Jack -o- Lantern Family from Halloween 2011

Last year Joan and I tried our first double-decker jack-o-lantern. The goal was to have a nerd wearing a necktie. Overall I was pretty happy with it. I tried using a rotary tool for some parts, but I didn’t think it helped too much. We used some mesh in between the two pumpkins so that each level had it’s own candle.

Double-Decker Nerd Jack -o- Lantern

Watch this video on YouTube.

Death Valley Route from Pahrump

We stayed in Pahrump, Nevada (a little east of the park) the night before because there was more opportunity for cheaper gas and places to stay (Saddle West Casino).

Late December is definitely the time to visit Death Valley. The temperature was only 60°, excellent for exploring the desert and hiking around. Understandably, some of the hiking areas were kind of crowded, but we didn’t get to those until later in the afternoon after getting to Bad Water Basin. The lower portion coming in from Shoshone was very quiet.

After passing one of the first salt flats, we came upon a couple of coyotes. One of them was very curious and walked around the car to the driver side after we stopped. Hopefully they aren’t used to people feeding them, but it made for a nice photo op.

Death Valley

Presidentail $1 Coin

The US has had a poor relationship with the dollar coin. A few years ago George W signed a bill that required the production of the presidential dollar coins, greatly increasing the supply. The problem is that we continued to produce the paper dollar and few Americans wanted to make the switch to the coin.

The treasury needed to spend about $650,000 to build a storage facility to house the excess coins and about $3 million to transport the coins. So, Obama/Biden are going to greatly cut back on coin production.

Keep in mind, if the US made a 100% switch from the paper bill to the $1 coin, we’d save about $5.5 billion over the next 30 years. Sticking with the dollar bill is a huge waste of taxpayer money.

I had been happily getting dollar coins through the US Mint direct ship program. That program allowed you to get a $250 box of dollar coins without any shipping or extra costs. They are now charging $12.50 shipping and handling, further discouraging us from making the switch to the most cost-effective currency.

Ford GT

Joan and I stayed a couple of days in La Jolla (pronounced La Hoy-ya), which is just north of San Diego. It was a very nice town and a great place to hang out for a couple of days.

When we first arrived, I was a little discouraged because there are a lot of rich folks, and that usually means the downtown doesn’t have the stores and character I like. When we first got into town to grab some breakfast, I parked next to a Ford GT I only recognized because I recently “drove” one in my Need For Speed iPod game. Despite this $200,000 car and the myriad Porsches and Mercedes cruising around, we found breakfast at a nice spot selling bagel breakfast sandwiches and some awesome scones for what I thought were very reasonable prices.

Joan and I both really enjoy college towns like Davis, CA and Madison, WI because of the off-beat stores and lots of cheap eats. Sadly, there isn’t a Chipotle in La Jolla.

Those issues aside, La Jolla is a wonderful coastal town with great access to beaches. Right in the village there are some very small beaches and rocky shores where you can view seals and sea birds. A few minutes north and you can get to the Blacks beach, which is closer to to the UC San Diego campus and para gliding port. The beach there is large with lots of room for walking, running, and enjoying the sunset.

La Jolla, California

I’ve been seeing some ads for the new Scion (Toyota) iQ. It’s a cute little car similar in style to the Smart car. Looking up some info online, I learned that there will be a diesel version of the iQ sold only in Europe that gets about 65 miles per gallon. This fuel efficient iQ costs about £13,000 or $20,000. The US gas version, according the to the Scion web site, will get about 37 MPG.

I took a little side trip over to the Ford UK page for the Fiesta and there is a model of the Fiesta called the ECOnetic that gets about 75 MPG and sells for about £14,000 or $22,000.

The Volkswagen Up is another small car available to European consumers. It gets a combined 62 MPG and sells for about £12,000 or $18,600.

Kylan is a great local musician. Check out some of his songs at myspace.com/kylanjohnsonmusic and then consider paying in advance for his next CD by visiting his Kickstarter page.

Black Cat has had this protruding canine tooth for a few years that seems to be getting more prominent as time goes by. The other day the vet told us the tooth would need to be extracted since it was causing some inflammation that would likely lead to future problems.

Black Cat (aka Shadow) and "The Tooth"

Microsoft has had DreamSpark for a couple of years and it’s a great resource for student’s to get some software. One of the suites I recommend is Expression Studio. Expression Studio is kind of like Microsoft’s version of Adobe’s Creative Suite.

Instead of Dreamweaver, you can use Expression Web (formerly FrontPage). If you haven’t used this program in a while, it is quite nice, with the same types of features you’d get from the $120 Dreamweaver.

Money Under 30 posted an interesting article titled How Not to Suck at Applying for a Job. That got me thinking about some of the applicants I’ve seen in the most recent two years.

Why do you want this job?

I don’t want to hear that this new job is part of the natural progression on your career path. I DON’T want to hear that this job is the next step, and just seems like what you should do. I want to hear that you believe you’ll be great at this job and can help the organization by being hired. I want to hear that your skills and experience will benefit the organization more with the new job than with the current job. When you tell the interviewer that “this seems like the next logical step” you’re stating that the organization will help you without you helping the organization. If that’s the case, perhaps the job applicant should be paying the company.

What are one of your weaknesses?

This is such an old and classic interview question that anyone who seems dumbfounded by this question has labeled themselves as LAME. The most common dumb responses I hear are “I work too hard” or “I put in too many hours”. Of course, the applicant is trying to sell himself/herself. What they’ve really shown is that they didn’t plan for this most common interview question AND they haven’t done a self-assessment of their abilities. Working too hard is not a weakness so you didn’t answer the friggin’ question. If you know about yourself and the job in question, identify an area of knowledge or a skill that is tangential to the job you’re interviewing for. Explain that you don’t have it yet and explain what you’re doing right now to acquire the missing knowledge/skill. Then, follow up with a great thing you’ll be able to do for the organization once you add this new skill to your existing knowledge and experience.