2011 xmas letter

December, 2011

Hello friends and family,

We hope you are well and enjoying the holidays. It’s a rough time for many people, so our hearts are with you if your family has suffered job losses or other difficulties.

It’s been a relatively quiet year for us. Wendy is still, luckily, employed fulltime at Pearson as a Digital Writer/Editor. Fred continues his small business, www.subsolutions.com. Regina is living with us now and just started a “real” job at Banner, after a long and discouraging job hunt. Ethan is a junior at School of Visual Arts in NYC, where he’s doing well with his major in film/editing.

Wendy’s brother Dennis and daughter Alison visited in March while Regina and Ethan were here for spring break. We hiked a little but mostly just hung around and enjoyed our (finally) completed renovation of our home. Mid-August, we very much enjoyed a brief visit of Wendy’s cousin Eleanor, together with her husband George and daughter Allyson.

Regina moved back “home” end of June, and wanted to keep her car, and Ethan wanted to visit for part of the summer as well, so we decided to turn it into a “road trip” vacation and flew to Boston. Then the three of us drove to New York, picked up Ethan, and all drove home starting with a stop at Niagara Falls. After enjoying the “Cave of the Winds” tour (which has no cave!?), we took turns driving and hurrying (due to Wendy’s limited days off), and saw the northern part of the country, including Chicago, Minnesota farmland, The Black Hills, and timed it so that we were in Estes Park, Colorado for July 4^th fireworks, which were the absolute best we’ve ever seen! The next day we toured the “haunted” Stanley Hotel, however, there didn’t happen to be any supernatural phenomena that day. Hmm. In the Badlands a buffalo walked right by our car, we stopped and ate at Wall Drug, and we toured “The Wind Cave”! (which had no wind?). With a surprising lack of arguing, the trip could have used a few more days, but it was still fun to see some parts of the country we’d never seen before, even if just through the car windows most of the time!

Having Regina “home” has been a delight. We love having her (even if she does spend the majority of time at her new boyfriend’s place!). In late July, we all went kayaking on the lower Salt river with Fred’s brother Tom and his wife Samantha. And although the RV was down for repairs, we hopped on our Vespa motorcycle one weekend and went up to the cool mountains, hiked a bit, and stayed at a nice little cabin in Christopher creek.

At Halloween, Fred helped put on another charity fund raising haunted house (his biggest, by far), and Regina helped by directing the actors. For Thanksgiving we visited Ethan, enjoyed the city, helped him decide whether to renew his lease, saw some old friends, and really lucked out with absolutely gorgeous weather!

The other major change for us this year is that we’ve stopped buying electricity and gasoline! We bought a solar panel system (and water heating panel) and a Nissan Leaf electric car. It will take 10 years to break even and pay for the solar, and then we’ll have really free power ‘till the system needs replacing. But the Leaf has already started to pay for itself. Wendy drives it every day about 44 miles to get to work and back; there’s plenty of charge left for running errands in the evenings. We plan our weekend errands as well, so that we hardly ever have to use the gas car anymore. In fact, in 3 months, we’ve put over 6,000 miles on the Leaf. We really love the smooth quiet ride, and Fred loves the linear torque that is double a regular car, and the zero-to-sixty-in-8-seconds acceleration. We estimate it will save us $4,000/year in gas alone. Not to mention greatly reduced repairs since it has over 300 less moving parts than a gas car!

We hope things start to improve in the world in 2012, although we fear it might take much longer… In the meantime, let’s all be grateful for what we have, not the least of which are caring, supportive friends and family.

Love and peace to all,

Wendy, Fred, Regina, and Ethan

"Don't you have "RANGE ANXIETY" with your electric car!?!?"

People ask me if I like my new Leaf. I usually say something like: “Do I like not buying gasoline? -Uhm,… yeah”. Do I like the idea of using less oil, reducing pollution, slowing climate change, driving the solution to domestic energy independence, eliminating wars over petroleum, and working toward world peace? -“Sure”. Do I like saving $4,000 a year on fuel, and the fact that I will rarely have repairs since there are 300 less moving parts than a gas car? -“Oh yeah.” Do I like never having to check the oil, coolant, tranny fluid, or air filter, or have the oil changed or get emission tested, or even have the brakes done very often, since due to regenerative braking the brakes last five times longer than my old car? “Yes!” So, if you wonder whether I like driving a beautifully silent, rocket of a car that has twice the torque of the average car, no shift points, and does zero to sixty in 8 seconds, while being powered by free energy from my rooftop solar panels, I’d have to say, “Well,…Yes, quite a bit”.

