Author: Paul | Page 24 | Shiny Bits of Life

May 19, 2015May 9, 2015

Shift it yourself

manual shifting jaguar roadster A shift has been under way for years in automotive culture – the move from manual transmissions to automatics.

At the Denver Auto Show, Jaguar was so proud of offering a car with a manual transmission that they plastered that fact on the door.

I made the shift myself about five years ago. I used to love manual transmissions. The old story was that you could squeeze more performance and fuel economy out of your vehicle with a manual transmission. Now it’s the opposite for many newer vehicles.

And there’s the drawback of the pain of shifting in stop-and-go traffic. My last two years in Nairobi, Kenya taught me that it’s no fun to keep shifting over and over in heavy traffic. I almost vowed to never get a manual transmission again.

Then again, if someone offered me a new Mazda Miata with a manual for free, I would not turn them down.

Tip: One way to save fuel with an automatic transmission is to pop it into neutral while going down a mild hill. (Use this tip at your own risk. Results may vary. Some users have been known to have increased blood pressure.)

May 12, 2015May 9, 2015

What kind of light are you letting into your life?

tiles The tiles in our bathroom change in color and shadow depth during the course of every day. In the same way, my mood changes, depending on what is happening outside of me.

My mood sometimes changes due to inside forces. I let my response to events drag me down. Other times, I am in a strong place and am almost immune to difficult situations.

But inside is affected by outside. The voices I allow myself to hear affect the way I deal with life. If I’m always listening to negativity, I will tend to be negative. Positivity leads to being positive.

But false messages of either type never have a good effect. Truth is always the best thing, even if it hurts. (However, we do not always need to tell everyone everything.)

Who are you listening to today?

May 2, 2015May 18, 2015

Apple Watch review

Apple Watch on my wrist No, I don’t have one.

Yes, that’s my wrist that the Watch is sitting on.

So this is not a super-deep review, since I do not own one. But I will give you some first impressions, having spent about 90 minutes in an introductory workshop at my local Apple Store, playing with one and trying several on.

Here are my initial thoughts:

They’re nice. The feel and workmanship is as you might expect: top-notch. The vibrations that tell you things are not annoying. If you had your settings at a level where you were getting taps more than once an hour, you might start to go crazy. The interface is very well thought out.
Costs: The $349* price of entry (Sport model) definitely makes it a luxury item. And then your style choices are limited to the color of your watch (silver or black) and the color of your Sport band. If you want more choices, you have to spend $549 for the Watch (middle) model that lets you have a lot more band choices.
Pretense: They can be less visible than the old Apple white headphones that told everyone you had an iPhone or an iPod. If you know what they look like, you can start to think about who has them and imagine their budgets. (I was amazed at the mom with her two teenagers who were part of my workshop. The kids already both had Watches. When I asked why he got one, the boy said, “I just wanted one.”)
Bands: The Milanese Loop was amazing for its simplicity and ease of use (add $100). The leather bands (add $100 or $200) seemed like step backwards from the synthetic sport band. The Link Bracelet (add $400) was incredible. You can size it without going to a jeweler. Having said all that, the only style I’d consider would be the Sport band (black case with black band, probably). The others are just a little too glitzy for me.
Sizes: My wrists are tiny. The only one that would work for me would be the 38mm. The 42mm does have a little more breathing room for viewing the screen, but it costs $50 more. (Casey Neistat described them as “girl size” and “boy size.” I disagree.)
Apps: Fitness seems to be the big one. If you aren’t interested in tracking your fitness, notifications for email and texts would be a big use, though habitually looking at your wrist might be just as annoying to others as habitually looking at your phone. (A whole new level of, “I’m not paying attention to you,” might start becoming widespread.) Phone calls seem to be so limited, due to issues like low audio volume, that I can’t imagine many people doing calls more than a few seconds through their Watch. Maps are limited but could be useful after you get used to the tiny interface. Music means pretty much a remote-control for your iTunes or Pandora. Photos: The maximum size for a photo is so small that I wouldn’t be spending much time with that one. And any library of more than about 100 photos probably means a hard time ever finding the photo you want to show someone. Oh yeah, and there’s the watch part. It’s super-easy to change its time-telling face between a variety of cool time-keepers… and then modify each one.
Tethering to your iPhone: A lot of people have hugely complained about this aspect. I don’t see it as any big deal, since my iPhone is always in my pocket, unless I’m at my desk or puttering around the house. And I like the idea of being away from messages, so I’d feel free to leave my iPhone at home. You can listen to a limited music library (with bluetooth headphones) while you run or bike ride without an iPhone nearby.
The Edition: Paying $10,000+ is just absurd. It’s for people that zeros do not matter. And for Denver residents, you’ll have to travel to Las Vegas to try one on.

Bottom line: Game-changer… 1) I think there are vast possibilities for how this will transform the way people relate to technology. 2) Today’s Groupon email had fitness wristbands – and a series of Breitling luxury watches – for far less than half price. The luxury watch and fitness band markets are changed forever. 3) Health professionals are just beginning to imagine new worlds that will open up for monitoring and then responding to health spheres.

None is on-order for me …. yet. I’m still trying to figure out how to justify the (not insignificant-to-me) expense.

* Apologies to my friends outside of the USA. You’ll need to go to your nearest Apple Store website to check pricing for your area.

For more info, visit Apple Watch on the web.

