Diesel vs. Gasoline

I drive a 2002 VW Jetta GLS TDI.  It's an automatic.  I bought it back in 2005 when gas prices were a lot different than they are now.  I ran a comparison of prices with my older car, a 1995 VW Jetta GL.  So here's what it looks like today after I paid $4.22 for biodiesel (B5).  Granted, these are highway figures.  My old Jetta got around 25mpg in city and the diesel Jetta gets about 32-33mpg in city; 35mpg if I'm really babying it.  These prices are current as of today.

I think this guy should take a look at my comparison.  He's paying way more than he should.

Gas: $3.42 - 31mpg on highway
BioDiesel: $4.22 - 39mpg on highway
DinoDiesel - $4.09 - 41mpg on highway

400 miles of travel

Gas - 12.9gal used - $44.12
BioDiesel - 10.26gal used - $43.30
DinoDiesel - 9.76gal used - $39.92

$ savings in %:
BD and DD are 1.8% and 9.5% cheaper tank for tank than gas, respectively.

fuel savings in %:
With BD and DD, you use 20.5% and 24.3% less fuel than gasoline, respectively.

Rockin' the Macworld

If only I was. I'm quite excited to to see what Apple introduces in a few hours. As you may remember, four years ago I went to a Macworld. It was pretty spiffy. Take a look at the picture, for proof.

MacBook Air? Time to wait and see!

Wild West Rally 2007

Paul Eklund's 2004 WRX STi
Originally uploaded by BernieC

This past weekend I went east to Pullman, WA with Erin, Dave, Sarah, and Scott. We met up with Derick (who lives in Pullman) for the Wild West Rally in Pomeroy. Being the first time that this rally was run in Eastern Washington, the rally saw a lot of retirements. The roads looked to be smooth and fast, but with some very technical bits which caught almost half of the teams out.

I brought my camera with me, but accidentally left it in my bag at the hotel. The pics I have were taken by Erin and Derick: Flickr Photo Set

In other news, will it please stop raining so I can ride the motorcycle? :-)

Labor Day, as it actually happened.

The ride's actual route actually turned out to be very close to what was planned:



Highlights from the trip included:

• A nice chat at Seattle's Colman ferry dock with a gentleman carrying a parrot. His duck was in his truck (I kid you not.).
• Another nice chat with a septuagenarian Texan who was traveling the country in his small SUV. He had a very impressive setup in his vehicle for documenting his trip.
• Taking "action shots" of Dave and I on the road up to Hurricane Ridge. Hopefully I'll get some pictures from him soon.
• Saw a former coworker and friend of his (a guy who used to park his motorcycle next to mine at my office) at Hurricane Ridge.
  
• Lunch at a diner just outside Port Angeles with slow service because one of the two cooks had gone to jail during the weekend (doh!)
• The first 23 miles of highway 112 were recently oiled and graveled, making traction less than ideal. Dave told me later on that, at one point, his bike was not responding to steering input on one stretch of road. I just noticed that the bike felt a little bit looser than normal.

So, all in all, a good trip. Hopefully I'll be able to fit another trip in before October.

Leavenworth

Went on a ride today. Out to Leavenworth. Nice day for it too. Here's the route...





Overall, it was a damn good weekend. No complaints from me. More pics of the trip are here.

Bernie and the Wee-Strom

50s in Seattle, 40s on Snoqualmie Pass, and mid-70s in Ellensburg, Washington. Ya gotta love Washington state's weather. Today was a beautiful day for a ride out to the Yakima River Canyon and to have lunch with my friend Derick at the Yellow Church Cafe in Ellensburg. Happy Memorial Day. I won't forget this weekend for a while - it's been a fairly eventful one.

I've posted pics of that trip as well as some others here. Enjoy...

Vegas 2007

Here are the pics. It was a dang good trip. Good company, good food, good shows, and I came out about even on gambling. I can't complain...

http://technojunkie.org/berniec/galleries/vegas-2007/

What. A. Year.

Well, folks, this has been quite the year. Let's take a little trip down memory lane...

January: Celebrated 6 years with my then girlfriend in Victoria. Watched her leave for India for 6 weeks before I left for India, myself. Started building a friendship with someone who was, at that point, only an acquaintance.

February: Left for India at the beginning of the month for four weeks in Bangalore for work.

March: Returned from India to a life that had changed a bit. Started socializing more with friends. Had a very fun and interesting welcome back party. Continued building friendship with the person who used to be an acquaintance.

