Excel-ing through life

Anil Dash asks:

Most of the people I know are geeks, and some large number of geeks are obsessive to one degree or another. (This can be verified by anyone who’s ever mumbled “Asperger’s…” under their breath while watching me arrange my Windows desktop.)

Perhaps the ultimate example of this sort of dorkiness is the fact that almost every one of my friends has, at one point or another, made at least one Excel spreadsheet to document some arcane aspect of their lives. The number of consecutive sunny days, the types and prices of the cups of coffee they drink, or just straightforward charts about their boss’s mood. There’s no end to the ways one can misuse desktop applications in one’s personal life.
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Thus, it’s time for a bit of market research. Have you ever made a spreadsheet for your personal life? Talked to your kids using PowerPoint? Share your geekiness, and maybe it’ll justify the creation of an exciting new community of dorks.

As much as I would like to hop from one foot to another and whistle idly, I have to confirm that yes I’ve documented part of my life in Excel. To be precise, I calculated mileage and the total amount of money I spent on gasoline on my big 1994 “loop the USA” road trip to see the remaining states I hadn’t yet been to. For the record my trip looked like this:

Place Odometer Cost Miles Gallons Used M.P.G. Day # Date
Starting 3175 1 16-Mar-1994
29 Palms, CA 3481 $12.60 306 10.08 30.36 1 16-Mar-1994
Flagstaff, AZ 3829 $13.25 348 11.73 29.67 2 17-Mar-1994
Santa Fe, NM 4225 $12.25 396 11.14 35.55 2 17-Mar-1994
Trinidad, CO 4492 $9.50 267 7.99 33.42 3 18-Mar-1994
Elmwood, OK 4785 $10.00 293 9.70 30.21 3 18-Mar-1994
Eureka Springs, AR 5223 $13.01 438 12.52 34.98 4 19-Mar-1994
Lakeland, TN 5568 $12.10 345 11.64 29.64 4 19-Mar-1994
I-81/I-40 jct., TN 6015 $12.50 447 12.51 35.73 5 20-Mar-1994
Wheaton, MD 6491 $14.00 476 12.91 36.87 6 21-Mar-1994
Tuckerton, NJ 6731 $8.50 240 8.68 27.65 6 21-Mar-1994
Boston, MA 7098 $15.50 367 12.93 28.38 7 22-Mar-1994
Rumford, ME 7333 $8.00 235 7.85 29.94 8 23-Mar-1994
Keene, NH 7671 $10.50 338 10.70 31.59 9 24-Mar-1994
Ithaca, NY 8039 $13.50 368 12.50 29.44 11 26-Mar-1994
Sandusky County, OH 8447 $14.00 408 11.67 34.96 11 26-Mar-1994
Williams County, OH 8820 $13.00 373 12.63 29.53 13 28-Mar-1994
Marshall, MI 9205 $13.00 385 12.75 30.20 14 29-Mar-1994
Oak Park, IL 9535 $14.00 330 12.29 26.85 16 31-Mar-1994
St. Paul, MN 9982 $15.00 447 13.64 32.77 17 1-Apr-1994
Fargo, ND 10269 $12.50 287 10.60 27.08 17 1-Apr-1994
Minot, ND 10610 $13.00 341 11.82 28.85 18 2-Apr-1994
Glasgow, MT 10888 $11.50 278 9.90 28.08 18 2-Apr-1994
Shelby, MT 11160 $11.50 272 8.99 30.26 18 2-Apr-1994
Kalispell, MT 11396 $10.00 236 8.48 27.83 18 2-Apr-1994
Moses Lake, WA 11755 $14.50 359 12.09 29.69 19 3-Apr-1994
Salem, OR 12182 $15.60 427 12.38 34.49 20 4-Apr-1994
Yreka, CA 12464 $12.00 282 10.00 28.20 20 4-Apr-1994
Berkeley, CA 12832 $12.25 368 10.47 35.15 21 5-Apr-1994
Totals $347.06 9657 310.59 30.98

This was all done in a rented 1994 Buick Skylark.

Kraftwerk in Seattle

Just got back home after flying up to the northwest to crawl around Portland and Seattle to consume mass quantities of coffee, records, and food, culminating in the Kraftwerk show at the Paramount in Seattle. For a music genre that demands constant rejection of the “same old stuff”, Kraftwerk in 2004 really hasn’t changed much in twenty years. Presumably the software on their otherwise featureless laptops has been updated, but their show is even more retro-futuristic with all the Tron-level graphics intact and the robots once again dusted off. I haven’t ever seen them before, but I imagine it’s like going on an old, beloved Disneyland ride: there might be a fresh coat of paint and some minor adjustments here and there, but you expect a certain amount of familiarity to remain. The show was terrific, and I’d go see it again without thinking twice. Sort of like racing out of the exit and running back in line to get on the ride again?

The defining moment of the show came during the break in between encores when the cheering audience held up their lighted cell phones in lieu of cigarette lighters. Totally classic.

