Monday, March 12, 2007, 09:26 PM
The thing that sucks is that my car is wearing out, but there are 14 payments left. My old job at CCI basically trampled my hybrid into the ground. For first three years I owned my Civic Hybrid, I drove it 32,000 miles per year on business. Once I got my job at Pretrial, my driving went down to about 10,000 miles per year.
Now, at 115,000 miles, the car has a lot of vibration in the A-pillars. The car alarm and remote door opener only intermittently functions. The rear window defogger is mostly not working. Some of the LEDs on instrument cluster have burned out. An aerodynamic shield underneath the car has fallen apart.
On the bright side, the engine and IMA battery are still in good shape. The IMA battery is the huge 144v array of cells that powers the hybrid components. That part is supposed to last for 150k-200k miles. So, in the worst-case scenario, I have 35,000 miles left.
Still, I can’t complain too much. Even in its somewhat depleted condition, it still ekes out 40 MPG. It actually got over 45 MPG until the odometer hit 100k. The non-critical items may be gradually failing, but the car still gets me around without any grief.
I wouldn’t mind a Honda Fit for my next car. It’s a cute little hatchback that gets 39 MPG and costs only $16k. Doug wants a Honda Element next.
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( 3.1 / 1163 )Tuesday, February 27, 2007, 07:48 PM
I had this ghastly dream in which Doug and I went to a restaraunt in which everything gradually decayed and became undead. When we first entered, everything seemed normal enough. But then after we placed our orders, I noticed everything seemed dirty all of the sudden. Then I saw these transparent barrels of rotting body parts appear. When I looked up at the hanging lamp, there was a rotting human head suspended from it. The head opened its wormy eyes and started making incoherent noises from its gap-toothed mouth. Spatters of wet corruption dripped from the head onto the table cloth.
I grabbed Doug by the arm and started running for the door. The servers had all turned into shambling corpses. The doors began to close, and I knew if they shut completely that we would be trapped inside. We would then be eaten alive by the zombies.
I did not want Doug to be trapped, so I kept pushing him in front of me. Just as the door was going to close, I pushed Doug into the door and our combined weight forced the door back open. We did escape, but it was a harrowing experience.
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( 3 / 1298 )Monday, February 19, 2007, 09:33 AM
Man! Who the heck has been giving McCain his campaign advice lately? His message is turning into a real freak show.
In 2004, he was anti-war, pro-gay, pro-Constitution. But ever since the November 2006 elections, he’s done a 180° turn on almost everything. Now he’s all for “troop surge” and an anti-gay Constitutional amendment. But to put the icing on this rancid cake, he announced yesterday that he wants Roe v Wade overturned.
Call me crazy, but didn’t the voters reject the Religious Reich last November? And McCain doesn’t really believe the Christofascist crap he’s been spewing lately. So why is he doing it at all?
My guess is that his campaign advisers have told him that he has to make “nice-nice” with the hardline, Far Right, ultra-Christian conservatives in order to be taken seriously by the GOP.
What he fails to realise is that the Kompassionate Konservative Kristians can’t possibly make up more than 10% of the voting population. And bending to their will can only alienate mainstream Christians, independents/undecideds, and traditional “small government” Republicans.
Not that I want another Republican president. I don’t. But it is a shame to see a free-thinking senator I once respected so obviously and blatantly sell out.
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( 3 / 1229 )Sunday, February 18, 2007, 09:44 PM
This was a pretty good weekend. On Friday, I jogged 1.5 miles. On Saturday, I did 9.0 miles worth of exercise (6.4 mile walk and 2.6 mile stairmaster) for 1302 calories. And today, I did 8.2 miles (3.1 mile jog, 2.9 mile stairmaster, and 2.2 mile walk) for 1150 calories. Too cool!
I am only THREE pounds away from my goal (180 pounds). 18 months ago, I weighed 221 pounds. A 38 pound loss in 18 months isn’t too shabby!
