Why the Mini Cooper is a Horrible, Horrible Car

So my Scion tC is in the shop and I have a Mini Cooper as a rental. I thought it would be fun, sporty, and have some good design features, so I was eager to try it out. I was so wrong. Here's my list of things I hate:

- No power. The Mini has a very poor power to weight ratio (translation: gutless engine, weighs a ton). This means the Mini has slow acceleration, is slow to pass, and feels like it's constantly struggling to move.

- Jerky transmission. The Mini transmission is a mess. In regular automatic mode, the car feels like a slow moving boat. Automatic sport model is tolerable, but kills your mileage because the engine revs past 4,000 rpm on each shift. This also makes for a noisy ride. In automatic manual mode, first gear maxes out a 7 mph and all the following gears have short ratios, so you feel like you're always searching for the right gear. It's like having 18 speeds on a tricycle - it just doesn't work.

- For the interior, they killed functionality to try to look cool. The entire interior is cheap plastic modeled in sharp, circular lines. This makes for an uncomfortable experience. For example, when I rest my left knee on the door (I'm 6'1"), I'm getting jabbed by the plastic cone around the speaker. It's a constant reminder that they didn't think through their design. I'm sure it will leave a bruise to compliment my back pain from the lack of lumbar support in the wooden seats.

- Bad climate control. Due to the lack of power, the A/C takes a long time to cool down the car (the A/C is powered by the gutless engine). The vents are another fail. The drivers side has two vents, one that blows normally and one that's pointed directly at the steering wheel and is essentially useless. Also, there's a big center vent that can't be shut off, so if you want to feel a cool or warm breeze in your face, you have to crank the fan to full blast and deal with the noise.

- Gauges and controls from Soviet Russia. The turn signal isn't like any other I've seen. When you press it down, it doesn't stay down, it just signals for a half a second and shuts off. To cancel a signal, you don't flip it up (like every other car you've ever driven), you have to push it down again a second time. It's counter-intuitive, which makes it a pain in the ass distraction. Same for the windshield wiper controls. Added bonus, the window and door lock controls are on the center console and you have two dashboards - a small, hard-to-see-one with a tachometer and a speedometer the size of a medium pizza in the middle of the car (just in case someone in the car behind you wants to watch your speed).

- Even the key fob is an awkward, lumpy, UFO shaped thing that doesn't fit well in your pocket. It's like they thought of everything, every possible way to make a car useless, and threw it all into one small, crappy box that will look very, very dated in another 3 - 5 years.

If you're considering a Mini, do yourself a big favor and get a Fiat 500 instead.

I've got an Etsy store

Another photo in the LA Times

Check it out.

Photo from their 2011 Summer Vacation Photos.

My weekend = 50 helium balloons + 1,500 feet of fishing line + Canon Elph camera

Honeymoon Photos

My photo is in the LA Times!

Check it out!

Pics from my Europe trip with Sophia

I Just Got Engaged

A couple of days ago I got engaged. I'm going to marry a smart, independent, loyal, honest, caring, and giving woman. She'll make a wonderful wife and a great mother. The past two years I've spent with her have been fantastic. We've traveled to Cancun, San Francisco, Portland, Denver, and Tokyo. This May, we're going to spend two weeks together exploring Europe. Life is good.

iTunes vs. Kindle

So I just got my Kindle and love it! I plowed through three books in the first week I had it and haven't slowed down since. It's really easy to find and download books and the e-ink display is sharp and crisp. Best of all, it's not chained to iTunes.

Here's why iTunes sucks; every song is encoded as AACs, which is a propriety format owned by Apple. This means the songs you bought and paid good money for won't play on anything but an iPod. That sucks, but what really sucks is Apple's crappy customer service.

My iTunes account was recently hacked by some d-bag who loves Chris Brown (really, Chris Fking Brown?). They rang up $40 in fraudulent charges. Apple's response; all sales are final. It was like pulling teeth to get a refund. I trusted Apple with my credit card and they couldn't protect my financial information. Not only that, but they didn't care enough to address my concerns or respond to my emails. Good times.

I'm sure Crapple will be rolling out their own eReader sometime soon. I hope it fails miserably. I'm sick of being locked into Apples proprietary system, not being able to do what I want with my digital content, and having to fight for decent customer service. From now on, all my mp3s will come from Amazon (which will play on ANY device).

Going to Europe

My girlfriend and I are heading to Europe this May. We'll be going to Zurich, Interlaken, Paris, Amsterdam, Prague, and Venice. This will be my fifth big Europe trip, but her first, so I'm really excited to show her around and experience the culture together.

You know what else is cool about traveling in Europe? If you have an accident or get sick, you won't be bankrupted by medical bills because (like the rest of the civilized world) Europe has universal health care. It may be wishful thinking, but given that we're the wealthiest nation on Earth, maybe someday we too can have a health system that doesn't destroy families and deny coverage to millions of our citizens. Lookout Canada, we're catching up!

My new toy

So after spending a couple months looking at bikes, I narrowed my options down to the Ducati Monster 696 and the Harley Davidson Sportster Iron 883. The 2009 Monster has a newly revamped engine cranking out 80hp and a dry weight of just 355lbs. This gives it an absolutely insane power to weight ratio. However, lighter bikes like the Monster tend to feel a bit jumpy on the banged up asphalt of Los Angeles and the riding position is built for the corners, not long rides up the coast.

