venting

more like bitching...lol

so gas prices are soaring and god knows when and at what amount it will stop. from my house to work is about 23 miles, and i'm also required to take the tollway. of course, i can always take the lower roads and get to work in 2 hours rather than about 30mins on the tollway. i have to pass by 1 entry ramp and 2 toll stations. the entry ramp costs $1 and the each station costs $1.25 (total $2.50) for me because i have a toll tag, which reduces $0.25 each time i pass under it. technically, when i drive back home from work, i can take the lower roads to save money on toll. i did that for about a month or so but decided that the money saved wasn't worth all of the aggravation and stress of dealing with stupid and slow drivers on the road and countless stop lights/stop signs. each week, my car now takes about $43.00 to fill up, then plus $52 i spend on toll, totaling $95 a week that i spend...on just freakin' transportation! thank god i get paid weekly. my pay is decent...that's why i'm still willing to go that far for it...but this rising fuel cost is ridiculous. now, i wouldn't be complaining if we have an excellent public transportation system here, but we don't. this is texas...the public transportation here is a joke. if you don't have a car, you better get one if you want to work. i know that in european countries, gas prices are outrageous...measuring in liters rather than gallons (1 gallon = 3.785 liters for you non-metric people :P), but they also have a superb public transportation system so the people there aren't too worried about the high fuel prices.

i read in the news about alternative fuel. ethanol is already being used, but it won't be for long. ethanol takes up too much resources to make when compared to the amount of product you get from them. the main resources is land...as people start focusing more on growing corn for ethanol conversion, which then starts to take up land from other crops, causing food prices to soar...and that's exactly what's happening right now. if this continues, the world will experience more hunger and starvation. there's also, of course, hybrids that uses partly electricity. however, hybrid cars are way overpriced, which questions whether the amount of money on gas it saves you is more than the price difference between it and a regular car. also, the technology is still too new so if something happens, you can't just take it to your local mechanic and have them fix it; you'd have to take it back to the dealership, which of course costs a lot more, not to mention how much the parts would be. however, since the amount of hybrid autos is growing, it seems like electricity will be the next main fuel. i also read about a BMW car that runs entirely on water, producing H2 as waste product...if i remember correctly. now, what i'm wondering is is this some kind of specialized water? some type of treated water? enhanced water? or is it just tap water? i doubt it's just tap water because there are too many gunk as well as different ions in tap water. i'm sure it has to be some form of enhanced deionized water. another research unfolded claiming that they found a way to convert the carbons in our atmosphere (the thing we're trying to reduce) into energy. so pretty much the car will just use the pollution in the air as its source of energy. very interesting. but that technology, i figure, is still decades away from being applied to the market.

well, we'll see what will unfold in the future, but something has got to replace this depleting source of energy soon before it runs out completely...the black gold.

i'm starting to hate my little truck now. actually, i've always kinda disliked it but now it has gotten to the point where it's starting to really bother me, which are its crappy acceleration, shitty transmission, and no room in it for anything besides 2 people and about 2-3 small grocery bags. if i'm buying something big, it'd have to go in the bed. the gas mileage on it is also shit. for a V4 2.4L 154hp engine, it eats up a LOT of gas. its mpg is probably about 18/21. i'm currently looking at a 2008 nissan frontier, which has almost same engine capacity, and it's a king cab so i'll have some room behind my seat to put stuff back there. there are also smaller seats for more passengers. mpg is 19/23 but it has a bigger fuel tank than mine, 21.1 compared to about 13.1. it's also a little bigger than mine. its msrp is $18k so if i sell my truck and use that as down payment, then go for a 60mo. term, with hopefully low interest rate, i would be paying about $250/mo. so that's not too bad. but again, that's also another payment on my head that i don't really need right now, so i'll see about that. i really do want another car though. i'm sticking with a truck mainly because of the convenience and also because a lot of people here drive big cars...freakin' massive tanks...so if you drive a little car, you WILL get pushed around on the road. i test drove an 08 chevy silverado...geezus that thing is massive...mpg is 14/19...pffff fuck that shit. so i dunno...i have to see...i might just get it next year or something...i dunno.

well it's getting late so sleepy time :)