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Archive for Uncategorized

Mysterious Secrets of Uber

Jan08

I’m more than a little fascinated by Uber (the ride sharing company). I use them 4-6 times a week (mostly to avoid driving to my overzealous wine dinners) and am always quizzing the drivers about their experiences. The most interesting thing about the whole business is the new pattern by which they took an existing fragmented, over-regulated, monopolistic industry that has a medium barrier of entry and centralized the matchmaking part of it while decentralizing and dropping the barrier of entry for the actual labor (to encourage grown of their central profit taking).

This is really a form of new capitalism in extreme. A kind of meta-capitalism. Uber makes a profit by encouraging the capitalism of its non-employee ad-hoc work force (the drivers), operating with low overhead (given the amount of work being done), and skimming the profits. Brilliant! I think the old employee-company model is doomed for a lot of job types and this sort of flexible ad-hoc work is the new future.

While I’m on my soapbox, all the more reason why our American concept of typing healthcare and other benefits to employment is totally moronic.

Anyway, that’s not exactly the topic of this article. I know someone investigating buying a car with possible UberX driving in mind, and both they and I went online to find out what kind of cars could be used with the service.

And I came up blank.

For some completely incomprehensible reason, Uber does not list this basic information on their website. They go to great lengths to encourage new drivers — vitally need them to improve the customer experience — yet their FAQ leaves out this rather obvious and no-reason-why-it-should-be-secret information. Even an hour of web searching failed to turn it up. And I’m no slouch at Google. I had to pretend to be interested in driving myself, sign up, then send Uber an email asking. After which they rapidly sent me the info.

Why hide it? Bizarre. Anyway, I’m going to publish it here in case someone else is searching. Please double check the information yourself if you are planning on buying a car. They probably update/change it periodically and I cannot warranty it in any way.

Acceptable Cars for UberX as of January 3, 2014:

  • Toyota Prius/Camry/Avalon/Rav4/Highlander
  • Scion xA/xB
  • Hyundai Sonata
  • Nissan Maxima/Altima/Leaf
  • Kia Optima/Sorento/Cadenza/Forte
  • Honda Accord/Insight/Civic
  • Ford Fusion/Edge
  • Volkswagen Passat/Jetta/CC
  • Mercedes C/E/ML class
  • BMW 3 series/5 series/X3/X5
  • Lexus ES/IS/GS/RX
  • Audi A6/A8

All UberX acceptable vehicles must be 2006+ and in excellent condition. Every vehicle is subject to inspection and approval.

Acceptable Cars for UberBlack as of January 5, 2014:

  • 2012+ Lincoln MKT or MKX
  • 2008+ Mercedes S-Class, BMW 7-Series, Lexus LS460
  • 2008+ Cadillac Escalade, Chevy Suburban, GMC Yukon Denali, Lincoln Navigator
  • 2008+ Range Rover, Porsche, Rolls Royce, Maybach, Bentley

All vehicles must be in excellent condition, black on black, and are subject to inspection and approval.

uberX

By: agavin
Comments (27)
Posted in: Uncategorized
Tagged as: ride sharing, Uber, UberBlack, Ubercab, UberX, UberX car requirements, UberX car rules

Osiris “He Who Walks in the West”

Jun11

Our beloved Labrador, Osiris, passed today, following the sun into the West through the Great Sky Door to Abydos. He departed embracing the same Naughty Dog zeal for which he was always known. He will will be sorely missed, but Ancient Magics protect him.

He spent 13.5 years with us in this realm. November 8, 1999 – June 11, 2013.

A few words adapted from The Book of the Dead:

Homage to thee, Osiris, Lord of eternity, King of the Gods, Son of Rowdy and the Earth, whose names are manifold, whose forms are holy, thou being of hidden form in the temples, the seeker of sandwiches, whose Ka is holy. Thou art the Prince of divine food bowl in Anu. Thou art the Hidden Soul, the Soul of Ra, his own body, the maker of foul stenches, he of velvet ear and gentle tongue, and hast thy place of rest in Henensu . Thou art the beneficent one, the stealer of towels and the destroyer of shoes, and thou makest thy soul to be raised up. Thou art the Governor of Abydos, the Lord of the West, the overseer of the Sunset Sea. Through you shall the very birds of the sky be consumed and returned. Thou art the humper of the divine dogbed. The stars in the celestial heights are obedient unto thee, the couches and the cushions are crushed beneath your weight, and the great doors of the sky open themselves before thee. With one heart and voice Egypt raiseth cries of joy to thee.

