Car cataclysm

I read stuff like this and I have to admit it: Ford is in much better shape than any of the other domestics.



Look at it:

• They're not the Ivory Tower. GM is, for better or worse, still the face of American automotive industry. They take the flak. They killed the electric car. They build Hummers. Ford is an also-ran...they're not haulling Mulally in front of Senate panels. They're hauling-up GM CEO Rick Wagoner. Ford benefits from GM taking all this flack because it can quietly consolidate and grow without too much focus.


• They don't have too many brands. Not relative to GM, anyway. They sold Jaguar and Land Rover, and they're shopping Volvo. This Alan guy knows how to run a company! Focus on the core product and on the company to produce and market it.


• They got the same UAW restructuring deal as GM. This is the only reason for hope. Without this deal, their legacy costs would strangle them even if everything else was rosy.
  
• They're not Chrysler. That thing got a Hemi? 'Nuff said.


• They're being smart with Mazda. The Fusion is a success because of the Mazda6, and the global platform of the Focus/Mazda3 is a winner in all segments.


• Ford Motor Credit isn't a screwed-up as GMAC.

How I spent my 4th of July...

...or, What Theatre People Do in their Spare Time.

Simple curriculum dies:

• Thursday night: Worked until 8:30 on spec due that day. Didn't finish it. Grudgingly resolved to come into work on 4th of July.


• Friday: Up before dawn, work until 11am on spec. Finish version 0.2 and email. Return home, resolving to take daughter to Jackson for family fun. Recongize I'm exhausted and will probably crash into tree on return trip. Decide not to go. Take wife and daughter on excursion around Lexington, ending up at Fayette Mall around 6pm when torrential downpour hits. Walk through mall even though all mall stores closed, except JC Penny's and Dillards. Chase wife through baby clothes section on 3rd floor of Dillards ("But these are so CUTE!"). Watch Romeo Must Die, have chortling good time watching Jet Li parroting English phrases like, 'Right on!'


• Saturday: Awaken wife with snoring at 2am. Wife has insomnia. Suggest she get out of bed to address her insomnia. Royally piss-off wife, who promptly tells me, 'You're going to get Joey at 7am!'. Awaken at 6am, drive to Shelbyville and retrieve Joe-meister. Drive family BACK to Shelbyville at 11am for Highland Renaissance Faire. Bake in sun with fat, smelly, costumed people (and in-laws, who aren't fat, smelly or costumed) until 4. Drive to Louisville. Ride Silverwing. Silverwing good. Learn Maria has good impression of a Velociraptor screech if she has a wet diaper.


• Sunday: Eschew points-event autocross in favor of family time. Eschew family time after church to mow grass and do chores. Thus, I eschewed autocross to mow grass, QED. Attempt to diagnose and fix broken garage door opener switch. Take nap. Consider selling BMW to buy motorcycle that gets 50+mpg. Collapse in heap at 11pm.

* * *

The Renaissance Faire would've been more fun w/o a baby. It was in some woods and a clearing, and the stroller just wasn't happening--too bumpy and muddy. It was very expensive, and every participatory thing cost extra. The highlight for me was the Mud Show, with Smelly Pitts and Slappy Backfat, a slapstic Vaudeville extravaganza of mud, off-color jokes (...must...not...say...'Dirty Jokes'....), and audience participation. Think a Gallagher show, with mud instead of exploding watermelons.

My biggest thing was, I just couldn't get into it. . .I kept thinking: "This is what happens to theatre folk from high school who have to get a job at Denny's. They throw on a boustier and start strutting round like Lady Pamela on summer days." Probably more my attitude than anything else--it was $12 per adult, and $6 for children.

Ah HA! I'm not insane...

Nothing like some hard numbers to support one's anecdotal observations.

More motorcycle licenses, yup. :-)

Gadget freak, table for one...

Honey, you're not a monogamous shiny gadget guy; you're a promiscuous shiny gadget guy. You'd buy it. You'd use it. And then you'd be done.

Segue: I got to ride Stu's Silverwing for a good half-hour. I LOVED IT. Wow, the wind, the smells, the feeling of oneness with the road. I enjoyed it much more than the last time--felt much more comfortable maneuvering the bike.

Zeitgeist: Engineers' cars amid rising energy prices

I've been noticing some changes here in the Ivory Tower/Crystal Palace parking lots--there are fewer cars, more newer small cars, and more motorcycles.

Though of course the sample size is small and narrow (buncha engineers!), it seems clear that people's habits are changing where they can, from what they drive to even if they drive.

