thinking out of the box

why write your car module 'five hundred'  does it mean the car will break after 500 miles, it will cost you 500 a month to fix it... I don't get it. talking about the ford five hundred i just passed on the high way. dont worry i don't blog and drive. racer is driving as we are headed north towards crystal mountain, which is a ski resort.

we are in my Toyota , which is not on the huge Toyota recall. i saw a report on tv about it, they claim Toyota had lots of calls on this problem with the accelerator, 600 claims over a period of 2 years and they didn't do anything about it, so deserve criticism, but after 10 minutes of report on it and bashing them, the news had a bit about GM about to recall a module based on a lot more calls, that bit was under 30 seconds, with no bashing. so we have a company ignoring or slow fixing a problem and a media which is focused on anti Toyota as means to boost the local car makers. i guess i see the logic here, news is not news for a long time, but an extension of politics by other means.

a similar occurrence i notice on the Haiti reports. while checking ynet, it shows how the Israeli effort is huge, and all the talkbacks trying focus on how Israel efforts re displayed worldwide. while watching news here, you see nothing but American efforts. they may mention 'other' countries- not by name, they will say 'other' countries are doing minor things. each country is focused on its efforts, while if they were focused on others, it may boost world onement , but no. shame.

 

we were supposed to go to Baltimore and DC this weekend, and i noticed that an uncharted state was near by (Virginia) and planned the trip to Shenandoah national park, but weather was in the way with a huge snow storm, so we had to adjust our plans and quickly headed the other way, plans are not final , but likely skiing and perhaps snowmobiling , we'll see.

 

i was in northern Texas the previous week and a snow was about to hit, so i checked out just before the storm hit and left the area, my colleague did not and was stuck there over the weekend. i don't mind being stuck in an interesting area, but northern Texas is not interesting. Michigan is not an interesting state, but offers lots of nature and adrenalin options, my kind of things.

 

A magical box of mysteries came all the way from India caused grown man to be hypnotized. my brother returned from working in India for a short period. i wouldn't mind working in India either and brought a little wooden box which is a riddle, the riddle is how to open the box. moti spent several hours with no success. i got hold of the box after escaping the storm in, not a 6 hours drive, tried for a half hour an no luck. the thing is that someone who knows how to open it, does it quickly in a sec and you don't actually see how. i noticed the ridges where part of the box slides out, but couldn't figure out the mechanism.

we kept trying in the morning, suspecting that you need to stick a a needle in some hole, like opening from the inside , or there is some tool you need but my brother , quickly demonstrated again and we saw no tool. i kept my focus on the area around the ridges and after an hour of so of pushing in various places, it suddenly opened.

imagine this picture.

we were in office depot. my mom standing, moti in front of her looking at her, and i am on the other side, so moty cannot see me but my mom can. i open the box without even looking at it (lucky break) and spread my lucky hands in victory(but side ways), one part of the box in each hand. my mom sees that and becomes silent and stares in disbelief (moti was trying also in the morning with no luck for a long while). the silent was movie like. moty noticed something happening, but couldn't see since i was right behind him. he was staring at my mom, who was staring at the box parts. moty finally looked behind and was awestruck by the parts. i quickly combined them whole again and learned the trick so i could do it again (you have to push it in a specific place). then moti (Who was pleased I didn't manage to open it right away) took it and refocused his efforts. his fear was that the box would be given to my niece roni (Age 5) and she (very smart girl) will open immediately. so he got cracking. the thing is that this box is very well crafted and even after opening, you don't see scratches leading the way, its  moti a very tricky box.

 

after wards moti spent a few more hours till eureka finally kicked in.

so remember, if you go to India, don't forget to bring a box. (there was nothing in the box but the joy of opening it).

 

 while back in Dallas we made another trip to Uncle Julio, love the place. and we went to a Vietnamese place, don't believe i ever been to a Vietnamese place. this place is known for its soups. so we each get the small soup, each with different types of noodle and meat. i got steak meat with some spices. the soup was very good and came in a huge bowl, not sure what is the size of the big bowl is.

my previous road trip was for 10 days and for this reason, I didn't leave my car at the airport parking lot, too expensive. racer dropped me over but couldn't pick it up, and i was debating, taking the train, which leads to another train which leads to 6 minutes walking in a freezing weather, so i took a cab instead. i think its a waste taking a taxi, too expensive (cheaper then leaving the car for 10 days). the driver gave me his card asking to call when ever i needed, he doesn't know i would lose the card in a matter of seconds and don't usually take taxi's but he does not need to know that.

 

in the new offices they had dispensable cups with a sticker on it saying 'my solo cup' and 'pill and scratch'. so I pill the label and scratch, hoping to win something that I don't really need. quickly i see that there is nothing there, I keep scratching and there is nothing, not even a 'you didn't win, fool, try again' message. later that day I complain to my tax auditor who burst into a fit of laughter. that cup is a party cup, so you need to scratch your name , so no one else will use your cup. Stacie's laughter went on for hours.

 

we finally watched avatar in 3D, truly amazing animation. the story itself is not that original, reminds me of Dune meets dances with wolves, but the story is still interesting and flows well. but the animation is a must see. 

in other movie reviews, we watched the tooth fairy (with the kids) which was amusing (7+ on the family movie scale) and the 'spy next door' with a 9 on the family movie scale.

when in Rome, is a movie that mostly occurs in another place which is not Rome, kind of like what happens in Vegas which has just 1 Vegas scene (Well, maybe 2)

but the movie is good and gets an 8+ on the romantic ,couples movies night scale.

 

we are driving west now and passing many small towns, this area is a national forest, so obviously full of trees, the ground is full of snow, but today is a sunny day so we will have a great skiing day and hopefully snow movile tomorrow. there are lots of snow mobile trails around this area, so it should be fun. we passed by a small lake which was fully frozen and had many small huts on it, ice fishing huts. i don't see the fun in that but never tried it, got a picture though.

 

yesterday we drove in the heavy snow, 3 hour drive turned to 5. we attempted to drive all the way to the resort but couldn't make it, so we stopped in our favorite town of ann arbor.

we were headed for our deli, zingermans, we were getting close, but the place was few minutes from closing, and that we spotted a road house with the same name. our deli grew and had side branches, so we pulled over. and enjoyed good food which comes from local stores (more natural healthy foods).

this area is kind of flat, and racer was complaining that there are now mountains here, so how can there be a ski resort, a good one anyway. Cleveland has ski, but tiny places, since we have no mountains. we now see parts of it, the last few minutes became hillier and the resort is before us, its suppose to be a huge area, there will be a report about it later on.