EvolutionFTW

Laney Dancing

2008-05-11T16:35:00.002-06:00

Just a little video I found on my phone that I forgot about...

Mandy's Theatrical Endevours

2008-03-31T09:31:00.005-06:00

Recently I found out that Mandy was quite the thesbian in her youth. I didn't feel right not sharing this with the world. For your viewing pleasure:

I'm not sure what production this was, but I like the attire.

This looks like her debut solo feature.

Now I know why Kramer was afraid of the clowns at the circus.

Her biggest role ever: The Magic Carpet.

Discount Tire For The Win

2007-12-08T19:15:00.001-07:00

So, if you've ever read my blog, you will know that I am disgusted with the current trends in customer service. I have to say that just about anyone that has shopped or gone out to eat or taken a taxi (don't get me started on those thieves) knows that customer service is dead for almost every industry ... except the tire industry.

I'm not sure why, but I always end up having the best service ever when I buy tires. Tires, of all things. Not when I bought my car (car salesmen are liars AND thieves) and spent almost $30k, not when I bought my house, not when I bought a large TV, it is when I buy tires, and I just don't get it.

Or perhaps every other industry doesn't get it, and should pick up some cues from these guys. I buy all my tires at Discount Tire (America's Tire in CA). I have never been mistreated, never been ripped off, in fact, I'm often able to swing a better deal just by talking to the guy. They also match prices and fix my flats for free.

If you have a problem with a tire, regardless if it is your fault for driving 10 miles on it after it had gone flat (I may or may not have been in this situation) they will work with you to get it fixed. They will pro-rate a tire based on its remaining usable life and will not charge you full price on the new one. At least in my experience.

Return customers is their main focus, and rightfully so. Customer retention is the best business model, and since they are selling a wear item, it makes good sense. All other businesses take note, Discount Tire has it figured out.

Racing and Videos

2007-12-07T09:11:00.000-07:00

So, this last weekend I helped participate in the 25 Hours of Thunderhill in which you race a single car for 25 hours straight. The team with the most laps wins. We finished 5th overall (were only 2 laps out of 3rd) and won our class. There was a total of about 75 entrants. I played crew chief for the Competition Associates car driven by car owner Keith Rossberg, Lara Tallman, car engineer Vesko Kozarov and Dan McKeever.

The second car on our team finished only 3 laps behind us, 6th overall and 2nd in our class. It was a lot of work, but it paid off with minimal down time, decent pit strategy and excellent driving.

More here.

Also, thought I'd post up a link to my YouTube videos, just in case someone would like to enjoy some automotive shinanigans.

My YouTube Vids

One of this year's on track shinanigans. I lose it in six and my friend is behind me to catch all the action.

The Girls

2007-10-19T09:11:00.000-06:00

This shot confirms that Allie is actually my daughter. No need for a paternity test now. Even though she sounds like a purring cat whilst asleep, we still love her and suppose we'll keep her around. I'm sure she'll grow up to do some major dominating.

This one on the other hand is already doing some major dominating. Mostly of Allie and some of Garrett (who is still scared to be left alone with her...). She likes to say All-ie, although the Al is more of a high pitched scream and the -ie is just kind of the remnants of the same scream. She is a good big sister and wants to hold Allie all the time. Unfortunately, she also wants to give her vision examinations in the way of a finger poke directly to the eyes (the same thing she does to her parents if she thinks we're asleep).

She wants to know where Allie is at all times. If Allie is in our bedroom, Laney needs to be in there too. If Allie starts to cry, Laney is there with her arms outstreched ready to hold and comfort her (an eye-poke seems to do the trick).

You heard it here first - Babensteins Part 2 ESTA AQUI!

2007-10-02T14:37:00.000-06:00

So, today at 13:52 mountain time Allie Jane has emerged from her plush home named Amanda. Both are well and are excited to be living a non-parasite-host relationship from now on. Pictures below.

Actual weight. Contents may vary.

Sorta cleaned up, ready to dominate.

The obligatory mom and baby shot.

Our Trip to Disneyland...and POOP!

2007-04-24T18:11:00.000-06:00

So we took Laney for her first trip to Disneyland. I doubt she knew where she was, or even that she had left the state. My parents wanted us to all go down to southern California to see each other, and since we had missed the bi-yearly Christmas trip, we thought this would be a great time to catch up. My immediate family was there, the half-sister and brother, and my Uncle. It was good to see them all.

Here is where I would go off on Disneyland for being crowded, overpriced and generally as bad as McDonalds or Hitler. But something much more exciting happened on this trip.

