Tag: weather

audio and heat (not necessarily together)

Thursday, 30 August, 2007 at 11:59 pm

Follow-up on previous post: went to car stereo store, got a Panasonic CQ-C3405U (that’s what the guy said to put in there) and managed to get my CDs back, all for $170 and some change. woot. It took only 45 minutes too. Take that, Carmax service shop!

Of course, the cons: no cassette player (used only to listen to mp3 player though), only one CD slot player, no bass/midrange/treble control on the panel, doesn’t switch from FM to AM and back (goes through FM1 band, FM2, FM3, then AM band), and it’s not part of the manufactured car. Pro(s?): auxilary jack! XD The system is made for iPod, which I will never own as long as Creative is in business (and offers a fairly good product), but I guess I’ll get over it.

I don’t really like not being able to switch from CD player to radio, and have the CD player pause while I’m listening to the radio (getting traffic reports from 980 and 1070). (Or, I’m not quite sure, maybe the new CD player does pause, I wasn’t really paying attention…) Mostly by CD player I mean my music. With my old system I had to go to my mp3 player (i.e., reach down and fumble around for the pause button) then switch to the radio, and I accepted that and didn’t listen to my mp3 player often (didn’t hurt that it’s only a 1 gig Zen Nano *grin*). But now, since I’ve got only one slot for CDs, I decided I should (finally) move over to mp3 player.

It’s sort of a trade-off. I’ve got two different modes of driving/music-listening: driving to work during the summer, about an hour-long trip (no need for more than one CD), with frequent switching over to radio; and then there’s driving to school (from L.A.), just straight four CDs in a row three hours of non-stop music. Driving to school isn’t too much of a change, I just have to set up my mp3 playlist before leaving, instead of gathering CDs and loading them in the car. But driving to work … gah, I hate the instances where I have to fiddle around with things just to not miss the traffic report or a bit of the music I’m listening to.

(Funny thing happened on the way home today. I turned on the radio and plugged in my mp3 player but didn’t turn it on because it turns off after a minute or so anyway…. So ten minutes into my drive, while on the 101 going 65–70ish I turn on my music, and a couple minutes later I realize that I wasn’t really paying attention to traffic around me; I didn’t recognize any of the cars around me, just the van [far ahead] in front of me, and I couldn’t recall driving past all the offramps to near the point where I have to start moving over. hahaha!)

One last thing I’m not particularly happy with: the new system seems to up the treble more than I like. :( As I said before, there’s no bass/midrange/treble control on the panel like there was with the Dodge system, and it really really spoiled me I see. Now I can only adjust the bass and the treble. Ouch. I’ve got the bass and treble lowered, but while listening to my Anastasia soundtrack (CD) I could hear the highs, which hurt my ears. Then today, listening to Aly & AJ’s Insomniatic on my mp3 player the same thing happened, only moreso (hadn’t noticed while listening to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Gorillaz, or The Used, hah). I turned down the treble from −6db to −12db where it was comfortable-ish to my ears, but the music sounded flat and besides there were still some semi-highs hurting my ears, so I changed it back. (Later at a long red light I went into the mp3 player’s settings and lowered the highest frequency.)

Now if I had a midrange control, I could simply increase that and be perfectly happy. But no! N says audio companies must think we’re idiots or something, because a lot of stereo systems don’t come with equalizers. Mum’s system has an equalizer, but the ones N look at have only a control for the bass and treble (like my car!). *twitch* That’s like … the one thing that makes buying audio bearable for me. Buy something I find decent, then adjust the hell out of the equalizer. Grar.

(Ack, why do I always end up typing way more than I plan?)

The very last, very minor annoyance I have: the knob. It’s shorter, making it harder for my long-nailed fingers to get a grip on it XD and it’s made out of metal which honestly I would never think would be a drawback, but in the valley where it gets to 110° … say hi to little burns on my fingers.

