I’m bad.  The needle was on the very last tick mark of the fuel gauge before I re-fueled.  I know, I know.  It’s bad for the car.  I really should have filled my tank when it was a quarter full.

But I can explain…When I drove to work in the morning, I was determined to fill up my tank during lunch.  The warning light came on by the time I reached my work.  Then I realized I left my wallet in another purse – Aack!!  No worries.  I’ve gotten by off of driving 25 miles when the warning light came on.  I would just hypermile home, retrieve my wallet, and then get gas.   BUT…I ate my dinner, then food coma kicked in. I completely forgot to get gas.

The next morning I was gravely worried my car would not make it to the gas station.   Again, I had to hypermile to the gas station.  Sneakers were ready to hike it to the gas station if need be.  Luckily, I didn’t have to resort to that.  I breathed a sigh of relief when I rounded the corner into the station. I now know my car can carry 15 gallons of gasoline.

So what is hypermiling?  It is driving a certain way to increase gas mileage or maximize fuel economy.  Some of the techniques are against the law and also may be dangerous.  I will occasionally use these techniques when I absolutely have to – mainly I will drive slow, try to coast, and come to a California stop.  Hypermiling really has to do with the laws of physics.  Here is a list of tips from hypermilers to get more mileage for your dollar but employ with caution:

1. Drive slow.  I’ve had a friend that drives 55 mph on the highway even though the speed limit is 65 mph.  And maybe you’ve noticed that when the price of gas hit almost $5/gallon, everyone on the road was driving a lot slower.
2. Drive at a steady speed.  Do not use your brakes and accelerate.  It takes more energy to accelerate than to maintain constant veloctiy.  If I retained any physics knowledge from UC Davis Physics 7 series, this would be it.
3. Reduce drag by driving closely behind larger vehicles (drafting).  This can be dangerous and is against the law to drive closely behind another car in some states.
4. Turn off A/C and keep windows closed.  This one is hard to do during the hot summer days.
5. Shift to neutral and turn off engine to coast to a stop.  This one is also very dangerous to try.
6. Do not come to a complete stop at stop signs.
7. Over-inflate tires to reduce friction which uses more energy.  Again, dangerous.  Sometimes traction is good thing expecially in a moving vehicle.
8. Use thinner oil.  Thicker oil is harder to get through engine.
9. Turn off engine if car is idling more than 10 seconds.
10. Lighten load.  Some avid hypermilers even take out passenger seats to lighten load.

I read an article that talks about the racial preferences of females and males.  This study seems to be based on internet dating statistics where the members list their racial preferences.  It goes on to talk about how to deal with discrimination against interracial relationships.

Taken from Yahoo! Personals article.

As expected, most ethnicities date within their own group.  For the rest of the non-caucasian ethnicities, the racial group that is preferred as a runner up is Caucasians.  It really is no surprise since we live in the U.S. where the predominant race is white.  This topic brings up my own experiences while dating my husband.  One time while walking the streets of Berkeley with the mister.  A car passed us by and the driver yelled out why all the white men get the asian girls.  The funny part – the driver was black.  My own ex-boyfriend hates it when he sees an Asian female in the arms of a Caucasian male.  It’s obvious that he was competing with white males in wooing asian females.  This was ironic because he is the product of an interracial marriage – indian and japanese.

Even while we were dating, it never occured to the mister that he was in an interracial relationship until we were ordering take-out.  The man at the register commented on how it was great to see different cultures together as he himself is Caucasian and his wife is African-American.

BTW, I should mention that I am Asian and the mister is Caucasian.  I was the very first (and only) non-white female he has been with.  I asked him why that was and his response was that it never occurred to him to date anyone other than a white female.  As for my own preferences, I never considered dating another Asian.  Most Asians in the U.S. grew up in the household with immigrant parents.  To me, that was too boring.  I liked experiencing different cultures other than Asian.

Both sets of parents seemed to be okay with who we were dating.  Although initially (before dating the mister), my mom was adamant about white folks.  She didn’t trust them at all.  She would rather have me date a black guy than a white guy.  But now, she’s okay.  After meeting the mister, she knows that he is really no threat to me in the least bit.  His parents also seemed to take it okay.  Once my father in-law found out I was Vietnamese, his comment to his son was “You know, we were at war with Vietnam.”  I didn’t know how to take that comment when the mister told me.

