Amazon prime

Amazon has a new feature called Amazon mom where they have great discounts on diapers, wipes and other baby stuff. Part of this is free access to Amazon prime which normally costs $79 per year. It looks like that have a similar program called Amazon Student.

The great thing is that we get free two day shipping on all prime-eligible items so this is wonderful. When combined with Subscribe and save where you can get 15% off items, Amazon mom is a great deal. We signed up for a number of thinks like cat litter and some other household items.

I looked at this trying to find a catch, but the only downside I see is that it is a not-so-secret ploy for people to buy more stuff, so we will have to be very careful about spending habits. This is why we always do a budget.

The Economic Lessons of Bethlehem

It is now Christmas Eve, and I want to post this article by Lew Rockwell.

The Economic Lessons of Bethlehem

Unions - no greed or self interest here.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Working Stiffed
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

NFL RedZone

Comcast offered a preview of the NFL RedZone channel today. I have to say it is a great concept for NFL fans because they will just flip around to where the action is happening for you.

The downside to this is to spending more time on Sundays in front of the TV. I like watchign the Chargers when they are on, but I also like to have it on in the background if I need to do other things. RedZone has no commercials and goes from 10 am - 5 pm.  Thats a long time.

RedZone=Crack in my opinion.

Debt Snowball 8/11/2010

Balance at ~$7200 with more payments about to hit. The feeling is amazing.

I feel the chains starting to come off - Living like no else.

Debt Snowball 7/17/2010

We are now at ~8500. Freedom is close. Gazelle intensity works.


We are now past 3.5 years of this because getting a masters was worth the price. Was it now?

Proverbs 22:26-27

Do not be a man who strikes hands in pledge or puts up security for debts; if you lack the means to pay, your very bed will be snatched from under you.

World Cup

I did correctly pick Spain over the Netherlands. Now it is time for withdrawal.

Machete

A few years ago, the movie Grindhouse had some fake trailers attached to it. One of them was called Machete, and it was crude, silly, cliche, and over the top. Here is that 'trailer':

Apparently this became a real movie because here is the real trailer:

World cup Final

I was on 50% on the semis, but I'm not going against Spain again Spain won again 1-0 which surprised me a little bit. I thought Germany would be able to contain Spain's midfield.

I'l take Spain 2-1 over the Netherlands.

Interview with a Zombie

http://www.interviewwithazombie.com/

Good Stuff.

Semifinals

I only got 2 of the 4 quarterfinals games correct.
I'll take Netherlands over Uruaguay and Germany over Spain.

Quarterfinals

For thew Round of 16, I got 7 of the 8 picks correct. The lone loser was the USA falling to Ghana which was decided in  overtime. Anyway,  I'll change my orginial pick from USA to Uruguay in the Quarterfinals:

Urugauy over Ghana
Brazil over Netherlands
Argentina over Germany
Spain over Parguay

World Cup knockout predictions

Here is the Knockout round bracket. The first thing to notice is the relatively week side the USA got by winning group C, and the difficult side England has.

Predictions
16: Uruguay, USA, netherland, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Paraguay, Spain.
Quarters: USA, Brazil, Argentina, Spain
Semis, Brazil, Argentina
Final, Argentina

As always, we should see some surprises and some great games!

World Cup Group Stage review

Time to review my precudctions
In group A-D the only team I had wrong was Serbia, who were edged out by Ghana in group D by goal differential. 7/8 correct.

In groups E-H I didn't do as well

Group E: I picked Denmark, who were beaten by Japan to see Japan advance.
Group F: I picked Italy, who finish last behind New Zeland whil Slovakia went on.
Group H: I picked Honduras as my surprise package, but Chile went on while Honduras only got a single point.

5/8 Correct.


Knockout round predictions later

World Cup group stage after two games

Here's some information I pulled after each team played it's second game of the gorup stage:

W D L Avg Pts AFC 2 1 5 0.88 CAF 1 3 6 0.60 CONCACAF 1 3 2 1.00 CONMEBOL 8 2 0 2.60 OCEANIA 0 2 0 1.00 UEFA 9 8 7 1.46

South America is doing very well, while Europe seems a bit off pace here. It will be interesting to see this after the group stage has finished.

Debt Snowball 6/16/2010

We just crossed 10,000 left on the debt snowball. Since October 2006 we have paid about 60,000 in debt.

Four figures feels great.

