Kzinti's Kouch

Ideas gone wild...

nobody@vox.com(Kzinti) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:25:25 -0700

I was sitting down with my Excel sheet tonight looking at how I was going to try and extricate myself from the voracious appetite that are my bills. Having done some massive calculations, my brain absolutely is throbbing, but a way out might be possible. I've often talked about stupid things I've done, not in a bragging rights sort of way, but in an "Oh My God! Don't Do That!!!" kind of way. By far one of the biggest of the boneheaded things I've done has to do with motorhomes. You've heard me lament about the dude in Texas who owes me, lemme see now... Over $11,000 for the motorhome I sold him on contract. Yup, that's right, I'm boned big time. So let me tell you the story behind what started this whole sordid mess.

Back when the Missus and I met, she had a small RV that was old, but still cool to take out for the weekend trips to the cornfields near my hometown. Not too many years after we met, the RV and us parted ways. Of course, it was replaced by a shiny new conversion van, so all was fairly well. Fast forward to a few years ago, when the RV'ing bug bit real hard. It started by me driving past the local Credit Union and seeing one parked in the back lot for sale. I inquired within and even took a tour of the unit. I was solidly hooked. Only, the one at the Credit Union was well worn, having been someone's permanent residence for the last few years. So, we opted to go see what the market had to offer.

From all the research, customer satisfaction, cost of ownership, design, etc..., we chose to go with Tiffin Motorhomes, made in Red Bay, Alabama. Just so happened, there was a new dealer right here in Kansas City. Our trip there was quite memorable. While the wife was looking at the smaller Class C motorhomes, the cost of those versus the Class A ones was very close. Only difference is the Class A ones are built on a heavy duty truck chassis, not a van or pickup type chassis. In other words, they last longer, but are a bit more expensive. They were having an end of year inventory clearance, being September and near the end of the RV season.

I don't think I even test drove the unit, as a matter of fact, I think Middle Daughter did, but the inside. Oh my...

Tiffin32BA

32 foot long, lots of space, lots of comfort. It has an oven, three burner stove, dual overhead A/C units, furnace, Convection Microwave, on and on the list goes. You could live in this thing, as a lot of people do. It served us well for over a year and we put almost 15,000 miles on it in the short time we had it. It was while we were in Michigan, getting the Mustang GT Convertible that the genereator had problems. We called the dealer and told them we could make it home and would bring it right in. When we got home and dropped the unit off, we saw a beautiful 35 footer in Chili Red and were immediately smitten.

Tiffin35TSA

A view of the inside doesn't show much difference, but the three feet in the back end makes all the difference in the world. Also, the 35 footer has a slightly heavier chassis that drives oh-so-much nicer than the 32 footer. So we had a bit of a dilemma on our hands. What to do with the 32 footer? Our options were, sell it, which we were a littel upside down on it due to financing the taxes into the loan, we could trade it in, but still, the upsidedowness of the loan, or the final option, we could rent it out through their rental program. Which we did. And then purchased the 35 footer for the same price we'd gotten the 32 footer for! (It was November)

Not only did it have the same goodies, but it had an ice-maker in the fridge, satellite TV dish, built in vacuum system, and a bunch of other goodies. Since we had a 7% note, the rental program paid very well for the 32 foot unit, all costs plus put some money in our pocket as well. Not to mention the awesome tax deductions we got to take on both units. One as a rental home, one as a second home. Ahhh... Life was good. For about a year and a half. And then...

Well, then the rental manager quit. And things went horribly wrong. The unit had massive service charges, sat unrented for over a month and the list kept growing. More fees, more charges. We ended up pulling the unit out of the program. It barely paid for itself and all we were doing was basically paying for someone else to have a vacation. Which oddly seemed to foreshadow the circumstances of today. We engaged a broker to sell the unit and sometime after the sale, he went out of business. No word or anything. Just disappeared. Which left us holding this contract for sale on the motorhome, but still liable for it financially.

Now comes the really bad part. The guy that it was sold to turns out to have really bad credit and he gave the broker over $8,000 just to close the deal, of which I saw exactly none. The broker was supposed to have us float the note on the RV for about six months to a year so he would have time to find a lender to finance the unit and get us out from underneath it. Um, that didn't happen. He was also supposed to recover the unit if payments were not made. That didn't happen either. On and off now, the guy has been so spotty on payments that he owes going on six or seven payments, plus the insurance that I have to keep on it in case of whatever, plus I have to pay taxes on the thing since I still technically own it and due to where I live. Yeah, he owes for those as well.

