And so it begins

Finally got our car bought yesterday. This has been the most drawn out tiring thing I have done in a long time. For those of you that don't know, we had an accident just before Christmas. We lost our cat Turbo, in a freak accident involving Sara's car, a '99 Grand Prix. It was really hard on both of us, as Turbo was very much a part of the family. After the car was cleaned the car up and repaired a few nit-picky things. We then put our car on consignment and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

We finally sold it about three or four weeks ago. In the process of selling it we traded for a little Honda. It was a good car, but didn't get us any closer to our ultimate goal of getting Sara her new car. We polished it up, put it out on the lot, and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

I finally got it sold and the CV joints went out as I was showing it. So I replaced those and did several hundred dollars worth of work to it to get it right. I thought there for a short time, I might actually be able to eek out a profit to put towards our new car. Nope. Every penny I would have made on the car went towards different repairs needed. The car was basically in great shape. I just didn't want a customer to be upset if something broke. I'm picky like that.

There is more (a lot more) to it, but long story made short. I finally picked up Sara's new car. A black '04 Grand Prix. I had the windows tinted Thursday night, had exhaust tips put on it today, and have wheels coming for it next week. Overall, I think the car will look pretty good. When we started the paperwork on it, it looked like a rental car. Now it is already starting to look like something I won't mind making my payments on for the next couple of years. Besides, when it come time to turn it, the better it looks, the quicker I should be able to sell it. It worked with my last one. And he is one very happy owner.

This my inspiration. We'll see how close I actually get.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr...

I've had about a month of bad days, all in row. What is that exactly? Is it a bad month? Or is it just a bunch of bad days? Either way it sucks. I won't elaborate, but I'm sick of being on edge, and I need a flipping vacation.

My kind of USB drive

This is the kind of Tech that can change the world. Well, maybe not. It would be cool to drive a little car around your desk on slow days by using your cell phone.

Pointless Gadgets: Cell phone controlled toy auto flash drive

When a group of people, such as the Asians, have practically invented/manufactured everything else in the world, why not mass produce a completely pointless but none the less amusing design someone probably sketched on a dinner napkin. Marsilli has created this mobile phone controlled toy car that has a little usb port where the exhaust pipe should be. When you place it on the board you can control where it drives with your cell phone. We assume there must be some sort of infrared controlling this device. The board reminds me of a 1980’s board game like “Operation”. But in this case if your little toy usb car crashes into another one your cell phone bursts into flames. Posted by Dani Via: Engadget

CARSCOOP

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Yo-Yo Fool

I don't know if it was the Smothers brothers or not, but since I was a kid, I have always been a yo-yo fan. Someday when I grow up, I might be as good as these guys.



It's a long video, so it needs some extra time to load...

False sense of security

We moved into the new neighborhood not long ago. The house is really nice, but not near as nice as the people that live in our little cul-de-sac. We are quite secluded from the rest of the neighborhood, let alone the rest of Stillwater. Hardly any traffic. Our last house was like having a track side seat at a NASCAR event. Plus, if anyone ever drove through, we generally knew who it was. Well, yesterday my wife goes out to check the mail and finds some rather personal information on the ground. Ours. We had shredded a pile of old paperwork, but somehow these "items" were not shredded. Why? I don't know. Most upsetting is the unfamiliar footprints around our mailbox. We have called the credit bureau and alerted our banks etc. Whoever did this will probably not end up impacting our life much. But it will make me tighten down the hatches a little more. I'm just glad that they weren't after something I couldn't replace. My family.

Ms. Dewey: The search for lonely single men...

I was reading the Wall Street Journal today, and read an interesting piece on search engines. It was about all the different ways search companies are trying to attract new customers. The unique part, was that many of the companies set up an alter-ego search engine. If the type of search engine fails, they don't devalue the brand at all. Alltheweb is actually Yahoo!, SearchMash is actually Google, and Ms. Dewey is actually Microsoft's. Ms. Dewey, actually, is the one that caught my attention most. Not because she's "a sexy new search engine," but because it was just plain spooky. The star of the new page is Janina Gavankar. Some sort of a movie star that I am not familiar with. While you have her page loaded, she reads magazines, talks to you, and complains that you're not paying attention to her. It is certainly a different approach, but I don't know if I'll use this as a default search just yet. If at all.

Ms. Dewey

Finally, someone is paying attention....

I never thought I'd see this, but it is something that can make my day a little bit brighter. It appears that the more fundamentalist eco-movement is finally starting to pass on the kool-aid. As good as Toyota is, not all their cars emit sunshine and happy feelings through their exhaust pipes. Nor does GM emit only turmoil and smog...

Toyota, the longtime darling of the environmental movement, takes flak for the attention paid to its new Tundra fullsize pickup at the North American International Auto Show here.The campaign, backed by groups such as the Rainforest Action Network, cannot afford to “give Toyota a free pass,” a spokeswoman says.Campaign organizers commend Toyota for its track record of addressing fuel economy. They also laud GM for expanding its plans for hybrid-electric vehicles.

