but all i hear are low sounds

It snowed last night. Apparently it all got dumped around 5AM because it definitely wasn't looking that way when I was out last night. So the first thing I did was drop everything, get around and go driving. I needed groceries at some point and I don't patronize the hippie mart because they don't carry things like pasteurized processed grape food. I also hurried to catch the heathen window when the few brave souls that were out would be at church. The roads were pretty treacherous - it just came down as light puffy snow but it just got mashed into the ground because Portland has almost no anti-snow infrastructure. I did make it to the grocery store in town and back in one piece. I had to drive quite slow but somehow was still passing Land Rovers. It's been a while since I drove on snow. It reminds me of home.

waiting for the light to come back

My new camera showed up earlier this week. Unfortunately it's always dark after I get back from work so I haven't been able to get out and play with it yet. I have tried it out a little though. It feels cheaper than I thought, which is pretty lame for the king of the A-series. Also I'm used to my old camera's manual flash open so I have to get used to autoflash again. It also has face detection, and was smart enough to work on an episode of Top Gear.

of another place and time

I finally stopped playing Spore and have been playing Fallout 3 instead. I picked it up just because everyone else was raving about it, but I was really more interested in Red Alert 3. However the night I got the games my internet was down, which means I couldn't activate RA3 (thanks, brave new world of PC copy protection) so I got a jump on Fallout. And I have to say I'm impressed.

I beat the main storyline fairly handily but that's not really the point of the game. It's an open-world RPG and they want you to explore so much that the secondary quests have the same achievement scores as the primary ones. I never played the first two games so I'm having a hard time getting a feel for the game. I keep expecting it to have scary things jump out everywhere, like any other game or movie. (Particularly window scares) Of course you have to fight baddies, but it's not like that. A lot of the horror is not that something horrible is going on wherever you're at, but that something horrible happened long ago. It doesn't even come out and say what happened but you can pick up pieces of evidence to put it together. I guess if they took cheap shots like window scares, people would be less inclined to explore and try to learn about this world. This game is a master of immersion. Part of that is just the stillness. If you stand still and listen there is almost nothing - the Capital Wasteland is very tranquil. So any unusual noise at all means you'll be on edge. Even if it's just you tripping over empty bottles on the ground.

Incidentally I did finally get RA3 up after Qwest fixed my damn internet, and shall we say I'm less than impressed.

In other news, Top Gear just did another America show. It started off kind of slow, and since their visas were only for producing factual shows and not entertainment shows they couldn't do any interesting side challenges (lest Bruce Willis show up in a Dept. of State helicopter gunship). It finally started picking up when they got to Bonneville as they pursued speed targets at Speed Week. Top Gear Top Tip: when driving on salt, pump up your tires until they almost explode. It was interesting to see them look at a new aspect of car culture and it makes me more excited about the Genesis Coupe, though I'm still wondering which loadout would be better - Grand Touring or Track.

failing to recall what i was missing

Well that was a bust. I went to go look at a Firebird from Craigslist. It sounded pretty good online. The engine and transmission had been rebuilt which I'm not big on but I figured this meant the owner took car of the car like the rebuilt Camaro I had seen.

This was not the case.

Just walking up to it was pretty bad. The guy had put a bunch of go-faster decals on it so it was covered in fake bullet holes. Getting closer it was appallingly filthy, with leaves and stuff inside the car. And then he started walking me through the car. The driver's side door handle doesn't work. Speedometer doesn't work. Stereo was stolen. Hood won't stay up so he has a big stick. The shift stick is just a bare metal bar. And the battery won't hold a charge. This combined with the fact it had been sitting there for two months meant it was particularly start-resistant.

Mind you the Craigslist listing doesn't mention any of this.

So it's back to square one. And I guess I need to screen these cars more thoroughly. For now it's back to creepy Fallout 3. Also: daylight savings tonight!

prodrive

The driving school looked like the Top Gear production office, but most of the time we were outside anyway.

SkidCar - Toyota Camry lifts in each corner to reduce tire contact patch either in front or in the rear so it will skid/spin at 15 mph.

no rocket no heat

I just finished my car control course. It starts in a classroom and the instructor talks about understeer and oversteer and what you should do. Everyone then goes outside and breaks into groups for the skidcars, which are Camrys mounted on a steel frame with pneumatics at each corner. I was with a UO student who had once spun his car and has several speeding tickets, so his family "encouraged" him to come to this, and a high school kid who had an accident involving a mailbox and some trees and ended up needed two brain surgeries. So I apparently get points for being proactive.

The instructor first set up the car so it would understeer at 15 mph and we all had some practice doing figure 8's with that to see how steering less can get you to steer more. Then the car was set up for oversteer. I was the first in the series to go and I spun the car several times before I could get it to go around a corner at all. We did some figure 8's like that, then widened up the driving area to add some different corners, and then took the widened course in the opposite direction. By the end of the day we were all doing pretty good. The instructor even asked me if I was sandbagging at one point, but that just made me start spinning again. Overall I think it was a worthwhile experience.

Now I'm going to go play Midnight Club Los Angeles and do the opposite of everything I've learned today.

there's so many things that i cannot explain

On the advice of family members I've started reading "A Random Walk Down Wall Street." It is supposed to be a guide for investing, but so far it is mostly concerned with how people are stupid and irrational. Once I finish this book it might be interesting to go back to "Critical Mass" and go through what it says about patterns (or lack thereof) in the stock market.

Another week of work. But car control class on Saturday!

fell asleep on tuesday woke up monday afternoon

Sadly I'm not done ranting about alarm clocks. I found a model that looked like it was almost done properly so I decided to get it. You care to guess what store it was at? Best Buy? Target? Nope. Toys 'R Us. I could see going there if I wanted a pirate alarm clock, but why are they the only ones who sell decent normal ones as well?

So I get this thing home and plug it in. It says it has Indiglo. But of course it hasn't been done properly. Instead of lighting up when you hit the button, like in a proper alarm clock, it does an always-on and the button just sets the brightness. Fortunately one of the settings is off. But now if I want to check the time during the night, I have to hit the button four times instead of one. Outstanding work.

I then went to set the time. Pretty standard stuff. Except that it asks for the year as well. I don't need to know what year it is! I just need to know when to get my ass out of bed!!

Fortunately the new alarm clock doesn't seem to have any other stupid functions built in - no temperature or atomics - so I may be able to get some use out of it yet. For the record this is like the fourth time I've tried to replace my old one.

