January car Rebates and Incentives could not be as good as the last few days of the end of 2009! 2009 will be the largest push to gain market share for all manufactures like Ford, GM, Toyota, Honda, Dodge and even for Hyundai, Kia, Suzuki, Lexus, Mercedes, and BMW. There is a HUGE push to gain the last few sales of 2009. I have heard the phrase over and over this past week, "WHATEVER IT TAKES, WE WILL NOT MISS A DEAL!!!"

If you are in the market to buy a vehicle, whether it be car or truck or even SUV, NOW IS THE TIME!!! You will be surprised at the deep discounts and Manufacturer Incentives. Now, if you are like me and do not have the time to go from dealer to dealer to find the deals, I will let you in on a secret. The easiest way to get the best deal between now and New Years Day is to Get FREE quotes from Yahoo! Autos This will be the easiest deal you have ever made. Because here is how it works. Internet Shoppers are growing at a HUGE rate and dealers are aware they are shopping many dealers. You will get the best deal possible if you go thru Yahoo! Autos Just enter your zip code, pick your vehicle of choice, enter your contact information, and make sure to select ALL DEALERS! This will make ALL your local dealers FIGHT for your business! Even if you already know which dealer you will buy from, KEEP THEM HONEST! Get quotes from all your local dealers delivered directly to your email. If you do not have a preferred dealer, pick the lowest price. Easy as that, you just saved thousands for a few mouse clicks.

The quicker you get your quotes the better because the closeout of 2009 will be like no other, trust me! I bet if you have been to a dealer recently and received a price and visit Yahoo! Autos now, you will be surprised how much you will save. When you shop from the Internet, dealers do realize they have pretty much one shot and will throw everything they have at it. You will also find out any extra incentives that may not be advertised and may even get some extra incentives from some dealers like free maintenance plans, etc. It is FREE to get your quotes so why wait. Oh, and be sure to bookmark my site so you can come back and tell me how much you saved. I might even be surprised. Good luck and happy New Years early, hope this helps you drive into the new year with a new vehicle.

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Saturday we had a reunion of sorts, in downtown Anchorage at a bar, the F Street Station.

Craig Hasund, who played saxophone and oboe with me in high school band and the Anchorage Youth Symphony (1987-91) and his wife, Rena:



...and Mark Edwards, the big surprise of the night (he sat behind me in chemistry, 1989-90):



My brother with Sam Gray, also a saxophonist in the East High band:



And Jimmy Egan doesn't look a day older:



Later on that night one of my best friends, Erik Wegscheider - clarinet: AYS, All-state, All-Northwest band, showed a bit later. He actually called me from his truck as he drove past to tell me he wasn't coming in and I didn't blame. It was asses to elbows in there, some sort fire code was surely being broken, so we stopped in at Anchor Bar, attempted to find an open bar at the Captain Cook Hotel (Anchorage's answer to Chicago's Penninsula), and then to the old standard, Humpy's, for the final round of the evening...

The next day my brother took us to the firing range in Birchwood to pop a few rounds on his AK-47 and Glock .40 S&W:

Updated with new pix of the cars:



These news NSR Porsche 917K's in Sunoco colors can be won! If you enter organize or enter a local NSR National Qualifier race in the US or Canada. NSR has made only 140 of these special cars. They're serial numbered and clubs having an NSR qualifier will be able to purchase 3 of these cars are a discounted price. They will be award also to the top 3 finishers at the NSR National Final race at Great Traditions in Philly in March 2010. If you'd like to host an NSR race you can contact Great Traditions to set up a regional race by calling (267)250-1735.

Scaleracing LLC is now distributing Avant Slot in North America. See this link to see the details and available inventory. See the price list at this link.

Ronin -- very good film, great car chase scene(s)? Unlike so many of the great car chase films that have muddled plots and weak acting, this film is very good, but perhaps its car chase scheme is overrated. Ronin is the story of post-Cold War warriors, now in transition. At the center of the story is a case, but what is inside it, and two groups one Russian, one Irish, attempting to acquire it. One chase scene involves the planned ambush to acquire the case for a mysterious and rather beautiful Irish terrorist working for a Rouge leader by the name of Shamus. The second scene involves chase through Paris as the group has split. It is the second scene that seems to be the one that most film critics examine closely.

