Hypermiling Once Again

I knew that the EPA has revised it's methods for calculating fuel mileage for new models but didn't realize that they took the time to revise the old ones. Apparently, they downgraded my 2000 Camaro to 17 and 26 which is 2 and 3 mpg lower than was originally displayed on the window sticker. That's very interesting considering that I've never gotten less than 24 mpg in either 4th Gen V6 Camaro that I've owned.

I'm still pulling down 29 mpg without a problem using some techniques now popularly referred to as Hypermiling. Nothing extreme. Tires inflated to 35 psi, no drafting and very little coasting in neutral. There's just not very many opportunities for it on my commute. Just taking it easy on the go pedal has made the greatest change. I've had to make concessions to 90+ degree temps this summer. In the southeast, A/C is a necessity unless you just enjoy sweating. I actually prefer the windows down but when the air coming in feels like an oven, I'm turning the A/C on. I have avoided the max setting so that the compressor does cycle.

Keeping it below 65 on the interstate and below 2000 rpm period has made these numbers easy. Cooler weather, rolled up windows, and no A/C earlier in the experiment produced 30-31 mpg so I'm hoping to see those numbers return when the temp starts dropping this fall. Oh, and this baby runs on regular unleaded. Can't beat that.

JFK's address to Southern Baptist leaders, 1960

"I believe in a president whose views on religion are his own private affair, neither imposed upon him by the nation or imposed by the nation upon him as a condition to holding that office."

Many would do well to consider the words of John F. Kennedy as we choose our next President. Read more of Kennedy's speech here.

They Just Don't Get It

In the last few days, I've read an amazing array of political analysis of the many speeches given at the Democratic National Convention. Although I saw similar comments in other articles, Ruben Navarette's remarks on Obama's speech stood out in my mind. He described Obama's comments on economic issues as a "hybrid of left-right economic theory that sounded like a bundle of contradictions." Here's an excerpt from his article on cnn.politics.com

He explained it as "the idea that we are responsible for ourselves, but that we also rise and fall as one nation" and described it as blending "individual responsibility and mutual responsibility." Simply put: You have to do what you can for yourself, but that you also have to do for others.

There is the rub: If everyone were to adhere to the first part, there will be no need for the second. Besides, even if we buy the idea that, as Obama said, "I am my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper," there is still the question of whether government should do the keeping.

Navarrette moved on to Biden's speech continuing to point out these so called contradictions. Like Bush and McCain, Navarette just doesn't get it. Just as Bill Gates and others have called on the richest nations to help alleviate world poverty and conquer disease in some of the poorest countries, the same should be done at home. There is no excuse for anyone in this country to be hungry or without medical care. Sometimes you can do everything for yourself and it's just not enough. Sometimes people need a hand (not to be confused with a handout) and the government can help.

I grew up under those circumstances. I never knew my grandfather. A WWII vet, he died suddenly at the age of 47 and my father dropped out of high school in an effort to keep the family farm afloat. My father struggled for years but eventually failed in his effort. Along the way, he married my mother and she bore three children of which I'm the eldest. My father grew up farming and knew nothing else. However, farm work did prepare him to operate heavy equipment and I remember when he began driving a dump truck for a local construction company to put food on the table. We lived with my grandmother for about five years until he went to work as a farm laborer and got a house in the bargain.

Unfortunately, there still wasn't enough income to feed three children so we received food stamps and free lunches at school (both programs signed into law by Democratic presidents). My family was never poor enough to qualify for welfare but we needed a hand. That assistance from the government helped my parents through some very hard times. My father struggled for years working long hours in the fields to support us. My mother stayed home to raise us while also earning money sewing and styling hair. They sacrificed everything to give us a chance to succeed in the world and it was only possible through the help of these government programs.

My parents still don't have much but they no longer require government assistance. Thanks to programs that are funded through taxes on the wealthiest citizens, my family had food on the table and my siblings and I were given a chance to pursue the American Dream. I know our story is not unique so it's really amazing that McCain and Navarrette just don't get it.

