Buying a Car Part I... The Migrane Begins

Does is always have to be stressful? We, OK my wife spends two weeks with the internet sales manager at Desert Dodge in Las Vegas going over the perfect Dodge Caravan. We go in, custom order it and it's done right? Uh, no. My wife calls back and asks why she didn't see the stow and go seating and the power doors that open and the press of a button. Well, those only come on the Grand Caravan and those are about 10 grand more than the caravans for a new one.

Crud. Well, what about used ones? So this poor lady, Lilly spends the next week or so tramping though the car lot hunting down every used Grand Caravan to find what my wife wants. Easy right? Uh, no. This one has too many miles, that one does not have the dual zone climate control. Finally Lilly finds a Grand Caravan and a Town and Country that might do the trick. Each has an issue. The Town and Country costs too much and the Grand Caravan has a bench seat for the passengers rather than the captain's chairs she wants.

So we drop off the kids at the family a few doors down (forgetting to bring spare diapers for our two year old) and rush off to the dealer again to see her jewels, ummm minivans. We test drive both of them and my wife loves the Town and Country, it has the low miles the DVD, ran,t moan, bleh. But it's too much right? Well my wife has been scheming for two days to get the money for a down payment and she's got a plan... So we choose to get the Town and Country.

Stay Tuned for Part II

When in doubt

Use the shotgun approach. Don't like the tack Christians take in a debate? Call them neocons, fundies, the radical right etc., and thus win the arguement! Why? Because we all know that them neocons etc., are EVIL and as soon as you get lumped into that group all your rights to have a discussion disappear into thin air! Don't believe me? Just go to any discussion where Christians are involved and then wait for the attacks.

Balancing Act

That's my life right now, a giant balancing act. I get to juggle work, school, family etc etc etc...
It can get frustrating considering all the late hours doing homework, time away from home to go to class, the money spent on tuition ($500 for 2 classes) books etc...
But I'm getting close, I'm down to about 12 classes left before I get my degree in English and can begin teaching. I'm seriously considering becoming a substitute teacher so that I can get some real experience before I graduate, not to mention a schedule that will make it easier to take classes other than online or at night.

Wish me luck, I'm going to need it... :)

All or Nothing

One of the disturbing trends I've noticed in many discussions, well cyber-shouting matches, is this concept of all or nothing.

This concept means that it's 1 or 0 black and white. You're either with us all the way or you're the enemy. There's no room for discussion with all or nothing because there is nothing to discuss. The problem with this is that you can reach any sort of compromise and in real life it means that you can't get as many people as you like on your side because you only want people who agree with you 100% of the time.

Let me give you an example. Recently I was involved in a discussion of gay marriage. One gentleman who is gay subscribed to this all or nothing mentality. To him you were either 100% for gay marriage or you were a homophobic bigot. To him, civil unions, domestic partnerships etc. were not good enough because they treated gays like second class citizens even though gay couples would then have all the rights that my wife and I have as far as tax breaks etc. In addition he demanded that anyone of faith accept without question that nothing gays did in bed were immoral. Needless to say he gave people no wiggle room and I was sad because there are people who would stand with gays on certain issues and not others. Things like hate crimes, stopping the spread of AIDS in the gay community etc... But for him it was, you guessed it, all or nothing...