Now, I'm left with engaging an attorney 900 miles away to repossess the unit, try to liquidate it and sue him for all costs and such. Yeah, court sucks. Even worse are my chances of getting the cash. So, when I talk about this on VOX in a bummer way, just know that in all, I'm about $120,000 deep when all is said and done minus whatever the unit sells at auction for. Bright Spot: These units are selling for pennies on the dollar in this financial market. I've got my work cut out just trying to remain positive that I will get out from under this thing within the next two months, I truly hope. According to the contract, he is stuck with the costs of everything, so there is that, hopefully. Anyways, the really sad part is that the 35 footer sits out in the driveway. Sitting because I'm footing the bill for the unit he currently has to keep my credit from going belly up and cannot afford to take mine out on the trips it longs to take.

It sits there, just a daily reminder to me of my stupidity. <sigh> Anyone wanna buy a used motorhome? LOL

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On weight loss...

nobody@vox.com(Kzinti) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:14:27 -0700

I was reading over at the New York Times and interesting article on weight loss. I know a lot of my Vox neighbors are doing many different types of things to lose weight, myself included. I found it most interesting that the article didn't touch on exercise and diet in the traditional sense, but something completely different that apparently has an even greater benefit than just weight loss, longevity. That's right, living longer through losing weight. How you may ask? Well, I'll try to summarize the article.

First, it is not technically a diet. It does not limit what you eat, only how much. It does this through the process known as Calorie Restiction. In other words, before they had these people do this study, they studied the people. They found out what the people's current calorie burning level was. What did they burn in a day, what is the efficiency of their human power plant. Once they had that number, they used it as a baseline for the study. If you had 2000 calories, the number they cut it by was simply 25%.

Why 25%? Well, they determined that 50% was lethal in animals, not immediately, but they couldn't sustain themselves long on that. By some scientific methods, they made the determination that 25% was the magic number. Now again, this isn't a diet per-se, rather just you eating less calories than what you would normally take in by 25%. What they found was that this number would cause a weight loss of a certain size in the first several months to a year and then plateau for a while before going down further.

This is your body adjusting to the new level of intake. Now, the benfits of reducing caloric intake versus more exercise are that your body doesn't have to work so hard to burn the fat off, it does it naturally but a littel slower. It also increases your immune system, as has been shown in animal studies that showed when caloric intake was reduced, your body responded by beefing up your immune system to keep you healthy through a period of little food. Less work for the body if you are not sick, so the body burns less calories getting you well again.

Oh yeah. The longevity thing. With diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol levels through the roof, this works to reduce those as well. First, through weight loss, second through eating more wholesome foods, what they refer to as foods that are not energy dense. Like vegetables and fruits instead of nuts and sweets. Things that your body has to work harder to digest and get nutrients out of than eating a donut that goes right to your ass. It does you know. Superhighway there for it. I swear. I read about it online somewhere. Anyways...

To sum all this up, most people have a hard time restricting their diets to reduce caloric intake. In the study, they meticulously measure everything that goes in their mouths. The good part is that you don't have to do that to benefit from this type of weight loss. They just do that for the scientific integrity of the study. The most important part about doing this is to learn your "Number", what your specific caloric intake should be. Then cutting down on what you eat to come in 25% or so under that figure.

The article shares some really good information on the process and why it is much more effective for long term benefits than just dieting. It also has a couple of really good links to places like Calorie King, so you can always have a reference to what you are eating. Anyways, I hope you get a chance to read the entire article and that it is helpful in your weight loss or get fit program. I had been aware of the caloric intake reduction as a means to longevity, but never really looked at it as a viable solution for weight loss as well like this article goes into. Very well worth the read. Be sure to leave a comment on what you find interesting or complete rubbish about it as well. Always happy to hear your thoughts.

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Flu Vaccinations: It's a Jab or Your Job - TIME

nobody@vox.com(Kzinti) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 20:24:31 -0700

Flu Vaccinations: It's a Jab or Your Job - TIME

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/art...

At Winthrop hospital on New York's Long Island, the signs are everywhere. They're posted at every nurses' station, papered above the security panels against which employees swipe their ID cards and even attached to paychecks. The notices are there to remind the hospital's staff which includes everyone from the doctors and nurses who care for patients to the administrative, housekeeping and food-service personnel that every employee must be vaccinated against both seasonal and H1N1 flu or face possible termination.

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Another emotional slice of time...

nobody@vox.com(Kzinti) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 20:03:31 -0700

I'm driving into work tonight, another killer 12 hour night, the umpteenth in a row. I'm half awake, thinking how I'd rather still be lying in bed asleep and listening to the soft rain patter outside. Doing as I must, I'm going to work instead. As I'm driving, I flip on the radio, hoping that something on it will help to kick my brain into gear. I mean, who designs these torturous rituals we must got through? Wake up, half asleep, run a sharpened metal edge over your face, a razor and hope you don't cut off something necessary. Or how about the one of getting behind the wheel of a two ton death machine with a powerful V-8 that can crush the nearest pedestrian like yesterday's potato salad? Yeah... Nice.

