Results matching “10”

Of course, who can forget the scene where the Son of Satan is leading a band of demons through Central Park, all carrying a gigantic glowing box of Popeye's chicken as Rock you like a Hurricane plays in the background. It's very inspiring.

Of course, there is nextel. I never really cared about cell providers before. It used to be just a comparison of minutes/dollar/month and coverage area. I had long ago bypassed the coverage area problem by getting a national no roam plan with the V provider. I recently went to check out Nextel's no roam plan, which led me to realize how arrogant Nextel is.



Nextel does not allow other phones onto its network. Kyocera? Nokia? Regular Motorola? Sorry, no go. Ok, fine. Now, I look on Nextel's coverage map and notice they don't really cover that much. They cover heavily populated areas and major highways. So what about their national plan? National on the nextel network. So what about roaming? There is no roaming on the national plan. What if I go off the nextel network? Oh, I see... the nextel phones will not work off of the nextel network. Let me repeat that. You must be in sight of a nextel tower in order to get cell phone service. That no roaming option will be very comforting to me when I'm standing next to my car with a crumpled manifold and I desire to call AAA.


Of course, nextel does have that walkie-talkie feature. Have you seen the commercials for this thing? Done. In nextel's vision, people will bark one word sentences at each other to accomplish that elusive goal of communication. I could see that in my line of work. Them: Servers down. Me: Really? Them: Yep. Me: Which? Them: dunno. Me: Ah.


Compare that to a telephone call.

"Hi Squegie, I can't connect to the mail server. I get connection refused on port 25, and three other customers get that too." Me: "Ok, I'll look into it." Done.

Of course, we could follow nextel's vision and work our way down to single-word conversations in the professional business world. Eventually, we can degenerate into grunts and gestures.

>You should be ashamed of yourselves.

I am ashamed everytime I look at my paycheck.

Oh drat. I missed it. The 100th rant of Sqbnet. Well, this is now the 101st Rant of SQBNet. May the world rejoice. Actually, I expect the world at large to remain mostly ignorant of this momentus milestone. In celebration I am offering everyone free access to the SQBNet website.

I'm not sure what's more dangerous, eating instant ramen out of a questionably clean beaker, or using glass stirring rods as chopsticks. -- Credits to Krakow Studios.

02/11/28 17:42:43 red13n> average blue whale produces over 400 gallons of sperm when it ejaculates, but only 10% of that actually makes it into his mate. So 360 gallons are spilled into the ocean everytime one unloads, and you wonder why the ocean is so salty.

Ok, Jenn responded to my response, I posted her response and my reply here. Since the whole thing was in email, I'm going to make use of the pre tags again, bear with me if it messes things up.

A rebuttal to the response to the rebuttal (BTW, this is going on sqbnet).


> OK, let's add it up another way.

>

> 2001 Toyota Tacoma - around $15,000 total (taxes and everything).  Six

> thousand down, and the other $9K at 7.5% is still a payment of around

> $180 a month.

$6000 down.  At my average of $500/running&inspected vehicle, that's 12

vehicles right there.  I could run one/month with reasonable assurance.

> I have a 3 year/30K mile unlimited warranty, plus a 7 year/70K warranty

> on the powertrain.  Toyotas have a good reputation for quality, so I

> don't see any reason why the truck won't last me for 100K miles without

> anything except regular maintenance.  So, for roughly 7 years (~12K

> miles a year), I will have spent exactly 2 hours shopping for and

> purchasing a vehicle, and 0 hours of downtime due to unexpected vehicle

> repairs, not to mention considerably less frustration.  Plus, my shiny

> (OK, OK, dirty) new truck is simply quite cool.

Toyota makes an exceptional vehicle, I don't deny that.  However, you

can't honestly expect me to believe that in the next 2 years, you won't

require some sort of unexpected repairs.  You may feel statistically

secure, but this is the real world, and nothing that states what side of

percentage sign you'll be on. Statistics are higher for older vehicles (or

more accurately, higher mileage vehicles, for example my 312,000+ mileage

buick skyhawk) to break down, but there is still a high number of older,

high-mileage vehicles on the road today. Furthermore, in addition to

engine/powertrain performance, all vehicles face the same potential of a

blown tire, random patch of ice -> tree, and falling airplanes.