US Debt solution

My Dad turned me to Vin Suprynowicz a while back since he is a columnist for his local paper. He is also  featured at  LewRockwell.com

His solution to the debt problem is to default! This great because it insulates us from future borrowing by the idiots in charge.

Best line: "You believed the promises of those lying politicians? Your problem."

http://www.lewrockwell.com/suprynowicz/suprynowicz146.html

World Cup Groups E - H predictions

Here are the rest of my predictions for groups E-H.  2nd round predictions coming
Winner: Netherlands
2nd: Denmark



Cameroon might do well here, so I think the game between them and Denmark will determine who gets second.

Winner: Italy
2nd: Paraguay

Italy probaly has the best draw of any top side. I actually think they could go down, so we will see.

Winner: Brazil
2nd: Portugal

I think Portugal will pip Ivory Coast because Drogba appears to be out of action.

Winner: Spain
2nd: Honduras

Honduras will be my upset pick here. 

World Cup Groups A - D predictions

The world cup is under a week away, so I wanted to post my predictions I will post the group winners and runners up, so it should be interesting to see how I did in a few weeks. I always love some surprises, so I'm not going to make any bets.

Winner: Mexico

2nd: Uruguay

I see France melting down, but they could go either way.

Winner: Argentina

2nd Korea Republic

Winner: England

2nd: USA

For the record, I anticipate an England victory of the USA in the first game, so a draw or win against England will be amazing.

Winner: Germany

2nd: Serbia

Essien is out for Ghana, so I am not liking their chances here. I do think this group could have some surprise if Australia plays well.

Go Obamacare!

I'm shocked by the headline:

Soaring costs force Canada to reassess health model

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100531/hl_nm/us_health_3

Inflation

I remember sitting in an Econ class in colllege and the professor saying why inflation was a good thing and one of the main points was that people would rather see wages prices increase than wages decrease.

One thing I realized was that people that had fixed incomes like retirees or those with very low incomes would be punished by inflation over time, as their income brought diminished purchasing power. As I have done a lot of reading over the last couple of years, I finally found a book that serves as a good starting point.

I just finished How an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes by Peter Schiff and I think it is a great introduction to how the US economy has changed over time and all of the problems caused by government.

My wife read it, learned a lot and even enjoyed it. I have tried to talk to her about these types of things before, but I think this example using the fish as money made it very easy to understand. 

Updated : The reason I got inspired to do this post was the quote "Inflation is simply a means to transfer wealth from anyone who has savings in a particular currency to anyone who has debts in the same currency."

Bankers and government can spend other peoples money and have the public take the losses. Not a bad deal.

Netflix on Roku update

I use the Roku player to watch Netflix on my TV, and they are releasing an update that you can read about at HackingNetflix. I was reading the comments and I came across a way to get the update early from a post on Roku's forum.

Basically, go to the Roku settings menu and try to update around 3pm 5/28/2010.

update 3:11 PM - I was able to update an my software version is 2.6 (2.5 previously)

Churchill and World War II

I just finished a fascinating book about England's role in World War I and World War II. Churchill, Hitler, and "The Unnecessary War" by Patrick Buchanan takes a fresh look at England and its leader Winston Churchill.

He makes a strong case that Britain got itself involved in European conflicts thus turning them into World Wars. The analysis of the War Guarantee given to Poland before Hitler invaded made it clear helped me see the conflict in a whole new light.

Google Voice

I got a Google voice number, and set it up with my phone. I am very intrigued by the possibilities here. Voice mail transcription alone might be worth it.

Not only does it email you the text, but also a link to play back the audio. I'm not sure how useful having a new number will be, so we shall see as they say.

Champions League Final

Today, Bayern Munich will play Inter Milan for the UEFA Champions League trophy. I think Inter will pull out it, but this should be a good game.

More interestingly is all of the TV coverage. FOX has had the TV rights this year, so FSC and FSN had had all the games this year as opposed to ESPN2's coverage. The big thing here is that the final is on FOX. FOX has never had a soccer game before, and this is after it was announce that FX would have the final last fall.

FSC has had plenty of pregame analysis this week, and they were also able to show replays of the games over the course of the season. Lets just get FSC in HD in more areas, and the champions league will become much more popular in the States.

Inter 3 - 2 Bayern. I could be wrong.

SA@TAC - No Mercy for Incumbents

I love the line about Specter. He "simply quit Burger King to work for McDonald's where he could offer up the same low qualtiy product, just under a different brand."

World Cup fantasy game

I setup a World Cup Fantasy games on yahoo.com today. You pick the result for each of the games, and it should be interesting. Stephano is going down.

