3leet

So I've been watching gas prices rise and wondering how much they will affect me, when the do affect me, via inflation. Since I don't own a car, I've been blissfully isolated from any direct consequences so far. But how much will the increased gas prices drive inflation? I'm not sure, but here's a nice graph


Do you see how after the big rise in gas prices in the early 80s, the nominal amount never went down, we just had massive inflation, so the relative cost just decrased.  My assumption is that will occur again now, so how do I diversify my portfolio in order to protect it from inflation?

My other concern is that people will decide to move back to the urban core, where I live.  Greater demand will result in increased housing prices, and my cost of living will go up. 

I've essentially made life decisions the past few years that bucked the trend, and I've benefited economically from that.  But what happens when what I'm doing becomes the norm rather than the exception?

For example, buying a fuel efficient car:  now is the worst time to do so as demand is so high.  But just like in the early eighties, I predict that in the next four years, automakers will dramatically increase the fuel efficiency of their vehicles, gas prices will drop and there will be a surplus of miser-mobiles on the market.  So it's just a matter of patience.

This is a good bike comic strip, you can probably read through all of them in about 20 minutes

http://yehudamoon.com/index.php?date=2008-02-23

The incident in this comic happened to me twice this winter, once because there was just too much snow, and once because the hill was so steep and slippery that my wheel just started spinning about halfway up it

Never was it too cold though, it only got down to 3 degrees F this winter.

It's interesting that the word apprehension has two somewhat opposite meanings
ap·pre·hen·sion  (pr-hnshn)


Where is the line between contented and complacent? 

con·tent·ed  (kn-tntd)adj. Satisfied with things as they are; content:

com·pla·cent  (km-plsnt)adj.  Contented to a fault; self-satisfied and unconcerned

Including Pittsburgh that is, heres where I went during December: Orlando, Dallas, Urbana and Minneapolis. On a map it looks like this

Free Range.... Cage free... What does it mean to me?

http://www.greenerchoices.org/
This is a guide put out by Consumer Reports that provides information about all things "green."  I've only looked at the green label section so far.

Nice concept, although I would have used something lighter than an 1986 Buick Regal:

http://urbanvelo.org/pedal-powered-car-pulled-over-by-police/

A Chevy Chevette, for example, would be more practical...

I think it's interesting that the car in the movie is cited as being unsafe, considering that it provides more protection than if the four people were on individual bikes.  However, I don't disagree with the officer for pulling them over.  Since it is a car, it needs to have plates.

Just don't try driving it up The steepest street in Pittsburgh (and the country)

It's 327 miles from Pittsburgh to DC via the Great Allegheny Passage Trail (red) and the C & O Canal Trail (blue).  Unfortunately, the trail is not yet complete.  The last nine miles, which connect Pittsburgh to the rest of the trail, have not yet been built...  Funding to build the rest of the trail was recently approved, so hopefully within the next year or so I'll be able to hop on my bike at my apartment, and find myself in D.C  about 3.5 days later.

For anyone who's ever biked in traffic and been harassed, here's some soothing words: http://www.bicyclemeditations.org/road.html

I hope that when I'm Theo Jansen's age, I will be doing equally cool stuff.  Watch the video to see some great mechanical art!

Here's a cool article.

http://postgazette.com/pg/07316/833111-85.stm

Think of it as a 4-door Smart car.  For some perspective, this car is 135 inches long, the Honda Fit is 155 inches long, and the Toyota Corolla is 175 inches long.  Yeah, its small, but it is a four door four person car.  Getting this car in the US is a pipe dream considering it hasn't even been exported to europe yet, let alone canada (where one has been able to buy an actual Smart car for the last several years)

http://www.canadiandriver.com/ctc/blog/?p=160

http://www.verdictoncars.com/jsp/vocmain.jsp?lnk=211&featureid=129&description=Mitsubishi%20iCar

Honda redesigned the Fit for 2009,



I'm not sure I like its looks as much as the 2007-08 model, but oh well.

Just came back from seeing the The Avett Brothers at the Three Rivers Art Festival in downtown.  It was about a 25 minute walk from the hotel I am staying at.   The band was decent, although some of the time their vocals reminded me of a cross between the Beatles and the Decemberists. 

My new home is Pittsburgh...as soon as I find a place to live, which I expect will happen within the next two weeks.  I'm excited about the potential that a medium sized city will offer, and hopefully I'll be able to share some of those unique elements with you.

But you need to join livejournal and request to be my friend in order to see the posts!