> For those among us who choose the vehicles that are, shall we say, more

> advanced in years, the tradeoff of a lesser average monthly payment is

> offset by a variety of factors.  First, the time lost to not having a

> vehicle because it is in the shop.  In my college days of driving cars

> older than my siblings, I can count at least 2 work days plus 5 school

> days lost due to lack of transportation.  (No, there is no such thing as

> bus service where I lived.)  I am certain that those 5 days of lost

> educational potential decreased my GPA significantly enough to cost me a

> job making thousands of dollars more per year.  OK, probably not, but

> let's just say so for the sake of argument. :)  But the point remains,

> while I never have a care in the world about my car breaking down

> randomly (say, while going to the Marine Corps Ball?), and spare myself

> the costs of Tylenol for the headache, or worse yet, a stress-related

> personal breakdown requiring thousands of dollars of professional mental

> help, others who choose the way of the old car are not so fortunate.

The impact of lost days depends on the situation and value you personally

place on them.  For example, the Marine Corps is concerned more with

accountability than punctuality.  When asked, the platoon sgt can identify

the location of every marine under his/her charge.  So, my breakdown was

insignificant on the face face of things.

Secondly, if fustration from being stranded could lead you to headaches

and possible personal breakdown, then you may already need professional

mental help.  Picture loosing your last 2 quarters to a vending machine,

traffic jams, breaking a key in the lock, vcr eating your tape, dropping

your monitor down a flight of stairs, and having paperwork blow out of

your hands.  You can either take these as stress, or accept it as

something that happens, one of the risks you take in life, and move on.

> Time is money, is it not?  So, let's say you spend an average of 4 hours

> (one afternoon) per vehicle purchase.  Multiply that by what you make an

> hour (more, I think, for me than for you, but it'll still give you an

> idea.) For me, that amount of time makes up the difference in car

> payments for 1 month.  So I am slowly carving away the difference.

Time is money, time is money.  That's more of a philosophy than anything

else.  There is an opportunity cost involved with anything, but not

neccessarily a monetary value/cost.  I could spend 4 hours valued at

$25/hour (for non-math wizes reading this, that's roughly $100) buying a

car or watching two movies every 8 or so months.  BTW, I've been doing

this for 5 years, and have had 5 different vehicles, most of which were

under $300, but with repairs and everything I've had under $2200 into

them.  My 6th vehicle is the buick skyhawk which i've had somewhat under

$1200 into.  My Jeep I have had $500 into so far, and will be putting $500

more into it, which will bring my total to 7 vehicles, $4500.  I hadn't

added everything up in my last estimate, but this brings my overall

average to $75/month with no money down over $500.  Keep in mind that for

almost two years of that time, I had two vehicles, and not just one.  For

a good portion of this time, I would average at a minimum, 40 miles/day. 

For one of those years, my bare minimum was 100 miles/day, more like

150miles/day (college being 50 miles away, work being 20 miles away,

college each weekday morning, work every day). Furthermore, one of these

vehicles took me to Jacksonville, NC and back, 500 miles each way.  To be

fair, I didn't attend college in the summer, so it wasn't the full year.

> At least with my insurance company, if I insure my car (which is

> required by law in this state), I can't later call and uninsure the car

> so long as I still own it.  My brand new truck cost LESS to insure than

> my 8 year old Geo Storm (I will grant you, that Geo was considered a

> sports car for insurance purposes... *sigh*), and less than 20% more

> than my 14 year old Mitsubishi Galant.  I guarantee you, your insurance

> on two older cars is more than my one new truck.  Plus, you're a male

> under 25 years of age, which practically sentences you to bad insurance

> rates.  (It's not much better for females anymore, so don't take it too

> personally.)  And the more vehicles you own, the more insurance you have

> to pay.  This one's pretty straightforward.

Here is a situation that seems to have more to do with the state you live

in (which is another topic of debate entirely) than the cost of owning a

car.  In my state you are required to have insurance on your car in order

to drive it.  However, a parked car does not require insurance.  However,

if you move the car across the street without insurance, you risk a fine. 

