The coldest winter I ever spent
I recently had a Modigliani painting appraised by an agent at WhatsItWorthToYou.com. I’m very happy with how well the item was appraised. It was a very knowledgeable response and on the parts that the appraiser wasn’t (and couldn’t) be sure about, she referred me to other excellent sources.
$20 didn’t get me a perfect appraisal but it got me a LONG way along the road. Sotheby’s and Christy’s wouldn’t discuss it for less than 4 figures.
Eat Liver. “Crazy pictures of Insane Internet”. Lots of funny pictures.
I sat around ALL DAY waiting for UPS and my stuff never arrived. Of course, I should be happy that I’m going to save $350 because the delivery was “guaranteed by end of day”. But I just ended up loitering in the house all day getting frustrated.
I was supposed to go buy a bike today. I set up all these meetings with folks on Craigslist today but I’m sure that most of those bikes are already sold by now. GRRR.
So, I’m outa here. I’m going to go do…. something. Anything not in the house!
Certain readers of my blog have expressed how they haven’t read my blog until now because wasn’t syndicated on Livejournal. I just wanted to show these people how I read their blogs, be they on Livejournal, Blogspot, WordPress, or a custom system like The BBC or New York Times.
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication.
1. Get Firefox. It is good. It is free. It makes your web surfing experience faster, it’s less prone to viruses than Internet Explorer and it has a few terrific features like tabbed browsing that will make your internet experience even better.
2. Get the Sage RSS reader extention for Firefox.
3. Open the Sage sidebar. There are many ways… one is to hit Alt-S while in Firefox. I prefer to use Tools | View | Customize to drag the Sage icon onto the toolbar; Then I can just click on the icon next to my Firefox Refresh button.
4. Go to your favorite blog.
5. Click on the little magnifying lens icon in the Sage sidebar. It will find the RSS feed for the blog automatically. Choose a feed with your mouse and click “Add Feed”.
6. Do steps 4 and 5 for all your favorite blogs. Some of mine are BoingBoing, TJIC, the Technical Video Rental.com blog, BBC News, Gizmodo, CNN, Craigslist Bikes for Sale in SF, My sister’s blog on Livejournal. All of these sites have RSS feeds. My list is a lot longer but it’s on my desktop computer, which is still being shipped to me. (it should be here today… goodie!)
7. Whenever you’re wondering if any of the blogs in your list have been updated, click on the little Refresh icon. It will automatically check all of the blogs in a couple seconds and indicate to you all of the new content.
There are RSS feeds for a tremendously wide array of websites. RSS is an internet standard. It’s good that way. Use it. You’ll like it.
Neo: I know what you’re trying to do.
Morpheus: I’m trying to free your mind, Neo…but I can only show you the door. You’re the one that has to walk through it.
In 2003, Gary Fisher Bikes offered about 40 different bicycle models. Most available in 4 different frame sizes. In 2004, the line was about 20% different with 43 bikes offered. In 2005, they are offering 58 different basic models; 1/3 of their line has completely changed since last year.
It should be noted that they ONLY sell mountain bikes
Gimme a break with all this marketing crapola. I know that it’s all about going into a store and having the salesman put you in the bike that is “for you”. It gives you that warm fuzzy feeling that allows you to plunk down three grand on a bike.
Of course, it’s all big business… If they sell one of every bike they make per year, there’s (58*4*$2000) $5 million dollars in retail sales.
This should undo all the confusion that Grand Theft Auto caused…
According to the California Driver’s Handbook
Right Wrong
I’m poking around craigslist for a bicycle to ride in SF and take to the playa. After being out here 2 weeks and seeing the traffic and parking situation, I’m considering buying a motorcycle. The city heartily encourages motorcycles. In areas with parking meters, you can always find a spot designated for bikes. Where a car pays $0.25 for 10 minutes with a 1 hr limit, the bike meters are $0.10 an hour with a 10 hour limit. In areas with no meters, you can always find motorcycles parked on the sidewalk or tucked into tiny parking spaces… sans parking tickets. In addition, most of the major local streets have a bike lane. Of course those are supposed to be for human powered bicycles but they lend greatly toward getting a motorbike to the front of a lineup of cars at a red light.
So I’m definitely getting a bicycle… I need it for the playa. I wouldn’t dream of using an internal combustion engine in it’s stead on the playa.
Now there’s the question of a motorbike. I did a little browsing on craigslist for prices and such. I don’t know much (read: nuffum) about motorbikes. I found a couple used bikes and googled about them. Here was a 1994 Ninja for $1,800. Hey, I’ve heard of the Ninja. Google .
