Oh look…a message from the Social Security Administration asking me to review my annual statement which they have helpfully enclosed as a ZIP attachment. Three messages actually. Addressed to three different mail accounts of mine. One comes from…
inetnum: 212.232.0.0 - 212.232.7.255
netname: DIGCOMM-PPPOE
descr: PPPoE Pool
remarks: INFRA-AW
country: RU
admin-c: SDV452-RIPE
tech-c: SDV452-RIPE
status: ASSIGNED PA
mnt-by: MNT-DIGCOMM
source: RIPE # Filtered
person: Denis Shatskikh
address: per. Kupyansky 7, Voronezh, Russia
mnt-by: MNT-DIGCOMM
phone: +7-473-265-4114
nic-hdl: SDV452-RIPE
source: RIPE # Filtered
% Information related to '212.232.0.0/20AS13178'
route: 212.232.0.0/20
descr: Digital communications, LTD
origin: AS13178
mnt-by: MNT-DIGCOMM
source: RIPE # Filtered
One from rcdelectric.com and one from…
inetnum: 114.108.192.0 - 114.108.255.255
netname: SKYBB8-PH
descr: SkyBroadband
country: PH
admin-c: VMDB1-AP
tech-c: VMDB1-AP
status: ALLOCATED PORTABLE
remarks: Used for broadband
mnt-by: APNIC-HM
mnt-lower: MAINT-SKYBB8-PH
mnt-routes: MAINT-SKYBB8-PH
remarks: -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-++-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
remarks: This object can only be updated by APNIC hostmasters.
remarks: To update this object, please contact APNIC
remarks: hostmasters and include your organisation's account
remarks: name in the subject line.
remarks: -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-++-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
changed: hm-changed@apnic.net 20080521
changed: hm-changed@apnic.net 20100507
source: APNIC
route: 114.108.200.0/22
descr: SKYBroadband-Resi
origin: AS23944
mnt-by: MAINT-PH-SKYBB8
changed: cmgalicia@skycable.com 20080718
source: APNIC
route: 114.108.192.0/18
descr: SKYBroadband
origin: AS23944
mnt-by: MAINT-PH-SKYBB8
changed: cmgalicia@skycable.com 20100226
source: APNIC
role: Vanessa Maria Dolores Bueno
address: 409 P.Guevarra Street cor Ibanez San Juan City
country: PH
phone: +63-2-6369276
e-mail: vcbueno@skycable.com
admin-c: VMDB1-AP
tech-c: VMDB1-AP
nic-hdl: VMDB1-AP
mnt-by: MAINT-SKYBB8-PH
changed: hm-changed@apnic.net 20080521
source: APNIC
changed: hm-changed@apnic.net 20080521
I had no idea the Social Security Administration used the services of so many different companies to stay in touch with its account holders. The enclosed ZIPs didn’t set off my anti-virus software either. No I didn’t open them.
Also, a notice from DHL about the package I must have forgotten that I ordered…
The courier company was not able deliver your parcel by your address.
You may pickup the parcel at our post office personality,
The shipping label is attached to this e-mail.
Please print this label to get this package at our post office.
This one comes from the DHL offices at…
inetnum: 95.84.32.0 - 95.84.63.255
netname: SAN
descr: Network of Saratov branch of OJSC "Volgatelecom"
country: RU
admin-c: AVB35-RIPE
tech-c: AVB35-RIPE
status: ASSIGNED PA
mnt-by: MNT-SAN
source: RIPE # Filtered
person: Alexey V Bogdanov
address: JSC "VolgaTelecom", Saratov Branch Office
address: Mirny pereulok 11/13 410000 Saratov Russia
e-mail: avb@san.ru
phone: +7 8452 757575
nic-hdl: AVB35-RIPE
source: RIPE # Filtered
% Information related to '95.84.0.0/18AS39229'
route: 95.84.0.0/18
descr: SAN route object
origin: AS39229
mnt-by: mnt-san
source: RIPE # Filtered
Another ZIP attachment that didn’t set off my anti-virus. Also…I got an email greeting card! From my dearest anonymous friend at…
inetnum: 117.192.0.0 - 117.255.255.255
netname: BSNLNET
descr: NIB (National Internet Backbone)
descr: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited
descr: 8th Floor,148-B,Statesman House, Barakhamba Road, descr: New Delhi-110001
country: IN
admin-c: NC83-AP
tech-c: CDN1-AP
remarks: IP Addresses for Multiplay network
remarks: -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-++-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
remarks: This object can only be updated by APNIC hostmasters.
