SwimFinsSF

Wierdness

Roller coaster day…

Alarm clock didn’t go off for some reason (or maybe it went off and I turned it off without bothering to wake up – you’d have to ask kevin)…. So I woke up EXACTLY when I was supposed to BE at the gym… throw on gym clothes and my contacts and flew down to meet matt to lift heavy things..

Got back… oh shit… we’re at war… TV was spewing constant news with no content cuz they didn’t know shit but didn’t want to be the last station to say they didn’t know shit… Wierd…

Got to work and Apple is playing a live web feed of CNN so we can know whats goign on – like I need news coming at me from yet ANOTHER angle… They had good intentions tho…

Productive day though.. Fixed some bugs in the morning, discussed futures for our product before lunch, and then solved a pretty nasty problem capturing video with another co-worker all afternoon – was actually a REALLY fun day work wise – kind of stuff I like doing..

End of the day SUCKED though… ended to hear that a friend of mine who got sick recently isn’t improving like we had hoped and that REALLY bummed me out… I’m sure I’ll talk more about it later but this isn’t how I want others to hear about things…

Just got my call from the Red Cross to make sure i’m available to help this evening if there is an emergency (I’m on call 3 nights a week with them)

Now I’m home and figuring out what to do for dinner and trying to avoid turning on the TV….

Pretty average and boaring day acctually – just seemed like a loopy roller coaster – maybe its just that the world is on a loopy roller coaster and I feel odd holding still..

Ah well…

Lost in the translation

I LOVE seeing mis-translations of english phrases when I go to non english speaking countries but this might be my favorite… This was the front page of ‘Der Spiegel’s’ web site (kind of the German version of Time Magazine):

The follow on page with the full article had it right but thats what happens when you don’t speak the language… Too funny

World Opinion

Just found this on the BBC: found it kind of interesting:

In quotes: Reaction to Bush ultimatum

Its always fun to see what people in different parts of the world are thinking…

And it begins

I keep starting to write something here about what is going on in the world and wind up getting flustered and sad and stop…

And now, with what the president said last night to the world and the iraqi response this morning (which couldn’t have been a surprise to anyone) it seems the path is set… I can’t fathom a course of events that could stop war at this point… *sigh*….

And I’ve got to say – this is the first time in my LIFE that I’m ashamed to be an American citizen and that REALLY bums me out… We as a people have failed to find a peaceful solution. We have failed to convince those around us and our leaders to do everything humanly possible to disarm iraq without taking innocent lives. We have failed to convince our leaders that in order to promote democracy in the world we have to participate in one ourselves, not just at home, but in the world context and, more specifically, at the UN. We have failed to convince the president that fighting his father’s war is not in his best interest.

And now we send our military into harms way. Now we place the lives of innocent people in iraq in danger. We increase the possibility (or inevitability) of terrorism at home. We bring on the justifiable scorn of the world on our shoulders.

When did we stop being role models for democracy, strength, and individual human rights and become the school yard bully oursleves?

Ok… maybe I’m just angry and REALLY sad…

What happens now?

Auto Service

So does ANYONE know how to get estimates on auto work that you can trust when you’re not a mechanic yourself? I always feel like every time I take my car in for work that is more than an oil change I’m getting screwed and it just kills me. To mechanics work on commission?

So a little background I’ve got a Toyota 4-Runner thats got 173k miles on it and has been a trooper for me for 10 years – especially considering I’m reasonably bad at maintenance. A month or so ago my clutch started slipping – gradually at first up until last week it got to the point that I couldn’t climb hills without serious ‘issues’… I waited for perhaps longer than I should because I’m not rolling in cash right now after buying a house and I knew the clutch work would be expensive…

So I took it in… They quoted me bout $800 to fix the clutch awful but about what I expected… Well… they call me in the afternoon and said “hello? Mr. Steinauer? When we got your car up on the rack to do the clutch that there was a great deal of fluid leak all over the underside of the blah blah blah and we need to replace the blah blah blah and the short block blah blah blah and then in the blah blah and to do all this work that needs to be done its going to run you around $6k…”

HOLY FUCK!…

I told him that I was going to need to do some serious thought to figure out if I want to put that much money into a car thats really showing her age as it is. So I told him to finish the clutch work, change the oil, and put the car back together and i’d get back to him..

ARGGGG… So now i’m trying to figure out a) if the guy was being straight with me about the work that needed to be done, b) if the quote of $6k is in the right ballpark and c) even if I do this work will it make the car last long enough to get my money’s worth out of it? will this work make my car live for another year or two or is it time for a new one..

normally I’d say screw it – old bessie has been a trooper and its time to put her out to pasture and get a new pete-mobile… unfortunately, I just bought this house and my instincts tell me the bank is gonna get a good laugh when I walk in and say oh- by the way – mind givin me some MORE money – i want new wheels to go with my new house…

So I guess my meta-question is how does one find a good mechanic that you trust to not screw you over and who can make recommendations on the work that you need to have done NOW cuz your car might explode on the way home versus the work that needs to be done to prevent that explosion down the road but can be paced out with my other monthly payments..

Ughhhh… I HATE being an adult.. it was so much easier when my mom drove me around, payed the bills, and made me dinner when I got hungry… suppose thats the price of growin up though..

anyway… thats my rant for the day… GOD I hate mondays… I’ll try and think happy thoughts and focus on what they pay me for here..

A new home

So I got REALLY sick of dealign with the silly little bugs I was running into on blogger and matt, being the super cool guy that he is, has given me a home on his site so i’m going to use that one instead.. So i’m over here now – and i’ll move my old entries from blogger over here.. (and see if I can preserve the post dates! 🙂