Category: Life. Don’t talk to me about life.

Back around, oh, 1996? Something like that, Cat and I took our first trip to the British Virgin Islands to spend a week aboard the Flying Cloud, a 207ft Barque (3 masts, square rigged on the first mast). It was a delightful trip, and our first time in the BVI’s. We were hooked.

We’d end up taking 4 more trips down there, once with her company, then 3 doing our own bareboat chartering (the picture above is from one of those trips, where we caught sight of the Flying Cloud while stopping at Normal Island). Our last trip was in 2002, after which most of our time and money was being sunk into Mosaic, so we haven’t been back since. I miss it!

I’ve been off and on keeping an eye on Windjammer Cruises, thinking it might be nice to take a trip again. We thoroughly enjoyed our first time – it was very laid back and comfortable. They don’t call it ‘Barefoot Cruising’ for nuthin.

Alas, the Windjammer company has basically fallen apart. There are many suggestions as to why this has happened, but it appears it’s mostly due to infighting among the Burkes, the family that owns the business. The fleet is completely laid up, and even though the website is active, they haven’t sailed in over a year. They are essentially closed up permanently.

I hope another comes along to take up the concept. Having a cruise that is part sailing, part exploring, part cruising, without all the stuffiness that tends to come with your standard ‘big ship’ cruising was very nice, and I’d hate to not have that opportunity in the future.

Edit, 11:40am – There is a fantastic, lengthy article on Cruisemates.com that details the entire history of Windjammer, and how badly they’ve come apart. Highly recommended.

A couple quick What’s Going On updates…

April 20th – MIT Flea Market
As part of the great cleanout, I’ll be hauling a vanload of gear to the MIT Fleamarket on Sunday, along with a couple other cohousing friends. This is not a ‘for profit’ sell-off. I’m getting RID of stuff. A quarter for that 1U dual opteron? Go for it! (okay, not really), but I will have piles of stuff that I just don’t need or want anymore, please take it away?

April 25-27 – Ubercon X
Yep, another Ubercon! Yay! I’ll be down in NJ again working registration. The change this time? Zach will be coming with me (his first gaming con!). Pretty exciting stuff.

This is a somewhat long post, and has been brewing in my head for a while. Grab a cup of coffee, make yourself comfortable.

I’ve been spending a lot of time lately thinking about commuting, fuel economy, vehicle types, and general transportation habits. There are changes afoot in my life that will change my driving needs, and with the ever rising price of fuel, it makes sense to take a good long look at my driving habits, and possibly make some changes.

Some Background

Between Cat and myself, we own 3 vehicles. Well, two and a half. My 2005 Saturn Relay van, Cat’s Toyota Prius, and my 25 year old Suzuki GS850 motorcycle. I can’t really consider the bike too much, as I ride it perhaps once a summer, due to it’s age and general condition, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t include it.

Why do we have a van? Well, there’s a couple reasons. When I bought it, I was doing regular conventions, which require hauling a series of crates and hardware to the event. In addition, we own a ski boat, a camping trailer, and a utility trailer, all of which need a tow vehicle. The van does these things just fine, but these are incidental uses. Primarily, I just drive the van around – picking up Zach from school, running errands, etc. That’s not to say it isn’t useful – having that much cargo space is VERY handy, and is regularly used for hauling furniture, garbage, kids, supplies, and, yes, the occasional convention gear.

The problem is, I’m getting increasingly worried about the cost of running the van as my primary transportation. It’s poor efficiency, plus the ever rising price of gas, requires me to take a close look at things.

Usage patterns

When evaluating this sort of thing, it’s important to take into account how you use your vehicle(s). Cat drives her Prius to work and to Zach’s school every day, around 30 miles a day. That is every day, pretty much without fail. There are additional trips to Burlington, Berlin, and other points, but the daily commute is the one that is important.

On the other hand, I have no daily commute. I work at home. When I go out to lunch, three out of four times I walk or ride my bicycle to wherever I’m going. However, I still do drive to pick up Zach at school each day, around 9 miles each way. This I have to do in the van.

Now, realistically, there’s pattern changes in the wind. The school year ends in 8 weeks or so. After that, the driving patterns change, and won’t resume, since by the time fall rolls around, our move to Mosaic will be imminent. After we move, we’ll be able to carpool with other Sudbury Valley parents in Mosaic, and we haven’t worked out what that will look like yet, but there’s a reasonable chance I won’t need to drive to SudVal every day (Around 15 miles each way).

Also, post-move, there’s a reasonable change I’ll be moving to an office nearby – within 2-3 miles, easy bikeriding range, but I’ll also spend a lot of time at Mosaic, since my job doesn’t require me to be in the office constantly.

