More Stuff

[AnotherFairportfan]

Yeah, i was driving somewhere in the afternoon (somewhere around the middle of September, last year), and i saw that light through those trees and vines - couldn't stop, and didn't have the camera - but the next day i came back and took about twenty shots over half an hour or so to get one Just Right.

[AnotherFairportfan]

Black & White in Colour

[lake_wrangler]

Yeah, i was driving somewhere in the afternoon (somewhere around the middle of September, last year), and i saw that light through those trees and vines - couldn't stop, and didn't have the camera - but the next day i came back and took about twenty shots over half an hour or so to get one Just Right.

That's the beauty of modern, digital cameras: take as many photos as you can cram on the memory card, and you should get a few good ones in there...

[AnotherFairportfan]

Yeah, i was driving somewhere in the afternoon (somewhere around the middle of September, last year), and i saw that light through those trees and vines - couldn't stop, and didn't have the camera - but the next day i came back and took about twenty shots over half an hour or so to get one Just Right.

That's the beauty of modern, digital cameras: take as many photos as you can cram on the memory card, and you should get a few good ones in there...

Plus in-camera filters - i had the colour rendition set on "Vivid".

With my film camera i'd have been able to shoot fifty or so on one roll (an Olympus PEN-FT, shoots "half frame", twice as many per roll), and film still gives better image quality - but with digital, you can see each shot immediately, and decide what to try differently n the next shot.

[Sgt. Howard]

Yeah, i was driving somewhere in the afternoon (somewhere around the middle of September, last year), and i saw that light through those trees and vines - couldn't stop, and didn't have the camera - but the next day i came back and took about twenty shots over half an hour or so to get one Just Right.

That's the beauty of modern, digital cameras: take as many photos as you can cram on the memory card, and you should get a few good ones in there...

Plus in-camera filters - i had the colour rendition set on "Vivid".

With my film camera i'd have been able to shoot fifty or so on one roll (an Olympus PEN-FT, shoots "half frame", twice as many per roll), and film still gives better image quality - but with digital, you can see each shot immediately, and decide what to try differently n the next shot.

I've done wet plate. Impressive detail but limited field of depth.

[shadowinthelight]

So I started watching Stargate SG1 from the beginning which was a series I always liked but never saw all the episodes of. I just finished ep10 - The Torment Of Tantalus which involved dealing with a damaged dialing device and trying to get home before the coming hurricane type storm brought down the building on a cliff where the gate was housed. What happened as I was watching the show less than an hour ago? It started raining for real outside with thunder strong enough for me to feel the shaking of my couch.

[DinkyInky]

Black & White in Colour

So cute. If it weren't for the dark pawpads, I'd swear it's the kitty I'm petsitting.

[AnotherFairportfan]

Wow. Assuming that Paul posted a comic every weekday - no days off, no unavoidable misses - and assuming that i changed my avatar to a different one of the ones i have already online at Gravatar for each new day's thread ... and i started it on New Year's day ... it would be like the end of April the next year before i'd have to repeat.

[AnotherFairportfan]

 
Down 15¢ in a week and a half.

[scantrontb]

Down 15¢ in a week and a half.

Damn!... it's still $2.79-ish for unleaded here in the Seattle / Tacoma area... some cheaper, some more expensive... like usual... not sure about diesel, i don't use it so i kinda ignore it...

[Julie]

I paid $1.74/gallon a week ago. I love falling gas prices!!

[AnotherFairportfan]

We are (i hope) going to New Orleans in a couple of weeks.

I just checked NOLa prices, and the range from $1.73-9/10 to 1.99-9/10, with the majority in the high mid-80s to mid-90s.

[Hansontoons]

I paid $1.74/gallon a week ago. I love falling gas prices!!

Not me. My job is oilfield related. My saving grace so far is that I have been around long enough to know a little about a lot and also play well with others. The company I work for has cut thousands of jobs due to the cutbacks in exploration and drilling.

[scantrontb]

I paid $1.74/gallon a week ago. I love falling gas prices!!

Not me. My job is oilfield related. My saving grace so far is that I have been around long enough to know a little about a lot and also play well with others. The company I work for has cut thousands of jobs due to the cutbacks in exploration and drilling.

yeah, but don't forget a lot of that sticker-shock comes from the profit margin... i don't remember exactly where or the exact amount, but way back just after 9/11 i remember some oil company executive COMPLAINING that they ONLY made something on the order of FOUR BILLION in PROFITS... profits are "by definition" the stuff left over after ALL the expenses are subtracted from the total income from the sale of products... "ONLY" 4 BILLION... did YOU get a share of that?... nope you probably didn't... while I am sorry that your industry is going thru it's version of down-sizing, and how it seems to be affecting you personally, but that can be said for a lot of careers now days, and anything that lowers the average persons normal cost of living (ie gas used to get to and from WORK) is usually seen as a GOOD thing, sorry...

[Warrl]

yeah, but don't forget a lot of that sticker-shock comes from the profit margin... i don't remember exactly where or the exact amount, but way back just after 9/11 i remember some oil company executive COMPLAINING that they ONLY made something on the order of FOUR BILLION in PROFITS... profits are "by definition" the stuff left over after ALL the expenses are subtracted from the total income from the sale of products...

