Lots to Cover
In this issue of Hedonistic Equanimity, I will talk about (I) MPC, (II) Investments, (III) Dinner Sharing, (IV) my solution for General Transportation, (V) LibroVox, (VI) Vacation 2008, and (VII) A Little Bit about My Thoughts on the Meaning of Life. Sit back, relax, and don't forget to tip your waitress.
I. MPC
This is a competition that is being run by an organization called the Mars Society who is interested in the goal of human exploration and colonization of Mars. MPC stands for Mars Project Challenge, and represents a call for proposals for projects that should stimulate a community of development effort with the promise of funding in the order of magnitude of $10 Million.
After some consideration, I have decided that I am interested enough to author a project proposal for the MPC. The goal of my project will be In-situ Resource Cultivation through the use of Automated Facilities that leverage the expertise of many industries of specialists to enable the long-term Survivability of human life on a Celestial Outpost.
I will post follow-up information and links to my proposal submission after the due date for the MPC (which is May 25, 2008) elapses.
II. Investments
Following up from my analysis of the stock market from a few weeks ago, I have settled on Evergreen Solar (ESLR) as the first solar company which I want to invest $10k into. I presently hold a stake of approximately $2k which I will increase over time as the market allows. Considerable negativity exists for ESLR because they are two years behind the curve established by companies with larger stakes in the solar power game including industry giant First Solar. My hope with the selection of ESLR is to capture a stake in a company that is at the point in its development where First Solar was approximately two years ago.
III. Dinner Sharing
This past Tuesday, I invited six (6) guests to join me for dinner at my apartment. I received significant help from one of them. After about two hours of cooking, we served a (1) Caesar salad with homemade dressing and freshly baked croûtons, (2) Ground Coriander and Cilantro Flatbreads (modified recipe), and (3) homemade Sausage Risotto. All told, it was an enjoyable experience for the two cooks and for the diners.
More than that, I would consider that it was incredibly cost efficient and more healthy to eat a home cooked meal rather than going out to eat. I wish for more of these types of culinary events, especially considering the fact that I would rather shell out the full cost for 7 people (about $65, including beverages) than pay for my own meal at a restaurant (about $25). Right? Does that make a lick of sense?
IV. my solution to General Transportation
This comes from a Thread post that I made in the past week or two, so I will quote it.
V. LibriVox
This list is in no particular order with no attempt to provide any relavant information. This is more of a "TODO" for me so that I eventually post a formatted list with more useful content so that the contents of this list can be made to look like the lists in a previous related post that I have made.
http://librivox.org/discourse-on-the-method-by-rene-descartes/
http://librivox.org/the-sayings-of-confucius-by-confucius/
http://librivox.org/the-origin-of-species-by-charles-darwin/
http://librivox.org/relativity-by-albert-einstein/
http://librivox.org/the-waste-land-by-t-s-eliot/
http://librivox.org/the-iliad-by-homer-translated-by-samuel-butler/
http://librivox.org/the-odyssey-by-homer/
http://librivox.org/call-of-the-wild-by-jack-london/
http://librivox.org/the-gettysburg-address-by-abraham-lincoln/
http://librivox.org/the-communist-manifesto-by-karl-marx-and-friendrich-engels/
http://librivox.org/paradise-lost-by-john-milton/
http://librivox.org/the-antichrist-by-nietzsche/
http://librivox.org/ruth-of-boston-by-james-otis/
http://librivox.org/the-art-of-war-by-sun-tzu/
http://librivox.org/declaration-of-independence-by-the-united-states-of-america/
http://librivox.org/beowulf/
http://librivox.org/worldwide-effects-of-nuclear-war-some-perspectives-by-united-states-arms-control-and-disarmament-agency/
VI. Vacation 2008
I have set the dates and location for the vacation that I will be taking this year. I will be flying with my sister and her boyfriend to South Dakota from Aug 9-17 for a week of camping and adventures in wildly diverse landscapes. I think I have a favorable itinerary because we'll get most of the day on Saturday Aug 9 to get settled (in the Badlands) and we'll have a respectable schedule on Sunday Aug 17 to get (from Custer State Park) to the airport.
Here is a tentative schedule of events:
* Spend 2 nights in the Badlands
o hike 5-10 miles on the 9th
o whatever is enjoyable on the 10th
o then return *early* and drive to Yellowstone
* Spend 3 nights in Yellowstone
o geysers on the 11th
o hiking backcountry on the 12th
o big game hunting on the 13th
o then return to Custer Park
* Spend 3 nights in Custer
o relax at camp on 14th
o caving and seeing the scenery on 15th
o Washington Monument and whatever else on the 16th
o then flying home
VII. A Little Bit about My Thoughts on the Meaning of Life
I think that the meaning of life is to enjoy worthwhile experiences. I believe that positive experiences are meant to provide enjoyment. I believe negative experiences are intended to serve as lessons to help us identify the choices required to guarantee the positive experiences that we prefer to live through.