April: Ended my six year relationship with my girlfriend. Road trip to Vegas with a friend, and on the return, San Francisco. Start friendships with several people and become part of a new circle of friends.

May: Started seeing someone I knew in high school. This did not last for long (see below).

June: The fit hits the shan and thus begins the worst summer of my life.

July: Yup, the fit's still in the shan and summer still sucks, but I took a motorcycle training course and I bought a motorcycle. Woo!!!!

August: The fit's no longer on the shan. I take a deep breath and life starts to simmer down. I turn 28. I take another road trip with a different friend - this time to LA to see the Price is Right, and through the Bay area. One of the best road trips ever! I got to go to Disneyland!!!! For the first time!!!!!

September: A minor crisis averted. And a long motorcycle trip around the Olympics.

October: Nothing much to report here. Did go to Oregon Trail Rally near Tillamook, Oregon.

November: Nothing much to report here. Did go to the Seattle International Autoshow.

December: Wild West Rally at the beginning of the month. Then, a trip to Connecticut to see my grandmother, whose health had been progressively getting worse. Then back home for a week, and then back to Connecticut for her funeral. Happy Holidays, yo!

A very eventful year. Ups and downs. But through it all, my friends have been there and I end the year with more friends than when I started. I love my friends. Being 3000 miles away from my real family, my friends ARE my family.

I'm back...

I don't even know quite where to begin about this month. It's just been shitty. This has not been an easy time. Don't know how else to put it.

Merry Christmas. I'm back from Connecticut (again).

To all of my friends who have supported me throughout this, thank you again. I'd do anything for you and I know you would too.

Grama Case

Obituary

I leave for another trip to Connecticut tomorrow morning. This time it's for my grandmother's wake and funeral. She was a great woman.

Thanks to all of my friends who have been so supportive throughout the last couple of weeks. Now I really know I won't forget 2006. So much has happened this year. I just hope 2007 is a better year.

I gots me 2 quarts of WMD!

TSA searched my checked bag. I had two 1-quart bottles of maple syrup. I'm sure they thought they were bombs. This isn't the first time they've searched my bag, and they were nice enough to leave a note. How sweet.

Deliciously improvised explosive devices! Maple syrup - yum!

Casedom

About my trip to Connecticut...

The flights from SeaTac were completely uneventful. Thanks to a generous helping of frequent flyer miles I was able to score first class tickets this go-around. I feel pretty lucky to get this and the customer service rep at Northwest was incredibly helpful in helping me out with this. It was a redeye out of Seattle at 12:50am and I got into BDL at 11:15am. My dad met me there and after a longish walk to the car, we were on our way (he parked at the wrong terminal - doh!).

Seeing my grandmother for the first time in 6 months was great, but she's in really sad shape. She's on oxygen, has pneumonia, and has fluid in her lungs that she's having a hard time clearing out. My Aunt Sally and Uncle Fred spend all of their spare time with her and really have busted their butts to try to make sure she's comfortable and is going to somehow beat this. But seeing her like that was so incredibly tough. This is a woman who stands not much over 5 feet tall who takes shit from nobody. If ever there was someone who was full of piss 'n' vinegar, it'd be her. She's one hell of a woman.

Every time I visit with the family I learn something new about it. This is the trouble with having grown up 3000 miles away from the core family. I just didn't have the exposure to them over the years. Let's see what I learned...

• Case Avenue in Winsted, CT, is not named for my family. There's apparently another Case family in Winsted and there's no relation. My family is based in Colebrook.
  
• My grandmother is an institution in Colebrook. In the wintertime, she bakes and gives food to the guys who plow the roads by her house. They gave her a cute card with all of them holding out their stomachs with some cheesy poem about how they'd miss her cooking this winter.
  
• Apparently there is such a thing as "Case temper." My cousin Mitchell and I talked about this. Cases are usually very happy-go-lucky, but once the fuse is lit, get away. Our temper is not a pleasant one. Anybody who knows me well might have seen it at some point. If you have, sorry.
  
• I learned more about how my Great Uncle Paul lived in his final days, and how everybody else in the family took so much care of him. He had his last cigarette the day before he died of lung cancer. He was a cool guy.
  

I'm sure there are more little tidbits I'm forgetting, but those are the ones that stick out.

Friday was a rough day. Grandma was incredibly frail and weak in the morning. She was having a really hard time breathing. Things were looking really bleak, and she was given a dose of morphine. By 6pm, she was up and talking again and was doing a lot better. But things were rough and I must've been on the verge of balling my eyes out at least 3 or 4 times. My poor cousin Mitch spends all of his spare time with her. I've got so much fucking respect for him after seeing how much time he spends with her and how much he loves her. It makes my 4 days here seem insignificant.

