Mon, 15 Feb 2010

Nothing Much to Say . . .

It's Presidents' Day here in the U.S.; the last day of a three day weekend and a three-fer holiday weekend:

• Valentine's Day
• Lunar New Year
• Presidents' Day

Valentine's day is not much of a holiday -- no time off or anything -- unless you're a greeting card manufacturer, chocolateer, or jewler. Sure, we tell people we love them -- something we should be doing every day, some, who are not in diets, gorge on chocolate, and we send cards with someone else's sentiment on them. Treating other nice is something we should be doing every day of the year, anyway, I'm not certain why we are supporting the greeting card and chocolate industry, but what the heck.

President's day is one of those manufactured holidays to give workers in the U.S. three day weekends. It combines Washington and Lincoln's birthday anniversaries into a single day. Pretty neat concept to get a three day weekend, but it's not like we actually go out and celebrate the legacy of these two great presidents. Stores are open and hoping to take advantage of idle Americans by offering sales. Government services and most offices are closed. Not much else.

Lunar New Year is one of those celebrations, like St. Patrick's day when everyone is oriental, or at least wants to party like they are. This one, at least, is significant to the large oriental community in Sacramento. 2010 (4704 in the Chinese calendar) is the year of the Tiger (Geng Yin). Chinese New Year is the second new moon after the winter solstice. Gung hee fatt choi (Congratulations and be prosperous).

OK, I'm outa here for a walk on a beautiful day. After all, at least I'm on holiday!

posted 10:01 [/bloids] permanent link

Thu, 11 Feb 2010

Share the Road ...Motorcyclists, take note

This morning I saw a sign which said:

Share the road, give motorcyclists a second look.

It seems to me that it should have said:

Share the road, motorcyclists, cutting between cars, squeezing into the tightest spaces you can find, ignoring all rules of the road at high speeds is stupid.

Just a thought . . .

posted 11:43 [/bloids] permanent link

Sun, 31 Jan 2010

A Weekend of Projects . . .

. . . and I thought I had left school years ago. This weekend, I spent time in eighth grade and high school -- with my kids -- doing projects. All three had project work to do and we spent the time together doing them. At least it was "family time".

posted 17:44 [/bloids] permanent link

Mon, 11 Jan 2010

Detecting the Crazies

With the increased use of bluetooth headsets, its difficult to tell the crazies from the cell phone users.

This morning at 6:15 while filling up my car, I spotted a lady next to her car gesticulating wildly and talking in a loud voice. About 10 years ago, people would have been avoiding her like the plague, assuming that she was talking to unseen spirits. Now, it was just another annoying person sharing their cell phone conversation with the world. She was, obviously, someone who spoke with her hands and she continued this quirk while on the cell phone.

Telling the crazy ones from the cell phone users . . . maybe there isn't all that much difference.

posted 08:01 [/bloids] permanent link

Fri, 16 Oct 2009

Gas Mileage Dilemna

I have basically two ways to get to work. One is via surface streets to the freeway and the other is via freeway most of the way. Here's my dilemna - which is better for gas mileage? The problem boils down to

• More time on surface streets which is a shorter distance, but I have to stop most times at several lights along the way
• The freeway route on which I can maintain a constant 60-65 MPH, but have to drive about 3 miles more

I have looked around the web some and don't find a definitive answer. Perhaps there isn't one. I haven't done any studies of my mileage, either. I pick my route based on how I feel at 6:00 AM when I'm making the decision. Some days, I just don't feel like stop-and-go so I'll take the freeway. Other days a truck may be getting on the same on ramp and I don't feel like following him through the metering which is on at that time. Many times I make my decision based on the light at the on ramp. If I can go through to the surface street, I continue on that way through the green. But, if it's yellow or red, I'm just as likely to take the freeway.

I took a look at http://www.mpgplus.com/ to get some tips (it has 12). A couple seemed to apply to my situation:

• Avoid stop and go traffic by taking alternative routes or less congested travel times. (#4)
  I do this when I go on the freeway. Generally I can maintain a steady 55-70 MPH
• Use your cruise control whenever possible. (#8)
  Yep, I can do this one on the freeway.
• Keeping your highway speed at 55 mph can improve you gas mileage by as much as 25%, compared to 75 mph. (Yeah, I know--this one's tough for us too) (#9)
  OOPS! I'm a little out of this range for most of the trip on the freeway

On another site, I found:

Reduce your breaking and quick acceleration. Cars use the least amount of gas when they maintain a reasonable speed. Use cruise control whenever possible. Also, driving at slower speeds saves gas.

This seems right in line with the freeway approach. Now the only question is whether the extra miles are made up for by the steady speed?

Maybe I can do that study someday to check my mileage. But it's so difficult that early in the morning.

posted 18:55 [/bloids] permanent link

Sat, 15 Aug 2009

Trust in Technology

I went walking today, as I do almost daily. As I was walking out of a particular establishment, I approached an automatic sliding door and it didn't slide until the last minute. I had to slow down and might have run into the door had I been paying no attention to what I was doing.

This got me to think about our trust in technology. We are raising an entire generation of people for which technology is second nature. We trust that when we throw a switch, click a mouse, push a button, that things are going to happen as we espect them to.

What would it be like if you couldn't depend on those sorts of things and what if that trust in technology, especially technology like the Internet, is misplaced?

We pick up the phone, text someone half a continent away, write an e-mail to someone on the other side of the world and expect that the communication will go through almost instantly.

We order something online while sitting in our living room through the WiFi and trust that the product we have order will be delivered, often within 24 hours. Or even better that we can order on the Internet and drive down to our local brick and mortar store and pick up the product in 24 minutes.

We think nothing of playing a video game with, perhaps, thousands of people around the world.

We send our images to You Tube, Facebook, My Space and trust that they will not be misused and that only those people who we want to contact us will do so.

It's interesting how little thought we give to all technology. We use it with complete abandon and without thinking of wether it will work, not to mention how it works. Next time you use technology . . . wonder.

posted 12:26 [/bloids] permanent link

Fri, 07 Aug 2009

Social Networks

So I'm wondering, how many social networks are you on? Twitter and Facebook suffered denial of service (DOS) attacks yesterday and folks went into withdrawl. At least they withdrew and went to some other social network, it seems from the tweets on the subject. It makes you wonder. There seems to be some overwhelming need by a segment of the society to broadcast information about themselves on the Internet . . . there's money to be made here, somehow!

posted 08:04 [/bloids] permanent link

Sat, 01 Aug 2009

Image of the Day?

While driving home, I saw a single driver in the carpool lane, speeding, while on his cell phone (illegal in California). Talk about crusing for a ticket!

posted 07:34 [/bloids] permanent link

Sat, 25 Jul 2009

Camping

We went camping this weekend. They had cell phone access, and, WiFi (supposedly somewhere in the campground although we never connected -- only tried once). I was wondering if you Tweet (send a Twitter message) from a campground is it twamping?

posted 11:18 [/bloids] permanent link

Sat, 18 Jul 2009

Icon for Today

Because it's hot here, I get out in the morning to walk. I have noticed that the early morning icon is the bicycle and trashbag full of aluminum cans. But the REAL icon for our times is the person with the cell phone stuck to their ear. You see them in all sorts of places across all social strata, age groups, and ethnic groups. Usually, they're talking really loud as if everyone needs to hear their conversation.

posted 10:37 [/bloids] permanent link