Category: Energy

42.1 miles per gallon in a ’09 Honda Fit

Posted on by Sol Young with Leave a comment

It’s Thanksgiving, 2008. Happy Turkey Day! I am thankful for many things. Today I am thankful for sqeezing the bejeezuz out of a Fit’s average miles per gallon. Check the above vid… Seriously… From Philadelphia, PA to Gaithersburg, MD, a 136.9 mile drive with minimal total change in elevation, I averaged 42.1 miles per gallon at 67mph. No tricks, the video is legit.

How’d I do it? Careful use of the accelerator and an ample amount of cruise control. On the flats and downhill I used the cruise. On uphills I killed the cruise and pressed the gas just the minimum to maintain speed (the cruise over-accelerated on uphills to regain 1-2 mph). It wasn’t anything extreme or special, just paying attention and making a game out of it.

Link: real-world mileage of the Fit (fueleconomy.gov)

Posted in Driving, Energy, Family

Skateboard

Posted on by Sol Young with 8 Comments

Yesterday I openly whined about walking during a commute consuming precious time. I’ve been commuting from Malvern to the office and I want the shortest time, or at least the ability to do constructive work, between these points.

After looking around on Craigslist for some type of faster transportation I came upon an ad for the Subzero skate shop – liquidating their inventory. So I dropped by and met the owner, a dude about my age (low 30s) clearing out his stuff before remodeling.

Now, I’m not a skater. I did 1/2 pipes and crazy stair jumps on rollerblades as a teen, but I haven’t touched a skateboard since I was seven and did a faceplant on a 1980s’ish Santa Cruz shorty. I’m a two-planker on snow and snowboarded a handful of times.

But with such a good sale, I grabbed a longboard for a song and walked it back to the train (I was too embarrassed to give it a kick in public).

The previously 15 minute walk home from the station (downhill) was turned in to a carving session… Making turns on this thing was like snowboarding and a downright blast. And it was only 5 minutes.

We’ll see where this leads. So far it’s fun and shaves at least 15 minutes each way.

Posted in Economics, Energy, Etiquette, Philadelphia

The Inefficiency of Walking

Posted on by Sol Young with 4 Comments

I’m writing this while walking from the Pattison subway stop to the Ingram Philadelphia office. It takes 12-15 minutes to complete this walk and it’s not easy to type on the iPhone while doing so.

It really feels like a waste of time, this “walking” thing. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not lazy, out of shape, or otherwise averse to exercise. I run a 6:30 mile, rock climb a couple times a week, and love the outdoors.

But right now I’m bored. I’m not able to efficiently respond to email, trees continue to jump in front of me, and my mind is racing about while thinking of the code I want to write. I’m an inefficient human right now.

The commute for me starts in Malvern. Most days I get a lift to the train station. A walk from the train to the subway at City Hall takes 5-10 minutes (walking). Then the walk from the subway to office is 12-15. Back from the office to the subway, 12-15 again. A walk through city hall, 5-10. And finally a walk home from Malvern station, 15 minutes.

My walking math is shaky, but I think that’s 49-120 minutes of walk time. I do very little for myself or others during that time.

I mentioned yesterday on Twitter that I need some rocket shoes or a long board. I’ve seen the Roth Motors scooter and Go Motorboards. Might be a good option. I haven’t seen these around Philly though.

There’s my 15 minute rant. I’m at the office and whipping out the laptop.

–written with the iPhone WordPress app.

Posted in Economics, Energy, Philadelphia, Running

Roz Savage is rowing across the Pacific

Posted on by Sol Young with 2 Comments

Thanks to new Twitter user @waileacapital for posting about a British woman, Roz Savage attempting to row across the Pacific (she rowed across the Atlantic already). If she succeeds she will be the first woman to complete the journey.

Roz blogs on a daily basis during a trip at http://rozsavage.com/blog. Her main site is at http://rozsavage.com. The video above is of her Atlantic trip.

The latest is that she is having trouble with her desalinization system and having trouble getting fresh water.

Posted in Blogging, Energy, Twitter, YouTube

Scoble and Gary in DC

Posted on by Sol Young with Leave a comment

MCCXXIII

.

Last night I headed down to MCCXXIII, a club at 1223 NW. Connecticut, for a DC Social Media meetup. The meetup featured Robert Scoble (@scobleizer) and Gary Vaynerchuk (@garyvee) as guests.

I’ve been following Scoble more than usual this week, as he’s come to DC to interview politicians and government officials with Rocky (@RocmanUSA) and his son Patrick (@pscoble). It’s been a merging of the blogging tech world and the US government (finally!).

The club was jammed, no room to move, great vibe and so packed the A/C was ineffective. It was awesome to see the turnout and feel the energy towards geeks making inroads to Washington.

Scoble described the experience in a single word, “Incredible.” We talked for a while on East Coast vs. West Coast interviews and the whole crew agreed that it’s been a refreshing experience. There’s nothing wrong with it, but the Silicon Valley CEOs are embellishing the value of their company. Here, it was described, instead of an executive power (pun intended), the power is more pure and the answers more honest.

When Robert described the difference in honesty I did a double-take. Seriously? Whoa. He described a few of the interviews, talking about some of his favorite moments and personal opinions. I’ll let you catch those in the coming days at Scobleizer.com and in video on FastCompany.tv.

A highlight he kept coming back to: His son nailed down the FCC chairman on the topic of porn (it wasn’t on video – wish it was). Robert’s eyes beamed with pride as he described his son having the guts to ask the questions.

Overall, a good meetup and cool to have Scoble out here for a few days, doing something different and interesting.

Existing posts on Scoble’s visit to Washington:

UPDATE: Here’s the link for Gary’s book tour ’08: http://tv.winelibrary.com/gary-vs-book-tour-2008/

Gary Vaynerchuk is continuing his book tour, visiting the Rockville, MD, Barnes & Noble for a signing this morning at 9:00AM.

Posted in Blogging, Economics, Education, Energy, Social Networking, Twitter, Utterz