Then they ask if I ever have “range anxiety”. I say: “Yes, I do”. I have range anxiety every time I get in any car. In fact, gas cars run out of fuel more often than my electric car. Every few days we have to watch the gas gauge closely and plan our day carefully and determine when and where we can stop for re-fueling, where as my electric car always has a “full tank” every morning, as well as anytime it’s been parked at home a while. All I have to do is make sure my destination isn’t over 50 miles, which has only happened one time in the 3 months and 6,000 miles we have on our Leaf so far. And on that occasion we just took our gas car.

Electric cars work. They work now, and they work well. They’re cost-effective already, and will get even better in the future. For now, and the foresee-able future, they work best for two-car families. Keep one gas car and replace one with an electric. That way, if you ever have to go more than 100 miles you can just take the gas car. That’s what I call a “hybrid” car lifestyle. The beauty of a pure electric and it’s simplicity of so many fewer parts and low maintenance, combined with an older, gas powered, paid-for gas car, that we don’t drive as much. We prioritize the use of the electric since it’s so cheap to drive (free for anyone with solar, and 3 cents/mile, worst case, if you’re buying electricity at the high-retail, “on-peak” price of 11 cents per kilowatt-hour. Compared to 15 cents/mile for the average gas car), and only take the gas car when we have to. For shorter trips when the electric is already busy somewhere on a longer run. Or for extra long trips, like vacations and such.

It’s all about “replacing miles driven”. Once we have some pure electrics, we need to drive the crap out of them (and will want to because they’re so fun to drive) in order to give them the opportunity to make a powerful, positive difference in our lives. If you’re considering a new car, check one out. But if you’re not, don’t test drive one,… ‘cus you’ll fall in love, and end up shelling out 25k for one, which won’t save you money in the short term, if compared to just keeping a paid-for car!

see also: http://fredbellows.blogspot.com/2013/05/do-you-like-tesla-model-s-would-you_16.html

America: Let’s work on getting our political rhetoric honed down to actual discussions again.

In expressing our views of politics in America, we tend to judge our leaders on who we feel they are, instead of what they do. This is a terrible mistake, because even if they are liars, or bad people, or very different than us, they still may be capable of making the best decisions for the over-all good of the country. And that’s really all we should care about. The biggest mistake we make as citizens is when we criticize our presidents for being who they are, and any things we don’t like about them personally, instead sticking to the facts and actions they’ve taken that may have affected our country and the way it’s run.

Don’t hate bush for being a simpleton, just because a lot of people like that about him, -it’s not really his fault. Hate him for something like starting bogus wars that killed hundreds of thousands, for giving our budget surplus away to the rich, for his heinous environmental record, or for making America far more partisan than ever before, etc.

Don’t hate Reagan for being a movie star, just because a lot of people like that about him, -it’s not really his fault. Hate him for something like doubling the deficit, Iran-Contra, taking down the solar panels from the White house, or the fact that his policy of supporting Islamicist insurgents against the Soviet-backed government of Afganistan led to the rise of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

Don’t hate Clinton for being smart, just because a lot of people like that about him, -it’s not really his fault. Hate him for something like “wagging the dog” and blowing up the aspirin factory during monicagate, NAFTA, Telecom 96, or his horrifically anti-environmentalist timber policy.

Don’t hate Obama for being black, just because a lot of people like that about him, -it’s not really his fault. Hate him for something like bailing out the car makers, or for obamacare, or for trying to raise taxes on the rich, or something specific that he has done, or says he will do, if he can, that you disagree with because you think it will be bad for the country over-all. And then rant about that. Not about how you feel like he’s an elitist because he looks smug when he smiles. Fuck that.

It’s our job as citizens to dissent, but let’s argue policy, not politics.

Humm, buzz, click...

Resistance is futile...
When I was in high school in the early seventies, we talked about the evolution of the modern man and how humans would someday become androids and be half human and half robot. We would have electronic brain-like devices on us that would help us do things like communicate with one another anywhere on the planet, including sending and receiving images and sound recordings, access the world’s collective database of knowledge on any subject in a few seconds, shop and order goods and services without leaving our chair, and other goofy shit that we also knew could never come true, but we liked to dream about the fantasy of such an idea, confident that if it ever could be, it certainly would not be in our lifetime. And,…hold on, I’m getting a text…

The Future of Mobile Computing

'Have you heard? There's yet another, new, computing solution device coming out (no, not the tablet), that offers a viable alternative to the current norm of having a big computer at home at your comfy desk, and another, portable computer, usually with you in your car or backpack, (and lately, another device - the tablet) and then, your smartphone, trying to “fill-in” some of your needs – if you remembered to sync it properly! This latest attempt to turn us into androids is the "dockable smartphone idea". Something we all knew would happen someday, but never imagined it would be this soon! Since the newest of smart phones are now as powerful as netbooks, and since most daily personal computing has come down to basic, simple tasks that any computer can handle, like documents, photos, music, and communication, why not just consolidate all of your computers into one, small but powerful, intimate, hand held device? A device with high-res graphics output, that plugs into your big monitor and keyboard and becomes your big comfy desk machine! And then, slides out of that dock, and into a portable screen/keyboard/battery “laptop dock” device as well?

