What is a fair price to pay for an efficient automobile?

My intention when I started this started this project was to write an entry every day, as I sipped on morning coffee and while my dreams of the night before were still fresh in my mind.  I sit here this morning, and I realize that in order to do that, then I have to get myself out of bed a bit earlier than I have been.  I am by no means a late riser, but I am a bit wordy at this point in my writing.  I think I get the point across, but my goal as a writer is to be as clear and concise.  I find myself rambling on a bit, sometimes getting off topic, which adds to the word count pretty quickly.  m Basic math teaches that more words means more time.  Knowing that I have to dedicate at least 90-120 minutes to this task every day, and that I should be getting out on the road by 7:00am or earlier for my job every day, something has to change.  I had thought of switching up writing time to after I get back from my travels, or to the evening after dinner perhaps.  I may yet do one or the other.  For now, there is something about the routine I have laid out that I prefer.  Writing my piece in the morning is like a sunrise jog for my brain.  It gets the juices flowing, and hones my focus, lasting all day long.  It makes me more effective in just about everything I do for the remainder of the day.  So, having said that, tomorrow I am getting up at 5:00!

I have been reading quite a bit about how to host an effective blog in the list few weeks.  I have changed up the design and layout of the site more than a few times because of tips I have read.  Then I had a thought.  "Why am I concerned with what other people are doing?  This blog is about me, and about my readers."

Sure there is advice which would be applicable but lets bring this baby along together, like parents of a new born.  If there are things you would like to see, share with me.  If there are better blog hosts out there than blogger, educate me.  If there are topics of interest that you would like to read about and discuss, suggest them.  I have said that this is a half a million followers project for me.  I mean that, but along the way my vision is for this to become a daily stop, like the evening news, or the "funny pages".  People get up, check emails, look at Facebook and the sports scores, then stop here, at Blunder Years.  I want to increase interaction somehow, and I have had a few people mention that leaving posts here is not as easy as I would like it to be.  I have discovered that in order to post here, or to follow the blog, you have to have register with the Google conglomerate.  If you have G-Mail, then you are all set already, if you don't then, it is a necessary step, to get a Google ID.  I am not one to leverage my readers into this type of thing, but I will say, over the course of my online career, Google is the best free email I have experienced.  I have had Yahoo, Hotmail, Ymail, and a few others, and the only time I stopped looking for a better solution for my personal email, was when I was invited to G-Mail.  So, I have no real problem with saying, go ahead, sign up!  I don't want to make work for anyone, and want the interaction on this page to be as simple and easy as can be, but for now, while I am using Blogger to blog, I ask that you do this.  So far, 9 posts in, I would say I have put in about 30-40 hours of work on writing, and on managing this site.  I am doing this for my own reasons in part.  I am also doing it for you!  The whole process takes less than five minutes to register, and I think i am worth that!!  ;)

Now, I want to open this up for discussion.

I am kind of in the market for a new car.  My new job has me driving all over the southern parts of the Garden State and Delaware, and the Eastern parts of Maryland.  It is a good territory, manageable populace, beautiful pieces of country.  However, I am averaging 150-200 miles on the Forester every time I leave the driveway,  which is about 3-4 times a week.  I will likely be driving between 800 and 1000 miles a week once I add in personal usage.

My dream solution to this would be to own a Tesla Model S with a 300 mile driving range on a full charge.  It is a very nice looking full electric car, which costs in the neighborhood of  55k.  If you have never heard of Tesla, you owe it to yourself to read up on them.  They are the future.  Take a lookie: Tesla Model S
If i ever thought i could afford a 120k car, i would go for the Tesla Roadster.  Electric car technology has come far enough that in my opinion is the wave of the future!

 Tesla Model S

Tesla Roadster

Well, the fact of the matter is, I can't afford a 55 thousand dollar car, let alone a 120k one.  My upper limit is likely 40k, and even that is pushing it.  I tend to land on the frugal side of the fence you know.  I have looked at all the options that are realistic, and I have come up with the Toyota Prius as the most likely candidate: 

The 55 mile per gallon advertised, with many owners reporting over 60, is the real lure of this car.  I would be able to do my 1000 miles a week on 20 gallons of gas.  My current ride gets me 22 miles per gallon on average.  This math would require upwards of 45 gallons of gas to drive for the week.  At $3.00 a gallon,  I am looking at $60.00 a week in the Prius, and $135.00 in the Forester.  Annually, Prius: $3120.00 a year, Forester: $7020.00.