Anyway, now that we are married.  Both parents love both of us and consider the spouse in-law as a part of their family.  And I’m sure the two sides can’t wait until there is a little one that combines both races into one.

I receive SELF Magazine and it’s usually focused on healthy eating habits and healthy lifestyles which I’m totally not interested in.  But this little handbook was very interesting to read.  Most of the “…Ways to Save a Life” was pretty common sense, but there were a few that surprised me.

The article goes through each type of situation that you may encounter and tells you what to do in order to save a life.

#1.  You’re at a cocktail party, and your friend who has just broken up with her boyfriend gets so hammered that she starts staggering and doubles over, vomiting.  You should lie her down on her side to help prevent choking if she upchucks again, and stay with her to make sure she doesn’t roll onto her back.  If she can’t stop throwing up, or if she’s unconscious, seizing or breathing erratically, she may have alcohol poisoning.  Dial 911.

#2 Your car skids out on a bridge, crashes through the railing and hits the water below.  As the car sinks it will be harder to open the door, so get our fast.  Get your bearings, undo your seat belt and open the door; if you can’t open the window.  No electricity?  Break the side window with a LifeHammer, a device with steel spikes, or a sharp, hard item like a pocketknife.  Swim to shore and call 911.

#3  You’re biking with a friend miles from home when she hits a bump in the road and goes flying over the handlebars.  When you rush over to her, her leg looks broken and she’s in terrible pain.  Don’t move her unless your friend is in peril.  It can worsen the break and exacerbate any internal injuries.  Keep the body in the same position she landed in.  Call 911 and comfort her until help arrives.  If she did land in traffic, flag down someone to help move her to safety.  Before you do, stabilize the limb by loosely tying it with strips of your T-shirt to something stiff, such as a small branch, to minimize pain.

#4 Your neighbor is trimming hedges and cuts a huge gash in her hand.  Do not use a tourniquet unless the victim is about to bleed to death (amputation).  Run the laceration under clean water to wash out any foreign matter, then grab a clean T-shirt or towel and press it on the wound, keeping the area raised higher than the heart.  Press until the bleeding stops; if it doesn’t or the cut is deep, call 911.  While you’re waiting for help to arrive, have your neighbor lie down, raise her feet on a pillow and cover her with a blanket to prevent shock; continue applying pressure to the wound and keep it above the heart.

#5 You’re having sushi with a friend when she starts choking.  First make sure she’s choking: Can she breathe, speak or cough?  If not, call 911, then deliver 5 blows with the heel of your hand in the center of her mid- to-upper back, and then do the Heimlich:  Stand behind her as she leans forward, make a fist with one hand, cup it with the other, place it above the navel and below the breastbone and thrust upward and inward 5 times.  Alternate five back slaps and five abdominal thrusts until the food pops out. (more…)

This goes out to all the earth conscientious people out there.  The Consumer Consequence game poses the question:  If everyone in the world were to live like you, how many earths does it take to sustain your lifestyle?  This little game lists questions that ask you about the way you live – the type of house you live in, energy used, waste, transportation, food consumption, and shopping habits.  The number of earths add up as the game moves along.  Be sure to read the area above the questions as it tells you interesting facts and give tips on answering a particular question you’re unsure of.  At the very end, you can compare yourself to others who have taken the quiz.  Then compare yourself to certain genders, other political parties, people from certain states, or people your own age.

Starting off the game, I was so confident my lifestyle wouldn’t use up more than 1 Earth.  My confidence  was shattered after only the first set of questions that it had already  jumped up to 1.2 Earths!  The transportation questions killed me.  My final score was 3.5 Earths.  Not bad considering that other Californians averaged 3.7 Earths.  I could probably use a little more effort in reducing my carbon footprint, though.

Try the game yourself by clicking here.

I just received this in the mail………………

Should I let them know that George died a few days after they last treated him? I went to this clinic because there was supposedly the best bunny doctor in the Bay Area.  The vet treated George perfectly with his previous ailment but this time around, it cost him his life.  Poor George.  I should’ve trusted my instincts and not given him the medications prescribed to him because he started becoming short of breath.  I took him off the meds and he got better.  But then at his follow-up visit.  She prescribed the same medication and he died shortly after.

I’d rather not call them.  It just brings back sad memories.  Maybe, they’ll take me off the mailing list after a year of not returning.