RWC + Classic Autos

--Note: This was written on 29 October 2011, thus "today" refers to that date, not the date of posting.--

Over the six weeks of the Rugby WorldCup I asked people what would happen if New Zealand did not win. Thefirst response was economic recession and an increase in familyviolence. Each additional person I asked gave the same response. Iassumed it was just a national joke, then I saw the sign. The otherday, I ran past a billboard sponsored by the New Zealand Policeurging Kiwis to “blow the whistle” on family violence. Apparently, when the All Blacks loose, there really is a surge infamily violence! Maybe that is true of all sports, but Rugby (andall other sports) are not worth it! It blows my mind, but thenagain, maybe that is why all the girls were dolled up for the finals,“you can hit me, or...”

Today, under the billboard was a yellow1978 Mini Clubman LE for sale (the billboard is in a field on Highway1 where people sell vehicles). I like the Volkswagen Kombi vans, andthe 70's era body style is decidedly the best looking. Perhaps theonly vehicle better looking than those vans is the classic Mini(maybe classic vehicle in my price range that is better looking...). The car is tiny, yellow and black (like my 1976 Schwinn Le Tour), andin good shape. I am feeling committed to living car free as long asI do not need one,but cars like that definitely make it hard for me to stick it out.

Psychiatrists

A frequent theme in the TV show Houseis that patients lie. Maybe not a theme, maybe a mantra of Dr.House's, that is usually part of the flourish that makes the showwork. Without the lie, the writers of the show would generally nothave the gotcha moment. I have no doubt that most patients do lie totheir physicians, after all, it is much easier to present the personwe want to be, rather than the person we actually are. While I havemuch to say about physicians, they are only slightly related to thispost.

A recent Science Friday was about themovie, book and case history source material of Sybil. I think I may have seen some clips of Sybil,but I have not watched the movie, or read the book. I also have notlistened to the Science Friday because listening to the people whocall into radio shows is like putting a cheese grater to myintellect, and I come out of listening to a Science Friday 3 IQpoints lower than going into it. So, full disclosure, I do notreally know what I am talking about when I refer to the specifics ofthe impetus for writing this post. Thus, I will attempt to notreference them very much.

In the ScienceFriday, apparently, psychiatrists and/or psychologists have theirknickers in a twist because some new analyses have been publishedabout Sybil (the person who inspired the story, not the movie). Further, the case is frequently used as an example of a mental healthclinician becoming too involved in a case, and lost objectiveassessment. This makes me wonder, does one necessarily wantobjective assessment in a mental health clinician?

Everyone wouldprobably benefit from talking to a psychiatrist (I will henceforthlump all mental health clinicians into one label, I will try to stickwith psychiatrist). Emotions are complicated, and often times we arelimited by who we feel comfortable talking to about our most complexemotions. Even still, I have no interest in speaking with apsychiatrist. How can I acknowledge the potential benefit, but haveno interest in engaging in some sort of therapy? I have ahypothesis, but no answer.

Imagine going intoa job interview, and telling the interview committee about yourselfin earnest. You would never get a job. They want to hear how wellyou can sell yourself, and the committee attempts to get a glimpse ofwho you are by analyzing how you present yourself. The committee isnot being honest with you either. The committee never starts theinterview with the problems of the company, and they dance aroundthem when you hit tender topics. I see going to a psychiatrist as avariation on the same theme.

I picture (though Ihave never done it) going to a person who will take loads of personalinformation about you, that clearly identifies you, then talking toyou about your problems. What are they doing? They are sitting overthere judging you! You have voluntarily given someone power over you(the opinion of a psychiatrist can affect your ability to obtainvisas, job offers, security clearances, etc.), then are both expected(from their perspective) and required (to get effective treatment) totell them the truth. Will this person act as an emotionally attachedfriend who wants the best for you? No, their goal is to maintainobjective assessment! Why would any sane person want to findthemselves in this situation?

Howmany movies have been created where the sane are assumed insanebecause they do not accept the benefit of telling/admitting theirproblems to someone who has power over them? Countless, I imagine. I know that people are more likely to talk to friends about someissues. I have some friends that I feel comfortable tellingeverything/anything to. Without them, I would be lost much more thanI am, but they are feeling their way through life with equaluncertainty as I, which is probably one of the reasons that I amattracted to their friendship. These friends are dear, and helpful,and committed to what is best for me, but, they do not know what theyare doing when it comes to assessing my true mental health, and theyare usually just as lost when it comes to what to do to findhappiness in life. So what about the other side? What if there wasa trained person who did not know you, kept no records, and only maderecommendations to you, i.e. no power over you, would you be likelyto tell them the truth?

I wouldn't.