Think of it, one powerful device, with a bright, responsive, 4” touchscreen, ultrafast processor, and 48 gigs of storage. Your whole computer, always with you. Always connected. Wouldn't it be nice to not have to worry about multiple machines, and how they're all doing, whether they need organizing, syncing with each other, or antivirus protection? Wouldn't it be nice to not have to wait for them to boot up, shut down, crash, or need updates? And wouldn't it be great to have all your files, photos, music, videos, and web bookmarks with you at all times (and not worry if your laptop is safe in your hotel room)? I’m ready!! The first example of this re-imagined personal computer goes on sale this week via AT&T. It’s “The Worlds Most Powerful SmartPhone” featuring a dual-1Ghz processor and a whopping 1 Gb of ram! It’s from Motorola, (not a surprise) a company that is probably the oldest and most famous for quality, innovative mobile communications. There’s also a “multimedia dock” that hooks up to your big TV for showing your photos, videos, and other content in HD resolution, using the included remote control! There’s even an “alarm clock dock” for your nightstand, and a “bathroom dock” that remembers which news streams you like to listen to in the morning. “What’s up, dock?”- “How ‘bout a little NPR Morning Edition?”- “O.K.!…Thanks Dock!”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4gpOQDcn7c

And, of course, each dock tops up the phone’s charge while it’s visiting. And, of course, the phone automatically switches to wifi when you’re home (or in any wifi zone) to save on your use of 4G data plan. When it docks as a computer, it launches a full version of Firefox for your browser, and if the phone rings while docked you can just use speakerphone or bluetooth headset. I played with this phone and it’s “docks” at CES for hours, and it pretty much ran just as fast as the netbook I’ve used for all my computing for the last two years (that I’m posting this with right now). One of the most impressive things about this product is how smoothly it handles being yanked in and out of docks. It never goofs up and drops your call or closes the apps you had open! And yet, while it does everything they say it will, it’s still not quite ready to replace our other computers just yet, in terms of pure speed and performance. So for those “early adopters” that try out this new “paradigm of personal computing”, I would suggest not giving away that old mac or pc just yet. However, it is the best smartphone out for now, and I believe it is the first example of the way we’ll be doing our ‘puting in the near future. Check it out at:

http://mediacenter.motorola.com/Fact-Sheets/Motorola-ATRIX-4G-Fact-Sheet-353b.aspx

http://www.techerator.com/2011/02/motorola-atrix-the-future-of-mobile-computing/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8sN3DnKaKM&feature=related

CES 2011 Summary

note: hit your back button after viewing the blue links as I don't know how to make this thing open them in a new tab for you :-(

CES 2011 was well attended. Almost too well attended. Fri and Sat felt like Times Square on New Years’ Eve! Even though there was 1.4 million square feet of show floor, there were also 140,000 attendees blocking my view of “tomorrow”. But I have 32 consecutive years of experience in navigating and elbowing, and so here’s what I saw:

3D TV. 3D TV. And more 3D TV. (boring! Imho) If 3D TV doesn’t become the biggest thing in consumer electronics (and I don’t think it will), all those exhibitors are going to look pretty silly in a few years having spent so much time and money on this dumb-looking fad.

Tablets. Tablets. Tablets. And more tablets. And a few more tablets. Remember the tablet PC that’s been out for years, were you could draw stuff with a stylus and all? Well Apple decided that we don’t want to draw, that we just want to touch and surf and stuff, as long as it’s thinner, lighter, and boots up fast. So, now that they’ve sold a lot of tablets, everyone else has a me-too version out there. Mostly all running on the Android operating system, and getting great reviews in comparison to the iPad in terms of performance, features, and price. The most popular of these are the Samsung and the Motorola. I don’t quite “get” theses tablets yet. I’m just really not sure it’s the solution to the future of computing. Casual surfing, maybe, but there’s no hard keyboard and the thing needs an easel to stand up. By the time you add those, you basically have a netbook again.

