"It's the group sound that's important, even when you're playing a solo. You not only have to know your own instrument, you must know the others and how to back them up at all times. That's jazz." - Oscar Peterson
It has been a few days since I shared the jackrabbit post with you. After reading it over, I thought to myself… boy oh boy did I write a lot in that post! Hopefully you got a chance to read through it. Here are some of my recent jackrabbit encounters on the roads of Vancouver.
Posted above is my route of choice to and from Lord Byng everyday. It’s a nice ‘n simple drive and usually takes about 20 minutes. I meet most of the jackrabbits on the way back from school (point A –> b), Sunday-drivers in their big SUVs.
Point A to Point Gray Road is downhill all the way (I like!). Point Gray Road and Cornwall Ave. is a narrow, single lane stretch with a 30 km/h speed limit. To save gas, I usually coast at 40 km/h. Yet, there are always these jackrabbits who think that 60 km/h isn’t even fast enough for them.
Over the past few days, I meet quite a few jackrabbits. Interestingly enough, they tend to tailgate and speed in the 30 km/h zone. That’s a smart and safe thing to do eh (sarcasm!). Well… one time, there’s a lady behind me in her gas-burning SUV. As if tailgating isn’t enough (traveling at 40 km/h in the 30 km/h zone), she honks and tries to push me forward. I stayed cool. Riding on my brakes to warn her to back off would be a bad idea. Not only would that waste my brakes, it would also create a safety hazard ( you’d think tailgaters have brains.. but no). After a bit, she passes me from the right, WHOOMING her engine (and draining her fuel) as she went. Funny thing, a kept on coasting at 40 km/h and passed her a while later as she was stuck at an intersection trying to make a left-hand turn. Get my point?
Another encounter. Same route. This jackrabbit isn’t as retarded as the last one. He/she was tailgating, but wasn’t honking like the last one. This one too, pulled an illegal right-hand pass. Two seconds later, we hit a red light. The jackrabbit brakes hard while I slowly coast to a stop from behind. Point proven yet?
A few more common jackrabbit sightings. Going up the Burrard Street bridge, I usually keep my engine at max 2000 RPM to save fuel consumption (you know that the best way to burn up fuel is to WHOOMM your engine going uphill?). I always accelerate slowly and reach up to 50 km/h. I’d stay in the right lane and watch… erm… drivers speed up the bridge and pass me. Funny thing is, they always brake going down the hill, while I coast. At the bottom of the bridge, they always stop dead (if there’s traffic building up) and go at zero miles/gallon while I coast to a stop. I think you get my point.
That’s it for now. Keep updated through the Vancouver Driving category on my blog.
At the beginning of Ibsen’s A Doll House, Nora is a content housewife who fills the social roles accepted of Victorian women. First as a daughter, and then as a mother and a wife, Nora performs the roles her society assigns to women. Yet the loan that she has fraudulently negotiated ultimately takes her out of roles and brings her into conflict with reality. Through numerous attempts to keep the loan a secret, Nora steps into unfamiliar territory and discovers the real world as her problems with the loan becomes worse. As a result, Nora becomes alienated from her patriarchal society, beginning to question its values and to determine her values for herself.
In A Doll House’s patriarchal society, daughters are valued for accepting the values of their fathers. Thus the father moulds his daughter, as Nora’s relationship with her father demonstrates. In the opening moments of Act I, Torvald claims that Nora is “exactly the way” (1519) her father was. Heavily influenced by her father as a child, she carries many of his traits. Nora has absorbed “all his opinions” and as a result, she has “the same ones too” (1562). In this way, society manages to limit the independence of daughters.
As the dominant male of the family, the father also imposes rules on his daughter in order for her to grow up according to his vision. In the opening scene of Act II (a critical stage of the play as Nora undergoes her transformation), Nora tells the nurse, Anne-Marie, that when she was living with her father, it was always “so much fun” to sneak into the maids’ quarters because none of the maids would try to “improve” her (1546). Clearly, the patriarchal sense of control did not exist in the maids’ quarters, and Nora finds that in escaping there she gets a break from having to live up to her father’s rules.
Ibsen emphasizes the society’s influence over women – particularly daughters – by the usage of the word “doll”. Nearing the end of Act III, Nora realizes that she is simply her father’s “doll-child” (1562). Dolls have no intuition of their own, and are completely at the hands of their owners. As a “doll-child”, Nora was shaped by her father with his opinions, and had little choice but to accept his influence.
