With An "H"

Total Loss

2009-10-15T09:57:00.000-07:00

On Monday, October 11th, I was involved in a front corner to front corner collision in my 1997 Honda Civic. Everyone involved (me, the other driver, a passenger in the other car) was able to walk away with nothing but the shakes, but both cars had to be towed away. The other driver turned left from the eastbound side of Imperial Hwy towards Poplar, across three lanes of westbound traffic. I was in the right hand lane, traveling through the Poplar intersection and we struck, my front driver's quadrant on his front passenger's quadrant. His airbags went off, but mine didn't (I must have braked and turned away from him to hit on the corner instead of head on. The Brea Police officer who responded told me that a left turning car is almost always at fault in that situation as a vehicle traveling straight through an un-signaled intersection has right of way over a left-turning car from opposing traffic. The one issue that might complicate this judgment is that the middle lane had stopped as traffic had backed up to the edge of the intersection in the middle lane (the right lane was still clear). They might decide I had a responsibility to slow down in that case, and might be partially at fault. If I were instructing a teenager to drive, I'd probably tell them the same thing. Cars are stopped? Slow down, even if you think you know why and think the reason doesn't apply to you.

Tuesday morning, I was sore as hell, with joint, back, and neck pain. I got in to get a physical exam/manipulation, and to my relief was told that it appeared to be "just" soft tissue damage. They didn't even take x-rays. That was a relief. My car got towed to a repair yard to get inspected for a repair estimate.

Wednesday I was told that the insurance company wasn't going to have the vehicle repaired as the cost estimate ($4,200) exceeded the wholesale value of the car (probably around $2K). I'd known that was going to happen, so had begun to put myself in car-buying mode. I cleared all my belongings out and released it to the insurance company for their inspection process. At some point the claims adjuster for the accident will decided if I'm at fault at all and wave all, part, or none of my deductible. At the same time, an inspector will decided how close to the bluebook value my car was and make me a cash settlement offer on the vehicle.

In the mean-time, I'm renting a car to get around (insurance benefit) and have begun the car shopping process. I'm a green sucker, I guess, but I'm looking to purchase a hybrid. My mother owns both the first and third generation Prius, so I'm biased towards that. At the same time, the supply is horrifically constrained. I went by Longo Toyota, the largest Toyota dealership in the world (sales volume), and almost every one of their Priuses were pre-sold. They had the exact model/color I was looking for available, however (a pre-sold vehicle was pre-sold to someone who didn't qualify for financing). We'll see whether that's a good thing for me. The demand means they get the sticker price. Perhaps I can go through a service (credit union's Autoland or Costco) and get something better.

The supply constraint has me re-thinking whether the Honda Civic Hybrid might be a better buy for me. The comparable models (Prius III with Navigation vs. Civic Hybrid with Navigation) have about the same sticker price. I'd almost certainly be able to get a better price on the Civic, and they have a 1.9-2.9% finance special on it.

I'm trying to focus on the positives of the experience. I nursed my car along for 12 years and got great value from it. I was in an accident which totaled two cars (probably), but hurt no one. I've got a job and financial cushion which allows me to not panic at the thought of getting a new car.

I'm a pretty lucky guy.

Yogurt

2009-10-11T16:36:00.000-07:00

S: I think it went bad.

Me: What?! The freshness date is 20 days from now. And I opened it like 2 days ago.

S: Well... is it supposed to be tangy?

Me: *sputter* "It's YOGURT!!!"

S: Well... I didn't know!

Me: I'm so angry at you right now.

Expansion

2009-10-02T14:45:00.001-07:00

We naturally expand to fill the capacity that we're given in all kinds
of contexts. When I first got AT&T's Uverse television service, I
thought the concept of needing to record 4 channels at once was silly.
This Wednesday at 8pm, I'm recording 4 shows. I found this out when
I scheduled the system to record a 5th.

Zero

2009-09-11T16:56:00.000-07:00

"Holy crap, you have a lot of soda!"

Yeah, I bought into the Labor Day sales of diet colas and Diet Dr. Pepper. They happen during the July 4th holiday as well, by the way.

And my preliminary conclusions? I like Coke Zero better than Pepsi Max.

Yeah, nothing profound to see here. Move along.

Bing

2009-08-20T20:13:00.001-07:00

Tried out Microsoft's Bing search tool today. My search was "how does
bing work".

Results? Nothing useful.

Bing fail.

Bucket List

2009-08-17T01:13:00.000-07:00

Ahh facebook... a well for infinite time wasting! :-)

Place an "X" by all the things you've done and remove the X from the ones you have not, then send it to your friends (including me).

To do this, go to “notes” under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, do the list and tag people (in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish. If you don't see the Tag people in the upper right hand corner you are in the wrong place.