(I can just imagine an Apple alarm clock. Requires AT&T service and WiFi connection, charges you for a $10 firmware update to tell hours in addition to minutes, daily alarm downloads from iTunes store are DRM-enabled.)

While we're on the subject of badly designed things, it turns out that under New Facebook the posted items app won't actually let you post items. It's just for sorting things already posted. Way to put functions where nobody will find them, New Facebook.

The one bright spot in my badly designed day was that more Genesis Coupe news has come to light. It has gone on sale in SK, where the first review sounded pretty good, and a very well put together ad appeared on YouTube. Which is what I was trying to post.

october moon and rusty skies

I am trying to buy a new alarm clock, as my current one is in a bad way and I slept through it on Friday. The difficulty is that I absolutely require Indiglo, and that is exactly what you can't find. I saw all of two Indiglo clocks in stores, one with a ridiculous four-minute snooze and one billed as 'All-Night' Indiglo that never turns off. Which completely defeats the purpose. It's not much better online, where Amazon's results for 'Indiglo alarm clock' are three travel clocks, an iPod dock and a Tom Clancy book. Google chips in with an Indiglo thermometer.

It's also hard to find one that is just an alarm clock. I've ranted before about "atomic clocks." And telling the temperature just clutters up the display for the purpose of telling me what I already knew, that it's warmer in bed than out.

the stone gods did not make a sound

I randomly pulled up Top Gear's Africa special. Apart from the scenery I am amazed at how they were able to keep their heaps of junk moving every time they broke down. I know the presenters probably had car people with them but someone there was able to get them working again, and I admire that. It's also interesting how the cars evolve over time to adapt to whatever challenge they are taking on...at least two of them do.

I've been playing with the iPod touch for a few days, and unfortunately it doesn't work at work. There isn't a suitable WiFi network. Which I suppose makes sense, but it's no fun. So it's a funny thing. A cell phone, for example, is a cell phone 99% of the time because you can get a signal pretty much anywhere in the area. But with the iPod I am dependent on whatever WiFi signal I can get so half the time it's an amazing WiFi gadget and half the time it's just an over-designed iPod.

pirate watch: day 8

The thing with the Somalian pirates hijacking the Ukrainian ship full of tanks has been in the paper every day for a week, and a group of us have started following it at lunch. Lunchs haven't really had a story arc until now.

Today's news:

"Somali pirates on a hijacked cargo ship holding battle tanks and hostages said Thursday that they were ready to battle any commando-style rescue attempt."

where you'll be i'll know

Boss squared wants to change my role at work. I like my role at work.

We also have some pilot builds of a new pacemaker at work and we can't get rid of the damned things. We have tried four times to ship them and failed. There is nothing wrong with the parts - it's all paperwork.

I am still playing Spore but I have pretty much played the crap out of it. I have been rereading some books but I only have relatively few books with me so I'm kind of sick of them. Prodrive is weeks away and there are no good Firebirds online.

it was over before it started

Had another near miss on a Firebird - found an '87 Firebird Formula on CL that had the right color, wheels, transmission, engine...unfortunately when I called to see the car later that day it was in the process of being sold.

Finished rereading the Caves of Steel quartet - don't know what to read next. Maybe Catch-22 again.

I took the day off of work tomorrow, but I don't know what to do. At least I won't be at work.

you tell me i can't slow down

Diesel power has emerged as the dominating fuel in Le Mans series endurance racing, with Audi and Peugeot competing neck-and-neck for top honors. But that's about to change, if the Automobile Club de l'Ouest
(ACO) has anything to say about it. ACO, the body that organizes the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the LMS championships in Europe and North America, has announced new rules aimed at reducing the performance of the diesel racers to level the playing field with the gasoline-fueled competitors.

The new regulations would include air restrictors reduced in diameter by 10% and a decrease in allowable turbo boost on the oil-burners. The move is also aimed at impeding laps times in the name of safety, with a 3 minute 30 second La Sarthe lap time as the target, where the Peugeot 908s lapped the circuit in the low 3:08s this year.

Additional rule-book amendments include the banning of tire warmers, a reduction in the permissible size of rear wings and the allowance of only one wheel gun for each pit crew, all in an effort to reduce costs and raise lap times.

This is another reason I don't care for racing. You would think they objective would be to get around the track as fast as possible, but it's actually just to put on a good show. The only reason the C6.R and DBR9 battles at Le Mans were close was because the Corvette had to carry ballast.

Also, how can they argue these latest changes are for safety if they are banning tire warmers and reducing wing sizes? That's like saying my car is safer if you cut the brakes lines.

You could argue that by making the cars all the same you focus everything on the driver. But people-only sports don't put up with this. If one runner is faster than all the others they don't make him wear lead weights and a parachute. If someone is different that's just how they are.

I think racing cars should either be allowed to be as specialized as possible or left completely stock.

it's easier to be broken

I had a bit of a surprise at work today when I check my calendar and found I'd been signed up for a reliability statistics class. This was set up weeks ago but I will forget anything set up more than a week in advance. The instructor is a physics Ph.D. who retired and teaches physics, with this on the side.

He gave us homework.

I was amused and procrastinated so I could finish the last main objectives in Spore and do my laundry. So I waited to the last minute as usual. I finally got it done but it was a pain. This is why I LEFT school.

At least I have Monday off as a personal day. And the only person who knows (my boss) probably forgot.

drive until you lose the road

I signed up for an advanced driver's ed class at PIR. I was not able to swing it so I could take a day off and do that instead of work, but it should still be good. We'll see if they kick me out.

Since I finished that Brian Greene book I went back to my limited book collection and dug out an Asimov, one of my favorite authors.

LHC is finally being ramped to full power on Wednesday, although that is only for one beam - collisions won't take place for another two months, and then it will take six months just for them to figure out the first data. I have mixed feelings about HEP but I'm interested to see what they can find.

the weight of storm on memories

I finally finished reading The Fabric of the Cosmos. I got the book when it came out several years ago, but it came at as bad time as I was working out how to exit physics at that point. The first time I didn't even make it through the first chapter before I got fed up with the theories Greene brought up; fortunately after forcing myself through they turned out to be crap in the end. The book is OK - the first section is kind of annoying because Greene has to build up the current picture through history. The middle section is pretty good and has some interesting ideas. The last section of the book is pretty much just a rehashing of The Elegant Universe. The book is now four years old but I don't know how much further the new theories have gotten since they've just been finishing LHC in that time.