Comcast to make monthly Internet use cap official

I might have thought differently before going to work for a cable company but I now have to agree with Comcast's decision. I've actually seen 5% of the customer base burn up over 50% of the available bandwidth and the constant struggle to upgrade to keep up with their demands. There really is no other fair option. All cable companies will follow eventually but, of course, more upgrades will be required to implement the cap. 250 gig is still an incredible amount of traffic but I'm sure that you will see plenty of complaints on the net today!

NEW YORK (AP) -- Comcast Corp., the nation's second-largest Internet service provider, Thursday said it would set an official limit on the amount of data subscribers can download and upload each month.

On Oct. 1, the cable company will update its user agreement to say that users will be allowed 250 gigabytes of traffic per month, the company announced on its Web site.

Comcast has already reserved the right to cut off subscribers who use too much bandwidth each month, without specifying exactly what constitutes excessive use.

Read full article at Yahoo Finance.

Obama's Comments on Energy at DNC

And for the sake of our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, I will set a clear goal as President: in ten years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East.

Washington’s been talking about our oil addiction for the last thirty years, and John McCain has been there for twenty-six of them. In that time, he’s said no to higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars, no to investments in renewable energy, no to renewable fuels. And today, we import triple the amount of oil as the day that Senator McCain took office.

Now is the time to end this addiction, and to understand that drilling is a stop-gap measure, not a long-term solution. Not even close.

As President, I will tap our natural gas reserves, invest in clean coal technology, and find ways to safely harness nuclear power. I’ll help our auto companies re-tool, so that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built right here in America. I’ll make it easier for the American people to afford these new cars. And I’ll invest 150 billion dollars over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy - wind power and solar power and the next generation of biofuels; an investment that will lead to new industries and five million new jobs that pay well and can’t ever be outsourced.

America, now is not the time for small plans.

7 Little Habits That Can Change Your Life, and How to Form Them

If you could just pick one or two (or seven) habits to create in the next few months — habits that will have the most impact on your life — what would they be?

I often get asked this question, because people are overwhelmed when it comes to starting positive life changes.

They ask me: what one or two habits should they start with?

Visit Zen Habits to read the full article.

How Many Houses You Say?

For more political cartoons, visit slate.com

Ford Adapting to New Reality

Ford is announcing a $75 million investment in its Michigan truck plant to retool it for C-class small car production.

"The plant will begin converting its body shop in November when the tooling and equipment specific to the Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator will be disassembled and transferred to Kentucky Truck Plant [...] in the interim, 1,000 employees will be transferred next door to Wayne Assembly Plant where a third crew will be added in January to accommodate increased production of the hot-selling Ford Focus."

I hope that it's not too little, too late. Read the complete article at treehugger.com.

Dinner and a Movie

We may not watch television any more in the Ray household but we do enjoy our movies. NetFlix provides the DVD's and I usually burn a copy and watch them when it's convenient. For PC owners, DVD Shrink and ImgBurn are the ticket if you have similar ambitions.

Entertainment this weekend consisted of Lucky Number Slevin which came highly recommended by one of my cohorts at PCL Cable but not highly regarded by the critics. My wife and I enjoyed it. It's a shoot 'em up thriller with a twist featuring a star studded cast including Josh Harnett, Bruce Willis, and Morgan Freeman.

Everything is Illuminated was an interesting experience. Elijah Wood portrays a young Jewish man who journeys to the Ukraine to find the woman that saved his grandfather from the Nazi's. The movie strays back and forth from comedy to drama and leaves you thinking.

Both get two thumbs up! I hope that Ebert never finds out.

Obama Chooses Biden

No, I didn't get the 3am text message. I guess I'm just a few years out of the "young and hip" demographic that texts constantly and speaks primarily in the GR8 online lingo. However, I do receive email updates from the campaign mostly requesting donations. I caught the info yesterday morning on cnn.com and then preceded to absorb the various articles about Biden posted at time.com and foxnews.com. Interesting choice for VP.

Do I believe that Biden is the best fit for the Obama administration? Perhaps not but he is the right choice to get Obama into the White House. He will help get votes from the older, blue-collar Americans that would have probably voted for McCain even if they were staunch Democrats. The prospect of a black man (or any minority for that matter) running for President has bothered me for a while for that simple reason. How many white, blue-collar Americans wouldn't vote for a minority simply because of that fact?

This country has come along way in the fight against racism but it does still exist.

