SO we were up in NC at the ren faire and had a great time. We had to wait almost an hour to park in stop and go traffic. Mental note: next year leave at 6am to drive the 2 hours, wait in traffic, and then enjoy the entire faire. We go back to the car afterwards and then the tires don’t go round and round. Just the rear left tire. The brakes have been making a grinding sound for a couple of months but not all the time. Of course, never when I take it to my dad at the dealership.

So after getting out of the car and watching the tire just not move, oh except in reverse a 1/4 of a turn, we are now blocking the main road. These wonderful people from Sumter,SC stopped and tried to help. I did not know that I had a spare under my car and a jack in a secret compartment. The things you learn….

So the tire is off, it is getting dark and cold, and my son is crying because the car is broke.  I’m shaking because it is out of my control. My baby is broke. So we call AAA. Oh our account has expired. Sigh. So we re-new it. We always had the plus account. So we re-newed it, however, it takes 5 days to get approved. Even though we paid for it, we can’t use it for 5 days. Long story short….2.5 hours in a tow truck with my husband, son, the driver and me. And a $444 tow bill. There goes Christmas….

I HATE AAA….

Throughout the world, where car runs, where our wheel locks(tire lock), www.cn-std.com

new tire trims are in, you can have white wall any type of tire you wish. some dreams will come true. colorful dreams, will come to life. more colors on the way. for now a variety in the 18″ size and all the 17″ white walls you could want. thin, fat, wide, trim, yellow, 16″, 19″!! for mopeds, yes. for motorcycles, yeah and giant moped and other two wheeled creations.

Ini Semua Mulai pada tahun 1926

Semua orang memimpikan mendirikan sebuah perusahaan yang sederhana dan menetapkan untuk membuat terbaik di kategori produk. Expand bahwa sedikit keinginan untuk berpikir tentang apa yang akan terjadi jika perusahaan yang sama tumbuh pada tingkat yang dramatis karena semua orang menginginkan produk unggulan. Silakan melihat ke masa depan dan meramalkan perusahaan itu 78 tahun kemudian, masih memproduksi produk hebat yang sama, tumbuh pada klip yang sangat cepat. Anda baru saja membaca sejarah singkat IRC. Bagi kami, bahwa produk ban sepeda.

Allstate Motor Club has been in business since 1961 and is affiliated with Allstate Insurance Company. They are one of the most trusted companies for roadside benefits. With your membership you will enjoy reimbursement for towing and roadside service, trip planning, an arrest bond certificate, theft reward, Accidental Death Insurance and payment for legal services. In recent years they have made some upgrades to there membership programs that include nationwide dispatch services and there customer service center. Now members can manage there membership 24 hours a day online with there new website.  For new members it’s easy to join right online and start immediately earning the benefits Allstate has to offer. They have five plans to choose from, Platinum Elite, Deluxe, Roadside Advantage, Road Security and RV Roadhelp Plans. With these plans you don’t have to worry if you get locked out of your vehicle, need a tow, tires are low on air, out of gas, need a jump start or if you are just stuck far from home. Wherever you are going you will always feel safe knowing you have Allstate to call.

Whether you’re lookin’ to fix a flat tire or pump up a flat football, the AirPro Cordless Air Compressor is ideal because it’s both battery operated and handheld. Great for bikers or brawlers, it provides up to 120 PSi of pumping strength and connects via a 15 inch air hose with locking Schraeder connector.

What’s really beneficial, is that the AirPro comes with two super bright LED work lights built into it so that if you’re stuck on the interstate at night you can not only see what you’re doing, but the lights will help you hunt down any foreign objects which may be sticking out of your tire. In the handle is an easy to read pressure dial and the top contains a hidden compartment for placing a variety of nozzle adapters including a ball needle.

The Air Pro is powered by a 12 volt DC power pack and includes a wall charger. Cost is about $70 from Brookstone. http://www-chi.brookstone.com/auto-and-car-gadgets2_airpro-cordless-air-compressor.html

One this is for certain, with a handheld capability, it sure beats pumping up and down on a plunger hoping to get your bike tire fixed.