It's the time of year when a bunch of new games come out and I have been occupied with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 and Mercenaries 2. Which are pretty much exact opposites. My 360 was in a bad way the day I got Tiger Woods, but it somehow got over it and hasn't had any troubles since.

As for the games themselves, they are both sequels and don't seem quite as good as the previous incarnations. Tiger Woods 09 is just an evolution of last year's game. It does feature a new dynamic attribute system, but since I don't play like a normal person at least one of my attributes will take a whack after each round. Mercenaries 2 is more of a letdown - the original game was more organized and focused with the 'deck of cards' and the story was deeper. Mercs 2 also seems easier and shorter than the original. It's still pretty fun but won't be something I play over and over.

don't know how to play my part

Tried to go check out a Firebird today, but the guy flaked out and I wasn't able to meet up with him. Along the way I got cut off big time by a guy in a big stupid truck, but I was able to cut back in front of him without further escalation. There was also a guy in a Jeep driving along wearing two hats at the same time. Which means he thought to himself, No. One hat is insufficient for this situation.

rss

It looks like Craigslist changed something about how they organize cars and it screwed up my RSS feeds, so now I have to go update all 9 of them.

On Friday I decided to clean up the Wikipedia entry for the Genesis Coupe. I didn't think it was that bad but I edited every section, then reorganized the whole thing, and the more I look the more there is to edit. It was just kind of thrown together.

synergy or two

I decided to break out my geek skills on the Genesis Coupe website music. Using a Shockwave decompiler I was able to isolate the tracks, and I reintegrated them with ACID 5.0. Now I don't have to worry about what they are or losing them when the website gets updated. Still no news on when the car goes into production.

Continuing with the geek theme, I worked out that my policy of leaving fans on 24/7 means they represent about a quarter of all the power I use. I picked up some digital timers and now they will shut off while I'm at work and snap back on an hour before I get off work. Assuming people don't pull any more surprise 5:00 meetings. Like today.

is it better to be safe than sorry

The Malibu just had its first fill-up since getting the spark plugs changed, and it looks like that may have done a bit of good. It certainly wasn't any conscious effort to be more economical, because I got pulled over yesterday for speeding after I finally got off work - hosed again, the other quality person bailed around 4:30 without even asking if I could be the one who had to stay late.

style to spare

I just figured out what that song stuck in my head was! And no wonder it couldn't be found in my iTunes collection - it's from the website for the Genesis Coupe.

new grille

nothing to do but believe

I have a song stuck in my head. Just five notes of it, but it's driving me crazy. It seems like it's from a soundtrack. I thought it was Auto Rock by Mogwai but it isn't.

I'm taking a pass again on the '86 Firebird due to the dodgy brakes - me having to deal with it is one thing, but I don't want to put my friend (who will have to drive it first) in a bad position. Also that one is red. I don't want red. I found an '83 Camaro Z/28 but it doesn't have t-tops.

Of the two trainings I was scheduled for this morning, I opted for the one offsite, which apparently caused a great deal of trouble at work as everyone had forgotten about the other training. Process guy postulated that I may have crashed my car and then helpfully pitched in by eating my lunch for me. I had no opportunity for that though - traffic was slow and spread out enough to prevent any exuberance.

2008 Challenger

words don't matter they don't suit my kind

Not much getting done at work this week, as I have more training. In fact this morning I have two overlapping trainings, so I have to pick one. I'm going to finish my implant training so I understand something about tachycardia. The other training is how to use the reporting software and I already had more experience than most of the others so I ended up skipping ahead and now I've already got a chapter further than the others, so I really don't think I need to be there this morning.

Saw a 2008 Challenger over the weekend!

Apparently the Brembo brakes on the Genesis Coupe will be so big they can only be fitted under 19" wheels. I'm not a fan of huge rims so I may stick with the 18" - the standard brakes shouldn't exactly be slackers. In addition the 19" wheels will only come with summer performance tires, so the Brembo car should stop better when it's dry but probably won't work as well in the wet.

I am still fighting with myself over the '86 Firebird, but I will force myself to go look at it and decide based on what's really there. Is it fear of commitment or brake failure?

under a sky of dust

The Camaro SS's Nurburgring time has been posted, and it is a whole 2 seconds faster than a Cobalt SS...that comes out to 0.4% faster. This is partly down to the Camaro having poor aerodynamics and partly to the Cobalt apparently being incredibly well sorted. I think I am officially switching my sights to the Genesis Coupe.

The '86 Firebird with the dodgy brakes is back on Craigslist. Giving it a second thought, my only issue with it is the color. It's got a V8, t-tops, and a new clutch, all good things.

I also ordered a '98 Malibu grille off of eBay out of curiousity to see if it would go in my 2000...after some fiddling with the pins, I got it to work. The only problem is the emblem in the picture on the auction is different from what I actually got, so I'll have to see if I can get the guy to send me the right one. I like the first Malibu grille better. I don't like it when the manufacturer changes things to make a car look fresh - same goes for the '91 Firebird or '98 Camaro.

camaro revealed

GM officially revealed the production Camaro today. Among the details was that it has 37.4" of headroom, making it almost two inches less than the Malibu, which only has just enough.

The Genesis Coupe, on the other hand, is supposed to have 39" of headroom, and about three inches more legroom than the Malibu. And it looks like it has a hood you can see over, and a rear quarter window you can see out of.

this part of the hustle was a plea to the gods for a favor, usually a trans am

I just remembered I have a Firebird t-shirt. Maybe wearing it will help appease the muscle car gods on my quest. It's not the right generation but I need the help.

with my freeze ray i will stop the world

I should have expected it, but the internet has leaked information about the production Camaro. It sounds pretty good, but honestly I don't know if I still want one.

I'm not following up on the '86 Firebird with the dodgy brakes - I don't want a red one. Or a white one, for that matter. Unfortunately most of what I find is one or the other, and automatic to boot.

I was hoping to get the Malibu in for a tune-up but I put off making an appointment so now I have to wait until next week. I don't think the iridium spark plug thing is going to fly with them.

city lights come back in june

Updates on the car fronts:

1. Production Camaro information coming out next week.

2. Been watching Craigslist for Firebirds for a couple days, but haven't seen anything better than the '86 with dodgy brakes for $750. It does have a V8 and new clutch though. If it's still there this weekend I might check it out.

3. Found a forum for Malibu tuners. Mostly idiots putting neon lights on, although they do have a photo guide to the disc brake conversion.

as if the words knew i'd need them again

Today is one year since I defended for my Master's degree. I am still glad to be out of school.