remarks: To update this object, please contact APNIC
remarks: hostmasters and include your organisation's account
remarks: name in the subject line.
remarks: -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-++-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
changed: hm-changed@apnic.net 20070801
mnt-by: APNIC-HM
mnt-lower: MAINT-IN-DOT
status: ALLOCATED PORTABLE
source: APNIC
role: NS Cell
address: Internet Cell
address: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited
address: 8th Floor,148-B Statesman House
address: Barakhamba Road, New Delhi - 110 001
country: IN
phone: +91-11-23734057
phone: +91-11-23710183
fax-no: +91-11-23734052
e-mail: hostmaster@sancharnet.in
e-mail: abuse@bsnl.in
admin-c: CGMD1-AP
tech-c: DT197-AP
nic-hdl: NC83-AP
mnt-by: MAINT-IN-DOT
changed: dnwplg@sancharnet.in 20030120
changed: hm-changed@apnic.net 20071227
source: APNIC
role: CGM Data Networks
address: CTS Compound
address: Netaji Nagar
address: New Delhi- 110 023
country: IN
phone: +91-11-24106782
phone: +91-11-24102119
fax-no: +91-11-26116783
fax-no: +91-11-26887888
e-mail: dnwplg@sancharnet.in
e-mail: hostmaster@sancharnet.in
admin-c: CGMD1-AP
tech-c: DT197-AP
tech-c: BH155-AP
nic-hdl: CDN1-AP
mnt-by: MAINT-IN-DOT
changed: dnwplg@sancharnet.in 20030120
changed: hm-changed@apnic.net 20071227
source: APNIC
This one did set off the anti-virus. Project managers take note: this is what happens when you outsource your software development projects to India. Outsource to the Russians instead, they’re Much Better. And you can trust them now that they’re not communists anymore!
The Joy Of Ink On Paper…My Lousy Handwriting Notwithstanding…
This morning, after weeks of cleaning and re-cleaning, I think my pen finally forgave me.
Mom may have known she was raising a little geek when in 1959 she asked me what I wanted for Christmas, and I told her I wanted a fountain pen. I was six, and I’d seen a teacher using one and was fascinated by it. I got my fountain pen, a Sheaffer sized for a child’s hand, and I’ve been writing with them ever since.
Fountain pens are archaic, fussy, finicky things. But the graphic artist in me (I still draw and sketch with the “traditional” tools of pencil, pen and paper) loves their tactile feel. And they have one supreme advantage over all other handwriting implements: they will, over time, break in to your particular way of holding a pen…customizing themselves to your own unique handwriting. The disadvantage though is you cannot then ever loan yours to someone else, particularly if you write with a light touch and they with a heavy one, because the moment they us your pen it will never be right in your hand again. Ever. Ask me how I know.
