Archive for January, 2024

Interest-Free Vehicle Registrations

Jan

31

2024

As with most people, I had to renew my license plate tabs again this year.

Something new I noticed, though, was that we in Michigan now have an option to renew for 2 years at a time, instead of just one.

“That’s a good idea,” I thought, ready to take advantage of halving the vehicle paperwork over the next several years. I got most of the way through the process online, and then it showed my total: exactly double the one-year rate.

When I state it like that, you may think “what’s the big deal? It’s twice as long so it should be twice as much.” Yes, but the down side outweighs the up side, at least to me.

The Michigan Secretary of State is thinking that most people will go along with my initial thought (“less work for me”) and not think any further.

But I want a price discount from them before I sign up for a longer term. Mainly because I have 4 vehicles, and that’s around $450 per year. If I sign up for two years at once, I am giving the state a $450 interest-free loan for that second year.

What is my incentive to give them a chunk of money up front and lose out on my using that money for a year? Especially now, with interest rates being higher.

For example, most Certificates of Deposit are giving about 5%. For a 1-year CD at 5%, that $450 would earn me $22.50. If Michigan wants me to lose out on theoretical interest, they need to give me a discount for the longer term.

Plus, how much does it cost them to mail out reminders, process the renewal, and print out the new tabs? Why don’t they pass those savings on to me? I don’t even need my discount to be all of what they save, but they need to make at least some effort.

For now, all the benefits go to the state and I’m left with only drawbacks. So I’m going to keep renewing annually, until they come up with a better offer.

You shall not give him your silver at interest, nor your food for gain.

Leviticus 25:37

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Ford Field Reflections

Jan

24

2024

A few weeks ago, we watched the MAC championship football game. I wouldn’t normally plan to watch the MAC championship, but two things happened.

1. The top team in the MAC going into that game was the University of Toledo, and our oldest son goes there, so we’ve been to a game at Toledo both this year and last year, so it was of interest to us.

and 2. Thanks to a friend’s generosity, we got to be in one of the Terrace Suites. So that was another vote for going.

I have to applaud the person who setup the arrangement of TV screens. But first, some background.

The way the Terrace Suites are setup, they are not fully private. You have a seating section in front that’s open to everything, and then a small counter area that’s somewhat enclosed. The enclosure is a partially frosted glass pane, so you can see your neighbors in the next suite. Like this:

image of the Terrace Suites at Ford Field, showing how suites are setup side by side

Each suite has a TV screen in the “inside” counter area and a TV screen in the “outside” seating area. You get a remote to be able to change the station if you want. Here is what they looked like in our suite.

image of the Terrace Suites at Ford Field, showing how suites are setup with two TV screens

When we got there, our screens were on but our neighbor’s screens were off. At least they looked off to us, but the kids noticed if you look through the glass, you could see the image. Like this:

image of the Terrace Suites at Ford Field, showing a TV screen through the glass divider

The initial guess was there was some sort of filter, but then we noticed the images were reversed, and it was actually a reflection of the screen in our suite.

And that’s why I was impressed with the person who setup the suites. Because I moved my head up and down, and no matter at what height I viewed the other screen through the glass, the reflection lined up perfectly.

Here are some GIFs of how well the inside and outside screens both align.

image of the Terrace Suites at Ford Field, showing a TV screen through the glass divider

image of the Terrace Suites at Ford Field, showing a TV screen through the glass divider

That was me just moving the camera left to right. I didn’t get shots of it moving up and down.

When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth

Genesis 5:3

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Football Winner Guesser Results – 2023

Jan

17

2024

It is time once again to update Some Blog Site readers on the results of my Some Fun Site project to create a more accurate football prediction method.
The 2023 NFL season is over, and here are the most accurate methods for predicting regular-season game results (wins-losses):

  • MPWHFA: 61%
  • ITPLS: 60%
  • MPWLS: 59%
  • MPW: 59%

If you think you have a formula that can predict the winner of an NFL game better than 61% of the time, let me know and I’ll add it to the list.
(For the ideas behind the methods, please visit the Some Fun Site page.)

You are wearied with your many counsels; Let now the astrologers, Those who prophesy by the stars, Those who predict by the new moons, Stand up and save you from what will come upon you.

Isaiah 47:13

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All-Haiku Bowl Results, 2023

Jan

10

2024

Okay, okay, it is 2024 at this point, but the results are headlines as 2023 because they match with the 2023 predictions made in 2023 for the 2023 season. Also, the results are not all-haiku, just the predictions were. A more accurate title would be “Results for the All-Haiku Predictions made in 2023”.

Before the bowl games commenced for this past college football season, I made some predictions. Here, for your reading enjoyment, is the tally of those predictions. Note that the results are not in haiku form, in contrast to the predictions.

(more…)

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New Word Operation

Jan

3

2024

I happened to be reading the back of the cereal box during a recent breakfast, and it had some activities to try.

image of the back of a Cheerios box with activities

So I tried them, and I was particularly disappointed with the word challenge. Here is the challenge. You try it and see what you think.

image of the crunch time word challenge on the back of the cereal box

Here are the base words: spoon, cloth, milk, light, break, wash, berry, table, straw, star, blue, cloth, man, fast.

And they want to know how many words you can crunch together to make a new word.

My answer: 14, but that uses each base word only once. My new word is lightmilkclothbreakwashberrytablestrawstarbluefastclothman. It sounds like a superhero of some sort. And it reminds me of some German words.

They did give a hint that some words may be used more than once. I think they didn’t notice they put cloth in there twice. And if I can repeat words, then the answer to how many words I can crunch together to make a new word is “infinite”.

But I think that’s not what they meant. They’re looking for compound words, with just two halves. So the question should have been “How many new compound words can you make by crunching together these words?”

In that case, my answer is 149. That’s with 13 total words (I removed the duplicate “cloth” because it wouldn’t make any unique combinations), so each word can make 12 compound words when combined with the 12 other words. Do that 13 times, and you get 156 total words.

Then I added one more because I can make “clothcloth” as a new compound word. So up to 157.

Then I have to remove existing words, because the question was how many new words I can make. So there were 8 existing words like strawberry and breakfast, that brings the 157 down to 149.

Let’s see what the cereal box says the answer is.

image of the crunch the numbers challenge on the back of the cereal box

Nope, they say the answer is 8. That makes no sense. They said they wanted new words, and the answer is only old words.

Well I like my new words, such as washtable and fastlight and clothberry.

Anxiety in a person’s heart weighs it down, But a good word makes it glad.

Proverbs 12:25

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