Gasoline is an addiction

The first gas crisis happened before I was born but cars today are less fuel efficient than they were in the 70's. I usually try not to curse on my blog but seriously what the fuck?! We as a nation have done a lot of amazing things: put a man on the moon with less computer memory (64k) than is in your current mobile phone, invented the Internet, sequenced the human genome - I can go on and on - but some how a fuel efficient car escapes us. Seriously?

Ten years ago in 1998, I lived in England and gas was the equivalent of $8 a gallon. Some of my classmates had cars and their response wasn't a huge public outcry. They simply made sure that they bought smaller, more fuel efficient cars! Whoa. A mind shattering idea, right? Since i got back, I have been in the minority in believing that gas should cost more that it does now. I had a car from 1999 - 2000 and felt that way when I was paying $1.20 a gallon even though I was a poor college student. I am not Casandra but the handwriting on this wall was pretty clear to me then and it still is now: the problem we have isn't with the price of gas. The problem is gas, period.

As Thomas Friedman puts it in his recent op-ed piece, "When a person is addicted to crack cocaine, his problem is not that the price of crack is going up.His problem is what that crack addiction is doing to his whole body. The cure is not cheaper crack, which would only perpetuate the addiction and all the problems it is creating. The cure is to break the addiction.

To that I say "Amen!" I wrote about this topic in 2005 and so did Mr. Friedman but 3 years later we are still in the same stupid place: buying oil from dictators and/or Russia with no better plan in place. What a lovely situation to be in.

Sure, you may say that as a walker, subway and train rider and cab passenger living in Manhattan I never have known what it was like to own and operate a car. Well, I just joined the car class - I have an 09 Matrix that gets 21 city and 29 highway which still isn't good enough for me but unfortunately, a hybrid is super expensive and leasing one really isn't an option.

To be honest, I wish I was paying $6 - $8 a gallon for gas as it would be better for the planet that my daughter is inheriting from me one day.

To Be Batman

In preparation for the hotly anticipated "The Dark Knight," it seems that everyone is talking about, as the Joker puts it, "The Batman." While he may be "at home, washing his tights" (okay, that would never happen, Alfred would handle that chore) it is precisely that that idea which so endears Bruce Wayne's alter ego to the public. Unlike other superheros, Batman is normal. What I mean is that he (in many ways) is a just an incredibly above average man - he does not have any special powers, period. He is like you and me, in our dreams.

Scientific America has an interview with E. Paul Zehr, associate professor of kinesiology and neuroscience at the University of Victoria in British Columbia and a 26-year practitioner of Chito-Ryu karate-do who happens to have a book titled "Becoming Batman: The Possibility of a Superhero" coming out.

After further analysis, it's true: it would be very, very hard but it could be done. If all the stars in the sky are in alignment, I could be Batman.

Via Steve.

From the "I Thought Of This 2 Years Ago!" Department

It finally has happened and truly, it was only a matter of time: someone has made a "Knight Rider" themed GPS device. As the Gray Lady puts it, Generation X nostalgia and modern technology have come together like peanut butter and jelly. I for one cannot believe that two years have passed since I thought of the idea and it is only now coming to market.

I spent the first week of July, 2006 on the West Coast and borrowed a TomTom GPS device to get myself, my friends and my rental car around. On July 1, I flew to San Diego, watched England lose in penalty kicks to Portugal in the quarterfinals of the World Cup at the San Diego airport while waiting for my friend Steve's flight to arrive from Las Vegas, and then spent 4 days in S.D. before driving up the coast to spend 3 days in La-La Land before heading home on the July 8.

While down South, I drove to the border but not across (we parked in a motel's parking lot and walked into Mexico for tacos in Tijuana), tooled around many different parts of Diego and while in LA I drove from one theme park to the next, mixing in a Dodger game and the Getty museum in between, while making my base at a family residence in Brentwood (near the Ralph's off of Wilshire for those that care). I hit up In-and-Out Burger. I hit up The Cat and the Fiddle. It was tons of fun and I got around flawlessly.

While the device had a number of different voices that could bark out lefts and rights, none of them satisfied me. I was in a car, a computer was giving me directions and that could mean only one thing: I was Michael Knight and the GPS was KITT. The closest that TomTom came was an Englishman's voice which while being sort of close was sincerely no cigar.

I used to spend lazy Saturday afternoons (like today) watching "Knight Rider" at 3 and "The A-Team" at 4 on On WWOR Channel 9. For a time they replace "Knight Rider" with "Airwolf" which sucked - a super charged talking car was one thing but a dudeflying around in his own attack helicoptor? Someone can only suspend disbelief so far!

Anyway, during the CA vacation, I talked endlessly about how they should have a "Knight Rider" voice option and sure enough, now Mio has made my dream come true. In case you were wondering, MythBusters proved that you really could drive up the ramp of a Knight Foundation big rig.