We had just returned from the happiest place on earth, I was relaxing from hours of walking around trying not to bump into people (most having strollers and on a search and destroy mission), lying on our bed at the hotel. Mandy had just run a bath for Laney and I could tell by all the splashing that Laney was now inserted into it. The next thing I know, I am half asleep when I hear Mandy yelling. I got up and ran over to the bathroom to see this:

A picture is worth a thousand words, but this one only needs one: POOP!

Two good things happen in the land of Disney: Churros and POOP.

Customer Service is Dead.

2007-03-22T19:43:00.000-06:00

Now this is a pretty girl, and she looks plenty happy to satisfy a customer, perhaps take a credit card application over the phone or place an order for a nice set of discontinued flatware. I'm not sure where she works, but wherever it is, it is not on planet Earth.

I mentioned in a previous post that I was taking a trip to Florida and I have to say that for the most part, it was quite enjoyable. I met some new friends, I learned some new skills, I was able to be a part of a team and work together with others towards a common goal. It was a welcomed change from my everyday phone call and real estate infested life. Don't get me wrong, I love my life, but its nice to take a break and live another one for a week.

I realized, that not only was customer service dying off (or dead already) in Utah, it is also horrible in other parts of the country. Although Sebring itself supplied surprisingly decent service, Tampa, to and from were a completely different story. I will cite three occasions. One cab ride, one meal, and a flight.

The cab ride was from our hotel to what reminded me of mardi gras in downtown Tampa. We were in search of some dinner, but instead stumbled across the Girls Gone Wild bus. Don't worry, we steered clear of that dark alley. We were originally hoping for a ride from the complimentary shuttle provided by our hotel, but when he showed up, we got in, and he literally kicked us out saying he had to go pick someone else up (they showed up via taxi about 10 minutes later). We took their cab to our destination (about 3 miles away). We ended up on a fifteen minute tour of the backside of downtown due to a "closed road" that wasn't really closed. The return trip cost us half as much and took about five minutes. What a ratbag. He will burn. We affectionately refer to him as "Fumar" (don't ask).

The meal was at the on site restaurant at the Riverwalk Sheraton. We stood at the concierge's podium for ten minutes waiting to be seated. Our food was wrong, but received no apology, only dirty looks and sarcastic tones when we disclosed this to our server. The plate with the missing bacon was tossed on the table, as hard as you would dare without breaking it. Whoever you were, you horrible server, shame on you and your entire establishment.

On the trip home we had a connecting flight in Phoenix, with a one hour layover that turned into five. The plane was on time, don't you worry, but the crew was not, or so we were told. This was during the big storms in NY and America West (along with many other airlines) had to cancel a lot of flights. I can understand that. They boarded us around 8pm (we were supposed to leave at 6pm). We sat on the plane for around two hours when they announced that the crew that was supposed to be there had gone home. Right. Well, I don't understand. About thirty minutes later, some crew came on board, and as the flight attendant passed our row, I asked, "Are we leaving now?" She laughed and said, "I hope we're leaving soon." This was not in a joking voice, but more of a scoffing one. This upset me, and I told her that she didn't answer my question. She started to get mad at me before someone asked her for something. I'm surprised we weren't thrown off that flight to be honest. She was rude the entire flight. We did not get drinks. Shame on America West and shame on you flight attendant.

Is this the current state of American business? I run an e-commerce website, and I do not provide phone support. Should I? I do provide very courteous email support, and have only gone off on about four customers in six years. I'd call that decent service.

So the mighty dollar prevails, and we hand it over for little or no customer satisfaction. Perhaps my experiences are the exception, but it happens so often, I can't help but think that everyone just hates everyone else. Well, I'm not going to stand for it anymore. I will, from now on, make a ruckus whenever I am getting sub-standard service, and I advise all to do the same.

Freedom Flying

2007-03-12T09:15:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow I am going to Florida. The only real option I have for transportation to this destination is flying (I mean, what sane person drives that far?). This isn't really a problem for me as I generally enjoy air travel, and am a fan of planes and flight. That was before I was not allowed to bring toothpaste.

The TSA (Transportation Security Administration - a post September 11th creation) determined that it is unsafe to have passengers carry on items such as toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner and deodorant. All at a time when we're trying to teach our junior high students to improve their personal hygiene, the federal government is prohibiting it. Incredible.