I discovered a previously untapped resource in my Firebird search, which had been overlooked because of my loathing for it - Craigslist. It seems to be turning up a lot more hits than Autotrader, but the results may be more suited to a Top Gear challenge than actual driving.

as our good city lays still

In Seattle. No Firebirds up here either. I am not real good at the touristy stuff because I hate big cities and mobs of people and stupid one way system roads in a tight grid. Fortunately I am not listed as a driver on the rental so I am barred from driving the stupid SUV. GPS navigator is a fun change.

Got a book about car modifications - kind of interesting because they have to explain how everything works before they start talking about how to screw it all up. Wish I could get a disc brake conversion done on the Malibu's rear wheels but probably doesn't even exist. Might look into doing something with the air intake though - that looks like the easiest thing to do.

Didn't get internet set up before we were out and about for the day, so still pulling down the latest Top Gear. No cables with me so I will probably just watch it myself...the laptop should be able to convert it for iPod though.

car maths

I'm doing car math again. According to my current formula the Malibu may be capable of 139 MPH, although the only thing I can find online suggests more along the lines of 105 MPH. Maybe it's electronically limited...obviously I need to conduct more research in this region.

The objective of my car math is to look at the balance between fuel economy and speed to work out the furthest you can possibly get in a given period of time. Obviously if you drive faster you run out of fuel quicker. However, if you drive really slow you get excellent mileage but you don't actually get anywhere. I am trying to investigate where the breakeven point is. Among other things this involves working out the power required to overcome wind resistance, which is where the first paragraph came from.

Also, even though the Malibu has independent rear suspension it has drum brakes on the rear wheels, which is rubbish. Next car might have four-wheel Brembos...

TG 11x01

New Top Gear tonight. Not their best. I'm worried that they are going to be more ADD this series to try and pack more in, and they didn't have any good music in this episode. Maybe they've just been off too long - we'll see if things pick up again in future weeks.

sitrep

I went to look at another Firebird today, another '87 I had found online. Not many other details were posted though. The posting did say it had done 250,000 miles so that was a concern. They did actually have the car, but as expected it was in really bad shape and it was an automatic to boot.

don't let me go falling from the sky

I can't tell yet if the mystery powder did anything for the Malibu's slow coolant leak. I did go buy it another present - new wiper blades, which I found I needed after trying to wash the latest layer of filth off the windshield. I went out to a NAPA store and went past a big Corvette club outing at the car dealership across the street.

I went to go check some other dealerships, as I'd located a manual '93 Firebird Formula after another thorough scouring of the internet. The listing seemed kind of sketch to me but I figured it would be good to look at it anyway. I didn't find it on the lot it was listed at, and while driving around I found it on a subsidiary lot for used cars. The Firebird turned out to be an auto instead of a manual as listed, so that was a dealbreaker. The dealer also wanted a lot more than I'm willing to dump on this endeavor, and additionally mentioned some undefined 'damage' that had ostensibly been repaired. Unfortunately I kind of dropped by on a whim so I didn't have much of a plan, so in an effort to play my cards close to my chest the salesman probably thought I was an idiot. I did get TO'd to another guy before managing to get out, but it wasn't too bad. Still back to square one on the stick though.

listening to 80's songs

I turned 25 a couple days ago. Hard to believe.

Unfortunately, that '87 Firebird was bought out from under me before I could take a look at it and I am back to square one.

i hardly feel the sun

Well I was getting ready to go check out that Firebird this weekend but it looks like it just got sold. It sits on the lot for four months and disappears as soon as I figure out it's worth investigating. Crap. Now I have to go back to trawling for manual 3rd gen F-bodies.

wreaking havoc on our world

I am trying to update my MP3 CDs. It's a pain so I never bother...the main CD hasn't been updated in six months, and the other one in 14. First I have to clean up my playlists because they did weird things when I transferred computers. Then I have to take out all the old garbage and make sure the new stuff is updated. Then I take out the stuff I listen to but not in the car, and then I take out all the stuff that would be embarrasing with passengers (most of the video game music). Then I hope what's left over kind of flows together.

It's also hard because it's been long enough that I can watch old Top Gear episodes again without feeling like I just watched them.

In other news I am keeping my eye on classified ads for 3rd gen F-Bodies. There's a stone gray Firebird in McMinnville...

seems the sun had gone too soon

I did a thorough cleaning of my car today and found the original window sticker. To my surprise I discovered the Malibu has independent rear suspension with multi-link geometry. I knew it wasn't tuned at the Nurburgring or anything but I didn't expect even that much.

Also, the Delorean apparently had a weight distrubution of 35/65, which is rubbish. On the plus side, there is apparently an achievement in PGR4 for driving a Delorean at 88MPH when lightning flashes.

Speaking of games, a new racing game called Grid comes out this week. It has the Challenger and Camaro, but only in concept form. I tried the demo and it seemed like an OK game, I don't know if I will get it though.

regularly scheduled programming

Lisa & Jeremy were at the Cerimeles' reception tonight - they had driven down from Oregon and got in late last night. At one point I was showing them how my Oregon driver's license has my name mispelled. Between that and the sticker for my new address smearing I'm going to get a fresh one from the DMV.

Lisa mentioned how she wanted to have Oregon plates but a Washington license, and had her lawyer uncle look into it - apparently Washington doesn't allow it, but Oregon does not technically mind if your license and plates are different states. Well, there goes my incentive to swap the Malibu's plate. In fact, one sad fact I had been prepared to accept was that getting a new car would mean Oregon plates, as I am still exiled out here by the Michigan economy. But here's an alternate strategy: I can fly out to Michigan, get the car there, register it in Michigan, drive it back (thus breaking it in) and the cycle continues. It's not entirely daft - I would then be able to draft the help of family members who have been through the car buying process before. Genius.

Speaking of cars, I have to give up my holiday romance tomorrow as the Impala SS goes back. I think I pretty much disliked it except I became so enamored with the engine I glazed over everything else. I will have to make sure that doesn't happen when getting a new car.

san diego 2.1

Wedding reception is over. Revelries are over - at least for me. My butt is back on a plane for Portland tomorrow morning.

san diego 2.0

I am in San Diego now. Unlike when I was here last it is cloudy and about 60 degrees, so not much of an improvement over Oregon. All my travel plans surprisingly went off with no problems - I even got an Impala SS as a rental car, which is a 303HP V8. It's got less than 8000 miles on it too. More now though - I've already used a third of a tank of $4.05 gas. Saw some cool cars around here - some kind of convertible Bentley coupe getting on the highway, and then a Ferrari F430 Spider on a back road.

