Aptera is taking pre-orders for their electric car

It gets 120 miles per charge.  It's twelve months out.  It holds two people, plus a baby (infant car seat).  It has satellite navigation, CD/DVD/MP3, and it plugs into a regular electrical outlet to recharge.

Or, you can purchase one that includes a gasoline engine which will take over for when the batteries are depleted.

The all electric version will run you approximately $27,000 with a $500 deposit today.  The hybrid gas/electric version will run you $30,000 approximately with the same $500 down.

Am I buying one?  Nope.  Would I buy one if I had a year to wait and $27,000 extra laying around?  Possibly.

It's very futuristic looking.  It doesn't have the sexiness factor that the Tesla Roadster has, but it also doesn't have a $100,000 price tag either.  It holds the same number of people, but I bet it doesn't go as fast.  It also doesn't go as far as the Roadster.  But it would be a great commuting car and it would definitely turn heads.

Do you have an extra $27,000 laying around?  Check it out.

 

Technorati Tags: Aptera, Tesla, Hybrids, Electric Vehicles

Fall baseball has arrived

The little league that three of my kids play in has started fall ball for the year.  The games run for about a month and a half.  All boys, apparently, or at least all baseball teams, no softball teams.

I went out tonight and shot some of the first game to put on the league's website....just fun.

My oldest daughter's traveling softball team has a tournament at the end of the month, so hopefully the reasonable weather will continue for a while....although we need snow when the time comes. :)

Here's a pic from tonight...

 

 

Technorati Tags: Pacific Little League, fall ball, baseball

If health care doesn't kill you, the costs will

I'm convinced that a lot of the problems that small businesses face with costs is due to health care costs.  I know that even if my side business ever takes off, there is no way I could quit my day job, because it pays my health care costs for my family.

Case in point - I had surgery last year for a hernia.  I was told that it was covered on my insurance, and I would end up paying about $250 out of the cost.  That's fine, it's a surgery I needed to have done (I looked like I was pregnant, not just fat).  Anyway, I had the surgery done.  Recently I got a bill for the surgery of $1,200.  That's my portion of the bill I have to pay.  Somehow.

Second instance - My wife had some dental work done.  The dentist told her she needed a crown done, so we had it done.  $300 or so.  After the crown had been done, the dentist decided that she needed a root canal in the same tooth.  But because they had already done a crown, we would have to pay $1,200 out of pocket in order to have the root canal done.  Or wait until January of next year to get it done.  Plus, most likely, we'll have to have the crown redone for another $1,000.

I pay a lot every month for health care, both health care, dental and vision.  But the extra costs over and above the costs of the insurance make it very very expensive to get sick or have anything done. 

Argh.

Technorati Tags: Health Care, Small Business

Money and the meaning of life

I was reading The Blog Maverick  today and came across Mr. Cuban's post on the above subject.  He mentions in the post, which you can read here that he is excited to get up every morning because of "what a wonderful family, friends and life I have. It's the exact same way I felt when I was broke. "

He goes on to say that money makes life easier, but money doesn't buy happiness.

It's a great post and I encourage you to read it. 

Everyone needs goals, I think, in life.  Setting goals allows people to achieve what they want to achieve, with some target in mind.  So today, I set goals for the future and write them down in my humble blog, read by two people (one being myself). :)

My goals for the end of the year:

• Finish off paying my debt that I have.  It's at about $5,000 right now.  I'm not sure how I will accomplish this (some of this is debt from surgery I had a while ago that just came back to haunt me in a very bad way).  But if I can pay off this $5,000 of debt by the end of the year, I'll be able to work on other goals.
• Get a city business license so I can start working on my spare time business.  I have a state business license, but haven't done anything with it because I haven't spent the money on the city business license.  I need to get that done.  Once the first goal is done, I can dedicate resources to this and get moving on this process.
• Work on my caffeine consumption, thereby getting my weight down and maybe stopping my snoring issues.

