Lee.org

Phoey. I can’t get a free discount on my car insurance in California. That said, taking this driving class saved me a lot of money in New Jersey in 2002-2005. Some car insurance companies honor programs like this, some don’t. Read on.

I took an online driving safety course, sent the certificate of completion to my car insurance company and now my car insurance went down by $150 a year for 3 years! That’s $450 free money!

Here’s what to do:

– Call your car insurance company and ask what kind of discount they’ll give if you take an online drivers safety course that’s sponsored by the National Safety Council. My insurance, GE gave me $150 each year for 3 years. Some companies don’t offer any discount… Sorry.

– Take the course at http://www.nscddconline.com/ It’s also offered at

http://www.tutorials.com/catalog/catalog_item_n.asp?pid=2037 but they charge a bit more.

– Send your insurance company the certificate of completion that you’ll receive a week later.

The course costs $42… IE it instantly pays for itself. The course is mind-numbingly easy. It asks questions like: You come to a Stop sign on a busy street and an old lady is crossing, do you:
A) Stop, look and listen
B) Accelerate to clear the intersection quickly
C) Swerve and continue down the road
D) Turn on your hazard lights.

The course took about 3 hours for me to complete. It should take you less given this bit of advice: there is no final test and just about everything they try to teach you is about common sense.. They won’t ask you any nit-picky questions like “How many feet do you have to park away from a fire hydrant? 5, 15, or 20. (No, I don’t remember either)

I took the test in August 2002 and I’ve saved about $300 in insurance since.

Yes, this is legit, go to www.nsc.org. Click on “Driving” then click on “DDC-PC Online” and read up on it.

If it works out for you, I’d love to hear back.

(Pointed out to me by TJIC)

Very interesting ideas.

Affordable Family Formation
Continue reading ‘red states, blue states, zero sum games, and escaping the gravity well’ »

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Did you just write a book / create a CD / make a poster / finish a video / make a calendar? Want to get it published…. this afternoon? Use Lulu.com

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As we were passing by a bar near where I live in the Mission district, Holly asked me which was (with quotations) “your local bar”. In a flash, I thought back about all the bars I had been in that I liked… bars in NYC, Hackettstown, Boston… all the interesting eateries, brew-pubs and homey coffee shops. I couldn’t think of a single place that was “my” place.

We walked along, looking for something to do on Saturday night in the Mission. Or if we only found some cool night air, we’d be happy too. There was a little artist gallery/nightlife spot I had randomly found a couple weeks ago while coming back from the post office so we were walking in that direction. We found the place.

As we approached, we worried that the place wasn’t open; the lights were out… or at least they were really dim. A sign at the front door directed us around to the side.

As we stepped inside, I had this comfortable feeling… the patrons looked at ease and happy, the ambient sounds were soothing, there was a pitcher of mohito on the bar and the band was gearing up for their second set. I knew immediately that -this- was -my- local bar.

www.redpoppyarthouse.org

I’m for hire. I am. Take a glance over at the Pages sidebar. You’ll find “I’m for Hire“.

While your mouse is over there, click on some of those other pages. Some of them are just consolidated from other parts of my site but it’s nice that they’re all in one neat little list now.

Hip, hip, don’t break!

update 11-9-11: consider using DeltaCopy instead of my home-brewed method below. I haven’t used it yet, but it looks nice!

I want to back up my Windows XP computer to another Windows XP computer using Rsync and SSH. Since Rsync only runs under *nix, I’m running it under Cygwin.

There are a couple hurdles to doing this. The one I got stuck on was getting SSH to work without a password.

It’s so freaking simple to do. You just have to know which instructions do not help accomplish your goal.

Continue reading ‘Using Cygwin, Rsync, SSH and the internet to backup my XP computer’ »

This was originally a “page” on my blog that I updated from time to time. But I like using the chronological format of a blog better now. Be sure to check out the Reading, Watching, Listening category of this blog!

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I’ve always been a slow reader. Sometimes, when I see people that read those big, heavy tombs like all those James Mitchner books, I get jealous. But then, I savor each word. In a good book, I have to stop every now and then because, although my eyes are strong and fast enough to read on, my mind has to digest what I’ve read. Reading quickly loses it’s advantage if you miss substance and depth.

Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver – 6-20-02 – I spent time with the people of Zebulon County on every long car trip for the last three months. I borrowed this wonderful 15 hour audiobook from Shara. I just finished it and I miss the characters so. Not that the story is unfinished but like a good friend and neighbor that has moved to another town, I feel their absense. I cherished the time I had with these characters. Thank you Ms. Kingsolver for writing this story and then telling it to me.

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin – 6-1-02 – Last summer, Shara lent me an audiobook of another Earthsea book. I was enthralled by the frank and precise language the Ms. Le Guin used and I wasn’t disappointed by this story. She applies such a down-to-earth style to high-fantasy that sits very well with me. I’ll be reading more of her!

Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Edward Hutchings et all – summer 01. He’s my kind of guy. And it’s written so personally. It shows through that most of the book is actually dictation of a happy man telling great personal adventure stories to a friend.

Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson – 1994 or so. Cyberpunk at it’s best. I first saw it sitting on the kitchen table on Shepard St. What I usually do is dare people to read the first 20 pages and then put it down. Go ahead, I dare you.

Zodiac by Neil Stephenson – 2000. Yea, Neil’s pretty cool with the tech. Maybe Tom Clancy will have some competition in the movie theaters some day. The Big U by Neil is also a fun romp.

Comics

• Swamp Thing – I got the graphic novel (the first S.T. graphic novel) many years ago… in ’90? It convinced me that this format could be powerfully compelling.
• Transmetropolitan – in late 2001, TJIC lent me a the graphic novel issues 1 thru 24. I ate it up! I think the most important message the author tried to get across is that, in order to appreciate something, and to be able to articulate your thoughts, you’ve got to hate it. That’s an interesting idea..
• Sandman – I picked this up at the comic store around issue 40. The best ones were the first 30 or so (excepting #50, a super-snazzy double-issue) so I bought them all in novel format. Wow.

The blog has been running a little slow so I…. what should I do? Let’s see….

Install a plugin!

WP-Cache-2 stores blog pages for quick retrieval. It theoretically only takes 0.5 seconds or so off the creation time of the pages but (if my estimations are correct) it’s actually bringing load times from 5 seconds down to 2. Images take just as long to load but the text appears quicker. I’ll work on that.

update 9-28-05 This plugin isn’t compatible with my Theme Switcher. I’ll leave the Cache and dump the theme switcher.