His influence continues to affect Nora as she fulfills the duties of a mother by taking care of her three small children. She finds it “fun” (1563) to play with her children. However, we might ask whether Nora has read influence over her children as their mother. In another important part of the play that contributes to Nora’s overall transformation, Torvald says that it is usually the mother’s influence on the children that is “dominant” (1536). Though, in reality, mothers are expected to be an extension of the father’s influence. When the daughter marries, she does not have opinions and personal influence over her children. For that reason, Nora’s motherly role is to primarily care for the children and pass on the influence of her father and husband.
One of the most significant roles Nora has to take on is that of the wife. Her society values wives who accept their husbands’ dominance of the family – as the daughter accepts the dominance of her father – and who care for their husbands’ well-being, as the mother cares for her children’s. As we see, the wife’s role has characteristics of both the daughter and the mother. This further highlights society’s expectation of women with dependent roles.
Throughout the play, the daughter’s role parallels that of the wife. After getting married, Nora goes from her “Papa’s hands” into Torvald’s (1562). The daughter is dependent upon her father for values and opinions, the wife is subject to her husband’s authority. Having been brought up in this patriarchal society, Nora readily accepts her role as a wife. She relies on her husband even in simple circumstances such as choosing a costume for a party. Torvald tells Nora that as a man, he will take on responsibility in times of trouble, when “it really counts” (1542). Societal values like these, with daughters who are taught to be dependent on men by their controlling fathers to ensure that they become submissive wives, lead Nora to believe that that Torvald would accept responsibility once the loan crisis surfaces. However, when Torvald does find out about the loan, not only does he not take on responsibility, but he also distances himself from Nora and claims that there is no one who “gives up honor” for love (1565). This leads to Nora’s realization that she has been Torvald’s “doll-wife” (1562), just as she was her father’s “doll-child”.
The names Torvald calls Nora emphasize this doll-like quality. Among the many animal names Torvald uses to address Nora, the use of “songbird” (1535) is particularly significant. When songbirds sing, they entertain. Torvald shows that his wife’s presence offers a sense of amusement. In both cases, as a daughter and a wife, women play a subordinate role and are controlled by men like dolls. The direct parallel between the two roles clearly reveals the society’s value towards women.
The connection between the roles of mother and wife is also shown when Nora takes care of her children as a mother, and similarly takes care of Torvald, by negotiating the loan. Indeed, Nora takes out the loan to save “his life” (1522). Evidently, she loves her husband, and does her utmost to care for him. The parallel nature of the roles shows the duties society assigns to women – they do not serve themselves, but others – and that society’s values confine them to their social status in such a manner that restricts them from surpassing these designated roles.
The critical, underlying concept of the loan drives Nora towards self-awareness. When Krogstad threatens to blackmail her near the end of Act One, Nora discovers for the first time that her actions are illegal and will be “judged according to law” (1534). Yet Nora cannot believe him, believing, as she does, that her actions – as a wife saving her “husband’s life” and as a daughter protecting her dying father from “anxiety” (1534) – are socially acceptable. Thus she learns for the first time that what she had believed as the right thing to do, fulfilling the society’s roles of a daughter, wife, and mother, is in fact illegal. As a result, Nora begins to question the values she has always been taught to believe in.
When Torvald tells Nora that Krogstad poisons his own children with “lies and pretense” and that he is “morally lost” (1536), indirectly, what he said applies to Nora’s present situation as she lies to prevent Torvald from finding out about the secret loan. As a result, she is “poisoning” her very own children. At this point Nora is in a state of anxiety and confusion as her actions increasingly conflict with the values of her society. When Nora refuses to “let [the children] in” to see her, fearing to “hurt” her children and “poison” her home (1536), she begins to question her society. From a content housewife who plays the defined roles society has given her, she now questions the very values of the society that she grew up in.
Nora is a highly dynamic character who transforms herself by revealing the values and stepping out of her patriarchal society’s boundaries. While Nora’s attempts to fulfill the roles her society assigns to women, her attempt leads her to question the very roles she fulfills. She experiences bittersweet aspects of real life through her experience, and finds herself in an increasingly alienating environment. Her experiences with the loan lead her to question the accepted values and roles of her society, discovering that her personal experience is at odds with society. Confused, she can only “educate” and fulfill “duties” for herself (1563), before she can be a functioning member of society.
