I still like writing here way better than the likes of Facebook, Google+, or Twitter, so I think I may just post links back here when I want to share something.​

I bought a 2012 Chevrolet Volt, this is the closest I could get to my grade-school dream of buying/leasing a GM EV1, I remember telling my mother once that I was going to get an EV1, she didn't doubt me or discourage me, my personality is sometimes incredibly driven​, she figured if I meant it I'd do it. Well GM crushed the EV1s and terminated the program, but back in January I bought the closest thing that vehicle had to a successor.  I've owned 3 hybrids an '04 Toyota Prius, an '09 & '12 Honda Civic Hybrid. This Volt is the closest thing to a pure EV, and has none of the compromises of one, though it does have most of the compromises of hybrids. It needs an oil change every two years, and you need to fill it with gasoline.

The benefits outweigh the two negatives, I would love longer all electric range, but for my daily commute it works perfectly, I go ~84 miles round trip each day, rarely using gas, but I also don't need to figure out alternative transportation when I need to leave my EV range.​ I hope this vehicle has a successor when I'm ready for my next car.​

I've got 5277 all electric miles on it now out of a total of 5661, and I've only burned 9.2 gallons of gas.​

My day job is now Internet & Business Development Manager Jones Chevrolet​, I love working with this family, and my coworkers, they're awesome. 

I don't think I mentioned it but my software development efforts are being funneled into my new company GSxtream​, I launched this last year with Brad Stokes, right now I'm running it by myself and just re-did the logo

I'm working on a few projects under GSxtream with a few friends and I'm excited to share them with you, but the projects aren't ready to share with the world yet. We look forward to showing these programs off when they're ready.​Kacey Green​

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

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.

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

The KaceyGreen.com RSS feed was broken for a while, I fixed it and you can find it here: http://feeds2.feedburner.com/kaceygreen

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.

This really sucks, HP has had my computer a tx2000 convertible tabletsince Friday the 27th and I have no real status updates from them other than the fact that they have received the system.  It took them 6 days just to get the box I was to send the computer in, to me. I called in a warranty claim because my HP Tablet PC was having two issues.  The first was that the system would periodically think that the pen was constantly clicking in random parts of the lower right hand corner of the screen when in laptop mode and plugged into AC power (not running off the battery).  The other issue was that the wireless communications module failed.  Wi-Fi was completely gone but Bluetooth would work most of the time.​

Update 9 years ago as of March 2021

I replaced this system with an HP TouchSmart tm2t, it has been much better, and the original system is still kicking away in its new home. The tm2t had the track pad go out while under warranty, but I was too tied up with work @ Midlands Honda to get it fixed before the warranty ran out, I currently use it with the stylus, or my fingers and the keyboard. I didn't like that track pad anyway, it was one of the original multi-touch models where the manufacturers did all sorts of cutesy things with it and it had the right and left buttons only separated by software, I hated that track pad.

I also got a Samsung 7 Series Slate, I think my first off-the-shelf Windows 8 tablet will need a detachable keyboard and a nubbin or track pad. This one also hasn't been problem free, the Ethernet port on the dock is out, I'll replace this one under warranty when I take vacation, so I won't miss it.

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)