Classic Cars rule

The rule I've heard a few times before is that a car is a classic when it reaches quarter century old. However, there are other factors involved too. Some cars are just destined to the junkyard regardless.
The 50's, 60's and early 70's have a lot of collectible vehicles. There's too many to even list right now, so I won't try. Personally, I don't see very many compelling vehicles from the middle to late 70's until the early 90's. There are some (like the old Z or the Mustang), but not many. Commonly, cars from the 80's just plan suck in styling and performance. The boxy cars of the early 80's are ugly for being boxes on wheels. The aerodynamic cars of the late 80's are ugly for being wings-with-bubbles on wheels. I don't think there are many collectors trying to score a 1989 Ford Taurus.
I was at the recent car expo in San Francisco. I found there are many compelling vehicles. I think the middle 1990's to now (and hopefully for years to come) is going to be an era with many collectible cars. Vehicles popular in the Tuner market almost already have a collectible status, like the previous Honda Civic. In addition, there are loads of new, interesting models or resculpts, like the Dodge Viper, any BMW, certain Subarus, the previous and new Mustang, etc which will likely stand the test of time.
It has inspired me to hold on to my car and keep it in great all-original condition for the next 20 or so years.

Retail Sales Prediction

Based on what I've seen so far, I predict that overall U.S. retail sales for this xmas season will be stronger than expected, particularly for mall retailers. The malls (at least in the SF Bay area and Silicon Valley) are as busy as I've seen since 1989.
Partially linked to this, Walmart (and prolly most other non-mall discounters) will suffer this year, as people are going to the malls, or are shopping for the better quality goods. Target looks like it positioned itself to have the best of both worlds since it expanded into the malls (replacing Wards in many locations), and maintains the perception of higher level of quality goods at good prices.

Gift giving strategy this year...

This was going to be a comment reply, but it got so long, I figured it qualified as its own blog entry. :)
Last year, I used online purchasing with dropping shipping a lot. My strategies and intentions are different this year. I did a lot of discount buying of DVD's thru Columbia House this year. They don't do gift wrapping (not that I would pay $4 per gift for that service thru other sites anyway). They also don't drop ship (or at least it's a pain in the ass to get them too). It all worked out. I was able to get enough credits to get myself the last James Bond box set ($100 value) for free, and I'm averaging $11 including taxes and shipping for recent DVD releases. Everyone wins. :)
For the more important gifts (like jewerly) , I feel its best to delivery in person anyway because makes it more meaningful.

Pressing matters

My computer at work busted for a couple of weeks. It was returned and is almost back to normal so I can do my job uninterrupted.
My g/f and I had a little trouble a few weeks ago. That has cleared up.
My finances were in a bit of a mess over the past month. That is getting cleared up. The worse is behind me.
The most pressing matter before me now is how to get my xmas gifts into the hands of their recipients, without driving all over Northern California. :)

Freedom

I've discovered a lot since I freed myself of the shackles of willful ignorance that is Christian Fundamentalism. Here's a couple of examples.
First, I'm glad I work at a biotech company. It has allowed me to be view the science behind modern biology first hand. Guess what, evolution is true. Our society now has practical uses for the knowledge that evolution gives us! For example, knowing the real origin of an identified infectant allows for quicker development of treatment against it. Willful ignorance of this is equivalent to believing the Earth is the center of the Universe. Modern day reject of evolution by Protestants is very similar to Protestant rejection of Copernicus' heliocentric model of the Universe in the 1500's. It's interesting to note, it is the Protestants that rejected Copernicus, and it was the Catholic Church that accepted him. In our time, the Protestant faiths are waging a similar war against evolution, while the Catholic Church declared that evolution does not contradict the bible. Anyone see a pattern developing here? :)
Second, the Bible and all revered ancient texts are not infallible, nor are they the word of God. There are many completely wrong statements, absolute contradictions, and bigotries that fill the pages of these ancient writings. An example of a false statement, the Qu'ron says (in no uncertain terms) that the Earth does not move and that the Sun moves around the Earth. In fact, the Qu'ron not only states that falsehood, it makes use of it as a justification for further false conclusions. An example of an absolute contradiction, the Bible clearly states two separate and completely different creation accounts. Christian traditionalism and fundamentalism both try to claim that the two accounts are merely a retelling of the creation with a different flavor, or that the second story is somehow a continuation of the first story. When read with a critical mind, the two stories are completely different, and directly contradict each other (not to mention how much both contradict reality).
That's enough of that for now.