My insurance company actually will allow me to cancel service with them if

I do not need it (I would be somewhat opposed to it otherwise).  I can

cancel and add vehicles individually of each other without cancelling the

entire policy.  I actually went through the added expense of maintaiing

insurance on two vehicles, instead of one at a time, mostly because I was

planning on using one for strictly business and one for strictly pleasure.



> Second to last point, at your rate of acquiring 4 cars per year, well,

> you'd need a place to store all those vehicles.  Randomly selecting a

> lot of one acre for your ever-increasing fleet of cars, trucks, vans,

> jeeps, etc., at local prices, that would set you back around $40K.

> Dividing that cost between the difference in price of your fleet and my

> truck, amortized over the life of my loan and vehicle and your fleet,

> that comes out to.. Well, I come out ahead in the end, because I said

> so.

That's exactly why I don't create such a fleet.  However, in my particular

situation, I do have enough (wasted/unused) space to store upwards of 

vehicles, so I could potentially maintain a fleet of 20 vehicles.  I can't

put that into the figure due to it being somewhat unique to my situation,

but enough people around here fall into the same category that it could be

done.  Actually, undeveloped land (no house, no perk test, etc..) sells

locally for  $9,000 or less.  However, the potential remains to maintain a

group of cars, keeping only the best of the lot, and selling off the

"lesser of the lot" to either a junkyard or private buyer.  You run the

risk of becoming a used car saleman, which is another reason I don't

maintain a fleet at the cost of your truck.  Remember $6000 down is 12

vehicles, the remaining $9000 could almost purchase that acre of

undeveloped ground (with a rate under 7%), and dividing the mileage

between 12 vehicles will increase their life span exponentially, as well

as thoroughly allowing you to eliminate downtime.  If one vehicle is

making a weird clicking noise, you can switch to another while having the

trouble car in the shop.

Yes, I know there are more costs involved with owning land than the $9000

you bought it with, and that model will end up being more expensive

initially than one vehicle bought for $15,000.  However, you can own land

forever and use the untapped space for other nefarious purposes (say, a

storage shed, or a quasi-house with no running water).

> Finally, I had a really great last point to make, but I have forgotten

> it by now.  Thus, it must not have been that great.  But fear not, I

> will come through in the clutch and make the most overwhelmingly superb

> point of the whole matter, clinching my victory in this debate -

You may want to make that point in short order, because you've so far

proven that you're laboring under a belief that your vehicle's internals

are invulnerable, the world ends when your vehicle stops, and the time

lost searching for a vehicle is worth more than the time watching a movie

or playing a computer game.  Vehicle hunting can be just as fun, sort of

like a quest.  Get a couple of friends along for the ride and turn it into

a group outing.

> Only a damn good looking *new* truck like mine is worthy of driving over

> the one and only world-famous speed bump.

>

> The End

Got an email today from one of my friends. It's a conversation I've had before with people, so I'll state here again. Let me start with the email.

You know,

One could just buy a *new* vehicle, with a decent warranty, that would

pretty much guarantee 7 years or 70K miles of worry-free driving, given

regular maintenance.  Just a thought. ;)

Jenn

P.S. Toyotas rock.

Ok, sounds simple enough. Now, let's look at some real numbers here. The cheapest 2003 Toyota Tacoma is blue booked at $12600. Let's say I got one of these guys at exactly $12,600 AND let's say I manage to get a 5-year loan at 4%. My cost and loan will definitely be higher, but I'll play with these low numbers for fun. My monthly payment would be $232.05/month, every month, for 5 years. Almost every car I've ever bought has been $350, driven off the lot. With title transfer and everything, it's still under $450. I then take that vehicle to the garage and put $100 into it. I'm up to $550. Let's see.. that's three months of my 5-year loan right there. This vehicle will last me about 8 months before I have to do anything else to it. 8 months where I'm saving $232.05 over the cost of a new car. At the end of this 8 months, let's say I put $200 into it. That's still less than one of my monthly payments.

