What's not to trust? - Vehicles as billboards

I frequently visit San Diego's Mission Valley, as it has lots of dining and shopping options, and also good places for exercise walks. Oh, and it's also reasonably close to home.

Now, for quite a while I've been noticing in that area vehicles being used as billboards, but a new one (for me) that I saw today was the impetus I needed to take photos and write an entry here.

(All phone numbers displayed on vehicles intentionally blurred to protect the guilty.)

That vehicle was this:
Now does that inspire trust or what? Eh? Eh?

Sheesh. I did a double-take when I initially drove past this and just had to go back and get the photo. (It was parked close to the southeast corner of this intersection.)

And after taking that first photo I was reminded of the variety of vehicle as billboard that I have been seeing for quite some time in Mission Valley. Which is this:
I seem to recall once reading somewhere (don't recall just where) a comment about this van that went along the lines of: "What's the deal here? Get in the van and five minutes later you're divorced?" Indeed.

When I took that last photo, parked just ahead of it was this:
At least this is a real nice paint job! (619 is one of the phone area codes in San Diego area. I can only assume that is related to the use here.)

And here is a view of both of these last two vehicles, which were parked next to the building seen in this Google Maps view):
A little later I checked another corner that I have previously seen billboard vehicles at and found another "Fast Divorce", which was almost at the southwest corner of this intersection):
I don't know about anybody else, but these "Fast Divorce" billboard vehicles have always given me a slightly sleazy impression.

About those "Single?" lawn signs

Came upon this today - An investigation into what's up with all those "Single?" lawn signs you may have seen. (They're everywhere!) Specifically, it deals with who is behind them.

Surprisingly interesting.

License Plate Watch 39

Seen today on a Mercedes-Benz C240: "ISLRE4U"

Hmmm, that was a stumper at first. Then I decided to simply run a search on "islre." Which led to this page, and the indication it is some sort of code for "Lactobacillus reuteri."

So, new search for "Lactobacillus reuteri." Which led to a list of many sites selling related products and many sites dealing with trials of of products that use this "...bacterium that naturally inhabits the gut of mammals and birds."

I think this is likely the longest License Plate Watch post I've written to date. Of course this all assumes that code page I found does indicate the meaning of the "ISLRE" but considering the entire plate, I think it's likely the owner of the car is involved somehow with a product that uses Lactobacillus reuteri.

License Plate Watch 38

Seen today on a Dodge Stealth: "KNOT C ME"

What's a little spooky...

...is hearing sirens in the before-dawn darkness.

(As I have been just now.)

Comic-Con 2008 - Fourth day

Arrived at the Convention Center around 9:00 AM, and before entering powered up my camera and was astonished to see it displaying a message to the effect of "Can not record". Powered off, opened the door for the storage card, and yep, it was not there. After my head exploded from that shock, I realized what had happened. The evening before I had decided to copy to my computer photos I had taken of the Con up to then, in order to use them as memory aids while I typed up preliminary blog entries. So, after I had done that copying and removed the card reader from the computer, I had simply kept the card in the reader.

I did some thinking about where near the Convention Center I could purchase a new card. I walked the four or so blocks to the Longs Drug Store at Horton Plaza, and obtained there a 1-GB card for less than $20. Not bad.

First panel I went to Sunday was another one for DC Comics -- DC Nation: One Weekend Later. My interest here being the promise of a major announcement. Dan DiDio was again the moderator, but this panel was mostly composed of DC editors and managers. The hour was composed of reviewing the DC panel's that had occurred earlier and a questions-and-answers session. The big announcement? That Neil Gaiman is writing a Batman story. Sweet.

Also went to an annual Comic-Con Sunday event: Starship Smackdown. Like the annual events I wrote about in the post for Comic-Con third day, I've also never been to this before, so no clue from the description in the program exactly what might occur. This deals with what is the best starship, so I had thought that perhaps there would be computer generated videos of famous starships battling each other.

Not so much. What this turned out to be was the nearest thing to anarchy I saw the entire Con! Firstly, a list of 10 well-known starships was written down on a white board. Six more starships were needed on the list, which was thrown to the audience, and that's when things started getting wild. Names of other starships being shouted out, the moderator and panel accepting or rejecting (for all kinds of reasons) them, boos and cheers from the audience for the decisions.