But a profit *margin* is the profit expressed as a percentage of sales... and the oil industry doesn't have a particularly impressive profit margin. Lots of other industries do better.

Also, if you're ever offered a choice of (legally) buying petroleum products devoid of oil-industry profits, or buying the same products devoid of taxes - take the latter, it'll be significantly less expensive.

[Atomic]

4 Billion? Be careful of the Large Number Illusion. They may as well have $20B of debt to service, $50B of equipment to upgrade or replace, and so on. Not to mention exploration costs, payroll, dividends and tons of other fees.

If your small company has 250K in sales, allowing a 10% profit, then $225 is production costs, insurance, state unemployment contribution, payroll, and debt service. Of the 25K left, allow another 20% for all taxes, and you've got 20K left. You're the boss and you're only getting $10/hour for a 40 hour week, assuming that's all you work -- probably more like 80. And that's in a Good Year of sales!

Now scale that up and it's still on the cheap side. That 4B profit has to cover the 1B loss years also! Those 850M oil rigs don't grow on trees, either.

[Catawampus]

Yeah, "profit" doesn't necessarily mean "money that you get to put in your pocket and go home with". Very often, much of the announced profit of a company is invested back into that company.

That being said, I doubt that the managers of those companies are lacking all that much in the take-home money.

[Hansontoons]

I paid $1.74/gallon a week ago. I love falling gas prices!!

Not me. My job is oilfield related. My saving grace so far is that I have been around long enough to know a little about a lot and also play well with others. The company I work for has cut thousands of jobs due to the cutbacks in exploration and drilling.

yeah, but don't forget a lot of that sticker-shock comes from the profit margin... i don't remember exactly where or the exact amount, but way back just after 9/11 i remember some oil company executive COMPLAINING that they ONLY made something on the order of FOUR BILLION in PROFITS... profits are "by definition" the stuff left over after ALL the expenses are subtracted from the total income from the sale of products... "ONLY" 4 BILLION... did YOU get a share of that?... nope you probably didn't... while I am sorry that your industry is going thru it's version of down-sizing, and how it seems to be affecting you personally, but that can be said for a lot of careers now days, and anything that lowers the average persons normal cost of living (ie gas used to get to and from WORK) is usually seen as a GOOD thing, sorry...

No worries. I know how folks like it when the price of gas goes down. I've been through this rodeo a few times. It is cyclic and never ceases to amaze me the short-sightedness of company leaders. But it's all about propping up the stock price to keep the suits on Wall Streets comfy. It just pisses me off to see good people get let go.

[Hansontoons]

4 Billion? Be careful of the Large Number Illusion. They may as well have $20B of debt to service, $50B of equipment to upgrade or replace, and so on. Not to mention exploration costs, payroll, dividends and tons of other fees.

If your small company has 250K in sales, allowing a 10% profit, then $225 is production costs, insurance, state unemployment contribution, payroll, and debt service. Of the 25K left, allow another 20% for all taxes, and you've got 20K left. You're the boss and you're only getting $10/hour for a 40 hour week, assuming that's all you work -- probably more like 80. And that's in a Good Year of sales!

Now scale that up and it's still on the cheap side. That 4B profit has to cover the 1B loss years also! Those 850M oil rigs don't grow on trees, either.

Yep. It costs a crap-ton of money to deliver those barrels of oil. Offshore Gulf Coast, $500K -$1M a day to run a rig while drilling. And the demand ain't going away soon.
Edit- I'm talking deep water rigs. Mile or more water depth, then another 15-20 thousand feet or more. The equipment I mess with is used in the 15-20 thousand below sea level range. There's still a lot of oil out there, it just isn't all the time easy to get to.

[scantrontb]

um... -i can't see how you guys misunderstood me... the word "profit" as applied to financial transactions has a definite meaning... that meaning being:

noun
noun: profit; plural noun: profits

1. a financial gain, especially the difference between the amount earned and the amount spent in buying, operating, or producing something.


your examples of "a 20B debt to service" and the 500K to 1Mill COSTS TO OPERATE... are by definition, AN EXPENSE... the transport and refining of said crude oil into gasoline and diesel fuel, and tar, and the multiple scores of other petroleum related products is ALSO an EXPENSE... putting money aside for R&D or saving up for an equipment upgrade are also EXPENSES, ones that had dang-well better be accounted for on the company's financial books AS SUCH... Wages, yup, that's an expense too and is subtracted from the total SALES/INCOME money the company MAKES from SELLING their products... the remaining money "IS" PROFIT (because they sure as heck didn't LOSE that amount of money)... simple math guys... yes, they're using mind-blowingly-huge numbers from a huge number of accounting books (the wells, the refineries, the individual gas stations, etc, etc..), but it's still simple math...

SALES minus EXPENSES equals PROFIT/LOSS...

If Sales are greater than Expenses, then you have a PROFIT.
If Expenses are greater than Sales, then you have a LOSS...

and when they bitch about ONLY having 4B in PROFIT... yeah, they get no sympathy from me... the people they screw over to GET that profit are the ones that get my sympathy...