They have other disadvantages, mostly being that they’re high maintenance things. You are always cleaning and refilling them…a process that becomes a ritual after a while. And they tend to form a fondness for a particular brand of ink, so should that brand become unavailable, or changes its formulation, your pen will complain bitterly in its own way (skip… skip… skip…) for weeks if not months, until you hit on a substitute it finds acceptable. Some weeks ago, having run out of my pen’s preferred brand (Parker, black) and not finding any at the usual places, I let a pen store salesman talk me into a substitute. I won’t name it here, each individual fountain pen is unique enough that what doesn’t work in one can work very well in another regardless of make. The pen that shipped from the factory right beside mine might adore that brand of ink for all I know. But it took me weeks of cleaning and re-cleaning my pen to get it to forgive me. Yes, yes…I promise to feed you the Exact ink you want dear…
It’s a Mont Blanc 149. I bought it in 1979 for a figure I was embarrassed to say to anyone and still am somewhat. It took me months of saving to be able to afford it…at the time I was a mail room clerk for a data processing company…and what is worse, on a scale of 1 to 10 my handwriting is 11 in awfulness. But my hands are finicky about their tools and my drawing/writing hand knew…it knew…the moment it held one at the Fahrney’s on F Street in Washington…that was The One. I go through the technical pens I use for drawing like crazy because they don’t make them to last, and the nibs wear oddly enough that it doesn’t take long for me to feel uncomfortable drawing with one. Wish I could find a good source for nibs for the dip pens I used to use…but don’t get me started…
Some years after I bought the 149 I bought a Parker Duofold that I like very much, and still occasionally use. But…the 149 is My Pen. I checked recently and the thing sells for Many hundreds more now then it did back then so I’m not sure I would buy one now. Like the Mercedes alas, it’s a status symbol. But that is not why I bought it. Materialism is when you want something just to have it…as if the having of it makes you too an object of worship. An enthusiast uses what they buy, takes pleasure in the experience of human excellence. You are not the worshiped, but the worshiper. It’s not commerce, it’s art.
Not Quite All The Way To Alcoholicville Apparently…
This last trip to Disney World found me hitting the Grand Mariner Orange Slushie stand in Epcot France and the Frozen Margarita stand in Epcot Mexico the moment I entered the park. The stresses of my life at this stage of it are making it increasingly hard to just…relax…and enjoy myself without some form of self-medication. It worries me. But the worry is itself becoming more and more vague. I’m starting not to care about my health anymore.
Anyway…I saw this graph which perked me up a tad…
My college experiences were So Different from most of the other kids… Who the hell even thinks they can down 10 drinks in a sitting, let alone that it would take that much for them to start puking their guts out? Anyway, the first thing I noticed about the graph is it Starts at five drinks.
So…I’m still cool. Five drinks and I am, not kidding, on the floor. If my end point is where everyone else is just getting started then I’m not doing so bad.
Women who went to university consume more alcohol than their less-highly-educated counterparts, a major study has found.
You don’t say…
I have often wondered about the relationship of intelligence to recreational drug use…and let’s be serious here, alcohol and tobacco are merely legal ones. Sherlock Holmes did cocaine because his mind couldn’t stand being without a problem to solve. I’ll go down to my household bar and humidor whenever Mr. Logical…
…this guy, if you’ve been reading A Coming Out Story, becomes too much to deal with.
The only cocktail I know how to reliably mix is the “Blue Glow-tini” I first had at the Disney World Hollywood Studios 50s Prime Time Cafe’. I loved it so much I googled the recipe the instant I got home. On thing I love about watching Rachel Maddow is her occasional Cocktail spot. One of these days it’s going to motivate me into fixing up the art room bar a little nicer. Add a bar sink and under the bar fridge and ice machine. The disadvantage of having a brain is the world makes you want to drink, but at least having a brain lets you do it decently.
Life Is A Process Of Growth And Maturity, Wherein We Seek Our Level Of Incompetance…
So I was handed the following books by one of my project managers today…
The One Minute Manager
Managing Projects – Harvard Business School Press
Leading Teams – Harvard Business School Press
Running Meetings – Harvard Business School Press
I guess I’m at that stage in the life of every little tadpole techno nerd kid who one day becomes an engineer somewhere and then goes on to become a senior engineer and then one day finds themselves reading the Harvard Business School Press. So I’m walking back to my little office feeling a tad elated somehow. It’s always Very Nice to know your employer wants to keep and nurture you. Plus, it’s good to find new challenges. Your brain needs challenge if you’re not to get simply old and tired and set in your ways. You just can’t let your one life slide on past you like that. Yes…this is all well and good. Except I’m walking back to my little corner of the Institute and this line from a song I haven’t recalled since I was a teenager suddenly bubbles up from somewhere in the shag carpet basement of my brain…
…Find out I’m the chosen one Oh noooooo!
