Up to $4.77/gal…

And I thought $4.46/gal was bad…

It just so happens that the closest gas station to my apartment is this Chevron that seems to have one of the highest, if not the highest gas prices in Los Angeles!  The amazing thing here is that I still see people filling up time and again here despite the high cost!  If you do a little research, you’ll find 20-40cent cheaper gas within a mile or two of this location!

About three weeks ago, this same gas station had prices up around $4.39/gal before dropping to an astonishing, and seemingly random low of $4.19/gal.  It didn’t last for long as it has now shot up to $4.46/gal!

Are any of you seeing gas prices this high in your area?  International folks need not comment cuz I know you guys pay more.  LOL

When I got home this evening from work, I saw a little commotion just developing at Union Station Way and Cesar Chavez.  Looks like a Metro Bus tagged the rear end of this car.  I kind of got a kick out of the sign on the bus:

 
Photo Album

Finally – a Zune ad that speaks to what you can DO with the Zune.  Don’t get me wrong, the previous Zune commercials piqued my creative fantasy side of my mind – but I recognized that they didn’t tell anyone what the heck it was or what you can do.  These ads are playing on targeted networks in the US and have played heavily during the NBA Finals on TNT (GO LAKERS!!!).

First public Windows 7 Demo happened last night with Bill Gates & Steve Ballmer @ All Things Digital

The demo is of the MultiTouch capabilities that are baked into Windows 7 that with the right PC will deliver the experiences demo’d.  This is just the beginning.  For more on the first public unveiling of Windows 7, read a piece put together by the AP: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080528/D90UL2MG0.html.

Moments ago, California’s Supreme Court rejected a gay marriage ban!  Here is the MSNBC.com breaking news piece which will be updated as more information comes in.

I had high hopes that the court, which had a history steeped of innovative, forward-thinking decisions would come to this logical, inevitable conclusion:

"Furthermore, in contrast to earlier times, our state now recognizes that an individual’s capacity to establish a loving and long-term committed relationship with another person and responsibly to care for and raise children does not depend upon the individual’s sexual orientation, and, more generally, that an individual’s sexual orientation — like a person’s race or gender — does not constitute a legitimate basis upon which to deny or withhold legal rights. We therefore conclude that in view of the substance and significance of the fundamental constitutional right to form a family relationship, the California Constitution properly must be interpreted to guarantee this basic civil right to all Californians, whether gay or heterosexual, and to same-sex couples as well as to opposite-sex couples."

While there is a current grassroots drive underway to amend the State Constitution like that in 26 other states; a high bar must be reached for it to be successful – it will be close, but I believe it will fail.

You know the saying… “As California Goes, So Goes The Nation”…  lets hope so! :)

 

Despite a complete revamp of its Zune portable media player last October and a new software update that brings TV downloads, sales of Microsoft's iPod rival have yet to increase.

BetaNews.com: Microsoft sells two millionth Zune, but sales show little growth

First off, I’m not picking on BetaNews.com…I have friends who work there, so I’m just giving them some link-lovin.  :)  A lot of news sources picked up on this “theme” that Zune has not seen any increase in sales or that sales are “flat”.

It took over 11 months for Zune v1 to hit 1M sold through…and that was with one capacity, the Zune 30!  In its first year, the Zune came in with 1.2M sold in total.  The figures everyone is using are from the NPD Group, which report on retail sales.  While I’ve been able to find no date range for this report…one can make an educated guess that these figures do not include May, and likely do not include April (Video Game sales for the month of April aren’t even out yet).  So, for the period of late November 2007 through March 2008 – Microsoft sold an additional  800,000 Zunes.  A time period of roughly 4 months!

Extrapolate current growth of 200k Zunes sold per month over the course of the next year and you have an additional 2.4M Zunes sold by March 2009.  Throw in new product releases, new markets (Canada, Europe) and you can make the case for even larger growth! 

By these calculations, Zune will have a total install base of 4.4M in March 2009…this looks like growth to me!  Do the articles like the one above make sense to you?

