Speedy Drivers

Maybe I'm getting old, but it sure felt like a lot of cars were passing me this weekend. My girlfriend and I drove 200 miles to see my parents for Memorial Day weekend. These days I can't afford a speeding ticket, so I generally never drive more than 5 miles per hour over the speed limit. That may seem lame to some of you, but I thought gas mileage was better if you drive the speed limit too. Not to mention the higher insurance rates if you get a ticket. But some people just don't seem to care about things like that once they get behind the wheel. On the way back, someone had dropped a load of wood blocks on the highway. The debris covered both lanes for about one hundred yards. Nothing will slow you down faster than a load of wood in your path when you are going seventy miles per hour! Luckily, our car survived that mess. If you can't stop driving to save gas, at least slow down a bit.

Fear the Man

It always amazes me when I see the ways that we are being manipulated and put into situations that are designed to milk us of our hard earned dollars. Like the high gas prices. I live in a city with at least 100 gas stations, and every station changes to the same price within a day. How is that possible with out a coordinated effort. And if you want to buy a small gas saving car you get stuck with high insurance rates. And just wait until you get old enough to need a nursing home. You basically have to give everything you own to the state. I know that many of us are too young to think about things like that. But believe me, they are putting laws in place to make sure the bill gets paid. If we could only see the big picture, it might look like England in the 1600's. Didn't we come to the new world to escape taxation and pompous rulers? I think the great experiment has put us back to where we started. But if the news about all the Hispanic immigrants is any indication, it is still better than Mexico.

Time for a Video Game

After finishing the VHS to DVD transfer project last week, I finally had some time to play Quake4, which came with my new GeForce 6800GS video card. I don't understand why the level lighting is so dark. It's the same with Doom3. You walk through pitch black rooms with a tiny flashlight waiting to get mauled by mutant demons. Most of the time you barely have enough health and ammunition to get to the next level. It can be frightening when you have a monster coming right at you and are low on ammo. But when you kill them, they just kind of flop over and disintegrate. I am a bit disappointed with the darkness and lack of gibs. They have replaced our beloved and addictive visceral experience with shadowy darkness. I also play games on Xbox once in a while, but there are so many games out right now, that I don't have time to finish the ones I have. There was a time when I knew which games were worth playing, but now I feel like I'm a bit out of touch. HalfLife is still the most popular online game according to gamespy.com. Quake4 is way down on the list at number 29, a sad place indeed. Now that I am in my 40's, I don't have time to play games like I used to, but it's still fun to visit game sites once in a while to see what's new.

Summer Slowdown

This week at the seminar factory, we were told to reduce our hours from 40 to 32 per week. I guess it is better than being layed off. Looking at the bright side, I will now have a little more time to work on Budget Homepage projects. The video transfer project is in the burn disc phase. I was going to use Lightscribe discs, but they don't have any DVD-R discs available yet. So I got a label kit for use with my printer. But, after I bought the kit I discovered that you run the risk of making your DVD unreadable by placing a label on it. I guess if the DVD gets out of balance by even a slight amount the laser will not read the disc properly. That really made my day. On a lighter note, I am officially an uncle now. A son was born to my brother on 5/5/06. Congratulations Mike & Kara!