I will try to share my personal story later, but I wanted to share some things I’ve learned along the way.  Partly because of the 6 people I asked, only one really knew what he was talking about (I’m sure it helps that he’s fanatic enough about cars to fly to Germany to get one..).  The other part is because I’m sure I will need to refer back to this in the future.

The list is as follows:

1. Consumer’s Guide: California has a consumer’s guide to automotive repair that everyone should know about.

2. Parts: If you’re worried about getting overcharged for a part, it’s easy to look up the price of a part online.  I found this link to be helpful for my ’96 toyota camry, but there are plenty of other sites out there and you could probably find a site that only sells OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) parts.  Just google something like [year make model parts], without brackets or quotes.

3. Labor: labor costs I think are typically $60-100/hr (at least that’s what I’ve seen in my price comparisons).

4. Know Car Stuff: If you want to know how important something is (and whether you should fix it), howstuffworks.com is a great resource.  For example, a friend sent me this link on brake systems when I was confused by misinformation.

5. Know your Car: Before going to the auto repair, have a good idea of what might or might not be wrong with your car.  If you were having problems with the brakes and all of a sudden the mechanic says you have a problem with your timing belt (and you had not noticed any other noises or symptoms), you may want to get a second opinion or at least, get out of that garage fast.   I just did a quick google search for timing belt symptoms that should help with determining if it was a pre-existing problem or not.

6. Don’t be Paranoid: If what the mechanic finds is fairly consistent with how long it’s been since you’ve replaced a part, trust the mechanic.  It’s so easy to be paranoid about mechanics these days with all the stories we hear that we almost need to learn not to be too skeptical of the good ones.

That said, the verdict is still out on the one I found as they haven’t begun repairs… but I’m leaning toward thinking they’ll do a good job.

That’s all, but I’m sure I’ll come back and add more as I find more resources.

Being upgraded to the status of a fictional celestial object calls for a celebration, right?

Ok so I just needed a reason to celebrate because I had a rather stressful day (see next post), but it’s still a pretty interesting bit of trivia. =)

1. Think first of the other fellow.
2. Build up the other person’s sense of importance.
3. Respect the other man’s personality rights.
4. Give sincere appreciation.
5. Eliminate the negative.
6. Avoid openly trying to reform people.
7. Try to understand the other person.
8. Check first impressions.
9. Take care with the little details.
10. Develop genuine interest in people.
11. Keep it up.

Posted by an ex-employee as “Dave Packard’s 11 simple rules (1958)”, in contrast to Fiorina’s “”Rules of the Garage” (1999)”.

Thoughts

I won’t dwell on the clear political implications here. Regardless of the politics involved, these are great rules to follow in life and in daily interactions, and I plan to keep them in mind in the future.

Dear Cal Advocate:

Thank you for contacting your legislators in Sacramento and standing up for UC Berkeley! A state budget has been passed that increases funding for the University of California by more than $370 million. While the amount approved still falls short of fully funding the University, the increase marks a significant shift from the cuts the University has faced over the last two years.

You played a major role in getting us to this point. Advocates like you from across the UC system sent more than 34,000 emails to Sacramento over the course of this year, emphasizing the importance of continued investment in public higher education. The legislature and the governor deserve our appreciation for making public higher education a priority.

Send your elected officials a thank you note today »

Together we can help ensure a bright future for UC Berkeley.

Sincerely,

R. Tucker Coop ’67
Executive Director, Cal Alumni Association

Disclaimer: I did not do any advocacy for this cause.

Enjoy.. I’m definitely going to check this out.. when I get around to it..

Thoughts
I used to think this movement’s just one of those political boycott deals that don’t serve any practical purpose (the write-in other asian has been around a while), but there’s a good point to this in the whole government allocation stuff.

If there’s a big enough population, the community as a whole can get more funding, meaning more opportunities for us and kids/next gen in terms of scholarships and other stuff.

With that perspective, the question is why not? By not being counted, you’re denying yourself the opportunity you (or your kids) could have gotten.

Even if you’re not involved in your ethnic community, I assume you’re like most Americans in wanting more choices. You could also check multiple boxes if you feel like you fit a bunch of different ethnicities.

This applies to everyone who doesn’t get a default checkbox (examples on the census form include Hmong, Laotian, Thai, Pakistani, Cambodian, etc.).. don’t be lazy, because your community might suffer because of it!

A plus is that next time, maybe you won’t have to go through so much “work” when filling out surveys [I have to admit.. even I've gotten lazy in surveys before where I'd just pick "pacific islander/other asian" instead of writing it down].

1. this article from a Chinese civil rights activist – relates what happened in TW with current issues in China. Here’s a quote:

Commenting on Taiwan, Wang Dan, a leader of the Chinese democracy movement and a prominent figure during the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989, said that freedom is never won easily, but always lost unknowingly.

2. Another article from the same source – discusses evolution of the subject of 228 (it was taboo for 48 years: 1947-1995).

3. UW event – ties in the US role in the event. Most notably, these quotes:

The US Consulate in Taipei reported back about these events, but was told by Washington to do nothing.

To imagine for Americans what the “228 Massacre” meant for Taiwanese, picture the British, after the Boston Tea Party, then rounding up all of whom we now view as the founding fathers and summarily executing them. The ramifications of this on democracy and human rights in America would have been profound, perhaps to the point of America still being under British rule.

4. search for hidden files – article detailing attempts to uncover truth about the incident

5. Liberty Times article – more about the missing files

6. China Times – President Ma’s speeches at Tainan and Taipei

7. Lin Family murder – mother and daughter killed on 2/28/1980 believed to be acting for KMT. There’s an unfortunate ambiguous translation – “common” should be replaced with “shared” in the article.

8. editorial on apologies – well reasoned article pointing out that Ma did not directly apologize for the events of 228, among other points.

Thoughts

#2: The timeline is eye-opening for me, because I didn’t realize this subject was considered taboo until 1995. Now I understand why so many of my peers (myself included) didn’t know about it until they went to college. It also makes me appreciate how emotional the older generation gets when the subject comes up.. I would be too if I wasn’t allowed to speak of a terrible tragedy for 48 years, and my children were completely ignorant and uninterested because of it.

#8 is a surprisingly balanced editorial – this guy knows his stuff. If I had to pick a subset of articles from this list, I’d take the first 3 plus this one.

Sorry about that if you commented more than 30 days ago!

You’ll have to click on the image to get the full coupon (which includes the bar code).

So parkour.. I was dragged along to a class by a friend, and surprisingly, it was ok and kind of fun. You never know how high you can jump until you actually try it, I guess.

The problem is, it takes so much energy to do anything in that class that I’ve only gone to two classes so far… Mostly because I usually don’t feel up to expending that much energy. I think yoga’s still more my speed.

If you don’t know what parkour is, youtube will explain it far better than I can.