The wedding was supposed to take place on the beach proper but apparently it was not low tide as planned, so they ended up doing it on a cliff thing overlooking the beach, which was probably even cooler. It worked out OK except it was kind of hard to hear what was going on, although only three people actually needed to know what was going on. Some helicopters flew overhead at one point which drowned everything out, and then just as they finished the weather started to get nastier so we all broke and made for the restaurant.

and in a moment i am gone

I am trying to load into my GPS the critical places for my friend's wedding in San Diego. It isn't going well. He is getting married on a beach - apparently beaches don't have addresses. I found coordinates on one website but they must have botched it because I put it six miles out in the Pacific.

My new headphones are too good for work. I can't hear a damn thing with them in. I will save those for the plane and break out the backup pair I also got.

j5 industries

I've been using the pseudonym J5 Industries for a couple years now. I picked it because I thought it sounded clever and that nobody else work use it. Well, I'm wrong. I did a Google search and it appears there are a couple of actual companies by that name - one rents generators, another does countertops, and there are some nondescript ones in California. Between them they seem to have taken AIM and Gmail. I've got the Xbox Live account though. And this.

when this is through

I've had my projector set up for my Xbox for a while now. My DVD player is also hooked up but I've never been able to use the upconvert feature. I primarily use component video but the player refused to upconvert except for HDMI, and the correct adapter doesn't seem to exist. I gradually pieced it together with DVI as an intermiediary, but it turned out one of my DVI cables had two more pins than the other so I had to get another adapter. I finally got that and hooked everything up...and it doesn't work. It turns out my DVD player is riddled with copyright protection and refuses to engage the HDMI port unless it gets a handshake from an equally paranoid TV. So now I have to see if I can find an upconvert DVD player without copyright protection.

Traffic was surprisingly stupid today. Going through town I hit every red light except for the ones where I actually wanted to stop - say, to take a picture of the V8 Vantage going the other way. Some cyclist decided it would be a good idea to cut across a busy road instead of waiting for a gap, and I got stuck behind a van with a bumper sticker saying 'SLOW DOWN'. Nobody seemed to know what lane they needed to be in either.

I went to Fry's this weekend for new headphones because my old foldable ones fell apart. I decided to go for the in-ear type, the kind usually blamed for causing hearing damage. I normally hate that type, but that is because I've only tried the hard plastic ones - all the decent sets have silicone padding. Surprisingly, the pair I got has a better frequency response than my old headphones, and since it's in-ear all that sound is pumped directly into my head. I can barely hear myself with them in. It's kind of a pain to get them both in correctly, which isn't helped by the fact that my hearing is very slightly asymmetric. There is still the problem of how to store the damn things without them getting tangled.

homework

I have homework. I have to give a presentation tomorrow about MRB instead of being able to work in MRB and actually do something partially useful. They drag me into these meetings and then wonder why MRB doesn't get done. The presentation is for another of the endless string of Germans that seem to get shipped over here to learn how we are doing things, but I am still whipping some slides up. I hate homework.

I finished the story of GTA IV last week so I went around grabbing a bunch of relatively easy achievements. I started playing a little bit of the multiplayer mode and it is pretty fun. The maps are so huge that you can find yourself well out of the way of the action.

a fabrication of our own

I finished that awful book. The ending was even worse than the body of the book so I pretty much didn't read any of it. They end up failing in the end anyway, which wasn't a surprise because the characters pretty much failed their way through the entire book.

I am now indulging in another awful book, but one with some history - I bought a new copy of the Hardy Boys/Tom Swift crossover book, which when I was a kid I thought was the most awesome book ever.

I only have about 6 story missions left in GTA IV and an hour and a half of game time left to do them in. I have to say this achievement is extremely un-GTA because it emphasizes not screwing around.

but at that time i couldn't see it

My stupid cold dragged itself out much longer than I would have expected, and I'm still working on the last 1%, but I am much better now. Finally having a weekend where I could sleep in helped - unfortunately it is back to the grind tomorrow. San Diego in less than three weeks though, even if my overall plan is still half baked.

I picked up GTA IV and so pretty much dropped off the face of the earth for a few days. I have to focus on the storyline now because there is an achievement to beat the story missions in 30 hours, and I do not ever want to play this game all the way through again. It starts off really slow and never seems to open up the same way previous games did. I pretty much forced myself to keep going to open up new areas. The graphics make GTA IV look like it's been taken to a new level but in terms of actual gameplay it's actually been brought way back from where Vice City and San Andreas were - at least in the parts that mattered; we have traded car customization, side businesses and jetpacks for in-world internet spam.

I've not only been playing GTA IV - I also picked up Consider Phlebas, the first book in the 'Culture' sci-fi literary cycle. The setting for the book seems very interesting but the actual events of the book are petty, overdescribed or downright uncalled for. I am finding myself pretty much skimming the book for the parts where they talk about the setting as a whole. Unfortunately this book was described as the best in the series, so it may be downhill from here.

Not much of what I would consider interesting car news lately, although there was the story about the "Return to Vanishing Point" Challenger. The very first preproduction Challenger was rescued from the crusher, painted white and entered in a race under a Vanishing Point theme...unfortunately reality seems to have mirrored art too closely, as the Challenger met a tire wall during a time trial and seems to be out of action. At least for that particular race.

to whom speed means freedom of his soul

For as much as I profess to love cars I really have no interest in motorsport. The epic battle of the C6.R vs the DBR9 is pretty much visible only to the Europeans, and rallying is so dragged out it would be impossible to follow when the events are. NASCAR I just find appalling. My only real fondness for the sport was when I found myself in a restaurant in Government Camp watching a Pontiac GXP.R mix it up with some 911s at Laguna Seca. Unfortunately I don't really know what series that is or when it runs, and I still don't have TV anyway.

