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.