I’m not a big fun of jack-rabbits. As a matter of fact, I never was really a jack-rabbit. Who are the jack-rabbits, you ask? Well, if you exhibit any of the following behaviors while driving, you’re definitely a bloody jack-rabbit:
Quick,sudden, useless acceleration (you know what I mean, when you pump the paddle and your engine goes “WHOOMMM!!”), an example would be someone who still accelerates while coming to a red light
Unnecessary braking: this includes speeding and then braking just to avoid hitting the car in front of you - example? Someone who accelerates while approaching a red light and brakes just to slow down
Zooming in and out of traffic: we’ve all seen these guys and gals before; they swerve and cut across lanes, rush in and out of traffic… these people think they’re getting somewhere faster, but usually get stuck in traffic or end up wrapped around a lamp pole
What do experts in the industry have to say about this type of driving behaviour?
The way you drive your vehicle also can have an impact on costs. “Jackrabbit” driving, or abrupt starts and sudden stops, can take a real toll on your vehicle and decrease its fuel efficiency…
Avoid jackrabbit driving in the city. Rapid acceleration and hard braking is not only hard on tires, engine and brakes, it is hard on wallets, too. Jackrabbit driving can consume up to 35 per cent more fuel…
Say no to jack-rabbiting!
Why would you say no to jack-rabbiting? It’s simple: not only is it safer to take it easy while driving (that’s the obvious bit), it’s also important to save as much gas as you can (at least I’d like to save some gas while I drive, considering the ridiculous price nowadays).
Before I get into some of the techniques I apply while driving, let me lay out a few definitions:
Hypermilers are drivers who exceed the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimated fuel efficiency on their vehicles by modifying their driving habits… As people began comparing fuel efficiency, they noticed that by using certain driving techniques, they could greatly improve their mileage.
Let me tell you that first of all, I am not a hypermiler. Hypermilers go to the extreme, sometimes even risking their own safely, to achieve the highest fuel efficiency. They do crazy things like “drafting” behind semi-trailers to decrease wind resistance, coast downhill with the engine turned off and transmission on neutral…etc. There’s tons of things that they do that I won’t even go near. I consider some of the techniques quite dicey.
But I will say that I label myself as an above-average-miler. Some of the techniques I apply while driving:
Drive a gas-saving car! I drive a 1993 Toyota Corolla, and I have to tell ya, it does not use gas! — well, not literally, but you get my point. Driving a huge SUV really defeats the whole purpose of saving gas. Do some research before getting a car and keep the gas factor in mind.
Gentle acceleration. The title pretty much explains itself. Listen to your engine while driving and avoid hearing the “VOOMM!!”… what I usually aim for is a “prrrrr” sound. Watch your RPM. It should never never exceed 2000. What I do when I usually start moving is that I step on the gas paddle just a little so that the RPM’s a bit over 1000 or half-way between 100o and 2000. Remember, 2000 RPM should be your maximum RPM. Never start off there, but work your way up towards 2000.
Time the lights and avoid unnecessary braking. Here’s the first (and easier) scenerio: you ‘re going at 50 km/h on the road and see a red light ahead. What would you do? Continue gassing and start braking when you’re near the light? Jack-rabbit!!! Continuing to gas when you see a red light ahead and braking when you’re near it is probably the worst thing you can do to your gas mileage (not to mention that you also waste your brakes that way, and also force your braking distance to be decreased). What you should do, at least what I do in this scenario is to let go of the gas and coast to a stop. This is quite obvious, right? Now try this one: you’re cruising at 50 km/h, approaching an intersection and see that the pedestrian cross-walk signal is flashing red (it’s about to turn red). What would you do? Gas it and try to make it though the intersection, maybe even run through a yellow or a red? Wrong! This is where timing the traffic appropriately comes in. When you see that the pedestrian cross-walk signal is flashing red, it’s telling you that not long form not, the main intersection lights will turn yellow. If you try to “VOOOMM!!” your engine to (hopefully) make it through the yellow, not only are are shooting your RPM way up, wasting a ton of gas, increasing your chances of getting into an accident, but most likely (and I can guarantee you this from the number of jack-rabbits I see on the roads… it’s statistically proven!) you’ll be stuck at the next light even if you make it through the yellow light. Now… what I’d do in this type of scenario is to let go of the gas when I see the flashing pedestrian signal and let my car coast across the intersection. If the light were to change on me before I make it across, at least I’d have slowed down a bit and would be able to coast and brake lightly to a stop. If I make it across, all the better!