Hat Tip – The Red Ferret

found @ http://www.coolest-gadgets.com/20090825/air-pro-cordless-air-compressor/

This is a concept that comes from a book and later a movie of the same title (Pay It Forward).  It’s the story of an 11-year-old boy who has to do a school project to come up with an idea to make the world better.  He comes up with a plan to help three people and have them pay it forward and help three other people.  At first, he thinks his plan is a failure but later discovers that it has been a success when a reporter traces it back to the boy after being a recipient of a favor himself.

Basically, when someone does you a favor or helps you, instead of paying them back,  you pay it forward.  In other words, you do a favor for someone in the future and they in turn pay the favor forward and do something for someone else.  In this way, you get an ever building pyramid of people doing good deeds. 

How the plan should work.

So, I’ve have been given the chance to pay it forward.  It’s not something I have done yet, but I will. 

This is what happened that gave me the opportunity:  On Tuesday, while driving home, a screw got embedded in my back driver’s side tire resulting in my very first flat tire.  Great.  The good thing was that it was not so flat that I needed to change the tire.  So, I get the tire repaired via a plug by Pep Boys (great place btw) for free thanks to their rewards program and I think all is good. 

Not so.  While driving on Thursday of the same week, my car suddenly starts drifting to the left while I am driving.  It’s another flat with a screw but this time its the front driver’s side.  However, I thought it just needed air because again it was not completely flat and I didn’t notice the screw, so it got air and all seemed well.  My husband saw in the morning that it was flat as a pancake…fantastic.  So, I got my Dad who happened to be here (good timing!) to change it.  On the way to Pep Boys we decided that I should get new tires because mine had seen better days and I figured that was the problem.  So, got my brand new tires and all seemed well again.

Not so.  Friday rolls around and my car starts drifting to the left again.  Great!  Not only did I seem to have another flat, but my baby was in the car.  I pull into a shopping plaza and get out of the car to take a look.  The same driver’s side tire is completely flat again!  This time there is not screw or nail but the tire is flat none the less.  Grrr…I pull all the necessary items out of the trunk to change the tire and was having a hard time of it.  I figured that Pep Boys did a crappy job and was almost in tears as I struggled changing the tire.  A car drives by me in the lot and then turns around to stop by me.  Help was here!  A good Samaritan gentleman stops and gives me a hand to change the tire.  You have no idea how grateful I am that he helped me.  I would have been there on the floor in tears.  I thank him profusely and he makes nothing of it, so I promise to pay it forward and he agrees to that idea.  So, there you have it…I have to pay it forward and I will do it gladly.

Back to Pep boys, they tell me that the changing of the tires was done well and I might have a cracked rim.  Oh no!!  Something else to worry about.  Its turns out not to be the rim though, it’s another nail or something only this time it just punctured the tire and came out so I didn’t realize it.  They change for a brand new tire for free and I’m a happy girl again.

So there you have it, my pay it forward story.  I’ll let you know when I do have the opportunity to complete my side of the deal.

I try not to let snow ruin my commute to school in the winter via bike.  In case you fall into that category as well, here are some tips and the reason for this weeks wishlist! item.

First of all, once the snow and ice is here, it’s time to put away the road bike, skinny tires and break the cross, mountain or junker bike.  I make sure I got some nice knobby tires on and deflate them to about half or 3/4 of what the tire says is the maximum.  This will give you a nice cushy ride but also one that really grips into the snow.

Which leads me to ice and my wishlist! item.  A set of studded mountain bike tires.  I would throw these on in a heartbeat once the snow is packed or their is ice on the roads.  Like a car’s tire, you can buy winter tires but they fail once your on ice.  But once you buy studded tires (knobby tires with hardened steel cleats) you get little ice picks to prevent slipping as you ride merrily to class during a blizzard.  Everyone driving their cars slipping and sliding will be jealous.

image source: hucknroll.com

The Cortex Programmer Offers:

• Up to three best-in-class tuning levels
• Includes industry exclusive 2-year powertrain warranty at no additional cost
• Elegant, sleek, innovative design
• Diagnostic Library retrieves, displays and clears DTCs
• Log performance times & speeds, displays & stores PID data
• Supports wheel, tire, and gear swaps
• Easy to install, internet updateable
• The built-in MSDP-Link supports accessories (e.g. dash-mount display, additional sensors)

Cortex from Superchips is the latest in the line of advance vehicle performance programmers delivering economy, performance, and power you can trust. Cortex is backed with an industry- exclusive 2 year limited powertrain warranty and is the only programming device with an expansion port for MSDP-compatible vehicle accessories.

