Made it

10 hours from Houston to Wichita, including Houston at rush hour and stopping to eat a late night breakfast. If I would have actually planned it, I could have made it in 9; with a catheter, I could do it in 8 :) But for now, I'm beat. I'll get all the good details later.

To the Stars and Back Again

I'm off to pick up the new ride early in the morning. With any luck I'll be able to keep clear of the storms on my way to the layover in Atlanta. Into Houston by 2pm, get the car inspected and paid for by 4:30 or so, some Texas BBQ for dinner, and on my way home that night. I'm probably going to drive straight on in overnight to avoid the weather brewing over in Colorado. No need to drive the new Benzo through the harshness on my first trip. The map says that the trip from Houston to ICT is 9.5 hours plus time for rush hour and traffic. The speedo goes up to 160 mph... We shall see who wins.

p.s. I'm in love with Adriana Lima. I want to have her babies. What else would you expect from a Brazilian supermodel.

Need Some Tunes That Go Zoom Zoom

One thing about my new car that I do not like is the factory radio/tape deck that it has right now. WTF? A $43,000 car when it was new in 2000, and all they get is a tape deck? So since I want to put a new head unit in this, I wanted to get something that had all the stuff that I wanted. Things like in-dash CD player, MP3 and CD-R compatibility, and fit in the same as stock. That last part turned out to be the issue. I had purchased a nice simple Pioneer unit about a year ago that did all that for $150, but no aftermarket units would fit in the SLK320. After searching around, I found that the only real option I had is to get one of the European models that are their stock systems. Evidently, the euros are more up on car stereos, because they ones they get are cool, much cooler than a freakin' tape deck. I found the Becker Monza 7882 fits my needs and it is on the net here and here. Evidently, MB stands for Mo' Bucks...

My New Car

I finally broke down and got a new car, well new to me at least. I had to settle for and economy car, if you consider "settling" and "economy" a 2001 Mercedes Benz SLK320 Roadster. I got it off of eBay for $21,500, and I think I've got a pretty good deal. It's down in Houston, so I will be flying down there next Wednesday to pick it up. Hopefully everything will go smooth and it will be a nice drive home. I need to get a new Venom...


2001 Mercedes Benz SLK320 Roadster

Time For a Tune-Up

This personal frustration with my extra weight has nearly reached a boiling point. Lucky for me, the Raytheon Fitness Center is offering a free class once a week on healthy lifestyles and eating. The good thing is that they let you use the facilities to workout for free during the 13 week class. Hopefully this will be the swift kick in the ass to get me back in the gym and back in shape.

There is one thing I have noticed about the way we think as a whole and it's really starting to irk me. When I talk about being fed up with my weight, the first thing people say is "You're not fat, you look just fine." Now I don't know if it is because we are so used to overweight people that we are blind to it, or if we are just to polite in our passive-aggressive consumerism that we just give everyone lip service to make them feel good about themselves so we can feel good about ourselves. Either way, I'm tired of it. So if you hear me talking about weight and lazy people, make sure you remind me that I'm one of them too and to get my ass moving. I'd rather have honest and healthy over fat and polite any day.

Give Me the Damn Car Already...

I'm still tryin to get the dealer to come down on the price of my Z3. Just $3000 less and it will be worth it.

I Am TeH sMartest Man Evar!!!!!111

I spent about 5 hours last night with my buddy Beau installing Linux on my home theater PC and trying to MythTV up and running. Linux is the open source operating system for computers and MythTV is a robust suite of applications that are used to control a computer hooked up to your entertainment center. It does all kinds of good things such as digital video recording, photo slide shows, mp3 music playback, TV scheduling, video conferencing, video games and much more. The best part about it is the entire package of software is free and developed under the open source convention buy other users. I still have a few kinks to get ironed out with the video display, but we got the entire operating system up and running in just a few hours. Not bad for some white boy from Wichita :p

And Now for Some Real Kart Racing

I've found my perfect economy car. Of course compared to my Bronco, a 3.0i BMW Z3 Roadster is an economy car. It's all about perspective. Now all I need is another $5000 so I can actually pay for it. I really think I can get this one. I just have 2 days to wheel and deal so they don't sell the damn thing to someone else. If I'm lucky, I'll get to take a trip to Houston soon.

Who's Weight Problem?

I just watched "Supersize Me" on Showtime tonight. It didn't exactly hit home, but it did remind me how fat my home is. Over the last 6 months, I've put on about 20 pounds. I haven't been exercising, walking, jogging or anything remotely active. That means for some one my size I have increased my body mass by 10%. If you go down to the bowling alley, you won't be able to find a 20 pound bowling ball. Now think about carrying one around with you everyday. When I was half-way in shape, my BMI was anywhere between 22 and 26%. The simple calculation for BMI now has me at 30.5, obese by definition. Looking through the CDC's website, I found that they have a state program for obesity and nutrition. Too bad that there are only 28 states that have the funding to implement the program. A state gets $800K to $1.5M to start the program up after they have built up the capacity and support, and they only get $300K to $450K a year to do that. Right now there are only 5 states that are implementation stage of this program. Fast food chains can pump out a new product worldwide, once a month. They have contests that give away millions and spend over 2 billion on advertising a year... each. Guess that let's you know where our priorities are.