I've been renting a Toyota Prius for about 4 days while my Spyder is being repaired. Curiously, I've only been getting 43 MPG, despite my attempts to drive conservatively.

I'm feeling a challenge here. So, just for fun, I've decided to ramp up my efforts a bit.

That's right. Come hell or high water, I'm getting the 60MPG the EPA says I can get in this car ... or better. Well, OK, either hell or high water would be pretty likely to get in the way. Unless the water floats me down a few miles ... that would help my MPG average. But unfortunately it wouldn't register on the Prius' MPG logger and would probably end my experiment prematurely as well.

So what's going to be required to reach this insane goal? Well, for a few days, I'm going to have to drive very, very differently. Most of the time, I will need to have my hazard lights on so that I will not become a safety hazard.

I'll keep you posted.

In case you're wondering how difficult this is, check out this article on EPA estimates (such as the 60MPG estimate they made on the Prius):

http://www.newsobserver.com/248/story/547737.html

Entire mobs of humanity can be swayed in a moment, and small victories won with powerful words. But long term, positive change is most often affected by the quietly dissenting, initially ridiculed and rejected voices of truth that refuse to go away or be silenced.

Carefully evalutate the truth (or lack thereof) in every quiet dissention, for of late this breed of change hath been mounted by truth and falsehood both. The rider must not be judged by his steed.

Think back to when you were in elementary school ... did you ever make up a secret code so you could pass messages back and forth with your friends and other people couldn't read them? Well OK some of us enjoyed that kind of thing more than others.

Couple of Sundays ago I saw a secret code one of the kids at church had created for this purpose and it brought back the fun memories ... so I let the little boy in me come out to play and created a website that does that.

http://hosting.dynamis.net/tomsplace/fun/define.htm

C'mon .... let your inner geek come out and play for a minute.

Or, just use it so your boss  can't read your IM's.

After having dug to a depth of 10 meters last year, Scottish
scientists found traces of copper wire dating back 100 years and came to the
conclusion that their ancestors already had a telephone network more than 100 years
 ago.

Not to be outdone by the Scots, in the weeks that followed, British
scientists dug to a depth of 20 meters, and shortly after headlines in the
UK newspapers read: "British archaeologists have found traces of 200 year
old copper wire and have concluded that their ancestors already had an
advanced high-tech communications network a hundred years earlier than the
 Scots."

One week later, "The Advertiser", a Lafayette, Louisiana, newspaper,
reported the following: "After digging as deep as 30 meters in cane fields
near New Iberia , Gaston Boudreaux, an self taught archeologist, reported
that he found absolutely nothing. Gaston has, therefore, concluded that
300 years ago Cajuns were already using wireless."

(Warning, the dream segment in paragraph 3 and 4 gets very graphic and violent).

Had two dream segments last night where my old self seemed to encounter my new self and discover how they were at odds. In the dream I belonged to some kind of community, kind of like a tight church, but I don’t think it was a church. Everyone in the dream was part of this community. Kind of a cult of sorts, I think. Cult in the City? J

In the first dream segment I was at my grandmother’s old house in Houston. (That house doesn’t exist any more). A young woman showed up, an acquaintance, but not a close friend, and we talked for a minute, and I could tell she liked me. Our faces ended up close together. She seemed surprised but happy we were so close and she moved in for a kiss, and without thinking I moved in for the kiss too, but the moment our lips touched, I stopped responding. I thought, “I can’t do this, I’m married.” After a few seconds she recognized I wasn’t responding (!) and drew back a little puzzled, and I think I said, “I can’t do this, I’m married.” Strangely she received, but didn’t seem upset about, the rejected kiss, she smiled as if to say “that’s OK.” Then the scene changed.

In another segment of the dream, I saw a man who represented a tyrannical leader of this community being tyrannical to one of the members of the community. There was no physical abuse or verbal abuse, but situational controls of some kind were being applied to coerce him to do some thing(s) he didn’t want to do, that represented an unfair burden of some kind. I remember I felt really bad for the man who was being mistreated. I could tell he was being pushed to his breaking point. And then he broke. He took a milk jug with the top cut off, took it by the handle, and scooped up a jug full of standing rain water from a dip in the cement, and threw the water toward the tyrannical leader (who was walking away with his posse), and some of the water hit the tyrannical leader in the back. The tyrannical leader turned around in surprise and all his posse said “ooh.” I took this as a sign the guy was going to need help. So before anybody sprang into action I started walking toward the leader and his posse all confident and said something about how I was with the guy too.

