carlspanoghe.com

Third Culture Kids - What We Do

Carl — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 19:23:25 +0000

I've really enjoyed the recent internet meme of "what others think I do/what I think I do" pictures. For instance I particularly enjoyed the one for tech support. Since I grew up as a TCK (third culture kid), I figured I would put my experiences into one myself. I fear only fellow third culture kids will understand it, but if I achieve this, then I will consider it a job well done.

To learn what on earth a TCK is, here is an excellent wikipedia article that pretty much describes me to a T.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Culture_Kids

And if you are a TCK, or have the extreme good fortune to be married to one, then here is a MUST READ book on the subject.

Baby You Can Drive My Car - My Experience as a RelayRides Car Owner

Carl — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 04:18:21 +0000

With the announcement that GM's Onstar is partnering with RelayRides to allow GM car owners to sign up their cars to be rented by the hour, I figure there are a lot of people saying "What the shift? There is no way in schnell I would let random people drive my car!" Some, however, might see this as a great way to put their otherwise-mostly-idle, depreciating car to good use while recouping some of the terrible investment back in the process (or at least paying for gas and maintenance), like I did when I signed up for RelayRides this year.

A while ago, I was watching a Ted Talks video (embedded below) by Rachel Botsman on collaborative consumption. In it the speaker mentioned a peer-to-peer carsharing service called RelayRides. This piqued my interest, since I really liked the idea of carsharing. In fact, I had been researching whether or not I should sell my car and sign up for Zipcar after visiting my friend in Evan Geer in Portland, who inadvertently showed me how cool it was to be in the system while driving me around Portland. He could easily drive any car he wanted nearby his house when he needed to, and spent way less money per month than I did on car payments and maintenance for a car I rarely use (I telecommute). However, I happen to be somewhat of a smart car enthusiast, and really didn't want to let go of my car. In addition, though Zipcar is hugely popular in S.F., there are no cars to be found near where I live in the Outer Sunset. RelayRides, I figured, might let me get in on the collaborative consumption bandwagon and still get to keep my beloved smart! Trouble was they were only running in Boston. Nevertheless, I put myself on their waitlist for other cities.

Several months later I got a call in the evening. Expecting a telemarketer, I was pleasently surprised that it was actually someone in the marketing department of RelayRides. They had recently relocated to San Francisco and were looking to expand from downtown, where a few cars were already signed up, to the Sunset. Now, I live as far out in the Sunset as you can get (Ocean Beach), but they were willing to get my car in the system. Sweet! I made an appointment and left my car at a shop where they installed the kit. This kit enables the car to be unlocked and drivable by RelayRides members with their key cards, which means I don't have to interact with anyone to swap keys. The key itsself remains inside the car, but the car is immobilized while it is not rented. An added bonus is that I don't have to remember my car key--I keep my own keycard in my wallet and unlock the car with that. If I forget that I can call RelayRides to unlock my car for me--it is like having my own version of OnStar!

At first I thought I would take a while to get used to having to reserve my own car and having other people drive my baby. It took a surprisingly short time. Reserving my car has made me much more aware of my useage. After all, time spent driving my car has quite an opportunity cost. I've found myself combining more trips and taking alternate transportation when the car is not necessary. As for other people driving, so far everyone has been very respectful. RelayRides has a huge insurance policy when the car is reserved, and they have some very smart policies to ensure people don't smoke in the car, spill stuff, run over pedestrians etc. After the first few rentals I feel really comfortable with the system. Yes, my seat and mirrors get repositioned a bit sometimes, but hey--if someone came up to me and said "Hey let me move your seat forward and I'll give you $20", I'll happily take the $20.

As for the cash, I really liked that I was able to set the rate of my car myself. I was able to study other cars in the system and see which ones were having success at prices versus what the styles of cars were at. Whatever the price, I get to keep 65% of the hourly fee. The rest goes to the $1M insurance policy and to RelayRides. My revenue has been growing. I have the most remote RelayRides car in the City, and in the first month I earned about $50 (with an estimated $5 spent in gas). In my second, I earned $80, and it is growing. I think it will keep growing as people in the area find out there is finally a carshare here in Ocean Beach, and get signed up into the system. I have no doubt that people who are more centrally located are earning a lot more and faster. This is by far one of the easiest ways to make passive income I've seen.

All-in-all, I've really enjoyed being a RelayRides car owner. Not only have I earned a few extra bucks towards my car, but I've felt like I've been helping my community by enabling at least several people to live a car-free lifestyle and still be able to do the odd heavy grocery trip or jaunt up to Wine Country. In fact, a study shows that on average, each carshare enables 15 other people to live car-free. In additon, I have the ability to rent another car, for instance, when guests are over from out of town and I need more than just two seats. Finally, my always having names for my cars actually makes sense--all RelayRides cars have to have names. I chose Front 2fortwo as a play on words with the model (a fortwo) and a pioneering EBM/electro-industrial band Front 242. It goes well with my taste in music and the black-on-red styling of my car--I even have a selection of good EBM CD's for curious borrowers. What other rental or carsharing company allows that much character into their cars? From my experience, I would definitely recommend signing up to RelayRides if you are a car owner and live in an urban area.

