The Adventures of Goldilocks and Her Bears

Unrelated to anything in my life, I've been thinking a lot about the problems with electric cars. From what I've been read and been told by moriven, who is significantly more interested in these things, electric cars have a battery life problem. They have a limited distance they can go, and then they have to be plugged in for a really long time to charge back up.

It seems to me that automotive engineers may be stuck in an old way of thinking here. Do cars need to have only one battery? What if they designed a car with a series of smaller removable batteries that were drained in sequence? As the battery cells are used, they could be swapped out for freshly charged ones, either from charging racks at service stations, or at a charging rack at home. This would let people go farther in their cars and charge back up to full without putting the car to rest for a day or so.

For example, say, a car had 6 battery cells. The owner would buy a set of 6 extras and a charging station for the garage. Then the driver could use 4, pop into the garage and swap them out from a rack of charged cells and be back out on the road in minutes. Or they could go to a service station, and pay a fee to swap in 4 fresh ones (like a propane tank exchange). 

Charging stations, no matter how they end up configured, are going to start popping up in more and more places. I'm not sure we're ready for that. Our country needs a massive infrstucture upgrade if we are going to embrace electric cars. Our electric power grid is not set up for another heavy drain. I think of the rolling brownouts in summer on the East Coast and just shake my head. How much worse would they be with another massive drain on the system? Sorry, kids, no TV or AC tonight, Mommy needs to get to work in the morning.

Also, I have a hard time embracing the "greenness" of electric cars when so much of our electricity is generated by non-green means. Is there any real improvement between an electric car powered by a coal-burning power plant and a gasoline powered vehicle? I'm not seeing it. At best, it just moves the point of pollution away from ourselves to the someplace where we don't have to see it or know about it. Electricity is just there in the wall, right?

Now, I'm not saying that all of our power generation across the country is from coal and other nonrenewable sources, but the majority of it is. Which goes back to my infrastructure point. We need more power generation and better transmission lines to be able to support large-scale growth in the electric car industry.

We went to dinner with my dad and grandparents last night at Roya's Garlic Garden in Lafayette. It was good. I recommend it.

I had lobster-stuffed filet mignon. It was really tender and juicy. It came with a bearnase and marsala sauces. I think next time I would just get the marsala. The entrees were served on wooden planks which added a smoky flavor. I didn't find the garlic to be overpowering in anything.

Roya came out and chatted with us. It was clear she remembered my grandparents. She teased my dad a little and comped me a desert when she found out they were taking me out for my birthday. The chocolate cake with Grand Marnier creme was quite nice, indeed.

The restaurant had a full bar with quite a selection of top-shelf scotches (which we didn't try this time).

I'm going to start this book report off with a rant. No, wait, I have more than one rant.

Why is it that book publishers no longer put the number that book is in a series (e.g., Book 17 in the Milking the Cash Cow saga) on the cover or in the introductory pages? That is really starting to tick me off. If I pick up a book in a series, I want to start with the first. If I like it and return to the bookstore for the sequel, I want to know that I'm then picking up the second in the series. Not the third, not the fifth, the second.

I want this information to be easy to find. Putting the number on the cover is best. Including a list of "other books by the author" in the first couple of pages is almost sufficient, as long as you publish the titles of the series in order. Making me guess by including reviews of other books by the author (a practice I consider self-congratulatory masturbation) is not adequate for communicating this vital information. 

Labeling the books with the order would also mean that we could skip the paragraphs or pages of background information, which is, let's face it, boring as hell. Of course, if more authors (and publishers) could find it in their creative hearts to just write single stories instead of making everything into a trilogy or cash-cow series, then this would be a moot point. It has been a long time since I've found a sci-fi, fantasy, or mystery novel that was a stand-alone book. More authors should try them.

Speaking of boredom (and, incidentally, going back to the topic of self-congratulation), I really hate to see authors who have written good stuff get so full of themselves that they forget to listen to their editors. For instance, I think this is where David Weber is screwing up. His early works are pretty darn good. His recent stuff needs a good editor to pare out the extraneous crap.

