Scooterboy set off this morning for Shanghai Misadventures Round 2. For various reasons, I will remain at home in Melbourne. He will be gone for more than a year. Missing him already.
I am forcing myself to see the glass as half full. We will travel to see each other, Skype released video for Mac and we can chat to each other easily, Jajah will also help to close the miles between us. December 2007 will be here before I know it. Yes it will. Dammit.
Great article on the Tesla Roadster."You see any cops?" Eberhard asks, shooting me a mischievous look. The car is vibrating, ready to launch. I'm the first journalist to get a ride.
He releases the brake and my head snaps back. One-one-thousand: I get a floating feeling, like going over the falls in a roller coaster. Two-one-thousand: The world tunnels, the trees blur. Three-one-thousand: We hit 60 miles per hour. Eberhard brakes. We're at a standstill again -- elapsed time, nine seconds. When potential buyers get a look at the vehicle this summer, it will be among the quickest production cars in the world. And, compared to other supercars like the Bugatti Veyron, Ferrari Enzo, and Lamborghini Diablo, it's a bargain. More intriguing: It has no combustion engine.
The trick? The Tesla Roadster is powered by 6,831 rechargeable lithium-ion batteries -- the same cells that run a laptop computer. Range: 250 miles. Fuel efficiency: 1 to 2 cents per mile. Top speed: more than 130 mph.
... "If you took the energy in a gallon of gas and used it to spin a turbine, you'd get enough electricity to drive an electric car 110 miles,"
Also, Mark Morford's hilarious Lick My Silent Sports Car
"See, they lie. And they've been lying for years, decades. They lie about how difficult it is to replace the internal combustion engine. They lie about how unfeasible it is to eliminate auto emissions without sacrificing real performance (the 130-mph Roadster's lithium-ion battery system is estimated to be twice as efficient as a Prius and three times as efficient as a hydrogen fuel cell. Not to mention Tesla's fabulous solar option).
But they lie, most of all, about how much we still require foreign oil, because these billion-dollar corporations claim they can't possibly afford to develop sufficiently advanced technology in your lifetime to create a 100-percent emissions-free, oil-free, ultragreen vehicle that still has all the comforts and performance of a regular car.
Nice pipe dream, they say. Here, have a bloated SUV, they say. Sorry about all your dead kids in Iraq, they add, smirking like a chimp and blowing their noses into a big pile of Halliburton profits. "
Courtesy of Houston.
The Big Day shenanigans continue.
I'm hunting for a hair and paint-face lass for the Big Day and asked my hairdresser if he knew anyone who might fit the ticket.
He suggested I speak to his mate at the Shiseido boutique in QV (Melbourne shopping site) who had done the makeup for his colleague's wedding.
I should have heeded a mate who advised, "never trust a Honky when it comes to anything involving aesthetics." (Honky = person hailing from Hong Kong, or one who is heavily influenced by Canto culture).
I trotted off to the Shiseido shop and asked to speak to, let's call her, Stuffy Counter Wench. Turned out I was speaking to her and she too was a Honky. "Oh no," was my first thought. It was going to be a tough sell for Stuffy Counter Wench from the word go. She was in her 40s, possibly 50s, and was sporting bright green SHINY eyeshadow. Nice.
We spoke about pricing, while I stared at the shiny bright green eyeshadow. Naturally, I asked if she could show me photographs of her previous work and Stuffy Counter Wench turned into Snippy Stuffy Counter Wench. Snippy Stuffy Counter Wench huffed and rolled her eyes and snapped, "I've been doing this for ten years, I don't do that anymore!"
"I ask because you're wearing shiny bright green eyeshadow, and girlie, that's all kinds of not happening." I did not say.
I thanked her and left.
Scooterboy and I had visions of a big-ass BBQ for our wedding but alas, it was a huge logistical nightmare (even more so than a run-of-the-mill wedding believe it or not). So, I find myself turning into a real bridezilla with the frock, the four-walls-and-roof venue, vintage car and yada yada yada. Hence, the lack of posting in this blog. We have both been running around like headless chickens putting this thing together!
I'd just like to mention that my love for Mac was recently affirmed when I created our wedding invitation video from scratch in around 4 hours. The 4 hours included time for me to scratch my head and ponder life, the universe, and everything since I had NEVER before used iMovie. Despite that, creating the video was easy-peasy-Japanesey after an initial muckaround. I am absolutely astounded at the powerful software developed by Mac. iMovie and iDVD were an absolute dream to use!
I was able to edit the video, add effects, add photos, add notes, and bang it all into a DVD and upload to the internet so, so easily! Thank you, Apple!
Ok... nuff gushing for now. Back soon-ish... maybe :)
Extract from Introduction written by Caroline Kennedy.
"John F. Kennedy began his public service career as a PT-boat commander in the South Pacific in World War II. While on patrol on the night of August 2, 1943, the PT-109 was rammed by a Japanese destroyer, the Amagiri, and exploded into flames, throwing crew members into the burning water. Two were killed and one was burned so badly he couldn't swim. Clutching a strap of the injured man's life jacket in his teeth, Lieutenant Kennedy towed the wounded sailor to the nearest island, three miles away. For the next six days, with little food or water, the men hid, fearing they would be captured by the Japanese. Each evening Kennedy swam through shark-infested waters to other islands seeking help, until he was spotted by two Solomon Islanders, Eroni Kumana and Biuku Gasa. They picked a coconut, onto which Kennedy carved a message, which they took to the hideout of a nearby Australian coast watcher who arranged rescue. In the summer of 2002 a National Geographic Society expedition found that the legend of John F. Kennedy's courage lives on in the far-away Solomon Islands. Using remote-controlled vehicles with underwater cameras, explorer Robert Ballard and his team discovered the sunken PT-109. Expedition members met Eroni Kumana, the man whose simple canoe saved my father's life and changed the course of history, and his son, John F. Kennedy Kumana.
My father's bravery earned him the Navy and Marine Corps Medal "for extremely heroic conduct," and a Purple Heart for his injuries. It also led to Profiles in Courage. The collision with the Japanese destroyer left him with a spinal injury, which required surgery in the winter of 1954-55. Elected to the U.S. Senate two years before, my father was interested in understanding the qualities that make a great senator. History was his passion, and he spent his months of recuperation reading the chronicles of his legendary predecessors. To both my parents, history was not a dull, dry affair, but a constant source of inspiration. They believed that there truly are heroes, and we all can learn from their example. My father's heroes were men and women who were willing to risk their careers to do what was right for our country. Profiles in Courage, published in 1956, tells their stories."
I am currently reading Profiles in Courage by John F. Kennedy and just want to highlight one paragraph.
"In a speech he gave the summer after the Cuban Missile Crisis, President Kennedy spoke of peace:
'Let us not be blind to our differences - but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal."
