Geek Habitat

Today’s Twitter.com chatter w/pics from our Sea World trip (more to come; only cameraphone pics are in my Twitter feed) -> http://twitter.com/ageekgal

Those wishing to dive straight to the photos (there aren’t really that many; no Shamu, etc.) can also check the usual place -> my Flickr.com feed

I will post a proper entry about Sara’s first trip to Sea World of Texas, and my first visit there in over 10 years, soon. In the meantime, read my tweets on Twitter.com including the one with the GPS ground track of our 5+ mile walk around the park today. Thanks to Justin’s employer (and my former employer) for hosting a free day for families in his department; we bought season passes at a reduced rate and will return.

Yes, we still love our hybrid–a 2006 Ford Escape Hybrid FWD–which we purchased on March 6, 2006.

On the way home from my folks this evening, I refueled the hybrid since it was starting to do its annoying 50 miles to empty periodic buzzer (gotta admit, nothing would be more pitiful than a hybrid stranded on the side of the road, out of gas.) Anyway — 13.37 gal unleaded @ $3.49/gal = $46.77; I got 465 miles on the tank (could be higher) and a tank average fuel economy of 34.8 mpg. Not bad for an SUV, eh? And that’s w/hauling full loads in the cargo area to drop items off at the recycling and donation centers repeatedly (multiple trips), as well as four new tires (non-low rolling resistance, which is what most hybrids use to increase fuel economy by decreasing friction/drag.

Do you take a vacation when a project you’re assigned to is in trouble at work? …when a family member is sick and in the hospital? …when money is tight and you are having trouble paying your bills?

N-O!

Then why the hell should the United States go on a gas tax holiday for the summer months?

In October 1999, 34-year-old Nicholas White took an ordinary cigarette break. As he returned from his smoke break, he boarded the elevator to take him back to his office on the 43rd floor of the McGraw-Hill Building in Rockefeller Center.

And there, in that elevator, he spent the next 41 hours of his life, trapped, alone in the elevator.

And his entire 41-hour ordeal was caught on security cameras. (YouTube)

He’s remarkably calm throughout the entire experience! Amazingly, he doesn’t even light up yet the New Yorker article states he had more cigarettes left but he didn’t want to be caught smoking! Further, he didn’t have a cellphone or watch, so he had no idea how much time was passing.

I am absolutely FLOORED (in a good way) right now.

I had a very frustrating and rather expensive order glitch occur on Amazon.com just now, whereby I ended up purchasing THREE 12-box units of baby wipes at $34 EACH. I only wanted one unit of 12-boxes, not THREE.

I used the email contact for the first duplicate order but received no confirmation. By the third, I said screw this, I am calling Amazon.com.

I hit the phone contact option and it had me enter MY phone number and when I wanted them to call, with the DEFAULT option as IMMEDIATELY (wonderful–because that is what the avg. customer is going to want to do; if we wanted to wait, we’d be using email!)

Maybe if everyone else in the world really wanted to send a message to China, we’d stop buying all the products produced and manufactured there?

Wait, that would actually require personal (and national) sacrifice and accountability, along with *gasp* economic impliciations.

Yeah, you’re right, it’s better to protest one of the only remaining, enduring symbols of world peace and our collective membership in the human race–the Olympic Games.

Why the post? Oh, I was just surprised when I received a UPS tracking number for my second Chumby because it’s coming to Texas directly from the factory/warehouse in CHINA –