03.06.08
Posted in technology, travel
at 5:54 pm
So our life changed pretty dramatically this month. After almost three years of living without a car, we finally saved up enough Euro pennies for a 2001 Fiat Multipla Bipower.
It’s called Bipower because it runs off two different kinds of fuel: plain old unleaded, and methane. One of Italy’s natural resources is methane, so many cars are sold that use both fuels. Many people even add a methane tank after the fact, if the car they like isn’t available with methane. When first starting the car, it uses gasoline. As soon as the engine is running, it switches to methane, usually in about 5 or 10 seconds.
Here’s some math: Gas is currently €1.40 per liter, or $8.19 per gallon. Methane is €0.85 per kg. Meaning it costs about $80.86 to fill the gas tank and $34.24 to fill the methane tank. However, I bought the car with about 1/4 tank of gas, and it still has about 1/4 of a tank. I’ve only had to buy methane.
But all of the figures are meaningless unless we also look at mileage (though in Italy mileage is measured in liters of fuel per 100 km - so smaller numbers are better here!). Using gas, it should get about 27 mpg. Using methane, it should get 36 mpg. Meaning that methane is both cheaper, and gets better mileage.
But it doesn’t end there. Burning methane produces less CO2 than burning gas, so it’s easier on the environment. I like to say that butterflies and rain forests come out of the tailpipe.
There are a couple of drawbacks: 1) it’s a little more difficult to find a methane station for refueling. Most cities won’t allow giant tanks of explosive gases downtown, so we have to plan when and where we refuel more carefully. 2) There’s a little less get-up-and-go when using methane.
And you wouldn’t believe how many of these things are on the road. Hopefully, our 181,000 km old Multipla will stay on the road at least for a little while!
Permalink
07.30.07
Posted in Team, kids, technology
at 3:50 pm
I got a kick out of watching Trey play with my teammate’s Nintendo Wii. Somehow, as the littlest, his turn to play seems to get skipped sometimes. So as we were leaving their house, he told me he hadn’t gotten to play yet. So we all sat down to watch him play a round of Wii golf and Wii boxing.
And he was really good. I was really impressed at how he was able to just pick up the remote control and play it. The games really are intuitive enough that a five year old has no trouble at all. We all laughed as he went nuts during boxing, but was able to hit the golf ball really gently to knock it into the cup.
I suppose I need to start a Wii jar to save up our extra €€€.
Permalink
05.14.07
Posted in home service, technology
at 11:57 am
One thing that changed in America from when we left for Italy until now is Self-Checkout. When I first saw one, I thought, “How nice! I can check out on my own and save so much time.”
How wrong I was. Saturday night I went to Wal-Mart and the place was packed. Every checkout was four and five people deep. For some reason the express lanes were closed. The perfect time to try our self-checkout. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
The self-checkout lines were also full, and I got behind three young men from Africa. They were speaking to each other in French, and we generally confused by the whole process. The last of the three to check out was having trouble with his card, and the machine kept beeping at him. His friends thought this was hilarious. The people behind me were getting very impatient. I was less so, because boy have I been the foreigner before!
Finally, the harried supervisor of the self-checkout (whatever they’re called) comes over and quickly swipes the man’s card and punches some button on the screen. Now I realize that he has a credit card and doesn’t know his PIN. But the supervisor punched debit. The beeping begins again. Lots of groans behind me. I try to help them out, but by now the machine is convinced that someone is trying to rip it off and says “Please wait for assistance.”
The supervisor swoops over, speaks to the man very loudly (because all foreigners who don’t speak English well are also partially deaf), and gets it all squared away. The man apologized to me, and I smiled and said, “No problem.”
Now it’s my turn. Scan number one - hydrocortisone. Scan number two - super glue. The machine locks down again, waiting for a supervisor. She’s now nowhere to be found. I wait and wait, and the people behind me are again moaning. Finally, she comes over, types in some magic code, which then causes the computer to have her verify my age. You have to be 18 to buy super glue. As I paid, I turned behind me and wished the couple next in line good luck.
