guapacha.com

It seems that the idea just won’t go away, some states want to introduce a tax on the miles you drive. It seems that by encouraging people to drive more efficient vehicles, the state is losing revenue and needs ways to make that up. So… here’s a tax on how many miles of road you use. The article talks also about the price per mile being different depending on time of day, location etc. I think its a dumb idea, why not just increase the tax on gas which will keep revenues up and continue to discourage buying gas guzzling cars. And if we really have to have a per-mile tax, why not just have the odometer read on a regualr basis? Putting a GPS in each car is just a recipie for abuse.

Charles and Camilla are set to wed in April. If he ever becomes King (doubtful), she will have the title of ‘Princess Consort’ rather than Queen; that title is reserved for Prince Edward. I am sure there are lot of people in the Church of England who are unhappy that a divorcee is getting remarried (oh, the humanity!) and so they are having a civil ceremony in Windsor Castle. I haven’t received my invite yet, but you know how slow that trans-atlantic post pigeon is.

In sport news, there is talk of ressurecting the Home International Championship. As a kid I used to look forward to this tournament of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The games between England and Scotland were always classics and when they weren’t, you always had the fighting to watch instead. It would be good to see them played again, though I’d probably have to pay $20 a game to watch it on PPV.

And, finally, if you haven’t yet eaten check out this sorry story of a woman who has been jailed for ripping off a guy’s testicle and trying to swallow it. Don’t try this at home, kids.

It’s healthy to eat your bogies, so get picking and eating.

Another Race is over, I think the wrong couple won but they played a good race at the end so fair play and all that. I think its a shame that the next series is starting so soon, there needs to be more time between these shows so we start to miss them. I think the Race is the best show on TV but that doesn’t mean I want it on 50 weeks a year.

Its a well known rule that if you’re in a foreign land, speaking English loudly and slowly will get you understood…. well, apparantly the term “fast fast fast” is universally understood – every team used it with every cab driver!

Now I know every teenager and music lover in the world already has this but I just discovered it. Replay Music captures any streaming audio from any source and lets you save it. It even looks up the tags online and sets them to what you’ve recorded. Not that I would ever do that of course, Mr RIAA lawyer, but its cool that I can.

In the ‘is-there-nothing-Google-wont-do’ category, there is now Google Maps which looks to be pretty neat. I really like how you can drag the map around with the mouse, no clicking pan arrows to move around. In contrast, have some fun at Microsoft’s expense…..

1. Go to http://mappoint.msn.com/DirectionsFind.aspx
2 Plan a trip from Haugesund, Norway to Trondheim, Norway
3 Laugh

Last year I was lucky enough to be out of the country for the Super Yawn but this year I’m here in the US and my neighbours are already gathering on their front yard for the party. Typically the guests have decided to park opposite my house rather than opposite the house they are visiting, I hope I don’t accidentally back the Jeep out too fast and dent the shiny F250 that’s blocking the view from my window. It almost seems a shame not to watch the game – I’m sure it would look great on my big screen TV – but instead I will find something more exciting. Anyone know what channel is showing paint drying?

Nude juicebars, eh?

Last year I got a great deal on a couple of T-Mobile Motorola V-300 cellphones. They were $0.00 to buy and each came with a $50 rebate – new phones and a $100 in the pocket, how can you go wrong? Well, its easy ‘cos you know you’re going to get screwed.

Sometime after activating the phones we found out that we had been given a Palm Springs area code making our numbers long distance from our home area. T-Mobile gladly changed them to a new number and everything was fine.

Then came the first of the rejection letters. Our rebate isn’t valid because the numbers I put on the form don’t exist. I called Young America, the company doing the rebate fulfillment, spoke to the usual hostile representative and eventually made him understand what had happened. He resubmitted the rebate with the new numbers.

And now I have a second rejection letter. Now our rebate isn’t valid because the numbers we have weren’t activated during the promotion period. Amazing, but not really suprising. These companies will do whatever they can to deny you what is rightfully and legally yours.

I wrote both Young America and T-Mobile to tell them what I thought of their process. I know I won’t get any joy but you can be sure that I won’t be a customer of T-Mobile once my current contract expires.

And whilst we’re talking about asswipes, the MINI blog got flooded with comment spam last night, so much for my ‘clever’ modifications. Maybe this weekend I’ll install the comment spam blacklist software.