I found it sort of funny as we pulled into a shell station in Lynwood Washington yesterday. I remember waking up that morning and thinking to myself, the astro will probably die today. I knew it would happen because my gut told me so. So, there began the inevitable death of my 1992 astro with 193,000 miles on in. I've known sense we bought the car that it's demise would either be the transmission or the alternator.
I woke up yesterday and knew I needed to jump-start the van. So, I jump started it with my Honda, waited for it to warm up, then checked the fluids and was on my way. The car stalled out before we got out of the parking lot, which I knew was a sign to stop now, but I kept going anyway. I left and we made it to the house to pick up the mattress (our goal for the day)... then I turned the car off when we loaded the mattress. The people that Art bought the mattress from were nice enough to jump start the van, but that only got us to the end of the driveway. Then, the guy we got the mattress from actually drove me to Wal-Mart so I could exchange my battery for a new one... and that got us down to Lynwood (a couple miles...)
I felt like something was wrong with the astro when I was climbing a hill (not a steep one, only like a 2-3% grade), so I pulled off the road. Upon coming the the end of the off-ramp, the car started to make a slight grinding noise. I knew something was really wrong... Still, I managed to get into a gas station parking lot (mainly because it was down hill from the off-ramp.)
Once we had the car parked, I pulled the dip stick to check the transmission fluid, and this steam or smoke was in the tube. I knew it was bad. I had 2 quarts of transmission fluid in the car, and I tried just dumping that in there to see if that would work, but then when I was shifting the car through the gears, I realized that reverse wouldn't kick in... and the car made a grinding noise while idling in park or neutral. I used the parking break to relieve the pressure on the transmission, and kept the car idling. I saw that the transmission was now full, so I tried to put the car into drive so I would do a quick lap around the parking lot, and the car had almost no power... just enough to barely push it... and the whole time the transmission made this grinding noise. I realized that we were not going to drive away in that car... and called AAA.
We waited about 45 minutes, and then the tow truck driver pulled up... it was one of those trucks that actually carries the car. So the driver took the car down to Renton, only 2 or 3 blocks from my apartment, where the car currently sits. Tonight, I plan to go empty the remaining junk out of the van, and drop the keys in the night drop box for the repair place, but I am almost certain the next stop for the car will be a junk yard. I guess time will tell for certain...
Oh well, that's all for now.
Later,
SteveO
Monday, October 13, 2008
Thursday, October 9, 2008
The totally awesome SNL skit that was taken off Hulu.com...
This clip was taken off of Hulu.com because NBC wanted to remove the text identifying the couple that made 7 billion dollars as "people who should be shot"... I think it added to the comedic effect, but oh well. At least they put the skit back up.
Check out my totally awesome form!
So, I have been thinking about all this CO2 stuff a bit lately, and I thought that I would make a form for it.
Well, this form allows me to collect miles driven in a year and miles per gallon.
Honestly, I have no use for the form, I just wanted to get a feel for how Google Form work.
You see, when you enter information into this form, and hit submit, it adds a time-stamp and the two data feilds to a spreadsheet that I have in Google Documents. It is completely anonymous (as far as what I can see), and it can be used to allow anyone to enter form data to a spreadsheet where the data can be analyzed or charted on graphs. Something like this:
Which I think is really cool!
Anyway... that's it for now...
Later,
SteveO
Well, this form allows me to collect miles driven in a year and miles per gallon.
Honestly, I have no use for the form, I just wanted to get a feel for how Google Form work.
You see, when you enter information into this form, and hit submit, it adds a time-stamp and the two data feilds to a spreadsheet that I have in Google Documents. It is completely anonymous (as far as what I can see), and it can be used to allow anyone to enter form data to a spreadsheet where the data can be analyzed or charted on graphs. Something like this:
Which I think is really cool!
Anyway... that's it for now...
Later,
SteveO
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Epic Failure!
I have to say I think of the Dow Jones Industrial Average as an EPIC FAILURE!
The worst part is that most economists think that the bail out is the worst thing we could be doing. It is said to be a repeat of the failures we made before the great depression, and the same mistake that Japan made in the 1990's. As you can see here. Critics say it is because of a failure to revise outdated economics theories based entirely on Marx's ideology. Or a failure to stop predatory loans... or as this documentary suggests, we ignored tell tale signs and irresponsibly acquired too much debt. Still people pass blame back to the Lyndon Johnson's Fair Housing Act (because that is when sub-prime morgages starting artificially inflating the value of realistate..)
I find a disturbing amount of truth in SNL's recent skit about the financial crisis on our hands. The banks should have known better than to issue so many loans that they knew nobody would be able to pay.
anyway... out economy is headed for epic failure of a scale we have never seen... I say invest heavily is gold and oil. Those will probably only go up.
For now, I'll leave you with Ron Paul's warning from last year:
That's all for now.
Later,
SteveO
Friday, October 3, 2008
The RePUGlican Convention
I know I created a different blog for all the stupid videos I want to share, but this one just hit close to home... with Jaani and all.
Later,
SteveO
Thursday, October 2, 2008
My CO2 Emission Savings!
So, at work, they have been issuing these incentive programs for people to start taking the bus or carpooling... pretty much anything other than driving alone. I signed up on this site for an account, and it made me start thinking about my CO2 Emissions. I decided to think about how much I have saved by taking the bus! I did what any self respecting computer nerd would do, and I opened up a new spreadsheet to organize data.
