I’ve updated the blog software to WordPress 2.0 and things seem to be moving along fine. Over the course of the next few days I hope to be using more of the new features it offers.
This may mean some broken or strange looking pages. Bear with me while I figure it all out and get things back to normal, or at least a general state of working-ness.
Yesterday I got up before dawn, staggered around the house, and gathered up all of my skiing possessions in the hope of a day of snow induced bliss. This sadly did not happen.
Quite the opposite happened, actually.
After it was all finished, the people going spent about 9 hours in transit to-and-from Tahoe only to be taught a recurring lesson: Ski resorts lie about their weather conditions. It was raining and windy, and 50 F at the mountains, completely unsuitable for skiing.
I will wait for the weather situation to improve before trying to travel up to Tahoe again, that is for sure.
After a long dry spell with no postings, here’s an update. I’ve just gotten back from two full weeks of travel plus another two days on the road inside California. Due to all of this I’m spending the Christmas and New Year’s holidays here at home. This is the first time in nearly two months where I’ll have a stretch of time to sit down and just be at home.
Of course, I can’t sit around and do nothing (besides watch movies and Tivo) so I got brave and zipped out in the rain with the new car. It was a big step for me, as I’ve been very protective of it, and kept it out of the water as much as possible. As the pictures I’ll post in the gallery will attest, I think it was worth it.
Chalk this one up to being one of the reasons its good to live in California.
I pushed on through and drove direct from San Diego to San Jose tonight (or today). It took longer than I had hoped, starting at around 7pm or so, and ending at 12:45am. The car is finally in a home garage again, extremely wet, and slightly dinged, but in pretty good shape all things considered.
It was 4 days and 2000 miles of driving, but I’m glad to finally be home. Next time I will definitely take the plane. When I wake up sometime today I’ll try to post some new pictures of the ride in the gallery area.
I had always believed that Californians were poorer drivers than the rest of the country since moving here 10 years ago. However, I now have definitive proof that they are the worst. Take this sampling of data, for instance:
This is but a small sampling of the frustration happening near the end of this trip. I’m only to San Diego and I’m tired of the driving here. If I don’t find a route around LA I may have to revise this post and add all the pain of sitting in traffic for hours and hours going nowhere.
I wasn’t sure how this was going to turn out, but I sold my first item via Craigslist: the component rack. I got $49 for it, even though I posted the ad at $60. In the end, it was something I wasn’t using so I’m glad to be free of it.
I’ll consider this money towards the new equipment and car, although the scale is off by a little bit.
I’ve been putting off this purchase for a while, but this year I finally gave in and got a sports car again. It’s not in my hands for another few weeks, but you can see it the same way I did, in pictures.
It took me a while to finally decide to jump into the high quality content pool and get an HDTV display. It’s a big one (50″), supports CableCard, HDMI inputs, and it goes all the way up to 1080P. High def programs look fantastic on it. DVDs look pretty good. Standard TV? Not so good, I’m afraid. It eats up a good chunk of the wall, but wow is it cool.
If you want more information on this monster, you can find it here: KDSR50XBR1
The evil genius in me often finds a way out into public view, exposing the secret plans I harbor for world change. In that mode of thought, as of today I have yet to find a more thoroughly researched and documented method for ending the world than this next link:
How to destroy the Earth
It really doesn’t get much more straightforward than that. If you ever wondered what it would take, wonder no longer. Go on, have a look.
Today I had one of those moments that I try so hard to avoid, the one where the rational brain and impulsive brain are fighting it out for control. Let me give you the rundown:
So with all of this known, my rational brain told me to call it a day and go home. My impulsive brain said “wait, you can squeeze in one more flight on your own.” So armed with this information I took the plane up again. The takeoff roll was good, the circuits around the field are fine, even the wind buffeting isn’t a big deal.
And then I land. Or I should say I hit the runway.
Now I have a broken rudder, a crunched wing, and a lot of work ahead of me (or someone who fixes things for me) before its flight-worthy again. Sometimes fate is a cruel master, and this time it reminded me that its not always smart to listen to the impulsive thoughts in my head. Doh.