The moderator and panel then began discussing which of each pair of starships (as written down on the whiteboard) would be the survivor in a battle, all to more shouting, booing, and cheering from the audience.

After the first round dropped half of the starships, the moderator introduced a random element to add to the remaining starships: a captain for each one. Names of 20 captains had been written on slips of paper and were pulled out of a hat one the panelists had worn. Included in the first seven captains selected were: Captain Merrill Stubing of "The Love Boat", and the Captain and Tennille. The audience loved those. For the final captain, the moderator read out the names of all remaining captains and asked the audience to select which one to use by cheering. And the selection was: Cap'n Crunch! Good times, good times.

Now, for the first time ever, the Smackdown had another panel running immediately after it, so the moderator was for the first time did not have the luxury of allowing discussion and voting on which starship survives each battle to run long, and had to press the panel to finish in the allotted time.

The final decision on victorious starship was: the Star Wars Imperial Star Destroyer, as captained by James T. Kirk!

Here are my fourth day photos.

Comic-Con 2008 - Third day

I had written before about intending to not go to Comic-Con on the Saturday, but after thinking about it, decided the key to having a good Saturday experience there is to not go in the exhibit hall. I recalled being in the exhibit hall on a Saturday was the real source of horrors, from the frequently non-moving monstrous masses of people in the aisles to the huge piles of trash not being collected. So, closest I got to it on Saturday was entering and exiting the building via the lobby areas

First panel I went to Saturday was an annual event I have not seen before, Quick Draw!

The idea is that three cartoonists draw cartoons on the spot, very quickly, based on topics given them by the moderator, with the cartoons being displayed simultaneously for the audience on three large screens as they are being drawn.

So, the participants were:

• The moderator, Mark Evanier, a comics and cartoons writer and historian.
• And the cartoonists:
• Sergio Aragonés - Well known as a long-time cartoonist for Mad Magazine. (Though that is by no means all he has done, as can be seen at the link.)
• Scott Shaw! - (Apparently he uses the exclamation point as part of his name.) A comics artist and writer for many years, he also has experience in cartoons. He demonstrated the cartoons experience during this Quick Draw.
• Mike Peters - The relative new kid on the block in this group, he is known as both an editorial and comic strip cartoonist.

This was a wonderfully very funny time.

The best way I could find to organize the Quick Draw photos was to post them up by the topics that I recalled (should have taken notes of the topics!), then link here to each topic. So, here we go:

• Bad Decisions by Popeye
• The Incredible Hulk as President
• Why You Don't Bring an Elephant to Comic-Con
• Things Not to do with King Kong
• Worst Costume YOU have ever worn
• Worst Costume you've seen at this Comic-Con
• New Jobs for Iron Man
• You as Batman
• Guess the words A word of explanation for this topic. It involved the moderator pulling a person out of the audience, then having three words displayed while the person's back was turned to the screens. The person than guessed the words based on cartoons illustrating the words. These sequences were especially funny.
• Aragones - Don't Do That And again a word of explanation for the topic. From time to time throughout the Quick Draw, the moderator would say "Sergio, don't do that", at which point Aragones would do a cartoon of something that should not be done. The last of these had the condition the cartoon include a pig.
• Shaw - Draw Hanna-Barbera characters
  For this the moderator would from time to time give Shaw a string of names of Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters to draw. Shaw had worked for that studio in the past; he drew the head of each and every character whose name he was given.
  

Second panel for me on Saturday was DC: A Guide to Your Universe. This was moderated by Dan DiDio, senior VP and executive editor of DC Comics, and the panel was composed mostly of a boat load of DC writers. This was basically general chatter about the current state of DC Comics and what is in the works for the rest of the year and early next year. They also answered lots of questions from fans.

And my third event for Saturday was another annual happening I went to for the first time: Oddball Comics. This is presented by the same Scott Shaw! who was part of Quick Draw earlier in the day. He explained he owns a large collection of comic books from years past that have very strange covers, and each year he presents slides of a selection of them, based on various themes he selects. This was a hilarious show, the comics covers he showed were absolutely wild!

