. She has led worship at Valley View at various events (30 Hour Famine and Youthquake 2004) so if you’re part of the church you might remember her. She will be performing at the Plano Fall Women’s Expo & Holiday Bazaar at the Plano Centre October 29, 2005! If she wins, she will receive $5,000 worth of recording time at a studio.

Vote for her at KLTY.com
Listen to one of her songs here.