Things you have done during your lifetime:

(X) Gone on a blind date
(X) Skipped school
(X) Watched someone die
(X) Been to Canada
(X) Been to Mexico
(X) Been to Florida
(X) Been to Hawaii
(X) Been on a plane
(X) Been in a helicopter
(X) Been lost
(X) Gone to Washington, DC
(X) Swam in the ocean
(X) Cried yourself to sleep
(X) Played cops and robbers
( ) Recently colored with crayons
( ) Sang Karaoke
(X) Paid for a meal with coins only
( ) Been to the top of the St. Louis Arch
(X) Done something you told yourself you wouldn't.
(X) Made prank phone calls
( ) Been down Bourbon Street in New Orleans
(X) Laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose
(X) Caught a snowflake on your tongue
( ) Danced in the rain
(X) Written a letter to Santa Claus
(X) Been kissed under the mistletoe
( ) Watched the sunrise with someone
(X) Blown bubbles
(X) Gone ice-skating
(X) Gone to the movies
( ) Been deep sea fishing
( ) Driven across the United States
(X) Been in a hot air balloon
( ) Been sky diving
( ) Gone snowmobiling
( ) Lived in more than one country
(X) Lay down outside at night and admired the stars while listening to the crickets
(X) Seen a falling star and made a wish
( ) Enjoyed the beauty of Old Faithful Geyser
( ) Seen the Statue of Liberty
( ) Gone to the top of Seattle Space Needle
(X) Been on a cruise
( ) Cast a spell
(X) Traveled by train
( ) Traveled by motorcycle
( ) Been horse back riding
(X) Ridden on a San Francisco cable car
(X) Been to Disneyland
( ) Been to Disney World
( ) Been in a rain forest
( ) Seen whales in the ocean
(X) Been to Niagara Falls
( ) Ridden on an elephant
( ) Swam with dolphins
( ) Been to the Olympics
( ) Walked on the Great Wall of China
( ) Saw and heard a glacier calf
( ) Been para-sailing
(X) Been water-skiing
(X) Been snow-skiing
( ) Been to Westminster Abbey
( ) Been to Malaysia
( ) Swam in the Mediterranean
(x) Been to a Major League Baseball game
(X) Been to a National Football League game
( ) Been to a cricket test match

Blahs and Mehs With Assorted Assorted Awesome

2009-08-10T14:22:00.001-07:00

Still been fighting through social dancing blahs, but this past week at Strutters was nice. Lots of good dancers were still in town after Camp Hollywood, as well as some dancers from One2Swing. I had good dances with good dancers all night. Glad I went.

Oh, and Augie Freeman posted his set list, which was cool.

The Awful Truth: Mini-Review

2009-08-10T01:03:00.001-07:00

Hilarious. I hated it.

Iconic

2009-08-06T20:45:00.000-07:00

Speaking of iconic moments.... how long did it take for you to figure out what was going on here:

Let Your Game Speak

Let Your Game Speak Split Screen Version

Version #8

Bad Things Man

2009-08-06T18:14:00.000-07:00

Not sure how I got Dennis Hopper's early 90's Nike Football commercials in my head.

Bruce Smith: Bad Things Man

That's Junior Seau's Footprint!

Sterling Sharpe: Like a Freight Train! Chooo Chooo! Chooo-choo Baby!

Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin: They Have ESP Man

Hardy Nickerson: Act Casual

Spin Macaroni Mountain

2009-07-25T14:14:00.000-07:00

I really meant to go dancing last night, but I didn't. What happened? Work dragged, I dragged, my brief attempt at working out dragged, and I dragged my butt around the apartment instead. There was a clear point where I thought to myself, "I can still get there by 10:30. Or not." Not.

So instead I read a bit. Brainstormed a bit. And turned on the Tour de France. I was hoping to be inspired by the mountaintop finish at Mont Ventoux, but realized early in my watching of Stage 19, that it was Stage 20 which finishes at Mont Ventoux. Darn. But I played the flat stage in the background anyway as I puttered around.

Lance Armstrong made a comeback to professional cycling this year after a last competing in 2005, and is seriously kicking butt. Well, if you were rooting for him to win (as I've been doing), he's a bit of a disappointment, but if you're a realist, as I've become, you can find his claw back to 3rd place going into Stage 19 extremely inspiring (did he really decide to return last October?!). In first place is his Astana teammate, Alberto Contador, who won the Tour for Lance's Team Discovery in 2007. 4 minutes back is Team Saxo Bank's Andy Schleck, widely regarded as the best climber in the Tour before Contador proved otherwise in the Alps. Armstrong is just over a minute behind Schleck, but has Bradley Wiggins and Astana teammate Andreas Kloden within 20 seconds of his spot. And right behind them is Andy Schleck's older brother, Frank. With inspired performances during Stage 20, Astana could conceivably hold all the podium places. On the other hand, 2nd place and 6th place are separated by just 1:40. Contador has a huge lead in the General Classification, unless he has a terrible day, but Andy and Frank might be working to get Frank in front of Kloden, Wiggens, and Armstrong into third place and onto the podium.