I'm uncertain why, but I took no photos of the slides during this, though now that I think about it, I think it might have been possible to get decent photos without using the camera's flash.

But, as Shaw announced at the end of the show, he does run a web site where these covers can be explored: Oddball Comics.

And here are photos from the third day.

Comic-Con 2008 - Second day

First panel I went to Friday was for Batman: Brave and the Bold, a new cartoon coming out this fall on Cartoon Network. I was curious how it might be dealing with Batman in a way that might be unique.

The panel was comprised of producers Sam Register and James Tucker (Tucker seems to be the big ideas guy for this cartoon), writer Michael Jelenic, director Brandon Vietti, voice director Andrea Romano, and voice actor Diedrich Bader, who does the voice of Batman in this cartoon.

The new take on Batman being done in this instance is:

• Does not take place in Gotham City.
• Does not use Alfred.
• Does not use Commissioner Gordon.
• Does not use Robin.
• Has Batman teaming up with generally lesser known DC heroes.
• Has Batman fighting against generally lesser known DC villains.
• Does not take a dark tone, as it needs to be child friendly.

A very entertaining video was shown of short clips from the cartoon.

Also went to Spotlight on Connie Willis. I've enjoyed many of her novels, so definitely wanted to see and hear her at this.

She was first given one of Comic-Con's own achievement awards, the Inkpots.

She then talked about what she is currently is working on, especially a novel that she has had in the works for more than 10 years, All Clear, and is hoping to have wrapped up and on the way to her editor within 4 weeks.

She also talked about other writing she has plans to do, a couple stories and then a novel.

She then took questions, which got her talking at length about her passion for history and incorporating it into her science fiction, about writing comedy science fiction, and other topics.

Here are my second day photos.

Comic-Con 2008 - First day

Attended three panel discussions.

The Gene Roddenberry Legacy: Roddenberry in the 21st Century

Hosted by Gene Roddenberry's son Rod, with Trevor Roth, COO of Roddenberry Productions, and Paul Keller, editor of a feature documentary that firm is creating, Trek Nation.

Discussed Gene Roddenberry's philosophy, that he imbued it into everything he did in television, and how Roddenberry productions is bringing it into the 21st century. In addition to talking about the documentary, also discussed two web-based comics that are hosted by Roddenberry.com, Gene's Journal and Rod and Barry.

And to wrap up the hour, they revealed a large object that had been sitting in the front of the room covered during the session: a functioning replica of the captain's chair from the original Star Trek series. It was announced this chair would be given away to Roddenberry.com's member of the year.

30th Anniversary Battlestar Galactica Panel

Hosted by Richard Hatch, who was Captain Apollo on the original Battlestar Galactica ("BG" for the rest of this post), and Tom Zarek on the current version. With Bear McCreary, music composer for the current series; Tom DeSanto, a producer who had been involved with development of a proposed BG series that would have been a continuation of the original series, and Dr. Kevin Grazier, science consultant for the current series.

Interesting discussion of both the original and current versions of BG. Included a development video for the proposed series mentioned above. It was explained the story would have taken place 20 years after the end of the original series, with the humans believing they had evaded the Cylons permanently, and having given up the search for Earth to established a successful new colony.

There was also a very funny video from Bear McCreary spoofing his role as music composer for the current series.

Science Fiction That Will Change Your Life

Hosted by science fiction blog io9.com. Panel was composed of three of io9's editors, Annalee Newitz, Graeme McMillian, and Charlie Jane Anders; and author Austin Grossman, and Patrick Lee, editor of Sci-Fi Wire.

The panelists each spoke at length about works of science fiction that had inspired them to change perceptions or how they approach life.

Here are my photos from the first day.

Comic-Con 2008 - Preview Night

Arrived by trolley at the Convention Center a little after 5 PM for Preview Night to find truly monumental lines of people outside the building. Which startled me because I recall the last Preview Night I went to, a couple years ago, I went straight into the building and fairly quickly got through the process of getting my badge.

So, I went with others I had been on the trolley with to find the end of the line, which took some doing, as the lines were very confusing; they just seemed to be going all over the place. Eventually a security person was found who was saying "End of the line here! End of the line here!"