The Iron 883 is definitely more sedate with a dry weight of 548lbs, but still cranks out 55 foot pounds of torque vs. the Monster's 50, so it still has a nice pull off the line. The blacked out styling looks great and the straighter drag bars give a good grip for tall guys like me.

In the end, these are really two extremely different bikes with two distinct purposes. Even though I love carving up the corners of Mulholland Drive and the Angeles Crest, I also wanted a bike that I could comfortably commute to work on or take on 100+ mile rides. The Harley was the best fit for my needs and style, so that's the bike I bought.

Of course, once you buy a Harley, you have to make it your own. I wanted to take my girlfriend riding with me, so I picked up the Badlander seat and the short rail sissy bar with detachable side plates. This turned out to be a great combo. It maintains the low, flowing lines of the bike, has plenty of padding, and provides enough support so my girl doesn't fall off the back when we nail a pothole. After racking up 700 miles on my bike, I'm still glad I went with the Harley.

10 Los Angeles Adventures for Under $200

1. Cruise up the PCH to Malibu on a rumbling Harley (motorcycle license required, $140).
2. Head out on the ocean from Marina Del Rey and watch the dolphins and seals lounging around the Santa Monica Pier ($115).
3. Ride the Palm Springs tram and snowshoe in the cool alpine forests of the San Jacinto wilderness (tram $24 per person, snowshoe rental about $20 at REI).
4. Take the lifts to the top of Big Bear and mountain bike down miles of trails (lift $20 all day, bike $40 per day).
5. Learn to surf in Santa Monica ($75 group lesson includes board and wetsuit).
6. Go horseback riding in Griffith Park ($75 per person).
7. Fly high above the ocean side cliffs of Torrey Pines ($150, all equipment included).
8. Go under the sea and learn to scuba dive at Catalina Island ($67 round trip ferry to Catalina Island, $110 intro dive, all equipment included).
9. Always wanted to be a pilot? Take control on an intro flight up the California coast ($99 per person).
10. Climb the walls at an indoor rock climbing center ($99 intro lesson, all equipment included).

Enjoy!

Richard

Portland Pictures

Write your representative about health care

House of Representatives

https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

Senate:

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Dear Mr. Berman,

Please take action on universal health care. America remains the wealthiest and most powerful nation on Earth, but it is a national disgrace that so many of our citizen lack access to health care. We must have universal health care and there must be a public option to spur competition amongst insurance providers. Every other industrialized nation in the world provides universal health care and does so at a lower cost than America's dysfunctional private system. Please show the leadership and political willpower to carry through this reform. The Democrats were elected with a mandate of reform. There are no more excuses for inaction. The people want change.

Thank you,
Richard
Los Angeles

Tokyo pictures

I'm finally getting around to posting my Tokyo pics. Sophia and I went in the last week of May and spent four days exploring the city and countryside. The first couple of pictures are of the Tokyo Tower right outside our hotel. Next are some shots of the Tsukiji fish market and the fisherman's temple followed by the Asakusa temple. All of the green natury pics and forest temples are from Nikko, a UNESCO World Heritage site. The wall of sake containers is from the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo. Then its on to the craziness of Tokyo and the calm oasis of the Imperial Gardens. The kitten costs $4,000, so it warrants a picture.

Thank you FTC!

Remember all those annoying calls that began 'This is your second notice. Your vehicle warranty is about to expire...'? Well, the FTC has finally tracked down and sued the three companies running the scam. The original FTC complaint includes a 'Prayer for Relief' seeking to claw back the ill-gotten gains of these companies. I hope their prayer is answered.

Going to Tokyo

Dawn's blog got me thinking about it and this deal was too good to pass up, so Sophia and I are going to Tokyo next week. Konichiwa!

Add Give.a.Clik to your iGoogle page!

Give.a.Clik is a Free and Easy way to help your favorite charities. Search the web with Give.a.Clik and every time you click on a sponsored link a donation will be made to your favorite charity. Add it to your iGoogle page now!

American Cancer Society

American Red Cross

Boys & Girls Club

Feed The Children

Habitat For Humanity

International Medical Corps

Special Olympics

The Nature Conservancy

United Way

I started a charity, www.GiveAClik.org!

Here's how it works: Give.a.Clik is a search engine powered by Google. Every time you click on a sponsored link, the ad revenue is donated to the charity of your choice!

Please go to http://www.giveaclik.org/, choose a charity, and do something good for your community.

Thank you!
Richard

What I did today

Sometimes I really love living in LA. This weekend is Sophi's birthday, so we rented a boat at Marina Del Rey and went out on the ocean. We had a great time; running full throttle over the waves, hanging out with the sea lions by the Santa Monica pier, and cruising miles offshore into the open ocean. On the way back we spotted a dolphin, then another, then another. We got in closer and soon the dolphins were racing under the bow and jumping alongside the boat. It was really incredible to get so close to these amazing creatures. We even saw a baby dolphin, just three feet long, swimming with its mother. What a fantastic day.