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So for my second post of 2007, I'll catch everyone up on how we've been.
We've been well.
Ok.
Um...
Since I don't have much space any more for cars and motorcycles, I've
decided to get into guns. They take up a lot less space, they're greasy and
they're dangerous. What's not to like?
I've not gone nuts, so just relax. I have a safe place for them, I'm
not stockpiling for doomsday and I don't have any plans to do anything with
them except shoot paper targets. That said, there are certain things that
interest me about guns.
I like older rifles. I find myself facinated by old battle rifles. I have
acquired an old, sporterized Lee-Enfield #4 Mk1* that I've unsporterized.
It didn't take long to find a good sight on eBay and I also found the
forestock and handguards at another on-line gun shop. The only downside
to this particular rifle is that .303 ammunition is rather expensive.
More later.
Sunday February 20, 2007
I can't help but feel a little bit bad about this being my first post of
2007. I didn't mean for this little blog of mine to lay fallow for so long,
but I just haven't had the time nor the inclination lately to write.
This isn't saying life is boring. Oh, noooo.
We put Gus into a different day care setting. We found a home day care
about 5 blocks away that we think suits him better at this time. He was
having a hard time with all the rules and structure where he was at before
and it was making him a world-class pain in the ass to deal with here. We
are very happy with his new setup and it being just a couple of blocks over
means he spends less than 5 minutes in the car per day than the nearly an
hour he was spending. He seems happier as well.
Work is pretty much the same. I do have challenges coming from our
backup scheme and our various corporate dictates that must be followed. The
cool thing is that they're just challenges, not life killing, soul crushing
hurdles to jump over or burn out upon. I could use to do a little more studying
for the new stuff I'm going to have to deal with, but until we get another
person on staff, it just isn't going to happen without seriously cutting into
my living time.
In surprising news, a friend from elementary school, Wendi wrote to me saying
hi and offering up a bit of the past in the form of 8mm film now on DVD of one
of her birthday parties. For the life of me, I can't figure out how old we
all are there, but I'd hazard a guess that we're all 9 or so. It was amazing
to see it and I'm extremely thankful that she sent it to me.
Baseball season is coming up. I can't wait.
Sarah and I just recently celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. 10 years.
That's a long time. I love you, dear.
For our day out which turned into our half-day out, we tested out a couple
of cars. The Mazda CX-9 and the Ford Edge.
The CX-9 compared favorably to all the other 9 passenger CUVs we've tried.
I think it was a lot more engaging to drive than the Pilot and certainly a bit
more roomy inside than the Commander. It felt a bit more substantial than
the Freestyle, but all in all I think there are other, cheaper choices out
there.
The Ford Edge was pretty nifty. It was fairly thoroughly panned by most of
the motomags I read, but I think they're all high on crack. I think the Edge
could have used a bit more power, but I think it mops the floor with all the
other 5 passenger CUVs out there with the exception of the Mitsubishi Endeavor.
My biggest complaint is that the engine noise seems to always be there, but
there's now enough engine with the 3.5L V6 so that you're never left wanting
for power. It had that smooth interstate cruising ride and I really think
it would be a good car for us should we need another one soon.
That said, we'll still likely try to go for a 7 passenger just for the
convenience of being able to haul both us and my sister's family around at the
same time.
Lastly today I'd like to tell you about the gun show I went to. I went not
really knowing what would be there. I figured there'd be guns, but what else?
It turned out that there was a bunch of other stuff, but very little of
the negative crap I expected. I guess I thought I'd see a bunch of
survivalist/religious crap, and see table after table of nazi stuff. In
reality, I saw a couple of new-looking nazi knives, but that was about it.
I was impressed.
I got what I came for as well. I now have some idea what I should be paying
for the type of firearms I'm considering buying. I also saw some cool stuff
and got to handle some of the guns I was considering. All in all it was a
successful day.
Tuesday July 4, 2006
Happy 230th birthday, America!
Don't let them get you down. You're still the best and the place that
everyone wants to come, even though they may say differently to the press.
What's cool?
The Twins, Joe Mauer and they're going to fix my car.
What sucks?
Checking account scares, Justin Morneau not making the All-Star team and
those shiftless, shit-witted human waste-oids that walked over my car.
All is right with the world. Mauer will be at the All-Star game. The
Twins are flying high with most everyone having the year they're supposed to
be having. It's been some fun baseball lately. I suffered through the
early part of the year and it's just like it's a different team.
The insurance company will be fixing my car starting tomorrow. I don't
know how long it will take, but I'm hoping it doesn't take too long. I'm
thinking I'll get it back either next Monday or Tuesday. They have some
pretty big work to do on it.
It turned out that the insurance adjuster's estimate was exactly the same
as the one I got from the body shop. We'll be using a shop that comes
well recommended, and if I like their work, I'll certainly let you all know
who it is. If it isn't, well, just assume I'm less than pleased.
I had a close call today with the ol' checking account. Murphy's law was
also in effect as my company sent my expense check to our old address. I got
it straightened out and all is well for the time being.
Thursday June 22, 2006
What's cool?
Finding out the insurance company didn't raise my deductable from $250 to
$1000 when I told them to, finding out my car is still worth a lot and
meeting my neighbors.