April 14, 2015April 12, 2015

Pickups, Cuba and freedom

Paul driving a big pickup As I was driving a big pickup, I reflected on freedom. In America, we have the freedom to buy as large a vehicle as our budgets (or willingness to take on credit) will allow.

Very few people in Europe drive large vehicles, due to fuel costs, the narrowness of roads and the difficulty of parking something so long. But it goes deeper than that. Many Europeans would consider owning such a vehicle wasteful.

Fuel costs are high in Europe because governments (elected by people, in most cases) have added substantial taxes to push people to smaller vehicles. It works.

Wired recently had an article about the least free country on this planet, North Korea. Citizens there have no choice about which car to drive – nor do they have enough funds to buy any vehicle. The article explores the ideas of how former North Koreans (now living in South Korea) are smuggling in western TV and movies to create a sense of discontent in viewers’ minds. There’s no real evidence that it’s working, though change could take time. China has had a major shift in the direction of freedom during the last 20 years. Cuba is opening up. Who knows what will happen.

With freedom comes wonderful experiences – and also garbage. The smuggled USB drives have shows that introduces viewers to the best and worst aspects of western culture. The change agents feel like the worst shows might shock viewers into some kind of awakening. As an American, I am ashamed about some of the ideas my country spreads to the rest of the planet. But getting small glimpses of freedom may spark a revolution.

Footnote: Those of you who know me understand I would never buy a big pickup. I test drove one as a part of a promotion at the Denver Auto Show. Interestingly, the new Ford F-150 with the smallest engine will have a greater impact on America’s fuel consumption than all the electric Chevrolet Volts combined, due to sales volume.

April 7, 2015March 29, 2015

Thoughtless

A few weeks back, my car was in the shop for some body work. (An unfortunate accident had occurred that meant some repairs were due.)

I took advantage of my insurance company’s connection with Enterprise Rentals to get a quirky car to drive during the repairs – the Fiat 500L.

Overall, I enjoyed the car’s quirkiness. (It had a few quality issues, but that’s another story.)

fiat 500l drivers manual The manual was completely worthless – a CD. When inserted into the car’s CD drive, it would not do anything except display an error message. The only way to view the contents was to bring it home and put it into a computer with a CD slot. Then a program had to be installed to make it run!

What happens when a driver is 50 miles from nowhere and has a flat tire? The compressor in the back (no spare tire) had no instructions.

Fiat – please do a little more thinking next time!

March 31, 2015March 31, 2015

Creativity vs. Practicality

cabin-camper Fort Collins is full of creative people. I’d bet that your town is too.

My son Jay took this photo on one of the residential side streets of Fort Collins. I’m guessing that the owner of this Toyota uses his (or her) cabin-camper as daily transportation. Obviously, it’s not as practical as a boring sedan for daily use. But it has a huge amount of character. The artist who made this dwelling/vehicle chose to favor creativity instead of practicality.

That’s what art is all about. The beautiful painting that graces your wall is not practical. But it is, in a way – beauty feeds the soul. A healthy soul makes for a better functioning life. And that’s practical.

March 24, 2015March 14, 2015

Apple Watch and intended sales

Back of iPhone showing apple logo I wonder how many people will walk into an Apple Store after April 24th and then find out that they need an iPhone for their desired new timepiece to function.

Yes, Apple will be selling a fair number of iPhones to Android people who must have the latest toy.

This is very clever on their part. Apple’s share of the smartphone market has been slipping a little over the last few years. This strategy will maybe change that trend.

It’s the only product I know that has the same internal mechanism but varies in price from $349 to $17,000 – depending on the shell. (My UK friends who are so inclined will pay between £299 and £13,500.) What a price to pay for appearances!

I have to admit that if it weren’t for a number of un-planned-for recent necessary expenditures, I would be very tempted to buy the base model, even though I don’t wear watches. (If I could afford it, I would start wearing an Apple Watch.)

March 10, 2015March 9, 2015

Review: Better by Nature Coffee

Better by Nature coffee If you like smooth, non-bitter coffee, I have found your java nirvana. Better by Nature produces coffee through a unique process that results in a very smooth cup of coffee.

In non-scientific terms, the process uses mushrooms to remove the bitter agents and impurities, while leaving behind what coffee-lovers thrive on – great taste.

The variety I tried was created from Costa Rican beans. I am not a wine-snobbery-terminology kind of person, so I can’t describe the floral notes with undertones of oak. Suffice it to say that if normal coffee is too bitter for you unless you load it down with lots of milk and sugar, check this one out.

If you are interested in giving it a try, visit the Better by Nature website.

Disclosure: I was given this coffee as a free trial. I am thankful.

March 3, 2015February 25, 2015

Sad to see them go

dead-sign Another local business died. After 31 years, Arapahoe Cyclery closed their doors. Mike and Greg were amazing mechanics, nice guys, and a pleasure to do business with.

What’s sad is that I didn’t get the opportunity to say goodbye. Since we’re in the depths of snowy weather, I hadn’t been through their doors in a few months. I’m hoping I’ll run into one of them at some point, so I can share my pain at the loss.

Rather than go into a long rant about why it’s good to give business to your local independent shops, I’ll just ask you to try to do that when you can.

By the way, the sign is from the same plaza the bike shop was in. It was for an auto parts store that closed down within the last year. My hopes aren’t too high for the new fitness center that recently opened.