You expect certain things from the Ninja. Power. Quickness. Agility. Focus. Bravado. Attitude. Heavy on the attitude. Still, unless you catapult-launch F-18 Hornets or 6500-horsepower Top Fuel dragsters for a living, this Ninja is a revelation. Prepare yourself for the strongest literbike in the world. Understand that it’s lighter than most 600s. And while that’s sinking in, make a mental note to pack an extra Depends.
One hundred mph arrives before the 13,000-rpm redline in first gear. Shift into second at triple digits and a practiced throttle hand can lift the front Dunlop for obscene distances. The 10R covers a quarter-mile in less time than it takes to read this sentence, and it punishes incompetence, impudence and stupidity even more quickly. Too much throttle, almost anywhere, and it’ll stick you in the ground like a golf tee.
This Ninja doth not suffer fools. It eats them. Whole. Any sportbike commands respect and first-rate skills. Kawasaki’s all-new ZX-10R demands more of both than any motorcycle currently for sale, along with simply heroic willpower. Nothing in any showroom punts you forward with such pure, concentrated, brute force. Its predatory silhouette alone makes small children, domestic pets and impressionable girls hyperventilate. If it lived next door, the ZX-10R would bet heavily on the Oakland Raiders. It would own an overwrought Rottweiler named Cujo and play all 11 Metallica albums every weekend with the dial cranked up to 11. Your mother wouldn’t approve. Your black-sheep uncle doing time for armed robbery would advise against it. Twenty years after the first 900, Kawasaki’s latest literbike is entirely stunning and unmistakably a Ninja.
Wuw.
And this blows what’s left of my mind…
And here’s the kicker. Add that 433-pound wet weight to the 170-pound rider we use for spec-chart calculations, divide by 161.9 horsepower, and you have a weight/power ratio of 3.72 pounds per. It just doesn’t get any better than that, sports fans.
My model airplane brain goes off on this, thinking (this line of thinking isn’t technically accurate but phoey on you, it’s my blog!)…
1 hp=750 watts… so each pound get’s it’s own 200 watts to drag it along. My 1.5 lb model plane peaks at about 180 watts.. or about 120 watts per pound. So this bike offers almost twice the power per pound as my looping, rolling, 0-90mph in 5 seconds, nearly vertical performance model aircraft! If you put a propeller on this bike, it would perform dramatically more powerf^H^H^H^H^H^H dramati^H^H^H^H^H^H^H intens^H^H^H^H^H^H betterer than my plane.
This from the Federal Trade Commission: (page moved to here)
Your Access to Free Credit Reports
Soon you’ll be able to get your credit report for free. A recent amendment to the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requires each of the nationwide consumer reporting companies to provide you with a free copy of your credit report, at your request, once every 12 months.
…
Q: How do I order my free report?A: The three nationwide consumer reporting companies have set up one central website, toll-free telephone number, and mailing address through which you can order your free annual report. To order, click on www.annualcreditreport.com, call 877-322-8228, or complete the Annual Credit Report Request Form and mail it to: Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281. The form is on the back of this brochure; or you can print it from www.ftc.gov/credit. Do not contact the three nationwide consumer reporting companies individually. They are only providing free annual credit reports through www.annualcreditreport.com, 877-322-8228, and Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281.
You may order your reports from each of the three nationwide consumer reporting companies at the same time, or you can order from only one or two. The law allows you to order one free copy from each of the nationwide consumer reporting companies every 12 months.
I found 1 error on my Experian credit report… I had paid off a loan 3 years ago but they had it listed as being past due. It’ll take 1-2 months to fix. Better to do this kind of thing now than when I want to buy a house or something and time is more important.
update 8-8-05 Experian just got back to me and fixed the error. The loan is now “Paid, Closed”. That was easy. :-)
I blogged last year about my confusion with buying multi-vitamins. It comes down to knowing how much vitamins to take and how much is too much. I’ve found a good reference. Consumerlab.com is a free resource available to Oxford Healthcare members… of which I am.
I got the Puritan Mega Vita Min tablets today with my 10% Oxford discount. (hint: if you call them on the phone, they don’t verify your Oxford membership)By taking them, I hope to live forever. I’ll get back to you in a century or so to tell you if it works.
Here’s the Consumerlab research:
Continue reading ‘Vitamins’ »
I’ve signed up for welding classes at The Crucible and gotten some welding videos from Technical Video Rental.
I’ve always felt that I have a much harder time learning if I can’t find a practical (that’s practical to me) application for the subject matter. Well, here’s my chance!
