1 Peach
1/2 c Blueberries
1 c Strawberries
1 c Fage 0% Yogurt
1/2 oz dark (80%) chocolate
Blend with ice. Enjoy.
Makes three blocks. Depending on the amount of ice used, you're looking at about 1 cup of smoothie per block. This smoothie is not quite as tart as the v1.0 smoothie.
While this may well be "par for the course" when dealing with auto transport, I have to say the experience really sucked and therefore it deserves a blog post.
So as noted, I moved to NYC. I decided to keep my Lotus, and find a place in NJ near to a train to keep it. Luckily I did not have to find a place to keep it before I moved, as an old childhood friend's parents still lived up in Duchess County so I could keep the car there for a while as they have space in their garage.
So, I called Cascade Auto Transport to hook me up with a ride for my ride.
They had really good reviews on-line, and the bid, while the lowest, wasn't very much lower than the rest, so it seemed like a good deal.
The pickup went very smoothly. The guy called me that morning (mid-June.. the 16th I think), arrived soon after, did the inspection, picked up the car. All is fine.
I had told them that I couldn't take delivery of the car until after July 1st.
My first sign that something went wrong is that a week later (i.e. a full week before July 1st.) I got a call from the guy, "your car is ready to be delivered, I'll be there shortly!" So I told him well I can't take it until the 1st.
So then I moved and things were busy. I figured I'd call the guy once things settled down somewhat. I received an email from Cascade saying my car would be delivered on the 4th, but I didn't really want to train up to Duchess County on the 4th, what with the movers scheduled to arrive on the 5th. But if the guy called to say he'd deliver it, I'd go take delivery, of course.
I received no call, nothing.
Then the next week I received a call from Sara at Cascade asking if my car had been delivered, and she was quite surprised when it hadn't. She said she'd get the driver on the line. She got his voicemail. She said she'd keep trying. As soon as I got off the phone with her, I got a call from the driver! "The car will be delivered tomorrow afternoon!" "Great". So I went and called my friends up in Duchess County and discussed when they could pick me up from their train station, etc., and decided I needed a better window than "afternoon" for delivery. So I called the delivery guy back and asked him if he could be more precise. He said that would be fine, just call him in the morning.
OK, so I called him in the morning and got his voicemail. Left a message. Called him later in the morning. Left another message. Didn't hear from him until the next day.
Apparently he got stuck 1000 miles away with a broken transmission. Apparently his phone was linked to his transmission because it prevented him from calling me to tell me he wouldn't deliver the car that day. Luckily I was waiting for him to call before I took the 2 hour trek up to Duchess County.
So when he called the next day, he said, again "I'll deliver the car tomorrow." This time he gave me a specific window, between 4-6PM. OK, well I had dinner plans Friday night, but I should just cancel them to take the car. Fine. So the next morning, to confirm that the car would be delivered, I called him in the morning to confirm the delivery window. Left a message. He called me back, and confirmed delivery between 4 and 6.
So I trek up to Duchess County in the afternoon. Six o'clock rolls around. Of course he does not show up. I call. His voicemail is full. I wait an hour or so. I call again. He finally answers. "I'm in Baltimore!" he says. I can deliver the car tonight! That's not going to work, I can't inspect the car in the dark. I have to be in NYC by noon Saturday, I tell him. He says, ok, he'll deliver it in the morning at 7am. He'll drive up to Duchess County that night and stay nearby so he could deliver it in the morning.
7am the next day rolls around. Of course you can guess what happened at 7. Nothing. So we went to breakfast. I started calling the Phoenix police department to report that he had stolen my car. Finally, at around 10am, he calls to say he is five minutes away. 45 minutes later, he arrives.
When the car arrives, I ask him "what happened to 7am?" "oh we stayed close by and slept". I inspect it to discover some minor peeling on the starshield. I note the damage and tell him about it and he starts to get very angry, accusing me of not wanting to pay him because I am angry. He is all in a huff and demands that I pay him or he will take the car. At this point I am of a mind to offer him half what I owe him and if he doesn't take it I'll just call the police and report it stolen. My friends calm me down and tell me to just pay him and take the car and be done with it. So I pay him and take the car, and I no longer have to deal with PNC Express.