Mitch is 4 years younger than me and he reminded me of one of his earlier memories of my visits out to Connecticut. I exposed that poor boy to 2 Live Crew. He was 9. I was 12 or 13. Talk about corrupting the youth. The thing he didn't know was that his father caught me exposing him to it and luckily I didn't get the shit beat out of me. And my parents never said a word to me about it. I don't get it. And Mitch said that we looked at a Penthouse, but I don't remember that. He joked that he didn't know what the hell he was looking at at the time (in reference to female anatomy). Ah, good times.

Mitch and his wife, Renee, have been very warm and welcoming. Had drinks with them Friday and Saturday night at their apartment and watched Garden State and bunch of TV with them. Mitch and I talked about how there is such a thing as a Connecticut accent, and we compared notes on pronunciation of common words. Considering Renee's a speech and language pathologist, this was even more interesting. This trip has been great considering all of the time I've spent with my family.

But, my grandma. It's anybody's guess when she's going to go. Yesterday we thought was it, but by the evening she was better. And today she was weak in the morning but by 8pm she was up and talking again. And with the steady stream of visitors today, how could she not be. These past four days I've seen so many people that remember me when I was "this high." Do I remember them? Not so much, but the family here is so well known it's amazing to me. This is something I don't have in Seattle, and it's very appealing. I got to see my aunt Barb (removed via divorce) for the first time in 10 years today. Of course she gave me shit for not calling her, but I got to see her for a little while.

So that's Connecticut. It's yet another family reunion of sorts. It's emotional because of my grandma's situation, but she might pull through enough to at least go home. My mom's an RN and worked in nursing homes, so I've been exposed to it before. It's just tough to see someone as vital as my grandma in the same sort of place. It hurts.

Sunday's events with her were pretty good. I got to spend a couple hours with her alone and she filled me in on some of the events in the family. I was hoping to ask some more historical questions but most of what's on her mind is stuff that's happening right now to certain people in the family. She's holding on to what she's got so she can see this family stuff through.

Today was better for her. She actually managed to have more than just a smoothie, and had a bit of a turkey grinder my Aunt Sally brought me. Yum yum yum. I'm going to miss grinders, but I think there's a place in Seattle I can go to get them.

Overall, this was a really good trip. I bonded with more of my family (particularly my cousin Mitch and his wife) and really got to see my grandma more than ever. I'd like to try to go back twice a year, if possible. We'll see how that works out.

So, I'm back. And happy for it. I missed all of my friends.

Seat 01-A

I'm off to Connecticut tonight, folks. My grandma's been in declining health and the family's not sure when she'll be better. So I'm heading out tonight for a short trip to see her, my dad, and other relatives. It's been a few months since I was back there (May) and I hope to get to spend a lot of time with her.

I'll be back late Sunday night. I'm still available via cell phone while I'm gone. Enjoy!

About my weekend, and another ride report

Was back out on the Olympic Peninsula this weekend. Met up with a bunch of friends in Sequim and saw a friend's band play at the 7 Cedars Casino. Had a great time with them Friday night and ended up pretty sloshed, but I managed to get some riding in on Saturday.

The weather called for rain later in the day, and luckily I managed not to get caught in any. I started in Sequim, and rode up 101 to highway 112. Highway 112 is an interesting road. Heading west, most of the road is downhill and some of the twistier stretches of the road are downhill making for some interesting riding. Perhaps it was the previous night's drinking, but I felt like I was not quite riding as well as I could. The two times my foot grazed the ground had me either worried or laughing, as I was riding pretty hard. In any case, I still had a good time. I then made the mistake of riding down highway 113 to get back to 101. I should've turned around and rode 112 back to Port Angeles. 101 before Lake Crescent is really boring, and then I got stuck behind several cars on 101. Ah, well.

The rest of the ride was uneventful and I managed to get onto the Edmonds ferry just in time. The weather's really starting to change, so some of the colors I saw on this ride were stunning. In any case, I hope to keep being able to ride even as it gets cooler.

Ride Report - Around North Bend, Carnation, Duvall

Today I took the first of what I hope will be many rides with 3 other guys, two of which I met for the first time today. My friend Dave, who has a Ninja 250, met up with me at Fry's Electronics in Renton. Joining us was the leader of the group, Tim (Ninja 250), and Mike (Suzuki SV650).

