This has been a banner year for me, in many ways. I took my last school class EVER in 2007, as well as my last test EVER. (unless I decide to get my PhD, but I digress) I graduated from the U with my masters, and even passed the Clinical Social Worker exam. I got a great job with LDS Family Services, moved out of my student appartment, and bought a new car. This is the first year where I have been in Germany twice in a year (but I was there only for the first 3 days of 2007, and then went back in December, so it almost doesn't really count as being twice in a year)
I feel really blessed right now. I have an amazing and wonderful wife who loves me, I have a great family, four of the cutest neices anyone could ask for, I am healthy, and I live in a wonderful country. I have a great job working with good people, and I get to talk for a living.
Yeah, all in all, 2007 has been a good year for me. Dana is going to write a Year in Review letter, which is something she does every year around New Years, so I won't duplicate that work, but I just wanted to throw it out into the ether that I am thankful and feeling very blessed.
Of course, that is not to say my year has been perfect. Plenty of stuff to gripe about, but now is not the time. I will get to that in 2008.
For now, I would also like to mention some of the things I am looking forward to in 2008:
-August 8th.
-A new president (please, I don't care who it is, just get rid of the Bushies)
-A new place to live, in some new part of the country, with. . .
-A new house, which will be a huge first for me
-September 15th (I turn 30)
-The Olympics in China (I may be off my rocker here, but I think there is gonna be some kind of revolution in China during the olympics, when the international press is there already, and the actions of the government cannot be hidden by the state-controlled media. Hopefully nothing happens, but if I were a discontent Chinese laborer. . .)
So there it is, my last post of the year. I think I will close with some one-liners from Demetri Martin.
-Digital cameras are great, because they allow us to reminisce immediately.
-I remember when I was really into nostalgia.
-When you are a battery, you are either working, or you are dead. That is a crap life.
-When they named the animals, they must have started at the end of the alphabet. By the time they got to Ant-eater, they were just out of creative ideas.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Monday, December 3, 2007
Love at First Sight
There is a new love in my life, and I have only seen pictures of her. She is exotic, sexy, smart, and beautiful. She has everything I am looking for and more. She has a British body, but that doesn't bother me, since she has German brains. Who is she?
The Tesla Roadster
Seriously, this car has everything I am looking for in a vehicle. 0-60 in 4 seconds, 130+ mph top speed, Lotus designed body and chassis, looks to spare, and then (to top it all off) 0 emissions, and the equivalent of 135 miles per gallon. That's right: One-Hundred-and-Thirty-Five-Miles-per-friggin'-Gallon.
Those who know me also know that alternate fuel vehicles are sort of a passion of mine. I was in love with the hydrogen economy for a long time, but the blume is off the rose now, since that whole idea seems to be perpetually stuck at 20 years away from whenever now is. Electric cars, however, are coming of age, and the Tesla Roadster is poised to (hopefully) give the oil junkies a run for their money.
The car has more linear torque than just about anything else on the road. This is just endemic of electric motors: plenty of torque. In otherwords, floor it at 60, and you can no longer reach the stereo. Floor it at 100, and you will have to wait till 135 to open the glove box. This car is also quite stunning, and according to all reports handles as well as any other top sports car.
The price tag is prohibitive for middle-classers such as myself. $100,000. However, I am still excited about what the Tesla means for folks like me: in five years, an "economic" version will come out. A family car, something like a sedan, based on the same technology. Sure, it will likely be more expensive, but the car moves down the road for the jaw-dropping rate of $0.02 a mile. That is right. Two cents per mile. I don't care how much the sticker price is, that kind of efficiency is killer.
Another great thing is the idea of no more gas stations. Drive home, plug the car in, and forget about it. Unplug it in the morning and drive to work, to the mountains, to wherever, and then plug it back in again. The real beauty here is this: you could power your car off of clean electricity. If your house is solar powered, so is your rocket sports car. That has me all aflutter.
My plea to Tesla is this: roll out the non-high end edition as soon as possible. I will be among the first in line. I would gladly pay $400 a month for a car like that, seeing as how I would be paying $0 a month on gas. Right now I drive a Jeep Patriot that gets 25 mpg, and I pay $350 a month for the lease, gas up twice a month for $40. Making my Jeep cost me $430 a month all told. So even if the more modest descendent of the Roadster costs in the 40,000 range, I will still save money on it while feeling better about myself at the same time.
The Tesla Roadster
Seriously, this car has everything I am looking for in a vehicle. 0-60 in 4 seconds, 130+ mph top speed, Lotus designed body and chassis, looks to spare, and then (to top it all off) 0 emissions, and the equivalent of 135 miles per gallon. That's right: One-Hundred-and-Thirty-Five-Miles-per-friggin'-Gallon.
Those who know me also know that alternate fuel vehicles are sort of a passion of mine. I was in love with the hydrogen economy for a long time, but the blume is off the rose now, since that whole idea seems to be perpetually stuck at 20 years away from whenever now is. Electric cars, however, are coming of age, and the Tesla Roadster is poised to (hopefully) give the oil junkies a run for their money.
The car has more linear torque than just about anything else on the road. This is just endemic of electric motors: plenty of torque. In otherwords, floor it at 60, and you can no longer reach the stereo. Floor it at 100, and you will have to wait till 135 to open the glove box. This car is also quite stunning, and according to all reports handles as well as any other top sports car.
The price tag is prohibitive for middle-classers such as myself. $100,000. However, I am still excited about what the Tesla means for folks like me: in five years, an "economic" version will come out. A family car, something like a sedan, based on the same technology. Sure, it will likely be more expensive, but the car moves down the road for the jaw-dropping rate of $0.02 a mile. That is right. Two cents per mile. I don't care how much the sticker price is, that kind of efficiency is killer.
Another great thing is the idea of no more gas stations. Drive home, plug the car in, and forget about it. Unplug it in the morning and drive to work, to the mountains, to wherever, and then plug it back in again. The real beauty here is this: you could power your car off of clean electricity. If your house is solar powered, so is your rocket sports car. That has me all aflutter.
My plea to Tesla is this: roll out the non-high end edition as soon as possible. I will be among the first in line. I would gladly pay $400 a month for a car like that, seeing as how I would be paying $0 a month on gas. Right now I drive a Jeep Patriot that gets 25 mpg, and I pay $350 a month for the lease, gas up twice a month for $40. Making my Jeep cost me $430 a month all told. So even if the more modest descendent of the Roadster costs in the 40,000 range, I will still save money on it while feeling better about myself at the same time.
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