I'm Tired of LA!

I'm tired of Los Angeles! I'm burnt out on the traffic and the very expensive rents for crappy housing.
My rent is fairly low at $895 but that only gets me a very old one-bedroom duplex that has not been well maintained. To move to a larger, newer place with more modern amenities would cost $2000 per month or more plus several thousands for the "deposits".
The basic things like electrical supply and plumbing are very old and worn out. It can take a half hour to fill a bathtub because the water pipes are clogged up. I cannot run my computer and my wall A/C at the same time because the electrical service was installed by Thomas Edison himself! Only 30 amps of service for the whole place. It seems that every outlet in this four room unit is on the same breaker. One hot days, the breaker trips every half hour or so. I put a UPS on the computer so this constant breaker tripping would not kill it.
It's been very hot here as many know. This space is unusable without the A/C. And the A/C works poorly when it is running.
As for the traffic! When I have a full schedule day (I'm a Home Inspector) I'm out of the house for 13+ hours a day. About half of this time is spent driving or waiting. What a waste! If I get a scheduled inspection on the West side, (only 20 miles away) it can take me two hours to get home because of the traffic. I made one trip home from there and never got out of first gear till I got within about 3 miles from home.

I am seriously looking at moving out of this area to the Central Coast area of California. It's about 220 miles north of Burbank. I've spent several weekends up there and love the area. It's the San Louis Obispo county area of Paso Robles, Atascadero, Santa Maria area. There are also very nice beach area communities of Morro Bay and several others along the coast. After all the driving I've done down here (to get nowhere effectively) driving 20-30 miles up there only takes a half hour. Big difference! The rents are reasonable, vehicle insurance is about half, gas prices are similar. Now if I can only get my inspection business going up there, I'm set!

Till the next rant..............Dana

Comments about MS Office 2007 Beta

Hello My Friends;

I recently downloaded and installed the new Microsoft Office 2007 beta. So far, the experience has been great! I put it on both my Compaq desktop 2.4 Ghz running Windows XP SP-2 and my Motion LE-1600 slate tablet (same specs except that the tablet is only 1.5 Ghz). I added OneNote 2007 to the tablet as well. I was already running OneNote 2003 on the tablet. Great application, but more on that later.

I love to run the latest and greatest so I also use the new Windows Media Player 11 “Urge” and Internet Explorer 7. So far, no serious glitches or incompatibilities discovered.

I writing this Blog using the new blogging system in Word 2007. I works very well. Compose and publish right from within Word! What could be simpler?

I really love the new “ribbon” UI in the 2007 Office products. It is very intuitive. I’ve been a Office user for years. My current version (until now) has been Office Premium 2000. It has done yeoman duties for me for many years. Nothing the MS has offered up till now has tempted me to replace it. Enter Office 2007 with a complete re-work of the UI and a lot of new features. I think it’s time to upgrade. I will buy this one when the trial expires in February, 2007.

The setup on the UI is very intuitive as I said. Being an Office user for a long time, there was almost no confusion. Everything is setup in tabs across the top of the screen. Activate the tab and the “ribbon” interface switches to a large menu ribbon along the top that is specific to that particular task. All the things you can do with a Word document are displayed and easily accessed. None of the options that do not apply are shown. Same for each application in the suite. Very Cool! This makes working with any application very easy. I read in another story, linked from Digg.com, about how MS spent a lot of time working out the UI to be immediately useable with little or no training. I think they succeeded for the most part. At least I have had no transition issues. In fact, I love it. Every day, I find a new “wow” item or feature. Just ask my wife. I’ll be playing around on the computer and utter another “wow” comment. She’ll say “What now?” It’s become somewhat of a joke around my household.

Have a Good Day

Dana

Joys of the Open Road

One of the nice things about living in Southern California is it’s proximity to a ton of great riding areas. Pacific Coast Highway, Angeles Crest Highway , the many, many canyons in the Santa Clarita Valley, out through Mojave to Highway 395 north and on up though Mammoth to the back side of Yosemite and Tioga Pass. The list is endless and varied.