What sucks?
Having both our cars vandalized, swearing in front of Gus and having to
pay a deductible for the first time in my life.
A bunch of guys with nothing better to do walked all over our cars last
night. My car has dents in its hood, roof and trunk. They also kicked the
wing off the edge of my trunk. Sarah's car's roof is caved in as well. I
think if I would have witnessed this sort of senseless, idiotic, meaningless
act done to my car, I would have shot these toads just to relieve society
of the expense of having to take care of these future convicts. I could have
saved Minnesota a lot of money. Anyone who walks over someone elses' car
with no provocation really just needs to be castrated and shot.
I'm a little pissed off right now.
I'm looking at paying my deductable soon. That sucks, but the $4,300 in
damage to my car is a bit hard to take. All I really want to do is swear,
hop up and down and wrap my fat fingers around the necks of these jerks and
squeeze until I feel I've done my fill of squeezing. I'll show them just the
same amount of concern for their necks as they showed for our cars.
I believe we've been the victims of what we've come to call the "slap down."
Living in proximity of some people who have less than we do has been
insightful. Within a certain strata of our society, some folks seem to have
the unsuppressable urge to deliver the slap down to anyone doing better than
they are. It could be through luck, hard work or just plain old ballin', but
the result is the same; someone gets something nice and they get the slap down.
What happened to our cars last night was done by a group of young guys who
were on foot. Obviously, they didn't have a car or they wouldn't have been
on foot. Since they were on foot and there were our cars, sitting there
minding their own business, why not deliver the smack down because we're on
foot. Fuck them for having a car when we have none.
I fear we're not long for our current neighborhood.
I've had enough of this shit.
It wasn't just us last night that got hit. There were several other cars
on the block that got it, too. The only bright spot is that our neighbor
said that the guy who kicked the wing off my trunk, fell off my car after
he did it. Good, I say. I hope the fucker broke his fucking neck, too.
Later that evening...
OK, still really mad and rageful about this little speedbump in my life.
No new news, just a few resolutions about what we're going to do in the
future around here. We're looking at pricing out sliding gates for the back
fence so that we can park the cars around back. We're also resolved to stop
parking on the street for a good, long while.
Here's a bit of better news. Francisco Liriano is the real deal. He
totally dominated in his start tonight against the Astros. The big news was
that Roger Clemens was making his Major League debut this year after coming
out of retirement in this very game. However, Liriano looked to be the better
pitcher by far. I don't doubt that Liriano could learn a few tricks from
Clemens, but he certainly was the best pitcher out there tonight. Impressive.
Damned impressive. Here's hoping you have a Hall of Fame career because
it looks totally likely given the effortless stuff you had this evening.
I'm off to call some old pals and bitch about the world.
Wednesday May 17, 2006
What's cool?
AWD, time off and a glass of nice wine with lunch.
What sucks?
Rain on your birthday, muscle pain and not having enough energy to do
much of anything.
Our little birthday celebration was very nice. It was cool to run around
during the work day with my wife and without Gus. I love the little guy, but
sometimes you just have to do something without him. Speaking a complete
sentance would be one of those things.
We went to our local Audi dealership and test drove an A4. Nice car that.
It handled quite a bit like the Jetta we tested except it had no torque
steer and when we hit some gravel on the shoulder, it didn't try to yank the
wheel out of my hands. AWD just directed the power to a different wheel.
That's some cool technology.
The car was, alas, a bit too small for Sarah and I. She didn't have any
problem with the car vision-wise and neither of us had any space issues by
ourselves. The space thing came into play when we were both in the front
seats. It was a little crowded at the shoulders.
I didn't really have any other complaints with the car. It had a
longitudinally mounted engine. That surprised me as I assumed all AWD cars
with fours or even V6s were all transversly mounted. I guess I'm wrong.
The little bugger was fast and didn't have that much turbo lag. It didn't
have a whole lot of go off the line, but it certainly could dring deep of
it's turbo once the revs were up a bit.
All in all, a nifty vehicle. It's probably waaay too expensive for us as
the one we looked at started at about 38 large. That's not happening any
time soon.
We had lunch at Zander Cafe over on Selby in Saint Paul. Now THAT was
excellent. I had some kind of pasta pomodoro dish that just rocked. We also
had their excellent caesar salad and I had the creme brulee for dessert.
It was a quality meal that lasted the better part of two hours. I couldn't
recommend Zander any more highly. Go. Do. It's good.
We brought Gus to Edinborough Park in Edina to burn off some of his near
limitless energy. Sunday Mornings are a good time to go there. It's not
too busy. I climbed around the climby thing with him for about a half hour
and did some of the slides until I sweatted through my shirt. I had to
leave him alone to find his own adventures after that. When you sweat through
an article of clothing you're sliding on, it will get hot and you will go
slow down the slides. Not fun.
The muscle pain on Monday from that bit o'fun was truly staggering. My
shoulder was darn near unmovable and my ribs and abdomen still hurt. I'm
in such fine shape, you know...
I've been in decent health of late except for the usual May sinus
blitz from the lilac bushes. I love the way they smell, but I'm terribly
allergic to them. Just call me Mr. Sneezy.