Atfirst when I started wondering these things I began thinking about ascene in the movie Demolition Manwith Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes (my mind works this way, inabsolute honesty). In the scene, Wesley Snipes' character wants touse a public computer terminal that looks much like a payphone (Iguess they did not see smart phones coming). The terminal is in useby a person engaged in conversation with the computer where thecomputer is asking the person questions, and the person is lamentingthat lately they just don't feel happy, and doubts their self-worth. I think Snipes then throws them into a bush, which is a bit of funfor us to watch. In the dystopian universe of DemolitionMan it is unlikely that thiswould be anonymous, but it could be. My anonymous psychiatrist is aperson, rather than a computer, but operates in much the same way. Iwonder if I would talk to this person, and while I think I would bemore likely to talk to a person who was anonymous, I still probablywould stick to silence.

Once every twoweeks or so Wayne walks through my building. Wayne is an employee ofa contractor who provides support to employees. Apparently, one mayspeak to Wayne about anything, confidentially. GNS provides thisservice to keep employee's “happy.” I am too cynical to see itthat way. I see it as GNS sending a goon around to spy on theemployee's mental health, so I generally try to politely avoidtalking to Wayne.

Wayneis the anonymous psychiatrist! He is the service that I imagine, heis the human version of the Demolition Mancomputer. Yet my base assumption is to not trust him with mytroubles. I do not trust him becausehe is interested, yet not invested. In the same way that I do nottrust the psychiatrist. Which means I will only trust someone withmy emotions who is emotionally invested in me, which, for me,invalidates the entire ethos of the psychiatric profession.

Spreadsheets and Climate Data

I enjoy creating spreadsheets. I likeseeing data organized, and I like to compare the numbers in ways thatgive me new understanding, or quantify what I may have felt like Ialready knew. I currently have two spreadsheets active “just forfun.” I will share one here, the other is a work in progress (I amconverting lights in my home to compact florescent lights to savepower, and I am quantifying how much power I am saving, this activityis limited by budget and availability). The spreadsheet I will shareis climate data for Taupo, Vancouver and Seattle.

The motivation for comparing climatedata for these three cities is that in the two months I have been inTaupo, it seems that the weather in Seattle and Vancouver isgenerally better than the weather I have experienced here. Thisobservation was met with a cacophony of arguments by my coworkersrejecting my sound observations of the weather. Some of theseco-workers have lived in Vancouver, or Cascadia. Some have onlyvisited, but they all agreed that Taupo has great weather, andSeattle and Vancouver have insufferable weather. The only thing thatcan be done in such situations is to get on Wikipedia, find someclimate data, and prove a large group of people wrong.

Taupo has terrible weather. Were thisan academic paper, it would be entitled; “An analysis of climatedata for Vancouver, Canada, Seattle, USA, and Taupo, New Zealand toassess favorability for habitation and bicycle commuting.” Afterthe location maps, the first figure that showed climate data would bereferred to as something like this: “While Seattle, the Vancouverairport (YVR), and the Vancouver central business district (CBD) haverainier months than Taupo, climate data suggest that Seattle andVancouver have either comparable climates to Taupo, or better, i.e.Taupo has terrible weather (Fig. 1).” I would normally want toleave it at that, enough said, but in order to celebrate howfantastically correct I am, I'll continue to belabor the point.

Figure 1:  Taupo has terrible weather.

First, a bit on how I went about this,other than copying data from Wikipedia. The value I initially wantedwas the number of days that it rains in each city, but it seemswhoever compiled the climate data for Wikipedia for Taupo lacked thisinformation. In fact, they seem to have lacked a great deal ofinformation. Owing to the fact that I am lazy, or do not reallycare, or something along those lines, I have not attempted to findmore complete data. I decided that three numbers could capture theclimate, average daily high by month, average daily low by month, andaverage daily precipitation by month. Today it occurred to me thataverage wind speed (while riding straight into strong winds) would bea useful addition, oh well. Next, I reorganized the months by wintersolstice, whereby month 1 is January in the Northern Hemisphere, andJuly in the Southern Hemisphere, and month 12 is December in theNorthern Hemisphere and June in the Southern Hemisphere. Finally, Iplotted a scatter plot with all of the data. Then, the fun began(the “fun” being realizing how right I was, the traditional funstarted with opening Open Office Calc).