AVOID:
Adam Katowicz
PNC Express
Elizabeth, NJ
So I found out this morning that Obama has recruited Shepherd Fairey (nee Frank Shepherd), the genius behind
Andre the Giant has a Posse and Obey Giant.
One would think at first, upon seeing the OBEY OBAMA poster that he has put together, that he is not an Obama supporter, and his intent in putting together these posters is to point out the similarity that the cult-like following that Obama has with various right- and left- wing dictators, pointing out that Obama's appeal is pretty much the same as the appeal of Hitler, Mussolini, Lenin, Pol Pot, etc.
How surprised (not very actually) was I to realize that he created this Obama poster because he is an Obama supporter? Is he really that stupid? He thinks that by putting this together his many fans (of which I am one) will see the conclusion he is seeking to promote (that Obama should be our next president) rather than the conclusion that I have actually drawn from the poster (that Obama is like Hitler).
(Note: I don't believe that Obama is like Hitler. He may turn out to be a good president. But that poster leads me more in the Hitler direction than the other.)
The conclusion that Obama is like Hitler is even more striking when one notes that the Obama campaign, although it may not have actually commissioned the work, has actively promoted the piece. This means they are either a) unaware of the "Andre the Giant" body of artwork or b) intentionally and actively using fascist propoganda techniques to promote their Fearless Leader. Given the apparently young and hip nature of the Obama team, option (b) seems more likely-- and more scary.
2 tsp Olive Oil
2 cup Onion
2 cup Zucchini
1/2 cup Black Beans
1/2 cup Tomato Puree
9 oz Ground Beef
Saute onions in olive oil with spice. Add beef. Saute until brown. Add beans, tomato, and zucchini. Add some more spice. Cover and simmer on medium heat, stirring occassionally.
Makes six blocks.
. . . And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
The portfolio I've been tracking on Icarra has been doing pretty well given recent market turbulence. As the chart indicates, the portfolio has generally tracked the market but with a lower volatility. Recently, however, the portfolio has really shined because it has not nearly taken a bath with the rest of the market.
The components chart for the past month shows that the allocation to GLD is really what has saved the portfolio.
What is particularly interesting is that VPU and TYG have diverged recently. One would think they would both track each other as they are very energy-related, but this month VPU has gone sideways whereas TYG has tanked. Interesting.
Hey, what a good deal. I want to not pay social security taxes either:
Complicating matters is that many of these farmers won't buy health insurance: They believe it is the religious duty of their communities to provide for one another when sick. They don't pay Social Security taxes and reject Medicaid or Medicare benefits, as well as farm subsidies.
But maybe I have to marry my first cousin before taking advantage of this special deal:
On Christmas Day, 1989, Mr. Martin married his first cousin, Esther, an avid reader who grew up nearby. In these small communities, people often marry distant relatives, and in very rare cases, parents are as closely related as first cousins.
From: Opting Out
Financial Cryptography: Historical copy of PGP 5.0i for sale -- reminder of the war we lost
Ian Grigg links to my post about selling the PGP books and describes the scene at HIP in some more detail:
The last 1% was done at HIP 1997, or hacking-in-progress, a Dutch open-air festival conducted once every 4 years. (You can see an early attempt at blogging here and here and a 2004 post.)Lucky Green turned up with a box and ... left it lying around, at which point the blogging stopped and the work started. A team of non-Americans then spent around 2 days working through the last, unscanned and broken pages. There were about 20 at the peak, working in teams of 2 and 3 across all of HIP, swapping their completed files back at the cypherpunks tent. Somewhere around is a photo of the last file being worked through, with three well-known hackers on one keyboard.
It was uploaded around 3 in the morning, Sunday if I recall, as the party was winding down; some brave souls waited around for the confirmed download, but by 5am, only Sameer was still up and willing to download and compile a first international PGP 5.0.
