Several Things

I'm a week late on most of these topics, sorry.

1. Starbucks stores closing - Word came a week or so ago that Starbucks was going to close 600 stores here in the US. For that number to not represent a significant reduction overall tells you how quickly the company has expanded. But here's my thing, you've got a bunch of people pleading with the company and acting like they're somehow being wronged because their nearest SBUX is shutting down. Really! Two issues here: 1. This isn't like saving a historic building where the community bands together and saves the day. This is capitalism. They (Starbucks) over expanded and now have to scale back. Stop crying. 2. The biggest complaints are coming from people who live in cities with 50 locations and they're just upset that they'll now have to go 2 blocks to get to one instead of 50 yards. How about those smaller towns in the middle of the country where the only location for 50 miles is closing? Oh, wait, the people in those smaller communities have better things to do than complain about something like this. Get over it New York and LA.

2. Female Racer Showdown - I'm not going to bother linking the video, because it was pretty much two females throwing a childish fit with a couple of 4-letter words thrown in. Danica Patrick rushed Milka Dunno's pit box after Dunno cut her off in a practice session. They both tried to act like the other approached the situation wrong and that was why they had each acted like spoiled children. Here's my thing. The Danica experiment needs to end. She's very mediocre as a driver and generally disappoints. The only reason we have to see her or hear about her is that media types have decided she's attractive (I'll pass, thank you). There are better female drivers who given the equipment and team she is on could excel. Please fire her and put someone in the car that can drive - even if she's not your idea of a media darling.

3. Oil Prices - Anyone who didn't think speculation was the cause of a chunk of the price we're paying at the pump should now stop talking publicly about financial matters. Why? Did you notice that as soon as serious consideration started being given to drilling off the gulf coast or other areas crude prices started pulling back. Then a hurricane blew through the gulf and prices didn't spike. Follow me here, even if they start developing new fields tomorrow it'll take years to get it out of the ground and into your car. So for it to cause crude prices to come down $20+/barrel tells me it wasn't purely supply and demand driven. Reason: those bidding up prices realized that there might be a top coming and that supply might eventually increase and they stopped bidding up, pulled their money off the table and prices began to fall. Now don't misunderstand, there are fundamental financial factors driving a significant portion of the price of gas - namely that worldwide demand relative to supply has gone up and on the open market we have to pay more now. I don't see gas under $2/gallon anytime soon, but under $3/gallon probably isn't out of the question.

4. PickensPlan.org - Yes, the rest of the country is now getting introduced to the colorful T. Boone Pickens that Oklahoma State fans know and love or hate. See Pickens is the incredibly wealthy oilman and hedge-fund manager that gave an inordinate amount of money to OSU Athletics and then injected himself into the management of the Athletic Department. The money has been great, the other depends on your perspective. Well, Boone has now decided to come up with his own energy policy (claiming current politicians have failed to provide leadership in this area, and I generally agree) of his own and fund it himself.

He is in the process of buying and constructing 2400 of the extremely large electricity generating wind-turbines out in Texas. And he's personally funding a series of commercials and a website (PickensPlan.org) to push the basic idea that we can generate 20% of the US electricity needs from wind energy, allowing us to shift a bunch of the natural gas we're using to generate electricity over to power cars. The upside is that we produce most of the natural gas we use domestically (reduces dependence on foreign oil) and once we get past the huge cost of constructing wind-turbines it is a free, renewable source of energy that the western US is ideal for producing. He readily admits that 1. this is a stepping stone until we can find a more permanent solution to our energy needs and 2. that he will ultimately make money in this endeavor.

My take: I appreciate the fact that he's doing something and putting his own money behind it. There's nothing inherently wrong with him turning a profit on it, particularly if everyone involved benefits as well. I like the fact that it reduces dependence on oil (and particularly that overseas) and is an effort to make use of a source of energy that's renewable and readily available in a huge area of the country (most of which has room to have these wind-turbines constructed). Now, the plan is going to face some detractors. Greens will still complain that wind-turbines are going to disturb habitats. But there's no thick, black fluid being pulled out of the ground that threatens to do permanent damage to the environment. I guess I'm saying this is a less intrusive way to address an energy need that isn't going to go away in the short term. This isn't the ultimate solution, but based on what I've seen so far, I do think it can be a positive step toward a long-term solution.

Beating Gas Prices

Last night I put gas in the Firehawk. At $4.13/gallon this was a fairly painful experience, but there were 2 things that gave me comfort.

1. This was the first time I'd put gas in it since November 23, 2007 according to the receipt I had in the car. That gives you an idea of how many miles I'm accumulating on that vehicle (161).
2. This was the first time I'd purchased gas personally in more than a month. No, really, my last gas purchase was sometime around the 9th or 10th of June in the Civic. In that time I think my wife had filled her car up once or twice and I had purchased several hundred dollars in fuel for CIY vans getting to Georgia and Pennsylvania, but I hadn't paid for gas for one of my cars in more than a month. Clearly the easiest way to not spend a ton on gas is to be out of town for 25 out of 31 days. :)

Observations from Grantham

I am always thankful for reminders of why we do MOVE. Not that I really forget, but in the middle of a particularly eventful week (4 people sent to the ER, all are fine, I only logged 6 hours waiting around at the ER myself) a reminder can snap me back to reality.

On Friday evening I sat down for dinner with an adult sponsor who had been asked to come on the trip at the last minute because the youth minister at the church was not going to be able to make it. It was very cool to listen to him talk about the group, about wrestling with where God is calling him to MOVE, and whether he can really lead the group or the church would entrust him to do so. As we talked, it seemed clear to me that he has tuned in to what God is calling him to do in a way that he probably hasn't been for a while. That's exciting.

On Thursday night I stood for a few minutes reading the three word phrases students had written on the panels. There were some good ones, some you see week to week. I saw one that broke my heart because it was certainly written sincerely, but expressed a less than complete understanding of the fact that it's not by our effort that we are able to "do our best" for Christ. One other caught my eye, written in Spanish it read, "Reza, Habla, Mueveta". I may have misspelled the last word. The 2nd & 3rd words were pretty clear - speak, move. But I had to get some translation help (thanks , Tony) on Reza, turns out it's a specific form of the word "pray". Where had these three words come from? Well, Danny Curry had challenged students to pray, speak, and move.

I've been to our Pennsylvania event 5 of the last 9 years and have come to the conclusion that it's a great event (not that any of them aren't). It has a different feel and different flair. At times on-stage talent has expressed to me that connecting with the crowd at PA can be a challenge. But you see many of the same faces bringing new faces year after year. You see students breaking through difficult circumstances and choosing to follow Christ. It doesn't really matter what the zip code (or postal code for our Canadian friends from PEI) you're in, MOVE is about students (and adults) hearing God's call to Kingdom Work and choosing to move toward Him because He has already moved toward us.