The Birthday Boy's Post!

Today is my birthday, I have been told it happens once a year! I reworked the post slightly to better reflect where I am today from last years post.

48 Years Ago-- I was born in Port Jefferson New York. (1959) Oddly enough the White Sox clinched an American League pennant that day.

47 Years Ago-- My sister Gaye showed up to steal all the attention! (1960)

39 Years Ago-- My Dad did a sabbatical in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico where I went to school in a one room school house with 15 other kids ranging from 1st to 8th grade. (1968)

37 Years Ago-- My parents both took early retirement and moved to Guadalajara Mexico, where my sister and I attended Mexican schools until we went to college. (1970)

31 Years Ago-- My grandfather took me to the Montreal Olympics (hooking me on Track and Field) and the Baseball All-Star game in Philadelphia. (1976)

29 Years Ago-- I went to college, where a few years later I would emerge with a degree in History and a minor in English Literature from Texas Pan American. (1978)

26 Years Ago-- I bought my first car a white 1973 Toyota Corona for $400, it had 73,000 miles on it. Sold it for scrap 6 years later with 201,000 on it. I would still be driving it if had not self destructed. (1979)

25 Years Ago-- I got my first "real" job. I was a warehouse manager in New Orleans and then later Dallas. (1982)

21 Years Ago-- I moved from Dallas to Chicago (1986)

20 Years Ago-- I met the First Lady of Round Lake, a couple of shotguns, a few slaps upside the head and I was married! (1987)

19 Years Ago-- I played golf at Renwood with my father in law and was amazed that civilization existed outside the city of Chicago. My first exposure to Round Lake.

17 Years Ago-- The first kid arrived, my daughter Denise. (1990)

15 Years Ago-- I lost my mom to a long struggle with cancer. I miss her to this day. (1993)

13 Years Ago-- We moved to Round Lake buying a townhouse in Tree House in the Woods. I also purchased my first Big Gulp at the Rollins Road 7-11 one of nearly 100,000 since! (1994)

11 Years Ago-- I was appointed to be a trustee of the Round Lake Area Library District.

9 Years Ago-- Was appointed to be a member of the Round Lake Planning Board (1998)

8 Years Ago-- Became Chairman of the Round Lake Planning Board (1999)

7 Years Ago-- I lost my dad miss him everyday as well. (2000)

6 Years Ago-- Elected Mayor of Round Lake, what was I thinking? I also resigned from the Library Board where I had won re-election twice. (2001)

5 Years Ago-- I weighed 283 pounds (2002)

4 Years Ago-- I weighed 194 pounds (2003) Thank you Mr. Atkins!

3 Years Ago-- Re-elected Mayor, this time my eyes were open, and I knew what I was getting into.

3 Years Ago-- This blog was born and nearly 900 posts later is still going strong!

2 Year Ago-- I still weigh under 200 pounds (barely) but damn I look good.

1 Year Ago-- Considering a run for State Senate, and working through the process and building support.

Today-- I am 48, I am running for State Senate, things are on the up in Round Lake, and I am enjoying my life immensely!

Interesting Post on States and Where they Rank with GDP

I found this article with this map here and here (double click on it to make it bigger) and thought it was interesting as we look at Illinois in the context of the 14th largest economy in the world!

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is a convenient way of measuring and comparing the size of national economies. Annual GDP represents the market value of all goods and services produced within a country in a year. Put differently:

GDP = consumption + investment + government spending + (exports – imports)

Although the economies of countries like China and India are growing at an incredible rate, the US remains the nation with the highest GDP in the world – and by far: US GDP is projected to be $13,22 trillion (or $13.220 billion) in 2007, according to this source. That’s almost as much as the economies of the next four (Japan, Germany, China, UK) combined.

The creator of this map has had the interesting idea to break down that gigantic US GDP into the GDPs of individual states, and compare those to other countries’ GDP. What follows, is this slightly misleading map – misleading, because the economies both of the US states and of the countries they are compared with are not weighted for their respective populations.

Pakistan, for example, has a GDP that’s slightly higher than Israel’s – but Pakistan has a population of about 170 million, while Israel is only 7 million people strong. The US states those economies are compared with (Arkansas and Oregon, respectively) are much closer to each other in population: 2,7 million and 3,4 million.