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( 3 / 1217 )Saturday, February 17, 2007, 05:12 PM - Random Thoughts
My opinion on the Bush presidency is this: he lied every time he opened his mouth. I read in MSNBC this week that the Bush advisors were bemoaning the president?s apparent ?credibility gap? -- a newfangled euphemism that means ?nobody believes anything he says?. And then I thought to myself, ?why SHOULD anybody believe anything he says??
We?re in our 4th year in Iraq. It?s a war he lied to Congress about in order to get authorisation for the war. Bush said Saddham had nuclear (?nuk?u?larr?) technology -- Saddham didn?t. Bush said that Saddham had weapons of mass destruction -- he didn?t. He said that Iraq had fully re-armed -- it hadn?t. Bush said that the global community was behind us in this endeavour -- it wasn?t. Bush declared ?Mission Accomplished? six months into the war -- nothing was accomplished. Bush said that the Iraqi people would welcome us as liberators -- they greeted us as an Infidel occupation army. Bush said that the war would ?pay for itself? due to increased Iraqi oil exports -- energy prices doubled because of this war.
Bush lied about the extent to which favoured contractors like Halliburton would defraud the taxpayers (for projects in Iraq and New Orleans).
Bush lied to the American people when he said that gay couples wanted to ?destroy the traditional American Family?. Gay couples just want equal protection under the law and equal access to the services their taxes pay for.
Bush lied when he said that Homeland Security would make America safer. All it did was create a branch of Secret Police that operate outside the bounds of the Constitution.
Bush lied when he said that the huge tax cuts for the nation?s millionaires would somehow benefit the middle class. In reality, the gap between rich and poor grew wider under Bush?s watch than under any other president.
But if I took the time to list all of Bush?s lies, it would fill an entire book. The legacy of George W. Bush is this: Because he lied, thousands died.
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( 3 / 1244 )Thursday, February 8, 2007, 06:29 PM
I had a really awful nightmare last night. In this dream, I was given the task of training a new employee who was a hateful, annoying jerk. He was obnoxious, rude, and tried to start trouble at every turn. He didn't seem particularly trainable either.
Well, I wasn't the only one who hated him. Apparently EVERYONE in the office hated him.
I went on my lunch break and came back half an hour later. When I returned, the new recruit was missing. It wasn't until later that I discovered that he had been brutally murdered by one of the other employees. He had been hacked to pieces and ground up in the shredder.
I was the one who found the remnants. It was just ghastly. The shredder bag was full of blood and gristle. The shredder blades were sticky with blood and had bits of skin and hair sticking out. I didn't want to see what I was seeing. I tried to NOT see what I was seeing. And yet, this gruesome spectacle was before me.
I didn't know what to do. I woke up before I could do some constructive action (like call the police).
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( 3 / 1180 )Sunday, February 4, 2007, 12:29 PM
I've come to the conclusion that I don't actually own any computers that are Vista-capable. This really pisses me off because none of my computers are all that OLD, and yet Bill Gates is trying to do a "forced obsolesence" on the four computers we own.
Vista wants:
1024 MB RAM
128 MB Video
1000 Mhz processor
40 Gb free HD space
1024x768 screen.
DVD drive
My Tablet PC:
It misses on RAM, HD space, and since it is a TabletPC, it has an unusual screen resolution (480x800 portrait). No DVD.
Doug's Laptop:
Misses on video (64 Mb)
My desktop:
Misses on HD space
Doug's desktop:
Misses on RAM and Video. No DVD.
So, I COULD put Vista on one computer if I bought a new hard drive. But WAIT! My desktop's motherboard only has an IDE interface, and all the new hard drives are Serial-ATA. That means I'd have to also buy a new motherboard and new memory modules. For all that trouble, I might as well buy a new computer.
Why are the system requirements of Vista SO DAMNED HIGH? If it's such an "efficient, elegant" operating system, then shouldn't it be able to run just fine on existing computers?