Two last closing points just for shits and giggles. One is that I spent many a Friday night at the Harvest Diner while in Junior and Senior High School performing the "Knight Rider" theme acapella in 4 parts with my friends. The way to perform it is you have one person go "DUH duh, DUH duh, DUH duh Duh duh, Duh duh." Another goes "Shwoo shwoo, shwoo shwoo." The third person goes "munnah munnah munnah munnah, munnah munnah munnah munnah, munnah munnah munnah munnah, munnah munnah munnah munnah" and the last then goes "Dum dah dah dum....dum dah dah dum....dum dah dah dum dum Dum!" Try it sometime. Its hard to do.

Second, below is a clip I found on YouTube of Regis introducing a Knight Rider themed act on America's Got Talent. Watch and enjoy!

The Lego Vault

I love Legos. A lot of people love Legos. One of my favorite blogs Gizmodo loves Legos. Not only did they post about the best Lego sets in history but they recently paid a visit to Denmark and found out in the process that Lego keeps a (sort of) secret corporate vault that contains every Lego set ever made - 4,720 in total. "Great Googly Moogly!" and"Holy Mary Mother of God!" immediately come to mind.

I could not wait to take a fun trip down memory lane and started to look at some of the photos. Only a few pics into the stroll I immediately froze, like the proverbial deer in headlights, when I saw the set below:

I had that one and still have it - the bricks and hopefully the blueprint are in my Mom's attic somewhere.

In terms of the various Legoland themes, I was always a Lego Space guy. My grandfather and father instilled in me a love of the cosmos and in very "chicken and the egg" type situation, I'm not sure if my love of space is due to Legos or if my love of Legos is due to the space theme of the bricks I played with as a wee lad. I never had any Legoland Castle or Town sets - only Space. I had about half to three quarters of the sets in the Legoland Space part of Gizmodo's "Best Lego Sets In History" photo collection and loved every single one of them.

In terms of time, I must have spent months - not days nor weeks but months - during my formative years stooped over hundreds of bricks that were spilled out on my carpet, hunting for the exact brick that I needed in order to either complete the Lego provided blueprint or the one that I dreamt up that day. I remember my back hurting on many of an occasion due to the hours that I sat Indian style, hunched over looking for these specific bricks. I remember when Don Mattingly first developed back problems, I thought to myself, "It must be like he's looking for Legos..."

I'm acutely aware of my own childhood now that I see another one unfolding right before my eyes. I never want to force anything upon my daughter, I want all of her loves to be genuine, but I do hope that she enjoys playing with Legos as much as I did. Then again, Mega Blocks seem pretty cool too these days...

Via Neu

From the "You've Got To Be Kidding Me" Department

One thing that really bothered me about Hilary's campaign was how time and time again it did not pay for the goods and services it used from very same people it supposedly was "fighting for" - small business owners. Here is just one example:

Dakota Pizza, a restaurant owned by Stephen Bledsoe in Wynnewood, PA, fed Clinton, her campaign and the press corps that traveled with her more than $11,000 worth of grilled shrimp, sandwiches, "hand-crafted" pizza and salads leading up to the April 22 primary. He received a partial payment, but is still owned $5,933. "I can't believe that someone of her stature will not have the ability to repay what they owe," he said.

I have been following this trail of unpaid bills all over the country and always figured that Bill would just have to give a weeks worth of speeches once she dropped out to handle the damage. Therefore, I almost spit up the coffee I was drinking when I read an email from the Clinton campaign which featured the subject line, "Keeping my promise." In this missive, Hilary had, to borrow one of Obama's words, the audacity to ask and expect her supporters to help her resolve her campaign debts. I mean, for fuck's sake she raised $237 million (!) yet still had more than $22.5 million in debts as of the end of May. That includes $12 million that the New York senator loaned her campaign.

Is this the person we want trying to balance the budget?! If anyone has a debt after raising almost $240 million, it because of one simple reason: grossly negligent financial management. I for one never reward anyone for that type of behavior, least of all a former first lady and current U.S. Senator.

If you you think I'm kidding unfortunately I am not - please see the image below that I grabbed from the email:

After getting sufficiently angry, I have started to think differently about this situation and have sort of come full circle because Hilary has truly inspired me in my approach towards my household finances. I think I'm going to send an email to all my friends and family asking them to help me "retire my debt" (aka pay off my mortgage) so that "we can keep fighting together" (whatever the hell that means - it sure does sound good though). In fact, I might actually carry a balance forward on my credit cards starting now. Who cares that I'll get hit with 22% a month in finance charges: I can just get my "supporters" to retire my debt for me! Thanks for the swell idea HRC!