I started by calculating how much CO2 my car produced... then the bus... then the difference... but somewhere in the middle I thought about air-travel... then power consumption at home... and I'll let Microsoft take care of off-setting my power usage at work (Which they do...)
Here is what I came up with:
* This is based on my 15.4 mile commute to work in a car that gets 28 miles/gallon.
** The CO2 from bus is based on the per passenger average emissions in the US.
*** I combined data from the Sunlight Institute, and CarbonCounter.org for these numbers.
I also estimated that my annual trips to Michigan via airplane produces 10,031lbs of CO2. Of which, I think about 50lbs could be accredited to me (based on a guess of 200 people on a plane.)
So, this is just some food for thought. How much CO2 do you produce?
Here is a hint.
*Round trip estimates... 13mpg for work van to Muskeegan, and 20mpg to go to Troy.
back to more about me...
I am also responsible for 2,818.26lbs/year of CO2 from my consumption of [3060KWh of] electricity. However, this number is most likely higher than my current CO2 emissions because it is based on data from 2004 that I got from the EPA. According to that data my region: gets 49% of it's power from Hydro-Electric Power plants, 2% from non-hydro renewable, 4% nuclear, 0% oil, 11% gas, 34% coal, and produces .921 lbs of CO2 per KWh.
The national averages are: 2% non-hydro renewable, 7% hydro, 20% nuclear, 3% oil, 17% gas, 50% coal. So, my power is cleaner than the national average (1.363lbs of CO2 per KWh.)
So, in conclusion my total estimated carbon footprint for power usage, driving my car, riding the bus, and flying to Michigan twice a year comes to a total of 10,142.55 lbs/year of CO2. In relation, this puts me slightly above the average person in the world, and less than 1/3 the average American's CO2 emissions.
Later,
SteveO
I started by calculating how much CO2 my car produced... then the bus... then the difference... but somewhere in the middle I thought about air-travel... then power consumption at home... and I'll let Microsoft take care of off-setting my power usage at work (Which they do...)
Here is what I came up with:
| *** | *Miles | lbs CO2 from car | **lbs CO2 from bus | lbs CO2 Saved | *Gallons of gas saved | Money Saved |
| Per Month | 636 | 440.83 | 165.36 | 275.47 | 21 | $79 |
| So Far: | 3,816 | 2,644.98 | 992.16 | 1,652.82 | 127 | $476 |
| This Year | 5,724 | 3,967.48 | 1,488.24 | 2,479.24 | 190 | $713 |
| 1 Year | 7,632 | 5,289.97 | 1,984.32 | 3,305.65 | 254 | $953 |
* This is based on my 15.4 mile commute to work in a car that gets 28 miles/gallon.
** The CO2 from bus is based on the per passenger average emissions in the US.
*** I combined data from the Sunlight Institute, and CarbonCounter.org for these numbers.
I also estimated that my annual trips to Michigan via airplane produces 10,031lbs of CO2. Of which, I think about 50lbs could be accredited to me (based on a guess of 200 people on a plane.)
So, this is just some food for thought. How much CO2 do you produce?
Here is a hint.
| Miles | lbs CO2 from car | Gallons | Price | |
| Linden to Muskeegan | 400 | 771 | 30 | $113 |
| Linden to Troy | 60 | 41.59 | 3 | $11 |
*Round trip estimates... 13mpg for work van to Muskeegan, and 20mpg to go to Troy.
back to more about me...
I am also responsible for 2,818.26lbs/year of CO2 from my consumption of [3060KWh of] electricity. However, this number is most likely higher than my current CO2 emissions because it is based on data from 2004 that I got from the EPA. According to that data my region: gets 49% of it's power from Hydro-Electric Power plants, 2% from non-hydro renewable, 4% nuclear, 0% oil, 11% gas, 34% coal, and produces .921 lbs of CO2 per KWh.
The national averages are: 2% non-hydro renewable, 7% hydro, 20% nuclear, 3% oil, 17% gas, 50% coal. So, my power is cleaner than the national average (1.363lbs of CO2 per KWh.)
So, in conclusion my total estimated carbon footprint for power usage, driving my car, riding the bus, and flying to Michigan twice a year comes to a total of 10,142.55 lbs/year of CO2. In relation, this puts me slightly above the average person in the world, and less than 1/3 the average American's CO2 emissions.
- The average American produces 36,684.92lbs/year of CO2.
- The average person on the planet produces 9,788.52lbs/year of CO2.
- The average person in India produces 2,314.85lbs/year of CO2. (I assume they produce the least.. maybe?)
So, I even have a solution for me to become carbon neutral. In theory, if I donate $55.20 a year to carboncounter.org, the money will go to projects that will reduce CO2 in the environment to compensate for the CO2 I produce.
I got started on this whole bit because Microsoft has these incentive programs to use alternative methods to get to work. All of these incentives include the option to either receive a $50 gift certificate to Amazon.com, or to donate $50 on my behalf to Carbonfund.org. So, essentially just by giving up a gift certificate I am receiving just for going to work, I can compensate for the CO2 I produce.
So, that's all for now.
Later,
SteveO
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
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