Honda Minivan

I just saw a commercial for the Honda Odyssey and they were touting the "green" nature and gas saving ability of the vehicle. The major way they tried to do this is by advertising that you could drive 483 miles on one tank of gas. They also share that the vehicle gets about 23 mpg highway.

A little quick math shows an approximately 21 gallon tank. This means that at current Fresno gas prices you would be paying almost $100 every time you fill up.

Long story short, distance you can travel on a tank of gas is not a great way to show how green a vehicle is. If I were to use this strategy to market, I would make sure the vehicle had an extra large reserve tank for fuel.

Website Recommendation - TreeHugger

It's time again for my website recommendation. Today I'd like to point you to TreeHugger.com.

I've linked to TreeHugger a number of times in past posts regarding the environment etc. I realized while reading through their RSS feed today that it is one of the most positive blogs that I read. I honestly get really excited and greatly look forward to the future just because there are so many exciting things happening in the "save the environment" section of industry and government. A lot of times, especially with the environment and climate change, we hear about how our world is dying and we are all screwed. TreeHugger has me less worried about the future of the environment and leaves me wanting to be proactive about the environment in everyday decisions.

I decided that I shouldn't keep this blog to myself, and that we can all benefit if we read this blog.

Bulldogs are Champions

If you are from Fresno, you undoubtedly already know this, but the Fresno State Men's Baseball team won the 2008 NCAA Div I National Title in the College World Series.

This is a big feat. First, this is the first national title any men's team from Fresno State has ever won. Second, it is the lowest seeded team to get into the CWS since it expanded in 1999. Third, it is one of, if not the lowest ranked/seeded team to ever win a national title in all of American college sports history. So I would say they did an outstanding job.

One of the phrases being tossed around the city tonight, and over the past week has been "Underdog Wonderdogs" or some variant of that. They are truly the diamonds of our hearts here in this city.

Check out the newswire article on the win.

A Little More Exercise

I've found that since buying my scooter I've done a lot less exercising. As you may know I was getting into bicycling a fair bit this spring, even biking to work a few times. Since getting my scooter, I think I've only been on my bicycle maybe 2 or 3 times.

This morning I got up a little early (on my day off) and went for a bike ride here in North Fresno. It was nice to get out again, especially in the morning air.

As well, my friend Sean invited me to play softball with his engineering firm this evening, and that was wonderful to get out and participate in some more activity.

I think I should sleep well tonight.

More Smart News

I received an email from my Smart Dealership in San Jose today letting me know that my car has now been built and will very shortly be on its way from Europe to Long Beach, CA. From now until it arrives at the dealership is from 30-40 days, and I'm sure this last month is going to kill me. I am really excited to finally get my car.

From this information I am pegging the date right around the end of July or the very beginning of August. That would put it right around my brother Andrew's birthday.

Just some more information for those that might not believe the Smart Car is that safe. Here is an exerpt from a forum post at Smart USA(insider):

Driving on I95 in CT a car on the exit ramp decided to cut back into traffic. He hit the car next to me, who then slammed into me . My car hit the guard rail
(at 70 mph) and bounced off like a ping pong ball, rolling three times before hitting the opposite guardrail (which then flipped me right side up). Thank god I was wearing my seatbelt, and driving this amazing car. I opened the door and stepped out. Very shaken, but not hurt. I'm a little stiff now, but other than that I'm perfectly fine... MY SMART SAVED MY LIFE!!! - evilbean42

Check out some pictures here.

I know I'm getting older, but seriously?

I try to go through my spam filter every couple of days in my Gmail account, just to make sure the guardians of my inbox have not cast aside important messages.

I usually skim both the "From" column as well as the "Subject" column. I've mentioned before Spamusement that uses spam subject lines and creates wonderfully humorous cartoons from them (albeit self-admitted terribly drawn). Over the last couple of weeks, I've noticed a trend that I am receiving a number of spam emails that tell me that I "look stupid" or that I have a "stupid face".

These spammers must be getting really desperate that they are resorting to these tactics of name-calling.

But, as normal, I'll probably end up buying whatever they are selling because they are playing on my insecurities.

Addiction and Controlled Substances

It is really sad that enough people in our world have bought eye-glasses for the wrong reasons and without need for them that we have laws that require prescriptions to buy certain levels of vision correction.

I'm sure the biggest casualty in the underground world of corrective eye-wear has not been the elderly or children, but insects and bugs whose lives are cut short by those addicted to refracting the sun's light.

I hope we can someday live in a world where people are responsible enough to make good decisions and not use eye-glasses for harm, but only in ways for which they were designed.

Who is with me?

The Incredible Hulk

I went to see The Incredible Hulk last night. I was much happier with this version than the one a few years ago.

I liked the fact that they got the transformation into the Hulk out of the way early, and kind of alluded to it and described it throughout the movie. I also really like Ed Norton as an actor, so that was a plus. I also enjoyed all of the location backdrops, as that added a lot to the movie.

AFI 10 Top 10

On Tuesday night, Andrew and I were watching the AFI 10 Top 10 movie list. It was interesting for two reasons.

1. Trying to guess which 10 categories they would use, and
2. Which movies would be placed in each category

Overall, I was satisfied, but there were a few things I thought were pretty ridiculous.

• In the sports category, they left out Rudy.
• In the western category, they left out Tombstone.
• No Comedy category, they only had a Romantic Comedy category.
• No Horror category.
• No War category.
• They did have a Courtroom Drama category, I don't think there are enough courtroom drama movies, let alone good courtroom drama movies to have a whole category dedicated to it. Sure the #1 movie (To Kill a Mockingbird) deserved that spot, but come on.
• The Epic category was too broad to have any good comparisons.

That's my review of the show.

Somethingstore.com Unboxing

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I recently made a purchase from somethingstore.com. Well my "something" finally arrived and as promised here is the unboxing of the purchase.


I don't know what's gonna be inside.


It was a pretty small box, small enough in fact it actually fit inside my mail box. Just about the right size for a baseball, but it was much lighter than a baseball.


A little bit of green, as well as a flyer for somethingstore.com inside the shipping box.


The complete contents of my package.


Let's see... what is it?


I never would have guessed that this is what I would get.

It turns out that I got a little grow kit, called an "eggling", whose motto is crack & grow. A few too many drug references, but fortunately I received seeds so that I will soon be growing my very own mint plant. I am quite excited, because there are a lot of great recipes that call for fresh mint, and now I can use some home grown mint that grew out of an egg.

This little experiment was very interesting, and it's maybe a bit like gambling. The better thing is that it takes a lot longer than a hand of blackjack to lose your $10, plus you are guaranteed SOMETHING.