Hybrid Update

I filled up my Civic Hybrid's tank for the second time this morning. Since my last fill-up I went 397 miles on 8.8 gallons of gas. That's over 45 miles per gallon, and with barely any highway miles! I'll finally get to see what it does on the highway this weekend.

Of course the ultimate in fuel efficiency would be a Plug-in hybrids (you can't really buy 'em right now, you pretty much have to make 'em yourself or have someone retrofit a Prius or something for you). The gas engine doesn't kick in until after you've gone 40 miles or more, when the battery runs out. Since my last fill-up, I averaged just 28 miles a day. If I had a plug-in hybrid, I might not have used any gas at all these past two weeks!

http://www.hybridcars.com/plugin-hybrids.html

Don't forget, folks, as we rejoice at "cheap" $2.11 a gallon gasoline. Hybrids are much more than about saving $ on gas. It's about reducing emmissions, and eliminating our dependence on foreign oil. Buy a hybrid today!

Pirate Day Walks The Plank For Me

Ahoy!

Today was Talk Like A Pirate Day, a "holiday" I've been promoting for the past three years. Avast, me hearties, this will be the last day I participate in the event. The inventors of Talk Like A Pirate Day were on television last night, and I just can't support their endeavors anymore.

The show was WifeSwap, an inane program where the producers find two wacked out families and make them switch moms for a week. Last night an anal-retentive perfectionist family with a daughter who's three years away from a crystal meth habit switched moms with a band of poseur pirates.

You see, the Baurs don't just talk like pirates for one day out of the year as a goof. No, they actually live and dress like pirates every day, all year long. They express their "pirattitude" as a lifestyle choice. And to them, piratitude means living in squalor, not paying the bills, not taking care of the flea infestation in their house, shunning deodorant, and running around with plastic swords. Complete losers.

Aye, Talk Like A Pirate Day is officially off me calendar! Aaargh!

Mets Are NL East Champs For The First Time Since 1998!

Hydrogen Car Update

We just got back from seeing Who Killed The Electric Car. It's an excellent film, and I highly recommend it. Yesterday, I posted that BMW had "raised the green ante" with its new hydrogen fuel-cell zero emission vehicle. Hydrogen fuel cell cars were discussed in Who Killed and issues were raised about them. Along with my own "where do you buy hydrogen?" question, we also learned that hydrogen is produced using non-renewable energy sources, have a limited range, and uh, oh, yeah, they cost about a million dollars. The truth is that these cars are just not practical yet. It seems like they are being pushed right now because they are "cars of the future" that distract us from the more practical cars available right now, like hybrids, and more efficient cars, namely electric, that were never given a fair shot.

The ultimate would be a plug in electric car that you charged in from your house which was powered by solar panels. No foreign oil & no emissions. Check these out!

Hybrid Update

I just filled up my new Hybrid Civic for the first time today. I went 400 miles (249,600 to go!) 0n 9.4 gallons, getting 42.6 mpg. And that is almost completely without highway miles! On my last post on the subject, I talked about some of the flaws with the whole hybrid vs. gas argument. Some recent articles have tried to compare conventional cars to hybrids on a cost basis. I said they missed the point. If you buy a hybrid, it's about more than just the price of gas. It's about reducing emmissions and reducing our dependence on foreign oil.

The other way Edmunds and others missed the mark when they compared cars was how they drew up the comparison. They compared the hybrid models to their conventional sisters (eg. Hybrid Accords vs. standard Accords) and tried to figure out if the higher sticker price would be made up for in fuel savings. What they failed to consider however, is that most people shop for cars by price, not by model. When I was carshopping, I had a certain price range, and the base model Civic with it's $15,010 SRP simply wasn't on my radar. The Civic Hybrid has a SRP of $22,150, and it caught my eye when I saw it in the same price class of these other new cars I shopped:

Pontiac Solstice ($21,995) mpg 21/29
Mazda RX8 ($26,995) mpg 18/24
Acura RSX Type-S ($23,845) - mpg 23/31
Pontiac G6 Coupe ($22,615) - mpg 20/28

Obviously the Solstice and RX8 would have been more fun to drive, and the RSX might have had a bit more appeal in terms of status, but I chose my car based on my conscience and yes, my wallet. Consider the fuel economy of the civic hybrid (49/51) against these other gas guzzlers and it's really no contest.

By the way, the green ante was raised this week when BMW announced that they will start rolling out zero-emmission hydrogen cars next year. The car's only emmission will be water vapor. Pretty cool. But where the hell do you buy hydrogen?

Arrrrr Ye Ready?

Mookie's ready for Talk Like A Pirate Day.















Are you?
September 19th. This year, and every year.

New Aqua Teen Hunger Force Episodes!

The new season of Aqua Teen Hunger Force will air on Comedy Central's Adult Swim on October 22nd! Word on the scene is that this season includes 10 new episodes. If you haven't been indoctrinated into the world of Master Shake and Meatwad, be sure to set your TiVo to record the show the next time it's on, or you can now download the fifteen minute episodes for $1.99 each on iTunes and watch them on your computer or iPod.