When writing my previous travel woes post, I figured I should check how many miles I’ve flown on United.  As of 4/26/2008, I have flown 299,929 miles with United.  The vast majority of which has been since the fall of 2005.  Not bad!  :)  I tallied up roughly 60,000 miles in 2005, 140,000 miles in 2006…and just over 100,000 in 2007.

Trying to fly home to LAX tonight.  My flight to Dulles, which I connect from there to LAX has now been delayed until 8:30pm.  utoh!

First it was Air Traffic Control issues, now it is weather delays in Dulles…add to it likely delays here in ATL due to weather and things are not looking good.  .75” hail is now being reported in the Severe Thunderstorm to the west of ATL.

Interestingly enough, the last time I was significantly delayed like this (the crew for my flight has been sitting around here at the airport since 2pm!) was here in ATL in December of 2006.  I ended up missing my office Christmas Party that time. 

Given all the flying I’ve done over the last two/three years…it is a surprise I don’t have more horror stories when it comes to flight delays etc!  :)

On the Farecast.com Blog, the latest post reads: Microsoft Acquires Farecast.  No details on what Microsoft intends to do with Farecast, but you can get a glimpse as to how MSN Travel has used Farecast @ http://travel.msn.com.

This comes across as a rather odd acquisition… but Microsoft has made no bones about making such deals often.  Especially when the belief is that acquired technology can be used as a platform.  Maybe there is something special in their price prediction “secret sauce” that Microsoft really liked.  :)  Will be interesting to see if they do more than just rebrand Farecast as MSN Travel. 

It is funny to watch this go full circle.  Microsoft created Expedia back in the heyday of MSN.  Expedia was spun off; much like CitySearch (and almost what is now MSN Autos).  MSN Travel uses Expedia today to help customers find and build their travel plans.  MSN CityGuides are back.  Now Microsoft buys Farecast and will certainly bulk up MSN Travel in the future.

p.s. I know I need to blog more!  Been super duper busy but I’ll be sticking around these parts for sure!  = ]  Fun days are ahead…

Terrific coverage and a live stream of MSNBC @ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22997326/.  If you are a political junkie...this veritable scoreboard is a ton of fun to watch!  :)

From this morning's Forecast Discussion from the National Weather Service in Oxnard, California:

THE AVERAGE HIGH FOR DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES SO FAR THIS MONTH IS 64.2 DEGREES...AND WITH THE HIGHS FORECAST FOR THE NEXT TWO DAYS...IT WILL END UP AT 64.1 DEGREES...THE LOWEST AVERAGE MAXIMUM TEMPERATURE FOR THE MONTH OF JANUARY IN ALMOST 30 YEARS...SINCE 1979. WITH 7.97 INCHES OF RAIN IN DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES...IT WILL BECOME THE 11TH WETTEST JANUARY OF THE 131 SINCE RECORDS THERE BEGAN IN JULY 1877.

Its been fun to wear all my scarfs, coats, and jackets this month! 

I woke up at 4am today and wasn't able to get back to sleep.  Once the sun was up I went to the roof of my building to snap a couple of pictures.  It is an absolutely gorgeous day thus far in the dry slot between the storm to the west of us and the subtropical jet to the south.

Can you spot the Hollywood Sign?  :)  I have a zoomed in photo of it from my building in my Downtown Los Angeles Photo Album.

Sure it has a ridiculous name (surprisingly the anchors seem to never choke while saying it every 10 minutes!) -- but it is Southern California's only live million watt weather radar.

The potency of the incoming storm has been somewhat in question...the question being just how much rain and how hard will it fall.  It all depends on the interaction of the low pressure off the coast with a stream of subtropical moisture being pulled northward towards Southern California.  I've seen many of these scenarios in my past 28 years in Los Angeles -- and sometimes the ingredients just fail to come together.

In the last 5 minutes, the first lightning strike on the lightning detection network showed up...and not from the cold core low off the coast...but in the subtropical perturbations being drug up from the tropics.  Look well south southwest of San Diego.