I finally decided to board the geek train after everyone else and watch the first season of Battlestar Galactica. Unfortunately I watched half of the first episode at 2AM when I was knocked on my ass by a head cold - that really messed me up for the day. The series started off well enough, if depressing - I had no idea of the premise of the show - but it already seems to be dragging down into the same formula. Oh look, they are running out of another critical resource. Another dozen Vipers out of their ostensibly finite supply get blown up to acquire it. And then Baltar gets caught in a wacky awkward position because he has a Cylon in his head. I looked at some later season spoilers and it sounds like some serious retconning happens as well. I don't know if I'm going to pursue this past the first season.

flood warning

Some undesired excitement this evening - my ceiling began dripping. Which is very peculiar because I don't live on the top floor. I went to harass the apartment above and it turns out their toilet tank exploded. The water got above my bathroom and also above my bedroom, where it started dripping onto the carpet. I got a maintenance guy to come around 9 PM, who tried sucking up some of the carpet water and then tore up the carpet to wedge a fan underneath. More excitement tomorrow as they come to patch things up.

adventures in upgrading

I finally decided to upgrade from Office 2000. I considered the possibility of buying Office legit, until I saw the $500 price tage for the standalone version. So it's back to piracy then. I got a copy of Office 2007, but it had slipped my mind that Microsoft got the bright idea of changing everything that isn't broken. So I've now acquired a copy of Office 2003, which I use and tolerate at work, as it should be a happy compromise between obsolescent and newfangled. This also gives me access to Access, which should help me with various geeky databasing projects.

I also got my GPS and printer working on Gauss; pretty much the only thing left to change over is the pain of letting iTunes wipe my iPod and resync everything fresh.

superleggera

I saw this Gallardo Superleggera this morning, and was fortunately stuck at the light long enough to pull out my cell phone and take this crappy picture. Getting the picture transferred was another matter, as Verizon forbids it...fortunately I finally had some luck with the hack software. Bite me, Verizon.

On top of that, the Swiss suppliers visiting at work brought Toblerones (probably from the airport), we had Olive Garden catered for lunch, and it was payday. I think I'm going to suffer for everything tomorrow.

grown up in slow motion

I have been reading The Codebreakers, a huge tome on cryptology. I'm still in the old-timey stuff, although there are a couple ideas I haven't heard of before for the basic substitutions. I just got through the general solution to polyalphabetic ciphers, which was interesting.

Now that Gauss is up and running, I installed a couple games that Freeman really stuggled with and Gauss blows them away. That's what I was hoping for.

I've had the radar detector for over a month now. So far it has been totally useless. 99% of what I pick up has been grocery stores, and the two radar signs I've run across caught me off guard. If anything I have been driving more restrained because of the thing - I don't trust it and don't want to be caught off guard, whereas before I was blissfully unaware.

The weather here is back to cool and rainy - so much for the springtime euphoria.

a sense of function but a disregard

I guess it was a crappy week but it doesn't matter at all now because I'm not at work today, the new computer is working perfectly and the weather is beautiful.

i pray the wrecking ball is waning

I finally got Gauss to work. All it took was a mutant XP install disc combining my original XP CD, Service Pack 2 and some extra SATA drivers.

but our ship's not coming back

Gauss has turned into the worst project in the world. Let's review the disasters to date:

Intel are assholes and sit around not releasing the new 45nm CPUs, causing an eight month delay in the start of the project. When project starts, the desired case has gone out of production and has to be special ordered from Buy.com. Buy.com fails and does not actually have the case. Case has to be ordered again from Frys.com.

On the big day of assembly, motherboard turns out to be DOA. Motherboard is RMA'd to Newegg.com, who has run out of that type of motherboard. Have to go to Fry's and buy some other random motherboard. New motherboard works, but Windows XP does not recognize SATA drives.

Got internal floppy drive to hold SATA drivers. Windows XP setup says press F6 to load drivers but does not load USB keyboard drivers until after that. Rummaged up USB-PS/2 converter. Still cannot press F6. Got into menu. $28 floppy drive does not work. Tried flipping the power. $28 floppy drive fried.

XP setup also will not recognize more than 128GB of SATA drives. The solution is apparently an SP2 CD, which I do not have, and requires something called slipstreaming to merge an XP install disk with SP2.

I am never building a computer again.

a place out by the sun

More Camaro spy shots this morning, notably at the Nurburgring sporting red Brembo brake calipers - presumably the SS is undergoing some hardcore track testing. Apparently the Genesis coupe will also have Brembo brakes, but they are so big they will only fit on the 19" wheels and not the standard 18".

In other car news, there is a new BMW M3 ad out showing a combustion cycle with no CGI - it's pretty cool in itself, but I also really like the music. Unfortunately I think the ad is brand new so nobody has music info - if it isn't custom. The Genesis coupe's website also has music I really like but can't find.

every color goes where you do

My DOA motherboard just made it to Newegg on Friday, so I probably won't see a new one until next weekend.

I saw a new XJR convertible today. That's the first interesting thing I've spotted in a while, although I did see a Delorean at the grocery store a while ago. I would upload the picture I took, but it's on my unhacked Razr so I am still under Verizon's tyranny.

I was hoping to burn some new MP3 CDs for the Malibu today, but I never got around to it. I don't know how to fix my playlists so I always just stick with the same ones.

you're breaking my flow

I hate April Fool's Day. Just because we've arrived at an arbitrary point in our orbital cycle people take this as license to be a jackass, exploit the trust of others, tell fantastic lies and extract amusement from the suffering of others. I can't trust a damned thing that happens today. Fortunately two guys at work got fired recently for screwing around so nobody was going to cross that line, but my webcomics thought they were being clever by rerouting their links to each other (apparently xkcd's idea), and everything in the car news I read has to be taken with a grain of salt. Which is unfortunate because I want to believe there is a 50/50 chance of a G8 GXP coupe getting built. Or that Audi has finally cracked the twin-turbo V10 for the R8.

i've got to stop it somehow

I spent my weekend playing my new game on the old computer and trying to fix the new computer, which is the opposite of what I wanted to happen. I can't turn my pile of computer parts into a computer. I think it is the motherboard, or maybe I just want it to be the motherboard. I am going to RMA it to Newegg which means at least a week of delay.

she sang a short tune

More Camaro spy shots this morning, although the most entertaining thing was a burn in the comments:

"White Camaro has 1.8 liter four cylinder with no turbo (RS model), and the black one has a turbo charged 2.0 EcoTech (known as the SS "Maximum Bob special edition"). Neither can put over 200 hp on a chassis dyno."

However, the new pics do show pillarless windows. That's something. It looks like they also fixed the ugly tail light chrome on the black model.

Also seems like Newegg has already sold out of Q9450. I'm going to have to keep my eyes peeled for when the Q9550 hits.

when you walk away

The case I wanted for the new computer is apparently out of production, so finding it was kind of tricky. I tried Buy.com, but they spent two days sitting on their asses before coming back and telling me they didn't actually have it. I tried the Fry's website and actually found it for cheaper, although I'm going to two day it so it will get here with the rest of my components.