Anyways, I'm in the truck, half awake, listening to the radio, flipping channels. I stop on one and hear the song 100 Years by Five for Fighting. It takes me instantly back to a concert at the high school where Wookie Girl is doing one of her last pieces. Even now, the old eyeballs are leaking some around the edges, just remembering it. There I was, sitting in the auditorium, listening to the orchestra playing through their pieces when the next piece was 100 Years. As I sat there listening, my head started running through the lyrics and I became very emotional.

I realized that there I was, twice the age I was when my little girl had come into my life, twice her age now, and before I know it, another 20 years will pass and who knows where things will be then. I realized how much I had missed of her growing up because of all the grown-up responsibilities I had. Even the Middle Daughter has said things about how much I missed out with her because I was always gone. I guess the whole thing just kind of hit me that life is so short, things fly by so fast. You turn around and when you look back, that little baby who used to run around the house in only a diaper is now a young woman and the little girl who came into my life then is now a mom with two kids and a third on the way.

I guess what my take away from all this disjointed mess is that I need to simplify things in my life, get back to where I've got time to actually live life, enjoy life, surround myself with all the wonderful things life has to offer. Immerse myself in life. To take it all in, to make every waking breath about enjoying life, not about the money. To enjoy everything I can in life. I've spent too many of my 100 Years doing what I felt I was supposed to do and missed out on a lot. I plan on spending the rest of it alive. Enjoying life.

Because, I'm 41 for a moment.... And then that moment is gone...

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Guess who came to dinner?

nobody@vox.com(Kzinti) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 19:27:25 -0700

Cheetosbag

Finally. <burp> All the way from Australia to my doorstep. One bag lasted all of about two hours. The longest and tastiest two hours of my life... LOL

Now for the review: While not bacony is the real sense of bacon, as in, no meaty bacony goodness inside, they did have a wonderful bacony taste. This was accomplished somehow through the miracle of modern flavoring technologies. Whatever, they taste really good, like smoky, bacony, cheesy goodness rolled into a little ball, just waiting to explode with flavor inside your mouth. It's no wonder that the bag only lasted two hours and that was severely pushing it.

Highly recommneded, however the airmail costs make these a very high priced treat. Something along the lines of $1 per ten grams. You read that right. $15 a bag with shipping costs included. So, if you know anyone in Australia, who could say, ship a whole case in the cheapest shipping method possible, slow boat to china method perhaps, they would be a great treat. Which begs to ask, why don't we make these here at home in the good old US of A? On to bag #2...

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My Brother and his Birds in the news again...

nobody@vox.com(Kzinti) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 19:43:54 -0700

Cookie the Cockatoo

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It's my parents fault I didn't get into Mensa...

nobody@vox.com(Kzinti) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 19:10:10 -0700

Whew. Now I have a scapegoat. It's not my fault, as it turns out, it's all my parent's fault. How you may ask? Well, let me tell you a bit about that. I was perusing some articles tonight and ran across THIS gem about how spanking your children can actually lower their IQ's. The crux of the article, which is very open to interpretation as most articles of this type are, is that spanking children is an act of agression and as such, it is responded to by the flight or fight mentality. In other words, brain shuts down and sub-concious mind take over.

Now, knowing how much we were beat as kids, I would say that it would most definitely have kept me from being a member of Mensa. I mean, I have a fairly high IQ as it stands, but how much higher was my potential if I were raised without being beaten by sticks, brooms, belts, wooden spoons and the like? Did it also affect me getting smacked in the head by my 6'5" 300 pound, line backer sized father with a fist the size of a hamhock? I'm sure it didn't help my case any that I was always the kid in the line up when he said, "And if I hear one more peep out of you boys..." that it would always be me to say the actual word, "peep" when he turned his back.

I could play the victim here and say that all of the above are reasons why I didn't get into Mensa, I truly could. But I know better. It was just plain laziness on my part. Oh, not that I couldn't get in, I was just too damn lazy to ever actually apply. LOL. Hope you had a good read. thanks for stopping by.

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Time for a quick thought...

nobody@vox.com(Kzinti) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 00:49:22 -0700

I was reading this nice little transcript of an NPR show about the development of man and how it relates to food. How our learning to cook food enriched our dietary intake so much that our bodies no longer needed as much energy to digest it and instead began to develop other areas, such as mental capacities and others. The transcript is located HERE. Of the interesting points brought out:

Heating or cooking foods in general loosens up the molecular bonding, thereby making it easier for us to digest.
Eating raw meat actually takes more energy to consume and digest than what you'd get out of the meat itself.
Eating a diet of raw foods, whole veggies, etc, is good for weight loss because of exactly the effect it has on your system, it works so much harder to digest the food that a lot of nutrients and even part of the caloric intake get passed right through your system because it cannot handle the workload.
Also, raw foods take moer energy to digest and even eat that you literally lose weight due to that fact.
Our digestive systems are about 2/3's the size of a similar being, the gorilla.
Our smaller teeth and mouth are prime indicators that we eveolved ourselves to fit our cooking and eating style.
No mention as to whether pizza, cheetos or chocolate are actually good or bad for you, specifically that is...