Ever since The One Minute Manager first came out, something deep down inside of me would get a tad irritated every time I laid eyes on its cover. Any art you can teach in a minute cannot be that worthwhile. Is this why so many bosses are idiots? And now here I am reading the damn thing. But the Harvard stuff looks good actually. And…I guess I need to know this stuff now…
Sorry that my last post alarmed some of you, but this isn’t a political blog, it just looks like one sometimes. It’s just one guy’s little life blog…my small corner of the Internet when I can put up my cartoons and photography and write about this and that so family and friends can see what I’m up to. Life isn’t all wonder and joy, and I was very depressed when I wrote that. Thank you, those of you who write, for your kind words of encouragement. I think I’m over the worst of it now.
And I believe I understand better now, why I got so terribly down, and I’m working on a post about that. But for the record I took a brief weekend trip back down to Epcot a couple weekends ago and managed three things. First, I enjoyed the Epcot Food & Wine Festival immensely. Really…the food at all the little nation kiosks was fabulous. Second, I managed to drive past Hilton Head without so much as phoning my ex. I’m not over him so much as I understand better now why I need to keep my distance from him. It’s worse when they still want to be friends. There was no lover’s quarrel…I just got dumped but he still wants me to come around his way whenever I’m down there and it isn’t good for me to do that. I’m fifty-six years old and I’m only now learning lessons about dating and boyfriends I should have learned when I was a teenager.
Thirdly, I got to see a certain someone down in Florida this time around, that I didn’t last time. It cheered me up a lot.
As I said, I have a post I’ve been working on I want to put up here, before I resume regular blogging. In the meantime, I’ve been chattering away on Facebook, so you can look for me there if you want.
[Update…] I’ve pulled that post for the time being. My blog is a place for me to think out loud, vent, thump my pulpit…and even occasionally bleed in public. Just not too much.
A few readers here have asked me what’s up with the silence. It’s nothing serious…just life apart from the web. I’ve been real super busy with a major high visibility project at work and I’ve been putting in a lot of overtime on it. That’s "non-comp" time for all you salaried workers out there. But I don’t mind. Working at Space Telescope has been a dream come true for me, and the vacation package is so nice here I really don’t mind putting in long hours on something.
I have a bunch of stuff I want to talk about…but first, I’ve posted a bunch of new cartoons to the political cartoon page…two of which have been published in our local Baltimore gay paper, OUTLoud. I have a steady gig with them now and it’s been a real source of satisfaction seeing my cartoons in print. I’ve been published elsewhere but just randomly, whenever someone somewhere takes an interest in one of my cartoons and asks for reprint rights. This seems like it’s going to be a real steady gig so I’m delighted. Cartooning was the first love.
Here’s one I didn’t get into this month’s issue…
There’s more on the cartoon page. Hopefully, more to come soon as I get back into this. I have several other fun-er cartoons on the drawing boards, including the next episode of A Coming Out Story. Plus several political cartoons I didn’t put up from way back. You may have noticed that the last cartoon was from the aftermath of Proposition 8, and before that practically nothing for almost a year. I was just getting burned out on it, burned out on staring hate in the face week after week after week.
So I’ll try to post some more stuff soon. I have lots to talk about. But end of next week I’m going to disappear again for a while and visit Disney World in Orlando for my birthday and try to leave the ugliness behind. There are two anti same-sex marriage referendums coming up and it seems every time I look at the news I’m seeing anti-gay crap that just makes me angrier and angrier and venting about it here and on the cartoon page only gets it out of me a little. I’m at a stage in my life where I just want to bale out of civilization altogether and forget that I ever heard of the likes of NOM and Proposition 8 and so many people who don’t know me from Adam but keep screaming in my face that I’m a cancer on society…but they have nothing against gay people personally.
Basically, I got tired of how it was always getting in my face unless I had it pulled back into a ponytail. This is how I always used to wear it.
I’d forgotten how energetic the wave in my hair is. Without all that extra weight it just comes roaring back, even when I blow dry it.
