ShortMinds Webcomic

Another Grand Theft Auto comic, I know. But honestly if parents were interested in their children more than the next episode of Lost or some crap like that, maybe they would pay attention to the games their children were playing and wonder how exactly they bought a rated M game.

But, that aside, the game kicks ass!

Play with this thing long enough and you will see what sparked the idea for this comic.

Start spreading the news gas may be dropping soon. Not to the $1.03per gallon that is was when I turned 16, but roughly 18 cents. Now I don’t know about you, but this does not seem like much to me and I’m not one of those rich Nobel Prize winning economists who are snubbing the idea, I am a middle class American with no kids who doesn’t get chauffeured around in town cars and private jets all day payed for by campaign donors and interest groups.

A little back story. Hilary Clinton and John McCain want to give American tax payers a tax break at the pump this summer. They are calling it a gas-tax holiday and are hoping that you will take the money you save by not having to pay taxes at the pump and enjoy your summer with your family.

Sounds pretty good and hell I can’t fault them for wanting to try something new, but honestly how much will the average person save this summer? Now I drive a fair amount, more than most people I work with because I do my part to chauffeur others around on my way to work, roughly 50 miles of stop and go traffic a day, sometimes less. All together my little truck burns about 16 gallons of gas per week.

I should be ecstatic right? I will be saving money on all this gas I buy right? Well, like Obama, I have run the numbers and I am not overly impressed. Sixteen gallons of gas per week over lets guess a twelve week gas-tax holiday and saving eighteen cents per gallon will save me a whopping $34.56 this summer. Just a little bit over the $30 Obama estimated in savings for the average American, see I told you I drive more than most people I know.

Gas-tax holiday? Lets consider what you could buy with $30 dollars this summer during your holiday. I could put that money right back into my car and buy 3/4 tank of gas, not quite enough to get me down to see my family and back and no where near enough money to buy me a plane ticket. I could pay for two adults to go to a movie and buy popcorn and a soda, two hours of free air conditioning at least, but not much of a holiday. I can buy 7 gallons of milk or 10 boxes of cereal or 60 pounds of Wal-Mart bananas or a little bit of each and live off Cheerios this summer. And this is all assuming that the price of gas, coincided with the decreasing value of the dollar, doesn’t jack up the prices on everything this summer.

The truth of the matter is, on an average day I see more than $30 handed out to panhandlers on the side of the road, maybe that’s why we have so many, and I will see the same people there tomorrow and the day after that. Thirty dollars does not a holiday make. Thirty dollars will not keep you from foreclosing on your house. Thirty dollars you will not notice, unless you are a poor college student living on 33 cent Ramen Noodles.

McCain and Clinton will tell me, I am middle class and this is aimed to help the poorest of the poor. Oh you mean those people already taking public transportation? Or those already car pooling on a daily basis just to get to work? Those canceling trips to see their families because gas has gotten so redicously high? How much will they save?

Ultimately the tax we all pay at the pump helps build and maintain our roads. With the Mississippi River bridge collapse and estimated One Billion needed to inspect and maintain all our countries bridges, is this something we want to do right now? I would honestly rather pay my taxes then die on my way to work tomorrow.

There is one industry I could possibly see benefiting from this and that is the trucking industry. Lower fuel costs would help keep the cost of goods at the store down. A little silver lining there. But if gas hits the estimated $5 a gallon by the end of the year are you going to notice 18 cents worth of savings at the store or the pump?

Have you ever seen these things(Warning: Annoying Flash Site). Let me go on record and say that these cereal straw things are freakin awesome. I picked up some of these things at Costco one weekend, 72 count to be more specific. And I must be honest, I have been burning through milk because of these things. If you leave them in the milk for too long the outer shell just becomes this disgusting soggy mess, but yesterday I discovered that chocolate milk has a completely different chemical reaction with these things.

I can’t remember the last time I had real delivery pizza aside from the stuffed pizza downtown. And I’ll tell you what, the oven pizzas you get at the store mostly suck unless you want to shell out top dollar for the good ones and at that price you might as well just order out and save your self the energy cost of running the oven.

After a glorious Mother’s Day outing and getting in rather late last night, I didn’t have a chance to finish a comic before passing out in bed. So, expect a new comic later tonight.

Cheers

Why is it that you never notice that the toilet paper roll is empty until you are done and it is too late?

Sorry for the lat comic!

I finally picked up a copy of GTA4 and played a bit this weekend. It is a fun game and no real complaints so far except for how trusting some of these cab fares are. Trusting someone you just met to cover you during this back ally drug deal that is obviously going to turn into a shootout anyway, just kinda seems far fetched.

But, if you have an XBOX360 you are doing yourself a disfavor if you don’t own this game.

On a side note, I played Mario Cart for Wii at the Best Buy before buying GTA4 and I just wasn’t impressed what so ever. The N64 graphics were not impressive.

OK, I’ll admit it. American Idol is one of my guilty pleasures and I’ll tell you why. The judges, plain and simple. Randy, who reviews music with the finely tuned ear of a deaf mute, Paula, who thinks she is judging America’s Next Top Model, and Simon, the only decent judge of talent on the show. But, what drives me nuts is the live studio audience who boos every freakin’ time something bad is said about the contestants.

The audience must get queued to boo every time, because how can that many people be duped into thinking half the crap sung on that stage is actually good? Oh right, the sheep thing.

Next year, ditch the crowd and add Michael Jackson to the show for that extra level of crazy, I hear he needs the money.

Here are a couple funny pictures of people playing the good ol’ XBox.

I didn’t know that the XBox 360 dashboard was so much fun, maybe just working at google is the best part.

Its been a while since I’ve played the original XBox, but if I remember correctly, you need to plug it in before playing.

My new favorite site for the moment, dointitwrong.com