Interested in renting my car? Check it out here: http://relayrides/front2fortwo. I'll leave you with this video from RelayRides explaining the system with a nice cartoon.

First Hot Weekend of 2011 in San Francisco Yields Many Photos, Timelapse Video, Sunburn

Carl — Sat, 07 May 2011 01:43:07 +0000

My friend Evan Geer, who is a very talented artist and photographer, came up to visit on what turned out to be the first balmy weekend here in San Francisco. I happened to have just gotten a new superzoom lens, so we took our cameras out to the old military forts in Marin Headlands for a shootout. What resulted were some great pictures on my part. On Evan's part, the result was a record for amount of pictures taken in one day, which he decided to turn into a timelapse. I also got an epic sunburn, Photos and video after the jump . . .

Let me know what you think!

Drinking a Wine as Old as Me

Carl — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 19:47:09 +0000

To celebrate the fact that I've lived to the ripe old age of 30, I decided to follow a childhood dream and purchase a wine that is as old as I am; something the guy at the wine store called "birth-vintaging". My quest started a with a question posed on the snooth.com forums where I asked what wine I might be able to afford from that year that might be closer to peaking than vinegar. With no experience in wine older than 8 years, I had a lot to learn.  My first lesson was that in most wine regions, 1981 wasn't a very popular vintage. Trying not to take it personally, I decided that was to my advantage, since I could afford to buy a wine from a better property (the wine I chose, for instance, costs 2 times more for a pre-order of 2009). Another lesson was that I should go for a tannic wine, like Bordeaux or Cabernet, rather than a lighter wine like Pinot Noir. The reason is that the tannins help the wine preserve itsself for a longer life, which allows it to be kept 20, 30, 60, or more years. I also learned that I would probably be better off going for a wine from Spain, but I have personal history with France and California, so I decided to keep it there.

The bottle I finally chose was a Grand Vine De Leoville du Marquis de Las Cases, Saint-Julien, Bordeaux. It stood out to me when I was browsing the K&L Wine Merchants store in Redwood City. Upon speaking to the wine expert there, it made more sense because of who cellared it. When buying a wine that was 30 years old from a slightly ill-reputed vintage, I decided that this bottle would be the least risky. It had the label of Mahler-Besse on the neck, which meant that it had been cellared by a reputable vintner in one place. I knew where it had been most of its life, and that it hadn't been moved around the world several times like I had. The foil and cork also looked to be in good condition, and the level of the wine was still high in the bottle.

On the night of my birthday dinner with a few friends and family, I got some good, hard sheeps milk cheese and prepared to open the bottle. I'd studied some youtube videos on how to do so, but I still managed to break the cork in half. It was saturated with the wine, but no wine had made it to the top of the cork (maybe it would have in 2 years). Then I carefully poured the wine into a wide decanter. I kept the neck in front of a candle, and stopped when a line of sediment started to appear. Then it sat for about 5 minutes in the decanter.

After pouring the wine, I took the first sip, and was surprised to see that the wine didn't taste like any other wine I'd tried before. There is something unique about an old wine, I guess, that you can't replicate with other wines. The best way to describe the taste is the over-used phrase "musty". What was even more interesting, however, was the speed with which the wine changed its character. It probably took me about 15 minutes to sip the glass and nibble on some cheese. During that short time I tasted and felt the wine open up to an incredibly smooth drink that sort of reminded me of a very nicely cooked Portobello mushroom. Then it sort of turned and became a bit harsh, so I hurried up with the last few sips. How it could change so drastically in such a short amount of time is beyond me, but I will say it was a very pleasent experience. I'm not sure if I'm going to play around with 30-year old wines now, but my curiosity has been piqued, and I do intend to seek out some older wines, say, from the 90's, as after browsing through wine stores they are a lot more accessible than I had thought.

Here's a short vid of me nervously pouring the bottle into the decanter . . .

I Think I Saw a Tornado Over San Francisco

Carl — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 18:50:14 +0000

[UPDATE: It WAS a tornado. Video showing it touch down from somoene up in the Richmond after the jump . . . ]

This morning it was sort of cold and damp. I was in the office just starting my workday when I noticed that there was a huge black cloud moving right over us, and a the trailing end over the beach, the black cloud was moving down in a funnel shape. I thought to myself "Surely there couldn't be a tornado in San Francisco". I took a picture anyways, and was befuddled how the air could be so calm outside when there was what looked to be a tornado twisting around and growing downwards towards the beach and dunes as it bared down on us. 5 minutes later, the funnel had moved inland, out of our view, but the trees below our apartment were whipping around like crazy, and 5 minutes after that it was pouring with heavy rain. I still didn't believe it until 3 hours later, I saw my sister's facebook status saying there were tornando warnings in San Mateo County, a few miles to the south. Thats when I decided to upload the picture and make a blog post. Because if we're getting tornadoes in San Francisco, what is happening in the world????

