Archive for February 2008
OK - my fourth post on my blog, and the pet peeves start coming out.
I’m really sick of the amount of noise these Infinitis make. These two models (the G35 and FX35 in particular) make a really loud rumble, especially with acceleration. Considering that these cars could make almost no noise with current technology, Infiniti clearly engineered this rumble. But for whom? The owners? For those of us who live on busy streets or who like to walk, these cars are a real nuisance. They may not be as loud as Porsches, but there are a lot more of them out there.
And here’s how I know I’m a real kook: I dug around for other people complaining about the noise of these cars, and I just can’t find anything. Anyone see anything? Anyone agree?
I guess all I can do is to vote with my wallet; I’ll never buy an Infiniti.
OK - now, granted, I was in Orange County for this one (yes, the OC). So maybe I have to recalibrate a bit. And, furthermore, this truck is an out-of-state-mobile - Nevada plates. But it does have that NB sticker on there for Newport Beach; I’m assuming the driver hauls all these tons of energy efficient metal back and forth across the Mojave on a regular basis.
Further, I understand that driving has a smaller carbon footprint that flying. So maybe this guy really is an environmentalist. But, seriously? Environmentalists for Barack on a Cadillac Escalade? Somehow getting 12 miles per gallon gives you a ticket into that club? This road beast makes a Jeep look like a Prius.
WWOD? (that’s what would Obama drive?)
I just read the excellent book In Defense of Food. So now I’m all energized to eat local, healthy, organic, sustainable food (again). We did an organic delivery box a few years ago, but we felt a little overwhelmed by the roots that came each week.So I started digging around, and I found Tierra Miguel Farm in Northern San Diego county. They bring boxes of food up to a whole slew of drop-off points all over Southern California (no home delivery, per se, but there should be a spot pretty close by you).The boxes end up costing about $40 each - a lot for this amount of produce, even good healthy organic stuff. But I still like the idea for a few reasons:
- I’m obligated, so it’s becoming a part of my routine. So more organic veggies are around to be used.
- I just get the veggies - no choosing. So I have to figure out ways to use veggies I might not otherwise buy (still hanging on to my daikon).
- It’s seasonal: what I get will change as it should with what’s ripe as the weeks go by.
- It supports a local, organic farm.
- I’m - theoretically, at least - eating local and saving the environment by not transporting food as far. Hard to know if that’s really true since I haven’t investigated supply chain, but it’s likely.
The first two weeks we’ve basically gotten: beets, onions, garlic, lettuce, spinach, arugula, rosemary, daikon, cauliflower, broccoli, potatoes, and carrots. If I can dig out my pictures, I’ll post them.
OK - got my blog up and running! I was planning on using MovableType, but Professor Manheim suggested that I use WordPress instead, and it’s done! I’m running it on my Mac Mini running OS X (not server) and the MT install was causing me all kinds of headaches. The WordPress install was super easy - basically, just make a new SQL database, configure a file or two, and you’re up. MT was full of PERL dependencies and all kinds of problems.So I’m up!