2008 Rav4

I took some time off of my posting in order to log some information on my 2008 Rav4 (V6 Sport, if that matters, hey, it's got the JBL's... ;-) Since I purchased the car a couple years ago, I've been recording every gallon of fuel that goes into it.  Yes, I'm strange that way.  But I also figured that it would present some interesting information on my driving habits, and overall cost of ownership of a brand new vehicle... which I'm still amazed that I own.  To date, I have spent a little over $3500 in fuel and driven over 23,100 miles on just under 1100 gallons of gas.  I don't actually have TCO numbers right now because I haven't figured in all my insurance premiums, plus what the interest expense was and all that stuff... but I'm sure I will at some point.

Anyway, I decided to graph my lifetime fuel mileage verse each fill-up mileage, and this is what I got:

The red line is the lifetime numbers, while the blue jumpy line is the MPG for each fill-up.  Now, I know that -40 has to have an effect on your mileage, what with autostart and all, so I had to graph another one verses temperature.



This is the result:

The bars are my MPG, and the line is temperature in Fahrenheit.  The chart goes from 80 degrees down to about -45.  Doesn't look like it's gotten too cold this year does it?  Well, at least not too bad when I had to fill-up.  Since I had these cool graphs, I wanted to change the legend so I remember what I was looking at, and after a few minutes of "how do I do that?" I asked someone who always knows the answer to my questions: Google.  One of the first pages that I clicked on was a feature request to OOo.org: Ability to directly edit legend text / modify series names.  The bug report is from 2003. :-(

How is it that a seven year old feature request hasn't made it into a program that is directly competing to be the replacement office suit?  Come on OOo... get with the game!

Beard update:

Here's a late breaking news story on the recent modification of my beard... The beard was last seen before the Africa ball, and has since been missing. If you happen to find it, or have any information leading to it's capture there is a cash reward available. It has been approximately eight years since this portion of my mug has been reviled to the public. For obviously reasons. (*Smacks his lower lip onto his upper* "It feels so weird...")









In related news this man was seen dancing all night with this pretty lady. This is a crime in forty-eight states. Good thing he was in Alaska. Swing, Cha-Cha, Rock, and slow dancing was seen in varying quality and quantity; but oddly enough both parties appeared to be enjoying themselves. Only you can prevent this kind of mayhem from happening again. Should you choose to accept this mission, you will be required to drive/fly/swim/crawl to Alaska and witness the sights for yourself. They are truly breath taking, in more ways than one... ;-)

This message will remain on your computer until you clear your cache... and then it will self destruct.

Blue Leisure Suit

Remember back in the 70's when you wore leisure suits? No? Ok, so I wasn't born yet, but that doesn't mean that I can't live the dream. I don't remember old I was in this photo, but I was either in, or just out of high school when I wore this. Those of you that know me know that if I dress up, I go all out. I wore this same suit a few years after this picture was taken to my Fraternities Winter Formal. And yes, I rode on my motorcycle. You couldn't keep the horns from honking in my direction. It's a good thing that I had a full face helmet on, or else I would have ruined the moment with a huge smile instead of play'n it cool.

Now, I'm going to have the opportunity to wear this suit one more time. There's an Alaskan Formal for the Africa trip. Oh, yeah, I'm going to Africa. More on that later, right now all you need to know is that this suit looks good on me.

Bankers == Idiots

So, I have a car loan... life sucks. I was hoping to make life a little less in the suck category by getting a better loan from a bank in Aurora, so Mom did some calling around and we thought that Heritage would be the best rate. I believe they quoted her (over the phone) with something like 7.2%, I don't remember for sure, and I've thrown away the piece of paper since then, but I know it was in the lower to mid 7's. So that beats the pants off my 8.95% rate from the dealership.