So, I hope you take several minutes to peruse the transcript and take away some interesting facts about the human diet and how cooking aids us in so many ways. I found the whole thing a pretty fun read and gathered some new information to tuck away in my noggin for later on. Hope you get something from it too.

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Yeah, I'm a Dork... King Dork...

nobody@vox.com(Kzinti) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:22:09 -0700

Cheetosbag

So... You know... When you see something and it sounds like a good idea and then you research it online and the next thing you know you are clicking the link that takes you to a shopping cart and then checking out and filling in a bunch of information about who you are and how you will pay and where they can ship this new fangled thing you've just got to have and before you know it, the deed is done and you have just paid and your stuff is on the way? Yeah.

Cheetos

That's right... $27.30 just for shipping!!! These luscious little beauties come all the way from Australia. Three bags of Cheetos Cheese & Bacon Balls. I am officially crowning myself King of all Dorks. You may all bow down now.

Hail King Dork!!!

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"He's dead, Jim..."

nobody@vox.com(Kzinti) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 10:50:53 -0700

It's been a while. Not dead in the "Gone to the Great Hunting Lodge in the Sky" dead, just dead tired. I've had a lot going on in the last few weeks and most of my hours in the day are spent at work. So much to do, only so many hours available to do it in. Anyway, here's some thoughts for a Monday since I haven't had anything worthy lately of a deep philosophical nature to post.

If they cut the funding to PBS and they in turn have to cut content from their programming, does the show All Things Considered become Some Things Considered? Or does it just simply turn into FOX News?
If the bankers and insurance companies had to make concessions like everyone else has jsut to keep their jobs, oh wait, they don't, so the question is moot.
Isn't Life Insurance more like a Death Lottery? You just keep buying tickets, aka premiums, until the ultimate jackpot, you die, or you stop paying, er, playing and when your number comes up, your family calls you an idiot for letting the policy lapse. So odd, we pay bundles for somethign we hope we'll never need. Insurance. Man, what a scam. Wish I'd thought of it.
What the hell is Processed Cheese Food Product? Is it like cheese flavored glue or something? I see it when I go to the store and it sits right there mocking me every time I buy cheese. It's in such tiny letters too. And cheap. Is it like the Flavor-Aid of cheese? Cheaper than regular cheese, for those who can't afford the real thing? Cubic Cheese-conia. Cheese wannabee. Does the government know about this? Will they be offering a special version of Gubbermint Cheese Food Product? Is it the illegitimate offspring of Velveeta and Cheddar? Who knows...
There has been a lot of death around recently. Which has led to some interesting discussions on what happens after you die. Is there a heaven, is there a hell, where do we go, what happens? My belief is that you get to choose what and where you wnat to be. So for me, in my mind, my brother, when he died, is out there somewhere with my Grandpa, fixing lawnmowers and drinking beer because that's what they liked in life. Maybe grandma in the kitchen baking cookies for after lunch too. She loved to cook, even more so for a hungry bunch of folks.
Gas prices in teh midwest have dropped to almost $2.20 a gallon and I'm wondering why, since the price of crude oil has just stayed fairly steady. Maybe the oil companies have raped, er, taken enough profits and are concentrating on alternative energy sources, or they have realized that in supply and demand, if there is too much demand and not enough supply, or that supply is too expensive, people will go elsewhere, meaning newer technologies. All I can say is come on new solar cell tech, hit the market fast. With plug in hybrids on the way, solar cells will allow trickle charging on the go.
And one more thing. Why is it, in the Land of Plenty, teh US of A, we cannot get bacon flavored Cheetos? This is the land of everything bacon, people. We should be leading the forefront of bacon technologies. Why is it then that I have to order bacon cheetos from the only source currently known to man, in Australia? Do you have any idea how long the slow boat from Australia takes to deliver to America? I would urge you to write your Congressman to include this a proposal for the development of new bacon technologies in America. When times are tough, America has always had it's bacon. Let's bring the bacon back home to where it should be.
Oh yeah, one more final, final thing. I have been putting up some new links of interest every so often, so be sure to check them out. Some unique, some funny, some really cool. I mean, really cool.

Alright, thanks for reading along. I hope I brought some enjoyment into your afternoon.

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