So instead of enjoying air travel, those of us who used to anyway, are forced to endure a flight full of B.O. and bad breath. We are also forced to have two sets of toiletries, one for air travel and one for home use. If you ask me, the TSA teamed up with Wal*Mart to sell more conditioner, which we will all now buy (but only in 3 oz quantities) so we don't have to check our bags. Have you seen the lines to check bags? It would be faster to drive to Florida than to check my bag.

The good news is that not everything is banned. There are several very useful items that are allowed as carry ons. Here is a partial list taken from here:

...bone marrow, blood products, and transplant organs;
...prosthetic breasts... (THANK YOU!)

"You are not limited in the amount or volume of these above items you may bring ... However, if these items are ... larger than three ounces, please perform the following:

Declare you have the items to one of our Security Officers at the security checkpoint.
Present these items for additional inspection once reaching the X-ray. These items are subject to additional screening."

I'll bet they are. We also have to remove our shoes to go through security. Its like those guys that walk on the hot coals, but instead of hot coals, we have athelete's foot and fungal infested carpet. I have to work myself into a mental state like those karate guys before they punch through the cinder blocks.

So, if the terrorists' goal was to inconvenience our lives and make us spend copius amounts of money to prevent a future "attack," they have won. We hire overweight and under qualified people, who would otherwise be working at the terminal 1 McDonalds, to be in charge of regulating how much shampoo and C4 I can carry on.

Thank you TSA, and God bless America.

My Trip to Los Angeles

2007-02-19T09:18:00.000-07:00

About a week ago, I went to southern California to visit my uncle and take care of a little business (TCB). For those of you who do not know my uncle, he is the best. His name is Roland and I share my first name with his middle, both named after my Grandfather (he is on the left of my dad in both pictures).

My Uncle Ron (what we call him) was born in 1943 into the same house in which he currently resides. He was in Army in the early 60's then back home to cause malay and general shenanigans with my father (one year his elder). They spent most of their time shooting guns, off-roading and chasing women. Oh, and I cannot forget cycling, my uncle could out ride almost anyone half his age at any distance (more on that later).

The brothers' tom foolery went on until 1976 when my parents married. At some time between being honorably discharged from Army and my dad leaving him for my mother, he took up employment with the Deseret Industries (yes, they exist outside of Utah). At the DI in Los Angeles they have a fleet of trucks that pick up donations from people that call in (most notable was when he picked up from Lou Ferrigno).

For thirty-five years he drove absolutely every freeway, highway, main street, residential street, side street and alley way in the greater Los Angeles area. He did so, for all thirty-five years, accident free. Not a one. When he retired about three years ago, he received a letter from the the First Presidency of the LDS church congratulating him on not only thirty-five years of service, but thirty-five years of accident free service. That's more than I can say about my mere twelve years of total driving.

While we were driving around together on my trip, he would spell out our entire route before we got to the end of his street. He can tell anyone how to get anywhere in southern California, how many traffic lights you would go through between turns, the names of the streets at those lights, estimated time of arrival as well as how traffic would be at any given time of day. If you have ever been to that area you will realize how incredible that is.

Since retiring my Uncle Ron has made a new daily schedule for himself. From ten am until two pm, the bike ride. He rides forty to sixty miles a day. Everyday. He put more miles on his bike last year than his van (over twelve thousand). The van is a whole other story in itself, but suffice it to say that it is very distinct and is as much a part of him as his goofy laugh.

He never married, and lived in the same house his entire life. He has never made any substantial amounts of money. He has never had a glamorous job, or been part of a fortune 500 company. And yet, he is one of the happiest and most content people I know. I love my Uncle Ron.

A shut-in at age 28

2007-01-24T21:24:00.000-07:00

So I was laying on the couch with Mandy watching American Idol (tryouts are the only good part of that show) and started thinking... I didn't leave the house today!

I got up, played with Laney, fed her, put her to bed, did some reading, had a bowl of cereal, played with some toys, did some work, had people over to dinner, which brings me back to the couch and American Idol. None of those activities took place out of doors. I really had no problem with this until I started thinking, am I going to end up sitting around, eating chips and ice cream, playing world of warcraft until my 600 pound meat bag has to be forklifted out to get to my gastric bypass surgery? Do I need to call Meals on Wheels?

I'm over it though. I've never really had a problem with kicking it indoors. I actually prefer it to being outside (at least the camping, hiking, sleeping on the ground kind of outside). Just feels a little weird thats all. Welp, on to tomorrow, and hopefully I'll find myself under the sun for at least a small part of my waking 18 hours.

Evolution Dyno Tested!

