Lyft Legal At Airport, Uber is not

I got hit up by 2 local news stations today for interviews.  KVUE first called me to ask to comment on Uber not being legal at the Austin airport.  A friend of mine was asked to be interviewed by KEYE, but he had to work and referred my name.  So I ended up meeting both of them at the Austin Airport.  Below is the news story.

Update: On April 9th KEYE used some of my previous video clips to edit a story about the State debating making TNCs legal statewide.  I dont say anything in this clip, but my face is shown a view times..  Link ->  http://www.keyetv.com/news/features/featured/stories/bill-sets-up-transportation-network-company-battle-at-capitol-11556.shtml

My New Car - Lexus GS 450h

It was time to replace my LS 400.  I got a little money from my totalled car and started looking for a new Lexus.  I have had great success with my RX 400h and wanted to get another Hybrid.  Usually it does not pay to buy a new Hybrid.  The added cost really is not a good return on investment, but buying one a few years old is a smart choice.  The increase mileage is not super high, but it is significant and everything little bit helps.

I decided on the GS 450h.  It is the Lexus' sport's sedan model   One notch lower than the LS line.  The GS a bit more sporty than the LS, but also has a little less room than the LS model.  It is rated to get 22-25MPG and I have been able to get 26-27 MPG by inflating the tires on the high side and driving efficiently as possible.

New 55 Gallon Fish Tank

I finally broke down and decided to get a house pet.  A neighbor was giving away his 55 gallon freshwater fish tank and we took it.  It had 5 Angelfish in it and a sucker fish (plecostomus catfish).  Unfortunately the Angelfishes didn't make it a week.  Only the Pelco made it.  We found out our tap water had high Ammonia and Nitride in it using a test kit.  You can also get a free water test at any PetSmart or PetCo store.  

I also 'cleaned' the filter, which I learned later was probably a bad idea since I killed good bacteria that is needed to absorb the Ammonia from the fish waste.  So I had to wait for the filter to regenerate itself before adding fish.  I could not wait so I purchased Nitra-Zorb which will absorb ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.  It seem to work, within a day of placing the pouch in my filter all 3 items measured zero.  Now I first added 2 Clown loaches to the tank.  We had pond snails growing like crazy so I read that Clown Loach would eat them up and they did.  Most of the snails disappeared after a few days.  A few days later we decided to stock the tank and added 2 Crayfishs, 2 Blue Botia Loach, 2 Blue Mbuna, 2 Yellow Labs, and 2 Red Parrots.

Here is a picture 4 months later  with my Lytro camera.

Goodbye LS400

I finally had to get rid of my Lexus LS400.  It has been 9 years with this car.  I purchased in Oct 2005 for a little over $20K with around 47K miles. It got into a wreck in December 5th, 2014 with around 180K miles on it.  The insurance paid me $7,366 for it.  It depreciated at $1,412 per year or about $118 per month.  It pays to drive a car into the ground, much better than leasing in the long run.  Plus I only purchased liability insurance, so I saved at least $1K per year on that.

Martha was driving the car when a 20 year old girl was trying to make a left turn.  The girl thought she could make it, but obviously she had bad judgement and Martha ran right into her.  Her Dad's insurance was State Farm and they settled the property claim in about one week and even offered a rental car.  We never took the rental care because Martha could not drive for at least a month.  I thought the price was fair.  Martha's claim will take longer as all medical bills need to come in.  The other party have assumed fault and will be paying for all medical, lost wages and pain and suffering.

Personal Weather Station: My New Toy

I recently purchased a Personal Weather Station from Costco for $80.  It is made by AcuRite,  Model 02032C.  It is a Five-In-One sensor that normally sells for $150.  Costco seems to have the best price that I could find on the same model, but it is not listed on Costco's online site, I just happen to see it at my local Austin store.   You can get it on Amazon for about $115, including shipping.  The sensor includes inside and outside temperature, humidity, wind speed, wind direction, barometric pressure, clock and calendar.  It also has a ticker on the bottom that gives various weather statistics.  The display unit connects to your PC to download data to the company's website and to Weather Underground.

The data is wirelessly sent from the outside station to a desktop display screen inside your house.  The weather data can be downloaded to your computer via CSV file and uploaded the there website at AcuLink.  The site also has connectivity to Weather Underground, the largest network of personal weather stations.  Weather Underground currently has over 37,000 weather stations, setup by other people, mostly in the back yards.  You can view all the stations in your area here.  My personal station link is here.  Weather Underground also display personal web cameras to show pictures.  You can see that here.

Here is my weather stations current real-time readings: