Legend of the Corsair

2009 Hyundai Elantra, 2.0-liter, 4-cylinder, 138-horsepower CVVT ULEV
Blue Book new: $18.2K (invoice) $1.0K (MSRP)
used: $16.4K (excellent condition)

Okay. I admit that the Hyundai Elantra was not my "dream car" or first choice. However, it was what was available and the options package was decent enough that it enticed me into buying.

According to the CarFax, (ATTC) this 2009 car had two owners. I'm pretty sure a dealer drove it for the first 814 miles, from 04/28/09 through to 06/12/2009. First purchased on 06/12/2009 in Syracuse New York - person put a lot of miles on it... 9,631. Either it was someone with a regional job that involved a lot of traveling by car or something. They registered it as a personal vehicle and got an extended warranty service for the car with Interstate National Dealer Services. Long distance stealth cab service? They would have had to have driven the car for 344 miles every day during the time it was "out" for it to accumulate those miles... Wow.

Also ATTC, the next owner bought it... in Little Rock, Arkansas. Mileage at this point is 10,445 (which is how I guessed how much Owner 1 put on the vehicle). In the comments for the Arkansas DMV is something strange: "Title issued or updated New owner reported Registered as lease vehicle Vehicle repossessed." I'm guessing it was a lease vehicle that didn't actually get leased, b/c on 11/09/09 it was sold at Auto Auction in the Eastern Region and listed as a "fleet vehicle." It looks like Owner 1, moved from NY to AR, traded it in to a dealership in Arkansas and that dealership intended to use it as a leased fleet vehicle. So, in essence, it only had but one owner. Apart from all the dealerships that is. Hrm... Syracuse, NY to Little Rock, AR is about 1,200 miles. That's four round trips to AR with a little left over. One for the interview, a second for the house hunting or for a second interview, a third for apartment/house hunting, fourth for the actual move? Recent college graduate? Who knows.

I don't believe that when a dealership is the owner it registers with the great almighty CarFax as a separate ownership, unless it is (obviously) traded in and the dealership goes through the motions to use it as a leased fleet vehicle. This is because, according to CarFax: "When someone leases a car from a dealer, the dealer actually sells the vehicle to a leasing company. A leasing company can be an independent car dealer or a car manufacturer. Shell companies people. Which is why, when it is passed from dealer to dealer; 11/09/09, 11/13/09 (online listing), 11/15/09 (dealer inventory) and 12/29/2009 Hyundai Motor America, it doesn't show it as actually changing ownership.

To sum up: It first arrived at the NY dealership with 18 miles on it. Was test driven for two months until it had 814 miles on it. It was bought by Owner 1. In the next four months, 9,631 miles were put on the vehicle. In Arkansas, it was traded in and then "sold" to the leasing shell company of the dealership. Whereupon, in one month, it was bumped from Arkansas to Connecticut after a different dealer bought it at auction. It got another 17 miles put on it, possibly in test drives.

Then I bought it... after five hours at the dealership. (Does that qualify as torture?) A 2009 Hyundai Elantra GLS/SE. The only thing I regret is paying Blue Book value on the darn thing. I've got the remainder of the original 5yr, 60,000 mile warranty. It was a move of practical desperation. Dead car on Monday - "new" car on Tuesday.

Update: okay, I figured I paid less than blue book because of some of the added features I've got, but I haven't got it pinned down yet. Over $1K under blue book.

Opinions? Admonishments? After-the-fact-advice? Lay it on me people.

Okay, with the word panspermia... I keep picturing little space sperm floating throughout the universe and planets (like the Earth) hanging out like eggs. I know, that is what the theory is supposed to make you think. Very silly if you ask me. What would be another name for it? Anyone? Bueller?

This also reminds me of what we have found recently about the bacteria that exists below the crust, deep below it that is. Existing on energy released by radiating particles. Could these bacteria be employed in cleaning up our radioactive waste? Like bacteria that is used to help clean water in water treatment plants. Hrm.

One worrying bit, could the red rain in India be a result of this deep earth bacteria being erupted out of a volcano? Since bacteria has been around the longest, it only makes sense that it would have evolved to survive in any environmental conditions. Do you suppose the deep earth bacteria was the original anaerobic bacteria from the beginning of life on earth could've burrowed into the earth when the atmosphere started changing?

Searching for 'our alien origins'
By Andrew Thompson
BBC Horizon

In July 2001, a mysterious red rain started falling over a large area of southern India.