$2900.00 a year difference between the Forester and the Prius. Now, Subaru has announced that starting in 2012, they will be introducing a hybrid Forester.  Projections are that it will get roughly 35 miles per gallon, maybe up to 40.  While I love Subaru, and have owned 3 straight Subaru's, and want to carry on my loyalty to the brand, money talks.

SO the question I need to answer is this: 

While driving a Subaru Forester is not a proclamation of manliness so much as a practical solution to what needs I had at the time of purchase, is putting what is left of my proverbial balls in a jar (which I believe comes standard with all Prius buyers of the male persuasion) and storing them in the glove compartment, really a fair price to pay for the highly efficient hybrid that Toyota offers?

Please help me figure this out.  Are there solutions i am missing?  What thoughts do you have on the matter?

Please register with Google (sorry), and lend your thoughts.

Please don't forget to click on a few of my advertisements also!

Oh, and by the way, GO Canada!

Why I am smarter than Gary Bettman

Day two of 2011.

Day eight of the Blunder Years Blog.

To whomever clicked my ads on here yesterday, thank you!  I earned $3.72 in ONE day!  80 years ago I would have been rich!  If I can find a way to multiply that by 100, I could just write the blog full time!  That would be a dream for sure!

Yesterday was a lazy day,  Got a few chores taken care of.  Took down the tree and put away all the Christmas decorations and cleaned out the basement.  Put in a few hours working on a database I have been poking at for work for the past week.  I think it will take me a good 100 hours plus to get it completed though, ugh.

So far this blog has been used to share some personal stories, and not really to beat my chest too much about anything.  Today is going to be my first rant, and it is about hockey.  I may lose a few of you right here, but I promise not to do this too often.

I am not one that falls for gimmicks easily.  However, I did watch some hockey last night.  Not intently, but I stopped on the Winter Classic broadcast a few times.  I was lucky enough to see all the goals.  I am glad Washington got the third goal to make it 3-1.  It would have been a rough way to lose a game is Fleury's gaff had been the deciding factor.  I have to hand it to the NHL.  I thought that this was a nothing more than a fluff marketing ploy when they first kicked it off in Edmonton those few years back.  After seeing the it's recent successes, I am willing to admit i was wrong.  They have created a marketing goldmine with the Winter Classic.  It is almost NFL-esque.  I am a bit leery about them adding the second outdoor game this year, once a year seems like a perfect frequency.  Once a year people will tune in who don't actually cheer for the teams playing just for the novelty factor.  I do understand they may want to test it out to see if maybe twice would work, but for what reason?   I just hope Bettman doesnt get any bright ideas about bringing the outdoor games to Miami or Phoenix.

Seeing the NHL knock one out of the park with the Winter Classic like this, really makes me wonder where all the smart people are hiding in the head offices the rest of the year.  There is a glaring hole in the NHL's most basic make up these days.  I have been fuming over it ever since it was instilled in the league.  To have this group of NHL executives put together a show as great as the Winter Classic and then for the same folks to allow this major blow to the integrity of the league, leaves me shaking my head in bewilderment. 

I will start by saying that the shootout is just wrong and needs to be removed from the game in it's entirety.  To have contests decided by penalty shots strips away the fiber of the the game. On any given night, teams can win games in any number of ways.  A big hit can swing momentum, a bad bounce can sneak by a goalie, a turnover in the defensive zone, or a brilliant move by a streaking winger can drive the final nail into the casket and decide a game.  On the rarest of occasions, a penalty shot does decide the winner.  The thing is, that no matter what single play decided the outcome, so many things have to either go right, or go wrong in the flow of play for the one single play to have actually happened .  Physical, emotional and intellectual battles are fought every minute on the ice, and their outcomes go a long way to deciding the victors.  A penalty shot awarded in the flow of the game was earned by a team making a good play, and the other team needing to break the rules in order to stop them from scoring.  In this instance, a penalty shot is as exciting as anything in sport.  Having said this, penalty shots are a tiny piece of the whole.  Using "free" penalty shots to decide games would be like major league baseball deciding games with a home run contest.  It would be like the NFL deciding games by seeing which team can kick field goals from the farthest distance, or it would be like the NBA having a three point contest to break ties.  Of all the legitimate major sports out there, Hockey is the only one to use gimmickry to determine victory.  Hockey is a TEAM game, and to place such emphasis on a 3 man shootout, which involves 4 players from each team, isn't in the spirit of the game.  It isn't fair to the other 16 guys on each bench, and it certainly robs any genuine fan of the game of any true resolution.  This is my opinion of course, not everyone shares it.  Most debate about the shootout ends here however.  What needs to be looked at in depth, is what happens after a shootout.

