More Jobs

I love how everyone uses the “more jobs” argument.  Sure, anything that requires humans will create jobs, but does that mean we should do it?

Sustainability?

For a long time the US has been known to consume much more food and resources per capita than any other country in the World.  Why is it so hard for us to be self sufficient?  Wouldn’t it be ideal if we did not have to rely on other countries for anything?

Think about it….if we produced all products locally, we would increase the number of jobs in this country exponentially!  Just think about how many products we buy are imported?

OIL – Seriously, why are we so slow to find alternate energy sources.  We continue to be brainwashed by “Clean Coal” and other statements of job creation using finite natural resources?

Solar and Wind

Why are we not tapping solar and wind energy, truly renewable resources which have little or no impact on the environment!  Shouldn’t we invest in solar panel technology which could be used in place of Windows?  How much glass is used on the exterior or buildings these days?  In the country side, conventional solar panels could be used and wind turbines would be very effective.

Money Talks

Granted I don’t have facts to prove it, but you have to wonder how much money is being invested by companies to slow down our progress in energy efficiency and sustainability.

Have you seen these ads?

• Mesothelioma – Asbestos exposure
• DePuy Artificial Hip – Defective causing cancer
• Used a Pelvis Sling?

Blog or Tweet your life

Be sure you document everything you eat and do as you could be awarded money years from now. LOL  I am kidding, but it is unfortunate to see the different recalls and health hazards that have come to light years later.

• Used Topomax for Epilepsy/ Migraines - Cleft palate and other birth defects

In an attempt to sell more gas powered cars when car companies are unable to keep up with demand for Hybrids even though they are being sold at a higher cost, Honda of Tysons Corner has produced a document given to those interested in their Civic Hybrid which basically says….”At the current price of gas, it will take 13 years based on some magical number of miles driven to make up ~$4000 price difference between gas only and hybrid.

WOW.   That is like saying, don’t recycle, just trash your glass bottle since you have to walk 4 feet to the recycle bin from the trash can that is in front of you!

Awaiting Response….

So I wrote to the Tyson’s Honda dealership and while I did not ask for an response, in fact did not want to hear the excuse, have not heard anything besides the automated “We got your email.”

Since I was not able to find an email for Honda USA customer service, I am going to write them a letter to see if I can find out if this is a corporate recommendation or a local dealership trying to sell more cars.

Hybrids are not new

I really do blame Honda for not meeting demands. It is not like they are brand new and everyone wants one.  They have been in production for quite some time and since they cost the consumer more, would think you would want to have more available.  Now I have heard that the actual cost to produce a Hybrid is much more than a standard combustion engine and maybe that is why production is slow since there would be a greater loss of revenue.

Recycled costs more

In any event, I will keep you updated.  In the mean time, don’t let anyone tell you it is bad to help the environment.  Sure it does for some unknown cost more money for the recycled products we buy such as paper, or the reduced container refills such as laundry detergent, but for the sake of future generations, please don’t give up over a little money.

Enterprise has been a car rental choice for me due to the convenience.  While I have never been “picked up” by them, a branch is close to my apartment.

The Scam

Okay, not really a scam, but using some shady verbiage and a very summarized receipt, you don’t really see the full cost of your rental until you return the car.

The Receipt

The receipt lists your daily rates for everything such as the rate for the car, mileage restrictions, and the many optional services per day which they strongly encourage you to pay.  How much does it really cost to rent a car?  More than the $30 you see on those sites if you need insurance, etc.

Since I said…sure I will pay $.30 less a gallon to have you fill up the car, the rate per gallon was listed.  This was never told to me at the time of the rental, nor was the capacity of the car told to me.

Most companies take an extra deposit these days regardless of how you pay, probably to protect them if you do incur extra charges and use a bogus card.  So when I was told the total was $215, I was okay.  I was figuring I would get some back at the end.  I was wrong.