Purchase your Cortex Programmer at Orange County Diesel… the One Stop Diesel Shop! Or call and speak with a sales representative at 1.888.OC.DIESEL.

I just read a case study from Harvard Business Publishing called “The Treadway Tire Company: Job Dissatisfaction and High Turnover at the Lima Tire Plant.” It was a look at the factors affecting this specific attitude (job dissatisfaction) and this specific behavior (high turnover) amongst foremen at this major plant for this pseudonym tire company.

The plant had many problems, chiefly:

• Morale and productivity were imperiled.
• The plant was not satisfactorily developing new managers.
• Relations between management and the union were threatened.

The newly-transferred director of HR at this plant had her job cut out for her. She made it her top priority to reversing this trend and had to have an actionable plan in to her boss after the the annual Christmas break (within a month’s time). She knew that by solving these problems, she could make the plant the number one plant in the company for productivity and lowest cost.

And contrary to what a lot of managers believer, high turnover does cost companies a lot (and not just money)!

Even though the aspect of the company presented in the case study was limited, I still think significant observations can be drawn of the the environment at play in this case.

1. The foremen’s supervisors (the general supervisors and area supervisors) seem to be making the fundamental attribution error. That is, they seem to be attributing poor performance amongst foremen to the foremen themselves, instead of looking at systemic factors outside the control of the foremen that could be contributing more to the poor performance.
2. This is echoed by comments made by some of the foremen, such as: “a lot of it is beyond my control, and management doesn’t seem to understand that.”
3. There seems to be a system in place that doesn’t give foremen the proper training they need to conduct their jobs.
4. The foremen state specifically that the lack of training is their main concern.
5. Other concerns the foremen have are no respect from their subordinates, and lack of authority and respect for the foremen position from all.
6. There seems to be a culture in play that seem to keep this perpetuating these problems. A major question I had is that if the general managers were almost always promoted from the foremen positions, why didn’t they take steps to make life easier for the foremen under them since they were also once in that position and knew what it was like?
7. The training program for the foremen that the HR director was proposing should not have been cut, even with the current economic situation. It was a good way to at least start to solve this problem. It could have been restructured or more limited, but should not have been cut completely.
8. Even though the HR director lets us know above why she wants to solve this problem, it’s not clear if these benefits were communicated to everyone at the plant. All employees should know that solving this problem will benefit them as well. Good communication and getting buy-in from the employees to  to find the root causes of this issue is important.

Finding the solutions to this mess will not be easy. I agree that more training for the foremen is the first step. It’s admirable that the HR director wants to find the root causes instead of treating just the symptoms. That’s the only way to ensure that this will not keep repeating itself.

I’m sure the in-class discussion on this case study will be enlightening as always. I’m sure others will make wonderful suggestions that we can all learn from.

]]> http://rcmart.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/top-news-rcmart-2009-pre-christmas-sale-updated/ Wed, 11 Nov 2009 07:10:00 +0000 rcmart http://rcmart.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/top-news-rcmart-2009-pre-christmas-sale-updated/

rcMart 2009 Pre X’mas Sale 2nd Wave
Hottest RC Car Kits!! Great Prices!! Fast Shipping!!
Dear rcMart Valued Customers,
The 2nd Wave of rcMart 2009 Pre X’mas Sale has come.
Now you may start to ponder what kinds of X’mas gifts your family or friends desire.
Here, we have the best choices for you — the valuable & hottest R/C vehicles with the best prices ever. Click the following links to check the product details, please.
The X’mas sale will last until Nov 30, 2009. However, prompt action is highly recommended as the X’mas air mail deadline approaches.