I think that anybody who would wish to do harm or take advantage of somebody else's good fortune does not understand these simple, basic truths and that is where injustice comes from. In order to create a just world where worthwhile experiences can be embraced, I think we should reclassify the criminal justice system to classify greed and corruption that results in unsubstantiated 7-figure personal gains as a punishable offense.
In other words, throw Charles Prince in jail for several years after the injustices he committed as the CEO of Citibank that resulted in $26 Million in personal gains for him and billions of dollars of loses for others.
Along these lines, I propose to produce a movie which deals with the give-and-take of civilized life and the importance of worthwhile experiences. I would aim to shoot this film while I am on vacation in August. This would be the second feature length vacation movie that I have written, directed, produced, filmed, edited, and distributed in my short career as a moviemaker.
I. MPC
This is a competition that is being run by an organization called the Mars Society who is interested in the goal of human exploration and colonization of Mars. MPC stands for Mars Project Challenge, and represents a call for proposals for projects that should stimulate a community of development effort with the promise of funding in the order of magnitude of $10 Million.
After some consideration, I have decided that I am interested enough to author a project proposal for the MPC. The goal of my project will be In-situ Resource Cultivation through the use of Automated Facilities that leverage the expertise of many industries of specialists to enable the long-term Survivability of human life on a Celestial Outpost.
I will post follow-up information and links to my proposal submission after the due date for the MPC (which is May 25, 2008) elapses.
II. Investments
Following up from my analysis of the stock market from a few weeks ago, I have settled on Evergreen Solar (ESLR) as the first solar company which I want to invest $10k into. I presently hold a stake of approximately $2k which I will increase over time as the market allows. Considerable negativity exists for ESLR because they are two years behind the curve established by companies with larger stakes in the solar power game including industry giant First Solar. My hope with the selection of ESLR is to capture a stake in a company that is at the point in its development where First Solar was approximately two years ago.
III. Dinner Sharing
This past Tuesday, I invited six (6) guests to join me for dinner at my apartment. I received significant help from one of them. After about two hours of cooking, we served a (1) Caesar salad with homemade dressing and freshly baked croûtons, (2) Ground Coriander and Cilantro Flatbreads (modified recipe), and (3) homemade Sausage Risotto. All told, it was an enjoyable experience for the two cooks and for the diners.
More than that, I would consider that it was incredibly cost efficient and more healthy to eat a home cooked meal rather than going out to eat. I wish for more of these types of culinary events, especially considering the fact that I would rather shell out the full cost for 7 people (about $65, including beverages) than pay for my own meal at a restaurant (about $25). Right? Does that make a lick of sense?
IV. my solution to General Transportation
This comes from a Thread post that I made in the past week or two, so I will quote it.
Really... there is a market worth $2k to 8k per year per person for affordable and convenient transportation... but the barrier of entry is to be a more convenient alternative than cars.
A business that can draw $1k per year from their customers is a corporate wet dream.... so if you could implement a cost effective way of profitably charging people $100-400 a month for the service of "all-purpose transportation" I think you'd have a viable business model.
How about this... a car service that operates locally to pickup/drop-off people at bus and train stations, call it General Transportation Corporation. The business partners with the state to pay for its customers usage of those services so that everything is broken down in a flat, easy monthly bill. Then, once the customer arrives at close to their destination another GTC car picks them up and brings them to where they need to go. GTC can offer a blanket policy to "guarantee pickup within 20 minutes of a call to make an appointment" or "guarantee pickup within 5 minutes of a pre-scheduled time". The drivers will speak the native language of the majority of the district in which they operate. The only constraint of GTC is that the drivers are limited within geographical areas dictated by the convenience of public transportation options. The bonus, on the other hand, is that no matter where you need to go, you'll be able to call up the GTC customer support staff or search on the GTC website for the quickest route. In many cases, being able to get that drop-off at the train station will completely eliminate traffic on your commute so that you'll travel time will actually DECREASE from what it is when you take your car. The other bonus is actually a social benefit wherein drunk driving is decreased because you never have to deal with the problem of (a) take a taxi and leave my car at the bar, or (b) risk it.
If I were to call a taxi to take me from (imagining I live with my mom in NJ) Midland Park to the Ridgewood train station where (imagining I work in Manhattan) I take the train to the PATH and the PATH to 33rd Street and then a taxi at 33rd Street to get where I need to go... it would cost $5 for taxi, $6 for train, $2 for PATH, and $5 for taxi.... times that by twice a day. That is $36 for a day of transportation. At that cost, $20 gas sounds reasonable. But my argument is that GTC can be run WITH COORDINATED LOGISTICAL PLANNING for much less than that.
I took a shuttle from Wayne, NJ to the airport in Newark one time and it was a $70 bill. The return trip to get back to Wayne cost just as much. Face it, shuttle services are for wealthy people who don't need the benefit of a full time driver.
Find a shuttle service that offers a door-to-door COMPLETE transportation solution for less then $800 a month and I'll tip my hat to you.
