If you get just the right initial conditions, out of the chaos of Wii Boxing, you get breakdancing, if only for a moment:
Monthly Archive for January, 2007
Over at WIRED Blogs, I saw a post today about the Nissan Altima Hybrid and how much of a better deal it is over the 2.5S model and the Toyota Camry Hybrid. At a retail price of $24,400, it is not a cheap car to drive off the lot, but it pays for itself in savings in no more than four years.
That is with a worst-case scenario that gas maintains the national average of $2.16 per gallon (not likely), you drive it 12,000 miles a year and get a combined fuel economy of 39 mpg. Did I mention that the hybrid has a net 198 hp, versus the 175 hp of the base Altima? To put that in perspective, my current car is a 192 hp model, and it is probably heavier than the Altima Hybrid. I am guessing this puppy can run.
Unfortunately, it looks like I will have to wait to do a test drive. According to Car & Driver, “The hybrid, powered by a 2.5-liter four-cylinder gasoline engine as well as an electric motor, initially will be sold in California, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Pennsylvania starting in January.” Neither Illinois nor its border states are on this initial list. After seeing a few of the 2007 Altimas on the road, I like the new design, especially the headlamps and taillights. Of course, that feeling will only last about eight months, just in time for me to see the 2008 models. The 2008 Altima Coupe, with G35 design cues, can be seen on the Nissan website.
After three days of looking at every furniture shop on Golf Road from Meacham Road to Barrington Road, we finally picked out our living room and dining room furniture. For the living room, we bought four pieces from the Hudson collection at Bassett. We originally saw the sectional pieces and the chair, with the color and design catching our eye as we walked around the showroom. Then we saw the separate sofa across the aisle and thought that it would be a great fit for our living room.
We went to a few other stores after first visiting Bassett, only to return today and make the purchase. We bought the sofa, the loveseat, the storage ottoman and the bench. The storage ottoman and the bench were purchased instead of your standard coffee table and side tables. Because of their design, the storage ottoman and bench can both double as tables and seats. The storage ottoman opens to hold pillows, blankets and other things.
For the dining room, we were almost set to buy the Scarsdale 9-piece set from Wickes. It’s a beautiful set, but on our second visit to Wickes, we noticed something for the first time: a silver piping running under the edges of the table, chairs and china cabinet. It is a small detail, but one that we did not feel would fit with our vision for the two rooms. It was back to Harlem room place, which we almost overlooked this weekend.
When we visited Harlem earlier today, we only saw two dining room sets that we liked. Most were overly ornate or were glass top tables. We were avoiding glass table tops because they apparently don’t mix well with children. The two sets that we saw were the Malibu and the Manhattan sets, both 9-piece. We ended up choosing the Malibu set because of teh interesting table top design and open back chairs. We did not want the leather of the Manhattan chairs to clash with the leather from the living room.
The Malibu dining table comes with two leaves, allowing us to turn a compact table into a large one. The table comes apart with a quick tug, and the top glides open on ball bearing slides much like a drawer. The leaves are stored just under the table top by placing them on cross beams just above the base. All of this can be done by one person. It’s great! To make sure we can use all of the extended table real estate, we opted to purchase the 11-piece set, which includes two more side chairs than the 9-piece set. We will once again be able to seat eight at our dining room table.
In the weeks ahead, we will be picking colors for our living room and dining room. After Super Bowl weekend, we will paint the room, redo the base boards, and possibly add crown molding. For those of you who were offering to help us get a dining room set, how about you help us paint. If painting isn’t your forté, perhaps you can help us clear out the living room and dining room before we paint. We can use all the help we can get.
The New York Times has an interesting word analysis tool to examine the State of the Union addresses given by President George W. Bush. Choose from a pre-selected list of words, or type in your own word(s), and the word(s) will be highlighted in the transcripts on the page. Below the transcripts appear the selected word in the context of the speech. To the right side of the page you get a numerical and visual usage analysis of your chosen word other words found in his addresses.
It’s an interesting way to visualize the President’s speeches without having to manually search through the transcripts.
I just finished watching the season finale for My Boys. It was a short 13-episode season, but it was a really good season. The show is about a group of friends living in Chicago. At the center of the group is P. J. Franklin, played by Jordana Spiro (who, coincidentally, is another BtVS alumna – "Reptile Boy" from season 2).
P. J. is a sportswriter for the Sun-Times, covering the Cubs. That alone will get the attention of a lot of Chicago fans. P. J.’s brother Andy is played by Jim Gaffigan. Andy is constantly complaining about the short leash his wife has him on, and he is dreading the thought of moving out to the suburbs and away from his friends. The rest of the group consists of Brendon, a hard rock/meta radio DJ; Mike, who works for the Cubs front office; Kenny, who owns a sports memorabilia store; Bobby, a sportswriter for the Tribune; and Stephanie, P. J.’s best girlfriend from Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism.
One of the things I really like about the show is how easy it is for me to relate to it. Living in the Chicago suburbs makes it all the easier to understand the Chicago-ness of the show, knowing the landmarks and other Chicago things that are mentioned. I also think that the characters are pretty well thought out, balancing each other out.
I don’t know how long TBS will keep them online, but you can catch full episodes on their website. Watch ‘em, you’ll like ‘em.
I’m not a big fan of NBC’s The Office, but I really like the theme song. It’s performed by The Scrantones.
A little more than a year ago, I posted a video about the Nürburgring Ring Taxi. I found another video, this one is a documentary film about the Nürburgring commisioned by BMW. The R&D that BMW puts in at the track is quite impressive, as is the development of a Nürburgring simulator to test cars without actually bringing them out on the track.
It’s just amazing! I would still love to travel to Germany and take a lap in a Ring Taxi. I’m thinking that will be one of those "when I retire" trips.
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