2013-11-16
2013-10-31
2013-09-19
A Little Optimistic
I'm pretty impressed with the fuel economy of the Mazda3. The drive in to work today came in at almost 40 MPG (I lost a little in the parking deck.)
I'm sure the computer is a little on the optimistic side so I'll have to see how things do over a few tanks. It's quite an improvement over the 10-year-old Mini though.
Update 2013-09-26:
Filled up last night and the average was 33 MPG overall for about 2 weeks. I'm not sure how accurate it is as I don't really know how "full" the tank was when I got it. It certainly couldn't be worse though.
I'm sure the computer is a little on the optimistic side so I'll have to see how things do over a few tanks. It's quite an improvement over the 10-year-old Mini though.
Update 2013-09-26:
Filled up last night and the average was 33 MPG overall for about 2 weeks. I'm not sure how accurate it is as I don't really know how "full" the tank was when I got it. It certainly couldn't be worse though.
2013-09-04
2013-08-15
2013-07-19
Appleton Neckbreaker
I finally managed to snag one of Tiki Farm's creations for Appleton Estates. There have been a few of these over the years and you'll occasionally see one on eBay. This particular design is by lowbrow artist Von Franco.
All 100 of these sold out in 6-7 minutes from what I could tell. I got #20.
All 100 of these sold out in 6-7 minutes from what I could tell. I got #20.
2013-07-08
Hulala Time
I was looking for something new to play that wasn't electronic and didn't have a ton of knobs to mess with. I listen to exotica and Hawaiian music a good bit so why not a ukulele?
I've done some online research on and off for a while and finally narrowed things down to a concert size ukulele in the $100 range (Will I ever figure it out? Will I stick with it? I really don't want to spend more.). I did some poking around to find somewhere local to deal with as I didn't want to just order something mail order and get something that's out of whack, unplayable, and me too confused to understand that it was the problem instead of me. Lo and behold I discovered Mike at Uke Republic over in Austell and ended up with a Hulala Ocean Dance series concert ukulele.
It's got hula dancers on it. Could I ask for more? (Well actually a tiki would have been better and there are ones out there with tikis on them but they either didn't get very good reviews, were custom jobs, or simply out of my price range.
I also picked up a little clip-on chromatic tuner so I retune it every time the G string goes flat... which right now is about every time you aren't looking at it. Hoping that settles down a bit as the strings stretch out a bit.
I learned two chords tonight. C and F. I played some other ones but those didn't graduate to "learned" yet. This whole chord fingering thing is unnatural and weird. It's going to take some adjustment.
I've done some online research on and off for a while and finally narrowed things down to a concert size ukulele in the $100 range (Will I ever figure it out? Will I stick with it? I really don't want to spend more.). I did some poking around to find somewhere local to deal with as I didn't want to just order something mail order and get something that's out of whack, unplayable, and me too confused to understand that it was the problem instead of me. Lo and behold I discovered Mike at Uke Republic over in Austell and ended up with a Hulala Ocean Dance series concert ukulele.
It's got hula dancers on it. Could I ask for more? (Well actually a tiki would have been better and there are ones out there with tikis on them but they either didn't get very good reviews, were custom jobs, or simply out of my price range.
I also picked up a little clip-on chromatic tuner so I retune it every time the G string goes flat... which right now is about every time you aren't looking at it. Hoping that settles down a bit as the strings stretch out a bit.
I learned two chords tonight. C and F. I played some other ones but those didn't graduate to "learned" yet. This whole chord fingering thing is unnatural and weird. It's going to take some adjustment.
2013-07-05
Hot Crossed Orchids
This morning I hit some Antique'n'Flea's over in Larryville that I don't get to very often and found a couple of nice Orchids of Hawaii "crossed arm" tiki mugs in green
Ooga Mooga shows some in yellow and says Otagari makes the same one in green. These have Orchids of Hawaii stickers though.
I really like their open-eyed and defiant stature.
Ooga Mooga shows some in yellow and says Otagari makes the same one in green. These have Orchids of Hawaii stickers though.
I really like their open-eyed and defiant stature.
2013-06-30
2013-03-26
2013-03-10
Don went to Frankie's and all I got was...
My friend Don went to Frankie's Tiki Room last summer to check the place out: "When I walked in from outside, I couldn't see anything at all. Not a damned thing! It was so dark inside, it was like walking into a closet and closing the door. " Evidently the drinks weren't too great to say the least but he did manage to return with a most excellent Tiki Bandit mug designed by Squid.
It took me forever and a month to finally meet up with him and claim it. It's a really well-done mug from Tiki Farm. Thanks Don!
2013-01-11
I read a book...
For my birthday this year I picked up a Kindle Paperwhite. I've tried reading on the iPad before but I never get very far. I either see some notification and go to look at that or I leave the book app to go look up something that occurred to me while reading and next thing you know I'm checking mail, twitter, G+ etc.
The Paperwhite is awesome. The way it lights the e-ink text works very well, is easily adjustable and there's no glare. It also doesn't have all the built-in distractions that the iPad has. I picked out a fairly short humorous science fiction title from my library web site (Year Zero) and read it in a few days. I haven't read a book like that in years. Most other books I have read lately are reference books, cook books, books full of tikis, and coffee-table type books. These types of things are better suited for print or maybe even the iPad than e-ink. For your basic all-text novel the Kindle is perfect.
Amazon link for Year Zero:
http://www.amazon.com/Year-Zero-Novel-Rob-Reid/dp/0345534417
(I wrote this on my iPad while I was doing something else and it occurred to me to write a blog post.)
The Paperwhite is awesome. The way it lights the e-ink text works very well, is easily adjustable and there's no glare. It also doesn't have all the built-in distractions that the iPad has. I picked out a fairly short humorous science fiction title from my library web site (Year Zero) and read it in a few days. I haven't read a book like that in years. Most other books I have read lately are reference books, cook books, books full of tikis, and coffee-table type books. These types of things are better suited for print or maybe even the iPad than e-ink. For your basic all-text novel the Kindle is perfect.
Amazon link for Year Zero:
http://www.amazon.com/Year-Zero-Novel-Rob-Reid/dp/0345534417
(I wrote this on my iPad while I was doing something else and it occurred to me to write a blog post.)
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