The final reciept

The receipt I received on car return had everything itemized and totaled up.  So I was able to see the car rental, airport and other fees, and a new line called FSO $78!  WOW.  I gathered what that was and confirmed by calling up Enterprise and briefly mentioned how their sales people are very good about leaving off details to make a sale.  In fact I think they should be referred to Sales Persons instead of Customer Service.  Perhaps they are already.

Summarizing ….The deal

So….thankfully there are many other car rental companies out there to choose from.  Also, I did just find out that my credit card covers the “Collision Damage Waiver” so I won’t be paying any company for that next time.

Now looking at the receipt I can see the line for $3.92, supposedly a discount per gallon of gas, but still no tank capacity.  If it take the total paid for the Gas on the receipt and divide by the cost per gallon, it appears that the car has a 20 gallon tank which I confirmed online.

One more thing.  Expedia said the total would be ~$104, but if I subtract the Gas, it turns out that it really cost me $140 to start which seems quite high even with a tax approximation.  I better give a call to Enterprise and maybe Expedia  to straighten things out.

Moral

I did think it was too good to be true.  Fill up the tank just before you return.  No company does anything to be nice to  you.  In rare cases, it may be a side effect of them being nice to themselves.  You would think it would be very nice if they offered to fill up the tank and only charge you for the gallons needed.  In fact, I would pay $.30 extra a gallon for that convenience, but for a hole tank?  The sales rep mentioned that he has heard of cars stalling in the return bay in the garage, but how many of us are that irresponsible to not fill up when the light comes on.  I don’t trust the gauge to be accurate now that they are electronic and no longer are floating on the top of the fuel, not that that was any more accurate :)

Almost Forgot the Cool Car

So I did not even get to mention how excited I was with the car.  I guess they got me for the Hybrid.  Not only did I not use a full tank of Gas, but I did not pay extra for the Altima Hybrid.  I averaged 35 MPG with the AC on all of the time which does not seem to shabby. I think that if I were to be driving in cooler weather, the car would get better gas mileage.  I did notice it seemed to kick in the Gas over 20 MPH, but not sure if that is standard or if you are cruising at a steady speed it would kick in.  The dash had an indicator when it was in “EV Mode.”  I am assuming that is “Electric Vehicle.”

I saw a seemingly good and unbiased review online and definitely will consider this car should I end up needing one permanently.  I have not tested other Hybrids, but this one definitely had the pickup to help me pass on a single lane road!

There have been many new street signs going up in the District of Columbia and many more are being updated with labels.  I was walking down a side street in NW between 16th and 13th above Meridian Hill Park and discovered the following sign.  I attempted to contact d. and chose the correct category “Parking Enforcement” and was provided the following voice mail reply.  If anyone can help me understand what the “Except Tuesday 7 AM – 7 PM” means it would be much appreciated.

Voice mail response to my inquiry….

——————————–

Which should not come to parking enforcement in the first place, but since it did I will explain it to you.   The except to is for permit holders for street cleaning.  Tuesday is the only day you can park on that side of the street from 7 AM – 7 PM.  That’s it.  The signage is very clear.  People get confused by multiple signs and not understand.  There is nothing confusing about the signage and have to close this request since it has nothing to do with parking enforcement.  Thank You Good Bye.

—————————

There was a little more about street cleaning in the middle, but it was confusing to listen to.  It was in reference to parking on the opposite side of the street from the cleaning.

Sorry

Sorry I contacted the wrong department, I will just call 311 next time to get to the right place, but I was not even told where I should have emailed or if they wanted me to submit a photo which I had told them I could email.

I don’t think the signage or the response I received from d. was clear and would like to hear others opinions on the matter.

Getallthefacts.com

Hmm….I wonder if the Comcast site will give you pros and cons to both Verizon FioS and Comcast Xfinity.  Seriously doubt it.  I do have to say these comercials, especially the one where the salesman is in the hot tub with a couple and another where he is stuffing a doughnut into his mouth.