Thursday May 11, 2006Well here it is, the middle of May. What's happened to my blogging?
The answer to that is complicated, but suffice to say that I just don't
have a lot of blog in me lately.
What's cool?
Getting stuff for your birthday, Gus learning how to spell his name and
time off of work.
What sucks?
Road rage, rain and cold on your days off and not sleeping.
What can I say about getting stuff for your birthday that hasn't been
said before? Not much.
Gus was sitting at the dinner table the other night. Sarah was playing
with one of those magnetic sketch boards with him. She spelled out "GUS" on
it and when she showed it to Gus, he said "G-U-S, Gus!" It came totally
out of the blue. It blew us away. He's 2 1/2.
I'm taking some time off of work. Just a couple of days around the weekend
so that I might get some time to relax. I've been a bit tense lately and I
need some time to unwind.
I saw someone had keyed the living crap out of a car next to mine in the
parking ramp the other day. Not a body panel was spared. It was a silver
Buick and it had "Fuck You" keyed on the hood, "Fag" keyed on the trunk and
some pretty mean scribble scrapes on each door and on the top as well.
This person either pissed someone off big style or someone has a bit of a
rage problem. Scary.
Tuesday March 7, 2006
Kirby Puckett
1961-2006
We'll miss you, Kirby.
Thursday February 16, 2006
Um, hi.
I'm not pleased that this is the first entry of 2006. Unfortunately, I
really can't do this at work on break any more due to corporate policy. Also,
the fact that I don't have much of a battery on my laptop sort of prohibits me
from taking advantage of the 5 or so hotspots around us to blog from. I
intend to remedy this soon, but for now I'm not doing much posting.
My pal Illya had a son last week. Henry. Welcome to this world Henry and
Sarah Gus and I wish you all the best for a great life. I know you have
great parents already so you're already well on your way. I owe you a brewski,
Louie.
For our wedding anniversary, Sarah and I took a day off and just went and
did fun stuff. First up was breakfast at Al's. This was the right thing to
do because this was where our wedding reception was held. The 4 of us.
After Al's, we went to our local "Ford Store" (a term I loathe) and test
drove a Ford Escape Hybrid. It was different. That's not a "different" as
you might hear from a Minnesota stay-at-home-mom out in the boonies just after
tasting sushi with wasabe, it was more of a "different" as in not very much
the same at all.
The first thing that strikes you about the Escape Hybrid is how much just
the same it looks compared to a regular Escape. It's roomy and comfortable
inside. The ride is a little smoother than one could reasonably expect from
a small wheelbased SUV. The thing that was different was the sounds you heard
or didn't hear when you stepped on the go pedal.
I think the thing a hybrid owner needs to get their head around in order
to have a meaningful relationsip with their hybrid is that the position of
the accellerator pedal has next to nothing to do with the sounds coming from
the front part of the car. The Escape can go as fast as 15mph without the
motor coming on. We never experienced this, but when we put the hammer down,
it was very, very quiet from up front. It felt as if the engine was idling
up until we got rolling to about 10mph or so. When it did kick in, it felt as
if we should be going about 10mph slower than we actually were. The motor
sounded a bit small for the vehicle until I realized I was passing traffic
and the guy in the back seat started getting nervous. The engine rpm levels
out when you hit about 60 or so. You're still accellerating at that point,
but it is pretty obvious that whatever management system is working is
now not charging the batteries much any more as it devotes the engine rpms
solely to getting you going faster. There's a needle gauge on the dash that
tells you if you're charging the battery or not. It swept to the other side
after about 60 or so.
The brakes felt a bit heavy and stiff, but that's not that big a deal to
me. They worked.
The battery was underneath the back of the passenger compartment--right
where you'd expect a spare tire to be. That's on the outside, underneath it
between the tires.
All in all, I could see owning something like this especially if I did a
lot of rush-hour crawling or had a long commute. I'm nearly there on both
counts, so the Escape Hybrid remains in contention for our next vehicle.
We have some new 2-way radios. Since our Cingular cell service sucks for
reception, voice quality and the fact we're locked into our plans and locked
our of our phones due to being AT&T customers prior to the buyout, we're looking
for some other way to communicate between the two of us.
I doubted that FRS was going to do the trick for us as when we're downtown,
we are about a mile apart and there are buildings between us. I think GMRS
may do the trick at 5W of power, but we've yet to test it. To use the 5W
setting, you need a license. When you get a license from the FCC, they
give you your own call sign.
I'm now WQEJ837
So.
Whoop de doo, huh?
Anyway, it's good to be square with the FCC.
I have tons more to say, but no time left to say it.
Saturday October 22, 2005
What's cool?
My son turing two (years old, not a double play...), hockey on TV and
the video iPod.
What sucks?
Corporate policies, traffic and the White Sox.
Gus is two on Friday. That's so cool. It's hard to believe it's only been
two years since he was born. That's awesome.
Hockey is back and it's a blast to watch. The Gophers swept Mankato this
weekend and it was great fun to see them looking good on the ice.
My co-worker bought a video iPod. I'm interested in it, but I'm not sure
how interested in it I am. I think it would be cool to have, but I'm not
itching to blow 3 bills on one at this moment in time.
Corporate has finally detailed it's policy on work product produced during
business hours. Naturally, I don't do any posting from work, but now it's
completely out of the question. I really dislike their position on them owning
any work product produced during business hours, but it's not that big a
deal.
Traffic sucks. I'm currently short of time, so I'm just going to say it.
I'm thinking the White Sox will win the World Series, but I'm not happy
about it. That said, I'm not a huge fan of any team from Texas, either. I'm
just watching it for the baseball.
Monday October 17, 2005
What's cool?
Hockey is back on TV, the Baseball playoffs and the Jeep Commander.
What sucks?
Colds, sleep deprivation and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.
We went to try out the Jeep Commander last Saturday afternoon. We totally
expected it to be like the Jeep Grand Cherokee, but we weren't ready for it
to be a lot better. It was. It was wider, it had a better driving position,
it went down the road better and it just had that MDU (Mileage Disposal Unit)
feel to it. The JGC did as well, but the Commander had more of it.
I'd have to say the list right now has the Mitsubishi Endeavor tied with
the Commander on basis of price alone, then the JGC and the Freestyle bringing
up a tie for second. Again, a message to Ford:
This contest would have been a done deal, signed and delivered, if the
Freestyle had more guts. The CVT is a nice addition, but it seems harsh and
I'm no stranger to your 3L V6. I had one in my old Sable and that car needed
more go. The Freestyle needed a bigger engine or an engine with more go. If
you all were using the CVT, all you really needed was an engine that had go
in a certain rev range. It could have been peaky as all hell and it wouldn't
have mattered much as long as the NVH factors were well attended to.
That said, if gas prices hit $3/gal for an extended period of time, we may
revisit the Freestyle in its current state.
Really, the killer app for that vehicle would have been the 3.8 out of the
Endeavor or one of those SHO V8s from Yamaha. Better yet, scrap the whole
transverse mindset and give us a longitudinally mounted inline 6. I'd bet the
250cid out of the '70s era Maverick would update pretty quickly. If not that,
then how about a new DOHC I6? Give us 4L of I6 and that thing would FLY out
of your show room doors.
Gus had his first ear issues last week since his tubes were put in. I
would be willing to bet that it would have been yet another ear infection if
not for the fact that his ears can now drain the crap out of them. And crap
there was. Oh boy was that nasty. He's been back to the Doc and they say he's
clear as a bell inside his ears. That's a nice thing.
I suppose I should mention why I've missed a whole month here. I changed
the name to the "Intermittant Stuff" because I knew I would be busy as all get
out this fall. We're doing the whole Sarbanes-Oxley compliance thing at work
and it has taken some long hours to stay on our schedule. We've done most of
the work and now it's time to do some more. After that, we relocate to another place close by. That's big fun, you know. Moving a business is a drag. The
last time we moved, I swore that that would be the last time I did something
like that. Hopefully, this move goes a bit more smoothly.
I don't think I'll have that much more time to write between now and the
New Year. Gus is being his usual Gus and not giving us much free time at home.
This leaves me with even less time to write about stupid stuff. Heck, I can't
even make it to the clothes store to buy some clothes for fall that don't make
me look like a total slob.
Friday August 26, 2005
I get my own window seat at work today. It's temporary, but still it's
way cool.
Sarah's parents are in town for a week. We have them at a downtown hotel.
It's one of those places that has all the cool stuff a hotel should have like
a pool and a bar and such. It also has ducks in the atrium. Gus just loves
looking at the ducks. I have to admit that they are mighty cute.
Mom's looking after Gus during the day. Our daycare is on a staff
development break. Mom does really well with Gus.
It's far too early to be posting. I can't seem to come up with very
complex sentances. Blah.
Tuesday August 16, 2005
What's cool?
Favorite 100 songs lists, seeing other top 100 songs lists and
new kiddie pools.
What sucks?
The runs, AOL and headaches.
A friend asked that I make a list of my favorite 100 songs. I did it. It
was a neat thing to do. I had a nice resource in my iTunes data, but I don't
have all my favorite songs on iTunes. I had to do a little thinking out of
the box, as they say. Of course, the instant I sent off the list, I thought
of a couple of cool songs I missed. My head is like that.
I'll probably post the list here soon. It's not an easy task to format
it for the page and to write comments.
We got Gus a used kiddie pool. Sarah bought it from a friend of my sister's
sight unseen. It turns out it's pretty large and I was glad I pulled the
Large Blue Thing out of it's storage place. I hit the road for the
hinterlands--also known as the northern 5th of Washington County, hoping the
truck would hold together for one more trip. It turns out that I needn't have
worried. It did just fine. It's funny: It runs like hell. It sputters and
snorts and backfires, but get it up to highway speeds and it just sits there
and runs. No muss, no fuss, just a lot of exhaust fumes in the cab.
Anyway, Gus will be very happy when he sees it this afternoon. He'll be
seeing it sooner rather than later due to his exclusion from daycare for the
day. He has, um, ah.... the ah... um... runs. So. He'll be out until
whatever is eating on him goes away. I hope that will be soon.