Tim knows the roads really well, and led us all on about 5 hours of riding some excellent twisties. Went up Highway 900 from Renton to Issaquah, and then road up to Fall City. Road out to Tiger Mountain, and then to Rattlesnake Lake. Then had breakfast at a place called Gordy's. Not a shabby place for breakfast.

Tim then took us up to some excellent twisties up around Snoqualmie Falls. There was a bit of rain the night before, so some of the roads were a bit wet, but had no major issues with them.

After Snoqualmie, we went further north, all the way up through Carnation and Duvall, and then ended the ride in Monroe. Dave and I broke off from the group and rode back down to Renton so he could get some warmer gloves for our ride tomorrow.

Two close calls, that certainly had the "pucker factor": 1) Locked up the rear wheel on a downhill 70 degree right turn. I was taking up the rear, and had to do some hard braking. I braked in the turn and the back wheel locked and then started fishtailing. I got control back and did not have any problems. 2) While entering a very congested I-405 in Renton, I almost rearended a car that stopped in front of me while I was changing lanes. Got within inches of his rear bumper, but did not make contact.

For all of that, I'm OK, the bike's OK, and I'm looking forward to another ride tomorrow.

Tomorrow - the Olympic Peninsula

Ride Report - Snoqualmie Falls

Today I took a little ride. Started at the house, and rode up I-5 to SR520. Rode SR520 to Redmond and then took SR202 (Redmond-Fall City Rd.) into Fall City. It's a fairly benign road, with few major turns, but it meanders through what's left of rural King County farmland.

The map I had was printed and stored in a pocket of my jacket, but I was not studying it. So, navigation was done just through road signs. Upon entering Fall City, I could have stopped for lunch, but instead I decided to head up to Snoqualmie Falls. And that's what I did. A quick 15-20 minute stop there, a few pictures, and I was back on the road. I continued through Snoqualmie and then stopped for lunch in North Bend.

Lunch was had at Twede's cafe, apparently a showpiece in the TV show Twin Peaks. (I never watched it, so I wouldn't know). I had a patty melt and fries. It was about what I expected for road food - pretty dang greasy. Then, back on the bike. I rode out to I-90 and instead of getting on I-90, I just kept riding. Not for long, though, as I hit a dead-end. After flipping around, I decided to ride I-90 to Snoqualmie Pass.

Nothing of consequence to note from the trip from this point on. I tailed a group of Harleys on the way back to Seattle. And I learned just how severe some of the wind gusts on I-90 can be as I was blown around a bit.

A short ride, but a good one. Hopefully next weekend I'll be heading out to the Olympic Peninsula for a day, if the weather's good.

TPIR trip update

Bob Barker looks about the same in person as he does on TV. There's just so much makeup on him that you will never know how bad he looks underneath it. But the show was great, and I managed to get my first real amount of sleep today. We left Saturday morning at 6am and got into our hotel at 1am.

The hotel was horrendous - ants in the bathroom was the first thing my travel partner, Sheila, noticed. But we were both too tired to care. The next morning, though, Sheila found that the shower was inoperable. And after being moved from the double room we were in to a single room with a working shower, we decided to check out of the hotel early. We got reservations at a much nicer boutique hotel. Totally worth it.

Sunday we went to Disneyland. My first time there. I had a really great time. Sheila's been there a million times so she ended up giving me the commentary track as we walked around. I really had a great time there.

We checked into our new hotel around midnight Sunday. Then we were up at 4am to go to line up for The Price Is Right. It was a really really long day, but the show was great and it'll air on October 27th.

Last night we went to the Santa Monica pier. Got a bit lost trying to find a gas station that sold diesel. But Sheila put me in the right direction and we got fuel before running out. But the pier was really cool.

Today we're going up to the bay area and then tomorrow, home. Great trip so far.

Come on down?

Road trip. To Los Angeles. Leaving August 19th. On the 21st, The Price Is Right.

I cannot wait.

The Price is Right. Seriously. Awesome.

A little something about my family....

So the wedding isn't for another 90 minutes or so, but it would seem there's a bunch of drama going on with the family here. Plenty of crap happening and I wish I could make it better for the one full day I'm here. But I can't, and they're so far removed from my life that what happens here doesn't really affect me. It seems like it's just a collection of stories that serve to give me more reason not to relocate out here. Ugh...