Stage 20 of the Tour de France is a mountaintop finish at Mont Ventoux, a 20 km Hors Category (beyond category, the hardest category) climb which takes an hour to ride. Badass. It isn't crazy to see an inspired climber make up 20 seconds per kilometer on the mountain. Though maybe not on the General Classification contenders.

Then it struck me: I should go to spin class Saturday morning. Yeah! I've been wanting to ride again, but haven't because of the prep-time (and I need to get that bike tuned up again). So why not substitute in a spin class?

The plan that formed in my mind was to get to bed, take the 8:30 spin class, shop at Sprouts for the macaroni salad I planned to take to Saturday evening's BBQ (I still don't have details on that!), make the salad, then eat my post-spin meal while watching the extended coverage of Stage 20.

Thus inspired, I crashed out.

Woke at 7:30 and puttered a bit. At 8am, I called and asked if they had spots left for the 8:30 class. One left. I'd better hurry. Started my oatmeal in the microwave and pulled up my spin class checklist and my "go bag" for spin and hugged myself; I'd left everything I needed right in the bag. Transferred the oatmeal to a paper bowl and ran out the door.

2 minute drive to 24 Hour Fitness, and got to the front desk. "You'll be the first on the waiting list." D'oh. But one of the five paid reservations was bound to no-show right? Right. I haven't taken a class since ... November 25, 2008, eight months. Yikes. I'm feeling a little trepidation as I take my pass over to the spin room. The instructor hasn't arrived yet, so I take the time to switch to my SPDs (don't spin without them) and turn on my heart rate monitor (don't spin without it). Recognize a former neighbor from Placentia. I must have talked her into finally taking a spin class. She's always been in great shape, but she's seriously lean now.

Decided to sit in the back, as it's been too long since I dragged my fat ass here (that's some serious negative talk going on there). Then realized too late that the reason I sat in front wasn't because felt like a badass, but because staring at hot cycling butts is distracting. But soon enough the sweat starts to pour and my consciousness retreats to the tip of my nose and my reflected grimace in the mirror.

My body remembers. My mind remembers. I'm in rhythm, and suddenly remember that I used to evaluate music by whether it would be good to spin to instead of whether it would be good to swing dance to. Funny memory.

I have to check my HRM constantly as I'm out of shape and competitive at the same time. I spend too much time with my heart rate over 160 beats per minute, and way too much time at 170-172 (well, about sixty seconds, but that's way to long). I have to remember to ease back into this kind of work out.

That's right, ease back into it. As in do it regularly again.

Looking around, I realize that most people still equate low, straining cadence with good effort, not realizing that high cadence is it's own discipline. When the instructor throws a high cadence song at us, most of them just sit at a lower cadence looking blank probably not able to maintain the pace even in the saddle with low resistance. But I've still got it. Well, kind of. High cadence spinning out of the saddle is what has me my heart at 170+ bpm. Don't do that.

After class, as I gulp down more water, and make my way over to Sprouts (like Henry's but close!) to shop for my macaroni salad. Home to put the salad together, protein shake, and sit down to watch the Tour.

Go Lance!

Swearing

2009-07-23T17:00:00.000-07:00

Since I'm now hanging out with someone who's sensitive to swearing, I got to thinking about the role of swearing and humor or emphasis. And I had an interesting conversation where I realized that I'm comfortable using "fuck" in almost any context (given the right audience) except when referring to the sex act. I actually tried saying it out loud and had to sub-vocalize!

However, I was able to watch this Onion parody video of the moon landing and laugh out loud:

Or this written article.

Previous posts on swearing:

Look At Those Peppers!
Is There An Oscar For Best Swearing?

Ramen

2009-07-20T10:21:00.000-07:00

Jofflyn's been dragging us (ok, I go willingly) to Little Tokyo's Orochon for spicy miso ramen, And I've yet to get this particular group to Santouka in the Mitsuwa market for shio (salt broth) ramen.

That's ok. Shotgunned invites out for late Sunday afternoon, got a hit, and had the special #9 with an egg. That's a large bowl of shio ramen with the black pork belly and vegetables served on the side (self-assembly). Amaaaazing! Props to John Remy for turning me on to the special. The regular pork is delicious, but the black pork... Game over. Melt-in-your-mouth soft. Indescribably complex flavor. Wow.

