S. Evan Townsend's Blog, page 29

What Speed Limits?

I drive a lot of interstate highways. If I go to Seattle or Spokane, it's all interstate. If I go see my grandson, it's mostly interstate.

One thing I have noticed is that lately, drivers seem to speed...a lot. I set the cruise control at 5 mph over the speed limit because if I go faster for any extended period of time, I get a ticket. On the interstates in Washington State, the speed limit is 70 mph for cars, so I go 75. But lately, it seems, people are going 80 or 85 on the interstates. I'm passed constantly by people zooming by. And I'm not sure why. I'm not seeing fewer cops.

A while back, Google bought Waze. And if you put a route in Google Maps, it, like Waze, shows you where people have reported cops being. I wonder if people are trusting Google Maps and speeding where they don't think there are cops. Me, I don't trust it enough to do that. It has shown me a few times where there are cops, but not always.

Or maybe there's another reason people are driving faster. I don't know. Do you have a theory why people are driving faster? If so, let me know in the comments below.

Tesla Plaid

I'm not a big fan of electric cars (EVs) basically because of "range anxiety" (worry you won't have the electricity to get where you're going or to a charger) and the time it takes to "refill the tank." But I love their performance. All their torque is available at zero RPM unlike a gasoline engine.

Tesla has a new car coming out that is available for preorder now. Just be aware, Tesla has a bad habit of missing promised delivery dates.

The new car is the Model S Plaid. That's a reference to the Mel Brooks movie, Spaceballs . It reportedly has three electric motors that give it a total of 1,100 horsepower. It also is supposed to have an EPA range of over 520 miles. And that's about as far as I want to drive in a day. (Your range may vary. EPA range tends to be higher than real-life range.)

Tesla also claims that the Plaid can do 0-60mph in less than two seconds. This is a four-door sedan we're talking about, with world-beating performance.

This would be the first EV I would be tempted to buy if it weren't for a couple of things. One, Tesla's build quality is lacking. And two, the base price is $140,000. For that I could buy two Audi S6 sedans. They won't have that kind of performance but I also won't have rang anxiety.

How do you feel about EVs? Love them or hate them? Would you be tempted to buy one if the price came down? Let me know in the comments below.

The Urloitian Spheres

Now available: Chumba of the Intelligence Corps Book 3: The Urloitian Spheres.


Intrigue surrounds the Core Empire…
Before he was Rick Bailey, before he hunted for the Treasure of the Black Hole, he was Titus Chumba of the Core Empire Intelligence Corps.
Over centuries, mysterious silver spheres have been discovered across the galaxy. No one knows what they are, until the alien race of the Malvalkians bring four of them together. Soon, the Core Empire is on a quest for more spheres and Captain Chumba is on the hunt. What are the spheres, and what does the ancient alien race, the Urloits, have to do with them? Will this finally bring the cold war between the Empire and the Malvalkians to hot, violent open conflict? Or will the spheres spell doom for Earth and all her inhabitants?
Available in Kindle, KU, and Paperback.
Book one: The Smugglers of Mars is available here.
Book two: The Three Species War is available here.

Speed Limit Changes

In order to get out of the house at least once a day, I go to Starbucks. It's a little over a five mile drive each way. And on that route there are six speed limit changes. Speeds limits range from 25 mph in my neighborhood to 55 mph on the country road. But then it slows to 50 mph. Then it ridiculously slows to 35. Then back up to 50 again. From there you get on a new street where it is 35 mph.

But where, exactly, is the speed limit in effect? When you see the sign? I'm pretty sure not. When you pass the sign? I think so. When I lived in Texas, I noticed they painted a white line across the street/road to emphasis that. At least where I lived.

But here's the thing: when you have to slow down, you have to slow down before you reach the speed limit sign. When you can speed up, you can only do so once you've passed the speed limit sign. So that limits how much time/space  you can spend at the higher speed limit. Okay, not by a lot, but still. When the speed limits drops from 55 to 50, then less than a mile later to 35, you're spending a lot of time slowing down where the speed limit is higher.

And I tend to use cruise control to keep from speeding (my right foot is a rebel). And I try to stay off the brakes slowing down. So I have start slowing a bit early.

Does this bother you, or only me. How do you feel about speed limit changes? Let me know in the comments below.

The Three Species War

Now Available: Chumba of the Intelligence Corps Book 2: The Three Species War.


War envelops the galaxy…
Before he was Rick Bailey, before he hunted for the Treasure of the Black Hole, he was Titus Chumba of the Core Empire Intelligence Corps.
When the alien race known as Roaches invades both human and Malvalkian colonies, Lieutenant Titus Chumba is plunged into fighting for the Core Empire. From guerrilla warfare to outright military conquest, Chumba is fighting the bugs to save the Empire. Can he stop the alien invasion and keep the fragile peace between the Core Empire and the Malvalkians from disintegrating into open warfare?
Available in Kindle, KU, and Paperback.
Book one: The Smugglers of Mars, is available here.