Later that day I find myself talking to the loan officer and he runs through a few numbers, but we don't have my hard and fast percentage down yet, so I'm not really paying attention. After filling out the credit check information, I tried to hand him one of my forms of identification, knowing that banks don't know who you are until you give them the all holy photo ID, otherwise known as a drivers license or the other ambiguous So-So Security card. However, he doesn't want them. 'Aurora is such a tight community that banks don't have to play by all the rules.' Ok, that's very paraphrased, but that's essentially what he said. Whatever, I already told you the numbers so I guess you don't need a copy of them, you can look them up in the computer to verify that I am who I just told you I am right? Next, he then says he's going to run the credit check, and it apparently takes a few hours. That was news to me, but ok he'll call me when it's done and I can get this thing moving.

About 40 minutes later, I get a phone call. Sweet, it's the banker. I'm not sure why he said hours, but whatever I can just run back into town and get some of this paperwork moving. Nope, bank says I have too much school debt and need my folks to co-sign so we can get the good rate. Well, that sucks, Mom just went to Lincoln, and Dad's at work. I was leaving on my Alaska trip the next day, so we'll have to do this paperwork through the mail.

My folks forwarded the documentation to where I'd be in a few days, and it arrived right on schedule. Don't let the post office fool you with their bland distemper, they get the job done. The mail had already gone out today (Saturday) so I was in no rush to tear into boring paperwork and I let it wait until tonight.

But what should I find when I open the letter? A note from the loan officer saying "Hopefully the car will hold up as well." and it's signed? The 19th... the _EXACT_ day my window cracked from the heat. Nice one Murphy. But wait... there's more!

The ~7.2% that should have been stamped on the papers magically turned into a 8.452%. Yes, that is lower than 8.95%... total savings? less than $75 over 36 months. Sweet, now I can totally eat my two double cheese's from McDonald's once a month. And here I was thinking I'd starve.

Now here's where the banker's word is his bond. There was a sticky note attached to another form. I'll quote it in full:
"Paul, I need a copy of your drivers license & a 2nd form of ID. (Social Security Card, Credit Card - School ID) Thank you."
I couldn't give that stuff to them when I was actually _IN_ the bank a week ago, but now they want my Credit Card... yeah, let me send you that in the mail.

So am I over reacting a little bit? Do I think that 7.2% is too low to ask for? A quick run around the Internet brings me to bankrate.com, specifically their auto loan calculator. The little box in the corner of the page shows National Auto Rates Averages. The rate for a 36 month loan you ask? 7.35% and rising. Damn, I'm good.

I even ran through the "Lender Rates For 36-month auto refinance loan rates in Lincoln, NE", they didn't have Aurora, just to see if we were supposed to be higher than the national average. The three options there were between 7.15% and 7.20%, two of them being 7.20%. Now, do I think I'm getting ripped off?

I've never intentionally missed a credit card payment (and I know I haven't in the last five years), I have a credit rating in the highest bracket (someplace between 780 and 820 depending on the mood of the credit place I think) and I've got enough liquid assets to pay off all my debts (this includes school debts) tomorrow if I chose too. Of course I don't because that's emergency money that the financial planners recommend you have in reserve for the "rainy days", which this is decidedly not.

Bankers, Lawyers, and Politician there just isn't enough rope, bullets, or water to get rid of them all.

My new Scar

Story time kids,
To start, let's just say that I've had better days. Those of you with a somewhat weak constitution may not want to read this first hand account of the worst injury of my lifetime.