But out of this comes a very interesting article from the Litchfield County Times monthly magazine about the town where most of my dad's side of the family lives and some great words about my late grandfather, Ed Case:

Warm Welcome in Colebrook

ORD

This weekend is a cousin's wedding in Connecticut so I'm on my way back. Looks like my flight to Hartford is a bit delayed so here I am sitting at Chicago O'Hare airport waiting. Only another 3 hours or so. Gonn have to find a power outlet soon.

Plenty of interesting things are happening in my life right now, but I won't divulge as I really don't wish to jinx my recent good fortune. I'm getting happier, socializing more, and getting past the crap of the breakup. Soon I'll start looking for a new place to live as it looks like I won't be getting a roommate at my current house.

All in all, it would seem some good news might be coming my way soon.

Vacation wrap-up

So the MAF sensor was replaced in the car yesterday and we didn't have any problems whatsoever on the trip back to Seattle. We got here about 11:30am. The hardest part about the trip back was just how damn tired I was. Maureen and I ended up splitting the driving duties almost evenly.

After getting a nap and a shower, the laundry has been started. Much laundry to do, and there's a bunch of other household stuff that needs to be done.

It would've been nice if I hadn't had so many troubles on this trip, but it was certainly better than sticking around in Seattle being bored for a week :-)

MAF failure

So the dealer says that the mass airflow sensor failed in the car. Luckily it's covered under warranty. What I told them was that I am using a K&N air filter, and I was worried that the oil from it might've contaminated the MAF. I'm going to get a new air filter for the car when I pick it up later. No more K&N filters, I'm afraid. I just replaced the MAF sensor on my older (1995) gasoline Jetta. Same problem - they said the oil from the K&N filter had fouled the MAF.

They said they didn't have the MAF in stock, but there's one on its way coming from San Jose. We should hopefully be leaving here tonight. And if there are no further problems, we'll be back in Seattle early early tomorrow.

This vacation has had its ups and plenty of downs. Right now it's not feeling like a vacation, though, so I'm ready for it to be over. If I can get back to Seattle by tomorrow then that'll mean I won't have to go back to work until Monday. I could use a few days to recover.

We made it to San Francisco?

The turbocharger issue with the car apparently was pretty serious. We left Vegas around noon today and about 500 miles into the trip, the check engine light came on. This is after noticing that the turbo had, once again, stopped working.

So I was faced with a tough choice - limp the car to San Francisco, and then immediately take it to a dealer the next morning; or, get it towed to the dealer to try to keep the car from really getting fucked up. I chose the second option. I have AAA Plus, which gives you 100 miles of towing per incident. Good thing - the dealer was 99.3 miles from where we stopped the car. So now the car sits at the dealer in San Francisco, and I will need to go over there at 7am to get them to fix it.

Please please please let it be an easy fix that can be done in one day. I wouldn't mind staying longer in San Francisco, but that means I would have to buy a plane ticket for my friend Maureen to get back to Seattle by Wednesday afternoon. And then I'd have to drive back alone. Does not sound fun.

Fucking cars! ARGH!

The good news about this trip is that I've made several new friends through Maureen, the tow truck driver was fucking hilarious, and hey, we really are in San Francisco now.

I'm in Vegas now...

So I've made it to Vegas, with the help of my friend Maureen who was gracious enough to join me on the drive down and helped out with the driving. Highlights:

- Gorgeous sunset outside of Pendleton, OR
- Got a speeding ticket in Utah, around milepost 171 on I-15. 89 in a 75. I think my speedometer actually was at 95, but I'll take the reduced fine.
- Got into Vegas a bit early so we went to Hoover Dam before going to the hotel.
- I had been driving the Jetta TDI so much that the turbo in it stopped working on the way into Vegas. It made getting to Hoover dam a bit slower as I was missing about 40% of power in my car. The turbo started working when we left the dam.
- Got a rock chip in my windshield. I'm going to have to get that repaired while I'm here.
- I'm wearing the most obnoxious Hawaiian shirt right now. Oh man, this thing is loud.

Enough typing. Time to go have some fun.

Argh...

I forgot to sign my tax return. It came back to me yesterday. I didn't e-file this year because I was a cheap bastard. That worked out well.

And in other news, all sorts of shit is happening. I'm going to Oregon Trail rally this weekend with some friends and then I'm going to Vegas with a friend the following week. Both are road trips, and I have high hopes that both will be a hell of a lot of fun.

Fun is what I need. This has been one incredibly bad month.

Good news everybody.

