things go bad and then get better

On Tuesday evening I come home from work to find my motorcycle tipped over and leaking antifreeze. So I called my insurance and the police to make a claim. When the police officer begins to leave the parking lot I look over at the driver's side fender of my truck and notice that there is some pretty major damage there. And at that time I remember how my truck was "squeeking" when I turned a low speeds. So I filed a second police report for a hit and run on my truck the night before. I couldn't believe that I had two insurance deductibles to pay all at once now!

The week went on and I found out that the hit and run caused over $3000 in damage with over $1200 damage to my suspension alone. The guy really must've wacked my truck hard. I also get a call stating that my motorcycle will be filed as a total loss since its value is less than the cost of repairs. Now this may sound bad, but think about it. This means the insurance will give me money for the value of my bike minus my deductible! My deductible for my truck is paid for!!!! I will miss having a bike, but really I need the cash more and I wanted to get a new bike next year anyway. If I have the cash, I will do that.

Then on Friday I worked until midnight. The whole day I was disturbed by my boss repeatedly for status updates. I work faster than 9/10 of my co-workers on SW builds and I really didn't appreciate the constant pestering. I understand he was only bugging me because his manager was bugging him for updates constantly. That still didn't stop me from getting annoyed and giving him overly verbose updates just so he'd get off my back :P Anyway I told him that I was going to dinner and if he needed the build finished when I was away that he could have somebody else start where I left off. And I think by this time he had noticed that I was giving him such up-to-the minute updates because I was frustrated because he replied saying that my work was really appreciated and that I could hand over the build if I wanted to. But that wasn't the part worth writing home about. He told me that because of my hard work, he had given me a BRAVO award and bonus. This award is given to people who go above and beyond their job description and I don't think that many people are getting this award in such a tough time for the company. So this really made my day. The award gets put in my permanent file as well so this will help me career-wise when I am looking for a promotion or to negotiate a raise. This is really the best thing to happen to me at work. So things did get better, all around.

I'm not even excited anymore

In a perfect time to be blogging my rants about building a new home and all the headaches that I never thought would come with it. I have written nothing. It's been a surprisingly scary last month. So many things that I couldn't have imagined would happen went wrong. But it looks like I'll still get a house and things are mostly smoothed over for the time being. But all I can say is, when times get rough, your builder can be a complete ass, and the bank, well they can make your life a living hell. But oh well, you live and you learn. I have had a major life lesson this month. You never ever trust anybody you are paying. They're only being nice to you because you are paying them. And if you run into a problem, the bank certainly doesn't have your back.

I'm not excited about his house anymore and I just want it to be done with. But unfortunately, I can't even set any deadlines when it will be done anymore because my builder keeps completing work so slowly. You'd think he'd want to get done and get the rest of his money and be out of my life, but somehow I think it brings them pleasure to string me along. I don't know why. It doesn't make any sense.

Wow, almost a month since my last post

So the house is finally there. I'm sure it's not that interesting to you, but this is what it looks like...

Dear Rich Philanthropists,

Please donate money to the buy me this car fund. I am only $39,094 short of my goal! Start donating today!

MY CHALLENGER R/T

MSRP As Configured: $39,095 Net Price: $39,095

2009 CHALLENGER R/T J Pkg.

$31,455

Destination Charge

$675

Color

$0

Dark Slate Gray Interior

$0

Stone White Clear Coat

$0

Features/Options

$6,965

MyGIG® Multimedia System with GPS Navigation

$1,390

• 1-Year SIRIUS Traffic(TM) Service
• Universal Consumer Interface (UCI)
• SIRIUS Traffic(TM) with 1-Year Service
• UConnect Hands-Free Communication
• SIRIUS Satellite Radio
• Navigation System with GPS
• Auto-Dimming Rearview Mirror with Microphone

20" x 8.0" Aluminum Chrome Clad Wheels

$1,350

• Goodyear Brand Tires
• 245/45VR20 BSW All Season Performance Tires

Electronics Convenience Group

$1,060

• Tire Pressure Monitoring Display
• Universal Garage Door Opener
• Remote Start System
• Universal Consumer Interface (UCI)
• UConnect Hands-Free Communication
• Steering Wheel Mounted Audio Controls
• Security Alarm
• Illuminated Door Pull Handles
• Traveler/Mini Trip Computer
• Vehicle Information Center
• Temperature and Compass Gauge
• Instrument Cluster w/Display Screen
• Auto-Dimming Rearview Mirror with Microphone
• Illuminated Cupholders

