Here’s a teaser video from our new DIY project: Locksley Ln.

Ain’t demo fun?

• locksley-demo-movie

UPDATE: The movie is in DIVX, so you’ll need that codec or a Divx playa to watch it.

Sorry for the brief interruption in our black-is-soo-cool theme… we had to move servers again.  And it took us a bit to get our custom bits in our header to work properly.

Everything should be back to normal now. If you see anything out of sorts please shoot us an email at staff [at] scottsoapbox.com.

This shows the power of the “new media” - that is blogs and such. In a case of pure irony, Al Gore’s financial/social/ecological trickery has been brough to light by his own invention: the Internet. ;)

Aside: Thanks to the Internet, any inspired (bored) person can research (dig around) and find all kinds of interesting (embarrassing) information. Take for instance a blogger that also happens to be an attorney. With the aid of lexus nexus, tremendous amounts of public info filed away in courthouses around the country are a few keystrokes away. Your typical blogger doesn’t have that technology advantage but what they lack in tech they make in sheer numbers. And since blogs feed off each other, one random blogger finds a connection… the blogosphere picks up on it… one mainstream org picks up on that…. and suddenly one random guy has shaped the national news cycle. Pretty sweet eh?

So here’s the scoop: Al Gore is loving the attention his war against Global Warming has brought him. One problem though: his jet-setting lifestye, the big mansion, etc. - well, they aren’t that eco-friendly. The solution: Carbon Offsets. A carbon offset is the expending of money to offset your polution. Now that’s a little vague ’cause offsets abound and vary. The best offsets do things like take your money and plant trees (minus an admin fee of course), but they get much less practical. The next level promises to “research” or “invest” in “green” products or companies. These promises could be a lot of things in practice - ah, the power of vague marketing speak. The BEST level promises to send to a certificate complete with decorative ribbon saying that you bought offsets from them. NO word on what those offsets entail, but you’ve got a clear conscience AND a way to show off to your friends. What could be better?

So now that you understand the “industry” here’s what Gore is doing he is buying “offsets” from a company called Generation Investment Management, LLP. Can you guess who the founder and Chairman of this investment group is? That’s right: Al Gore.

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Whew. It is FINALLY getting warm enough to bike again. Which is great since, I HATE running. This winter has been frought with work-overload and knee issues — both of which contributed a lack of miles logged on my new treadmill. Which is why  the miles that were never quite made it here since they were -uh- shameful.  (Here’s the readers digest: 2-4 miles a pop at around an 10-12min/mile pace) The best cure I have found for my knees has always been biking, so now that I can get back on the bike my knee stability should improve/strengthen and that will help my running.

Well I got two rides in the uncommonly warm days we’ve been having sporadically. Unfortunately, I apparently left the GPS watch on after my first ride so the battery was dead for the second - so no cool stats on that one.

• March 13th Bike 12.75 miles - no stats
• March 8th Bike 8.60 miles - 43:04 (12mph, 361 cals)

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Here at the ‘box we’ve uncovered realiable proof that the recent surge in Global Warming has actually been a top-secret project undertaken by the Pentagon in the mid-70’s. The project was a strategic initiative to counter act the Global Cooling occurring at that time.

Good thing our government always has a plan to deal with incliment weather. ;)
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Or do? As Tony Suprano would say, for all you degenerate gamblers out there… now you can bet on all things American Idol. Not just the winnner (since I’m sure thats been going on for years). Apparently Betus.com has posted 6.5 to 1 odds that Antonella Barba will not be booted off after semi-racy pics of some that is supposed to be her showed up on the web.

I know this shouldn’t surprise me, as degenerate gamblers (not all gambers just the degenerates) will bet on anything… But it still does.

California is looking to pass a law that would give EVERY baby a $500 savings account. And they do mean every baby, since it will be "regardless of their parents’ income or immigration status." I’m sorry, what? Come to America to have your baby illegals!! Not only will we allow your babies birth create an "anchor" for your immigration status - we’ll throw in $500 cash. Has the government gone completely mad?

Sadly, it gets much worse when you actually think about this proposal. Setting the illegals question aside lets look at the math behind this "encourage savings" project that will only cost California tax payers $285,000,000 each year. The article states that "If families added $50 a month to the state’s initial contribution, the savings account would grow to nearly $17,500 at 5 percent interest over 18 years." ACTUALLY, if you know how to use a financial calculator (and set it to monthly payments of $50 instead of yearly payments of $600), the account will really grow to $18,687 (though you are supposed to give back the initial $500 at that point so $18,187). What it fails to point out is that if families saved the $50/month WITHOUT the governments $500 it would grow to $17,460. Well suddenly all that growth doesn’t look quite as impressive does it?

Beyond that, you can simply visit your local bank to discover that a 5% savings account is a tad optimistic. I called my broker and found my current money market rate to be 4.875% - which is actually up with rising interest rates. So really 3-4% is a more realistic CD/savings account rate. Change the ROI to 3.5% and the governments magic $500’s interest drops from the already low $727 to a mere $438.

But wait, there’s more! When you take into account inflation the money is worth even less. Inflation in this country is typically 2-3%, so we’ll use 2.5%. This means $438 of free government interest in 18 years will be worth the equivolent of $98 in today’s money. Everyone give the governement a standing "O" - they came up with a way to give everyone $98 for college, and it only costs $285 MILLION dollars a year

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I came across this story looking for something completely different, but it was too good to pass up. Meme Roth the President of the National Action Against Obesity wants to sove the obesity problem by having the government OUTLAW all junk food!

She apparently believes that the only way people can avoid being fat is if they don’t have the chance to eat junk food. Which is stupid for two reasons: 1) you can eat more than your daily amounts in calories in Pasta, Cheese, Bread, Ham, or even Tofu (though the last would be a feat). 2) SKINNY PEOPLE LIKE COOKIES TOO! Don’t punish us along with the fat people!

She also believes that once your fat you will never lose the weight and if you some how do manage to lose the weight you will gain it back — yeah she’s an optimist. My personal experience totally disagrees with her however, to qoute Eric Cartman: "Follow your dreams, you can reach your goals, I’m living proof. (Beefcake! Beefcake!)"

Anyway this lady is completely off her rocker and the most anti-cookie person I believe I’ve ever met. Hey Meme, I currently have 3 large candy bowls in the house: the guest bowl, my personal candy bowl, and of course the poker room’s peanut M&M bowl. AND I’m wearing a belt so that my size 32 jeans dont’ sag down too far (I’m too old and too white for "sagging") so keep your governmental bans off my goodies! As a side note, can anyone explain to me how sagging is still around in its second decade? I was sure that fad would have faded long ago. Read more