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As I write, it’s 34 degrees F outside, and snowing. Snowing!

In any case, it’s COLD outside.

My rental unit came with a natural gas fireplace. When we rented the unit, I asked the landlord if the fireplace worked, since many rental units simply have their fireplaces disabled. She thought it did, and I was excited!

Well, move in day came and went … and I got (darn you, Mrs. Brabson!) around to trying the fireplace.

Perhaps not surprisingly–given the condition of the unit as a whole–it didn’t work.

I talked to the rental company about it, and they suggested that I talk to NorthWestern Energy about it.

Well, wait. Back up.

First, I talked to the rental company, and when the repair guy finally came out, he fidgeted around with the fireplace, asked me for a paperclip, made a few phone calls, and finally told me that he didn’t know.

Well, then I talked to the rental company again and they referred me.

The NorthWestern guy came out (actually, he stopped by on his own … to see why we hadn’t used any gas in the last three months) and got the pilot light going. Then, he looked at the electrical components inside the fireplace, started to ask me a question, and then stopped, saying, “no. I better not. We legally can’t jump this.” He suggested that I contact the rental company back.

So, I did. This time, my landlady remembered that the fireplace had broken a while back, and the owner had decided that he didn’t want to pay to have the fireplace fixed. “So,” she told me, “if you want it fixed, it’s on your own dime.”

Well, fair enough.

Well … tonight it’s cold outside! Today’s high was something like 38 degrees F!

And so, being through with my homework, I decided to mess around with the fireplace. I’m a mechanically inclined guy, ya know?

So I put two and two together. I fiddled around with the wires, to no avail, and then I thought to myself:

“We’re not legally allowed to jump it. “

Hmm. So that means, “If I could I would just this fireplace.”

Probably to check to see if one of the thermostats had stopped working. Hmm!

Fiddling around with my paperclip, suddenly I heard “Tick. … Fhoop! … Fhoop!” as the fireplace “fired” up, back row, then front row.

A little more meddling, and I figured out that there was a wire that I could connect a black wire to another screw, and then, “Tick! Fhoop! Fhoop!”

And so, now, I’m sitting by a warm, roaring fire, writing this post.

Now, for a little economics:

1) I’m aware that there’s probably a reason why there’s a thermostat. There’s probably some sort of safety feature that I’m circumventing by “jumping” my fireplace.

2) The batteries in my fire-alarm are fresh.

3) The owner’s attitude is, “I don’t care. Extract as much money from the house as possible. I’m not going to pay to keep it up.” (This attitude has come up in other areas, like fixing the broken shades on the windows.)

An economist might say, by refusing the keep up the house, the owner has failed to create the proper incentives for its renters to keep up the place. S/he doesn’t care, why should we?

Here we have a classic example of moral hazard (see: the federal financial bail-out plan). The owner has failed to create the proper incentives for me, a renter, to avoid risky behavior.

And so: when we want to run the fireplace, we jump it. To turn it off, we simply pull out the wire. And oh, it’s warm and cozy!

Heh. I’ve thought, recently, about getting a pet, but … I don’t think I’m quite ready for the level of responsibility.

Case in point: I just went outside, and when I came back in I noticed Bovard’s two cacti, sitting by the back door. They both were looking rather wilted and sad. I realized that they probably hadn’t been watered since I last watered them … about six weeks ago.

So. In a house where the only plant that can reasonably survive is a cactus–and where that survival is marginal at best … I’m probably not ready to have a pet. Unless it’s the kind of pet that you can ignore for weeks at a time without repercussions.

Hmm. Maybe I’ll call the animal shelter and see if they have any pet rocks available for adoption…

From the Montana Standard:

It appears that Republican operatives looked to gain an advantage by purging as many voters as possible from counties that lean Democrat. The director of the Republican Party issued a blanket challenge to validly registered voters based on false criteria, trying to persuade election clerks that a mere change of mailing address is grounds for automatic cancellation of voter registration.

Not only was the effort blatantly deceptive, but the Republicans based their challenge on a national change-of-address database from an out-of-state vendor who sells personal information. Among other problems, this database lists servicemen and women who have been deployed overseas as having moved out of Montana. In other words, if you go to Iraq, or Afghanistan, or Fort Sill, Okla., to report for active duty, you have “moved out of the state” according to this list.

A significant number of the 6,000 voters targeted were servicemen, including Kevin Furey, a former state legislator from Missoula who left the legislature to serve in Iraq; Cindie Kalan-Green, who is also serving in Iraq; and Mathew Robison, who I am told has been deployed to Fort Drum.

Many were college students and elderly people. For example, Babe Aspholm, of Anaconda, an elderly man, simply moved across town from his house to a senior living center. The Republicans tried to void his registration. Tom Detonacour, a policeman from Deer Lodge County who simply bought a house in another county, also got targeted.