Bottom Line…Don’t let commercials influence you…there are always asterisks, super small print or quickly spoken language that makes them all the same :)  Do like State Farm Insurance recommends….ask your family and friends and check out reviews from “real” people.

Actors

Hopefully you did not think Comcast employed a Verizon tech to star in a commercial, but you would think the US Postal Service would take some of their massive workforce to star in their own commercials instead of paying the same actor who is the FioS dude in Comcast commercials.

I just thought it was funny to see the actor in both of the commercials :)

Bottom Line…

Dump your cable provider, save some money, and watch free over the air digital TV and your other favorite shows and sporting events online :)

Last night was the last night at World Market.  Having fallen in love with the low prices and unique items, I applied for a part time seasonal position 3 years ago and have been working there until last night.  Ultimately I needed more time to enjoy life and with Uncle Sam taking so much in taxes over the past 3 years, it was time.

I still love the store and will be in to shop :)

When you work in Retail…

When you work in the retail market, you earn a respect for what goes on and tend to sympathize with the current working folk of a similar function.

Wegmans Sub Shop

For example, having worked in a Wegmans Sub Shop part time when living in Rochester NY I realize how annoying cell phones can be and rude customers are and try to not be that way myself.  I do admit when a customer was on their phone, I skipped them and asked the following person in line if I could help them since a hand signal with a number only seems to work in Asian restaurants :)

Shampoo Factory

The Shampoo Factory was a full time job between semesters during college and gave me a new appreciation for those bottled products and you recognize all of those funny alignment marks for labels.  I sat for days monitoring sealing of various salon tubed products and testing bottle cap tension,which by the way should be automated and not done by anyone for that is surely going to give you carpal tunnel!

While it was relatively mindless, just what I needed after 2 semesters at college, I would think if I were to do it on a regular basis I would probably become a zombie.  Not that I think anyone is really cut out for this kind of work, but we do what we need to in order to get the bills paid and this job probably just barely serves that purpose for the full time staff there.

Waiting Tables

Granted it was a restaurant I was co-owner of, but nonetheless, when I go out to eat now and if the restaurant is busy, I don’t get frustrated if service is slow and I always pile up my dishes with food scraps on the top plate for the wait staff :)

Funny how I was introverted and still am to a degree, but when waiting tables, you do need to provide great customer service if you want to get a tip and I really did open up during this chapter of my life.

World Market

I have learned that some customers always are out to get a good deal and will in some cases “break” an item in order to get a discount.  I recall one time when a customer showed me what seemed to be a problem with glue on a wreath.  She said, they are all like that and wanted a discount.  After we talked a bit more, it turned out that she had pulled off the supposedly loose flowers!  She was like, “I can glue them when I am home.”  I was thinking to myself, well, if you had not pulled them off in the first place…..  Anyway, I did not give her a discount and proceeded to fix them with our own hot glue gun.

There are others that walk around the clearance section each time they are in, or offer to “buy it all” at a discount.  Another funny time was when a customer came back to the wine dept and asked me for the bottle with the most savings and I showed them a $50 bottle which happened to be $13 off :)  That is what they asked for, but certainly they were looking for the Rene Barbier which normally $4.99 is often on sale for $3.99, but only a savings of a $1.  Perhaps she should have asked for the largest savings percentage :)

There are so many stories to tell and not enough time in a day to tell them, but you get the idea…customers can really be a pain in the neck after that experience, I will do my best to not be in a bad mood, get impatient with long lines, or harassing management to give me a better deal.  :)  I cannot promise however that I will not trample you when the store opens and holiday clearance goes on sale 90% off!