6-Speed Manual Transmission

$995

• Bright Pedals
• Performance Steering w/Variable Displacement
• Anti-Spin Differential Rear Axle
• 3.92 Axle Ratio
• 3.73 Axle Ratio
• Anti-Lock 4-Wheel Disc Heavy Duty Brakes
• Hill Start Assist
• Trak Pak

Power Sunroof

$950

High-Intensity Discharge Headlamps

$695

R/T Hood to Fender Stripes

$200

Sound Group II

$185

• AM/FM Stereo Radio w/In-Dash 6-Disc CD/DVD/MP3 Plyr
• 368-Watt Amplifier
• 7 Boston Acoustics Speakers with Subwoofer

Compact Spare Tire

$100

Engine Block Heater

$40

Leather-Trimmed Bucket Seats

Incl.

Monotone Paint

Incl.

Electronic Stability Program

Incl.

• Brake Assist

Leather-Wrapped Shift Knob

Incl.

Light Slate Gray Insert

$0

Luxury Front and Rear Floor Mats

Incl.

5.7-Liter HEMI® VCT Engine

$0

Power Heated Fold Away Mirrors

Incl.

• Body-Color Exterior Mirrors

Sun Visors with Illuminated Vanity Mirrors

Incl.

Heated Front Seats

Incl.

Automatic Headlamps

Incl.

Fog Lamps

Incl.

Leather-Wrapped Steering Wheel

Incl.

MSRP As Configured:

$39,095

And we have walls!

I think this will be the most dramatic change for awhile. The cement now has to cure for about a week and then they will bring in fill to cover pretty much everything you see minus some inches at the top. Seeing how much dirt is missing, it's almost hard to imagine how it will look with all the dirt filled in! After this comes the framing of the walk-out basement, cement slab pouring, plumbing rough-ins, sewer grinder pump installation, and finally the modular pieces of the home can be set. The modular pieces won't be delivered until late July, but it'll be fun to see when it happens. At that point the house will be almost done!

The foundation is up

Well now that things have gotten started, they're really rolling! They've almost completed the foundation. On They will be pouring the basement walls. This is all very exciting! Well it is to me. I bet you're yawning right now, but that's OK :) There will be more updates of this kind in the future, I'm sure. My general contractor is really doing a good job penny pinching so that I can get a couple necessities added to the house for resale, so hopefully I'll be able to sell it if the market stays where it is for a couple years.

Kristin and I drove around the area today and every time I do I am excited to explore it more. I'm less than a mile away from a river and there a bunch of riverfront cottages just down the road from me. It was such a beautiful area. I feel like it's a vacation home community. I'm sure a few people have weekend homes out here. It's not that far from downtown, but probably far enough for some people to feel removed from the hustle and bustle of the city. So it's a pretty calm area. I am told that there are hot air baloon launches every weekend from one of the local parks, so that will be really fun to watch and photograph once I move in. There is a lot to be excited about!

construction... Finally!

Today they finally started digging on my lot. Four and a half months after originally signing my real estate contract, construction is beginning!!! I finally have something to be excited about! Supposedly it'll be all done by 8/1! I'll have a house on 8/1!

Ethanol: Our Knight in Shining Armor... not quite

When you do the math, and don't just listen to what popular media tells you about how corn ethanol will free us from oil dependence and make our environment cleaner, you see that using corn ethanol is really just a shell game that's hiding a bigger issue.

