Category Archives: General

Whatever doesn’t fit another category.

Gasoline Prices

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I’m in the process of updating the Oil and Gas Links page of my site. This has become far more time consuming than I anticipated (or wanted). The plan was wean dead links, update changed links, and organize them, if possible. However, I’ve found myself following links, reading stuff with more links and following them, and generally not making much progress with the plan. Now I’m even posting to the blog instead of getting the page done.

What prompted this interlude was a brochure I found at the Energy Information Administration entitled A Primer on Gasoline Prices. For the past few months, there was hardly a week I didn’t hear a debate on some talk show or another, about who was responsible for the conspiracy behind gasoline prices. People love a conspiracy. It’s more satisfying (or, more likely, just requires less thought) to demonize a person/group than try to understand economics and markets. So, this seemed a timely item for the blog, although now that prices are back down people aren’t too worked up any more. To tell you the truth, I haven’t actually read it yet! After all, I have my links project to finish, and I’m running out of daylight (metaphorically – I just mean I’ll need to hurry unless I want to still be working on it tomorrow, and I don’t). So, while I’m working on my links page, y’all can check out the official government line on gasoline prices.

Gone Phishin’

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I have a couple of favorite web hosting companies. One is the Fine Folks at TextDrive, another is the Happy Folks at DreamHost. Periodically, and perhaps with greater frequency as time marches on, I’m sorely tempted to hang up the shingle and take up “webmastering”. Then, I might have the time to spend the amount of time I’d like to spend reading the newsletters and blogs these hosters put out. Generally, they are both entertaining and educational in more ways than one. Alas, I barely find the time to skim their offerings.

The latest DreamHost newsletter was, however, very brief, so decided I had some time to click the link to the DreamHost Blog and check it out. The latest article was entitled “Phishing Phor Phishers“. It could be said it has nothing to do with oil and gas law, although some might say phishers and oil promoters are cut from the same cloth. Here, I’m obliged to interpose that I’ve assisted several oil clients with the documentation for private offering drilling and development programs, all of which were entirely above board and legit. Still, oil people don’t have a reputation that would be considered much of an improvement over that of lawyers or car salesmen (I was, through social training, about to write “salespersons” but, on reflection, I’ve never really heard anyone suggest that a female car seller was dishonest; the typical slimy car salesman is always pictured as a male).

The blog article and comments thereon did touch upon “law” topics, though, so it’s not really off-topic for a lawyer’s blog. One thing I found amazing was the number of comments to this article, in less than a day. What a readership! Ordinarily, I find it pretty much impossible to wade through dozens upon dozens of comments following a popular blog article. In this case, however, the number of useful, insightful, or entertaining comments held my attention to the end (though I’ll admit skimming a few as I gained momentum). So, for anyone who’d like an entertaining, useful and educational read on phishing, there it is!

I’ve mentioned The Scout Report in an earlier article. This time, I’ve covered the current issue over at the Chappells Blog.

The Fool Who Asks

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Without going into particulars, I’ll just say that I was recently struggling with a dilemma that was escalating to undesireable levels of psyhchological distress. It was a situation where I was trying to decide whether to ask for a special favor. I knew that asking would not only be futile, but would also be embarrassing and demeaning. On the other hand, if I could get the favor, it would be really great.

In the course of some number of days during which I agitated over whether to ask for the favor or just let it go and move on, I stumbled across a collection of “quotations” I had saved once upon a time in an obscure subdirectory on my computer. It was a pretty pithy and amusing collection, and included this:

“The person who asks may be a fool for five minutes. The person who doesn’t ask will be a fool for life.”

So, I picked up the phone and asked.

Turned out, my premise was totally incorrect. What I was asking for was routine and did not even amount to a favor – it was freely available to anyone, simply for the asking.

So, there y’go! :jesors: