OK i hafta say something about this, because it effects everyone more than i think they realize. Yesterday during my lunch at school, i got a news story about Obama’s announcement concerning GM and Chrysler. This is the news story no one seems to have heard, but it was what Obama said before the stock market puked up 300 points. The prez man explained a plan to cover GMs butt by having the government guarantee car warranties on cars manufactured by a defunct GM. There were a few other details, but the gist of it was treating American car companies like children, and telling them they better clean their rooms or the government would do it for them. Ouch, what a threat. Here is my problem:
The reason GM, Ford and Chrysler are in a bigger hole than the other car companies, is because they made bad decisions. their costs are too high, there quality is too low, and finaly, frankly, their product is about to be obsolete.  Guaranteeing the success of a dying horse?  ask someone at Santa Anita how that sounds.
Ignoring the mess of the Zap corporation (which looks like it should become a fraud investigation) new companies are coming forth: Aptera, Tesla, and Fisker are the largest that come to mind. If the big 3 were to colapse, these little three could take over quite easily. these three companies are car manufacturers. (Zap claims to be but we have no proof of that yet). Not just any cars, but extremely eficient cars and electric cars with long ranges, and performance numbers that make the gas engine look obselete already. This is the future of the car, not GM. If anything in economics made sense to people that failed the class in high school, it should be that things change. The automobile is way overdue for a change. Please Mr. President, stop trying to save the old mule thats asking to be put down. The other coast over here has better ideas.  Ideas everyone between Al Gore and Rush Limbaugh would like.  C’mon white house, let the old horses walk thier last lap and die.   We could use the glue.

Posted on March 31st, 2009 by admin
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On the recommendation of friends and customers, we celebrated our anniversary on the central coast.  The original plan was to take a wine tour, but the hotel lost my phone number. As such, they couldn’t tell me that because of the zinfest, there was no room for me.  We made the best of it anyway, and did a “road trip” up PCH.  First stop was breakfast in Santa Monica at a highly reputable breakfast spot, where there was no where to park and barely an entrance due to construction.  For lunch we visited Pea Soup Anderson’s, and took the back country through a bunch of wineries back to the coast.  Our hotel was right on the “strip” of Morro bay;  The Embarcadero Inn.   That night we had reservations at Hoppe’s in Cayucos

The food was excellent, the scenery was sunny and bright, and we had a hard time getting up in the morning. It was very cloudy, but we had booked a tour to see Hearst Castle.

Lots of people seem to be fascinated with this place, but to me it looks like another old hotel like the mission inn.  It would be really cool to live there, but it looks like it cost a fortune just to keep the grass growing.  Probably why the family gave it to the state.  The flicker page has pictures of what we saw, as well as other pictures of the trip.  I’m sure sometime this season Sarah will post something too.

We did get an exclusive on one thing, If you search images of Hearst castle, most of what they show are the pools.  We got to see the indoor pool drained, and all the tile exposed. some of the tiles are real gold.

The castle was 30 minutes from the hotel. Before we left, i wanted to try a cinnamon roll at Crill’s, because the looked so goon in the add.  i got charged 4 bucks for a cold soggy blob with nuts on it.  not happy.  On the way back we stopped at a few small towns and visited wine tasting rooms and a recommended restaurant. We spent too much money on wine, but it was good stuff.

That night, the hotel let us down again when we discovered the spa was being renovated and was closed.  We ended up walking around the shopping strip along the pier in front of our hotel, and fell asleep eating goodies we had accumulated.

In the morning we ate at Dorn’s, and hit the road.  halfway back, we took a walk at the camarillo outlets to get things circulating.  The place still reminds me of Uncle Bob. When we got home around 2, we watched TV and napped the rest of the day.

We want to go back, but i would need a better reason, like a train trip, or going with a group or another couple.  if anyone is up to it, leme know.  next year, I think we will go back to Idylwild.

Posted on March 26th, 2009 by admin
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I will soon post pictures of our trip north, but currently I am woried that there is a still continuing earthquake swarm on the san-andreas near the salton sea.  that with the volcanic activity in alaska has authorities woried that we could be seeing a prelude to a quake as big as 7.4.  We shal see.

Posted on March 24th, 2009 by admin
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Me and Sarah are leaving friday morning on a road trip up Hwy 1 to Morro bay for the weekend. my next blog post when we return will tell the story.

Posted on March 18th, 2009 by admin
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Sometimes, it appears that a car having a reputation for lasting forever is not a good thing.  Of course, Volvo 240s where not know for their good looks.  However, a more modern car’s shape would seem more appropriate.

Posted on February 24th, 2009 by admin
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See,  Its a spoiler…..

badum kshhhh

Posted on February 22nd, 2009 by admin
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I bought some powdered water, but i dont know what to add to it.

Here we go again, my Chem 1A class starts tomorow, as well as a rerun of calculus.  I still would like to talk to the guy who aranged the schedule this year, the only math class i can take is at the same time as the only chemistry class i can take, at all 3 places on the schedule.  To pull of this simester, i have to go to Norco campus on monday morning, in rush hour.  Then i have to truck back to Riverside to take the chem class, which currently doesnt have an assigned lab.  I am guessing the lab classes are only available during work hours or my other class.

To polish it all off, my car stereo fried itself.  I got it fixed now, but i cant figure out why the short fried my ignition switch instead of blowing the fuse.  So, today, during work hours, I had to pull the column apart again to replace the stupid thing.  If the old tape mechanism wasnt so complicated, I wouldnt have wasted most of an evening trying to get my Ipod to play thru it.  I bought an old EQ for a buck online that has the plug i need, and im hoping to rig up something that will play pandora on my phone thru the old box.

I realy would like a new stereo, but they dont make any car stereos that use real potentiometer controls.  Therefore, i am forced to keep the old hacked 91 Honda factory stereo i got from my dad running.  I plan on another post this summer showing what i did.

Posted on February 17th, 2009 by admin
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Woah horsie.  This was quite a ride.

I have read alot of science fiction, but none writen as well or as clean as this.  Here is the secret:  Its actualy a romance novel.

Now wait a second.  It is sci fi, big time.  the guy knows his physics and he never does anything rediculous, this is true sci-fi.  But, about a third of this book is a really good romace novel.  I would actualy recomend this book to my sister, who is critical of most romance novels.

The good:

NO LOOSE ENDS.  everything that the book starts up, it ends.  It even ties up loose ends you didnt know about till they were tied up.  Physical reality is very good.  He doesnt break any laws of physics that were known at the writing.  There are fitting historical references, and a believable political climate.  There is no teleportation, but there is bioengineering and time travel.  Bioengineering is extensive, but the time travel is mostly mythical.

The bad:

Umm…   It was long?  I guess thats not bad with this book.  He does have an extensive vocabulary.  If you didn’t do well in English or Physics you might be reading some sections twice with a dictionairy.

Wikipedia all ready gives away way too much of the plot so dont read it if you want all the suprizes, and they are good ones.  I said the Joey from Blossom “whoa” out loud a few times.  I dont do that with most books.

This book would make a fantastic movie.  Or 2 or 3.

Posted on February 15th, 2009 by admin
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more animals

This week i saw a car with a single large bumper sticker:  “If animals could speak, we would all be vegetarians”.

I think some carnivores would disagree.  Imagine your dog begging for vegetarian kibble. I wonder what people would eat if vegetables could speak.  But the kicker was that this car was going through an “In-n-out Burger” drive thru,  that has no vegetarian menu.

My family’s Chinese culture has a red egg party when a newborn in the family turns a month old.  on each table is a plate of red boiled eggs.  Hmm…   a celebration of babies, by eating babies.  Of course there’s that “Mother-daughter” soup too.

Superbowl Sunday is coming up again, and since wings were selling near $4 a pound, i am experimenting.  I got some breast strips, and i am currently marinating them in crystal hot sauce.  I fry them up Sunday morning, then broil them for 30 min at 250 in a soup of ranch dressing and more crystal hot sauce.  il update you on the result.

I have now gone more than 12 years without cable TV.  Now that analog low band is ending, I installed a DB8 antenna. Its all anyone will need after the 2/17/09 swithchover.  It facinates me that you can find full “fishbone” VHF antennas for sale with “HDTV ready” on the box. I look like i have a giant cake dryer flag over my house, but the drop-outs are way down.

Tomorrow is Sarah’s TV night, so let the feasting begin.  again.

Posted on January 31st, 2009 by admin
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Welp, in the book, the virus didnt kill you, it forced your brain to reboot to its “base language” and you could be controlled.  I was disapointed with this episode.  with my knowledge of computers, i can assure you that hard drive they showed was beyond reading 1 bit off of it.  It would also be imposible to fry a hard drive like that without physicaly holding a torch to it.  There was no connection between finding data on the drive, and finding where a file was routed.  However, the insane doc’s explenation of how a computer could fry a brain did make sense, but only if the brain is found to have certain neural network similarities, wich currently is not known.  I think the writers of Fringe need to do a lot more research on their scripts.  Even the sitcom “Big Bang Theory” checks up on themselves.  The whiteboards in the living room have real equations on them.

Posted on January 28th, 2009 by admin
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