USC POSTING MONTHS AGO ..though repeated somewhere, thanks to WuHang.
by Matt Brochu November 21, 2003
You met her a few months ago, and somehow she managed to seep into your subconscious like that "Suga how you get so fly" song. Just like you have no clue who the hell sings it, you don't know why she's there. But she is, whether you like it or not. You know her cell phone, her room phone. You can dial her Aunt Doreen's house in West Springfield (where she goes to do her laundry every two weeks) faster than you can peck-out 911. But she doesn't know.
Her screenname, that generic one with her first name followed by three to five random numbers or UMass, has its own category at the top of your buddy list. Not only do you know what a "Buddy Alert" is, you've rigged your computer to play "Fat Guy in a Little Coat" from "Tommy Boy" every time her screen name changes from gray to black. Then her away message comes down, and you have a decision to make. To IM or not to IM? These are the ridiculous games that you play on a daily basis. But she doesn't know.
She's it. All right, so maybe not "it" it. Not necessarily Ms. Right, but closer to Ms. Right-up-there-with-Anna-Kournikova-and-Lizzie-McGuire-on-your-list-of-people-you'd-give-anything-to-be-stranded-with-on-a-broken-down-elevator. But it's about more than that. When is it ever about more than that? Never. Not like frilly white dress, overpriced catering, embarrassing drunk in-laws more, but closer to UMass sweatpants, two D.P. Dough Roni Zonies, a futon and a movie you have no interest in seeing more. But she doesn't know.
She's gorgeous, but gorgeous is an understatement. More like you're startled every time you see her because you notice something new in a "Where's Waldo" sort of way. More like you can't stop writing third grade run-on sentences because you can't remotely begin to describe something ... someone ... so inherently amazing. But you're a writer. You can describe anything. That's what you do: pictures to words, events to words, words to even better words. But nothing seems right. More like you're afraid that if you stare at her for too long, you'll prove your parents right: that yes, your face will stick that way. But you wouldn't mind.
You wouldn't mind that the questioning, "Hello?" on the other end makes you want to smile and throw up at the same time. You wouldn't mind worrying about what to get her for her birthday and spending $300 when you only have $17.50 and a Triple-A card to your name. You wouldn't mind that she left your TV on and the blaring infomercials wake you up at 4 a.m. ... because it gives you a chance to watch her sleep. You don't mind that you've slipped up twice when you were hammered and hinted at how you feel, but she was too drunk to remember. So she doesn't know.
Sure, she's pretty, but it's about more than that. You two connect. Anything you throw at her, she can throw right back. You figured out what's going on in that predictable head of hers in under five minutes, but something tells you her heart would take about five years.
You remember everything she's ever said to you, and when that freaks her out you blame it on your photographic memory (which is a lie, you have a 2.7 GPA). You can't remember your teaching assistant's name, and you can't remember that your Puffton rent check was due four days ago, yet you remember the middle name of the kid who tripped her in fifth grade and gave her that cute little scar on her shoulder. Maybe it's because you actually listen when she talks. When do you actually listen? Never. But she doesn't know.
But she has a boyfriend. The kid is a tool, and you are not. He has no redeeming qualities, and you have about 38, even when you're hung over. You could kick his butt, and you've never been in a fight in your life. He treats her like crap, and you would treat her like the princess she believed herself to be on Halloween in 1988.
But she loves him. He wouldn't know what he had even if she slapped him across the face and dumped him, but somehow she still loves him. And somehow she still doesn't know.
Then, out of nowhere, she slaps him across the face and dumps him. She comes to you. You've been there before, so you seem like the smartest guy on earth. She cries, but your corny half-joke, half-compliment somehow gets a smile out of her that almost makes you feel ashamed that you're the only one around who gets to witness it. It looks like you might make her realize that all guys don't deserve to have rocks thrown at them.
But nothing changes. She doesn't know. You get that library elevator feeling in your stomach that she'll never know. You get that feeling that you'll be forced to write a cheesy Collegian column about her that makes "Sleepless in Seattle" look like "Girls Gone Wild."
You go to sleep. You wake up. She doesn't know. You're not in love. You're not obsessed. You blame it on the fact that you just need to get some, but still, it's about more than that. It would just be nice if once in your life, things worked out the way you wanted them to.
So ___________, it's about time you know*.
