Friday, August 31, 2012

Zombie Crawl in San Jose Yo@!





It's always the husband.



This is how dogs feel about zombies.





?







This is the big foot zombie shot Mr S. got. Just put a bigfoot constume on him. He has the same walk. And - I like it's a little blurry. Just like bigfoot shots.

Updates.

I have to say, one of the most interesting things that happened this week - gas prices.

They shut down 90% of the gulf refining capability. There was a huge refinery fire in Venezuela. On the eve of a holiday weekend no less. The California refinery is still impaired. And gas only ticks up 10 cents or so? I don't know about you, but that scares me way more than if it would have gone up to 5 bucks.

At least there is the promise of fun stuff this weekend for all.

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Dear Mitt - sound more like Condi. Thats what we want.
Im trying to find something interesting to talk about. I just feel funky.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Monday, August 27, 2012

When stupidity reins.

Hawaii Solar Installers Billed for Retroactive 250% Federal Tax.

"U.S. businesses that bought solar panels made in China earlier this year are retroactively being hit with unexpected tax bills, as they find themselves caught in the middle of a trade fight between U.S. and Chinese manufacturers.

The unusual bills are the result of action by the U.S. Commerce Department, which slapped provisional antidumping duties of between 31% and nearly 250% on solar panels containing Chinese-made solar cells in May."


Can you imagine doing what you thought was the right thing, only to be penalised later? Way later. Oh wait, that is everyone who suffers under the current administration.

There is just nothing to even say about this shit anymore. The election is too close.

I bet this makes everyone want to run out any buy solar panels. Wait. The opposite of that.

Miscellaneous Goodguys shots.



This is one of my favorite shots.





Some of these reds are so hard to get, but I thought this one turned out color true.







Sunday, August 26, 2012

Today in pictures. Continued.





My first Fisker in the wild. I've seen a bunch of them now, but I hunted it down and it wasn't a dealer car. I might post more pictures of it when I unload my other camera.












I never thought I'd love a Chrysler Imperial.




These shots were done with "camera in" high dynamic range. Meaning the camera chose which shots to meld together rather than manual high dynamic range.




The car belongs to Allan Clark out of Dos Palos. And I just thought it was the most creative thing I'd seen lately.



I would have gotten side shots, but all the doors and stuff were open. And the inside was just too retro interesting to have them close up. Sorry.











Saturday, August 25, 2012

Today in pictures. Part 1.



Today we went out to Palo Alto to an art festival. Which, next to the beach (right now) is my favorite place on earth. Going to Palo Alto involves a lot of - Oh! look how cute that place is. Did you see that house. Pretty much every two seconds.

It's more than people just aren't worried about anything. It's that you can sit down at a cafe and hear doctors at the next table talking about medicine. Or all manner of tech stuff. Mr S. pointed out that even going to Monterey were people are filthy rich doesn't make me as happy as Palo Alto. There are just a lot of really smart people. And every house almost is cute.

Anyway. On to the pictures.









President Money Bags was there signing up women to vote. Or something. I just find the cardboard cutouts creepy.



Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Hello Issac.



It takes a pretty unusual storm to get me excited these days. I've been watching hurricanes for years. Cuba and Hispaniola are very good at shredding storms.

However, this storm has had an unusually consistent consensus. Meaning, all the models are pretty much in agreement this storm is hitting Florida. And the Bay of Campeche is saturated. No dry air to eat into it.

I just wanted to go on record because gas is going to be under huge pressure. A hurricane hitting the US is the only scenario I believe where gas will spike to unknown levels. I wouldn't be surprised if it neared 5 bucks a gallon in California relatively soon.

How losers win, and winners lose.

If anyone needs more evidence of Obamas war on business, I've got a story for you.

In case anyone hadn't noticed - the news is filled with home prices rising. Since my rental property finally tipped back into positive equity, I figured I would try to refinance. After all, I have comps to prove my case. I have a credit score of 814. Normally these two things (in a conventional market) would allow a refinance. I mean, positive equity?

Not so fast cowboy.

As soon as Bank of America found out my property was a rental - mind you I already pay a higher interest rate because it is non owner occupied - they refused to finance me. Yep.

They gave a vague "we have too many loans in the pipeline" excuse. When I tried to narrow the guy down, to get him to give a more concise answer I couldn't. And you know I have mad interrogation skills. Especially when I'm nice.

I'm guessing it has something to do with the fact that Obama can't figure out why there isn't more first time buyers, and it still trying to penalise investment.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Hennessey Venom.



I'm not sure what all the fuss is about with this car. It just looks like a stretched out Lotus. Plus, it drives me crazy when they rope off cars too tightly. But, with the way the car industry is changing, this car might never be seen. So I'm posting it.





That is a lot of percent.

Best Buy profit tanks 91%, stock tumbles to 9-year low.

This obviously wasn't great news to wake up to this morning. But, hey! They are still turning a profit. Most analysts seem to be blaming everything on customer service. Which normally, I would agree 91% with.

I don't quite understand companies that sell technology, who refuse to embrace technology! When just about everyone on the planet reports having difficulty trying to check out of their stores, you'd think they would equip their staff with those Square credit card readers all over the store. You'd show your receipt at the door like Frys Electronics forces you to do. How effing hard is that? It isn't rocket science people.

At any rate - I see this whole thing a little differently. Customer service is the worst, but these stores would have been dead years ago if it weren't for those "appliance" store deals. I blogged about it here.

This is a scheme in which these companies lease floor space to house appliances. OSH does it. Which by the way is a horrible deal. Since they are "leasing" the floor space from companies like Sears, the host store does not have any control over pricing. I found this out when my washer broke down about 6 months ago. (Mr S. and I wound up fixing it ourselves because it seems that front loading washers were a fad. Fully half of the washers sold now are top loaders. But that is another story.)

The other significant problem? We are in a refresh economy. Meaning, not much new is coming out, just new revisions of old stuff. There just isn't enough new "stuff" to keep these electronics stores in business.

People think this is just a problem with Best Buy. It isn't. If my posts about Fry's electronics are anything to judge by. Here and here.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Infinity Emerge.



I'm normally not into Infinities, but I liked the lines on this one. The weather was challenging for getting anything in the grey spectrum. Which isn't even a color.





Stuff we found in the parking lot.



This is an Edison2. It's an X Prize car. I think the auction house was selling it.