While Knudsen and I were just getting started riding at Platte River state park I had a little slip-up and I ended up sliding down the hill and got my leg caught up on a branch. When I looked down, all I could see was the gaping slice in my leg that revealed the muscle membrane below, just like a skinned rabbit. At that point I let out quite the scream, and Knudsen was quickly on his way down the hill to see what the trouble was. When he saw, he expressed little immediate shock and started trying to put together a tourniquet. He quickly came to the conclusion that his shirt bandanna were the only available bandages. Yeah, we weren't completely prepaid for such as large injury.
In the act of ripping his shirt of his back he said "I don't really want to rip my shirt." However, my massive thigh wouldn't permit the closure of the wound... ok... ok, it was more of a problem of the nine inch laceration that we needed more tourniquet, so the shirt quickly became ripped in two and a solid tourniquet placed around my leg.
Now for the fun part, getting out of the woods. As I started hobbling back to the car, Knudsen biked ahead looking for a park ranger, or a hiker, or just anyone to lend a hand. Wouldn't you know it, not a soul to be found. Since we were thinking so clearly, Knudsen had to return to where I was and get the keys to my car to get me to a hospital. When we got back onto the road who should show up? Mr. Park Ranger.
"Mr. Ranger, where's the nearest hospital?"
"Hospital?"
"Yeah, I have sever lacerations on my leg, and am in need of medical attention."
"Uhh... well, Lincoln or Omaha."
Thanks buddy, we know that... we were hoping that there might be something a little bit closer... I guess this is just not my day.

The interesting stuff happened when we got back to Lincoln. As it turns out, the emergency room was having it's own emergency as it happened to be one of the poorest displays of medical care that I have been witness too. Not that I have seen that many, but I will give them the benefit of the doubt as my injury was not life threatening However, it wasn't just the speed at which they reacted to my situation (somewhat slow as I waited in the reception area for about a half hour before being shown into a room), it was the organization and setup of the room I was put into. It seemed like the nurse that was helping me (she was new at it) was very unsure where many of the supplies were located. On top of that, when she asked for assistance (as she should have, so I have no fault with her, and she was fairly cute, so that might have played a part of it...) the other nurses were of little to no help. Unfortunately I have to report that this all took place at Saint Elizabeth in Lincoln, which I did hold in high regard before this incident.

One of the memorable moments came when the nurse started unwrapping my wound to clean it. As she walked to the far side of the bed she finally saw the extent of my injury. She was quite taken aback from the sight of my muscle membrane and quickly had to leave the room to get some more professional assistance. I should have started selling tickets at this point because I could have paid for my stitches by the end of the night. Nurse after nurse flooded into the room for the remainder of the night to see the freak show. Either that or they needed a reminder of what blood looked like because they hadn't seen any of it tonight.

Ok, I'm not really that upset about the whole fiasco because of the doctor that stitched me up. He was very patient with my questions, and joked with me when I joked with him. His main concern with the pandemonium going on around him was: "If I panic, it makes the situation worse, so it's my responsibility to remain calm and collected." or something like that. Yeah, it sounds like a very basic professional statement, but he was very good at what he does. Shortly after the nurse assisting the stitching started asking how long the doctor thought the laceration was. His response was a simple "Go get a tape to measure it." To which the nurse left the room. Later Jenna informed me that they need to know that anyway for records purposes. I should mention that Jenna (Knudsen's girlfriend) is studying to be a nurse and was a great help keeping me comfortable and helping to explain drugs and procedures when the nurse was out of the room, which, if you're keeping track was quite often. When the nurse returned, the doctor asked for something (I don't remember what it was, I was a little preoccupied at the moment, my leg kinda did hurt) and she set down the tape to get it. A little later, the question from the nurse returned, to which the doctor replied in a terse "No, I don't." She finally got the hint, and measured the laceration as the first stitch was going in. The final tally? Twenty-three centimeters, or approximately nine inches. Quite the little gouge from a pointed stick.

Well, I got my leg patched up, and sent on my way without too much more drama, but I do have to say it made for an interesting evening that I don't plan on repeating anytime soon.

If you feel like you would like to see first hand the gory details, then you can visit them at your leisure, but I recommend that you have a fairly strong constitution to do so. You have been warned: Scar.

Oh, while the nurse was removing the bandage Knudsen had field dressed, she mentioned how well the tournequite was applied to stop the bleeding and protect the wound. Bonus points for Knuds.