But worst of all is the legendary Frank St. Pierre, 86, also of Anaconda, who helped save thousands of allied troops at Dunkirk in World War II and has 10 Medals of Honor. St. Pierre, too, moved from one end of town to the other, and the Republicans tried to void his and his wife’s registrations. I have a copy of the signed affidavits from the Republicans, declaring that Frank and Marilyn St. Pierre’s voter registrations must be purged. An utter disgrace.

Beyond the outrageous lack of consideration for citizens, patriots and heroes, a significant burden and cost has been placed on county election administrators, public servants who work hard to ensure the integrity of our elections. They have been completely swamped by this scheme.

Read the whole article at: http://www.mtstandard.com/articles/2008/10/05/opinion/hjjbijjejjigfj.txt

This seems like an entirely desperate move on the part of the Republican party. On balance, I suspect that people are very protective of their right to vote–something that’s been hard-won through the years for ALL Americans (or, at least those over 18 years old who haven’t committed a felony). I can only hope that, as in the case of the Montana Standard author, this tactic backfires so spectacularly that this sort of tactic is never tried again.

If there’s an art to motorcycle maintenance, I’m Jackson Pollock.

Truth be told, I’ve drawn plenty of insights from Robert Pirsig’s “chautauqua”. (Who used to be a professor at MSU, by the by…) Ironically, his meditations on motorcycle maintenance … alluded to significantly in the title Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance have proved absolutely worthless. One wonders if Pirsig ever owned a motorcycle … or a motorcycle repair book. Where were the helpful tips like, “before embarking on a long journey, a journey of thousands of miles … and self discovery? … remember to check your oil. You will not travel far on the road to self-discovery without oil.”

Well, that was last summer. Just in the last few weeks, I’ve actually managed to get the beast up and running again … but it turns out that I’m a pretty awful (or “abstract”, if you prefer) mechanic.

Turns out the order of operations matters in subjects other than math. Let’s see … Mike Shappell taught me to PEMDAS: Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally. Or, in non-mnemonic form: parentheses, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, subtraction.

But for all that Shappell taught me … he forget to tell me to be “PC”: Push-rod-cover before Cylinder-head.

Which is to say: when I was putting my cylinder head back together last summer, I messed up my order of operations, and put the cylinder head back together before installing the push-rod cover. Since the cover was plastic, I somehow managed to get it in place after the fact. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite seal… and during the two weeks or so that it’s been running since, there’s been a flood of oil coming out of the cylinder head.

So that’s what I spend my afternoon doing: pulling the whole freaking cylinder head off again, so I can replace the seals and put it back together again properly. So that I can sell the darn thing…

—

This morning, though, I spent in Helena. I emailed my professors a couple days ago, telling that I’d miss class today. But Outlook Express didn’t understand the word “GMAT”. It suggested that I meant “goat”, instead.

So … I took the goat this morning. I drove to Helena last night and got a cheap hotel room with the hope of getting a good night’s sleep before the exam. Well, so much for that: I was up ’till 2:30 am studying, and up again at 6:30 am. Ug.

Speaking of math… Good lord. I didn’t score as well as I had hoped. But I suspect I scored well enough to pursue my new found grad school ambitions.

—

In other news:

The Montana Republican Party is actively trying to suppress the vote, targeting counties with large Indian, student, and low-income populations. … The Montana Republican Party is challenging the voter registrations of 6,000 Montanans. Over half of those challenges have come in Missoula County, where many, many students live. Other challenges have targeted Glacier and Hill Counties, both Reservation counties. And now, the Republican Party is pledging to challenge even more voters despite overwhelming evidence that their initial challenges impacted many eligible voters!

Read more at: ForwardMontana.org

Good work, Republicans*. Perhaps when you’re finished nationalizing (see: socializing!) the nation’s financial institutions, you can get back to your favorite shenanigans of denying Americans their right to vote. It’ll be just like the 1960’s Jim Crow South, all over again!

* – Actually, the democrats deserve a hearty portion of blame for this one, too. … John McCain is so PROUD of his work, rallying the Republicans to support an utterly ludicrous bail out bill.

Two-hundred and fifty dollars to take the GMAT? Good heavens! … I guess I better do it right the first time.

And … for some reason, MSU doesn’t offer the GMAT at its testing center. That doesn’t make sense. Doesn’t MSU pride itself on having a fantastic business school? Why, then, in heaven’s name, doesn’t it offer the GMAT? Is the business school really so good that business students don’t NEED to go to graduate school? Or is it so bad that there would be no point in an MSU business student ever taking the GMAT?

But … sheesh. I thought $140 for the GRE was bad.

In other news…

I’ve started doing my physical therapy exercise at home–going to physical therapy was starting to get really … repetitive.

In any case, one of the (core strengthening) exercises that I do involves getting on my hands and knees, clenching my gut, and extending opposite arm and leg.

Me, being the coordinated guy I am, though … sometimes, when I start doing the exercise, I try to raise and extend the same arm and leg. There’s always a brief moment of confusion–“wait … there’s something WRONG here”–before I realize what I’m doing. (If you don’t understand, visualize me trying to do this.)