I wonder if my wife reads this.....

So I was happy living my life when I got an email this morning from Motor Trend. 2011 Mustang GT first test. Since I have already heard a lot about it I thought I would take a look.
The reason for the title is because I WANT A 2011 mustang GT. What a bad ass car. Having owned two mustang 5.0s in the past it is easy to see why my interest is peaked. My issue was that I outgrew the car. I had a 1987 5.0 LX hatch. It was hot, fast and got me in a lot of trouble. So much trouble I had to sell the car or risk never driving again (the only car I ever outran a cop in). No one was ever hurt- but I sure paid a lot of money to the state, county and State Farm.....
Second was years later- a 1995 GT. I loved it- but sadly as I got older and had to drive more the cramped interior was something I could not deal with . It was also a harsh ride and my wife tended to hate it (she was not my wife at the time). So I have watched the Mustang and I have waited. I have waited to see it grow up as I have.
It seems that day has finally come. Ford in general seems to understand what the American public wants. They are producing more and more cars, SUV, crossover, and pickups that seem to hit the mark dead on. So much so that when I was searching for a car for my wife I decided to give them a shot. I ended up not buying one directly- but a re-badge- re done ford. A Mazda.
So far we love it.
So back to the Mustang. I was waiting for it to grow up. I was waiting for more leg room. That came years ago and has been increasing. As I was writing this I sadly determined the next statement
My current car has 43.9 inches of front leg room (BTW I am 6'3" so legroom is important)
My 1995 mustang had 42.5.
The new 2011 Mustang has 42.4 How did that happen Ford???? I could swear that Legroom increased at least an inch with the re-design a few years ago. But the numbers do not lie.
Oh well. Just to make sure I was not crazy I went and checked- the 2005 has 42.7 inches. Not a massive difference but something strange is going on with Legroom.
In any case here are the things that caught my interest:
Performance- this thing blows the doors off the Camero with better gas mileage and better drive ability! Not to mention it still has a Solid Rear Axle. How Ford achieves the handling of a .92g through the course with a solid rear axle? I have no clue....
Next is the engine. They squeeze so much power out of a normally aspirated 5.0 (real- not 4.9 this time) engine. Bravo. That takes real engineering!
In addition- and this sounds lame but for any Married dude out there- he can attest. It now has dual climate control as an option. I am not sure this has existed before- but it does for sure now and I am amazed! In my 95 the heated seats helped- but ever since then having dual zone has been a must- it makes for less arguments and happiness!
The Synch system is now an option- and Nav has been but remains to be.
So lets do the math- the Mustang now has most of the features that I look for. I am sure other features are missing that my 2007 came with like
Memory seats
rain sensing wipers
Bi-Xenon headlights
Cooled seats (although Ford does offer this on Lincoln)
So of course- there is no way I could get rid of my Lexus for this car- especially since it is bought and paid for. BUT.... if I could save my money and have a second car, a toy. Maybe in a few years when my son is out of day care and costs decrease. Maybe by then I could save enough to have this new awesome Ford. By then there will be some used GT premiums out there that I could pick up for a steal....
I wonder if I would be cramped..... Oh well. No test drive for me- too dangerous.
For those that want to read the article

http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/coupes/112_1003_2011_ford_mustang_gt_premium_test/index.html

Oil Drilling

So it seems our good president has agreed to Oil Drilling off the coast of VA. FANTASTIC. I am very happy that we will be drilling for Oil in areas that we have not before. It is long over due. Now the questions arise. WHY Mr. Obama would you suddenly change tac and move in the right direction? For a simple reason of course. His agenda needs to be fulfilled. He must get a climate/energy bill passed now. The only way to do that is to make concessions and allow us to actually have more energy.
So lets do the Math- WAR BAD- PULL TROOPS. On my last check we still have troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Not that I thought he would- but we can hope.
DRILLING BAD- so lets go ahead and drill.

I wonder if he says- that is a great idea- I am glad I thought of it......

And Health Care Already Suffers

Great job US Government. As predicted big business is taking out the pain on the American worker. The American people knew this would happen and now- just a week later we see it in action. You raise the costs to American big business, they pass it along by reducing benefits. All so the poor can get coverage. STOP TAKING FROM THE PRODUCTIVE TO HELP THE NON PRODUCTIVE!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100326/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_at_t_health_care