Now cut this out, fill in her name, and give it to her, coward. Just let me know how it works out.
March 23, 2004 WHY ARE GAS PRICES HIGH AND RISING?
Being systematic, here are the primary reasons for the rise in gasoline prices in March 2004:
1. High world crude oil prices. These prices are partly the consequence of conscious OPEC supply constriction to raise price. OPEC’s ability to do so is typically constrained by three interrelated factors: the world demand for oil, cheating on the part of smaller OPEC members, and production from non-OPEC countries like Russia, Norway and Mexico. Economic growth, particularly in Asia, is shifting out the demand for oil according to this Ft. Worth Star-Telegram article:
Strong demand for oil in Asia is one reason for higher crude prices in recent months, although analysts also said that aggressive bets by large commodity speculators have contributed to the recent run-up in oil markets. Much of the attention on Asian oil supplies is related to the fast-growing economies of China and India.
Sales of diesel fuel in India, which account for about 40 percent of the oil sold in that country, soared 10 percent in February from the same month a year earlier; automobile sales in India grew 31 percent in the last year. India's oil imports are forecast to continue to climb as its economy grows 8 percent this year.
This Investor’s Business Daily article points to the other two aspects of this dynamic: Saudi Arabia is still the “swing producer” because of the scale of its reserves relative to other producers, and some OPEC members have not curtailed production to meet the targets OPEC set in their 1 February meeting. Saudi Arabia’s production is the primary determininant of the world price, and with rising demand the growth in production in Russia and in Iraq has not been sufficient to change that fact. And small OPEC producers are riding the crest of this high price, not restricting their output.
No current discussion of OPEC is complete without reference to the horrendous state of affairs in Venezuela. Their low production adds substantially to the high prices we are currently experiencing.
OPEC is currently discussing whether or not to continue its output restrictions at the end of the month, and today’s news suggests that they are fighting internal battles over whether to pursue output restrictions when their benchmark price is $4 above the high end of their usual benchmark range.
2. Existing environmental regulations making supply more inelastic. Petroleum refiners in the US must meet the EPA’s federal fuel oxygenate requirement from Title II of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, which mandates a 2% oxygen content in fuel in ozone non-attainment urban areas. Furthermore, refiners are required to drain all of the winter fuel from their tanks before replacing it with summer fuel, which in most markets must have inventory built up to start sales on 1 April. On top of that, states can choose to implement their own fuel formulation requirements to address their specific geographic and climatologic conditions that lead to different local air quality conditions. As a result, the US now has over 40 fuel formulation requirements at different times and places.
Think about what this does physically and economically. People continue driving in March, and continue to use winter-blend fuel while the inventory of winter-blend fuel falls, ideally to zero at midnight on 31 March. Inventory storage costs are very high for petroleum, so keeping a buffer of winter fuel through March and over the summer is very expensive (this point is in response to a question from Virginia Postrel on storage). Not only do people generally not want new refineries built near them, they also do not want new tank farms built near them. So storage capacity is a binding constraint.
So of course the seasonal fragmentation that the oxygenate requirement introduces into fuel supply would cause prices to rise in March, all other things equal. This temporal fragmentation exacerbates the balkanization of fuel markets, because of the 40+ fuel formulations in effect. Note especially that this fragmentation across both time and place makes the supply of gasoline more inelastic. Confront that with an inelastic demand for gasoline, and one that shifts out and becomes more inelastic in the spring and summer months, and you have a policy-driven exacerbation of the potential for price spikes.
The California prices are also driven by the switch from MTBE as fuel oxygenate to ethanol, a switch that is taking full effect for the first time in 2004. Ethanol, a corn-based additive, is not produced in California, cannot be shipped from the Midwest to California in oil pipelines, and is highly water soluble, so it can only be added to the fuel at the rack (basically, right before it ships out to gas stations). And Senator Boxer wonders why the price of gasoline in California has gone up to $2.18/gallon? I suggest that she review Title II, Section 211 of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. You can also read my testimony to a Congressional hearing on the MTBE/ethanol transition in California from July 2003 for more background.
