Arizona ranks 48th in the nation for the “Smartest State”. This doesn’t surprise me. Nor does it surprise me that Nevada and New Mexico rank 49th and 50th. I was able to manage a near perfect GPA through school…classes were too easy…and I was in one of the supposedly better school districts. It doesn’t help that these three states are growing at a rate that seems to be outpacing the educational system. Most of the top states are in the northeast and have educational systems that have been in place for a really long time. Not sure how Montana ended up 10th, but maybe I’ll move there. Big open spaces and beautiful views.

Maybe Google will come to town and bring some money into the educational system here.

My mom sent me this. Anyone who drives in Phoenix on a regular basis should agree with these:

How to Drive in Phoenix:

The morning rush hour is from 5:00am to 10:00am. The evening rush hour is from 3:00pm to 7:00pm. Friday’s rush hour starts on Thursday morning.

The minimum acceptable speed on all freeways I-10, I-17, U.S. 60, Loop 202 — is 85 mph. You may only exceed that speed on Loop 101, where the speed is allowed to match the highway number. Anything less is considered wussy.

Forget the traffic rules you learned elsewhere. Phoenix has its own version of traffic rules. Cars/trucks with the loudest muffler go next at a four-way stop. The truck with the biggest tires go after that.
Note: East Valley, SUV-driving, cell phone-talking moms ALWAYS have the right of way.

If you actually stop at a yellow light, you will be rear ended, cussed out and possibly shot.

Construction is a permanent fixture in Phoenix. Detour barrels are moved around during the middle of the night to make the next day’s driving a bit more exciting.

Watch carefully for road hazards such as dogs, barrels, cones, horses, shredded tires, snakes, rabbits, crows, vultures, javelinas, roadrunners, and the coyotes feeding on any of these items.

You must know that “Maricopa Freeway, Papago Freeway and the I-10″ are all the same road.

To find anything in Phoenix, it is required to know where Central and Washington are. This is our Alpha and Omega-the Beginning and the End.

If someone actually has their turn signal on, wave them to the shoulder immediately to let them know it has been “accidentally activated.”

If you are in the left lane, and only driving 70 in a 55-65 mph zone, you are considered a road hazard and will be “flipped off” accordingly.

Ground clearance of at least 12 inches is recommended for city driving.

You are allowed to wear potholders to protect your hands and fingers during the summer.

I’ve been rather pissed off at alot of things lately and it’s really starting to piss me off. The biggest irritation I have had for the past couple of weeks is that I’m finally getting to a point in life where I really appreciate things; friends, family, lifestyle, etc. Had I not been a such a shithead as a kid, maybe I could have started appreciating things earlier and made better use of what I have been blessed with. Instead, I tried to avoid spending time with family, made very few friends, and thought I needed more money to be happy.

I think it’s stupid that during the time of our life that we have the most freedom to do what we want, we don’t understand the value of that freedom in relation to the things that really matter. Once we understand the value of that freedom, we don’t have much time to take advantage of it…and when we get old and have more time to take advantage of it, physical limitations and health issues can screw up the ability to enjoy the freedom.

Another thing I have been pissed off about is my lack of discipline when it comes to exercise and eating properly. At the beginning of the year, I went 3 months eating well and going to the gym 5 days/week…lost 20 pounds and was feeling great. Since then it has dwindled to not really going to the gym, eating shitty, and now being pissed off about it. I want to lose more weight. I can lose more weight. I just have to get off my ass and out of the office/house and do something. I was hoping that I would get some time to go backpacking or something soon to have something enjoyable to do for exercise.

Yesterday I came to the realization that I really need to find some kind of recreational sport to do on a regular basis. It can’t be softball…unless it’s a team that actually wants to be competetive. I don’t deal well with playing for fun, but I NEED to compete in something. Last year, I set a goal to get back in shape and compete in a triathlon that was here in December. That didn’t happen. One of the reasons for the 3 months of going to the gym at the beginning of the year was to get in shape for a triathlon this year. It’s not looking very promising for that one either.

The only thing that hasn’t been pissing me off lately is my motorcycle. I used to swear that I would never ride a motorcycle on the streets around here. A couple of friends talked me into taking a ride last year. We rode out away from town and I loved it. Earlier this month I finally bought a motorcycle. It’s a great way to relieve stress.

Here’s some humor for you.

There are alot of democrats out there that make fun of President Bush. I hear alot of them saying that he’s a dumbass, blah, blah, blah…

Now that the election is several months behind us, John Kerry has finally decided to allow the release of his college transcripts. They show that he actually averaged one point lower than President Bush during his education at Yale. Apparently he didn’t want to be considered less intelligent than the “dumbass” that the democrats were poking fun of.

Kerry’s Yale Grades Similar to Bush’s

Figured I’d try out the free wireless here at PDX while I’m killing time. Sean raves about it all the time, and it does kick ass. Flight leaves in about an hour and I’ll be home tonight around 10:30. It’s been a great trip. I was able to have dinner with Chris and Matt from BootsnAll last night and lunch today with Court and Matt.

Some people need to get a life. I cannot believe that people would intentionally waste 46 days of their lives sitting in front of a theatre waiting for a movie that will last less than 3 hours. What’s worse is that it sounds like these fools are lined up at the wrong theatre:

Inside Move: Fanatics laying it on the line - ‘Star Wars’ fans stew in queue

This past weekend was alot of fun with Chris and Sean from BootsnAll around. Baseball Thursday, work and a wedding on Friday, and hiking in the Superstition Mountains Saturday about wore me out. I’m not used to having fun things to do. It’s very inspirational to have Sean around getting excited about everything. I had the pleasure of meeting the infamous Jen Leo. Christie spent a good hour with her telling her my life story…and almost blew my cover of being a jackass.

I have dreaded changing the brakes on my truck for the past few months. Over the weekend I thought I heard a little bit of grinding when coming to a stop. That meant I have to at least pull the wheels off and inspect the brakes.

On the way home from the gym today, I decided there was no more putting it off. I worked for a couple of hours and then went out to change the brakes. I pulled off the first tire, and read the instructions. It took me 5 minutes to realize that I was looking at the instructions for the 2 wheel drive setup…which looks nothing like my caliper setup for the 4 wheel drive Tacoma. Once that was taken care of, I followed the instructions in the service manual and had the pads changed in under 20 minutes. For those of you who know how I am about working on vehicles, this is not an exaggeration…I was actually able to do something in under 4 hours (Yes…the first time I changed the oil on that truck it took nearly 4 hours because I couldn’t figure out how to get to the oil filter without burning myself on the exhaust). Overall, the whole experience took about an hour and was very painless. It’s a good thing I changed them now because Toyota publishes a recommendation for a minimum of 1mm of pad thickness and one of the pads was pushing that limit.

I’ve decided to start using WordPress again on this site. Stay tuned for more posts.