Costs of usage

Looking at usage is only part of the story. The next step is figuring out cost of operation. I’m going to go with pure fuel costs here, not taking into account cost of vehicle, maintenance, etc. Those are really not in flux right now.

When I filled up the Prius last night, the fuel pump showed $3.20 a gallon. Per-barrel costs of crude topped $110 yesterday as well, and there’s no indication this situation will reverse – many analysts are easily calling $4/gallon prices this summer. So for the sake of comparison, lets assume a $3.50 a gallon price point for gas. I know the mileage we’re getting out of both vehicles, so here’s how it breaks down, as it compares with other vehicles I’m considering:

Vehicle	Observed MPG	Fuel type	Fuel Price	Cost per mile
Prius	45	Gas	$3.50	7 cents/mile
Relay	19	Gas	$3.50	18 cents/mile
Golf	42	Diesel	$4.25	10 cents/mile
BMW R1200RT	65	Gas	$3.50	5 cents/mile
VW Jetta Wagon	30	Gas	$3.50	11cents/mile

I include the Diesel Golf in there because most folks know I had a Diesel Golf for several years, and really enjoyed it. But at that time, prices for diesel fuel were lower than gasoline. The current ridiculous diesel prices have to be considered when thinking about what vehicle makes sense.

So the question comes to mind. What makes sense for my usage patterns? I’m distinctly uncomfortable toodling around in the van to go to lunch, run to the store for something simple, go to a meeting, not to mention my regular drives down to NJ and back (500 miles total, $90 in gasoline right there).

The Cycle Option…

I included the BMW in there because I do love motorcycles, and have been wondering about having something to have fun with. The old GS850 really isn’t going to cut it as a dependable ride – if I need to drive 500 miles to NJ and back, I want something I can really depend on. I’d have to outfit it for road travel as well (waterproof bags, etc), and putting that sort of money into the Beast just doesn’t make sense.

If I’m also just commuting to the office nearby, keeping the van for “work” and driving the bike (or riding the bicycle) seems like it makes a lot of sense.

Now, natch, there’s drawbacks. I can’t take Zach with me on a motorcycle (not for a while at least), and a lot of my shuttling around is driving Z from place to place. The bike can’t haul cargo other than a couple small items, and realistically, it’s a toy for me that can be used for ‘real’ transportation, not the other way around.

Possibilities

Having said that, I do feel our lifestyle needs some sort of work vehicle for hauling, towing, and general moving stuff around. We use the van at least twice a month for something ‘heavy’ – in the summer even more so, whether it’s moving trailers, hauling big stuff, whatever. And in the coming 2-3 years, we’re going to be doing a LOT of home construction, as our houses at Mosaic are quite skeletal. We’ll be installing floors, trim, painting – not to mention all the outside work (such as installing walkways and doing general landscaping). Having a vehicle that can pick up two dozen bags of mulch quickly will be invaluable.

So, I guess this all comes down to what options do I have. The way I see it, here’s the possibilities…

• We keep things as they are, and suck it up and deal. Make decisions in a year, when we know what life at Mosaic will be like, and what our requirements are, not to mention our financial situation.
• I buy a motorcycle this summer (used). I’ll be happier because I’ll have something I enjoy driving, and I’ll save some money on fuel usage.
• We sell the van, and I get something smaller, such as VW Jetta wagon, for my regular vehicle. The top end GLS wagon gets about 30mpg (giving me a 11cents/mile operational cost), which is better than the van, but not as good as I could get. It would be a decent compromise.
• We sell the van, and I go for something super-efficient, such as a Prius or the like. This would virtually eliminate the ‘work’ capacity, and I’d be beholden to other people for doing any sort of hauling. We’re considering a ‘work’ vehicle for shared use at Mosaic, and we have friends with trucks and the like. I like this option the least, as I think we need the ‘work’ capacity fairly often, and not having it at hand would be a real problem.
• We sell the van, I get something super-efficient, and also pick up some ‘beater’ work vehicle. Some pickup truck or the like that would be used for hauling and moving and towing, but would be restricted to just that, not for general ‘run to the store’ sort of things. I like this option a lot, of course it means “another vehicle”, which is distinctly odd, but may be the most efficient way of operating.

Conclusions

I don’t have any! I really wanted to get that chart together, to sort of understand what the actual cost of owning and operating a vehicle is like given todays fuel prices. It makes me think pretty hard everytime I drive from place to place “yep, that drive to the store cost me two bucks in gas.” And while the cost is foremost on my mind, I have to make sure I remember that I’m also burning fuel with every dollar spent, and there’s other reasons to consider fuel economy other than just the cost of fuel.