I Don't Like the Borg Queen

I know, I'm not supposed to like the Borg Queen. She's a villain. But that's not what I mean. I don't like that there is a Borg Queen. I don't like the concept of a Borg Queen.

I was reminded of the Borg Queen (who first showed up the Star Trek: First Contact) as I was watching Picard (no spoilers). Then I recently watched the "Q-Who" episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. That's when the Borg are first introduced. And Data describes their cube-like ship as: "The ship is strangely generalized in design. There's no specific bridge, no command center, there's no engineering section." And a Borg Queen would be in a command center.

Now what they did with the Borg Queen in First Contact was pretty good, I'll agree. As she did to Data, an android, the opposite of what the Borg do to humanoids. That is, she took a robot and added human parts where as the Borg usually take humans and add robot parts. And somehow she managed to be scary and sexy at the same time.

But I still don't like the concept of a Borg Queen. A queen would be a leader. And to me, the Borg are a hive mind without specific leadership. Such as a queen.

How do you feel about the Borg Queen. Or am I just taking Star Trek too seriously? Let me know in the comments below.

Radio Interview

Today at 4:00 PM EDT (1:00 PM PDT) I will be on "Anything Goes" with Bennet Pomerantz. We'll be talking books and writing and other fun things. It's going to be a blast. Tune in and see! Follow this link. The interview will be available at that link after the live show, so if you miss it live, you can still listen.

The Smugglers of Mars

Now Available: Chumba of the Intelligence Corps Book 1: The Smugglers of Mars.

Treachery stalks the red planet...

Before he was Rick Bailey, before he hunted for the Treasure of the Black Hole, he was Titus Chumba of the Core Empire Intelligence Corps.


Sent to Mars to investigate water smuggling, First Lieutenant Chumba finds a criminal conspiracy that spans from the red planet to the asteroid belt. Will Chumba discover the deadly secrets of the smugglers of Mars, learn the identity of the mysterious woman embroiled in the conspiracy, and prevent a cold war with the reptile-like Malvalkians from turning blazing hot?

Available in Kindle, KU, and Paperback.

Damn My Luck

If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all.

Here is the saga of me and technology:

My computer wanted to reboot. So I did. It wouldn't boot up then. I forgot it was still under warranty, so I contacted a local guy to fix it. It took him two weeks. He had to reinstall Windows 10. So then I had to reinstall:

Office 2010iTunesThe PDF reader that came with the computerNorton Anti-virusNorton UtilitiesMalwarebytesAnd set up Outlook 2010 to work with my Exchange service.
Then I had to upload my user files from backup. And set up a bunch of stuff and configure the computer how I like it. For details, see here.

And since the Dell Windows 10 image was out of date, I had to do major updates to my computer, one that took two days because it failed. It got stuck at 90%. Under advice of my son and google, I turned off the computer, waited 30 seconds, and turned it back on. But I had to do that update again the next day. That cost me two days of productivity.

Then my iPhone died. I was using it and it just went to the Apple logo. It looked like it was trying to boot but it wouldn't. I had an iPhone Xs and was planning to update when the new iPhone came out in September (it's now coming out in October). So I bought a used iPhone 7 to get me through. I remember loving my iPhone 7 when I had one. But stepping down, I hate it. Plus, I usually get white iPhones but this one is black and I keep picking it up and expecting the back to be the front since they are both black. Annoying.

Then I broke my glasses. The optical shop fixed them.

Then my computer died again. This time I remembered it was under warranty (three day on-site service). So I called Dell. They (eventually) sent someone to fix it. In the meantime, I broke my glasses again. And I couldn't get them fixed because I had to be home from 8am to 6pm to wait for the Dell subcontractor service tech. And he didn't even bother to show up that first day. That's a whole 'nother story.

Eventually I got a new hard drive and Windows 10 installed. Again, I needed to run numerous updates and reinstall everything. Now I'm sort of holding my breath that nothing else blows up. My car is still under warranty for about 3,500 miles. So if it does blow up, it'll wait until that's expired.

Have you had bad luck like this? Or do you think the gods are against me. Let me know in the comments below.

No College Football in the Pac-12

Normally at this time, I'd be writing about last night's University of Washington Huskies game. They probably would have won considering they were scheduled to play Sacramento State.

But, first the Pac-12 decided no out-of-conference games. Then they redid the entire schedule (I have no idea why). Then finally they said, "Maybe in the spring we can play football." Yeah, maybe.

This year the Huskies have a new coach in Jimmy Lake, the former Defensive Coordinator. He took over when Chris Petersen surprised everyone by stepping down last fall. Lake was a good DC, but I have no idea what he'd be like at a head coach. But I wanted to learn.

But I guess I'll have to wait, perhaps until spring. Perhaps until next fall. I don't know. I just know that I am going to miss college football... a lot.