Ethanol Gas? Save your money.

I did a little test in my car. I checked my mpg using Super Unleaded containing 10% ethanol and Regular Unleaded respectively; as I expected the ethanol reduced the miles per gallon.
Where I live, fueling with the ethanol blend will save you money per fill-up but not in the long run once you figure your mileage.
Try it yourself. As always, your mileage may very.
Of course if the price is close you can do the math. You will get approximately 3% worse mileage with the 10% ethanol blend.

Take you time paying off your student loan

Don't pay any more than you need to each month on your student loan. This may seem obvious but it might not be.
Often times the loan's interest rate is lower than you could earn else where in interest. I consolidated my loans to a much lower fixed interest rate. I also set up auto payment and made my payments every month which lowered the interest rate even more. My rate is now only 1.875%.
The bottom line is try to earn interest on any extra money you have. If you can earn 5% in a money market account or a CD and your loan is 2% then your net gain is 3% instead of a net loss of 2%. Putting your money in mutual fund is even better but the returns aren't guaranteed so be careful.

Storm Water Power Generation

Here's a novel idea to generate some more electricity.
Why not build reservoirs to hold water from storm drains and use it for hydro power. Sure this only works when it rains so rainy climates would benefit more. Flat areas would also not work as well because you need greater elevation drops to generate more electricity. Turbines could also be attached where a city's storm water dumps into a large ditch or river.
I have no idea whether this is feasible both from a cost perspective and an engineering one. Would the returns be worth it? Can hydro power turbines take the punishment of periodic operation while being dry the rest of the time? I don't know either of the answers. Perhaps you the reader can help. Please comment.

On Election Day, Please Vote

You may think your vote doesn't matter, but it does so please vote.
Don't complain to me if you don't like the government. Your vote or lack thereof is the reason.
I don't care if you're Republican, Democrat, Independent, Conservative, Liberal, Moderate, Christian, Jew, Muslim, Atheist or something else. Your vote matters.
This election day remember to vote. If you forgot to register, sorry, do it now and be ready for next year.

The only worthless vote is one that isn't cast.

Soy Yogurt

In my ongoing effort to eat fewer milk products I've started eating soy yogurt. The first soy yogurt I purchased was Stonyfield Farm O'Soy and it tasted great. My next trip to a different grocery store forced me to try a new brand as Stonyfield Farm soy yogurt was unavailable so I purchased Silk soy yogurt. Sadly, I was disappointed with both the raspberry and blueberry. I'll stick with Stonyfield Farm soy yogurt in the future. It tastes great and provides six live active cultures.

Government Positions Like Jury Duty

I think our senators and representatives should no longer be elected but selected through a process similar to jury duty. I propose this idea as a different form of term limits. We would no longer have life long law makers who lose the interests of the people in pursuit of their own personal gain.

These selected legislators would serve a shorter term of 1 or 2 years.
They must be registered voters and have voted in the past 5 to 10 years which should weed out individuals who know little about the government.
If selected a person has the opportunity to opt out of service.
Salary would be similar to jury duty. The pay isn't great which would discourage greed.
We could start with one representative per state to see how well it works and then increase numbers later.

Conservative Environmentalists

Caring for the environment doesn't automatically make you a liberal. It just means you care about more than just yourself. You care about future generations and not just today. I'd call myself a conservative who cares about the environment.
I recycle not just because it keeps our landfills smaller but because it makes economic sense. I learned from our city hall than recycling keeps my garbage bill lower as they pay by volume. Recyclable materials tend to be rather bulky, plastic containers especially.
Everything you throw away that ends up in the landfill is akin to littering, albeit controlled littering. You might as well just through you garbage out the window if you don't want to recycle it. I was taught not to waste things and not recycling is wasting valuable resources.
Personally as a Bible believing Christian, I believe that we are called to be stewards of our world. As stewards we should take care of it but don't place it higher than ourselves. If we can care for the world without hurting our fellow man then go for it. I don't hug a tree but I'm glad it is growing and I'll care for it. However, if I need paper or firewood I'm going to cut it down and use it but I'll plant another one or two in its place. Likewise animals eat other animals so we can too.