Today my car read the temperature at 113°, at 3:30 in the afternoon. That wasn’t really so bad. The bad thing was being in an office where for some reason the air-conditioning wasn’t going below 85°. (Yeah, it’s taking 115° air from outdoors and lowering it 30°, and I’m complaining because it won’t go down another 10°.) I never thought 85° was sweltering, but apparently it is. I found it really hard to concentrate on my work (updating my boss’ website, woo) and sat there thinking about the old “Japan Dresses Down” article, wondering how they could possible work in an environment that warm. Like, do accountants make a number of mistakes? Because I found myself making mistakes today … forgetting an " for one. o.O

Later in the car I heard on the radio that power companies were asking people to turn off their thermostats and conserve electricity. I know a lot of places were only in the 80s today (this house, for example, and us with no air conditioning, oh me oh my how do we survive in such primitive circumstances?), but still, sitting in a hot car in 110° … that bit of advice drove me a tad crazy. I’ve always thought people should keep their A/Cs at 78 at the lowest … but sitting in an office where the thermostat was set to 72 and I was sweating just sitting at a computer, I don’t know, I guess I have to rethink that.

Also, I felt more guilty than usual running my A/C in the car today. haha. It’s one of the hottest days this week and I’m trying to keep from getting dehydrated, and I turn my A/C down to the lowest setting (on max A/C though) which I never do because the lowest setting is pretty weak. Heck I even opened my window at Santa Monica Blvd. just to see if I could withstand the 85° heat. (The answer was no.)

Then again, I could have lessened my use of gasoline by not gunning the engine driving around slow cars. But gahhh, semis going up the pass at 50 mph … *dies*

my own home

Saturday, 16 December, 2006 at 1:29 am

Ahaha yeah don’t ask what I’m doing up so late again. D’oh.

Umm … I packed up my stuff last night, so this morning C and I loaded the car from about 9:30 to 10. *blink* Yeah. We had so much stuff. Barely fit in the car. Shocking. Gas was $2.69! Grr. Traffic was good. Normal, I mean. It backed up on the 405 around Sunset. And for some reason, there were quite a few cars on Sunset. Maybe ’cause it was lunchtime. I dunno.

I unpacked most of my stuff. ^^;; Still need to set up my desktop, if I do. I probably will; I’ve got the scanlations of Gokinjo Monogatari sitting on there. (I’ve still got the .rar files on my laptop, but then I’d have to unzip them and save them somewhere and there’d just be duplicate files sitting taking up space when I have perfectly good files on my desktop.)

It’s cold here. ;.; Well, I mean, it’s moderate yah (L.A. weather…) but there’s gonna be rain over the weekend (the channel 2 weather anchor said thunderstorms! *bounces*) and it was overcast today so no sun. And, most of all, this house is just plain cold. But Mum said she and Daddy laid down three sections of insulation over … some area … in the old part of the house. I wasn’t wearing a sweatshirt during the day! (No, I was just wearing a tank top, shirt, thermal top, socks, leggings, and sweat pants. *grin*)

…I think I just smashed a spider unknowingly. *shudder* I was lying down on the floor, but sat up to type this entry, and I just looked at my knee where I noticed this daddy long-legs was. eeeee. Creepy. >_> (Note: I like spiders. Just as long as they’re not running toward me or located somewhere on my person.) But … at least it was dead. ^^;; I killed it! *sniffle*

I need to get to bed. O_o

rain Wet Christmas

Monday, 11 December, 2006 at 11:30 am

Wow I spent an hour on this computer already. Bad me!

Over the weekend I just worked on my art journal. Not much interesting there. It rained. Lots. eep. I’m glad I didn’t have to be anywhere in it. ^_^

Oh, but I did take Hidek to Circuit City to see if they had the Wii in. grr.

I have no idea how people can drive so frickin close when they’re going so frickin fast when there’s lots of water that’s spraying up into a mist behind cars. *twitch twitch* I stayed behind this RV and van that were going 45 on the 101. ^^;; I also wasn’t feeling completely awake while I was driving.

It’s so weird, in L.A. when I thought I saw rain, it wasn’t really rain, it was more like a drizzle compared to what I’ve seen at the community college I went to in Ventura County, and here. And yet people in L.A. still don’t know how to drive in it. O_o

Hm. Today I woke up at 8:45 and left at 9:30 to get my pictorial space project printed and my art journal bound. Still not done with it, I just wanted it bound. I just pretty much have to write some stuff and print some stuff and glue stuff in. Oh yeah, I have to make the folders though. meep.