And I proceeded to shuffle forward a few feet every three or four minutes. Until a little after 6 PM, when all of a sudden the line started moving continuously forward at quite a brisk pace. After that it was a matter of just a few minutes to get my badge and then be in the exhibit area to start looking around.

As I've been typing this up, it's occurred to me what the change in policy for Preview Night between 2006 and 2008 must have been. In 2006 if you got your badge before 6 PM, you then had to wait in the lobby areas of the exhibit area until 6 PM to get in the actual exhibit area. (As I recall, the doors were actually opened at least 10 minutes late.) Which meant the lobby areas got very, very crowded. I'm thinking that between Convention Center management and Comic-Con management it must have decided that was unacceptable and Preview Night procedures were thus changed to start badge processing and open the exhibit area all at the same time, thus allowing a smooth flow of people into the exhibit area.

The highlight of the evening was purchasing the two books that have been produced by the creator of the web-based comic Octopus Pie, Meredith Gran, and getting a sketch and signature in each of them done right there and then by the artist herself! Very nice.

Here are my Preview Night photos.

Huh?

Arrived at the San Diego Trolley system's station at Qualcomm Stadium a little after 8:30 AM today to take the ride to the Convention Center for the first day of Comic-Con.

This station is elevated above the Stadium's parking lot, which basically means one can possibly park under the structure of the station itself. I've gotten into the habit of doing so under the eastern section of the structure. But when I approached that area this morning, I was waved off by security guards, which was the first surprise. So, I went around to the western section to park and proceeded into the station.

Next surprise was after purchasing a trolley boarding pass for the four days of Comic-Con. I spotted several police SWAT officers exiting their vehicle, which had parked under the western area of the station's structure.

I then spotted several men walking away from the station to a position where they lined up and each placed his hands on top of his head with fingers interlaced, a position I equate with the person being arrested.

So, I'm wondering: What is going on here?

I glanced back towards the men 2 or 3 minutes later and saw all of them drop their hands from their heads, walk over to another spot, and then huddle up for what was obviously some sort of discussion.

That's when the light came on: This must have all been some sort of police training exercise!

Bad Practice

Earlier I had a bad computer moment. I was running Google Reader, and within had clicked on one of my subscriptions that was showing 3 new items. I then turned to my bed and picked up some finished laundry that needed to be put away. At that moment, music started playing from my computer's speakers. YIKES! Very startling!

Dropped the laundry and turned back to the computer to figure out was going on. Decided to check Google Reader first, and discovered one of the 3 new items had auto-started playing a video. Sheesh.

Here's the corresponding web page, and yep, the video also does the autoplay thing there. And all but one of the comments left on the page so far are complaining about it.

License Plate Watch 37

Seen today on a Toyota Camry: "2B NT 2B"

A new thing I learned about myself today

Namely, that I am NOT allergic to bee stings.

What happened: I was walking around at about 12:30 PM after eating my lunch, when I felt something odd on my right arm just below my shirt's short sleeve. Without thinking I swatted at with my left hand. Next thing I knew I heard a very brief buzzing sound, then OW!

A very sharp pain right at the spot I had felt the apparent bee. OW, OW, OW, OW!

I looked at the site and saw what I am assuming was the stinger. After fumbling at it a couple times I managed to get it out.

Went inside and did some web searches about bee stings. The results indicated if one is going to have an allergic reaction to a sting, it would be obvious within about 15 to 30 minutes.

Over an hour later the redness that was initially occurring had faded away, and the only real effect I was still feeling was some throbbing from the site. And a couple hours after that, even the throbbing was all gone. So, that's a relief.

To best of my recollection this is the first time I've ever been stung by a bee or any other insect. But I am certainly not going to be forgetting it!

Photographic honor

Each year at the San Diego County Fair, a juried Exhibition of Photography is held.

I decided last year to submit to this year's Exhibit a photo I had taken. Here's the story behind it:

It will be easy for me to remember the date I took it because it happened to be September 11 of 2007. After getting home from work I went out for an exercise walk, and as I try to do whenever I take such walks, took my camera with me.