Skype Asks FCC to Open Cellular Networks

This was the article title from the /. article and amazingly it happened to be accurate. I just about laughed out loud when I read it though... so ironic since Skype uses a non standard, closed VoIP protocol for their client.

It took the comments on /. way too long to get to that same conclusion.

I can't say I disagree with the TFA, but at the same time it scares me a little bit to know Skype wants this too.

Why won't the internet work?

So, my sister is going to college (finally), and my folks went to her dorm to deliver her new computer. They ordered an HP. Yes, I, or my brother could have built one, but then I'd have to support it and every time something went wrong (hardware, software or anything user related) I'd be the first one to call. Not that that's a bad thing, but it means I'd have to be available to travel to her place and show her the correct way to use it. Oh, that and I would have put Ubuntu on it... That means I'd probably be getting lots of calls on "why won't `such-and-such` program install?"

Alright, I'm being a little hard on my sister. But that's mostly because I just called her to see how she liked the computer, and my dad was still there trying to get the Internet hooked up. Worse yet, the computer came with Norton installed on it. I don't think I've ever seen a program that so completely bricks a machine as Norton does so well. Not only do you have to figure out it's beefy interface and backwards feature list, you can't even disable it properly because when you do it stops you from connecting anything to the Internet.

Yes, yes, it's a security feature for all those people that would inadvertently disable it and never re enable before doing something dangerous. But from a technical phone support call it is a nightmare. The computer had grabbed an IP address, but would not connect to a webpage. Now, I have never attended this school my sister is attending. Better yet, I have never even used a computer on this campus, and the technology webpage is less than helpful in this endeavor. So the question arrives, is Norton blocking information, or does the local network administration need to allow the computer's MAC address to get to the Internet? Oh yeah, it's the weekend. No help coming from that end of the equation, so it's up to the roommate to help out. Good luck there.

Now, I've been using Linux for several years now, and I would never think of going back to a windoze world. Does Linux do everything right? Absolutely not. Do I always have faith in the update process when I run a simple `emerge -uavtDN world` hardly. Do I want to deal with the monopolistic tendencies and backward thinking retroactive software that the largest software company in the world uses while forcing you to purchase expensive licenses so you can view the latest version of bloated software that does nothing more than the same software released in 1994? (ok... exaggeration... 2001). I'd rather eat spoiled meat.

Here's the late breaking update from my sister's computer woes. There is a sign in the hallway (apparently with big red lettering) stating that to get the Internet to work, you simply log onto their proxy server to register your computer. The observation skills of my dad are amazing. No really, I would have thought the solution much more complex than that. Anyway, I shot him a quick email to do a speed test from my favorite place, and found out they have 386kbs up/down. Sounds like they restrict bandwidth per port. Can't say I blame them.
All this drama... and I didn't even leave my chair. Now, all I need to do is email my sister instructions for installing Mozilla FireFox, perhaps Open Office, and Gimp and she'll be well on her way. Perhaps I should get out of my chair... I see the sun is setting so my eyes won't be scorched out of their sockets from that fiery star in the sky.

Ok, we're going to try this blog thing mostly for the trips that I go on to update my somewhat lacking front page. The big trips scheduled right now are to Belize in January '07, and Alaska later on in '07. If you're lucky this page might also include rants from the day... but I wouldn't get used to those.
Now all I have to figure out is how to get this to publish to my web page... should be easy right?

Edit 1: So, I was looking through the help, and I found that the 'address' for blogs is permanent (which on the one hand is kinda nice) kinda sucks... know why? 'cause someone has the address that I want to use and they only have one post. Yes, I only have one post, but theirs is from 2004 see the issue? I thought you would.

Edit 2: The easy part... uh-hu... right... Since blogger is in beta, they don't offer the ftp/sftp to an external webpage currently. Wonderful. I guess I have to wait until later to fix this up good. Add another 'To-do' item to the list... Oh good, I lost the list! Nothing to do here... move along.. move along.