Some examples:

• More people carpool, meaning fewer cars total in the lot


• The new cars I've noticed in the lot are the new econo-class--Yaris, Fit, Scion, etc.


• Motorcycles and scooters have exploded. (Granted, it's Summer!). I'm seeing double or quadruple the number of 2-wheelers daily.


• From the human-powered front, cycling's on the upswing for those who live near the site. Again, this is weather-dependent, but I'm seeing cycles in every nook and cranny in the engineering buildings.


• Public transit. Lextran ridership is at record levels, and looking at bus unloading by Bulding 005 the other day, it looked like a clown-car--the thing basically deflated because of all the folks piling out of it. If I lived in Lexington, I'd definitely be taking a long, hard look at riding the bus.

The above are all sane (if painful) responses to commuting needs: Gas isn't getting any cheaper, and we need to shift our habits to accomodate. Granted, there are downsides: Bikes and motorcycles don't work too well in bad weather. Carpools are inflexible--no running errands during lunch or making your own hours. Bus routes are inefficient, turning a 20 minute drive home into an hour or more.

I look for LXK to explore more work-from-home or remote-office initiatives as well--we're not going to a 4-day work-week, that's for sure!

Quote of the Day

Me, talking to Chuck: "Well, now...full disclosure: We had a DLL that wrapped the details of..."

Patrick pulls off his headphones

Patrick: You have the most amazing way of saying 'I don't know what the hell I'm talking about,' that I've ever seen!

Fun "Fuel Sipper" calculator

Those guys at Edmunds have done it again--made it stupid easy to see how stupid you are:

Try this out: Gas Mileage Savings Calculator.

It's essentially the same thing I did on my own with a Google Docs spreadsheet. The numbers aren't pretty. ROI is 8-10 years moving up from my 25mpg Camry to something like a MINI or a TDI VW.

Quote of the Day

- "So, don't you think that's a requirement for being a software developer: Being detail-oriented?"

- "Perhaps I'm a bad software developer, then."

Back...

Well, I'm back.

Whitney has several excellent Posts on our vacation.

I enjoyed it, but I got overtired and fed-up with the whole thing. Sleeping-in doesn't agree with me. Not working (that is, being aimless) doesn't agree with me.

Had some time away from computers and blogging, as well, and that's got me thinking. I'm thinking that my blogging these days is full of crap. What I really think and feel and perceive about this world is frankly unfit for the light of day (any day), much less consumption by people I care about.

At the heart of it, I'm a mean, selfish person, a sinner in true Romans 3:23 fashion. I exhibit schadenfreude so much it kills my soul sometimes. That's the joy (and pain) of the internet...removing all consequence for being a pure asshole. Social norms and mores don't exist here, because *we* don't exist...our thoughts and ideas do, and persist somewhere in Google's vast BigTable copy of the Internet. Though we change, we can look back and see how we were 2, 3, 5, 10 years ago and ask "Who was that person?"

And finally, my point--why my blog has become crap: With my last few years of posts, I can't dig into the inner recesses of my mind. They're not there. The joy, the pain, the REALITY of what I was thinking. Not there. Not even close. What remains is digested, filtered, UNREAL.

* * *

This is much more "real" for me:

I was in church yesterday, and I stopped singing.

Not for a bar, not for a song, but for the WHOLE SERVICE. From 1 stanza into the opening number, I didn't sing again until the recessional hymn. I did something I hadn't done in years--I listened. I listened to my fellow Christians sing and I heard unexpected things: The man who didn't want to be there, but who came because his drug him out on Sunday morning. The woman who sang off-key but didn't care. The old ladies whose deathly pallor didn't dim their song. I heard harmony, dissonance, and confusion as the worship leader transposed a word.

I heard people. The pulpit cites worship as a singular experience, between the worshiper and God, but it's also a corporate experience--a sum of humanity together praising God. Just listening to that filled my heart yesterday and gave me strength, and when I opened-up for the recessional I rejoined a better man for it. I embraced my wife and sang as the Holy Spirit washed through the crowd, giving me goosebumps.

That was an awesome moment, and was truly my High for the day.

Some random insights from the past few days...

• Sometimes, when I find someone insufferable, my wife does, too. Algorithm IS a latin word, but it's a bastardized version of the original Arabic.


• Wood stain is like chickenpox for horizontal or vertical surfaces.


• I really like sushi. As in, if I had the money, I'd eat it every day for lunch.


• I can tan, much like a rump roast can cook: Eventually.