Random Thoughts from Work

Circle K’s parent company, Pantry, Inc., derives 30% of it’s merchandise sales from tobacco: nearly $352 million per year. If you believe the old claim that each cigarette takes about 7 minutes off your life expectancy and if you figure that each pack of cigarettes goes for an average of $3 a pack, then you are talking about a reduction in life of 31,253 years. That's a lot of killing. [352,000,000 / 3 * 20 * 7 / 60 / 24 / 365] If the average person lives to be 80, then you're talking about 390 FLE's, i.e., full lifetime equivalents.

Have I ever mentioned my proclivity for these types of math problems? It's what I do when I'm driving or when I'm trying to fall asleep or when I'm just bored. I love me some math.

Now that we have a world tragedy somewhere in the magnitude of 25 times worse than September 11th, maybe it’s time for the US to stop obsessing on ourselves. Once the Iraq elections are over, I think it might be time to leave.

Listening: The Wrens – Ex-Girl Collection, Wilco, and now Dick Dale - King of the Surf Guitar.

The tsunami destruction is really blowing my mind. I keep wondering what I would have done when I saw the water rushing out. It was a quiet sunny day, and then boom! a wall of water moving at the speed of an airplane hits the beach. We’ll never know how many really died because so many now sleep with the fishes.

It’s a beautiful sunrise this morning as I look out onto the mountains. We haven’t had any snow up there in like two weeks. I hope we get a good dumping soon. I am trying to decide if I want to go up on Friday, since I have the day off.

Perhaps the greatest thing I have learned in this job is how valuable the 10-K is. I would never start a business without sitting down and reading the reports of companies that I would expect to be my competitors. A lot of companies disclose a lot of information on their operating strategies in their annual reports. I find the reading fascinating. Sometimes it’s hard to tear myself away from the narrative to concentrate on the relevant financials. Today I’m learning about IP 751, a non-psychoactive synthetic derivative of tetrahydrocannabinol. I’m always interested too to see the backgrounds of the corporate officers of the companies. It seems there is a certain level at which one is expected to have an MBA. It doesn’t seem to matter from where. This gives me hope.

Jonathan 12/29/2004 08:30:00 AM