UPDATE:

Youtube user Neorick took a video from up high in the Richmond, where I used to live. It looks even more scary, as I did not know that the twister actually touched down. By the looks of things it was going right towards us! No wonder it got so windy. My wife says that shortly after it got windy, she left for work and things were blowing around in the street (the dog water bowl outside of Java Beach Cafe was apparently about to hit a car). When she got two blocks away to Lincoln, the air was totally calm, giving light to the localization of the wind. Crazy stuff.

Hitler did Drupal?

Carl — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 17:22:26 +0000

I was helping a friend with some drupal questions by finding her some tutorials on youtube. Apparently, youtube has determined I should watch some color footage of Adolf Hitler with Eva Braun due to my interest in installing the CKEditor module. Also noteworthy is the Abba video. So there you go--both Hitler and Abba were closet Drupalists in their times!

APB Returning with All Character Customizations from Previous Era

Carl — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 03:51:44 +0000

I loved All Points Bulletin (APB) for the short time it existed. That was about three months, and then the company that owned it, Real Time Worlds, went bankrupt and their servers went down. In those three months, I'd created an awesome character, several cars, and an often-complimented death theme that re-made Kernkraft 400, by Zombie Nation. When I heard that APB is returning through another company, I figured it would be great, but I was bummed that I'd probably lost all of my customizations.

However, APB Reloaded just announced in their development blog that all customizations made by characters will be kept, and will be retrievable. Sweeet! Not only is this great for me personally, but I think launching the game with tens of thousands of man hours of creating custom content will add huge value to the game. Apparently they will also be improving the gameplay modes, so I'm looking forward to the next launch.

See below for a video touring you through the old version of APB. I'll keep this blog posted as I hear more of the upcoming "APB Reloaded"

MicroCarUSA is Launched

Carl — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 05:23:14 +0000

Earlier this week I noted I was trying to choose a platform to build my newest project on. I chose Drupal 7, worked over the weekend, and am now finally launching it. Please welcome America's newest auto blog, MicroCarUSA.com!

This is my first attempt at a professional, single-subject blog. Why did I chose it? Since I was about 5, I've loved small cars, ever since I read Richard Scarry's illustrated books that featured animals driving around in tiny cartoon cars. Today I'm an enthusiast in micro cars, and drive a smart fortwo. I've found there are some great online communities for specific models of micro cars, but the segment is so new in the US that there is no blog specifically about the category. I hope to fill in this gap and provide good, timely info on America's tiniest cars. I figured that since I look for news on the subject every day anways, I might as well put it in one place and add value for those who are curious about the little things.

If you are an auto manufacturer and wish to send me a press car, please use the contact form on my site ;)

On a technical note, I decided to use Drupal 7. My first impressions of Drupal 7 are really positive--it is much more intuitive than using Drupal 6 (which I used to create carlspanoghe.com). It is so new that many of my favorite modules are not yet out for this version, or they are in alpha. However, I still have enough functionality to launch, and this just means that as time goes on MicroCarUSA.com is going to get a lot more advanced with things like social network integration and aesthetic improvements. For the theme I used the latest version of Marinelli, which is a huge improvement over the one I used for my own website. In fact, to see the difference, just compare carlspanoghe.com to MicroCarUSA.com. I plan to write more on Marinelli's improvements as I get more experience in it.

I hope you check out my new site and learn something about micro cars as time goes on. Enjoy!

Linux Foolery: ifconfig: command not found

Carl — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 20:18:20 +0000

This one gets me every time, so I'm writing it here so I don't have to look it up again: I'm in a linux terminal and I need to find the IP. I try to do the command most equivalent to Windows' ipconfig; ifconfig. This is what I get:

-bash: ifconfig: command not found

Command not found??? This has to be one of the most basic commands!!!!!!!!1111111 It turns out that if you are not a root user, you need to preface the command with /sbin/. So . . .

The Solution:

type

/sbin/ifconfig

Hope that helps at least one stuck linux user other than myself. Maybe I need to get myself a copy of Linux For Dummies, 9th Edition

Drupal, Joomla, or Wordpress?

Carl — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 05:22:02 +0000

I'm about to design a new blog for microcars, which is one of my passions. It is therefore time to re-assess what CMS system I should use. In my first attempts to build websites that were more advanced than static pages (don't do static pages), I tried Wordpress, but I just found that it was too rigid to do what I wanted to do. Plugins were difficult to find that were powerful enough to, say, make a full-featured forum on them. So I switched to Drupal, which was super-powerful, but has some issues with making it look really good. Plus the Drupal user groups in San Francisco are a lot of fun, and include free beer :) As for Joomla, I have not tried it, but it may be worth a look. However, I feel my personal search is going to probably be a battle between Drupal, as I"m really familiar with it now, or Wordpress, as it has probably matured and is great for blogging and SEO.

Are you about to start developing a blog and trying to decide what platform you should use? Here is a good article that lists the pro's and cons of each system really nicely.

http://www.goodwebpractices.com/other/wordpress-vs-joomla-vs-drupal.html

Do you have a platform you prefer or detest? Leave a comment to tell me what it is and why.