Short version: We have a new car. The first dealer didn’t get it when promised, got it two days later, but I backed out of the deal. I ended up getting very close to the same model for a bit less, from another dealer. The car is now here and we are happy. Longer version: This is approximately what happened with the first dealer: Sat 2pm: Met with D1, asked if he could match the price quoted by D2 in email. He said he could not match it but could come within $440 of it. I said this was OK. Sat 230pm: D1 shows me the same car as the one I want, only in V6 engine. I say I like it. He says he can get me the V4, should be able to have it tomorrow (Sunday). I say, I am traveling Sunday but I can pick it up Monday. Sat 3pm: D1 checks my trade-in car, agrees with me that it is in great condition and would resell easily. I say I am hoping for mid Blue-book value (5600). His offer to me: 3500. I counter: 4500. He counters again: 4000. I say OK. Sat 330pm: Lots of papers are signed. I have all the papers saying I have a new car, I just don’t have the keys. Sat 4pm: D1 gives me a loaner car (Jetta with 94 miles on it) and takes my Jetta trade-in. I transfer all my stuff to the loaner car and say goodbye. Sun: Day passes with no call, but I was not concerned. Mon 12pm: I call D1 to say, I haven’t heard from you, do you have my car? Mon 2pm: I get a voice message from D1, something like “The car didn’t get to get the the dealership, we’re going to figure this out tomorrow. You know, they release so many cars the last couple days and we tried to locate where the trucker is, but we were not able to do that today. So by tomorrow… any questions, feel free to gimme a call” I’m starting to get the feeling “tomorrow” is not a firm date either Tuesday 9am: As a back-up plan I reach out to D2 to make sure he still has the car I want. D2 says sure, and I share my story so far. D2 is sympathetic and says that if I decide not to deal with D1 just let him know and he will take care of me. Tuesday 11am: I show up in person at D1 and say “Look, I really need the car today, or we will not be doing business”. D1 and D1.mgr both swear up and down that it will definitely be here today by 6 pm. Tuesday 5:50pm: I show up again, and the car is there, but by this time I have decided I am no longer wanting to do business with this dealer. I explain that I have decided not to accept the car. Many awkward conversations happen over next 60 min but finally they give up on me. Tuesday 7:30pm: They explain that they cannot give me my trade-in car back, since that sale is finalized and they have already started reconditioning the car. Instead they will cut me a check for the agreed trade-in amount. More papers are signed. They tell me to come back the next morning for my check. Total time: approx 78 hrs Now, here is the experience with the other dealer: ...

Update: It’s been another month since my previous post on this. I am still keeping very low carbs, eating foods that I like, and haven’t felt hungry.

TL;DR Powerpoint version: I have been on the LCHF plan for 4 weeks LCHF means “Low Carb High Fat” So far, lost 3 lbs. per week Haven’t felt hungry at all What is LCHF? LCHF is a version of the low-carb Atkins-like diet that is also being called the Scandinavian diet. Read more about it here or Google it. Rather than repeating what other web sites have said about it, let me just say what I like, and what drew me to it. ...

We have all heard of this “marketplace of ideas” but, where actually is it? Sure, it sounds funny when you put it like that, but I’m being quite serious here. I think there should be a website (or app, maybe) where people can express ideas, vote on the ideas they agree with, and rate how strongly they feel about them. Then, people could find other ideas, and rate them too, and explore the links, maybe even view ideas that seem to conflict with those they feel strongly about. Perhaps we could even draw connections and vote for the best related/supporting ideas. ...

I spent some time looking at ideas on the Contract for the American Dream site. There are a lot of good ideas there… and some others that are not so great. The site breaks down into four sections. It’s not immediately obvious once you get to the Rate Ideas page that you are in one of four lists… so if you start seeing similar ideas and not much that’s new or interesting, go back to the home page and choose a different section to read and rate. ...

This is interesting… this must be a new feature that was added some time recently and I didn’t or communities based on their tags. For example if you modify me you get the screen that would normally show “Add to groups” and “Select colors” and now it has a “Read entries by tags” section. This looks like it should work great for opting in/out of certain entries, and probably much cleaner than the old “Hey I made a filter for ______ entries that are {TMI, boring, only interesting to people in my xxx group, whatever}”. Now all you have to do is add the tag, which you may already be doing anyway. ...

Most of you already know that our cat Bunny had cancer for a year and a half or so. Today, we decided it was Time. His appetite has dropped off markedly this week and it seemed clear that he was going to soon get worse, and not better. I am thankful that we had a long time to pamper him and I am pretty sure he wasn’t suffering. But, it is still awful and we are still very sad.

Yahoo is looking to fill a bunch of positions right now, including front-end dev, back-end dev, and sysadmin/tools dev. These three descriptions are devs of various types. Feel free to pass along the descriptions. People can apply via careers.yahoo.com or send resumes to me (or other Yahoo folks if you already know one) – no reason not to do both. Search Front End We are hiring superstar client- and server-side engineers to join our team of JS ninjas and PHP gurus. If you have a passion for solving difficult problems and enjoy writing beautiful code that’s well documented and maintainable, you’re well on your way to joining our team. On the client side, we make extensive use of the YUI library and often contribute features to it. On the server side, our applications are built using Apache and PHP5. Work closely with user experience designers, product managers, and other engineers in a development environment that is highly collaborative. Build new features and enhancements for Yahoo! web search. These engineers are responsible for developing production-level code as well as proof-of-concepts and prototypes. ...

For those that play World of Warcraft (and some similar games) the idea of “realms” or “which server do you play on” is so much a part of the system, that we don’t often stop to question it. Choosing a realm is just part of the normal character creation/startup process, and we just sort of accept that we can only interact with other players that happened to choose the same realm. If we want to play with our RL friends, we have to make sure when we start up a new character that we choose the same realm as our friends, otherwise we can’t form a group with them or chat with them while playing. ...

I posted this in response to something someone said it and I wanted to save a copy for myself. It may or may not be interesting to folks following this journal (and I know you’re out there… both of you :). The original post was from someone who isn’t depressed, but finds it hard to care about things lately. I have often found that “atheism” rings a little bit hollow as a person-label. It’s not really a complete belief system, but more a rejection of one, without a tangible replacement. And yet, a lot of people calling themselves “atheists” have deep sense of purpose, and care deeply about things, and have a great joy in life. Perhaps “Humanism” might better describe what I actually believe: I believe that people are basically good, and that when given a choice, people do great and kind things for others. ...