VW R36--it's real!

Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, rumours of Volkswagen upgrading the R32 3.2L engine to a "R36" with a 3.6L engine have been resurfacing every so often only to be shot down by the common collective and those who should know. Well, just the other day VW announced the upcoming release of the R36!!!

I'm not getting too excited, though. First, it's only being released in Europe. Second, it's a Passat, not a Golf/GTI--a 3.6L Passat with 300hp, only a 20hp bump from the current 3.6L 280hp Passat. Still, I think it's encouraging that VW is expanding their R-line vehicles, especially given the success of the R32.

Anywhoo, more information on vwvortex in this article.

Blogshares

I was ::ahem:: googling myself and discovered a link to my blog at a site called Blogshares.com. As I'd never heard of this site I took a quick look. Blogshares, at its simplest, is an online investment game where people buy and/or sell shares in blogs using virtual "Blogshare money (B$)".

"BlogShares is a fantasy stock market where weblogs are the companies. Players invest fictional dollars on shares in blogs. Blogs are valued by their incoming links and add value to other blogs by linking to them. Prices can go up or down based on trading and the underlying value of the blog. No actual ownership of blogs is transfered. BlogShares is purely a fictional marketplace."

The primary goal, of course, is to see how much money you can make. If I understood correctly, Blogshares was originally started to test the Power Law which says, in part, that 20% of the population has 80% of the wealth, or in this case, to determine whether 20% of the blogs would have 80% of the links.

Sign-up is free, you don't need to have a blog to play, and everyone is given B$500 to start. Investing in blogs can become a lot more complicated than simply buying low and selling high, and to do well enough to actually get ranked would probably take more effort and interest than I have.

Anywhoo, I thought it was a neat touch the way they reserved 1000 shares of each blog for the blog's owner, whether or not they register on Blogshares and "claim ownership".

The current value of this blog is B$6,214.82. You can follow this link to see investment data for my blog. Buy them while they're still cheap! Only B$0.91 per share! :o)

Magellan Roadmate 2200T

Along with my new HTC S620 the last of the big purchases I've made recently (see: Goodbye, hard-earned cash) was a portable navigation system, the Magellan Roadmate 2200T.

In deciding on which GPS navi to buy, I wanted something that was easily portable, reliable, with maps of Canada and the United States, with text-to-voice, and at a reasonable price. In addition to Magellan, I also looked at similarly priced models from TomTom and Garmin. I chose the 2200T because of various reviews I'd read, and it met all of my criteria. It doesn't have the most POIs out there (1.5 million), and I find it a little laborious searching for some specific POIs, but overall I'm satisfied.

The 2200T has several additional features I'm not interested in, like playing music, displaying pictures, upgradeable traffic updates and more, but I couldn't find any GPS navi that was just a navi and still met all my criteria (what's up with that?!). The worst thing about the 2200T is that it didn't come with an AC charger. There was a dash mount, windshield mount, and car charger, but no AC charger. Ugh. I had to fork over extra cash to get the AC charger. Unforgivable.

Some good points: it's small, light-weight and fits easily in my pocket (I might not want it in there all the time, but as a temporary thing it's fine), the rechargeable battery is rated for 8 hours, has an auto-detour feature to get around traffic jams, auto re-routing and multi-destination routing, the option to avoid toll roads when routing, and has an address book to store destinations for future use.

Anywhoo, previously I hadn't been impressed with GPS navis I'd seen at work, but I think that was do to my unfamiliarity with the system and how it works. The more I use the 2200T the more familiar I become with the voice, how it relates directions and how much time I have before having to perform the latest instruction. The more familiar I get with the 2200T, the more I realize just how useful this little device can be.

Road-trip: Skyline Drive

With beautiful weather and a freshly waxed R, I decided to go on a cruise that ended being about 280 miles, round-trip. I drove down to Skyline Drive, the only public road through the Shenandoah National Park. The official guide says it takes about 3 hours to drive completely through, but I turned back halfway, at Big Meadows Wayside. Skyline Drive was a joy to drive--a curving, winding road with changing elevation, and beautiful scenery (though I was too late for most of the fall colours).

It felt kind of weird, though, because while other park-goers were taking pictures of nature, I was taking pictures of my R32. :o) Hey! I took some of those, too! Anywhoo, click here and also here for more pictures.

Who writes this stuff?

Tonight I was watching a local news channel (WUSA9.com) and one of the anchors, Tracey Neale, reported on a story that completely blew me away--and not in a good way. It wasn't the story itself but how Tracey Neale said it and what she said that's making me vent.

Neale previews the upcoming news bit by saying "a thief doesn't get his way" after the commercial break (I'm paraphrasing, here).

Go to commercial.

Back to T. Neale: "Channel 9 reported previously on a charity that had sold used wedding dresses donated by cancer survivors/victims--with proceeds going to said charity. Unfortunately, the proceeds were stolen by a thief. In response to Channel 9's report, local bridal shops donated wedding dresses so more money could be raised."

First let me say that Neale's delivery was so... stilted with... long silent... pauses in... the middle... of sentences... pausing... after every... three to... four... words... was extremely... painful... for... me to... listen to. Enough... said....

Here's the kicker--T. Neale ends the story by saying something like, "due to the shops' generosity the thief's intentions were foiled". What the heck is Neale saying?! The thief is still at large with the money--how exactly were his/her intentions foiled? Oh, I see... the thief didn't *really* want the money, the thief just has some sort of vendetta against the charity. Or hates weddings. And dresses. And don't forget the colour white.

All possible, I guess, but I'm still betting on the money.

This forced and inappropriate slant--and Neale's horrid delivery--turned what was a typical feel-good story (generosity of shops) in to one of the worst reports I've ever had the misfortune to listen to. Whoever wrote this terrible piece should be drawn and quartered. Who writes this stuff, and where was the editor?

Candy trumps Democracy

Driving home last night I noticed something funny. Judging by the amount of traffic, more people were interested in getting home in time for Hallowe'en last week than in getting home in time to vote in the midterm elections. My commute home on Hallowe'en evening took me a little more than an hour. Last night it took a mere 32 minutes.

I wonder what the voter turnout was. According to the data tabulated by IDEA (International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance), voter turnout (all elections from 1945-1998) for the United States is 48.3% of eligible voters, placing the U.S. at 114 in the world, just squeaking by Mexico (48.1%), but falling behind countries such as Burma/Myanmar (50.0%) and... Canada (68.4%). Ha ha, take that! Great participation in Italy, which came out number one at 92.5%.

I think the dismal voter turnout--which trends lower every year--is indicative of the inordinate influence special interests and corporations have on politics. Politicians, seemingly willing to do almost anything to stay in power, are more beholden to their donors than their voters. A lot of people just don't feel their vote has any effect, so why bother? Money talks... and I don't have any. :o(

Site visitors in October 2006

The top 5 visitors, listed by country, in October were:

1) United States
2) Canada
3) European Union
4) Germany
5) Great Britain

The full list of visitors for October 2006 can be found here.

Statistics for previous months can be found by following this link.