And the broth... The broth... Oh god. At Orochan, the broth is tasty but the noodles are featured. At Santaouka, I make sure to finish the broth at the expense of the noodles, if necessary.

I kept texting Joff to make him feel bad for canceling out:

I want to bathe in the Santouka broth!

And later:

I want to sleep in a waterbed filled with the Santouka broth!

And later:

Instead of cleaning my apartment I'll pour broth on everything!

Unsent:

I want to wash my car with shio broth!
Computer acting up? Have you tried pouring shio broth on it?
Achy shoulder? Shio broth!
Household plants looking a little wilted? Shio broth!

True statements. True story.

Quote of the Night

2009-07-20T00:23:00.001-07:00

Yeah, 'cause penguin milk is awesome! - Walter

Eating at The Hat after rehearsal with Walter, Samber, Bamber, Sarah, Garret, and Dana. Topics ranged from how amazing the Nintendo Wii is to, SYTYCD, to the history of nicknames, to Michael Jackson, to injuries.

And pastrami.

The Mentalist

2009-07-17T12:39:00.001-07:00

Why didn't anyone tell me about The Mentalist? Seriously. Cool show.

A Little More Knowledge

2009-07-15T11:25:00.001-07:00

It's been a while, but I found a new example of the language mistake I
mentioned in A Little Bit Of Knowledge.

The recent trade has made this speculation a mute point...

I don't remember whether I've posted this before, but a lot of these things have to do with hearing something not-quite-correctly and incorporating that into written language. In this case, figuring that the speaker said the word "mute" instead of the non-word "moot" would seem to make sense on the surface.

Do you have examples of this you come across?

White Corn Revelation

2009-07-14T18:20:00.001-07:00

White corn is awesome raw. No reason to cook it at all. Why have I
been wasting my time cooking it?!

Memories Steam Bath

2009-07-13T23:35:00.001-07:00

At Memories to meet up with SS (sorry for flaking last week). Walked in the door at about 10:30 to find that there was no air conditioning, bringing on jungle conditions. I don't know if I'm sweating this much or it's condensation. Thought about changing my shirt but I sweated through the first one on the first song I danced. No one will tell me if this is normal now or if its a one time thing. Lots of shrugs.

RT says she's saving money by dancing here instead of @ Atomic Tuesdays. I never thought I'd dream of Atomic air conditioning... Worth $4 extra? Hell yeah!

NIN

2009-07-10T15:05:00.000-07:00

John Remy asks:

How did I get through the last decade and a half w/o listening to NIN (well, beyond Closer)? There are times when Hurt could be my anthem...

Good question. Nine Inch Nails's Pretty Hate Machine was one of my angst soundtracks in high school (girls) and some of college (general stress and hate).

Aforementioned Hurt (NIN Live performance):

There are some notable covers, namely Johnn's Cash's Hurt:

Oh, and Sad Kermit's cover of Johnny's Cash's cover of Hurt:

From the album Broken, which came out when I was in college, NIN Wish:

(by the way, a comment had this right, the dead silence at 0:42 is amaaaazing).

From Pretty Hate Machine, Head Like a Hole:

Down In It:

Something I Can Never Have:

Salt Variations

2009-07-09T14:33:00.001-07:00

Is there such a thing as bacon salt? There should be.

Drinking on the Fourth

2009-07-05T11:41:00.001-07:00

It's odd that some people think that holidays are reduced to themed
drinking days (My college friends are all scratching their heads right
now and thinking, "Dude, aren't you one of those people?").

"Hey it's Arbor Day! Let's get blasted at the Arboretum!"

What The?!

2009-07-04T02:45:00.000-07:00

Sarah Palin resigned? I'm not sure how I feel about that. She was so good for my sense of outrage...

Just Let Me Go Home

2009-07-04T01:20:00.001-07:00

On my way home from Atomic Ballroom. As I get on the freeway, four Highway Patrol cruisers jump on ahead of me. And they shut down the freeway ahead of me to arrest someone in a car. Helicopter spotlight. Hands up, backing away from the car. The works. Wow.

And now more cruisers pull up. Cars edge up to block my view. I'm happy to give way.

And now on my way.

Surreal.

On Bleu Cheese Dressing

2009-07-03T15:25:00.001-07:00

Note to self: Bob's Lite Bleu Cheese Dip/Dressing tastes like ranch
dressing with a blue cheese afterthought. I'm not sure why I'm
surprised when they can't correctly spell "light" and "blue."

Dancing Lows

2009-07-01T23:34:00.001-07:00

I've been told today that my dancing is carefully devoid of styling to the point of being sterile, and I make people cry by correcting them on the social floor.

And I'm really tired.