Graduated From Auburn University with the Lowest Grade Point Ever

During most of my high school years, it was my intent upon graduation to go to Auburn University and study engineering. Sometime in my senior year of high school, I decided to go my first two years to Alex City State Junior College instead. I don't remember the exact details of that decision but I think it had to do with living at home for two more years which would definitely be cheaper. Anyway, I did go to ACJC for two years and during that time, I burned up virtually all of my electives. When I got to Auburn as a Junior, there was not much left except engineering courses. There were a few math and physics courses, but they offered no respite from the grueling engineering curriculum. Enough, excuses. Bottom line is I failed early and I failed often. I had a pretty good gpa at ACJC, but my Auburn gpa stunk.

Back then Auburn was on a 3 point system. The minimum grade point average required for graduation was 1.0. My Auburn gpa entering my last quarter was 0.98. If you calculated my overall gpa for college it was about 1.40. Problem was that Auburn at that time counted all your transfer work at 1.0 until after you graduated, so my overall grade point pregraduation was about 0.99. On the appointed day, I went to the registrar's office to petition for graduation at the end of the quarter. The lady looked at my transcript, looked at my current grades and said you don't have a 1.0 overall. I said yes mam, does that mean I am not gonna graduate? She said "not necessarily." You have a 1.40 with your transfer work. I said yes mam, does that mean I am gonna graduate? She said "not necessarily." You see you don't get full credit for your transfer work until after you have graduated. I said yes mam, does that mean I am not gonna graduate? She said "not necessarily." I think there were two or three more exchanges to which she replied "not necessarily" but time has erased them from my memory. Or maybe I can't remember them because they say you can't remember pain. Anyway, I finally got the courage and asked "Mam, am I gonna graduate?" Her response was "I think so."

I held my breath up to graduation day. I stood as still as possible in line on graduation day so as not to call any attention to myself. Finally my moment came, I crossed the stage, took the diploma and shook someones hand and the deal was done. I had a 1.40, but a few seconds earlier I had a 0.99 so to this day, I believe that I graduated from Auburn University with the lowest grade point ever.

What Is Really Important In America

This article talks a little bit about the single most important problem facing America today. Most of what you see on TV or read online or in the newspaper is just sensational fluff. The incidents described in the linked article are exhibitions of a legal system that looks like something designed in an insane asylum. Until we put a stop to this craziness, nothing else matters, not terrorism, not abortion, not gun control or the lack of it, not taxes, not health care, not drugs, not racism, nothing. Because when you live in a country where some bureaucrat can get it in for you and have you incarcerated for "something that no reasonable person would ever think was a crime", then changing that system back to to something that is sane is the only thing that is really important.

Freedom

I just finished reading this interesting Backwoods Home article by Claire Wolfe. Claire Wolfe is one of my favorite writers and Backwoods Home is my favorite magazine so it is kind of ironic that I found the article following a link on the internet. It is a very informative and thought provoking article, and yes, I do own a copy of "How I Found Freedom In An Unfree World", by Harry Browne.

That Good Inshowance

Backed when I worked for the local electric utility company we had a president that used to like to tell us about what good inshowance we had. He was a highly intelligent man but he talked a lot like I do and he never said insurance, he called it inshowance.

I have never been a big fan of insurance. When he would mention our good inshowance, I would aways wonder to myself, is it really as good as he thinks it is? That is a question that has troubled me all my life. Every time I review my expenditures and see how much I am paying for the various types of insurance I ask myself, am I getting my money's worth? If I ever have a claim will they actually pay off? This morning I read this article. After I finished it, I thought to myself, just how good is my insurance? I suspect that I am better off not knowing the answer.

How Fast We (USA) Spend Our Money

If this doesn't scare the $h1t out of you, you are brain dead.

Social Security

This morning I got an email about Social Security from a friend. The email said that the US Senate had recently voted to extend Social Security benefits to illegal aliens. It contained a petition directed at the Whitehouse urging the president to veto this legislation should it become law. The email prompted me to blog a bit about Social Security.

I have spent most of my adult life thinking and saying that the Social Security system was going to go broke and that I would never live to see a penny of that money which I had paid in over the years. I now believe that I was wrong. Don't misunderstand me. I still think that Social Security is a very bad idea. I've been in enough Multi-Level Marketing plans over the years to know that Social Security is going to end badly. What I was wrong about is how it is going to end. I recently read an article where the author was describing his take on what the future held. One of the things he mentioned was the effect that the boomers were going to have on Social Security. He did not think that Social Security was going to go bankrupt. In fact he maintained that they would pay out every dollar they promised. The only change he predicted for Social Security was the phasing out of the Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA).

He predicted that the government will continue to create ever increasing amounts of money just as they are doing now to "fight the current economic crisis." Social Security payments will be one of the things that will be paid with this new money. The introduction of all this new money into the system will ultimately lead to price inflation. So, rest assured, you are going to get your $1500 a month or whatever the SSA is promising you, but you probably won't be able to buy too much with it.

Canadian Corned Beef Hash?

Last summer I drove up to Alaska. I drove because I had always wanted to drive the AlCan and anyway I am not a big fan of flying. We picked up Linda in Anchorage but for most of the way up and all the way back it was just me and the dogs. My camper has a refrigerator but I don't use it unless I am parked. Driving to Alaska and back there is a lot more non parking than there is parking. Since the refrigerator was not on that much, we relied a lot on non perishable foods. The dogs of course had their dry dog food but they both, and Dixie especially, like to have a little something mixed in with it for variety.

One of the things that all three of us like is corned beef hash. At home, I will often open up a can in the morning and heat up some of it to eat with my eggs. I mix a couple of tablespoons in with the dogs dry food. They love it. My camper is small so I try not to load it down with a lot of things that I can get along the way. When I left Pelham last year, I think I had 2 or 3 cans of corned beef hash loaded in the camper. On the first leg of the trip, Regan and Gantt were with us and we didn't eat any of the corned beef hash. We dropped Regan and Gantt off in Grapevine and headed up through the heartland to Montana and crossed over into Canada. We were well into Alberta before we consumed the last of our corned beef hash. At my next grocery stop I checked but did not see any corned beef hash in that store. I continued looking for it through northern British Columbia and all of the Yukon. I didn't find any more corned beef hash until I got to Alaska.

Do Canadian's eat corned beef hash? I know they have corned beef, I saw it in the stores. They also have potatoes. Do they just cut out the middle man and prepare their own at home? If you know the facts on this, let me know. If you are a Canadian and haven't tried corned beef hash, give it a try. If you can't find it, and want to try it, be on the lookout for a gray dodge pickup with a white camper and Alabama plates. The next time I pass through I intend to have a stock of it.

Audit the FED

Any organization with the sort of power the Federal Reserve has needs to be audited periodically. This article talks about a proposal to enable such an audit to be carried out.