Update

I've moved this blog to Squarespace from Joomla! because I felt that​ J! was a bit heavy handed for a simple personal blog, and it required too much upkeep (read work), and after a full day working on a computer the last thing I was in the mood for was keeping up with Joomla! updates. I have a couple projects running on Squarespace, and I fully respect Joomla! but for what I use this for and how much it slowed my enthusiasm to jot out a quick post it was time to make the switch.

Keeping with my theeme this is running on a beta of Squarespace 6, let's see where the journey takes us next.​

Kacey​
This post brought to you by Tangent's randomly firing synapses.

Hurt :(

Yes, there is a reason why I've been listening to a whole mess of Jason Mraz & Until June's older songs, thanks for those of you who asked, or already know why, for your concern.  No the reason does not involve nostalgia, I wish it were.

I started feeling this way Christmas day and it took 'till yesterday to pull the songs from my old backups, but by yesterday afternoon I needed the cooings of Mr-AZ to get me where I needed to be in my head-space. 

No I won't explain further online.  If you want to hear why these songs mean so much to me or have wanted to see me emote search for these two songs online *cough YouTube cough*. 

I expect to be mostly back to shuffle-all and my relatively neutral mildly-reactive-at-most self by the afternoon.

I'll leave you with the lyrics to Jason Mraz's You Make Me High, from the album The E Minor EP In F and Running, from the Live at Java Joe's album

Thanks for listening, Tangent, signing off
Kacey Green
Tangent's Tangents

  by Jason Mraz
        Transcribed by Bri Carerra ( lovetoloveu@hotmail.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )

Well I don't know just what I'm here for
I want more than words can describe
I've been deprived
Can you believe it
My whole world well its fallin' apart
well it falls, still it falls, well it falls apart around me

And you pick me back up, oh said you pickin' back up
oh you gonna pick me back up and you get a' me high
Said at you pick me back up, oh said you pickin' back up
oh you gonna pick me back up and you get a' me high

Cuz' I'm drinkin' all of the tears you cry
And I don't wish, to know my ending, mmmmm'
I just say I wanna know when I begun
I wanna know when I begun
I wanna know where it started from
where it all had started from

Because I feel like I am spinning,
I feel like I'm spinning
Well I feel just like I'm spinning I'm spinning around
oh oh oh oh
said I feel like I am spinning
all around this summer
and the winter comes and another storm
it falls, well it falls, said it falls apart around me

And you pick me back up, oh said you pickin' back up
oh you gonna pick me back up and you get a' me high
Oh my, my, my
Said you pick me back up, oh said you pick me back up
oh you gonna pick me back up and you get a' me high
Said I'm drinkin all of the tears you cry
breathing every breath that you sigh

I am
I'm breathing all of the tears that you cry, that you cry
all the tears that you cry, every breath that you sigh

and Running

by Jason Mraz & Ariel Quirolo Running to catch up again, jumping higher and flying more often than not Your trampoline has got holes in it but I can still see the top Let me climb aboard and sample some of next years fashion I'll wear the coat if you can put the hat on, I will wear the coat, Just let me clear my throat so I can say what's been delayed away Let me crawl into your lap and just lay here for awhile Satisfied by your seduction like a handshake would do the job Never know how long I have waited, anticipated your smile to be pressed against mine Well I feel it. (oh boy) and I'm gonna settle tight She could pour me over this sugar hill or mountain Until I get hat cool breeze, tight squeeze, I'd do it over again And I drink from her ever flowing fountain And then I wake up I comb my hair and I hurry it up But I arrive late I pack my things and I pick it up Well I put down a good amount of deodorant this morning And I found that I could drown a little bit of peace of mind Cause it's no secret that to some degree they're gonna have to see you sweat Strong enough for a man just do what you can to keep me soft and dry, I stink awhile I don't know anything about those things I almost don't wanna know anything about those things And I don't care anything about those things Cause if I did you know I'd share myself on those things, and I feel itÉ And I'll be here all night, I'll pick up the pieces and I put them back together now They may not be the right way but that's okay as long as they're all the same I wish you well that you'd get better, and I know you'll find that it's a wild world And if you had noticed well would you have thrown the towel in Before I missed out on all this love, and watch me roll away again Watch me disappear under my skin I don't believe it that things could get any worse than they did that time You must have seen it I mean how could we get lost running in a straight line Your cries of why's and why not's, may it all get back to you And trickle and dance upon your headaches, years of biting cheeks are through So I don't believe in it. But I feel it.

​Update 9 years ago as of March 2021

It took more than the afternoon, but I still love these sad songs, they make me feel something!