In the NHL, the winning team is awarded two points toward their standings.  The losing team is awarded no points.  Of course this is only true if the game is decided in regulation.  If regulation ends, then the integrity of the game goes right out the window, and that same game, which was worth two points a minute before the clock runs out, magically becomes worth three points now.  The winner still gets two, whether they close it out in the five minute sudden death period, or if they win it in the shootout.  The NHL used to award one point to each team in the event of a tie.  When they instilled the overtime period, they awarded one additional point to the victors, but they let the losers keep the point they would have earned under the old laws.  For decades, when a team was battling for a playoff spot, they could count on all the games being worth 2 points.  If a team was sitting one place out of the playoffs, and the two teams above them were playing each other, they knew that one team would get 2 points or both teams would get one.  Now, the teams ahead in the standings, could potentially distribute three points between them, instead of two, making it all the more difficult to get back in the race.   All they have to do it go to overtime.

If the NHL made divisional or even inter conference games worth 3 points, that would make more sense, Realistically however, in a perfect arrangement, all games would carry equal value, regardless of the opponent or the length of game.

OK, another break from factual evidence to offer my opinion.

This can be fixed in one of two ways.  I'm not talking about the overtime, or the shootout here, I am talking about the gaping hole in the way points are currently being awarded.
1- Go back to the old ways.  Give two points for a win, none for a loss.  DO not award the extra point .
2- Make ALL games worth three points.  You would earn three points if you win in regulation, and if you reach overtime/shootout you would use the current arrangement of two points for the winner and one for the loser.

No other system keeps the integrity of the game in place.  Unless you wanted to go to the MLB/NBA/NFL ways and scrap points altogether and just use winning percentages to determine things.  I like points, and I prefer that the league use a better overtime format, going from five minutes of 4-4, to five minutes of 3-3, and even down two 2-2 and 1-1 if it gets that far, then let it run until there is a winner.   You want excitement in overtime?  Try this format.


So, in conclusion,  I am going to put the vote up to you, my readers.  What say you?  Comments please, and vote in the new poll on this subject matter.

Oh, and by the way, when i asked Gary Bettman about this, he crinkled his forehead, rolled his eyes up in the top of his head, said, "Hmmmmmmm," follwed by a long pause, and continued with, "Ummmmmmmmmmm."

He made this face, and some  noises like a chimpanzee and ran out of the room swinging his arms back and forth over his head.
 =-)

Every moment provides a do-over for the previous

OK, I cheated yesterday.  I used the lure of booze and sex to pull in a higher hit count for the day.  You were all part of a secret squirrel social science experiment.  My thinking was on track, but I admit, I thought my bogus title would have more of an effect on my hits than usual.  Here is a rundown on the page views for Blunder Years before yesterday's post:

December 24th: 3 veiws
December 25th: 45 veiws
December 26th: 46 veiws
December 27th: 102 veiws
December 28th: 95 veiws

Now, with the title I used yesterday, I admit I didn't give as much credit as I should have to the general public.  I actually thought promises of free beer and sex would entice my friends into tripling the hits on the blog.  I was expecting 300!  Well, while the hits did spike, I am impressed that my Facebook, twitter and LinkdIn friends aren't quite as degenerate as I thought.  Congratulations!  The blog had 168 page views.  So was it worth it to " jump the shark'?  Perhaps some of that extra readership will stick around and join the party on a regular basis.  There were several visitors to the blog who read more than yesterday's post while they were here.  So while my projections didn't come true, I hope that I have gained a few more loyal readers.  That, after all, is the goal; half a million followers or bust!  So, if you haven't signed up to follow this blog, please do.  Also, click on ad link or two.  I work hard writing this, and all I ask is if you like what I'm doing, if you are entertained, help pad my click through's!

So, now that yesterday's subject matter is closed, lets get going on today's:

Last night was TREMENDOUS.  My first Crown Roast.  I promised a picture of the finished product, so here goes:

I LOVE pork to begin with,  more than any other meat I think, and this just solidified it for me.  This was SO tender, so succulent, that I was entirely impressed.  My compliments to the cook!  The rest of the meal and the evening was just as lovely.  The hostess was gracious, elegant, and looked especially lovely.  The company was fun, the banter witty, and I can't think of a better way to ring in the new year!  Thanks so much!

My last meal of 2010 was truly  memorable.  It capped a memorable year indeed.


2010 was certainly an interesting year for me.  I probably learned more about myself in this calender year than in any other in my 40 years.  The process of discovery was not an easy one.  I had heard the analogy many times in the past that in order to make the surface smooth, you need to do a lot of sanding.  2010 was a sandpaper year.  I entered the year with the dark cloud of a soon-to-expire-employment contract hanging over my head.  The last few months of my junior hockey coaching career were sweet indeed as I had a group of young men who came together and fought through some pretty tremendous adversity, to play some of the best hockey I have ever had the pleasure of coaching.  The team rode a high into the playoffs, and soundly beat our round one opponent.  In round two, we faced our arch nemesis, and soundly whipped them as well.  This put us in the final against the league's offensive juggernaut, who we had beaten twice in a weekend series a few months prior.  They lost 4 games all year and we handed them 2 of those defeats in one weekend.  Well, the finals ended with us on the wrong end of a 6-4 score, but we outplayed them in every category, except for the one that counted.  It was a tremendous end to a tremendous season and career.  Bittersweet really, as now I had to move on and find a real, grown-up job.  It took me nine months of trial and error.  In those nine months, I experienced some of the most challenging times of my life.  I never hit the proverbial "rock bottom", but I was as close as I had ever been.  I believe in myself, and that never ceased for even a moment, but I made some crucial decisions and was too pig headed to admit that I had made a few huge mistakes.  Well, as difficult a trial as it was, I learned so very much about myself, and about people, and about life in the real world.  I can't help but be thankful.  I don't think I would ever want to re-live 2010, but I know it will go a long way toward my future prosperity in all facets of my life.

So today, as I look back on 2010, I see the intelligent design, and I am thankful.  I would like to think that all my rough edges have been worked away with the sandpaper that was 2010.  That would be assuming too much however.  I realize that I am a continuous work in progress, and there will be no end to that process for all my days. 

So, now I have the task of deciding upon my goals and ambitions for 2011.

My mom has Facebook.  Just about everyday she posts something inspirational for all her family and friends to read.  A few days ago, she summed up my entire "now".   I had been looking for a quote to dedicate to my new year, and had actually decided on one, but when I saw my mom's wall, I had a discovery moment. 

"No one can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending" (Unknown)

Simple, effective, powerful, and perfect for 2011.  No matter where I find myself at any time, this quote has the power to thrust me forward.  Even if things are going great, applying this quote can enhance even that.  Basically it means that we don't need New Year's to make a resolution. 

Every moment provides a do-over for the previous.   

If you are in a rut at work, if you have been putting off starting a new hobby, if you haven't been able to find the words to say to someone special in your life, this quote should empower you to pull yourself out of that rut, pick up that paintbrush, and say, "I love you."  Armed with this quote there is no excuse for every day not being better than the last.  Sure these are just words, but if you stamp them on your heart, and apply them to your inner most psyche, things will start going your way, and fast.

My resolution for 2011 is:  I resolve to make every day better than the last, for myself, my loved ones, my boss and co-workers, and basically for everyone I touch in the run of my day, everyday. 

Oh yeah, I also resolve to promote my blog shamelessly and by all means available until I reach my goal of half a million followers!  

Happy New Year everyone.  May God bless you with peace, happiness, joy and health.  Now click my ads!