3. New air quality regulations taking effect in 2004. The EPA’s Tier 2 sulfur control regulations, leading to the co-development of low-sulfur fuels and vehicles optimized to the use of low-sulfur fuel, took effect in January 2004. This program to reduce sulfur content in fuel will be phased in over three years, and 2004 is the first year in which refiners will be required to meet overall sulfur content regulations, according to this EPA fact sheet on the Tier 2 regulations:
Beginning in 2004, the nation’s refiners and importers of gasoline will have the flexibility to manufacture gasoline with a range of sulfur levels as long as all of their production is capped at 300 parts per million (ppm) and their annual corporate average sulfur levels are 120 ppm.
More information on the regulations is available at the EPA OTAG Tier 2 website. The Tier 2 regulations can be found in the Federal Register from 2000.
These new regulations, while likely to deliver improvements in air quality, are going to increase gas prices, at least in the short run. Refiners are having to engage in research, in reconfiguration of their production processes, and in equipment installation to meet the new low-sulfur requirements. For example, Valero is building a new desulfurization unit in one of its Louisiana refineries, precisely to aid compliance with the Tier 2 sulfur regulations.
These factors have combined to raise the current, and expected future, prices of gasoline. The new low-sulfur requirements are not likely to exacerbate the seasonality/inelasticity problem, but they will increase fuel prices. Posted by lkiesling at March 23, 2004 10:59 AM
Yeah I know. its been awhile since i have been xanga-ing on the other page -gasp-. But yes, school and work has been taking my life away as it should be! Yesterday was the Taiwan elections and who would expect someone would try to assassinate the president and the vp at the same time the day before election! Quite a show I must say, but a disappointment. Yet I know alot of people voted for the DPP party, but I've felt great dissastifaction from them. They ousted many great taiwan's industrial companies and made them, no not made them, gave these companies no choice but to move to CHINA and generate revenue there. Taiwan has been in such a SHIT-hold its quite unbelievable. Passing laws that makes companies supply welfare to the employees instead of the government supplying welfare. What is this? Are these people getting lazier or what?
There's a report on how taiwanese people are behind in education, and hence there's like bizillion schools there!! Reports show that even though there's more students in school, taiwanese students are shown taking the easiest way out possible. They aren't taking the hardest majors to help benefit Taiwan. man. what slacker sthey are. These people are beyond lazy. They have more holidays than sick days! Who would expect taht friday is pretty much a part of the weekend. yet we do slack off on friday, but however it is TECHNICALLY A WEEKDAY. Over there, they just chill and slack off more than the US.
Yet we shouldn't compare Taiwan and US. Taiwan is a puny midget compared to the US. Taiwan tries too hard to get the GOODs of the US democracy, that democracy actually hinders Taiwan. Yeah its good that martial law has ended its 50 year reign, the longest ever in any state, but Taiwan is just not ready to step up for the new change. Taiwan still requires alot to grow up. If Taiwan cannot handle it, then dang it. GO CHINA. LET CHINA TAKE OVER TAIWAN. Look at how fast CHINA is growing economically. They are doing so well on the pacific coast, what the heck is Taiwan doing? The only economical advantage Taiwan has is one technological product, CHIPS CHIPS CHIPS. Taiwan needs to grow economically and mentally.
It's prolly just me that I'm being less satisfied in how taiwan is growing, but then again, I'm a Taiwanese American. I've been raised in the US and think differently compared to them. Prolly they don't have the same resource US has and acts in such way. Well SCREW THEM. If they got complain then friggin step up. STEP UP TO THE PLATE and prove it to me. Cuz its no good just complaining than not doing anything.
normally i do write something intuitive but i've been doubting where I should leave my thoughts now.. here or xanga. seems like this will be a dark niche for me here while xanga is just a cheery rant. haha. well Today is Friday the 13th. how funnie, day before VALENTINES DAY! buahaha! So for those whose having those valetines celebration, i hope it brings Bad luck!
seriously. Valentines day. What's the big deal? a day where we must actually vent and justify love with your confidant partner. c'mon now. if that were the case, then i think there's something wrong with the relationship. If you can't make a commitment in loving someone daily, then heck, don't have the relationship. seriously, it just makes it worse.
isn't valetines day a moment of silence of ST. Valentine who got matryerd for marrying roman soldiers?? and we are making a big deal of TRYING to SOLIDIFY COMMITMENT. man. what a messed up concept for valentines. seriously, someone has to rewrite the purpose of valentine.
well if you do celebrate with your love ones, make it worthwhile, so your partner won't make a fuss. Just give in!