Bodyweight Exercise Program

Zen Habits is one of the blogs that I frequent regularly. Leo has some great information to help with every aspect of a healthy life and it's made his site rather popular. His recent article Minimalist Fitness: How to Get In Lean Shape With Little or No Equipment and the responses that follow provided plenty of ideas for body weight exercises but even more questions about actual programs.

A poster on the JP Fitness Forums sent me to Simplefit.org. Ah, very simple circuit training three days per week. Just what the doctor ordered! Small but interesting community but I'll probably be logging my progress there as well as here. I just need to order a Door Gym by Creative Fitness or something similar so I can do pull-ups at home. I've wanted one for a long time anyhow.

I've got to dig out the stop watch and the jump rope. Although I've never been able to jump rope very well, I'm going to try to get both feet simultaneously off the ground and over the rope on the days that I'm not doing the simplefit program. Now I need to decide at what level to begin? Hmmmm. I would really like a nice hybrid bike for some cardio work! If I lived in the Florida Keys then the one I'm riding in the accompanying photo would work great.

New Racing Photos at my Flickr

I added some more photos to my NSCA Drag Racing set at Flickr. These shots were taken during the 2006 season and the first race of 2007. Too bad that the NSCA shut it's doors at the end of the season. Sized at 1024 pixels wide, these photos would be perfect for Windows wallpaper. If you enjoy wild wheelstanding doorslammers then you might want to check it out. Per usual, comments are appreciated!

Paris for Pres?

Based on her energy plan, I would have to vote for her too.

Windows XP Productivity

Do you know how to make a slightly more than a year old Dell Inspiron 1501 run really well? Wipe Vista off the hard drive and install XP! No, I'm not a Vista hater at all. We're running Vista on several desktops at work including my own. Since we're an ISP, it's helpful to have testbeds similar to our customers and many are buying new machines pre-loaded with Vista and it runs great if you have enough hardware.

Like several of the articles that I've seen lately, Microsoft just underestimated the required hardware for a satisfactory Vista experience. A gig of ram and an AMD Turion just didn't cut it on my Dell laptop IMHO. XP has brought new life to this machine.

I've been through periods where I used third party software to completely change the look and feel of XP but my current install is only slightly tweaked for speed with a few apps added for productivity. I'm running Google Desktop complete with sidebar with the requisite weather gadget, notepad gadget, and Google Desktop Search. Although I've read reports to the contrary, Google's search product seems to be less resource needy than Windows Search 4.0. Google's product indexes and searches your email, browsing history, etc. and works very well.

I take advantage of XP's Quick Launch bar with shortcuts to my most abused software including Firefox and Thunderbird. TweakUI has been used to tweak the desktop slightly. I use a free replacement for Windows Explorer entitled xplorer2 Lite. If you find the Microsoft product lacking while you're moving and copying files between drives on your own home network then I heartily recommend it. Sure can't beat the price. I found out about it on Lifehacker.com, a great resource for new and mostly free software to enhance your workflow.

For the eye candy, I change my wallpaper almost weekly and have procured an interesting collection from the net. Ironically enough, most are Hamad Darwish's contributions for Vista but some I've found on deviantart.com and other sites. Check them out!

Poor Tom Cruise

I don't think Tom Cruise can catch a break after the Oprah couch scene and his very public rants on Scientology. Slate had some interesting comments about his performance in the new comedy "Tropic Thunder."

But who could have foreseen Tom Cruise nearly stealing the movie in a fat suit, a prosthetic nose, a skinhead wig, and an Austin Powers-style mat of chest fur? Cruise is always at his best when he's skewering some unpleasant aspect of his own persona; thus, the crazed motivational speaker he played in Magnolia was a career high point, and the supremely crude Les Grossman is another. Maybe as the head of United Artists, Cruise really does spew vicious obscenities on the phone and engage in triumphant hip-hop dances in an underground bunker of an office. At any rate, never has a role so cannily taken advantage of Cruise's compact, thumblike body shape—that is, his physical resemblance to a penis. As Les Grossman, he's a literal and figurative dick, and it's the role of a lifetime.