Test for twitter

I wanted to try twitter, so this is a test.
mattlaurenzano is my twitter account.

Proverbs 13:20

He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.

The books of Proverbs is amazing. Every time I read it, it feels like I learn something new.

Proverbs 31:10-11

An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain.

God has blessed me by providing a woman who loves God and serves her family. Isabella is so lucky to have her.

5/7/2010 Debt Snowball

Our debt snowball is down to just unde $11,000. If things work out, we will be clear by the end of the summer.

My goal is total weirdness. Normal sucks.

Tacoma City Marathon finish

They had some photos from the my half marathon and this was from me crossing the finish line.

More here. Of course, they charge an arm and a leg for them.

Tacoma City Marathon

I ran the Tacoma City Marathon today - I did the Half Marathon. It was a cool overcast day, which made for great running conditions. This was also the farthest to date I have run in my Vibram KSOs. I had a good race, finishing in 1:41:08 which was a little behind me goal of 1:35. The last 2.5 miles or so were mostly up hill, so that probably didn't help.

I had a bunch of funny looks an a couple people asked me about my Vibrams. My feet felt pretty rough afterwards, and I had Andrea take a picture of them when I got home. The picutre didn't come out too well but my feet looked roughed up:

Update 5/3: The dark spots on my feet are lint and other leftovers from my Vibrams.





While I was running, I was thinking about the great quote from Chariots of Fire:
When I run, I feel his pleasure.


I also listened to a lecture by Tom Woods during the race, and it made me laugh that I listen to my favorite Economist to keep me going. I have written about woods before, and I am looking forward to his new book. I also listened to most of Brian Regan Live, which is a great comedy album.

I am planning on doing another official marathon in June, so we'll see if I can improve my time for that race.

As of 4:40 PM on 5/2/2010 these numbers are unofficial. I will update these if there are any changes.
My time was 1:41:08 and I finished:
Overall for the Half Marathon: 89th/1016 which is in the top 9%
For Men: 72/400
For my age division: 12/57



The results can be viewed here

I was bib 1529.

Sounders game picture

I took a picture of the big supporters section at Qwest:

Sounders vs KC

I was fortunate to be able to go to the Sounders game today vs Kansas City. Qwest field is an incredible place. The Supporters section behind the goal is constantly singing and almost the entire stadium stands throughout the game.

The Sounders won 1-0.

Maicon

Inter Milan's Maicon scored an incredible goal today vs. Juventus
The goal is about 1:30 in the clip.

update 4/18: Better video

Dropping cable

I have wanted to drop cable for some time because we just don't watch very much TV anymore. My plan was to be able to use my wife's laptop to watch shows on Hulu if there were any shows we still wanted to watch like 30 Rock and The Office.

We have Netflix and a Roku streaming box, which is nice because we pretty much only watch movies these days. However, I like soccer and I don't have a good way to watch the Sounders without cable.

I live in Lacey, WA which is about over 40 miles from the antenna which is in the Seattle area. I don't get KONG6 over the air, which has most of the Sounders games. I then discovered MLS Matchday Live which costs $39 to stream a lot of MLS games. The problem here is that they have local blackouts, so I can't watch the sounders games here either.

I feel like I'm stuck, but maybe once we buy a place, I can mount a big antenna and get over the air signals and use Windows Media Center as a DVR.

FPU

We just started a new FPU Class, and it was our largest yet! This was very encouraging, and I am very happy.

Questions

Many Christians, myself included, were taught that that the 7 days of creation did not have to mean 7 literal days. One thing I cam across posed any interesting question. How about the 10 commandments?

In Exodus 20, Got gives moses the 10 commandments. Here comes Exodus 20:11

For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.


It's clear that God declares that the Earth was create in six days.

Tom Woods - Nullication

This is Tom Woods' speech at t the recent CPAC

Its like saying my 2 pair beats your royal flush. Its a living poker game!

Part 1:


Part 2:


Part 3:


Part 4:


Part 5:

Sounders win opener

Seattle Sounders started out the 2010 season with a win over the new Philly teams.

The new MLSsoccer.com looks pretty good. Why can't the EPL have highlighs online?
Maybe this link works?
http://www.mlssoccer.com/content/highlights-phi-sea

More on ObamaCare

3 of my favorite things. The Southern Avenger, Tom Woods, and Nullification:



I'm not going to post naymore on ObamaCare, but I think its pretty crappy. As an aside Tom Woods, always one of my favorites, has a new book about Nullifcation due sometime soon.