As a case in point, my Buick (the most recent one to hit the dust) is the same one I bought in July of 2000. I paid $300 for it, and have put $700 into it over the last two years. Just recently, I had to replace the muffler, which when couple with yearly inspection cost me $140.00 (the car died 3 days later). That brings me up to just under $1200 for 28 months or just under $43/month. This is not an exception, but my typical spending. Now, the bigger question: Is it worth (at bare minimum) $189/month of saved money to be potentially stranded for a portion of a day? With a service like AAA plus, you get free towing at a mere cost of $60/year. This is something you should have independent of vehicle costs (it covers you even if you're riding in someone elses vehicle). There is no such thing as worry-free driving. A new vehicle has less wear and tear on it, but can still fail you. The difference is that the warrantied vehicle will not require additional money out of your pocket (except of course, for your $232 monthly payment for the next 5 years) to get it fixed and running again.

I could however, spend at a rate similiar to one of these loans and acquire 4 running, used vehicles per year, slowly building myself a fleet of cars and trucks.

For those of you who don't already know, we had our Marine Core ball on the 9th up at the Ramada. This year, I took harlei, who is pictured elsewhere on this site under a different name. The day was doomed from the start.

It all started the Friday beforehand. I drove up to my parents' place where I keep my uniforms. I had (one month prior) placed my alpha's into a uniform bag and driven it up to the center for tailoring, and presumably drove it back to my parents' place for safekeeping. To my dismay, the bag was not there. The bag was also not in my apartment, nor in my building, nor in any of the vehicles I may have been driving that day. This concerned me greatly because the uniform I was supposed to wear the following Saturday was in that bag.

Luckily, I still had enough spare uniform peices to assemble one working uniform, with the exception of the alpha belt. I did not realize I didn't have the alpha belt (which is in my uniform bag) till Saturday the next day. I got on the metaphorical horn and got someone to meet me up at the center. I took off in the jeep, met my contact, and checked my locker. No uniform bag. Luck was on my side however, as my contact allowed me to borrow his Alpha belt, which had no belt buckle. I remembered having a buckle at the apartment, so I took the belt, thanked the man, and left.

Back in the hometown, I pulled into the barber shop parking lot to get my haircut, and observed that he was closed on this day of days. Not to be deterred, I jumped back into the jeep and drove into the next town over where a holiday hair was destined to be open, and indeed they were and they also charged me $14 for a haircut, which is over twice what I normally pay. Back in the jeep, back to home.

At home, I discover that I don't have a belt buckle, and it's getting close to the time I have to leave. I start making calls to fellow marines, and get nothing but answering machines. Sigh... Once again, luck is on my side as I remember another stash of gear I had, and I found a belt buckle. Throwing my gear into the jeep, I take off to pick up my date.

As expected, my date was not ready, despite my being 20 minutes late. However, with great effort, we made it on the road 10 minutes later, stopped at a gas station, and took to the turnpike. Things were looking up.

The next disaster came after a quick drive down this nice toll-road. My jeep had decided to spring an additional leak, and my coolant had all leaked out, which meant I was now running hot. This is of course, unknown to me until the engine starts smoking. I let it cool down for 10 minutes, throw some more coolant in, and take off. I get a bit further down the road, and it overheats again, this time really bad. I stop, let it cool down for 20 minutes, when someone from the turnpike commission pulls in behind us. I try the jeep, it decides not to start. Bad sign.

After talking to the turnpike guy, my plan is to get the jeep towed to the ramada inn, which is 19 miles from me. I can do something about the jeep from there. Unfortunately, it works out that the jeep gets towed back to bedford, to some garage. Yes, I did know they were going to do that, and yes, I shouldn't have let them, but I was primarily concerned with getting to the ball on time. Sometimes, I fail to think ahead, and I have to pay dearly for it.

Anyways, the towtruck takes the vehicle, we ride with the turnpike guy to the hotel, and get there with about 10 minutes to spare, and I just make it to formation on time.

Now that I have arrived, all of the bad stuff is now behind me, and I am free to partake in the open bar that was available, which I did, solidly, for the next 6 hours. Needless, to say, the ball was quite fun this year.

OMG. I just updated the stats, and I am averaging over 1000 hits per day, and that is not me. Could this be the beginnings of a cult following? Perhaps I should consider putting a message board in place.