I’m going to let it grow out again in the back and sides eventually, but I’m keeping the bang because I don’t like it getting in my eyes. The problem has always been finding hair stylists who know how to do long-haired guys any good. That was why I just let it all grow out some years ago…I’d given up on hair stylists and decided to just let it grow and pull it back into a pony tail when necessary. And…I wanted to see just how long I could get it to grow. Now I know…about a third of the way down my back. That’s it. It won’t grow any longer then that. I have this very fine baby hair and it takes forever to grow and it never gets very long. I was hoping I could get it down to my waist. But…not…
I’m Not Druck. Duck. Drunk. I’m Just Naturally Confused And Disoriented…
Via Sullivan… I find it hard to believe that the United States Of America drink more per capita then Cuba, Brazil and Mexico, and less then Britain, Germany, France, Spain and…Greenland…
Be interesting to see that broken down for the U.S. by state.
Probably not. But I haven’t been blogging as often as I have previously and it’s because I’m not sitting in front of a computer nearly as much. As I said previously, I’m finding I get a lot more done around the house when I’m not sitting down at my computer. But something else is happening. Something I was sort-of hoping would happen, though I hadn’t taken into account what it might mean for my blogging patterns. Slowly, but inevitably, my iPhone is becoming my all purpose communication – entertainment – information widget.
When it first hit the streets, the iPhone was lacking a couple of really important items in my personal information management toolkit: a sync-able notepad and ToDo tracker. But I have really great third party iPhone apps now that fill those slots. And as I get more comfortable with using them, I use Mowgli, my main household computer, less and less.
Last weekend, I had Mowgli off almost the entire time. I ran Bagheera, the art room Mac, to finish a couple of photography projects that I’d left on my plate for far too long. But Mowgli is slowly being relegated to finances and work related projects. I am keeping in touch with the world, and with my daily life, more and more with just the iPhone now.
And…there is this: My little patch of the good earth is on the cusp of spring, and I don’t want to be angry all the time. I read the news, in particular the continuing culture war on gay people, and I get angry. So I am avoiding the news.
This Saturday, I’m going to Disney World again, for a week. Mostly to just spend some more time in a place where it’s a small world after all, there’s a great big beautiful tomorrow shining at the end of every day, and dreams really do come true. Better there, then driving across the mid-west and listening to hate radio the whole way. My brother said they still have their YES ON 8 campaign signs planted in their front yards of houses all over Oceano, Pismo Beach and Arroyo Grande.
I’m not sick or dead or away somewhere…just discovering that I get a lot more done around the house when I have my computers turned off. The weather here in Charm City is trying to struggle itself out of winter and I’m finding a lot of things to do outside. Plus…I have two major photo projects I absolutely must get done this weekend. Plus, I have a project demo I have to do at work, plus start the process of migrating the test center to new quarters. In other words, I’m a bit swamped. So…lite to no posting for a while.
I am treating myself to some nice dinners out though. I’d become used to the Friday night happy hour and dinner with some gay friends in the Washington area. I’m not doing that anymore for reasons I may go into here at a later date. But there is tons of good eating right here in Baltimore, if not the tons of Gay bars and clubs that Washington has, and I’m taking more advantage of that now then I did before. Very good eating within walking distance from the house at Cafe’ Hon and elsewhere on The Avenue. And if I want to go downtown…my god Baltimore is just loaded with good eats. They say the best revenge is living well.
My computers are a subtil trap. They make me good money. But they also keep me sitting down. I don’t want to be spending the rest of my life sitting down.
Harder than some might think. I, for one, will never forgive Dominic West for McNulty.
That’s okay…I can’t bear to listen to Dick Van Dyke’s Bert. I never watched The Wire (I actually live in Baltimore…I don’t need to watch it on TV too…), but West couldn’t have been that bad.
It gets worse for actors with the global media these days. You watch British television on cable. You watch British movies. You watch ordinary English folk doing this and that on YouTube. And then you listen to American actors trying to get it right and maybe the best of them, or the ones who’ve lived in England most of their lives are convincing, but mostly it’s an embarrassment. Let it be said a lot of actors don’t do different American accents very well either (southern…deep southern…New England…Western…). That’s something you really notice the more you travel within the U.S.
Bawlmer, hon? Yeah…everyone here in my neighborhood knows I didn’t grow up here. J.K. Rowling was absolutely right to insist on a British cast.