When I skip ahead in a book out of boredom, I know that the author has not been listening to his editor. The last few Weber books I haven't just skipped ahead a couple of paragraphs. I've skipped chapters. This is not the mark of an engaging writer. This is the sign of a writer who doesn't consider his editor to be an ally in creating the best possible book. That's a real shame.

Finally, I think I may be done with Robin Hobb as an author. She is an incredibly talented writer (which I realize would normally be a reason to continue reading her works), but I've gotten tired of the way she always screws over the protagonists in her stories. I don't read fantasy for that. Gritty unpleasantness is what mysteries are for. I like fantasy to be a little shinier. Now, Hobb is no Terry Goodkind, who should have skipped the writing and just gotten therapy, but I just can't swing another screw-the-hero book. (I'm looking at you, too, George R. R. Martin.)

First, the complement:

I love Raymond's Quiet Press. I really respect Raymond now that I've had to contact him about the mistake in what he shipped me. It is totally refreshing to contact a vendor and have him say some variant of "I'm sorry about the mistake. I'll make it right." I contacted Raymond on Friday and the shiny bit was here Monday. That's customer service.

Then the complaints:

Why don't I ever get the voter information packets before I get my absentee ballot? I know it's a stretch, but I'd like to actually read the propositions before I vote on them. I could maybe think about them, too.

Also, someone near here is doing something with heavy equipment. Unfortunately it's something that sounds like an industrial-sized dental drill.

Yesterday my Bejeebus was skairt plain out of me.

I was making breakfast and as soon as I set the egg carton down on the counter the smoke alarm upstairs went off. I scampered upstairs to pull the battery out thinking a mix of:
"WTF?" and
"Oh, come ON! I haven't even turned on the stove yet."

I was a bit more prepared for the shock when the #$&! thing went off again today as I was getting dressed. A new battery is on the shopping list and we'll just have to live dangerously until then.

Vegas was awesome! We saw a couple of great shows, but this trip was really all about the food. Oh! the food!

We stayed in a suite at the Monte Carlo. It was really nice. I've never stayed in a hotel room with one and a half baths before. There were a few quirks to the room, though - the sink got hot water straight away, but the shower took forever to warm up, for instance.

Sunday night we went to B&B at the Venetiian. It's Mario Batale's restaurant. It was soooo good. The citrus sampler dessert was sublime. I had Grand Marnier 150 with it. My sinuses still tingle with orange fire.

We saw Wayne Brady after dinner. He was funny, but his show focused more on music than comedy. Still, he does an excellent Tina Turner impression. His dancers were spectacular.

Monday night we had dinner at the Nob Hill Tavern at the MGM Grand. Again, excellent food. The signature drink at the Nob Hill is made in a martini glass with a sugar rim that's been candied using a torch. After the glazing, it's dipped in cinnamon. yum. They must be a bitch to clean because the sugar lasted through the whole drink.

We saw the early show of the Folies Bergiere. It's been running for 50 years straight. I'd have thought they'd be better. For a show that bills itself as "sexier than ever", I don't think an all-male, fully clothed dance number was the way to start. The performers were skilled, but failed at sexy for the most part.

After that we saw the Cirque show Zumanity. It was spectacular: circus acts with kissing and toplessness. What's not to love? The clowns were spectacular. They did a great job warming up the audience before the show (we got singled out to kiss - Aw). "Oh, she is shy... let us give her the clap."

Tuesday was spa day in the morning - yay! My massage was not spectcular, but the hot tub was divine. That night we went to the Luxor steakhouse, Tender. The charcuterie plate was wonderful and subtle: the duck ham was firm and not too salty; the elk jerky, not too peppery... ah. Filet Mignon...mmm... After we saw the Cirque/Criss Angel show Believe. The magic was good. The cirque performers were excellent - tap dancing white rabbit head FTW! Unfortunately, the show was hapered by Criss. He broke the illusion by talking about his show too often. 

So I get home and moriven says to me "Aww, we're getting crowns together...just not the right kind."