Three-Letter Acronyms & Four-Letter Words

We made it to Austin last night around like 3:10 AM or so.

To be quite honest, I remember that it was after 3:00 AM but not by how much. And I didn't bring in the pad of paper we have been keeping notes on, so I have no idea of what the final mileage was. I will get the pad out and do a spreadsheet later today.

In terms of gas mileage, Jeremy did a little experiment and kept to speed of the car between 60 and 65 for one leg (ie between stops for gas) the gas mileage improved from having been like 25/mpg twice in a row back up to 27/mpg.

The difference was that the times when we were getting 25/mpg, our speed was about 70 mph. So that extra 5 mph, cost us 2/mpg which is like a 7.4% loss in gas mileage. I completely attribute this to the kayak on top of the car. I mean the thing is like a giant sail, it produced quite a bit of drag (in part because you can feel the semi-trucks pass the car more with the kayak, than you do without it).

Anyway, we made it to Austin, if we want to take a look at it in a 24-hour day perspective we made it in two days. We left at about 11:00 AM EST (10:00 AM central) on Friday and arrived in Austin at about 3:00 AM on Sunday morning, so a whole 7 hours to spare.

In calendar day terms, it took us three days, since we left on a Friday and didn't arrive until Sunday.

To keep from going insane on the trip we listened to some audio books. I have been searching for "Dealers of Lightning" the story about the Xerox PARC lab and their quest for the technologies that led to the modern office (personal computers, GUI based operating systems [read Windows and Macs), laser printers, Ethernet and scanners).

That was a good book, it was about 5 hours long. Jeremy also had iWoz on his iPod, that on the other hand was 9 hours long.

All I have to say is, "Your the man Woz, your the man!!!"

I mean, Steve Wozniak was quite obviously an engineer ahead of his time and was able to do some real pioneer engineering work at Apple in the creation of the Apple I and Apple II. He also invented the Universal Remote.

Now, iWoz is an auto-biography, so the book was written by him about him. I am glad that he didn't talk about himself in the 3rd person, though he definitely is very proud of his work, as he should be. But a good chunk of the book definitely sounds like he is patting himself on the back just a little too much. Jeremy and I joked around that Woz should be talking about himself in the 3rd person in certain parts of the book, just because while slightly more modest, it seemed like he was just short of being one of those really stereotypical athletes that talks about themselves, their accomplishments and what they like in the 3rd person.

"Woz likes it when Woz pulls off a great prank."

There were a couple of times when we thought Woz should have had a catchphrase like

"Cuz, I'm Woz mo-fo!"

or

"Because, I'm Woz biatch!"

Again to be fair, the book was good and Woz is an amazing engineer he did some truly breathtaking feats of engineering in his day. And much of his flair for reducing the number of chips and reworking a design to be more efficient is probably a trait that more engineers should have.

The Dealers of Lightning books was great, not sure I said that yet.

Well I am going to be leaving to take Gina to the airport soon. She is going to be in Vegas for a few days at a trade show.

If my schedule was a bit more flexible I would be going with her, but the rest of September is already going to be pretty jam packed. And, well after 28-30 hours in a car, I can't say that I would be looking forward to a 3 hour plane flight to Vegas.

Before I pack it in, let me just say this. Do not, whatever you do, do not drink the "Mt Dew: Game Fuel". I mean I don't think it is poisoned or anything, but it just doesn't taste good in my opinion. A couple of the web comics (CAD || PA) I read was making fun of the stuff, but from a marketing perspective, because of the fact that Halo3 is the main sponsor of this sugary noxious concoction, I mean the taste to me is sort of like orange drink that has a bit of extra carbonation and someone proceeded to blend up some skittles and nerds and then add that to the orange drink.

I mean, we bought it because we were still a good hour from the house at least and I needed a pick me up, but didn't want to drink an energy drink as this would probably prevent me from getting any sleep when I got home. So I figured I would try the Game Fuel and see what all the fuss was about.

Yeah, just don't bother. I mean drink the Code Red or LiveWire if your looking for a sugary Mt Dew alternative soda. Or you know what just drink some water or get a V8. God I sound old.

Oh well.

Laterz

(originally sent from my blackjack, which can't do body text, just titles)