All three cities have a similar amountof seasonality when it comes to temperature. Taupo tends to have thehighest average daily high. The daily low is closer, but frequentlylower in Taupo. For the bicycle commuter, this is an importantnumber. I rarely commute during the hottest part of the day, thoughI do often commute to work before the sun has heated the air, and thenight's cold is still lingering in the gullies along my route. Thus,for the bicycle commuter, the lowest lows are not made up for by thehighest highs. Further, for favorability for habitation, I wouldargue that while an outside temperature of 72 is probably ideal, anarrow temperature range is also very important. Given two cities,one with a high of 87 and low of 57, and one with a high of 65 andlow of 55, I would take 65 and 55. A third city with high of 90 andlow of 80 would also be more favorable than the first city. Theaverage temperature in the first city is an ideal 72, but at almost90 during the heat of the day residents will want to be wearingshorts, running fans or air conditioners, and drinking a coolbeverage on a shady veranda at noon. In the mornings, evenings andnights the temperature drops below sixty, and the residents will wantto wear long pants and a jacket, running heaters in their homes, andcuddling under blankets at night. This means that they have to carrya change of clothes to be comfortable, and pay to both heat and cooltheir homes. In the second and third cities, the residents plan on atemperature, grab a jacket, or an ice water, and go about their day. In this way, both Seattle and Vancouver have nicer temperatures thanTaupo.

Perhaps the most important number isprecipitation. Rain can be dressed for, much like any other weather. It can feel oppressive, but like anything else, a little priorplanning, and you can be reasonably comfortable in the rain. Vancouverites have to deal with the most rain overall, andSeattleites the least. In both of those cities, residents can expectmonths 1, 10, 11 and 12 to be rainier than in Taupo. Vancouveriteshave to deal with the rainiest month 2 as well (Seattle and Taupo tiefor second). For these four/five months, it is much rainier. TheSeattleite and Vancouverite must plan for rain most days. They will,accordingly, adjust their attire to a winter wardrobe. The residentof Taupo must have the wet and dry wardrobe ready throughout theyear! During months 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 (the majorityof the year) the Kiwi will endure more rain, and, like the other fivemonths, must have at the ready wet and dry weather clothing!

This post may comeacross as very negative, but it is not necessarily meant to be so. Idid not ever feel that the weather in Seattle or Vancouver was“terrible,” it was difficult to go from sun everyday, to cloudymany days, but it was not terrible. The use of the world terrible ismostly in response to my co-workers' indignant, “Vancouver (and/orSeattle) has terrible weather.” Thus, if the Pacific Northwest hasterrible weather, then it follows that Taupo has terrible weather,since it is worse here. Kiwis need not worry though, because theydefinitely have Ketchikan beat.

Rugby World Cup

I am at home writing.  While I do this, 4 of 5 residents of Taupo (Taupons?) are down the street for the Rugby World Cup (notably being played in Auckland, not down the street).  It is a big deal here.  Rugby may seem like just football with no forward passes, but it is like hockey in Canada - basically more popular than heroine in a methadone clinic.  I can hear every single play from the crowd's reaction.

I walked around a bit to check it out, and see if I could spot someone I knew to be social for a bit.  I was unsuccessful at running into someone, and in finding something to keep me out on the town.  Most people are enjoying the festivities in groups where the women have worn trendy, revealing outfits fitting of clubbing to entice their blokes, and their men have worn All Blacks jerseys and jeans, the average Tuesday attire.

The Best Cars, or Some Good Ones Anyway

I have driven most of the vehicles atwork now, in addition to driving all of the personal, rental and workvehicles I have encountered in the past, and it seems that I canmakes some generalizations after years of driving. I could just laydown the generalizations, but that would not be much fun to write,and it certainly would not be much fun to read. I will start withthe oldest observation, I do not like Toyotas.

I know, I know, Toyota lovers areaghast with disbelief. I liked my parent's 1981 Toyota CorollaWagon. It had the loveable early '80s squariness, it was fuelefficient, it was utilitarian, and, though I have not confirmed theprice, it probably had a utilitarian price tag, which, along withquality, is one of the ways that the Japanese automakers surpassedthe Big Three. It is true that the quality thing seems to remain intoday's Toyota cars, which is a definite plus. However, new Toyotasare dripping with sleek lines, but they are not sleek. The interiorsare constructed of so much cheap ugly plastic that it feels like youcan start sympathizing with Barbie, waiting inside of disposablepackaging on your way to your destination. I do not like that Toyotahas linked off-road and towing capabilities with luxury fittings onthe inside (e.g. leather seats). I also do not like how the startermotors sound. That may be petty, but I do not like it. I dislikethe sound of Chevrolet starters even more, they kind of sound liketurning a running car over mixed with fingernails on a chalkboard. Lastly, I do not like the price tag that Toyota has inflated the costof their vehicles to. When I was last shopping for cars, a similarlyloaded Yaris and MINI Cooper were the same price. The Yaris might bea better car, but I simply cannot justify $20,000 on a Yaris.

