Geek Habitat

This began as a response to my brother’s entry entitled Soapbox, but quickly grew long-winded enough that it belonged more as a post here. Apologies for the excessive use of links, but when I hit Wikipedia and other sources so extensively to form a cogent argument, I like to incorporate all those links into the resulting post!

Who is to blame for the increasingly excessive fuel prices we are paying at the pumps?
Big Oil is an easy target, and on the surface a quite viable one, given the profits they’re taking in. The fact remains, they are an EASY target. There are others to blame, and some introspection shows the blame hits very close to home. Further, Big Oil isn’t a strictly American enterprise; here’s the breakdown of the companies usually referred to as “Big Oil”:

I’m not telling anyone how to feel about nuclear power as I’m not sure how to feel about it myself, but I do think it’s important we all remember Chernobyl today, if but for a day. Don’t read this if you’re somewhere you can’t comfortably break down in tears, as it will likely come to that at least once during viewing these images and the accompanying narration…

On this day, take a moment to Remember Chernobyl

More …

The Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded during the nighttime hours of April 26, 1986. It remains the single worst nuclear accident in history. Learn more about the Chernobyl disaster.

After “re-stealthing” my Ford Escape Hybrid, I still wanted something to give it a little personalization, and make it easier to spot in a sea of other red SUVs in the parking lots. I found a “Starfleet Academy” vinyl sticker on eBay and here it is, affixed to my rear window.

I’ll post a higher resolution photo when I’m near my 35mm camera. I placed it below the wiper blade track for longer life, and also because it happily draws a little more attention to Ford’s HYBRID badge.

Sure, we have a car payment again, but we’d have had that anyway as I’d been waiting a couple years for a new car.

Still, it’s nice to drive a HYBRID these days. Can you say highway robbery? If not, you will shout it when you fuel up at the pump… sigh! Look at the attached graph — that’s one month, folks!

I seem to have a “home auto shop” theme going with my latest photos posted on Flickr. All photos shown below are clickable to their corresponding Flickr entry for captions/descriptions.

Before I forget — Ford has extended its 0% financing for Ford hybrids, nationwide. Previously, it was only offered to buyers in California and Washington, D.C. I can attest that 0% financing would have been very, very nice. Ah well! Early Adopters pay their dues so you don’t have to!

And the obligatory miles per gallon money shot:

You know you’re an uber geek if …

• you check your email and favorite forums/blogs hourly, but forget to check our U.S.P.S. mail for several days.
• you get jazzed about buying a devil duck because you’d forgotten about them and have always wanted one.
• you had to order two, because your spouse wants one just as much as you do.
• you’re eagerly awaiting the arrival of your latest eBay purchase, a Starfleet Academy window cling.
• you search CafePress for just the right geek slogan and, in a fit of inspiration, find one that spurs you to combine your love of Star Trek with your support of hybrid vehicles.