Update to Logitech Remote

After my annoyance was peaked with Logitech I resigned myself to go ahead and go through the install.
It took a lot of setup time. More due to fine tuning than anything else BUT..... Both rooms are now up and running without flaws (mostly anyway). I have to say- as annoying as it was to get up and running- at least it works. In my research I did find other high end remotes out there that probably would have been a good choice as well.
Here is something that I did NOT think would work but it did.
Old Harmony 890 remote in my Media Room. Media closet houses all components- including my Sat receiver and PS3. The media closet is behind the seating area so there is no line of site at all to the closet- and it is fully enclosed so it works well.
I hooked up the RF extender- this is a little device that converts RF signals out of the remote and converts to IR for the components. I used to have an RF extender that had a little stick on RF light for every component. It was a spider web of wires (and about as thin) and it was ugly. The Logitech blasts IR light out to the whole closet at once and it actually works! No more spider web. Second- the PS3 adapter requires direct line of sight! That's right- an adapter for BLUETOOTH WIRELESS requires IR to work. The good news is that it works fine with the RF extender. So commands from my 890 go to the RF extender-to the PS3 adapter-to the PS3 and they seem to work. Aside from some fast scrolling left to right when I did not want it- everything else seems fine.
The new Harmony one remote is nice for the family room. The fine tuning was again around the Mitsubishi TV- the HDMI port switching causes so many problems. But the remote had a function to work around this and with some minor testing it seems to work fine.

Now that I have a nice remote in my media room I think the next upgrade will be Z-wave lighting. The only thing that has ever bothered me about my media room has been the light switch location. The 890 remote has the ability to control Z-wave lights so I will add in 3 Z-wave switches (on the outside of the media room) and hopefully when I turn on everything and hit play the lights will instantly dim. Then when I press pause or stop the lights will come back up. At $50 a pop for the switches those will have to wait.....

Love Affair with Logitech is at an END

So many of you know I have an obsession with Home theater and technology. I have found in the past that Logitech makes a pretty awesome remote. I have used a Logitech in my family room for years now with good results. I decided I would upgrade my antiquated media room remote for a new logitech with Birthday money. So begins the saga.
Here are the problems I have encountered:
1) I had to choose a Logitech remote that could work with an RF extender- I thought this was taken care of because I had an unused RF extender that I got with my 890 remote. I was not using it because I had direct line of site to all my components in my family room. So I thought- great- I will check to see if it works. I checked the Logitech website and I guess I did not check deep enough. I THOUGHT it was supported. Turns out- it was not supported and would not be supported. They sell the same remote with the extender and they sell the extender seperate- but I am not sure why. This is the first annoyance.
Solution- use the new Harmony One remote I bought in the family room and move my 890 downstairs- as long as the PS3 adapter I bought will work with the 890- it is said to but I have not tried it yet due to OTHER problems.
2) So I go to upgrade my 890 remote in the family room and when I bring up the software it says- sure you can upgrade- just add the new remote- but there is NO WHERE TO ADD A NEW REMOTE- only remove the old one. So I call tech support.
Here I learn the following:
A) You have to have a NEW ACCOUNT FOR EVERY NEW REMOTE YOU BUY- the accounts will not touch and you cannot move settings from one to the other
B) There is no direct upgrade path from the 890 remote to anything else- which means I have to start from scratch!
C) There is no way to pass along my complaints to development or management- the Indian (dot not Dancing with Wolves) is all I get.
So I decide instead of going through a return process I will just deal with starting from scratch and make sure the world knows- LOGITECH IS FINE FOR 1 REMOTE- JUST DO NOT BUY ANOTHER AND DO NOT UPGRADE!
Man am I pissed at companies that treat customers this way. It all boils down to development costs- Logitech has left all customers out in the cold with an 890 remote (I asked- is there ANYTHING I can BUY to just have a smooth upgrade- response- NO).
Not to mention creating a brand new account in the SAME DAMN SOFTWARE just to control a different remote. This is poor development, poor planning and most of all- it just annoys me.
DO BETTER LOGITECH!

There goes the Nation....

So just as I predicted our Nation is on a crazy ride to socialist hell. I predicted before the Obanation was elected that our Country would choose him, move WAY far to the left, regret it and then hopefully over correct and move WAY back over to the right. So far I am 2/3 of the way there. In November and then the next Presidential election I will be 100% right.
How can it be that even the left wing liberal media is even reporting this new health care legislation accurately. They are saying flat out- massive tax increase, if you earn a lot of money you will pay for this and so on....
This country did not want THIS legislation. As usual the government does not hear the WHOLE story. We wanted reform. We want the $200 aspirin problem fixed. We did NOT want this bill passed. This was not the way to fix it. I am sick of the government attitude of doing something has to be better than doing nothing. That is not TRUE. LISTEN TO US. We have seen what you can do. We all think you have done enough work for the next 4 years. Just stop now and rest.