New Perspective

The weeks that followed the conversation in my previous post changed me. Before this time, I firmly, religiously and scientifically believed that the soul was not separate from the body; the soul did not exist by itself. I viewed any tales of ghosts, supernature happenings or such matters as superstition, imagination or the work of the devil (the religious side of me still believed in Satan at that time).
Right up to the very moment I heard her disembodied voice speak to me, I firmly believed that such an event was impossible. I'm not going into the few conversations I had with her, other than to say they involved the further exchanges of our expressions for love for each other, and very specific information I had no other way to receive that I later verified.
I am going to say that these events lead me to start questioning my belief system. Point number one that I had to face: Our soul does exist on its own. How? What happens if we die? Most Christian religions accept this as fact, but if my religion was wrong, what does that say about other religions that are based firmly in the interpretation of any ancient texts?
In the past, I read the bible completely through over time, several times. I know its words. So now, I started looking at the bible from a neutral eye. I started realizing there was a lot of ridiculous explanations to cover thangs that the bible says. Then, I realized, there are absolute contradictions in the bible that are glossed over by fundamentalism, and all christian religions. The bible is not the infallible word of God. It couldn't be. Hince my journey began.
I explored and revealed each successive lie I've been told since I was an infant. As my eyes opened slowly opened, old precepts became invalid or simply lost meaningfulness. Through this process, it took me a about three years to completely shed christianity (and all organized religion) out of my veins. I am not a christian. I've discovered all religion is simply a metaphor to explain the unknownable. I choose to accept no one's metaphor any longer. I have been religionfree since I was 28.
It is amazing where a woman's love can take you. In my case, I literally lost my religion. lol

Banking eggs

I recently had all of my money stolen out of my checking and savings accounts at my main bank. All the checks and payments I made were bouncing all over the place. It’s a mess. I have to contact each creditor individually and convince them it wasn’t my fault so they will reverse their returned check fees.
I’ve been unsatisfied with how my bank has handled this affair. They’ve dragged their feet on the carpet of inefficiency. It is likely I will be ending my relationships with this bank and its affiliates as soon as this matter is completely fixed.
Fortunately, I have back up money stashed away in a couple of separate accounts at different banks. The old saying comes into play; never leave all of your eggs in one basket. I didn’t have a lot of money in my separate accounts, but I had enough to re-pay this month’s bills before they were too late.
I have these back up sources because I direct deposit relatively small amounts each paycheck into these other accounts. In fact, the amounts are so small, they don’t make a difference in any given month by themselves. But collected over time, they do add up.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving all!

I also thought that I'd share the most unusual keyword search hit come come across my site that I've seen in a long time: free pictures of hermaphrodites. Ugh!

Infallible Bible

One of the pretenses of Christian Fundamentalism is that the bible is the infallible word of God. The statement often made in support of this is that God has overseen the bible’s development and directed its additions into its current form. Yet, the bible used by these people is incomplete and edited.
The King James Version is the core source of ALL protestant translations of the bible (whether admitted to by subsequent authors or not). Even this version has been intentionally changed many times in history. Several books of the King James Version and subsequent protestant bibles have been completely removed over the years to suit current tastes. The stated reasoning for this is that these books had dubious origins. So, if God is caring for his bible so well, why did he allow dubious sections to be included in it for over 500 years? Additionally, many individual scriptures have been removed, edited and reworded as late as the 1990’s! What? So, fifteen hundred or more years after the bible was painstakingly assembled, some group of protestants declare that part of the bible was unnecessary or needed editing? How can anyone believe the bible is infallible if it is constantly being tinkered with by their religious leadership? Is that leadership so arrogant that they believe they are God’s modern day prophets allowing them to mangle his word?
Furthermore, this same process of tinkering was very likely a major factor in the earliest days of the bible’s origins. Except now, no record of that tinkering exist because of time itself, destroyed documents and intentional rewrites to suit then current political and religious agendas. Basically, if tinkering exists now, it certainly existed then.
The bible is a great guide to live by, but to take its current form completely literally is a self-contradiction.
I have a message to the Christian Fundamentalist and other clergy who pretend that they believe the bible is infallible: You can’t have it both ways. If the bible is infallible, then stop editing the bible and undo the ongoing edits. If you accept the ongoing edits, then admit that you really don’t believe the bible is infallible, stop lying to your followers, and stop trying to cram your personal exobiblical believes down everyone else’s throats.