The last trip I took was up the 101 Highway to the Central Coast area of San Luis Obispo, Atascadero and Paso Robles. It was about 225 miles north of Los Angeles, one way. I have long loved this area for it’s unmatched beauty and un-crowded back roads. It reminds me of the area where I grew up in the Southern Santa Clara Valley, before it went “urban”. When I was there, up until 1964 or so, it was still un-crowded and rural. Now it’s a bedroom community to Silicon Valley, full of miles and miles of rooftops of the urban sprawl. There are still some pockets of “ruralness” here and there but not like it was. But then, what is now days?

Back in the day, I rode a collection of beater motorcycles, often as my only mode of transportation. I covered about every inch of the back roads of the south county area . All the foothills had rural back roads leading to nowhere. But, often that was the point! For a true motorcycle rider, it’s about the ride, not the destination. I remember a trip a couple of years ago up to Grass Valley, CA via Highway 49 along the western foothills of the Sierras and then back down 395 to La La land. All the way down 395, I kept seeing these little two lane roads disappearing up into the foothills to the west of the highway. It was all I could do to not turn up those roads just to see what the ride would be like. It’s a wonder I ever made it back home.

It’s summer time here in L A now. Riding in this very hot weather is no joy. It’s time to “get out of Dodge” once again. I’ve discovered a fantastic website called www.pashnit.com who’s author is even more of a touring junky then I am. He has put together a wonderful site that details literally hundreds of rides and routes throughout California. Check out this site, you won’t be disappointed if you are a rider. He has now started leading guided tours through some of the most beautiful areas of the state. I may just have to sign up for one.

After all the many and varied “beater” bikes I have owned, I have finally risen to the top of the food chain. I ride a world class touring bike called a Honda Goldwing . This machine is the epitome of comfort and luxury. It’s got everything but doors. I’ve mounted satellite radio, GPS navigation via a PocketPC and a helmet system with it’s own speakers and intercom. This baby is design for just the type of trip I like. Luckily, my new (est) wife loves to ride as well. It’s a good thing or she might not see much of me on my days off! I may have to add trailer towing capability to the “Wing” to handle the extras that need to come along when she travels with me. She only has two feet, why so many shoes?

Here’s a couple of links to touring groups I belong to: http://www.gwrra.org/
http://www.gwta.org/ If any of you are in the southern California area and want to talk bikes, touring or riding in general or get together for a ride, drop me a line at d.bostick(at)Gmail.com. I would love to hear from you.

 

 

Opening Shots!

Here we go! Just had the idea to post a few thoughts from the viewpoint of a "late blooming" Baby Boomer Geek.

I have always been a SiFi fan and interested in technology. I began reading SiFi novels by the old masters like Heinlein, Pohl, Hubbard etc. in my early teens or before. Not only was it "escapist" but predictive. I couldn't wait for the things these visionaries spoke of in their writings. I've been delighted with the progress and frustrated with the poor implementation or lack of developement of others.

I've been "riding two horses" for most of my working life. While I WAS a Geek at heart, I couldn't seem to make it pay. I tried several times. My fallback was my not unsubstantial talents with my hands. I've been in the construction trades for over 30 years and am still a general Contractor in California where I live. I've been a factory trained auto mechanic for 12 years, a chicken farmer, telemarketer, business owner, ex-Navy & Viet Nam Vet and motorcycle rider. I currently own my own Property Inspection business. This is only a "short list", I've been around the track more than one time to say the least.

Where am I today? Older, somewhat wiser and no richer, sad to say. Not to say I didn't enjoy the trip. I very much did and am still enjoying it.
Having been self employed for most of the time and easily bored, I never generated any sort of retirement plan. Now at 61, I face the prospect of working many more years trying to put something in place. No regrets, just deal with it.

Having said all that, I will return to my first love. Beeing a Geek! Conveniently, Geeks are "cool" now days.