A few comments about this scene. I don't wish to unfairly criticize John Frankenheimer's efforts, however, as the film does mark a high achievement in cinematography and action involving the automobile. First, I thought that with one exception, Robert DeNiro's part in the chase scene is rather weak and unconvincing. That exception is a drift in which we see the use of the handbrake and downshift. Secondly, I thought the use of headlight flashers was quite effective, including the quick shot of the worm,an driver flicking the stalk on the dimmer in her BMW. On the whole the street s are deserted, like a Sunday morning in Paris, with few pedestrians. Going wrong way in on a number of streets would have resulted in these two cars coming to a head on end during any real situation. And finally, the fact that the three "bad guys" survived a plunge down an embankment and were able to walk away form, the wreckage at the end of the scene is a testimony to the safety one has in driving a BMW 5 series.

A great chase scene? A qualified yes, but there is still room to captivate the audience in fresh and more realistic ways.

I arrived in Anchorage late on Christmas Eve night. In fact, with the three hour gain, my body time was Christmas. It had been almost four years since last coming home, but walking into the house I'd first moved into before the 6th grade felt almost routine.

Christmas day was one of the best ever. Very few presents - I bought the wine for dinner, we all got socks, but Mom bought a Wii for the house, and I found out my brother had quit smoking! An old family friend came over to eat with us, and we had lots of good wine over prime rib and uproarious conversation, before heading downstairs to play a few hours of Wii tennis and bowling.

The backyard:



Today Mom and I went skiing on the truly world-class network of urban trails that Anchorage residents enjoy. My stepdad's wooden skis, handmade in Norway, are probably older than me but with the appropriate wax applied, they glide along just as well as the high-end composite models.

Madison Way at high noon in December - that's looking straight north (the sun never really gets above the southern horizon this time of year):



Just a right and a left turn and three-quarters of mile from the house is the access point to Chester Creek Trail:



One of the many underpasses on the ski trails in Anchorage:



We stopped at West Chester Lagoon, near the head of the Coastal Trail, and watched the ice skaters:



Long story short? Keep your distance:



A view of Cook Inlet and Mt. Susitna (Sleeping Lady) from the Anchorage Coastal Trail:



Informational sign at Earthquake Park, where the entire neighborhood of Turnagain Heights slid into Cook Inlet during the March 27, 1964 Earthquake. At 9.2 on the Richter Scale, it was the largest seismic event ever recorded in North America:



At Earthquake Park:



Downtown Anchorage from the Coastal Trail:



Needs no further explanation:



Three hours and 11.5 miles, it was a great workout. We are about to enjoy some leftovers from last night - I am starving - and then my brother and I are headed downtown to meet up with some high school friends we've not seeing in quite a long time over some beers.

Until tomorrow...

Hi folks-- sometimes you can't tell a book by its cover. Scott Olson's at speed has a very nice photographic cover featuring the center line of a curving road with foliage left and right and mountains in the distance. And on the back cover there are four testimonials about this road narrative, by authors, English professors and book people. Despite all the good things on the surface, for me this work was a disappointment. It features five road travel stories, and shorter excerpts from road trips that were contained in the author's notebooks. Frankly, these narratives feature quick stops along the way, a few people scattered and mentioned only in passing, descriptions of the land (but not that powerfully done), the on and off inclusion of some details about the Jeep that he drives, and time and distance when appropriate. Yet, character and humanity is never more than dealt with superficially -- even in the case of the author. We never deeply explore the writer's psyche, although we learn a bit about his family along the way. The towns on these extended road trip are rarely explored, and the people -- waitresses, hotel clerks, gas station attendants, etc., are just a passing fancy, again nearly monolithic. Yes, at speed we really get to know little about the world we are traversing. Is that the real point of this exercise? Scott has some very interesting travel plans that he follows through on , including a trip from, Key West to Alaska that if done in a better fashion, would have been illuminating. Every trip is different, every path unique, every character special, but I did not see any of this to my satisfaction in At Speed. The driver, the machine, the land, and the townsfolk, all need more explication that we read here. Why write this, if so half done in the end? Or maybe this is what mdoern life is all about, and why so many people are dissatisfied with their lives? To develop this tehme more would have transformed this book into a powerful contemporary statement.