I'm back in the states. Currently at MSP airport waiting for my last flight home. Here's a little rundown of what's happened so far on the trip.

* All of my NiMH batteries got confiscated in Bangalore because I couldn't show the agent there how they'd be used. This is because Nicole took my camera back with her to the states. Jet Airways said they'd send the batteries up to Mumbai for me, but they didn't make it. They gave me 8 AA alkaline batteries. That'll have to do.
* Flew 1st class from BLR to BOM (Bangalore to Mumbai). Was nice. It's good to get a full meal on that flight because once in Mumbai, I have a 5-hour layover.
* Flight from BOM to AMS (Mumbai to Amsterdam) was uneventful.
* Was able to use my company iPass account to get online at AMS and chat with Nicole a bit.
* Got all through security at AMS at the gate, and then they did a gate change. That delayed the flight getting into MSP by about 30 minutes.
* Had 43A and 43C on AMS-MSP leg, which has no at-seat power (the first section of coach does). The aft galley in that plane has 110 outlets and the attendants back there were kind enough to let me charge my 3 dead batteries on that flight. Phew!
* NWA's A330s have multi-player trivia games in the inflight entertainment system. That was fun with 4 people. Some guy in 1A had the nickname of Booger. Now that's 1st class, baby!
* I usually get two seats when I travel and NWA apparently upgraded me to 1st class on the the MSP-SEA leg. I'm not complaining. Seat 5C here I come.
* No problems with immigration or customs.
* Had a burger for lunch. Looks like I'll be having more for dinner in Seattle. That's the first red meat I've had in a month.

How appropriate....

Update (23:50 UTC 4 March 2006): I'm at MSP airport now and my uncle has apologized for sending this out. He's a good man, and I appreciated his apology as I know he'd do anything for anybody, if he could.

So I get this "the US shouldn't be in the UN because a bunch of countries hate us" email from my uncle. I'm at Amsterdam airport right now, and seeing this email forced me to respond. First, the email, then my reply.

On 4 Mar 2006, at 3:22 AM, Bernie's uncle wrote:

President Bush wonders why everyone is against United Arab Em. taking over our ports.

Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2006 10:26 PM
Subject: Fw: Attention Everyone

This oughta upset everybody:

How they vote in the United Nations:

Below are the actual voting records of various Arabic/Islamic States which are recorded in both the US State Department and United Nations records:

Kuwait votes against the United States 67% of the time

Qatar votes against the United States 67% of the time

Morocco votes against the United States 70% of the time

United Arab Emirates votes against the U. S. 70% of the time.

Jordan votes against the United States 71% of the time.

Tunisia votes against the United States 71% of the time.

Saudi Arabia votes against the United States 73% of the time.

Yemen votes against the United States 74% of the time.

Algeria votes against the United States 74% of the time.

Oman votes against the United States 74% of the time.

Sudan votes against the United States 75% of the time.

Pakistan votes against the United States 75% of the time.

Libya votes against the United States 76% of the time.

Egypt votes against the United States 79% of the time.

Lebanon votes against the United States 80% of the time.

India votes against the United States 81% of the time.

Syria votes against the United States 84% of the time.

Mauritania votes against the United States 87% of the time.

U S Foreign Aid to those that hate us:

Egypt, for example, after voting 79% of the time against the United States, still receives $2 billion annually in US Foreign Aid.

Jordan votes 71% against the United States and receives $192,814,000 annually in US Foreign Aid.

Pakistan votes 75% against the United States

Receives $6,721,000 annually in US Foreign Aid.

India votes 81% against the United States; receives $143,699,000 annually.

Perhaps it is time to get out of the UN and give the tax savings back to the American workers who are having to skimp and sacrifice to pay the taxes (and gasoline).

Pass this along to every taxpaying citizen you know. And send to your congressman, who should be disgraced but couldn't care less.

Disgusting, isn't it?

======

My reply:

Sitting in Amsterdam airport, waiting for my flight back to the U.S. after a month-long trip to India, I can say that we've got a lot better than they do. While our gas prices are around $2/gal, theirs are near $5/gal. And when you consider the disparity between the average income of an American and an Indian, you'll understand how much it hurts them more than it does us. We've got it good.

Americans like to talk about their "hard-earned dollars." Until we've seen someone breaking rocks with other rocks with their hands in order to lay a rockbed for a new highway, or someone breaking tiles with a small hammer in order to prepare for a new floor to be laid at the airport, we should just keep quiet.

Just go to a 3rd world country sometime. When you see old women, limbless people, and starving children begging for money, you might get why it's a good thing that our government gives this Aid.