And yet, wile a per capita GDP might give a good indication of the average wealth of citizens, a ranking of the economies on this map does serve two interesting purposes: it shows the size of US states’ economies relative to each other (California is the biggest, Wyoming the smallest), and it links those sizes with foreign economies (which are therefore also ranked: Mexico’s and Russia’s economies are about equal size, Ireland’s is twice as big as New Zealand’s). Here’s a run-down of the 50 states, plus DC:

1. California, it is often said, would be the world’s sixth- or seventh-largest economy if it was a separate country. Actually, that would be the eighth, according to this map, as France (with a GDP of $2,15 trillion) is #8 on the aforementioned list.
2. Texas’ economy is significantly smaller, exactly half of California’s, as its GDP compares to that of Canada (#10, $1,08 trillion).
3. Florida also does well, with its GDP comparable to Asian tiger South Korea’s (#13 at $786 billion).
4. Illinois – Mexico (GDP #14 at $741 billion)
5. New Jersey – Russia (GDP #15 at $733 billion)
6. Ohio – Australia (GDP #16 at $645 billion)
7. New York – Brazil (GDP #17 at $621 billion)
8. Pennsylvania – Netherlands (GDP #18 at $613 billion)
9. Georgia – Switzerland (GDP #19 at $387 billion)
10. North Carolina – Sweden (GDP #20 at $371 billion)
11. Massachusetts – Belgium (GDP #21 at $368 billion)
12. Washington – Turkey (GDP #22 at $358 billion)
13. Virginia – Austria (GDP #24 at $309 billion)
14. Tennessee – Saudi Arabia (GDP #25 at $286 billion)
15. Missouri – Poland (GDP #26 at $265 billion)
16. Louisiana – Indonesia (GDP #27 at $264 billion)
17. Minnesota – Norway (GDP #28 at $262 billion)
18. Indiana – Denmark (GDP #29 at $256 billion)
19. Connecticut – Greece (GDP #30 at $222 billion)
20. Michigan – Argentina (GDP #31 at $210 billion)
21. Nevada – Ireland (GDP #32 at $203 billion)
22. Wisconsin – South Africa (GDP #33 at $200 billion)
23. Arizona – Thailand (GDP #34 at $197 billion)
24. Colorado – Finland (GDP #35 at $196 billion)
25. Alabama – Iran (GDP #36 at $195 billion)
26. Maryland – Hong Kong (#37 at $187 billion GDP)
27. Kentucky – Portugal (GDP #38 at $177 billion)
28. Iowa – Venezuela (GDP #39 at $148 billion)
29. Kansas – Malaysia (GDP #40 at $132 billion)
30. Arkansas – Pakistan (GDP #41 at $124 billion)
31. Oregon – Israel (GDP #42 at $122 billion)
32. South Carolina – Singapore (GDP #43 at $121 billion)
33. Nebraska – Czech Republic (GDP #44 at $119 billion)
34. New Mexico – Hungary (GDP #45 at $113 billion)
35. Mississippi – Chile (GDP #48 at $100 billion)
36. DC – New Zealand (#49 at $99 billion GDP)
37. Oklahoma – Philippines (GDP #50 at $98 billion)
38. West Virginia – Algeria (GDP #51 at $92 billion)
39. Hawaii – Nigeria (GDP #53 at $83 billion)
40. Idaho – Ukraine (GDP #54 at $81 billion)
41. Delaware – Romania (#55 at $79 billion GDP)
42. Utah – Peru (GDP #56 at $76 billion)
43. New Hampshire – Bangladesh (GDP #57 at $69 billion)
44. Maine – Morocco (GDP #59 at $57 billion)
45. Rhode Island – Vietnam (GDP #61 at $48 billion)
46. South Dakota – Croatia (GDP #66 at $37 billion)
47. Montana – Tunisia (GDP #69 at $33 billion)
48. North Dakota – Ecuador (GDP #70 at $32 billion)
49. Alaska – Belarus (GDP #73 at $29 billion)
50. Vermont – Dominican Republic (GDP #81 at $20 billion)
51. Wyoming – Uzbekistan (GDP #101 at $11 billion)