Really, I do sincerely mean that I love my family. If it weren’t for my family, I wouldn’t be a smart ass. Hell, I wouldn’t be as smart as I am. Likely still perceived as flaky though. I digress. Today at 0430 hours I’d decided on purchasing a digital camera on my upcoming trip. At 1630 hrs, Circuit City had money and I had a camera!

Here is a picture of my parents:

The colors came out looking really nice and the contrast is darn sharp. The framing is unfortunately a bit too far to the right. I would have liked to get the wine glass and dad’s hand completely in the picture. Oh well. The photo was resized from the original size by Apple’s iPhoto. Now I don’t need Photoshop as much.

The following article at the Belfast Telegraph has a good write up about the new BMW 118d. It seems the tiny car won over some automotive reporters.

Das Link

An interesting note about the engine though. It appears to be not as suped up as its 120d cousin but has the same displacement.

"The numerical credentials of this engine would have been close to science fiction only a few years ago. Ignore the 118d designation: like the more powerful 120d engine, this is a 2.0-litre unit but here producing 143bhp (21bhp up from the previous 118d) instead of 177. This is backed up by 221lb ft of torque to give the effortless pulling ability typical of the best modern diesels, propelling the 118d from a standstill to that arbitrary 62mph figure in 8.9 seconds."

The 118d’s 221lb ft of torque is not a huge surprise. Diesel engines have always produced more torque than regular gasoline-burning engines. BMW engines are also known for having a higher than expected amount of torque. Put the two together and you get that very high statistic.

Looks like BMW has a solid little car on its hands. Excellent.

Your voice is a distinct and telling characteristic of you as a person. It really sucks when laryngitis sets in. This is especially the case if you happen to be the evening manager of a webhost’s technical support center.

I’ll get someone else to do my yelling for me.