Schiff on ObamaCare

Psalm 118:24

This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

I read this morning after doing a run.

Vibrams are the way to run

I finally got a pair of the Vibram KSO shoes because the Bikila's were being delayed until June, or so I heard. Anyways, they fit great and I did a 2 mile run with them after wearring them around the house for a while.

I was surprised how the toes didn't feel weird after I started running. I definitely felt it on the heels, and I quickly started doing shorter, quicker strides. I think these will be a great development for me in my running.

My wife thinks they look really funny because of the toes.

Half Marathon 1

Earlier I wrote about how I wanted 10 Half Marathons this year. I originally wrote that thinking I would do 10 official races, but after I started looking into them they are rather pricey. I will run 3 races this year, including one with my older brother. The other 7 will be eithe ron other course or routers I make up.

This weekend, I will run the course for the Capital City Marathon in Olympia, WA.

Here is the course from Gmap:
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3552405

Funny Movies

I recently watched Dirty Rotten Scoundrels via Netflix watch instantly. One thing I was thinkin was how funny this movie was without being crude. It almost made me think of Three Amigos and that adults and children an both watch them and find them to be funny.

It has to be said the Ruprect is one of the funniest characters to grace film:

Mises.org on iTunes U

I recently found Mises.org materials on iTunes U. In particular the Mises circle seminars are very good. Go here for the iTunes link. They have some great speakers including Thoma E Woods, Tom DiLorenzo, Lew Rockwell, and Thomas Block.

Thomas Woods continues to be one of my favorite speakers because he rips apart poor economics, not only with facts, but he ridicule these ideas with funny examples. I recently enjoyed his speech at the Capitalism the Creator seminar titled The Calamity of Anti-Capitalism: A Brief American History.

Update 2/27/2010:
This link is a good place to go to launch iTunes
http://itunesu.mises.org/

Luke 5:31-32

Luke 5:31-32 reads:
Jesus answered them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

I read Luke this weekend as part of my personal study, and this verse caught me. As I have studied the Bible and done reading about the Bible, I have found it very interesting how much contempt Jesus showed for the "religious" people, usually the Pharisees, in the Gospels. Time and time again, the pharisees tried to trap Jesus into teaching against the law, but Jesus demonstrated how serving God is more than outward demonstrations of faith.

Christians need to serve others in their community, especially 'sinners'.

South Aftrica 2010 will be a huge mess off the field

I have long suspected that problems with crime and other issues will lead to a serious incident during the World Cup this summer. With the huge media spotlight, drunken soccer fans and criminals will likely lead to something bad happening.

Have no fear, you can stab vest in team colors.
http://www.protektorvest.com/

Moral Hazard

I have heard the term 'Moral Hazard' bandied about reading and listenting to various pieces, mostly commonly in reference to the financial bailouts. Why would an organization try to become efficient, if it knows it will receive a bailout if it doesn't? Simple, it won't.

Why would someone pay for health insurance if they know they can go to an ER and get service free of charge or get government (read: someone else) to pay for it? Ah, govenrment intervention and those pesky unintended consequences.

Corporatism

I have long believed that Socialism is freedoms biggest enemy. I now beleive that Corporatism or Mercantilsom is a much bigger threat. Like the devil, Corporatism guises itself from what it really is. When big business cuddles up to big goverment, people lose.

Look at the bailouts and who received the money. Small business, ordinary people? No, of course not. Sadly the Republicans are just as bad here as the Democrats.

One of my favorite authors is Tom DiLorenzo who has written some fascinating books like Hamilton's Curse and How Capitalism Saved America. What we now have is a system of Mercantilsm or 'Crony Capitalism' that is often referred to as the free market. Another recent book I am reading is Obamanomics which chronicles some of President Obama's big business relationships.

In Hamilton's curse, DiLorenzo explores how Alexander Hamilton's influence eventually won out in America. This has setup a system where the Federal Government robs the citizens through all kinds of taxes (and borrows heavily) and then redistributes to favored and well connected patrons.

Taxes

Thurston County just had a vote for a levy for schools. I voted no, and had a long discussion about taxes with my wife. I want to affirm that I will never vote for taxes in any form.

This also brought up some practical discussions about how things like police, fire, schools and other services should be operated. I intend to learn more about these issues

Isabella's 1st Birthday

Isabella recently had her first birthday party and she got to eat cake for the first time.