Xenomech: I'm sorry, but that seating arrangement is not going to fly:

[i50.tinypic.com image 830x564]

It's the same arrangement as carrying a woman on your back on a motorcycle.

MindStalker: Drop off my kids at school, I no longer need the passenger module, so I either park it at their school, or lug it with me to work anyways.

The easy solution is to get your kid a Trek Bicycle and make them bike to school, but then one day you look for



but all you can find is



and you drive around the parking lot for 40 hours looking for your kid.

liam76: Because your parents have a ton of money, you think it being "green" is super neat, and you don't want to conform and get a car.

I just signed up for "Green" energy. I could have gotten wind energy for cheaper than my current price, but instead I got a wind/solar/hydro/nuclear/anything-that-doesn't-belche-shiat-into-the-a​i r plan that buys whatever the cheapest non-crud-spewing tech is. If someone installs a big geothermal plant tomorrow and the power is 4.5c/kWh, they'll start buying 4.5c/kWh power; if they can buy enough to cover all their customers, their power prices come down. If not, the market competes, more plants are built because demand is high, and THEN their power prices come down.

It's going to cost me about $4/mo more. Well, in the summer it might cost me $6/mo less, since electricity is more expensive in the summer from my normal provider. It'll cost me more than the conventional option from another supplier at 7.99c (my current rate is 8.96c/kWh, with fixed option wind available from one supplier at 8.99c, market variable option at 9.90c, and market variable option from a third supplier at 9.94c that takes any renewable source; in the summer, my electric costs are at 10.5c/kWh, but daytime prices are more like 13c/kWh with night time prices around 9c/kWh to tax people for using their AC when the sun is out).

For the additional $4 (or, maybe, $8 above what I could get at the absolute cheapest), I shift $1000/year from coal and oil demand to pure clean demand.

Now, renewable gas, that's nuts. 58 cents/therm or I can buy offset at 72 cents/therm, whereby they buy enough carbon offsets to match the gas I use (i.e. they pay a subsidy on a unit of clean power equal to the amount of gas I burn). In general I use 1-2 therms for the stove and 9 therms to maintain a temperature of 62 degrees. My thermostat is designated for 73 degrees in the morning (5:15-8:00), 72 in the evening (4:15-10:00), and 62F for the remainder, with 72 during the day on weekends. Curtains actually make a difference in my gas usage. That's just for the winter, though.

Okay so again $3/month. It's not a lot of gas.

moothemagiccow: I might never understand the fetishization of cars. It's like buying a cool-looking hammer.

Eastwing hammers are extremely well-balanced and comfortable in the hand. I've tried, and compared to a $5 department store hammer (which the head eventually falls off of anyway, so okay in a home toolkit for occasional use but not for a contractor), they're a lot easier to make fly straight. With about zero experience, I was able to take full swings and hit nails straight on with the Eastwing.

It's also nice looking. But the balance and the quality of manufacture--the fact that it's full steel tang with either a synthetic or a polished hard leather wrapped handle--makes all the difference. Heads don't fall off of solid chunks of forged high-quality steel. Full tang handles don't break. Balanced tools--hammers, knives, swords, drills--go exactly where you put them and inflict less fatigue.

I don't want a flashy car that's a piece of shiat, like a Ferrari that needs $15k of maintenance every year if it's your daily driver. A Porsche won't bankrupt you, it's like any other car, but it's a damn high-end car. Audi cars, same deal, very nice cars, not as expensive as Porsche, you won't impress as many people talking about your awesome Audi, and it looks like any other car unless you buy a really high-end one, but they last forever and they're cheap to maintain and they have excellent AWD and handling and power and everything. These are cars. Italian cars are penis prosthesis.