Pleae click HERE for the last dates to post Christmas airmail 2009

*Click here to enlarge the newsletter

Just keep watching it!

No exaggeration BUT only satisfaction!

The Hottest RC Products, All in rcMart!

Best regards,

rcMart.com

2009 November

Posted by Audiegrl

Marine reservist Jasen Bruce charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.

St. Petersburg Times/Jamal Thalji—A Marine reservist armed with a tire iron beat and chased a man he thought was an Arab terrorist and even called 911 to say he was detaining the man, police said.

But the man he assaulted was actually a Greek Orthodox priest visiting from overseas who spoke limited English, police said.

That’s why police arrested reservist Jasen D. Bruce on a charge of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.

Police said they’re also investigating whether Bruce, 28, committed a hate crime.

The incident took place around 6:35 p.m. Monday, police said. The priest, Alexios Marakis, 29, is from Crete, Greece. He is visiting St. Nicholas Greek Cathedral at 17 E Tarpon Ave. but police said he was in the Westshore area to bless another retired Greek priest.

Lance Cpl. Jasen D. Bruce, seen with his wife Nichole, is accused of attacking the Rev. Alexios Marakis, 29, of Crete, Greece.

But Marakis apparently got lost and exited northbound Interstate 275 into downtown Tampa, police said.

The priest followed several cars into the Seaport Channelside Apartments on Twiggs Street. He got out of his car and asked Bruce for help.

Instead of offering help, Bruce struck the priest on the head with a tire iron, police said.

He then chased the priest for three blocks to the Madison Avenue and Meridian Avenue, police said, and even called 911 to say that an Arabic man tried to rob him.

Bruce said he was going to take the Arab into custody. When police arrived, Bruce told them the victim was a terrorist.

The priest was taken to Tampa General Hospital. There, a translator helped Marakis speak to police.

More @

The Rev. Alexios Marakis, 29, of Crete, Greece, is carried to an ambulance after being beaten

SunCoastNews/Josh Poltilove—In a 911 call, Bruce made a derogatory comment about a man he said was a terrorist and was trying to rob him and had grabbed him in a sexual manner, police spokeswoman Laura McElroy said.

When officers arrived, police say, Bruce told them he heard the man say “Allahu Akbar” – Arabic for “God is great.”

“That’s what they say before they blow you up,” Bruce said, according to police.

But at a news conference today, Bruce’s attorney said his client didn’t understand what Marakis said.

“Lance Cpl. Bruce defended himself with the full legality of the law for being sexually attacked and potentially robbed,” lawyer Jeffrey Brown said.

Bruce, 28, faces a charge of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. He was released on $7,500 bail.

McElroy said Bruce “teared up when we told him that (Marakis) was a Greek Orthodox priest and not a terrorist.”

Rev. Alexios Marakis at St. Gregory the Theologian Parish in Mansfield, MA 2007

Marakis, 29, was treated at Tampa General Hospital and released. He told investigators he’s visiting St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Tarpon Springs.

Marakis declined to comment today, saying he does not speak much English. The Rev. Michael Eaccarino of St. Nicholas said Marakis is doing well.

Before deciding whether the incident qualifies as a hate crime, police will determine whether Bruce’s motive was based on a belief that Marakis was Arabic.

The Marines Reserve will wait for the investigation to conclude before taking any action, an official said.

In 2007, Bruce was accused of pushing a tow truck driver in the back and chest when his Jaguar was about to be towed, records show. Bruce told police the truck driver had grabbed him to stop him getting in his car.


More @

Related Articles

Alexios Marakis Assaulted: Greek Orthodox Priest Attacked By Marine Reservist In Fit Of Anti-Muslim Hysteria

Marine reservist chases, assaults Greek Orthodox priest who he mistook for an Arab terrorist

Greek priest seeking help is assaulted as ‘Arab terrorist‘

Tire Change Fail

If you think that’s bad … (Via There, I Fixed It)

Picture by: dunno source Submitted by: dunno source via Fail Uploader