There’s a bunch of you folks who come here on a daily basis…somewhat more who come here on a week-to-week basis. I can tell from the servers logs…but no…I have no idea who any of you are. Those of you who come here from a few of the major ISPs I don’t even know precisely where you live. But I have a small, but very satisfying audience here. And I am delighted with all of you…whether or not you comment. I have never once advertised this site. So I have to assume that those of you I don’t know personally, just stumbled upon my little place, and decided that it was worth revisiting regularly. That is just…amazing.
Per the previous post… I mentioned an author who has self-published a book on Authoritarianism. He has offered his book for free in PDF format to the world…but is also using a service called Lulu to create paperback copies if anyone wants to buy one. I just took a closer look at Lulu…and it is interesting to me on a number of levels.
Services like Lulu offer authors the ability to have books literally made-to-order, at prices competitive with what you’d get from Amazon or any mortar and brick bookseller. So if someone likes what you do, the technology now exists to make one-off copies for anyone who wants one. You don’t have to interest a big publisher. That means if your material is such that it only is of interest to a small subset of readers, you can still have your book printed and they can still read you.
I’ve been wanting to do books for ages. I have two primary interests here: my art photography naturally…but also some works of fiction. This is what I want to ask you about.
Most of you may not know this, but some years ago I had a series of fantasy world stories up here on my web site: The Skywatchers of Aden.
The series takes place in an alternate universe earth…one with different continents and different histories. There is a struggle to the death involving a theocratic totalitarian state…Ekrus…and a nation of refugees from that state…Aden…comprised of many non-conformist faiths who came together to form their own nation…a democracy based on religious freedom. But they cannot fight alone. There is a third nation…Atria…a nation of many native peoples who hold to many different values and worship many different gods…that is caught in the middle of this war between the theocracy and the democracy. Somehow, these people of wildly divergent views on faith and morality have to find common ground in order to preserver against the large and powerful theocratic state. The central focus of the stories is on a same-sex couple…one of which is a devout non-conformist believer from the nation of Aden…the other a native of Atria…who find themselves in love and in the middle of this scorched earth war between Aden and Ekrus.
As I said…some time ago I had these stories up here…and then I pulled them down when I became dissatisfied with them. I am not naturally a writer…I am a graphic artist. But I do write occasionally and this fantasy series still attracts my attention. I have been meaning to re-write some of what I initially put out and add some illustrations and re-post it. My question to you all is…would you be interested in reading it? Those of you who keep coming back here to read my occasional posts…is it conceivable to you that you might be interested in reading some fiction I might produce?
Just curious…because it seems the technology exists for me to turn this into a book after all. I would love to…one day…hold a book of my own in my hands.
If there is enough interest…I’ll start reposting some of the stories. I still want to add some illustrations though. But feedback would be…wonderful.
Contemplating The City Of Tomorrow While Calculating Gallons Per Mile
They’re figuring out now, that gallons-per-miles gives folks a better way to compare fuel efficiency and savings among cars then their miles per gallon figure. I’d intuited this for years, probably because I love taking big cross-country road trips. Take a few of those and pretty soon come to view your car’s gas mileage in terms of how much the total distance you went cost you rather then how many miles you get for the price of one gallon. The first thing I did when I seriously started thinking about replacing the Honda Accord with the Mercedes was try to figure out how much more it would cost me to drive the Mercedes from Baltimore to California.
Turns out…not so much. The Mercedes is actually very fuel efficient for a six banger. It takes the more expensive premium gas, but it uses it almost as well as the Accord did, and the Accord was a four banger mated to a five speed manual transmission. The Mercedes has a seven speed (yes…seven) automatic. If I let the cruse control decide how to maintain speed on the highway I actually get anywhere from 29 to 31 or 32 mpg. One trip back from southern Virgina I got 33 mpg out of it. That was at Virginia’s feeble 65 mph speed limit, which I didn’t want to break because the highway cops are thick on that stretch of I-83. So I had the cruse control on the whole time. But the car is no fun to drive like that.
