Hope everyone had a good 4th of July weekend. Did you know that the 4th of July is a day where we celebrate America’s independence from British rule? Because a guy in front of me at the post office last week didn’t. This guy is talking to a teller at the UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE (!!!) and asks if they’re working on Friday. The lady says, “Haha…no, it’s Independence Day.” And the guy — i shit you not — says, “I don’t understand why we get the day off…we shouldn’t have been over there in the first place.” Really guy?!? Over where? I’m not sure if he was being sarcastic and trying to get a rise out of a postal service worker (not advisable) but the look on my face must have been amazing. I couldn’t make this up if i wanted to… moving on.
Last week, i almost made it 400 miles on a tank of gas. Seriously. I went 383 miles on exactly 14 gallons of gas. I have a 14.5 gallon tank, so i could have made it, but in the end it wasn’t worth the risk of running out of gas just to see the dial click over. I drove to Vegas and back which gobbled up 2 tanks of gas over the weekend (but hey! still cheaper than flying!) but made it between 370-390 miles on those tanks as well thanks to freeway driving. This next tank, i’m making it 400. For those of you wondering how this is possible, there is some serious credence to these anecdotes of filling your tires up (less friction, more roll) and coasting everywhere. I’m amazed at how far my car will coast at a decent speed with zero acceleration. When i get off the freeway on the way to work, i can coast almost a mile to the next light and nobody around me is any the wiser. Seriously, try it. Even if you don’t drive stick, just click your transmission up to neutral and roll for a while. The more time you spend at low RPMs, the better gas mileage you get. Genius right? Oh and also, don’t go over 70. Ever. At all. I’ve noticed that my mileage gets completely shot to hell at speeds above 65. Weird, but true.
This is kind of me these days as my team has lost 2 in a row and fallen out of first place: Fantasy Baseball Owner Rips Team in Media
Fun with presidential candidate word association. I wonder how far down “asshole” was for McCain.
Obama will receive the democratic nomination at Mile High Stadium, which reminds me how much i miss football.
Google apparently has issues with its daycare. So that’s 2,797 good things and 1 bad. Ah, how we love to see the mighty fall.
It’s time for the Running of the Bulls again. And as you know, i always root for the bulls.
Jim Carrey found one way to outsmart the paparazzi.
This is a pretty awful story… Did she have health insurance? Could that have played a part?
Filed under: Death Penalty, Gun Control, Obama, Suns, apocalypse, basketball, bees, colony collapse disorder, green, guns, rape
I’m excited right now. Lot’s of good stuff going on. Lots to talk about. I’m typing at warp speed and none of my co-workers are any more the weary. They think i’m working hard. Ha!
- In sports, the Suns spent their 15th pick last night drafting Sideshow Bob!
- In other news, scientists are placing 2 to 1 odds on the North Pole melting completely this summer. Awesome.
- If you read this story, and look at this woman’s picture, you find yourself saying, “Yup. That woman looks like a big enough bitch to OWN SLAVES.”
- This “Obama is a Muslim” conversation is killing me. It’s insane. It’s mind-numbing. And there is no winner. If he tries to distance himself from any type of Muslim ties – perceived or otherwise — then the media is going to rake him from being anti-Muslim (a hypocritical action, to be sure)…but if he embraces anything Muslim or is even pictured near Muslim people, then i’ll get 8 Forwards from my father and his friends claiming that Obama wants to turn America into an Islamic country and open an Al-Qaeda training camp on the White House lawn…and there are millions of people (10% according to polls) much dumber than me that will totally believe it. It’s absolutely terrifying the lengths that this country will go to to ignore important things and focus on the inane. And don’t blame the media, blame yourself. The media shows you exactly what you ask them to see. It’s your fault. Take some responsibility.
- There is a great conversation going on over at Nole’s blog about some recent Supreme Court decisions concerning gun control and the death penalty. Surprisingly, I’m torn on these issues. I am against the government deciding that we shouldn’t have guns while they get to keep a firm grip on theirs, and i’m also uncomfortable with any politician deciding who should live or die. But as i said in my comment to Nole’s post — if he ever approves it — anybody who rapes a kid should die. Sorry if that’s a mixed message, but seriously, i’m not kidding. In one case that they reviewed, the guy raped his 8-year old step daughter so brutally that he almost killed her. Because doctors were able to save her, the guy can’t be given the death penalty…if she had died (and for much of that experience she probably wished that she had), we could have fried the fucker. How is that justice? How is that right? This guy should have been put on his knees and executed on the spot. No mercy. No trial. No chance to work the system, make a lawyer rich or waste tax-payer money. You raped an 8 year old, fuck you, die. I understand that there have been numerous murder and rape cases overturned years later by DNA evidence, etc. but what would be the harm in making the rape or sexual exploitation of a child so unbelievably taboo and the punishment so amazingly immediate and harsh in our society that no person would ever think of putting themselves anywhere near the situation? What would be the harm in that? And furthermore, what is the benefit of keeping someone who would do such a thing alive? How does that benefit anyone but the guy who did it? I don’t advocate death or speak in absolutes that often, but if someone rapes a kid, in my mind, they have given up their right to enjoy a heart beat.
