As a family we made our yearly trip to WDW for Food and Wine and to have some fun in the heat and humidity. We as parents like going and our son likes to go and has a good time. At least we think he does and usually he doesn’t dissuade us from that notion. Here are some of the shots I took as we went to Epcot and Animal Kingdom.

Epcot food and Wine and of course character Meet and Greets:

Random shots from around the park.    Continue reading →

Dear Subaru:

This past week I purchased a brand new Subaru Outback. Unfortunately this process was not without it’s issues and problems. First off let me say that I had researched the Outback for a few months, my Father in law had one and I knew what I wanted. I had browsed the Subaru.com site and knew what features I wanted along with what colors and interior. So when I went looking I was looking for a very specific car:

A red Subaru Outback with Black Leather Interior, with Moonroof and Keyless Entry.

This car was difficult to find I ended up looking at all of the Southern California Dealerships and talking to all of the different internet departments at them. Some of the dealerships wanted me to custom order my car and wait until February to get it. Others wanted me to purchase site unseen a car that was close to what I wanted that they had coming in the next couple of weeks. I didn’t like any of those options.

Then the Internet Manager from Singh Subaru called and helped me out. We spoke on the phone for several minutes and I explained what I was looking for. He said I don’t have that on the lot, but I have found one that I can bring in. He said let me get back to you once I have secured the car and that it can be delivered. About an hour later he called and told me was able to secure the car and asked when I could be down. I said I will be there in an hour, he said no problem I will have the car onsite when you get here. My wife and I drove down to their dealership through traffic and everything and were very excited to see the car. When we got there we found out two things:

1. the Internet Manager had left for the day.
2. The Sales Manager that was there said we needed to work out a deal before he could bring the car onsite and I would have to wait until the next day to get it, if we did workout a deal.

At this point I politely told the Sales Manager that I felt we had been lied to and that there was a lack of trust on my part. He told me how he had been working on the deal all day long and that he couldn’t possibly do something like have the car on the lot without a deal in place. He also said that the Internet Manager was wrong and on and on he went.  I responded with he hadn’t been working on this that long since I had only been talking to the Internet Manager for 2 hours. However at this point my trust had been violated and I decided to leave with my wife.

During this time I had received an email from Sierra Subaru in Monrovia. As I was leaving Singh I called them and asked to make sure the car was in stock and on the lot. Michael Conquilla told me the car was there and that he would be there waiting. My wife and I drove over there which required about another hour. We got there and the car I wanted was sitting right out there in the front of the lot with a sign on it that said “Reserved for Joe Jenkins”. That brought a smile to my face and made me happy. I went into the dealership and met with Michael, over the next hour we did a test drive and came to a deal on the car and my trade-in. A couple of hours after that I was leaving the lot with my brand new Outback that had everything on it I wanted and was exactly the right color.

Lots of accolades for Sierra Subaru and I would highly recommend them if you are in the market for a new Subaru.

I write this letter just so you know how some people are treated and some of the shenanigans that were pulled. If no one tells you what goes on then there isn’t a way for you to know.

Thank you for your time,

Joseph Jenkins

This is just cool, I have always been a fan of Batman. What geek isn’t considering all of the cool toys:

Attack of the Batmobiles! [Video]

No kidding:

http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2012/04/05/finding-old-friends-with-facebook-comic/

This is very cool:

http://code.google.com/p/ostinato/

This would have been useful information before the lunar eclipse that happened a few weeks ago:

http://www.nikonusa.com/Learn-And-Explore/Photography-Techniques/h1sctsrv/1/How-to-Photograph-a-Lunar-Eclipse.html?cid=eml-0612-lenewsletter-v1-featuredlm