I agree in fact with his conclusion:
The story has a sad ending. In the last months of 1999, the US government released the controls on exporting free and open cryptography. Hailed by all as a defeat, it was really a tactical withdrawal from ground that wasn't sustainable. The cypherpunks lost more: with the departure of their clear enemy, they dispersed over time, and emerging security and financial cryptography entrepreneurs lost our coolness factor and ready supply of cryptoplumbers. Lots of crypto projects migrated back to the US, where control was found by other means. The industry drifted back to insecure-practice-by-fiat. Buyers stopped being aware of security, and they were setup for the next failure and the next and the next...Strategic victory went to the US government, which still maintains a policy of keeping the Internet insecure by suppressing crypto where and when it can. Something to remember if you ever get offered a nice public relations job in the DHS, or if you ever get phished.
Mmm.. My parents have been visiting helping me prepare for the move and my mom and I adapted her smoothie recipe for the zone. Mmmm..
1 c strawberries
1/2 c blueberries
2/3 c Fage yogurt
6 almonds, chopped
Place ingredients with ice in blender. Blend. Enjoy, for 2 blocks of snacky goodness.
Complete for time:
100 pullups
100 pushups
100 situps (abmat or GHD)
100 squats
As rx'd (abmat): 32:29
Back in the day, it was illegal to export cryptographic software.
The solution for my company, C2Net Software, Inc., was to develop an offshore development team and have them develop the software there. Other companies developed different strategies. Most opted to sell broken products to their overseas customers. One other company cared about the security of their customers. That company was PGP.
PGP chose a different strategy however. They published their source code as a book. The book was then exported, the contents of that book were then scanned in, and then a completely legal international version of PGP was born.
Some may associate this PGP scanning effort with the track 'round and round'. That association is not without reason. They may also remember a sign that said, "This is the cypherpunks party tent. If you wish to sleep, remove your tent from the area. Have a nice day (+ night)". That sign, btw, lives on.
In any case, I was going through all my boxes trying to decide what I should keep, toss, or sell, and I found my very own copy of the infamous PGP 5.0 source code book. NIB! (Well actually there was no box. But still shrinkwrapped. So NIB.)
I decided that the bulk was too much for me to handle moving into a tiny little NYC apartment. So ebay it is.
Hopefully it will find a nice loving home.
The Sport Flying Revolution is finally upon us. The dream of flying can now be realized at a much lower cost and time commitment thanks to a new pilot’s license classification specifically intended for sport recreational flying. Plus, new aircraft classification has made aircraft ownership more accessible for more sport pilots.With the new license and new aircraft to satisfy your sense of adventure, it’s time to join the revolution.
City To Enforce Fair Prices For Milk
The City Council announced plans Thursday to crack down on grocers who gouge customers on milk prices.Speaker Christine Quinn released details of a report that showed a majority of city retailers overcharge customers for milk.
Does Ms Quinn realize that she is Nixon reborn?
Today I made a very tasty 4-block Salmon meal, so I will post the recipe.
6 oz salmon
1 1/3 tsp olive oil
12 spears asparagus
3/4 cup tomato puree
1/4 cup black beans
Put olive oil in bottom of baking dish. Add salmon. Spice salmon as you wish. (I used dill, salt, pepper, basil, dried onion) Put asparagus in dish. Pour tomato and black beans over it all. Cover with foil. Bake at 350' for 25 min. Enjoy.
Market Ticker: Wind-Up Wednesday
I know Ron Paul bashing is out of fashion these days, what with the Republican nomination all sewn-up and what not, but it is still good fun. Check this out:
As in wind-up doll, since we're starting with Mr. Paul's Office this time.Jennifer Baily (got her name this time; I didn't write it down before; my bad) called again yesterday afternoon, and boy was she upset. She seemed to think I was going to be, as she put it, "more reasonable."
I guess that means she thought I wouldn't tell the world that one of our elected Representatives doesn't want to hear from his constituents, and is in fact the only member of Congress who has made that request.
Last weekend an apartment was found, and on Friday as lease was signed!
Also, I found out that I was moved from the waiting list into the list of admitted students at NYU Courant!
Took a while for me to get around to it, but now I am saying "Goodbye Globo Gym!"