- Moving right along to other enjoyable and positive topics…remember that bee thing – Colony Collapse Disorder — that we were talking about a year ago? Well yeah, it hasn’t gone away or gotten any better. And in a final homage to George Carlin this week, i bet if instead of calling it something sterile and scientific sounding like Colony Collapse Disorder, they called it “Holy Fucking Shit! The bees are dying and we’re all going to fucking starve to death!” i bet more people would pay attention. Just a thought.
I suppose it’s better than nothing…but this still feels like a bone thrown the way of large corporate donors and the ethanol lobby.
It would be hypocritical of me to rake this completely across the coals, since i just suggested that the government should be encouraging this type of research in this post.
The question was posed — by Nole, i believe, although i can’t find the post — concerning just how high the price of gas would rise before we started to change our behaviors and habits…well, i think we’re starting to see our answer.
Filed under: Tila Tequila, arizona sucks, failblog, foxnews, gay marriage, green, more fucking stupidity
Another tank of gas down, this one was about the same as last time…26.1 mpg…i think i can do better, but it’s pretty tough in the summer with the traffic and the AC running. Might have to save that 400 mile tank for Fall. The other downside is that gas is now $4+ a gallon (i actually paid $4.45 for 91 octane on this tank…kill me), so that $600 i was saving is vanishing in a hurry. Garret sent me this great article that has me re-inspired for the next tank of gas. Apparently, i’m a “hypermiler” now.
Funny story about driving slow… I think the biggest factor in saving gas is how you accelerate, so i’ve been getting going pretty slow lately. I hated, HATED when people did this to me when i was a fast driver but now that i’m driving slower i feel like i’m right and everyone else is wrong so fuck them, right? So i’m accelerating slow at this light the other day and this guy is honking at me like the asshat that he is. Being the spiteful person that i am, i react by going even slower. We go up the freeway on-ramp and he tries to get around me but we both get caught at the metered lights and i get the green first. Again, i accelerate very slowly (but this time on to a freeway in which people are averaging 80mph), he comes racing up behind me and crosses the gore point (big, big no-no in AZ) to get around me…but right as he comes up on my bumper in the lane next to me, i flip my blinker on and slide over, right in front of him, cutting him off. The dude is, of course, totally enraged at this point but can’t merge into the other lanes because of other cars coming. So he’s stuck behind me doing 65 mph on the nose. He finally gets a window, merges left to go around me, and i cut him off again. I’m dying of laughter at this point, because punishing douchetards is one of my favorite things in life. We’re about 3 miles down the freeway now, right where it starts to get crowded and he gets wedged in between two cars going the speed limit with me in front of him, and i’ve got him totally at my mercy. I kept him boxed in and totally frustrated for 12 whole miles all the way to my exit. Hahahaha. I love me.
Back to the point though, my car is about to hit 75k miles and i’m honestly thinking about turning it in for a hybrid very, very soon. I absolutely hate the look (and resulting mentality) of the Prius, but the Tesla is pretty awesome!
I checked the bus routes that would get me to my job 15 miles away from my house, and it would take an hour and drop me off 4 miles away…so unless Sam has a bike i can have, that’s just not an option. Fuck you very much, Phoenix.
Tila Tequila is claiming responsibility for gay marriage being legal in California…this would be a sign of the apocalypse but the only thing Tila is responsible for is giving herpes to men and women instead of just sticking to one gender…and herpes can’t kill you.
We don’t have enough stupidity on FoxNews so they hired Mike Huckabee. (glad to see that dumbass get held accountable).
Your shower curtain can kill you…welp, that’s pretty much everything now, isn’t it?
Have you seen failblog? Quite amusing.
It’s been a big week, so i’m shutting it down. Enjoy your weekend fools.
Filed under: China, Gas Prices, Phoenix Copper Bikes, Spurs, alcohol, bad parents, baseball, basketball, drinking, green, personality issues
I finished another tank of gas last night…this time i traveled 373 miles on 14 gallons for 26.6 mpg. It was a little less than last time but still 3-4 mpg better than i was getting. I’m finding myself glancing down at the odometer more and trying to stretch my miles, almost like a personal challenge to do better and better each tank. My goal is a 400 mile tank…i’m pretty far from it right now, but i think if i coast to a few more lights, i can do it. At first i was worried that driving slow would piss people off (having been a fast driver, slow drivers pissing me off is still very fresh in my memory) but then i realized, “Hey, since when do i give a shit?” So we’ll see how it goes.