AOL sucks. All the garbage their install package adds to PCs clobbered one
of our sales guy's modem settings. He ended up having to send the laptop
back to me to de-bug it. Here's a thought, DON'T INSTALL AOL, EVER!!!
Sheesh.
Monday August 15, 2005
Holy cow has it been a long time.
Gus is doing very well and he's getting his words very rapidly. His
sleep problems have resurfaced somewhat and we're probably going to have him
in to get tubes in his ears. I'd rather not do this, but then again, I'd
rather him not have hearing loss because of his constant ear infections.
Sarah had a blow recently. A friend and collegue died recently. It was
a sudden and very sad thing. We wish her family all the best in their time
of grief.
Our family finances have taken a beating of late. Our lovely car,
the Grand Marquis
recently needed a major repair. Ford, in their infinite wisdom, after making
intake manifolds out of things like iron and aluminum for the better part of
the last century, decided in 1996 to start making them out of plastic instead.
Why? Only God and Ford know that for sure. I'm sure it was cheaper and
probably lighter. Unfortunately, where the engine coolant flows through it
between the heads it tends to crack. Ours went longer than most, but it
ended up running hot a couple of weeks back.
It was running a bit hot. This was odd as the temp gauge never moves on
this car once the car is warmed up. It never overheated, but I don't like it
when cars run hot. Heat bakes gaskets and then these break down and start
letting oil out. Not good. Anyhow, its performance hadn't been all that
great lately so we took it in the same evening it started running hot.
Would you believe a little more than a grand for the manifold? Believe it.
Ouch. That. Hurt.
So much for discretionary income for the next couple of months.
After all was said and done, we were close to two grand for the manifold
job and other preventative maintenance stuff.
I googled it and found that this was a relatively common problem and that
Ford had voluntarily replaced some manifolds on fleet vehicles and such. I
got most of the info I needed on the
Flaming Fords website.
There's a proposed settlement, but it leaves out our car as being too old.
I wrote a letter to the court and both sides stating why I think this is unfair. I sure hope they decide to include our car as I could really use the $ back.
I got back on a motorcycle for the first time in about a year yesterday.
It felt good. I put about 30 miles on just cruising around the city. The
little Yamaha isn't a rocket, but still goes pretty well and can keep
up with traffic. There's lots of work that needs to be done to it, but it
runs and rides OK now and that's the important thing.
Friday July 8, 2005
I'm not impressed nor am I terrorized. If indeed this London bombing thing
was an Al Queda thing, you guys suck. You suck at bombing, you suck at
killing people and you have really picked the wrong people to fuck with. My
mother-in-law is English. There's more backbone there than you could know.
Where you all tried to make victims of Londoners, you just got flicked just
like a bug off someone's shoulder. Perhaps it's time to hang this shit up, no?
Anyhow, back to the cars.
The Volvo is no longer one of my cars. The guy who gave it to me had
a bit of trouble with a stump and a sliding car and ended up needing a
replacement at short notice. Since I never did use the Volvo all that much,
it's probably for the best that we part company. I had the Volvo about 10 or
so months and I probably put less than a thousand miles on it. So there it
is.
I now also have a motorcycle again. My buddy Bob sold the
Yamaha XS400 Special back to me. This is a good thing.
There's nothing wrong with it and it runs and I don't have to mess with it.
Good, good, good.
I have yet to get out on the road with it. I need to score some insurance
and change the title over to get tabs. That should be done by the end of
this coming week. I can't wait.
So the big treat last weekend wasn't only the 229th birthday of the
country I love. Mercedes sent me an invite to their Road Rally program.
For those of you who haven't experienced one of these kind of deals, here's
the deal. MB brings a dozen or so tester cars and another 10 or so display
cars to a large parking lot where they also lay out a cone course with some
obstacles. You get in a line and take your turn driving whatever car you're
in line for around the cone course. Big fun.
The purpose of this event was to show off their newly re-designed ML320
SUV thingy.
Let me set one thing straight at the outset. These were niiice cars. All
of them were plush, sumptuous and lovely to look at. We tried three MB
products around the cone course. We tried the E500 sedan, the C230 Kompressor
Sports Sedan and the ML350 SUV.
First up was the C230 Kompressor. I REALLY liked this car. It was fast,
it didn't seem like a small engined car and it really handled well. The
steering was a bit slow, but I could have forgiven that flaw easily.
The second car was the E500. I really thought I'd like this car more than
I did. It was the lap of luxury, to be certain. However, when pushed it
felt as if it was understeering a bit. It had a tendancy to push a bit in
the corners. It felt as if it was fighting the tires and sidewalls and trying
to continue to go straight. It also had a hood line such that all you could
see ahead of you was the base of the windshield and the hood ornament. The
hood sloped away such that it was invisible to the driver. I don't really
care much for this layout, but then again, I'm probably not going to be buying
one of these cars any time soon. This car just felt a bit heavy and ponderous.
Truth be told, our Grand Marquis feels a bit lighter on its feet than the E500.
The third car we tried was the reason they were there. The ML350 SUV.