For the new year, my goals are simple:

• Once I have the business license, I can start advertising and hopefully generate more business and make some more money.  Not money for "stuff", per se, but to pay off the two final debts I have  (both cars) and to save for vacations and such.  Plus, if I can generate enough income from this side business, I can possibly go into doing it on more of a full time basis.  This would make me happy.  Stressful, because it means working for myself, but happy because it means that I'm in control of my own destiny.
• Take my kids on a decent week or two week vacation next year.  Hinged upon the advent of the above goals, monies obtained from the side business and the money I'm now paying on my debt would go towards a good vacation for my wife and kids and myself.  One where I can go and enjoy and not have to worry about "How much money are we spending" or "What has exploded at my office today that I need to deal with when I return to the hotel room?"

My goals are simple, at least to me.  I'm unsure at this point how we will achieve them, but I need to work on them.  Many people wonder whether or not I'm always crabby .  I'm not always crabby, I just seem like it.  It's not intentional.  I once told someone that my spiritual gift is "Worry".  But they told me that this wasn't a spiritual gift.  I worry, constantly.  "Am I doing a good job?"  "How are we going to do this?"  "How are we going to do that?"  "What if <this>?"  "What if <that>?"

I need to work on that as well.  Getting my goals worked on and accomplished will help me work on this whole "spiritual gift" thing I have going on and enjoy life more. 

Why would I like to do these things?  As Mark says "Because I can.".

So, here's to the rest of 2007.  God is in control and with His help, I'm sure somehow I can complete these goals.  Like Mark Cuban, I'm lucky.  Although I feel poor, I'm actually very rich with regards to my family, my friends and to a certain extent, my current career.

 

Watch out world.  Here we come....

Thanks Mark for the impetus to write this post.

 

Technorati Tags: Cuban, Goals, 2007

Very cool battery technology in the offing

From reading this article on CNN, a company called ESSTore has come up with a way to charge batteries fast and have them have long life.  This could prove very useful for electric cars. 

From the article, and I quote:

 

"An Austin-based startup called EEStor promised "technologies for replacement of electrochemical batteries," meaning a motorist could plug in a car for five minutes and drive 500 miles roundtrip between Dallas and Houston without gasoline."

Yippee!  I don't see this technology being available any time soon, but  a company called Zenn Motor Company in Canada is investing in this technology from ESStore and hopefully it will bring to fruition better battery life for longer lasting batteries for electric cars....

Here's to hoping. :)

 

Technorati Tags: Hybrids, ESStore, Zenn Motor Company

Obsessive Computer Games from my past

I don't play video games.  Never got into the Wii or the Nintendo or Playstation or even XBox.  I flirted with the idea of trying Halo, but knew that if I did, I'd waste a ton of my life.

When I was in high school, I played two video games on the computer.

 

Tetris and PacMan.  Yep.  Old school games.  I'm old.

 

Recently, I'm unsure how, I came across a game called Cultris .  It is Tetris on steroids.  It uses the same blocks, the same shapes, sizes, etc.  It's written in Java, apparently, and it's FAST and multi-player.  It's available for Windows and Linux. 

Google, on their new iGoogle homepage has PacMan, or a variation of it.  It's pretty good, and kind of addicting.

 

Check 'em out.

 

Technorati Tags: Cultris, Tetris, PacMan

Pavarotti has died

Luciano Pavarotti has died at age 71 of pancreatic cancer.  I just got a new update from CNN .

Am I an opera fan?  Nope.  But say the name Pavarotti and I think that 90% of the world free world would know who you are talking about.

Now that's brand recognition. 

Rest in peace tenor.  The angels have gained another great tenor.

 

Technorati Tags: Opera, Pavarotti

No onions today

Subway.  Gotta love Subway.  I go there maybe 3-5 times a week for lunch.  Consistently.  Nope, I'm not Jared. 

I went to Subway today (not my normal two Subways owned by the same guy), but to the Subway nearest my home.

I went in and order sandwiches, four of them on wheat.  Pretty simple order.

All went well until they went to put condiments on.  "We are out of onions."  What?!?!?  How can you be out of onions?  "Well, we aren't out of onions, necessarily, just no one bothered to chop them up today."

So for a day, at least, this Subway has not had onions.  Pretty much a staple for a Subway sandwich. 

Amazing.  They were also out of straws.  "But there will be more tomorrow".  Which really helped me today.

Additionally, and I thought this was humorous, they had hired a new female employee and she used the waiting room to change her shirt from the shirt she was wearing into a Subway issued shirt.....Amazing....

Cross this Subway off my list....

Technorati Tags: Subway, Jared