Onkyo AV Receivers Plagued by HDMI Board Failures

Granted 2 years ago when I purchased my Onkyo SR-606 7.1 HDMI Switching AV Receiver for my TV room from Circuit City, there was no warning label such as my statement above on the box to stop me from purchasing it.  Surly such as label would stop most people from purchasing the product.  I thought that Onkyo was a good brand based on the fact that my Uncle is quite the audiophile and Pipe Organist / Tuner and recommended an Onkyo Receiver for my brother several years ago when he headed off to college.  After getting enough HDMI devices and a projector mounted in the rear of the room, it seemed logical to replace my Harman Kardon AVR-135 6.1 S-Video / Component Video (Which happened to be a great buy and state of the art supporting a single rear speaker over that of the 5.1 systems of the day) with something that could pass the Video through one cable to the projector since we all know that long good quality cables are pretty expensive.    My Harman Kardon receiver had a dead Coaxial Input, likely since day 1, that I did not discover until I needed to use it and certainly out of warranty so I did not even consider this brand again.  This is when I decided to look at Onkyo.

~ Two Years Later….

I started to see a delay with the loading of video through the HDMI.  I had moved a few times and chalked it up to being a poor antenna signal since once the picture came, there was no issues to report.  Watching Blu-Ray movies and my Apple TV I did not notice any issues.  I upgraded to the new small Apple TV and I noticed that quite often the video would drop.  I was not sure what to think.  I put my old Apple TV on the same connection and there was not a problem.  I blamed it on the Apple TV as I would think most people would considering another device on the same connection worked perfectly well and exchanged it for a new one at the local Apple Store.  I feel bad now because I got home and the same issues occurred.

$250 Upgrade to SR-608

I called up Onkyo and asked if there was a trade-up program since I was unable to locate my receipt since it may have still been under the 2 year warranty.  I received the paper work authorizing my unit for exchange for a  refurbished 608 model for just $250 which is quite a bit cheaper than Amazon.com (My gauge for low pricing) and had 60 days to send in my old unit.

I did some searching online and came across a nice DIY repair forum at AVSForums, which by the way is probably the most complete discussion of any Audio / Video product in existence.

HDMI Boards Hot, and Lack of Ventilation Causes Failure

I don’t keep any thing on top of the receiver and there is a good 6 inches of clearance before the top of the modern open glass media cabinet was reached so I would think I may have more ventilation than most out there.

I decided to check to see if other models have the same issue and I was not that shocked to see that even newer models were experiencing the same issues!  Onkyo had not fixed the issue!!!!  Even though Onkyo tossed in a fan to the SR-608, at that point I decided to buy another receiver.

Best Buy Open Box Denon AVR-791 $225

One terrible stormy night in DC when all employees got let out of work at 3 PM and most did not get home until the following morning, I decided to check out a few different receiver brands at the local Best Buy.  I was looking at a few models by Yamaha, Pioneer, Denon, and Sony.  I had heard good things about Denon, but they are mostly “ugly” and not really discounted.

To my surprise it seemed that Best Buy was getting rid of their Denon Receiver(s).  I only saw one left and it was an open box item listed at half of the retail price.  I did a quick check at Amazon.com and was shocked to see that Amazon had it listed at $499.00, a savings of $.99!  I immediately purchased it and a 4 year warranty.  I have always thought Denon made professional, high end equipment and happy to get such a good deal on one.

DIY Onkyo HDMI Board Soldering

So, after deciding not to exchange my Onkyo and paying $250 for a newer unit which would likely have the same HDMI issues, I decided to order a dozen capacitors, break out my virgin soldering iron kit and attempt to repair my receiver.  There was a lot of talk in the great AVSForum about repairs to the SR-606 and the most helpful was a bulletin posted by an individual that had a receipt from the repair shop for his under warranty Onkyo which detailed the work done.  He also posted the instructions from Oknyo on how to repair the board.  There was some discussion about replacement of the suspect capacitors with a different type, more tolerant of the very hot board and I sat down and started breaking off the old and installing the new capacitors.

It’s Fixed!

I had the most trouble with my Apple TV on the AUX assigned HDMI port on the receiver and while not using the projector to test which would have been ideal since I had the new Denon all connected, connected it to an LCD TV I had and am happy to report that I have not had any issues after about 2 hours of continuous use!  There was a recommendation to leave the cover off the unit to allow better cooling or at least installing a cooling fan to help with the circulation.