Once again, the luxury in this vehicle was amazing. It was beautiful on the
inside. As for the outside, I think it's middle of the pack. It certainly
isn't ugly like an Asstek, but it isn't as nicely shaped as the Endeavor or
the Jeep Grand Cherokee. Anyway, it had a good bit of pick-up and handled
pretty well. However, there was one glaring flaw that even if I was
considering this vehicle would have DQ'ed it straight away. The steering.
I thought the E500 had fairly high effort steering, but the ML350 was either
underboosted or over-damped. Whatever the cause, it was unpleasant. If
you let go afer a turn, the steering wheel felt as if it wasn't going to
return to center. If it was going to, it seemed like it would take its
sweet time. This was highly disconcerting. I didn't like it at all.
Now remember that my current car, the
Nissan Maxima has the best steering I've ever experienced. Smooth,
precise, and controllable. It's just a flat-out joy. If it weren't for this
fact, I might have been able to forgive the steering in the ML350, but since
the Maxima is so sweet, the ML350 seemed glaringly hard to steer and to
get used to.
Tuesday June 14, 2005
What's cool?
Weather radar on the web, thunderstorms that don't kill people and
Team America World Police.
What sucks?
Ear infections, back pain and people who don't plan ahead.
We had a thunderstorm last night. It was a decent sized cell that ran
from the south to the north. It dumped rain on us, but I could see that the
big time action was immediately to our east. After a big cell ran through
our neighborhood, I went outside to a sky that was half blue with the moon
visible and the with the other half a building cell. I stood there and it
was like standing next to a tall building. I could see various layers of the
big thunderhead just like focusing on different floors of a skyscraper. It
was way cool. The cell had a flat bottom and was really pulling air in. It
was mostly still where we were, but I think the front had already passed us.
It was about 10 degrees cooler than before the rain came through.
On the weather radar, our neighboring cell was not there, there, and then
a bright red dot within the space of about 4 frames. I think they're taken
about 15 minutes apart so it didn't take long for that bad boy to build.
Enough weather geek stuff. OK, perhaps just one more thing. If you've not
been to
Extremem Instability, go and look around. There is an annoying heartbeat
sound on the page and the animated .gif of the title is annoying after about
.5 seconds, but it gets his point across.
Lileks
has his responses to on of those little poll thingies about music up on his site.
I feel inspired to fill in my answers.
Total size of music files on computer
60Gb on the server at home, 15Gb of "hits" on my laptop, 8.5Gb of the really
good stuff on my iPod.
Last CD purchased
K.C. and the Sunshine Band Greatest Hits
Stand by for Joy by the Sugarcubes
The Very Best of Badfinger
Blue by Third Eye Blind
By the Grace of God by Hellacopters
Wish List by The Falling Joys
and
Love Junk by The Pursuit of Happiness
All of these came in a shipment from a used CD store.
Playing now
Flaming Youth by Kiss
Just before that was Chemistry Set by The Suburbs
Five songs I listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me
iTunes tells me that my top five most played songs are:
One Simple Thing by Stabilizers
The Sounds of Science by Beastie Boys
Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles
She Don't Use Jelly by The Flaming Lips
My Sharona by The Knack
Five songs that mean a lot to me:
True Faith by New Order
Kids Don't Follow by The Replacements
Screenwriter's Blues by Soul Coughing
I Desire by Devo
Gray Matter by Oingo Boingo
True Faith captures a time in my life where things were really good and
really bad at the same time. I like to focus on the good parts, but when I
hear the song I invariably think about the bad stuff, too.
Kids Don't Follow saved my life. Actually, the whole "A" side of The
Replacements' Stink album saved my life, but KDF is the first among equals.
Songs like Stuck in the Middle, God Damn Job and Fuck School really sum up the
late teen early twenties angst and rage.
Screenwriters Blues is here because it or one of the other songs on
Soul Coughing's best of CD was playing when my boy was born.
I Desire I once used as a love song. Enough said.
Gray Matter helped me out of a tough bind. At the time, I felt as if I
wasn't getting anywhere. Then there came Danny Elfman telling me that at
least he and his band believed in me and that really helped. Of course he
wasn't talking to me personally, but it meant a lot nonetheless.
Honorable mention goes to No by the Big Boys, New Day Rising by Husker Du,
In My Time of Dying by Led Zeppelin and The Great Deceiver by King Crimson.
Monday May 16, 2005
We did some fun stuff for Sarah's birthday on Saturday. We saw Kung Fu
Hustle. That was an awesome flick. It won't be everyone's cup of tea, but
if you like action and can read, there should be a bunch of fun waiting for
you inside the theater. I really can't say any more about it. Go and see
it. It's way cool.
We also went out to look at cars again. We stopped by the Jeep dealer and
took a Grand Cherokee with a Hemi out. I don't have a lot of experience with
Jeeps. My buddy has one--a Jeep Jeep. The only other time I rode in or drove
one was my friend's dad's Cherokee. It was about 15 years ago and let me
tell you, things have changed. The Cherokee of yore had low seats, a flat
floor and a wheezy engine. This current JGC was really nice. It was wider,
longer, and didn't have very truck-like handling. I don't know if I'd take
such a nice vehicle off road, but apparently it will do that and more quite
willingly. It drove really nicely. Smoother than the Endeavor, but not
quite as smooth as the Freestyle. It had more pickup than both thanks to the
5.7L V8. That was a sweet motor. It got to 60 very quickly. It trucked
down the road in that lazy fashion that V8s have. Apparently, DC has put
a variable displacement motor in there. That means it will disable two or
four of the 8 cylinders when they're not needed. It's a nice touch that
should save a bit of money on gas.