2007-01-22T19:46:00.000-07:00

So today I went over to my friend's shop (who happens to have a dyno) to tune my Evolution and see what kind of power it would make. He owns and operates Munoa Performance here in Orem, UT.

To give a little background, I put it on the dyno shortly after purchasing it and it started out with 254 all wheel horsepower, and, after some ECU tuning made 274 awhp. Since then I have added an exhaust (not of the fart can variety found on most Civics and WRX's), and few motor goodies and some good old fashioned elbow grease.

We started the festivities with 298 hp, peaked at 328, and settled in safely at 325 awhp. The car feels good and pulls hard, almost to the point where it feels as though the front wheels are getting not quite loose. It is important to remember that these numbers are TO THE GROUND. Not at the engine's crankshaft as all manufacturers rate their cars. With an estimated drive train loss of about 26% that brings crankshaft horsepower up to around 410. You can compare that with numbers in Car and Driver, or Motor Trend. Anyway, it was fun.

Blog work FTW!

2007-01-21T22:31:00.000-07:00

So I spent a few hours working on the look and feel of my blog today. I just felt like if I am going to take some ownership and be posting a little more often, I should at least make it mine.

It took a while to figure out how to do what I wanted to, but I finally succeeded in getting a background image that is easily changeable with some translucent white over top of it to make the text readable. Hopefully it isn't too annoying.

Transparency with CSS can be found here: http://www.mandarindesign.com/opacity.html
General CSS Reference here: http://www.htmlhelp.com/reference/css/
Official CSS Reference here: http://www.w3schools.com/css/default.asp

The smell of change

2007-01-21T22:09:00.000-07:00

Well, tomorrow will herald in a change in my life. One that is a big deal to me, but may not be a big deal to anyone else. I took up the hobby of road racing in 2005 and it has consumed most of my free time for the last 2+ years.

I started out in a humble '90 Acura Integra that I bought with a blown motor for about $900. Of course that was only the beginning of the money pit that would consume my disposable income for the next two years. It went from being a normal car, to just short of being a full race prepped car in that time. It was a fun ride and I loved that car. Things are about to change.

Last September I bought a new car, one that came from the factory with a little more power and all wheels driven as opposed to just the fronts on the Integra. Its a sexy beast with an appetite for domination. Tomorrow is the day when I will let go of my former race car, and commit to the new.

The new (a 2006 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX RS - yes a lot of names) is all kinds of fun to drive and gets a little more street credit due to its initial power and performance numbers. This is the kind of car that gets "thumbs ups," and people staring - at least people in the know. Of course it also attracts less desireable attention, the boy racer in his WRX that knows he has the fastest turbo car because of his boost controller and neon glow lights underneath. But its all fun and games.

Tomorrow I will make the final preparations to make the Integra ready for sale, and it is a sad day. There is little else I have put the work and man-hours into during my life. My wife would agree, and is probably less saddened by its passing. So this is the tribute and farewell to my former race car.

The second post ever, but not on the worst blog ever

2007-01-20T10:59:00.000-07:00

Welp, I decided to change my blog name. So now its EvolutionFTW. For those of you that do not know what FTW means, Google is your friend.

I'm not the most active poster, but now my wife and her sister are into it, so perhaps I will be more like my daughter pooping her pants, more and frequent.

I'd like to spend a moment talking about all the thieves out there. I'm not talking stick a gun in your face and take your wallet, more like smooth talking, promise making, money taking with your consent kind of thieves. They are more common then I had ever realized.

So far I have dealt with two or three, but I have never lost money with them, so far. Not always due to my own research. So, anyway, now I look for them, and still try to trust people, its a delicate balance. The industry I'm in tends to attract them.

The first blog ever on the worst blog ever

2006-11-23T09:19:00.000-07:00

Hi. I feel the title is pretty self-explanitory. So I just thought I would perhaps blog a bit, rant a bit, and hopefully entertain a bit. Not sure if blogs are supposed to be for you, me, or the little person that used to live in our house in college (Hi Noel!), mostly because I've never read one. The only one I've even heard of is Bob Lawbla's Law Blog, and I think that may have been made up (Arrested Development FTW!).

The only thing more painful than the holidays themselves is celebrating them in a trip down the local main street (or in this case New York's main street), in costumes, makeshift cars that look more like a flower garden than transportation, singing and dancing and even (and I have never seen this before today) your favorite scenes from all your favorite musicals. I don't understand, nor will I ever (hopefully) why parades are interesting, entertaining, or at the very least why people think that their kids will like them. Probably the absolute biggest waste of time on the face of the planet. Parades FTL.