By the way, India contributed aid after Katrina, so it's not like we're alone in this world. There are countries that DO care about us. And we should care about them, too. (http://in.rediff.com/news/2005/sep/08aid.htm)

Thanks,
Bernie

India update - 4 days left

I'm in the home stretch. First time being away from the states for a month, and it wasn't so bad. 4 days left and I'll be heading home. At least work has been keeping me very busy and Nicole's heading back to Seattle today. It was great to have her here for a week. I'm really looking forward to getting back to my American life back home.

I'm positive I'll be back to India again. There's no doubt in my mind about it.

AppleCare in a foreign country

Having AppleCare is a good thing. My power adapter on my 15" PowerBook bit the dust last week. I took it into the local Apple office here in Bangalore and got it replaced. First time I've had to get a repair on this computer outside of the normal 1yr warranty. AppleCare will expire on this computer in September. Very good purchase. I'd highly recommend it for anybody that has an Apple laptop. It's that whole, piece of mind thing.

http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=1532

Office party in India.

My driver needs to seriously stop making me drinks. Seriously.

Had a great time. Now trying to head off the inevitable hangover. I keep telling myself tonight was a bonding exercise. Yeah, that's what it was.

Stare, gawk, laugh.

Being an American isn't just enough.

Being fat isn't just enough.

It's when you're on your way towards your ride back to the hotel when you slip off the curb, trip, and land on your hands and knees in the process, in front of the people on MG Road in Bangalore. That's just good entertainment, folks.

I was quite the show today. Even before the tripping incident on MG Road (in front of the Spencer's Super (formerly Food World)), I had plenty of people staring, gawking, and laughing at just me. I'm a freak here, I know. It's fun at first, but like Japan, it gets old after a while. I had to, somewhat angrily, turn down the group of guys at the botanical gardens that wanted to take a picture with me. Argh.

The whole day out and about started with me needing to find a battery charger for my NiMH AA batteries. I brought a 240v-110v converter so that I'd be able to use my Energizer compact charger. So I plugged it in, and about 5 minutes later, pop and a poof of smoke comes from the charger. Not gonna mess with that pile anymore. The new charger supports 110-240v 50/60Hz so I'm set now. And I'll be able to buy the right type of plug when I get back to the states (or just use a converter).

The helpful room service order taker

So last night I decided to go outside my comfort zone a bit and order Indian food for room service. My choice - Garlic Naan and Tandoori Murg (chicken). These are two things I really like, so I wanted to see how the hotel would do them.

As I made my order, the order taker said, "Are you sure you want it to be spicy? Foreigners usually don't like it very spicy." This is true - I have a hard time how spicy food is here in S. India. So I asked for it to be less spicy. He said he'd be able to do that, and we ended the call.

A short while later he called back. "We can only make it medium spicy," he said. Adding, "If we make it less spicy, it just won't taste the same." So I agreed to medium spicy, and when the food arrived, it was actually great.

I just thought it was interesting how accomodating they were for my palate.

Watching the Super Bowl in India...

...is a nice break to all of the cricket matches.

Go Hawks.

(it's Steelers 21-10 Seahawks right now)

You're welcome, hotel guests

Yes, it's true. I fixed the Internet.

(The wireless router is right outside my room - a quick power cycle and the Internets work now.)

Bangalore - 4 February 2006

Another 28 hour trip from Seattle to here is complete and it's now 4pm in the afternoon in Bangalore. The sun is out, it's probably about 80 degress outside and I have my usual post-arrival headache. Flights here (SEA-AMS-BOM-BLR routing) were pretty uneventful - some European chick on the SEA-AMS flight was singing whatever music she was listening to. I just turned up the volume a bit more. It was nice to have at-seat 120v power on the NWA flight (A330).

I slept through most of the AMS-BOM flight, and the BOM-BLR flight was actually a lot better than last time I came through because the armrests go all the way up on the ATR 72-500 aircraft. The KLM attendant in Amsterdam complimented me on the fact that I get two seats (I'm a passenger of size, in airline terms), and Jet Airways in India had a hard time understanding that I was getting two seats for myself. Oh well.

I was met by Prakash, my driver, at BLR airport and I'm staying at the Hotel Ramanashree, which is much cheaper than Le Meridien and maybe 1.5 stars less than LM.

Nicole's up in Bhubaneswar and will be coming to BLR on 23 February. So I'll have a week with her here before we both head back to the states. That's still 19 days away, but it's not all that far away. At least I can talk to her a lot more frequently now.