Do the calculations that I neglected which schedule the logistics of manning local fleets of GTC cars throughout the tri-state area and I will thank you immensely for saving me the trouble. But it most certainly would not be a 1-to-1 driver to client relationship. That would be absurd. It would be a minimum of 1-to-17 such that a driver would service the equivalent of $4500 of revenue each month which would cover (a) cost of automobile [500], (b) cost of insurance [200], (c) cost of gas [600], (d) cost of public transport subsidies [1,500], (d) driver [2,000], (e) overhead [300].
During "rush hour" you'd need to have fully deployed fleets, but overnight and during the afternoon hours things would be much more relaxed and you could get away with letting most of your staff off between 10am and 3pm. So realistically, a single driver would loop around and maybe pickup 2 clients every 15 minutes from 6am to 10am which makes them able to handle ~30 clients which is more than enough to ensure GTC profitability.
Thus, if "peak" is 7am and 20 people are scheduled for a pickup, you'd need to staff 10 drivers at that time. And by virtue of my calculations, you'd need to make sure you've got at least 130 clients (for a total of 150 minimum) in that locality who have scheduled pickup times that are not during 7am. Thus, that locality would generate $45k in revenue per month.
The state would love you for injecting $15k into the transit system each month (thus, they can afford to hire more bus routes). The gas station that you patronize would love you for spending $6k a month at their pump. The car dealership that you patronize would love you for sending them $5k a month to lease their 10 cars. The insurance company would love you for hiring 10 safe drivers with low risk and $2k of gravy each month. Am I missing anybody? The jobs created by hiring 10 drivers and 2 customer support reps for the area? They would probably be pretty happy, too.
V. LibriVox
This list is in no particular order with no attempt to provide any relavant information. This is more of a "TODO" for me so that I eventually post a formatted list with more useful content so that the contents of this list can be made to look like the lists in a previous related post that I have made.
http://librivox.org/discourse-on-the-method-by-rene-descartes/
http://librivox.org/the-sayings-of-confucius-by-confucius/
http://librivox.org/the-origin-of-species-by-charles-darwin/
http://librivox.org/relativity-by-albert-einstein/
http://librivox.org/the-waste-land-by-t-s-eliot/
http://librivox.org/the-iliad-by-homer-translated-by-samuel-butler/
http://librivox.org/the-odyssey-by-homer/
http://librivox.org/call-of-the-wild-by-jack-london/
http://librivox.org/the-gettysburg-address-by-abraham-lincoln/
http://librivox.org/the-communist-manifesto-by-karl-marx-and-friendrich-engels/
http://librivox.org/paradise-lost-by-john-milton/
http://librivox.org/the-antichrist-by-nietzsche/
http://librivox.org/ruth-of-boston-by-james-otis/
http://librivox.org/the-art-of-war-by-sun-tzu/
http://librivox.org/declaration-of-independence-by-the-united-states-of-america/
http://librivox.org/beowulf/
http://librivox.org/worldwide-effects-of-nuclear-war-some-perspectives-by-united-states-arms-control-and-disarmament-agency/
VI. Vacation 2008
I have set the dates and location for the vacation that I will be taking this year. I will be flying with my sister and her boyfriend to South Dakota from Aug 9-17 for a week of camping and adventures in wildly diverse landscapes. I think I have a favorable itinerary because we'll get most of the day on Saturday Aug 9 to get settled (in the Badlands) and we'll have a respectable schedule on Sunday Aug 17 to get (from Custer State Park) to the airport.
Here is a tentative schedule of events:
* Spend 2 nights in the Badlands
o hike 5-10 miles on the 9th
o whatever is enjoyable on the 10th
o then return *early* and drive to Yellowstone
* Spend 3 nights in Yellowstone
o geysers on the 11th
o hiking backcountry on the 12th
o big game hunting on the 13th
o then return to Custer Park
* Spend 3 nights in Custer
o relax at camp on 14th
o caving and seeing the scenery on 15th
o Washington Monument and whatever else on the 16th
o then flying home
VII. A Little Bit about My Thoughts on the Meaning of Life
I think that the meaning of life is to enjoy worthwhile experiences. I believe that positive experiences are meant to provide enjoyment. I believe negative experiences are intended to serve as lessons to help us identify the choices required to guarantee the positive experiences that we prefer to live through.
I think that anybody who would wish to do harm or take advantage of somebody else's good fortune does not understand these simple, basic truths and that is where injustice comes from. In order to create a just world where worthwhile experiences can be embraced, I think we should reclassify the criminal justice system to classify greed and corruption that results in unsubstantiated 7-figure personal gains as a punishable offense.
In other words, throw Charles Prince in jail for several years after the injustices he committed as the CEO of Citibank that resulted in $26 Million in personal gains for him and billions of dollars of loses for others.
Along these lines, I propose to produce a movie which deals with the give-and-take of civilized life and the importance of worthwhile experiences. I would aim to shoot this film while I am on vacation in August. This would be the second feature length vacation movie that I have written, directed, produced, filmed, edited, and distributed in my short career as a moviemaker.
posted by Rob | 7:31 PM
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