It will come as no surprise that Idislike Chevrolet/GM/GMC/Pontiac. They all suffer from the GMstarter motor issue, but I take issue with their aesthetics too, allof them. I cannot think of a GM product that I have looked at andthought, “I like the looks of that car.” The new Camero isn'tbad, but the reverse lights are terrible. It is as if the architectsdrew up the plans, they got approved, the engineers started buildingthem, realized there were no reverse lights, and stuck in the middleof the bumper. Had they simply duct-taped a flashlight to the trunkit would have at least been unique, but they didn't.

Hondas are okay, but too expensive forwhat you get (if I was buying a new car tomorrow, I might test drivea Civic hatchback). The Suzuki Swift is super cute, and the SX4Crossover is a practical all-wheel drive, and good to look at. Nissans, I despise. The trucks suffer from tremendous body-roll, Iwould rather try to turn around a 14' raft with a teaspoon afterrealizing I was about to go over Niagra Falls, than make a U-turn ina Nissan on a busy street, they are designed with a face made forradio, and, like many of their fellow countrymen, they are expensive. What solidified my dislike of Nissans was the Nissan Pulsarfive-door hatch. The driver, owing to the position of the seat,steering wheel and pedals, sat at a 5 degree angle to the car. Terrible!

I like Ford trucks. I might argue thatFord is the only company (saving maybe the Land Rover Defender) stillmaking a work truck. Ford's cars are decent. I like the new Fiesta,but the branding is tragic (I would have a hard time buying aFiesta). They are not “greatcars,” but my Ford Ranger had less unscheduled maintenance in thefirst 100,000 miles than my parent's Subaru, so they might not be badcars either.

Subarumakes a great all-wheel drive system. Probably as good as Suzuki's,Ford's, and most other company's, but it is not as good as VW's. Sorry Subaru, I have driven a VW van that was more capable off-road,and as fun to drive as every Subaru I have been in. I will say thatthe VW van had as much road noise as the Subaru (deafening), but tobe fair to VW, it was a cargo van, and all of the sound dampeningmaterial had been removed behind the front seats.

I havea crush on small hatchbacks, and no one does them better than theEuropeans. I like the Fiat 500, BMW 1 series,Volkswagen's Rabbit (RIP, the nearly identical Golf just is not assweet) and GTI, and the Volvo C30 is beautiful. Seat, Renault andSkoda have some acceptable cars. Peugeot has the decent looking 308,and made a hatchback with a sliding door, which is beyond words, eventhough it was kind of ugly. The top of the list for European cars isthe MINI. It is not perfect. Sometimes sitting in a MINI I have anincredible urge to touch something made of a natural material, buttheir plastic is vaguely nicer than other plastic cars (if I were tobuy a MINI without budget constraints it would have a wooden steeringwheel, an option they may no longer offer, -tear-).

Koreancars remind me of the Toyota of the 1980s. Decent to look at, greatrunning, kind of crappy interiors, and a price tag fitting for thereliable, no frills vehicle they are selling to move a family orcommuter around for years to come. The Hyundai and Kia of old weretrash, but the new ones seem great. I challenge any Toyota (Subaru,Honda or Lexus) dedicated owner to get into a Hyundai of the sametrim level and make a compelling argument that their car was worththe extra money. It seems to me that the Koreans are doing to theJapanese what the Japanese did to the Big Three all those years ago.

Lotsof cars did not make the list, but here are the promisedgeneralizations. I like Ford Trucks. They are the best trucks, iffor no other reason than they make a work truck, and if your truck isnot for work, buy a station wagon. I like European cars, and do notlike Japanese cars. Everything else is somewhere in the middle. There are, of course, European cars I do not like, and American andAsian cars I do.

Theastute reader and lover of Japanese cars may be upset that Ispecifically mention liking Suzuki autos, but dislike Japanese cars. Here is the rub. When I sit in a Suzuki, it feels Korean, in thesense that it feels like a Japanese car in every way, except theprice tag was set at the value of the vehicle, not the value of thevehicle plus hefty advertising. Suzukis feel like Korean cars, andthat is a good thing...

But,the swift just isn't a MINI.

Alice in Wonderland

I started reading Alice in Wonderland on my phone while waiting for something to happen (I do not recall what).  Progress has been slow, as I have not spent a lot of time sitting in waiting rooms alone lately.  I started reading it because I was curious about e-readers, and it seemed handy to have a book on my phone.  Progress in Walden has also slowed owing to my working lunches of late.  On the bright side, LOTR continues to progress at a reasonable pace for a bedtime book.  I anticipate my reading will increase once Sarah departs on Wednesday, which I suppose might be a bit of sweetness, but I am not looking forward to it in the slightest.