$80 Component Cooler or $10 Laptop Cooler?

I thought about a DIY solution and was not sure the best way to make it work.  Would I solder a PC fan to a connector in the receiver, mount it on top and plug a fan into the AC power….buy a specialized cooling device made with receivers in mind?  Basically it all came down to computer fans and it dawned on me…what are those laptop cooler things?   I have heard about them, but never considered one since I did not have any issues with my laptop overheating and really don’t use it for prolonged periods or for gaming which is where I hear the video processor get really warm.

I compared a few different solutions and opted for a laptop cooler which had one large 230 mm fan instead of models with many smaller fans.  No only does it move more air since it is larger, it can do so at a lower RPM which means less noise :)  This of course is important during those suspense scenes in movies. LOL.  There were some fans that had a temperature sensor to increase or decrease the speed, but I was not sure how those would work in my application since they did not seem to be adjustable and likely still keep the temp higher than I would like.

So…my laptop cooler is coming tomorrow, and I am going to put my Onkyo back in the living room and put my new Denon in the bedroom to replace my HDMI lacking Harman Kardon and see how things go.  I plan to just flip the laptop cooler upside down and have it pull the hot air out of the case.  The only snag is that I need to have a way to power the fan.  It will take a while to come across the ocean from China, but for $1.50 I ordered a USB to AC adapter.  In the interim I will use the AC USB connector for my iPhone :)

Anyone want a Denon AVR-791?

So now that I likely fixed my Onkyo, anyone in the market for a Denon AVR-791?  Just kidding.  If I had not gotten such a good deal I probably would have returned it to Best Buy, but not sure I can do that on open box item.  It was a great deal even though I don’t use the TV in the bedroom often, it will be nice to have an HDMI receiver in there to make it easy to switch between Blu-Ray, Apple TV, and the TV Tuner.  No more changing inputs on the TV.  The TV is not smart enough to automatically select the input, no smart enough to even tell you which ones are connected.  Thankfully I have purchased a couple of Logitech Harmony Remotes which are amazing.  Will need to discuss those in another post!

Good Cause

It is very nice to see the collection boxes at each register, and I normally put my coin change in the box since I don’t carry change with me.  So, since McDonald’s is not making a serious donation with it’s penny a meal, take it upon yourself to help out :)

I don’t normally comment negatively about donations as every little bit helps, but I was just appalled that an advertised donation campaign would only donate a penny.  One has to wonder if we had a 1/2 cent piece……   Ahhhhh…. very sad :(

I would have to say, this is the worst donation campaign I have ever seen and for a big corporation with so many stores, very disappointing.

1. Where is the power button on the remote?  I know they use the same remote for every other computer, but it would be nice to turn if off with a button and not have to navigate a menu.
2. Great Quality!!!  I had some Digital Downloads from Blu-Ray disks and they look great!  I am thinking I will keep it and not send it back :)
3. Unable to Multitask?  It appears that while I was watching a movie from iTunes, Apple TV was unable to download my rental.  I figured I would do something else while I waited for my slow DSL connection to grab the HD rental.  The progress bar on the Download did not move at all.
4. Unable to Buffer Rental.  I was a little bummed to find out that I needed to download the entire rental before I was able to play it.  Amazon UnBox lets you download movies locally, but also lets you start playing them about 10 seconds after you start.  That would be nice.  Apple TV told me:  Ready to watch in 10 hours.  Granted if I had a faster connection this would not be a big deal, but until now, I did not see a need to have the $100 /month Internet Speed.
5. Shady HD Rentals – I should not have to pay an extra $1 for and HD rental.

So…my initial reaction so far….I like it and it will do what I ultimately wanted it to do, play video files at a DVD quality level.  I don’t think I will dump my Blu-Ray anytime soon, but I may start picking up old movies from Apple for $4.99 if I don’t see the need for the Blu-Ray edition.