Purple Daze EVH Series Deluxe QM is not just another "Eddie Guitar"
If I had long hair and wore leather pants, I'd consider buying this.
What I'm talking about here is, according to EVH Guitars web site, a "reimagined 5150 Series Deluxe".
I'll first say that this guitar is loaded with the good stuff that speed players look for. C profile neck, satin urethane finishing on the back (meaning no sticky hands), "cheese wheel" truss rod adjustment at the heel, graphite reinforcement rods flanking the truss rod, 12"-16" compound radius ebony fingerboard, jumbo frets, a big ol' red kill switch, Gotoh tuning machines, an "EVH D-Tuna" to allow switching from drop-D back to standard quickly, body-mounted pickups...
...yeah this thing is really loaded up nice for what it is. For speed player guys, that is.
Yes, the color is called Purple Daze.
When I look at this thing, I have to admit that it exactly fits the mold of what a modern '80s shredder axe should be. All the good hardware is in it, and the look is loud but at the same time subdued. Believe me, EVH could have made this guitar look louder if they wanted (and some other color choices do), but this one holds back a bit. That was a wise decision.
What I like about this best is that it's not trying to be "Eddie's Guitar" yet again. This model stands on its own.
Of course, Eddie Van Halen's name is what sells these guitars, but I do appreciate that EVH Guitars is making a genuinely good attempt to go outside of that by simply making a better instrument for its intended audience. This 5150 is not just another "it uses everything Eddie used" clone thing, and instead concentrates on delivering with some seriously good hardware.
Not my type of guitar, obviously, but still, job well done. And said honestly, the price isn't bad considering how loaded it is.
Lastly, I'll say that if you like the guitar but the purple isn't to your liking, it also comes in Black Burst and Aqua Burst versions.
Pie plate on your wrist: Casio AE1500
Pie, anyone?
This is a ginormous watch from Casio, but it has a few very good things going for it.
Firstly, cheap. It's usually under $30.
Second, ultra-legible, as it has giant digits on it.
Third, feature packed with things that actually matter. Full time with weekday/month/date on the front, 5 alarms, countdown timer with auto-repeat, great night light, long-life battery.
Fourth, it actually looks good for what it is...
...but this watch is frappin' huge.
How big?
54.4mm lug-to-lug, 51.2mm case diameter, 15.7mm thick.
The AE1500 is not for people with small wrists.
To put this perspective, I measured my left wrist before writing this, and it measures 6.7" (17cm) before the wrist knuckle. My daily driver Casio is a W218H, and it looks large on me. That watch measures 44.4mm x 43.2mm x 10.8mm, meaning there is absolutely no way I could wear the AE1500 and not look ridiculous.
However, that doesn't take away from the fact the AE1500 is a seriously good watch for a seriously good price - if you have the wrist for it. I think at absolute bare minimum, you need a 7.0" (about 18cm) wrist to get away with wearing the giant AE1500.
Legibility matters. A lot.
I wear the W218 regularly because it is the most legible digital watch I own. True, it's very simple (it has the same feature set of an F-91W) but it's very easy to read and the night light is great.
If the AE1500 had a smaller lug-to-lug measurement, I could wear it. But at 54.4mm, no way.
The last big-display Casio I owned was the SGW100, which has measurements of 51.5mm x 47.6mm x 13.2mm. Because of the shape design of that one, I could get away wearing it on my small wrist. Barely.
I can't rock the AE1500, but if you have the wrist for one, it's pretty much the best thing going for a big-digit watch with the most features for the lowest price.
This is what I do to save gas (hypermiling and navigation)
I learned all this stuff back in 2008, and I'm doing it again.
Being the price of regular gas is sky high as I write this in March 2022, it seemed appropriate to put this together.
I have a lot of this in a book I wrote plus more, by the way.
Back in '08 when the last gas price spike happened, I was driving a pickup that, while midsize, really struggled to even get over 20 MPG even though it was considered "fuel efficient" for a truck. I learned a whole bunch of hypermiling driving techniques because I had to. After that, I switched over to small cars and never looked back. I had a feeling there would come a point when another price spike would happen, and here it is.
However, even though I drive a car that now literally gets more than double the MPG compared to the truck, I'm using the same driving techniques I did in 2008.
This is what I learned back in the day, and it's still true now:
When you're stopped, you're getting 0 MPG
When trying to increase fuel economy, the worst thing is not moving because the car is literally sitting there with engine running, burning fuel, and you're literally going nowhere. The only way to get around this is to turn the engine off whenever at a stop light. Newer cars have the auto start/stop for this. Mine doesn't because it's an older car.
The most fuel is burned when taking off from a stop
Even for a car with auto start/stop, that doesn't change the fact a lot of fuel is burned on initial takeoff because the car has to work its hardest just to do that.
Avoid U-turns
I use a Garmin GPS and one of the navigation options in it is to avoid U-turns. These turns destroy MPG because you have to slow down to almost a stop, perform the U-turn and then speed up again. It's always better to avoid U-turns whenever possible where increasing fuel efficiency is concerned.
Having the windows closed really does improve fuel economy
An open window while driving creates drag, requiring the engine to work harder to move the car along and therefore needlessly wasting fuel.