We welcome stories of Osiris’ antics in the comments.














Related posts:

  1. Public Houses on the Rebound – Upper West
By: agavin
Comments (24)
Posted in: Uncategorized
Tagged as: Abydos, Abydos Egypt, Dog, Egyptian Magic, King of the Gods, Labrador, Osiris

The Big Break

Apr12

Accidents are by their very nature accidental. And you never know when something that might change your life is around the corner. Our vacation was almost over, our flight back home from San Francisco to Los Angeles just hours away. After visiting the cable car museum, we drifted down to nearby Chinatown.

It was about noon, February 13.

For some reason, my 3-year-old son was fascinated by the Peking ducks hanging in the windows. It had just rained, and the sidewalk was wet and gritty. My son darted back toward the butcher shop and it made me nervous, him running like that a few feet ahead near the busy street. I turned to go after.

The minimal treads of my Prada sneakers flew out from under me on the slick cement. I went down hard on my butt, instinctively, I put my left hand out to break my fall. The slightly loose stainless steel band of my watch slid down to my wrist. I felt it bite into the skin on impact.

Hard. Real hard.

“Shit!” I say, a wave of pain ripples up my arm. That was hard.

Clutching my wrist, I look.

Damn! wrists aren’t supposed to do that. Thoughts flash through my head. “That has to be broken. I’ve never broken anything, but that has to be broken. That means hospital. The car is like a blocks away. Uphill. Will I make it? Do I hail a cab and have my wife and son meet me? Will we miss our flight?”

We start walking. I’m holding my wrist. The pain isn’t that bad yet, but I feel funny. There are no cabs. I don’t know how long I’ll last. I pound up the steep hill. The car is near the top, on Nob hill. Our son is lagging. He’s not one to hurry and I’m shouting back. “Pick him up!”

As we reach the car, the pain really mounts. Getting the kid buckled into the car seat takes an eternity. My wife fumbles and drops the GPS. There are like 30 hospitals. We call a friend, a bay area radiologist, she tells us to go to UCSF. The pleasantries are like stabs of agony. We key the GPS. 3.2 miles.

It takes 30 minutes. Agonizing minutes.

I don’t wait  to deal with the car, but stagger into the emergency room. My wife follows after. They triage me fast through the paperwork stage. Spelling out your name and address is never fun — 1000x less so at pain level 8 and rising. The guy helps me get the watch over my hand and my Mark Jacob slate leather jacket off. This makes me feel better. I wouldn’t want them to cut it.

I’m in a room within 15-20 min. And waiting. Maybe another 30 before someone authorized to prescribe something takes a look. “Broken arm,” I say.

“We can’t know that until the x-ray. Distorted left wrist,” she says.

My sister-in-law and son find us. I rattle off instructions about making sure the camera is in the trunk. Anything to keep my mind off the rats gnawing on my bones.

The nurse fits me with an IV and gives me a shot of morphine. It takes the edge off, but less than I would’ve thought.

By about an hour and a half in, they wheel me to xray. This only takes 10 minutes. 3 images. Flat, 45 degrees, and sideways. The latter two hurt more.

We wait. I think about what I did wrong. Nothing really. I pushed to walk around Chinatown. My wife didn’t really want to (Chinese food isn’t her thing). Was that stupid? I chose to turn on the street where it happened. I almost look a different watch on the trip, one with a leather band. We almost went to Muir Woods instead, but it was raining. I’d have preferred the mud!

It’s clear the 4pm flight is a bust. We call the airline. They want $250 a ticket (x4) to change it. LOL. We can write a letter and ask for a refund.

Someone is coding in the hall. Staff swarm. I hear “clear!” and the beepy noise. It could be worse.

A doctor finally shows. She looks at the wrist for 3 minutes. “We have to wait for ortho,” she says.

“You saw the x-ray? It’s broken?” I ask. You’d think she’d volunteer.

“It’s broken.” She does up my pain meds. IV Dilaudid. It works better, I start spinning and feel queasy. They give me a shot for that too.