Before I left, I was watching music channels (it turns out the California station here doesn’t play KTLA morning news after 9, whyyyy?). Um, heard a band I want to look into on Steven’s Untitled Rock Show, Over It. On VH1 Classic they were having a special with Twisted Sister about their new Christmas album. It’s funny how good metal can sound if there’s a tune behind it. XD;;; I saw the music video for “Oh Come All Ye Faithful” and I didn’t think it was disgusting. (I am not a fan of metal or the like.)

But I don’t think I want to hear their version of “White Christmas.” I just can’t hear any version other than Bing Crosby’s. (I’ve also come to really love the movie Holiday Inn. XD) Same goes for “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” Erm, with Judy Garland replacing Bing Crosby. *blink*

should become castaway

Friday, 1 December, 2006 at 1:33 pm

“And sometimes this Blog is just a diary, or a reminder. You forget the things you were certain you would always remember, especially the tiny things, and all too often they’re the things that matter.”
Neil Gaiman, December 1, 2006

I know he said that in reference to his daughter, but dang I still love how he writes.

My teacher said in class: she’s lived in Michigan, where it snows, and when she was moving to California she thought, oh yay, the sun is always out! But it’s so cold here! Not outside, but inside. Her husband said “we have to go get sweaters!”

Hah, yeah, no one heats (public) buildings around here. >_> My mom’s even got the thermostat at home down to 66° since last winter. I never even gave that a second thought. Do other places heat to a comfortable level during the winter?

Yesterday I forgot to turn off the heater (we don’t have a thermostat) in the morning, so it was on pretty high all day until I got home at 5:30. Hidek and his friend had the windows open since they don’t know how to work the heater. -.- So I don’t have the heater on now, and I’m wearing a tank top, shirt, thermal top, sweatshirt, leggings, and sweatpants. Still a little cold though.

Wednesday night it was really cold. I think it went down to 42° while we were checking the weather. Thursday morning there was ice on my car! Only the rear window, but still! This one site Hidek’s friend checked said that average and record temperatures in SLO are more extreme than temperatures in Berkeley/Davis. O_o I understand the highs; they’re more north, so naturally it’s cooler. But the lows! How in the world can we get colder than the Bay area??? They get fog! It rains often there! We’re in what’s called the Gold Coast. (I think it’s a just marketing/tourist gimmick though.)

Last night I stayed up til 1:30 am working on my blog. XD; Moved the last of the pMachine entries to WordPress. No more pMachine floating around uselessly on my domain anymore, woohoo! Installed plugins for tags and weighted tags and for weighted categories. So now you’ll see those around.

envirodork

Friday, 9 September, 2005 at 10:48 am

It is COLD today! o_o And yesterday and all the rest of the week it was hot! So weird. Where did this cloud cover come from?

Anyway. I wanted to find out what kind of mileage my car is supposed to get, because I never remember, so I looked up my car on Yahoo and I found this site: fueleconomy.gov. Isn’t it so cool! XD

Here’s my car, Dodge Stratus 2001. A year ago I used to get almost 28 mpg, but now I only get 26.9 mpg, probably because I’m driving home in the afternoon instead of in the evening. People in the afternoon want to go home, so they go 75 … and the trucks in the right two lanes (which I usually prefer to drive in to go a more reasonable speed and therefore get better mileage) go 60 or so, which is just irritating to me (and besides big rigs freak me out). So I’m going 75 instead of 65. Actually, when I was getting 28 mpg I would go 75~80 on the freeway. But I had this neat trick, see. When going downhill I would hit the gas so I’m going 75, then when I’m going uphill I would ease off the gas a little so I’d slow down to 65/70. I stopped doing that though because to go 75 I had to be in the second lane, and people in the second lane didn’t like it when I slowed down going uphill. ahaha.

Anyway. That site is neat! The worst mileage my car ever has is probably 24/25 during the summer, ’cause I’m not driving on the freeway every weekend. muahahaha.

—

[10:53] Hm. I was looking at the Save the Redwoods League website, at the picture on the mainpage, and thinking about Sequoia, and thinking about people clearcutting the forests in Northern California … and I started to feel sick. Physically sick, like dizziness and nausea. Is that normal? O_o