On the flight to Portland, I started and finished The Alchemist byPaulo Coelho. It was alright, nothing spectacular, but I do … continue reading: Back from vacation]]> I intended to post during my trip down the West Coast, but I hardly had any coverage between Portland and San Francisco, as we kept mainly to the coastal highway. I blame it on the redwood trees and the sea lions.

On the flight to Portland, I started and finished The Alchemist byPaulo Coelho. It was alright, nothing spectacular, but I do highly recommend it to anyone who’s looking for a good novel that can be completed in one sitting. Frankly, I don’t know why it’s been translated to as many languages as it has been — it’s good, but it’s not that amazing. I suppose the fact that it’s so short has aided it in that regard. I doubt we’ll be seeing El Amor en los Tiempos de Cólera in 50+ languages anytime in the near future, even though it’s a much better piece of literature.

We drove from Portland on up to Mt. St. Helens, and then drove down to the Bay Area over the course of the next four days, following highway 101 and later highway 1. I was impressed by the scenery in Washington and Oregon, but not so much by that of California. I apologize to the state of Oregon for calling Northern California “South Oregon” — that’s an insult to Oregon. Northern California more closely approaches something along the lines of “if Mexico was a state, this is what it would look like a century from now.” And by Northern California, I refer to the area north of Santa Rosa / Sacramento. Nothing against the people, I have lots of friends from that region, but that’s just the impression it left.

On the flight back to Salt Lake City from Oakland, I started reading The Wednesday Letters by Jason F. Wright, which I finished last night. It, too, was a decent novel, but not as endearing as I had hoped it would be. I know it’s strange, but I feel that fictional literature should provoke emotion if it isn’t going to educate me. That said, I do recommend it.

I’ll be posting photos and a more detailed report soon.

Best part of the trip: eating a ton of amazing seafood.

Worst part of the trip: being crammed into a minivan for hours each day.

Really old, wrinkly men are suggesting that the federal government reinstate the ’70s-era 55mph speed limit. While I have no problem supporting an improved energy policy, setting a 55mph speed limit is not going to help anyone. If people are cutting back on travel now, think what will happen when … continue reading: National speed limit once again being proposed]]>

Really old, wrinkly men are suggesting that the federal government reinstate the ’70s-era 55mph speed limit. While I have no problem supporting an improved energy policy, setting a 55mph speed limit is not going to help anyone. If people are cutting back on travel now, think what will happen when mom and dad get stuck in the minivan with their 3.1 children for a trip that is now at least 25% longer. Will the government also force the automotive electronics industry to produce DVD players that run at less than full speed, so you can still get to grandma’s before the movie’s over and the kids start to fuss?

The reasoning behind a speed limit reduction is incredibly flawed — besides assuming that every vehicle currently in use has the same optimal speed / fuel consumption ratio, it only addresses half of the gas mileage problem. If vehicles reach maximum efficiency at 55mph, that means that we should not only reduce speed limits that exceed 55mph, but also increase speed limits that are below 55mph. This would be great for those of us who have to pass through multiple school zones during our daily commute.

Rather than imposing an arbitrary speed limit across the nation, we’d be much better off investing all the money that would be spent replacing the millions of speed limit signs that line our nation’s roads on improving the existing drive and transmissions systems. No, it’s not an immediate fix, but it will save many parents from going postal as they spend 7 hours and 35 minutes just to cross Kansas in their minivan. As much as we value our oil, we value our time even more.