Sidey 3.0: Blog

“Free Ticket”

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 12:30:05 -0500

I’ve just booked two domestic frequent flyer tickets to on Delta... and it cost me $160. That’s a hell of a processing fee... when did “free” become “as much as a really nice dinner out”?

Grumble, grumble, grumble.

Malaysia Spends a LOT on Oil

Mon, 4 Aug 2008 13:10:40 -0500

The Malaysian government subsidizes the price of oil for domestic consumption, and it costs them a lot. Stratfor has details:

Malaysia will spend an estimated $14-17 billion, or one third of the total government budget, on fuel subsidies in 2008, up from $10 billion in 2007. As a percentage of the government budget, Malaysia’s fuel subsidy expenditures have more than doubled since 2004 — from 16 percent to 33 percent. They comprise more than half of the budget deficit.

Wow.

And this from a friend of mine over there right now:
I am sitting in Penang right now, and a lot of that oil/gas is processed into pollution. It’s scary to watch the blue smoke blowing out of the various cars, mopeds, and trucks that clog the roads. There is a constant haze of pollution and stench of fumes.

AOL Video Rocks the House

Mon, 4 Aug 2008 12:41:38 -0500

AOL Video (led by my good friend Scott Levine) has just relaunched... go check it out. You can watch the A Team, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the Daily Show... etc.

More importantly, searching AOL Video brings back results from all of the major video web sites, so you don’t have to go and search YouTube, then search Google Video, then search etc etc etc. I’ve actually found this to be enormously helpful.

So do yourself (and Scott’s very hard working team) a favor... go check out AOL Video.

Oil Price Drivers

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 20:55:59 -0500

I’ve seen a lot of articles recently on how the price of oil is so high because of a speculative frenzy, but is it really?

Fixed supply and a steadily increasing demand probably have a lot to do with oil prices too. As an example, let’s look at Indonesia. Over the last 26 years, their consumption of oil has roughly tripled, and the country has gone from being a large exporter of oil to a net importer of oil. The country clearly thinks the situation is unlikely to change, as they have just dropped out of OPEC.
( More on this here )

Elephant Safari Park

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 23:53:06 -0500

Another short but sweet post: Kim & I just got back from the elephant safari park. Needless to say, it was a lot of fun.

Why You Should Use a Cell Phone Headset

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 18:01:53 -0500

Because cell phones produce enough radiation to pop corn!
(Or at least 4 phones together do).
I want to try this experiment...

We are in Paradise

Fri, 6 Jun 2008 19:07:22 -0500

Keeping this short and sweet... we have an island to explore.

Our room at the Ubud Hanging Gardens is out of this world. The above pic is of our private deck and “plunge pool”.

This is amazing.

Honeymoon Blogging: Toasting at 40,000 ft

Thu, 5 Jun 2008 18:53:27 -0500

When I spoke with Singapore Airlines to make sure Kim and I had seats next to each other, I mentioned we were going on honeymoon. The rep asked me if we wanted “a honeymoon cake”... of course I said yes.
So once we had finished our very tasty meal, a bunch of the flight crew came out with a little cake that said “Happy Honeymoon”, with two glasses of champagne, and a steaming red drink of some sort. The cake and champagne were fantastic. (We steered clear of the red drink as it had dry ice in it)

And by the way, Singapore Air’s business class is SO much better than it was in 2000... they have a seat called the “SpaceBed” that Kim and I slept like babies in. The 16 hour flight went by in a flash. What’s amazing is that these swanky new SpaceBed seats are about to be torn out and replaced by even nicer seats that go completely horizontal and that rival the first class seats of most other international airlines. I love Singapore Air!