You know what else saves gas? Bicycles…keep up the good work Sam.
I think this is the child of the guy who posted the comment on my Gun Control post…
How the F–K do you move 12 million people?!? I guess when your population is over a billion, it’s all relative.
I hate the Spurs with all of my heart. The RiverWalk is a sewage canal…that’s right, i said it.
Great story last night out of baseball where 24-year old Red Sox pitcher and cancer survivor Jon Lester threw a no-hitter.
I’m going to Rocky Point this weekend for some R&R and when i get back from having a Corona permanently attached to my right hand, i’ll be attempting to have my 2nd annual spring detox. For a few months anyway, i’m going to get back after it and see if i can’t shed some weight for the summer, work a little harder at a few goals and improve on some behaviors and relationships that need some work. It did wonders for me last year and i learned a lot…time for a refresher course on those lessons. Of course, i’ll be chronicling the entire thing here right up until i fall off the wagon at this (video of last year here). Wish me luck.
OK, the tank of gas has been used up and i’ve got some results to share.
On May 1st, i filled up after having traveled 318.2 miles using 13.95 gallons of gas…roughly 22.8 mpg.
Since may 1st, i’ve driven more slowly and less aggressively. I can’t say i’ve always gone the speed limit (honestly, driving that slow will get you killed in this town…) but i’ve tried to keep it within 5 miles per hour of the speed limit and i’ve been setting the cruise control at 70 on the freeway, when possible. I also tried to coast up to red lights, stop signs and turns in neutral. Since i drive stick, it’s really easy to put the clutch in and slow down gradually without wasting fuel on acceleration when i’m just going to slam on my brakes a few seconds later. It’s really f-ing obvious when you think about it but when you accelerate, your car creates energy on the fuel it just burned. Once you burn it, it’s gone, you can’t get it back (million dollar idea: build a combustion engine with an after burner, or one that stores kinetic energy from wasted acceleration…). So when you accelerate and create momentum, and then hit your brakes or turn, you’ve just wasted all of that forward momentum that you had created. It’s quite literally a waste of fuel. Seems so obvious now.
So, with all that in mind, did it really make a difference?!? Let’s take a look.
Last night, May 11th, i filled my tank with 14.02 gallons of gas after travelling 384.8 miles…divide miles by gallons….carry the 1…i got 27.4 mpg. Defintitely not bad. Not bad at all…but it’s pretty close to my prior hypothesis.
I travelled 66 more miles on this tank and i filled up 2 days later than i normally would (allowing that i was out of town for 24 hours in the middle of that). If i fill up every 7 days for a year, keeping gas prices at $3.65/gallon and assuming that i buy 14 gallons per trip, that gets me a yearly gas bill of $2,044. If i fill up every 9 days, keeping the cost and quantity constant, my yearly gas bill would be $2,652. That’s not bad…i’m not sure saving $600 a year is enough to usually necessitate a behavior change for me, but in theory it sounds damn good. Seeing as though we’re getting a $600 “stimulus” check from our federal governement this year, maybe another $600 from saving some gas could really help the majority of this country out…i digress.
Environmentally speaking, here are the results…If i only have to fill up every 9 days instead of every 7, that would equate to 12 fewer trips to the pump per year (40, instead of 52). If i fill up 14 gallons at each of these trips, that would save 168 gallons of gas per year. Let’s say there are 200 million drivers in the U.S. If each of these drivers saved 168 gallons of gas per year that would be 33.6 billion gallons of gas saved. The U.S. consumes 146 billion gallons of gas per year…that would cut our consumption almost one-fourth…a pretty amazing number. And for fun, let’s take it another step. Assuming that a 42-gallon barrel of oil makes 19.5 gallons of gas (even though there is no standard for this)…that would reduce the demand for oil by about 72.2 billion gallons of oil per year. World consumption is around 120 million barrels a day or 43.8 billion barrels or 1.8 trillion gallons of oil per year…so if the U.S. managed to save 72 billion gallons of oil, not by driving electric cars or walking to work, but just by driving slower, we would reduce world oil consumption by 60%. (The world’s economy would fucking collapse, but that’s beside the point right?)
Pretty convincing numbers if you ask me. Color me surprised, but i actually am going to make an effort to drive slower and smarter. It’ll be good for my pocket book and good for the environment, while not having a huge impact on how i live my life. This is not a big or difficult change. I’m sure it will be easier on my car and definitely safer for myself and those around me.