I don't have a full range of outward emotions as compared to people I interact with regularly, I have joy, amusement (fun or funny), mild depression, deep depression, physical pain, remorse (if I hurt someone accidentally or break something). Mostly outwardly unless you catch a brief glimpse of me emoting one of these emotions you'd think me an emotionless robot with a generally positive attitude.

Inwardly I have all normal emotions, good luck trying to get me to describe any of them in any useful fashion not only do I find the question "How are you feeling?" silly I can't verbalize the correct answer and when I can I find the person wasn't actually asking, the question was the same as "Hi, good day to you sir." Also if I do answer the question correctly and it is someone who actually cares about my emotional well-being, they assume my truthful answer is a cry for help, and they stick around crowd me. I can't get mad it shows they care, but when I want that kind of closeness I'll come crowd your space or ask you in.

Don't take offense there, keep doing this but if I return to what I was doing and don't describe something that's bothering me, nothing's wrong. If I start talking about all kinds of things under the sun, it means I appreciate your company and I may not know what you want to talk about, or I may have an idea but I'm excited to share whatever I'm studying with someone.

That's enough for now, I'm starting to ramble.

KG

What up Internet?

For those of you not following me on Facebook or twitter ( @GCustom ) I have been on a kick not to waste my youth.  So each week, usually on a Friday I’ll make sure I have some sort of adventure, no matter how small or mundane it may see to either myself or outsiders.

This week I completed part two of my private adventure from last week, several people in my real life know more about this, but it really isn’t exciting for anyone but me. 

Last weekend a customer recommended that I try out Gotham Bagels, so today I did that, and they are delicious!  We may have to have a bagel-off for the official bagel of the Hybrid Club (including seeing which of the two local NY bagel shops is the most green savvy).

I think I’ll put the rest of the adventures here in my journal instead of on Facebook, there is better formatting here and I don’t have to worry about how to work the pictures, or force people to sign up for a service.

Kacey Green
KaceyGreen.com
"This post brought to you by Tangent's randomly firing synapses."

​Update 9 years ago as of March 2021

I did a passable job at not getting in to the rut of just staying home all the time, but I obviously didn't write back about too much, I've gained further insight into why I'm such a loaner, maybe there should be a post about it, we'll see.

Gotham Shut down and Cowboy's Brazilian buffet is there now, not very veggie friendly especially for the prices they charge. Though I loved their pineapples.

Travelers

Image by: Wyscan

This morning I had a Silverado 1500 that either knew how to work a traffic jam, or had been caught behind me before and knew the drill.

He kept back about 4 to 10 car lengths depending on what the flow in front of me was doing, and I kept 2 to 10 car lengths between the cars in front of me. The two of us and everyone behind us were traveling 20-45 mph through the jam and people were able to merge in and out of our lane with ease. The folks in the left two lanes were travelling if you can call it that 1 to 5 mph stop and go.

Only 50.5 MPG today :'(

Today I had a big seven mile view of this. Yes that is 10 MPH showing on the speedometer and yes that is partially melted ice at the edge of the driver’s side wiper’s range.  I tried my best to practice traffic smoothing, basically adjusting your speed so that you don’t come to a stop in a traffic jam, I experienced moderate success and only had to stop 4 times in the whole seven miles, each stop less than ten seconds in duration.  I had forgotten to compensate for the cold engine’s higher idle speed, and didn’t anticipate the amount of people jumping off of each on-ramp.

9 tenths of a cent per gallon

Continuing my posts about fuel stations today

Nearly every fuel station charges us a stupidity tax. Why must we pay an extra penny for every gallon we buy? The industry is not fooling anyone and the practice is so engrained in our culture we do not even mention the .009 when we discuss gas prices we just mention the numbers in the larger print on the signs.  I know there are reasons for why things are the way we see them today.

I know this sick twisted tradition dates back to when a penny was worth something significant on its own in the 1920s.  Eighty-Eight years later, we do not receive any savings off this practice.  Let’s get into the 21st century here; the stock market did it with their switch to decimals from fractions.  The other argument is the federal gas tax is currently 18.4 cents on every gallon, my sales tax on all other goods is often fractional too, say 6.5% or 7.xx% whatever when everything gets totaled up the final price is rounded up one penny.  Gas purchases can be computed the same way, say the gas tax is half a percent; it really comes out that low at current prices. Multiply my whole tank by the .5% tax and round up to the nearest penny, I would even vote for a tax increase if it were actually going to improving the road system, maintaining the roads and improving congestion.

This has to stop, just because we have done something since the 1920s does not make it the best way to do things. There was a CITGO station in Gainesville that regularly didn't charge the "we're sticking it to you because we can fee" whenever they were not charging the extra penny I would fill up even if I didn't need to, to support the practice (rewarding good behavior they were .009 cheaper than the Shell station next door).  The only reason I stopped shopping them was their lack of top tier certification at the time.