Fantastic Birthday

Well yesterday I had my birthday. I am in my mid-30's and I am not very happy about it. Not for the usual reasons, loss of youth, yearning for the past, my own mortality, starting to look like shit.... Nope. I just am tired of getting older. I would prefer to just not get any older. Not for any of the reasons I listed- but just because segmenting my life into years seems strange. Phases seem to make much more sense.
Kid phase
Tween phase
teen phase
young adult
adult
old adult
dead.
I think that is enough- celebrate the passing of each with the events that make them so. I passed from young adult to adult as soon as I had a kid.
I plan to move to old adult once my kid has left the house. I do not plan on dieing but I expect it will happen anyway. These events should be marked with large parties and some mourning for the past. But to see life slip away year after year is almost like self torture. My life now changes based on my son's advancement. As for me there are minor changes in life but nothing major beyond what happens with my family.
So as you can see- if life stays pretty much the same except for the major events that mark it why do we have birthdays?
GIFTS. I really think people like getting gifts. I know I do so I guess that makes birthdays OK. Also getting treated like I am special is very nice. It makes me feel good. Funny thing is that I feel special every day when I am around my family. So yeah, gifts.
My wife spoiled me as usual (so did my sis and my parents). I do enjoy the special treatment.

So I guess in conclusion I enjoy the special treatment but I do feel special all the time. Random gifts would be cooler than a set time for them.
History is marked with wars, our lives should be marked with major events. Birthdays do nothing but make us remember that we are mortal, after all.

Light at the end

I do believe we are near the end of the tunnel when it comes to snow. Of course I will post this and 2 days later get hit with a massive snow storm- but I think that is covered by the lion clause.
As far as I can tell the bad weather (bad meaning feet of snow falling) has come to an end. This is pleasant news since I have just purchased a new (to me) ATV. After much research and worry I decided on a 2008 Suzuki King Quad. More on that in a minute.
For those who understand little about the ATV market I will explain. First it is fun as hell playing with powersports. Little regard for public laws such as speed limits, right turn lanes, stop lights and so forth. Of course safety is a concern so I wear gear to protect myself- but beyond those rules there is an overwhelming sense of freedom. Imagine riding a beast of a machine through the woods over boulders, trees, mud, and whatever else you happen upon. Imagine hanging out with your friends who like to do the same thing. Imagine stretching your mind to figure out the best way up a rock covered mountain. All these things are what equal fun to me.
I know, it is not for everyone- but it is for me. Now- Why did I not buy American? I hate to say it but this country has moved from an engineering country to a services country. We started simply with manufacturing in the early 1900's and have moved totally away from it. This means that products in this country are a little sub par. We can talk about the high end computing part of the world later- (which is NOT the same as most other things) but for now cars as well as ATV's come better from Japan.
I know- what about Toyota recalls? I own a Toyolexus and I do not care. My floor mat was included in the recall. it has not moved- it will not move and it is fine. Idiots are the reason for a majority of the recalls. Since I am not one I will continue on.
I checked all major brands of ATV- this is what I was looking for...
Power- more power than my old one had since I always seemed a little short in trying to keep up.
IRS (independent rear suspension) this is important in keeping planted- since my old ATV fell off a cliff this was important to me.
Diff lock- for those that do not know diff lock means TRUE 4 wheel drive- not 3 wheel like what my Honda had.
Comfort- my older Honda hurt my ass.
reliability- I do not want to work on an ATV every other week so I can ride it once a month.
Other nice features that come along for the ride are a digital dash readout, nice wheels, tires and a winch (not a wench).

The best choice for reliability came down to a couple Jap models. The way I cam to this conclusion was RESEARCH. Instead of taking name brand into account I researched ALL ATV brands. I included location of dealerships to me into the mix so the only brand not included was Arctic Cat- there are just no close dealerships and no way to get parts if something does happen to break.
So- CanAm- junk- so many issues I cannot list them all here- research the chat boars and find many things that suck- also no true locker for the front diff and the cost is unusually high for a machine without a true diff lock.
Honda- lacking most features above- the lowest power of all Big Bore machines (BTW- I wanted a big bore for the power)- also reliability issues in the tranny on earlier models
Kawasaki- Japanese but still poor construction- bad Radiator placement means overheating all the time
Poloaris- horrible diff design, horrible electronics design (meaning open electronics to the weather), bad record for overheating as well
Suzuki - earlier models had battery drain issues for bad wiring- but later models fixed this- more to come
Yamaha- Gas boiling, vapor lock or whatever you want to call it is a massive problem. No one can agree if it is truly gas boiling or vapor lock. Either way it is a reliability concern and ultimately
No name brand = not enough info to buy- also limited options and parts availability

I chose the Suzuki- but was only shopping for a 2008 or newer based on the battery drain issue. I hope it holds up and gives me the reliability that it promises. It has everything else I want and seems nice.

So I started down this path because it seems the weather for next weekend (SAT) looks like 50 and sunny. This means I may get to ride my new ATV for the first time! WOOHOO. Cannot wait.