It was competitively priced. Actually it was a lot cheaper than I thought
it would be. I think it came in right around the same as a totally loaded
Freestyle or Endeavor. It had a ton of creature comforts and really gave
the impression that this was a nice, luxury car.
It wasn't all sweetness and light, though. The seating position seemed
too tall if that's even possible. It felt as tall as my big, old, full-sized
pickup. It didn't feel tippy, but it sure made me feel like I would have to
check on their rollover safety rating before I pulled the trigger.
The height issue is not something that can be helped. It is what it is.
The thing that chapped my ass was the length of the seatbelts. They were
too short. Yes, I'm a very big man, but to date I have driven precisely zero
vehicles where I found the seatbelt too short. These were too short. This
is absolutely a deal killer if it can't be remedied. I'm beside myself
trying to figure out why DC would put such short seatbelts into a car with
so much room.
The other thing we found that was problematic is that with the seats all
the way back, there wasn't very much room for the back seat passengers. It
had the smallest back seat of any of the SUVs we've tried thus far. This on
a car the sales guy told us had had its wheelbase stretched 5". I believe
I wouldn't fit in the last model.
Anyhow, it's definately a top 3 contender. It has definately displaced the
Saturn Vue from the number 3 spot.
Thursday May 12, 2005
There is something unmistakeable about the sound of a warbird. We live
in the flight path to Holman Field down on the river flats across from
downtown St. Paul. Several times a year, we hear the basso profundo droning
of multi-engined WWII-era warbirds.
The last one I saw flying over the house was a B-25. That's a twin-engine
twin-tailed medium bomber. It sounds so cool. The first thing you hear is
a soft rumble. This develops into a droning sound that shakes the windows
in their sills. As the plane passes over, the droning sound turns into
a crackling, bassy sound that you can feel in your chest. It slowly tapers
off.
These planes are incredibly loud compared to the rest of the air traffic
we see around here. Mostly you have general aviation planes which are
mostly quiet. Anything else is usually newish high-tech bizjet stuff which
are whisper-quiet and there and gone in a heartbeat.
I wonder what it must have been like to have lived near an airfield in
England during the war. I can't imagine how it must have been to have 50-odd
B-17s flying over or nearby your house or apartment. The noise must have been
incredible. It must have been horrible to know that many of those powerful
airplanes wouldn't be coming back.
Tuesday May 10, 2005
Happy birthday to everyone I know who has a birthday in the month of May.
This includes Amanda, Mark, Sandy, Karen, Katie, Morgan, my lovely wife Sarah
and yours truly.
Is it me or is projection endemic to our times? Hate something about
yourself or your culture? Project it on someone else and hate them for it.
An example: Suppose the leaders and sages within your religion want nothing
short of global dominance. Suppose you're willing to kill for it. Suppose
you will stop at nothing to make sure that this new paradise will come to pass.
Suppose you have an adversary who is full of inner turmoil, somewhat confused,
but brilliant and efficient once they've decided on a goal. What to do?
Well, you could call white black and black white and say that this
adversary secretly has all your goals in mind. This puts them on the
defensive in the court of public opinion, this stirs up their inner turmoil
and, most importantly, gives you cover while you go ahead and press on towards
your goals.
Another example: Suppose you're afraid of your government. Suppose you hate the current
leadership. Suppose you and your friends know that if you were in charge,
there'd be no more evil politicians working for the clampdown. Suppose you
are concerned that your freedom of speech is being impinged upon. Suppose
you're concerned that a small group of fanatics want to impose their ideas of
what's right and what's wrong on you. What to do?
Well, in the interests of our common goal, we will certainly brook no
internal dissent. What's important right now is to stay on track and make
sure that come the next election, those greedy power mongers will be out on
their ass. Then we'll show them what a fairly elected government who's going
to look out for the little guy can do the fat cats.
Yep, big changes will be made. We'll get those big programs we've always
wanted and we'll get the government to run them. Once our guys are in power,
we'll make sure that everyone pays their fair share. If anyone points to
a failing in this particular solution, we'll make sure we can discredit them
and be sure to dig up some dirt that will make them go away. If there isn't
any, that won't stop us. We'll just have someone who knows someone make
something up. Make sure it's untraceable, though. We wouldn't want to be
caught doing that.
If we can't tar and feather them in the public eye, we can just rope-a-dope,
and fast talk and prevaricate and come manufacture slanted statistics so that
we can get our agenda through no matter what. Besides, it's for the greater
good. How can you argue against that.
Perhaps it's me and perhaps this is a straw-man festival. It just seems
that lately groups that really want to make the opposition look bad accuse
their opposition of harboring the same evil intents that they themselves have.
And don't get me started about externalization.
Monday April 18, 2005
Sarah and Gus are in Chicago on businss so I'm taking some time to
re-acquaint myself with my blog.
We spent about a whole week getting ready for our trip to San Francisco.