Am I going to write my congressional representative or do anything about it?  No unless enough of you want to, not a fight I am getting into by myself.  I am just going to stop using gasoline eventually and switch to a battery electric vehicle.

Kacey Green
KaceyGreen.com
"This post brought to you by Tangent's randomly firing synapses."

​Update 9 years ago as of March 2021

I've almost achieved this goal, my daily Driver is now a 2012 Chevrolet Volt, next will be a pure EV once one can practically meet all the range requirements to be my only car. The Volt fills this role the best of any current production car at the moment, it isn't too expensive (but the payments are quite noticeable right now), in my daily use it is 98-99% EV. The only times it runs out of juice and fires up the generator are when I'm going to work in cold weather, or rainy weather with a headwind, the last situation that causes the car to run out of EV range is when I pack my schedule too full. That last one will become less frequent when I get a Level 2 EVSE. (Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment aka charging station)

Positions Available

I have needed to make this post for some time now.  FLhybrid.com needs a local event coordinator, and a volunteer editor.  Midlands Hybrid can use an assistant event coordinator and a volunteer editor as well.  Please send your information via the Contact us page at GRLT.com

When planning some of the recent events for the Midlands Hybrid Club I realized that the physical distance between the Florida club and myself has made regular events difficult for me to orchestrate from South Carolina without hiring someone.  I want the Florida club to have the same opportunities as the South Carolina Club, what I'm looking for is someone energetic and enthusiastic who can handle the stresses of building awareness through events such as gatherings and fundraisers.  I can still do major functions and remote based gatherings with everything as it is. When going over the short-term goals for the Midlands club and after a particularly hard-hitting question from a reporter at The Gainesville Sun, I want to make sure all the clean personal transportation clubs to have the same opportunities available so that national events are not out of reach.

Kacey Green
for the GCustom clean personal transportation clubs
“Promoting the spread of clean personal transportation technology.”

​Update March 2021

I’m not actively doing anything with either Hybrid Club as I’m all in on cars with plugs now. Though one of the alternate URLs for the YouTube channel is still MidelandHybrid for reasons I can’t understand.

Smoking ban in Columbia bars possible

This is great news; I am tired of spending a night out on the town with friends and coworkers and coming back with my clothes, and car reeking of cigarette smoke.  I understand this limits the freedoms of the smokers, but it does protect my personal space, I don't arrive home feeling guilty for hanging out because now it will take days to get the smoke smell out of my car and my jacket.  Some of my friends and coworkers are smokers but they are quite responsible and only smoke in designated smoking areas, I am sympathetic to their potential increased burden and elated at my new potential freedom.

The State | 04/19/2008 | Smoking ban in Columbia bars possible

Councilman E.W. Cromartie, one of the four council members who voted to exempt bars from the city’s smoking ban, is having second thoughts about the issue.  “I think we may have to look at that again,” Cromartie said. “It has been some time since the last time we voted.”  Only one council member would have to change his or her vote for the issue to be reconsidered.  The change comes after hearing complaints from restaurant and bar owners.  Andy Yogherty, owner of the Publick House on Devine Street, pleaded with council members earlier this week to change their minds. He said excluding bars penalizes businesses, like his, that have both a restaurant and a bar.  If there is to be a smoking ban, he said, it should be enforced across the board. Yogherty apparently struck a chord with Cromartie.

What do you think?

Kacey Green
KaceyGreen.com
"This post brought to you by Tangent's randomly firing synapses."

Update 9 years ago as of March 2021:

This did end up passing at least for restaurants and places in the city from what I could tell, but I still occasionally end up coming back home with clothes that smell like stale cigarettes, but I can't remember when or where the last time was.

Changes waiting in the wings

Anyone who remembers the start of my personal blog here should remember why I started it; this weblog was a test-bed for the new version of the content management system "Tech with a twist of lime!" is running, that version went gold months ago and has even has a pair of stability releases.  So coming up you will see this site's functionality morph to a more fully featured platform much like the one at GRLT.  After the tests are complete they will roll to the Midlands Hybrid Club site, once that site is ready for Saturday's soft launch this site will go back to being my personal blog but able to handle anything I might throw at it.  Next up is the upgrade of GRLT and the splitting of the tech and hybrid sides of the sites, long overdue.

Back to that history lesson, I had a test mule but it bore my name, only at this point did I see the point of a personal blog (for myself anyway, I’ve been reading personal blogs for years). I got really into posting and found my balance, then work got in the way and I stopped posting altogether. After becoming a workaholic yet again, I found a pseudo-balance for work/personal life and now I am back baby!

 

Kacey Green
KaceyGreen.com
"This post brought to you by Tangent's randomly firing synapses."