I had seen De La Hoya fight several times in the past and while I never considered him spectacular he is still a good boxer. I have never seen Mayweather before.

Going into the fight I thought Oscar would take it because Mayweather seemed to be too cocky. As the fight progressed Oscar gave a good show but that’s all it was. All of his combo flurries looked good and got a reaction from the crowd but they did not really do anything the Mayweather.

Mayweather on the other hand really didn’t do anything the entire fight except make Oscar chase him around the ring. He didn’t do anything spectacular except for one square jab to the face right around the 8th round.

Was it worth the money? Not really. I don’t even know how much it cost but it was not an exciting match. Even the two matches before the fight where boring. Oh well, at least I wasn’t one of the people that paid thousands of dollars to be ringside.

Oh I miss the days when Tyson was a normal boxer and would knock someone out in the first round. I would have taken woman boxing at this point. At least they really duke it out in the ring. Sigh…  

They are a pair of Doc Marten’s boots.

These are not the standard yellow thread around the sole type that you usually see. These have a black thread and have a very defined squared off toe. I bought them 5 years ago this summer as a replacement for a pair of Sketchers that had just started to crack at the sole. It was my second pair of Sketchers in 12 months.

At the time it was hard to justify spending double the money for a similar style of shoes but I had heard really good things about Doc Marten’s so I decided to try them – I’m glad that I did. In the five years that I have had them I would have had to purchase 8-10 pairs of Sketchers. That would have added up to around $500. So in essence I saved about $400.

Over the course of the last few months I had been keeping my eye out for another pair of Docs that could go with Khakis and that were brown. I found a few pairs here and there but nothing that was priced right (I was looking for a sales) or was in my size.

Well this weekend the stars were aligned and I found a pair on sale at Journeys that were usually priced at $100 on sale for $60. I immediately inquired for my size and they had it. I went home with my new docs and a big smile on my face.

The only down side to Doc Marten’s is the break in. I wore them yesterday and half way through the day I had to take them off as they were causing the top of my feet to hurt. I expect that it will take a week or two of wearing them before they really become comfortable.

A lot of people think that spending $100 on shoes as too much. But for me I would rather have a good pair of shoes that lasts 10 times longer then a cheap pair of shoes. Doc Marten’s are the shoes for me.

The Situation

I have a 2002 Nissan Xterra that has 95k miles on it. On the average it gets about 20 miles to the gallon with its 16 Gallon tank (it actually has more but that it the most I have ever put in when it was on empty). I drive 20 miles one way to work for a total of 200 miles a week which is 800 miles a month. The car is really driven a least 1000-1200 miles a month with weekends and such.

I like the car a lot other then the gas mileage. I especially like the fact that I own the car outright and do not have a payment on it. The current trade in value for it right now is $8k. If I could sell it personally (which I do not think it likely) I might be able to get $10k. I paid $14.5 for it 2 years ago with 56k miles on it.

The Possible Solution

A couple of years ago I had a Scion XB that was very frugal with gas. The Scion gets about 30 miles per gallon and has a 12 gallon tank (it is more… but you get the picture). The XB would not be that much of a trade off as the interior is pretty roomy and is almost as big as the Xterra. The only trade off with getting an XB would be that I would not be able to tow anything with it (which I have only done once with the Xterra).

My plan was to sell or trade in my Xterra for a Scion XB. I wanted to make sure that it I would really be saving money if I went through all the trouble of trading cars. Initially I was excited to find out how much money I would be saving by going to a more fuel efficient car. As the numbers unfolded my excitement faded as I found it would actually end up costing me money.

The Numbers

I had the luxury of having a record of every transaction that I had made via my debit card last year though a online check register that I setup for myself. With this information I was able to glean the total amount that I spent on gas last year via my debit card which was at least 95% of the money I sent on gas. So the total was pretty accurate.