Ortho takes about four hours to show. The staff apologizes. He’s in surgery. By the time he arrives, with a plastic surgeon in tow, I’ve had time to practice my story so it goes fast. They want to try a “reduction” which is doctor code for setting the bone. First they have to numb me up.

Plastics does that. Lidocaine. He explains to an intern as he does. “Wait until you feel the needle slide along the bone.”

Actually, it doesn’t hurt that bad, and after, even when they hang my hand in traction, I’m in the least pain since this started. But I am very hungry and thirsty and they don’t let me have a thing in case they need to operate.

Ortho finally tries to set it at around 8pm. The good news is that he’s a Harvard/MIT MD/PhD. We bond. The bad is that he wrenches my shattered wrist around for 20 minutes. Then he takes a break to get someone “stronger” to help. I take him up on the offer of a shot of Fentanyl in between. Good thing too. That stuff hits hard and fast but I actually hear the bone snap as he works.

And he can’t get it back in place, so surgery for me. No flying either, so we have to drive back LA in the morning and find a surgeon there. In the meanwhile he throws on a cast the size and shape of Massachusetts.

It takes until 11pm to get discharged and another hour to pick up the pain meds (Vicodin). My sister-in-law had taken the boy back to our hotel a few hours earlier. We eat some room service, and I pop two pain pills. Five minutes later I’m breaking my 21 year “no puke” record. But you get used to the narcotics and that was the only time.

Surprisingly, with my throbbing arm floating on a mountain of pillows, I do sleep.

TO BE CONTINUED…

By: agavin
Comments (13)
Posted in: Uncategorized
Tagged as: Chinatown, GPS, Health, Hydromorphone, Los Angeles, Muir Woods, Prada, San Francisco, Wrist

Villetta Update

Dec03

I made a bunch of updates to the excellent (but overpriced) Brentwood Italian, Villetta. This includes another meal worth of dishes.

Read the full review here.

I’m working on a bunch more website upgrades which I should have out in a day or three — plus, producing darkening dream elements — plus the edits for Untimed are supposed to come back today. That will mean an entire novel worth of line edits to process!

Related posts:

  1. Villetta – More Italian in Brentwood?
  2. Quick Update
  3. The edits are all in!
  4. Done Again, Hopefully
  5. Quick Update
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Uncategorized
Tagged as: Brentwood, Villetta

Introducing the Gallery

Nov14

I added a gallery to the site and populated it with some of the standard images I had on hand for my games and books. At the moment this is mostly my draft book covers and tons of Crash Bandicoot photos (I collected them for my big series at the beginning of the year). Truth be told, the hardest thing was choosing a gallery plugin and getting the CSS configured properly. I spent about 90 minutes tracking down why my images we running off to the side in an infinite row. It turned out my theme has “white-space: nowrap;” turned on be default in the CSS. There are a lot of CSS parameters.

Check out the gallery here.

Related posts:

  1. Introducing the Fiction Index
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By: agavin
Comments (7)
Posted in: Uncategorized
Tagged as: Crash Bandicoot, gallery, gallery photos, Playstation

Site Updates

Nov13

I’m slowly expanding the site from a mere blog into a professional author and book site — one page at a time. To that effect, I wrote a new longer form bio yesterday. Also a formal contact page, but that’s boring, so check out the bio, which I like to think is actually amusing.

Related posts:

  1. Introducing the Writing Index
  2. Quick Updates
  3. Updates
  4. Topics at a Glance
By: agavin
Comments (4)
Posted in: Uncategorized

Disqus Comments

Nov10

I just added comments by Disqus, which are a pretty major upgrade on the default wordpress commenting system. Particularly given how Disqus is all javascripty and supports various logins such FaceBook, Twitter, and OpenID.

Let me know how the new system works for you all, as it’s hard to beta test myself. It seemed to import the old comments okay.

By: agavin
Comments (25)
Posted in: Uncategorized

Welcome to Self-Hosting

Nov09

I’ve moved the blog over to self hosting on MediaTemple. Welcome!

As you can see, it looks a little different. I’ve switched to a new iThemes Builder based theme that I’m in the process of customizing. It looks a little ghetto now, but expect changes in the imminent future.

Please also contact me by comment or email if you encounter any technical issues with the transition. I need to know as I can’t test the whole site myself :-). Some features may have moved around a bit, or be missing, and there are some new ones. WordPress.org plugins are a bit different. I’ll be adding a whole bunch of new features soon.

