New York and Boston 2008

 Travel, Updates on ME!  2 Responses »
Jul 112011
 

Back in September 2008, I had this huge craving for clam chowda.  Back in January, I went to Boston with my buddy Russell to catch the Spice Girls concert (Tickets were well over $2000 in Vancouver and Russell went to college in Boston so he knows the city well).  That’s when I had my first taste of New England clam chowda.  After having that, it made me wonder wtf I was eating all these years, it was NOTHING like the real thing.  I couldn’t have chowder anywhere else afterwards.

So the chowda craving kicked in and I was bugging people to go back to Boston with me.  My friend Colleen took the bait but on one condition.  We go to New York first for a few days and drive up to Boston.  Well, that was that and we were on our way.  I wish I hadn’t gone to New York because it’s ruined a lot of food for me.  Cheese cake and pastrami sandwiches just don’t taste the same anymore.  In fact, to get the taste of NY Cheesecake, I went to Morton’s of Chicago in Vancouver and bought a whole cake for $150 a year later (They flew them in fresh daily from NYC).

It’s been 3 years since I took this trip so my memory is quite blurred.  Let me know if some of my descriptions are wrong.  I also apologize for the quality of the photos, I took them with a Canon SD750 and it has horrible low light capabilities.  This was also before I figured out how to geotag my photos.  I didn’t learn how to do that until my trip to China in 2010.  Anyways, enjoy…

 

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Does Watching My MPG Make Me A Bad Driver?

 Automotive, Rants, Updates on ME!  1 Response »
Jul 052011
 

I don’t know if this is true or not but I’ve noticed that I’ve picked up a lot of bad driving habits ever since purchasing my new Sonata and I believe it stems from watching my fuel economy.  Back when I was driving around in my sports car, red lights meant “alright, let’s race”…  Now that I’m driving a grown up car, it seems like red lights cause me to curse because now I have to slow down or even stop.

Why would that upset me in the Sonata and not in the MR2?  One word… well, more like an acronym…  MPG.  Ever since setting my gauge cluster to display my fuel economy, I’ve been obsessed with getting it lower (I think it’s because the Sonata’s fuel economy isn’t as good as I thought it was).  I’ve read a few hypermiling forums to see what some of the tips and tricks are to lower your L/100kms (I’m Canadian) and have applied them for a few months.  During these few months, I noticed that I’m a lot angrier when I drive.  One of the main techniques to increasing your fuel economy is slow acceleration and maintaining your momentum.  Where I didn’t used to yell and shake my fist at red lights, pedestrians and slow moving traffic… I do now.  All of those things cost you fuel economy, if you have to slow down, you will have to get up to speed again…. at a snails pace because rapid acceleration is bad.  I’ve noticed that I’ve been doing stupid things to maintain my momentum like tailgating, running late yellows, not slowing down before a turn, etc…  All of which are dangerous and I never did before I gave a crap about fuel economy….

I think I’m going to try this eco driving for another few tanks and go back to driving like I used to.  It’s a lot less stressful…  I mean is 12L/100km really that bad?

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