Locals believed that it foretold the end of the world, though the official explanation was that it was desert dust that had blown over from Arabia.

But one scientist in the area, Dr Godfrey Louis, was convinced there was something much more unusual going on.

Not only did Dr Louis discover that there were tiny biological cells present, but because they did not appear to contain DNA, the essential component of all life on Earth, he reasoned they must be alien lifeforms.
( Read more... )

Alright, your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to add another wish to (or ideas for modifying existing wishes on) my Christmas list. This isn't any ordinary wish-list mind you. It is a list filled with benevolent goodness and good wishes to all the world.

JOY TO THE WORLD!

WHAT I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS.
Inspired by: Robert Green Ingersoll (1897)

If I had the power to produce exactly what I want for Christmas, it would be this…

I would have all the kings, emperors and dictators resign and allow people to govern themselves.

I would have all the nobility crop their titles and redistribute the land back to the people.

I would have the Pope throw away the tiara, take off the sacred vestments, and admit to not acting in God’s name that they are not infallible -- but is just an ordinary person I would have all the cardinals, archbishops, bishops, priests imams, monks, and clergyfolk of all denominations admit that they know nothing about theology, the nature or existence of sin, hell or heaven, the destiny of the human race, devils or ghosts, or gods and angels. I would have them tell all their "flocks" to think for themselves, to be their best selves, and to do all in their power to increase the sum of human happiness.

I would have those that believe truly be tolerant of those who believe otherwise, and vice versa.

I would have all the professors in colleges, all the teachers in schools of every kind, including those in Sunday schools, agree that they would teach only what they know, that they would not palm off guesses as demonstrated truths.

I would like to see all the politicians changed into true representatives -- who long to make their country great and free, -- who care more for public good than private gain -- and who long to be of use.

I would like to see all the editors of papers and magazines agree to print the truth and nothing but the truth, to avoid all slander and misrepresentation, and to let the private affairs of the people alone.

I would like to see the repealing of all laws that do anything but work to prevent the harm of another.

I would like to see the prevention of all unwanted pregnancies – so that each child that enters this world is wanted and loved.

I would like to see corporal punishment done away with in every home, in every school, in every asylum, reformatory, and prison. Cruelty hardens and degrades, kindness reforms and ennobles.

I would like to see the millionaires of the world unite and form a trust for the public good.

I would like to see that the worker not be alienated from that which they create, so that they feel connected to their community. I would like it if each and every possible job were chosen because the person wants to do it -- rather than having to do it to make ends meet – that their livelihood is not their means of survival but their mode of fulfillment and satisfaction.

I would like to see an effective international court established in which to settle disputes between nations, so that armies could be disbanded and the great navies allowed to rust and rot in perfect peace.

I would like to see the whole world free -- free from injustice -- free from superstition – free from desperation – free from inhumanities visited upon them by their fellow human.

This will do for this Christmas. Next Christmas, I may want more.

The Living Room, Manchester CT, December 2004.

I was rolling around LiveJournal, searching for interesting things to do and found this:

(adizzi) wrote in writingworkout,
@ 2004-08-20 16:29:00

off the top of your head, without thinking a lot about them, write a paragraph using the following as themes, cues, quotes, titles or departure points. post yours in your journal and link to it in the comments here.

the point is to improvise, if you're open to it. to get the full thing out of it, don't look until you're ready to write:

1. ninety-five seconds
2. tragic lips
3. one thousand apples, give or take
4. burned
5. statue of an emperor
6. someone's summer
7. fantasies of despotic power
8. t. p. tea shoppe
9. carlo's dilemma
10. [superlative] evening ever


Hence, my answer:

Ninety-five seconds is all you have left my nemesis. What are you to do with the rest of your life? Do you pout your tragic lips and start to blubber on about those one thousand apples, give or take, that you never got to eat? The poison you mistakenly drank burned down your esophagus. The poison was put into the cup, with the purple pimpernel mark on it, that you left at the base of Emperor Ling’s statue. Last summer, you never dreamed that something like this could happen to you. You thought you were invulnerable. Like Saddam Hussein, you were filled with fantasies of despotic power; never suspecting that behind every sip you took in the Tart Petite Tea Shoppe could be your last. You have met with the end that was Carlo’s dilemma. That’s right, he’s the one who decided your evening was over. Isn’t life grand?