In theory, self-checkout sounds great. But why do stores want to give up the last chance to leave a good impression with their customers? And why do so many items require the supervisor to come over and type in her magic code? Checkout with a real live human being may be slower, but she can at least glance up and see that there’s no need to card me for super glue.
Permalink
12.15.06
Posted in culture, ministry, technology
at 3:51 am
Sounds like the start of a bad joke, but in reality that’s exactly what happened to me last night. Just down the street from our house there is a new video game store. We’ve gotten to the know the owner and his friends a little bit over the past few months. Last night they invited Josh and I over after the shop closed for pizza and a chance to play the Nintendo Wii (which I hear is pretty awesome).
We headed to the shop around 8. They closed everything up and we went upstairs to their apartment to order pizza. When it arrived, one of the most intense and diverse conversations on “religion” started. A friend of the shop owner was there, and he is in the process of converting to Judaism. He was quite vocal in his opinions on the Messiah, the non-existence of Satan, and how if an “evil” person dies, they are simply reincarnated until they learn how to be good. Waaaah?
Another person is the daughter of the person in charge of Catholic catechism classes here in Ancona. She mentioned that she only went through with confirmation so she could be done with the classes.
The shop owner doesn’t see any point in “religion” and points to how much evil has been done in the name of “God.” He had a pretty pessimistic world view.
Oh … and Josh and I were there. Occasionally the conversation would stop and they would all look at us for our opinions. We had about 10 seconds to form a thought before someone interrupted us to make a counter argument.
It was all mostly polite and civil. But after it went on for over two hours, even I was done talking “religion.” I don’t have a lot of patience for the debate. I’m not sure that I can “prove” (in the scientific sense) my beliefs are correct anymore than they can. I did go home thinking that the way to reach such a diverse group of people is to just be a light. Show people how you are different and then explain to them why. Don’t debate them into some kind of logical submission. Love them into an entirely different Kingdom.
We never did go back downstairs to play Nintendo. Which is OK, since now I have an excuse to go back.
Permalink
12.11.06
Posted in kids, language, technology
at 11:13 am
Today a CD-ROM I ordered arrived in the mail. I’ve been looking for a really good Italian dictionary to help in lesson writing. The Italian-English one that I have is great, but it doesn’t define the words, it only gives you the translation. So you lose some of the original meaning. I was happy to find a dictionary on CD-ROM - so much easier to use than a big heavy book.
I was showing the kids how to use it, since they often need to look up words for their homework. I left the room to let them play around. In about 8 seconds they learned how to get the program to pronounce the words shown. And then they figured out how to make it say “poop” and “pee” and other fun words like that. Aren’t they precious?
Permalink
Posted in family, language, technology
at 9:31 am
One thing that Europe definitely has going for it compared to the US is high speed Internet. Being a missionary means that we use the Internet a lot. Since we have such a fast connection, it’s easy for us to be online and connected to friends and family back home.
A couple of months ago, the phone company called to tell me they have upgraded our speed to 20 MBps, and for €1 more per month, they would send me a decoder box so that I could watch TV through the Internet. I was a little skeptical at first, but signed up for the free trial.
And we’ve been really impressed. Most of the local channels are streamed to us, as well as a lot of pay channels - some come from London, so they’re in English. They put tons of movies on there, most for free, but some pay-per-view. The kids love to watch Looney Tunes (in Italian) and the kids’ movies. We hardly ever watched TV before since we get such bad reception. Now it’s kind of fun to watch the news in Italian and see how much we can pick up on. The other day the kids were asking to watch a movie and Lance said, “But Dad, it’s good language learning!” I gave in - he was right!
I can only guess based on stories I’ve heard, but the Internet really has changed what being a missionary is like.
Permalink