So anyway, I'm in Bangalore for the next month.

370HSSV-0773H

Programming note: tomorrow I leave for India. I'll be there until March 3rd.

Osama contacts Bush

After numerous rounds of "We don't know if Osama is still alive," or "I
really don't think about him much anymore," Osama himself decided to
send George Bush a letter in his own handwriting to let him know he was
still in the game.

Bush opened the letter an it appeared to contain a single line of coded
message:

370HSSV-0773H

Bush was baffled, so he E-mailed it to Condi Rice. Condi and her aides
had no clue either, so they sent it to the FBI. No one could solve it at
the FBI so it went to the CIA, then to the NSA.

With no clue as to its meaning they eventually asked Britain's MI-6 for
help. Within a minute MI-6 cabled the White House with this reply:

"Tell the President he's holding the message upside down."

Back to Bangalore

Today Nicole left for India. She's going to Delhi first for about a week and then she's going to Bhubaneswar (pronounced Boob-a-nesh-var) for school until February 28th. It just so happens that I will be going to Bangalore from February 2nd thru March 3rd. I'll be back in the states on late Saturday March 4th.

It started to dawn on me just how much I'll miss her while she's away when I dropped her off at the airport. It'll be 6 years together for us on January 28th and I've grown incredibly accustomed to her presence.

I'm planning on a rendezvous for us after February 28th. I'll most likely fly her down to Bangalore to be with me for just two days before I fly back to Seattle.

I think it's going to be a long month.

In Victoria, la dee da.

It's been a long day. Nicole's going to India next weekend for at least 5 weeks on study, and then I'm going to India (a different part of India) for a month on the 2nd of February. More work stuff.

But this weekend was our little getaway from Seattle. I made reservations on the Victoria Clipper a while back as our 6 year anniversary is on the 28th. Welp, we got to the clipper for an 8am departure. Boat was delayed by two hours leaving Seattle. More coverage (and pic) from Nicole here.

So we're finally on the boat, and we're about 15 minutes out of the dock and the boat slows down. Then they mention there was a problem with the exhaust manifold and one of the engines had to be shut down while the engineer tries to fix it. Another 15 minutes later, and we're informed that due to this problem, the boat's being turned around and we'll be returning to the dock.

So now, the lady across from us is balling her eyes out and I'm trying to laugh the whole damn thing off. Nicole and I talk about whether we want a refund, whether we go up to Victoria by car, or find another hotel and stay in Seattle. We chose to continue onto Victoria. I used my bluetooth connection and T-Mobile T-zones service with my laptop to make reservations on BC Ferries Tsawwassen-Swartz Bay run. We made it up to Tsawassen on time. The border had a less than 5 minute wait. Perfect....

But there was still more fun - this time it's a guy who has a gun or something. And the cops are yelling at him to obey or something. Hard to say, we were too far away to see what the hell was going on.

But anyway, we're here. The hotel's really nice. I'm just happy as hell to be here and we're going to try to enjoy our little vacation as much as possible.

NJ and CT

I guess I really only write JEs when I go on trips now. Hrm.

I'm in Somerset, NJ until Friday for training on a new product my company will be selling sometime in late January. After the training, I'll be taking a train up to CT to visit my Dad and family until Tuesday when I fly back home. Needless to say - it's December, and it's cold as usual, a lot colder than I'm used to.

What is there to say about NJ? Well, the NJ scowl I've noticed in previous visits still exists. It took a little work but we finally got our waitress to smile tonight. Ahh, the sports bar at the Holiday Inn. What good times it is to narrate all of the interesting people there - the spikey-haired sales guy who displaced the college age guy to hit on a large chested woman. The thin, balding guy, in a black top sitting alone at a table, with a glass of wine, stealing glances at the pretty brunette across the room. The young girl who looks like she's not old enough to drink who comes in and sits next to some guy who's reading a book at the bar. We named her volleyball girl. Oh, good times.

Training so far is going well. I think the product has potential, but there are a lot of rough edges that MUST be smoothed out in order to really make me feel more comfortable about supporting it. I'll be going back to Seattle to train my group on this.

I called my dad today. I told him where the train was dropping me off and his response was, "Couldn't you take a bus that takes you all the way here?" I hate the bus. A 30 mile trip to pick me up isn't that hard. Even if it is at midnight.

Anyway, this is the most I've written here in months. We'll see if there's more to write soon, but today was a pretty decent da