Well they seemed a little surprised but seemed to be pre-organized for this type of thing and one tall guy (a member of the posse?) kind of squared off with me. Somebody said “he’s going to fight you” as if to warn me to get out while I could but I said “I’ll fight him if he wants.” He moved up to this urban ledge and I went up there too and then he went at me. I grabbed him somehow and after a few seconds struggle I shifted his weight around to where I threw him off the ledge. He landed head first and I thought he was out but he came up for more staggering a little. I jumped down and grabbed him by the hair and head and started banging his head against the concrete as hard as a I could. I stopped for a moment but he started to try to fight again so I did it again. And now all this fluid was rushing out of his head and his mouth. Then I stopped and looked at him and he indicated some kind of “I give up” thing and so I stopped. Some more fluid rushed out of his mouth. As I stared at this I “came to my senses” (off the adrenaline fight rush) started saying “oh my god, oh my god” and took his head in my arms and I just started weeping in remorse for having so violently attacked him, weeping in remorse for how I had been banging his head against the concrete as if I didn’t care if he died or not. I think he said something like “it’s OK I understand.” And he seemed to be OK despite his 18 concussions.

What in the world??

Wow ... worth watching. Just a few minutes long.

http://tinyurl.com/yxewot

Note: I think it requires an updated version of Media Player. One computer I read it on, it came right up, another one it didn't. Sorry if you can't view it. Let me know if you can't view it so I'll know ...

If you have trouble using the link to hear the song below, and you wanted to hear it, try this link instead:

http://hosting.dynamis.net/tomsplace/musicdemos/

That brings up a list and "It's in my Heart" is the last song in the "Piano Featured" section.

If you still have trouble, your computer may be having trouble playing MP3's. Try right-clicking the song (on the list) and choosing "save target" and save it to your desktop, then try playing it from there.

By the way, it can take a few minutes for the song to download, before it's ready to play ...

A new song. Comments? Especially the title - is that the right title for this song?

Click here to hear a very rough recording of the song

It's in my Heart

Tom Heard 2006

How can it be -- you love me so completely

How can it be – I still let go of your hand

How can it be – I know your words are so true

How can it be – I still go my own way

The things I don’t want to do

These are the things I do

The things I so want  to do

These are the things I do not do

Not just with my hands

Not just with my eyes

Not just with my words

Not just with my feet

But in my heart, oh Jesus

  Come and heal my heart

It’s in my heart, oh Jesus

  Come and heal my heart,

Heal my heart

How can it be – you love me so completely

How can it be – you still take hold of my hand

How can it be – your love for me is so true

How can it be – you’re with me the whole way

The things I don’t want to do

These are the things I do

The things I so want  to do

These are the things I do not do

So don’t just wash my hands

Don’t just turn my eyes

Don’t just change my words

Don’t just wash my feet

But change my heart, oh Jesus

Come and heal my heart

It’s in my heart, oh Jesus

Come and heal my heart

It’s in my heart, oh Jesus

Come and heal my heart

It’s in my heart, oh Jesus

Come and heal my heart

(short simple instrumental)

(simpler)

This is my heart, oh Jesus

Come and make your home

This is my heart, oh Jesus

Come and live right here

Come and make your home

Come in live right here

In my heart

As many of you know I drive around most days, most of the day, going from client to client. So I am often in a hurry and away from home, and have to eat at a fast food place, but I've found the following options:

• Taco Cabana has a personal skillet chicken fajitas. I try to avoid the sour cream or rice, eat a minimum of the beans. Squeeze lime over the chicken for extra taste. Extra bonus: the pica fixins opens up my sinuses and relieve some headaches.
• James Coney Island has turkey dogs. Low fat. Gulden’s Spicy Mustard available for some real taste.
• McDonalds has a grilled chicken sandwich. I get it with no mayo, just lettuce and tomato, and ask for BarBQ sauce on the side.
• KFC has a roasted chicken strips meal, I usually get it with rice and green beans ...
• Sonic has a grilled chicken sandwich and I can substitute bar-b-q sauce for the honey mustard.

I eat the fast food stuff above regularly, as in 2 meals a day. That and working out 2 days a week keeps me in reasonably healthy shape. Do you work out? If not and you’d like to join me on Mondays, Tuesdays, or Saturdays at 24-hr fitness in the Meyerland area, I’ll teach you how to get started ...

Why bother with fitness? Many people have found that being in good shape helps them concentrate better, feel better, and have a more positive attitude. I've found this too and I've found that it translates into more willingness to play with my kids and to respond with a more positive attitude to requests for help from others.