Now is the time to get on board with this hilarious show. The movie, which will be an action-oriented origin epic, comes out in February!

Go here to read the lyrics of the Theme Song.

9/11: 5 year and 1 Day Later

I was very fortunate on 9/11 that I didn't have any loved ones die that day. Of course it is impossible to have lived in the area at the time without knowing someone who lost someone. I had a co-worker lose his mom, and another friend whose dad was there but got out. It was so crazy that day. A good friend had to walk across the 59th street bridge to get home from work. My wife and I could still see the smoke plume at 7 o'clock that night when we drove to our friend's house. All the major highways were closed so rescue vehicles could get back and forth. We heard sirens all day. And for weeks and weeks afterwards there were so many funerals. It was such a scary day. It angers me so much how much it's been politicized by both parties at this point. Bush can't answer a question about Iraq without mentioning 9/11, and both parties want us to believe it was the other side's president's fault. If we really want to honor the victims of 9/11, we should start acting like America again.

Mookie Of The Month - September 2006

Vote For Mookie!!

Go here and vote for Mookie as the Cutest Pet!

http://www.1800petmeds.com/petcontest/vote/4094623887899914132

Tell a friend!

Food Find: Pretzel Crisps!

There few things in life better than a well made pretzel. As I think about the foods I have a passion for, the word "pretzel" comes back again and again.

My favorite ballpark fare? The hot, soft pretzel. Even though I am constantly disappointed by cold, slimy, and tiny soft pretzels, or the mediocrity of the mass-produced, not-so-super "Superpretzel," when a soft pretzel is made right, nothing beats it. The best ones are barbecued over charcoal briquets, and for some reason the entreprenuers found in stadium parking lots roasting pretzels out of a shopping cart that has been converted into a mobile grill beats anything found within the stadium at thrice the price.

My favorite casual dining entree? Bennigan's Turkey O' Toole. This is a hot turkey sandwich served on a pretzel roll. Yummmmm.... There are no Bennigan's where I live, and I believe the chain's restaurant total may be dwindling nationwide, but it would be a sad day if the Turkey O'Toole met its demise. Live on, Bennigan's! Slainte!

And of course, I love a good, old-fashioned hard pretzel. Purists will tell you a pretzel must be twisted to be a true pretzel, but I have always had a soft spot in my heart for the pretzel nugget. The best ones are made by UTZ. Utz is a brand out of Pennsylvania, and if your local supermarket doesn't carry Utz pretzels you should do yourself a favor and order some online! Trust me, there is a difference.

The pretzels don't need to be twisted theory is taken to the extreme by USAirways though. On filghts they give out these tiny bags of snacks that stretch the definition of pretzel to the extreme with an abomination they call Pretzel Minis or something like that. These are basically pretzel crumbs, and are not unlike the shards of pretzel you usually would find at the bottom of a bag of pretzels.

Enough about air fare though. The purpose of this posting is to tell you about a new food find that we discovered at Harris Teeter supermarket yesterday. They are a new development in pretzel technology! They are called Pretzel Crisps, and basically the best way to describe them is to picture your basic bite sized pretzel, remove the white middle, leaving only the tasty brown exterior. Then flatten the pretzel, so it's like a pretzel shaped cracker! The company boasts these treats as the world's first spreadable pretzel, easily accomodating your favorite cheese for example, but these little gems are delicious all on their own. Check them out!!!

New Ride For Mike V

This weekend I replaced my trusty Hyundai with a civic Hybrid. Here she is:

















It will allegedly get 49mpg in the city, and 51 on the highway. I'll let you know.

I know there has been some press lately that even though I'll spend less money in gas, the extra money that I paid to buy a hybrid vs. a conventional car is too much to make it worth it. I'm not sure about that, and I wonder who is doing the math, or pushing that story, and I wonder how expensive they are projecting gas prices to get to. What if gas goes up to $5.00 a gallon? Would I still have saved money by buying a conventional car? My plan is to keep this car for a long time. In fact, my goal is 250,000 miles. I'm up to 50. 249,950 to go.

Howver, if you're considering a hybrid, it really is not about money. It's about using less gas (and less oil). Unless you like giving your money to Exxon/Mobil? Oh, and it's also really about creating fewer emissions. We only have one Earth, people.

Also, the hybrid is just really cool. Gotta figure in the cool factor.

Official Honda Civic Hybrid website

My Review: Little Miss Sunshine

My wife and I both love going to the movies, so we go as often as we can. She enjoys the whole experience and only seldom is she overly disappointed. She's very good at tempering her expectations. I, on the other hand, often go into films with extremely high expectations, and am very often extremely disappointed. I would say that 6 out of 10 films I see I think are rather awful. 2 out of ten are decent, and 2 out of ten are really, really good. Forgive my math, but occasionally, once in a great while, a film is so exceptional that it reminds me why I love going to the movies. Little Miss Sunshine is not one of those films, but it is really, really good.