Green Groups Target Toyota Tundra

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Wings (Kyoto Station)

Wings (Kyoto Station)
Originally uploaded by rsnumber2.

I took this photo of Kyoto Staion while on my vacation to Japan last year. I don't know why I like it so much, but I do. The glass reflects the canopy just right and gives it the look of a pair of wings...

Flock

I'm using Flock, and I like it. Flock is a browser that is based on Firefox, and has some social networking built in. It has some pretty nice features that make it easier for using Flickr, Blogger, and other websites. The Aesthetics are kinda swanky, too. Very Mac-like. RSS Feeds are beefed up a little, Flickr is actually integrated into the browser bar. Blogger Beta is supported in Flock 0.7.9, however, I am at home typing this up on my 'ol G3, and 0.7.8 is all that is available for Mac. The blogging feature is pretty cool because you just drag what you want to blog about from one page to a holder at the bottom, and it shows up on your blog. Or so I'm told. I can't actually experience that, due to my use of OS X. I guess I'll see how that works tomorrow. Adding photos to comment, like MySpace, is easy in Flock. Just drag a photo to the comment box, drop it, and your done. One thing I am not sure about yet is the favorites. The save more like (and directly to) delicious. I have never really cared for that service. I like my favorites to be a bit more tidy. That's why I use Backflip, besides, I really don't use built in favories anyway. It really can be considered a social network swiss army knife of the browser world. Does the world really need another browser? MAybe not, but the rest of them could take some lessons from the new kid. Anyway, Download it youself and give it a while. I'm actually digging this as much as Camino.

Winter Wonderland

Man, it is slick out there! I have seriously thanked the Lord for keeping the the freezing rain away. All around Oklahoma there are people without power and/or stranded, let alone just outright cold. Personally, I have never seen anything like it. I have seen ice storms, high volumes of snow, and hefty amounts of sleet. What I haven't seen is two inches of sleet coated with a thick layer of ice. This stuff is so hard cars ar driving through our lot and not leaving any tracks whatsoever. It's so slick outside, one does not simply walk to their car, but we do a hybrid slide/waddle thing. It's not very attractive, really. Sara and I went sleding yesterday, and it was painful. Ice is not as forgiving as snow, mind you. Ice also has a tendency to help you pick up speed as you hurtle yourself down a hill. The problem is that all the hills we have here are at the top of a worksite. As we gather speed, we look for all the projecting plywood, 2x4s, and saw horses that one would normally try to avoid. I had in my head some bloody images as I flew down on a couple of passes. The only fun hill, was one next to our house. It was only about 4 foot high, but we regularly got about 60-75 feet of distance off of it.

It is very dangerous out there, if it doesn't change soon, I will be looking at some new footwear.

A Day Out With Thomas

A Day Out With Thomas
Originally uploaded by rsnumber2.

I'm actually testing the posting feature in Flickr. This was a picture I took of R3 when we went to "A Day Out With Thomas" this last September. He was in a bit of awe the entire time, but he really did enjoy himself.

Hobbies

I've been thinking lately. I have a lot of cool stuff; Home Theater, Xbox, PS2, ye 'olde trusty Mac, and my GunPla collection. I have several cool hobbies. From electronics, to photography, to watching movies, and home improvement. My question is, do I really need all these hobbies? Do they really make me a happy person?

Or do they take time away from what really makes me feel a sense of accomplishment. My son.

He has his hobbies now. Mostly Thomas, but anything involving trains will do.

I'll admit, sometimes, after a hard day of work all I want to do is veg out. Sitting in front of the TV, or staring at the computer is the easiest thing to do. The problem is, when I'm done zoning out, R3 is already asleep. I missed out on another "guy time." Generally I'll put him to bed 4-5 nights a week out of 7. That is a priority I have tried to keep. I'll change his "doopy," get his jammies on, give him his nightly bottle of milk and finish off by reading him two stories. One train story followed by a Bible story.

When I think about it. R3 is the most fulfilling "hobby" I have. That is what has made me question my priorities lately.

It's Hard to be a kid...

Poor R3. He must run on Lithium Ion batteries. Full blast, and then, stop. The little guy just runs as hard as he can until he runs out of juice. The nice thing is that he can recharge just about anywhere.

Lucky guy...

The Dining Room


The Recliner


The Hallway


The Firetruck Bed

Anybody want a Honda?

Well, we finally sold the 'ole Grand Prix. The problem is that we are now the owners of a gently loved Honda Accord. We can't buy the pre-owned Grand Prix on the lot until we get this Honda sold. If ANYBODY knows anyone that could use a cheap car, let me know. I've got to move this thing, so I can get Sara in something to drive. I can email details.