First and foremost, most everybody now knows that the world is going through a food crisis. People whose main expense is food can no longer afford it, and this is largely due to 2 things, increased cost for transportation (fuel prices) and increased cost food crops in general (due to use of food crops for fuel). That alone should be a huge red flag for us Americans to think twice about upping our Ethanol use for fuel to noticeably reduce our dependency on foreign oil. (Nevermind the fact that if we used all of our corn crops produced today some estimates say that it would only reduce our crude oil usage for gasoline by 20% [oh and forget the fact that we use it for plastics, diesel, almost anything rubberized including tires, and much more]) Currently we use about 20% of our crops to produce ethanol which accounts for 3.5% of our gasoline consumption. So if we used 100% of our corn crops and used it to feed nobody, we'd only reduce gasoline consumption by 20%. I wonder what would happen to food prices if the worlds biggest corn producing country stopped selling corn... "filling the gas tank of an SUV with pure ethanol requires more than 450 pounds of corn -- roughly enough calories to feed one person for a year." --Source: The Rolling Stone Issue 1032

Secondly, ethanol's energy density is about 1/3 less than that of gasoline. That means that one gallon of pure ethanol would get your car 1/3 less miles. (don't mind the fact that your car won't run on pure ethanol or if you use more than a small fraction of ethanol your engine would corrode) But proponents would argue that ethanol burns cleaner than gasoline. So even if it was 1/3 less efficient, you're still reducing your emmisions. That is true, but did you ever stop to think of how ethanol is produced? You need to run diesel powered farm equiment to harvest it and use chemical fertilizers and pesticides to maximize your yeild. And what kind of fuel do you think the ethanol refineries are using to generate the energy required to ferment our corn ethanol? Mostly natural gas and coal. Dunno if you heard this, but those are also fossil fuels.

Nor is all ethanol created equal. In Brazil, ethanol made from sugar cane has an energy balance of 8-to-1 -- that is, when you add up the fossil fuels used to irrigate, fertilize, grow, transport and refine sugar cane into ethanol, the energy output is eight times higher than the energy inputs. That's a better deal than gasoline, which has an energy balance of 5-to-1. In contrast, the energy balance of corn ethanol is only 1.3-to-1 - making it practically worthless as an energy source. "Corn ethanol is essentially a way of recycling natural gas," says Robert Rapier, an oil-industry engineer who runs the R-Squared Energy Blog. --Source: The Rolling Stone Issue 1032

Lastly, it will take more than just ethanol to really reduce our dependency on foreign oil. As the quote above suggests there are more energy efficient fuels such as sugar cane ethanol, and possibly ethanol made from plant cellulose, which would not require that ethanol is made from food crops. We should never forget our clean renewable resource that everybody has access to called the sun. Too bad solar panels are so inefficient today that it costs too much to deploy them in any sort of large scale and be profitable. Otherwise, you can be sure that companies would've cornered that market as soon as it became available. Ethanol, just like oil, is all about profit, whose pocket it is in doesn't change the fact that they both pollute the environment and replacing one fuel with another won't change our emission creating habits.

original article
I have more sources, but I don't remember them :P

All I did all day

Was clean!

Well thats a slight lie. I did cut my hair and go to the grocery store.

After cutting my hair I did the normal clean up the bathroom routine, but surprisingly after all that hard work scrubbing my tub, I felt like cleaning the rest of my apartment. So away I went. I vacuumed, cleaned the kitchen, did my dishes, swept the floors, folded laundry, and I even cleaned my welcome mat with some Resolve carpet cleaner. How exciting it was to clean the whole apartment like that. I don't think I clean that often, but it really does feel good when you see results.

Now I am outside listing to my "stompy" upstairs neighbor grillng his meal. It smells like hamburgers, or if it's anything else it has absolutely no flavor! He's cooking with a gas grill, so it'll taste just like he pan cooked it. You gotta use charcoal man! And wood chips!

For dinner I plan on making a marinated beef tri tip roast in the oven. I got it from Trader Joe's last week. So it's high time that I cook it! I really do enjoy cooking, and eating!

Speaking of eating, yesterday, I went to a local restaurant called Hackney's that was featured on the Food Network show Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. I was super excited to try their onion ring loaf and famous Hackney burger. The environment was nice and the service wasn't overly slow either, but the food left something to be desired. The onion ring loaf was fried to perfection and there was not a bit of batter that was left uncooked, but the flavor just wasn't there. It really needed a little more salt and a couple spices would've been nice. The onions were very sweet so all was not lost, they tasted fine by themselves without any breading. The Hackney burger must've become famous because it comes on dark rye bread, because it was also a very lackluster burger with little flavor. Why can't people use spices? I'm not talking hot sauce, or a bunch of pepper, I just want to taste something other than pure beef when I'm eating a hamburger. The rye also was indistinguishable when eating the burger, but that's ok! I still had a great time eating with Kristin's family!