I’m officially on that tank of gas…the one where i promised to drive the speed limit and consciously make an effort to see if that improved my gas mileage. On my last tank of gas, i did the math and received 23 mpg, not the 24 the i originally assumed i was getting. I’m interested to see if this will make a difference.
Then i saw this article in The Arizona Republic today and it just seems so obvious doesn’t it?
I recently partook in a discussion about how driving less or even driving slower might have an impact on the environment, our finances, and our dependence on foreign oil (not to mention bending over the guys over at Exxon just a little bit for their continual record profits). I made a pledge that on my next tank of gas i would drive within the speed limit, watch my acceleration and coast to red lights in neutral (i have a manual transmission), instead of racing up to the light and slamming on my brakes…and then take a good look at my MPG and see if it made a difference.
Now, i’m not a scientist but i do remember the scientific process from high school, so here’s my hypothesis before the experiment. Once i do it, i’ll let you know the actual numbers.
Currently, i get an average of 24 mpg, i have a 14.5 gallon tank, but i fill up when the light goes on somewhere between 13.5 and 14, so let’s say that i go 336 miles on one tank of gas and i use one tank of gas every 7 days. I use premium fuel to keep my rocket ship at peak performance and I usually pay about 3.70 for a gallon of gas…that’s about 60 gallons a month costing me $222 per month times 12 months which is $2664 per year on fuel. If my driving slowly and conservatively suddenly gets me 28 mpg (which is what i get on road trips typically) that would get me about 390 miles before i have to fill up again, about a 60 mile improvement, or about 2.5 gallons of gas further than normal…which maybe, just maybe gets me one or 2 more days of driving on a tank. So let’s say i go 8 days between refills instead of 7, that’s 3.75 refills a month, times 14 gallons per refill time $3.70 per gallon equals $194 per month or about $28 a month in savings or $330 a year.
In the end, $300 a year isn’t going to make a huge impact on my life. Yes, i’m a spoiled privileged white person but i also have a good paying job and i don’t live paycheck to paycheck. So $300 a year is definitely some extra beer money but all in all, not a huge impact on my overall life and probably not enough to reinforce those better driving habits…environmentally speaking, i would save approx 96 gallons of gas over the course of a year, or about 1 barrel. If everyone in America saved 1 barrel of gas, that would be around 300 million barrels of gas a year. The world currently consumes 120 million barrels PER DAY, so we would save the world approx 2.5 days of oil…a drop in the proverbial barrel. It wouldn’t have that big of an impact. Now if driving slowly all of a sudden got me 50mpg, then we’re talking. Sorry to play out all the figures in this post but i’ll be interested to see how my hypothesis compares to my experiment.
“It has to start somewhere, it has to start somehow. What better place than here, what better time than now?” – Zach De La Rocha-
Filed under: Biodegradable, Bush, Chris Jordan, Lindsay Lohan, Obama, green, more fucking stupidity
This picture is my moment of Zen today:
Freckles go south for the winter! Lindsay Lohan continues her descent (ascent maybe?!?) to full-on pornography. Lindsay considers offer from Playboy?
And on a more ironic, but less hilarious note: Bush Criticizes Obama on Foreign Policy. You know, i’ve really held back from ripping President Bush on this blog* but i just can’t do it anymore. What a complete and total fucking moron. Yeah, because referring to our previously non-adversarial enemies as the “Axis of Evil” in a State of the Union address is totally sound reasoning and carrying out pre-emptive strikes on autonomous countries based on faulty and irresponsible data is a WAAAYYY better foreign policy strategy than getting your picture taken and having a candid conversation with Raul Castro. If Cuba all of a sudden feels empowered enough to launch a military strike because the U.S. President took a picture with their president then i’m pretty sure we could withstand the attack from their life-raft armada and floating door Navy. Thank you President Bush, you have inspired us all with your BRILLIANT Hatfields vs McCoys foreign policy strategy. I have seen the light and will now vote for my war-mongering, veteran grandfather instead of the guy who doesn’t mind talking a bit before he pulls the trigger…What a friggin’ jackass.
And my favorite part is where it says “In the lively 46-minute session, during which Bush bantered with reporters, he delivered a forceful plea…” Has anyone ever seen Bush “banter”? Studder maybe, but not banter…and the only thing he’s ever said forcefully was, “It’s not my bedtime yet! I want to keep playing Playstation! I’m on level 6 …level 6!!!”
*may not have held back
Did you know that when you throw biodegradable materials into the garbage, they never biodegrade? (pdf) News to me as well.
I’ve been checking out a lot of social and political art lately…you’ll appreciate this:
http://www.chrisjordan.com/ (click on Intolerable Beauty)
The California Department of Corrections (not the real one, this group defaces billboards in genius ways.)
The Billboard Liberation Front (i’m thinking about joining…)