[ Updated 5:30pm ] I even got Facebook comments working. This shall be interestingly experimental :-).

By: agavin
Comments (8)
Posted in: Uncategorized

Moving on Up

Nov08

I’m moving my hosting from WordPress.com to MediaTemple in the next 24 to 48 hours. The site should remain up but I won’t be doing my daily posts until things are settled out with the move.

Expect theme and feature changes and improvements. By hosting it myself there are all sorts of plugins that I can add: like Facebook comments! There may be some (hopefully) brief wonkiness as I add them though, or the occasional broken feature on the site that was supported by some WordPress.com feature that I have to replace.

Thanks for your patience.

Related posts:

  1. Website Upgrades Coming
  2. Introducing the Fiction Index
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Uncategorized
Tagged as: Blog hosting, Facebook, MediaTemple, Tools, WordPress, wordpress.com

Quick Update

Nov01

I added four or five dishes to this Sam’s by the Beach review. Good stuff!

Also chugging away on the polish pass of my fourth Untimed draft. I should be done Wednesday I think. Then on to line editing. Woot!

And, last but not least, Uncharted 3 launches today. Go buy it! Reviewers all love it.

Related posts:

  1. Quick Update
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Uncategorized

Quick Update

Oct19

Today’s post is just a quick update to my entry on Drago. We went there again last weekend and I added three or four new dishes.

Click here if you are itching for more Italian.

Or for all the LA Restaurants.

Related posts:

  1. Quick Updates
  2. Quick Eats – Palmeri
  3. Quick Eats: Piccolo
  4. Quick Eats: Osteria Latini 2
  5. Quick Eats: Pizzeria Mozza
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Uncategorized
Tagged as: Drago, italian

The hits keep on coming

Sep11

I passed 300,000 site visits today! Not too bad for less than a year, so approximately 1,000 a day on average. Probably more like 2,000 a day for the last 6 months. Video games and certain “geek oriented” (and proud of it!) topics are the most popular of course.

Spread the word!

By: agavin
Comments (2)
Posted in: Uncategorized

Brief Status

Aug31

I’m going to hold off publishing the next installment in my So you want to be a video game programmer series until Thursday September 1. The next chunk is on “School” and I’m doing some additional research. So instead today will be a biz as usual food or media post. Tonight is also the night for my coveted Ludobites 7.0 reservation, so Friday will hopefully be a delicious post on that.

And I’m cranking away on the third second draft (call it a 2.5 draft or something) of Untimed 🙂

By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Uncategorized

New Look

Aug10

My original theme, Quentin, was getting a little long in the tooth and didn’t support custom menus, post formats, and the like, although it was attractive. So I switched to the brand new Quintus which is an updated version. This has necessitated a somewhat inadvertent new look. I played with the CSS a bit to customize it, but my patience for this is limited. The new theme is wider, which is cool, but some elements don’t look as good to me like the comments.

Be sure to check out the new top menu (below the old-school paper). You can click on the top levels and get inline filtering of the post categories, or find in the drop downs various indices and popular posts.

Let me know what you think. Here’s what the old one looked like:

By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Uncategorized
Tagged as: Cascading Style Sheets, CSS, Style Sheets, Themes, WordPress

Topics at a Glance

Dec15

In an effort to tame the byzantine nature of my posts and the particular mechanics of a WordPress based site I’ve introduced a “Topics at a Glance” section to the sidebar and a Food Index page. You can click the little food icon on the right for it. This page will organize the food posts alphabetically by location. When I get the energy I’ll see about improving it further.

I’ve also put in quick hit buttons next to it (in the same section of the sidebar) for articles on writing and book reviews. At some point, particularly for the book and movie reviews I’ll probably do an index page.

By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Uncategorized
Tagged as: Index, Website, WordPress

About the Blog

Oct24

Since I consume such a ridiculous volume of overall cultural material: books, games, movies, TV, food, art, gadgets, technology, etc., I decided to start a formal blog to record some of this under the possibly mistaken impression that others might occasionally be interested. In any case, since starting my novel last year I’ve also read several dozen books on writing and story construction and that combined with the process of writing and revising my own story has made me all the more interested in the evaluation of story telling in general.

So hope you enjoy,

Andy Gavin

By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Uncategorized
Tagged as: about
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