That's rough! Add to it the recent news that Angelina Jolie is taking his place in the spy thriller "Edwin A. Salt" and it doesn't look good for the man. Of course, the Los Angeles Times article reports that Cruise became disinterested in the role so perhaps it's not all bad. My wife can't stand the guy either but I've always enjoyed his performances.

Formulating the Plan

In the past, I logged every rep and every calorie that crossed my lips in the pursuit of my idea of physical perfection. Years of clean eating, weight lifting, and running had produced decent results. Nothing resembling Bob Paris, but an athletic physique. I could move some decent weight and run 3-4 miles easily enough.

I was just never happy with the results. I never took many photos because I always thought that improvements were only a few more months away. It just never happened. If I was attempting to bulk then I never got large enough. If I was leaning out then I never kept enough mass. Whether by genetic mishap or just incorrect technique (diet or exercise), I never achieved the physique that I thought I was capable of.

Like most men, my ego drove my time in the gym which led to shoulder injuries which led to a bout of physical therapy and the promise of future surgery if I didn't change my ways. Being laid off from my government contractor job of fifteen years put an end to my regular workouts. That was over two years ago. Stress from my new job and the pursuit of my degree combined with poor eating and a generally sedentary lifestyle have added about 25 lbs of adipose tissue to my physique and my blood pressure has crept up into the pre-hypertension area. Not good for a man with the big four O less than a year away.

So where do I go from here? Like Bob Paris, I'm not looking to put on a lot of mass now. I'm looking for balance in all aspects of my life. My physical goals include greater flexibility, sufficient lean muscle mass, and improved aerobic conditioning. So what's the plan? Considering that I have no money in the budget for a gym, a body weight program is in order. Probably not a bad idea for a while until I achieve some level of conditioning once again. More tomorrow.

Bob Paris

I recently rediscovered the website of author and former Mr. Universe, Bob Paris. Paris sprang onto the bodybuilding scene in the early 80's making his way onto the Olympia stage by the age of 23. He sculpted a physique of classic proportions, emphasizing balance over mass. Unfortunately, but not totally unexpectedly, his bodybuilding career pretty much came to a halt when he revealed his homosexuality in Iron Man magazine in 1989.

Never the stereotypical bodybuilder, Paris became an inspirational speaker and an author. His personal memoir "Gorilla Suit" detailed his experiences in the sport and his fitness books focus not only on the mechanics of exercise but also the mental and self esteem aspects. Many have been inspired by his speeches given at colleges and corporations around the world. Of course, he's also been the subject of famous photographers including Robert Mapplethorpe and graced the stage as an actor as well.

Perhaps more inspirational is the balance that he's found in his life now. Fitness, spirituality, and the environment are his main concerns these days. His views struck a chord with me. Published in 2001, his latest fitness book "Prime" was written with the 40+ man in mind. I'm now awaiting my copy from Amazon. No more excuses. Time to get back in shape.

(Photo by Per Bernal)

A Hobby of Mine

Another month has slipped by without a post on this blog. Finishing up the last half of the summer semester at Athens State University was a major chore but it's behind me now and I scored an A in one of the last classes required for my bachelors in Computer Information Systems. Can't beat that. Two more classes to go. Woohoo.

Now on to one of my hobbies. I started shooting cars in the mid 90's when it became painfully obvious that I couldn't afford to race them. Shooting at our local track, Huntsville Dragway, led to the development of my website HeadsUpReview.com and a part-time career blossomed from there. Unfortunately, the hobby became more like work with magazine deadlines and the demands for quicker and more indepth information on the internet. To make a long story short, I "retired" after the 2002 racing season but made a "comeback" in 2006 before bowing out again last year due to the pressures of family, work, and the pursuit of my bachelors degree.

Strobist.com and the forums at fredmiranda.com have reinvigorated my interest in photography. With a few weeks left before my last semester at ASU begins, I've got my lens pointed at material that I've been wanting to explore for years. Yesterday, I drove to our home town of Fayetteville, TN and roamed the square with my camera in hand capturing a few shots that I consider keepers. You can check them at out at My Flickr page. You'll also find a variety of drag racing photos from the NSCA's 2006 and 2007 season. I've got some great history on film just waiting for a film scanner! Comment on the photos if you like. Constructive criticism is appreciated.