I’m learning a bit more about this WordPress thing. And I’m starting to get more impressed with it. There are certain areas that aren’t exactly, shall we say, intuitive. But, I’m starting to get over that problem. It’s like any new piece of software, it always takes me a while to get used to the intricacies of it.
One of the things that I’ve discovered, is that it handles pictures far better than I ever thought. And I’ve just spent some time with Matt, my older boy, going over some of those controls. He seems a bit more impressed with it, now. We will see.
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I guess it should be a shock to no one, that James Cameron died of hypothermia. But I wonder if it was really necessary to turn that pointless in the news media. I guess without it being mentioned at least, there would always be questions about whether not he admits an unnatural death, a death at the hands of someone trying to rob him of whatever was he managed to carry as far as he did. What, four miles? But I would be a liar if I didn’t mention the thought that are really didn’t need to know the results of the autopsy. The family is been through enough already.
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Words cannot express the depth of my lack of caring over the Grammy awards.
I mean, look at who is getting nominated. Three Grammy nominations for the Dixie Chicks? Explain why. It certainly wasn’t based on album sales. More likely based on politics. Justin Timberlake, getting best record of the year, AND song of the year for a song that is so obnoxious the Brits have taken off their airwaves?
Give Paul Simon’s most recent album “Surprise” and listen… really listen, and explain to me why the people issuing those nominations completely ignored it. The real bottom line here, is this; the Grammys lost all connection to the music sometime around ten years ago. And it was faltering on the edge for several years before that. Perhaps that disconnection, is part and parcel of the reason the old line record companies have completely lost control of the industry.
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Speaking of the “music industry”, perhaps someone can explain to me the fascination with Brittany Spears. Her now infamous crotch shot, is so obviously a desperate promotional ploy, that I don’t even know why there’s discussion that it might have been anything else.
Look, let’s face it; to girl hasn’t the talent. All this ever was about, was sex. From the get go. At this stage of the game she should have matured as an artist, and started coming out with something other than the musical syrup she’s been coming up with, lo, these last ten years. But there just isn’t any “there” there. there is no more room for her to grow, because she simply lacks the capacity to be mature. And she certainly isn’t growing as an artist, having no more talent than did Andrea True… the x-rated film star back in the middle seventies disco era. And you may remember how she attracted the attention of the record producers in the first place, and who she signed with; Neil Bogart was still running Buddha records at the time. That was the label she signed with. It was a promotional gimmick, and came up with an almost listenable single….(More More More… a decided lyrical tie-in to her film career…) End of story.
As for Brittany spears however, there’s no more she can do. she hasn’t the talent to support a more mature product. So to attract attention to her the people who have been directing her all along in everything she has done, suggested it might not be a bad idea to show little skin. Since she always has anyway, where to go to ‘turn it up a notch’? Aha… Crotch shot. They’ve forgotten apparently that they can come up with more revealing pictures on the Internet at any hour that they’re night. This is definitely the last gasp, though unfortunately it came too late for her and her progeny.
Speaking of which… If she manages to keep her kids, through all of this, it’ll be a testament to the amount of money she’s been spending on a legal staff. It’s also a testament to why nouveau Riche Hollywood types shouldn’t spawn.
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There’s a bit of snow in the neighborhood, tonight. The radar shows that it’s a little more to the south and east of us than it is here. Still, we’ve managed to come up with a couple of inches on the ground at the moment. Which, as it happens, is exactly 2in. above what we had before. Now, that’s no probably isn’t going to last, given that someday the temperatures are supposed to be back up in the middle forties. That sounds pretty much like the kind of wonder we had last year, where it snowed one week and then stayed just above freezing for the next two, just enough to melt the snow again. Still, it is pretty outside just now. But it is going to be a zoo going into work in the morning. I’ve already resigned myself to that fact.
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I’m actually considering buying a vehicle by way of E-Bay. And not just any vehicle, but about $30,000.00 worth of diesel pickup truck. There are a number of reasons why that is not extravagant.
At the moment, my current van is getting around 21 to 22 MPG on the highway. Not too bad, for a conversion Astro/Safari with all wheel drive. And we love the configuration of the thing. It has served us very well indeed over the years. But we tow about 5000lbs. worth of trailer. The Astro does actually perform fairly well under that kind of load. But the gas mileage goes from that 21 to 22 figure, down to about nine or ten per gallon, when towing that trailer.
The diesel, meantime, while somewhat larger physically, is far more able in terms of power and stability to handle that trailer. It also tends to get without the trailer approximately the same mileage even with having several times the power, and about twice the engine size. 20 to 21 MPG, either reports I’m getting. And, yes, you end up paying 35¢ a gallon more on average for diesel. At least, around here.
However; that rig also ends up getting around eighteen or nineteen MPG with that trailer on the hitch according to what owners of similar equipment are telling me. Which is approximately double the fuel mileage. Now if you look at it that I’m only paying about a 10% surcharge for diesel, assuming a price of close on $3.00 a gallon for fuel, that huge increase in mileage undertow situation, is worth the added money. This is particularly true when you consider that if I wasn’t going for the diesel I would probably get a similarly equipped gasser, which would give me a lower base line mileage without the trailer, (say 12-17) and certainly would only be getting the nine or ten MPG while towing.
May as well get the added mileage and the added power. I admit, there is something of a mistique to driving a vehicle with 500 to 700 ft lbs. of torque available at all times. I can just imagine what the environmental wackos are going to say about this one.
We’ll probably do that kind of a deal next year at some point. We’ll see.
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Enough for now. I’m off to bed.
(Edit: DavidL)