I plugged these amounts into Excel and subtotal them out by total, count, and average for each month. From there I went to eia.doe.gov and got the average gas prices for my area by week. I then averaged these totals out by month and plugged them into my spreadsheet. From there I was able to calculate the following items by month for the Xterra to see my current state: 

• Average Gallons Per Fill Up 
• Total Gallons Per Month
• Average Miles Per tank of Gas
• Total Miles for the Month

From there I plugged in info on the Scion to compare. These are the items that I calculated by month:

• Scion Gallons of gas (total Monthly Miles / Scion MPG)
• Scion Gas Cost (Scion Gallons x Average cost per gallon)
• Gallons less then Xterra (Xterra gallons less Scion gallons)
• Savings – Scion over Xterra

From there I was able to look at the average saving per month and the whole year. This is what I got for 2006:

• Year savings: $1,116.12
• Average Monthly Savings: $93.01

While these figures look great it is the cost of a used XB verses what I can get for my Xterra that is causing issues. There is just no way that I can get an XB that is worth driving for what I can get for my Xterra.

What’s Out There

I have found several XB’s that are in the $8k range but they either have a salvaged or reconditioned title to them. That means that they have either been totaled or messed up pretty bad in an accident. If I look at an XB that does not fit into these categories they start at $11k.

That is only $3000 though you may say. Yeah but I am trying to save money. If I put $3k on top of the $8k I got for the Xterra it would take me 3 years before I would break even and start saving money. Even if I could sell the Xterra for $10K I wouldn’t break even for a year.

I considered getting a different brand of car but there really isn’t anything out there that is going to give me the room coupled with the fuel economy that the XB can. That is why I am stuck.

Conclusion

While I want to save money on gas and do my part for the environment it is just not cost effective to make the switch from my 6 cylinder car to a more economical 4 cylinder car. I just cannot justify paying more money in my mind when I can afford where I am at right now.

It is weird the way things work out sometimes. I am glad that I looked at the number before rushing off to the dealership.

This video is a really funny way of showing the truth.

Technorati: Funny Video, Immigration, Indians, Crackers, Mexicans

Mac OS XFor instance, I recently got OS X running on my Dell Dimension 4700. I then got Vista running on it too. While this fit way within the scope of this blog I had already started blogging about Macs on my idano.net blog. Therefore I felt that it was only fitting that I continue to blog there about. Speaking of OS X, I got a MacBook at work and have been using it – which is cool. But then again, I started blogging about it over there first.

Porch RailingAlso, I just did a pretty major project at my house. I built and installed porch railing on the back porch of my house. I did this so that we could let our kids play outside while keeping an eye on them. Oh course that type of blogging belonged at my Masters House blog.

So see, the thing is that I have been blogging, but the blogging has been in other blogs that I usually neglected while I blogged here. The winds of change are starting to blow though so you should see posts flowing out of here more regularly now so check back soon.

Technorati: Blog, Blogging, Home Improvement, DIY, OS X, Windows Vista

Here are some videos of them being stupid in the snow.

First video – snow pinball:

Second video – how NOT to pull a car out of the snow:

On, and the 512mb MP3 player – it was pretty weak. It only held about 5 albums and did not have any other functions like FM radio or voice record (my Sansa has that and more). I ended up selling it on Craig’s List for $40 list. Not bad since I technically paid $45 for it and got the Napster service along with it.

Finally, cancelling was no where near as bad as I thought it was going to be. I had called 2 weeks ago and the automated message said it would be 20-40 minutes to reach someone. I had called on a Monday early in the morning that time.

Today (Friday) I called about 11:30 CST and the message said less then 10 minutes. It went through a little 1 minute message and then connected me to a customer service person. I got the standard “we will give you a free month” but I declined. I got a cancellation number from the person and my account will be active until the end of this billing cycle.

The cool thing I have to say about cancelling is that I actually got a confirmation email from they saying that my account had been cancelled. I really appreciated that as sometimes you don’t know if they really cancel your account or not.

My experience overall was good so I would say that if I was in the market for a subscription service again that I would strongly consider Napster again.

Now I off to activate my 2 free months of the Best Buy music store that I got with my MP3 player.

Well in France the name of the movie was translated to March of the Emperor for whatever reason. What resulted from this translation is this very funny commercial involving someone’s imagination.

Technorati Tags: March of the Penguins, March of the Emperor, Commercials, Funny , Comedy, Movies

Technorati Tags: JibJab, Year in Review, Funny, Comedy

I think that it is really cool that a company takes the time to think about how they can help others outside of the services that they normally provide throughout the year. I really like the Vimo.com website also because I am able to give a review on my doctor who is great.

You should check them out and post about your doctors so that other can benefit.

Here is the link to Vimo’s area to rate your doctors so Toy’s for Tots gets the money – Toys for Tots Campaign at Vimo.