Now I can really go on all day about all the techniques I live by. But I won’t. Here are some really excellent resources to increase your mileage:
Remember, you should always use your common sense. Don’t coast at 20 km/h when you’re in traffic… always choose the safest options.
My rant and other tips
Alright here comes my rant. There are tons of stupid jack-rabbits out there. I spot a dozen or so every day. That’s really, really annoying. Whenever I accelerate slowly and smoothly, I’d see someone on my bumper. That’s quite normal; they’re but jack-rabbits, let humanity pity them. As long as I don’t go below the speed limit, I’m good. You don’t want to obstruct traffic while driving. So yeah, stay with the speed limit and watch your RPM.
Here’s a story: I was cruising down Oak Street once (wide and speedy) going about 60 km/h. I was in the right lane as a cab approached behind me. As if 60 km/h isn’t fast enough, he cut into the left lane, passed me, and cut back into my lane. That’s cool, I thought; whatever works. A bit later, I wanted to turn left onto Granville Street and take the bridge home. Simply coasting down a slope, without using the gas paddle at all, I went down into the left lane, stopped at the light and waited. Ironically, there was more traffic in the right lane than in the left, and the jack-rabbit cab pulled behind me. Funny thing, I thought, all that extra gas wasted for nothing, cab. I then took a left hand turn and accelerated slowly once I straighted out and switched onto the right lane on Granville. there was probably more traffic in the left lane now, and the cab pulled behind me in to the right lane. I was slowly building up my speed, listening to the “prrrrrr” sound of my engine, going about 40 km/h (which was quite reasonable as there was traffic in front). The cab, running out of patience once again, pulled into the left lane, passed me, and back in front of me into my lane. I kinda laughed to myself. Now there was a car trying to parallel park in the right lane, and the traffic in this lane was starting to build up. I was just coasting… and without using any gas, pulled into the left lane to pass the line of cars. Even more ironically, I passed the cab again and pulled in front of him. Hahahaa… I really wonder how the cab driver felt after making such a jack-rabbit of himself.
Well… enough of my ranting. I think I’m going to get a bumper sticker or two. Maybe I’ll have a message on it saying “free airbag test; tailgate for details!” (maybe I’ll even add a Ron Paul sticker or two to top it off )
As you can see, Eastwood Zhao dot COM now has a new theme! My blog’s now running on the Orange Web 2.0 theme by Ericulous.
I like this much better than the other one for a number of reasons. First of all, it’s a lot cleaner; I’ve stripped away all the annoying pay-per-click ads . I wasn’t making any money on those ads… so I decided, why bother keeping them? This has greatly increased the visual appeal of the page and the overall speed of the blog. Yay! Liberation at long last from those annoying ads (note that I wasn’t using Google Adsense — had I had Adsense I’d probably be way better off).
What do you think of the colours? I really like the design, especially the contrast between the orange and black. Though, I’m still trying to find a header graphic.
P2P file sharing (aka “piracy”), ladies and gentlemen, cannot be beaten. I say this not because it is the logical thing to say, not because torrenting movies makes sense, not because almost 20% of internet traffic accounts towards Bit Torrent. P2P file sharing, “piracy”, torrenting — whatever you would like to call it — cannot be beaten simply because fighting against it is impractical, illogical, and not the progressive way to go in this ever-so-technically-savvy world of ours today.
I’d like to share a very interesting article with you, written by Portfolio.com, that outlines the failing fight of the MPAA and RIAA against file sharing: The Pirates Can’t be Stopped.
“A teenager hacked into the outfit charged with protecting companies like Sony, Universal, and Activision from online piracy — the most daring exploit yet in the escalating war between fans and corporate giants. Guess which side is winning…”
Defensive Eco-Driving 
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. I wasn’t making any money on those ads… so I decided, why bother keeping them? This has greatly increased the visual appeal of the page and the overall speed of the blog. Yay! Liberation at long last from those annoying ads (note that I wasn’t using Google Adsense — had I had Adsense I’d probably be way better off).