Seems like Newegg FINALLY added one of the processors I am considering for the primary.

In other news, the shuffle feature on the new iPod sucks, as it constantly keeps picking songs from the same album instead of actually shuffling. I am also still in the phase where I am removing hundreds of songs out of shuffle altogether.

yorkfield

I am tired of waiting and waiting for Intel to get its act together about the new processors, so I went to Newegg and bought everything else I need. It's some fairly serious firepower, with the exception of the $85 stand-in CPU.

metox

I bought a radar detector this weekend. This is not so much out of expectation of immediate benefits so much as learning the capabilities and idiosyncracies of the device for my next car, which will surely be a much better target for those who may not appreciate my exuberant driving style.

The CPU I want for my new PC is allegedly released, although I still don't see it anywhere. It also seems the case I was looking at is going out of production. I will probably have to throw out all my research and look at the newest parts and that sounds like way more of a pain than I want to get into right now.

My automotive dark horse has surfaced again - it is apparently being officially revealed in New York this week.

the walls suffocate

I've overslept my alarm the past two days. Fortunately nobody at work notices if I am ten minutes late. However, the time has come to resolve this annoyance. The problem is not that I forgot to set my alarm clock forward, but that it has picked preciously this time to have the snooze malfunction. This may be due to a low battery, but since I can't be sure I need to set an emergency backup clock. The emergency backup clock is atomic, or rather 'atomic'. One would imagine using an 'atomic' clock would be simple:

Step 1 - IT SETS ITSELF.

Unfortunately the reality is more annoying. My 'atomic' clock had apparently most recently decided daylight savings does not exist, and since "it sets itself" I have no manual override to set it ahead one hour. Instead, I have to remove the batteries and put them back in to trigger the autoset. This autoset receives information via radio waves, and as I've covered in previous rants EM waves are unable to penetrate Lake Oswego. In the meantime it thinks it is midnight on January 1st. I have been successful in the past by putting it in the window, but tonight I have it fully outside and it receives absolutely nothing.

in the sodium light

The weather perked up a little this weekend. Today it was 63 and sunny. I've perked up as well, as my cold has faded away. I went in to Portland today to find the OSU bookstore. It was in the one chunk of town I can barely navigate. Unfortunately the store didn't have a heck of a lot, so I went down to the riverfront and explored a bit there.

the runway lights are the deepest blue

Everybody at work is getting sick. There was something going around and then my boss brought something back from his trip to Oklahoma. I have managed to avoid it so far as I do a lot by email and I'm wearing a mask half the time anyway. It may have finally caught up to me though, as I have a bit of a sore throat. I don't want the Oklahoma Flu.

I recently bought Command & Conquer: The First Decade. I already own almost all of the compilation except for the expansion pack to Tiberian Sun, which I have just finished playing. I thought the compilation would just be 10 CDs, but they've actually packaged everything from the original to Zero Hour on one DVD, which is extremely convenient.

Buying that game was interesting. It cost $24.99, but the first time it came up on the debit card reader it said $24,990,000,000,000.00. I'm kicking myself that I didn't take a picture on my new cell phone. I told the cashier I wasn't feeling generous enough to pay off the national debt. The second attempt was $0.02, but I didn't get to keep that.

I've pretty much sorted out the artwork in my music collection, but I haven't really sorted the collection itself. I did just get the Ace Combat 6 soundtrack, which some blog had packaged with the Halo 3 soundtrack for some reason. As far as the new iPod goes, I got an acrylic case so the stupid edge that kind of annoys me is covered up altogether. The menus are still a bit laggy at times though.

it's just not enough when i'm awake

IPod Mk. II has given me a great new game to play. The cover flow feature has revealed an entirely new layer in which my music is not sorted, as my odd taste in music means a lot of albums don't have artwork. Now I have to chase down every album and make sure something is uploaded to the iPod. It is tedious and yet I find a fun aspect in it.

The other new game is called convert videos. That game is not so fun because it sucks up all my CPU runtime for extended periods of time. I am starting with Top Gear Series 10.

i was sitting in the highest tree

I've made a fair amount of noise ranting about the new iPod but this weekend the weather was nice and the sun was out and I went out and bought one, the 160GB Classic. I figured I should get it broken in before it's the night before I'm on a plane to Germany. Actually I figured a lot of things, I'm good at rationalizing. I creatively named it iPod Mk. II.

I finished watching all of Futurama. Including the first movie, which is so full of in-jokes you have to watch the entire series ahead of time to understand it.

so never known before

I finally reinstalled C&C3 on my computer, and it doesn't bluescreen this time. I was able to finish the third campaign, and on reflection it is not a particularly good game. I was waiting for the expansion but it actually doesn't sound that good either. Thanks, EA, for flushing another awesome franchise down the toilet.

I was in an Apple store this weekend and I played around with the iPods some more, and it seems like Apple has finally gotten their act together and fixed the terrible software bugs in the iPod Classic. They still need to take a belt sander to the edge before I will buy one though. Either that or work will stick me on a plane to Israel and I will buy something fast to not go crazy.

am i still asleep

Bad things are afoot. Leftlane is talking of rumors about GM making a hybrid Camaro. What the hell. It might mean a hair more mileage and instant torque, but it will add weight, they will strip down the rest of the car to compensate and it will still be way more expensive. As if the V-8 weren't already far enough out of reach.

two points never separate

I had a decent weekend. It was Superbowl Sunday, so I made an impromptu purchase of a USB TV tuner...then remembered I get almost no TV reception at my place...and then I got bored with the Superbowl after the kickoff and did more interesting things. Like fixing the toilet. I also started working on my taxes but this is the first time I've done them myself so I have no idea what I'm doing. I bought some DVDs as well, so I watched the first disc of Futurama.

More work tomorrow. I have to remember my iPod - I forgot it on Friday and if I don't have it I can't focus on computer work. Right now I've got five songs on loop I could listen to forever. I'm also going to bring in my Master's diploma that finally showed up so I can make a copy for my cube. I was maybe supposed to show up for work on Saturday, but that was a vague assertion by people who aren't my bosses and the MRB team made a pact to not go in. We couldn't have made a substantial dent in our work anyway.

undone so easily

I am messing with the new phone again. While I have uncovered yet more ways Verizon is screwing me over, I discovered something good as well. Apparently the phone can use a free app to identify songs from small clips. It actually got a song I had labelled vaguely because I didn't know what it was. I've been able to stump it with The Nice Device though.

portland auto show

I stayed a little late at work last night to help get a big shipment out. My reward is not having to come in this weekend. Instead, I went to the Portland Auto Show. I brought my camera but most of the photos I took are rubbish because the camera was shaky. The only real exceptions were the Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder and the Audi R8, which is just as well because they were the most photogenic things there. I didn't even know the latter was supposed to be there.

