I’m really not a truck guy – although I do drive one for some very foolish reason. On any given morning of the week, you can see me and my extra long F-150 making a fool of ourselves trying to back out of the post office parking lot. It may be the absolute epitome of impracticalities in my life as I have absolutely no use for the huge bed and gas isn’t getting any cheaper, but there is a certain comfort that comes from knowing that a big steel frame protects me from the few thousand crazies I drive to/from work with each day.

During my recent excursion in Texas, I had the pleasure of driving my brother’s equally gas-hungry, and much younger Chevy Avalanche – that SUV/Truck looking getup you see in the sexy commercials. The truck was all power, and had just about every bell and whistle I could imagine. It was a source of comfort as I hit the road from Houston to San Antonio – a high-octane 200 mile blast through the tranquil fields of South Texas. As I left the concrete jungle of Houston behind me, I recognized myself falling very much into the truck culture. A $10 cowboy hat, a muscle-tee, and the “Oh Brother Where Art Thou” soundtrack only strengthened the sensation. An hour into my trip, I pulled off of that massive highway, and navigated down one of the millions of miles of CRs (county roads) veining out into the real meat of the state.

My fondest memories of the trip took place on those CRs… and at the bars in Austin of course!

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Some interesting figures trying to asses the true cost of the war in the middle east are starting to surface and make for interesting and disturbing reading:

Full article here

$16bn
The amount the US spends on the monthly running costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – on top of regular defence spending
$138
The amount paid by every US household every month towards the current operating costs of the war
$19.3bn
The amount Halliburton has received in single-source contracts for work in Iraq
$25bn
The annual cost to the US of the rising price of oil, itself a consequence of the war
$3 trillion
A conservative estimate of the true cost – to America alone – of Bush’s Iraq adventure. The rest of the world, including Britain, will shoulder about the same amount again
$5bn
Cost of 10 days’ fighting in Iraq
$1 trillion
The interest America will have paid by 2017 on the money borrowed to finance the war
3%
The average drop in income of 13 African countries – a direct result of the rise in oil prices. This drop has more than offset the recent increase in foreign aid to Africa

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Actually It was my wifes’ father and his shotgun. But seriously, I have ‘borrowed’ my Brother-in-laws truck a few times and whilst fun to drive and great for picking up paving or taking dismantled concrete steps to the dump, I couldn’t see myself driving around in one. I put it in the same class as the chainsaw and jackhammer, two other things I thoroughly enjoy using but will probably never own.

Anyway, in Britain we have these:

Why would we want your trucks? Yes, that’s 3 wheels, great in the snow.

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Andy, I’m curious if your love for pickups is what got you to come to the U.S. in the first place?

It turns out that a lot of your ex-countrymen–and they’re primarily men apparently, have fallen in love with the pickup, if this story from the BBC service can be believed.

Here’s a great quote:

There’s something distinctly American about the pick-up, all Bruce Springsteen and O Brother, Where Art Thou.

OK, obviously there’s little more American than the Boss, but do Brits really think of O Brother as being what we’re all about? This is kind of like how they call pit bulls “American Pit Bulls” in the UK. Well, maybe it’s not like that at all, but I never liked the American Pit Bull thing, either.

My favorite part: how they call pickups “Yank Tanks.”

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While I was in Texas my iPhone‘s browser seemed to choke on the WordPress WYSIWYG interface, preventing me from making any posts “from the road”, but I got plenty of good stories and even more pictures from my vacation. Among the most exciting moments was holding the absolutely stunning MacBook Air. The weight and profile were much smaller than I ever imagined! The photo (which features cameos by both my dad and the flyte crew blog) doesn’t begin to capture just how snazzy this baby really is.

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I would like to follow that up with Ask a Ninja’s review of Pirates Of The Caribbean 3

Now sponsored by errrrr Verizon (WTF did that happen?), by two degrees of separation that links back to Star Wars via James Eal Jones. I think I’m getting the idea for a new thread here…….

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This girl has a future writing Cliff’s Notes.

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I’m going down to Texas for a week of fun and sun! I can’t wait to get on the ground – imagine a wet cat in the back of a speeding car, and that’s me in the sky! I’m taking a nice road trip starting Monday from Houston to San Antonio, up to Austin and back to Houston. It should be some good times and I’ll be posting from the road!

I have three objectives on this trip:

• Buy a cowboy hat
• Find the hottest hot sauce in all of Texas
• See an armadillo (dead or alive!)

Yeeehaaww!

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I haven’t got a family member for a little under 1700 geographic miles (my folks in Texas), in fact, my brother is a solid 6500 miles away (in Dubai) from my little roost in North Freeport. Although seeing one another in person on a regular basis isn’t very feasible, that doesn’t stop my family from having some great face-to-face contact every couple of days through Skype. Like most disruptive technologies Skype is free of charge and quite revolutionary. With a decent internet connection, a cheapo web cam (or a fancy built in iSight), and the free Skype client, you can speak and see friends, family, and/or business contacts from all over the world!

At first try, Skype seems a little strange. I remember the first time my folks sat on my desk and spoke to me face-to-face. It was almost disorienting! The strangest part being after we “hung up”. I almost expected to see them down my driveway. After about 40 uses or so with about a dozen people, it’s become a very innate method of communicating. I prefer it over the telephone in most cases.

Using Skype with different flyte crew members seems to be quite useful too. Even though they are just a few steps away in most cases, it’s nice to be able to give somebody a jingle for a quick face-to-face, or drop them a text in Skype‘s slick IM agent.

Whether they’re .0001 miles or 6500 miles away, Skype is hugely useful and will likely evolve in ways nobody can imagine today – just as txt messaging grew from a technology to accommodate the deaf into the preferred language of youth.

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The other day I was reading in USA Today (of all places) that the Mexican economy is improving and that border crossings are diminishing.

 As the debate over illegal immigration percolates in the USA, there are hopes on both sides of the border that Mexico’s improving economy eventually will provide enough jobs to encourage significant numbers of Mexicans to stay and prosper in their country.

Prepare for next year’s headlines of immigration regulations relaxed, border patrol personnel having to look for new work, and anti-immigration politicians back-peddling on the very thing that got them elected as American’s realize that they don’t want to tend to their own gardens, work in hotels, and clean up their own mess.

This will be followed by signing bonuses for Mexicans willing to immigrate to the US.

You heard it here first.

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