New car, new programing language
Dec. 31st, 2003 09:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gizaWell, the big news here is that I bought a new car last night. A 2004 ION-2 from Saturn. I was perfectly happy with my old Saturn, except for one minor detail: having to work the clutch with my bad foot. It took quite a bit of effort to press down on the clutch, and that just wasn't good for my foot, especially with all the problems I was having with it.
What's even more interesting is that I saved over $1,000 by getting this new Saturn. Here's how:
1) The old one had inspection due in February, and needed new tires. That would have been about $400.
2) The old one needed some work done on the exhaust. $300.
3) The old one had a leaky seal in the gearbox which, after my extended warranty paid for the $1,000 in repairs, I would have had to pay the deductible. $100.
4) My old car loan was at 7.5% interest. The new one is at 0.0% interest. Gotta love depressed economies!
Finally, I spent a little extra and got a 6 year/100,000 mile/$0 deductible warranty on the new car. If anything ever goes wrong, all I have to do is take it in to be worked on, and it won't cost me a penny. It also covers towing and rental car reimbursement. Holy risk management, Batman! And hey, having an odometer that reads 76 MILES on it is also kinda cool!
Besides new cars, I've also been into new programming languages, namely Java. Earlier this week I started working my way through the book Teach Yourself Java 2 in 21 Days. I've been making pretty good progress with what I've used so far. The OOP syntax and methodology is nothing new. It just... makes sense to me.
Also on the subject of new software, I had forgotten to mention previously that when I was at my parents place for Christmas last week, they had installed OS X 10.2 on their Mac. I'm pretty impressed at how well it's running on a G3 machine with only 128 Megs of RAM on it.
Finally, when I was at my pawdiatrist's this morning, we were talking about Bextra, an anti-inflammatory that he had prescribed to me and my insurance didn't want to cover. The conversation kinda went like this:
Heh. Now that's what I call patient advocacy. :-)
That's about it for now. I get to work a full day at the office today, then I'm off to a New Year's party later tonight. Happy new year folks!
What's even more interesting is that I saved over $1,000 by getting this new Saturn. Here's how:
1) The old one had inspection due in February, and needed new tires. That would have been about $400.
2) The old one needed some work done on the exhaust. $300.
3) The old one had a leaky seal in the gearbox which, after my extended warranty paid for the $1,000 in repairs, I would have had to pay the deductible. $100.
4) My old car loan was at 7.5% interest. The new one is at 0.0% interest. Gotta love depressed economies!
Finally, I spent a little extra and got a 6 year/100,000 mile/$0 deductible warranty on the new car. If anything ever goes wrong, all I have to do is take it in to be worked on, and it won't cost me a penny. It also covers towing and rental car reimbursement. Holy risk management, Batman! And hey, having an odometer that reads 76 MILES on it is also kinda cool!
Besides new cars, I've also been into new programming languages, namely Java. Earlier this week I started working my way through the book Teach Yourself Java 2 in 21 Days. I've been making pretty good progress with what I've used so far. The OOP syntax and methodology is nothing new. It just... makes sense to me.
Also on the subject of new software, I had forgotten to mention previously that when I was at my parents place for Christmas last week, they had installed OS X 10.2 on their Mac. I'm pretty impressed at how well it's running on a G3 machine with only 128 Megs of RAM on it.
Finally, when I was at my pawdiatrist's this morning, we were talking about Bextra, an anti-inflammatory that he had prescribed to me and my insurance didn't want to cover. The conversation kinda went like this:
Dr. G: Ever have heartburn or acid reflux? Me: Not really, no. Dr. G: Never? Me: Nope, not really. Dr. G: Not even ONCE EVER? Me: Well, okay, maybe once or twice. Dr. G: Great, that's what I was looking to hear! Now I can fax in a form to your health care provider stating that since you've had heartburn, you NEED Bextra because it's easier on the stomach than Ibuprofen is!
Heh. Now that's what I call patient advocacy. :-)
That's about it for now. I get to work a full day at the office today, then I'm off to a New Year's party later tonight. Happy new year folks!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2003-12-31 07:40 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-12-31 08:31 am (UTC)Re Java: That's exactly the same book I used to learn Java in my Human-Computer Interaction class at Virginia Tech. Good book, good language, stupid microsoft.
Re Reflux: w00t on Dr G.
Oh, and thanks for the Yiffmas card, I like that blah blah blah part ;-)
(no subject)
Date: 2003-12-31 09:02 am (UTC)Oh and neat to hear about the new Saturn situation. Glad you're puttering around in a new car that you don't do too much work with your bad foot on a bad clutch. Have lotsa fun with it!
Matt/Danruk
(no subject)
Date: 2003-12-31 08:22 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-01 03:20 am (UTC)