HOWEVER,--- The HOTTEST THING AT THE SHOW, may, indeed, be the future of personal computing!! It is simply a powerful smart phone, with enough speed and graphics resolution to dock at your desk, use a monitor/keyboard/mouse, and provide all of the computing performance we need on a daily basis (no video editing…yet). A dual-core, 1 Ghz processor running Android OS with 1 gig of ram and 48 gigs of memory, and it felt smoother and faster than my netbook that I’ve done all my computing on for the last year. The thing that makes this Motorola Atrix system so attractive is that they made the dock/undock process downright seamless. You can be on a phone call as you walk up to your desk, slide the phone in its dock, and the call instantly switches over to speakerphone, and the monitor displays whatever webpage or other app you were using last. THEN, as if that’s not enough, there’s a laptop-looking thing for it (which is really just a screen/keyboard/battery) that has a little dock on the back of it where you slide the phone into and you’ve replaced the need for a netbook as well! The phone by itself is easy to do most daily surfing on with a 275dpi 4"super responsive touchscreen. My favorite feature of it is the HDMI output cable you can plug into any HDTV and show all your photos and movies in HD (720p)! It comes with a remote control and the face of the phone even converts into a touchpad mouse to navigate through all the phones’ features while on the big screen. Your whole computer in your pocket (all backed up on ext. drives at home). It's what we all imagined would happen one day, but I can't believe it's here already! All your Word docs and spreadsheets with you at all times. All your music and photos and videos and web bookmarks and maps and contacts and email and texts and facebook and skype and calendar, calculator, voice recorder, camera, camcorder, barcode reader, wifi finder,…and , uhm… recipes. Imagine, all your recipes with you at all times! In HD!

I think this could be the total revolution/game-changer we’ve been dreaming of: No more Microsoft. No more big, hot, heavy computers that are always somewhere that you’re not. No more boot-up time!! Android is an open-source operating system. Google developed it when they saw the iphone becoming so big so fast that they were afraid it might become the next monopoly like Windows was for computers. And they were right. Thank goodness (and Google) Android has now become the largest OS in smartphones, and so there are just as many apps for it as there are for iphones. Competition is not just good, it is vital in a free enterprise system.

The Motorola Atrix phone (due out in a couple months) itself is a thin, big screen, every-feature smartphone that looks and acts just like an iphone but with more multi-tasking power, and no big-brother Jobs watching over you, limiting what you can do with it. I played with every app it has, including it’s Firefox browser for hours in the booth and it was so fast, I thought it was in wifi mode, but then I was told it was running on AT&T’s new "backhaul" network! -Welcome to the 21^st Century, Buck Rogers!

Roombas. Every major electronics company had their version of a robot vacuum. And they all looked just like a Roomba. This one, I understand, because these things really suck! (to use the vacuum business vernacular) We got a Roomba about a month ago, and I already can’t imagine being without it. It is really effective and hassle free. If you’re considering one before Feb 15^th, use savings code CES2011 and get 15% off, & free shipping, which nets down to $212.50.

Personal portable sound. My favorite topic. ‘Ever need a small, ultra-portable speaker system to play your tunes on, but everything you’ve tried sounds weak for how bulky it is? Get this. I mean, get this, don’t just understand this. It rocks! (promo code ces11 gets you 25% off for the next 2 weeks). Then, on the never ending quest for killer headphones I have three heart-felt endorsements: For high-end ($300), best-sounding-ever (possible orgasm-inducing), ultra-comfortable headphones consider the B&W’s P5’s. For high-end (~$240 street price) ear buds with 3 modes of active noise cancellation and a talk-thru feature (for when you want to hear someone quick without taking out your buds), check out Sennheiser’s CXC 700’s. And for mid-priced (~$70), very good ear buds with a tangle-free cord and ipod control, you’ll love Logitech’s new 500vi’s.

Still no talk about why music isn’t being sold on Blu-Ray Discs. ? A no brainer, if you ask me. The format is already there, why don’t they use it? 5 or 7.1 24 bit, HD audio at 96 kHz (or even 192 kHz). With supplemental video at 1080p. One disc concept for music and movies. Isn’t that what we’ve always wanted? It’s here. Let’s use it. Wouldn’t you re-buy some of your favorite old albums (Dark Side, etc.) if it was remastered on a heavenly sounding format, with some bonus video as well? The music industry is suffering terribly. This could totally re-vamp it. Why not try it??