We flew out Friday night on the red eye and got in just about midnight
Pacific Time.
San Francisco airport has got to be the most frustratingly laid out airport
I've ever been through. We got in, deplaned and walked the catacombs to
get our luggage. Then we followed the signs up, down, sideways, up again,
across a large and deserted parking ramp to an automated "Air Train". This
transported us slowly 5 stops(!) to the rent-a-car counter.
The devilishly clever people that designed this travesty did have the
humanity to have the doors at the rent-a-car terminal open up and deposit us
directly in front of the car rental counters. That was a nice and convenient
touch--the only one we observed at SFO that night.
Hertz upgraded us (again) from a mid-size car to a luxury car. We had a
choice between the Kia Amante and the Toyota Avalon. One guess which one we
chose.
I'd have to say that by sheer dint of its impressive ride quality and
amenities, the Avalon has made the short list of cars we'd consider buying.
It's a long shot as we have two cars that already fill the role we would
consider the Avalon for. We have the big, floaty, roomy, mile-disposing
freeway cruiser in the
Grand Marquis and we have the front-wheel drive sedan in
the
Maxima.
Still, it was an excellent vehicle. The only thing I can think of that I
didn't much like were its looks. It looks pretty generic. This isn't saying
it looks bad, it just doesn't have very compelling looks.
You know, it must really suck to be Oakland, California. Oakland has a
really bad rep. I heard it was a gang-filled, terrible place. It's really
not.
Um...
Er...
Okay. It's bad, but it's not all bad. I think the thing that must really
irk Oakland is that one if it's best features is the view of San Francisco
across the bay. It must be like being the ugly sister to a beautiful one.
Our hotel was really nice. Everyone there was very nice. I tip well, so
over the course of 5 days it really paid off. There were nice restaurants
within a block and services within a couple of blocks. There was even a nice
playground with kiddie swings and such, but we never went there. Whenever
we passed by, there were scores of old guys loitering nearby.
We even got shook up by an earthquake. It must have been pretty small, as
nobody even mentioned it the next day. It rocked us gently for about 30
seconds. Normally that would mean it was a pretty big earthquake, but alas
the reason it was so noticeable for us was that we were 16 floors up.
When you're 16 floors up and the building starts to shake, your brain goes
into full-on, red-emergency denial mode. I was on the bed, trying to get
Gus to sleep when the bed started rocking. Not sharply rocking, but gently
sashaying back and forth. It was kind of like someone standing near a corner
and pushing the mattress back and forth on the springs. I lifted my head and
expected to see Sarah standing there, but there was nobody. I heard the
ceiling creak and, about 5 seconds before it stopped I finally figured out it
was an earthquake. I said to myself, "Oh. This must be an earthquake. I'll
be dipped..." And then the shaking stopped.
Sarah was in the bathroom taking a shower and when she got out I asked
her if she felt it. She did. Again, what are you going to do when you're
16 floors up?
While we were in the Bay Area, we hooked up with my old pal Adina and went
for Chinese food. We went to the Exploratorium, the Oakland Zoo (twice!) and
hit the beach up in the Marin Headlands. Gus and I walked around Jack London
square and also drove around Alemeda. We got to drive around the Point
Alameda Navy base area and saw where Jaime and Adam from Mythbusters do a lot
of their myth-busting.
All in all, it was a fun, if exhausting trip.
Today, after Sarah and Gus left for Chicago I did some fun stuff. My
buddy Louie wasn't busy so we banged a bucket of balls around the driving
range. After I dropped him back off, I went to try to find Armored Fire
shooting range. It turns out that Bill's Gun Shop of Robbinsdale, MN has
bought Armored Fire. I did find the place and was surprised to find my old
pal Jon and his pal Kenny there. They were shooting their heavy irons and
invited me to blow some of their ammo with them.
They have some pretty nifty setups. Kenny had a custom-made .40 pistol
which was very sweet to shoot. He also had a DEagle. For those of you
who don't play CounterStrike, the DEagle is the .50 caliber Action Express
shooting IMI Desert Eagle. This pistol does incredible damage in the game and
it's quite impressive to shoot in real life.
Shooting it is like this: You're standing there holding something that
weighs about as much as a medium weight laptop in your hand. You aim. You
squeeze the trigger and there's a huge pop. Simultaneously, the target is
blotted out by an 18" across ball of fire jetting out from the barrel of the
gun. The kick isn't so bad compared to some of the other iron they had. It's
less recoil(to me) than the .44 Magnum they had. It was a whole shitload less
than the monsterous .44/70 Government rifle cartridge shooting long-barreled
revolver that Jon had. That one was the only one that chewed up my hand that
day. The DEagle kicked pretty hard, but it was fairly manageable. I think
part of that was the layout of the pistol. It was a 1911-style pistol in that
it wasn't a revolver. It loads from a clip inside the hand grip. To me, this
puts all the dynamic force over the top of your hand and not directly into
it like a revolver.
Shooting their .22 LR pistol after that was unreal. It was like you
weren't even shooting anything at all.
After all that fun, I drove home and got Boo and we went to the off-leash
dog park near our house. He really appreciated that and he's still
sleeping it off.
I'm going to head off to bed as it's been a busy day.
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