Labyrinth Masquerade

Another fun weekeind is coming up. Looks like several people are heading up to the Labyrinth Masquerade party in Hollywood this July 8th. Denise and I have found an inexpensive hotel that is somewhat nearby... we will be cabing it. 🙂 Since I hate driving in LA, and Hollywood especially. We are staying at the Hollywood Celebrity Hotel and will be going to Labyrinth of Jareth The LoJ Fantasy Masquerade Ball is a singular night of enchantment created each year as a celebration of inspiration and fantasy. Lost within the borders of chaos and light, nobles dance within the Faerie Court where legends take precious breath and dreams are born. . . Then will be coming home for Rene's party.

Rosarito Beach Locations

If you have any recommendations on hotels to stay or visit in Rosarito Beach, Puerto Nuevo in Baja Mexico.  I personally recommend the Grand Baja Resort .

Shopping
Lobster Village
Fox Studios

http://www.lasrocas.com/resort/rooms.htm - Rooms go quick, book 30-60 days in advance (Jeff K stayed here) http://www.rosaritobeachhotel.com/resfrset.html
http://www.mexicotravelnet.com/rosarito/hotels/grandbajaresort.htm - 1 bedroom suite #A, first floor, ocean view with Patio - B's 2nd floor, no patio (130)
http://www.mexicotravelnet.com/rosarito/hotels/newport.htm http://www.mexicotravelnet.com/rosarito/hotels/lasrocas.htm

and if you are looking for car insurance when in baja mexico. Did you want to look at getting mexican car insurance from the web? I didn't know what to put in for the make/model of Kevins truck so I made something up to just try to get an idea about liability. http://www.bajabound.com/buy/start-process.php or http://www.automexicaninsurance.com/ 4 day Policy: $28.42 - $51.07

Motorola Q Hacking

I put a couple of these hacks into place, as well as downloaded the most recent update from Motorola.  I've found that the cache changes, and new ROM have definately speed up my Motorola Q, but battery life is still about 1 day... not the 1.5-2 days I had hoped, but that also might be an activesync config issue as well.

I use RegEditSTG -- which is a stand alone .EXE that I put on my Storage Card, so its available and portable. 🙂
http://wiki.everythingq.com/page/Motorola+Q+Hacks

Here is one of the good hacks... I haven't got it to play one of my .WAV files yet, but atleast it doesn't make a ton of noise now.

http://wiki.everythingq.com/page/Eliminate+the+Windows+Startup+Sound+hack

There is also a new Software Update for the Motorola Q.  Goto this site and Download it.

RSS Fwd allows updating of RSS feeds over email

As much as I have come to love RSS, I find that there are just some feeds that I don't check enough, or some that I just get to much information from. I just recently found a great way to keep up to date on the feeds that I don't check that often. To do that, I use a free service called RSSFwd which checks RSS feeds for you, and emails you with the content if there are updates.

Click to subscribe to my site via email. Each email has links to manage your subscriptions, and to unsubscribe.

20+ MPG

Today I got 339.2 miles on a single tank.  I know... that might not seem like that much for you Hybrid guys, but for me, it was a big improvement.  Over the last month I have been trying to alter my driving habits to yield better fuel economy.  I had listened to this show on NPR about this guy that was able to get 45 MPG out of a standard non-motified Civic, so I figure, if he could get a big improvement, maybe I could also.  I wasn't about to go to his extremes (turning off AC, coasting below the speedlimit, running red lights, turning corners at high speed (if he was at speed).  His key advice was, if your breaking, your wasting gas.

I've done a couple things that have helped.

1. Commute to work 30 minutes later and miss heavy rush hour.  This means less stop and go, and my job allows me this flexibility... whew.
2. Keep speed constant, 64-70 i can keep my car at about 1500-1900 RPM's and the car hums and gets really good gas mileage.  This helps for when I have to hit hills.
3. Keep some distance and look far down the road to see if traffic is slow... if so, coast as much as possible.
4. Don't gun it... as fun as it is in my car, I try to not put my foot into it, even up hills and behind idiots... I just relax and go with the flow.
5. Pretend the gas pedal is an egg, and only push lightly to accelerate.

So moral of story I went from about 17+ MPG to 20.24 MPG... which turns out to be about 45 extra miles on a tank which is 1.5 trips to work. 🙂 

We will see how long it lasts, but even if I don't always behave while driving, I should at least get some improvement on my around the town driving.