There were some cool electric micro-cars there from GM/Segway/a china automaker that drove themselves. There was a Tesla Model S there. –‘Whatta car! That’s the $50,000 pure electric luxury sedan (pictured with us drooling in tent booth) that will be out next year with a 300 mile range. There was a GM VOLT there in the GE booth. That’s the plug-in hybrid that hopes to sell at over $40,000, and is a complete gas engine car, as well as a complete electric car, on the same chassis. Built by General Motors. Imagine what the incidence of repair rate that vehicle will have. And that’s the car that is supposed to save GM? ? We’re getting a Nissan Leaf, pure electric (expecting delivery any day now.- signed up for it in April!?) I wrote a little poem/rap thingy that I’m trying to memorize to recite at parties, etc.:

Pure electric cars are pure logic. Think about it.

No pistons, no valves, no oils, no salves. No gas tank, or transmission, no tail pipe, or Co2 emissions.

No radiator or hoses, no manifold, and no noises! No Gas Pump, Oil Pump, Water pump, or crankcase sump.

No air filter, oil filter, fuel filter or fuel injector. No piston Rings, spark plugs, ignition coils, or engine lugs.

No belts, no alternator, starter or regulator. No Backfiring, or dieseling, running rough, or tune ups.

No more water in the fuel tank, or rusted manifold bolts, no more broken muffler mounts, or big repair bill jolts.

No more stopping for gas, no more pain in the ass. 300 less moving parts, as dependable as a shopping cart!

Instead of going for emission tests, I think the electric car is best. Instead of 15 cents a mile for fuel that’s causing wars, it costs just 3 cents a mile for energy that can be made by the sun, or the wind, wave power, hydro power, nuclear or geothermal.

Sure, it only goes 100 miles ‘till you need to find a wall, but most days I go just 99 miles is all.

If I really need to cruise, like on over to LA, I just go visit Hertz, and rent me a Chevrolet.

‘Hope yall come around to my thinkin’, and stop spending your weekends tinkerin’, to try keep your gas car runnin’, just get an electric and start funnin’.

We need to save the planet for our kids’ kids, so let’s just start with something of ease, try a car that’s green and simple, I think you’ll find it’s a breeze!

There were other interesting things at CES 2011 including: bicycle-riding robots, 4-inch-cube PC’s, a well-thought-out cell phone panic button service, clip-on micro camcorders, cute Casio camera, fur lined sinks, and some dumb stuff too. I know I’m just a wild and crazy guy keeping track of all this silly stuff, but as Ron Popeil says: “if you can find a little device, at a reasonable price, and just set it and forget it…” And if it helps you through your daily life, or even just entertains you a bit, then it’s worth it. And the creator of the gadget feels fulfilled as well. So here’s to all the inventors, and to all the “early adopters” brave enough to step up and try these things out. May the circle never be broken (nor the gadget!)

Tea Partiers: I agree with you...

Tea Partiers: I agree with your desire to get our country back to fiscal responsibility. I understand that you feel that even our recent small amount of health care reform will add to the problem. But I don’t know why you are so extremely mad about it, and that it is all you can talk (or yell) about? You didn't get mad when the Supreme Court stopped a legal recount and appointed a President? You didn't get mad when, using a lie about WMD’s, Cheney illegally invaded a country that posed no threat to us, for access to oil. Or when we spent over $800 billion doing it, and killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqi’s.
You didn't get mad when Bush borrowed more money from foreign sources than the previous 42 Presidents combined, or when over 10 billion dollars in cash just disappeared in Iraq? You didn't get mad when a covert CIA operative got outed, or when we stopped trying to catch Bin Laden? And you didn't get mad when the Patriot Act got passed, the government was illegally wiretapping us, or even when you found out we were torturing people? You didn't get mad when you saw the horrible conditions at Walter Reed. You didn't get mad when Bush rang up 10 trillion dollars in combined budget and current account deficits, or when we let a major US city basically drown.
You didn't get mad when we gave our very richest few citizens, who had more money than they could ever spend, over a trillion dollars in tax breaks, and we didn’t hear you complain during the worst 8 years of job creations in several decades? You didn't get mad when lack of oversight and reduced regulations from the Bush Administration caused US Citizens to lose 12 trillion dollars in investments, retirement, and home values, or when over 200,000 US Citizens lost their lives because they had no health insurance. No,… you finally got mad as hell, when a black man was elected President and decided that people in America deserved the right to see a doctor if they are sick. - So, illegal wars, lies, corruption, torture, job losses by the millions, stealing your tax dollars to make the rich richer, and the worst economic disaster since 1929 are all okay with you, but helping fellow Americans who are sick...Oh, Hell No!! ??

re-condensed from author unknown