Wrap Your Brick: A LEGO PSA

Bricking Bad

This is what happens when I combine 2 seasons of Breaking Bad, a new shipment of LEGO, and benadryl.

Halfothermia: A Childhood of Inadequate Heat

It's currently 2 degrees Fahrenheit outside.  Despite this, I sit inside my own home, all toasty and warm.

Central heat in my home is still a luxury I do not take for granted.  Growing up, I spent every winter in a state of halfothermia.  What is halfothermia, you ask?  Well, it's what happens to you when you have inadequate heating sources, leaving half your body covered in sweat and the other half icy cold. 

If you've experienced the glorious, searing heat of a pot belly stove, a Stokermatic/Combustioneer, or the always indoor safe kerosene heater, you know exactly what I'm talking about.  If not, let me illustrate for you.

Old pot belly stove - a contraption like this heated my grandfather's home

Above is a rough floor plan of my grandfather's house.  The orangish-red circle is where his pot belly stove was located.  The only warm place to sit in the house was in one of the chairs adjacent to the pot belly stove.  However, if you sat there, you would always end up with halfothermia (and stuck to the nearly melted faux leather chair).  You'd also have to set an alarm throughout the night to add more coal to the fire to make sure it didn't go out.  After all, inadequate heat is better than no heat at all.

Stokermatic - an abominable machine similar to the Combustioneer that my parents used to heat their home; the vents in the front blow hot, dry air into the room

   

Here you have a rough diagram of my parents' home.  The red circle shows where their Combustioneer was located.  Given it's large coal hopper and fan to blow heat, this is definitely an improvement over a pot belly stove.  Still, the range was limited.  During really cold times, my parents would sit a kerosene heater in the middle of the kitchen floor and fire it up to warm the back bedrooms while we slept.  This, of course, always lead to halfothermia with a side of carbon monoxide poisoning, as I have no recollection of anyone ever cracking a window while using that kerosene heater indoors.

Come to think of it, I'm just grateful to have survived childhood.  Central heat is a just a pleasant bonus in adulthood.

DreamWorks' Turbo: Speedy Snail, or Transitioning Tale?

Last night, I watched Dreamworks’ Turbo.  This may be my new favorite movie with a transgender theme.

What?  You thought Turbo was just a silly movie about a racing snail?  If you look beyond that façade, you’ll see a film that captures the transitioning process for a transgender person.  Don’t believe me?  Then follow along.

The main character of the film is Theo.  He calls himself Turbo and longs to move at lightning speeds.  On the outside, he’s just another garden snail, but he knows and feels that he is fast.   

Turbo, realizing his true self and his physical self are at odds

He is ridiculed by his peers for the painted race car numbers and checkered flags that adorn his shell.  His brother, Chet, tells him that he is not fast and will never be fast, because that’s not how nature designed him.  He also tells Theo/Turbo that he needs to learn to accept his nature and limitations for his own good and the good of their community.  

Chet telling Turbo it's better to fit in than be one's self.

A despondent Theo/Turbo then ventures away from home, where he undergoes a chemical transformation and suddenly has the ability to move at speeds over 200 mph.  He meets a group of racing snails and societal misfits who help him complete his physical transformation.   

Turbo, realizing for the first time that's he's not alone

He embraces his new, true self and flourishes in the support of others.  Initially, Chet refuses to address him as Turbo and tries to get him to suppress his new found speed.  Eventually, though, Chet embraces his brother for who he really is, and Turbo is able to enjoy the love and respect of his family and his new friends.

Turbo, fully transformed

See what I mean?  Turbo is basically a transitioning story with an “It Gets Better” ending.  And, honestly, I like my animated features to end happily ever after, because life too often doesn't.    

I have found religion

Yesterday, my friend Emily and I had a cat-centric conversation, as we are wont to do.  

Emily:  Happy National Cat Day!

Me:  Yes!

Emily:  We should get to stay home and play with our pets today!

Me:  Maybe we should claim cats as our religion?

Emily:  YES!!

Me:  I mean, like God (and Santa), my cats watch everything I do.  And they judge me.  

Emily:  HAHAHAHAHA

After searching for my own personal pet and savior for years, I have finally come to accept the godly qualities of my beloved Felis catus.  For instance, Felis catus:

1) is ever-present and watchful

2) passes judgment 

3) behaves in strange and mysterious ways

4) often makes its presence known in the dark quiet of the night

5) inconsistently responds to supplication

6) kills indiscriminately

7) demands offerings and unquestioning devotion

8) provides comfort and solace in times of distress. 

I hereby proclaim myself a faithful Feliscatusian.  My primary worship activities shall include napping, eating, and licking.  All new converts shall receive a ceremonial catnip sachet. 

Coal: Mining for Truth

I have mixed feelings about the purported war on coal.  I grew up in eastern Kentucky, and my father was an underground miner for over 30 years.  The coal industry is responsible for feeding and clothing me as a kid.  However, I'm also acutely aware of the environmental impact the industry has had on the region -- especially via mountain-top removal mining, or strip-mining.  Although the coal industry provides some of the best paying jobs in the region, the industry has a long history of profiting at the expense of the region's inhabitants.