Little Miss Sunshine is blessed with a great cast, and a terrific script. Steve Carrell, who we love from The Office and The Daily Show, is very funny, almost as much as Alan Arkin as Grandpa. Greg Kinnear is perfectly cast as a motivational speaker who can't even convince his son (Paul Dano) to speak or his wife (Toni Collette) to not look at him like he's a schmuck. But the real stealer of the show is Little Miss Sunshine herself, Abigail Breslin, as Olive. The whole film is great, but the last fifteen minutes of the movie are downright classic.

Yes, there are plot holes in Little Miss Sunshine. But it is a comedy, after all, and you're not supposed to analyze comedies for things like that. But probably the best compliment I can give this comedy is that it is so good that it makes you want to analyze it like an art film.

Grade: A-

Hysterical Ringtones

Most of the time when I listen to my iPod I just leave it on shuffle mode, as kind of my own personal radio station. I can listen for hours and never hear a bad song! It's fun listening to Beastie Boys segue into Tom Petty into Prince into For Squirrels into a mashup I found on Hype Machine. But I still get the biggest kick out of when between songs my iPod picks a mini-track from They Might Be Giants a992 album Apollo 18. In addition to the great songs on the CD are 21 tracks called "fingertips" that are each about 8 or 9 seconds long that can only be described as "random". I can't explain them, just preview the tracks on Amazon and you'll get what I mean.

I was thinking about TMBG this morning and visited their website. They have three hysterical ringtones available for download on the homepage for $1.50 each. The best is "Call Connected Thru The NSA," but "Ring Ring" is also awesome. Even if you don't buy them, they are worth listening to online. If you do decide to buy them you're guaranteed to have the funniest ringtones in the office.

New Music!

Other than Tom Petty's Highway Companion, I don't even remember that last CD I bought. But this month I bought two great ones:

Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins - Rabbit Fur Coat. Jenny Lewis, our March 2006 Hero Of The Month is the lead singer of a group called Rilo Kiley, but she's just released her solo album and it is absolutely incredible. If I could pick one word to describe Jenny Lewis's writing style, it would be "sardonic". Don't be frightened by the gospel feel and country style. This music is more edgy than any hard rock band around. The lyrics will have you pondering life while laughing aloud. I have to admit I have developed a crush on this incredible talent. Add this to your collection immediately! Oh, and dont forget to check out her cover of the Travelling Wilbury's "Handle With Care!" Grade: A+

Jackie Greene - American Myth - This CD was made for me, it seems. Some songs sound like outtakes from a Josh Ritter CD, others sound like Tom Petty, or alternative rock. Every song sounds like the work of a gifted songwriter and a talented musician. I discovered Jackie Greene from Internet radio station mvy radio when they played his amazing song Sweet Somewhere Bound. I picked up his latest collection from Amazon.com, and it's an instant fave. Check out his myspace page for free downloads! Grade: A

Mookie Of The Month - August 2006

We went to the Outer Banks this weekend and Mookie got to check out the ocean for the first time. She wasn't too sure. I think she knows she can't swim!

This Is Hilarious - Dogs will Be Dogs

In England, there is a collection valuable teddy bears on display at some park. The display is very popular and they recently added a bear once owned by Elvis Presley worth $85,000. The collection was so valuable that in a stroke of brilliance the museum hired a doberman to guard the display. Big shocker here about what comes next - Like most dogs, Barney The Guard Dog loves to chew on stuffed animals - so he tore the head off Elvis's bear and destroyed a bunch of other bears in the collection.

When it was over, about 100 bears in all had been damaged. "He was pulling arms off, heads off," [the park's general manager Daniel] Medley said, and there was fluffy stuffing everywhere.

Too damned funny. Thanks to Mr. Met for the link.

Mars Won't Be Big As The Moon This Week

I got a couple e-mails that got me all excited to watch the sky this month. The e-mails were titled "Spectacular!" and if you read it quickly they made it seem like Mars would appear as big as the moon to the naked eye on August 16th. I thought that was pretty cool until I looked it up on snopes.

The truth is that way back in August 2003, if you had looked through a 75 power telescope, you could have gotten a great view of Mars. But to the naked eye, the casual observer wouldn't have even noticed. And that was in 2003. This year, the e-mail is completely untrue, with someone having switched out the years. Too bad.

What is true, is that all month you can watch a meteor shower if you can find a high spot on a clear night, away from city lights. Peaking on August 12th, the Perseid meteor shower will allow us earthlings to observe as many as 100 "shooting stars" per hour this month.

Die Hard Part Four Release Date Set

Bruce Willis will star in the fourth installment of the Die Hard movies, titled Live Free or Die Hard, scheduled for release on June 29, 2007. Best news I've heard all week!

A few months ago, news came out that there would be a movie based on Kiefer Sutherland's 24. My reaction was that they already made that movie, and it was called Die Hard. MTV makes the same comparison in this article, which also tells us the new Die Hard movie "centers around an attack on the computer infrastructure of the United States government" on the 4th of July. The article also says that several high-profile cast members will be announced over the next few weeks. The first castmember to be announced may be Justin Long, who you may know as "A Mac" in those funny Apple commercials.

La Jolla, California - Seals and Brown Pelicans

click below to see slide show...