So, as I was walking along my peripheral vision picked up something that registered on me as being unusual. I stopped and looked, and there was what I initially assumed was an orchid just laying on the concrete next a bunch of dead leaves that had been dropped by nearby trees. (I later learned the flower was actually a Stargazer lily.)

I immediately saw the photographic possibilities and took several exposures, the one in the link being the best of them.

At roughly that time in 2007, members of the digital imaging forum at the site I placed the photo on were firing up a project to create and sell photo calendars to benefit the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

The plan for the project was to create four calendars with different themes. As one of those themes was flowers, I submitted this photo for consideration, and was very pleased when it was included as the October image for the flowers calendar.

This reinforced my thinking that I was going to submit the photo to the 2008 San Diego County Fair Photo Exhibit.

Now, a big factor about this Exhibit is many more photos are always entered than there is space to display. So, I was very excited when mine was accepted for display in the Exhibit.

As I noted earlier, this is a juried exhibit, so there are prizes in each category, plus honorable mentions at the discretion of the judges. My photo did not receive anything beyond the inclusion in the Exhibit, but as already noted I am thrilled that it was selected for inclusion in the Exhibit.

License Plate Watch 36

Seen today on a Pontiac Grand Am, a California Arts license plate that said "7 WINK".

I can only assume that has a personal meaning.

Too true

Must admit I can really sympathize with this:


more cat pictures

Comic-Con 2008 approaches

Image by boooooooorbs via Flickr

As a follow-up to this post, and my comments in it that an option for three-day registrations would be available for the 2008 edition of San Diego Comic-Con: WRONG.

I have no idea if I misinterpreted what was written in the booklet I mentioned in the earlier post, or if there was a change in policy, but turns out three-day registrations are not being offered for this year after all. Which I think is unfortunate.

Due to various factors I won't get into here, up until recently I had thought I wasn't going to have enough free time to attend more than one day this year, but circumstances shifted. So:

• I bought a four-day membership.
• Will plan on trying to get most of my shopping done during preview night.
• Will skip going Saturday.
• And will try to plan out in advance what panels and events to go to Thursday, Friday, and Sunday.
• On top of all that I've reserved a vacation day for the Monday after to help ensure I've recovered from it all before going back to my job.

License Plate Watch 35

Seen today on a BMW 540i, a California Whale Tail plate that read: "A GR8 V8".

Hair be gone. Viola!

Following up my previous post, here is a photo of the revised me:

The deed is done

I had previously mentioned possibly going entirely bald.

Yesterday I finally decided to do it.

I must say it feels rather liberating. And no, I don't have a photo yet of the change. Patience.

Bad

On March 29, 2008, I took my 2000 Saturn LS1 to the dealer I have been using for some time for routine scheduled service. This included both regular oil change and related items (done by the dealer's express service department) and servicing of the fuel injectors (done by one of the technicians who do more complex tasks.)

The results of this were anything but routine.

After I paid my bill I went to the car to drive away and start on weekly errands. Upon starting the car it was immediately obvious something was seriously wrong.

• The engine's fan was running for no apparent reason.
• Moving the transmission into Drive had a distinctly clunky feel that had not been present previously.

I took the car directly back to the service intake area. A service adviser other than the one I had worked with initially came out, and I explained the problem and gave him my receipt. He took me inside and and spoke with the technician who had done the fuel injector service. The technician explained he had written on the original work order comments about those problems being present, and the original service adviser should have told me about those comments before having me pay my bill. This had not occurred.

By this time the original service adviser was free, and I was turned over to him. I explained to him these problems had not been present when I first brought the car in. He took me out to the car to look in the engine compartment and see if there was anything obviously wrong.

So, we opened the hood, and voila - the air sensor was not attached properly to the hose it goes on! It was explained this would have happened when the air filter was checked by the express service people. So, he put the air sensor in place then drove the car off to be looked at by one of the technicians.

A few minutes later he was back with the car and the explanation of just what had occurred. When the engine was started after completion of the express work to be taken to the technician for the injectors service, the car's computer basically basically freaked out because it did not detect the air sensor, and that in turn caused the continuous running of the fan and the clunky shifting of the transmission into Drive or Reverse or Park. He said the computer had been reset, and all was now fine. I found that to be the case.