Know your car's average MPG
The old school way to get the average fuel economy of a car is that on the next fill-up, set the trip odometer to 0. Drive as you normally would. On the fill-up after that, read the number on the trip odometer, and divide that by how many gallons were put into the car. For example, if the trip odometer reads 350 miles and you put in 18 gallons of fuel, 350 divided by 18 is a 19.4 MPG average. Use your phone's calculator app to do the math.
Use a fuel cost calculator
There are both web sites and phone apps for this.
An easy way to get better MPG is from simple trip planning where you move the most and stop the least. I even go so far as to look up streets in Google Maps to seek out ways to get places that avoid the most stop signs and traffic lights. This combined with knowing roughly the cost-per-trip is good info to know.
Coast (if you have a manual transmission)
For modern cars with automatic transmissions, the car's computer is already programmed to maximize fuel efficiency while in gear; this means you don't get any MPG advantage by shifting it into neutral compared to leaving it in drive. If your car has an "Eco" drive mode, use it.
I have a car with a manual transmission, and oh yeah, I shift into neutral and coast whenever I can. I'll even do it when entering a parking lot. The moment I enter the lot, I shift to neutral and do my best to use the car's inertia to get all the way to a parking spot, then immediately shut off the engine. Most of the time I'm successful.
How good is my MPG?
My small car is EPA rated at 29 city/36 highway. When I hypermile, it goes up to 35 city/45 highway. And bear in mind my car runs on regular gas and isn't a hybrid.
If I were driving something known to have poor fuel economy, like a 2022 Ford Mustang with V8 which is EPA rated at 15 city/24 highway, I could probably eke out 20 city/32 highway with a really light foot and hypermiling techniques.
It's totally possible to increase MPG by 30% or more just from driving technique alone, and doing one other thing. Driving slower.
Slow and steady absolutely wins the race where getting better MPG is concerned.
Schecter does a kickass Omen Extreme in Natural Gloss
The Omen Extreme in Natural Gloss is all gussed up for a night on the town.
Years ago I owned a C-1 Classic model with a dark natural finish, and learned right then and there that Schecter really knows how to do natural finishes right.
Ordinarily I don't like a solid-body electric in natural, because it tends to lean heavily towards looking like a coffee table. Schecter escapes that by using interesting design patterns.
The arched top is quilted maple, and there is lovely creme multi-ply binding. Good stuff.
But wait, it gets better. The back has a ridiculously good looking dark stain that matches the gold hardware oh-so well.
I usually don't like guitars with a back doesn't match the front either, but again, Schecter makes it totally work. You can really see some nice mahogany there.
The insane part is that this is Schecter's lower priced model. Nice.
Will the gold wear off with regular play? Yes, and I'll tell you exactly where it will happen. The volume knob and the bridge, since those are the gold parts you will be touching the most.
My only complaint about this guitar is that I know that gold in those areas I mentioned will wear off with regular play, and Schecter doesn't sell gold bridges nor gold knobs direct from their web site. If they did, and I were buying the Omen Extreme guitar seen above, yes, you're darned right I would also buy the gold knobs and bridge for spares.
I mean, yeah, you can get a gold bridge elsewhere, but it would be nice if Schecter actually sold the genuine thing that comes on the guitar direct. Schecter already sells pickups direct from their site. Why not knobs and bridges?
How to set the time on a mechanical automatic watch safely
This is how to set the time on an automatic watch safely so you don't unintentionally break anything.
These instructions apply to any mechanical automatic (or hand-wind) watch that has a date or day-date function.
While these instructions are very simple, believe me when I say that if you always set the time in the way I describe below, you greatly minimize the risk of breaking your watch.
This is the process, and it must be done in order:
Step 1: Make sure the watch has charge, meaning the seconds are ticking. If you can manually wind the watch, wind it fully. If your watch has no manual winding, shake it back and forth gently for about 1 minute and that will give it enough charge so the seconds start ticking.
Step 2: Pull out the crown and start turning to set the time until the date clicks over at midnight. After that, keep turning until the watch reads 2pm. Yes, this means turning the crown to midnight until the date changes, then keep going until you pass 12 o'clock again and then to 2 o'clock.
Step 3. Set the date (and day if present) to yesterday. For example, if the date is THU 3, set to WED 2.
Step 4. Set the time again to the current time. You will turn until the date clicks over to today, then set the time, and the time and date will match appropriately.
Why do this?
The specific reason to do this is to avoid damaging the date complication.
Ordinarily, what most people will do is take off their watch, leave it sit for a while and it loses all its charge. The mistake is made is when they put the watch back on, give it charge and then immediately set the time and date. This is a mistake because more often than not, the watch ran out of charge right when the date was changing, as that requires more spring power compared to just running the time. As a result, when you set the date, it's all too easy to strip a gear or damage some other part of the date complication.
Setting the day and date when the time is set to 2pm is much, much safer because it is nowhere even close to when the watch changes the date. On cheaper day-date mechanical watches, the date changes at midnight and the day changes at about 4am. On expensive day-date watches, both the date and day change at midnight. Regardless of what type of automatic watch you have, when the date and day are changed at 2pm, no stress occurs on the date complication at that specific time.
Again, if you charge the watch first, set time to 2pm second, set the date and day to yesterday third, then set the current time, date and day last, that is by far the easiest way to keep your watch running longer and avoids damaging the date complication 100%.