Since I spent enough time trolling through YouTube videos figuring out guitar licks, poker chip tricks, etc, I figured I’d post one back just for chuckles.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZbOouTw2X4&hl=en]

Somewhere along the line, I apparently missed this term. Wikipedia has a great short definition of it:

The uncanny valley is a hypothesis that when robots and other facsimiles of humans look and act almost, but not entirely, like actual humans, it causes a response of revulsion among human observers.

The first time I saw this term was in a post on Triggur’s livejournal showing some creepy animatronics singing. I looked up the definition, and while discussing it on IRC, Nathan pointed me at a flash page showing a CGI generated woman, who reacts to mouse motions.
As far as I know, that entire image is computer generated, and has some truly scary lifelike elements to it (such as the fact that she’s breathing). Interestingly, it does NOT trigger the ‘revulsion’ response in me nearly as much as some others do, but watching this animation quietly move and look about as I do my work is truly an eerie experience.

Why hasn’t anyone told me about McMaster-Carr before?
And, now that I know. Can someone make me forget?
That site is dangerous for anyone with maker tendencies.

The time is fast approaching. In about 6 months, we’ll be moving to Mosaic Commons. I’m having a hard time coming to grips with the reality of the situation, after 8 years of working on the project. But the buildings are growing on the site before our eyes, and folks are making plans.
Even though we sold our house 3 years ago, Cat and I have plenty to do before we move. While not nearly as dramatic and inspiring as the work Diana and John have been doing, we have our own challenges, and before any move, there’s a period of Cruft-Disposing that has to happen.
I’m starting down that road now.
One of the first projects has been to do something about my CD collection. I picked up these CD cases almost 12 years ago, and filled them pretty much to capacity before I stopped my headlong pursuit of More and More CD’s. In recent years, I’ve ripped the ones I really listen to onto a hard drive, and I rarely pull the cd’s off the shelf anymore. I don’t want to get rid of them, but they do take up a lot of space.
Enter CD binders! A couple good Googling sessions, and I found a set a 424 CD storage binder. If I use one sleeve for the CD and one for the CD insert, two of these binders would hold my whole collection.
The binders arrived, and Zach and I settled into unshelving the CD’s, sorting them alphabetically, then loading them into the binders. It took about 4 nights total, but the end result is reducing the footprint from 3 4.5′ tall shelves down to a pair of binders that can be stored easily.
The black cases hold everything easily, and I’ve left room for all the various spots I have cd’s tucked away in the house. I’m sure when we move, I’ll find another half dozen CD wallets that will round out all the empty cases I found during the project.
Of course, this now means I have some CD shelving to give away (cat not included). Anyone want them?

Coming out of the winter months, my attention goes to my waistline, which while not exactly exploding, has released some of the territory gained from last summer’s busy volleyball, hiking, and biking regime.

So it was with some guilt I glanced at my asiago cheese bagel with (light!) cream cheese this morning, and wondered “Huh. Bagels to me are healthy. Is -this- healthy? I don’t know!”

So off to Panera’s website, and a look at… bagels!

Plain bagel		290cal, 12g protein
Asiago bagel		350cal, 16g protein
French Toast bagel	380cal, 11g protein

Now lets add on some cream cheese

Regular cream cheese	200cal, 4g protein
Reduced fat plain	140cal, 5g protein

So, I’m not particularly getting hammered by choosing Asiago over Plain, but in general, bagels have a lot of calories in them. What did surprise me was how much protein they have. We’re always being careful about how much protein Zach eats, so I was thinking a french toast bagel + cream cheese ‘wasn’t enough’ But consider – a hard boiled egg is 17g of protein – and a tablespoon of peanut butter (the old standby protein-dose), is about 6g of protein. Normally we sort of do a big scoop, so lets call it two tablespoons of PB, so 12g. </p

So a big scoop of peanut butter has quite a bit less protein than your basic bagel + cream cheese.! Velly intellestink.

This morning I’m on my way back from Pittsburgh, and enjoying the hospitality of Southwest Airlines and their unconventional approach to managing flights (how many times do you have flight attendants singing over the plane PA “We love you, you love us, we’re much faster than the bus!”?)
All in all, it’s been a pleasant experience, though I have to learn a new set of rules about getting my much-needed bulkhead seat (Check in early. No, really. I’m not kidding, check in THE DAY BEFORE, and print the boarding pass ahead of time. Southwest has no reserved seating, even for 6 and a half foot tall 1/8th ton monstrosities that have little chance of fitting into seat 14B and still retaining the ability walk upright after the flight.)
On the way back, I’m traveling through BWI, hoping to take a few minutes online between flights, and lo I notice these bench-like tables with power outlets AND USB charging hookups. There’s dozens of them, they’re perfectly set up for a quick park-and-email-check, as well as “I need to charge my cell phone.” This may be the most intelligent thing I’ve seen an airport do to take into account the type of tech-heavy traveler that’s so common nowadays.
Naturally, I had to try it out, and here I blog, plugged in and comfy, just outside my gate.
Thank you BWI for getting a clue!