This gallons-per-mile calculator tells me that the Mercedes, using only the EPA figures and not my own better highway figures, only needs an extra 38 gallons of gas to go from Baltimore to California and back again, over the Accord. That’s only a little over two tankfulls…not really all that much. But it is more expensive gas to start with. Even so, the extra works out to about 85 bucks more at $2.25 a gallon, about $120 bucks at $3.00 a gallon, and $150 bucks extra at $4.00 a gallon. On the other hand, at $4.00 a gallon the total trip costs me nearly a thousand dollars just in gas. That’s the problem. I could make up the difference in cost between the Mercedes and the Accord easily by just not buying so much turquoise every time I drive through the southwest. The difference between $2.25 a gallon gas and $4.00 a gallon not so much.
Buying the Mercedes really didn’t really make the big road trips much more expensive. It’s the rising price of gas that really hurts. And where that hurts the most is in your day-to-day use. That’s a line item in the household budget you can’t easily get rid of. But what the Gallons-Per-Miles calculator reveals is that trading in a car that gets 33 mpg for one that gets 50 actually doesn’t save you as much as trading in a car that gets 14 for one that gets 20. That hybrid you are looking at may not save you as much as you think.
Better to just not drive if you don’t have to. This is a hobby horse of mine, but I’ll say it again: if the nation wants to really do something to make a dent in oil usage, encourage walkablity in cities and suburbs. Mix housing and shopping with offices…even factories where feasible. Make city life attractive. Plan communities around pedestrian traffic. Try to make driving the exception rather then the rule…not something you do to get the basic necessities, but something you do to get the odds and ends you can’t get locally…or just to pleasure drive. I live within walking distance of work and two good grocery stores. My car sits in front of the house most of the time. That saves me tons of money. More people do that and there’s less oil being consumed and less damage to the environment.
Walt Disney had a dream for the city of the future. It was EPCOT (as opposed to Epcot – lower case spelling – the theme park his dream became after he died). In EPCOT he said, no one would ever need to use a car, except to go for weekend pleasure drives. The entire city was planned around the pedestrian, with the Disney monorails acting as transportation between the city, the Magic Kingdom theme park to the north, and the industrial center and airport to the south. Within the city Wedway People Movers would serve as transportation between the city center and the outlaying housing areas. There were lots of green spaces and pedestrian and bike paths, all cleverly isolated from the roads. A pedestrian would never have to navigate a street crossing in EPCOT.
Sniff all you want at the 1950-ish world-o-tomorrow dreamland, but had Walt Disney’s vision come to pass that Experimental Prototype City Of Tomorrow would be perfectly positioned to weather the oil price shocks now and to come. The whole transportation system ran on electricity and you could generate that with any number of alternative sources. It didn’t have to be oil. And with residents not needing to use their cars for anything other then pleasure driving, they needn’t be so dramatically impacted by the rising cost of gas. Yes, goods and services would still cost them more. And probably the taxes to support the transportation infrastructure. But how many household budgets were absolutely crushed by the monthly cost of gasoline for commuting back and forth to work every day? How much of that contributed to the current economic collapse? People can’t spend money they don’t have, because the gasoline bill ate it all.
I love to drive. I love the automobile. I have been entranced by them since I was a kid. I make no bones about it. The fact that some folks seem to just loath automobiles completely mystifies me. I cannot imagine a time when I would not own one. And I would have loved to have lived in Walt Disney’s city of tomorrow. Because as a matter of fact, I love to walk too. And I hate commuting. And I absolutely despise traffic jams. A city built from the ground up around the pedestrian would have suited me just fine.
I was re-reading the previous post, and just realized that I’d driven Traveler the equivalent of somewhat over once around the earth at the equator. But so far all that’s been up a little bit into Pennsylvania (to Stroudsburg to visit a friend), twice to Ocean City New Jersey, twice to Florida…once all the way to Key West, once only as far as Orlando and Disneyworld…once to Memphis Tennessee, once to Hillsville Virginia, and a lot around central Maryland and between Baltimore and northern Virgina.
It’s just a small portion of Planet Earth I’ve been driving on, yet I’ve already racked up enough miles to have theoretically driven once around the equator.
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