I don't support the whole "Friends of Coal" movement.  I really don't care about coal, but I do care about hard working men and women who rely on coal jobs. I worry about regions that rely heavily on the coal industry for jobs.  I worry how those regions will adapt to inevitable changes in the energy industry.   

Leading up to the recent presidential election, I saw lots of vitriol directed at Obama regarding coal.  I saw posts on facebook that Obama was bad for coal and that he hated coal miners (see examples below). 

Given the mixed feelings that I have, I decided to do a little mining of my own to see if Obama really has been as bad for coal as his opponents have claimed.  I reviewed the Annual Coal Report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration for 2009, 2010, and 2011.  I wanted to see what has happened to coal mines, production, and jobs since Obama took office.  I also looked at data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics for trends in wages in the coal industry. 

As you can see in the graph below, both coal production and the number of operating mines have decreased since Obama took office.  However, mining jobs have actually increased both nationally and in the Appalachian region.  Eastern Kentucky, though, has seen significant decreases in mining jobs, as well as more drastic reductions in productions and mining operations.

In the three graphs below, I broke the above data into yearly changes.  Although there have been net decreases in coal production and number of operating mines, production and mines have actually seen increases nationally between 2010 and 2011.  Again, however, you can see that eastern Kentucky has suffered more severe decreases and smaller increases than Appalachia or the nation.

 

Finally, the graph below shows changes in average annual salaries in the coal mining industry since Obama took office.  Here, I have presented averages for the nation, for the entire state, and for a selected county in eastern Kentucky.  I chose Perry County because of it's rich coal history and because that's where my father worked in the mines.  Unlike other trends, Kentucky and Perry County saw greater than average increases in wages since Obama took office.  However, mining wages in Kentucky and Perry County still lag behind the national average.

Based on the actual numbers, I don't think anyone can honestly claim that Obama has wreaked havoc on miners.  Despite decreases in productivity and mining operations, the number of miners in the U.S. has actually increased since Obama was first elected.  I think the real question for both our government leaders and for coal companies is this:  Why has eastern Kentucky suffered more decreases in coal production and employment than Appalachia and the nation?


I can't help but wonder if the data in the graph below has something to do with eastern Kentucky's negative mining trend.

Stop whining and pay your taxes

I know I've mentioned this before, but can we finally stop demonizing poor people? 

Although the election is over, the rants about our entitlement culture are still raging.  But here's a simple fact:  All Americans - regardless of social class, race, gender, or age - have a sense of entitlement.  It's part of being American.  It's also part of living in a relatively affluent country.  We all benefit from the multitude of things provided by our government - federal, state, and local.  Whether it's food stamps, public schools, libraries, or roads and bridges, we all benefit.  And every disparate group of us wants to keep benefiting in whatever ways we've become accustomed to benefiting.

For some reason, though, many folks like to place their collective ire on poor people, who they label as entitled, undeserving, and greedily sucking from the government teat.  Being naturally curious, I wanted to now how much income goes to fund programs for the poor.    

If you're curious like me, check out this Federal Taxpayer Receipt application.  Since my illegally-wed wife and I can't file joint tax returns, I entered our tax information separately then added our individual tax contributions to get our household totals.  In 2011, my spouse and I paid a total of $17,543 in federal income and payroll taxes.  Fortunately for me, I like paying taxes, because I like most of things my taxes provide to me and my fellow Americans.  I don't like everything my tax dollars support, but that's just part of the compromise required for our social contract.   Still, the nifty thing about the taxpayer receipt is that it shows you how much of your income and payroll taxes go to various programs. 

To put my tax dollars in context, I compared them to two areas of discretionary personal spending in my household -- cable TV and Indian food - to see if I'm really over-taxed.  I looked at all areas of national defense spending, and I looked at programs I think most folks would consider "welfare" programs (TANF, SSI, food stamps, WIC, unemployment benefits, and Medicaid).  

In this first chart, you can see that more of my household's hard-earned money went to national defense programs than to welfare programs or to tasty Indian food and cable. 

In the second chart, I've broken things down more. 

 
In 2011, my spouse and I spent $1,257.89 on food at our favorite Indian restaurants.  Comparatively, only $429.46 of our federal income taxes went to support various food assistance programs (food stamps, WIC, and school lunch programs).  Let me help you with that math:  we spent nearly 3 times as much on curry as we contributed to food for the poorest inhabitants of our great country.  Additionally, we spent nearly 15 times as much on cable TV as we contributed to the temporary assistance for needy families (TANF) program. 

I'm an atheist, but even I think it would be immoral of me to complain about my tax dollars funding social safety net programs when my household has the discretionary income to spend $200 a month on curry and cable.  I could not possibly feel good about my life if I begrudged the least among us access to basic needs like food and shelter. 

So, if you have the good fortune to spend money on things that you want instead of just on things that you need, I have this to say to you:  Stop whining and pay your taxes!