Apart from taking photos I did get to sit in a bunch of cars like the 911 Carrera 4S, BMW 328i and the new Audi A4. I also tried out the Mustang just to see what that was like. A couple of the cars fit OK but they made me appreciate how much I like the Malibu's driving position.

I now feel like crap because of the Portland traffic, crowds, sensory overload and crap weather. I am going to go lie down for a while.

don't know where to begin

GM has decided to break my heart and canned their plans for a GTO cousin of the new Camaro. That means GM really is starting to kill off the fun stuff. They are blaming CAFE but they might just be saying that to cover a cost-saving move. It doesn't matter. I am seriously disappointed.

So that means I have to hope the new Camaro will work for me. Alternatively...the Hyundai Genesis Coupe also sounds interesting. I don't know much about when it is due but I will have to give it a look as well. The reports are now saying it will be powered by a V6 and not a V8 though.

Also, the first Challenger and ZR1 were sold at an auction, each for roughly 10 times their expected retail price ($400k and $1M respectively).

but i think we can starve the city from our minds

I kept all my CD keys in an Excel file. It seemed a good idea at the time to encrypt it, but I apparently needed to back the keys up when I did the reformat. Now the file is inaccessible and I've lost almost all of my serials.


I'm trying to get used to the RAZR. It's annoying because I'm not able to strip away the stupid Verizon branding yet, and the $50 Motorola software I bought is useless and won't install, and the speakerphone is crap and the menus are stupid.

One thing that does work around here is the Malibu. I took it in for a checkup today and they couldn't find anything wrong with it. I also got new tires, finally. They're called Firehawk GTs. I may do a shakedown run tomorrow.

you looked surprised as it all went up in smoke

Xbox Live is finally recovering a bit from the holiday surge so I played some Tiger Woods with my parents. At least the Xbox has some redeeming factor.

I'm in a bit of a quandary about the Xbox. I'm within striking distance of hitting 10,000 gamerscore, but I don't want to get any of the games out there, and I've gotten most of the doable achievements in the games I've got. I also can't buy anything on Xbox Live Arcade because I am trying to get Microsoft to disassociate my credit card and it won't go if I use it. So I am pretty much just playing for fun now, except Orange Box keeps locking up in the middle of TF2. Maybe I will just reinstall SimCity 4 on my freshly reformatted computer.

My brother showed me where NBC streams online so I have been watching the new writerless Conan shows. They're pretty amusing. I'm also cruising Amazon.com. I was originally going to get a new remote thermometer unit, because mine died after being left outside over Christmas, but I can't find a separate unit. I did find the pistol-grip laser-sighted infrared thermometers though. And some other neat stuff.

I'm also thinking of finally upgrading my cell phone...probably just get a basic RAZR like everyone else.

As seen below, another official Camaro picture surfaced recently.

camaro

so stuck inside

Work was more crazy today. They are getting ready to ship the first test batch of modules processed with the new computerized system, but several modules are locked up in my area of responsibility and I couldn't process them because the system is still broken, so not-my-bosses have been putting pressure on me to do whatever it takes to get the shipment ready.

My computer is finally holding up nicely so I worked out how to salvage data from my corrupted xD card. The pictures aren't great because the museum had terrible lighting but some of them came out pretty good, so I put them on facebook. Now I am going to go read The Selfish Gene in bed. At least I don't have to go to Canada at 4AM like PJ. Sucker.

camaro

camaro interior

more fun than watching static

With my luggage situation resolved and some other errands done I decided to tackle my computer issues. I managed to clear up the malware issue but adding that fight on top of previous Windows rot left my computer not entirely stable. I decided to go ahead with a reformat, but it ended up taking four before I got all my troubles resolved (mostly involving Outlook). On the plus side it seems XP service pack 2 is able to uncover the extra unpartitioned space on my new hard drive, so I was able to add another 21GB to my data drive. I was fortunate these reformats were on my terms so all my data has been backed up, although I don't want it sitting on the external drives for too long.

In order to stay sane during the long and drawn out reformats I have been powering through Northern Exposure, I got through two and a half DVDs this weekend. I also went to the bookstore and got The Selfish Gene, which I have never read because I don't know anything about biology.

On a note more in line with normal behavior, more spy photos of the Camaro turned up last week showing the interior which is apparently closer to the concept than I would have guessed, down the the gauges at the base of the center console. There was a note later that day on GM's blog that the Camaro prototypes will now be run without camouflage to test aerodynamics and cooling efficiency. My primary concern is still whether they've put in enough headroom for me.

nowhere near here

My luggage finally showed up yesterday. I promptly went looking for more trouble, which I found in Xbox Live. It turns out that you can easily renew the Gold subscription through the Xbox itself, but in order to cancel and go back to Silver you have to call up an idiot in India. The Indian guy took all my personal information and my credit card number before transferring me to the guy who actually did the work. After getting that settled I decided to remove my credit card number from my Xbox Live account, which is an even murkier procedure. This necessitated another call and the first guy I got was a jackass who put me on hold for 45 minutes before I hung up and tried again. The next guy was much more helpful but even so it takes a full billing cycle to process. The moral of the story is that Microsoft is really scummy and you should go with the prepaid cards in stores because when those expire they can't start screwing your credit card.

2008

2008 has not been kind so far. My computer got bogged down with some nasty malware, my diploma still hasn't come in the mail.

The worst offender by far though is Southwest Airlines, notably their Chicago branch. They caused my flight to be late out of Detroit, then they told me I only had 10 minutes to catch my connection, then the connection sat on the ground for an hour waiting for luggage to be loaded, the plane ended up having some loser with a peanut allergy on board so nobody was allowed to eat anything, and then when I finally got to Portland my luggage was still in Chicago.

The luggage office told me my stuff would be on the first flight to Portland the next morning, but as it turns out they can't find their asses with both hands so my bags were still MIA last night until 11PM when they tried calling me to say they turned up, even though I had gone to bed at 9 because I am still jet lagged. Southwest then tried putting my luggage on a midnight delivery truck so I have a voicemail from some Russian truck driver at 2AM wondering where I was. I appreciate their urgency but that was a little silly.