More likely than not, I think Microsoft just threw a great big bone to the computer manufacturers so that the majority of the population will be forced to buy new computers.
Personally, I'm not going to do that. I like my TabletPC just fine. And I don't use my desktop computer often enough to justify its replacement.
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( 3 / 1229 )Saturday, February 3, 2007, 08:52 PM
This has been a truely tough week. I didn't have any time for blogging because my work situation has made me feel really exhausted.
Last Friday, one of the case agents quit suddenly because she got diagnosed with a fast-spreading cancer. She ran the FTR department for over a decade. She was the only one who knew the arcane system of tracking active files (which involved NINE filing cabinets of STUFF). She's also too sick to train her replacement.
So... I and two other investigators have been trying to reverse-engineer her system and get the department running again. But this has been in addition to all of our normal core duties. And we've been training new recruits for Central Booking at the same time. The long and short of it is that we've been trying cram 12 hours worth of work into an 8 hour workday.
What has made it difficult is the sheer hatefulness exhibited by some of the other case agents. They take turns decrying our supposed incompetence and then say we're acting like grave robbers for trying to take over the dying agent's work. Well, maybe we ARE incompetent -- since we're trying to do a job we weren't trained to do. But we're not grave robbers. The work HAS to be done. And I haven't noticed any of the other case agents volunteering to lend us their expertise.
I have come home exhausted and depressed every day. I've been going in early and coming home late. And it's just ghastly that a person I really like and respect is going to be dead soon.
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( 3 / 1167 )Tuesday, January 23, 2007, 06:36 AM
I had an odd dream that involved a box that shouldn't have been opened. Somehow, there was a very old box that was tightly sealed. It contained a malevolent intelligence of some sort. Unfortunately, I clumsily ran into the box and the bottom seal dropped off. When it did, a cold blue light shown from underneath.
The entity that lived in the box did not escape, but it could now see out. And if the blue light hit anyone, they would be influenced by the entity's own evil desires and thus be compelled to carry out its wishes.
I tried to put the seal back on, but it wouldn't snap back on. I also didn't want to be near the box, since I didn't want its light to turn me into a slave to evil.
I had the power to drop inbetween realities, so I fell from that room into another scene.
Here was an antique store. It was closed since it was after-hours. I felt the box trying to come for me. A blue light shown down from the ceiling all of the sudden. I hid underneath a desk. I think the box entity knew I was nearby and it was frustrated that it could not see me. After a few minutes, it gave up.
I dropped out of that reality.
It was a beach, in late autumn. It was sunny, breezy, but a bit chilly. The beach was of the volcanic variety since the strip of sand was very narrow and a mountain slope began almost immediately past the strip.
I sensed the box entity nearby. At the far end of the beach, an amorphous blob floated towards me. It had rays of blue light coming from it. I did not want to confront it. I dropped through another reality.
This one was a realm of magic, not science. I found an elderly teacher who said, "I can teach you how to see. I can teach you how to use your mind."
I do not think the box entity could come here, since I did not sense its pursuit. And I had a hope, for the first time, that the old man would show me how to defeat the evil entity and to put the seal back on the box.
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( 3 / 1167 )Saturday, January 20, 2007, 08:43 PM
My sister's ex-husband is a pretty bogus dude. He was always into drugs and got my sister involved in meth for a few years. Her first son was born with horrible defects that required over a dozen surgeries to correct. Sure, it was my sister's fault for starting drugs, but it was his fault for offering them.
Then he was drug-free for a year or two when he went through a "Jesus" phase. But all he did was throw out all his Dungeons & Dragons books and all of his Magic The Gathering cards. Yeah.
Well... He got busted yesterday trafficking 300 pounds of marijuana. Geeez! I'm trying to imagine how BIG that actually is. After all, a bale of hay weighs about 30 pounds or so. Pot probably weighs the same as hay since they're both plant products.
I hope he goes to jail for 50 years.
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