When the US wanted to take over France

The US Iraq administrator Paul Bremer remarked that “The French have never forgiven us for liberating them.” What’s the story behind that comment? For the majority of the war, the United States had intended that France be part of a post-war American protectorate without national sovereignty once the Germans were defeated. The United States went as far as to begin negotiations with the pro-Nazi Vichy government before reversing it’s intentions and officially recognizing De Gaulle as head of the French government in October 1944. Read on…

Soldiers without blood

Defense Tech reports on a DARPA project that’s so weird, I can’t make a snarky comment

Darpa, the Pentagon’s research arm, has already started to investigate ways for soldiers to fight without sleep or food. Now the agency wants to see if G.I.s can carry on without most of their blood.

“The vision for the Surviving Blood Loss (SBL) Program is to develop novel strategies that delay the onset of irreversible shock and allow an injured warfighter to survive with significantly reduced oxygen delivery for extended periods of time,” a Darpa solicitation reads.

Get Out Of Town Tiki!

escapefromlaI absolutely adore Los Angeles and will always defend it from the same stupid attacks that have traditionally been the targeted at it, but recent news items have emphasized just how well, things suck right now. And I’m not just referring to yesterday’s earthquake prediction…

First of all, 1 million people have moved to Southern California in just the past three years. Transportation infrastructure has not increased to match that. You do the math.

The second news story is a heartbreaking story about my beloved Union Station.

For several weeks now, the front parking areas of the station (obscured from Alameda by high hedges) showed the occasional glimpse of heavy equipment. Most people just assumed the parking lots were being repaved or perhaps that an underground garage was in the making.

So it came as quite a jolt to make my twice weekly pass-by the Station before jumping on the 101 onramp on Alameda to see that the south lot had sprouted a three-story (so far) matrix of steel girders! Goodbye, unobstructed view, approaching from the south.

The Downtown News published a story a couple days ago to the effect that the next shocker would be in the north lot, on the southeast corner of Alameda and Cesar Chavez.

A few hundred lucky yuppies with bucks to burn on trendy living spaces and a few more in a just as trendy office building (that’s the best scuttlebutt so far) will have exclusive views of Union Station that used to belong to all of us.

Last week I saw the Anthony Mann double-header of Raw Deal and T-Men at the Egyptian Theater. T-Men specifically was chock full of old vistas of Los Angeles, including Union Station and the Farmer’s Market at 3rd and Fairfax and though there’s obviously been lots of changes over the 50 years, it was remarkable to see what hasn’t changed – including the Union Station area. Sigh…

And in insult to injury, Aaron Spelling discovers LA hipsters ten years too late:

It’s the same old story. Move into a down-on-its-heels neighborhood for cheap rent, boho charm and like-minded camaraderie. Then – WHAM! – gentrification, and the whole vibe starts to change. Next thing you know, Aaron Spelling’s army moves into a house two doors up the street, and Silver Lake, the TV show, is upon you. Please move your car before we tow.

…

The idea for the show, from what I could glean from others on the set, is something along these obtuse and convoluted lines: Main-character guy Dennis, played by Kerr Smith, starts seeing ghosts as a kid, and since no one believes him, he is forced to take medication to prevent these trite and hackneyed cinematic visions from ruining his life too much. He gets older, a family member dies, and our protagonist comes into some money, with which he buys not just a record store but “the No. 1 used-record store” in Silver Lake. Dennis gets a great product-filled haircut and a cool 1970s Citroën which, this being Silver Lake, gets booted all the time (not cool). He goes off the medication, moves in with his twin sister, Julie (Hedy Burress), who also has great hair, and then he starts to see them ghouls again

There’s a hollow voice echoing underneath Southern California and in true Amityville fashion it’s intoning “GET OUT,” “GET OUT” at me.

Housing FUD

It didn’t take long for all the smiles and back-slapping that accompanied record low interest rates and skyrocketing housing values to enter a death-spiral. Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt from MetaFilter and Scalzi questions why families live in cities under these conditions. Either way, SatireWire totally nails it.

Bottom line: I’m glad I rent, travel light, don’t own a lot of possessions, and have no desire for a family.

On cars and Q-ships

A couple of weeks ago I had an opportunity to visit both the basement vault of the Petersen Auto Museum and Jay Leno’s private car collection. Lots of rare and significant autos all of them in the zillion dollar range, but what caught my eye were the automotive Q-ships – non-flashy cars that look like something you would see marooned in some distant vacant lot. Only they’re packing some ridiculously high-horsepower engine that can accelerate the scrap heap to orbital escape velocity in a couple of seconds.

This supercharged Thunderbird in the Petersen vault is a good example. The only clue that there’s something extra hiding under the hood is the set of supercharger gauges stuck somewhat inelegantly on the steering wheel.

Petersen Thunderbird

I like the relative lack of chrome this has compared with your typical late 50s fin-encrusted behemoth, but it is still a vintage Thunderbird that’ll get all kinds of attention from even the occasional car freak. The clear winner though is this 1966 Dodge Coronet Hemi at the Leno collection.

1966 Dodge Coronet Hemi

The Dodge is your basic box sedan, but so timeless and clean that I couldn’t help but notice it in a building filled with flash. The California Highway Patrol still speaks reverently of the late 60s Dodge Polara which held the record for the fastest police car ever tested by the CHP for 25 years. About the only thing you can add is Radio Birdman’s “455 SD” and you’re good to go.

Besides, the Chrysler Corporation had the grooviest ads ever.

Oh, and the obligatory “mirror project” photo.

Jaguar Cars Ltd. - Coventry