So, I drove straight home to write a complaint letter to the dealer's service manager, with a copy sent to Saturn corporate. My complaints being:

• The service adviser had not let me know about the comments about the problems written on the work order by the technician who did the injectors service.
• The express service people had not reattached the air sensor, thus causing those problems in the first place.

I received a written acknowledgment from Saturn corporate in good order. But it has now been almost a month and the dealer has not acknowledged my complaints in any way. My intent now is to call Saturn corporate on Monday (assuming I can find time at my job) to ask them to make note of this lack of acknowledgment by the dealer, and to tell them that because of that I do not intend to give that dealer any of my business again.

I'm also intending while at work on Monday to put a request on my company's electronic bulletin boards for recommendations of independent shops that service Saturn cars and are a reasonable distance from my home. If I don't get any such recommendations (at work or elsewhere), I'll have to use the next closest dealer for any further service needs.

If the economy weren't in such bad shape right now I'd be working on finding another car to purchase, which would not be a Saturn. I decided on that some time ago because Saturn's cars can't match the best miles-per-gallon ratings from several other manufacturers. But I'm hesitant to be doing so while the economy is in such poor condition.

Melting

The San Diego area is having what a heat wave that is supposed to be short (today and tomorrow), but unusually strong for April. Temperatures are definitely over 90 degrees as I type this. (April is not supposed to be that hot!)

While I was driving around earlier I spotted a truck for "Total Ice Services" that did have a refrigeration unit. I can just imagine how many people seeing that truck today thought about trying to jump into the refrigerated portion of it!

How not to escape

Recent poor choices in escape vehicles, from bad to worst.

For some reason I'm finding that article particularly funny right now.

License Plate Watch 34

Seen this morning on a Mini Cooper S: "PIP PIP"

And a "cheerio" to you.

License Plate Watch 33

Seen yesterday on a Lincoln Navigator: "DA G8TOR".

The meaning of which seems fairly obvious, University of Florida fans.

How does shouting help?

I hesitate to post anything that could come across as criticizing of the Girl Scouts, but...

The last several times I have gone grocery shopping, groups of Girl Scouts (with adult supervision) have been set up to sell their cookies. This morning was one such instance.

When I exited the store with my purchases, the girls were literally shouting the following over and over again (this one time all-caps typing is justified): "BUY 'EM! EAT 'EM! GIRL SCOUT COOKIES!"

How is shouting at people as they enter and leave the grocery store supposed to be helpful? Isn't it more likely people will just find it obnoxious and so be less likely to buy the cookies? Sheesh. I really hope this was a misguided idea by a parent or parents of this one group.

What's all this then?

Referring back to this, I've 95% made up my mind to shave off the goatee.

Additionally, I am also seriously debating with myself whether or not to do something I've thought about for a long time: going totally bald by having a barber shave off what's left of my top-of-the-head hair (or at least doing so on a test basis). The alternative would be getting #1 buzz cuts more often than I currently do.

If I do make up my mind to go totally bald, I think I'll hold off on it until I have a vacation of a week or longer later in the year, so that I could have at least a few days of letting the hair grow out again before going back to work if I decide I don't like the look. I'm actually on such a vacation right now, but hadn't got this far along in my thinking at the start of this week.

Thanks for nothing

Earlier today while out and about I stopped at a Pick Up Stix for lunch. (Love their food!)

As I was placing my order, the clerk asked me if I'm 55 or older (presumably thinking of a senior citizen's discount.)

For the record, I am 47. And I swear this was the first time I have ever been asked such a question!

So, that's caused me to do some brooding and get to wondering if perhaps I'd look younger if were to shave off my goatee (which is admittedly very gray.)

License Plate Watch 32

It's a two-fer Monday.

Seen on a Silverado pick-up: "ITBGOOD" - I assume it refers to the truck.

Seen on a white Mercedes-Benz: "02BUNNY" - Similarly, assuming it refers to the car.

License Plate Watch 31

Seen today on a Mazda MX3: "KNUCME"

Yep, I see you right there.