Citibank Strangedays

Well, I called up Citibank today to inquiry about the status of my unauthorized transactions investigation. A person from the fraud customer service department picked up my call. I'll refer to him as Gear. So, I asked Gear about the status of the investigation. First words out of Gear's mouth in reply, "Investigations take 14 business days to be completed." Well, I expressed about as much frustration as I am capable in response. When I first reported the unauthorized withdrawals on my account, I was told that I would have resolution in 4 to 5 days. The second time I called, I was also told 4 to 5 days. After the 5th day, I called again. This time, I was told it was 10 days. And now I called on the 11th day and Gear was telling me I had to wait 3 more days. No way!
He put me on hold and did some checking. He comes back and tells me I was right. The investigation is 10 days, and it is done. I will receive the investigation closure letter and my reimbursement in a couple days. Then he tells me the amount of the reimbursement, under $2000. More than $3000 was stolen from me! What the?!
After more time passes, Gear finally figures about that the initial investigation was only opened for one of my two accounts that was affected. So Gear and I had to go through all of the transactions again, and submit two requests (one for each account) for review and reconsideration of the investigation results, all because of a Citibank error!
You know what, I don't know if this means I will get the initial reimbursment amount, or hafta wait another ten days for the correct amount. Arg! So, the saga continues.

Movie Review: The Forgotten

The movie The Forgotten starts off as a good story that appears to be building towards something significant. In the film, the heroine starts realizing that major portions of her life are disappearing, particularly those portions regarding her son. She is the only person that sees it happen. The movie’s flaws start showing up as the plot unfolds (or unravels). The second half of the movie is full of huge plot holes. The plot problems didn’t distract me from enjoying the film, at least until the end. Important characters and plot points are completely forgotten to give the film a Hollywood happy ending that contradicts and negates the rest of the movie. It’s as though the movie itself suffered from the same plight as the heroine. The one redeeming quality of this film is its affirmation of a mother’s love for her offspring.

New Campaign

I've determined that I need to try to change the system. ::que dramatic music:: lol Really though, I'm working with my friend Dave, and soon others too, to create an abstract proposal for points to include in the law for enhancement of security for credit, charge and debit card holders.
I've got several ideas. I'll state the details of this proposal when we've worked them out. Once we get the details worked out, we are going to look for help in letter writing for people that agree. We will approach the banks, credit card companies, congress, president and state governments.
More to come.

Frustration

I'm upset with my bank. They've left me high and dry until their investigation is complete. 10 days! I've got checks bouncing all over the place, no additional cash and no checks on my new account yet! The name of this bank is CitiBank.

Thangs come in threes

Well, I've have a fairly frustrating month so far.
First, my computer crashes at work. I need my computer to function fully. IT didn't give me back my system for for quite some time. I was kicking co-workers out of their cubes to I can get my stuff done from time to time. (exaggeration)
Second, someone uses my account information to steal all of my money at some hacked ATMs in Pakistan. What a mess!
Third, my g/f and I are on a break. I've been having difficulty seeing eye-to-eye on some issues. We are working through these items, but are on a break to make sure we both have time to come to terms with these differences. I love her either way.
I'm not outwardly affected, but these frustrating events all happening at once are taking a toll on me.

We...

She loves me. I love her. She doesn’t seem to like who I am. She wants me to live within the box she has built for herself. That box is far too small for her. She outgrow it years ago. How does she expect me to live in there with her? I don’t demand that she leave her box, but I open the way for her escape. She really likes staying in the box. I invite her out of the box. She takes a step, then two. When I turn my attention away, she leaps back in, like she is pulled by a mighty spring (yet, no spring exists).
She came out of that box when we were getting to know each other, exploring each other. She explored her surroundings, and was happy, excited. The instant we became official, she hopped right into it, and tried to coax me in with her. I’m not going. My spirit is not as free as some, but it is way too free to be held to such a small place.
I don’t care that she is in there. I love her for who she is. I care that she’s expecting me to cram myself in to that box with her. That is hurtful. I’ve been nothing but straightforward about who I am. She knows I like it out here. She lied. She pretended. Yet, it wasn’t pretending. She is the person I fell in love with, yet she doesn’t know it. When she is outside the box, she is happy, she glows. When she snaps back in, she hunches and moans with cramped discomfort. I soothe her soreness with tender care and without judgement. She grabs for my collar, a shirt tail, a pocket or anything just to hold me, to yank me in with her. Dirty tricks.
I love her. She loves me. We…