Someone at General Mills totally got this one right. I found these on the shelf while shopping for Arisia this year. “Protein, salty, AND sweet. And I LOVE peanuts!”
Lemme tell ya, they’re awesome. Tasty, not too crunchy, not too squooshy, and salty and sweet. Mmmmmmmm. If they had come to me and said “Design a granola bar. What would you want it to taste like?” – this comes pretty durned close.
And, while we’re pushing products, I’d like to just point out the massive LURV I have for my new Bose Companion 3 speakers. Bose has a reputation for doing mighty elegant designs, and under normal circumstances I wouldn’t be able to afford their gear, but with an in, it becomes more manageable.
I replaced my old set of dying 3-ways with this system, and ZOMG are they schweet. I guess my only real complaint is the speakers are mounted on 5″ pedestals, which makes it somewhat difficult to work space around on a crowded desk.
I think I ended up with a reasonable desk compromise though, and I sure can’t complain about the sound. Note the above desktop picture is after a massive cleanup and rearranging, my desk is not normally this antiseptic, though I aspire to Star-Trek like geek spartanness some day.
Tasty salty sweet snacks, really good sound, and a clean workspace. Now all I need to do is get some work done, oh look! Day’s over! Later all!

I’d like to take a few moments today to talk to those who have recently hopped on the Bluetooth Headphone bandwagon. Apparently its become socially acceptable and, frankly, chic for the general populace to wear a Bluetooth headphone for times other than a casual conversation. I frequently pass people in public who have a chunk of silicon and plastic stuffed in their ear, and invariably, they’re not actually using it. It’s become a fashion accessory.
Having said that, I’d like to hop up on the soapbox and toss out some basic etiquette suggestions on this topic – not only related to fashion, but also addressing simple social graces…
Please, Mister Businessman who has taken to using Panera as his own personal office. Take into consideration the volume you’re speaking when using your headphone. Yes, it may be necessary to speak above normal conversational levels to be heard, but to everyone around you, you’re just a loud, annoying person in a restaurant where simply moving out of range is not an immediate, convenient option. Take a moment to think about if you were talking to someone next to you at the table. Would you speak at that volume? Probably not. You’d certainly notice someone next to you doing it, and would likely be uncomfortable, if not actively complaining.
To the hip geek who just got your first headphone. Yes, we all see it, yes it’s geeky, and yes you can absolutely take calls anytime just by touching your ear! Congratulations, welcome to 2003. But everyone who would likely call you are all sitting around you right now, including your family, friends, and your manager. We got it, you have a headphone. Yay for you.
In that vein, people who have headphones should think about what they’re saying to the people they’re with. If I’m in an earnest and direct conversation with someone, I try and remember to take my headphone off and put it away. It seems that leaving the headphone online and stuffed in your ear is a way of saying “I’m listening to you, but I want to LEAP onto any possible interruption that comes along!” I find the headphones enormously convenient when driving in the car, or when walking around in public (I frequently don’t hear the phone ring on my belt), but seriously folks, when you’re sitting with a friend or a loved one, show some respect. Unplug.
And lets talk for a moment about blinking lights. What is it with blinking LEDs on headphones? Who are they signaling? Some of these suckers outshine traffic lights, and light up the inside of a car. The purpose of an LED on a headset should be so that the owner can look at it, in their hand, and see if it is turned on or not. Pretty simple. A small, muted LED is all that’s needed to do this. Not something that looks like it came out of some gamers casemod, and threatens to send random passersby into epileptic fits.
And lastly, to the manufacturers. Is it really necessary to make these things so ridiculously ugly? Of all the headphones I’ve seen, only the one I’m using now (A Jabra 500) doesn’t scream to everyone nearby I HAVE A BLUETOOTH HEADPHONE, SEE!?!? I like the subtle approach, where the headphone is as invisible as possible, but for the most part, it appears Jabra is the only company pursuing that design.
On a meta-level, I see BT headphones as the next step in acceptable ‘functional’ enhancements for people. Eyeglasses (chunks of metal and glass sitting on your face) are normal, even though they have a direct impact on a persons’ presentation. BT headphones are likely just the next step, but not until the bling bling lights are muted, the technical glitches are ironed out, and people get a slightly wider clue on how much their little piece of technology affects those around them.
Personally, I’m ready for direct wireless implants. Mounted right on the mastoid bone. No bit of tech widgetry hanging on the earlobe affecting normal hearing, it should all be inboard.
Ah well.